mjd1001

Well, I am one of the ones that think Tage was playing injured. And yes, I could be wrong about the fact that he is going to have a bounce back year. But, he DID have an injury at the beginning of the year, and there were 2 "Tages" last year. The one closer to the injury ocurring, and the one as he got farther away from the injury. His first 'half' of the season (right after he was hurt), 36 games, 10 goals (22.7 goal pace) -His second 'half' of the season (as he got farther way from his injury), 35 games, 15 goals (35.1 goal pace). So, I get your point of view, I'm not 100% convinced it was all due to an injury, but personally I am well more than 50% convinced we are going to see a better version of him this year compared to last year.

When you are paying that much for your top guys....and to me I watch this sport as much for entertainment in terms of pure winning....12 games like that is noticable. Expecaily for Leaf fans who are paying multiple times what Sabres fans pay to go to a game. Getting shutout, no big deal. A 2, 3, or even 4 game stretch where the offense goeas away, acceptable. But for the Leafs....with their expectations, that is a noticable LONG stretch of boring-ish hockey.

Now thats the way to get there. If there is an outdoor concert or a festival, unless my wife insists on driving, i'm taking my bicycle and avoiding the traffic.

Pretty good price. Maybe if I lived within a mile or two of the Arena I'd go. This is a different topic (kinda) but I really have zero incentive/desire to go to a game in person anymore, ANY sporting event really. I guess once a year I like to do to just get a reminder of the 'atmosphere' of going to a game in person, but I have become very, VERY comfortable watching games (Bills, Sabres, anything really) from my living room or office.

If I'm Lindy Ruff I really don't care about this. What happens AFTER the goal is scored is one of the least of his problems. If I'm on the bench with the emotion of the goal, I might not even notice. I'd let 'upstairs' make that decision.

Well, the Leafs are better than the Sabres, but might be just as frustrating for some fans: -Matthews, $13.25m per year, multiple time 60+ goal scorer -Nylander, $11.5m per year, 2 points shy of 100 last season -Tavares, $11.0 m per year -Marner, $10.9m per year What does that get you in terms of exciting, high powered hockey? -haven't scored more than 2 goals in the last 6 games -3 wins in the last 12 games (non preseason) -Playoffs last year and first game this year, 12 total goals in last 8 games (1.5 goals per game) -12 games in a row since they won a game in which they scored more than 3 goals.

Fire Granato

A lot of talk about the PP..and yes deserved. Just interesting who are the 2 most productive goal scorers on the Power play the last few years? Well, if you look at last year....or the last 2 years combined, or the last 3 years combined, the last 4 years combined, even the last 5 years combined, it the same 2 players who lead the league in PP goals over those time periods: McDavid? Nope. Matthews? No. Pastrnak? No -Leon Draisaitl and Sam Reinhart One guy the Sabres had, and the other the guy the Sabres COULD have drafted (instead)

Slow motion or not, the head was targeted.

Power play units in practice today... Yeah, I know Peterka is hurt, but this...this doesn't seem to inspire confidence...or fear in any opponent.

I agree. I just wanted to see more offense. If you are going to lose at least be entertaining. Plus if you lose by allowing a lot of goals, defense can be cleaned up. A total lack of offense...a lot harder to fix. And from what I saw of the goals allowed, yeah the Sabres were a bit sloppy, Powers pass in game one was awful, but I didn't see much that said there were awful positioning in the defensive end that can't be fixed. Its the breakouts and the lack of chances/scoring that is the bigger issue through 2 games to me.

If Peyton Krebs played the entire season on a line with Tuch and Thompson, how many goals does he get? 12-15, thats all I have.

Some dont' realize just how good that New Jersey team can be. That 112 point team. Their top 5 scorers were Hughes, Hischier, Mercer, Hamilton, and Bratt. That forward group was very young and should be better now (maybe much better) than they were then due to being 2 years older and closer to their prime. On Defense, Luke Hughes was too young to even make that team, but he'll be playing this year. With the other additions they made, their D-unit this year should also be better, maybe considerably better, than it was 2 years ago. In net, Vanacek then, Markstrom now. Now last year they were devasted by injuries, but if they can stay somewhat healthy this year, this year's NJ team should be better than that 112 point team from 2 years ago. Not much of a reason to not think so.

https://www.cnn.com/2024/10/08/sport/josh-allen-buffalo-bills-chris-nowinski-spt-intl/index.html Neuroscientist wants the NFL to investigate Josh Allen’s apparent head injury, despite the QB passing a concussion check

Carolina fired Matt Ruhle a couple years ago in week 5. They faced a 2-3 Rams team and lost 24-10 Jags fired Urban Meyer in 2021, the following week they lost 30-16 to a 2-11 Houston team. Mike McCarthy was fired by the Packers in 2018 mid year. The following week they beat a 4-8 Atlanta team. Colts fired Frank Reich during the 2022 season. The following week they beat a 2-6 Raiders team. Washington fired Jay Gruden in 2019. The following game they beat a winless Miami team (0-5) 17-16. So, in recent history, it doesn't seem to matter much. The game after a coach is fired there are some wins and some losses, but often time the wins are against very bad teams.

If I already have a job and I absolutely need to win, I 'guess' I'd take Rodgers. But I'm not taking a job as a new coach if I have to work with him, and my success/failure and how I interact with the team is with him as the 'defacto' leader of the team.

I'm not saying Saleh didn't deserve to get fired, but Aaron Rodgers is a cancer at this point. Its his way or no way, why would any team sign up for that? Its New York so I'm pretty sure they will get their choice of a few coaches, but if I were a candidate, I'd say "No thanks" to working with Rodgers and take my chances with another job in the future.

NJ was not good last year,but they were devasted by injuries AND had pretty bad goaltending. They are a very, very good team, especailly now that they look to have average-to-above average goaltending. No excuse for the Sabres but they may have been playing a team that is a top 5 team in the league.

I get people have the right to be mad, but on this forum there is a lot of reaching just to complain about something. Yeah, there are obviously legit complaints, but we are now deep into the situation where if the Sabres have a binary decision to make..if they select "0" people will complain they didn't select "1", but if they selected "1" many of those people will complain they didn't select "0". There is an agenda...an 'anti KA', 'anti Ruff', anti "pick your person associated with the Sabres", and no matter what happens, ANY perceived negative outcome will simply be the result of that person that is the focus of the agenda. (I'll admit I am getting to the POINT of having a full-on agenda against Cozens, but I'm justifying it in my own head because of the repeated bone-head plays he makes game, after game, after game)

Yeah, tell me about it. I lived in Florida a while ago, bought a house, bought an investment property. When we moved back up north we sold the house we lived in but kept the investment house. Sure, over the last decade or so its gone up in value, but I wish we would have sold it, and may do so now. The costs are skyrocketing. Its not just insurance (which has tripled in the past 10 years.) The property taxes are going up rapidly. Homeowners association fee is more than double what it was 10 years ago. From the family we have there we hear auto insurance has been going up about 10% per year. We visited last year for a week and we drove. No Hurricane, no MAJOR storms, just a few days of very heavy rain, and the day before we were leaving, we couldn't find gas. Had to go to 4 gas stations to find one that wasn't out of gas (Stuart, FL area). The heavy rain caused so much flooding that some roads were closed, and I think part of I95 was closed for a short period of time, but basically a bunch of gas stations didn't get gas delivered to them. If that is what happens in 2023 during a heavy rainfall, I can't imagine what its going to be like if a moderate hurricane hits a heavily populated area.

Technically, even if one of them gets hurt (as long as its not a major injury), the other can just play all the games for a short period of time. Is it optimal? No, but not terrible unless there is a major injury.

Yeah, I still believe it. Is there a smoking gun? Maybe not, but there is a lot of circumstantial evidence, that others, plus myself, have posted over the years when it has happened. If you want to wade into this, check out the old thread below. There is a lot of stuff in there you have to sift through, but there are also alot of quotes, some links (or screenshots) of articles/posts that, to me, go beyond 'circumstantial evidence' are are pretty close to the smoking gun of an owner who 'meddles' to the detriment of the team.

I get it, I said in my post a few times it might not work out, but I was simply answering the question of how do you replace the production of Mitts and Skinner, I gave the best 'possible' answer based on the current roster. It may not work, as I said, but with what we have, what I said is the 'best chance'.

Well, wind shear is supposed to pick up rapidly in the 12 or so hours before landfall which is why they are expecting it to weaken before landfall. For those in Tampa that want to look at the good side of things, the NHC 'official' forcast shows it going into Tampa directly. But, it appears very few of the models they use show that. A couple have it as a close hit just to the north, a couple have it way to the north, and a few to the south. At this exact moment, the 'line' is an average of them. So, there is a good chance it will be bad, but not a direct hit on Tampa...probably just to the north or to the south. Over the past 5-10 years, the one model that has done the best with forcasting the track/path has been the main Euro model. It isn't great at 'guessing' strength a few days in advance, but it generally gets the path correct (at least more than the others). That one this morning showed a landfall as a weak Cat 3 just barely north of Tampa/St. Pete. I guess each 6 hours we get closer will tell us more.

Short answer: I really don't now. Longer answer: You start by playing the way this team played after Jan 1 of last year, for more than half the season. The team turned a corner in some ways almost literally after Jan 1. Skinner played less. UPL took over as your #1 goalie. Part of that was after trading Mitts for Byram. You moved on from Okposo. Cozens actually started playing better in his own zone (although he seems to have regressed this year again.) All those things happened (primarily) after Jan 1 and the team went 24-18-2 and were a postive 24 in goal differential. That is your starting point -In that time after Jan 1 where the team played better, Skinner had his ice time reduced (the last 2 months of the season he was down to the 13-14 minute mark per game). He played 39 games, had 9 goals (less than a 19 goal pace per 82). He also didn't score in the last 13 games in a row. So, when this team played its best, for more than 1/2 the season, it was when Skinner had his ice time reduced and was scoring at a 19 goal per season pace. How do you replace that production? Have a winger on your roster score 10-15 and actually play defense so they prevent 4-9 goals vs Skinner over the rest of the year. -Mitts. Since the team starting playing better Jan 1 until he was traded, he played in 24 games, and scored 4 goals. He did have 12 assists, but that puts him at 13.5 goal, 54 point pace. Easy to replace with what the Sabres have no? No, but not a monumental lift. They also were 10-8-2 in the 20 games after he traded, so not a huge drop moving him out and Byram in. How do you replace his production? Simple, Tage and Cozens need to pick up what they did last year. Tage actually DID the 2nd half of the season, Cozens needs to lift up the rest. So the medium length (and best) answer to your question: Line #1 (Tage, Tuch, Peterka)..you need to get 90-95 + goals out of them. Line #2 (Cozens, Benson, Quinn)..you need to get 65-70+ goals out of them. For me thats it. IF we want to say the Bottom 2 lines are the same (or SLIGHTLY improved from last years team), then have the first 2 produce at that level, and you are there. Forget about 'just' career years, lets look at the last 3 years (ups AND downs combined). Tuch averaged about 29 goals per 82 games and is now in his prime. Tage averaged 41.5 goals per 82 over the last 3 seasons. JJ in his 2 full seasons averages about 21, almost had 30 last year and is still not in his prime yet. On the first line he will get more ice time and more chances. Again, is it a guarantee to happen? Nope, but that is HOW this team plays well, those players have it in them. You are paying Cozens over $7m per season, hes still a train wreck in his own zone so for him to 'earn' his money he should be able to give you close to 30 (he needs to). The above gets you there. Now, if they DON'T do that, you have a big problem. But they are capable of doing it, now its just those players, and the coaching staff, getting them to that point. I'm not 100% sure its going to happen, but after 2 games I certainly am not at the sky-is-falling, doom and gloom, this team will never ever win again point....that many others appear to be at.