GDT - Maple Leaves @ Sabres - December 4, 2018 - 7:30 PM (EST)

[Sabres Fan in NS]

1 minute ago, Randall Flagg said:

When did this happen, last night?

Seriously the Leafs can fall off a cliff 

Um ... 3:30 AM this morning.

Edited December 6, 2018 by New Scotland (NS)
you quoted before I could edit ...

[Randall Flagg]

4 minutes ago, LGR4GM said:

I think we need more Centers. The leafs main advantage is that they run Tavares, Matthews, Kadri down the middle and that is a really solid spine. While I still believe Mitts can get better and will, after him it gets a little hazy as to the center spot. We run Eichel, Mitts, Sobotka I guess, and then Larsson. Larsson is in the right spot but we really need to make sure we are developing more centers in case Mitts ends up on the 3rd line or to make sure our 3rd line is good. 

Agreed. Our center spine is downright weak, and essentially needs Casey to become a 2C that can compete with Brayden Point, John Tavares, Vincent Trocheck, Geno Malkin, NIck Backstrom etc.

 

[Sabres Fan in NS]

3 hours ago, PASabreFan said:

 

3 hours ago, PASabreFan said:

Have we all really not agreed to go by points per game, the most fair way to compare players?

There's no challenge for this. And I don't think it fall under the auspices of Toronto's review of all goals.

 

Not sure what went wrong with my quoting you, but yes.  

They are still not that far off, especially when that other guy comes back down to a realistic level.  At the end of the season it will all pretty much level out.

[Hoss]

26 minutes ago, Randall Flagg said:

Anything below ~8/10 is not ideal.

Below 5/10 makes me want to die

It’s not a trend if it’s that tight. 8/10 would be concerning for Leafs fans.

[Sabres Fan in NS]

8 minutes ago, Randall Flagg said:

When did this happen, last night?

Seriously the Leafs can fall off a cliff 

By the way, I trolled him right back in the best way possible.  By throwing water on his fire.

I ignored all the junk he said and just agreed that it would be a great series if / when the Leaves and Sabres meet in the playoff.

[Randall Flagg]

4 minutes ago, Hoss said:

It’s not a trend if it’s that tight. 8/10 would be concerning for Leafs fans.

I'm pretty sure we were at least at 7/10 for my whole life, so the fact that we've lost 6 of 10 now keeps me up at night. That's three full years of non-ideal results.

I would rather the  Bills lose 20 games in a row to the Pats than the Sabres lose any given game to the Leafs

[Taro T]

1 hour ago, Randall Flagg said:

Agreed. Our center spine is downright weak, and essentially needs Casey to become a 2C that can compete with Brayden Point, John Tavares, Vincent Trocheck, Geno Malkin, NIck Backstrom etc.

 

While it would be great to have 2 more 2/3 C's for depth purposes to cover for potential injuries, they really only need 1 more C.  Right now that's a 2.  Ideally, next season it'll be a 3 that Botterill is looking to bring in.  LT, ideally the 4C (& 3C as well) are capably covered by some permutation of Larsson, Asplund, & Davidsson.

Keep drafting C's & D high in the draft & the depth throughout will be good.  ( Only go W high (1st round) in the draft if they really believe that guy is a sniper who stands out well above the rest of what's available.)

[MakeSabresGrr8Again]

2 hours ago, Randall Flagg said:

Agreed. Our center spine is downright weak, and essentially needs Casey to become a 2C that can compete with Brayden Point, John Tavares, Vincent Trocheck, Geno Malkin, NIck Backstrom etc.

 

Wow, do you really expect Casey to be another Tavares, Malkin, Backstrom, etc playing with Tage and KO? All the players you mentioned have years of experience and good wingers for the most part over Casey. I think Casey will be fine but yes, it will take a while. They've been treating him like Eichel was the last few years with a parade of wingers(KO has been the most consistant).

Tavares, a #1 overall has Marner and Hyman and 10yrs experience as a 1C. Malkin,a #2 overall has Hornqvist and 14yrs in the league. Even Point, who is only 22yrs old, has 3yrs and Kucherov/Johnson for wings. Trocheck has 5yrs and Huberdeau. Oh, and isn't Backstrom a 1C and play w/ Ovie? I believe that Kuznetsov is the 2C.

With that said, I feel Casey is coming along nicely but a little slower than we all would like. I also think he needs better wingers if he is to meet your expectations. I get it that we lost a 2C in O'Reilley but we need to get over it and move on. 

If you look to the draft or within the organization for the answer then you're gonna be likely waiting awhile unless Olafsson/Nylander/Smith step up.FA and draft won't help until July (essentially next year or after). So the only way to help the 2c/3c is looking at trading for one. We definitely have better wings in the system than centers and need to address that. Either way it's gonna take awhile unfortunately unless JBot can find a good trade.

Edited December 6, 2018 by MakeSabresGrr8Again

[Randall Flagg]

5 minutes ago, MakeSabresGrr8Again said:

Wow, do you really expect Casey to be another Tavares, Malkin, Backstrom, etc playing with Tage and KO? All the players you mentioned have years of experience and good wingers for the most part over Casey. I think Casey will be fine but yes, it will take a while. They've been treating him like Eichel was the last few years with a parade of wingers(KO has been the most consistant).

Tavares, a #1 overall has Marner and Hyman and 10yrs experience as a 1C. Malkin,a #2 overall has Hornqvist and 14yrs in the league. Even Point, who is only 22yrs old, has 3yrs and Kucherov/Johnson for wings. Trocheck has 5yrs and Huberdeau. Oh, and isn't Backstrom a 1C and play w/ Ovie? I believe that Kuznetsov is the 2C.

With that said, I feel Casey is coming along nicely but a little slower than we all would like. I also think he needs better wingers if he is to meet your expectations. I get it that we lost a 2C in O'Reilley but we need to get over it and move on. 

If you look to the draft or within the organization for the answer then you're gonna be likely waiting awhile unless Olafsson/Nylander/Smith step up.FA and draft won't help until July (essentially next year or after). So the only way to help the 2c/3c is looking at trading for one. We definitely have better wings in the system than centers and need to address that. Either way it's gonna take awhile unfortunately unless JBot can find a good trade.

Those centers are just the 2Cs that we will need to be facing in the playoffs and regular season for the next few years. Casey is our only hope right now, we need him to be able to compete with those guys. I'm happy to have Casey, and I think he'll get there sometime fairly soon. 

And yeah some of those guys are semantics (I like Point better than Stamkos right now too) but Kuzy scores more so I called him the 1C. He mostly played with Ovechkin last year IIRC, it was Ovie-Kuzy-Wilson.

[MakeSabresGrr8Again]

2 minutes ago, Randall Flagg said:

Those centers are just the 2Cs that we will need to be facing in the playoffs and regular season for the next few years. Casey is our only hope right now, we need him to be able to compete with those guys. I'm happy to have Casey, and I think he'll get there sometime fairly soon. 

And yeah some of those guys are semantics (I like Point better than Stamkos right now too) but Kuzy scores more so I called him the 1C. He mostly played with Ovechkin last year IIRC, it was Ovie-Kuzy-Wilson.

Agree. At least Casey isn't a liability on the ice, which is credit to his hard work.

[Thorner]

On 12/4/2018 at 9:20 PM, MODO Hockey said:

Great game, Matthew beat us, thats it, he is just too good for any team. Such a insane talant he is, jack isnt even close

Lol. Jack was more of a force in the game than Matthews was. 

Matthews goal and shot was unbelievable in OT, but I'll take Eichel's 2 regulation goals over Matthews' 1 in regulation and 1 in the 3v3 gimmick. 

Edited December 7, 2018 by Thorny

[Thorner]

On 12/4/2018 at 9:22 PM, TrueBlueGED said:

I'll say. I mean sure it sucks to lose with 2.7 seconds left in OT, but I can't imagine being down after this game. We went toe-to-toe with one of the best 4 teams in the league, Eichel scored 2 goals, we controlled OT outside of 1 shift. All while playing most of the game with 5 D. I'm way more encouraged about the Sabres tonight than after some of the wins during the streak.

The Sabres sure seemed to get more positive coverage over here for this one loss than they did during the 10 game win streak. 

Analysts on TSN and Sportsnet gave the Sabres young talent, notably Eichel and Dahlin, a ton of tire-pumping after this one, and talked a lot about what should be an amazing rivalry. 

[MODO Hockey]

4 hours ago, Thorny said:

Lol. Jack was more of a force in the game than Matthews was. 

Matthews goal and shot was unbelievable in OT, but I'll take Eichel's 2 regulation goals over Matthews' 1 in regulation and 1 in the 3v3 gimmick. 

Lol all you want, Jack has 29 games, 7 goals. Auston has 15 games, 15 goals. I said it in another post, i think Jack is a hell of a player, just that Auston is way better when it comes to produce goals. 

[Sabres Fan in NS]

8 hours ago, MODO Hockey said:

Lol all you want, Jack has 29 games, 7 goals. Auston has 15 games, 15 goals. I said it in another post, i think Jack is a hell of a player, just that Auston is way better when it comes to produce goals. 

Two very different types of players and styles.  A.M. is a selfish and self-centered bugger, just ask pi - he'll tell you.  Were Jack, on the other hand, isn't.

[LGR4GM]

10 hours ago, MODO Hockey said:

Lol all you want, Jack has 29 games, 7 goals. Auston has 15 games, 15 goals. I said it in another post, i think Jack is a hell of a player, just that Auston is way better when it comes to produce goals. 

Y'all got any top end Swedish snipers coming out in this years draft? 

[Thorner]

11 hours ago, MODO Hockey said:

Lol all you want, Jack has 29 games, 7 goals. Auston has 15 games, 15 goals. I said it in another post, i think Jack is a hell of a player, just that Auston is way better when it comes to produce goals. 

I don't think anyone is going to argue with the goal-scoring aspect. 

Laine is on another level from Eichel as a goal-scorer. Yet Eichel is the far superior player. Goals aren't always everything. 

Granted, Matthews is the whole package. It's the "not even close" wording I take most issue with. 

Edited December 7, 2018 by Thorny