‘Ristolainen has lapses with decision-making and awareness. He has lost too many one-on-one puck battles along the boards, continues to turn the puck over in his own zone and commits the same mistakes in defensive-zone coverage, despite having played 412 NHL games.’
Archives for March 6, 2019
Sabres’ Rasmus Ristolainen frustrated by struggles
‘Plus-minus has lost relevance in recent years as advance stats and other metrics have emerged. Still, when it gets as high as Ristolainen’s, something is probably wrong.’
Sabres’ Skinner understands that slumps are going to happen
‘As for why his slump has lasted so long, Skinner said, “I don’t think there’s a concrete answer or we’d go out and fix it. You just have to keep going out and trying to focus to create those chances and then you have to finish and bear down.”’
Housley: We’re making ‘different mistakes and things happen fast’
‘“We continue to show them and continue to work on it in practice. We haven’t had a lot of quality practice time to work on it, but, it’s just mainly in our structure. It’s just layers that, when there’s a break down, we’re going to make mistakes. We have the layers in place to help a guy out if he’s fallen or lost a battle. And then, from that point, it’s just sorting out coverage; just getting tighter to our man and not allowing him to get a shot off, or taking someone in front of the net and taking a stick.”’
With the Sabres season in free fall, what’s next?
‘”The goalies have just been abysmal for the last two and a half months. Hutton and Ullmark have given up 18 goals more than expected at even strength alone, when adjusting for shot quality and shot volume against. That is three wins right there in the standings that you can just put on the goaltenders.”‘
Terry Pegula makes Forbes’ Billionaires list
‘According to the list, Pegula’s net worth is $4.5 billion as of today. Pegula made his fortune in oil and more recently through the Buffalo sports partnership of the Buffalo Bills and Buffalo Sabres.’
Sabres GM shares vision for future, success
‘”I can certainly understand the market and can understand the history over the last seven, eight years,” Sabres general manager Jason Botterill said on the second day of the NHL general managers meetings Tuesday. “And I think there was certainly a feeling that in November with the streak that we had arrived. As good as it was, we haven’t arrived yet. There’s still things that we have to improve on as a team. We knew that too as we were going through the streak.”‘
Sabres regroup ahead of road trip
‘”Now it’s time to try and get results. It’s time to keep moving forward because if you’re not moving forward, you’re staying stagnant and you don’t want that.”‘