Sabres dominating at Even Strength

[matter2003]

Sabres have a GF% of 60.87% at even strength, 3rd best in the NHL behind Vegas(67.57%) and Boston(63.04%).  

They are 4th in the NHL with 28 even strength goals behind only LA Kings(30 - but played 2 extra games) and the Bruins and Islanders with 29(both have played 9 games like we have). 

Compare this to last year where they were 28th in GF% at 43.35% and 23rd in even strength goals with 176.

Basically are getting an extra even strength goal per game this year, going from 2.14 last year to 3.11 this year.

I don't think this is a fluke, I this this team is starting to show they are pretty good.  How good?  I guess we will see(I am on record expecting 87-90 points this year), but many times teams "arrive" sooner than expected and decline sooner than expected.  

Edited November 1, 2022 by matter2003

[ddaryl]

Now if they can get the Powerplay working at a similiar rate we could turn the volume up to 11

 

[matter2003]

3 minutes ago, ddaryl said:

Now if they can get the Powerplay working at a similiar rate we could turn the volume up to 11

 

They are steadily climbing...up to 14th and 23.5%...starting with the EDM game they have at least 1 PPG in each of the games except the debacle in Seattle, and have 2 PPG in each of their last 2 games...

 

As  they'd say in England, "They are starting to hot it up."

Edited November 1, 2022 by matter2003

[CallawaySabres]

2nd most goals for in the league, not too shabby

[Marvin]

20 minutes ago, CallawaySabres said:

2nd most goals for in the league, not too shabby

Who expected that at any time this year?

[Doohicksie]

4 minutes ago, Marvin said:

Who expected that at any time this year?

It's early.  The term irrational exuberance comes to mind.  I hope they can keep it up; right now I don't see why they wouldn't.  It's crazy that we're arguing which forward should sit because we actually have more than we need and the guy who's sitting right now is a big contributor.

[matter2003]

4 minutes ago, Doohickie said:

It's early.  The term irrational exuberance comes to mind.  I hope they can keep it up; right now I don't see why they wouldn't.  It's crazy that we're arguing which forward should sit because we actually have more than we need and the guy who's sitting right now is a big contributor.

I mean they aren't really far off the pace they had since the end of February to the end of last year where I believe they were averaging around 3.4 G/Game.  It's not like they weren't scoring 4 goals relatively consistently towards the of last year and this just came out of nowhere.  It was building, a lot of people didn't want to see it tho.

The additions of Tuch and Krebs to the lineup and the return of Middlestadt from injury really boosted the teams scoring.

Edited November 1, 2022 by matter2003

[Doohicksie]

I really think they're going to be better than they were at the end of last season when it's all said and done this year.  Whether they make the playoffs will depend on consistency and keeping the valleys/losing streaks to a minimum.  They've shown they can play against the best of the west.  If they can play even .500 hockey against Boston/Florida/TO/TB and be the cream of the crop out of the rebuilding/emerging teams in the division) I think they'll make the --------.  (I dare not say it yet.)

Edited November 1, 2022 by Doohickie

[matter2003]

1 minute ago, Doohickie said:

I really think they're going to be better than they were at the end of last season when it's all said and done this year.  Whether they make the playoffs will depend on consistency and keeping the valleys/losing streaks to a minimum.  They've shown they can play against the best of the west.  If they can play even .500 hockey against Boston/Florida/TO/TB I think they'll make the --------.  (I dare not say it yet.)

This team reminds me a lot of the Sabres team coming out of the lockout...tons of young skilled players but everyone thought they would take a while to put it together.  I am not suggesting they will have a similar path but there are a lot of similarities.

[Doohicksie]

Just now, matter2003 said:

I am not suggesting

But you are *hoping*, amirite?  😄

[matter2003]

2 minutes ago, Doohickie said:

But you are *hoping*, amirite?  😄

I mean, hell yes. 😂

Edited November 1, 2022 by matter2003

[Huckleberry]

6 minutes ago, matter2003 said:

This team reminds me a lot of the Sabres team coming out of the lockout...tons of young skilled players but everyone thought they would take a while to put it together.  I am not suggesting they will have a similar path but there are a lot of similarities.

I said before season this is how i would expect the 2004 sabres to look like.  Ups and downs of a young team. 

[JoeSchmoe]

1 hour ago, matter2003 said:

Sabres have a GF% of 60.87% at even strength, 3rd best in the NHL behind Vegas(67.57%) and Boston(63.04%).  

They are 4th in the NHL with 28 even strength goals behind only LA Kings(30 - but played 2 extra games) and the Bruins and Islanders with 29(both have played 9 games like we have). 

Compare this to last year where they were 28th in GF% at 43.35% and 23rd in even strength goals with 176.

Basically are getting an extra even strength goal per game this year, going from 2.14 last year to 3.11 this year.

I don't think this is a fluke, I this this team is starting to show they are pretty good.  How good?  I guess we will see(I am on record expecting 87-90 points this year), but many times teams "arrive" sooner than expected and decline sooner than expected.  

At last check, last year's line of Hayden Eakin and Bjork was 437 out of 438 in expected goal %. Some of our improvement this year is addition by subtraction.

https://www.sabrespace.com/community/topic/30653-bjork-eakin-hayden-2nd-worst-line-in-nhl-now-437-out-of-438/page/5/

[RochesterExpat]

59 minutes ago, Doohickie said:

It's early.  The term irrational exuberance comes to mind.  I hope they can keep it up; right now I don't see why they wouldn't.  It's crazy that we're arguing which forward should sit because we actually have more than we need and the guy who's sitting right now is a big contributor.

Speaking for myself, I'm certainly exuberant, but not irrationally so. I expect this team to be exceptionally streaky, but end with a positive season (on the whole) and it's the latter bit that excites me.

Lack of consistency is a generally accepted consequence of younger players in the lineup. Younger players typically (emphasized for the pedants among us) take time to reach that night-after-night consistent and predictable play level. Buffalo is not there yet. That is perfectly fine with me. So long as this team doesn't quit or have extended losing streaks, I'll remain happy. In the ideal world, we "normalize" and play predictably by the end of the season.

Edited November 1, 2022 by RochesterExpat

[K-9]

48 minutes ago, matter2003 said:

This team reminds me a lot of the Sabres team coming out of the lockout...tons of young skilled players but everyone thought they would take a while to put it together.  I am not suggesting they will have a similar path but there are a lot of similarities.

I think that’s a good comparison. If memory serves, the pre-lockout Sabres of ‘03-‘04 were among the worst teams in the league, if not the worst, the first half of that season. But they were the second best team in the league after the All Star break that year and that carried over to the ‘05-‘06 season. While this year’s squad didn’t have a year off between seasons, they have certainly carried over their great finish from last year as well. And not without a good share of adversity on the back end with half the starting D out of the lineup. 

[matter2003]

5 minutes ago, K-9 said:

I think that’s a good comparison. If memory serves, the pre-lockout Sabres of ‘03-‘04 were among the worst teams in the league, if not the worst, the first half of that season. But they were the second best team in the league after the All Star break that year and that carried over to the ‘05-‘06 season. While this year’s squad didn’t have a year off between seasons, they have certainly carried over their great finish from last year as well. And not without a good share of adversity on the back end with half the starting D out of the lineup. 

They weren't quite that bad...they finished with 85 points.  They actually only had 72 the year before, and were the 5th worst team in the NHL, so maybe that is what you were thinking of.  But then they went from 85 points to 110.  That is a meteoric jump and nobody expected it.

So if we are following that track we probably end up around mid 80's to low 90's and then next year would be that big jump. 

[Drag0nDan]

4 hours ago, matter2003 said:

Sabres have a GF% of 60.87% at even strength, 3rd best in the NHL behind Vegas(67.57%) and Boston(63.04%).  

They are 4th in the NHL with 28 even strength goals behind only LA Kings(30 - but played 2 extra games) and the Bruins and Islanders with 29(both have played 9 games like we have). 

Compare this to last year where they were 28th in GF% at 43.35% and 23rd in even strength goals with 176.

Basically are getting an extra even strength goal per game this year, going from 2.14 last year to 3.11 this year.

I don't think this is a fluke, I this this team is starting to show they are pretty good.  How good?  I guess we will see(I am on record expecting 87-90 points this year), but many times teams "arrive" sooner than expected and decline sooner than expected.  

Cozens looks like a major upgrade from last years cozens.  Quinn/JJP/full season Tuch/Krebs are a lot of upgrades over... Hayden, Eakin, Bjork, Caggiula, Jankowski etc.  And this is with 3 defensemen out with injuries.  

[Thorner]

 

[Doohicksie]

16 hours ago, Drag0nDan said:

Cozens looks like a major upgrade from last years cozens.  Quinn/JJP/full season Tuch/Krebs are a lot of upgrades over... Hayden, Eakin, Bjork, Caggiula, Jankowski etc.  And this is with 3 defensemen out with injuries.  

Krebs is one of this year's whipping boys but he's light years ahead of previous years' roster fillers.

14 hours ago, Thorny said:

 

This is something we've hoped for and dreamed of for years.

Edited November 2, 2022 by Doohickie

[Doohicksie]

19 hours ago, RochesterExpat said:

Speaking for myself, I'm certainly exuberant, but not irrationally so.

I think if you ask some of the other posters they'd say I'm irrational but not exuberant.