GDT: Capitals @ Sabres 12/9/2016 (7pm est, MSG)

[Randall Flagg]

On pace to score:
23 fewer even-strength goals than last year's last place team, the New Jersey Devils.

12 fewer even-strength goals than 14-15's last place team, the Coyotes. (13 fewer than we had that year, the tank for McEichel year)

6 fewer than the last-place team in 13-14, the Buffalo Sabres.

18 fewer than the last-place team's projected 82 game totals in 2013, the New Jersey Devils.

19 fewer than the Wild in 11-12, that year's last place even-strength scoring team.

31 fewer than the Devils in 10-11, that year's last place even-strength scoring team.

And so on.

But I bet those teams didn't have the injuries we did. I bet they were perfectly healthy. And setting our sights to being at least equivalent to the worst teams in the league even strength is acceptable with any amount of injuries. Nothing wrong here.

[Thorner]

I thought Samson was starting to play really well at center, then BOOM Jack's back, and he's back on wing. Give me a center spine of ROR-Eichel-Samson-Larsson or give me death! No, I don't want to talk about what the wings would look like in that scenario.

I think one of them is gonna have to be on the wing, given the structure of the roster. If we project Nylander in:

 

O'Reilly - Eichel - Nylander

Kane - Reinhart - Okposo

Foligno - Larsson - Gionta

 

That may work well depending on Kane's ability to play with Reinhart.

 

Getting all 4 at C involves projecting a fair few guys in:

 

Carrier - Eichel - Nylander

Bailey - O'Reilly - Okposo

Kane - Reinhart - Fasching

Foligno - Larsson - Gionta

[LGR4GM]

Bylsma should be fired immediately. This team is playing like a tire fire

[JJFIVEOH]

Edited December 10, 2016 by JJFIVEOH

[TrueBlueGED]

On pace to score:

23 fewer even-strength goals than last year's last place team, the New Jersey Devils.

12 fewer even-strength goals than 14-15's last place team, the Coyotes. (13 fewer than we had that year, the tank for McEichel year)

6 fewer than the last-place team in 13-14, the Buffalo Sabres.

18 fewer than the last-place team's projected 82 game totals in 2013, the New Jersey Devils.

19 fewer than the Wild in 11-12, that year's last place even-strength scoring team.

31 fewer than the Devils in 10-11, that year's last place even-strength scoring team.

And so on.

 

But I bet those teams didn't have the injuries we did. I bet they were perfectly healthy. And setting our sights to being at least equivalent to the worst teams in the league even strength is acceptable with any amount of injuries. Nothing wrong here.

 

Killing it.

 

I think one of them is gonna have to be on the wing, given the structure of the roster. If we project Nylander in:

 

O'Reilly - Eichel - Nylander

Kane - Reinhart - Okposo

Foligno - Larsson - Gionta

 

That may work well depending on Kane's ability to play with Reinhart.

 

Getting all 4 at C involves projecting a fair few guys in:

 

Carrier - Eichel - Nylander

Bailey - O'Reilly - Okposo

Kane - Reinhart - Fasching

Foligno - Larsson - Gionta

 

I actually don't think that's too bad, though I'd prefer one more decent vet. It's totally unworkable this season, however.

[Ogre]

Gionta won't be a Sabre by the time Nylander is ready to contribute.

[Randall Flagg]

I'm not even certain I want 15 and 23 together right now.

I'd like to see what Kyle and Jack can do together. Samson's always looked good with ROR, and we aren't scoring at even strength anyway, so I think now's as good a time as any to try the change. 

[WildCard]

I have to say, I don't mind JJ's new coach campaign

[Ogre]

I'd like to see what Kyle and Jack can do together. Samson's always looked good with ROR, and we aren't scoring at even strength anyway, so I think now's as good a time as any to try the change.

Jack, Will and Kyle.

[Randall Flagg]

Jack, Will and Kyle.

Why the hell not, right?

[TrueBlueGED]

Jack, Will and Kyle.

 

Sign me up.

[Randall Flagg]

There were some good Sam Reinhart points brought up in a different forum that I'll share:

What world juniors player in the past twenty years showed his hockey smarts, passing, all-around play? He was dominant. He was the gold medal team's most important player, in McDavid's draft year.

What 20 year old player, however skilled, is going to slip right into being an effective NHL center in the 15 or so games he's had there in his career? 

We keep yanking Sam around and telling him to be the player Matt Moulson was in NYI. 

This team isn't going anywhere this season likely. 10 wins in 27 games, 9 points out well before Christmas, scoring just as much as they did playing all of Bailey, Baptiste, Grant, and COR. 

 

Get Sam at center for 60 games to end the season, feed him opportunities, let him make mistakes and grow. Let him turn into that force we saw as a prospect. I don't want him to turn into a pick-up-the-garbage winger. We've watched so many young centers take until they were 23 to really show what coach needs to see out of Sam to let him play at center. I'm getting a bit worried. There's nothing at any level of his development, NHL included, that shows he won't make leaps of improvement when given the chance to.

A properly developed, full-potential Reinhart is what will win us a cup someday. I'm worried we won't get him there.

[TrueBlueGED]

There were some good Sam Reinhart points brought up in a different forum that I'll share:

 

What world juniors player in the past twenty years showed his hockey smarts, passing, all-around play? He was dominant. He was the gold medal team's most important player, in McDavid's draft year.

 

What 20 year old player, however skilled, is going to slip right into being an effective NHL center in the 15 or so games he's had there in his career? 

 

We keep yanking Sam around and telling him to be the player Matt Moulson was in NYI. 

 

This team isn't going anywhere this season likely. 10 wins in 27 games, 9 points out well before Christmas, scoring just as much as they did playing all of Bailey, Baptiste, Grant, and COR. 

 

Get Sam at center for 60 games to end the season, feed him opportunities, let him make mistakes and grow. Let him turn into that force we saw as a prospect. I don't want him to turn into a pick-up-the-garbage winger. We've watched so many young centers take until they were 23 to really show what coach needs to see out of Sam to let him play at center. I'm getting a bit worried. There's nothing at any level of his development, NHL included, that shows he won't make leaps of improvement when given the chance to.

 

A properly developed, full-potential Reinhart is what will win us a cup someday. I'm worried we won't get him there.

 

Well. At least we didn't trade Taylor Hall for Adam Larsson.

[Randall Flagg]

Risto went over 30 minutes and ROR, who is still probably injured, got 24. 

I don't think there's a single thing that I don't hate about this season. 

 

Well. At least we didn't trade Taylor Hall for Adam Larsson.

We do have GMTM though - buckle up for Reinhart + Kane + first + 2 seconds for Tanev + Virtanen + 2 sixths 

[Jacque Richard]

Bylsma should be fired immediately. This team is playing like a tire fire

Seen enough of this staff. Must boring hockey ever

[qwksndmonster]

There were some good Sam Reinhart points brought up in a different forum that I'll share:

 

What world juniors player in the past twenty years showed his hockey smarts, passing, all-around play? He was dominant. He was the gold medal team's most important player, in McDavid's draft year.

 

What 20 year old player, however skilled, is going to slip right into being an effective NHL center in the 15 or so games he's had there in his career?

 

We keep yanking Sam around and telling him to be the player Matt Moulson was in NYI.

 

This team isn't going anywhere this season likely. 10 wins in 27 games, 9 points out well before Christmas, scoring just as much as they did playing all of Bailey, Baptiste, Grant, and COR.

 

Get Sam at center for 60 games to end the season, feed him opportunities, let him make mistakes and grow. Let him turn into that force we saw as a prospect. I don't want him to turn into a pick-up-the-garbage winger. We've watched so many young centers take until they were 23 to really show what coach needs to see out of Sam to let him play at center. I'm getting a bit worried. There's nothing at any level of his development, NHL included, that shows he won't make leaps of improvement when given the chance to.

 

A properly developed, full-potential Reinhart is what will win us a cup someday. I'm worried we won't get him there.

Amen! Cerebral playmakers aren't going to step into the NHL and start putting up 40 assists. Sam has never centered any wingers worth a damn. Broken Kane is the best he got.

[Randall Flagg]

Other random tidbits of not-my-info:
-Eichel is wincing all of the time when he's skating, clearly labored, nowhere near 100% as we know.

-Penalty Kill is 7 of its last 14.

-Our PP is third in the league (if I saw the graphic correctly). That tells me there's scoring talent on this team, and maybe there are other reasons for the lack of ES scoring ability.

[WanderingEye]

I didn't even realize until after the game that Grant was finally scratched - I hope that experiment is permanently over, honestly.

[Thorner]

There were some good Sam Reinhart points brought up in a different forum that I'll share:

What world juniors player in the past twenty years showed his hockey smarts, passing, all-around play? He was dominant. He was the gold medal team's most important player, in McDavid's draft year.

What 20 year old player, however skilled, is going to slip right into being an effective NHL center in the 15 or so games he's had there in his career? 

We keep yanking Sam around and telling him to be the player Matt Moulson was in NYI. 

This team isn't going anywhere this season likely. 10 wins in 27 games, 9 points out well before Christmas, scoring just as much as they did playing all of Bailey, Baptiste, Grant, and COR. 

 

Get Sam at center for 60 games to end the season, feed him opportunities, let him make mistakes and grow. Let him turn into that force we saw as a prospect. I don't want him to turn into a pick-up-the-garbage winger. We've watched so many young centers take until they were 23 to really show what coach needs to see out of Sam to let him play at center. I'm getting a bit worried. There's nothing at any level of his development, NHL included, that shows he won't make leaps of improvement when given the chance to.

A properly developed, full-potential Reinhart is what will win us a cup someday. I'm worried we won't get him there.

Good post and I agree with it in general. I do think though that Sam doesn't necessarily have to end up at centre, even though that's what I would prefer. He could still theoretically reach his full potential as a playmaking winger, if his development is managed properly. A lot of centres in junior switch to wing at the NHL level.

 

But I agree that he should get every shot at C first.

[JohnRobertEichel]

We have everyone back but Ennis and Bogosian, and the team is still playing like a steaming pile of ?! Almost every single player on the team is performing below expectations this year. The Sabres could very easily be 10+ points behind the 8th playoff seed before Tuesday night. I hope Dan, Tim, and Terry have a meeting this weekend to discuss what the is going on here. Something is seriously wrong with this franchise right now, and watching these underachievers struggle to score 1 goal each night isn't fun.

[Taro T]

Other random tidbits of not-my-info:

-Eichel is wincing all of the time when he's skating, clearly labored, nowhere near 100% as we know.

-Penalty Kill is 7 of its last 14.

-Our PP is third in the league (if I saw the graphic correctly). That tells me there's scoring talent on this team, and maybe there are other reasons for the lack of ES scoring ability.

:huh: Clearly didn't watch the same game I did. This was the 1st game he actually flew since the ankle was reaggravated. Never got to see his Vanek-face while watching, but his skating looked good on the telly.

[Randall Flagg]

:huh: Clearly didn't watch the same game I did. This was the 1st game he actually flew since the ankle was reaggravated. Never got to see his Vanek-face while watching, but his skating looked good on the telly.

I agree he looked faster. This came from someone at the game. Before every faceoff/shift, the guy was cringing. He's not feeling great.

[JJFIVEOH]

Nov.29, for the first time in weeks, and probably the last time since, the team felt great about themselves, some players got off the schneid, passing was crisp, scoring chances were high......... everybody had a blast. 

 

Goober: "Those [games] aren't easy on the heart, it's not the way we want to play the game."

That says it all right there. Went back to trying to squeeze into overtime with 1-2 goals and hope to get lucky in the extra period. 

 

I know somebody is going to jump in and say that game was bad defensively, they gave up too many chances and Goober is right that they need to clamp down. Maybe so............... but it ain't working! If you can't coach a team, at least let them play a few games wide open and maybe win a few here and there and let them get their confidence up. This is terrible hockey. Between the Sabres and newly coached Florida Panthers, I have never seen so much talent and/or speed stifled in the name of boring, defensive hockey. 

On pace to score:
23 fewer even-strength goals than last year's last place team, the New Jersey Devils.

12 fewer even-strength goals than 14-15's last place team, the Coyotes. (13 fewer than we had that year, the tank for McEichel year)

6 fewer than the last-place team in 13-14, the Buffalo Sabres.

18 fewer than the last-place team's projected 82 game totals in 2013, the New Jersey Devils.

19 fewer than the Wild in 11-12, that year's last place even-strength scoring team.

31 fewer than the Devils in 10-11, that year's last place even-strength scoring team.

And so on.

But I bet those teams didn't have the injuries we did. I bet they were perfectly healthy. And setting our sights to being at least equivalent to the worst teams in the league even strength is acceptable with any amount of injuries. Nothing wrong here.

 

I just don't know what to say.

Edited December 10, 2016 by JJFIVEOH

[Taro T]

I agree he looked faster. This came from someone at the game. Before every faceoff/shift, the guy was cringing. He's not feeling great.

Was that person at any other games prior to tonight? IMHO, seems he's perpetually cringing (going back to college). If he noticed a difference, MIGHT be something there. If not, tell him to StFU. Might wanna do that anyhoo.

Edited December 10, 2016 by Taro T

[SwampD]

:huh: Clearly didn't watch the same game I did. This was the 1st game he actually flew since the ankle was reaggravated. Never got to see his Vanek-face while watching, but his skating looked good on the telly.

I saw it. He was wincing all game. And he can't put any real force into his turns on that side. It's troubling if you ask me.