erickompositör72

I think the Housley experiment needs to be seen through- but if he doesn't work out, I'd welcome Ruff back. I'm sure many people here, like me, didn't want him fired... just Darcy

Chris Drury, Danny Briere, and Thomas Vanek disagree :P

WILSON WHAT A SHOT!

Pouliot much more effective than ERod And I wish Risto would have gotten a suspension. He's playing like a moron

Laphroaig 10 for me Watching this game tonight and last night's game leads me to think last night's show had a lot to do with ineffective coaching

Yes, and I'm curious to see more of O'Reilly with Reinhart, like 3P last night. I don't want to see ERod at center, anymore, though. I think he should be a 3rd/4th line winger. I think Josefson has earned at least a trial at 3C, and Larsson should be 4C. Just because the ship's going down doesn't mean we can't do it in style...

I think we had less talent at many points throughout '13-'15, yet this current team isn't performing any better. I agree with all of this, particularly the bolded

If Brady just sabotaged the future of the Pats, that would be the most beautiful story of NFL justice...

Look at him with pads in the early 90's :P

I don't know how I feel about that. I don't think it's right

I've seen twice so far when Samson tried to get the puck to Jack (one direct pass attempted, other off-the-boards pass attempt), and both were so weak they were taken away easily by the defending player. Maybe just a coincidence, or maybe Reinhart needs to actually play at NHL pace/strength level

+1 And, at the beginning of the season, it seems like they were so excited with Housley's talk of playing a "fast, aggressive, attacking" style, that they subconsciously concluded they didn't have to play defense anymore.

I don't think those are bad ideas, but I also have the pheeling that Phil is going to stick to these lines for a while. He finally has something that looks like a team with chemistry, and I don't think he wants the perfect to be the enemy of the good (or the "not that bad"), at this point...

It cuts both ways. Skewed internal analytics would be a detriment to a team's scouting department.

I actually don't agree with this. There are many proven NHL'ers on our team, and have all shown flashes that they still have "it" I think it's all Housley learning on the job. I think he'll get it, though, and we'll be good. But he's no prodigy-coach; it will take everyone time to figure it out, "buy-in," etc. Plus, our defense was not healthy for the first 20+ games. This put the whole "learning the system," chemistry with pairings, etc., even more behind schedule for the d-parings than the forwards.

SabresBillsFan- I appreciate your input, so I did everyone the courtesy of consolidating everything you've said so in this thread into a nice, concise chunk:

Every franchise has an analytics team. They go over every second w/ video, multiple angles, etc. Sometimes they are part of the video scouting dept.

What should we look for in return? Do we need another center to replace him, or just wait for Mittelstud to come up?

What do you think I think they mean? :P To sum up what I think they mean, I'll defer to the one who provided them originally:

Those charts don't lie

I don't advocate trying to cheap-out on a goaltender. I say, find a good one, and pay him. It will be worth it. Then, implement Housley's real d-zone system (charts above indicate he may have watered it down because Lehner can't handle it.)

I'm telling you, if Lehner plays the rest of this season with the Sabres, with his (IMO) padded stats due to our defensive system, he's going to be an arbitration nightmare. His stats will be used to command a waayyy higher contract than his ability. I'm praying we will let that become another team's nightmare, or just not even offer him a contract As illustrated by Randall's post, it appears so.

Hasek, while implementing a completely unorthodox style, was actually out-of-this-world good at the basic parameters I outlined in a previous post. His recovery time was off the charts, his ability to freeze the puck was elite, and his ability to locate the puck in a scramble was outstanding. He read plays as well as any goaltender, and this accounted for him being able to make those ridiculous saves. Just because he looked so unorthodox doesn't change the fact that those fundamentals were so sound. There's a lot more "science" in analyzing goaltenders than some realize, and by "science," I do not mean simple stats! (sv%, gga, ect. The analytics Randall just posted, however, are quite illustrative) The problem is, hugging the post isn't the problem, but rather, a symptom of the problem. The problem is his questionable balance when he goes down and his ability to recover. He wasn't hugging the post in the 2nd NYR goal because he had already committed, and couldn't adjust/recover.

First of all, I meant he is not an NHL starter. If I said NHL goalie, I mis-stated, and that's my bad. He's an NHL backup-calibre. Secondly, even if you ignore me, you'll still get to read my posts, as people quote me often ;)