GDT: 2/27/21, 1pm Philadelphia @ Buffalo, MSG & ESPN+

[Gatorman0519]

Elliot is ecstatic Buffalo is in his division this year I bet.  Easy wins and stat padding. 

[Sabre fan]

Funny when my son heard Ullmark was out for a month he said that we had to go after another goalie and I said that what's the sense? The year is over and we should get what we can for Hall and whoever else at the deadline and look forward to next year as we always do. Absolutely sickening  

[steveoath]

Will there even be a draft this year?

[Thorner]

8 minutes ago, PromoTheRobot said:

Hutton has made plenty of good saves today. But the 5 guys in front of him keep helping out the Flyers. How about for a change we put a little blame on what leads to those goals instead of the goals themselves?

 

4 minutes ago, dejeanneret said:

Sabres rank 10th in the NHL in goals allowed.  Goaltending isn't the problem.  They rank 27th in goals scored.   We all knew they needed to score more to make the playoffs, which is why the addition of Hall and Staal were huge.  Considering they were ranked 23rd in goals scored last year, they have gone backwards.  That's on Krueger and his system.  You can talk culture all you want.  When you add talent, and your offense regresses, that's a serious system problem.

Guys, he’s supposed to make “plenty of good saves” - that’s his job. His save percentage today is .885 - that’s not near good enough. 

Of course scoring is a problem but you realize it’s a problem partially BECAUSE Ralph feels so obligated to play a lock-down, no event game to protect our team D? These things are connected! The goals against (AND FOR) are low because of the system. 

The performance of Hutton is still statistically bad even though we are 10th in goals against - he’s insulated by the system yet still gives up too many relative goals 

[Stoner]

Marty says it's all about layers. Oh, we'll be comfortable. (I know, it was levels.)

 

[Gatorman0519]

Marty Biron could coach this team better. 

[North Buffalo]

Sabres dont go the net, foward didnt come back on 2nd philly goal... playing a game of shinny.

[NE Branch]

2 minutes ago, steveoath said:

Will there even be a draft this year?

Maybe two next year as crazy as that sounds.

[North Buffalo]

So Sabres get two top numbers ones if they continue to suck?

[Scottysabres]

Just now, Sabre fan said:

Funny when my son heard Ullmark was out for a month he said that we had to go after another goalie and I said that what's the sense? The year is over and we should get what we can for Hall and whoever else at the deadline and look forward to next year as we always do. Absolutely sickening  

I would fire Adams and Krueger, trade Eichel, Reinhart, Olofsson, Ullmark, Staal, Hall, Risto, Montour, Dahlin and Miller for packages of draft picks and prospects still developing. Let other contracts run out, try to move Skinner and Okposo, but wouldn't be paramount if we dumped all of the salary in the trades mentioned above. The Eichel and Reinhart trades alone could rebuild your top 6 center spine and then some, let alone the other trades.

It's just not worth it to try and continue on with this nonsense, because that is just what it is, a joke, pure nonsense.

Hire a well known successful President of Hockey operations and the GM and coaching staff will fill out.

This isn't working, and it's actually harmful to the organizational brand on a broader scale.

[jad1]

Just now, North Buffalo said:

So Sabres get two top numbers ones if they continue to suck?

No, it means they can lose two lotterys this year instead of one.

[Pimlach]

4 minutes ago, eman said:

and to be honest, so is this season. Playoffs are not going to happen............again. Serious, serious changes need to happen organisationally before this team even sniffs at the playoffs. Either a dramatic change in the players or a dramatic change in the coaching staff (all of it). Perhaps both. This is brutal hockey. Maybe when people start attending games again, they can boo their frustrations just to remind management how brutal a product this is. Wow!

If serious changes mean another tear down then I disagree.  No more tear down and tanking please.  
 

They need better coaching, whatever this “system” is that RK plays is not working.  They need a few forwards that can score 5v5 and will add some “grit”.  The need another goalie on par or better than Linus.  On defense we have a few young players that look promising.  Just a few goid trades away from getting better   

The contracts given to Skinner and Okposo are a big problem though.  

[Broken Ankles]

11 minutes ago, dejeanneret said:

Sabres rank 10th in the NHL in goals allowed.  Goaltending isn't the problem.  They rank 27th in goals scored.   We all knew they needed to score more to make the playoffs, which is why the addition of Hall and Staal were huge.  Considering they were ranked 23rd in goals scored last year, they have gone backwards.  That's on Krueger and his system.  You can talk culture all you want.  When you add talent, and your offense regresses, that's a serious system problem.

They rank 10th because they’ve only played 17 games. For those teams that have 20-22 games it’s the equivalent of 60 to 62 goals which puts the Sabres in the bottom half of the league.  They probably will give up 5 or more today which will only move them down in the rankings. 
 

ps Goaltending is a problem. 

[Doohicksie]

12 minutes ago, jad1 said:

Marty laying out some coaching 101 about when to pinch.

Krueger might want to invite him to the next practice as a guest speaker.

Hell, even Rayzor would be an improvement on RFK.

[Torpedo Forecheck]

The Ralph era is heading the way of the Rex Ryan era. Pegula's got bamboozled by a guy with a good line of BS. Let's hope they learn and get a real NHL guy in. What else can we do? The rest of the season you are going to see guys out there giving a half-assed effort when they're completely out of it. Just like the Rex ending with his defense laying down for the opponents. This is going to require a virtual redo from top to bottom, and a winning culture built-just like the Rex era. Sad

[dejeanneret]

3 minutes ago, Thorny said:

Of course scoring is a problem but you realize it’s a problem partially BECAUSE Ralph feels so obligated to play a lock-down, no event game to protect our team D? These things are connected! The goals against (AND FOR) are low because of the system. 

The performance of Hutton is still statistically bad even though we are 10th in goals against - he’s insulated by the system yet still gives up too many relative goals 

If our goals for, and goals against were relative, I would agree.  If we were both ranked 10th in the league in GF and GA we would be a playoff team.  Our offense sucks.  Lockdown or no lockdown.  We need to score more goals.  And Ralphs system keeps us from scoring and being 10th in GA is not good enough, then we need a new system.

3 minutes ago, Broken Ankles said:

They rank 10th because they’ve only played 17 games. For those teams that have 20-22 games it’s the equivalent of 60 to 62 goals which puts the Sabres in the bottom half of the league.  They probably will give up 5 or more today which will only move them down in the rankings. 
 

ps Goaltending is a problem. 

There are also teams that have played less games.  It's all relative.

[PromoTheRobot]

9 minutes ago, Thorny said:

 

Guys, he’s supposed to make “plenty of good saves” - that’s his job. His save percentage today is .885 - that’s not near good enough. 

Of course scoring is a problem but you realize it’s a problem partially BECAUSE Ralph feels so obligated to play a lock-down, no event game to protect our team D? These things are connected! The goals against (AND FOR) are low because of the system. 

The performance of Hutton is still statistically bad even though we are 10th in goals against - he’s insulated by the system yet still gives up too many relative goals 

Have you ever considered the goalies with better save percentages don't have teams in front of them that continuously turn the puck over?

[Gatorman0519]

I think Gallant could immediately start to turn this around.  But Gallant is an alpha and wants say in the roster.  TP could not handle a type like that. 

[bob_sauve28]

Defense playing poorly 

[Stoner]

They've quit. Coaches get fired for this.

[Torpedo Forecheck]

2 minutes ago, Broken Ankles said:

They rank 10th because they’ve only played 17 games. For those teams that have 20-22 games it’s the equivalent of 60 to 62 goals which puts the Sabres in the bottom half of the league.  They probably will give up 5 or more today which will only move them down in the rankings. 
 

ps Goaltending is a problem. 

Without a doubt, you need goalies who make a difference once in awhile. This guy is just a sieve.

[Pimlach]

8 minutes ago, Thorny said:

 

Guys, he’s supposed to make “plenty of good saves” - that’s his job. His save percentage today is .885 - that’s not near good enough. 

Of course scoring is a problem but you realize it’s a problem partially BECAUSE Ralph feels so obligated to play a lock-down, no event game to protect our team D? These things are connected! The goals against (AND FOR) are low because of the system. 

The performance of Hutton is still statistically bad even though we are 10th in goals against - he’s insulated by the system yet still gives up too many relative goals 

Exactly.  And that 10th in goals against is tainted by the fact that only 3 teams have played less games than the Sabres. They are tied with 4 teams for the fourth fewest games played.  
 

Take Linus out, play more games, and watch that stat go to pieces.  

[jad1]

Mittelstadt enters this season's post-a-palooza.

[eman]

1 minute ago, Pimlach said:

If serious changes mean another tear down then I disagree.  No more tear down and tanking please.  
 

They need better coaching, whatever this “system” is that RK plays is not working.  They need a few forwards that can score 5v5 and will add some “grit”.  The need another goalie on par or better than Linus.  On defense we have a few young players that look promising.  Just a few goid trades away from getting better   

The contracts given to Skinner and Okposo are a big problem though.  

I was one of the few against the tank and got spanked for it because "we got Jack. a generational player". Jack can go, we aren't winning with him, that is painfully obvious now. RK can go, brutal coach and ***** motivator. Yes, going through coaches is a bad look, unfortunately, not having a competent GM and no President of Hockey Operations to oversee a decent coaching hire is also, a very bad look. I think there is talent on this club but we got saddled with another poor coaching choice. If you want to keep Ralph, then you need to find players that fit his style of coaching whatever the hell that is? Or move him out and get an experienced coach in here who will hold these guys accountable for their play. Once again, what we have currently, isn't even close to working. (for a 10th consecutive season)

[Thorner]

3 minutes ago, PromoTheRobot said:

Have you ever considered the goalies with better save percentages don't have teams in front of them that continuously turn the puck over?

We’ve had plenty of goalies here in recent times with numbers well above Hutton 

Everyone knows he’s not good enough. There can be more than one issue