Thomas Vanish

[darksabre]

oh hey, look who i found

[carpandean]

oh hey, look who i found

He thought to himself, "hmmm, who on this team knows how to score at even strength? Oh yeah, Jochen!" So, he channeled his inner Hecht and banked a bad angle shot in off of a goaltender.

[darksabre]

He thought to himself, "hmmm, who on this team knows how to score at even strength? Oh yeah, Jochen!" So, he channeled his inner Hecht and banked a bad angle shot in off of a goaltender.

 

My thoughts exactly. When I heard the call I said outloud to myself "ah ha! he pulled a jochen!"

 

I don't think he would have buried Mair's chance though.

[bob_sauve28]

If the Rangers could find a trading partner for Gomez, the Sabres can find someone to take Vanek off their hands. The only untouchables are Miller and Myers. The Sabres could do a lot with the 7 mil that Vanek is costing them.

 

He is nowhere near the player he was 2 or 3 years ago. For those who love to throw the excuse out there that guys like Vanek, Roy and Pominville were playing against 2nd and 3rd line players a couple of years ago and therefore had more success, save your breath. Watch any game for the rest of the season and tell me that opponents are throwing out "defensive/checking" lines against our top players. There is no line matching going on for the most part. These guys are simply not willing to work hard enough now that they have their big contracts.

 

Roy would bring the biggest return in a trade and I would love to see him go, but the Pominville/Vanek contracts are the biggest albatrosses on the team. A combined 12.4 mil cap hit thru the 13-14 season. LQ and DR showed the rest of the NHL that they aren't going to let the teams "core" get to FA.

 

They really showed them, didn't they? :doh:

:thumbsup:

[dundy249]

From watching all of the games this year it is Vaneks finish. It has nothing to do with ice time or anything else.

 

he has 19 goals and will probably end up with between 25-30. With that being said I can almost guarantee he has missed at least an average of 1 per game.

 

last night he had a wide open net and shot it right into the netminder. I remember one game a few weeks back and I cant remember against who that he had at least 5 chances that he would have burried in the past that he either missed the net or hit the pipe.

 

The chances are still coming for him..he is not putting them home.

[spndnchz]

Good interview with Vanek

 

http://sabres.nhl.tv/team/console.jsp?catid=668&id=62343

[Stoner]

Good interview with Vanek

 

http://sabres.nhl.tv...id=668&id=62343

 

Thanks for the link. Interesting. Tom seemed... human.

[spndnchz]

Thanks for the link. Interesting. Tom seemed... human.

 

A lot of truth in his talk. Mirror image of what Ruff said the day before (I think). When they asked Ruff about TV's production he (Ruff) blamed it on the team not getting the puck in the paint. And now TV says just get more pucks to the net ("just get it there and see what happens") for the tips and rebound goals. He did say he needs to shoot more this year.

 

Ruff also echoed TV about injuries are there but no excuses.

[SabresRepublic]

Since I apparently have way too much time on my hands today...

 

Taking into account even strength situations only, the highest "even strength goals per even strength minute of ice time" ratio on the team is Hecht, with Kaleta #2, the late Clark MacArthur #3, and Vanek #4. Incidentally, the bottom 3 forwards are Ellis, Mair, and Kennedy (not a surprise since they're checking line guys).

 

Vanek is only 5th among forwards in even strength ice time.

 

So, maybe we need a line of Vanek, Hecht, and Kaleta.

 

I've always said that the Sabres are an interchangeable squad and LR & DR are tweaking for the upcoming SC runs! The pieces are slowly falling into place and some here on the boards fail to see the big picture or are genetically predisposed to impatience - NO CURE!!!

 

I still say that we will all be pleasantly surprised

[LabattBlue]

The more I focus on Vanek during 5 on 5 play, the more perplexed I get. I don't care any more what his problem is...Lindy Ruff, confidence, out of shape, fat cat due to ridiculous contract, doesn't have a playmaking center, etc..., he is just not effective 5 on 5.

 

Even look at the breakaway tonight. You can say, look how close he came to scoring. I say, a slapshot on a breakaway is the lowest percentage play he could have chosen.

[Xray]

The more I focus on Vanek during 5 on 5 play, the more perplexed I get. I don't care any more what his problem is...Lindy Ruff, confidence, out of shape, fat cat due to ridiculous contract, doesn't have a playmaking center, etc..., he is just not effective 5 on 5.

 

Even look at the breakaway tonight. You can say, look how close he came to scoring. I say, a slapshot on a breakaway is the lowest percentage play he could have chosen.

Yeah you would think that he would have some moves in his bag of tricks.

But we hear it so many times "just shoot the puck", so I can't be sure it that was Vanek or just this whole situation.

 

In fact he's done that the last 2 or 3 of times he's had a breakaway.

[Kristian]

The more I focus on Vanek during 5 on 5 play, the more perplexed I get. I don't care any more what his problem is...Lindy Ruff, confidence, out of shape, fat cat due to ridiculous contract, doesn't have a playmaking center, etc..., he is just not effective 5 on 5.

 

Even look at the breakaway tonight. You can say, look how close he came to scoring. I say, a slapshot on a breakaway is the lowest percentage play he could have chosen.

 

True.

 

I don't remember who said it, but unless Vanek is standing in the crease, he's worthless.

 

That's what he's become - A 7 mill. a year Dave Andreychuk with no positioning skills aside from "stand in front".

 

That said, I'm getting pretty frustrated with Ryan Miller being less than average against these assclowns.

 

If there's a certain player on this team whose head Ottawa is in, it's Miller's.

 

Oh well, only one more beating this year.

[bunomatic]

The worst thing is at the end of Vaneks contract Regier will let him go for nothing in return.

[ntjacks79]

Vanek's decline as a player has been shocking since the broken jaw. I keep thinking that he's been sent to the press box and then about a period or so into the game, I finally see #26 coming into the play a dollar short and a day late.

 

The Buffalo fans have been more than understanding but I think if he doesn't click with Torres on his line (G'Bye Stafford, Mr. Weak Link!) I think some booing of Mr. $7 million a year would be in order. I'd like to get rid of Vanek and Stafford in the offseason. Roy is the only one who's competing on that line and with his size, he's behind the 8 ball. I just don't see Vanek in synch with the boring Buffalo system, although Ruff's attempt to make him into a complete player (one takeaway per game) has been a failure too. He's just become less offensive.

AMEN and a big Hallelujah to the sentiment. To be fair, however, I don't think it's only Vanek that should be wearing the name "VANISH" on the back of his sweater. I'd like to see a stat on "1:1 Battles Won" from last night among the forwards. If there were such a stat, I think many Sabre forwards might be embarrassed into competing.

[deluca67]

The worst thing is at the end of Vaneks contract Regier will let him go for nothing in return.

The "worst" thing would be Regier still being the GM when Vanek's contract expires.

[Chemich]

Don't want to scapegoat Vanish because the whole team blows right now. They're a "fragile" bunch and and Buffalo needs a bunch of new players.

 

Sadly morale would be in question there.

 

Wouldn't make anyone feel better if no one knew each other, and no one knew how to work with each other.

 

Not saying that right now they work well with each other, but it can be worse, and I think like everyone else we'd prefer it to stay at a stable trend rather than downward.

 

We clinched a playoff spot which is much better than the last couple years of playing.

 

It's not just one player that decides the game, it's one player that decides the game with everyone else.

 

A team meaning people must work together.

 

It's not just Thomas Vanek, but it's how all the Sabres are with each other. But ###### after that win against Tampa tonight, I must say we're not as bad as everyone thinks.

[Marvelo]

This has been a difficult season for Vanek, like it was for Hecht last year. Except Vanek is in the prime of his career and Hecht is over 30. Vanek's wife had a baby, so he's adjusting to that and he's also adjusting to being a $7 million man in rather poor and unglamorous section of the country. There's got to be some serious pressure just because of that. He signed the $7 million offer sheet not with Buffalo but with another team...to me that indicates he wasn't happy with Buffalo. And that was in 2006. He seems unwilling to shoot and he's holding back, much like when Mogilny wanted to get traded. Everytime I look at him, he's making some kind of disgusted face. To me, Vanek's a malcontent, he's had difficulty getting along with Coach Ruff since day 1. And the fact that that Ennis kid got over 19 minutes of play last night in just his second game has got to sting. Now he's hurt. I'm sure he's got the wincing expression as you're reading this. I think he's seriously disspirited, his confidence is low all year, and is an unhappy camper. Hopefully his trade value won't be too low this summer because of all this but it's a big deal to pull the trigger on and there probably aren't too many takers.

[Stoner]

This has been a difficult season for Vanek, like it was for Hecht last year. Except Vanek is in the prime of his career and Hecht is over 30. Vanek's wife had a baby, so he's adjusting to that and he's also adjusting to being a $7 million man in rather poor and unglamorous section of the country. There's got to be some serious pressure just because of that. He signed the $7 million offer sheet not with Buffalo but with another team...to me that indicates he wasn't happy with Buffalo. And that was in 2006. He seems unwilling to shoot and he's holding back, much like when Mogilny wanted to get traded. Everytime I look at him, he's making some kind of disgusted face. To me, Vanek's a malcontent, he's had difficulty getting along with Coach Ruff since day 1. And the fact that that Ennis kid got over 19 minutes of play last night in just his second game has got to sting. Now he's hurt. I'm sure he's got the wincing expression as you're reading this. I think he's seriously disspirited, his confidence is low all year, and is an unhappy camper. Hopefully his trade value won't be too low this summer because of all this but it's a big deal to pull the trigger on and there probably aren't too many takers.

 

You said it all. If Ruff's not going anywhere, for everyone's sanity, including my own, I hope they trade Vanek.

[SwampD]

You said it all. If Ruff's not going anywhere, for everyone's sanity, including my own, I hope they trade Vanek.

I agree. There's just no room in Lindy's system for a 40 goal scorer.