Lehner is NOT a starter

[nfreeman]

So is Nilsson, who is starting tonight, officially getting a chance to seize the #1 job?

 

Discuss.

[inkman]

Horrible rebounds.

 

The worst shootout goalie maybe in NHL history.

 

Gets worse during a game with each goal he lets in.

Cool. I'm not a fan of his either. I just don't feel the need to mention it every 15 minutes.

[Scottysabres]

So is Nilsson, who is starting tonight, officially getting a chance to seize the #1 job?

 

Discuss.

To even be discussing the job ad up for grabs to Nilsson is telling in itself.

 

I think Lehner will be on the move.

 

We got Trouble, right here in river city.

[MattPie]

Is every anti-lehner poster required to mention GMTM overpaid 100 times in every thread. Yeah we ###### get it. Find something else to bitch about.

Cool. I'm not a fan of his either. I just don't feel the need to mention it every 15 minutes.

 

Agreed. It's a sunk cost so whining about it solves absolutely nothing. The trade is done, the pick is used, it's over. The only productive thing now is to look at who is in the system, and who should be our starter long-term whether that person is in the system or now.

[GASabresIUFAN]

We also need to get over the fact that he is mediocre.  GMTM is going to re-sign him this summer.   :w00t:  Hopefully he'll re-sign Nilsson as well.  

 

Frankly this isn't a horrible solution.  Both have been adequate and will be even better when the D is upgraded.  Lehner's deficiencies on breakaways are correctable.  The nice thing about his issues is that GMTM can re-sign him without breaking the bank.   

[North Buffalo]

Agreed. It's a sunk cost so whining about it solves absolutely nothing. The trade is done, the pick is used, it's over. The only productive thing now is to look at who is in the system, and who should be our starter long-term whether that person is in the system or now.

Just because you coolaid GMTM drinkers are defensive and cant take a little complaint thursdays on Lehner.

We also need to get over the fact that he is mediocre.  GMTM is going to re-sign him this summer.   :w00t:  Hopefully he'll re-sign Nilsson as well.  

 

Frankly this isn't a horrible solution.  Both have been adequate and will be even better when the D is upgraded.  Lehner's deficiencies on breakaways are correctable.  The nice thing about his issues is that GMTM can re-sign him without breaking the bank.

 

.

 

Agreed and hopefully TM can find a goalie whisperer. Again Lehner reminds me a lot of the Tampa goalie before he found his game and had a great run. Hopefully he can find that space.

[MattPie]

Just because you coolaid GMTM drinkers are defensive and cant take a little complaint thursdays on Lehner. .

 

Agreed and hopefully TM can find a goalie whisperer. Again Lehner reminds me a lot of the Tampa goalie before he found his game and had a great run. Hopefully he can find that space.

 

No, it's because it's pointless to complain now. Do you brood over that time you spent $20 on something at the store and then find you could have ordered the same thing off Amazon for $12? No, you accept, learn from it, and move on. I have some faith that GMTM is moving the team in the right direction, but a couple more questionable trades will disabuse me of that.

[Randall Flagg]

He's not a very good goalie, man.

[Eleven]

Is every anti-lehner poster required to mention GMTM overpaid 100 times in every thread. Yeah we ###### get it. Find something else to bitch about.

 

Thing is, he didn't overpay.  That's the going rate for a backup goalie who looks like he might become a starter.  It's ten picks ahead of what the Sabres got for Biron...and the Sabres got the use of Legwand for a year in the trade, too.

 

Any notion that Murray overpaid for Lehner is comparable to the notion that Lindy Ruff knocked out Luke Adam.

[That Aud Smell]

He didn't overpay by all that much - nothing egregious.

 

But he might have misjudged.

 

I'm still thinking Lehner might find better consistency. And an approach to playing breakaways.

[TheAud]

He didn't overpay by all that much - nothing egregious.

 

I've been arguing this for a long time. If it was an above market price, it was only barely so and you can't always get what you want at exactly the desired price. And Murray needed a starting goalie. 

 

 

I thought his rebound control was much better last night. Two of the goals were difficult shots to stop and he made several comparable saves on shots like those in the game. But you give a Forsberg an open shot in the slot, with speed, he's going to bury a large percentage of them and I don't care who is the goalie. 

The other two were weak and semi-weak. The McCloud poke-in was a terrible job at holding the post by Lehner. I noticed Nashville had been going hard to the post all game and Lehner stopped them to that point. But persistence paid off for Nashville and he let in a softie. That's lack of consistency.

The other PP goal was not really excusable either, but admittedly when a guy gets an initial shot at point blank and then a follow-up at point blank with no harassment from the defenseman who is literally lying next to him (as was Risto), sometimes those will go in.  

 

I don't know how his career is going to go from here on out nor does anyone else but he's a reasonable option in net at this point in time assuming the team can score a few goals. If they keep scoring 1 or 2 per game then we need the reincarnation of Hasek and he's not that. 

[nfreeman]

I've been arguing this for a long time. If it was an above market price, it was only barely so and you can't always get what you want at exactly the desired price. And Murray needed a starting goalie. 

 

 

I thought his rebound control was much better last night. Two of the goals were difficult shots to stop and he made several comparable saves on shots like those in the game. But you give a Forsberg an open shot in the slot, with speed, he's going to bury a large percentage of them and I don't care who is the goalie. 

The other two were weak and semi-weak. The McCloud poke-in was a terrible job at holding the post by Lehner. I noticed Nashville had been going hard to the post all game and Lehner stopped them to that point. But persistence paid off for Nashville and he let in a softie. That's lack of consistency.

The other PP goal was not really excusable either, but admittedly when a guy gets an initial shot at point blank and then a follow-up at point blank with no harassment from the defenseman who is literally lying next to him (as was Risto), sometimes those will go in.  

 

I don't know how his career is going to go from here on out nor does anyone else but he's a reasonable option in net at this point in time assuming the team can score a few goals. If they keep scoring 1 or 2 per game then we need the reincarnation of Hasek and he's not that. 

 

Good post.  I agree in particular with the bolded.  Rebound control has been his Achilles heel, IMHO.  There was one bullet from PK in particular that Lehner was able to smother instead of kicking it out into the doorstep, which he's done too often in the past.

 

I thought Lehner was playing very well last night until that first softie when he came off the post to his left.  The 2nd one was infuriating.

 

Let's see how he responds.

[That Aud Smell]

^

 

And here's the thing, last I checked, the Sabres had the 4th best team SV% in the league (.934). While there have been pockets of poor play, goaltending has not been the team's problem, as far as I can tell.

[Sabel79]

Again (and again and again and again), as long as there are genuine doubts, for all sorts of reasons we're discussing in many other threads, as to whether the Sabres are going to score at least two goals in any given game (better recently, may it continue), goaltending is far, far down on the list of things we need to worry about.

 

Robin Lehner will be, um.... okay?

[Norcal]

Just one comment...

 

The career of Devan Dubnyk

 

Thanks everyone

Dubnyk played for an Oilers minor league team near me in the ECHL. Set club records for wins, gaa and sv% and led em to the playoffs. They lost.

Lehner was the MVP of the Calder Cup playoffs for Binghamton, they won.

[nfreeman]

Again (and again and again and again), as long as there are genuine doubts, for all sorts of reasons we're discussing in many other threads, as to whether the Sabres are going to score at least two goals in any given game (better recently, may it continue), goaltending is far, far down on the list of things we need to worry about.

 

Robin Lehner will be, um.... okay?

 

Just for yuks:

 

November:  Sabres -- 30th in NHL in scoring (GF/G); 17th in defense (GA/G)

December:  tied for 24th in scoring; tied for 9th in GA/G

January:  7th in scoring; 20th in GA/G

[That Aud Smell]

Dave Davis (I think that's his name?) tweeted (sorry, no link) that Lehner is almost DFL (40 of 44 maybe) in some sort of "difficult save" #fancystat for goalies with a certain minimum of minutes. I think it's a stat that strictly measures SV% for shots from certain presumably dangerous areas on the ice.

[Sabel79]

Just for yuks:

 

November:  Sabres -- 30th in NHL in scoring (GF/G); 17th in defense (GA/G)

December:  tied for 24th in scoring; tied for 9th in GA/G

January:  7th in scoring; 20th in GA/G

November: 5-9

December: 5-9

January: 7-4

[nfreeman]

November: 5-9

December: 5-9

January: 7-4

 

Thanks.

 

It would appear that scoring helps winning!

[TrueBlueGED]

Dave Davis (I think that's his name?) tweeted (sorry, no link) that Lehner is almost DFL (40 of 44 maybe) in some sort of "difficult save" #fancystat for goalies with a certain minimum of minutes. I think it's a stat that strictly measures SV% for shots from certain presumably dangerous areas on the ice.

Yea, you've got the gist. Ultimately I think our low event, defensive style, inflates Lehner's normal save percentage. What Murray does in goal after this season is going to be really interesting.

[nfreeman]

Yea, you've got the gist. Ultimately I think our low event, defensive style, inflates Lehner's normal save percentage. What Murray does in goal after this season is going to be really interesting.

 

I will be very surprised if Lehner isn't the starter next season.

[That Aud Smell]

Yea, you've got the gist. Ultimately I think our low event, defensive style, inflates Lehner's normal save percentage. What Murray does in goal after this season is going to be really interesting.

 

Query whether GM TM's apparent theory on goaltenders (i.e., get you some big, honking dudes) is intentionally tied to that very style.

Edited January 25, 2017 by That Aud Smell

[Thorner]

Query whether GM TM's apparent theory on goaltenders (i.e., get you some big, honking dudes) is intentionally tied to that very style.

Good call.

[TrueBlueGED]

Query whether GM TM's apparent theory on goaltenders (i.e., get you some big, honking dudes) is intentionally tied to that very style.

If so, I'm going to politely ask for somebody going to the Sabrespace meetup to shoot me in the face.

I will be very surprised if Lehner isn't the starter next season.

I was thinking more about the contract. He's an RFA with two more years of team control. Does Murray do the sensible thing and bridge him at low cost, or does he go all in?

[That Aud Smell]

Thanks, Thorny. That exchange with Blue is precisely why I value this board. Thought building on thought. The theory may not be right, of course, but ...

 

If so, I'm going to politely ask for somebody going to the Sabrespace meetup to shoot me in the face.

... it may be.

 

Courage.