GDT: Sabres at Vegas 10/16/18 10:00 PM MSG, WGR

[Kruppstahl]

What a boring game and disappointing too, after having played such a complete game last time out.

Maybe this is who we'll be this year.  Win one, lose one.  Win one, lose one.  Finish out of the playoffs with 85 points or something.

I can see that happening.  It would be an improvement.

 

 

[North Buffalo]

2 minutes ago, Kruppstahl said:

What a boring game and disappointing too, after having played such a complete game last time out.

Maybe this is who we'll be this year.  Win one, lose one.  Win one, lose one.  Finish out of the playoffs with 85 points or something.

I can see that happening.  It would be an improvement.

 

 

Yup was thinking the same... part of it is Phil, part of it is the young team.. another part is Phil... and part is they need probably 2 more D and some guys who can score and 1 who is an agitator.

[GASabresIUFAN]

12 goals in 6 games.  It’s the offense that is the problem.  Wow what a shock.  

Tracking for 164 goals.  

I hate to say it but Casey and Thompson need to be sent down.  Larsson needs to be released.  

Olofsson needs to be recalled.  

[darksabre]

1 hour ago, Sabre1974 said:

The thing I find most frustrating is our lack of goals. Sure this group can score but are they being strangled by housleys style?  Also think nylander and Smith should be up here. Thompson in Rochester. 

It's got nothing to do with Housley. This goes back to Bylsma too.

It's the players and their inability to recognize that they need to give a better effort. They've all convinced themselves that they're trying as hard as they can and it shows in their lackadaisical play. 

They can talk all they want after the game about "needing to be better", but it means nothing it they don't recognize it *during* the game. 

[Jsixspd]

7 hours ago, PerreaultForever said:

If Eichel wants to be a true NHL allstar he has to be able to pick it up at key moments and so far I don't see that happening. When this game is 2-0 and we have 2 anemic PP's in a row you just know it ain't gonna happen. Those are the moments where Crosbys and the like step it up and turn a game that should be lost into a win. We lack that big time.

Eichel has not yet evolved into one of those guys who you think can make something happen every time he's in the other team's zone - like a Crosby or a Ovechkin.  He's had flashes of brilliance,  but its not consistent.

 I haven't watched last night's game yet (recorded) - but the box score - 6 PPs and nothing from them?   How can the team captain, and team all-star, be given 6 opportunities to engineer a PP goal with his team and come away empty handed on all 6?   And the goalie apparently pulled with 4 or 5 minutes left, and still nothing from the Team Captain?  Not even an assist?   

Flagg mentioned "Vegas Flu" - if truly a contributing factor to this listless performance, that's totally unacceptable.     

[...]

7 hours ago, Randall Flagg said:

I don't back off a single offseason assessment I've put forward yet, concerning team-oriented ES play, cerebral hockey players with the hands and quick-twitch decision making needed for meaningful ES hockey, and the state/amount of those players in the Sabres organization, especially as it sits in relation with culture, and how careful we should be about just shifting scapegoats after "fixing" the latter (quotation marks because the whole concept is dubious to me) and not addressing the former in a significant manner. 

I'd have to go back and find your assessments on this matter - which I won't, so I hope you can supply a brief brief - but from the two periods I watched last night their ES weakness was very apparent.

Our top line does not like to shoot.  I almost think that, despite the chemistry (which only works when the line is "on"), the first move HCPH should make when a game is going like it was last night is to swap Skinner and Sheary.  At least with Skinner on the top line there would be one player who likes to shoot.

I want to know what happened to Thompson - during preseason he was a dipsy-doodle-take-a-shot kind of player which I liked.  Other than "he's playing against NHL caliber defenses" I wonder what's going on there.  I wonder if these guys get mixed messages about taking shots.

 

Edited October 17, 2018 by ...

[CallawaySabres]

I am willing to bet that the Sabres will not be above 500 the rest of the season. I think they are probably 10 points out of 8th Place by the end of November if Housley is not fired

[That Aud Smell]

12 minutes ago, darksabre said:

It's the players and their inability to recognize that they need to give a better effort. They've all convinced themselves that they're trying as hard as they can and it shows in their lackadaisical play. 

Amen.

This is Jack's team. Time to put up or shut up, young man.

I watched the 1st and a bit of the second. I think Okposo knows how to give an honest, full effort, night in and night out. As for the balance of the holdover core, I'm not so sure.

[nfreeman]

Vegas came out flying and determined last night, and the Sabres didn’t come close to matching their intensity.  That’s a Howie issue, to be sure, but it’s also a leadership issue.  The alleged young leadership core — Eichel, Reino and Risto — did nothing (unless you want to count Reino giving Vegas their 2nd goal with a terrible turnover at the blue line, which he repeated on the next PP, as well as contributing mightily to the Vegas goal that was called back by bailing on his back check).

At some point the players have to want it bad enough.

 

 

 

 

[CallawaySabres]

Sabres coming down the rink on offense

[darksabre]

12 minutes ago, That Aud Smell said:

Amen.

This is Jack's team. Time to put up or shut up, young man.

I watched the 1st and a bit of the second. I think Okposo knows how to give an honest, full effort, night in and night out. As for the balance of the holdover core, I'm not so sure.

Okposo is trying, bless him. He's trying. 

Dahlin was already sick of them when he decided to take the puck coast to coast just to get a zone entry on the PP. Since no one else could be f*vked to pull it off.

[Sabres Fan in NS]

13 hours ago, WildCard said:

Yuri?

I don't think so, but I think he is with us again.

[That Aud Smell]

9 minutes ago, darksabre said:

Okposo is trying, bless him. He's trying. 

Dahlin was already sick of them when he decided to take the puck coast to coast just to get a zone entry on the PP. Since no one else could be f*vked to pull it off.

I see that, too, with Okposo. I see an honest, full effort. I don't know that he'll ever get back to where he was before his incident -- some of that is just a function of age, I suspect.

I was on board with those calling for the matter of the captaincy to be tabled until such time as Dahlin might take it on. 

[darksabre]

5 minutes ago, That Aud Smell said:

I see that, too, with Okposo. I see an honest, full effort. I don't know that he'll ever get back to where he was before his incident -- some of that is just a function of age, I suspect.

I was on board with those calling for the matter of the captaincy to be tabled until such time as Dahlin might take it on. 

I suspect Dahlin, if he's strong hearted enough to withstand the peer pressure, will become the defacto leader of this team in time. He's thumped a few guys in practice already and I said when we drafted him that he could be the guy who actually challenges Jack. I think Jack needs someone to challenge him. 

[LTS]

8 hours ago, Sabel79 said:

Pulling the goalie with almost five minutes left, in a game your team has demonstrated they couldn’t score in a brothel with a fist full of fifties, just screams: “LOOK AT ME, I’M COACHING!!!!!!”  

Let’s just put Phil, and more importantly us, out of his misery now.  

Last year he was blasted for not doing this and now he's blasted for doing it. You are the only one so far, but the silence from others over his willingness to do this twice now is interesting.  Fans...

Of course last year the showed they couldn't even hold onto the puck.  At least this year they have moments where they do that.

Just like last year, this team is learning.  It's a younger team as well.  Just like last year, the power play is terrible at the beginning of the year.  The bright side is that they've not given up the shorties like they did last year.

They've tried different things on the PP by moving players around, changing who is on the ice.  It's not happening yet... 

I'm not going to go in on firing the coach, blaming Eichel, etc. The team is playing better than they did last year. I'm content just letting it play out at this point and judging the season as a whole.

[Randall Flagg]

11 minutes ago, LTS said:

Last year he was blasted for not doing this and now he's blasted for doing it. You are the only one so far, but the silence from others over his willingness to do this twice now is interesting.  Fans...

Of course last year the showed they couldn't even hold onto the puck.  At least this year they have moments where they do that.

Just like last year, this team is learning.  It's a younger team as well.  Just like last year, the power play is terrible at the beginning of the year.  The bright side is that they've not given up the shorties like they did last year.

They've tried different things on the PP by moving players around, changing who is on the ice.  It's not happening yet... 

I'm not going to go in on firing the coach, blaming Eichel, etc. The team is playing better than they did last year. I'm content just letting it play out at this point and judging the season as a whole.

I do believe that he actually did start doing that last year. And it's a good move any year, by any coach. 

I get that last night wasn't acceptable (presuming their pregaming had something to do with their effort) and I don't think Housley does anything especially worthy of praise, but I think a lot of the anti-Housley takes after losses are fairly unorganized and just venting 

After myself and DDB, I'm a pro at recognizing it ?

Edited October 17, 2018 by Randall Flagg

[nfreeman]

Couple other points:

- Although I criticized upthread the Sabres' failure to match VGK's intensity early on, it was frankly pretty reasonable for VGK to come out harder than the Sabres.  The Sabres weathered the storm OK -- not great, but OK -- and by the middle of the 2nd period, they were taking it to Vegas pretty well and generating pretty good offense. 

My disappointment was in how one-sided the game was until that point and in how little the Sabres got from Eichel and Reino.  They needed at least their top line to create some offense and break VGK's momentum a little, and those 2 guys failed to deliver -- even on the PP,  which was terrible.

- Hutton was terrific again and kept them in it during the 1st 2 periods.

[Sabres Fan in NS]

15 hours ago, PASabreFan said:

First? You sure?

 

14 hours ago, WildCard said:

Yuri?

It would appear that your assessments were correct.

I thought for sure that NAO was / is Yuri.  I still think so.  One post, but just weird stuff going on in that dudes profile.  Having a conversation with himself in the status section of his profile.  Basically setting up threads and conversing with himself.

[SwampD]

21 minutes ago, LTS said:

Last year he was blasted for not doing this and now he's blasted for doing it. You are the only one so far, but the silence from others over his willingness to do this twice now is interesting.  Fans...

Of course last year the showed they couldn't even hold onto the puck.  At least this year they have moments where they do that.

Just like last year, this team is learning.  It's a younger team as well.  Just like last year, the power play is terrible at the beginning of the year.  The bright side is that they've not given up the shorties like they did last year.

They've tried different things on the PP by moving players around, changing who is on the ice.  It's not happening yet... 

I'm not going to go in on firing the coach, blaming Eichel, etc. The team is playing better than they did last year. I'm content just letting it play out at this point and judging the season as a whole.

2 in 6 games isn't good.

[Jsixspd]

"Reino"?   It can't be that bad already, is it?    LOL!!!!

[LTS]

1 hour ago, SwampD said:

2 in 6 games isn't good.

They gave up 5 in 6 games last year.  It's not good, but it's not as bad.  ?

[darksabre]

1 minute ago, LTS said:

They gave up 5 in 6 games last year.  It's not good, but it's not as bad.  ?

Ah, yes, intertextuality. 

[jsb]

13 minutes ago, darksabre said:

Ah, yes, intertextuality. 

Big word, I'm impressed, I even had to google it to make sure I understood the meaning. 

[jad1]

1 hour ago, nfreeman said:

Couple other points:

- Although I criticized upthread the Sabres' failure to match VGK's intensity early on, it was frankly pretty reasonable for VGK to come out harder than the Sabres.  The Sabres weathered the storm OK -- not great, but OK -- and by the middle of the 2nd period, they were taking it to Vegas pretty well and generating pretty good offense. 

My disappointment was in how one-sided the game was until that point and in how little the Sabres got from Eichel and Reino.  They needed at least their top line to create some offense and break VGK's momentum a little, and those 2 guys failed to deliver -- even on the PP,  which was terrible.

- Hutton was terrific again and kept them in it during the 1st 2 periods.

Right now, the Sabres are a one line team.  Opponents known that, and they smother the Eichel line.

The first line knows it, and they're trying too hard to make the perfect play.

Short term, this is where the O'Reilly trade hurts.  Until Mittelstadt can improve his game to the level of a 2nd line NHL center, the team is going to struggle.

Mittelstadt is taking some steps to improve, but Skinner has been orphaned while Mittelstadt finds his game.

And Okposo might be trying hard, but he was a give-away machine on the power play. He was a possession killer last night.

[That Aud Smell]

27 minutes ago, jad1 said:

Right now, the Sabres are a one line team.  Opponents known that, and they smother the Eichel line.

The first line knows it, and they're trying too hard to make the perfect play.

Short term, this is where the O'Reilly trade hurts.  Until Mittelstadt can improve his game to the level of a 2nd line NHL center, the team is going to struggle.

Mittelstadt is taking some steps to improve, but Skinner has been orphaned while Mittelstadt finds his game.

And Okposo might be trying hard, but he was a give-away machine on the power play. He was a possession killer last night.

Good take. I'll agree that Okposo does not belong the power play.