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Flyers injury report Dec. 3 Rasmus Ristolainen | D (Out) Injury: Tricep Games played: 0 Stats: 0 goals, 0 assists, 0 points Tyson Foerster | RW (Out) Injury: Upper Body Games played: 21 Stats: 11 goals, 3 assists, 14 points

See this, this is why I pushed back so hard against your "eye test tells me everything" schtick in the other thread.

Chance to ignite a 3 game win streak and get above .500? If I were a gambling man I'd be betting my entire existence on the Sabres losing tonight.

It's Déjà vu all over again. Last week it was the Pens and we had to win to pass through to the other side, or sink. And we sank. A week later, two game winning streak and a road game against rival and we need the win Go Sabres, lets get this done!

Only unlucky in love..

Tonight's the night

This is from yesterday at practice: Ellis had his own net meaning he is the likely starter tonight.

Well, I am not a "won the trade" guy. Doan is fine, he is being pushed by getting 1st line and PP minutes. Doan looks more of a middle 6, than bottom 6 to me. Kesselring was the big piece of that trade.

This team never wins 3 in a row and they never win the game that puts them over .500 so...

It seems like we've been here so many times... The glass ceiling they can't break through. So for the Sabres... Getting to this point is the steel rebar reinforced concrete ceiling.

I think looking at xGF% over the course of a week (about 3 games) is a bad idea. xGF is a measure of in part of shot efficiency but also volume impacts it. If my team takes 50 shots from all over and your team takes only 20 from roughly the hd areas, our xGF might end up close. I'd guess what you are seeing in the last week is a Sabres team that played 2 really dominant games and the stats are reflecting that. It is why we have to be careful using stats in the micro, sometimes they look good for a short period of time. The Kansas City Chiefs are a great example. There were loads of stats last year that said they weren't that good of team and they won like 10 one score games. This year they are are like 1-5 in one score games because eventually they got where ppl thought they would. Stats should always be combined with the eye test and should always come with description. Yes, I actually do believe the eye test provides valuable information, contrary to what some might think.

It's the dreaded move above or below .500 game

A guy like Bryson can have a good shift, a good. Or even a good game where he could be the best player for the team over that short period of time. Two things you have to consider however.... What situation was he playing in, as if in who was he playing against and what was the game situation? And also, someone might be the best player for a short period of time, but those numbers should even out over a long period of time. The analytics I don't think are wrong, it's just that when you take such a small sample size, it is just that... A snapshot.

Agreed, you cannot draw conclusions from analytics alone.

Calgary & Vancouver scare me 😃. They shouldn't but that's how the Sabre's roll. I'm saying 3-3 to keep this board alive.

And if one player looks great, guess what? He’s not out there for 75% of the game.

Hockey is the most random of the major league sports (baseball is close). On any given night a team can get "goalied", or they can score a month's worth of lucky-bounce goals. The best teams have a base, a system, a structure, an ethos, to fall back on, that in the long-haul of a season allows them to overcome the randomness of individual shifts, periods, and games. The Sabres do not have that, and there is little reason to think or hope they are about to, because having it starts with off-ice leadership (owner, GM, coach).

Maybe? Isn't that why they brought Ventura in? Not sure how much influence analytics has had on recent acquisitions. It was more of a joke than an actual statement of fact though: If the Sabres were built based on analytics rather than traditional scouting, it would follow that they would look very good analytically but that does not necessarily lead to winning. Haha. Get it? Haha.

2 wins, 4 losses.

It's hard to suggest after 14 years it has anything to do with luck.

The analytics department built the Sabres?

Methinks you are suffering from the shiny new toy effect.

I like some of the analytics... And they can tell you a lot, but you cannot draw absolute conclusions from them.

And that last one invalidates their statistical method. 😉