GDT: Bruins (booooo) visit keybank center. 6pm FO. MSG-B, NESN.

[dudacek]

1 minute ago, mjd1001 said:

Maybe I read it wrong, but I saw 100% shots (but that was simply 2 to 0), and expected goals just barely above 50 (53.96,  0.18 for, 0.15 against)

His line won Corsi 10 to 3, and Fenwick 5 to 2, But scoring chances and high danger chances were even 2 for/2 against and  1 for/ 1 against.

Good numbers, very good still for one game.

Oh I probably got it wrong, or the source did.

Shouldnt have posted off memory when I didn’t even look to closely.

[DarthEbriate]

1 hour ago, LGR4GM said:

Boston traded 3 guys. Only 2 of those trades were for futures. They aren't tanking, they just suck. 

What Buffalo did in 2013/2014 is what tanking is.

The Bruins tanked the end of one season, which was smart given where they were and that they do need a bit of a rebuild. A top 5 pick can help accelerate that. One good offseason, a center for Pastrnak, and a healthy top D-pairing of McAvoy/Lindholm, and they can be right back on the ascent. However, the Korpisalo contract is a problem. 

The Sabres did a multi-year tank of their entire franchise. They didn't keep Miller (Swayman), Vanek or anyone top-line worthy (Pastrnak), or a real top-D pairing, in reserve.

[dudacek]

2 minutes ago, dudacek said:

Oh I probably got it wrong, or the source did.

Shouldnt have posted off memory when I didn’t even look too closely.

Found it. Was a screen shot of a website that doesn’t indicate the source.

And it was 90.91% Corsi and 100% xGF for the entire line.

The xGF % was so high because they did not register an xGA.

Extraordinarily small sample size.

[JohnC]

6 minutes ago, mjd1001 said:

Lets not forget about their goaltending, the same issue facing the Sabres this year. 

And yeah, i know the goalies numbers have a lot to do with the team in front of him...I get that, but Swayman has fallen off a cliff. Swayman went from a CAREER .919 save percentage to .895 this year.  And again, not just a bad team in front of him, he has looked bad, allowing a lot of goals this year that he made the saves on last year. 

The goalie issue for the Sabres, as it is for all teams, is that with the exception of the few elite goalies, the players playing the position are erratic in their play, year to year and also within season. Reimer has been stellar over his recent extended play. Can he expected to carry a full load next season if he becomes our primary goalie? I'm skeptical about that. Should UPL be relegated to a backup role or be dealt because his recent play in general has been lacking? I'm not sure? 

What this recent winning stretch demonstrates is that with good goaltending this team can be a competitive team. However, what does the GM do to solidify the position and make it a more consistent position to depend on? I don't have the answer for that. As you point out with Swayman, he gained a rich, long term contract based on his play when his contract was coming up. Now, it seems that he is adrift. 

In watching the game against Boston what became apparent was that the Sabres were the superior team. And as the game advanced it became ever more apparent. Looking back at this season, how many games against lesser teams did we lose to and how many games against superior teams did we elevate our play and win. This team had opportunities but due to a lack of maturity it did not seize on them when they were there for the taking. 

I'm aware that from a playoff standpoint this is a failed season regardless on how this team plays these end of season games. But what is apparent to me is that this team in general is playing a more responsible two-way game. And it is also apparent that the coach is giving out playing time and roles based on performances. The focus now isn't so much player development as it is on which players put this team in a better position to win. How Quinn is being handled by Ruff is an example of that. When his play is lacking, his playing time becomes limited and his line assignment is dropped. That's a good thing for the team and also for the player in question. 

[Thorner]

Dahlin’s put up thus far his second best career mark in assists, goals (tie), and points - but it’s arguably been his best season. 
 

this one stings 

[dudacek]

39 minutes ago, Thorner said:

Dahlin’s put up thus far his second best career mark in assists, goals (tie), and points - but it’s arguably been his best season. 
 

this one stings 

He's been fantastic.

Makar gets the Norris, no questions asked, but I think objectively the next three this year have been Werenski, Hughes and Ras.

It's a shame the Buffalo stink will probably rob him of his first post-season all-star team spot, which will go to a less deserving candidate like a Morrisey or a Bouchard because their teams are more successful.

I see fan bases touting guys like Sanderson and Seider, when their numbers aren't even close.

[HumanSlinky39]

Just realized the Sabres have 6 hat tricks this season. They had just 2 last year. (They had 8 in 2022/23).

[HumanSlinky39]

16 hours ago, Stads said:

One year, the April Sabres will show up the rest of the months

I'd say cross your fingers, but this has been a trend 4 years running.

2021/22: 16-30-8 through Feb, finished 16-9-3

2022/23: 33-31-6 through Mar 21, finished 9-2-1

2023/24: 23-26-4 through Feb 15,  finished 16-11-2

2024/25: 27-35-6 through Mar 21, 7-1-1 since

Every year, this team turns it on at some point over the last 2 months, but each time their poor play over the previous 4-5 months rendered it too little, too late.

This is a roster with talent, but there is very obviously something missing preventing them from being able to play sustained good hockey for long enough to get to the postseason. They need to identify where those gaps are (and I think anyone with any hockey sense can see them) and use this summer to improve those areas. Will they? I doubt it, because for the 4th season in a row KA will almost assuredly look at the last few weeks and take that as this team "figuring it out." 

 

Spoiler alert: It's not.

[Thorner]

2 minutes ago, HumanSlinky39 said:

I'd say cross your fingers, but this has been a trend 4 years running.

2021/22: 16-30-8 through Feb, finished 16-9-3

2022/23: 33-31-6 through Mar 21, finished 9-2-1

2023/24: 23-26-4 through Feb 15,  finished 16-11-2

2024/25: 27-35-6 through Mar 21, 7-1-1 since

Every year, this team turns it on at some point over the last 2 months, but each time their poor play over the previous 4-5 months rendered it too little, too late.

This is a roster with talent, but there is very obviously something missing preventing them from being able to play sustained good hockey for long enough to get to the postseason. They need to identify where those gaps are (and I think anyone with any hockey sense can see them) and use this summer to improve those areas. Will they? I doubt it, because for the 4th season in a row KA will almost assuredly look at the last few weeks and take that as this team "figuring it out." 

 

Spoiler alert: It's not.

And the rub is that, even it it might be: why the heck risk it. Add to the team as if making the playoffs *actually is* the goal and missing is unacceptable. The roster isn’t close to contender level, regardless! Either way, there is zero reason not to do eveything you can to improve and that means attacking the roster aggressively in all areas. also, then when excuses happen, they are merely roadbumps. 
 

NOTE: this post is *not* sarcasm this time 

[JohnC]

17 hours ago, Doohickie said:

It's a fad.  I've got one like that.

Looks like it started in North Texas.  That checks out.  I've seen them around for a coupla years now.

You may not be aware of it but you have a menacing look. You look like a west side bookie bill collector from my youth who was just told by a tardy gambler that he'll come up with the money tomorrow. The collector then pulls out a crowbar and wacks the guy on a knee. When the wounded scofflaw asks why he was hit, the collector responds that he wanted to make the point that it is imperative that he comes up with the money owed, plus interest, very soon. 

[Doohickie]

1 hour ago, JohnC said:

You may not be aware of it but you have a menacing look. You look like a west side bookie bill collector from my youth who was just told by a tardy gambler that he'll come up with the money tomorrow. The collector then pulls out a crowbar and wacks the guy on a knee. When the wounded scofflaw asks why he was hit, the collector responds that he wanted to make the point that it is imperative that he comes up with the money owed, plus interest, very soon. 

Yeah, I noticed that too.  I decided I was too lazy to retake the picture showing friendly @Doohickie.

 

 

Just make sure you get that money to me, capisce?

[Derrico]

7 hours ago, Thorner said:

Dahlin’s put up thus far his second best career mark in assists, goals (tie), and points - but it’s arguably been his best season. 
 

this one stings 

Combine that with tnt 43 goals and Tuch mid 30s in goals.  Wtf happened?

[ska-T Palmtown]

5 minutes ago, Derrico said:

Combine that with tnt 43 goals and Tuch mid 30s in goals.  Wtf happened?

This happened ....

[mjd1001]

50 minutes ago, Derrico said:

Combine that with tnt 43 goals and Tuch mid 30s in goals.  Wtf happened?

-UPL happened:  If my numbers are correct (they are close), if he would have matched his save percentage from last year, he would have allowed 32-35 goals less this year than he has. (playing behind basically the same defense, and its been shown at least recently that the "Ruff system" seems to work pretty darn well for Reimer, an aging backup...so this is on UPL)  Change nothing else except add in those extra stops, and their goal differential goes from bottom half of the league, and moves to postive in the same neighborhood as teams like Edmonton and St. Louis, and not too far behind Florida and Toronto.

-Dylan Cozens happened (although its been 'fixed'):  He not only continued to make mistakes that led to more goals being allowed vs scored when he was on the ice, a minus 13 through only 61 games. Took a lot of shots himself, passing up plays to his teammates while shooting a team worst (among any forwards  with over 50 shots not named Beck Malenstyn) 7.9%. He was practically useless on the PP but he kept on getting time there.

Since he left, the team is playing at a 109 point pace, has a positive 5 goal differential in 15 games, and  players 'below' him on the roster that have played much better (and much better than HIM) since he left while moving up the depth chart to take his minutes.

-Jack Quinn happened: Negative goal differential when he is on the ice. Worst +/- on the team (-20, while not getting many defensive challenging matchups while other forwards on the same team, playing in front of the same goalie and same D-men are double digit pluses). Negative Corsi, Negative Fenwick, Negative shots for, negative expected goals, negative scoring chances, WAY negative high danger chances. Won't go to the net (lowest percentage of shots from the high danger area, he has 8 (EIGHT) shots from the front of the net, Tuch for example has 58), invisible unless he has the puck put on his stick by a teammate, can't create his own shot.  Basically he makes almost everyone he plays with worse, and then when he leaves their line they get better.

Thats all I have.  Remove/fix those 3 things and you have a team with holes, but one that is likely much higher in the standings.

 

 

Edited Monday at 11:17 PM by mjd1001

[PerreaultForever]

6 hours ago, HumanSlinky39 said:

I'd say cross your fingers, but this has been a trend 4 years running.

2021/22: 16-30-8 through Feb, finished 16-9-3

2022/23: 33-31-6 through Mar 21, finished 9-2-1

2023/24: 23-26-4 through Feb 15,  finished 16-11-2

2024/25: 27-35-6 through Mar 21, 7-1-1 since

Every year, this team turns it on at some point over the last 2 months, but each time their poor play over the previous 4-5 months rendered it too little, too late.

This is a roster with talent, but there is very obviously something missing preventing them from being able to play sustained good hockey for long enough to get to the postseason. They need to identify where those gaps are (and I think anyone with any hockey sense can see them) and use this summer to improve those areas. Will they? I doubt it, because for the 4th season in a row KA will almost assuredly look at the last few weeks and take that as this team "figuring it out." 

 

Spoiler alert: It's not.

This is it and I've said that for ages. Don't be fooled. The stats show the same thing every year and they fail to account for the opposition taking them lightly, back up goalies, tired opposition teams coasting their way into their already won playoff spots, gutted teams tanking and playing out the string while the Sabres play loose and free of pressure as it's already over. 

It's the SAME every single season and if you run back the same roster (roughly speaking) it'll be the same again. 

[JohnC]

10 minutes ago, mjd1001 said:

-UPL happened:  If my numbers are correct (they are close), if he would have matched his save percentage from last year, he would have allowed 32-35 goals less this year than he has. (playing behind basically the same defense, and its been shown at least recently that the "Ruff system" seems to work pretty darn well for Reimer, an aging backup...so this is on UPL)  Change nothing else except add in those extra stops, and their goal differential goes from bottom half of the league, and moves to postive in the same neighborhood as teams like Edmonton and St. Louis, and not too far behind Florida and Toronto.

-Dylan Cozens happened (although its been 'fixed'):  He not only continued to make mistakes that led to more goals being allowed vs scored when he was on the ice, a minus 13 through only 61 games. He was practically useless on the PP and sucked up time there, and he took minutes away from players 'below' him on the roster that have played much better (and much better than HIM) since he left.  Took a lot of shots himself, passing up plays to his teammates while shooting a team worst (among any forwards  with over 50 shots not named Beck Malenstyn) 7.9%.

-Jack Quinn happened: Negative goal differential when he is on the ice. Worst +/- on the team (-20, while not getting many defensive challenging matchups while other forwards on the same team, playing in front of the same goalie and same D-men are double digit pluses). Negative Corsi, Negative Fenwick, Negative shots for, negative expected goals, negative scoring chances, WAY negative high danger chances. Won't go to the net (lowest percentage of shots from the high danger area, he has 8 (EIGHT) shots from the front of the net, Tuch for example has 58), invisible unless he has the puck put on his stick by a teammate, can't create his own shot.  Basically he makes almost everyone he plays with worse, and then when he leaves their line they get better.

Thats all I have.  Remove/fix those 3 things and you have a team with holes, but one that is likely much higher in the standings.

 

 

Great effort in your analysis. With respect to UPL's faltering how do you fix that positional deficiency? Do you try to rehabilitate him or replace him? If you decide to replace him, then with whom? Is Reimer at this stage of his career have the ability to be a # 1 workhorse goalie? I'm wary about taking that course. And as far as trading UPL, who is going to take him with his contract. My sense of what is going to happen under KA is that there will not be a change in staffing the position. That will be risky but the options appear to be limited. 

Your Cozens analysis is intriguing. What it basically concludes is that his shedding was addition by subtraction. My hope is that Norris gets healthy and becomes at the minimum a contributing #2 center. If that happens, then the trade would favor the Sabres even more. 

On the Quinn issue, it appears that I am an outlier. I'm more inclined to be more patient with him than you. (To state the obvious.) But even if retained, his role and playing minutes should be dictated by his play.  

[FrenchConnection44]

6 hours ago, HumanSlinky39 said:

I'd say cross your fingers, but this has been a trend 4 years running.

2021/22: 16-30-8 through Feb, finished 16-9-3

2022/23: 33-31-6 through Mar 21, finished 9-2-1

2023/24: 23-26-4 through Feb 15,  finished 16-11-2

2024/25: 27-35-6 through Mar 21, 7-1-1 since

Every year, this team turns it on at some point over the last 2 months, but each time their poor play over the previous 4-5 months rendered it too little, too late.

This is a roster with talent, but there is very obviously something missing preventing them from being able to play sustained good hockey for long enough to get to the postseason. They need to identify where those gaps are (and I think anyone with any hockey sense can see them) and use this summer to improve those areas. Will they? I doubt it, because for the 4th season in a row KA will almost assuredly look at the last few weeks and take that as this team "figuring it out." 

 

Spoiler alert: It's not.

Just on here to post about that. 

I just don't think you can take much from a team that was all but eliminated and then decided to play freely and went on a run. 

It's fools gold. That's why I'd have preferred for us to rest some guys with "nagging" injuries, bring up guys from the minors, and hope for a top 4 pick in which we might land a kid who can play next year. 

If this is largely the same team next year (they need a physical, two-way F, a big D-man who also plays a physical game, and a goalie. Even then that is jsut to get in the playoffs) other than a few minor changes like this last offseason then I don't see it happening.

[dudacek]

38 minutes ago, mjd1001 said:

-UPL happened:  If my numbers are correct (they are close), if he would have matched his save percentage from last year, he would have allowed 32-35 goals less this year than he has. (playing behind basically the same defense, and its been shown at least recently that the "Ruff system" seems to work pretty darn well for Reimer, an aging backup...so this is on UPL)  Change nothing else except add in those extra stops, and their goal differential goes from bottom half of the league, and moves to postive in the same neighborhood as teams like Edmonton and St. Louis, and not too far behind Florida and Toronto.

-Dylan Cozens happened (although its been 'fixed'):  He not only continued to make mistakes that led to more goals being allowed vs scored when he was on the ice, he was practically useless on the PP and sucked up time there, and he took minutes away from players 'below' him on the roster that have played much better (and much better than HIM) since he left.

-Jack Quinn happened: Negative goal differential when he is on the ice. Worst +/- on the team (-20, while not getting many defensive challenging matchups while other forwards on the same team, playing in front of the same goalie and same D-men are double digit pluses). Negative Corsi, Negative Fenwick, Negative shots for, negative expected goals, negative scoring chances, WAY negative high danger chances. Won't go to the net (lowest percentage of shots from the high danger area, he has 8 (EIGHT) shots from the front of the net, Tuch for example has 58), invisible unless he has the puck put on his stick by a teammate, can't create his own shot.  Basically he makes almost everyone he plays with worse, and then when he leaves their line they get better.

Thats all I have.  Remove/fix those 3 things and you have a team with holes, but one that is likely much higher in the standings.

 

 

I go a little deeper, but I agree those were the three biggest roster holes this year: 2C, 3W and 1G.

Those players underperformed their roles in dramatic fashion.

But it doesn’t stop there:

Owen Power was expected to take a step forward toward being a legit 2D. He was nowhere close. His points climbed a bit, but he dropped from one of team’s better plus performers to one of its biggest minuses.

Mattias Samuelsson was supposed to be a leader and a shutdown defender by now. He was neither. His Corsi, +/- and xG% all declined and he was a major factor in a struggling PK.

Jordan Greenway played fine, but he was available for less than half a season and was the teams only middle-sixer with size and defensive acumen.

And it’s not really their fault, but Zach Benson and/or Jiri Kulich were miscast: 25ish points are not enough for where they were being slotted in the lineup.

Add that to Clifton’s poor year in the #5 slot, the coaching staff’s utter inability to find a use for Jokiharju in the mix on defence, and the complete misses of Lafferty and Aube-Kubel as 2/3rds of the new-look 4th line, and there are a lot of areas where upgrades are needed.

That’s about half the roster below where you need it to be, and that is assuming Byram, McLeod and Zucker can repeat career years and the question of 2G gets answered.

Norris for Cozens addressed one question mark. Maybe Bernard Docker for Jokiharju addressed another.

There’s a ton of others that still need answers.

Edited Monday at 11:31 PM by dudacek

[mjd1001]

9 minutes ago, JohnC said:

Great effort in your analysis. With respect to UPL's faltering how do you fix that positional deficiency? Do you try to rehabilitate him or replace him? If you decide to replace him, then with whom? Is Reimer at this stage of his career have the ability to be a # 1 workhorse goalie? I'm wary about taking that course. And as far as trading UPL, who is going to take him with his contract. My sense of what is going to happen under KA is that there will not be a change in staffing the position. That will be risky but the options appear to be limited. 

Your Cozens analysis is intriguing. What it basically concludes is that his shedding was addition by subtraction. My hope is that Norris gets healthy and becomes at the minimum a contributing #2 center. If that happens, then the trade would favor the Sabres even more. 

On the Quinn issue, it appears that I am an outlier. I'm more inclined to be more patient with him than you. (To state the obvious.) But even if retained, his role and playing minutes should be dictated by his play.  

I'm not ready to give up on Quinn yet, I like to give forwards 200-250 games played before getting to that point. It is just there is no denying to me his play has hurt the team this year. Cozens I was done with, it was apparent he wasn't getting better. Quinn is just as bad, but either through his injury history or confidence, I'll give him more time.  But he has hurt the team.

UPL I have NO idea. No idea why he fell off so badly, no idea what to do with him.  I don't think Reimer can carry the workload of a starter, and who is to say if he would repeat his performance again next year if he could?  As for UPL again, something happened to him mid-December. Did he get hurt and has been playing through it? Did the losing streak cause him to lose confidence?

Through the Thanksgiving weekend game vs Minnesota, UPL was 8-7 on the season and he had a .914 save percentage and a GAA about 2.50. (he was playing ALMOST like the UPL of last year). Then, its like the November 29th game vs Vancouver someone flipped a switch on him, since then he has a save percentage of .873, it dropped almost 40 points the rest of the year.

[mjd1001]

9 minutes ago, dudacek said:

I go a little deeper, but I agree those were the three biggest roster holes this year: 2C, 3W and 1G.

Those players underperformed their roles in dramatic fashion.

But it doesn’t stop there:

Owen Power was expected to take a step forward toward being a legit 2D. He was nowhere close. His points climbed a bit, but he dropped from one of team’s better plus performers to one of its biggest minuses.

Mattias Samuelsson was supposed to be a leader and a shutdown defender by now. He was neither. His Corsi, +/- and xG% all declined and he was a major factor in a struggling PK.

Jordan Greenway played fine, but he was available for less than half a season and was the teams only middle-sixer with size and defensive acumen.

And it’s not really their fault, but Zach Benson and/or Jiri Kulich were miscast: 25ish points are not enough for where they were being slotted in the lineup.

Add that to Clifton’s poor year in the #5 slot, the coaching staff’s utter inability to find a use for Jokiharju in the mix on defence, and the complete misses of Lafferty and Aube-Kubel as 2/3rds of the new-look 4th line, and there are a lot of areas where upgrades are needed.

That’s about half the roster below where you need it to be, and that is assuming Byram, McLeod and Zucker can repeat career years and the question of 2G gets answered.

Norris for Cozens addressed one question mark. Maybe Bernard Docker for Jokiharju addressed another.

There’s a ton of others that still need answers.

I agree with almost all of the above.  My point earlier was the three BIGGEST issues were the ones I mentioned.  If those weren't issue, this would still not be a legit cup team.  I think everything you mentioned above us true and yes, they need to be better or they need to be replaced...just on my personal list they would be behind UPL, Quinn, and Cozens.

[JohnC]

1 minute ago, mjd1001 said:

I'm not ready to give up on Quinn yet, I like to give forwards 200-250 games played before getting to that point. It is just there is no denying to me his play has hurt the team this year. Cozens I was done with, it was apparent he wasn't getting better. Quinn is just as bad, but either through his injury history or confidence, I'll give him more time.  But he has hurt the team.

UPL I have NO idea. No idea why he fell off so badly, no idea what to do with him.  I don't think Reimer can carry the workload of a starter, and who is to say if he would repeat his performance again next year if he could?  As for UPL again, something happened to him mid-December. Did he get hurt and has been playing through it? Did the losing streak cause him to lose confidence?

Through the Thanksgiving weekend game vs Minnesota, UPL was 8-7 on the season and he had a .914 save percentage and a GAA about 2.50. (he was playing ALMOST like the UPL of last year). Then, its like the November 29th game vs Vancouver someone flipped a switch on him, since then he has a save percentage of .873, it dropped almost 40 points the rest of the year.

A week or so ago, Marty Biron talked about UPL's degraded play. What he noted as a main reason for his diminished play was that his mechanics were out of whack. He was reaching and flailing instead of retaining a stable posture and reacting without flailing motions. It seemed that he lost confidence in the defense around him (understandably so) with the increased onslaught and reacted by losing his mechanics. When he's on there is better body positioning and a lot less movement. If he closely watched Reimer during his recent good play, he would have noticed Reimer's economy of movement. There is a lot at stake for the team for him to get back on track. If that goalie position is stabilized, this team should be in a much better position. The bottom line is what pitching is to baseball; goaltending is to hockey. Without it you get nowhere meaningful. 

[Thorner]

2 hours ago, Derrico said:

Combine that with tnt 43 goals and Tuch mid 30s in goals.  Wtf happened?

The overall make of the the team isn’t good enough, lots of areas of need 

1 hour ago, mjd1001 said:

-UPL happened:  If my numbers are correct (they are close), if he would have matched his save percentage from last year, he would have allowed 32-35 goals less this year than he has. (playing behind basically the same defense, and its been shown at least recently that the "Ruff system" seems to work pretty darn well for Reimer, an aging backup...so this is on UPL)  Change nothing else except add in those extra stops, and their goal differential goes from bottom half of the league, and moves to postive in the same neighborhood as teams like Edmonton and St. Louis, and not too far behind Florida and Toronto.

-Dylan Cozens happened (although its been 'fixed'):  He not only continued to make mistakes that led to more goals being allowed vs scored when he was on the ice, a minus 13 through only 61 games. Took a lot of shots himself, passing up plays to his teammates while shooting a team worst (among any forwards  with over 50 shots not named Beck Malenstyn) 7.9%. He was practically useless on the PP but he kept on getting time there.

Since he left, the team is playing at a 109 point pace, has a positive 5 goal differential in 15 games, and  players 'below' him on the roster that have played much better (and much better than HIM) since he left while moving up the depth chart to take his minutes.

-Jack Quinn happened: Negative goal differential when he is on the ice. Worst +/- on the team (-20, while not getting many defensive challenging matchups while other forwards on the same team, playing in front of the same goalie and same D-men are double digit pluses). Negative Corsi, Negative Fenwick, Negative shots for, negative expected goals, negative scoring chances, WAY negative high danger chances. Won't go to the net (lowest percentage of shots from the high danger area, he has 8 (EIGHT) shots from the front of the net, Tuch for example has 58), invisible unless he has the puck put on his stick by a teammate, can't create his own shot.  Basically he makes almost everyone he plays with worse, and then when he leaves their line they get better.

Thats all I have.  Remove/fix those 3 things and you have a team with holes, but one that is likely much higher in the standings.

 

 

Yup, the sabres have always had a good team. Adams problem was actually adding too many guys 

[Archie Lee]

1 hour ago, mjd1001 said:

-UPL happened:  If my numbers are correct (they are close), if he would have matched his save percentage from last year, he would have allowed 32-35 goals less this year than he has. (playing behind basically the same defense, and its been shown at least recently that the "Ruff system" seems to work pretty darn well for Reimer, an aging backup...so this is on UPL)  Change nothing else except add in those extra stops, and their goal differential goes from bottom half of the league, and moves to postive in the same neighborhood as teams like Edmonton and St. Louis, and not too far behind Florida and Toronto.

-Dylan Cozens happened (although its been 'fixed'):  He not only continued to make mistakes that led to more goals being allowed vs scored when he was on the ice, a minus 13 through only 61 games. Took a lot of shots himself, passing up plays to his teammates while shooting a team worst (among any forwards  with over 50 shots not named Beck Malenstyn) 7.9%. He was practically useless on the PP but he kept on getting time there.

Since he left, the team is playing at a 109 point pace, has a positive 5 goal differential in 15 games, and  players 'below' him on the roster that have played much better (and much better than HIM) since he left while moving up the depth chart to take his minutes.

-Jack Quinn happened: Negative goal differential when he is on the ice. Worst +/- on the team (-20, while not getting many defensive challenging matchups while other forwards on the same team, playing in front of the same goalie and same D-men are double digit pluses). Negative Corsi, Negative Fenwick, Negative shots for, negative expected goals, negative scoring chances, WAY negative high danger chances. Won't go to the net (lowest percentage of shots from the high danger area, he has 8 (EIGHT) shots from the front of the net, Tuch for example has 58), invisible unless he has the puck put on his stick by a teammate, can't create his own shot.  Basically he makes almost everyone he plays with worse, and then when he leaves their line they get better.

Thats all I have.  Remove/fix those 3 things and you have a team with holes, but one that is likely much higher in the standings.

 

 

Well, I can’t deny that those three players were very bad this year. But, I would still say that Adams and Ruff is what happened, not UPL, Cozens, and Quinn. Pick a team that is in the playoffs year after year. Then ask if their GM and head coach would let 2-3 players tank their season?  It might be as simple as you say, but then it is an even larger indictment of Adams and Ruff. The fix was easy and those two guys couldn’t or wouldn’t do anything about it. 

Also, since Ottawa acquired Cozens they are playing at a 113 point pace. 

Edited Tuesday at 12:53 AM by Archie Lee

[Weave]

10 minutes ago, Thorner said:

The overall make of the the team isn’t good enough, lots of areas of need 

Yup, the sabres have always had a good team. Adams problem was actually adding too many guys 

Sarcastic Thorny is entertaining Thorny.

[Thorner]

1 minute ago, Weave said:

Sarcastic Thorny is entertaining Thorny.