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Great shiners

Good post! However, it's not just JJPs 27g they're losing... it's the 30-40 he'll score this season and however many he scores during his prime years... 40, 50?.... see Reinhart, Sam. GMKA is betting on Norris and Quinn to be significant contributors on offense. I believe it's possible, and I like the players, but it's certainly a gamble.

The information is there on NHL edge. Just select by team, scroll down to shot location, then select goals. Then you can chose high danger, mid range and long range to break down the areas they define. High danger is in the crease or directly in front of the net. Mid range is between the dots to just outside the top of the circles. Long range is everything else except shots from the deep wings, behind the net or past the blue line. Not sure why they don't count shots from the deep wings. Thompson had 5 goals from those areas last year that would not show up in the other categories.

Those childproof doorknob covers? My 3 year old just figured them out. Working from home has been an adventure thanks to all the noise, but now we've entered a new level.

If y’all want to discuss (bash?) our goaltending, please put in another thread. Thanks.

That goes to the question of whether the 5 on 5 scoring is sustainable. The blurb is missing some context. The article says they scored 90 mid range goals. Ok, but how is that defined. They also said the forwards scored 7 long range goals. That leaves 168 goals un-accounted for. Assuming some are long range D goals, that leaves about 160-165 goals scoring close in. How does that rank in the NHL? Top 5, Top 10? How do all these stats compare with teams like Florida or Edm? Assuming we scored 160+ close in, my guess is going to the net might not be as big as an issue as we thought. We also have a roster full of talented shooters like Thompson, Norris and others so maybe the mid range shooting is ideal. I honestly don’t know and wish the article gave better context.

The fact that a team that relies almost entirely on long range shots for goals with a roster of perimeter players who absolutely refuse to go to the front of the net is among the league leaders in long range goals isn't surprising.

I think the Mid and long range scoring is sustainable given the types of shooters we have on the team in general. We were above 90% in every category of shot speed and if anything we just added more with Kesselring.

I’m not calm about our goalie situation, especially about UPL. I’m hoping he can revert to his play a couple of years ago and not to his erratic play of last year. You may be calm but I’m not. Because of our goaltending situation I’m queasy and in a state of agitation.

Justin Bailey was an intriguing prospect. If you just considered his physical talents and measurables, you would be impressed. However, for whatever reasons those physical traits never translated well when playing. The problem wasn’t effort or work habits. It just didn’t work.

My hope is the defense plays a more structured game that helps the goalie go back to playing a calmer and less lunging and frantic game that he did a couple of seasons ago. We need our goaltenders to be consistently solid.

If he has a bad start send him down for a wake up call and try to find his game. I doubt any team takes him on waivers with that salary.

I don’t think the HC will have much patience with UPL this season if he falters. Too much is at stake to quickly fall way behind. There will be a quicker hook this season where Lyons replace him and Levi will be called up. That’s how I see thing’s playing out.

A lot of the progress will be depending on how young men in their early twenties spend their summer. No need to worry. At all. We will be fine.

As a whole. But there's always little analytical tidbits people get excited about (eg. Benson was above high danger chances expected 5v5 or some stuff similar) and there's this expected and that expected and this zone time and all kinds of things some people obsess over.

He has made plenty of changes, just not good ones. Most of the players acquired have been depth players with limited utility and the changes have not yet to create a winning roster. The team has regressed the last two years. As I’ve said before, Adams has traded away the 5 most productive forwards drafted and developed by the Sabres since the tank (Eichel, Reinhart, Mitts, Cozens and JJP). He also let the best goaltender drafted by the Sabres walk. Change for change sake is not a good thing. Deck chairs on the Titanic. Sample moves - the parade of bad D - Lyubuskin, Clifton, E Johnson, Pysyk, Butcher, Irwin and Hagg. Parade of bad goalies since Ullmark left; Comrie, UPL, Reimer, Anderson, Tokarski, Dell and Subban.

It seems like you did. Basically I'm just comparing the 2023 team with the guy who took his roster spot and/or role. Incrementally, we got harder in most positions. it's not much on a player for player level, but across half a team its significant. (incidentally, I neglected Benson. Asplund and or Hinostroza were the next two for the 23 team in terms of games played)

Problem with UPL is his contract. He'll be given every opportunity to prove how bad he is... And by that time he'll have us squarely out of a playoff spot.

Yep. The Sabres last year ourscored the Leafs through the season. Yet Toronto finished with 108 points to Buffalo's 79. And Toronto's D-men were Morgan Reilly (who had probably his worst season of his career), Oliver Ekman Larsson (who had his game fall off a cliff over the last 3 seasons comapred to early in his career), Chris Tanev (35 years old), Jake McCabe (31 years old, given up by both Buffalo and Chicago), Simon Benoit (undrafted 26 year old who was almost a -30 2 seasons ago), and Connor Timmins (yes, the new Sabre) as their most used 6 D-men. I would venture that the Sabres allowed more 'high danger' chances because of their Defensive lapses, but overall the Leafs even allowed more total shots on goal. Its the Sabres goaltending. If UPL is even half way back to where he was the 2nd half of 2023-24, they make the playoffs.

Offense wasn’t the problem sure there were games where it was completely stifled. But we were already down 2 goals and other team wasn’t opening up

I’m not worried about compensating for the loss of losing JJP’s production. Benson, Quinn and Norris collective production should more than make up for it. In addition, adding Kesserling and keeping Byrum should improve the blue line unit and lower the goals against stat. The issue that hovers over this team is the play of UPL. (As most everyone has already noted.) Two years ago, UPL gave the appearance that he could be a #1 NHL goalie. Last year, he regressed and created doubts about him. Will he regain his confidence and form next season? I don’t know? If he does, then we should be in the playoff race all season long. If not, the fanbase will be further eroded with apathy being the prevailing view toward this franchise.

I don't think it's so much overused, it just has multiple applications and forms. I'm not sure I fully understand your couplings. I think we've improved the overall toughness of the team player for player, yes. It will be up to them to translate it into the other definitions. There's plenty to complain about but not making changes can't be one of them.

Don’t disagree with any of this but the great thing about sports, at least in my opinion, is when the unexpected happens. It’s why I said regression is likely, but it’s not a given.

Soft is an overused word and one that rests on a spectrum. In terms of that spectrum, which of these players do you consider harder? Cozens Norris Mittlestadt McLeod Peterka Doan Skinner Zucker Olofsson Kulich Okposo Greenway Girgensons Malenstyn Jost Danforth Jokiharju Byram Lyubushkin Kesselring Bryson Timmons As much as people complain Adams hasn’t made changes, this is not the same Sabres team it was.

Tallest to shortest in front of a brick wall! 🧱