Iron Crotch

He has bad hair though.

Who is he in for? ...win tonight and we're in the wild card race. ;)

We've been through this. Again, I suggest that an "elite" player should lift up his teammates and should win the battles against the other team's best. All teams have "first pair" defensemen who play in all situations and go up against the opponent's best every night. All of these 20-30 minute d-men at various times throughout the game are paired with different forward lines from their own team. The top teams have guys who win the best-on-best battles with the other team's best. The top teams have d-men who are able to generate offense (e.g., break out of the zone, start the rush) regardless of which forward line they're on the ice with. I watch Shea Weber regularly down here in Nashville and he performs regardless of whom he is paired with, regardless of which forwards he is going up against (it is always the league's best), and regardless of which Preds forward line is on the ice. ... my high-level suggestion is when a team is really bad over an extended period of time, sometimes the big minute players are simply not as good as the other team's big minute players. I agree with everyone that one reason Myers gets huge minutes is his teammates are terrible. But, I should see him dominate once in a while if he truly is a special player and I just don't see it. For example, he leads the team in power play minutes but has no points. I think what some see as "great play" by Myers is average play by other team's standards and the reference point is lowered because our other defensemen are so terrible (and yes, I know most here disagree with me).

Sure, you can have two. Section 115. 11th row behind the Sabres bench.

I bought a block of 5 tickets in the section behind the Sabres bench already. I have no idea why I bought 5... got them months ago. So, I may have a couple extras if you're interested. There are always quite a few Sabres fans here for the games.

Been a season ticket holder for the past 6 seasons (plus I have a consulting relationship with the organization). Yes, everything is fine in Nashville. The Preds have solid fan support and are breaking even (slight profit) these days. I think this is a case of Nashville simply never having hosted the all-star game despite 17 seasons in the league. That and the dozens of bars and restaurants around the arena make it an easy sell for fans.

I show Myers has a 5-on-5 iFenwick of -23 and a iCorsi of -29. How do you figure that is "about average?" BTW - I like behindthenet.ca since it is easier to manipulate, but I think it is a game behind. (http://www.behindthe... 52 53 54 55 56) On the flipside these stats pretty clearly show what a trainwreck Benoit and Meszaros have been thus far.

Using the relative Corsi numbers, yes the Myers-Gorges pair is better than the the Meszaros-Benoit or Weber-Risto pairs... but we're last in the league in team shots at 20.8 per game (next closest is Calgary at 24.2 per game) and we're last in the league in shots against at 39.0 per game (Colorado is next closest at 37.5 per game). And, every guy on the roster has a terrible absolute Corsi number (i.e., we've getting outshot no matter who is on the ice). So, I think we're celebrating that they're the "least bad" of a bunch of bad players. ;)

It is simple. You do a relative comparison to others on the same team (i.e. with the same supporting cast) controlling for ice time (points per 60 minutes of ice time) and situation (5-on-5 play). Again, Myers was the worst defensemen on the team in even strength scoring 2 years ago. Dead last. Sulzer, Weber, etc. all ahead of him. Last year he was better, but still a distant second to The Hoff (slightly ahead of McBain). This year the sample size is too small to really say much yet. That said, I am generally of the opinion that an "elite" player should lift the play of those around him rather than be beholden to the supporting cast. I don't dislike Myers and I think he is a really good penalty killer because of his reach... but I just don't see the flashes of greatness that others around here seem to see. But, maybe/hopefully this will be his breakthrough season.

I think McCabe will stay down there (barring injuries on the big club). I expect Pysyk will be back up unless for some reason Zadorov doesn't get sent back to Juniors.

Myers had 10 even strength points all of last year (124th among league d-men) and a ES points per 60 minutes played of 0.60 (157th). And, only 5 ES points the year before (worst among Sabres d-men that year). And his iFenwick and iCorsi and whatever advanced stat folks like were similar - well outside the top 100 defensemen in the league. Even with a terrible supporting cast, those number should be better for a so-called "elite" all-around defenseman. He has looked okay so far this year, but still has no points despite being 8th in the NHL in ice time. And, unless you're seeing something I'm not, he certainly isn't controlling possession. Maybe we just have different definitions of "great." My thought is if we're going to overhaul this team, lets overhaul it. If Murray can get a big return for Myers, I'm personally for it. If not then keep him around.

Glad Nolan finally decided to bench Meszaros. That ought to help, if only slightly.

2-1 Sabres win. I figure we can't go 0-82.

Announced at 7311. Lowest in franchise history by almost 3000!

I respectfully disagree with pretty much all of this. Myers is now in his 6th full season, has played 300+ NHL games and in each successive season he has gotten statistically worse. Yet everyone keeps talking about "when he develops"... just when is that supposed to be? When he is 28? 30? I can't think of a single top defenseman who wasn't already dominant by game 300 and that includes Chara. Keith, Shea Weber, Doughty, Subban, Karlsson, Pietrangelo, Suter, OEL, Chara, etc. all were dominant at this point in their career. I think what we want Myers to be and what he is are two different things. IMHO, he is a good second pair defenseman on a top team. But, from what I've seen he isn't a guy who will carry a team on his back ala some of the others mentioned above.

In Latvia somewhere, I think.

Here is a thought... what if Tim Murray doesn't know what the hell he is going? ;) I personally don't think that is the case, but just thought I'd throw it out there...

4 points and a +5 from Goose so far this year. I'll see him tomorrow night as the Preds take on Calgary.

When your team gets outshot by a 4-to-1 margin at home, the coach can't be completely absolved of at least some blame. Interestingly, when I talked to Goose after last season, he hinted that not all Sabres players were big fans of Nolan. And, he said surprisingly good things about Rolston.

Some more stellar defensive work from the "shutdown" pair of Benoit and Meszaros. 5-1. How far away is Pysyk?

Outshot by a 4-to-1 margin and the score is 4 to 1. Seems about right.

Well there are two NHL teams left with zero points in the standings and they square off tomorrow. It just might be an entertaining game.

:D Good point.

The Hoff was my favorite player on this team over the past couple of years. He got all the defensive ice time because he was the only one who could play at an NHL level.

What a shock... another goal against with Benoit and Meszaros out there.