mjd1001

Here is another player I can't figure out, Elias Petterson. 2 years ago I watched him play a few games and I thought he was going to be the next superstar in the league. top 10, maybe even top 5 player. Then, he had a pretty bad contract extension negotiation with Vancouver. Last March 2, he signed his extension...8 years, $11.6m per season. -in the 1.5+ years before he signed the extension, he had 144 games played, 68 goals, 109 assists (39 goal, 62 assist, 101 points per 82 pace) -Since signing the extension, including playoffs last year, 45 games played, 8 goals, 17 assists (15 goal, 31 assists 46 points per 82 pace) That is a BIG drop in production. I searched a bit and didn't see much about him playing through an injury, and he's still getting ice time.

I'm not disagreeing with you, that is and has been the problem with this team. But I don't think it so much a 'consistency' thing as just a 'haven't been good enough team' ALL teams have stretches where they play well, all teams have games where they beat a superior opponent. In the past few years, its been true with the Sabres, Coyotes, Blue Jackets...a bunch of others. So the question is....are they a 'good enough to make the playoffs team' that just has huge lapses in consistency? Or is the perceived lack of consistency just a sign that they aren't good enough (as is the case with most other teams near the bottom of the standings?)

Great game last night. For myself, as I have said in another thread, I don't think 'big picture-playoffs or bust' as much as I used to. To me each game is a single game, I try to enjoy it as simply one nights entertainment. If I do look big picture though, I'm not buying in yet. I'd like to see this team get into the top 8 of the conference and stay there for a bit before I change my thinking. A big win against a top team helps, but they aren't close yet to where I need them to be to really even be thinking playoffs.

UPL played well, but Levi has now played only 1 game in the past 3 weeks. Not ideal for a young goalie that they team has said 'needs work' Do you not play UPL and give Levi a game even though UPL is playing well? Or do you consider sending Levi down to Rochester just to get 1 or 2 games in....Houser wouldn't play unless there is an injury, but he is playing really well in Rochester....do you consider making that swap for 2-3 days to get Levi some work and keep UPL in the net?

He hasn't exactly been stellar at center, and the mistakes he makes at center over the last 100+ games are so bad you don't need to be a coach to notice them. And lighten up, this is a message board, talking about what we see and giving opinions is what we do.

Ok, standings update with taking games played into consideration.... After beating the Rangers and Tampa leading late...it looks like the 8th and final playoff spot right now is at .542 points. Sabres now at .464. Win the next 3 in a row, they are at .558 and in the last playoff spot. They are at +3 goal differential right now. They had a positive goal differential last year and didn't make the playoffs, but in the Eastern conference over the last 3-4 years, if you are postive in goal differential, the numbers say you are 90-95% chance of making the playoffs.

I missed some of the game, did anything happen to Tage as far as an injury? I see Tuch had over 18 minutes of ice time, Peterka with almosty 16...but Tage only with 14:53 minutes. He didn't get hurt, did he?

He scored tonight, and early in the game when it was important. I'm still 100% on the Cozens to wing wagon though. Let him play like Tuch, just go full out with the forcheck. If he wants to throw his body into D-men, let at it. He just doesn't have the mentality, the hockey sense, the quick thinking to play center.

On the hit, I thought it was a penalty, I didn't think it was vicious though. Penalty yes. Something that required an immediate respons? ehhh....I've seen worse.

That gets his shooting percentage up past 5%. One more goal in the next game or two and he'll be back to respectability. No sarcasm there, he has something going, now keep it up.

Yeah, I think it was Granato (probably someone before him also) that said....when you have the puck you usually aren't throwing hits. Its a lot easier to get 'out-hit' when you are controlling possession.

Yeah, I can see that one not being a penalty but I can see it being called either. Stuff like that has been let go, but I can't complain too much.

The thing I noticed there is he was on the ice for a while, I get it, guys get caught out there, but he was 'running out of gas' and for the 2nd or 3rd time he carried it in all by himself, and ended up losing possession. I have seen him do that a few times. Its one of Cozens main problem....situational awareness might be something he has the least of on the entire team.

If they can stay in it that long, approaching the trade deadline would be a good time to add someone like that. I think the Sabres have a bit over $7m in cap space, while 14 teams have less than $2m....meaning the Sabres have a lot of room to fit someone in that another team wants to dump....plus the Sabres have every single one of their draft picks for the next 2 years, and extra 4ths and 7ths this year so they have the draft assets and cap space to pick up rentals.

Ok question on this stat...does it take into account shooting percentage? From what I understand its about the chances you have and how good those chances are. But some players, you can give them great chance after great chance and if they aren't good shooters, it doesn't matter. If I'm understanding this correctly, someone like Cozens who is a very bad/lower percentage shooter might be over-rated by this stat. He is getting chances, but if he (or his teamates) don't put them in, it doesn't matter much? For the Forwards at least, I would think this state might be more valuable if there was a version of it that incorporated shooting percentage into it. Like maybe take this state, and multiply it by the expected shooting percentage of a player or line (use their lifetime numbers) and that may be a more an indication of how they are playing? Benson can be near the top of the list and Cozens in the middle, but if they are naturally guys who shoot 50% lower than someone like Tage or Peterka, than wouldn't it be better to evaluate the overall play with Tage and Peterka being even 50% higher than they are (relative to Benson and Cozens)? I'm asking because, I'm not sure exactly how this stat is generated..but if my guess is correct I would think it over-values guys like Krebs and Cozens offensive performance.

Now that we are more than 15% of the way through the season, I was looking at some of the more obscure stats (at least ones not brought up everyday) to see what stands out with this team so far: -5 players have taken over 50 faceoffs so far, they rank: 1.) Krebs 58.9% 2.)McLeod 51.7% 3.) Tuch 46.2% 4.) Tage 43.2% 5.) Cozens 40.8% -Hits per 60 minutes...the best: Gilbert 20.9, Malenstyn 18.5, Clifton 10.2, Aube Kubel 9.4, Lafferty 9.2 -Hits per 60...the lowest: Peterka 1.2, Thompson 1.4, Power 1.5, Bryson 1.8, Benson 1.9 -Most penalties drawn on the opposition: Dahlin 7, Greenway 7, Krebs 5, Benson 5, Peterka 4 -Worst +/- Penalties taken vs drawn: Cozens -4, Lafferty -3, Zucker -2, Clifton -2, Kubel -2 -Best Penalty Killers (power play goals allowed per 60 among players with PK time): Lafferty 0.0. Malenstyn 0.0, McLeod 5.1, Jokiharju 6.3, Clifton 6.4 -Worst success PK (goals allowed per 60 on the PK): Dahlin 16.6, Power 15.0, Cozens 14.4, Samuelsson 11.9 Again, its so early to say those player are good or not good at what they do, but at least its showing who currently is good or not good at those particular items so far this season. Thought it was interesting.

Because his lack of production is a major impact on the team. The money yeah, but that isn't a big issue (yet). But the bigger issue is that he IS not just slotted on what many think is the 2nd line, but he is getting 2nd line minutes. He is getting top Powerplay minutes. When you are trying to win badly, and you are giving him 18 minute of ice time per game (only about 1:20 less than your top center), and he has the MOST powerplay time on ice on the team as far as forwards...it is a cause for "hand wringing" simply because you are trying to win. Now in the last 2 weeks I have convinced myself he is going to come out of this 'slump'. so I'll have more patience. But this is more than a slump now. Last game he dipped below 8% shooting (7.98%) when you consider this season and ALL last season. He is leading your forward in PowerPlay time on ice, yet he has a total of 3 (THREE) powerplay goals combined so far this year and all of last year. So yeah, I think he will 'come around' but the issue is, come around how far. There is no way he should be leading your forward in Power play time with that above record, and he is hurting you by taking up so much ice time without performing. I get he is young, but he is now in his 5th season and he is turning 24 in a couple months. I think a lot of us want McLeod to get the extra 2.5 minutes of ice timer per game, and drop Cozens down to that '3rd line' ice time by getting 2.5 minutes less and take him off the first unit powerplay. He can still 'work out of it' with 3rd line ice time. But right now, McLeod is producing more, he is more responsible without the puck, and even if you add in last years stats, he is scoring almost double the goals per 60 as Cozens. So the hand wringing about Cozens is all of that, but with me personally, again, get him off the PP first unit, and drop him down to 3rd line minutes for the time being, until he gets out of his shooting slump, that will help the team on the ice.

Ovechkin with 8 goals in 12 games this year. At the beginning of last year I had along talk with my cousin about him and said...he really has got to be close to hitting the wall, once he does he's not going to be able to score at all...and I was pretty sure he wasn't going to catch Gretzky. My thinking it would get to the point where he might be playing 80 games, hurting his team and maybe putting in 5-8 goals over that season. Well, I was wrong (at least so far). I think he is now only 32 or 33 behind Gretzky. It sill might be tough for him to do it this year (does he have a 40+ goal season in him at this age), but its looking more likely than not now. For reference, at age 39, Ovechkin has the same number of goals as Tage has, but Ovi has done it in one less game so far.

I had a somewhat similar experience a few years ago. I was in Syracuse for work, and was in a parking lot of a plaza. I drove down the lane in the parking lot, and when I came to a the end of the lane, someone was coming from the right, making a left turn into the lane I was in. Basically, she cut the turn short, didn't see me around the corner, and almost drove into me head on. She 'corrected' at the last minute and swerved onto her side of the road. What was signficant about that? I was stopped at the 'intersection' in the parking lot, she made the turn too short, and all I did was stay stopped and looked at her, as she drove by she was yelling something at me like it was my fault, and then there was a woman in the back seat who gave me the finger. The most surprising part? They were all probably in their 40's or 50's. It seems we are more and more getting to the point that as a society, we cannot admit when we are wrong. Its blame the other person first, yell at someone else first before admitting guilt.

They are near the top of my list but mostly due to NY city fans overall. I grew up with the Yankees as my favorite baseball team. At times in my childhood I liked the Jets. My wife is from NY city, when we met I want to quite a few Mets games (she lived less than 3 miles from Shea and/or Citi field. I really didn't hate any NY team for a while.... Then as I got older, I traveled a lot and lived in some different areas. Got to know Toronto fans, Boston fans (for all the sports, I lived near Boston for years) Spent some time in South Florida. Met some guys from Philly, Dallas...etc. As a whole, when you take into account the entire city, my PERSONAL experiences have me disliking NY city teams in general because of the fans. Yeah, Red Sox and Patriots fans can be annoying. Dallas Cowboy fans sure. But overall, I'd say of the 20 biggest "Jerks" I have ever come across in all of sports, for me 15 of them were fans of some NY city team. Of course that is my personal experience. Everyone is different. But to me its so bad that the Yankees at one point where they were my favorite non-Buffalo sports team in ANY sport, and now, I'm totally done with them. Mostly because of interactions with some of their 'bad' fans. To your larger point about the Rangers..yeah. The only team I can even tolerate the Rangers beating is the Leafs right now.

Every game that goes by Cozens is just a wealth of new conversation for this forum.... I'm 90% there to accepting who he is, and that is someone that isn't going to change much anymore. He is not a good 2 way player, makes serious lapses in decision making in the neutral and defensive zone. He is someone I think would be better on wing but the Sabres are insistent he is a center. But he is also a skilled skater who is capable of generating his own shots in the offensive zone. That is the key, and the frustrating part. Other than Tage, he is probably the BEST player on the team at getting to prime scoring areas and getting shots off from there. He's not going to be a guy who shoots 20% like Draisaitl, Reinhart or Scheifle....hes not even going to be a 15% shooter like Petterson or Marner or Bo Horvat or even Tage. He might have 12-14% in him one or two more years in his career, but he is, basically, an 8% shooter. When you have an 8% shooter, you have some stretches of a couple months, or even seasons where you can do 12%+, but you also have stretches (months maybe) of 2-4%. So, for $7m per year (which, as the cap goes up in the next few years, might not look so bad), can we accept this from Cozens without feeling the need to scapegoat him? -Can we accept that he will have months where he scores 6 goals in a month or 10 goals in 20 game where everyone says "He's back!" but then he follows that up with no goals in 7 or 8 in a row? -Can we accept that he may have a 25-30+ goal season in him again, but then, for no apparent reason, he follows that up with a full 82 game season where he is your 2nd line center (with Power play minutes) and scores only 10-15 goals and 45 points? I am very close to thinking that is who he is. That he is going to break out of his shooting slump soon and put in 4 or 5 goals in a month, but then disappear again shortly after. Sorry for the length of this post but here is one example of the best case scenario. Patrice Bergeron. Now I'm not even remotely saying he can be as good as Bergeron...Bergeron was one of the best defensive forwards in modern history...but best case scenario could be his offensive game and how it COULD evolve. -Bergeron's first year in the NHL he scored 16. He followed that up with 31 goals in a full season as a 21 year old. Then down to 22. Then he got hurt and only scored 3 in an shortened season, but came back the next (mostly) full year with only 8 goals, and followed that up with 19, 22, 22 and then 10 in a shortened season. So with a very early season of 31 goals as a 20 year old, Boston fans thought they had and up and coming offensive superstar. But it took him 8 FULL SEASONS until he hit 30 again. Bergeron for his career only shot 10.7%. Like Cozens he was good at getting to the good scoring areas and took a lot of shots. He had full seasons only shooting 7% or 8% over the entire season, but as he got OLDER his shooting went up. Cozens is likely never going to be even close to the shut-down specialist Bergeron was. But, he can still evolve his offensive game, and even lacking accuracy in his shot, hopefull that can improve. If you don't like that comparison, look at Drew Stafford. WILD swings in shooting percentage, wild swings in scoring, from season to season. He may just be like that. It may take years. Not weeks, not months, but YEARS.

He is playing like what you EXPECT a vet in his early 30's should be playing like when you sign him a 1 year, $5m deal. He's good. he's usable, He is contributing, but he's not a revelation carrying the team to the promised land. We've had so few good veteran free agent signings around here most of us forget what they are supposed to look like. I think us as fans have walking trough a desert of non-contributing 'veterans' for so long, we have guys like Okposo, Gionta, Marcus Johanson, Pominville version 2.0, Jimmy Vesey that we have been convinced could fill that role.......or we simply accepted vets who were 2 steps below that level in both talent and pay that we were 'supposed' to think would fill the same role (Cody Eakin, Benoit Pouliot, Sabotka, Riley Sheahan, etc) Zucker has been playing well lately, so far he is a good signing, the kind we should expect a bit more often.

Right now I don't think the Sabres are looking to move him at all. Despite this thread and some people here who don't like that, Ruff must really trust/like him because he is getting the 2nd most ice time on the team, only behind Dahlin.

No one seems to know what is up with him. At least he is getting more shots?? He had a total of 6 shots on goal in his first 7 games. He has 11 shots in his last 5. Maybe its a start? But yeah, you don't even notice him out there, and none of his shots are from high danger areas either. With all the coaches the Sabres have, the video coaches, the guys who work with the players on the ice...They have to have SOME idea what is different about him this year and the reason for it, don't they?

I think its part 'playing this hard' and half 'just how good are you'? If you aren't good enough, you can push all you want and sometimes you just won't be 'good enough' to get to that spot quick enough, to be able to hold your ground in front of the opposing net, or to make that breakout pass from your own end where the difference in skill of having the puck go 1 inch from where you want it is the difference between you setting up a 2-on-1 for your team, or the pass getting intercepted and coming back the other way for a goal. On the other hand, yes, some of it IS effort. Some of it is willing to DO things you don't want to..or do things you aren't used to doing but the coach is trying to drill through your head to do. Oh, and then of course, as PTR stated above is the other team having a good game or an 'off' game, because you are competing against them. Yeah, according to Lindy there are players not playing as well as he wants, but even then, is it "effort"? Or is it "they aren't listening/being where they are supposed to be"? San Jose was one of the worst teams in recent memory last year...yet almost 1 out of every 4 games they beat a 'better' team? was that they tried in 1 out of 4 games? Was it the other team didn't try in those games? Its really a sliding scale every game, its a bunch of things combined. Its a bit of all of the above.