GDT GDT: Sabres @ Vegas Golden Knights, 10 pm ET, 10/17/17

[Claude Balls]

Well, at least Phil realizes the team was unprepared and stagnant for the first 50 minutes. Maybe he is realizing he has a bunch of floaters on this team.

[dudacek]

This board tells me that Chad Johnson should be the number one goalie, that Evander Kane is a problem and that the Sabres lack heart.

 

Johnson came into this game @ 3.66 .875 and made those stats worse by allowing five goals in 31 shots tonight. His numbers are among the worst in the league.

 

Kane scored a clutch goal with nine seconds left to send the game to OT.

He has five goals and five assists and is in the top 10 in NHL scoring.

 

The Sabres were in the fourth game of a western road swing, playing their third game in four nights and were forced to kill off four consecutive penalties in the second period. They scored three goals in the final 10 minutes of a game where they by all rights should have been running for the bus as soon as Vegas popped the fourth goal.

 

Does the narrative match the truth?

Edited October 18, 2017 by dudacek

[Billznut]

Bylsmas record in his first year didn’t even approach this current record. And how about we aspire to be BETTER than what the Colorado Avalanche Do.

[Claude Balls]

Housley isn’t in danger yet. But another 10 games like this and he is. No coach has ever survived a record like that.

He isn't going anywhere. He just ripped his players during the post game interview. He sees the same things we see. Now do something about it dammit!!!

[Billznut]

Well, at least Phil realizes the team was unprepared and stagnant for the first 50 minutes. Maybe he is realizing he has a bunch of floaters on this team.

I think Phil is realizing this team is a shitshow and he has his hands full. Good luck Phil.

[North Buffalo]

So Sabres have two workable lines and not much else, maybe a piece or two for the third or fourth line... but guys in OT were exhausted... Phil needed to put another line together out there just to give the others a rest.

[WildCard]

Housley isn’t in danger yet. But another 10 games like this and he is. No coach has ever survived a record like that.

It would honestly be the dumbest move I've ever heard a GM make: firing a brand new coach, especially after our last one, after 20 games

[Randall Flagg]

Bylsmas record in his first year didn’t even approach this current record. And how about we aspire to be BETTER than what the Colorado Avalanche Do.

We won 2 of our first 8. Right now we're at 1 of our first 7. We have as many points this season in 7 games as Bylsma's team did in his first 8 games. If we win at home against a bad team on Friday, we will have 2 more points than Bylsma's start did. Even if we lose Friday, we will be equivalent to Bylsma's start points-wise. 

 

Didn't even approach it, eh?

Edited October 18, 2017 by Randall Flagg

[WildCard]

This board tells me that Chad Johnson should be the number one goalie, that Evander Kane is a problem and that the Sabres lack heart.

 

Johnson came into this game @ 3.66 .875 and made those stats worse by allowing five goals in 31 shots tonight. His numbers are among the worst in the league.

 

Kane scored a clutch goal with nine seconds left to send the game to OT.

He has five goals and five assists and is in the top 10 in NHL scoring.

 

The Sabres were in the fourth game of a western road swing, playing their third game in four nights and were forced to kill off four consecutive penalties in the second period. They scored three goals in the final 10 minutes of a game where they by all rights should have been running for the bus as soon as Vegas popped the fourth goal.

 

Does the narrative match the truth?

Certain posters on this board may tell you that, but a lot haven't. I've been battling with JJ for years that Johnson is not a starter, and I've never said Kane is the problem

[Doohicksie]

Well, at least Phil realizes the team was unprepared and stagnant for the first 50 minutes. Maybe he is realizing he has a bunch of floaters on this team.

 

Maybe he knows that when this team goes for it, they can score three times in ten minutes.  I'll take the loser point and be happy.

 

I really think Housley is working on different phases of the game to bring his system in.  We haven't seen his OT system yet; he's still working on regulation.  It'll come.

 

The Sabres scored three times in the third.  The last goal was just shy of miraculous.  I wanna be disappointed, but the Sabres took this game a lot further than anyone thought they would.  The rest of the game will come.  The top six are learning.  Things are getting better.  We're not gonna get there all at once, folks.  Stop worrying about Vegas's fast start.  Stop comparing the Sabres to the Leafs.  They're a different team; a different kind of team.  I don't think we know what kind of team Housley wants to make the Sabres.  Just watch and see.  They'll get there.

[Randall Flagg]

This board tells me that Chad Johnson should be the number one goalie, that Evander Kane is a problem and that the Sabres lack heart.

 

Johnson came into this game @ 3.66 .875 and made those stats worse by allowing five goals in 31 shots tonight. His numbers are among the worst in the league.

 

Kane scored a clutch goal with nine seconds left to send the game to OT.

He has five goals and five assists and is in the top 10 in NHL scoring.

 

The Sabres were in the fourth game of a western road swing, playing their third game in four nights and were forced to kill off four consecutive penalties in the second period. They scored three goals in the final 10 minutes of a game where they by all rights should have been running for the bus as soon as Vegas popped the fourth goal.

 

Does the narrative match the truth?

I think what the board really means is that Johnson should have gotten the start tonight (he should have, and did) but that in general we need to ride the hot goalie because neither is winning the job, 

 

Kane's usage is a problem, and

 

that the Sabres should probably not wait until 10 mins left in the game to play like that, after being listless for the first 50, with their coach even admitting to how little effort they were putting in, and either way don't deserve the benefit of the doubt after the efforts of this young season overall

[WildCard]

the Sabres took this game a lot further than anyone thought they would.  The rest of the game will come.  

No, they didn't. They lost to a team built off of other team's scraps

[Randall Flagg]

No, they didn't. They lost to a team built off of other team's scraps

In a vacuum it's icky, but Vegas keeps beating teams. Only Tampa has a better record.

[thewookie1]

We do have 3 players in the top 13 in NHL scoring at the moment.

[dudacek]

The team was exhausted in OT. Haven't seen the numbers but Risto and the big four forwards were basically on every second shift for the last half of the third and OT. Okposo was puking his guts out a day ago and Girgensons is gone. Scandella was hobbled by that shot to the leg.

 

Phil doesn't seem to trust McCabe, but he might have been better off giving him, Larsson and Bailey a shift in the extra frame.

Edited October 18, 2017 by dudacek

[WildCard]

In a vacuum it's icky, but Vegas keeps beating teams. Only Tampa has a better record.

Did we outplay them?

We do have 3 players in the top 13 in NHL scoring at the moment.

Scoring against? Is it Eichel, Lehner, and Balloon? 

[Randall Flagg]

Oh ######, Girgensons didn't come back? He better be okay. 

I am really enjoying the Jack Eichel experiment, where he plays around with his game and tries to improve as a two-way guy, but I don't think he needs to lose as much of the determined, heavy wrist-shot-producing, dazzling rushes as he has in his effort to be more center-like. I see too much deferring to mediocre teammates and not enough taking charge offensively. And he STILL has 9 points already. 

 

Did we outplay them?

Scoring against? Is it Eichel, Lehner, and Balloon? 

No, but teams on their 4th game in 6 days on the west coast string playing a team that's been home for a week and a half rarely do, especially when that team has outplayed every other team outside of its first game so far.

Edited October 18, 2017 by Randall Flagg

[dudacek]

Did we outplay them?

Here's the thing: I may have been playing devil's advocate a bit on my earlier post, but overall we sorta did. We outshot them and when we turned it on we were the better team.

It's just that they played hard for 65 minutes and we didn't.

[pastajoe]

Housley said Girgensons is day-to-day.

[calti]

The all-time floater was Pierre Turgeon. Absurdly talented offensively. He would float around most of the game doing not much..and still score every single damn game because he was an opportunist. I saw him at the old cow palace south of SF..Sabres vs Sharks late 80s must have been. He looked like he was skating thru central park to Johnny Mathis tunes.

[Randall Flagg]

Oh, and when Gorges is sheltered, he's nowhere near as bad as the tire fire he was with big minutes last year. I know some posters here believed that that would be the case, I was not one of them. 

I wonder how many seasons it's going to take for us to be faster.

[Pokey Jones]

The question is, why did it take around 45 minutes before they started skating and using their speed?

 

If we had skated like we did in the last 10 from the beginning we would have won that game. Too many old habits, too much laziness, too much casualness, too much solo play. It's going to be a long season.....................................................

[North Buffalo]

No, they didn't. They lost to a team built off of other team's scraps

Maybe, but their early record indicates otherwise... They have some decent young D and a some young scorers and are playing hard.  We will see what they look like by the end of the season but so far they have looked good and are on a hot streak.  

[Thorner]

We lost. The comeback doesn't matter when it was needed just to dig themselves out of the massive hole they dug theselves in. That kind of effort won't get it done, and they knew that going in. They had energy, they showed that in the third. The excuses of "this many games in this many days" applies more later in the season after being more worn down over the course of several months. They haven't earned the right to use that excuse yet.

 

We have 1 line producing, and are 1-6. Not good enough. Need to start winning.

[dudacek]

Beaulieu sure has dialled it back after the New York and New Jersey disasters.

I like that isn't gifting the other team goals at the moment, but he isn't adding the pop from the back line we were promised either.

 

I don't get Phil's fascination with Tennyson; he is the definition of fringe to me.

 

And he clearly doesn't trust McCabe and Antipin.

 

Are we seriously counting on Bogo again to give us second pair?