GDT: Bruins at Sabres. Oct 4 7PM

[...]

Seriously, that was a game last night that Boston "should have" won, and they did, especially coming in off the loss.  No surprise there, is it?  

Were we expecting Dahlin's stick to glow at one end and sparks to fly where ever he skated?  No.  It looked like a roster full of brand new players, most of them pretty new to the NHL who weren't prepared, or used, properly.

It looked like a veteran corps that completely over-estimated their ability to play hockey and under-estimated/forgot how easy it is for any NHL team to punish an opponent who is slacking off.

I thought Mitts looked pretty good, probably the only light spot on offense, except for...wait for it...Girgensons, who proved why he was on the team just by being on the PK, but he was actually gritty 5x5 like few other Sabres were.

Sobotka was a stand-out because he actually played with some grit, too.  On that note, I actually kind of missed Bogo because although he's made of glass, he brings the nasty when he plays.

Skinner was invisible and I hope to God he doesn't live up to the impression I now have of Cody Hodgson mk II.  If anyone is concerned the team won't impress him enough to stay here...f**k that, he's gotta establish, first, that he's worth being here, let alone worrying about if he'll stay.

Eichel sucked.  My God.  Turnovers, passes to no one.  No grit.  

KO sucked, too.  Never been a fan and now that he's "better" there is no excuse for it.  The fanbase way over-rates that guy if this board is any measure of the general fan base.

What is with the little-kid like leaning away from the player you're supposed to be engaging, and just using the stick to try and poke the puck away?  WTF is that?  It's like they're scared to engage individual players...afraid of being hit.  Just like they're obviously scared to GO TO THE NET.  GO. TO. THE. NET.  

HCPH, why not just tell them: hit your opponent.  Go to the net.  Shoot the puck at the net (not at the goalie's chest or wide).  Stop with the fancy passes, they don't work.  

I also get the impression HCPH has told Dahlin not to travel with the puck.  Dahlin did not carry the puck as much as I expected.  This is just a suspicion.  I understand it could be that Dahlin himself wasn't feeling up to it, being his first NHL game and all.  The NHL is not the elegant European game.

Now, all of that said, the kids looked good.  I saw lots of things that were better from last season, as others have noted in the thread.  Faster, yup.  Didn't get hemmed in their zone.  Break outs looked more competent.   I like Hutton except when he travels far for the puck.   So, there were positives.  

You could clearly see a very battle-hardened Bruins team out there against a bunch of new recruits.  I would have loved to have been surprised, but will have to be happy seeing some small steps.  I'm also happy to have noted that HCPH just simply doesn't know how to manage a game - that cat is out of the bag.

 

Edited October 5, 2018 by ...

[eman]

10 hours ago, Hoss said:

Housely went to the podium and quickly showed he’s got the same mindset as the fans. Was saying how they are “not going through this again” and they’ve got to “get out of this.”

Phil will get out of this soon. I do expect him to be ####canned before Christmas and rightfully so. Even if your talent is poor, to come out of the gate unprepared, with a complete lack of emotion, in a home opener and have your club look completely disinterested, that's on the coach. I said all along he was the problem and that we'll know it soon enough. Phil is the problem as a head coach. Bring in someone a whole lot tougher on his players. Cannot stand the lack of effort part of this club. 

[eman]

10 hours ago, hockeyhound said:

I know its only one game but, if they keep this up Jack will probably regret putting that C on his chest.

The media and fans will put up with it for a little while but, come November and we have only won a handful of games, Jack might consider wearing a flak jacket and helmet to the pressers.

The one thing the fans will not tolerate is showing up late to the game night in and night out. I don't care if you have to make them all stick their heads in a bucket of smelling salts, provide electric shock therapy, or light fireworks off under the seat of their pants but they need to figure out how it is they're going to start playing hockey in the 1st period.

Making sure this team is prepared to kick azz and take names at the drop of the puck IMO falls on the coach. Get it done Housley.

Let's Go Buffalo!

Exactly, get it done, or Phil is done. I don;t care to give him  much more time. There is more talent here than some give credit for. Unfortunately, where we fall short is finding a talented coach.

[eman]

10 hours ago, Sabel79 said:

Housley spitting fire in the postgame interview.  Says the rookies were okay, everyone else needs to step it up.  I like it.  

Done like dinner. Feel free to call me out if I am wrong on this. Phil is not the right coach.

[North Buffalo]

Chris Taylor get ready. 

[eman]

10 hours ago, JJFIVEOH said:

I just don't think it's fair to be trashing a team so hard one game into the season. If they're not making some sort of progress by Thanksgiving, that's a different story. But............. it's one game. 

Not sure how so many can have the blinders still on. You are seeing a Phil Housley coached club. While I believe there is more talent here than some claim. Phil is the reason the structure on ice is so poor. How many times do you see the same thing yet expect it to suddenly change soon? It is exactly what we've been seeing the past 2 seasons. Yes there is more speed and quick passing, but essentially, it looks exactly the same to me and remember, it's no longer preseason. You are going up against the starting lineups of better coached clubs so I expect identical results to last years team as long as Phil remains coach.

[Derrico]

Read through this brutal thread.  Just pointing out that Swamp, JJ and Randall were the positive voices within.  What a bizarre start to the season.  Can only go up from here I guess.

My thoughts: Sabres were bad.  Too many blind drop passes that were clearly not working.  They didn't look good on the first PP but I think this is a team that kind of lives and dies on special teams still.  Going 0-2 and giving up a shorty will make it difficult for them to overcome most the year I think.

Many negatives already thrown out (deservedly so) but a few small positives go to the rookies.  I though Mitts had a pretty good game and with confidence and some strength should be a good one.  I also thought Dahlin played well.  Quiet type game but watching some replays on the outlet passes and small things he does well it is evident he should also be a very good one (this season).

[That Aud Smell]

28 minutes ago, eman said:

Phil is the problem as a head coach. Bring in someone a whole lot tougher on his players. Cannot stand the lack of effort part of this club. 

I don't think it's a matter of being hard on the players. I take the players at their word when they say that Housley works them hard.

I heard an NHL player - seems like it was a recently retired player who had a great career - talk on WGR about Babcock when the Sabres were in the running for his services. He talked in some detail about how and why Babcock is so valuable as a coach. The player said it's Babcock's level of homework and preparation, and his teaching ability that allow him to put players in good positions on the ice.

I am getting the sense that Housley just does not know how to do those things very well. Like, maybe the team looks slow and flat because Housley has done a poor job preparing them.

With further regard to what that "preparation" entails: I think sometimes people think that "failing to get them ready to play" means that Housley didn't give a Herb Brooks speech in the locker room -- didn't get the boys fired up and ready to go. I don't think that's what failing to get the team ready to play means, at all. I think the failure to prepare the team to play is more of a techniques and teaching failure.

Oh, and the failure also involves not-so-detailed things like effing matching Eichel's line against Bergeron.

[SABRES 0311]

36 minutes ago, eman said:

Phil will get out of this soon. I do expect him to be ####canned before Christmas and rightfully so. Even if your talent is poor, to come out of the gate unprepared, with a complete lack of emotion, in a home opener and have your club look completely disinterested, that's on the coach. I said all along he was the problem and that we'll know it soon enough. Phil is the problem as a head coach. Bring in someone a whole lot tougher on his players. Cannot stand the lack of effort part of this club. 

Lindy might be that guy

[miles]

i ended up missing the end of the game because i was stupid. i have a minor crab allergy, but i love crabs, and I can eat them without a bad reaction if i dont eat too much. well, last night i at 1 snow crab and i guess it was too much. my throat started to close a little bit so i had to take some benadryl to clear it up. i was sound asleep by 8:30 or 9pm. i woke feeling good though. unfortunately i still have 1 more full crab, so i will only eat half at a time. darn those delicious crabs. 

on the plus side, it looks like i didnt miss a good game

[Eleven]

58 minutes ago, eman said:

Phil will get out of this soon. I do expect him to be ####canned before Christmas and rightfully so. Even if your talent is poor, to come out of the gate unprepared, with a complete lack of emotion, in a home opener and have your club look completely disinterested, that's on the coach. I said all along he was the problem and that we'll know it soon enough. Phil is the problem as a head coach. Bring in someone a whole lot tougher on his players. Cannot stand the lack of effort part of this club. 

 

54 minutes ago, eman said:

Exactly, get it done, or Phil is done. I don;t care to give him  much more time. There is more talent here than some give credit for. Unfortunately, where we fall short is finding a talented coach.

 

50 minutes ago, eman said:

Done like dinner. Feel free to call me out if I am wrong on this. Phil is not the right coach.

 

39 minutes ago, eman said:

Not sure how so many can have the blinders still on. You are seeing a Phil Housley coached club. While I believe there is more talent here than some claim. Phil is the reason the structure on ice is so poor. How many times do you see the same thing yet expect it to suddenly change soon? It is exactly what we've been seeing the past 2 seasons. Yes there is more speed and quick passing, but essentially, it looks exactly the same to me and remember, it's no longer preseason. You are going up against the starting lineups of better coached clubs so I expect identical results to last years team as long as Phil remains coach.

I don't think we've seen you around since the board upgrade.  Welcome back.  There's a little + sign next to the quote button that lets you multiquote posts and then you can reply to all of them at once.  It's a little different than the similar feature on the old board software.

That said, how do you feel about Housley?

[apuszczalowski]

24 minutes ago, rekim said:

i ended up missing the end of the game because i was stupid. i have a minor crab allergy, but i love crabs, and I can eat them without a bad reaction if i dont eat too much. well, last night i at 1 snow crab and i guess it was too much. my throat started to close a little bit so i had to take some benadryl to clear it up. i was sound asleep by 8:30 or 9pm. i woke feeling good though. unfortunately i still have 1 more full crab, so i will only eat half at a time. darn those delicious crabs. 

on the plus side, it looks like i didnt miss a good game

Subconciously, while watching the game you probably ate more then you thought just so you wouldn't have to watch it all.

Either that or your reaction wasnt actually from the crab but from the product on the ice you watched.

[That Aud Smell]

1 hour ago, rekim said:

i ended up missing the end of the game because i was stupid. i have a minor crab allergy, but i love crabs, and I can eat them without a bad reaction if i dont eat too much. well, last night i at 1 snow crab and i guess it was too much. my throat started to close a little bit so i had to take some benadryl to clear it up. i was sound asleep by 8:30 or 9pm. i woke feeling good though. unfortunately i still have 1 more full crab, so i will only eat half at a time. darn those delicious crabs. 

maybe it's just my mood - but i just found this post to be odd, absurd, and delightful.

also: i cannot imagine loving any food enough to eat it even though it tends to make my throat close up.

[Randall Flagg]

1 hour ago, That Aud Smell said:

I don't think it's a matter of being hard on the players. I take the players at their word when they say that Housley works them hard.

I heard an NHL player - seems like it was a recently retired player who had a great career - talk on WGR about Babcock when the Sabres were in the running for his services. He talked in some detail about how and why Babcock is so valuable as a coach. The player said it's Babcock's level of homework and preparation, and his teaching ability that allow him to put players in good positions on the ice.

I am getting the sense that Housley just does not know how to do those things very well. Like, maybe the team looks slow and flat because Housley has done a poor job preparing them.

With further regard to what that "preparation" entails: I think sometimes people think that "failing to get them ready to play" means that Housley didn't give a Herb Brooks speech in the locker room -- didn't get the boys fired up and ready to go. I don't think that's what failing to get the team ready to play means, at all. I think the failure to prepare the team to play is more of a techniques and teaching failure.

Oh, and the failure also involves not-so-detailed things like effing matching Eichel's line against Bergeron.

It took 20 games last season before a single team scored a single even strength goal against that line.

Since most line changes are not from faceoffs, Eich was always going to play against Bergeron. 

But when we had the choice, Phil wanted that matchup. It's one thing if we have proven depth scoring. But he put our point-getters on that line. 

This is where Phil has shown his weakness - I don't think he has a great idea of what his players can and can't do, like, I think this forum could band together and do a better job at that. I really do. 

The on-ice strategy stuff, well, I'm not as worried about it. There's a screengrab I saw of McCabe on the boards with the puck. In years past, he would have no outlet. But all five Sabres were in an open seam, sticks on the ice, staring at him, waiting for the pass. His head was down looking at the puck and he iced it. 

The players do a decent job getting where they need to be. They had a lot of decent zone entries (that died soon after because of our lack of talent combined with Boston's stifling ability) because they positioned themselves well during transition. They don't have the skill to take advantage of it now. And like I've been saying since April, we aren't going to do anything of note until we do, and this board and probably team appear to be more likely to trade the rest of our skill before recognizing that as the main issue. On both ends it's starting to drive me nuts, especially because I got called out a lot for feeling that way back during the ROR trade and after, and yet those same posters are the ones making the GDT unreadable like 30 minutes into the season. 

What our players say after the 60th loss in the last year doesn't indicate anything other than they quickly ran out of things to say. They can't just try harder and boom their skill is on-par with the rest of the league. 

Also, I'm almost positive they more-than-doubled Boston's check totals. 

We're not that good, and downgraded the number of established good forwards relative to last season. We just need to hope (and there's a reasonable chance it happens) that all of Casey, Tage, and Alex can become effective players as soon as this year. 

And I'm really interested to see where we stack up on Saturday. The Rangers are more indicative of where we are than the Bruins, by far. I'm hoping it can be a good one that makes the players and fans feel better.

Edited October 5, 2018 by Randall Flagg

[That Aud Smell]

18 minutes ago, Randall Flagg said:

They had a lot of decent zone entries (that died soon after because of our lack of talent combined with Boston's stifling ability) because they positioned themselves well during transition. They don't have the skill to take advantage of it now. And like I've been saying since April, we aren't going to do anything of note until we do, and this board and probably team appear to be more likely to trade the rest of our skill before recognizing that as the main issue.

We're not that good, and downgraded the number of established good forwards relative to last season. 

Good post. But -- are these points really and truly, like, really, true?!

We turned over almost the entire roster. How can our forwards be worse than last year?!

[SwampD]

I think we missed Larsson last night (I know, I know). But his D is pretty good and he could have been part of a shut down line to go against their top line, leaving our scorers to, um, score.

[TrueBlueGED]

4 minutes ago, That Aud Smell said:

Good post. But -- are these points really and truly, like, really, true?!

We turned over almost the entire roster. How can our forwards be worse than last year?!

Turnover doesn't imply improvement, merely attempted improvement. 

1 minute ago, SwampD said:

I think we missed Larsson last night (I know, I know). But his D is pretty good and he could have been part of a shut down line to go against their top line, leaving our scorers to, um, score.

Isn't that what Berglund was supposed to do? I feel like I spent all summer hearing how he was just going to take O'Reilly's defensive responsibilities. 

[SwampD]

 

And not sure if this has been mentioned,... even so, it should be mentioned again, but has anyone else noticed just how buttery Dahlin skates? It's beautiful.

[Randall Flagg]

Just now, That Aud Smell said:

Good post. But -- are these points really and truly, like, really, true?!

We turned over almost the entire roster. How can our forwards be worse than last year?!

How many players produced and generated offensive chances like top sixers in the NHL last season on our roster? The answer is 3 - Eichel, Reinhart, and Skinner. 

Last season, Eichel, Reinhart, O'Reilly, and Kane were on the roster at the beginning and went on to do the same thing. 

The fourth line right now is better than the fourth line then, and there's one fewer top six player, including center depth that's the weakest since the tank teams. 

Again, the rookies will hopefully have this changed by April, but as I've written probably tens of thousands of words about this summer, just shuffling pieces doesn't mean anything as far as skill improvement, so doing that with "culture" being the first and foremost goal is going to disappoint those who are convinced that was the whole thing. You have to add good players. If your team is bad and you turn it over via trades, and most trades are not heavily slanted towards one team, why expect huge improvement? 

Ever since McDavid became a thing, there's a marked increase in the stick-handling abilities of even average/bad prospects. Everyone works on it like crazy now. Late round picks like Jesper Bratt in NJ are hitting the ice surprisingly early and have shocking puck skills. Most of our depth is built up with players from an era where this wasn't a thing, so their puck skill is pretty low compared to teams that go with all the kids (Toronto - the obvious, NJ, Colorado - Jost, Compher, Kerfoot playing big minutes last year, etc) fully. Without chemistry and established NHL offensive talent, your early games against cup contenders with a decade of playing in the same structure might not go too well. 

[That Aud Smell]

13 minutes ago, Randall Flagg said:

How many players produced and generated offensive chances like top sixers in the NHL last season on our roster? The answer is 3 - Eichel, Reinhart, and Skinner. 

Last season, Eichel, Reinhart, O'Reilly, and Kane were on the roster at the beginning and went on to do the same thing. 

<snip>

Without chemistry and established NHL offensive talent, your early games against cup contenders with a decade of playing in the same structure might not go too well. 

[Randall Flagg]

2 minutes ago, That Aud Smell said:

I've learned, though, that you get a lot fewer notifications and confrontations if you say this after it shows on the ice than if you try to say it in June

[erickompositör72]

What a contrast it was watching Dahlin gain possession in our zone vs. Risto. I think Risto has a skill set, but there was a glaring problem:

Several times, he gained possession in our zone and just flung it around the boards, where no Sabre was there to take it- giving it right back to Boston. Flagg, you made a post about McCabe doing this, but Risto did it often, too.

Housley should make Risto watch tape of Dahlin. I know it's early and I may be putting my foot in my mouth, but it looks like Dahlin does not make mistakes when exiting the zone. He knows exactly what to do.

And how about when Dahlin was pointing to show Berglund (was it Berglund?) where to go when the Bruins were on that quick rush after a turnover? This kid should have an "A" already.

Which made me think... would the only way to give the "C" to Dahlin be to trade Eichel? Co-captains next season?

Edited October 5, 2018 by erickompositör72

[Randall Flagg]

2 minutes ago, erickompositör72 said:

What a contrast it was watching Dahlin gain possession in our zone vs. Risto. I think Risto has a skill set, but there was a glaring problem:

Several times, he gained possession in our zone and just flung it around the boards, where no Sabre was there to take it- giving it right back to Boston. Flagg, you made a post about McCabe doing this, but Risto did it often, too.

Housley should make Risto watch tape of Dahlin. I know it's early and I may be putting my foot in my mouth, but it looks like Dahlin does not make mistakes when exiting the zone. He knows exactly what to do.

 And how about when Dahlin was pointing to show Berglund (was it Berglund?) where to go when the Bruins were on that quick rush after a turnover? This kid should have an "A" already.

 Which made me think... would the only way to give the "C" to Dahlin be to trade Eichel? Co-captains next season?

Risto is absolutely the king of the tank-style whipping the puck out to center ice, whether he has passing options or not. 

He wasn't always like this, but he was raised by the tank. 

There was potential to develop him into the best defenseman this franchise has ever had, but it didn't work out. 

[Randall Flagg]

Also, Sobotka (who was fine) was second in ES time on ice, in a game where we were losing the whole time. 

[nucci]

3 hours ago, Jsixspd said:

Looked to me like Boston was slowing down a lot in the 3rd -  and it wasn't just 'prevent' either.  Tired might not be the right word....  not as fresh as the Sabres?   It WAS a punishing loss on the road, followed up by a back to back road game in Buffalo.   

The Sabres should have been fresher -  1st game, home game, etc.    Pick any words you want -  the Sabres absolutely sucked.  Fans were absolutely justified in booing!  

I agree...