mjd1001

Yep agree. A minor thing this team needs to think about is when you get an open chance, don't go in too deep (if possible), Take the shot from 6-10 feet out rather than trying to get right on the goalie and making a move.

Cozens doesn't play a smart game. He is the "Anti-Crosby" The expression I use is a dog chasing a squirrel. He's like a magnet to the puck. He rarely seems to have the ability, or even the inclination, to think the game 2 steps beyond where he is. Gretzky was known for "go to where the puck is going to be, not to where it is". Cozens still, he goes to where the puck IS, or even was, not where it is going to be.

I agree with you. Without scoring Cozens is basically McLeod or Malenstyn but maybe even worse in his own end. Now, he has the 'potential' to score. But here is the reality we are looking at. He is, up to this point, a 200-220 shot guy per year. He is a career 10% shooting guy. Last year he was 9.0, so far this year he is 0-for-17. To be worth is contract, he has to a.) start shooting better and get you 30 goals in a season (not looking like that is happening anytime soon) b.) improve drastically in his own end. He hasn't done A.).....he is hit and miss with B.) As of now, I agree, he isn't worth his contract until he starts scoring a lot...and with no scoring, he is an average-to-below average 3rd liner.

I'm wondering if the scouting report on Jarry was for them to shoot high to pick corners. That's exactly where Peterka's goal was, Thompson shot there, and on opening night Pittsburgh versus the rangers I could swear that was brought up on that broadcast also.

Likely a late 3rd...and they go from likely a late 7th to an early-to-mid 6th (moving up late in the draft but by almost a round-and-a-half likely)

Doug Murray,I think he was 1/2 Swede, (at least he was born there). Not a fighter but he would engage in some kinda dirty play if I remember correctly. Also, he was like 6'4" and 240+ lbs. As far as current players, Andreas Englund? The guy doesn't play much, but I swear I have seen/heard him getting in a couple fights a month. But other than that, I can't think of anyone else.

Rob Ray was talking about his playing career and why he kept on signing one year contracts. I remember he said something like between every offseason the Sabres would say to him "we want you back, we'll give you 1 year, go out there and look around and see if you can get something better, but we want you back for one year at a time". Now, Greenway is better overall than Ray was. You probably don't want to just offer him below what he is making, one year at a time. But, as you said, you don't need to overpay. Tell him you like him. In the offseason give him a fair offer. But if he gets 'overpayed', its not like he is a player that cannot be replaced.

Wow, you guys are really nitpicking. If anything, "LOOKS" like a win for the bills might even support your point of view. Anyway, the response....are you new here....not appropriate when my whole post was based on the penalties. You guys are spending too much time nit-picking others posts and trying to give 'cute' responses instead of actually reading and understanding the content...i guess. 🤷‍♂️

What does 13 seconds have to do with todays game, the fact that over 20 penalties were accepted between both teams and, especially toward the end, it seems like you can't even 'enjoy' the outcome of any play because you are looking for a flag? You know, let me give you a few other examples....you watch a college football game and the same thing happens, important play after important play, only to be reversed a few seconds later by a flag. Or, a goal called back in the nhl because of an offsides penalty, only to happen again later in the same game (you get to the point where you can't really enjoy the goal because you are thinking they are going to 'over-officiate' things and take away anything spontaneous). I was getting that feeling toward the end of the game last night because of flags against both sides, they were becoming almost as important to both teams as the result of an individual play on the field. For the viewer, fan of the Bills or Jets or just casually watching it, it took away from the game. I'm not referencing what happened a couple years ago at all, I was making a statement about last night. Not sure what you mean by "are you new here"????

Looks like a win for the Bills, they are playing an ugly game though, not that much fun to watch especailly with every single play you see you are left wondering if it counts or not because of the number of penalties.

They have to be way ahead in terms of teams kicking 50+ yard FG's at the end of the game to beat them, and now 2 hail-mary's compelted against them at the end of the half/game in just a few years? They have to be the absolute worst (and/or have the worst luck) on those type of things.

Yeah, I personally don't ilke fighting much anymore. If high scoring game occurs, I never think to myself "that game needed a fight" if the NHL totally outlawed fighting (and filled the void with SERIOUS penalties for stickwork), I'd be OK....However... With that said, i really wish the Sabres would have found ONE heavyweight. A guy who is a top 20 fighter, but can also play and not be totally out of place. Wouldn't have to play everynight, but even for someone like me who isn't into fighting anymore...that is what I'd want from my 11th/12th/13th forward.

There is one thing I'll agree with. He had some very good games last year also...not any worse than he is playing this year. Just last year he disappeared for weeks at a time. The team hasn't played long enough for him to do that. If he doesn't have those stretches where you don't notice him, if he plays consistently, THAT will be the sign that his game as taken a step forward. With him, you get that you are getting, his game-to-game play is probably at its ceiling. The way he can improve is by not having as may 'off' games.

I think that is totally untrue. I think this happens, and is caught on camera in most hockey markets it gets its own thread. I'd have to search to find it, but I think on some of the maple leafs forums when stuff like this has happened in the past...with players that aren't even top players, it gets brought up and talked about for pages, and pages.

Yeah, I mean, I wouldn't like it if this was happening everyday and guys were getting banged up..but occasionally, no big deal in a bad way to me.

-he's a positive player on a negative team. -he's 2nd on the team in hits -he leads the team in time on ice shorthanded, the team has only allowed 1 shorthanded goal with him on the ice and it wasn't a result of something he did -his advanced skating metrics are all in the top 30-35% of entire league -the eye test, he is noticable on the forcheck. He is engaging, not in fights, but showing up in scrums. He is tying up D-man in front of the net and across the offensive zone. -The coach singled him out in training camp AND again during the season for his play, how hard he is working, etc. (and Ruff has NOT done that with every player on the team, only a handful in press conferences but he has done it with Greenway).

Yeah, in the past the Bills have handled the Dolphins with Tua pretty well, and, most importantly, with THIS years team they were handling the Dolphins with Tua before he got hurt. I'm not worried about the Dolphins, if the Dolphins get him back and pass the Bills, its because the Bills are simply not good enough. If they let the Dolphins pass them at that point, they they wouldn't be going that far in the playoffs anyway.

The whole group is playing solid, so you would think it has something to do with the system they are playing. On the other hand, I thought the 2nd half of last year they were vastly improved compared to the first half of the year. I'm just wondering, what percentage of the good play so far is Ruff's system they follow, vs just that they were improving already and a very young D-group got one year older/more experienced.

I have Problems with a lot of the bolded. -He doesn't engage? a player like him sometimes is better not engaging. I have made the analogy before, but playing without the puck in the NHL is like being a DB in football, you can be great at man-to-man or you can be great at zone. Thompson covers a lot of ground just being in opposing passing lanes. When someone plays great zone coverage in the NFL, you don't usually notice it because by its nature, zone coverage is meant to prevent throws from being made. Not only does Thompson have the ability to play the NHL version of 'great' zone coverage. He actually does. When he is used on the PK and the Sabres hold the PK box together you can see how effective he is. Also, I don't always notice it when I am watching a game live, but when I rewatch the broadcast, I know what is going to happen so I tend to focus on individual players, and you can see Thompson is very aware of what position he is in defensively and often times the opposing team chooses to not pass o skate toward him. I'm not just saying it, actually isolate on him when you rewatch a game. Due to this size/reach AND his willingness to play a sound positional game, he is one of the most effect players when the other team has the puck. Its there. Watch it. -Secondly the 'doesn't get back 'thing simply isn't true. Technically it may be at times. The first goal allowed he was caught up the ice, but when you have your top center, you WANT him in the offensive zone and he is going to get caught up the ice some times. It happens to McDavid, Matthews, and yes, watching the playoffs last year, for all the 'effort' we hear McKinnon puts in, he was the last one back in the defensive zone quite a bit. But besides that, he DOES get back alot, you can see it. In defensive zone coverage he stays in the center of the ice and will drop down, sometimes below the faceoff dots, when the other team collapses on the net. I just went to NHL.com and watched part of their 'condensed game' and the first 2 times I saw Tage in the defensive zone, he was in the middle of the ice, and once the Panthers collapsed down toward the net he went right there with them. Look at 2:15 in the condensed game for one example, he 'gets back' and does EXACTLY what you want a forward backchecking to do. Now watch the replay of the game live an focus on him. He gets back most of the time, trailing the puck slightly to maintain coverage in the slot. Again, Not even using deep analytics here, but you can see he gets back on turnovers often, and when he does, he is where he is supposed to be. As far as not making his linemates better, well, Tuch has had his career years with Tage. Skinner had his over-30-year-old bounce back seasons when paired with Tage. The only measurable metric I can think of to see if he is contributing offensively to making his teammates better is to look at the ratio between primary assist and secondary assists (primary in general being you are more involved the the goal scored, while secondary in many/most cases is a bit more 'noise'. 61.3% of his assits are primary, not secondary assists so not only is he above that 50% line that you want to be, he also has 1.25 per 60 since he became a center, better than anyone else on this team by far (Cozens is below 1) Again, if you watch the game and watch him in isolation you will see the things I said above are true. The fact that the WAY he plays without the puck makes him so effective (Zone defense, remember), makes him the opposite of a 'one trick pony'. I don't like deep analytic stats that much. Personally I like a combo of the 'basic stats' with the 'eye test', but if you dig into some of the moderately deep analytics through just 4 games, Tage is excelling at most of them. His NHL edge overview (measuring skating, speed, shot power, goals. offensive zone possession) are all at elite levels through 4 games. Puck zone time when he is on the ice is at the 84th percentile, better than his linemates and better than the 2nd line (Cozens). The primary reason it seems he has no assists yet (through just 4 games) is one winger with him either got hurt or has been playing hurt the whole time (Peterka and Benson) and the other (Tuch) hasn't yet converted on any direct passes from Tage yet. I'm not sure, other than ONE time a goal was allowed, how you can make a blanket statement that he isn't getting back defensively. Most of the time he is, and he does.

Yeah, its early, still not worried about them. With D-men, even those high pedigree guys, need a larger sample size before I start projecting numbers.

Defensemen, even top D-men, often go many games between goals. I'm not worried about them.

4 days off, Pittsburgh and C-bus coming up. No game is a pushover in this league, especially for the Sabres, but 2 winnable ones coming up. Anyone at the game and know the actual attendance? Was the building 100% full? 80%? Couldn't really see the upper deck from TV.

He looked like a top 15 center today. The goal, controlled the puck, seemed confident that he could do what he want with the puck when he wanted it. Yeah, its only one good game where he looked like that (he kinda did against the kings) but lets see if he can keep it up. Its just so early. Austin Matthews has not played 3 games, no goals, no assists, 15 shots, 0% shooting percentage...but no one is worried about him. I know Thompson is not Matthews, but again, we need a little more sample size.

If he's not 100%, sit him a game next time out and give Krebs his minutes. Krebs earned them tonight. If Krebs reverts to his 'typical' form, you can always put in a well rested (and hopefully close to 100% healthy) Benson the following game. When you do have guy that can step into the lineup and give you a good effort, this is exactly WHEN you can take the guys how are banged up and give them that day or two off to get them back to 100% instead of playing them at 85-90% the whole year. Greenway seems like a different guy in his post game interviews (different than most other guys). Sure he uses a couple cliches, but most other players come across like they are giving you the answers they were 'taught' to give to the media. Greenway seems more like a real guy you are actually having a conversation with and he's speaking what he feels.

A very small thing but in the post game interviews, do you think the WGR550 microphone (I assume its Hamilton), well, can they get a new one for him? it looks like its about 15 years old and has been dropped and dragged across the floor 25 times.