GDT: 3/9/21 Sabres @ Flyers 7:00 pm ET MSG Krueger's last game?

[SABRES 0311]

15 minutes ago, LGR4GM said:

Sam Reinhart is the captain now. 

Yeah, it didn’t work out to well for the guy in the gif.  

[ExWNYer]

2 minutes ago, Gatorman0519 said:

4 regulation wins in 24... how does Ralph still have a job? 

The great unknown. How many games do we have to ask? Every time..."this is the one"...nope..."this has to be the one"...nope..."okay, this is it"...nope. He's gotta have blackmail photos of Pegs & Adams hidden somewhere.

[Eleven]

34 minutes ago, LGR4GM said:

Sam Reinhart is the captain now. 

It always should have been him or O'Reilly.

Nothing written in NHL law says the most talented player on the team must be the captain.

In fact, two Sabres finals teams suggest the opposite.

[7+6=13]

What exactly does "not acceptable " mean to you KA?

[Cal Naughton Jr]

[SDS]

7 minutes ago, Eleven said:

It always should have been him or O'Reilly.

Nothing written in NHL law says the most talented player on the team must be the captain.

In fact, two Sabres finals teams suggest the opposite.

I posed this question years ago. Most people default to the most talented because they’ve you being a captain as someone who goes out and scores the big goal, which invariably requires talent.

[Eleven]

4 minutes ago, SDS said:

I posed this question years ago. Most people default to the most talented because they’ve you being a captain as someone who goes out and scores the big goal, which invariably requires talent.

I recall it.  

Schoeny was not the best player on the team.  But a great captain.

Peca was not the best player on the team, but a good enough captain.

I do think O'Reilly would have wanted to stay if he had been wearing the "C," which he should have been.

Edited March 10, 2021 by Eleven

[pi2000]

1 minute ago, SDS said:

I posed this question years ago. Most people default to the most talented because they’ve you being a captain as someone who goes out and scores the big goal, which invariably requires talent.

Captain's used to be guys who played an all around game, and we're leaders, see Peca, Drury, etc...  

Today, hockey is largely a skills contest where the most skilled guy is named Captain... doesn't matter if he can actually lead or not.

That said, the players don't really care about it anyway, they know who the real leaders of the team are.

[Eleven]

1 minute ago, pi2000 said:

That said, the players don't really care about it anyway, they know who the real leaders of the team are.

That's why they should vote for it like they used to.

[SDS]

1 minute ago, pi2000 said:

Captain's used to be guys who played an all around game, and we're leaders, see Peca, Drury, etc...  

Today, hockey is largely a skills contest where the most skilled guy is named Captain... doesn't matter if he can actually lead or not.

That said, the players don't really care about it anyway, they know who the real leaders of the team are.

I’m not a player so I don’t know what the players care about, but I do know it’s just another thing that the fans care way, way, too much about.

[Eleven]

2 minutes ago, SDS said:

that the fans care way, way, too much about.

And Xavier Laflamme.

[Palm Trees And Taxes]

27 minutes ago, SDS said:

I’m not a player so I don’t know what the players care about, but I do know it’s just another thing that the fans care way, way, too much about.

Agree.

The captain is generally given to the best player nowadays but the key is there needs to be some sound veteran leadership along with that and the Sabres seem to be void of that

[Randall Flagg]

Thought Cozens was pretty impressive. That wasn't what it looked like when Luke Adam or Mikhail Grigorenko or Casey Mittelstadt had to step in between wingers like that (and the matchups they draw) for a full game. More than once, with wingers vacating the zone despite a Philly forecheck, this guy came all the way down BELOW the goal line to help his defender out. Dylan Cozens, the pressure release valve. And the line produced 2 ES goals. Very nice performance for a kid who has played less than 20 NHL games. He really does do the little things, and his speed is such a sight for tired eyes. 

Seems to me like Philly was being coached about our board work tendencies. They always had a guy between the board battle going on and the point man ready to pick anything off. To the Sabres' credit, they took advantage of the space this opened up underneath, and got more unique looks from juicy areas than we've seen in probably 7 weeks. 

I have no interest in getting rid of Reinhart and a lot of interest in signing him.

Jokiharju with his best game in a while I thought.

Dahlin is severely broken. I worry about his value as an asset, both on the ice and in the offseason. Is he ever gonna learn how to defend?

Bryson is entertaining as hell, and will make watching games this year so much easier. The added bonus to this is that it keeps bad defenders on the bench and allows him to continue to develop - you can see his game and his confidence growing by the day. 

I know it was just a 4th line, but we have nothing in our bottom six that is remotely capable of what the LOG line was doing last year. PART of that is Zemgus being out, but a huge part of that is also Larry's absence. I skimmed through some offseason threads, and people were predictably dismissive of that, predictably assuming that anyone can do what they did off the bargain bin, probably better. (inexplicably, considering our non-LOG 4th line track record in the last decade). But it sure is fun watching a tank-level 4th line struggle through minutes hampering every single defense pair and every other forward line that now needs to try and slow momentum and get the puck back before trying to score, isn't it? We didn't have to create this, I always warned that this team was incapable of putting a 4th line together until LOG, and they showed us exactly why we shouldn't have taken that play for granted. What an abomination Rieder - Eakin - Okposo is. It's not in the top 4 reasons why we suck this year, but it's probably top ~6 and has non-negligible effects on the reasons above it. 14 ES minutes of opponents exhaustedly trying to follow the cycle each night, outscoring other teams' top lines by 8 goals (Larry was +8 in this usage) turned into like 10 minutes of 2013-14 hockey each night. Disappointing. There was no reason to do this for a team that gave Eakin a bigger contract for longer than what Larry signed for. The third line is still a mess (like whatever frankenstein combo we could muster between Veseys and Simmonds and Shearys last year) but we also threw a wrench in something that works just because we could. Go Sayberz

 

Edited March 10, 2021 by Randall Flagg

[Randall Flagg]

 

[Randall Flagg]

I need to preface this by pointing out my bias, as Staal was one of my least favorite players in the NHL for about 13 years. 

But I am really angry at how much better, faster, and more determined he looks now that the word is out that he is being shopped. 

[Kruppstahl]

1 hour ago, Eleven said:

When I lived there, DC couldn't care or even know who the Caps coach was.

Seems different these days.

The Caps definitely have a solid fanbase, though when we were last good (around 2006) there were pretty bad, and the arena was pretty empty.

Back in those days, I used to be able to get the best seats in the house 15 minutes before game time at the arena window.  But as the team improved, the fans came back more and more, and for many years now it's hard to get a ticket.

I think it is this way in every market.

 

[Kruppstahl]

2 hours ago, Second Line Center said:

Anyone in the front office that said our goaltending situation going in to this year was fine needs to be fired.  

Terry Pegula thought the acquisition of Hall was enough to make us a Cup contender this year!

LMFAO!

Can we please fire him too?!

 

 

[7+6=13]

14 minutes ago, Kruppstahl said:

Terry Pegula thought the acquisition of Hall was enough to make us a Cup contender this year!

LMFAO!

Can we please fire him too?!

 

 

Are you sure it wasn't Kim who thought that?

[PerreaultForever]

1 hour ago, Randall Flagg said:

Dahlin is severely broken. I worry about his value as an asset, both on the ice and in the offseason. Is he ever gonna learn how to defend?

 

This is the third straight time we've done this. For some reason the Sabres, no matter who the coach or GM can't seem to figure out that D men require slow and steady development and aren't ready for big minutes right away. I suppose it comes from being so bad we get desperate and can't wait but it's just dumb.

Borgen is ready now (pity he got injured) but we semi broke Jokiharju too and Bryson will be next. I like what he brings, but he's not ready and I can see it happening again. Such an idiotic organization. 

[thewookie1]

1 hour ago, Randall Flagg said:

Dahlin is severely broken. I worry about his value as an asset, both on the ice and in the offseason. Is he ever gonna learn how to defend?

Dahlin is Sabre and not a trade chip.

 

His problem is two fold however; Krueger has made him lose his confidence over the past two years by effectively making him overthink everything to the point he standing around trying to process everything going on instead of trusting his gut and abilities. The second issue is with every partner he has had except Borgen this year. Dahlin knew where Borgen would be and thus felt more assured that he could jump up into plays and confident he had his back. Last year Miller did well with Dahlin because he was playing a more defensive posture usually since Dahlin was 19. It seems like this year they decided to throw him to the wolves because Miller, Montour, etc all jump up constantly into plays, leaving Dahlin in a state of constant hesitation. What he needs is a steady Dman who allows him to gain confidence and play his game. It reminds me a bit of Tyler Myers after losing Tallinder and just assuming he'd work with anyone. Dahlin has incredible skill and super edge work at his disposal yet our coach seems hellbent on making him play defense first role. You can see, Dahlin cares about the D-zone and if he doesn't think its safe then he begins to play hesitant when handling the puck. He needs that worry adequately relieved so that his offensive talents can shine and his general defensive skill has a chance to actually form. Bryson right now is getting the treatment that Dahlin had the last couple years, the Dman playing with him is allowing him to play his game and being the vet of the two and making sure the D-zone is covered. This allows Bryson to play loose, confident, and only further prosper as he knows the old guy has his back. Defenseman take years to mature and be cultivated into well rounded players; but that's the thing, they need to be allowed to learn and not feel overwhelmed at every possible moment.

Every young Dman needs either savvy vet or defensive stalwart in order to properly bloom into the prospect they are capable of becoming. Said player with the youngster needs to commit to that role however, it isn't a glorious role but it helps the team overall. What we have here are zero Dman being willing to play the role and allow Dahlin to grow and prosper. It's the same reason why many younger Dman have success and later drop off; when they are a young callup or rookie they aren't a threat and the other Dmen sort of baby the youngster. Once he's a little older or becomes a "threat" to their spot is when the less team-oriented players rear their ugly heads. The only real odd exception to this are the non-offensive Dmen who come up into the league; since they aren't going to put up points consistently and will mostly play the defensive role themselves you don't see them drop off unless they are legitimately below-average. 

[Kruppstahl]

The weird thing is there are allegedly going to be @ 2,000 fans in the building starting March 20th!  

At some point, fairly soon, said fans will be booing this team off the ice--regularly.

That should be a great look for the franchise around the league, on top of everything that has transpired thus far.

 

 

 

 

[Billznut]

I have got to think the Pegulas are actually very wary of what will happen once fans are in the stands.  Wasn’t there a stipulation or some kind of wording to make it seem like not EVERY home game the rest of the way will actually have fans in the seats? 

[MODO Hockey]

3 hours ago, Kruppstahl said:

Terry Pegula thought the acquisition of Hall was enough to make us a Cup contender this year!

LMFAO!

Can we please fire him too?!

 

 

Well he is right to be honest, if we had a coach that could coach this team we would be in the top, no doubt, even with mediocre goalies (except Ullmark)

We have 3 pontential 40 goal-scorers in our lineup, 3! .. and they have together collected 5 goals this far. And Ralph is still here.. i mean for crying out loud, the owners and KA is beyond stupidity.
 

[Kristian]

2 hours ago, Kruppstahl said:

The weird thing is there are allegedly going to be @ 2,000 fans in the building starting March 20th!  

At some point, fairly soon, said fans will be booing this team off the ice--regularly.

That should be a great look for the franchise around the league, on top of everything that has transpired thus far.

 

 

 

 

Good.

[bob_sauve28]

Goaltending is the problem with this team. Sure, it has other problems, but goaltending, goaltending, goaltending