Pace of Play

[inkman]

So removing Mitts, Okposo and EJ and replacing them with Byram, Jost and Olofsson has improved the Sabres pace of play.  What we saw last night is similar to what we saw last season.  I think they need to maintain this style and add players like Savoie and Kulich and could really become a team that plays fast. They may need to supplement the roster with some faster bottom 6 players.  
 

 

[LETSTUCHINGO]

30 minutes ago, inkman said:

So removing Mitts, Okposo and EJ and replacing them with Byram, Jost and Olofsson has improved the Sabres pace of play.  What we saw last night is similar to what we saw last season.  I think they need to maintain this style and add players like Savoie and Kulich and could really become a team that plays fast. They may need to supplement the roster with some faster bottom 6 players.  
 

 

I agree, except for Olofsson. Unless he's scoring, he's horrible and does nothing else to foster winning. Can't wait until he and his 4+ million dollar annual contract are gone! Jost plays hard, fast and shows a ton of grit. Love him in the 4C role and as you stated, definitely helps the pace of play! BB is very impressive and his addition has made everyone on the team better! 

Edited March 13 by LETSTUCHINGO

[OverPowerYou]

They were even passing very accurately and quickly for most of the game. It was shocking 

[inkman]

36 minutes ago, LETSTUCHINGO said:

I agree, except for Olofsson. Unless he's scoring, he's horrible and does nothing else to foster winning. Can't wait until he and his 4+ million dollar annual contract are gone! Jost plays hard, fast and shows a ton of grit. Love him in the 4C role and as you stated, definitely helps the pace of play! BB is very impressive and his addition has made everyone on the team better! 

Oh I’m no VO fan but he can keep other teams on their heels with his shot.  They need to move him out in the off-season and put Savoie or Kulich in his place. 

[Doohicksie]

Reposted from another thread, but sees relevant in this one:

I think Cale Makar was kind of a unicorn when he came up and they let him run with it.  Byram came up in that environment, into a mature system, and their tone on D was set by Makar- defensemen that freely activate into the offense, and with forwards that know to backfill.

When Rasmus got here we just didn't have good coaching and the rapid coaching changes meant that the system was never settled.

Then Byram got here and I think he said, "Guys, you're making this harder than it needs to be.  Just go with the flow."  And suddenly the team feels.... different.

 

To expand on that a little, I think perhaps this year's early season struggles were necessary in terms of getting forwards, and the whole team really, to focus on defense, even though they sucked at it (and the early season goaltending situation made it worse).  I think the team better understands what team defense means now, and injecting Byram into the situation kind of reset the team to start pushing offensively again, to be more like last year's team, only with (hopefully) more defensive awareness going forward.

Or it's all fool's gold again and we'll suck the first half of next season too.

[PickaPecaPickles]

2 hours ago, inkman said:

So removing Mitts, Okposo and EJ and replacing them with Byram, Jost and Olofsson has improved the Sabres pace of play.  What we saw last night is similar to what we saw last season.  I think they need to maintain this style and add players like Savoie and Kulich and could really become a team that plays fast. They may need to supplement the roster with some faster bottom 6 players.  
 

 

Next year could look like:

Skinner-TT-Tuch 

JJP-Cozens-Quinn

Savoie-Krebs-Benson

Greenway + 2  [Bring someone in who can stand up for his teammates without getting his face smashed in.]

Kulich as the first call-up.

[Mustache of God]

47 minutes ago, Doohickie said:

Reposted from another thread, but sees relevant in this one:

I think Cale Makar was kind of a unicorn when he came up and they let him run with it.  Byram came up in that environment, into a mature system, and their tone on D was set by Makar- defensemen that freely activate into the offense, and with forwards that know to backfill.

When Rasmus got here we just didn't have good coaching and the rapid coaching changes meant that the system was never settled.

Then Byram got here and I think he said, "Guys, you're making this harder than it needs to be.  Just go with the flow."  And suddenly the team feels.... different.

 

To expand on that a little, I think perhaps this year's early season struggles were necessary in terms of getting forwards, and the whole team really, to focus on defense, even though they sucked at it (and the early season goaltending situation made it worse).  I think the team better understands what team defense means now, and injecting Byram into the situation kind of reset the team to start pushing offensively again, to be more like last year's team, only with (hopefully) more defensive awareness going forward.

Or it's all fool's gold again and we'll suck the first half of next season too.

I've been watching Byram playing and I'm loving how he activates to the front of the net. It's upsetting that my first thought is, "I'm not looking forward to watching them "coach" this out of him"

[Doohicksie]

On the contrary, I think Power is starting to follow suit.  He was trying emulate Dahlin I think who frequently will carry the puck deep into the zone to create offense.  Power doesn't look comfortable doing that, imo, but swooping into the slot for an opportunity without the puck, then swooping back to the point seems more in his wheelhouse.  Bringing Byram in brings in another toolbox of creating offense from defense. 

[Doohicksie]

[PerreaultForever]

I agree with you that "pace of play" is their thing and that's how they want to play, and if teams let them play that way they will have success. I don't think Jost and VO had a lot to do with it but BB definitely does. He clearly thrives in that wide open attack mode game. The question I still have is can they impose their will on teams that don't play that way. Teams that take away time and space. The Islanders game should be a good look at that. 

I also don't believe you can make a team of all fast and skill work both in terms of the cap (as skill guys are usually more expensive) and in terms of the lack of physicality. It's a recipe for playoff failure. I'd rather we built a more balanced roster with the bottom 6. Speed is good all around, but we need more physicality to go with it. 

[inkman]

5 minutes ago, PerreaultForever said:

I agree with you that "pace of play" is their thing and that's how they want to play, and if teams let them play that way they will have success. I don't think Jost and VO had a lot to do with it but BB definitely does. He clearly thrives in that wide open attack mode game. The question I still have is can they impose their will on teams that don't play that way. Teams that take away time and space. The Islanders game should be a good look at that. 

I also don't believe you can make a team of all fast and skill work both in terms of the cap (as skill guys are usually more expensive) and in terms of the lack of physicality. It's a recipe for playoff failure. I'd rather we built a more balanced roster with the bottom 6. Speed is good all around, but we need more physicality to go with it. 

I also don’t think inserting 17 & 71 into the lineup moved the needle but maybe removing 21 & 37 improved their speed?  

[Doohicksie]

30 minutes ago, inkman said:

I also don’t think inserting 17 & 71 into the lineup moved the needle but maybe removing 21 & 37 improved their speed?  

Jost definitely has some wheels.  Does Olofsson?  He's never stood out as s speedy guy.  But perhaps Jost is faster than Mitts and Ollie is faster than Okposo so overally, yes there's a positive impact on team speed.

I noticed yesterday that speed-wise, Kane is washed.  Done.  Kaput.  He had a chance at a break and the D... I think it was Joki?... just skated past him and took the puck away.

39 minutes ago, PerreaultForever said:

The question I still have is can they impose their will on teams that don't play that way. Teams that take away time and space.

The frustrating thing is teams that take time and space away by disrupting passes.  I think the teams that can stop the Sabres' passing game are the once who give them fits.

[mjd1001]

8 hours ago, Doohickie said:

To expand on that a little, I think perhaps this year's early season struggles were necessary in terms of getting forwards, and the whole team really, to focus on defense, even though they sucked at it (and the early season goaltending situation made it worse).  I think the team better understands what team defense means now, and injecting Byram into the situation kind of reset the team to start pushing offensively again, to be more like last year's team, only with (hopefully) more defensive awareness going forward.

Or it's all fool's gold again and we'll suck the first half of next season too.

I mostly agree with this, but if that is the case, I think they went too far.

Yes, early this year and last year the Sabres allowed a lot of odd-man-rushes against.  That would seem to be the reason for the drop in offense, you have to be a bit more conservative on offense to prevent those odd man rushes.  HOWEVER...

I think the Sabres could have sacrificed VERY little in terms of offense and still made the defense better by not making the changes they supposedly made, and just focused on what happens when they DID get in the D-zone.  Meaning, no changes to your rush habbits, no changes to neutral zone play. Just focus on what to do once the puck is in your own zone.  Many, MANY goals have been allowed in the past 2 seasons that had nothing to do with 'getting back' into the zone, but simply how aware the forwards were/are once in the zone.

I'm no sure if I 100% buy into the fact that they sacrificed offense to get better defensively. I think most of their drop off in offense is due to injuries (games missed) and playing through injuries they didn't have last year (Tuch and Thompson). But if they did change their style, I would rather have them not made so many changes and instead just focus on what happens in the D-zone once the other team sets up there.

Edited March 13 by mjd1001

[K-9]

5 hours ago, PickaPecaPickles said:

Next year could look like:

Skinner-TT-Tuch 

JJP-Cozens-Quinn

Savoie-Krebs-Benson

Greenway + 2  [Bring someone in who can stand up for his teammates without getting his face smashed in.]

Kulich as the first call-up.

Both Savoie and Kulich will get long looks in camp, but neither are a good bet to make the big club next season, imo. Perhaps they’ll surprise me. 

[Thorner]

11 hours ago, inkman said:

So removing Mitts, Okposo and EJ and replacing them with Byram, Jost and Olofsson has improved the Sabres pace of play.  What we saw last night is similar to what we saw last season.  I think they need to maintain this style and add players like Savoie and Kulich and could really become a team that plays fast. They may need to supplement the roster with some faster bottom 6 players.  
 

 

So fall into the same trap we did last offseason and promote almost solely from within. We’ll see, cotton 

*rumblings of injuries and bad luck intensify as visions of running it back dance through our heads* 

it’s leaving a lot to chance. But it depends on what sort of expectation we want to hold them to. I don’t see much appetite for that sort of thing 

I feel like if people can look at a GM’s work and say that, in hindsight, it was reasonably possible that had A, B, C etc broken our way, we may have made the playoffs: that’s more less enough. It’s not about achieving a result and expecting anything on that level, more so: did your GM configure a situation where it was impossible to make it? No? Then he did a good enough job 

Edited March 14 by Thorny

[PerreaultForever]

7 hours ago, Doohickie said:

The frustrating thing is teams that take time and space away by disrupting passes.  I think the teams that can stop the Sabres' passing game are the once who give them fits.

That has been the case so far. We have one style that we want to play and that perhaps we even excel at when we are "on". The trick will be being able to adapt. You see I want to build a team that will have playoff success, not just get into the playoffs. The way we are going, even if it does come together as per the "plan" I can see this problem coming and want to avoid it. 

[GoPuckYourself]

We will see if the play continues tomorrow against a more physical opponent in the Islanders.

[GASabresIUFAN]

The addition of Bryam and the subtraction of KO and EJ have certainly helped the pace of play.  Bryan more than anyone else.  He plays an attacking style and he is dragging the rest of the roster with him.

Mitts wasn’t an issue either way.  He excelled last year when the pace of play was higher and he is doing fine with Colo’s up tempo game as well.

VO looks better.  Makes you wonder if DG gave him the RK doghouse treatment because DG was smart enough to utilize him properly.  

[Doohicksie]

The problem with VO is that he had a good year as a goal scorer in a season when the Sabres sucked (he was one of the bright spots under RK).  They paid him to score goals, and he has, but he's also one of the worst +/- players we've had.  I think if he'd been used differently, and had tried to be more defensively responsible, he'd be considered a solid NHLer instead of a liability.  With the emergence of other scorers he was pushed off to the side.  He's a .6 PPG player; he's scored 20, 13, 20 & 28 goals over the last 4 seasons before dropping to only 5 (over 39 games) this year.  Those are outstanding numbers for a 7th round pick.

[oddoublee]

So let me get this straight.

Moving KO, Mitts and EJ were done so they could start playing with pace.

They had no problem playing with pace last year having Mitts and KO. 

KA adds EJ; this, EJ, Mitts and KO are not allowing the team to play with pace.

I'm gonna surmise that either Chad D is full of crap, his source is full of crap, or they are both full of crap. 

I'm going with both. 

[#freejame]

4 minutes ago, oddoublee said:

So let me get this straight.

Moving KO, Mitts and EJ were done so they could start playing with pace.

They had no problem playing with pace last year having Mitts and KO. 

KA adds EJ; this, EJ, Mitts and KO are not allowing the team to play with pace.

I'm gonna surmise that either Chad D is full of crap, his source is full of crap, or they are both full of crap. 

I'm going with both. 

Chad D can’t be full of crap with how often it’s been coming out in his tweets lately

[Believer]

Entertaining period… Sabres up on Shots and Faceoffs… Good start.