Ristolainen, Feast or Famine

[GASabresIUFAN]

I think with McCabe playing well, Dahlin playing well and Bogo playing well coupled with better goaltending has taken the weight of the team off his shoulders.  Imagine playing your entire career being the only competent defenseman the franchise had and doing it at the ages of 19, 20, 21 and 22.  Myers would have wilted under that much pressure.

He must feel like he has died and gone to heaven.  He is free to play his game and not worry that every mistake will end up in the back of net.  He, Dahlin, and McCabe are perfect players for the system PH wants to play.  Even Baloo is beginning to show progress playing in this uptempo D heavily involved in the offense.  PH encourages plays like Baloo's and Risto's tonight.  He wants his D active because, as we saw on Baloo's goal, it creates miss matches.  

Once Dahlin becomes the man here, Risto will settle into a role as the anchor of a very dangerous second pair.  

 

[Doohicksie]

Beginning to?  I think Beaulieu has been pretty great all year.

[bob_sauve28]

That goal last night was just something else. I'm sure that it's been seen all around the hockey world by now. The first place Buffalo Sabres have talent, confidence and swagger. Look out NHL! 

[IKnowPhysics]

11 hours ago, Doohickie said:

Some ideas:

• The team is playing better hockey, so his every mistake isn't thrust under the microscope.

It's this.  Except you're holding the microscope.  And he doesn't know you're holding the microscope, which means that it's all in how you've perceived the game he was playing.

He was and is our best defensman.

Pondering a trade, this thread was never going to age well.  Nonetheless, I want you to know I never bumped it.

[nfreeman]

It's not just the team playing better IMHO.  I think Risto has gotten more comfortable and confident in Howie's system and as a result is making better decisions.  Also, Howie's system encourages the D to push the offense, which allows Risto to use more of his skills (which evidently include Perreault-type rushes and dekes).

[pi2000]

12 hours ago, Doohickie said:

I didn't want to start another Risto thread, but I was thinking about where we are now, riding a 10 game win streak, with Risto scoring some of the biggest goals in that stretch.

The goal against San Jose was amazing.  Why does he even attempt something like that?

Ignorance.    His hockey IQ is so low that he doesn't even realize a play like that shouldn't be possible.

[pi2000]

5 minutes ago, nfreeman said:

It's not just the team playing better IMHO.  I think Risto has gotten more comfortable and confident in Howie's system and as a result is making better decisions.  Also, Howie's system encourages the D to push the offense, which allows Risto to use more of his skills (which evidently include Perreault-type rushes and dekes).

Housley (to his credit) keeps preaching to his players that they need to "attack the game".    Meaning he wants them to drive play, make the other team react to them instead of the other way around.    They've played reactive hockey for the past 4-5 years because they didn't have the talent (and the confidence that comes with that) to play any other way.

[Doohicksie]

1 hour ago, nfreeman said:

Howie's system encourages the D to push the offense

One thing I've noticed is that when the defensive pairing is due for a change, a defenseman will lead the rush and forwards will drop back to cover the defensive zone.  We talked about Dahlin's reaction to the goal, but what was he even doing on the ice with Risto?  if you watch that replay angle where you see Dahlin's reaction, you see he'd just come off the bench in a change.  I'm pretty sure Risto was just skating it in deep in preparation for getting off the ice himself..... and went for it.  I'm guessing this comes with the full faith & credit of the coaching staff.  This is how you change D, especially in the second period.

[PerreaultForever]

13 hours ago, Doohickie said:

Beginning to?  I think Beaulieu has been pretty great all year.

"great" is a bit of a stretch but he's definitely been better and he does fit the system.

Risto is fine. He's always been fine, they've just asked too much of him in the past and now he's free to play his game and he's thriving. They all are.

I think the big thing is puck possession and quick transition. It's a lot easier to play D when you have the puck or are in the other team's zone. Team speed, team play, better passing, puck control. It's not one thing, it's a combination.

[Norcal]

Is it possible that the main problem with Risto is his confidence level?

He's been downtrodden and overworked his whole career so far and the results have been less than desirable. 

He's shown flashes this year of a player growing in confidence and his play has mostly been somewhat better as well.

I'm not saying he's the player many of us thought he could be just yet but I wanna say I see him becoming closer to the model, atleast for me. 

[Randall Flagg]

1 hour ago, Norcal said:

Is it possible that the main problem with Risto is his confidence level?

He's been downtrodden and overworked his whole career so far and the results have been less than desirable. 

He's shown flashes this year of a player growing in confidence and his play has mostly been somewhat better as well.

I'm not saying he's the player many of us thought he could be just yet but I wanna say I see him becoming closer to the model, atleast for me. 

I think Risto is still confident after Bylsma plays him 30 minutes against McDavid, and then 31 minutes 21 hours later against Alex Ovechkin. I just think it becomes physically impossible to remain useful after about 41 games of that. 

[Drunkard]

Ristolainen is an absolute beast, he's just not a Norris caliber defenseman. Guy was thrown to the wolves at a really young age out of pure necessity because we literally had no one else back there who could play, especially on the right side. Bogosian was hurt more often than not, Nelson belongs on the 3rd pair at best, and everyone else were lefties playing their off hand for the most part. Because of this his fancy stat metrics looked like garbage and people discounted his offensive contributions because he racked up points on the power play (who the hell else were they gonna put back there?). Multiple head coaches gave him ice time like he was Nick Lidstrom in his f'ing prime but despite being in way over his head, he managed to hold his own and he should be commended for it because he did well and he didn't piss or moan about it (at least in public).

Now, the reinforcements are starting to arrive. Defensive depth is improving (winning the lottery sure helped) and Bogosian has even been able to play without missing big chunks of time. Now that he's not expected to be the only guy capable of pulling the wagon we can hope his usage will fall in place with what you'd expect a good defenseman to play and the pressure can be spread around somewhat.

[pi2000]

Risto is still a -8 (trPM -10 oof), he's flawed.   But he makes up for it with his celly's.   

[Drunkard]

2 hours ago, pi2000 said:

Risto is still a -8 (trPM -10 oof), he's flawed.   But he makes up for it with his celly's.   

And if you gave his minutes to somebody else they would get shelled even worse.

[pi2000]

1 minute ago, Alkoholist said:

And if you gave his minutes to somebody else they would get shelled even worse.

[Doohicksie]

3 hours ago, pi2000 said:

he's flawed. 

Yeah, but he's locker room probiotics.

 

 

(That's the opposite of cancer, right?)

[Taro T]

51 minutes ago, Doohickie said:

Yeah, but he's locker room probiotics.

 

 

(That's the opposite of cancer, right?)

Huh?  He's yogurt?

But I hate Yogurt!  Especially with fruit on top.

[Doohicksie]

44 minutes ago, Taro T said:

Huh?  He's yogurt?

But I hate Yogurt!  Especially with fruit on top.

Work with me here....  ?️?️

[MakeSabresGrr8Again]

6 minutes ago, Doohickie said:

Work with me here....  ?️?️

Maybe you should've went with the prebiotics, lol

[IKnowPhysics]

2 hours ago, pi2000 said:

And they wouldn't have as good cellys.