Thorny

I love Dahlin as much as anyone but even I think the bolded is probably a bridge too far

Most other sports* don’t play a rinky dink OT where the game bears little resemblance to that played within the other 60 mins. Regulation wins need to be elevated as a tie breaker as they are. *Baseball now too I suppose

Morrissey held pointless, Dahlin remains 3 points clear of 3rd in D scoring race. Karlsson probably uncatchable. The McDavid of D this year but with better hair

Sorry that wouldn’t load on my phone, do you have a photo reference from this century?

Just wanted to bring this over. Acknowledged the fact he’s improved above, getting to around .910 is substantial. Still, I’ve mentioned this before - I disagree with the connotation that a goalie playing average or in his case at 19th, slightly below average starter I guess, is “doing his job”. It’s something people specifically do with goalies: would we be saying the offence was “doing its job” if it was 19th? If our entire team was ranked 19th, would it collectively be “doing its job”? we are about 19th now, actually. It’s been good, but that’s relative, right? In the hypothetical world where we stay 19th forever I wouldn’t say it’s “mission accomplished” (Dubya) “we’ve done our job”. So I’ll key on the “I’m not sure he’s the answer“ thing: as welcome as the improvement is, and it’s to his credit certainly, yes I think we need improvement, so if he doesn’t continue to, I’d look for it elsewhere

I’m pretty comfortable saying he’d be our best goalie

If his save % wasn’t sub .900 there’d be fewer “key moments” b/c we’d be ahead by more. ”saves at key moments” is the definition of a cherry picked stat. A save prevents 1 goal regardless of when the shot is taken: and we know it’s not a case of UPL giving up a few in Sabres’ laughers. For the most part it’s more like we’ve been overcoming UPL and his 4 goal let-up, and he’s been “making the key save” to prevent #5. Yes, but he could have made that save earlier. Edit: it looks like lately his sv % numbers have improved to around league average. You’d want better as that’s basically ~ playoff cut-off line level but it’s tolerable. Still, my argument stays the same - his sv% is reflective of better performance (to your point). But “saves at key times” is still not a good reflector

I feel like it’s usually pretty spotty but every once in a while you see a Gaborik/Hossa/Neal type gem that really moves mountains. It can happen, no reason we can’t be that team: once we are trying to go from contender to THE contender. We aren’t in a position as a bubble team for that to happen imo. Short of adding Hellebuyck

I’m about 18 games from sitting back and putting my feet up. If, a mere 18 games from today, we are sitting, hypothetically, in the same relative position: I‘m hanging a banner. Shoot me: I don’t care. That’s called meaningful games in March. It’s a playoff chase. It’d be the first 82-game season in a f*cking age that was......*actually 82 games* as an entertainment product. Who knows how expectations change or don’t moving forward but for the time being, I’d be pretty damn satisfied to realize I wasn’t completely full of sh*t for the last decade in saying I just wanted an NHL hockey team back - that’s it. It’s been way too long. Don’t worry Sabres, we kept the lights on for ya. I missed you dearly.

Just b/c they are representative of the level of competition going forward doesn’t mean they’ll provide more determinative value than the other 58. A much larger sample size. EVERY game is more less representative of the competition going forward - the league is full of parity. I truly do not believe record is as big of a factor as timing - it’s *when* you play a team that matters more, we’ve seen it so many times. Aside from the very top, and very bottom, it’s a league of ups and downs and swings and momentum, over a marathon 82. The overall record is the most valuable in the macro, it‘s the most representative of what to expect moving forward as it provides the most balanced data and we are projecting over a long period of time. But when it comes to an individual game it’s way more about the Micro - we aren’t playing “what they’ve amounted to over 58 games”, we are literally only playing the team in front of us THAT day, inclusive of their current, day to day Mojo. i have no issues with a schedule full of teams like Toronto already locked into their playoff matchup playing for almost nothing. And I welcome the games against those we are fighting against - I call those stress free: if we can’t beat the teams closest to us, we have no right being in it anyways. - - - I should add as an addendum: I think the aspect of the remaining schedule most likely to present the stiffest challenge is the compressed nature of it: competition isn’t a concern for me at all, but sometimes you see teams that have games in hand struggle in attempting to bank those points in part because, the fact they are making up so many games results in an overloaded schedule. If anything fatigue works against them: being the youngest team in league should aid on that front.

Through 54 games: 20th in record 17th in points % 13th in goal differential ..Reasonably solid. The goal differential imo proves the points % mark full value, meaning that as long as we’re treading water re: joining the upper echelon 10 or so teams, we should have no problem holding our own with (and coming out near the top / in the upper tier) of the rest It’s a very solid base that Adams and his team has constructed, let’s call it a Floor. Most impressive. Should be a fun fight to see where it all shakes out from here, and it’ll be pretty unpredictable beyond establishing as a mainstay playoff team, which I do THINK we are headed for

Damn, Vermont has 6 wins in 29 games. They are truly awful lol

Tuch into a tie for 3rd in empty net goals league wide

Long overdue When you have a sub 900 sv %, you better add in a few Steals

Not surprising. Looking at the stats a while back we tend to be front runners We score a lot but also tend to score in bunches and pile on. Empty net goals no better example

We’ve seen a lot of this team now, don’t think I’d be boiling anything down to the next small 4 game stretch ie “this stretch will tell us.” Short of losing all 4 we could make the playoffs regardless and we could win all 4 and miss easily. What are we at, 28 games left? We should be in-and-around it the rest of the way. We’re firmly a “bubble” team and the connotation that implies

I suppose they realized the opportunity was there about half way through the second

Praise Jesus

the Tuch special Sabres in 8th by points %

After today Sabres should have the best odds of those fighting for 8th. They’d have the points% inside track on everyone except Detroit with which they’d be tied But Sabres have the tie breaker currently

Moisture is the essence of wetness

This all sounds well and good but.. ....why male models?

Can’t watch today but the yo-yo-ing performance of our team and those around us fighting for 8th is pretty par for the course: we’re talking about teams ranked ~20th in a league of 32. Again, to make the playoffs you only need to be mediocre aka average. Of course making up ground is another story but we are getting some help today Wouldn’t mind a goalie going ahead and stealing one for us. Believe it or not it’s not that uncommon a thing re: other teams

Good cause based on the scores today, no one wants that 8th spot