GDT: St.Louis Blues @ Buffalo Sabres 7:30 PM ESPN+/Hulu, WGR550

[Getpucksdeep]

2 minutes ago, North Buffalo said:

Gives team a bit more space to work and recover rebounds... I was wondering about this too... seems like less chance of defending team able to dig pucks out of the corners and get help... 

Yeah makes sense for sure. Wonder if the team has their own data. Guess we should assume so if Terry is throwing $500k in salary at it if a couple / three people.  

[sabresouth]

4v3 opens up the ice more for the offense 

Power will be fine. He's still young.  Dahlin went through the same slumps early in his career 

[WhenWillItEnd66]

Ok, a couple of quick thoughts:

- Rum and Sabres do not mix well! LOL Does not ease the pain, makes it worse

- Our defense is too soft and needs to attack when the opponent comes in our zone and not back off! Dahlin should not have backed off on that 2nd goal. (Levi should have saved that!)

- 3rd Blues goal was a unlucky bounce. that went in. It happens when bodies are all over in front of the net.

- NHL and Refs are horrible. That goal should have counted!

- A weird game as you can see the Sabres fighting hard at times and other they backed off and let the Blues dictate the game. 

- Benson, Cozens, McLeod were monsters tonight!! Dahlin made up for his blunder with a great PP goal!

- Quinn is going to be my new whipping boy until he finds himself again. As far as i am concerned, he needs to be benched or traded. 

 

Other then that a fun drunk Sabres game!! LOL 

[PromoTheRobot]

8 hours ago, Doohicksie said:

"Are you talking to *me*?"

"Winner winner, chicken Parm dinner!"

[Wyldnwoody44]

I'm still miffed on how that goal was Disallowed. That was the loudest I've heard the arena in displeasure in quite some time. I remember that arena being a nightmare when a call went against us.

The whole replay thing in sports has just gone too far, I want only egregious calls made in all sports. Hell, use a sky ref in the arena to overturn obvious misses and let's play. 

[Night Train]

Disallowed goal was a crap call. Gutted it out. 

Some outstanding efforts from Cozens, Benson, McCloud and more, as mentioned above. 

D has to start attacking the man more in their own zone. Read, react. Quit standing there watching. Power is bad in that aspect. So non-physical for a guy his size. 

Get back, Tage. Muel can stay out all year, for all I care. A waste. All-Whirlpool. 

[JohnC]

9 hours ago, mjd1001 said:

Anything that is an improvement from the production they have been giving you will be welcome obviously.  For me, a good team should expect 50 goals at least from your 2nd line....60 is what you really aim for.  That group is far from that still unless they really light things up.

There is no question that unless your second line is offensively productive it is not fulfilling its role. It's evident that when a lower line is challenging the second line in production that you have a problem. 

I wasn't able to watch the Blues game but saw some clips of the game. It seems that Cozens is getting better as he gets more aggressive around the net, and with Quinn there is a slight uptick in his game. Although Quinn is a young player he has previously shown that he has a lot more potential to draw from. (Although not so much evident this season.) 

The Quinn malaise has really perplexed me. I thought that he was going to make a quantum leap this season. I'm not writing him off although much of the crowd already has. 

[inkman]

53 minutes ago, WhenWillItEnd66 said:

Ok, a couple of quick thoughts:

- Rum and Sabres do not mix well! LOL Does not ease the pain, makes it worse

- Our defense is too soft and needs to attack when the opponent comes in our zone and not back off! Dahlin should not have backed off on that 2nd goal. (Levi should have saved that!)

- 3rd Blues goal was a unlucky bounce. that went in. It happens when bodies are all over in front of the net.

- NHL and Refs are horrible. That goal should have counted!

- A weird game as you can see the Sabres fighting hard at times and other they backed off and let the Blues dictate the game. 

- Benson, Cozens, McLeod were monsters tonight!! Dahlin made up for his blunder with a great PP goal!

- Quinn is going to be my new whipping boy until he finds himself again. As far as i am concerned, he needs to be benched or traded. 

 

Other then that a fun drunk Sabres game!! LOL 

Trading a high level prospect at their all time lowest value is not good player management.  Kinda how we ended up with Tage ( or how Vaggis) got he who shall not be named. 

[steveoat87]

What is going on with Hulu/ESPN+.  Initially I had the game in English, but midway through the game the English feed was lost and I was stuck watching the Spanish version.  Anyone else have this problem?

[Night Train]

3 minutes ago, steveoat87 said:

What is going on with Hulu/ESPN+.  Initially I had the game in English, but midway through the game the English feed was lost and I was stuck watching the Spanish version.  Anyone else have this problem?

Que pasa ? 

[French Collection]

35 minutes ago, Night Train said:

Quit standing there watching. Power is bad in that aspect. So non-physical for a guy his size. 

He will never be a guy who is feared when the other team has the puck. His willingness to engage is frustrating to watch. He can still kill plays and lead the transition when he is dialed in. He hasn’t found his rhythm yet, unfortunately.

The other aspects of his game haven’t been shining through. He’s been indecisive and doing a lot of watching. I suspect part of that is not having a solid partner who is defensively sound and has his back.

[Jorcus]

22 minutes ago, steveoat87 said:

What is going on with Hulu/ESPN+.  Initially I had the game in English, but midway through the game the English feed was lost and I was stuck watching the Spanish version.  Anyone else have this problem?

No I did not have that problem but every once in awhile I have to back out of the hulu app to fix a sound or freeze up issue. I am using ROKU and my internet is decent most of the time but not always. 

[_Q_]

11 minutes ago, French Collection said:

He will never be a guy who is feared when the other team has the puck. His willingness to engage is frustrating to watch. He can still kill plays and lead the transition when he is dialed in. He hasn’t found his rhythm yet, unfortunately.

The other aspects of his game haven’t been shining through. He’s been indecisive and doing a lot of watching. I suspect part of that is not having a solid partner who is defensively sound and has his back.

I think Power and Quinn are suffering most from the coaching change.  I think both are thinking a beat too much and it is costing their ability and space to attack up ice which was both of their strengths last year.

Quinn's game yesterday showed some glimpses of see and react.

[Pimlach]

I enjoyed the game.   I liked that certain players stepped up in the absence of Tage - McLeod, Cozens, and Benson all stood out.  

I liked that the Sabres didn’t fold when the Blues got a heavy game going.  Greenway, Clifton, Malenstyn and Abe-Kubel all had a physical presence.   We are almost getting “gritty” at times, but not nearly physical enough on the back end.    

I especially liked that they came back after the goalie interference call.

I liked that Tuch scored to tie it, and Peterka fed Dahlin to win it.  Need the big guys to come up big.  

Levi was ok, he did not give up 4, which was his GAA, and we won.  He needs more work and I can see a stint in Rochester coming for him.  He needs to see it for what it is, it’s a development opportunity, not a punishment.  

Power played 23 mins, was +1 and had an assist. But his timid play and defensive gaffs were duly noted by the ESPN crew on several occasions.  Young players have ups and downs and Power is going to be ok.   I think we need a technically solid and physical guy to pair with him.  Find that elusive defensive top 4 guy and this team gets better. 

I saw a few flashes from Quinn.  Still has a way to go but he looked better yesterday    

It was good to hear Bucci and a neutral crew call the game.  They were mostly positive on the job Ruff is doing and the current direction.  They know where the issues are too.  

The Sabres are a work in progress.  They need to stay in the race, and to do that they must avoid losing streaks.  They won last night after a loss so I am happy.  

Philly will be another tough game.   There are no easy games.  

[SwampD]

I don’t even know what to make about the goal being called back, other than the NHL never misses a chance to crap its pants. Just a ridiculous call.

And I love that that they show the room where the decision is made, like we’re supposed to just bow down to wisdom of some jackass in TO like it’s some all knowing entity that has all the rules at its fingertips and is complete unbiased. Not sure that benson going in on his own has any bearing whatsoever on the ruling.

Glad they found a way to overcome that.

Still waiting for the day when the Sabres are on the receiving end of benefit of the doubt.

Just keep winning.

Edited November 15 by SwampD

[French Collection]

2 minutes ago, _Q_ said:

I think Power and Quinn are suffering most from the coaching change.  I think both are thinking a beat too much and it is costing their ability and space to attack up ice which was both of their strengths last year.

Quinn's game yesterday showed some glimpses of see and react.

Quinn’s form this season puzzles me. Up to this point he has been at least equal to JJP in production and on the same development curve. JJP now plays like a man and with confidence. Quinn looks like this is his first call up and will benefit from the experience when sent back down to get faster and stronger. I know he won’t be sent down but he could be scratched. Lindy is being very patient with him and is still deploying him in important situations.

I am still a fan but he needs to take it up a notch and build on that. Cozens rising from the dead will help.

[Jorcus]

3 minutes ago, French Collection said:

Quinn’s form this season puzzles me. Up to this point he has been at least equal to JJP in production and on the same development curve. JJP now plays like a man and with confidence. Quinn looks like this is his first call up and will benefit from the experience when sent back down to get faster and stronger. I know he won’t be sent down but he could be scratched. Lindy is being very patient with him and is still deploying him in important situations.

I am still a fan but he needs to take it up a notch and build on that. Cozens rising from the dead will help.

I just don't know how much longer they can wait on Quinn. He is the obvious one to get replaced in he top 6 and my guess is any trade target is pointed to replace him. I don't think they are married to the idea of keeping him and being a low priced RFA bundled with a D man like Clifton or Joki just might get you a decent top 6 forward. 

Peterka has improved on something each off season. The first year he could dig out pucks but when pucks got to him he was not in position or ready to shoot. Last year he fixed that by keeping his stick on the ice and soon as it got to him he would let go. It was not always a good shot but the volume of shots added up and he could catch his own rebounds from time to time. This year he shot is better than it was last year. Many are on target and fooling the goalie. Amazing job by him to work on his game. It seems when he plays well the team does well. I would not say last night was one of his better games overall but he helped when it counted.   

[DarthEbriate]

I missed the second half of the game (Godzilla Minus One is good kaiju, good characters and most importantly, Godzilla looks like a person in a suit even when it's not -- that works well), but the highlights show a lackluster second sandwiched between pretty solid periods. I've seen goalie interference before; I'm not sure Benson's infraction counts. They should have won in regulation, but won in OT instead.

McLeod was excellent throughout the first and in the other highlights. Benson being Benson is important, right down to the post-whistle scrums and conversations.

14 minutes ago, Pimlach said:

I think we need a technically solid and physical guy to pair with him.  Find that elusive defensive top 4 guy and this team gets better. 

Philly will be another tough game.   There are no easy games.  

They thought they had that steady top-4 stay-at-home guy in Samuelsson, but since 2022-23, his stay-at-homeness has been in the press box with an injury.

[_Q_]

1 minute ago, Jorcus said:

I just don't know how much longer they can wait on Quinn. He is the obvious one to get replaced in he top 6 and my guess is any trade target is pointed to replace him. I don't think they are married to the idea of keeping him and being a low priced RFA bundled with a D man like Clifton or Joki just might get you a decent top 6 forward. 

Peterka has improved on something each off season. The first year he could dig out pucks but when pucks got to him he was not in position or ready to shoot. Last year he fixed that by keeping his stick on the ice and soon as it got to him he would let go. It was not always a good shot but the volume of shots added up and he could catch his own rebounds from time to time. This year he shot is better than it was last year. Many are on target and fooling the goalie. Amazing job by him to work on his game. It seems when he plays well the team does well. I would not say last night was one of his better games overall but he helped when it counted.   

I think Quinn is simply thinking too much.  Causing him to not get moving with his feet and not having the space he is used to having.

 

I expect a huge 2nd half from him.  

[mjd1001]

1 hour ago, JohnC said:

There is no question that unless your second line is offensively productive it is not fulfilling its role. It's evident that when a lower line is challenging the second line in production that you have a problem. 

I wasn't able to watch the Blues game but saw some clips of the game. It seems that Cozens is getting better as he gets more aggressive around the net, and with Quinn there is a slight uptick in his game. Although Quinn is a young player he has previously shown that he has a lot more potential to draw from. (Although not so much evident this season.) 

The Quinn malaise has really perplexed me. I thought that he was going to make a quantum leap this season. I'm not writing him off although much of the crowd already has. 

I have come to accept that Cozens is not going to be a consistent 30+ goal guy.  When you look back at his stats over his career, he has wild swings, and I mean WILD swings in his shooting percentage. Yes, all goal scorers are hot and cold, but they may fluctuate a few percentage points year to year or month to month within a year. Cozens will go from 15% for one month, then he'll shoot 3-4% for 2 full months, before being back up to above 10%.

I think when you accept that is who he is, it becomes easier to deal with.  Personally I'm pretty sure we are going to see stretches of him this year where people will think and say "he's back!" and "he is well worth his contract!", only to be followed by a month or two, or maybe a future full season where he gives off vibes like he did for the first month.

He has no consistency at all to his game. The hope is he gets 'hot' when the Sabres are entering the playoffs.

[LGR4GM]

10 hours ago, Doohicksie said:

I said earlier that McLeod is our Mitts now.  Hangs out on the 3rd line, can elevate to the 1st line if needed.

But we needed McLeod and Mitts

[LGR4GM]

3 hours ago, Getpucksdeep said:

I was honestly confused at the moment. Does anyone have the stats on this?  4v3 odds vs 6v5 & 5v4.  Also securing the point was likely a factor.

Listening to post game on the way home Hamilton said he didn't like it. Kozial said he thought it was smart.  Neither had any data, which surprised me given it's their profession.

Hamilton is an idiot then. The announcers on espn including former NHLERS Ryan Callahan was a huge proponent of what Buffalo did. There's more room and space at 4v3 than 5v4. Makes entries and possession easier. We saw that play out. It was smart and Hamilton is wrong. 

[WhenWillItEnd66]

42 minutes ago, Pimlach said:

I enjoyed the game.   I liked that certain players stepped up in the absence of Tage - McLeod, Cozens, and Benson all stood out.  

I liked that the Sabres didn’t fold when the Blues got a heavy game going.  Greenway, Clifton, Malenstyn and Abe-Kubel all had a physical presence.   We are almost getting “gritty” at times, but not nearly physical enough on the back end.    

I especially liked that they came back after the goalie interference call.

 

This is a huge Sabres problem. Our defense is softer than Charmin. Our only one that is hard to play against (Gilbert) would barely crack an NHL lineup on most teams. Muel used to be that before he got broken. Now he is basically useless to the Sabres. We need this fixed in the worst way. 

7 minutes ago, LGR4GM said:

Hamilton is an idiot then. The announcers on espn including former NHLERS Ryan Callahan was a huge proponent of what Buffalo did. There's more room and space at 4v3 than 5v4. Makes entries and possession easier. We saw that play out. It was smart and Hamilton is wrong. 

I actually like Hamilton, but totally agree with you here. Buffalo actually did the right thing and did it well!

[Jorcus]

11 minutes ago, LGR4GM said:

Hamilton is an idiot then. The announcers on espn including former NHLERS Ryan Callahan was a huge proponent of what Buffalo did. There's more room and space at 4v3 than 5v4. Makes entries and possession easier. We saw that play out. It was smart and Hamilton is wrong. 

The fact that both teams wanted to make sure they had the loser point played into that. If anything St Louis should have attacked for possession if they wanted to gamble at the end of the game. 

Edited November 15 by Jorcus

[JustOneParade]

18 minutes ago, LGR4GM said:

Hamilton is an idiot then. The announcers on espn including former NHLERS Ryan Callahan was a huge proponent of what Buffalo did. There's more room and space at 4v3 than 5v4. Makes entries and possession easier. We saw that play out. It was smart and Hamilton is wrong. 

How anyone who has watched the Sabres power play this season NOT endorse what the Sabres did at the end there is beyond me.