Casey Mittelstadt traded for Bowen Byram

[Buffalonill]

10 minutes ago, Night Train said:

One game in for the new guy and made a positive impression. 

This morning , he's probably thinking " Nice to have friends here but man this team sucks..." 

Fixed

[Sabres Fan in NS]

20 hours ago, Pimlach said:

 

You say he isn’t a second line center, but he will be fine.  Make up your mind.  We need two centers.   A 4C and a guy that can play 2/3C. 

If Cozens can hold a 2C slot that’s great.   When Cozens plays with Quinn and Peterka he looks like a 2C to me. Other times he doesn’t.  

You wanna start name calling?   Stop responding to me if you are going to do that. 

That's not what he said.

[GASabresIUFAN]

The Sabres anemic offense has scored 3 goals since Casey’s departure.  One goal by VO who will soon be gone and 2 by D.  

Still searching for a Sabres forward to drive play. 

 

[Hank]

7 hours ago, North Buffalo said:

Can they waive Skinner and send him to AHl if no one claims him

No, they can not. He has a no movement clause. Not a no trade clause, a no movement clause. He can't be moved. 

[nfreeman]

1 hour ago, GASabresIUFAN said:

The Sabres anemic offense has scored 3 goals since Casey’s departure.  One goal by VO who will soon be gone and 2 by D.  

Still searching for a Sabres forward to drive play. 

 

FFS.  They were 23rd in scoring when the great Mitts was here and they still are.

Their scoring problems have zero to do with Mitts' departure.

As between Byram and Mitts, who do you think will score more goals for his new team this year? 

[shrader]

8 minutes ago, Hank said:

No, they can not. He has a no movement clause. Not a no trade clause, a no movement clause. He can't be moved. 

Well he can, but he has to agree to it. 

[GASabresIUFAN]

15 minutes ago, nfreeman said:

FFS.  They were 23rd in scoring when the great Mitts was here and they still are.

Their scoring problems have zero to do with Mitts' departure.

As between Byram and Mitts, who do you think will score more goals for his new team this year? 

That's a meaningless stat as it reflects the terrible PP and the failure of most of the other 12 forwards.  Casey is 37th in the NHL in EVP with 39 EVP.  JJP is second with 34.  Casey also lead with 27 EVA.  The next closest is Dahlin at 19.  

The scoring problems don't have anything to with Casey's departure, but Casey's departure turned a bad situation worse.

Your other question is also meaningless.  Who cares how many goals they each score going forward.  The question should be is the team better today after the trade than before?  My answer is that they aren't better.  The offense is going to be worse and I don't think the defensive play will improve either.  Outside his injury history, there is nothing "wrong" with Byram the player, except that his in zone play is below average.  Granted that makes him just all the other Sabres D.  There is a reason Colorado made him available.  

 

[nfreeman]

1 hour ago, GASabresIUFAN said:

That's a meaningless stat as it reflects the terrible PP and the failure of most of the other 12 forwards.  Casey is 37th in the NHL in EVP with 39 EVP.  JJP is second with 34.  Casey also lead with 27 EVA.  The next closest is Dahlin at 19.  

The scoring problems don't have anything to with Casey's departure, but Casey's departure turned a bad situation worse.

Your other question is also meaningless.  Who cares how many goals they each score going forward.  The question should be is the team better today after the trade than before?  My answer is that they aren't better.  The offense is going to be worse and I don't think the defensive play will improve either.  Outside his injury history, there is nothing "wrong" with Byram the player, except that his in zone play is below average.  Granted that makes him just all the other Sabres D.  There is a reason Colorado made him available.  

 

Well, you opened the discussion of the "meaningless stat" by noting that the Sabres have scored 3 goals since Mitts' departure.  If team goal-scoring is meaningless when they had Mitts, then it's also meaningless to decry the paltry team scoring since his departure.

As for the terrible PP -- are you referring to the terrible PP that Mitts was a big part of (5th highest PP ice time, one of 4 forwards averaging between 2:32 and 2:55 per game)?

The teams, fans and coaches all care quite a bit about who scores more goals.

Your question about whether the team is better now is of course also quite relevant.  My answer is that any improvement/deterioration resulting from the trade is marginal -- they stunk and had major problems before the trade, and they still do.

 

[GASabresIUFAN]

7 minutes ago, nfreeman said:

The teams, fans and coaches all care quite a bit about who scores more goals.

The fans don't give two sh....s about which players score goals as long as their team scores more than the opponent.  My point is the KA made an inept forward group worse and that has been born out so far by the forward groups' lackluster performance the last two nights. 

So if Byram scores 20 goals next season and the team misses the playoffs again, do you really think the fans will be happy? I doubt it.

[nfreeman]

22 minutes ago, GASabresIUFAN said:

The fans don't give two sh....s about which players score goals as long as their team scores more than the opponent.  My point is the KA made an inept forward group worse and that has been born out so far by the forward groups' lackluster performance the last two nights. 

So if Byram scores 20 goals next season and the team misses the playoffs again, do you really think the fans will be happy? I doubt it.

Holy straw man batman.  Of course the fans care more about the team winning, and of course they won't be happy if the Sabres stink again next year.  The point is that when evaluating 2 players who were traded for each other, one of the biggest metrics, perhaps the biggest, is goals.  This is especially true where the team stinks both before and after the trade.

[Warriorspikes51]

the shakeup alone was a win.  Byram appears to be a quality top 4 D 

[inkman]

Sigh

 

[thewookie1]

1 minute ago, inkman said:

Sigh

 

As I said on Twitter, hopefully that has more to do with the elevation/oxygen deprivation 

[DarthEbriate]

Just now, inkman said:

Sigh

Practice like you're going to play. The Avalanche play fast. Coaching again.

[Stoner]

Passive aggressive? Hope so.

[DarthEbriate]

2 minutes ago, PASabreFan said:

Passive aggressive? Hope so.

He's a Minnesotan at heart. We Midwesterners love our indirectness.

[mjd1001]

11 minutes ago, inkman said:

Sigh

 

Another thing about the Sabres, when was the last time you watched them and said "they play fast".  They have had 'fast' players, but they don't play that way. As I said even with Eichel...blazing fast straight line speed but whenever he crossed the blue line, majority of the time he would put the brakes on, slow down and set up the 'half court game'.    I really don't know when you can say they played a 'fast game'.  Probably have to go back of course, to 05-06.

[Stoner]

Just now, mjd1001 said:

Another thing about the Sabres, when was the last time you watched them and said "they play fast".  They have had 'fast' players, but they don't play that way. As I said even with Eichel...blazing fast straight line speed but whenever he crossed the blue line, majority of the time he would put the brakes on, slow down and set up the 'half court game'.    I really don't know when you can say they played a 'fast game'.  Probably have to go back of course, to 05-06.

Eichel not driving the net drove me directly nuts.

[Pimlach]

7 hours ago, inkman said:

Sigh

 

Slow starts are the norm for the Sabres.  You play like you practice, and nothing has convinced me that the team culture is not unlike a country club.   

Edited March 9 by Pimlach

[Weave]

25 minutes ago, inkman said:

Sigh

 

JFC

[PromoTheRobot]

36 minutes ago, inkman said:

Sigh

 

 

[PerreaultForever]

38 minutes ago, inkman said:

Sigh

 

Backs up what I've always thought and clearly speaks to the issues here. It's not the altitude, it's the attitude. 

[nfreeman]

I'll repeat what I said during the stick salute boycott fiasco:  TP hates being embarrassed, and Mittelstadt saying this is embarrassing.

That's 2 embarrassment strikes against KA in fairly short order.  If the Sabres limp to the finish line and end up with, say, 78 pts -- that might be strike 3 for KA, or at least for DG.

[Stoner]

8 minutes ago, PromoTheRobot said:

 

Do you and Ben have a link?

3 minutes ago, nfreeman said:

I'll repeat what I said during the stick salute boycott fiasco:  TP hates being embarrassed, and Mittelstadt saying this is embarrassing.

That's 2 embarrassment strikes against KA in fairly short order.  If the Sabres limp to the finish line and end up with, say, 78 pts -- that might be strike 3 for KA, or at least for DG.

What would your list include?

ROR driving into a Tim Horton's?

TM calling his wife something bad?

EKane's antics?

...

[PerreaultForever]

4 minutes ago, nfreeman said:

I'll repeat what I said during the stick salute boycott fiasco:  TP hates being embarrassed, and Mittelstadt saying this is embarrassing.

That's 2 embarrassment strikes against KA in fairly short order.  If the Sabres limp to the finish line and end up with, say, 78 pts -- that might be strike 3 for KA, or at least for DG.

I wish this was true, but I don't think it is.