mjd1001

Well, the Owner made a special flight and speech in front of the team, and I'm sure the coaching staff and GM, and he told them "no changes, its on you".

This is now well into the 4th game in a row since Quinn recorded a single shot on net.

22 - 7 shots for the game, wow, thats bad especially since you had a PP and you haven't been on the PK all game yet.

I like Dahlin and I have said, like others, over and over he is the best player on this team. But his first period might have been the worst I have seen from him that I can remember in 2-3 seasons.

I cannot think the coaches are telling them to play that way. Maybe they already have tuned out this staff, but the play by the defense in the first period wasn't just the worst I have seen all year, it is beyond logic. I like UPL a lot too, I think he can be a top 10 goalie in this league. But he is having a bad start to the year. I think this team would be in a playoff spot now if nothing changed but 2 things: This team had a better 2nd line, and UPL played even half way to how he was playing last year.

I haven't noticed him this game, but I thought the last 2 games he played a bit better than he did earlier in the year. I may have missed him making some bad plays in the first today though, I spent way too much time watching the replays of how bad the goals allowed where.

I see what you are saying, Peterka's guy was the one who scored and he looked to not be putting effort in to cover him. But look at Dahlin, he just lets his guy go right by him, totally uncovered to the front of the net. And even if that guy didn't score, if Dahlin would have stayed with him, he would have been in the same area as the goal scorer and maybe prevented the puck from going there. Look at the guy Dahlin is skating with over the blue line, and he just releases him to go toward the net totally uncovered. 1.5 seconds later the guy he was skating with is all alone. Byram is kinda with his guy. JJ is at least NEAR his guy (although trailing him). Dahlin just releases totaly? That play cannot happen at any level of hockey.

On the 2nd goal I watched the replay from both angles. Dahlin and Byram look like they are playing keystone kops out there. They have no sense of where each other are. Its like they are playing with each other for the very first time without a practice. Not quite as bad as the first goal, but not far behind. I cannot explain their positioning or play at all on either goal. On both goals, probably the most confused I have seen 2 Sabres D-men play all year, same two guys.

On that first goal, I have never seen Dahlin do anything like it. He's one of the 2 d-men going back, he appears to be aware of the situation. He leaves his side of the ice, seemingly KNOWINGLY leaves his man free to skate right in front of the net, leaving him wide open while having zero chance of getting to the puck near the blue line. Again, never seen him do anything like that and it was a total 100% lack of awareness on the ice. Its worse than that, its not a lack of awareness, he was trailing the play and saw his guy, and he also saw there was no one else back in his end. Maybe MAYBE him and Byram were trying to switch sides, but you don't switch sides while leaving someone uncovered. It might be the most puzzling goal allowed I have seen this year.

I agree with you on being good or better NOW rather than later. Byram I would love to keep here, but does he want to stay for a reasonable contract? If they can keep him here I'd much rather have him rather than trading him. Cozens I'm just about done with. He is on the verge of being 'addition by subtraction'. Not quite, but, as flawed as this team is, I think of Cozens, Tuch, Zucker...and I can say "at times they are the reason the team wins games'. My bottom 6 I don't need that from as much. Cozens has to be a top 6 guy on this team...but I don't ever see him as a reason they win games. He is not much more than a 3rd line level scorer. He doesn't set up or make is linemates better in my eyes. He is a liability defensively with his decision making. Even when he does score, he might be the 'least clutch' guy on the team (How many game winners do you remember him scoring or setting up?) And he is awful on the PP (he's out there for ever Powerplay but has a total of 11 pp goals over his 5 year career). I guess I'm 100% ready to move on from him, I do not see him helping the team hardly ever, and I do see him make critical mistakes that help them lose on occasion.

Agree. 4th line as a role, but to me its basically 2 things: Don't be scored on too much wen you are out there...and chip in an occasional goal. If you look around the league, most teams, including good teams, have their 4th line chip in at most mid 20's for goals, but some good teams have their 4th line score as little as 12-15 for the entire year for the whole line. The Sabres line is on pace for the mid-teens in goals, and they are are just slightly negative players. They certainly aren't driving play, but they are a typical, middle-of-the-road 4th line. And as far as McLeod goes, I don't think hes a 2nd line Center (at times I wish he was given that role/ice time) but he to me is clearly the 3rd line center. When I look around the league at most teams, the average/typical 3rd liner probably has 6 goals (most are between 4-8), so his goal scoring is what you expect from a 3rd liner. I know we WANT more, but that is what you expect. This front office's biggest issue was not addressing a 2nd line. (and some below-average goaltending that very few of us expected coming into the year)

It does vary from region to region, but I think, on average, the 'coldest' week of the year in the northeast is the 2nd or 3rd week of January. In Buffalo its January 19 Chicago January 23 Boston, January 25 Nashville, January 17 Then you have some cities that are a lot different: Seattle its December 23. By early Feb temps are 3-4 degrees warmer there on average St. Louis January 7 Denver December 30 Salt Lake City December 31 Calgary Jan 3 So if its in the Northest or Great lakes area, Late January, Early Feb might be the best. But if the game is out west, Feb is WAY too late,is been getting warmer there for weeks. Right around New years is the coolest time of the year.

Benson seems to have games where he gets 2nd line minutes (16+ minutes per game), and other games where he is 12 or under...or under 10 like he did in Colorado. I wonder why. Yeah, he is young, and Ruff has spoken highly about him, but I wonder if there are just times where he is making bad plays, not being in proper position to allow for him having frequent games with lower ice time. Its a small sample size, but he is 3rd on the entire team in even strength goals per 60. Tage is WAY out in front of everyone, but after him, Benson is right there with anyone else on the team in terms of scoring per minutes of ice time.

The other thing is....I think Friedman speculated about this deal, to my knowledge not much has come out of vancouver as a legit rumor they want to deal him. Maybe they do, but maybe they are comitted to keeping him there and there is no deal to be made anyway.

I don't have as much of a problem with the moves made vs the ones NOT made. Not getting an older, top 4 D-man. Not moving heaven and earth to get a 2C. Those are the issues. As far as the 2nd line, its not just Cozens, its the ENTIRE 2nd line. Cozens should be a wing or a 3rd liner. Quinn and Peterka should have the option of moving between a 2nd and 3rd line depedning on their production. Putting in INK Cozens as a 2c and Peterka and Quinn as 2nd liners, mabye 1st liners, that is the issue to me. Mcleod is fine for a 3rd line center for the most part. Would I LIKE 2-3 more goals out of him, sure but not a big deal. 4th liners, they are ok as 4th liners. I can't even say I have a problem with Ruff. He doesn't have an NHL level 2nd line, he has no good vets on defense, and he is getting below avearage goaltending. Oh, and he didn't get to pick his assisants either. Not addressing the 2nd line is the single biggest issue with this offseason for me.

Here is an interesting stat. It involved Plus/minus. I know +/- is not a perfect stat, but I do think it does mean something especially when comparing players on your own team to others on your own team: Sabres Forwards: Quinn, Cozens, and Peterka combined: -30. The other 13 forwards who have played combined: +5 Sabres D-men: Samuelsson and Power combined: -16. The other 7 D-men combined: +13

After scoring 4 goals in 5 games to appear to 'come out' of whatever slump he was in (and took 13 shots on goal in those 5 games), Quinn now hasn't even had a single shot on net in his last 3 games despite 15+ minutes of ice time in each of them and time on the first power play unit. I really am struggling to figure him out.

The more I look at the numbers and the more I say during games "he needs to make that save", the more I agree with you. I like UPL, I think he can be a good goaltender so that is where I disagree. But this year he has been below average and WELL below the level he played at for the last 3-4 months last year. If you were getting games/saves out of UPL like he gave you the 2nd half of last year, a lot of the other problems on this team look a lot better.

I don't think they HAVE to trade one of them. I won't be surprised if they do though. I like both of them long term. I think Power will be a very good D-man but its going to take a couple years. I think Byram is a better D-man right now than Power. I just wonder if he wants to re-sign here long term, or what it will take to get him to sign.

Quinn is the biggest mystery to me on this team. I am baffled. I cannot even come up with a concept as to what has happened to him. An offseason injury we didn't know about that he is playing through MIGHT explain things, but the team has stated a few times there is nothing to that at all. One thing is for sure. He IS avoiding the front of the net unlike anyone else on this team, unlike anyone else in the league probabably, and unlike he has in his first couple of years. I know I just posted this a few days ago in this very thread but... -compared to other Sabres wingers on how much they are going to the front of the net and getting shots off from there this year: Benson has 23 high danger shots(46.9% of his shots). Peterka has 18 (24.7%). Tuch has 22 (26.8%), Zucker has 30 (44.8%). Quinn? Quinn has 1 (1.8%) -There is probably not a more 'perimeter' top 6/top9 forward in the league now than Quinn. Even Olofsson has 15% of his shots from those areas in front of the net for Vegas this year, and 18% last year for the Sabres. I just have zero clue, zero way to even explain the above. It has to be related to his lack of production, but why is he almost refusing to go to the front of the net anymore and all of a sudden?

I go back and forth on that. Some days I feel that way. Other days I think "One 27-29 year old GOOD vet defensemen.....Swapping out Cozens for a good/responsible 2nd line center that is a playmaker who doesn't make dumb plays away from the puck....and UPL playing at last year's level or a different goalie playing at UPL's last years level" ....and I think they are in a playoff spot right now. Depends on what day you catch me on.

I know you are being sarcastic (I hope, and am pretty sure), but here is the reality of the situation for anyone else who is simply looking at the point totals: 8th place in the Conference is Ottawa at .541 percent of the points (usually by the end of the year the number is even higher but lets go with the low number for now). To take over that 8th spot and get more than .541, the Sabres need to win 11 in a row. No losses, no OT losses/ties. 11 games in a row. Beat Vegas, then Washington, then Ottawa, then Seattle, then Carolina, then Pittsburgh, then Seattle again, then Vancouver, then Calgary, then Edmonton, and then finally beat Boston to win your 11th in a row...they MIGHT move into 8th position for the last wildcard spot.

I'd not. Other than "they aren't doing well under Ruff", I don't see anything he is doing wrong, nothing that I notice that says to me he is 'too old' or 'the game has passed him by'. Over the Pegula ownership, They had a younger Ruff, they had a former COTY retread. A younger/former cup winner. A total outside. To internal promotions. NONE of the worked. The problems with this team are outside of coaching. If ANYTHING I'd like to see what Ruff would do as coach if he is allowed to actually bring in his own assistant coaches. They guys he works with side by side...the guys who work directly with the players...remember, not his. Pegula/Adams told him "These your your coaches/co-workers, make it work"

Another way to look at it that I don't think has been brought up. 256 playoff series have been played since the Sabres last won a series. 256 times a team has left the ice shaking the hands of another team and moving on to the next round since the Sabres did that. 256 times the national media, sports media, fans have thought about a playoff matchup since the last time the Sabres won a series.

I would probably pine for the days/thoughts of what this team could be WITH Dahlin and Thompson and some other strategic moves/signings that they refuse to make.