GDT - Sabres @ Vegas - December 19, 2022 - 10:00 PM (EST) - MSG and WGR

[steveoath]

Well, this is nice to wake up to. Go Sabres.

[Kr632]

Hammered with tuchs family. By far the best sabres trip I've ever had. 

[JohnC]

3 hours ago, GASabresIUFAN said:

Just a quick point.  DG played Dahlin and Samuelsson for the final 3 minutes tonight.  That is not a winning strategy long-term.  

I agree with you that the extended minutes for this top pair is not sustainable over a grinding season. However, when you are in the survival mode present moment you don't worry about the long-term. Power should be back soon, and then Joki should return in another couple of weeks. And after another game or two Lybushkin should get back into the swing of things. 

I watched the first period and thought that Vegas dominated it. I was pleasantly surprised to find out that we won and that UPL played a sterling game. If he continues to play at his current level, this is going to be an exciting season up to the end. 

 

[LGR4GM]

5 hours ago, Richard Noggin said:

Indeed. The "not uncommon" part is interesting: IS it not uncommon for teams with a lead in the 3rd to be absolutely besieged? 

Score effects is the term. Typically a team that is down shoots more as the game goes and the opposing team or winning team tends to sit back more. 

[Slack_in_MA]

Nice Dub. Happy for UPL. 7 out of last 10. Keep it rolling!

[LGR4GM]

5 hours ago, matter2003 said:

Again...I HATE how they play 3rd periods with big leads...hanging on for dear life.

Same as Colorado. It was the altitude there. Tonight it's probably they were tired at the end of a road trip...

I don't care. They have to be better than this crap.

Thankfully found a way to win and UPL stole the game for them. Get the hell out of Dodge and get back home.

 

5 hours ago, Doohickie said:

I think that was a case (as with EDM early in the season) of the other team throwing EVERYTHING THEY HAVE at the Sabres to try to tie it up.

Seeing talk of this a lot but it isn't just a Sabres problem.  The entire league basically sees this.

Good teams win games they shouldn't. 

5 hours ago, K-9 said:

Well earned. Oopie was key. But these third periods have to be better. Looked like a replay of the Colorado game. 

Again it's pretty common around the league to see the losing team push hard in the 3rd and the winning team to sit back. Score effects

[sabresouth]

Good win. We definitely had a tuff time against a bigger team. Finally our goaltending  stole a game. This is the kind of goaltending we will need on a consistent basis to make deep runs into the playoffs. I hope UPL has turned the corner. 

[Sidc3000]

21 minutes ago, sabresouth said:

Good win. We definitely had a tuff time against a bigger team. Finally our goaltending  stole a game. This is the kind of goaltending we will need on a consistent basis to make deep runs into the playoffs. I hope UPL has turned the corner. 

Good win but this “kind of goaltending” would be impossible to sustain in the playoffs. UPL was absolute riddled with pucks in the third period. 21 SOG in one period is absolutely unsustainable for a goalie, especially if they’re playing every other day. UPL fended off 17 SOG in the 3rd period of the Aves game. In the last two games he started, he faced 84 SOG. 
 

there is no way this team survives the first round if they got into the playoffs. 
 

UPL did play outstanding and hopefully he is turning the corner. Time will tell 🤞

[steveoath]

Just seen the clips of boosh(?) get turned upside down. Was there any comeback for that?

[North Buffalo]

Stackin wins... but Sabres were in Alamo mode in the later part of the 2nd and third... the only part I watched... Saw Pilut's goal and then the barrage... lack of puck possession, physicality in the corners....  Quinn and Peterka sat the whole 3rd... 

[Sidc3000]

1 hour ago, LGR4GM said:

Again it's pretty common around the league to see the losing team push hard in the 3rd and the winning team to sit back. Score effects

I’m sure the Sabres didn’t purposely sit back. They couldn’t handle the onslaught 

[nfreeman]

7 hours ago, SDS said:

So keep in mind that when you’re trying to gain points you still have to earn the normal points you need to be winning.

So if you need to get six points out of every ten, or win three games out of every five, to maintain a 98 point pace  - that means we are still a five game win streak away from getting back on the 98 point pace line despite only being four points off the pace. 

My rule of thumb on this — kinda the cousin to DeLuca .500 — is that you need 2 straight wins to make up 1 point in the standings.  So if you’re 4 points behind, if you win 2 straight, you’re likely then going to be 3 points behind.

Separately:  good win for the Sabres and a great win for UPL.  He was calm, in control and just fantastic.

Having said that, they’ll need to play better than that to beat Tampa and Boston.

Other game notes:

- very dirty play by the VGK player (Kolesar?) on the boarding hit on Loobie in the 1st.

- As others have noted, the kid line was ineffective and the Mitts/VO line was lousy.  DG saw it and shuffled the bottom 3 lines in the 3rd, although I kinda expect him to revert to the regular lines next game.

- Thank heavens for the top line.

- Pilut wasn’t by any means strong but I saw him make a number of nice plays at both ends in addition to his goal.

- Hopefully we’ll see Power back on Friday.

Go Sabres.  

[Doohicksie]

7 hours ago, Richard Noggin said:

Indeed. The "not uncommon" part is interesting: IS it not uncommon for teams with a lead in the 3rd to be absolutely besieged? 

This season, yes.  There have been a ton of multigoal leads erased this year, not just the Sabres.  They talk about it often on highlights shows.

[LGR4GM]

27 minutes ago, Sidc3000 said:

I’m sure the Sabres didn’t purposely sit back. They couldn’t handle the onslaught 

Again it is a score effect thing. Most teams that are leading tend to get outshot as a game progresses, that's why 3 goal leads disappear in hockey. 

I'd argue they did handle the onslaught because they won, although I have only seen parts of the 3rd this morning as I am still catching up on the game. 

All I am saying is this type of thing where a team goes up by 2 or 3 goals and then gets caved in on shots is not a Sabres issue but a league wide phenomena. 

[PromoTheRobot]

42 minutes ago, steveoath said:

Just seen the clips of boosh(?) get turned upside down. Was there any comeback for that?

Dance partners for a bit.

1 minute ago, LGR4GM said:

Again it is a score effect thing. Most teams that are leading tend to get outshot as a game progresses, that's why 3 goal leads disappear in hockey. 

I'd argue they did handle the onslaught because they won, although I have only seen parts of the 3rd this morning as I am still catching up on the game. 

All I am saying is this type of thing where a team goes up by 2 or 3 goals and then gets caved in on shots is not a Sabres issue but a league wide phenomena. 

UPL stole it.

[Doohicksie]

2 minutes ago, PromoTheRobot said:

UPL stole it.

Do we finally have some goaltending?

[PromoTheRobot]

1 hour ago, sabresouth said:

Good win. We definitely had a tuff time against a bigger team. Finally our goaltending  stole a game. This is the kind of goaltending we will need on a consistent basis to make deep runs into the playoffs. I hope UPL has turned the corner. 

UPL's last two games: 80 saves on 84 shots. .952 sv%.

[PromoTheRobot]

6 hours ago, SabresBillsFan said:

What I observed being at the game. Samuelson is the Sabres best defenseman. The overall team defense needs a lot of work. Dahlin needs a lot of work on his defensive game. Now I see all the criticism from the Sabres fans on Mitts. He’s a lazy player. Jost was a solid pickup as he plays hard. UPL was their best player tonight but if people are criticizing him then you really need to look at Buffalo’s team defense. It needs a lot of work. 

Lazy or lacking follow thru? 

[kas23]

7 hours ago, Porous Five Hole said:

My birthday is Xmas.  Last night, I accidentally oversaw my wife purchasing tix to Sabres v Bolts on Friday as a surprise gift.  
 

As Leodis McKelvin would say, “we gonna beat that ass, point period.” See y’all on Friday!

Many bonus internet points for the McKelvin quote attempt, but it was “…point blank period”. 

[JohnC]

59 minutes ago, steveoath said:

Just seen the clips of boosh(?) get turned upside down. Was there any comeback for that?

The comeback was Lyubushkin getting follow up penalties trying to pay back that hit. That hurt the cause. The best way to inflict punishment is to score more goals and win. We did. We won!

[Sabres Fan in NS]

21 hours ago, JujuFish said:

Tonight, we get @nfreeman's 3-2 win, and Mitts gets the game winner. You heard it here first.

DUDE !!

The Mitts winner is your mulligan.

[bob_sauve28]

We passed three teams in the standings last night, Fl, Wings and Canadiens 

 

Wow 

[GASabresIUFAN]

2 hours ago, LGR4GM said:

Score effects is the term. Typically a team that is down shoots more as the game goes and the opposing team or winning team tends to sit back more. 

The hockey equivalent of football “prevent you from winning defense” when the defense sits in a two deep zone and allows the offense to easily hit 15 yard passes down the middle in an vain effort to run out of the clock.  Sometimes it works and sometimes it does.  

It drives me nuts when NFL teams do it and it’s just as bad when NHL teams do it.  The teams in the NHL and NFL got their leads by playing aggressively.  For the Sabres that means counterpunching. However at the end of games, the Sabres are sitting back trying to protect their leads, but end up giving puck control in zone to opponents against our injury riddled defense.  

Some of it isn’t by choice.  In the NFL teams go “hurry-up” to prevent defenses from substituting.  In the NHL it’s pulling the goaltender, but teams often really do seem to sit back allowing the other teams to attack.

[JohnC]

The biggest takeaway from this game is the play of UPL. If he can sustain the play he has shown over the past few games, our expectations for the season should be elevated. At least for me, my expectation goes beyond merely staying in the playoff race until the end of the season to actually making the playoffs. There is still a long way to go. But if one looks back a week or so ago, and consider what the perception of UPL was then, and then seeing what it is now, that's a dramatic swing for the most important position on the ice. It's amazing how perceptions can change in a short period of time. The remedy is to have patience.  

[WhenWillItEnd66]

6K stole that game, and it is nice to see him play well. He has been talked about as being a possible #1 for years and has only shown glimpses of it. Another glimpse last night and i would love to see more of that!

Missing our starting D is really showing. Our top guys cannot go on playing 30+ mins a night!! 

I am sorry, but Asplund needs to play more. He is a defensive playing forward and would help a bit in a 3rd like last night!