Sabres have a good chance to finish with a winning record for the second half of the season. Exciting

[matter2003]

So far the second half of the season the Sabres are 17-17-4(38 points) after starting 12-21-7(31 points).

Exciting to see the improvement this year under Granato from the start of the year to the end of the year.  A lot of injuries to start with, especially to goalies hurt a lot.  Getting Tuch and Krebs from Vegas in the Eichel trade was a big help as well. They have played well since coming over.  

With 3 of the last 4 against non-playoff teams, the Sabres have a good shot to finish the last half of the year with a winning record.  Would be nice to see them post a 20-17-5(45 points) finish to the year. 

Can't remember the last time a Sabres team turned it on during the last half of the year instead of falling apart.

Exciting and can't wait to head into next year with some upgrades in Quinn and Paterka likely being here full time. 

Sabres goaltending has been mostly awful this year, with Anderson, Tokarski and Dell among the worst in the NHL at Goals Saved Above Average, ranking 46th, 48th and 59th out of 69 goalies they have the metrics for. UPL likely would have been good in this but he doesn't have enough games to qualify. Combined, those 3 have given up 20 more goals than what would be expected over the course of the year.  Can't help to think how many extra wins they could have had with even average goaltending from those 3 in this area.

 

Edited April 20, 2022 by matter2003

[inkman]

5 minutes ago, matter2003 said:

So far the second half of the season the Sabres are 17-17-4. Exciting to see the improvement this year under Granato from the start of the year to the end of the year.  A lot of injuries to start with, especially to goalies hurt a lot.  Getting Tuch and Krebs from Vegas in the Eichel trade was a big help as well. They have played well since coming over.  

With 3 of the last 4 against non-playoff teams, the Sabres have a good shot to finish the last half of the year with a winning record.  Can't remember the last time a Sabres team turned it on during the last half of the year instead of falling apart.

Exciting and can't wait to head into next year with some upgrades in Quinn and Paterka likely being here full time. 

The Sabres will have to win out to finish with a record above .500 for the second half. 😎

[matter2003]

1 minute ago, Cage said:

Are you saying the 17-17-4 record the OP reported is incorrect?  What is their 2nd half record per your calculations?

Well, I think he is counting Overtime/Shootout losses as regular losses, coming up with a 17-21 record.  Technically he is correct, but since you get points for OT/SO losses, having more regulation wins than losses means you are assured more than half the points.

Edited April 20, 2022 by matter2003

[PromoTheRobot]

.500 point% vs the #Deluca500. We have to win the last four to achieve the latter.

[jsb]

16-17-4.............There are 82 games in a  season and 4 games left. 

[matter2003]

7 minutes ago, jsb said:

16-17-4.............There are 82 games in a  season and 4 games left. 

Oh...fair point. I was just counting games after the all star break

[jsb]

 

10 minutes ago, matter2003 said:

Oh...fair point. I was just counting games after the all star break

No problem, minor correction. 

[WhenWillItEnd66]

The biggest point is since all the walking (or not walking) injured has returned, this team is actually playing decent hockey. Not to mention we had a super brutal stretch against all playoff teams. For once i see the light at the end of the tunnel and it is NOT a train. With a few roster moves, IMHO, we should have a team that can get us to some meaningful hockey late in the season.

[JoeSchmoe]

1 minute ago, NJhopelessSabresfan66 said:

The biggest point is since all the walking (or not walking) injured has returned, this team is actually playing decent hockey. Not to mention we had a super brutal stretch against all playoff teams. For once i see the light at the end of the tunnel and it is NOT a train. With a few roster moves, IMHO, we should have a team that can get us to some meaningful hockey late in the season.

The biggest impact is not throwing out the steaming hot garbage line of Bjork-Eakin-Hayden for major minutes every night. Once they got benched, we got good.

[WhenWillItEnd66]

Just now, JoeSchmoe said:

The biggest impact is not throwing out the steaming hot garbage line of Bjork-Eakin-Hayden for major minutes every night. Once they got benched, we got good.

Yes, getting the injured back was addition and subtraction which again was addition...LOL

[LGR4GM]

5 minutes ago, JoeSchmoe said:

The biggest impact is not throwing out the steaming hot garbage line of Bjork-Eakin-Hayden for major minutes every night. Once they got benched, we got good.

As I said all year it wasn't just simply "play harder" it was you gotta add the talent to play at a level where play harder matters. 

[That Aud Smell]

Long live @deluca67 .500 - no other measure of success matters, imo.

[jsb]

Well since VGK is over deluca500 why would that matter to them?

 

[MattPie]

31 minutes ago, That Aud Smell said:

Long live @deluca67 .500 - no other measure of success matters, imo.

I'll take 32-18-32 (D 0.390) over 42-40-0 (D 0.512) any day. 🙂

Edited April 20, 2022 by MattPie

[Taro T]

30 minutes ago, That Aud Smell said:

Long live @deluca67 .500 - no other measure of success matters, imo.

Sorry.  NHL 0.600 is the only one that ACTUALLY matters.  No team that has reached it has EVER missed the playoffs.  Pretty much every year somebody (and usually somebodies) that reaches 41 W's or more misses.

[matter2003]

52 minutes ago, NJhopelessSabresfan66 said:

The biggest point is since all the walking (or not walking) injured has returned, this team is actually playing decent hockey. Not to mention we had a super brutal stretch against all playoff teams. For once i see the light at the end of the tunnel and it is NOT a train. With a few roster moves, IMHO, we should have a team that can get us to some meaningful hockey late in the season.

Especially with the goalie injuries and playing 5th/6th string goalies for a number of games.

44 minutes ago, LGR4GM said:

As I said all year it wasn't just simply "play harder" it was you gotta add the talent to play at a level where play harder matters. 

Tuch and Krebs have helped tremendously in that area as has Middlestadt coming back from a lengthy injury.

[That Aud Smell]

2 hours ago, MattPie said:

I'll take 32-18-32 (D 0.390) over 42-40-0 (D 0.512) any day. 🙂

Sophistry.

2 hours ago, Taro T said:

Sorry.  NHL 0.600 is the only one that ACTUALLY matters.  No team that has reached it has EVER missed the playoffs.  Pretty much every year somebody (and usually somebodies) that reaches 41 W's or more misses.

Do not be sorry. Repent and believe in @deluca67 .500.

[Taro T]

24 minutes ago, That Aud Smell said:

Sophistry.

Do not be sorry. Repent and believe in @deluca67 .500.

Interesting.  Didn't realize there was a cult here.  TIL.

Any other imaginary things you believe in besides the usefulness of the DeLuca 0.500?  😉

 

[That Aud Smell]

15 minutes ago, Taro T said:

Interesting.  Didn't realize there was a cult here.  TIL.

Any other imaginary things you believe in besides the usefulness of the DeLuca 0.500?  😉

[inkman]

27 minutes ago, Taro T said:

Interesting.  Didn't realize there was a cult here.  TIL.

Any other imaginary things you believe in besides the usefulness of the DeLuca 0.500?  😉

 

 

[msw2112]

I consider a loss in OT or shootout to be a loss, so I don't think a winning record for this period of time, by my standards, is possible.  Perhaps they could get to .500 in points percentage.  Either way, I am very pleased with the vast improvement of this team and foresee great things to come in the next few years.

[JujuFish]

On 4/20/2022 at 11:12 AM, Taro T said:

Sorry.  NHL 0.600 is the only one that ACTUALLY matters.  No team that has reached it has EVER missed the playoffs.  Pretty much every year somebody (and usually somebodies) that reaches 41 W's or more misses.

The 69-70 Canadiens had a .605 points percentage and failed to make the playoffs. It seems 0.606 P% is the number that actually matters.

[JujuFish]

And for anyone who's curious, our best record without playoffs was the 08-09 season when we went 41-32-9 (DeLuca .500, .555 P%).

[JujuFish]

Doing more research into this (thanks, procrastination), the 14-15 Bruins, 17-18 Panthers, and 18-19 Canadiens are all tied for second best P% without playoffs, with .585

[Taro T]

24 minutes ago, JujuFish said:

The 69-70 Canadiens had a .605 points percentage and failed to make the playoffs. It seems 0.606 P% is the number that actually matters.

Thanks.  Will stand corrected.  0.600 has worked every single time except 1 in the entire history of the league.  And that 1 time it didn't work came in the last year that every single established team was in the same conference, the sacrificial lamb in the SCFs from the other conference was on its way to bowing out of the Finals w/out a single game won in that round for the 4th time out of 4, & the league decided to put expansion Vancouver in the East with established Chicago swapping conferences to more or less ensure that fluke outcome never happened again.

And, the NHL 0.600's predictive power would've held had either the Habs or Rags picked up 1 less point over the 76 game schedule even with all that working against it.

🍺