GDT - The Very Sharp Sabres @ The Very, Very Frightening (NOT!!) Lightning of Tampa - November 29, 2018 - 7:30 PM (EST) - 8:30 PM (NS time)

[darksabre]

Paquette is on my list now. I'm placing a bounty. 

[CallawaySabres]

12 hours ago, CallawaySabres said:

Stay out of the box and get out of the 1st period no worse than down 1. I want to break that record tonight and a team from freaking Tampa sure as hell should not be the team to end this glory!

Just could not stay out of the box....

[Kruppstahl]

Gritty effort, but we were outclassed all night long.  Amazing we found a way to keep it a 1 goal game.

Eager to see how we rebound in Ft. Lauderdale.  I want to see us continue to play a consistently good, high level type of game.

If we do, the wins will keep rolling along.

Let's start the next winning streak! 

 

 

[hockeyhound]

35 minutes ago, spndnchz said:

Meh

 

you win 10 of 11 games, I’m good

Sure would've been nice to break the record and get that 11th game but, you're right, it's all good.

Edited November 30, 2018 by hockeyhound

[Randall Flagg]

This past April, in the remaining dregs of a horrifying season, the Sabres went to Tampa Bay. Tampa Bay was eight tiers above that Sabres team, and overwhelmed them not one minute into the game for their first goal. But the Sabres didn't seem to care. They were rejuvenated with the fresh legs of Guhle, Nylander, Mittelstadt. Two minutes later, ERod and Scandella help send Casey's first NHL goal into the history books. Sabrespace rejoices. The word "fun" even makes an appearance. The previous six months had been anything but. Kucherov gets Tampa's lead right back again, not two minutes later. The Lightning barrage Johnson with 5 shots in the next shift and a half before Brendan Guhle puts a shot on net that Nylander tips past Vasilevsky for HIS first NHL goal. Again, within two minutes. What even is this? Can Sabres hockey be this way? This time, it takes Tampa THREE minutes to get their lead back, and they bring a 3-2 lead into the first intermission. 

A 4-2 lead for Tampa is then methodically erased by some peeper time. The Sabres even take a lead on the Kyle PP shot, the last time we saw it work, save a beautiful moment against Montreal this season. The problem is, Tampa is a liquid that knows exactly where the empty spaces on the ice are, and they fill them more fluidly than any hockey team I've ever seen. The Sabres fought valiantly but could not stem the flood waters, and they lost in regulation. We all sat together, breathless. It was the most exciting game of the year. If losses next year pile up, we at least hope they can look like this one. Maybe the future can be bright. 

This year, the Sabres come into Tampa on a stretch of hockey that has new members flocking in droves, and the city buzzing. It's the most fun we've had with this sport probably since the team was thisclose to a cup. They again run into a team that is mind-numbing in its skill and speed. A team that no other can match line for line, skill on skill. Again, quick goals are erased, heading to the intermission down 3-2. Again, more goals scored, a lead taken by a Sabre team that is very obviously behind in the skill department, but doesn't care. Again, the Lightning brought their A game and put the Sabres away, but again, we saw flashes from youth and a much clearer picture of the future. This time, it wasn't our first glimpse. We've seen a lot of it in their trek up the standings, and eagerly await our next trip to Tampa to try and hang with the best. The Sabres are going to be even better the next time they visit. 

And then sometime, not next time, but not too far into the future, they will make the trip, step on the ice, and we'll realize they're at the summit. They will keep up with Tampa Bay, and they will beat them convincingly. 

In the meantime, I'm sure we'll have lots of fun in other ways.

Edited November 30, 2018 by Randall Flagg

[darksabre]

Circle January 12th on the calendar. 

[pi2000]

The Sabres talking like they played well and that it could've gone either way.   IMO they looked sloppy and unorganized... giving up too many odd man rushes, fumbling pucks, turnovers....  didn't look very pretty to my eyes.

[Randall Flagg]

Sam's second goal was by far the most intelligent thing any Sabre did tonight. It was awesome. 

[inkman]

25 minutes ago, Scottysabres said:

They blew it.

Point blank, a lack of discipline blew this game. 

Yes, Tampa is faster, more experienced, better chemistry, more abundant talent throughout the ranks. But Buffalo could have won this game had it not been for the amount of boneheaded penalties taken. Your playing one of the top 4 premier teams in the league, mistakes are not an option.

One thing that is clear, Buffalo needs to continue to improve it's wing positions on the 2nd and 3rd lines. They need their 1st line to garner more play making ability.

In short, they have work to do. That was a playoff game atmosphere, and they fell short.

It's almost like they aren't the best team in hockey.  

Can we stop with the hokey GDT stuff. Reading titles like "The super most bestest pointy swords of the almighty King vs the naughty heathens from our dastardly rival city" is getting a little annoying. 

No one will like this but the winning was bringing out the worst on some of y'all. The Sabres have a loooooooooong way to go to garner the type of cache many here we're bestowing upon them. 

They're a good young team. Enjoy the ride but let's pump the brakes with the ideology that this team has made it to the promise Land or something. Lots of work to do. Good young players are on the way. 

[Andrew Amerk]

24 minutes ago, CallawaySabres said:

Just could not stay out of the box....

That’s what he said. 

[inkman]

2 minutes ago, Andrew Amerk said:

That’s what he said. 

He must not be married. I'm like ROR his last season in Colorado.

[Randall Flagg]

2 minutes ago, inkman said:

No one will like this but the winning was bringing out the worst on some of y'all. The Sabres have a loooooooooong way to go to garner the type of cache many here we're bestowing upon them. 

They're a good young team. Enjoy the ride but let's pump the brakes with the ideology that this team has made it to the promise Land or something. Lots of work to do. Good young players are on the way. 

Now that somebody has said this, I don't feel bad for saying that y'all looking to give Pominville a new contract are cray, and his/Vlad/some of the other bottom sixers' spots need to be upgraded internally or externally next season, and hopefully even this one! 

[sabresouth]

I think the pressure of trying to win a team record eleven games got to them a little bit. They are a very young teem. If they had come into this game on a five game win streak they probably would have played better. They just seemed off a bit. Of course playing one of the best teams in the league added to it as well. Over all I'm well pleased with this team. FUN TO WATCH. Finally...

[Doohicksie]

26 minutes ago, sabresouth said:

I think the pressure of trying to win a team record eleven games got to them a little bit.

I think the pressure of a very determined Lightning squad who didn't allow any gaps all night got to them a little bit.  And they still hung in there.

[nfreeman]

My game notes:

- That was a great hockey game.  

- The Sabres were without one of their top defensemen and still went toe-to-toe with maybe the best team in the league for most of the game, took it to them for long stretches and could easily have won that game.  

- Kucherov is awesome.  

- Neither team got good goaltending.  Hutton was better than TB’s guy, but still not at his best.  He needs to stop that long shot from Paquette with 6 min to go. 

- Dahlin had a pretty shaky game in the D zone.  Nelson and Beaulieu were surprisingly decent.

- They sure could’ve used Bergy on the checking line instead of Elie.

- If Sheary is ready tomorrow night, I’d drop KO to Sobotka’s line and drop Pommer to either the checking line or the press box.

- I am not seeing what others are seeing from KO.   His legs are back and the will is there, but his hands are where scoring chances go to die.

- So was the Hunwick starting thing just a hoax?  And is there any word on McCabe?  He’s an important piece.

- Tomorrow is a test of their mental toughness.  Are they going to feel sorry for themselves in the 2nd half of the back-to-back on the road after a tough loss?  Or are they going to bounce back strong?

- Flagg is a terrific poster but holy mackerel is he out to lunch on Risto and Sobotka.

- It was a great streak.  Probably not sustainable given all the OT/SO/1-goal wins, but great nonetheless.

- They’ve showed a lot of heart.  Keep it up boys.

Go Sabres.

 

 

 

[North Buffalo]

What happened to McCabe, didn't catch it.  Sabres were outplayed...  needed to take Kucherov's legs out... guess you can't hit what you can't see. Pommer hardly played in the third looked like he is done... Bring up CJ or Oloffson...  Mitts and Tommer are starting to show their wares... nice to see... Loved Larrson's game, maybe should have put him out their when Sabres pulled the goalie, only guy that seemed to go into Tampa's corners and come out with the puck.  Jack was too hyped... needed to shoot more, plays were not there.  Skinner needed sharper skates, kept spinning out at bad times... and Dhalin showed his age... That being said great game to watch and I see progress, but Tampa exposed the Sabres holes and where improvements are needed... Sheary's speed was missed in this game.  Sobotka wasn't bad, he just wasn't very good either... not enough speed to hang with Tampa's.

[GASabresIUFAN]

On the bright side we held our own with one of the best two teams in the NHL playing mediocre hockey and without 4 key players in Sheary, Scandella, Berglund and then McCabe mid game.  Frankly we have these players we win this game. 

[North Buffalo]

So Pilut on an airplane to Florida tonight?

[GASabresIUFAN]

7 minutes ago, North Buffalo said:

So Pilut on an airplane to Florida tonight?

I think he was already with the team.  I hope he gets his debut later today.

I'd like to see them also call up a forward to try to replace Sheary's production.

[North Buffalo]

Or two, give Pommer a break... CJ and Oloffson would be my choices.  Any word on how Berglund is doing?

[Randall Flagg]

58 minutes ago, nfreeman said:

- Flagg is a terrific poster but holy mackerel is he out to lunch on Risto and Sobotka.

What do you infer is the reason that without Reinhart, Sobotka cannot separate from tank Sabres depth forwards by any metric, possession, plain old scoring,  or otherwise? 

To be thorough, he has a role on this current Sabres roster. He is an effective PKer and is far from a disaster in his own zone, if not actively good. But he's not a shot suppressor at all, no Sabre is on the ice for more shots against except for Tage, despite four forwards regularly getting tougher/more defensive minutes. Berglund and Zemgus are two effective shot suppressors. Both have strength and closing speed that Vlad doesn't, and that's why they can keep shot against numbers down despite tougher competition and less o-zone time - neither has been on any sort of line expected to be in the offensive zone, whereas Vlad has lots of ice time with Sam, Tage, Sheary. 

Without the magic of Reinhart, which is much of Vlad's ice time, he's almost doubled up on time spent chasing in the dzone versus creating in the o-zone. And he comprehensively drags every, single, one of his teammates. No other Sabre does either of these things, whether they're in better or worse, more offensive or more defensive, situations.

I know, "but stats." But stats merely support what my eyes are already telling me, they aren't driving my opinion at all. I refused to even check things like NST and corsica until we played 10-12 games, and I came to this conclusion about Sobotka before we even traded for him, when I went to check out the Blues forum to see if we could add him and being alarmed by how much they said he fell off the table. Then, that month-long project in the summer sealed the deal. If you insist, I'll grab a quick video to give evidence of the "inability to generate meaningful offensive plays with any consistency" I've been on about since August.
 

This one clip just from the first period today, super easy to find, sort of encapsulates everything I talk about. It's not meant to be proof in and of itself that Vlad is an ineffective driver of play. No one play is proof of anything, nor is one game, or one week. But I was posting videos like this in August from Blues games, and try to point it out in GDTs while balancing against a "negativity vibe," and the stats are clear in their indication that this happens. 

He comes in on a rush with room initially, and doesn't have the speed to back off/worry the defender at all, so the defender closes without issue and forces his initial shot to skitter into the corner. Countless are the number of rush-shot attempts that have fizzled off his stick. A second later, a board battle is lost before it even starts. He is decidedly below NHL average in his ability to win board battles, and is further hurt by the fact that when he does, he has a very hard time getting the puck to prime areas (this is why Sam helps his metrics as I've often described). This is why his offensive events are so painstakingly low. Finally, he DOES get the puck, three feet away from the net, and doesn't come close to putting it on goal.

Sure, he popped a two goal night playing with Sam and Evan, the dutiful trailer on rushes led by those guys. And he got a squeaker in LV with a goalie pulled and Okposo doing what 71/23 did in MTL. But he doesn't make anything happen on that side of the ice over long stretches of hockey. Those two goals in Montreal completely and fully describe his noteworthy offensive chances and plays at ES on the entire season, over 20 games. If you find me one single video clip of a legitimate 5v5 offensive chance directly created or taken by him that isn't those two goals, I'll ask for about twenty more, because that's how many any other forward on this team have been a part of, even the worst ones. But I don't even think you'd be able to show me one. 

Since the only thing I've said in this thread is that his roster spot needs to be upgraded next year, not "he sucks balls and has no place in this league," I certainly don't think I'm off my rocker to feel this way. All I've said is that, watching Vlad, on a line with two players who have separately shown an ability to play sustainable and scoring hockey with players who aren't Vlad, something he can't say for himself, watching that line take 15% of all shot attempts while Tampa had 85% tonight, it is clear that if we want to be playing and winning games against good teams in our division, we need to be able to do better than that when they send out wave after wave of fast-skating skill guys. I have not said that Vlad doesn't have a role and doesn't do things well within that role. I haven't said he's not an upgrade on Nolan/Pouliot/Griffith. He is, and we are better for making it. But I want to get even better than we are now, and this is a move that will happen on the way, and it is completely reasonable to be ready for this move sometime in the next eight months. 

And as far as Risto goes, I guess YMMV on the goofy stuff he does after the whistle, but it didn't win us the game tonight, it never has won us anything, and usually gets us made fun of by the teams that have spent his whole career scoring on him at will. 

But yeah, I'd love to go out to lunch with you ?

Edited November 30, 2018 by Randall Flagg

[North Buffalo]

1 hour ago, Randall Flagg said:

And as far as Risto goes, I guess YMMV on the goofy stuff he does after the whistle, but it didn't win us the game tonight, it never has won us anything, and usually gets us made fun of by the teams that have spent his whole career scoring on him at will. 

But yeah, I'd love to go out to lunch with you ?

Look I agree on Vlad... sorry you are dead wrong on Risto... PS he won us the game on a slap shot in OT... just saying and when his minutes are kept to around 20 I think he is great.

[SABRES 0311]

Driving home I ask the wife if she wants me to wait until she comes back from the kid’s gymnastics to watch the game (replay). She makes a sour face and says “ it was a good game” in a defeated tone. 

Then she tells me her sister was watching it while they were Facetimeing. The one thing I was looking forward to. Game 11 of the streak and this is how I find out they lost.?

[Hoss]

5 hours ago, darksabre said:

Circle January 12th on the calendar. 

Not only did I check the calendar last night I looked at tickets lol

[Sabres Fan in NS]

Well, no one expected that they would win them all.  

They played pretty well.  Certainly well enough to lose to a great team on a goal late in the third.  It seems that for the first time in the 10 game WS the goalie did not come to their rescue, but that could not continue.

We will get them next time.

I look forward to the next winning streak.

A dose of reality is good.  

And chz and Inky ... message received.