Grade your Buffalo Sabres overall season ...

[Zamboni]

Break it down however you want. By player. By position. Give explainations if you want. Give a letter grade.

Coaching ... D-

GM ... C-

Goaltending ... C+

Defense ... B-

Forwards ... C+

 

[Pimlach]

Housley D and overall Coaching  - F ;  Nothing they did could stop the collapse, not winning 2 in a row in four months; the power play;  the consistent losses to poor teams when we were still in a playoff hunt- seemed like the team would only show up against good teams; 

GM -D ; two roster purges and the team is still at the very bottom of the league;  came into the season very weak at center and paid for it. 

Goalies  C-;  Hutton is a decent backup but not a true starter, Uhlmark regressed as the season went on   

Defense B-  ; some hope here with Dahlin the centerpiece and more prospects in the pipeline

Forwards D;  we have 3 out of 6 players for a legitimate Top 6 (one is a free agent) ; Mitts, Nylander and Oloffsson all have potential but not Top 6 yet;  veterans forwards are all under performing;  Overall a small group that lacks grit and scoring balance; Lots of help needed and not much left on the farm. 

Edited April 6, 2019 by Pimlach

[North Buffalo]

Coaching D

GM B

Goaltending 2 parts 1st Semester B+ 2nd Semester D-

Defence C+ but improving

Forwards C+ lacking depth, experience, talent and chemistry.  The last part is on the coach to many moving parts.

Edited April 6, 2019 by North Buffalo

[dudacek]

Relative to expectations going in (C+ = met expectations)

Hutton C

Ullmark C-

 

Dahlin B+

Ristolainen C

Bogosian B-

McCabe C+

Scandella C-

Nelson C

Beaulieu C+

Pilut C+

Montour I

 

Skinner B

Eichel C+

Reinhart C+

Okposo C-

Berglund F

Sheary C

ERod B+

Mittelstadt C

Pominville C+

Thompson C-

Sobotka C-

Girgensons C-

Larsson C

Elie C-

Wilson I

 

Edited April 6, 2019 by dudacek

[steveoath]

This has been the best season since I started following the Sabres. It has been the highest scoring season, and best defensive season I have witnessed.*

*This has also been my first following NHL hockey and the sabres! 

Go Sabres, can't wait till October and the beginning of another record breaking season.

[inkman]

11 minutes ago, steveoath said:

This has been the best season since I started following the Sabres. It has been the highest scoring season, and best defensive season I have witnessed.*

*This has also been my first following NHL hockey and the sabres! 

Go Sabres, can't wait till October and the beginning of another record breaking season.

Bless your heart

[Pimlach]

My player grades- based on performance in assignment with a factor for experience 

Hutton C

Ullmark D (strongly influence by end of season) 

Dahlin A (18 year old rookie defense logging big minutes and PP time) 

Ristolainen C -  ( great start, then a major drop off) 

Bogosian B  (finally got a full season, sort of, from him.  I wish he would have maintained the policeman role longer)  

McCabe C  (did not play as physically as we needed) 

Scandella C-  (surprised that he dropped off from previous year) 

Nelson C-  (steady moving the puck but terrible at clearing the crease and not physical at all) 

 Beaulieu C+ 

Pilut C+  (Good skills, small, needs to get stronger) 

Montour Incomplete 

Hunwick C-  (meh) 

 Skinner B+ (late slide takes away the A; small but feisty , he cares)  

Eichel B+  (Best season yet, shows ability to dominate at times,  handled the burden of the C at 22 with largely a group of underachieving players)  

Reinhart B ( his best season too.  He can elevate a second line with the right center) 

Okposo C-  (I like the guy but you see his team skills and speed falling)

Berglund F 

Sheary C  ( a “sometimes” player) 

ERod B  ( best surprise, brings energy and works )  

Mittelstadt C (was asked to do too much.  I saw some mojo, now hit the weight room kid)  

 Pominville C+  (class act, contributes in protected minutes)  

Thompson D+  ( decent start but pretty much overwhelmed especially in defensive zone, not ready for NHL)

Sobotka F  (don’t want to see him around next year) 

Girgensons C-   ( 4th line grinder role but very little finish) 

Larsson C  (our second best center, and that is THE biggest problem) 

 Elie F  (bad at hockey) 

 Wilson D+ ( expected much more) 

[Broken Ankles]

1 hour ago, dudacek said:

Relative to expectations going in (C+ = met expectations)

Hutton C

Ullmark C-

 

Dahlin B+

Ristolainen C

Bogosian B-

McCabe C+

Scandella C-

Nelson C

Beaulieu C+

Pilut C+

Montour I

 

Skinner B

Eichel C+

Reinhart C+

Okposo C-

Berglund F

Sheary C

ERod B+

Mittelstadt C

Pominville C+

Thompson C-

Sobotka C-

Girgensons C-

Larsson C

Elie C-

Wilson I

 

Gotta ask....harsh grades for Sam and Jack.  

[dudacek]

9 minutes ago, Broken Ankles said:

Gotta ask....harsh grades for Sam and Jack.  

Didn’t like the way either finished.

65 and 80 point seasons respectively are fine but for me that’s meeting expectations, not exceeding.

[Kruppstahl]

In the sense that a "C" is supposed to mean something like "satisfactory" meaning you did what was asked of you but not much more, no facet of this organization earns a C or higher.  It's all lower than that.

I would suggest GM and Coaching are close to "F".  

Defense is a D.

Forwards as a group are a D to F.

PK = F.

PP = C-. 

And the scary part is those grades were earned playing soft, easy, regular season hockey.

This team would be destroyed in a best of 7 playoff series.

 

 

 

[Doohicksie]

Fs all around. As a team, to be in first place two months into the season and near DFL at the end, warrants Fs and I'm not going any deeper than that. 

[Ogelthorpe]

F!

[Formerly Allan in MD]

The season was a failure.  It started with the coach and the ill conceived ROR trade.

[Weave]

F's across the board.  That 2nd half swoon was historic.  And the blame stretches across the team. 

[Zamboni]

I’m surprised Sheary is getting low marks. I knew exactly what he was and he delivered exactly as advertised. He’s a 30-40 point a year winger .... did some expect much more? Is that why the low grade? Why did some expect more? Unrealistic expectations?

[PerreaultForever]

15 hours ago, dudacek said:

Relative to expectations going in (C+ = met expectations)

Hutton C

Ullmark C-

 

Dahlin B+

Ristolainen C

Bogosian B-

McCabe C+

Scandella C-

Nelson C

Beaulieu C+

Pilut C+

Montour I

 

Skinner B

Eichel C+

Reinhart C+

Okposo C-

Berglund F

Sheary C

ERod B+

Mittelstadt C

Pominville C+

Thompson C-

Sobotka C-

Girgensons C-

Larsson C

Elie C-

Wilson I

 

Pretty similar but I'd give Nelson a D and Pilut a C-, Mittlestadt a C-, Okposo a C+, Eichel a B- and maybe Larsson gets a C+   Most of them really should just get a grade of Meh. or maybe INC for incomplete as in didn't meet the requirements. 

[jsb]

17 hours ago, dudacek said:

Relative to expectations going in (C+ = met expectations)

Normally I agree with most of your posts but if you're not going to grade these guys with the same scale, why grade them at all. It's like giving someone a curve on their test but not giving the same curve to those who had a higher score. Anyone who grades ERod over Jack and Skinner, I stopped paying attention there. I'm not as critical as Doohickie but except for a handful of guys, D is the best grade I'd give anyone. 

 

[Doohicksie]

8 hours ago, jsb said:

I'm not as critical as Doohickie

I'm not critical, just severely disappointed.

[matter2003]

GM C (I think we had enough good players to be closer to 85-90 points than 76---unlike many posters I don't necessarily think Botts did a great job, I just think he has a methodology of how he wants to build this thing and we aren't there yet, and he wasn't willing to risk giving up a lot for vets. I liked the Skinner and Montour trades, juy is still out on the O'Reilly trade but Tage is pretty inconsistent tho young...need to see what the 1st round pick turns into)

Coaching F- (what more needs to be said...has any team since the merger in 1970 ever been in 1st place in late November then finished bottom 5 at the end of the year?? It's near impossible to do that.)

Goaltending D(combined, advanced metrics show they should have saved 9 more goals than they did)

Forwards C-(advanced metrics showed this team scored 12 fewer goals than expected, most of these would be from forwards)

Defense D(the team didn't seem to figure out how to not leave people wide open at the back post the entire year and made the same mistakes in game 1 as they did in game 82. They also routinely turned pucks over in their own end as if they intended to give the puck to the other team)

Penalty Kill B (mostly pretty good throughout the year in the top 5, tailed off a little towards the end and finished 12th)

Power Play C (wasn't that great for much of the year hanging out around upper teens to low 20's ranking among teams, but ended up 16th due to a strong last few games)

Edited April 7, 2019 by matter2003

[nucci]

Bottom 5 team again and no playoffs.....F

[dudacek]

1 hour ago, matter2003 said:

GM C (I think we had enough good players to be closer to 85-90 points than 76---unlike many posters I don't necessarily think Botts did a great job, I just think he has a methodology of how he wants to build this thing and we aren't there yet, and he wasn't willing to risk giving up a lot for vets. I liked the Skinner and Montour trades, juy is still out on the O'Reilly trade but Tage is pretty inconsistent tho young...need to see what the 1st round pick turns into)

Coaching F- (what more needs to be said...has any team since the merger in 1970 ever been in 1st place in late November then finished bottom 5 at the end of the year?? It's near impossible to do that.)

Goaltending D(combined, advanced metrics show they should have saved 9 more goals than they did)

Forwards C-(advanced metrics showed this team scored 12 fewer goals than expected, most of these would be from forwards)

Defense D(the team didn't seem to figure out how to not leave people wide open at the back post the entire year and made the same mistakes in game 1 as they did in game 82. They also routinely turned pucks over in their own end as if they intended to give the puck to the other team)

Penalty Kill B (mostly pretty good throughout the year in the top 5, tailed off a little towards the end and finished 12th)

Power Play C (wasn't that great for much of the year hanging out around upper teens to low 20's ranking among teams, but ended up 16th due to a strong last few games)

That is surprising given the flak it took all year.

I was the definition of middle-of-the-pack: 15 teams better, 15 worse.

[matter2003]

1 hour ago, dudacek said:

That is surprising given the flak it took all year.

I was the definition of middle-of-the-pack: 15 teams better, 15 worse.

Ended at 19.5%...not great but certainly not terrible...think they scored 4 or 5 PP goals in the last 3 games tho if I am not mistaken which definitely inflated its season long performance

[dudacek]

2 hours ago, matter2003 said:

Ended at 19.5%...not great but certainly not terrible...think they scored 4 or 5 PP goals in the last 3 games tho if I am not mistaken which definitely inflated its season long performance

Wonder how much of that is random and how much VO’s laser on the right side will add next year?

 

[Gatorman0519]

Coaching: F

GM: D

Goalies: C

Forwards: C-

Defense: C

PK: B

Power Play: F

[klos1963]

Coaching F

GM : D

Goalies : D

Defense: D

Forwards : C-