GDT Dec 17 2019 Sabres @ Leafs. 7pm ET. NBCSN

[SwampD]

2 hours ago, Randall Flagg said:

It cannot be exaggerated how much more puck skill Toronto has, both individually and as a unit, than we do 

 

16 minutes ago, rakish said:

How would you quantify that

By watching the game.

[Kruppstahl]

1 hour ago, Brawndo said:

Previous teams would have been run over in the third, they didn’t allow that to happen tonight.

There is a lot of work to do, but it trending in the right direction 

This team is terrible.  

Reinhart has become invisible, Skinner needs a playmaker to play with; his talents are being squandered where he is right now; Dahlin is playing so f-ing scared he's making mistakes he wouldn't be making if he was more relaxed; overall secondary scoring is non-existent; the D has major holes all over it, and Botterill likes the look of things as they are.

Don't expect the much needed roster relief to come any time soon.

 

[Pimlach]

1 minute ago, Kruppstahl said:

This team is terrible.  

Reinhart has become invisible, Skinner needs a playmaker to play with; his talents are being squandered where he is right now; Dahlin is playing so f-ing scared he's making mistakes he wouldn't be making if he was more relaxed; overall secondary scoring is non-existent; the D has major holes all over it, and Botterill likes the look of things as they are.

Don't expect the much needed roster relief to come any time soon.

 

Wow.  Tonight was disappointing, and we have a lack of talent at forward for sure, but we just move up to second in the division.   The team is hanging in there despite the obvious homes in the lineup  

 

[Kruppstahl]

1 hour ago, Taro T said:

And Dahlin looked the best he has this season.  He was playing like he did right before running out of gas towards the end last year.

Never want to see a guy get a concussion, but that break looks like it was good for him.  Hoping & expecting he keeps it up.

The analytics support the decision to pull the goalie on the PP; not too early based on a lot of data.

Had the team bothered showing up for the first 40 minutes things might have become so desperate.  

[jad1]

2 minutes ago, Pimlach said:

Wow.  Tonight was disappointing, and we have a lack of talent at forward for sure, but we just move up to second in the division.   The team is hanging in there despite the obvious homes in the lineup  

 

Eichel has 31 points the last 17 games.  That's the only reason the team is hanging in.  When he cools off, this team will sink to the bottom of the standings.

[SwampD]

Shopp needs to be shot into the sun.

I know that analytics have shown that if you are going to lose, you may as well have it be decided sooner so that you can turn the game off, but have they actually shown that teams that pull their goalies earlier actually end up winning more than teams that don’t?

[Sabres Fan in NS]

NS reporting for duty.

What a heck of a day I had.

I'm ready!!  When is puck drop?

MUST WIN!!

GO SABRES!!

[CallawaySabres]

5 minutes ago, jad1 said:

Eichel has 31 points the last 17 games.  That's the only reason the team is hanging in.  When he cools off, this team will sink to the bottom of the standings.

This, unfortunately, is the truth. There really is nothing left after Jack as Skinner is invisible...like, is he even on this team?

[Eleven]

SO my superstition about not posting in GDTs before the game now is broken.

 

This team didn't do anything for 45 or 50 minutes.  Deserved to lose.

[Huckleberry]

1 hour ago, bunomatic said:

Lol. He made the call thinking they’d tie it up. The problem is it made it easy for TO to put a stop to us tying it up . We already had a powerplay. Linus would have looked good standing back there. 

I know he did it for that reason, but you made it sound with Mojo screwing up he shouldn't have.

[bunomatic]

3 minutes ago, Huckleberry said:

I know he did it for that reason, but you made it sound with Mojo screwing up he shouldn't have.

I get it. I guess I’d just rather have the luxury of having the goalie in there when you already have the man advantage. Sucks when there’s no one to stop the puck if things go south. Personally I’d have left him in and possibly tied it up putting my faith in the PP. just a difference of opinion. 

[Taro T]

1 hour ago, Kruppstahl said:

This team is terrible.  

Reinhart has become invisible, Skinner needs a playmaker to play with; his talents are being squandered where he is right now; Dahlin is playing so f-ing scared he's making mistakes he wouldn't be making if he was more relaxed; overall secondary scoring is non-existent; the D has major holes all over it, and Botterill likes the look of things as they are.

Don't expect the much needed roster relief to come any time soon.

 

Reinhart tends to be at his best when he isn't getting particularly noticed.  Tonight, along the boards he was very noticable.

Skinner definitely needs to have better than Rodrigues as his center and he got to play with their 2nd best offensive center.  Short of a trade being made or a light bulb clicking quickly in Ra-cha-cha, that's the best he's going to get.  But Krueger seems to realize he needs to do something more than give him Sheary and E-Rod as linemates as he had Asplund and Larsson there at a minimum looking for something that'll click.

But, you and I saw very different games from #26.  He looked a lot smoother with the puck, calmer in front of his own net, and crisper with his passing.

And most of the rest of your post could in large part be fixed with 1 move, but as you said, that doesn't seem likely at present.

[Taro T]

33 minutes ago, Huckleberry said:

I know he did it for that reason, but you made it sound with Mojo screwing up he shouldn't have.

The way they were having trouble winning a face off on that 2nd PP and the way they were  having difficulties getting it into the zone on that last PP had me not thrilled with pulling the goalie there on the PP.  But, by the #'s it probably was the right thing to do.  Wasn't that concerned with a shorty breakaway, more so that a launched 180 footer would go in or a turnover trying to get it back in would.

And, considering the pressure they'd kept on TO for the last 5-10 minutes, would have waited until there was about 1:40 left in the game to pull the goalie.  (Again, realizing that the base #'s likely say to do it the way Ralph did.). But definitely agreed with the timeout, so not COMPLETELY 2nd guessing him. ?

[Eleven]

1 hour ago, Huckleberry said:

I know he did it for that reason, but you made it sound with Mojo screwing up he shouldn't have.

It's a bad idea on a power play with that much time left.  The opponent can shoot at will without worrying about icing.  This was not Kruger's smartest moment.

[Huckleberry]

12 minutes ago, Eleven said:

It's a bad idea on a power play with that much time left.  The opponent can shoot at will without worrying about icing.  This was not Kruger's smartest moment.

Maybe he could have don't that right after the PP and go 5 on 4 and 6 on 5 dunno.   I like that he took the gamble.

[Eleven]

3 minutes ago, Huckleberry said:

Maybe he could have don't that right after the PP and go 5 on 4 and 6 on 5 dunno. 

That's a smarter move.

[PerreaultForever]

Well it always sucks to lose to Toronto, but at least they didn't quit, and if not for one good late save by Anderson they might have taken to OT and then who knows.

Ullmark was good imo. The team however, cant' seem to play defensively responsible and aggressively/offensively at the same time. We get one or the other but rarely both.

ERod is useless and needs to go. Skinner is slumping badly. Sam has to be better.

You beat Toronto by playing physical and aggressively forechecking their iffy D. Unfortunately, we don't play that way. 

 

[Huckleberry]

They just should send E-rod down to Rochester if they decide to bring back Mittelstadt or Thompson gets healthy.

[Randall Flagg]

17 minutes ago, Eleven said:

It's a bad idea on a power play with that much time left.  The opponent can shoot at will without worrying about icing.  This was not Kruger's smartest moment.

In today's NHL opposing teams do this at even strength anyway, icing isn't that big of a deal and all these guys can aim. I'd rather have only 4 players available to pounce on a loose puck and try it, those players PKers at that, than 5. Coupled with the extra space for the extra attacker, I'd do what Ralph did every time.

[Eleven]

18 minutes ago, Randall Flagg said:

In today's NHL opposing teams do this at even strength anyway, icing isn't that big of a deal and all these guys can aim. I'd rather have only 4 players available to pounce on a loose puck and try it, those players PKers at that, than 5. Coupled with the extra space for the extra attacker, I'd do what Ralph did every time.

Shooting from your own end with icing as a possible consequence is very different from shooting from your own end without that possible consequence.  

This was a bad idea.  I realize that the goal in question was shot from beyond the red (Toronto's perspective); it still was a bad idea to pull Ullmark.  There was plenty of time left and Krueger needed to be more temperate.

Before anyone gets crazy, no, I don't hate the guy, and no, I don't want him fired.  I just didn't like that decision.

Edited December 18, 2019 by Eleven

[Wyldnwoody44]

Appears I woke up feeling ***** 2 ways, hungover and reading the forum about how bad we were. 

Meh, go get em next time 

 

 

 

In the playoffs 

[JohnRobertEichel]

6 hours ago, jad1 said:

Eichel has 31 points the last 17 games.  That's the only reason the team is hanging in.  When he cools off, this team will sink to the bottom of the standings.

Truth. It's happening even while Eichel remains hot. Two points currently separate the #2 seed and the #6 seed in the Atlantic division, with the Sabres having played more games than the Florida teams near the bottom. But there are still fans out there that think the team has turned a corner and that our GM is doing a good job....unreal...

[LGR4GM]

1 hour ago, Marchand'sNose said:

Truth. It's happening even while Eichel remains hot. Two points currently separate the #2 seed and the #6 seed in the Atlantic division, with the Sabres having played more games than the Florida teams near the bottom. But there are still fans out there that think the team has turned a corner and that our GM is doing a good job....unreal...

I'm not sure there's a poster here right now that would say botterill is doing a good job. 

[North Buffalo]

Sabres are on a fence between good and bad... Cozens next year will help but they need another top line forward and either another 3rd line forward who has some scoring touch or can actually forecheck unlike Sheary

[Cascade Youth]

They just don’t have enough good scorers and their goaltending is average.  It’s really that simple.  Constructing a roster heavy on puck-moving defensemen is a questionable strategy - those defensemen have no scorers to bring the puck to, and the style makes them susceptible to the stretch passes where  they lack an elite goalie to bail them out.  

Dahlin once again looks like an elite player.  Reino is battling, I think, he’s just having a tough time fitting his game into the offense.  Skinner is being asked to create offense all by himself which has never been his game.  E-Rod, Mojo and Sheary are playing like they belong in Rochester with the Mythlestadt. 

Multiple coaches have now been unable to succeed with these core players.

Botterill has failed at his job.  Time to move on.  It happens.