GDT - Lightning @ Sabres - October 17, 2023 - 7:30 PM (EDT) - ESPN & WGR

[Two or less]

51 minutes ago, K-9 said:

I agree. Clifton is just not NHL caliber.

I'm beginning to worry about Clifton. It's only three games, but i said that after every game so far. Maybe he was a systems guy in Boston. They made everybody look good there it seemed. So far, he's been very poor.

[LabattBlue]

56 minutes ago, Slack_in_MA said:

You're clearly a hater that has made up his mind, expressed it publicly, and will take every opportunity to defend it. And then will be silent when he plays well. Book it.

When his defensive zone play improves, I will change my tune.   We will see. 

[Two or less]

 

What in the world was Skinner doing on the ice in the final seconds in the 3rd when Tampa scored? Only other guy i'd rather NOT see on the ice in that spot was scratched tonight. That was a bizarre time to send Skinner out.

[Getpucksdeep]

54 minutes ago, LabattBlue said:

I know what Power was watching on the GTG as he had the best view in the house. Maybe watch something other than the puck. 

Gtg was 100% Dahlin terrible decision to weakly push puck up the wall instead of eat it.  Sabres are man down and his teammates should be collapsing around the house with 10 seconds left rather than looking for a breakout.  They can't score if the puck is behind the net, but our franchise Norris guy does that?  Ouch.  

Other than that, lots to like in this one.  

[LabattBlue]

Just now, Getpucksdeep said:

Gtg was 100% Dahlin terrible decision to weakly push puck up the wall instead of eat it.  Sabres are man down and his teammates should be collapsing around the house with 10 seconds left rather than looking for a breakout.  They can't score if the puck is behind the net, but our franchise Norris guy does that?  Ouch.  

Other than that, lots to like in this one.  

Ok

[Curt]

4 minutes ago, Mango said:

I don’t mind the contact. For me it’s not a matter of if we find value in it, but when. I can look over some of Powers deficiencies for a year or two. But by year 3 I need him to be playing at or close to AAV. That’s the only way we get good value on it. 
 

I also don’t think he’s way off schedule like some posters. 

Yeah, the contract is fine.

Power isn’t perfect in his own zone, but not many 20 year olds are.  He’ll get better.

[LabattBlue]

Just now, Curt said:

Yeah, the contract is fine.

Power isn’t perfect in his own zone, but not many 20 year olds are.  He’ll get better.

Ok

[Zamboni]

33 minutes ago, Curt said:

Yeah, the contract is fine.

Power isn’t perfect in his own zone, but not many 20 year olds are.  He’ll get better.

It’s frankly shocking to me that people who watch hockey have to be constantly reminded that young players aren’t finished products and the more talented ones almost always develop and improve as they age. Is the memory of past years and past players that cloudy? I just don’t get it. Never have.

[LabattBlue]

5 minutes ago, Zamboni said:

It’s frankly shocking to me that people who watch hockey have to be constantly reminded that young players aren’t finished products and the more talented ones almost always develop and improve as they age. Is the memory of past years and past players that cloudy? I just don’t get it. Never have.

Cloudy? Yeah, the last 12 years have been a little foggy. 😂

[Porous Five Hole]

Observations from section 117 tonight:

-Erik Johnson stepped up in the third with a shorter D lineup. He might not be able to eat minutes, but he stepped up when needed and he’s excellent for our PK. 
 

-Tampa did not look dangerous at all. Point, Hedman, Cirelli, & Sergachev didn’t make a play all night. Kuch was the only guy going other than Hagel who got to some dirty areas and was rewarded. Giving them a point when the Bolts are rolling with AHL goaltending was a bummer. 
 

-Power looked much more composed than opening week. He’s learning to use his size as leverage to keep opposing  forwards outside danger areas. Also, that pass to Skinner was 🔥. I wonder if the game flow is starting to slow down for him? A good night for sure. 
 

-Tage was very defensively responsible tonight. He’s also owning his role on PK1 nicely. 
 

-Mitts and Greenway are a thing. I like their 5 on 5 game together.  
 

-Odd man rushes heavily favored Buffalo. No puck luck and that will come. 

[Randall Flagg]

Boy, I let the guys I split seasons with talk me into moving down behind the sabres-shoot-twice net, towards one corner. Not letting them do that again next year. When the action is in front of us it looks awesome, but we couldn't see a thing at the other end of the ice. Frustrating. 300s>>>>>>>>>>>

It honestly made it hard to do a lot of evaluating, I didn't see anyone stand out in a super positive or negative way, maybe that's just the way the game went. Collectively, the TEAM played a solid game, even if you'd want them to have the puck a bit more in the 3rd. 

Not much of a crowd, and the energy was preseason level. I don't blame them (us), I was exhausted, Tuesday is a rough day to have these things. Still had a lot of fun. 

I know Tampa doesn't have the roster they had a few years ago, but they're still incredibly dangerous, and I'm impressed with how they played team defense to mostly shut that down. I haven't seen a Sabres game look like that since Miller was behind the last competent veteran team he had here. It was the exact type of game I hope to see 30 times this winter (the other 20 good ones can be offensive explosions, but that's not going to happen every night). 

Tampa knows who your 18 year olds are. Seems like they made a point to make it hard on Benson. 

Levi did exactly what he had to do. Couldn't tell you a thing about the tying goal (or Cozens' goal), I couldn't see either of them.

Go Sabres!

Oh, and Greenway, Johnson, and the PK are making @dudacek smug right now. Good stuff from all of them

[SDS]

23 minutes ago, LabattBlue said:

Cloudy? Yeah, the last 12 years have been a little foggy. 😂

This is called a non sequitur.

[GASabresIUFAN]

Better game all-around.  Levi was fantastic tonight.  

[dudacek]

Random observations:

• Had to be one of the better defensive efforts the team has put in over the Granato era, no? And the fact that it came against Tampa has to be good for their psyche (even though I think time will prove this Tampa team to be less than it's been).
• Still not completely satisfied with the offence, but its nice to see we don't always need it to be 6-5 to win.
• Hope the single point we gave up doesn't bite us in the ass come April. To be honest, i didn't really feel that one coming. It never felt like we were in Alamo mode. Thought maybe a bigger goalie would have had that, but Levi continues to give us a chance to win. he has to be giving the team confidence.
• Doesn'tseem to get talked about much, but we seem to have become a real good team 3-on-3. it's a speed and puck possession game and that's what we're good at. Really made tampa look silly in extra time tonight.
• Erik Johnson continues to be exactly what last year's team was lacking: a reliable presence and a difference maker on the PK I hope he can hold up if Mule is out for a while because that will hurt and is starting to feel inevitable.
• Speaking of PK, the Greenway Thompson Mule Johnson unit has to be one of the longest ever iced in the NHL. And it worked.
• Clifton was better, although he still seems to have been involved in approximately half of our goals against. Jokiharju seemed pretty good out there to me 🤷‍♂️.
• Cozens wasn't exactly good, but he wasn't bad like he has been the previous games. Very happy he got the winner. Hopefully it puts him in a groove. Not sure who needed it more, him or the team.
• Too early to to say anything definitively on Greenway, but not to early to say 'see, that's what I was talking about." Both he and Krebs have been two-way puck hounds and the type of middle-six players last year's team was missing. i liked how Donnie had Krebs out specifically with other lines for defensive faceoffs in the 3rd.
• Both the Girgs line and the Tage line looked more like themselves, so probably no coincidence the team looked better too. but Mittelstadt continues to be the tean's best player early.

Edited October 18, 2023 by dudacek

[JoeSchmoe]

1 hour ago, Two or less said:

I'm beginning to worry about Clifton. It's only three games, but i said that after every game so far. Maybe he was a systems guy in Boston. They made everybody look good there it seemed. So far, he's been very poor.

His advanced stats on Boston last year were not good. Take him off one of the best regular season team of all time and put him on a team that struggles defensively, you'll get what you're seeing here.

It was a terrible signing. Adams should have traded forward depth for a legit #4 solid defensive defensemen. 

[Two or less]

2 minutes ago, GASabresIUFAN said:

Better game all-around.  Levi was fantastic tonight.  

His rebound control is outstanding, Essp compared to the other guys we have. Many things about Levi standout but how he just eats pucks is very impressive. 

[Randall Flagg]

When you're 20 feet away, Casey's stickhandling in traffic becomes next-level. I can't believe how good he is at that

[PerreaultForever]

3 minutes ago, dudacek said:

Random observations:

• Clifton was better, although he still seems to have been involved in approximately half of our goals against. 

So one tonight. A play where he had his man boxed out at the side of the crease but the forward didn't pick up his man in front. Sure, all Clifton's fault. 

[SDS]

Sports center pronounces Cozens as Coezens twice during their highlights. 🤦‍♂️

[gilbert11]

5 hours ago, mjd1001 said:

LOTS of empty seats in that lower bowl.

Noticed that and it didn’t change much as the game went on.   Fun to watch up and coming team playing Tampa Bay and so many empty seats?

[dudacek]

39 minutes ago, PerreaultForever said:

So one tonight. A play where he had his man boxed out at the side of the crease but the forward didn't pick up his man in front. Sure, all Clifton's fault. 

I don’t actually think the goal was his fault, moreso kinda bad luck. The puck just kinda jumped off his stick and right to Hagel.

Just like it was kinda bad luck when it hopped over his stick at the blueline against the Rangers and when he got hauled down on the Brock Nelson goal.

[dudacek]

The amount of finger-pointing at “bad defence” in this thread is baffling to me.

They allowed 23 shots and 2 goals in 62 minutes of hockey, including 5 Tampa power plays, against a team that has the 8th-best offence in the league last year.

 

[PerreaultForever]

1 hour ago, dudacek said:

I don’t actually think the goal was his fault, moreso kinda bad luck. The puck just kinda jumped off his stick and right to Hagel.

Just like it was kinda bad luck when it hopped over his stick at the blueline against the Rangers and when he got hauled down on the Brock Nelson goal.

I didn't think it was his "fault" at all. The forward (I forget which line was on at the time) should have been covering Hagel. Hagel wasn't Clifton's responsibility in that situation.

1 hour ago, dudacek said:

The amount of finger-pointing at “bad defence” in this thread is baffling to me.

They allowed 23 shots and 2 goals in 62 minutes of hockey, including 5 Tampa power plays, against a team that has the 8th-best offence in the league last year.

 

The low shot total is partly because Tampa was shooting all over the place and missing the net a lot. Maybe they were trying for corners thinking Levi is small but they were missing the net and so the "shots" weren't counting. As for 8th best, that was LAST year. That is not them this year. 

The D did however, struggle in the one on one battles but so did the forwards. Tampa was winning the puck in the board battles all night long and since it was kind of a dump and chase affair from them it gave them an edge in our end on numerous occasions. Fortunately, Levi was controlling his rebounds, and their finishing touch was absent. 

[steveoath]

Morning 🥱 

My thoughts

Joker was solid. Levi was great. Casey was really good. He seems to have great Chemistry with Greenway, who is playing like I hoped when we signed him. Power was very composed, doesn’t look like a 20yr old. Benson seemed a little quieter against the physical play of tampa. Hopefully the gwg awakens Cozens.

 

despite some awkward moments, I thought the team was edging towards the defence they were playing at the dying end of last season .

Onwards and upwards

 

[Sidc3000]

6 hours ago, Getpucksdeep said:

Gtg was 100% Dahlin terrible decision to weakly push puck up the wall instead of eat it.  Sabres are man down and his teammates should be collapsing around the house with 10 seconds left rather than looking for a breakout.  They can't score if the puck is behind the net, but our franchise Norris guy does that?  Ouch.  

Other than that, lots to like in this one.  

Dahlin weakly push it because he was falling down while stretching to reach the puck. It’s not like he was on top of the puck. 
 

Power was just standing in front of the net with two Tampa players. That goal was 100% him fault. 
 

just finished watching the game since I fell asleep. Good win but that top line really needs to figure it out. Hopefully Samuelson isn’t made of glass.