mjd1001

Earlier this year I remember him doing an interview talking about criticism where he said something like "I have wide shoulders, I can take it" and then he went on and on after that complaining about all the criticism. No surprise with pro athletes, but to say you can take the criticism and then right away just complain about it....I thought that cleared up any doubt (for me) whether he was a help, or hurt the locker room.

Agree with most of what you said. I don't want to make a move now just because its available. I'd rather wait for the 'right' move rather than the 'right now' move. There WILL be other guys on the market, there are every year.

A chance to look up more stats, I like it: Penalties drawn vs taken so far this year: Best on Sabres: Greenway +4, Kulich +4 (in limited games/ice time), Quinn +3, Peterka +3. Worst so far: Clifton -6, Zucker -5, Cozens -4, Byram -3.

The Owen Power thread has turned into a Bryam thread it seems. After reading through the last few pages, and of course watching the games, right now I think this: Byram is a good D-man, Really good. We can find advanced stats that show he is a good D-man (Dudacek above). There are also some that would show he isn't (GASabresIUFAN). So why do I think he is on the good side of that ledger? -I like advanced stats to add some "depth" or "color" to things, but I think many times the 'eye test' and 'simple stats' are thrown out in favor of the advance stats. Well, simple stats: Hes on pace for 12 goals and 50+ points. He has the best +/- of all D-men. -Next, as i mentioned above, He has been leading the team in even strength ice time over the last 10 games, and he is playing now in all situations. Some may debate whether Lindy Ruff was the best pick to coach this team, but I am sure he knows hockey. And he is choosing to play Bryam more than anyone in the past few weeks and in all situations. -My personal eye test. I don't see him making costly giveaways in the D-zone to cost the team goals. He doesn't blow people up all the time, but he does get to pucks that some slower guys (Samuelsson) doesn't get to, so negates the need to 'blow up' the other guy with the puck. -He's a pretty fast skater. (NHL edge has him clocked at over 23.5 mph skating on the ice in the past year or two, that make him one of the top 30 fasted skaters in the league) He can carry the puck through the D-zone and through the neutral zone without turning it over. Not making bad passes in the neutral zone or not turning the puck over when skating in the neutral zone can sometimes be BETTER for your team defensively than your metrics in your own zone. (not sure if there is a 'fancy stat' to measure that, but from what I see, he's good at it)

Kreider might be good for a year or so, but yeah, I'd not trade anything of substance for him. -33, going to be 34 years old by the end of the year. -Unless he has an injury, it Looks like he hit the same age-related wall Skinner hit last year for sure. If you look at his metrics, he was one of the fastest/best skaters in the league. Last year his numbers skating were down (top speed and 'speed burts'). This year they are way down even from last year, and as a result he is not getting off as many shots. He has zero assists and is getting off 10% less shots than last year. -He's been a 'plus' player by quite a but over the last few years. This year he is a 'minus' player on a plus team. If the Rangers are looking to trade him, I'd be wary. Just like the Sabres had first hand knowledge of Jeff Skinner 'hitting the wall' last year, because they saw him in practice every day, the Rangers have the same visibility on Kreider. Did I mention he is turning 34 later this year, and is signed for 2 more years AFTER this year at $6.5 per? Again, put him on this team and he probably helps the team, but he isn't the player he was...and I think if you are patient, you can find a better fit that won't cost you as much for the next 2 years where that contract is going to be an anchor (you already have Skinner you are paying for, and remember his buyout accelerates to a higher number coming up) I understand the desire to bring in veterans that can help the team now, but I really don't want anymore 'Skinner' type contracts. I'm happy with a guy like Zucker. Wait until the deadline and get another rental like him (or maybe better if you have the assets to trade.) In the mean time, keep looking for a 'hockey' trade where you can get a really good, veteran player closer to his prime even if it means more assets.

Hopefully a sellout, full house. If that happens and they win, putting up at least 4 goals, wow, that will be a fun night.

Out of town scoreboard tonight: -Philly playing Vegas. Flyers just 3 points behind the Sabres with the same games played. Can pull within 1 with a win. -Islanders playing Detroit. Red wings 5 behind the Sabres but with game in hand. Can pull to within 3 with a win. Isles? 2 behind the Sabres. If they win they'll be tied in points (Buf will have one game in hand.) -Senators hosting the Flames. Senators win brings them to within 4 points of Buffalo (same games played after tonight) No one else close to the Sabres playing tonight...But Minnesota is playing the Jets. The current #1 and #2 teams in the league facing off. Kaprizov didn't play last game, but he was practicing full this morning. Last I heard was game time decision. But if he plays and is close to 100%, I'd love to watch this game.

Bryam: -First 11 games average ice time 20:41 per game. 4 times below 19 minutes (17-18m range) -Last 10 games average ice time 24:26 per game. Has not been below 21.5 minutes in any game. One game with 27.5 minutes, one game with 32.5 minutes. He is playing in all situations: end of game, powerplay, penalty killing. In the past 10 games he even has passed Dahlin and now leads the team in even strength time on ice over the last 10 games. Some of us like him, some of us don't. But its pretty obvious Lindy likes him, likes him in all situations and recently in games put him out there more often/more ice time than even Dahlin and Power.

Not directly related to the topic, but I'm looking forward to the game Wed night for a 'nostalgic' reason.... As a kid growing up, a teenager, and even a young adult, I always LOVED 2 games each year. When they had home games the day before Thanksgiving and the old 'Pucks and Tux' or was it "tux and pucks' night on new years eve. If those were exciting games and they played well, It just made the holiday the next day so much better (fun to talk to relatives, cousins about the game the night before when you see them on the holiday)

Sometimes you give up defense to get offense. Sometimes a player giving you 2-3 breakout passes or rushes out of the zone that result in good scoring chances for you are worth 4-5 times you didn't move someone off the puck in the D-zone but none of those resulted in a goal against. I like Bryams game a lot this year, and I think Power is a tad over-rated by some, but hes overall (offense and defense) moved into being a top 100 D-man in the league and I expect him to keep getting batter.

I agree. Right now, at this moment, I'm not in a hurry to force a trade (talk to me again after the next 2 game losing streak and I might tell you something different.) That doesn't mean that this team should not be on the lookout for any moves, and they likely should be making some move between now and the deadline. But...you are 'adding' Tage and Greenway back to the lineup soon, and I'm ok with letting the current roster simmer, gel, (whatever word you want to use)....to see who steps up, continues to step up, or to see who you where relying on but fails to do so. If there is a guy you targeted as a fit for this team and he becomes available and Lindy wants him, then go get him. But I'm not in a hurry to force something now if its not there.

Ultimately, I want the best player to be my backup goalie. If Levi is going to allow one less goal than Reimer, give me Levi most of the time. But I how much it matters in the NHL today having the 'veteran backup'. The Craig Anderson effect. With being in the league so long, are there things he's seen or situations has been in that he can convey to UPL that Levi wouldn't? Knowing he isn't ever going to be a #1 goalie for the rest of his career, is he content in the role he is in and can he even give you 10% of that 'coach on the ice/in the room' that is beneficial? I really don't know. I would hope he can bring some of that.

I like many others, think Wrath of Khan is the best of the series (First contact is very under-rated in terms of TNG movies IMO) But yeah, with the exception of DS9 and some Enterprise from the early 90's, I've probably seen every single Trek episode (some multiple times) of every series, and many of the movies multiple watches also. Oh, the animated series from the 1970's? I saw a few of those but never got into it.

It might have been the most 'middle' movie I've ever seen. It was about 20 years ago..but from what I remember, I watched it. I saw the whole thing from start to end. I was entertained. I neither thought I wasted 2 hours watching it, nor did I really ever think of it much again or have a desire to watch it a 2nd time.

Since we are talking about faceoffs, an update on the Sabres. Of the Centers that have taken over 100 faceoffs for them this year, the winning percentage: Krebs: 56.4% McLeod: 53.4% Cozens: 47.2% Thompson: 42.7% I wonder if there is some benefit to taking faceoffs and being shorter. The leverage of being shorter is much more important than the longer reach? The Sabres success this year is a reverse correlation to how tall they are (Cozens and Mcleod being the same actually). When I looked back just now over the best faceoff guys in the league (over 50%, some near 60%) over the last 5 years, you come up with Crosby (5'11"), Horvat (6'1"), Draisaitl (6'1"), O'Reilly (6'1") and Lindholm (6'1"), John Tavares (6'1"), Claude Giroux (5'11"), and the best of all of them, Bergeron (6'1 or 6'0" depending on where you look). Only Kopitar and Jordan Staal are close to the top that are 'taller' 6'3"/6'4. Some of the worst guys (well under 50%) who have taken a lot of faceoffs recently: Erikson Ek (6'3"), Scheifle (6'3), Cozens (6'3"), Luc Dubois (6'4) and of course Thompson. Now there are some guys who are bad who are 'shorter' too....but it seems like, in general, being 6'1" or less helps with faceoffs, and being tall (6'4" or more) is mostly a bad thing. Maybe its nothing groundbreaking, but I never thought of it before.

I'd rather have him fully healed of course. But I'd also have him back sooner than later, just because it seems like whenever he has a stretch of games where he doesn't see NHL game action for a little bit, it takes him a while to get it fired back up again. -Last year to start the season, after not playing all summer, he started out with 1 goal in his first 6 games. He then scored 5 in his next 6 after "getting going". -Last year when he missed time to injury, after he came back, he only scored 1 goal in his first 7 games back. -Last year even when having time off from the all star weekend (8 days), he only had 2 goals in his first 9 games back after those 8 days off. (after that he played in 23 games over the next 47 days (almost a game every other day) and had 13 goals in those 23 games. -2 years ago, his big year, at the start of the season without playing any meaningful games in months, he had 1 goal and 1 assist in his first 7 games. He then had 10 goals in his next 8 games. This year he scored in the 2nd game of the year, but almost every year of his career after the offseason it takes him a while to get going. And after injuries or breaks (all star breaks where he gets time off), it takes him a while to get going. He seems like the type of guy who needs to 'get in a groove', or 'shake the rust off' after time off more than most players. So the sooner he gets back, the quicker that can happen.

Reimer played a really good game. He made a lot of big saves at key times.

How does it contradict the fact that I said it shows that Cozens has to start producing??

It puts him on a pace for about 12 goals and 25 points. Good for a 4th liner. Acceptable but not great production for a 3rd liner.

With that goal, for the moment, Krebs ties Cozens in goals and points. He does it in one less game. He does it in 35% less ice time. He does it shooting almost 4 TIMES the shooting percentage of Cozens. He does it making 80% less of a cap hit. He does it with 'lesser talented' line-mates He does it with a better Plus minus. He does it as the best on the team in faceoffs. Its not to say he should take Cozens place on a higher line. Its to say Cozens really needs to start contributing (captain obvious, I know)

Couple of random things I thought were interesting that I didn't know where to put them: So far this year: Fasted recorded speed by a skater in the league? 24.2 mph. By 34 year old Steven Stamkos. Top shot speed recorded in a game? 104.69 mph. By Tage Thompson.

Well that is my point. I think it is dumb to not trade in your division. If a trade makes you better, do it. If you can be .001% better by trading with Boston instead of Vegas, then trade with Boston. Sure you might be making Boston better, but the goal is to win the cup, you have to beat EVERYONE to do that. I don't care if its Boston, Toronto....doesn't matter, you make the trade that makes your team best, division or not.

I agree. I think doing that is one of the dumbest things in sports (not trading within division or to your rivals), but I agree it does happen that way often.

I'm thinking/hoping they go with UPL again. He only faced 24 shots last night, there wasn't any travel between the games with L.A. and Anaheim. After tonight they won't play for another 4 nights. Maybe not, but I think even Lindy might think "a slightly fatigued UPL is going to be better than Reimer"

Need to start with a shot on net. They made it half way through the 2nd without one single shot.