GDT NY Rangers vs Buffalo Sabres at KBC 7pm ET MSG TV and WGR 550 AM

[Randall Flagg]

That win probably has a big impact on those guys mentally. I bet worries of going winless for 7 like last season were creeping in, just because of the eerie schedule similarity, and that of the result on Wednesday. 

Hutton looked excellent and I hope he keeps it up. The team will respond positively. The active stick was so fun to watch.

Each defensive pair was solid compared to usual, if maybe a little scary still overall (8, 82). 

McCabe had a good game, but I wanna talk about Dahlin. You know how I annoyingly salivate over defensemen like Jones, Slavin, Pesce, Stralman, etc.? For their million tiny plays that flip the ice, that don't make any highlight reels? Dahlin didn't look like them tonight. He WAS them tonight. He had about 40 plays down low in tight that got the puck out of the zone with possession, plays that no other Sabre can make. Every transition pass was the perfect, correct play, nothing flashy. With five guys breathing down his neck in the mid-third, he put the puck between a guy's legs and then moved it to his forward. His confidence rose slightly, and then he had those two great jumps into the rush. Wait til this kid has fully absorbed what he needs to. He's a legitimately good NHL defenseman in the way that I've been pining for for years, right this second. And he's eighteen goddamn years old

Jack is dinged, is a little wonky (he started last year that way too) and still got his  2 points. He's going to be a lot better this year than we saw tonight. 

I didn't hate seeing any line out there tonight - that's the depth additions working. You could see why Skinner gets a lot of high-danger chances. Elie played the perfect 4th liner game for today's NHL, and I would keep him, Evan, Jason together and roll with that. 

Sam is the Sam of March, not of last October. 

Tage looks more like the Tage I saw in St. Louis than the Tage I saw in preseason, but he was better than Thursday. Nice pass to Dahlin. 

We still allowed too many chances and were not in sync, which happens often in our Rangers games. But a lot of the problems were things that chemistry will iron out. That doesn't mean we're good, but the sky isn't falling either. 

We have a chance to have our first winning record after game 1 since the 2011-12 season, on Monday. 

[That Aud Smell]

The win is nice - yay!

But that’s a style of hockey that wins 3.5 of 10 games.

[Andrew Amerk]

Observations:

-Hutton stole the game. With any of the goalies we’ve had since Miller, this was likely a loss. 

-We were even with the Rangers in 5v5 play. Back and forth. Considering they might be one of the worst teams in the league - take it how you want. 

-We won the game based on 2 PP goals. 

-Buffalo seemed to be playing “prevent” in the last half of the 3rd. Whatever happened to playing the game that got you the lead? 

-Saw a lot of “dump and chase” hockey from the Sabres. I assumed assembling a “speed” team meant they would be entering the zone in rushes. HCPH seems to interpret the speed as hoping they can retrieve the pucks on dump-ins. 

-Overall, most of the Sabres players seemed more comfortable tonight. Whether that is because they were playing their game, or a system HCPH designed, remains to be seen. 

[Randall Flagg]

6 minutes ago, LGR4GM said:

I'm shocked that this team showed up yet again not ready to play. I'm souring on Housley quickly and on Eichel as captain. Be better. 

They controlled the game until the Rangers' first power play flipped the ice, and even then finished the first period with better even strength numbers.

"Souring on Eichel as the captain"

He will be captain for 80 more games this season, and that's just his first season as captain. We are 2% into it. If he has a 1000 game career, we are less than a third of a percent into his captainhood. Dude. 

Edited October 7, 2018 by Randall Flagg

[SDS]

12 minutes ago, LGR4GM said:

Not good enough. Hutton bailed us out. Disappointed second effort. Cool they won but not good enough. 

You would have hated The Dominik Hasek Sabres. 

[SDS]

4 minutes ago, Randall Flagg said:

They controlled the game until the Rangers' first power play flipped the ice, and even then finished the first period with better even strength numbers.

"Souring on Eichel as the captain"

He will be captain for 80 more games this season, and that's just his first season as captain. We are 2% into it. If he has a 1000 game career, we are less than a third of a percent into his captainhood. Dude. 

Do people think a player plays significantly different if they get a piece of fabric sewn on their chest? ? 

unless it was magic fabric, what would physically cause a change? 

[Randall Flagg]

You can set your watch by how the games between Buffalo and the Rangers are played. Even though that doesn't make sense. Recall Eich's first home game after his first high ankle sprain, or the 15-16 trip to MSG in March that saw the Sabres win 5-4. They're wide open transition affairs, lots of chances for and against, that don't tend to leak into the following game. 

Edited October 7, 2018 by Randall Flagg

[Eleven]

2 minutes ago, SDS said:

Do people think a player plays significantly different if they get a piece of fabric sewn on their chest? ? 

unless it was magic fabric, what would physically cause a change? 

Flagg wasn't the one souring on EIchel as captain.  He was replying to someone else.

[SDS]

1 minute ago, Eleven said:

Flagg wasn't the one souring on EIchel as captain.  He was replying to someone else.

Understood. I wasn’t implying otherwise. 

[hockeyhound]

9 minutes ago, LGR4GM said:

I'm shocked that this team showed up yet again not ready to play. I'm souring on Housley quickly and on Eichel as captain. Be better. 

Slow starts, you're right, that has to change quickly.

I thought they would've learned from last year but, it appears they still don't get it.

Teams like Vegas will run us out of the building, and that as you said it, is on Housley and Jack.

If they want to be a playoff team they're going to have to get at it.

 

 

[IKnowPhysics]

Hutton shows big balls

PP erects the first win

Eichel's gut check reigns

[JJFIVEOH]

Perhaps I missed it the first two games, but it PHam not giving his post-game analysis on WGR anymore?

[SwampD]

Our captain has scored one third of all our goals.

[SDS]

1 minute ago, SwampD said:

Our captain has scored one third of all our goals.

Also played 25:45 of that game. 

[Stoner]

11 minutes ago, SwampD said:

Our captain has scored one third of all our goals.

Math!

[inkman]

2 hours ago, Hoss said:

What a passing play there from Jack and Samson

Seriously underated pass from Sam. 

[grinreaper]

13 minutes ago, SwampD said:

Our captain has scored one third of all our goals.

And 100% of our empty net goals. Besides that he's on a point per game pace.

[LGR4GM]

49 minutes ago, Randall Flagg said:

They controlled the game until the Rangers' first power play flipped the ice, and even then finished the first period with better even strength numbers.

"Souring on Eichel as the captain"

He will be captain for 80 more games this season, and that's just his first season as captain. We are 2% into it. If he has a 1000 game career, we are less than a third of a percent into his captainhood. Dude. 

Dude, idc. He and the team need to be better. It's his job now and I demand better. They won, cool. They still played mediocre. 

Thanks for condescendingly telling me how long Eichel will be captain for. Appreciated that. 

[Randall Flagg]

3 minutes ago, LGR4GM said:

Dude, idc. He and the team need to be better. It's his job now and I demand better. They won, cool. They still played mediocre. 

Thanks for condescendingly telling me how long Eichel will be captain for. Appreciated that. 

Well let's parse this out. How did they start slow? They dominated the puck until that power play, like I said. 

Second of all, how can you let two games of sample size in a season of eighty two let you "start souring" or drawing any meaningful conclusions of things that will evolve over the course of a decade? If you're starting to sour now, and we have a bad season, you'll be beyond done by game 30, no? What will you do the rest of Jack's career, then?

[Randall Flagg]

It's so, like, useful, to have Skinner as the driver of his own line. It helps this team in two different ways.

[LGR4GM]

9 minutes ago, Randall Flagg said:

Well let's parse this out. How did they start slow? They dominated the puck until that power play, like I said. 

Second of all, how can you let two games of sample size in a season of eighty two let you "start souring" or drawing any meaningful conclusions of things that will evolve over the course of a decade? If you're starting to sour now, and we have a bad season, you'll be beyond done by game 30, no? What will you do the rest of Jack's career, then?

I'm not going to defend asking or demanding more from jack or Phil. Cool they won. Still not good enough. 

I'll answer though, if they suck this year I won't want jack as captain. Seems pretty simple. 

[inkman]

1 hour ago, PASabreFan said:

Dahlin was all over that Ranger off the faceoff, like stink on a monkey.

Monkey's do stink 

[Randall Flagg]

5 minutes ago, LGR4GM said:

I'm not going to defend asking or demanding more from jack or Phil. Cool they won. Still not good enough. 

I'll answer though, if they suck this year I won't want jack as captain. Seems pretty simple. 

They didn't start slow, though, right? I really thought they've been strong to start both games, if starting strong means lots of offensive zone possession time. 

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

Please let this Jack-can-win-faceoffs-now thing continue.

Edited October 7, 2018 by Randall Flagg

[Robviously]

Just got home. Haven’t read the thread but here’s what I saw:

Hutton was great. Super calm and collected. If he plays like this, we’re a different team this season. 

I didn’t love Eichel’s game. He was hesitant to shoot, seemed surprised when the puck came to him, and didn’t stand out in general. We will definitely need more from him, but his play on the ENG was really encouraging. 

Jeff Skinner is a delight. No points yet but he makes things happen when he’s out there. I’m a fan. 

Can we keep Remi Elie in the lineup for 80 more games? 

Dhalin was good. 

Tage Thompson was pretty lousy. He caused a 3 on none.

Mittelstadt made a great play to get the puck to Risto for our first goal. You won’t ever see winning a battle on the boards in a highlight reel but that play was huge for us. I still don’t trust this team to respond the right way if we don’t score the first goal. 

[Thorner]

One of the great things about having a player like Eichel is that even when he doesn't play his best game, he's still liable to put up a couple points.