Bring On All Those Number One Goalies

[K-9]

A few weeks ago, I kept hearing how in January we weren’t gonna be able to keep feasting on backup goalies, that teams were gonna bring us back to reality by making us face their best net minders. Well, looking at the list of goalies we have faced on this current streak that just doesn’t seem to hold water as they’ve beaten Sorokin, Oettinger, and now Hallebuyck; three of the top five ranked goalies in the league. 

Not too shabby.

[French Collection]

48 minutes ago, K-9 said:

A few weeks ago, I kept hearing how in January we weren’t gonna be able to keep feasting on backup goalies, that teams were gonna bring us back to reality by making us face their best net minders. Well, looking at the list of goalies we have faced on this current streak that just doesn’t seem to hold water as they’ve beaten Sorokin, Oettinger, and now Hallebuyck; three of the top five ranked goalies in the league. 

Not too shabby.

The Sabres made Oettinger look average. Hellebuyck looked average on a couple of the goals too.

That’s a good sign.

[Taro T]

56 minutes ago, K-9 said:

A few weeks ago, I kept hearing how in January we weren’t gonna be able to keep feasting on backup goalies, that teams were gonna bring us back to reality by making us face their best net minders. Well, looking at the list of goalies we have faced on this current streak that just doesn’t seem to hold water as they’ve beaten Sorokin, Oettinger, and now Hallebuyck; three of the top five ranked goalies in the league. 

Not too shabby.

True.  But they beat each of their teams only scoring 3 goals in each game.  Their 1st 3 games all year they were held to 3 goals in a W.

The team has picked up its play since sending Hinostroza down and are winning games they weren't winning earlier this year.

So, they were brought to reality, but reality is they can win against better goaltending too.

And really don't believe it's just a coincidence that they played shutdown style D in the 3rd against the Aisles & most of the game vs the Jets but were loose horsey against the Ducks & Blues.  Play fast & loose when you can & bear down when you have to.

Edited January 27, 2023 by Taro T

[sabresparaavida]

13 minutes ago, French Collection said:

The Sabres made Oettinger look average. Hellebuyck looked average on a couple of the goals too.

That’s a good sign.

According to the Jets commentators last night, Hellebuyck was the main reason it want a blowout.

[Pimlach]

A few weeks ago we lost to Winnipeg at home and some of the folks here said we played bad, got out muscled, got pushed around, etc.   The same comments were made when we played the Kraken.  The reality is no one played the Kraken better than Buffalo on their road trip.  It also turns out that the Sabres impressed the Winnipeg coaching staff a lot that night.  Their coaches said that we outplayed Winnipeg in the prior home game, we made one big mistake and gave up a break away goal, and their goalie (Hellenbyuck) was the difference. 

Dan and Rayzor commented last night on how impressed the Winnipeg staff was with our game and admitted that we outplayed them.  They set up an early/extra practice just for to work in their game-plan versus the Sabres.  The result is that we dominated the rematch even more, and this time we came out on top of another 3-2 game, with their excellent goalie once again keeping it close.  

This team still has a ways to go but they look like they will be good, scary good, for a long time.  

[PerreaultForever]

idk about "scary good" but they are certainly taking great strides forward. A number of players coming into their own at the same time and some solid continuity as a result. It's taken a while but they are playing as a unit now. Good communication all around. It's a huge difference and so it isn't making any difference facing starting goalies, they can still score and they can still possess the puck and they are hard to defend against. 

I think we will likely still struggle against the physical grinders but maybe we can beat them with speed. Hard to say at this point. We will be "scary good" when we can beat (and beat up) Tampa. When we run their goalie instead of them running ours. 

[DarthEbriate]

Bring 'em on. I prefer a straight fight to all this sneaking around.

[msw2112]

1 hour ago, Pimlach said:

A few weeks ago we lost to Winnipeg at home and some of the folks here said we played bad, got out muscled, got pushed around, etc.   The same comments were made when we played the Kraken.  The reality is no one played the Kraken better than Buffalo on their road trip.  It also turns out that the Sabres impressed the Winnipeg coaching staff a lot that night.  Their coaches said that we outplayed Winnipeg in the prior home game, we made one big mistake and gave up a break away goal, and their goalie (Hellenbyuck) was the difference. 

Dan and Rayzor commented last night on how impressed the Winnipeg staff was with our game and admitted that we outplayed them.  They set up an early/extra practice just for to work in their game-plan versus the Sabres.  The result is that we dominated the rematch even more, and this time we came out on top of another 3-2 game, with their excellent goalie once again keeping it close.  

This team still has a ways to go but they look like they will be good, scary good, for a long time.  

Some of the folks here definitely overreact.  Just because the Sabres lose a game, it doesn't necessarily mean that they played poorly, lacked energy, got pushed around, etc.  It doesn't mean that "Adams is incompetent" or "nothing is being done about the goaltending situation" or "Granato is great at developing kids, but isn't the guy to get us over the top" or "here we go again, another season with no playoffs."  Sometimes they face a hot goalie, hit a few goalposts, and outplay the other team and don't get the win.  Other times, they play against a really good team and go toe-to-toe with them and lose by 1 goal (or 2, in the case of an empty net goal).  Even the worst teams in the league this season (Chicago, Anahiem, San Jose, Columbus, Arizona) have won around 15 games so far, with a lot of season yet to be played, so they are going to occasionally beat another team that is a better than them.

For example, there was a lot of doom and gloom on this board after the OT loss in Chicago.  I watched that game and thought the Sabres controlled the play most of that game.  They played hard.  They did run around in their own end a little bit in the 3rd period and got burned for it.  They still made it to OT, where they had a 2 on 1 and had the player (Mittlestadt, I think) made the pass rather then shooting the puck, they probably would have scored and won the game.  He didn't, the puck went the other way and Chicago scored.  So, yes, the Sabres lost to a bottom feeder and many people were up in arms on this board.  Meanwhile, since then, they have won 5 straight, including beating the Islanders, a team that they are competing with for the Wild Card, and Dallas and Winnipeg, the top two teams in the Western Conference.

Rather than dwell on the result of one game, I am focused on the bigger picture.  I like what I see.

[Thorner]

2 hours ago, sabresparaavida said:

According to the Jets commentators last night, Hellebuyck was the main reason it want a blowout.

He certainly was 

[matter2003]

7 hours ago, Taro T said:

True.  But they beat each of their teams only scoring 3 goals in each game.  Their 1st 3 games all year they were held to 3 goals in a W.

The team has picked up its play since sending Hinostroza down and are winning games they weren't winning earlier this year.

So, they were brought to reality, but reality is they can win against better goaltending too.

And really don't believe it's just a coincidence that they played shutdown style D in the 3rd against the Aisles & most of the game vs the Jets but were loose horsey against the Ducks & Blues.  Play fast & loose when you can & bear down when you have to.

Exactly what we want to see... growth in the other side of their game...they have been improving defensively and in goal.

They are learning how to use their speed without the puck to defend and drive other teams crazy when they are in our end. Winnipeg literally didn't have time to look up after crossing our blueline most of the night they were getting swarmed under by multiple Sabres.

If they play like that more often and can be more consistent with their swarming defense in that manner they are going to be extremely difficult to beat.