Thorner

UPL

They really didn’t play all that good a period but their talent won out

Sabres on a mission to be not only the most efficient team by way of contracts but also shots per goal

On the odd occasions the game in on tv in Canada I enter some sort of northern time vortex where I somehow view the game on the future timeline you always do

UPL has been good

2 goals on 3 shots lol

Only 2 Sabres D have ever scored more

Placement not power there

Mitts! Great shot

69 points for TommyDangles

Dahlin literally had 5 STRAIGHT nice keep ins before that goal

Here we go. Thompson from Dahlin.

Dahlin dancing

Good uniform matchup

Exciting to be this excited.

Agree. Has the discussion not shifted now to how we go from good to great? If not, my mistake. I thought we were there, though. I think we are good. My post specifically said “after our first playoff series”. That’s kinda my point: 12 / 32 is great (I mean this) relative to wanting to be a playoff team (which is all I really want right now, yes), but 12/16 isn’t very good when we start measuring ourselves against the upper tier by choice The aim is an interesting discussion of how we might end up stylistically (and somewhat through overall ability) altering the makeup of the F group in the next little while, to go from good to great on that front.

So in the mid third, ya. This is part and parcel with what I am saying. If you read my post I said I think the unit is “really good”. My contention is with the implication it’s sorta “set”. This isn’t your outright implication it’s just something I commonly see being intimated

Does anyone know how to do any reconciliation with the overall goal differential and the aptitude of the forwards? I don’t have any answers but the way I continually see this being broken down is clearly flawed, that much I can identify: we are simply equating “goals scored” to forwards, and “goals against” to the defensemen and goalies. Super old-fashioned. I mean, this just isn’t the way the league works. Hockey is a game of flow- 2-way ability for F is just as important as outright offence and they have an effect, certainly, on the goals given up. D the same but inverse. That is it say: isn’t our goal differential about mid pack? It would be poor form to just look at “goals scored” for every line and claim them adequate. If I had to guess, the overall goal differential while not a great individual representing mark would be more accurate for an overall evaluation of the group than simply goals one way. - - - I think our F group is really good overall and getting better, but those sorta intimating that it’s “set now” and we just need to tweak on D, maybe a 4th line F or so.. ..after our first playoff series we are going to have a little list of stuff and I can guarantee we won’t see the F unit as compete relative to formulating a unit with overall balance and ability. Some (lots, most?) of the improvement will/may even be internal, my point is inclusive of that. I just don’t think the numbers as they are presenting themselves right now, nor the eye test, nor the record, point to the F unit being among the best in the league overall, quite yet. If someone smarter has advanced stats charts breaking down the fact our F lines have all been pretty dominant and we are ONLY surrendering lots of goals against because of our D and goaltending, please post them as I could be way off. Just not what I am seeing.

For me it was more so all the questioning about whether we had seen Dahlin’s ceiling. Absurd now, absurd then.

As I mentioned a couple months ago, notorious slow starter Sam Reinhart has predictably found his game: 15 points in his last 13 games, pacing again for 60+ points on the year. Remains to be seen if last year’s 82 is an outlier. He’s definitely a 60 point player for breakfast every year, Maurice tanking Florida this year probably lowered their scoring across the board as opposed to that team last year.

Good thread. Still draws a lot of penalties as well Yep there it is: 97th percentile. It’s something that remained good even when his production / ice time was down - always an indicator he could potentially bounce back

This isn’t cap circumvention? lol I actually have no idea but it seems quite shady

You were prob joking but Not a nightmare scenario my function was merely pointing out the very low rate of a particular configuration in the relevant past. I don’t want it to not happen I couldn’t care less, if it works. Simply pointing out that while obviously possible it’s also obviously not a fluke that it’s heavily trended a certain way, historically, regardless of why. Even Dahlin playing consistently on his off hand top pair was something I thought more unlikely that not: because it’s simply not a very common thing. It’s just an odds bet: generally there’s only a couple league wide doing it on top pair and I’ve run the numbers. Of course there are always exceptions - Dahlin IS a unicorn so it certainly jives in that sense. So my guess being wrong there, I mean at this point I don’t think a top 4 all lhd is that unlikely as we got the hardest part of that out of the way. Dunno if it happens though

You are absolutely correct but/ And those conversions were wildly premature, and that’s not revisionist history on my part re: my stance in those discussions at the time I could have just read one more post