GDT: 1/19/21 7pm ET, Sabres at Philadelphia Flyers, MSG & WGR

[GASabresIUFAN]

1 hour ago, Curt said:

Oh, I see.  Yes, you agree that Krueger’s system is generating good chances, but it also are 100% certain that it doesn’t work.

Maybe ease up on the “Krueger ruins all things offense” narrative?

We don't go to the net, we don't shoot on the PP unless we get a golden opportunity, we don't screen the goalie.  So we generate lots of shots from good areas.  Where are the rebound goals?  Where are the tip ins?  They don't exist in this system because it doesn't encourage play down low. 

Edited January 20, 2021 by GASabresIUFAN

[pi2000]

M. Johansson > Staal

[Curt]

4 minutes ago, GASabresIUFAN said:

I saw tons of chances, few great, except the 2 open nets Olofsson missed, and a significant lack of finish.  Rinse, wash, repeat.  I see two 40 goal scorers with zero goals and a team that can't score at even strength despite numerous chances.  We have been at or below league average in shooting % for the last 5 years and we are below average again this season.  Sure it's a small sample size, but it's not exactly a surprise given the recent past.  

Last season the team had an above average SH% at 5 on 5 and league average overall.  That was their best mark in many years.

Is it Krueger’s fault that Olofsson didn’t bury those two open looks?

I actually thought that they had  good chances and the puck was in dangerous areas a lot.

[GASabresIUFAN]

8 minutes ago, Curt said:

Last season the team had an above average SH% at 5 on 5 and league average overall.  That was their best mark in many years.

Is it Krueger’s fault that Olofsson didn’t bury those two open looks?

I actually thought that they had  good chances and the puck was in dangerous areas a lot.

OK, but how many difficult stops did Elliott have?  The only ones I can think of was the Skinner line scramble around the net that generated 3 shots and the Staal shot that almost went through him under the arm.  However, there was no one near the net on the Staal shot and the Skinner scramble was the only one I remember for the entire game.  

Actually according to hockey-reference our shooting % last year was 9.5, the same as the league average and that is the only year we have approached the league average, but we were below league average in shot generation, HDF, SCF.  A 5 on 5 shooting percentage of 7.7 to a league average of 7.6 is de minimis.  This year is starting the same way if not worse.

Edited January 20, 2021 by GASabresIUFAN

[Curt]

17 minutes ago, GASabresIUFAN said:

OK, but how many difficult stops did Elliott have?  The only ones I can think of was the Skinner line scramble around the net that generated 3 shots and the Staal shot that almost went through him under the arm.  However, there was no one near the net on the Staal shot and the Skinner scramble was the only one I remember for the entire game.  

Actually according to hockey-reference our shooting % last year was 9.5, the same as the league average and that is the only year we have approached the league average, but we were below league average in shot generation, HDF, SCF.  A 5 on 5 shooting percentage of 7.7 to a league average of 7.6 is de minimis.  This year is starting the same way if not worse.

Olofsson had two great looks.  Skinner had a great chance.  Miller hit a post.  There were chances.

Just yesterday they scored multiple goals from scrambles at the net front.  

I see this team scoring goals and creating chances by getting the puck into high danger areas around the net.  It’s a heck of a lot better than past teams where I watched them take 20 low danger shots from above the face off circles per game.

I just don’t see what you are seeing.  You think the Flyers had more high danger chances than the Sabres did tonight?  I bet they didn’t.  I’ll wager exactly one I toda so.

[SabresBillsFan]

38 minutes ago, pi2000 said:

M. Johansson > Staal

Staal looks done to me. Way too slow

[Zamboni]

Flyers played much much better. And Elliott was great!

Sabres didn’t have an answer to break it open.  They didn’t suck tonight. The results do obviously.

[GASabresIUFAN]

18 minutes ago, Curt said:

Olofsson had two great looks.  Skinner had a great chance.  Miller hit a post.  There were chances.

Just yesterday they scored multiple goals from scrambles at the net front.  

I see this team scoring goals and creating chances by getting the puck into high danger areas around the net.  It’s a heck of a lot better than past teams where I watched them take 20 low danger shots from above the face off circles per game.

I just don’t see what you are seeing.  You think the Flyers had more high danger chances than the Sabres did tonight?  I bet they didn’t.  I’ll wager exactly one I toda so.

I don't care what the Flyers did or didn't do.  They won the game.  I'm sick of moral victories.  "We had a ton of chances"  "We were in each game this season" "we've only given up only 5 goals in the last 3 games." Whatever.  This team needed to come out of gate flying to make the playoffs and hasn't.  It's been clear to me since camp that we still lack scoring depth and it's now clear that it could take weeks for this team to develop any chemistry.  That will be to late.  Now add a goalie mess to an already fragile team.  Can't wait for the next great draft pick and the next new coach. 

It's so frustrating to watch this team play a great game and then come out the next night and do practically nothing the same.  No screens, no crashing the net, just a ton of easy shots for Elliott to save.  It's the same broken record for a decade.

Edited January 20, 2021 by GASabresIUFAN

[IKnowPhysics]

We had great chances we didn't capitalize on, but we certainly generated a high number of great chances.  I'd even say we out played them for the vast majority of the game, even if they played better top to bottom than last night.

[GASabresIUFAN]

57 minutes ago, pi2000 said:

M. Johansson > Staal

Possibly.

[SABRES 0311]

Hutton did ok tonight and last night.

This team is more fun to watch getting shut out than previous years Sabres when they won.

Staal is MIA.

Risto is a beast.  Heavy hitter and seems more responsible in his own end.

PP moves their feet and the puck.  Creates more chances.

I would like to see Skinner on a line with Cozens.

[Zamboni]

Preseason games to help the players and coaches get into “game shape” for the regular season > No preseason games and therefore the regular season games looking like they haven’t played or practiced very much and look rusty for the first week or two of games.

I’ll be worried/concerned if the Sabres (or any team for that matter) still look rusty after 8-10 games. Then I can take any definitive criticism by any fan seriously.  Until then, I just view most of the game by game discontent as white noise.

 

[GASabresIUFAN]

@Zamboni Nice thought, but these "pre-season" games actually count and if this teams gels, it will likely already be out of the playoff picture in this short season.

[SwampD]

1 minute ago, GASabresIUFAN said:

@Zamboni Nice thought, but these "pre-season" games actually count and if this teams gels, it will likely already be out of the playoff picture in this short season.

That's fine. Other teams will drop off.

 

I watched three Phlyers do to Dahlin what Risto did without getting a penalty.

I'd rather witch Mittlestat than Staal. Unless something changes, I think he's going to retire midseason, and we won't miss him.

I missed Tage.

Dirty ***** hit by Provorov, but made completely legal by a stupid ass play by Montour. Jackass.

I'm not enamored by Eichel, Reinhart, Hall. Even last night.

 

If Eichel isn't scoring, nothing else matters.

 

I'm ready for preseason to be over.

[dudacek]

2 hours ago, PerreaultForever said:

 

We have to skate hard EVERY night and can only win with speed. Philly played a tighter D game in this one similar to what Washington threw at us and we were shut down for the most part. We play good wide open, but we have not been good in close checking games for years. This is why we always faltered more second half of the season too when checking gets tighter. With the short season and back to backs teams will employ that style more earlier.

 

We did skate hard, but we were not shut down. Not by the eye test, not by the shot clock, not by the fancystats.

You've watched a lot of hockey. You know the better team doesn't always win; it's the nature of the game.

No one on here thought they were anything other than a playoff bubble team and nothing we've seen in four games should have changed minds. Nobody should be getting too high or low about a small sample size; Jack Eichel is not going to get 100 assists this year and Jeff Skinner is not going to go scoreless.

We played well. They played well. It was a good hockey game. They won. It's frustrating, but it happens.

 

 

[Kruppstahl]

52 minutes ago, SabresBillsFan said:

Staal looks done to me. Way too slow

He's been done for a while now.

 

 

[PerreaultForever]

3 minutes ago, dudacek said:

We did skate hard, but we were not shut down. Not by the eye test, not by the shot clock, not by the fancystats.

You've watched a lot of hockey. You know the better team doesn't always win; it's the nature of the game.

No one on here thought they were anything other than a playoff bubble team and nothing we've seen in four games should have changed minds. Nobody should be getting too high or low about a small sample size; Jack Eichel is not going to get 100 assists this year and Jeff Skinner is not going to go scoreless.

We played well. They played well. It was a good hockey game. They won. It's frustrating, but it happens.

 

 

No. In a word no.

We were not as fast as the game before. We were kept mostly to the outside and our scoring chances were limited to fairly easy shots and few rebounds. 

We did not play horrible, and they did not dominate, but I have no idea how you can think we were the better team.

[SwampD]

2 minutes ago, PerreaultForever said:

No. In a word no.

We were not as fast as the game before. We were kept mostly to the outside and our scoring chances were limited to fairly easy shots and few rebounds. 

We did not play horrible, and they did not dominate, but I have no idea how you can think we were the better team.

Yeah. I'm not sure we were the better team tonight.

It was close, though.

At least, closer than it has been when we completely sucked.

[dudacek]

14 minutes ago, PerreaultForever said:

No. In a word no.

We were not as fast as the game before. We were kept mostly to the outside and our scoring chances were limited to fairly easy shots and few rebounds. 

We did not play horrible, and they did not dominate, but I have no idea how you can think we were the better team.

We weren't as fast as the game before. Philadelphia actually came to play tonight and got in our way.

I'm not a fancystats guy, but they support my eyes: Expected goals charts had the Sabres way ahead. We were also way ahead in zone time, the shot clock, and corsi.

Philly was kept mostly to the outside and their scoring chances were limited to fairly easy shots and few rebounds.

And I didn't say we were the better team, although if pushed to pick one, I would say it was us. It was up for grabs. They won.

Edited January 20, 2021 by dudacek

[Kristian]

All I see is that we’re 1-3-0...

[PerreaultForever]

1 hour ago, dudacek said:

We weren't as fast as the game before. Philadelphia actually came to play tonight and got in our way.

I'm not a fancystats guy, but they support my eyes: Expected goals charts had the Sabres way ahead. We were also way ahead in zone time, the shot clock, and corsi.

Philly was kept mostly to the outside and their scoring chances were limited to fairly easy shots and few rebounds.

And I didn't say we were the better team, although if pushed to pick one, I would say it was us. It was up for grabs. They won.

You said the better team doesn't always win and since we lost that's pretty much the same thing, but at least we agree that they were not as fast tonight and that makes a big difference for the way we play. We're not a check and grind Boston or Barry Trotts type of team so we will have a chance to win when we outskate the opposition but not likely when we allow them to bottle us up. They forced us to the outside too. 

We still; need more players going to the net and the dirty areas. We need to be the team "accidentally" running into their goalie for a change. 

3 minutes ago, Kristian said:

All I see is that we’re 1-3-0...

which is last place. 

[Kristian]

7 minutes ago, PerreaultForever said:

You said the better team doesn't always win and since we lost that's pretty much the same thing, but at least we agree that they were not as fast tonight and that makes a big difference for the way we play. We're not a check and grind Boston or Barry Trotts type of team so we will have a chance to win when we outskate the opposition but not likely when we allow them to bottle us up. They forced us to the outside too. 

We still; need more players going to the net and the dirty areas. We need to be the team "accidentally" running into their goalie for a change. 

which is last place. 

At least we're back in our comfort zone then.

[Curt]

6 hours ago, GASabresIUFAN said:

I don't care what the Flyers did or didn't do.  They won the game.  I'm sick of moral victories.  "We had a ton of chances"  "We were in each game this season" "we've only given up only 5 goals in the last 3 games." Whatever.  This team needed to come out of gate flying to make the playoffs and hasn't.  It's been clear to me since camp that we still lack scoring depth and it's now clear that it could take weeks for this team to develop any chemistry.  That will be to late.  Now add a goalie mess to an already fragile team.  Can't wait for the next great draft pick and the next new coach. 

It's so frustrating to watch this team play a great game and then come out the next night and do practically nothing the same.  No screens, no crashing the net, just a ton of easy shots for Elliott to save.  It's the same broken record for a decade.

I just really don’t think this is true.  Sabres created a lot of good scoring chances.  
 

5 hours ago, PerreaultForever said:

No. In a word no.

We were not as fast as the game before. We were kept mostly to the outside and our scoring chances were limited to fairly easy shots and few rebounds. 

We did not play horrible, and they did not dominate, but I have no idea how you can think we were the better team.

That’s not what I saw.  Sabres were getting the puck to the goal area and creating dangerous chances.

I am surprised that so many people are not seeing that.

[triumph_communes]

They dominated play and control of the puck all night. We are good at making goalies look good, and good goalies look elite. But when we got stuck into our third string goalie things fall apart. That would be for any team. I’m happy we’re running circles in the offensive zone struggling to score as opposed to circling in the defensive zone never getting puck control. It amazed me shift after shift they were able to maintain possession, where the same players in years prior would’ve given up immediately. 

Frustrating game to watch, but not depressing. 

[bob_sauve28]

7 hours ago, SabresBillsFan said:

Staal looks done to me. Way too slow

He is just good enough to be dangerous defensively