GDT: Rangers @ Sabres, Feb 22, 2025 - 5:30PM, MSG 📺, WGR550 📻 🎙

[Sabres73]

"In my discussion with him, really, I don't feel too concerned," said Sabres coach Lindy Ruff. "But we'll get more of an update tomorrow and see how he's doing."

[GASabresIUFAN]

Nice win.  Sad they didn't have this kind of effort for most of the season.    They blocked shots, played hard until the final whistle.  A few guys even tried to stand up for teammates.  

This game showed why the US lost to Canada in the final game of the 4 Nations..... Too many Rangers.

Edited 11 hours ago by GASabresIUFAN

[Doohicksie]

5 hours ago, Doohicksie said:

I'm over at my son's house so I guess I'll miss this one.

Just got home and watched the highlights.  Looks like I missed a good one.

 

Talking to my son and daughter-in-law and they mentioned names they're thinking of for their baby boy due in May.  Right now they're leaning toward Bowen.  My DIL is Chinese and it's actually a pretty common name there; it means "great knowledge" or "great culture".  I like the name.

Edited 12 hours ago by Doohicksie

[oddoublee]

21 minutes ago, Doohicksie said:

Just got home and watched the highlights.  Looks like I missed a good one.

 

Talking to my son and daughter-in-law and they mentioned names they're thinking of for their baby boy due in May.  Right now they're leaning toward Bowen.  My DIL is Chinese and it's actually a pretty common name there; it means "great knowledge" or "great culture".  I like the name.

I sure hope no one is naming their kid after a sabres player at this point. 

2 hours ago, thewookie1 said:

2 years in a row of a very similar seasonal journey 

play .500 or slightly above

Take a few injuries to key pieces and have a death spiral of multiple losses

play .500 or above

season ends

500? This team is WAY below 500. 

[Believer]

Was away and missed the game but saw the highlights.

Awesome performance in front of a packed home crowd.

That’s entertainment.

Bravo, Sabres!

[PromoTheRobot]

1 hour ago, oddoublee said:

500? This team is WAY below 500. 

.464 to be exact. They need 4 wins in a row to reach .500.

[Doohicksie]

1 hour ago, oddoublee said:

I sure hope no one is naming their kid after a sabres player at this point. 

No, just a coincidence I thought the forum might appreciate.

[thewookie1]

4 hours ago, oddoublee said:

I sure hope no one is naming their kid after a sabres player at this point. 

500? This team is WAY below 500. 

 

Minus the 13 game losing streak they are 23-17-2

Which is slightly above .500 or slightly above. But for a 2nd year in a row they have done this same song and dance of having a team that hovers around .500; last year we couldn't string wins together to save our life. This year we torpedoed our season by losing 13 consecutively. 

 

[gilbert11]

12 hours ago, Indabuff said:

Razor f bomb

Yeah, on ESPN+ there was definitely no 5 second delay for editing.   It was funny because you hear him and there’s a few second delay before Dun comments on what happened.  

[Big Guava]

3 hours ago, thewookie1 said:

 

Minus the 13 game losing streak they are 23-17-2

Which is slightly above .500 or slightly above. But for a 2nd year in a row they have done this same song and dance of having a team that hovers around .500; last year we couldn't string wins together to save our life. This year we torpedoed our season by losing 13 consecutively. 

 

How do you subtract a 13 game losing streak as if it never happened?

[bob_sauve28]

11 hours ago, thewookie1 said:

Good to see Tage playing with some rage after the whole 4nations snub

Dahlin continues to just play great 

Everyone got in on the fun it seemed and neither GA was a “bad” goal so a happy 2 pts to start the final 28.

Please, please, please get him some help, surround him with more talent as he heads into his prime years. He is such a great talent, person and leader it would be sad to waste this players best years

[mjd1001]

27 minutes ago, bob_sauve28 said:

Please, please, please get him some help, surround him with more talent as he heads into his prime years. He is such a great talent, person and leader it would be sad to waste this players best years

The good news is, for the most part, D-men often hit the prime years a bit later than Forwards.  Sure there are some exceptions, but an elite forward is in their prime from ages 23-29 usually, while many Elite D-man don't even round into form until 24-25 and it lasts until their early  30's.  So if they can round this team into shape quickly, they won't be wasting all that much of his prime years.

46 minutes ago, Big Guava said:

How do you subtract a 13 game losing streak as if it never happened?

I don't think the original poster wanted to say to subtract it...as a matter of fact he referenced it.  He said something like...play close to .500 hockey, then go into a bit tailspin, then play .500 after it.

[Big Guava]

Just crazy teams like the Canadiens and Bruins who have dreadful goals differentials of -26 and -28 are ahead of the Sabres and so are the Red Wings who are 11 points clear of us with a -12 differential.

 

The Sabres have a -8 and are dead last in the Eastern Conference...makes no sense. 

[LGR4GM]

1 minute ago, Big Guava said:

Just crazy teams like the Canadiens and Bruins who have dreadful goals differentials of -26 and -28 are ahead of the Sabres and so are the Red Wings who are 11 points clear of us with a -12 differential.

 

The Sabres have a -8 and are dead last in the Eastern Conference...makes no sense. 

Sabres are wildly inconsistent and immature. It also took the coaching staff an extra 3 months to figure out McLeod was playing better than Cozens. 

[Pimlach]

6 minutes ago, Big Guava said:

Just crazy teams like the Canadiens and Bruins who have dreadful goals differentials of -26 and -28 are ahead of the Sabres and so are the Red Wings who are 11 points clear of us with a -12 differential.

 

The Sabres have a -8 and are dead last in the Eastern Conference...makes no sense. 

The only sense I make out of it is the blown leads.   Looking at the team scoring by period, they lose a lot of close games by falling into a defensive shell and getting dominated in the 3rd.  

[LGR4GM]

3 minutes ago, Pimlach said:

The only sense I make out of it is the blown leads.   Looking at the team scoring by period, they lose a lot of close games by falling into a defensive shell and getting dominated in the 3rd.  

The Ruff effect. 

[Pimlach]

4 minutes ago, LGR4GM said:

The Ruff effect. 

The data from the past few years agrees.  Lindy says he is teaching them how to “close a game”, but they sacrifice O-Zone possession time, they back away too soon and too much.  

They play 3rd period Alamo when it should be 3rd period “pour it on”, especially against back up goalies.  

Another wasted season. 

[Sidc3000]

12 minutes ago, Pimlach said:

The only sense I make out of it is the blown leads.   Looking at the team scoring by period, they lose a lot of close games by falling into a defensive shell and getting dominated in the 3rd.  

The only period they win, by a huge margin, is the first. I think they’re l tied for first in first period leads with the Caps. The ESPN guys mentioned that in the Pens/Caps game, then makes a comment like what team would want to be compared to the Sabres.  Something like that.  The Sabres then absolutely fall off a cliff. I believe they’re stats were posted in this thread after the first period. 

[Sidc3000]

5 minutes ago, Pimlach said:

The data from the past few years agrees.  Lindy says he is teaching them how to “close a game”, but they sacrifice O-Zone possession time, they back away too soon and too much.  

They play 3rd period Alamo when it should be 3rd period “pour it on”, especially against back up goalies.  

Another wasted season. 

Yep. I don’t see it get any better anytime soon either. After next season they will have another rookie head coach and find a way to keep the “youngest team in the league” status. 

Edited 2 hours ago by Sidc3000

[JohnC]

10 hours ago, Doohicksie said:

Just got home and watched the highlights.  Looks like I missed a good one.

 

Talking to my son and daughter-in-law and they mentioned names they're thinking of for their baby boy due in May.  Right now they're leaning toward Bowen.  My DIL is Chinese and it's actually a pretty common name there; it means "great knowledge" or "great culture".  I like the name.

Bown is a terrific name. It's somewhat unique yet not so exotic that a bearer of that name will have to be subjected to school yard ridicule. What makes it appealing is that there is a meaningful cultural history behind it. That's in contrast to my name John whose history relates to a toilet and excrement. 😄

[Derrico]

18 minutes ago, Pimlach said:

The data from the past few years agrees.  Lindy says he is teaching them how to “close a game”, but they sacrifice O-Zone possession time, they back away too soon and too much.  

They play 3rd period Alamo when it should be 3rd period “pour it on”, especially against back up goalies.  

Another wasted season. 

This is pretty funny.  We might be the best first period team in the league but have blown so many games.  This is nowhere near a team that is known for closing out a game.  What are you teaching them Lindy?

[mjd1001]

10 minutes ago, Derrico said:

This is pretty funny.  We might be the best first period team in the league but have blown so many games.  This is nowhere near a team that is known for closing out a game.  What are you teaching them Lindy?

Yes, they do fall into a defensive shell, it appears they rest too far back.   I'd say that is most of it.

But at the same time, they haven't had as good of goaltending this year as last.  UPL has been better the past month it seems, and so is their record. When they were blowing a lot of late game leads, part of it was a a lot of soft-ish goals getting let in.

UPL's numbers are "OK", but when you break them down, its not just his save percentage is lower because he is seeing more high quality shots this year. But most metrics I can find, he is seeing 'about' the same number of shots per game as last year, and even 'about' the same number of high danger chances. The difference is this year his 'high danger' save percentage is almost 50 points lower than it was last year.

Actually, when I look at the numbers, he faced slightly MORE high danger chances last year than he is this year. Even all high danger chances aren't the same....I get that, but in terms of shots faced from the slot, the team is doing SLIGHTLY better this year limiting those than last year.

Again, not his fault totally, the team in front of him needs to get better, but if he would be allowing less soft goals this year, playing more like he did last year, this team would have a number of additional wins.

Edited 1 hour ago by mjd1001

[JohnC]

Others have astutely brought up the issue of the repeated squandering of leads that has tarnished the season. I don't want to overstate the effect of one player but having a more veteran presence, as exemplified by the return of Greenway, does make a difference in withstanding the predictable onslaught from the losing team when the tide turns against you in a game. I strongly believe that if the GM would have added another one or two Zucker or Greenway-like veterans to this youngish roster, it would have made a big difference. I'm confident that if that roster maturity deficiency would have been addressed, this team would not have had a 13-game winless streak that from a playoff standpoint has sunk the season. 

[Sidc3000]

2 minutes ago, JohnC said:

Others have astutely brought up the issue of the repeated squandering of leads that has tarnished the season. I don't want to overstate the effect of one player but having a more veteran presence, as exemplified by the return of Greenway, does make a difference in withstanding the predictable onslaught from the losing team when the tide turns against you in a game. I strongly believe that if the GM would have added another one or two Zucker or Greenway-like veterans to this youngish roster, it would have made a big difference. I'm confident that if that roster maturity deficiency would have been addressed, this team would not have had a 13-game winless streak that from a playoff standpoint has sunk the season. 

That 13 game losing streak is because was because of Dahlin was out. Blows my mind that this team is so mentally weak that having one player out made them lose 14 in a row. Vets and kids alike. 

[mjd1001]

4 minutes ago, JohnC said:

Others have astutely brought up the issue of the repeated squandering of leads that has tarnished the season. I don't want to overstate the effect of one player but having a more veteran presence, as exemplified by the return of Greenway, does make a difference in withstanding the predictable onslaught from the losing team when the tide turns against you in a game. I strongly believe that if the GM would have added another one or two Zucker or Greenway-like veterans to this youngish roster, it would have made a big difference. I'm confident that if that roster maturity deficiency would have been addressed, this team would not have had a 13-game winless streak that from a playoff standpoint has sunk the season. 

-Greenway AND Zucker being in the lineup.

-Tage and Dahlin both looking healthy and their play/production being at all-pro/all-star levels.

-Cozens ice time the last 6 games being below his season average, and McLeod starting to get more ice time.

Now, it looks like if you get those things this team plays a lot better. The questions of course:

--If good veteran play is so important, why didn't they bring in another one when they have the money?

--If Dahlin getting hurt can derail the entire team so badly, why not use that money to bring in another Vet d-man?

--Why does it take every coaching staff so long to realize Cozen's limitations...and even they why is he the first one get 'gets minutes back' when someone is hurt?

 

6 minutes ago, Sidc3000 said:

That 13 game losing streak is because was because of Dahlin was out. Blows my mind that this team is so mentally weak that having one player out made them lose 14 in a row. Vets and kids alike. 

That is about the same time Tage was playing though his arm/wrist/shoulder (whatever it was) injury too, I think?