Tage Thompson is a super star

[HeftyLefty]

2 minutes ago, Refuting said:

I agree with what Horny said 

Pick a side Kyle

[Refuting]

I agree with both sides though. Tage is a freak show but I do want to make the playoffs after 246337883 years 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[matter2003]

53 minutes ago, LabattBlue said:

From a statistical standpoint in regards to TT, has there been a better start to a season by a Sabre since Mogilny & Lafontaine were wearing the Blue & Gold?

Nope...Thompson is 2nd most all time for a Sabre in the first 26 games of a season---pretty elite company:

LaFontaine: 48 points(1993 season)

Thomspon: 40 points

Perreault: 39 points

Perreault: 38 points

Turgeon/Perreault: 37 points

Edited December 8, 2022 by matter2003

[Thorner]

2 minutes ago, HeftyLefty said:

Pick a side Kyle

[matter2003]

24 minutes ago, HeftyLefty said:

because Im sick of getting excited for having "SuPerStaRs" and nothing comes out of it. Same thing with Eichel. The team gets off the hook for being mediocre at best.

They aren't mediocre.  They are actually really f**king good. As long as Samuelsson plays. Mediocre teams don't lead the league in scoring. Ever.

I would much, much rather have an elite offensive team that needs to shore up defensively than the other way around...a defensive team that struggles to score.

Unlike those teams that were trash analytically(bottom 5 team) and it was expected they would fall back down because they simply were not good teams and had a lot of fluky/lucky OT wins that were not sustainable, this one is REALLY good analytically. A top 6-7 team in the NHL by those metrics. By the same token, you should expect this team to start moving up the standings. Or does it only work one way with you?

Edited December 8, 2022 by matter2003

[Curt]

2 hours ago, Thorny said:

Weirdly Marek went on a rant today to start his show, about how Sabres fans should be livid that Granato so limited Tage’s ice time in the third because he had a shot at tying the record.

 

It didn’t really cross my mind either.

Marek is definitely a hockey history nerd and obsesses about records from 50+ years ago.  I’m not surprised that he would fixate on something like this.

[Zamboni]

Marek can pound sand. I highly doubt TNT was thinking or even caring about some individual feel good record/stat. Good grief.

[K-9]

1 hour ago, Thorny said:

@K-9 why is that funny? He might 

It’s more ironic than funny, but the laughing emoji is the closest thing to ironic imo since irony is often humorous. Anyway, I found it so because it brought to mind our previous exchange a while back about “playing the pace game” and how you cautioned me about doing it when I predicted TT would finish with over 100 points on the season, which I still think he will do, his health permitting. But I think the Art Ross is McDavid’s until he decides it isn’t, also health permitting. But it’s all good.

[K-9]

41 minutes ago, matter2003 said:

They aren't mediocre.  They are actually really f**king good. As long as Samuelsson plays. Mediocre teams don't lead the league in scoring. Ever.

I would much, much rather have an elite offensive team that needs to shore up defensively than the other way around...a defensive team that struggles to score.

Unlike those teams that were trash analytically(bottom 5 team) and it was expected they would fall back down because they simply were not good teams and had a lot of fluky/lucky OT wins that were not sustainable, this one is REALLY good analytically. A top 6-7 team in the NHL by those metrics. By the same token, you should expect this team to start moving up the standings. Or does it only work one way with you?

DG certainly agrees as he’s come right out and admitted in the past that the focus was gonna be on offense first because it’s easier to teach and master than the D side of things. I tend to agree. 

[K-9]

14 hours ago, thewookie1 said:

We seem to have a few newer posters who are literally only here to be negative/troll

 

PA will always be the Anti-Pegula narrative guy while Nill is our resident pessimist. Perrault is our newer version of “I like the Sabres but other teams are more fun for me now” But typically, besides Nill who rarely finds a silver lining in a jewelry store, add something to the conversation. What we have on this thread is 3 guys, 2 with under 150 posts, derailing a discussion with nothingness composed of petty insults, worthless conjecture, and what appears to be a pseudo-conversation about a new user’s name.

 

I don’t want to gatekeep but this is a Sabres forum not a school playground. 

 

 

They almost seem like the same poster logging in from three different devices, networks, and user names. 

[K-9]

7 hours ago, Curt said:

No, it was only 55.6%.  5 G on 9 SOG

I’m gonna go out on a limb here and say I don’t think that’s sustainable. 

[K-9]

7 hours ago, matter2003 said:

And if you think he is going to bask in the glow of this game for a week...think again.

 

 

Spoken like a winner who understands yesterday doesn’t mean squat about the next game.

[matter2003]

 

[shrader]

18 minutes ago, K-9 said:

They almost seem like the same poster logging in from three different devices, networks, and user names. 

I would have guessed bored college roommates. 

[K-9]

2 minutes ago, shrader said:

I would have guessed bored college roommates. 

That, too. Given the style of humor, I’d say it’s likely.

[LabattBlue]

3 hours ago, Thorny said:

Weirdly Marek went on a rant today to start his show, about how Sabres fans should be livid that Granato so limited Tage’s ice time in the third because he had a shot at tying the record.

Honsstly, this didn’t cross my mind at all, seems kinda irrelevant and I don’t think it would rub the players the wrong way. Admittedly, I can’t go in the GDTs so I may have missed discussion on it yesterday. Seemed a nothingburger to me, though. Did this come up at all?

I have never cared much for Marek as his habit of bringing up obscure hockey references of the past comes across as, “look at how smart I am”.   That being said, I agree 100% on this. This was probably a once in a career chance for Tage to score 6 or 7 goals, and F Columbus if they didn’t like it(I am speculating that this was DG’s reasoning).   Tough…if they don’t like it, STOP HIM. 

Edited December 8, 2022 by LabattBlue

[Gatorman0519]

3 hours ago, Thorny said:

Weirdly Marek went on a rant today to start his show, about how Sabres fans should be livid that Granato so limited Tage’s ice time in the third because he had a shot at tying the record.

Honsstly, this didn’t cross my mind at all, seems kinda irrelevant and I don’t think it would rub the players the wrong way. Admittedly, I can’t go in the GDTs so I may have missed discussion on it yesterday. Seemed a nothingburger to me, though. Did this come up at all?

- - - 

Another tidbit on the show I really found telling was that analyst Mike Rupp was on and he says he can basically judge whether a team is a “contender” based on looking at purely the 3rd line. I liked that and think it makes sense: our team for example, starting to look much better, but the traditional 3rd line is still a massive weak spot. Perhaps once that line resolved itself or rather, we resolve it, we’d take a further step. 

I think we have a lot of young guns that will fill the 3rd line next year.

[Curt]

Just now, Gatorman0519 said:

I think we have a lot of young guns that will fill the 3rd line next year.

I don’t think that’s enough.  If Tage and Dahlin are playing like Rocket Richard and Norris candidates, Sabres should probably do more to solidify the bottom 6 instead of counting on rookies to fill the 3rd line.

[Doohicksie]

43 minutes ago, matter2003 said:

 

For those who say the switch to center wasn't that significant in Tage's emergence:

Quote

Then came the message that Granato wanted to switch him to centre. “When Donnie told me that, I was kind of honoured he had that much faith in me,” Thompson says. “That’s a big ask, to move someone to centre and trust him doing that. That gave me a lot of internal confidence [because] I knew the staff believed in me and that’s kind of something I needed.”

I think it literally saved his career.  It gave him the confidence he hadn't yet had as a pro.

Edited December 8, 2022 by Doohickie
Although the quotes are wrong. Yeah it's a Canadian article, but I'm pretty sure Tage, as an American, said "honored" and "center"

[Refuting]

17 minutes ago, K-9 said:

That, too. Given the style of humor, I’d say it’s likely.

That reminds me I have to check on my 401k 

[Doohicksie]

3 minutes ago, Curt said:

I don’t think that’s enough.  If Tage and Dahlin are playing like Rocket Richard and Norris candidates, Sabres should probably do more to solidify the bottom 6 instead of counting on rookies to fill the 3rd line.

Depends on the rookies. 

See also:  Quinn, Peterka

[Thorner]

1 hour ago, K-9 said:

It’s more ironic than funny, but the laughing emoji is the closest thing to ironic imo since irony is often humorous. Anyway, I found it so because it brought to mind our previous exchange a while back about “playing the pace game” and how you cautioned me about doing it when I predicted TT would finish with over 100 points on the season, which I still think he will do, his health permitting. But I think the Art Ross is McDavid’s until he decides it isn’t, also health permitting. But it’s all good.

Conflation, here - no, I still don’t think Tage ends up with what he is pacing, just like JE didn’t get 120 points. Art Ross is a relative comparison - not an individual statistical extrapolation 

Was more so being hyperbolic anyways - I do not think he can or will surpass McDavid

- - - 

Looking back, where I was wrong in defending his contract when he got it, amid oodles of complaints against it, was not being positive *enough*. I said he’d for sure live up to it, that it potentially could be a bargain. What I should have said is that it could be an outright steal. Additionally, I said he “probably wouldn’t” hit 90 points, and this looks more realistic by the day. Could come down to health. 
 

No matter how many times I come in with a new base-level assessment of tage, he in short order seems to surpass it. This is a good, nay, great thing for two reasons, notably 

A) he’s a Sabre 

B) my company in not predicting tage would become a potential top 5 scorer is precisely..everyone  

Edited December 8, 2022 by Thorny

[Thorner]

38 minutes ago, Curt said:

I don’t think that’s enough.  If Tage and Dahlin are playing like Rocket Richard and Norris candidates, Sabres should probably do more to solidify the bottom 6 instead of counting on rookies to fill the 3rd line.

Absofreakinglutely. 
 

Not expecting this sort of found money with Tage is perfectly understandable. But failing to supplement him and Dahlin, now, this coming offseason, and letting this sort of production from Tage (25) especially slip by knowing full well this could be the best stretch of his career, and potentially the best we’ll see from a Sabres F in decades (just look at the last) and that it’s a player GOOD ENOUGH TO BE THE BEST ON A CUP TEAM, would be a cardinal sin. 
 

The time is now, now, and I think KA knows it. From what we are hearing. That we have cheap elc talent coming is exactly the point. This is when we can win big 

Edited December 8, 2022 by Thorny

[K-9]

5 minutes ago, Thorny said:

Conflation, here - no, I still don’t think Tage ends up with what he is pacing, just like JE didn’t get 120 points. Art Ross is a relative comparison - not an individual statistical extrapolation 

Was more so being hyperbolic anyways - I do not think he can or will surpass McDavid

When he was “pacing” for 104 points earlier in the season you cautioned me against doing that because it seldom ends up that way, etc. Now he’s pacing at 126, but you don’t buy that, either, which is cool and I understand. But am I ok to keep predicting that 104 point pace? 

You’ll have to forgive any inadvertent conflation because I didn’t get the hyperbole of the Art Ross comment. 

[Thorner]

47 minutes ago, LabattBlue said:

I have never cared much for Marek as his habit of bringing up obscure hockey references of the past comes across as, “look at how smart I am”.   That being said, I agree 100% on this. This was probably a once in a career chance for Tage to score 6 or 7 goals, and F Columbus if they didn’t like it(I am speculating that this was DG’s reasoning).   Tough…if they don’t like it, STOP HIM. 

The one thing he does is talk about the Sabres a lot