GDT: Bruins at Sabres 4/20/21 6:30pm MSG/WGR550

[Claude Balls]

3 minutes ago, Crusader1969 said:

Wow that was awful.    Oloffson,You can’t not miss the net on that shot

On those shots. He missed two point blank chances.

[Gatorman0519]

Atrocious game. Absolutely brutal power play. The Don better get on them. 

[Claude Balls]

Man, I had flashbacks of Krueger during that 6 on 3. Pass pass pass pass pass pass lose the puck. Donny Meatballs better do some ass chewing.

Edited April 21, 2021 by Claude Balls

[PerreaultForever]

That final 2 minutes was a total embarrassment. 

Bruins owned the front of both nets all night. They were simply better than us at everything. Men against boys.

It's annoying to watch Taylor Hall do good things. And it's even more annoying we tossed them Lazar for nothing. Best ultra cheap forward in the league.

Well, at least Hall didn't score. 

[Claude Balls]

1 minute ago, PerreaultForever said:

That final 2 minutes was a total embarrassment. 

Bruins owned the front of both nets all night. They were simply better than us at everything. Men against boys.

It's annoying to watch Taylor Hall do good things. And it's even more annoying we tossed them Lazar for nothing. Best ultra cheap forward in the league.

Well, at least Hall didn't score. 

Did the singer from Iceland even play tonight?

[Curt]

5 minutes ago, Thorny said:

^Miss Jack with the man advantage 

First, that’s Mr Jack to you.

Second, They really do.  Casey needs to pick up some of that slack for it to click.  He didn’t look as good this game.

Also, Olofsson looks like he needs to stop practicing his shooting with Tage.

Edited April 21, 2021 by Curt

[bunomatic]

That was a whole lot of nothing. Tokarskiov is a good story but it’d sure be nice to have Linus manning the pipes.

[PerreaultForever]

2 minutes ago, Claude Balls said:

Did the singer from Iceland even play tonight?

and Caggiula was a waste of time and space. He looks like a non issue in terms of next year. Rubbish. 

3 minutes ago, Curt said:

First, that’s Mr Jack to you.

Second, They really do.  Casey needs to pick up some of that slack for it to click.  He didn’t look as good this game.

Also, Olofsson looks like he needs to stop practicing his shooting with Tage.

Well you're not going to do much on a 5 on 3 staying on the perimeter and doing nothing down low no matter who is out there. 

[Randall Flagg]

The 5 on 3 issue goes back to since Pominville/Vanek left, I'd bet. Its a problem with Jack out there too, it was a problem when ROR was here. They gotta rebuild that from the ground up

[Claude Balls]

10 minutes ago, PerreaultForever said:

and Caggiula was a waste of time and space. He looks like a non issue in terms of next year. Rubbish. 

I can't even tell you what number Caggiula is. I honestly never saw him tonight.

[Scottysabres]

Not upset in the least.

Our boys had their chances, they're young, they couldn't capitalize on them tonight, it happens when they are growing in to NHL players, as a group, an NHL Roster.

The power play needs less passing, more shooting. They don't shoot enough. Boston still uses high pressure on the puck carrier to disrupt the Sabres youth. It works less now than before, but they still have work to do with crisp, quick passing, moving your legs, finding open slots, so they can maintain puck possession without putting up so much of a self inflicted fight to do so. They'll learn.

On to the next.

Go Sabres!

[Nitro60]

Granato is refreshing in his honest answers to the questions.  

[miles]

 

[LGR4GM]

Yea... I'm back off the Risto bus. 

 

 

 

Edited April 21, 2021 by LGR4GM

[Doohicksie]

1 hour ago, Claude Balls said:

Man, I had flashbacks of Krueger during that 6 on 3. Pass pass pass pass pass pass lose the puck. Donny Meatballs better do some ass chewing.

Yes, that was the most Kruegerish game since the losing streak ended.

[SwampD]

2 hours ago, Brawndo said:

How is that icing with Mittlestadt being the closest to the puck? 

How was that icing after the puck went off of Krjehi's stick at center ice?!

That really pissed me off.

Dahlin doesn't dig in. It's maddening.

He sure looks pretty, though.

[Broken Ankles]

13 hours ago, Thorny said:

4/20, one hit for every Sabres goal scored! Go Buffalo!

 

This was a horrible idea. 

[SwampD]

2 minutes ago, Broken Ankles said:

This was a horrible idea. 

Funny,… I thought we won 9-2.

[Claude Balls]

I never got the whole infatuation with the whacky tobaccy. I never liked it one bit when I smoked it 25 years ago. But tooting a big rail of booger sugar made me feel like superman. 

[dudacek]

Be interesting to see what the kids learned from that one. That’s what it looks like when well-coached teams play hard and smart.

Drake Caggiula was billed as a Tasmanian devil. Looked more like a milky wombat.

Taylor Hall still sucks. Tuuka Rask does not (pending UFA)

Casey Mittelstadt was still making plays despite the way the Bruins were checking. I think I’m starting to believe.

[Broken Ankles]

3 hours ago, LGR4GM said:

Yea... I'm back off the Risto bus. 

 

 

 

I’ll attempt to get you back on.  And by no way am I suggesting he had a good game but consider this:

4 defensive zone starts and 8 defensive zone face-off’s.  Dahlin in comparison took zero D face-offs and only 2 DZS.

Risto took 5 Ozone face-offs, Joki and Dahlin had 11 each.

Paired with a rookie playing his second game, and was caught on the ice multiple times with defenders like Joki and Bryson for extended shifts.

Miller, Bryson, and Joki all had a worse xGA for the game 5v5.  And Samuelson was extremely close.  

Multiple shifts he worked to clear the zone and exited before a forward registered a shot.  One sequence occurred at the end of the second period where the Sabres had pressure including a scoring chance with less than 20 seconds remaining.  He doesn’t get credit for being on ice for a SoG, but Bryson and Miller change (WTF - worst decision ever considering it’s the long change) and Boston’s gets two shots before Toker freezes it.  Then with 8 seconds, the Bruins win the face-off (insert  joke about the significance of this) and Bergeron almost scores to end the period. That’s three shots against. Not just shot attempts. 

In another sequence, where the Bruins score their second goal, it’s a defensive zone face-off the Sabres lose again followed by extremely poor play by Artu and Bjork to clear and then a poor save/kick in by Toker.  

He played well on the PK with almost 2 minutes on ice.  Would have played more but was in the box for a dumb penalty against.

He played 4 minutes on the PP and outside the abomination of the final 6-3, a few of the PPs looked much improved.  This against the leagues best PK.

And while I know you are carrying the proverbial cross on the Face-off crusade, the fact is losing 62% against a good team hemmed them in their own zone and allowed Boston to maintain possession throughout the game.   No stats, just observation.  On any given evening an NHL team is maybe losing 51-55% of face-offs.  Losing 34 of 55 put them behind the eight ball all night.

Six blocked shots isn’t a bad thing, as implied in the tweet.  Kinda good.  

No stats on who he was on the ice with, but it seemed liked 3/4 lines.  Asplund, Bjork, and Sheahan did not have good games. 

A few random thoughts why “underlying” stats can be deceptive.

 

[Claude Balls]

The Sabres got punked on their own ice by the Bruins.....big surprise. I hope Donny Meatballs got into them after the game. They started off well, then just got schooled by a real team. Hopefully the rebound Thursday. 

[triumph_communes]

6 on 3 and they refused to do anything but let Oloffson shoot no matter how open anyone else was and how bad he was blocked. Cant do that on a 6 on 3. Crash that net

 

Boring game, made me sad.  Goaltending was the difference. 

Edited April 21, 2021 by triumph_communes

[Cascade Youth]

5 hours ago, dudacek said:

Casey Mittelstadt was still making plays despite the way the Bruins were checking. I think I’m starting to believe.

You all are better at analyzing hockey than I am - but to my eyes, not only is Mitts playing much stronger on the puck this season, he also seems to know where his teammates are (or should be) on the ice for the first time since I’ve been watching him.  His passing is becoming elite, he’s turning into a true center now and it’s a joy to watch.  I hated the guy, that’s my bad.

[Sabre fan]

All is not doom and gloom although that is what it appears to be on here right now...Granto has this team getting better leaps and bounds and each individual player is clearly improving in every aspect of the game and this clearly is a work in progress... Boston is playing very well right now and if not for goaltending we may have won this game. I have no doubt Boston were impressed with the diference in the Sabres. We are not going to win every game here on out and we are playing teams that are the elite of our division thus I see no reason to suddenly jump off the bandwagon. I am on and I like what we are seeing. If Rask hadn;t stopped that crazy save on Dylan in the 1st things may have gone differently. Either way it's all good...they keep improving and showing that what we've seen is no fluke. Gives hope and hope is a really good thing about now considering we had none just a while back before DG...