Did they name Campbell's spin move yet?

[Done]

But there are two sides to every story ... Shaq gets hurt and wears down as much as anyone ... We saw a 270 lb Bruce Smith blow by many a 330 lb tackle, and that big D-man has to catch the 5-9 center ... and if you have 12 skilled guys like that and a couple in reserve, he might catch one, but another is coming on the next shift ...

 

Again, it's really just a theory at this point, it might not work out. There are going to be casualties, and they are going to give up more goals than we are used to. But the net result could be better than anything we have ever had, too.

 

You are right...speed kills. We have depth. That is why we are rolling. In heavy contact or huge physical output sports, the size thing works most of the time. If a guy is soooo fast like a Bruce or a Freeney where you can't get your hands on the guy, then he can't get beat up. Hockey used to be much more of a contact sport. It still is on occasion. If the refs swallow the whistle like they still do at times, it can all backfire.

[hopeleslyobvious]

Ronnie, is that you? How are things in... ah, never mind. No politics here.

 

I assume you are talking about the phrase "injury-prone." Do you still really think the injuries are just flukes? You sneeze on Tallinder and he breaks his arm. We have some delicate flowers on this team -- face the facts. :)

 

I would imagine that a metal plate in Tallinder's arm will solve that problem. Just speculating, but Tallinder probably didn't heal correctly on the first break.

 

PA, here's the thing. The glass is always half empty with you. You always look for the negative side. We have some injurie, so we must be injury prone.

 

Afinogenov: Missed a few games this year with a seperated shoulder. However, since his first full season, he only has 1 season with less than 70 GP. If he was injury prone, I would imagine he would have much more than that.

 

Biron: Not injury prone.

 

Briere: Missed significant time with a sports hernia last year. But looking at his career, it doesn't appear that he has been plagued by injuries. After his surgery it doesn't appear that he has had many problems.

 

Campbell: No serious injuries that I can remember.

 

Connolly: I will give you this one.

 

Drury: Missed 1 game last year. Never had less than 70 GP in a season in his career. Only less than 75 once. Not injury prone.

 

Gaustad: Played 78 last year. Has never been out for an extended time during his career.

 

Hecht: Has had some injury trouble. Looking at his injuries last year, anyone is going to get injured if they get hit in the knee the wrong way.

 

Kalinin: Has had some injury troubles. Although I would guess his groin injury early in the year last year was probably due to not being conditioned enough.

 

Kotalik: Played every game last year, every game this year.

 

Lydman: Hurt right now, but his career doesn't exactly look like it has been plagued with injuries.

 

Mair: Had some concussion problems, doesn't really seem to be holding him back.

 

Miller: Broke his thumb on a freak play in practice. This does not make him injury prone. This year he strained a muscle. Please tell me an athlete who has never strained a muscle. Other than his broken thumb, he has not missed significant time in his career.

 

Novotny: Played a pretty full schedule last year. Played every game this year.

 

Numminen: Had heart surgery over the summer. His muscle pull last year probably had more to do with playing the Olympics right into the Sabres March schedule, right into the playoffs. He's missed some games in his career, but he has 12 NHL seasons with 70+ GP.

 

Paetsch: No significant time missed.

 

Peters: No need to even look him up.

 

Pominville: Looks fine.

 

Roy: When you block a hard shot with your hand, sometimes it gets hurt. Doesn't really look like he's missed much significant time in his career, so not injury prone.

 

Spacek: Doesn't really look injury prone when you look at his career. Played every game this year.

 

Stafford: Didn't look injury prone in college.

 

Tallinder: Before breaking his arm didn't have much injury trouble. I think it's too soon to call him injury prone.

 

Vanek: Played every game this year. Missed 1 regular season game last year. College career looks fine. Not injury prone.

 

You are right...speed kills. We have depth. That is why we are rolling. In heavy contact or huge physical output sports, the size thing works most of the time. If a guy is soooo fast like a Bruce or a Freeney where you can't get your hands on the guy, then he can't get beat up. Hockey used to be much more of a contact sport. It still is on occasion. If the refs swallow the whistle like they still do at times, it can all backfire.

 

If the Sabres play their game, it is not a problem.

[Stoner]

hopeles, I'm sorry. The Sabres are not injury-prone. They didn't lose a Cup last spring because of a rash of bizarre injuries, and it's not picking right up where it left off. My bad (yes I am aware no one says that anymore except 40-something nerds).

 

This is not even a matter of being optimistic or pessimistic. An optimist would say we are going to be fine. A pessimist that we are doomed. I am neither. I am a realist. This team has suffered a lot of injuries in the equivalent of about half a season. Can't argue that. The rest is just semantics.

 

Actually, I think I'm pretty optimistic. I argued for Tom Golisano to spend what was necessary to keep the winning going and reinvent this franchise with the fans and even win some Cups. That's a heckuva lot more optimistic than the approach many of you wanted to take. So worried about Tommy's wallet. All because someone saw Goli loading up on samples at Tops. Did you ever think maybe the guy just has a good appetite? Why do some people have to ASSUME he takes the crackers and cheese home for dinner? Why.

[hopeleslyobvious]

hopeles, I'm sorry. The Sabres are not injury-prone. They didn't lose a Cup last spring because of a rash of bizarre injuries, and it's not picking right up where it left off. My bad (yes I am aware no one says that anymore except 40-something nerds).

 

This is not even a matter of being optimistic or pessimistic. An optimist would say we are going to be fine. A pessimist that we are doomed. I am neither. I am a realist. This team has suffered a lot of injuries in the equivalent of about half a season. Can't argue that. The rest is just semantics.

 

Actually, I think I'm pretty optimistic. I argued for Tom Golisano to spend what was necessary to keep the winning going and reinvent this franchise with the fans and even win some Cups. That's a heckuva lot more optimistic than the approach many of you wanted to take. So worried about Tommy's wallet. All because someone saw Goli loading up on samples at Tops. Did you ever think maybe the guy just has a good appetite? Why do some people have to ASSUME he takes the crackers and cheese home for dinner? Why.

 

That's just what it was, a rash of bizarre injuries. You can take whatever you want out of it, but no one on this team has the history of a Forsberg or a Lindros.

[thesportsbuff]

hopeles, I'm sorry. The Sabres are not injury-prone. They didn't lose a Cup last spring because of a rash of bizarre injuries, and it's not picking right up where it left off. My bad (yes I am aware no one says that anymore except 40-something nerds).

 

This is not even a matter of being optimistic or pessimistic. An optimist would say we are going to be fine. A pessimist that we are doomed. I am neither. I am a realist. This team has suffered a lot of injuries in the equivalent of about half a season. Can't argue that. The rest is just semantics.

 

Actually, I think I'm pretty optimistic. I argued for Tom Golisano to spend what was necessary to keep the winning going and reinvent this franchise with the fans and even win some Cups. That's a heckuva lot more optimistic than the approach many of you wanted to take. So worried about Tommy's wallet. All because someone saw Goli loading up on samples at Tops. Did you ever think maybe the guy just has a good appetite? Why do some people have to ASSUME he takes the crackers and cheese home for dinner? Why.

 

The team took injuries last year, and is taking them this year. That's what happens when you're the hardest working team in hockey. You have a strange definition of injury-prone, though, as it's almost always a different player being hurt... not the same ones over and over. It's just freak injuries, it happens when you play hard every game.

[Taro T]

Agree with everything....the perfectly balanced outlook.

 

It's scary that we keep having guys go down left and right, just like the playoffs.

 

I still consider Gaustad to be Drury's wingman. We sort of have 7 centers on this team.

 

It was such a scary shot that my instincts would have me go grab the guy. For 0.3 seconds I thought he would break his neck.You don't need to fight him, but you sure as heck shake the daylights out of him.

Which is a great thing. It gives the team a lot of flexibility (especially when dealing w/ injuries) that other teams don't have.

 

One other thing that I would add to the discussion about the Sabres size is, although few of the Sabres play large, the majority of the team is either over 200lbs or at least 6'0" tall. The Sabres have few guys that are 6'4" and 240lbs, but they aren't all Danny Briere size either.

 

The Sabre goalies are rail thin, but that isn't necessarily a bad thing in a goalie (they have a lot less weight to be moving from side to side and more importantly to the ice and back up).

 

When Connolly is included, the Sabres top 4 centers (Timmy, Danny, Chris, and Derek) are smurfs but when all are healthy Roy oftentimes is moved to wing and Gaustad and Novotny do have some heft.

 

Spacek is the only D-man under 6'0". He's 5'11" and solid (206). Campbell is light (190) but picks his spots and hits much larger than he is (like Peca used to do). Just about all the other D-men within the organization are at least 197.

 

On the left side, Hecht is the smallest player and he goes 6'1", 200. On the right side, there are some thin ones, but they all are at least 6'0".

 

So, again, the Sabres seem to have enough size that they should be able to hold their own.

 

My last comment on this discussion is: except for Connolly, the Sabres had no man games missed due to injury in the 1st 10 games. (Other than Carolina's playoff run last year, I can't think of many teams that go that long without any injuries.) To start the same lineup for 10 consecutive games, in a very contact oriented sport, without any injuries bad enough to cause even 1 of 20 players to miss a start is amazing. That they then had 4 guys go down in ~5 games could just be the odds catching back up to them. The Nov 21 THN only shows 3 teams with no one on the injured list. LA had 5 guys there and a few other teams had 4. Buffalo's 4 guys going down this season wasn't completely off the chart.