mjd1001

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.

Ottawa says no. I'm not saying its not a package that has potential upside. If Cozens gets hot and Quiin turns into what most on this forum that he would be just 2 months ago, it would be a good deal for Ottawa. So why does Ottawa say no? They are likely to get a much better package (with a guy/guys who are ACTUALLY producing now and aren't 'projects') from someone else. I'm not sure there is a new rumor that he 'wants out'. As far as a trade wanting him, I think that rumor came form last season, and I'm pretty sure that was a lot more 'smoke' and not as much 'fire' anyway.

Rossi and Cozens seem to be opposite type players in many ways: Cozens is 6'3" and 210. Rossi is 5'9" and 180. Cozens is fast (usually in the top 20-25 percentile in terms of top speed), Rossi is not (metrics have him in the bottom 50% of skating speed) Cozens is, frankly a bad shooter. (Career 10% and dropping, hasn't shot in double digits since 2022-23) Rossi is a pretty good shooter (14% this year, 12.6% last year) Cozens likes to take his shots a bit farther out (he works a lot more than average from the dots to the top of the circle). Rossi works from the dots in to the goal crease for a greater percentage of his shots. Cozens is VERY hot and cold. (between this year and last year he has had 5 different streaks of 8 games or more without a goal) Rossi is more consistent scoring (Between this year and last year, he only had 1 streak of 8 games or more without a goal) In terms of size, style, and consistency, they are really really different.

capwages doesn't update right away all the time when there is movement. They are pretty quick, but I noticed sometimes up to a half day. With that said, their format is SOOO close to what capfriendly was.....I just use capwages all time. I didn't know about thestanleycap.com, so I'll check that one out

If the Bills or the Sabres left Buffalo, would I watch less of the NHL and NFL? Probably less, but not a lot less. But that might not be a bad thing for me. Instead of watching what is often times a 'bad' team out of obligation because they are from the area that I am from...instead I might just pick and choose to watch the better teams play. The higher scoring teams play. The players I find exciting play. So I do not want them to move, but if they did move, as a 'sports' fan there might be almost as many 'pluses' as 'minuses' for me personally.

Interesting article here: https://www.hockeypatrol.com/nhl-team/toronto-maple-leafs/are-the-maple-leafs-actually-better-without-auston-matthews-the-shocking-reasons-behind-the-debate Again, very small sample size, but they author puts up some videos and makes some points to support his point of view. Some items of note: Watching Mitch Marner play without Matthews has been a revelation, to say the least. He's controlling the offense more, he's playing incredible defense (proving those critics wrong) and has been riding an 8-game point streak and leads the team with 20. Marner seems to have a bit more patience without Matthews and doesn't look like he's trying to force an extra pass or not taking shots in favor of letting Matthews score. For example, his goal against Montreal on Saturday: (embedded video) Marner took the puck into the zone and passed it to David Kampf, who patiently waited for Marner to reposition himself for the easy goal. If Matthews were in Kampf's position, Marner would have more than likely passed it, cycled around, and waited to make more passes. Letting Matthews pass a bit more isn't a bad thing, and getting both McMann and Robertson on a hot streak can only lead to benefits, and could pay off huge come playoff time.

There you go, gave you one immediately above in case you were missing it.