Resemblance to the 2005-2006 Team coming out of the lockout?

[darksabre]

It's tough to compare because 05-06 is the only comparable due to the fact that 04-05 never happened. This current team might be what 04-05 would have looked like if 04-05 had happened. The 05-06 team was pretty much good from day one but people remember them being a surprise because they were kinda asleep because of the year off for the lockout. 

[pi2000]

I don't see any resemblance, sorry.  

This current team is unique in every way.. from coach, to personalities, to age, etc...    

[North Buffalo]

8 minutes ago, DarthEbriate said:

The 98-99 team was a skating cardiac arrest for lack of scoring and Hasek standing on his head. But as for a comparison.... That 98-99 team was coming off an Eastern Conference Finals loss. They didn't surprise anyone or sneak up on anyone in '99 (you could even argue they underachieved in the regular season until Barnes and Juneau and Warrener showed up and solidified the lines/pairings).

Today's team is led by under-23 top-end talent (top-10 draft picks). I'm not sure we have a season/era team that compares to this one. We are new.

Maybe the early 70s teams as far as talent and being young. But the D on the back end now are all better skaters.  They have some toughness too with Bogo Risto and McCabe as well as Dhalin nasty.  They play physical nice blend of size, more holes up front talent scoring wise but you can see it coming. If TT and Mitts can pick it up add in an Oloffson, Nyls and Pilut and woah this team might really be able to light the lamp!

[matter2003]

8 minutes ago, North Buffalo said:

Maybe the early 70s teams as far as talent and being young. But the D on the back end now are all better skaters.  They have some toughness too with Bogo Risto and McCabe as well as Dhalin nasty.  They play physical nice blend of size, more holes up front talent scoring wise but you can see it coming. If TT and Mitts can pick it up add in an Oloffson, Nyls and Pilut and woah this team might really be able to light the lamp!

Pilut is freaking tied for the AHL scoring lead with 22 points and Redmond is right behind him with 21...2 D men leading the Amerks in scoring? Crazy!

[Doohicksie]

2 minutes ago, matter2003 said:

2 D men leading the Amerks in scoring? Crazy!

I have to keep checking to make sure those guys are actually defensemen.  I keep thinking I must be wrong.

Defense-driven scoring.... if only we had a head coach that knew how to take advantage of that....

 

[Stoner]

36 minutes ago, DarthEbriate said:

The 98-99 team was a skating cardiac arrest for lack of scoring and Hasek standing on his head. But as for a comparison.... That 98-99 team was coming off an Eastern Conference Finals loss. They didn't surprise anyone or sneak up on anyone in '99 (you could even argue they underachieved in the regular season until Barnes and Juneau and Warrener showed up and solidified the lines/pairings).

Today's team is led by under-23 top-end talent (top-10 draft picks). I'm not sure we have a season/era team that compares to this one. We are new.

72-73 might be one to consider.

The funny thing about 98-99 was how they scored 3 goals a game on average in the first three rounds before things dried up against the Stars.

[DHawerchuk10]

24 minutes ago, darksabre said:

It's tough to compare because 05-06 is the only comparable due to the fact that 04-05 never happened. This current team might be what 04-05 would have looked like if 04-05 had happened. The 05-06 team was pretty much good from day one but people remember them being a surprise because they were kinda asleep because of the year off for the lockout. 

Not really...they were 500 or slightly below for the first month, then exploded.  Most of the pundits were picking them to be near or at the bottom, but all you needed was some awareness of the last played year to know they were not going to be that bad.  But I don't think anybody expected them to be as good as they were either. 

[DHawerchuk10]

1 minute ago, PASabreFan said:

72-73 might be one to consider.

The funny thing about 98-99 was how they scored 3 goals a game on average in the first three rounds before things dried up against the Stars.

The '98-'99 team wasn't THAT bad offensively, especially when comparing them to other teams of that era.  Its just how people remember it because Hasek was the best player in the game and shutdown other teams so completely.  Didn't Satan have 40 that year?

[Knightrider]

3 hours ago, Taro T said:

Well, 2 years was self imposed.  It should've been more like 5-6.

And I do expect this current team to be good longer than that.  10 years would be awesome.  But even with breaks working against them, they should be in the mix for about 8.

Thing is, that difference in ages (from '06 to today) is why right now I am not quite sold on these guys yet. They don't feel like that squad (though if they can sustain this & come out of the next 9 5-4-0 or better, the standings will say they are).  They NEED that early goaltending to finally get going, and the '05-'06 squad could dominate to a point they didn't always need Miller to stand on his head.   Though they did take a step back w/ Miller's thumb injury, that team had come out of the gate well & was building off where they were previously.  This squad is following some historically bad hockey & without the goaltending upgrade would still only be middling.

But their D pairings (hopefully) will have more similarities to that '06 squad that was just fair to start the season but was running a veteran Finn & a nearly Norris quality D-man at the end of the year along with some NA toughness into pretty much the best top 6 D (when healthy) of the entire league.

They definitely don't feel like the '86 Habs (a youth dominated squad that ran the table) at present, but watching the joy on their faces in these games MAYBE  there's a BIT of the '80-'81 Eulers.  A VERY young & talented team that rode some very good goaltending to a stunning 1st round upset before being vanquished afterputting a scareinto the eventual SC champions.  Those Eulers were still quite a ways away, but '81 was their coming out party & showed they were agood NHL squad.

But regardless, they're fun to watch & the 3rd period confidence is contagious.

That 05-06 team got hammered by the Senators at about this point in November. TB, the jets, or the Wild should have been that game. This team has much more upside.  Lol, I looked it up. It was 11/12/05. 

[Swedesessed]

4 hours ago, Doohickie said:

Perhaps a comparison to 98-99 is more apt?  After all, we're only in a lot of these games due to goaltending.

I do agree in part: Maybe the best comparison is somewhere in between 98-99 and 05-06. 99 team had no player close to Eichel on offense but Carter Hutton is nowhere near Hasek.

[GASabresIUFAN]

I don’t think the 99 team ever beat anyone 9-2.

Edited November 20, 2018 by GASabresIUFAN

[SDS]

14 minutes ago, Knightrider said:

That 05-06 team got hammered by the Senators at about this point in November. TB, the jets, or the Wild should have been that game. This team has much more upside.  Lol, I looked it up. It was 11/12/05. 

Relive the excitement!

 

[That Aud Smell]

There'd be stronger resemblance if, as others have noted, the team had a larger cadre of guys who'd been together in Roch. When Pilut and hopefully Olofsson get here, there'd be more superficial similarity.

But the teams are just built sorta differently. The 2005-2007 squad had a bunch of prospects who spent time in Roch and then all panned out, plus Drury, Briere, and Grier. I am probably missing a few players, and maybe misspelled Grier's name.

[darksabre]

55 minutes ago, DHawerchuk10 said:

Not really...they were 500 or slightly below for the first month, then exploded.  Most of the pundits were picking them to be near or at the bottom, but all you needed was some awareness of the last played year to know they were not going to be that bad.  But I don't think anybody expected them to be as good as they were either. 

They went 7-4 in October. That's pretty good. 

That losing streak in November was a little scary, but they pulled it out of the dive.

[PerreaultForever]

Ya, this team doesn't really remind me of any team from the past.

I think what we are seeing is the early results of really good management, which we haven't had since............dunno......Punch Imlach? 

I'll admit I was skeptical, and things seemed slow at first, but what we see now, already, is the foundation of a strong long term success story. Clear out the problems, manage the cap, rebuild the farm system, collect picks and build from within. A new sort of team, faster, more balanced, harder to play against, more competitive, and most of all, totally in step with the current style of hockey that wins in this league. For me, right now, JBot is GM of the year.

The one big question mark will be to see how we do if we hit a rash of injuries. we have been very lucky so far this year and if we hit a rough patch, as most teams do, will the call ups be able to keep things going? Don't actually think we have the depth yet to survive  something like what Boston's going through with their captain and I think about 2/3 of their starting D out. If we have to rely on the Baileys and Baptistes and some of the other career AHLers we could fall apart. Fingers crossed we stay healthy.

 

[That Aud Smell]

21 minutes ago, PerreaultForever said:

The one big question mark will be to see how we do if we hit a rash of injuries. we have been very lucky so far this year and if we hit a rough patch, as most teams do, will the call ups be able to keep things going? Don't actually think we have the depth yet to survive  something like what Boston's going through with their captain and I think about 2/3 of their starting D out. If we have to rely on the Baileys and Baptistes and some of the other career AHLers we could fall apart. Fingers crossed we stay healthy.

All very true. Fingers crossed, indeed.

(Also, didn't Baptiste get traded?)

[dudacek]

Thus the hope from the farm

Need speed? Bailey

Smarts? Smith

Skill? Nylander

Checking? Malone or Asplund

Goals? Olafsson

Puckmover? Pilut

Two-way? Guhle

Shutdown? Borgen

Theres not only numbers, there’s a good mix

 

 

Edited November 21, 2018 by dudacek

[Eleven]

No.  That team was special and different.  If you think this team is like that one, you probably need to revisit that season.  (And the one that followed.)

[Taro T]

6 hours ago, Knightrider said:

That 05-06 team got hammered by the Senators at about this point in November. TB, the jets, or the Wild should have been that game. This team has much more upside.  Lol, I looked it up. It was 11/12/05. 

And IIRC, 2 of the Sens debacle games came with Miller out with a broken thumb.  How confident would we have felt in the Peg had Hutton just gone on IR with Ullmark NEEDING to step up?

5 hours ago, darksabre said:

They went 7-4 in October. That's pretty good. 

That losing streak in November was a little scary, but they pulled it out of the dive.

Yep.  1st segment of the season they were on a playoff pace.  And that was with the D still very unsettled.  Once Miller was back & Tallinder/Lydman stopped playing like a 3rd pairing and instead like a top in the league pairing, things started to take off.

And we didn't know that Ruff was going to ride Miller as hard as he did heading into the season.  He'd been great in Ra-cha-cha but his previous outings in the NHL were nothing to write home about.

Edited November 21, 2018 by Taro T

[nfreeman]

One other note about Miller that year:  he won a 3-way competition for the starting job in camp with  Biron and Mika Noronen, who had a pretty good pedigree and acquitted himself well IIRC.  Miller won it out of camp, but he certainly could’ve lost it if he faltered once the season started.  He played very well out of the gate though and didn’t look back.   

[bob_sauve28]

I know this is the next year, but still interesting with the win streak. 

https://www.nhl.com/sabres/news/winning-streak-ends-at-10/c-437278

 October 28th, 2006

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  The Atlanta Thrashers were able to do something that no other team this season has been able to do. They beat the Buffalo Sabres. Well, sort of.

Buffalo rallied from four different one-goal deficits during regulation to push the game into overtime before being defeated for the first time in 10 games during a shootout, 5-4, by Vyacheslav Kozlov's lone goal.

"We didn't necessarily lose," said Sabres head coach Lindy Ruff, whose team tied the 1993-94 Toronto Maple Leafs' NHL record for most wins to start a season. "We just didn't win.

"We didn't take advantage of those three breakaways we got in the shootout. That was the only difference in that game."

Daniel Briere missed the net, Maxim Afinogenov's offering was kicked away and Thomas Vanek's around-the-world shot beat Atlanta's netminder but pinged off the cross bar during the two-and-a-half round shootout. 

Kozlov beat Miller with a quick wristshot low stickside by a toe on Atlanta's first attempt. 

"I still don't know how Kozlov's [shot] went in," said goaltender Ryan Miller, who made 32 saves in the game. "I read it. I made the move. I swear to God, I can feel it brush off my foot. It was a really nice shot, I guess.

Off the streak, Miller added: "It would have been fun to be on our own with a piece of history but we're getting mentioned with some good hockey teams. But ultimately, we're just happy with the good start because every point matters."

Skating from the ice on Saturday night, the team was in unfamiliar territory. Buffalo hadn't lost a game in HSBC Arena since Game Four of the Eastern Conference Finals against the Carolina Hurricanes on May 26. 

"I haven't felt this in a while," said Miller. "I'm a little pissed off, but this is how I get after any loss."

"I'm a little disappointed," said forward Jason Pominville. "We never want to lose, but we still are proud of the winning streak."

"The guys in that room were having a lot of fun [during the winning streak to start the season] and that energy spilled into the community," said Ruff. "It's great getting on a run and we're still in one. We've gotten 21 out of 22 points and we still don't have a number in the loss column. I'm proud of how hard they played and how hard they've worked."

Before leaving the rink, the team gathered at center ice and saluted the capacity crowd that was deafening throughout that night's contest. The moment was a chilling reminder of last year's unbelievable playoff run and a well-deserved tribute to the fans in attendance.

"That crowd was as good as any playoff game again tonight," said Ruff. "It was unbelievable."

"That was the loudest we're heard it since playoffs last year," said Miller. "We're having a lot of fun with our fans. You can expect more hockey like this to come so stay tuned."

Atlanta became the first team to outscore Buffalo in a period since the New York Rangers on October 14 thanks to the play of Bobby Holik.

Holik scored his fourth goal of the season and gave the Thrashers the 1-0 lead after receiving a feed from Jim Slater and slipping the puck around Miller's outstretched glove at the 5:29 mark of the first.

Intercepting Afinogenov's drop pass in Atlanta's zone, Holik raced up ice and found Scott Mellanby cutting down the slot to make the score 2-1 in favor of Atlanta at 10:29. Mellanby beat Miller with a low wristshot just inside the left post for his sixth goal of the season.

Briere extended his points streak to a personal-best 10 games with bank shot off Kari Lehtonen's left pad to tie the 1-1 at 9:45 of the first.

Vanek netted his third power-play goal of the season to tie the game 2-2 after shoveling Derek Roy's rebound past Lehtonen at 14:03 of the middle frame. 

Niko Kapanen one-timed Andy Sutton's rebound off the end boards into the top of the net for his first goal and point of the season at 15:58. 

Pominville tied the score 3-3 with his fifth goal in as many games after converting on a Briere rebound at 2:23 of the third. 

Ilya Kovalchuk regained the lead for Atlanta after he snapped a blazing wristshot low gloveside on Miller from the high slot at 3:38 of the third.

Charging the net, Jochen Hecht slipped Pominville's rebound between Lehtonen's pads to tie the game with less than two minutes remaining in regulation. 
----------------------------------------------------
SCORING SHEETS
Game Summary | Super Stats | Face-offs | Play-by-Play | Shift Chart

[Sabres Fan in NS]

15 hours ago, PASabreFan said:

72-73 might be one to consider.

The funny thing about 98-99 was how they scored 3 goals a game on average in the first three rounds before things dried up against the Stars.

I won't say great minds ...

But, old geezers think alike.  I was just about to post that this team reminds me of the 72-73 edition.  Young stars just starting to come into their own.  Erned their fist playoff appearance in jsut their 3rd season.  Some vets around to settle things down.  Really started playing as a team.  And just two season later ... well, let's hope that one of these days the Sabres will have a better result in the Finals.

[DHawerchuk10]

15 hours ago, darksabre said:

They went 7-4 in October. That's pretty good. 

That losing streak in November was a little scary, but they pulled it out of the dive.

My memory might be a little off, but I could have sworn we were below 500 at some point within the first month or so.   And then right around Thanksgiving...boom.  We won like 10 out of 12 or something like that.  I think Miller was still out too at the beginning of that turnaround, as I thought Marty won like 5 or 6 straight.  Briere and Dumont were out with a sports hernia for a month if I recall.  In any event.....

 

 

[DHawerchuk10]

9 hours ago, nfreeman said:

One other note about Miller that year:  he won a 3-way competition for the starting job in camp with  Biron and Mika Noronen, who had a pretty good pedigree and acquitted himself well IIRC.  Miller won it out of camp, but he certainly could’ve lost it if he faltered once the season started.  He played very well out of the gate though and didn’t look back.   

I always felt bad for Mika.  Never thought he got a fair shake, and then his career stalled.

[Stoner]

15 minutes ago, DHawerchuk10 said:

My memory might be a little off, but I could have sworn we were below 500 at some point within the first month or so.   And then right around Thanksgiving...boom.  We won like 10 out of 12 or something like that.  I think Miller was still out too at the beginning of that turnaround, as I thought Marty won like 5 or 6 straight.  Briere and Dumont were out with a sports hernia for a month if I recall.  In any event....

They were 8-9 after a 6-1 loss in Ottawa on November 12. They then went 17-2-1 through the day after Christmas!