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GDT: Montreal at Buffalo Sabres Oct.9th, 7pm ET, MSG-RSN and WGR 550


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9 minutes ago, SabresBaltimore said:

Yeah. That's always the case with Toronto and to a lesser degree Ottawa too. Probably a few others.

 

I'm sure there are a few others. I'm coming up to Buffalo for the 11/16 game against Ottawa. I'm hoping there won't be too many Sens fans.

You won't have a problem at a Sens game right now.  Ten years ago?  Sure.  But you should be fine.

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Montreal rammed the puck down Toronto's throat in their last game. They aren't going to be a pushover. They've had enough days off that it could end up being a negative thing for them, though. 

We played them well last year, gutting out close wins until the final meeting. Hope we get back on track! I think I'll be watching, but I flew home to surprise my family last night so I may be sporadic over the next week

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I'm not going to complain with Kinkaide instead of Price.  Sabres need to clean-up their passing from Monday night.  If they play like they did against Pens and NJD, I think we come away with a win. 

I have to say that it's been really fun watching Dahlin come into his game at the start of this season.  At 19, he's a point generating machine.  If he keeps this up, he'll be in the Norris conversation for sure.  Olofsson is also something special too. What a lethal shot this guy has.  If defenses start keying on him it should only open things up for Jack (esp. on the PP).

Let's go BUFFALO!

beer

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Jack was an elite 5v5 scorer last year, and was very near the top of the league in that area for the first half of the season. He doesn't have any 5v5 points yet so I'm going to look for some of those tonight. If he can't get the production there over the next week or two, I'd like to see the guy he did it with back on his line. He'd still have PPs to pass to Olofsson to his heart's content, that wouldn't have changed a single one of the goals they've combined for since they're all PP goals

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3 hours ago, That Aud Smell said:

My favourite opponent to see on the schedule. Because Montreal. Because the Canadiens. Because hockey.

 

Mine too.  Division rival with a good track record against and noone on the roster that you worry about hurting our guys.  Makes for fun games to watch.

Who was the last truly hated Montreal player?  Been a long time since Knuckles Nilan or Shayne Corson.

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32 minutes ago, Randall Flagg said:

Jack was an elite 5v5 scorer last year, and was very near the top of the league in that area for the first half of the season. He doesn't have any 5v5 points yet so I'm going to look for some of those tonight. If he can't get the production there over the next week or two, I'd like to see the guy he did it with back on his line. He'd still have PPs to pass to Olofsson to his heart's content, that wouldn't have changed a single one of the goals they've combined for since they're all PP goals

I too have not loved Eichel's start to the season.

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27 minutes ago, Weave said:

Mine too.  Division rival with a good track record against and noone on the roster that you worry about hurting our guys.  Makes for fun games to watch.

Who was the last truly hated Montreal player?  Been a long time since Knuckles Nilan or Shayne Corson.

Kovalev was a Sabre killer.

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1 hour ago, Randall Flagg said:

Jack was an elite 5v5 scorer last year, and was very near the top of the league in that area for the first half of the season. He doesn't have any 5v5 points yet so I'm going to look for some of those tonight. If he can't get the production there over the next week or two, I'd like to see the guy he did it with back on his line. He'd still have PPs to pass to Olofsson to his heart's content, that wouldn't have changed a single one of the goals they've combined for since they're all PP goals

 

32 minutes ago, nfreeman said:

I too have not loved Eichel's start to the season.

This is the kinda overanalyzing that gets coaches in trouble.

He’s scoring a point per game, he’s well into  the “good” area on the analytics charts, Skinner is scoring goals and the second line is also an analytics positive (which is unheard of in these parts and is the whole point of breaking Jeff and Jack up) and the team has 5 of a possible six points.

If these trends all continue, including Jack’s poor even strength scoring, we should keep things exactly like they are.

The point is to win, not make Jack or any individual player look good.

Edited by dudacek
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3 minutes ago, dudacek said:

 

This is the kinda overanalyzing that gets coaches in trouble.

He’s scoring a point per game, he’s well into  the “good” area on the analytics charts, Skinner is scoring goals and the second line is also an analytics positive (which is unheard of in these parts and is the whole point of breaking Jeff and Jack up) and the team has 5 of a possible six points.

If these trends all continue, including Jack’s poor even strength scoring, we should keep things exactly like they are.

The point is to win, not make Jack or any individual player look good.

Well, I think he's had a good start to the season. But I need his line producing at 5v5, so I'll just restate, if that doesn't happen over the next week or two, I'm going to look to kick start it.

Implicit in this narrative is that, over time, if Jack isn't producing 5v5, this team isn't going to be successful.

It's not all about Jack

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1 minute ago, Randall Flagg said:

Well, I think he's had a good start to the season. But I need his line producing at 5v5, so I'll just restate, if that doesn't happen over the next week or two, I'm going to look to kick start it.

Implicit in this narrative is that, over time, if Jack isn't producing 5v5, this team isn't going to be successful.

It's not all about Jack

I don't think this team has the depth to win at 5v5. They're going to live and die by the powerplay.

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Jack's points will come as the season plays out.  I fully expect him to be in the top 20 by year end.  All these early season standouts will fall back to earth.... except for Dahlin.  He will continue to produce at a 1.67 ppg pace ?

Edited by Beer
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9 minutes ago, dudacek said:

 

This is the kinda overanalyzing that gets coaches in trouble.

He’s scoring a point per game, he’s well into  the “good” area on the analytics charts, Skinner is scoring goals and the second line is also an analytics positive (which is unheard of in these parts and is the whole point of breaking Jeff and Jack up) and the team has 5 of a possible six points.

If these trends all continue, including Jack’s poor even strength scoring, we should keep things exactly like they are.

The point is to win, not make Jack or any individual player look good.

Well, I'm not advocating for any change other than Eichel bearing down and playing better.

I have not seen early-last-season-emerging-monster Eichel yet.  I've seen a very good player, playing hard and responsibly but not dominating.

Do you think he's playing as well as we should expect/as we need him to play?

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Just now, darksabre said:

I don't think this team has the depth to win at 5v5. They're going to live and die by the powerplay.

I suspect this may be true too, but as you know from the energy I put into things like the Larry line, and Rodrigues, I'm all about fine-tuning roster choices so that you maximize what you have in every instance on the ice, because I really think it makes a difference. You can watch any one game and say "yeah well making this small switch wouldn't have changed the result tonight" and be 'technically' correct, but a lot of hockey games happen to build your final record, and the way last season unfolded has changed the way I look at how hockey works - it has become clear to me that those small changes matter as much as anything else as time goes on, and they're also the thing the guys in charge have the most control over, since trades require other interested parties which can be hard to find in the grind of the season.

Closely following our middle six starting during the win streak, being alarmed by what I saw, "but we are winning" push-back to any of these suggestions at the time, and then seeing that problem continue unabated for 2 months even as it contributed in a large way to unraveling our season, when within-the-organization changes were available, I dunno, I just watched the amount it mattered accelerate as we did nothing to change it. Hell, it's how Bill Belichick dominates seasons that only have 16 opportunities for decisions like that to play out. He meticulously perfects and exploits every possible position, in large and small ways, and views even the tiniest detail as critical to maximizing the chances of success, and he'll tell you that. So yes, I'm going to keep harping "the little things" and cite work I've already done and successful predictions in the face of the very same "eh it doesn't actually matter, you're being ridiculous, this is fine" that's already being set to start again like last season never happened or was always doomed to fail from the start as if there was nothing we could have done to stop ourselves from being by far the worst team (record-wise) to ever win 10 games in a row

So with that being said, yes I want Skinner-Eichel together soon, unless Eichel-Olofsson-Reinhart start outscoring their opponents at even strength. I'm not saying they've failed to this point, or that I wouldn't give them more games, just that if the script doesn't change from its brief start, we should adjust accordingly. 

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23 minutes ago, josie said:

ew

Trying to see how many variations of MUST WIN I can come up with.  ?

(I don't think there are 82.)

20 minutes ago, Beer said:

Jack's points will come as the season plays out.  I fully expect him to be in the top 20 by year end.  All these early season standouts will fall back to earth.... except for Dahlin.  He will continue to product at a 1.67 ppg pace ?

And, of course, Goalofsson.

Edited by Doohickie
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Flag, it's a great post.  Money puck.  I think it will be important to give time to Olofsson-Eichel-Reinhart and Skinner-Johansson-Soboka before we rush back to Skinner-Eichel-Reinhart (1-dimensional).  I have to believe that two capable lines will be more beneficial in the long run.  Skinner can drive the 2nd line.  I don't see Olofsson being able to do that if you switched he and Skinner.

Are there any stats on drawing penalties?  As discussed above, this team is going to thrive on the PP.  This could be another benefit to splitting up Eichel and Skinner on separate lines because they both are very capable of drawing penalties.

Edited by Beer
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