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Posted

It's almost like when we piled on the last coach for playing Risto 27 per night because he couldn't handle it on the ice and maintain basic abilities and stamina over the course of a season, we were right...

He was second in the NHL in minutes averaging over 27 per night once again, and handling it just as poorly, before he absolutely shockingly got hurt ("we didn't have other options" yet played far better defensively in the game he was out than the ones he played...)

Dudacek's posts on the staff make me hopeful but there's still no excuse for this utter garbage player usage continuing

 

 

This, so much.

 

I'd be willing to bet he sticks out like a sore thumb on that list. 

Keith, Suter, Karlsson, Byfuglien, Pietrangelo, Letang, Weber, are my guesses for the guys that all play less than he does on that list

 

---------------------------------

 

Wait - they told us what his injury is?? Is this the first time? We know ERod hurt his hand, but didn't it take us watching the video to deduce that before they finally told us?

Is Risto the 4th Sabre now to be day-to-day and have that downgraded to week-to-week? What does that mean about our training staff, if anything? 

Why were they so wrong about Nylander, who was supposed to be back in training camp and just started skating for the first time in November, and Bogosian, who was also supposed to be back soon?

Ineptitude.

 

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Ristolainen has been terrible this season, and his overusage has definitely contributed to that.

Posted (edited)

You're talking about a difference of a minute or less.  And the number this week of guys over 25 min TOI is now up to 17, and it is all #1 D man type players, which Risto qualifies for on our team.

 

More than half the league does this.

 

It reminds me of the way we used to ride Zhitnik.  Our D was thin then too, so Alex got the lion's share of the minutes.

More than half the league does this with defensemen who are Norris candidates. We throw a kid out in those minutes who has shown to be caved in for the past 2 full years in this role and haven't changed it. From plus minus to any sort of shot against or possession metric, we get murdered, obliterated, when Risto is out there in that role. He can't handle it. Every single poster here at one point last season mentioned that by game 50 Risto was a shell of the dude that started the year at a 60 point pace shutting down Ovechkin and Barkov on consecutive nights in November. He is not to be used like this. And it's not as if reducing his role will make us worse off because of the quality of players behind him - we played better defensively as a whole without him even in the game last time. And we already lose 2/3rds of our games and sit comfortably in the bottom 10 with him there. It's not going to become catastrophically worse if we treat him like a flawed 22 year old versus Erik ###### Karlsson. 

When I re-watch and look back on Risto from that first promising Rochester season, and the kid that played the first 20-30 games of the last two years, I am becoming more and more convinced we missed out on something. We'll still have a nice player but it could have been more and we only have ourselves to blame. From message board posters to people employed by NHL teams to stat geeks* with no affiliation to the Buffalo Sabres, there has been a resounding call to reduce his ice time and situational usage (which was, literally, the most difficult set of minutes any NHLer in the entire world played last year if you take QOC, zone starts, and ice time into account) because everything conceivable on paper and on film suggests he's not ready, and we ignored it for two calendar years. 

 

*to the tune of calling him one of the worst defensemen in the NHL based on what they were reading. I don't believe that's accurate, but I don't believe that advanced stats are so off-base that being among the worst of hundreds of players in their categories should be dismissed casually. 

Edited by Randall Flagg
Posted

It's an injury thread.  The point is, he isn't being worked to injury, unless you think 16 other teams are working their featured D man to injury too.

Posted

It's an injury thread. The point is, he isn't being worked to injury, unless you think 16 other teams are working their featured D man to injury too.

Those players all have elite hockey brains too, and know how to pace themselves in a 30 minute, 82 game marathon. I've read articles where Suter, Keith, and EK talk about how learning that is the only way to survive and succeed. If we think risto can do that then fine, but I don't see evidence of that ability with how much his play breaks down, so I'm simply not going to be surprised any time his body does as well. Granted, we don't know the cause of this particular oblique thing.
Posted

Was Fedun the one Reaves plastered at the end of period 2?

I'm probably remembering this wrong, but wasn't he the one who got up slowly after blocking a shot?

Posted

Our worst contract, by far. Because it's longer than Moulson's.

Moulson is still worse because we can keep Bogosian stashed on IR when he's not playing. Of course that only helps if we are already over the cap though. Despite not playing a single second, Bogosian has managed to contribute the exact same point production as well.

Posted

I've always thought it was too easy to give injury-plagued teams a pass, attributing injuries to bad luck. There has to be more at work, right? Is staying healthy a "talent" that can be scouted and considered when drafting?

Posted (edited)

Moulson is still worse because we can keep Bogosian stashed on IR when he's not playing. Of course that only helps if we are already over the cap though. Despite not playing a single second, Bogosian has managed to contribute the exact same point production as well.

 

He'd have to go on Long-Term IR for any cap savings, as far as I know he just sits in day-to-day endlessly, then heads to regular IR.

 

I've always thought it was too easy to give injury-plagued teams a pass, attributing injuries to bad luck. There has to be more at work, right? Is staying healthy a "talent" that can be scouted and considered when drafting?

It definitely can't be used as an excuse. If a team is waiting for a season without sizeable injuries to hold themselves accountable, they'll be waiting a long time, especially Buffalo. Injuries are a part of the game, have to win with them, cause you aren't going to be without them.

Edited by Thorny
Posted

He'd have to go on Long-Term IR for any cap savings, as far as I know he just sits in day-to-day endlessly, then heads to regular IR.

 

 

It definitely can't be used as an excuse. If a team is waiting for a season without sizeable injuries to hold themselves accountable, they'll be waiting a long time, especially Buffalo. Injuries are a part of the game, have to win with them, cause you aren't going to be without them.

I'm pretty sure Bogosian is currently on IR and has been all season so far.

Posted

I'm pretty sure Bogosian is currently on IR and has been all season so far.

Definitely started the year listed as day-to-day. He was being listed as a scratch for the early games. And there's no cap savings for IR.

This topic is OLD. A NEW topic should be started unless there is a VERY SPECIFIC REASON to revive this one.

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