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Taro T

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Posts posted by Taro T

  1. 2 hours ago, PromoTheRobot said:

    Selective memory re: Reimer last year. Lindsey did play him and he lost more then he won before he got hot towards the end of the season. So it wasn't as obvious as you make it out to be. Also remember that folks here thought Lyon was going to be a dud when Adams signed him because stats. 🙄 

    Reimer is 5 years older than Lyon and is still a free agent.

    Lyon was a 50-50 shot.  They'd either get the Swamp Cats version or the Wings.

    For once the coin landed heads.  (At least for now.)

    Seems all you have to do to get this version of him is keep the guy he's backing up out of the lineup for a month or 2.  😉

  2. 49 minutes ago, Pimlach said:

    I know.  I have referred to the Sabres as the Seals many times.   

    Someone in the NHL Front Office had the bright idea to move Seals into the Adams division, which essentially put them in the East Division and the East Conference.  As if the travel wasn't hard enough for them, they loaded them up with more games against many of the better teams.   

    Looking back they had cool jerseys but their wacky owner (Charles Finley) made them wear white skates one season.   The players hated it. 

    They hosed all 3 western teams (LA, California, and Vancouver).  Vancouver played in the Smythe, LA in the Norris, and the Seals in the Adams.  Guess they didn't want to hose Minny, KC, nor St. Louis by putting them in an all Pacific division.

    And they did kind of split the footprint between the 2 conferences.  The Adams (Buffalo, TO, Boston, and CA) was with the Norris (Moe-ray-all, Washington, Detroit, Pittsburgh, and LA) in the Wales Conference and the Patrick (NY, NY, Filly, and Atlanta) were with the Smythe (Chicago, St. Louis, Minny, KC, and Vancouver) in the Campbell Conference.  So the Wales got the Eastern Great Lakes teams plus Washington, Moe-Ray-All, and Boston and the California teams; the Campbell got the Central TZ teams; teams near Joisey; Atlanta; and Vancouver.

    Everybody except those 3 were either in the Eastern or Central Time Zones and there were only 4 in even the Central Time Zone.  Everybody was East Coast or Great Lakes and NOBODY wanted 3 trips out west.

    Back then, much like now, the owners really didn't care whether or if their rivals could compete.  Heck, if Vegas didn't give $500MM to join and Seattle even more, they'd've been just as successful out of the gate as all the other expansion teams that came before them.

  3. It was a fun game to be at.

    The people around us were pretty incredulous at the Sabres only having 3 shots through the entire 1st period.  Yeah, but after Quinn's "shot" found the back of the net, though they did have chances, Tuch's shot hit the post, the one where Benson was setting a screen went off the side of the net, another really quality chance bounced off the D-man in front, etc., etc..

    2nd period was one of the most fun to watch in a long time.  Not sure what the total shots for the period were, but late in the period, the Sabres had taken 18 shots and the Otters 17 in that stanza after only getting 3 and 8 respectively in the 1st.  Place was the loudest it'd been in a while too; that there were probably only 10k-11k people in the building made it that much more impressive.  The lower bowl was close to full, but there were a fair number of empty seats in the 200's and the 300's had a lot of emply seats at both ends.

    Thought except for pretty much just standing around trying to play the puck on the Otters PP goal that Power played well.  He had a pretty big check in the 1st; and courtesy of the sharp Otter unis that you could barely pick out the #'s of from the nosebleeds much less the names, took a moment to realize it was Cozens he hit.  Cozens seemed to take exception to Kulich, he was running him any time the 2 were on the ice together.

    Timmons has been refreshing to see in the lineup - didn't know we were allowed to have stay at home D-men that don't go running around their own end looking for hits well away from the flow of the game.

    Thompson and Tuch both seemed much more engaged this game.  Maybe they're finally getting their heads out of their bippies.

    Weird that people were unhappy with Kulich; he started out on the wing on the 4th line and ended up with Benson and Tage.  Didn't really see anything noticable either way in his game other than how his linemates changed.  

    Saw Danforth take the puck to the leg on the 1st shiff of the 2nd and him struggle to get around; could've swore he had 1 more shift after that but apparently he didn't come back out for the 3rd.

    Team was noticably faster than in their previous 2 home games.  They need to find a way to still keep that up against the heavier game that the Swamp Cats will play.

    As pretty much everybody else is, really liking Doan.  He seems like he'll be in the mold of a Marcus Foligno; hoping he gets there.

    McLeod's and Quinn's best games by far of the young season.  Hope they can buid on this game.

    Still not sure why there was no interference call right before the Otter's 3rd goal.  Dahlin got knocked to the boards behind the net and his man ended up all by himself in front of Lyon to make it a 2 goal game.

    That was probably Ruff's best timeout in a long time.  Settled them down and before the 3rd was 3 minutes old, they had their 2 goal lead back and the 3 goal lead shortly after the 4 minute mark.  Again, fun game to be at.

    Not sure why nobody wanted to score the 8th goal.  Glad the puck finally worked to Kulich.  HE wanted it.

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  4. 1 hour ago, PerreaultForever said:

    It's hilarious how fast Sabres twitter has gone over positive with one game. Sabres did this last year and before as well. Remember when they bombed Toronto. If you give them open ice they soar. Ottawa played open (as they seem to fall into every time we play them) and thus got bombed. Most teams won't play that way. 

    Best tweet I saw was "looks like Sabres are playing against the Sabres tonight" because yes, Ottawa played that style. 

    The Otters were literally playing like the Sabres, going so far as to add to their repertoire that stupid 80' dropback pass on the PP on about their 3rd PP.

    • Like (+1) 1
  5. 1 hour ago, msw2112 said:

    Yes, the bar is "solid but unspectacular."  With the Sabres' goal scoring last season, solid but unspectacular goaltending all season long would have resulted in a playoff berth.  Terrible goaltending doomed the season.  For the stretch near the end when Reimer played reasonably well, the team won a lot of games.

    A young Dominick Hasek or Ryan Miller are not walking through that door.  There were not any great goalies on the free agent market this summer and teams are not looking to deal top-flight goalies.  Plus, with free agent choices and no-trade clauses, it's highly unlikely a top-flight veteran goalie is going to sign with the Sabres.  As such, they have to rely on "solid" veteran goalies while drafting and developing younger ones, hoping to eventually groom one into a star.  UPL was looking like that guy a couple of seasons ago, and was paid accordingly, but fell off a cliff last season.  Can Levi be that guy?  The jury is still out.  They've drafted 5 others (Leinonen, Ratzlaff, Leenders, Meloche, Prokhorov) (yes, Google is my friend) and brought in Ellis, in hopes of one or more of them becoming that guy.

    Lyon has played well.  He has not "stood on his head" or made highlight-reel saves, but he's in the right place at the right time to make the necessary saves, and from what I've seen, he has not given up any soft goals that cost the team a game.  Although he gave up 4 goals last night, the defensive play was horrific, and, fortunately, there was enough offense to overcome the 4 goals.  I watched the TSN broadcast (nice relief and diversion from Dunleavy and Ray) and they commented several times on how Lyon's play kept the team in the game until they figured out they needed to put forth some effort (which they did).

    I know very little about Ellis, except that he was very good in the AHL last season, but I'd like to see, at some point, what he can do.  I assume he'll get a start the next time they play a lower-tier team.  Last night would have been such an opportunity, but given the 0-3 start, they HAD TO go with Lyon, who has been playing well.  To risk a loss on an unproven rookie and falling to 0-4 would not have been a wise decision.

    It didn't cost them the game, but that 4th goal last night was entirely on Lyon.  Felt the 1st MacKinnon goal the other night was on him too, but hard to fault a goalie too much when he has to move across the net and the shooter is MacKinnon.  

    Other than those 2, not much he could've done on any of the others.  He got the 2nd one covered last night and the ref's hands went up as if he'd blown his whistle and then they decided on replay that he didn't have it covered long enough.  Not faulting him on that one.

  6. 6 minutes ago, thewookie1 said:

    Effectively both sides would be happy to make a deal but will wait for now.

    Shades of Chris Drury.  Though doubt the problem with this one was Pegula leaving an agreed to contract sitting on his desk for a few weeks before getting around to ok-ing it.

    • Agree 1
  7. 11 minutes ago, PerreaultForever said:

    You know with all their injuries Florida might be an on the bubble team this year too (and then might still win the cup). They are beatable without their stars and other injuries. 

    I'd say the California Golden Seals were the stupidest franchise ever. How many times they dealt their picks to Montreal and made Montreal into a dynasty. Pollock would trade for those first rounders down the line and then they'd finish dead last. Hard to believe, but the Seals were actually worse managed than the current Sabres.

    Charlie Finley and the Gund brothers were the owners; both sets were horrible hockey owners.  (Their 1st owner was bad too.  His name escapes at the moment.)

    There was a bumper sticker in Minnesota in the 90's.  People don't kill hockey, Gunds kill hockey.  They failed in Oakland, Cleveland, AND Minneapolis of all places, before going back to the bay area and eventually selling.  (Htf do you get run out of Minnesota when running a hockey team?  Well, they figured out a way.)

    And, yeah, this is about the best time to have to play the Swamp Cats.  Hopefully they can pull it off.

    • Like (+1) 1
  8. 2 hours ago, PromoTheRobot said:

    Believe it or not, as of now, the Sabres have the 13th power play in the league. 21.4%.  Penalty kill is #3 at 93.8%.  Keep in mind a 25% PP% would put you at 7th best last season. Scoring on 1 out 4 is all it takes.

    Net PK, they're tied for 2nd at 100%.  1 PPG against and 1 SHG for.  Only the Rags, who have 0 PPG's against and 1 SHG for are better.

    The PK has looked good.  Having a goalie that can make a save tends to help there.  😉 

    • Like (+1) 1
  9. 42 minutes ago, inkman said:

    All the players interviewed as well as Lindy mentioned how they fed off the crowd’s energy. Just need them to harness it, recall it and use it at their will in the future. The in arena experience should also be focused on getting the crowd amped at home games.  If Lindy isn’t feeling it, dress Geertsen to eat a few fists and get the crowd amped. This isn’t that hard.  

    The ironic thing is, after Tuch hit the post and they were carrying play that next shift, the crowd really got loud for the 1st time that game and then the Otters immediately went down the ice, controlled play for all of about 10 seconds and evened it up at 1 apiece.

    So, the team got us into it, and the building was loud for the 1st time in 3 games, and then it got very quiet for a bit.  Building got loud again in the 2nd.

    It was a fun one to be at.

  10. 21 minutes ago, matter2003 said:

    Exactly my point...hard to say it's him not being a good PP coach when his other teams have done pretty well.

    That "best in the league" PP had Peterka and Quinn blowing through the AHL with nearly unprecedented for teens stats.  

    When those 2 moved up, the PP regressed SIGNIFICANTLY.  And that's even with adding Kulich to the mix.

    And, btw, until that last year in Ra-cha-cha, he had this guy, you might've heard of, named Peca who was helping him.  He MIGHT've made a bit of a difference there.

  11. 13 minutes ago, matter2003 said:

    the same struggles have gone back far before any of them were on the team.  Try again.

    Not with these players they haven't.  But, you knew that.

    Bob Woods never should've been allowed to leave the building.

  12. 8 minutes ago, matter2003 said:

    How was the Amerks PP under Appert?  Seems hard to keep blaming coaches when many different coaches have tried to coach the PP and they all have ended up getting the same results eventually.

    Many?  Ellis and Appert.  Neither of which should be coaching an NHL PP.

     

  13. 1 hour ago, LGR4GM said:

    I would trade UPL. Not because I have faith in Lyon being great forever or Ellis but I just think both are better than UPL. Maybe UPL will prove me wrong? Hope so. 

    Would be perfectly fine with them trading UPL.  Give him and the team both a fresh start.

    Can't see Adams doing that though.

    BUT should Kevyn get canned, could see that being one of a new GM's 1st moves.

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  14. 1 hour ago, matter2003 said:

    Just make something happen...at some point they have to trust their instincts and just "play" and stop being so worried about following structure so strictly. Structure is there as a guideline for overall play NOT to force them to stick to it blindly when doing something else based on their instincts and hockey smarts would be better and more effective. 

    This team is actually REALLY good at that type of creative stuff, they just seemingly don't understand how to use it while still maintaining general structure overall.  They either go full on creative with no structure or full on structure being completely rigid with no flexibility or creativity.  They have to learn how to be BOTH and knowing when to use one versus using the other and the right times and situations for doing so.

    They also have to realize that if one player is going creative then another player needs to temporarily make up for them by playing structured, not also joining the creativity frenzy like a kid trying to join in at a pizza party.

    Disagree to an extent.  The PLAYERS understand that stuff.  

    The coaching staff are full on idjits.  

    The reason the players were in non-usual spots was the Otters got a clear and then kept pressure on the Sabres outside the zone but the puck got over to Dahlin and HE will actually carry the puck in when it is there.  He carried it in and he and McLeod ended up deep with Thompson and Zucker higher and Benson as the last man back.  (He'd passed the puck to Dahlin on a SHORT drop pass to start the entry and then was hanging deep (actually outside outside the zone) and pinched to keep the puck in at the zone.  Dahlin came into the zone with speed and they had 4 guys all moving with speed entering the zone because when the drop pass happened they were all near the red line not the opposing team's blue iine.)

    But THAT entry was completely against what Appert coaches and exactly what teams that are good on the PP do.

  15. 1 minute ago, Mustache of God said:

    These are all salient points, but you know what? I'll take the goals any way they come. In seasons past I feel like whenever the Sabres came up against a goalie that was struggling, or a team with a stinky penalty kill, we made those goaltenders/faltering units looking elite.

    Hoping this lets the boys relax a bit and get some mojo flowing. Let's see what they can do against Florida tomorrow.

    FLA is Saturday early.  But get the sentiment.

    That'll be a great test.  Yes, they're missing Barkov and Tkachuk but they have a lot of other talent on that roster.  Do to them what Detroit did last night and maybe people start getting hope back.

  16. Just now, The Jokeman said:

    I get we got Ellis late and he still has to get accolated to the team but I'd hope he gets in sooner than later. As Lyon has been solid but not spectacular thus far which makes him a fine backup but if we're counting him on 50-60 games to me that's a mistake. 

    Ellis right now is a victim of the schedule, much like the backups were in October of last year.  No back to back nights and the starter is playing well and is still fresh as the season has just begun.  Had they not been 0-3, Eliis MIGHT've gotten the start last night.  But the team was desperate, Lyon is looking ilke the Lyon that came in when Bobrovsky was unavailable, and he's not being asked to play on btb nights, and with it being the very beginning of the season, he's well rested.

    Would run Lyon for the most part through October unless the horseshoe falls out of his pants before then.  Am in no rush to activate UPL, at best he gives us the goaltending Lyon is providing, and activating him forces a roster move to either 3 headed monster or Ellis back to the Blues organization.

    Will take November as it comes.  Expecting even when UPL is back for Lyon to get 2 of every 3 or 3 of every 5 starts.  It would be foolish to go away from him while he's hot.  But won't expect him to stay hot into December.  Would love to see it; but don't believe he's ever stayed hot for more than 2 months.  

    Try to get Ellis a game before activating UPL, but don't believe they have a btb for at least another week and a half, so that may not be doable.  It would be good to be able to keep him long enough to force St. Louis to keep him on their roster should they make a claim on him.

     

  17. 36 minutes ago, bob_sauve28 said:

    And just like that Sabres move into the upper part of the league in PP %, somewhere around top third of league

    On PK we are Top three

     

    So maybe special teams is coming around 

    https://www.nhl.com/stats/teams

    OR the Sabres got stupidly lucky on the PP against a team that's now given up 8 PP goals on 17 chances.  Only the BJs have sucked worse giving up 7 of 14.  18 teams have given up 2 or fewer PP goals.  The Otters have given up 8.  Only 2 others have given up more than 4.  Sometimes it's good to play a bad team.  

    The Sabres 3 PP goals:

    Goal 1, Quinn misses the net by about 3 feet and the rebound off the glass hits the goalie in the back and goes in.  Quite likely EXACTLY how Appert drew it up.

    Goal 2, Dahlin ends up below the goal line, Thompson literally against the RW boards, and Benson at the point.  Benson saves the puck from getting out of the zone, sends puck low to Dahlin who sets up Zucker almost where he normally sets up but on the opposite side of the net.  2 for 2.

    Goal 3, point shot hits a defenseman's stick then bounces against Zucker's chest and has enough momentum to get into the net.  3 for 3.

     

    The 1st goal isn't going to happen again this year in all realistic likelihood.  The 2nd goal SHOULD happen again, but what are the odds that Appert will intentionally have them out of position?  Not very likely.  And the 3rd goal should also happen again, and with Zucker being the guy at the netfront will happen again, but how long will it take for puckluck to give us a bounce like that again.

    Would absolulte love to see them start scoring 1-2 PP goals / game regularly.  It would go a long way towards making this season successful.  But have absolutely 0 belief in Appert.

  18. 13 minutes ago, Goldseatsaud said:

    Who wasn’t signed. Tall guy playing middle he isn’t that good

    Your argument was that you don't beiieve McDermott necessarily favors small LBs.  This kid adds the support to your argument that they brought in Edmonds as a 1st round pick.  Edmonds is a monster by LB standards.

    Your reply, well, they got rid of him (because he wasn't good; which is why this kid called him the anti-Milano (Edmonds has world class size and speed but has the football instincts of Alan Alda; Milano is undersized as a LB but has incredible instincts.)).

    Soooo, what exactly is your point?

  19. 6 minutes ago, Goldseatsaud said:

    McDermott had Luke K and Thomas Davis in Carolina. Both were over 235lbs. I don’t know he wants smaller lbs now

    He also had Tremaine Edmonds (the anti-Milano).  So, it's not like he won't try to use larger LBs if they have speed, he just seems to really want LBs that are fast.  (Or Beane has a thing for fast LBs; but pretty sure he gets the ingredients the cook (coach) asks for.)

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