Detroit at Sabres, 11 February 2020, 7 PM MSG

[Doohicksie]

17 minutes ago, WildCard said:

Curtis Lazar is our 2C

lmao

Better than Mojo.

[jad1]

14 minutes ago, Doohickie said:

Better than Mojo.

More like, he's as generally inept as Mojo.

[Stoner]

1 hour ago, Eleven said:

I think it's nice that the Pegula daughters named their restaurant after Bogosian.

I'll say it. It was dumb to name their restaurant a pejorative hockey term. Wonder how many times players who are actually healthy scratches roll their eyes when they see it? Maybe never, and it matters not — it just illustrates how off-key they have been with seemingly every aspect of owning an NHL team. These are self-indulgent people. Nouveau-riche is the term, I believe. Terry as de facto GM, Kim as president, the kids making the whole grain toast.

49 minutes ago, darksabre said:

Start making the banner.

@sabremike is on it, I'm sure.

[Kristian]

Who’s in net tonight?

[Torpedo Forecheck]

1 hour ago, Doohickie said:

Johansson-Lazar-Sheary .... Lazar is a former 1st round pick.  Is there any chance he could grow into the 2C roll, or at least hold it down until Cozens is ready?  Is Johansson at wing where he should have been all along?  And why not stick Skinner on that line, just to see if we can get some offensive production?

No kidding, this has got the earmarks of a very strange usage pattern from RK with certain guys (Miller). Since the very beginning he has been down on our 40 goal scorer, and it hasn't helped. I'm tired of this and blaming Skinner, Ralph deserves some flack as well. His job is get the most out of players.

[Tondas]

MUST PLAY HARD!

Go Sabres!!

[DarthEbriate]

2 minutes ago, Torpedo Forecheck said:

No kidding, this has got the earmarks of a very strange usage pattern from RK with certain guys (Miller). Since the very beginning he has been down on our 40 goal scorer, and it hasn't helped. I'm tired of this and blaming Skinner, Ralph deserves some flack as well. His job is get the most out of players.

It has been odd. Particularly when Skinner came back and Olofsson was/is still out with injury. I know the rationale is to keep the scoring distributed. But get Skinner on the top line to reignite him. (And not just for a few shifts a game, but for extended --- hey Jeff, you're on Jack's wing playing 18+ minutes/night until Golofsson is back. Now giddyup!)

I kind of like Lazar getting his shot. I'd like it more if it was Skinner-Lazar-MoJo. The agitating line with MoJo for zone entries. If Skinner were to pot one, I really think it's going to open the floodgates for a week or two. Will that result in wins? Maybe.

[Stoner]

4 minutes ago, DarthEbriate said:

It has been odd. Particularly when Skinner came back and Olofsson was/is still out with injury. I know the rationale is to keep the scoring distributed. But get Skinner on the top line to reignite him. (And not just for a few shifts a game, but for extended --- hey Jeff, you're on Jack's wing playing 18+ minutes/night until Golofsson is back. Now giddyup!)

I kind of like Lazar getting his shot. I'd like it more if it was Skinner-Lazar-MoJo. The agitating line with MoJo for zone entries. If Skinner were to pot one, I really think it's going to open the floodgates for a week or two. Will that result in wins? Maybe.

There was a story in the news today by Lance Lysowski that claimed Jeff has been producing tons of chances. So I think the misuse charge against Ralph falls flat, if that's true. Skinner just can't do his job right now, for whatever reason. Light the lamp, that is.

As for the rationale for having Skinner on the second line, Lysowski repeated something that's been said all season: Ralph wanted a more defensively responsible player on the top line.

[Doohicksie]

54 minutes ago, jad1 said:

More like, he's as generally inept as Mojo.

But he can win a faceoff once in a while at least.  I'm willing to give him an audition at center because Mojo has demonstrated zero offensive zone creativity so far.

[Doohicksie]

17 minutes ago, Torpedo Forecheck said:

Ralph deserves some flack as well. His job is get the most out of players.

Ralph deserves a TON of flack, BECAUSE he doesn't even try to get the most out of players.  We've seen 10 games at the beginning of the season, and the occasional competent period here and there, demonstrating this team isn't *that* bad, but the way he uses players makes them worse, not better.

13 minutes ago, DarthEbriate said:

I know the rationale is to keep the scoring distributed.

WHAT SCORING?

14 minutes ago, DarthEbriate said:

I kind of like Lazar getting his shot. I'd like it more if it was Skinner-Lazar-MoJo. The agitating line with MoJo for zone entries. If Skinner were to pot one, I really think it's going to open the floodgates for a week or two. Will that result in wins? Maybe.

Yes.

[Doohicksie]

8 minutes ago, PASabreFan said:

There was a story in the news today by Lance Lysowski that claimed Jeff has been producing tons of chances. So I think the misuse charge against Ralph falls flat, if that's true.

On the contrary, Skinner is getting chances in spite of his usage/line mates.  What he creates is purely on his own and is usually a very rushed shot because no one is passing to him in dangerous areas.  He's usually shooting with a defender on top of him.

And Lazar is plenty responsible defensively... and Sheary isn't the worst.

[Kristian]

22 minutes ago, Torpedo Forecheck said:

No kidding, this has got the earmarks of a very strange usage pattern from RK with certain guys (Miller). Since the very beginning he has been down on our 40 goal scorer, and it hasn't helped. I'm tired of this and blaming Skinner, Ralph deserves some flack as well. His job is get the most out of players.

Totally agree - Not playing your 40 goal scorer with your best setup guy is moronic. Period.

Even if taking Skinner off Jack’s line was to make Jack take more shots and score more goals, it’s still moronic.

[Palm Trees And Taxes]

29 minutes ago, Kristian said:

Who’s in net tonight?

 

[Doohicksie]

This is the frustrating thing about RFK:  He settled in and is so enamored of stability, he doesn't try mixing things up.  When he does, it's because he's iced an 11-7 lineup and then things are *too* jumbled.  Try Skinner with Eich for 2, 3, 5 games... with or without Reino on the other side, I don't care, but just keep whatever the line is together for enough time for them to gel.  With Olofsson out this would be the perfect time.  Instead Skinner gets moved to the 3rd line?  WTF?

[DarthEbriate]

9 minutes ago, Doohickie said:

WHAT SCORING?

What message scoring? The goals we've been stashing inside our rusty Skinner.

[Stoner]

40 minutes ago, Doohickie said:

This is the frustrating thing about RFK:  He settled in and is so enamored of stability, he doesn't try mixing things up.  When he does, it's because he's iced an 11-7 lineup and then things are *too* jumbled.  Try Skinner with Eich for 2, 3, 5 games... with or without Reino on the other side, I don't care, but just keep whatever the line is together for enough time for them to gel.  With Olofsson out this would be the perfect time.  Instead Skinner gets moved to the 3rd line?  WTF?

You and others are so obsessed with getting the band back together. Skinner's getting chances. But that's not enough. It's still RaKru's fault. The man can't win.

[Randall Flagg]

11 minutes ago, PASabreFan said:

You and others are so obsessed 

FWIW, the number of PA posts about Jeff Skinner >> the number of the rest of Sabrespace's posts about Jeff Skinner combined 

This is an exaggeration but probably not a large one! 

[Torpedo Forecheck]

17 minutes ago, PASabreFan said:

You and others are so obsessed with getting the band back together. Skinner's getting chances. But that's not enough. It's still RaKru's fault. The man can't win.

People get all righteous about having a balanced attack, and it's a nice goal. In my experience it usually gets back to having 4 lines that can maybe score (or not) versus 1 that can and the other team has to really worry about and a 2nd that is strong enough.  Right now we have half a line that can score reliably. And, in that case you end up scoring 2 ,1 or 0 alot and that's not enough. Skinner is a finisher plain and simple. He's not going to get the puck, pass it to himself or stickhandle around guys and then score it.

Edited February 11, 2020 by Torpedo Forecheck

[Torpedo Forecheck]

1 hour ago, PASabreFan said:

There was a story in the news today by Lance Lysowski that claimed Jeff has been producing tons of chances. So I think the misuse charge against Ralph falls flat, if that's true. Skinner just can't do his job right now, for whatever reason. Light the lamp, that is.

As for the rationale for having Skinner on the second line, Lysowski repeated something that's been said all season: Ralph wanted a more defensively responsible player on the top line.

1-You watch the games, so do I, and that is just not true. To believe that ,you'd have to believe playing with Eichel last year did nothing to improve his chances and that's nonsensical. 

2- Like who Oloffson?

3- Bottom line, he sacrificed his only 40 goal scorer this year, the reasons remain unclear.

[darksabre]

1 hour ago, PASabreFan said:

There was a story in the news today by Lance Lysowski that claimed Jeff has been producing tons of chances. So I think the misuse charge against Ralph falls flat, if that's true. Skinner just can't do his job right now, for whatever reason. Light the lamp, that is.

As for the rationale for having Skinner on the second line, Lysowski repeated something that's been said all season: Ralph wanted a more defensively responsible player on the top line.

Yup. Skinner is on pace to match his shot total from last season. It's just that his shooting percentage is half for whatever reason. 

I think most of us expected a drop from the 14% and change he was shooting at last year, but I don't think anyone expected this much of a drop off. He's really just not getting anything in the net. It's wild.

[Torpedo Forecheck]

6 minutes ago, darksabre said:

Yup. Skinner is on pace to match his shot total from last season. It's just that his shooting percentage is half for whatever reason. 

I think most of us expected a drop from the 14% and change he was shooting at last year, but I don't think anyone expected this much of a drop off. He's really just not getting anything in the net. It's wild.

His shooting % is impacted by the quality of chances he's had, did he have some luck last year-of course. Playing with Eichel last year put him in positions to score the likes of which he's not seeing this year.

[darksabre]

1 minute ago, Torpedo Forecheck said:

His shooting % is impacted by the quality of chances he's had, did he have some luck last year-of course. Playing with Eichel last year put him in positions to score the likes of which he's not seeing this year.

I don't agree. He might not be playing with Jack, but it does mean he's playing against lower quality of opponents. He should be finding the net with these shots and he isn't, and that's on him. 

[Torpedo Forecheck]

1 minute ago, darksabre said:

I don't agree. He might not be playing with Jack, but it does mean he's playing against lower quality of opponents. He should be finding the net with these shots and he isn't, and that's on him. 

So you think the quality of shots, directly related to not only who you play against, but with, has no impact on production. And, playing with JE did nothing to improve that. I completely disagree.

[darksabre]

2 minutes ago, Torpedo Forecheck said:

So you think the quality of shots, directly related to not only who you play against, but with, has no impact on production. And, playing with JE did nothing to improve that. I completely disagree.

We don't know anything about the quality of his shots.

[Stoner]

52 minutes ago, Randall Flagg said:

FWIW, the number of PA posts about Jeff Skinner >> the number of the rest of Sabrespace's posts about Jeff Skinner combined 

This is an exaggeration but probably not a large one! 

It's his fault. All I wanted was a selfie of his cute, smiling face. But, no. Instead, a call from the Sabres attorney, Twelve.

43 minutes ago, Torpedo Forecheck said:

1-You watch the games, so do I, and that is just not true. To believe that ,you'd have to believe playing with Eichel last year did nothing to improve his chances and that's nonsensical. 

2- Like who Oloffson?

3- Bottom line, he sacrificed his only 40 goal scorer this year, the reasons remain unclear.

I was surprised myself to read about his chances in the paper today.

21 minutes ago, darksabre said:

We don't know anything about the quality of his shots.

Can we go by scoring chance totals, or is that not fancy-statty enough?