GDT: 1/30/21 1pm ET, NJ Devils at Buffalo, MSG & WGR

[MODO Hockey]

11 minutes ago, tom webster said:

Wow. Nothing from their obviously injured captain. Nothing from their 9 million winger, Their generational defenseman is still struggling. Apparently their coach sucks. They have played six games against two of the top five teams. And yet?

The underlying numbers say dumb coach’s system leads the league in quality shot suppression, possession numbers are good and:

Their record is 4-3-2 and would be 6-2-1 with better goaltending.

Sounds to me like process is working.

Sounds like your impressed by this team, thank god were all different.
 

[Norcal]

Another game another first NHL goal for an opponent

Gotta finish this one with the man advantage at the end

 Love Risto down low

I've been critical of Okposo, he hustled up some ok play today

I think Miller is underrated on the PP

Plethora of goalposts

Not all OTs are alike 

2 points in the bank 

 

 

[Shmuffalo]

9 minutes ago, DarthEbriate said:

As ever, we've gotta put our other-GM flight helmets on...  the Sabres are going to really have to sweeten the offer for us-as-other-GMs to take 7 more years of Skinner at $9M. Maybe an emergency compliance buyout is put in place, or in 2 years the cap skyrockets, but for now, he'll be with us, like The Concept Of... always.

Agreed, I was only responding to the comment Skinner won't be here. We have no salary retention currently, I know there's nil chance we retain 50%, but for the sake of the initial comment, Skinner at 50% retention, is of value... we'd need to receive one hell of a sweetener carrying a 4.5m burden for 7 years.  Realistically, I don't foresee a Skinner trade.

Edited January 30, 2021 by Shmuffalo

[JohnC]

21 minutes ago, tom webster said:

Sorry, he gave up two softies in regulation. Gave up a point Jersey shouldn’t have.

He did give up two soft goals. The goal off his arm when he was tight on the net was a fluke. However,  his sterling stops more than make up for the bad goals. Right now he may be the best shoot out goalie in the league. I'm more than happy with his overall performances. 

[Cityo'Rasmii]

I didn't get to see today's game except for the shootout.  I've watched every other game thus far.  I'm very pleased we got 2 needed points

At this point in the season:

Linus has really played strong.  We are proud you are a Sabre and we acknowledge how well you stand up especially during a trying personal time.

VO - really coming around

Yeichel - here we go now!

Rieder - Surely passes the eye-test with his tenacity.  Thought his goal the other night was beautious

Eakin - a real asset to our bottom 6, nice to see us winning faceoffs

Any improvement from Staal today?  (just watched highlights, nice to see Staal pot one) Hopefully, Hall played better than he did in the last game vs. the Rags.  Anybody else pick it up today?

Edited January 30, 2021 by Cityo'Rasmii

[nucci]

I don't understand Dahlin over Skinner or Hall in the shootout

[MODO Hockey]

Just now, nucci said:

I don't understand Dahlin over Skinner or Hall in the shootout

Nobody does, only Ralph.. 

[JohnC]

16 minutes ago, tom webster said:

Wow. Nothing from their obviously injured captain. Nothing from their 9 million winger, Their generational defenseman is still struggling. Apparently their coach sucks. They have played six games against two of the top five teams. And yet?

The underlying numbers say dumb coach’s system leads the league in quality shot suppression, possession numbers are good and:

Their record is 4-3-2 and would be 6-2-1 with better goaltending.

Sounds to me like process is working.

The eye test tells me something is amiss here. Eichel, Hall and Dahlin just seem to be out of sink. It's not so much that they are playing poorly but these are the players you expect to be driving the play. They are not. I'm not going to be dismissive over earning two points and staying in the division mix. But somethings seem off kilter. 

[nucci]

22 minutes ago, tom webster said:

Wow. Nothing from their obviously injured captain. Nothing from their 9 million winger, Their generational defenseman is still struggling. Apparently their coach sucks. They have played six games against two of the top five teams. And yet?

The underlying numbers say dumb coach’s system leads the league in quality shot suppression, possession numbers are good and:

Their record is 4-3-2 and would be 6-2-1 with better goaltending.

Sounds to me like process is working.

you do this a lot.....of course if we were better our record would be too but it's not

[jad1]

12 minutes ago, NAF said:

I believe he has to be protected as he has a NMC.

They could tick him off so much that he waves his NMC.  It makes sense for Seattle to take him.  Top six potential, salary that eats up some cap.

[GASabresIUFAN]

How can people call this a bad game after the debocale against the Rags.  Sure it was far from perfect.  Bad penalties, some easy goals allowed and some lack of effort, but this was significantly better.  They were the better team for about 60% of the game.  I surprised that anyone thought that a team coached by Lindy Ruff, Chris Taylor and Mark Recchi would quit and not player better then their talent (especially early in Ruff's tenure).  

Also kudos to RK for making a PP adjustment and getting in the slot Risto as a screen.  Boston used Chara for years in that position and it worked.  

Cozens is going to be the 2nd best forward on this team as early as next year. He has more hockey sense then just about any other forward on the team except maybe Reinhart and Staal.  Jack needs to learn more when to shoot imho.  Cozens taking the body on that play prevented a break away and his passing on the 1st PP was excellent early in the game.  The more he learns and plays the more dangerous he is going to get.

Favorite play.  Wood checking McCabe in front of the net.  Wood crumbled to the ice and McCabe didn't even move.

 

Edited January 30, 2021 by GASabresIUFAN

[MODO Hockey]

Ralph thinks Sam is Jacks twin in the post interview, and saying that Jack is a great captain, last part might be true but it aint showing on the ice that is for sure.

[GASabresIUFAN]

1 minute ago, MODO Hockey said:

Nobody does, only Ralph.. 

Nobody expects the Spanish Inquisition.

[JohnC]

3 minutes ago, GASabresIUFAN said:

How can people call this a bad game after the dibocial against the Rags.  Sure it was far from perfect.  Bad penalties, some easy goals allowed and some lack of effort, but this was significantly better.  They were the better team for about 60% of the game.  I surprised that anyone thought that a team coached by Lindy Ruff, Chris Taylor and Mark Recchi would quit and not player better then their talent (especially early in Ruff's tenure).  

Also kudos to RK for making a PP adjustment and getting in the slot Risto as a screen.  Boston used Chara for years in that position and it worked.  

Cozens is going to be the 2nd best forward on this team as early as next year. He has more hockey sense then just about any other forward on the team except maybe Reinhart and Staal.  Jack needs to learn more when to shoot imho.  Cozens taking the body on that play prevented a break away and his passing on the 1st PP was excellent early in the game.  The more he learns and plays the more dangerous he is going to get.

Favorite play.  Wood checking McCabe in front of the net.  Wood crumbled to the ice and McCabe didn't even move.

 

Cozens is not a dazzling player. He is the epitome of substance over style. You make a good comparison between Cozesn and Reinhart/Staal.  You don't appreciate the instincts and subtleties unless you watch them over an extended period of time. From his first game and on I have never gotten the sense that this young rookie is out of place. With Staal you can see him steadily getting better as he gets more familiar with his mates. 

[fiftyone]

1 hour ago, MODO Hockey said:

I dont seriously think it's fun to yell and scream with all due respect, but i do want to show my serious frustration with this idiot coach. That aint fun no where. 

And what, they played 5 seconds? 

Skinner played most, if not all, of the third period in the top 6. 

[GoPre]

39 minutes ago, tom webster said:

Sorry, he gave up two softies in regulation. Gave up a point Jersey shouldn’t have.

I didn’t see the first two goals scored, but the 3rd was soft.  Shouldn’t have been off the post.  Stood tall in the shootout though.  He’s a quality tender.  
 

[Sabres Fan in NS]

Nice win.

They all are.

This team is actually coming together.

We still need more timely saves from the goalies.  They make a dazling one, or two, every game, but also let in some softies too.  This should have been a regulation win.  2 points is great, but we have to try to elimate the giving a point away too.

[klos1963]

18 minutes ago, JohnC said:

He did give up two soft goals. The goal off his arm when he was tight on the net was a fluke. However,  his sterling stops more than make up for the bad goals. Right now he may be the best shoot out goalie in the league. I'm more than happy with his overall performances. 

Good saves don't make up for bad goals.  You need good saves and no bad goals to win consistently. The last bad goal lost a chance to keep a divisional opponent from getting a valuable point.

[JohnC]

6 minutes ago, klos1963 said:

Good saves don't make up for bad goals.  You need good saves and no bad goals to win consistently. The last bad goal lost a chance to keep a divisional opponent from getting a valuable point.

A win is a win. I'll take it. The goal off his arm was a fluke goal. He made a number of high end stops in this game that contributed to a win. Overall, he was a major if not the primary reason why the Sabres won this game. 

We are in the mix. We are consistently earning points. And that is a good sign.  

NHL Hockey Standings | NHL.com

Edited January 30, 2021 by JohnC

[GASabresIUFAN]

6 minutes ago, JohnC said:

A win is a win. I'll take it. The goal off his arm was a fluke goal. He made a number of high end stops in this game that contributed to a win. Overall, he was a major if not the primary reason why the Sabres won this game. 

We are in the mix. We are consistently earning points. And that is a good sign.  

NHL Hockey Standings | NHL.com

It wasn't a fluke goal.  Ullmark left the post early and created an opening that the shooter took advantage of.  Had he remained at the post that would have been an easy save.  Even Ray said Ullmark left early. 

[DarthEbriate]

18 minutes ago, jad1 said:

They could tick him off so much that he waves his NMC.  It makes sense for Seattle to take him.  Top six potential, salary that eats up some cap.

This is where I disagree. As GMTM showed us, it's easy to fill up cap (Meszaros). There's a UFA player every year who's worth a flier for a good salary -- last year Kovalchuk, this year Hall that you can overpay a bit if you need to. Seattle won't just take Skinner. Especially when they're going to have options from us like: Hall, Borgen, and Ullmark (if we don't re-sign in-season).

The cap is flat for 2 more seasons, then will rise but probably not too much. So that's 3 more seasons at 9M for a guy who really hasn't done anything in the last three seasons when he wasn't skating with Eichel/Reino in a contract year. That's not eating cap, that's crippling cap. The back half of the contract the cap will go up, but the contract will be even worse. It's as Lando said, the deal that is getting worse all the time.

[jad1]

5 minutes ago, New Scotland (NS) said:

Nice win.

They all are.

This team is actually coming together.

We still need more timely saves from the goalies.  They make a dazling one, or two, every game, but also let in some softies too.  This should have been a regulation win.  2 points is great, but we have to try to elimate the giving a point away too.

It's a win, good on them for that, but I don't think this team is coming together.

They play with no urgency. No creativity.  No edge.  All in an effort to win by the smallest of margins.  They play to minimize their mistakes instead of maximizing their potential.

Their lineup, at this point, is better than the Rangers and Devils.  But they are only able to eek out 1 goal wins against these teams.

Maybe it's just bad luck that the proven goal scorers are slumping at the same time, and when Eichel, Hall, Skinner, and Dahlin break out, the team will be competitive with the Bruins and healthy Capitals.

Or maybe these guys are slumping because they're being asked to play the game the same way that Lazar and Okposo play the game.

Time will tell, but this lineup should be better and more exciting than it is currently showing.

[Eleven]

I can say in two words why this game went to OT despite Buffalo having MUCH better talent.  NJ forechecked, had better entry, had better defense, but Buffalo had better players.

The two words:  L___  R___

[MODO Hockey]

18 minutes ago, fiftyone said:

Skinner played most, if not all, of the third period in the top 6. 

And what does that tell you ? if you actually think outside the box.

[JohnC]

5 minutes ago, GASabresIUFAN said:

It wasn't a fluke goal.  Ullmark left the post early and created an opening that the shooter took advantage of.  Had he remained at the post that would have been an easy save.  Even Ray said Ullmark left early. 

He didn't play it perfectly but it still was a fortuitous shot that bounced off his arm. But even so the difference in this game from a goalie standpoint was the number of excellent saves that factored in to the win. The goalie played well enough to earn 2 points. A win is a win. I'll take it. 

Edited January 30, 2021 by JohnC