Taro T
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Posts posted by Taro T
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2 hours ago, Sidc3000 said:
Why are we assuming he’s hurt? He has a career year last season just like the whole team. He is NOT a 80 pt player, he’s about half that on average. Since he is at 34 points with 40 games left, I’d say he is going to be well above average.
i think he’s fine.
stop comparing this team to last season, it was an anomaly.
Why? Because he was injured coming into/at the begining of training camp and there have been at least 3 games this year where he's noticiably pulled up at some point in a game and then his skating was a shell of itself from earlier in the game. There have been a handful of games where his skating has looked like it did in most all games last year. And he missed time in December with a LBI. Put it all together ...
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Good game. Hopefully Quinn's injury isn't serious.
Anybody else notice that for once they weren't sneaking out of their own zone 2 forwards as soon as they got the puck nor were they doing the stupid get the puck over the BL and then curl it back towards the BL looking for a teammate to pass it to?
Yes, the Snarks are horrible. But they weren't playing this way against them 2 weeks ago. If UPL hadn't pitched the SO in that last game they'd've been in BIG trouble. This game, his D man set a perfect screen and then a different D man had a perfect tip against him and they were down 2-0 but never really missed a beat.
Play THIS system EVERY game. They were coming through the neutral zone with speed and bodies. It was most noticable with the Kid Line, but they all were doing it. They were under more control in their own end, though they still had some scary moments back there. But, more often than not, staying positionally sound in their own zone yields good things.
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4 minutes ago, mjd1001 said:
Digging through the site a bit more, some interesting things:
-Tuch seems to be the one who is peforming worse/slower this year compared to last year. His 'speed bursts' per game are WAY down.
-Skinner seems to farther down the list of top speed on the team and also a very low number of 'speed burts' over 20 mph. Way less than I thought.
-Zemgus has one of the highest top speeds on the team, AND one of the higher number of bursts over 20mph. When you figure in his ice time, I'd guess he leads the team (both last year and this year) in speed burts over 20mph with respect to his ice time.
For anyone interested, the highest top speeds recoreed this year of forwards: (League leaders: Owen Tippet 24.21, Braydon Point 24.15, Nate MacKinnon 24.05, McDavid 24.05,)
Sabres Forwards:
Tuch 22.99 MPH
Zemgus 22.88
Thompson 22.64
Peterka 22.43
Cozens 22.36
Krebs 22.36
Mitts 22.16
Skinner 22.04
Robinson 21.92
Olofsson 21.76
Greenway 21.72
Quinn 21.71
Okposo 21.53
Tyson Jost 21.08
Rosen 21.05
Kulich 20.83
Benson 20.80
Highest skating speeds recorded all year by Defensemen: (league leaders: Mackenzie Weeger 23.61, Zach Werenski 23.50, Sam Girard 23.43, Miro Heiskanen 23.36)
Samuelsson 22.43
Clifton 21.96
Jokiharju 21.70
Bryson 21.52
Dahlin 21.44
Ryan Johnson 21.35
Power 21.27
Eric Johnson 21.22
Would wager he's been dealing with a groin injury or a sport hernia the entire season. Not bad enough to shut him down, but it is noticable when he pulls up and then can't get that extra step he had the past 2 seasons for the rest of a game.
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4 minutes ago, Thorny said:
I don’t know why I just feel they’ll have at least one stretch in them where people start to ignore the math and believe, before the season is out
Because sheer chance says they should be able to have 3-4 4 game winning streaks throughout the season. Nearly 50 games in, they're still looking for their 1st 3 game winning streak. Get a couple of 4-0-0 stretches around an 0-2-0 or 0-1-1 stretch and it APPEARS doable.
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15 minutes ago, LTS said:
Perhaps @Taro T can keep me honest... suspensions are part of the CBA.. the whole process is, Section 18. So the NHLPA is also to blame for how the process works and the length of suspensions.
Why the players themselves don't push for more discipline against the "idiot" players of their union is beyond me.
Article 18 covers supplemental discipline.
While it's always been a puzzle why the NHLPA never seems to stick up for the safety of its members rather than sticking up for their wallets, expect a fair amount of it is a distrust of management and an expectation that if they don't hold the line always pushing for less severe punishments that they'd then end up seeing the league fining players excessively like the NFL has been doing this past season.
That, plus it always seems the guys that "played on the edge" like Chelios tend to have an oversized voice within the PA. The PA cares about the star players getting huge $ contracts (nominally, because at the end of the day, the players all split the same pool of money and discounting covid reclaws it will always be 50.0% of HRR) which work against the interests of the rank and file (again, because the players split the same 50.0% of HRR and every on paper $ that the players are paid gets put into the denominator of that scaling factor to bring total player salary to 50.0% of HRR) and also keeping the goons from getting suspended out of the league (which also works against the interests of the rank and file, because its the rank and file getting injured by the goons which shortens the careers of those rank and file members).
Not sure which union is worse, the NHLPA or the NFLPA. Neither seems to focus on what this observer believes they should be focusing on.
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8 minutes ago, Weave said:
Meh Wails
Aren't meh whales natural enemies of sharks?
This could work out. 😉
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AHL.tv is free today in case anybody wants to check the Amerks game out.
Apparently they've got all 32 teams playing today to celebrate the 50,000th AHL game ever.
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Having sat through the last 4 games of the recent homestand, personally believe a big part of the reason their play seems slow is because when they have the puck they rarely challenge the defender to get past him. Rather they curl back away from the defender looking for a teammate moving into a play. It's very methodical, very much different from what they were doing last year, leads to a lot of standing around, and oftentimes results in a turnover with no real scoring chance from a play that had the Sabre pushed the envelope he could've forced some of the chaos that @LGR4GM is always raving about in prospects he's fond of.
It seems they're taking a page out of Patrick Roy's last 2 years coaching in Colorado when they'd have a ton of puck possession but couldn't score any goals because they were too busy controlling the puck to bother actually working it to a high danger area and shooting it.
The play seems slow, because it is. But that seems more by design than because the players don't have wheels.
Having guys like Tuch working through LBIs too doesn't help with the team speed either.
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9 hours ago, PerreaultForever said:
Strange comparison to Chara but I guess that's Bruins hate.
Gallagher does push the envelope, but so do lots of players. We could use a few envelope pushers. When we were good we had them. It corelates.
I think 5 games was right.
Chose Chara because he was well known for hits to guys heads that he routinely got away with throughout his entire career including those years as an Aisle and an Otter long before he ever wore the spoked B and he still did get away with after he moved on from them. He also destroyed Hamel's knee when he was an Aisle with a dirty hit and he famously nearly killed Pacioretty with one of the dirtiest hits ever.
He was dirty and he nearly always got away with it. Though he DID get a fine for a cross check on the aforementioned Gallagher. No suspension, because how could he get that, he wasn't a repeat offender, he officially pretty much never was. (And think how giving a star like him a suspension would look to the children.)
Given his history, believe it was an extremely apt comparison. But, go right ahead excusing him; guess that's because he was a B.
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18 minutes ago, PerreaultForever said:
Is Gallagher a repeat offender? If he is, 5 games is too light. If it's his first major offense like that then it's pretty reasonable.
Pretty sure he's not in the way guys like Chara weren't repeat offenders very often at all. Everytime he's gotten a questionable hit, they decided there was no supplementary discipline due because he wasn't a repeat offender and then then next time it happened, and it happened often, that there was no supplementary discipline due because he wasn't a repeat offender. Lather, rinse, repeat.
But Gallagher is ALWAYS pushing the envelope.
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Better: Girgensons (though, due to the need to let the leaders that are in their primes begin to own the team, believe he needs to move on (which stinks, REALLY wanted him to get to experience the playoffs as a part of this roster))
Better: Mittelstadt (though now that Cozens is in most people's dog houses, most have come around to liking Mitts too)
Better (at least ST, probably not much more than others LT): Levi
Probably better: Tuch (still believe a lot of his "lazy" play is due to fighting through whatever injury he came into camp with)
But, in general, personally still really like this team's players. Even guys that were truly disliked when they were on other rosters (referring to you, Skinner and Clifton) like on this squad. And even the guys that Granato misuses by giving too much responsibility to (referring to you Jokiharju and Okposo) personally like.
The only guy that should absolutely 100% be punted to the moon is Ellis but most everybody has come around to agreeing he isn't even the Matt Ellis of NHL AC's, so don't believe he's viewed less favorably in this household than he is in everybody else's.
Because most of the guys that might be earning their way into the doghouse (your examples of Cozens and Power being the prime examples), personally believe that they'll look a lot more like people expected them to look when they have a more reasonable defensive assignment (Cozens) or when they're finally beyond their sophomore season (Power). And personally believe Thompson is just now finally starting to get past the limitations his injuries have put upon him, so am probably with many of the rest of the fans in cutting him some slack.
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3 minutes ago, PerreaultForever said:
Yes, this all sort of comes together. We need more people with Benson's aggressive drive and effort (along with his skills and hockey sense) and the speed is always good, but we do not need more little skill guys and goal scorers. No more soft Euro prospects for now. We need size, grit, 2 way ability, leadership qualities and even some more fighters and rats. AND more goalies in the system because we do not have THE goalie yet,
The team has size. Personally believe corrections in the coaching staff goes a long ways (if not all the way) towards fixing grit and 2 way ability. Gracefully move on from the current leadership and let the leaders that are already here do their thing.
They probably, again w/ different coaching philosophy, already have close to, if not, enough fighters. But Krebs and Skinner are pretty much it in the rat department and neither can get under the skin of opponents nor be nearly as effective as the B's Rat Faced Git. Could definitely use more of that on the roster.
Would be perfectly fine with bringing in one of the true NHL studs in net, and it never hurts to have more good prospects on the way, but the goaltending combo of 2 years from now is already here. Just too darn soon.
Fix the x's and o's of how they actually go about trying to accomplish what they're trying to accomplish and expect we'll find out there's a lot more talent on this roster already than the results indicate they have.
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17 minutes ago, nfreeman said:
What?
Are you seriously suggesting trading JA?
If so -- this might be the dumbest post in the history of this board.
That's bad. But considering this is a Sabres-centric board, don't believe it tops Roy for Malkin straight up.
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56 minutes ago, Porous Five Hole said:
I could be wrong, but I strongly remember Tim Murray being the one who bought out Ehrhoff.
Good call. He went in the summer of '14. A few months after Regier was sent packing.
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3 hours ago, PASabreFan said:
Not to go all Thorny here, but what's the statue of limitations on that? The Sabres were 90ish point teams that missed the playoffs the two seasons after the loss of the co captains. Then they were returned to the playoffs two years in a row, winning the division one of those years.
Everyone knows what the fateful day was.
Does anyone think Darcy was the driving force behind the Ehrhoff move?
Which Ehrhoff move? Bringing him in or punting him?Bringing him in was clearly not Regier's call (or if it was his call, it was heartily endorsed by the boss who loved Ehrhoff).
Cutting him was likely
Regier'sMurray's call as doubt that anyone above him in a non-hockey department role would've said the Sabres needed to buy him out rather than trade him due to the monstrous cap penalty that would've been incurred when Christian finally retired with time remaining on the original deal. Doubt they would've fully understood the repercussions of what a trade likely would've meant about 1 year ago.Or, are you referring to the broader concept of who came up with the plan that would bring on "suffering?"
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5 minutes ago, pi2000 said:
I still think Benson would've been better off playing juniors this season.
He has 0 points in his last 10 and was healthied last might. Not great for his development.
He's only played 37 games. If he really would be better off playing in juniors, they could send him down and he wouldn't earn an accrued year of NHL service. He's burned a year of the ELC but for 2 more games is no closer to RFA w/ arbitration rights nor UFA status. (Don't believe he was placed on IR earlier in the year that he was out a few games. If he was on IR for at least 3 games then the accrued season boat has sailed.)
And regaardless of the accrued season issue, he can always get sent back down to Juniors. Just he can't come back until his team's season is over except on an emergency basis.
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2 minutes ago, tom webster said:
Not to mention that there is no evidence that Peca would be any better then who they have.
He flat out couldn't be any worse. (Speaking as an AC. The jury hasn't even been sent notices as to how he'd be as a HC at this time.)
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And it looks like this kid went to bed about 30 seconds before Peterka got the goal that got them going. 2 totally different games.
And the play by Clifton to keep it from going to 4-1 doesn't seem to be getting as much love as it should. For the 1st time this year, Levi actually had one of his defensemen keep a sure goal out of the net rather than bouncing something that would've gone harmlessly past the post right into the far side of the net. That was the last time a shot had Levi beat last night. He still wasn't controlling rebounds as well as he would like to have been controlling them, but he wasn't beat again a single time last night.
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8 hours ago, mjd1001 said:
I didn't watch the whole game last night, saw some of it, rewatched the highlights. I like to take a look at the goals allowed and see what went wrong.
Today, I'm not spending much time on it, it is the SAME THING over and over. The forwards do not know how to position themself in the defensive end. The ENTIRE team will look at and follow the puck instead of being where they should be. They do not hold the box in the PK. It is the same thing, game after game after game after game that allows goals scored against.
1st goal allowed: Mitts, Greenway, and I have no idea who the other forward was. Kopitar comes in on the near wing, no one picks him up. He scores. Look at the screenshot below. 4 Sabres players in the D-zone. No one at all on the entire near side of the ice except Kopitar. ALL FOUR sabres players looking at the puck, no one with any awareness to the WIDE OPEN half of the ice Kopitar is on. Easy pass to him, easy shot, easy goal.D-men, including Bryson, were OK, Forwards, its the SAME THING. (see Screenshot below)
2nd goal allowed: Both Tuch and Greenway chase the puck near the blue line. I guess BOTH of them could justify going after the puck from where they were, but they have to know that BOTH of them can't. They both chase the puck take themselves both out of the play, Puck comes to Kempe with NO ONE around him where he has all day to skate in, set up the shot, look for the opening, easy goal. The Sabres D-men were tied up with other Kings players down low, again I don't blame them. It was the Forward chasing the puck AGAIN that caused this.
3rd goal: I say this game after game on the PK. When the Sabres hold the box on the PK, they do well. The other team controls the puck sure, but they simply pass it around the perimiter and waste time and then eventually take a shot the goalie clearly sees and stops. WHEN the Sabres allow a goal it is almost always then they start chasing and the PK box collapses (lately a lot with Cozens on the ice). So guess what happened here? Well, this time it was Greenway and Cozens. They almost kill the entire penalty, but right at the end, the guy has the puck on the blue line on the near side (Greenway's side). He is drifting toward the far side (Cozens side). Greenway starts to follow him to the other side, leaving the near boards WIDE open. I put this more on Greenway, but Cozens could have stepped up a bit so Greenway had no where to go. Anyway, once Greenway is out of position, the puck gets moved to the area he vacated, the entire Sabres team has no clue what to do, collapses down low into a mass of humanity and the goal is scored.
Greenway had an awful game defensively. The entire forward group is bad in their own zone. The Defensemen again, not great but not as bad as many think. They appear to have won this game due to some good quick wrist shots and suspect goaltending by the opposition.
The forwards on this team have their eyes and their bodies follow the puck like a magnet. This is playoff team if you get a fraction of the missing scoring from Cozens and Tuch back, and if the Forwards can learn to play positionally in their own zone, and not just chase the puck like a pee-wee team full of 6 year olds does.
See below picture. Every single player is looking at the puck. Does anyone know there is an entire other side of the ice? Anyone care to even glance over and look to not hang their goalie out to dry? guess not.
8 hours ago, dudacek said:I think the Sabres (in many situations) are coached to come hard at the puck carrier and in layers.
The system is designed to create odd-man advantages for the defence, where the primary defender is taking away time and space and the layers are in a position to block, or at least disrupt passes, support puck battles, and pounce on forced turnovers.
By design it will leave people open, on the principle that the open guy is a great distance away from the puck carrier, with a lot of obstacles between them. It's betting those obstacles, combined with the pressure, should mean the puck rarely gets to the open guy.
Your photo above both illustrates the principle and where it can break down.
Mittelstadt, Greenway and Dahlin are doing what they are supposed to do positionally. Where it breaks down is the primary defender, Bryson, has allowed the puck carrier far too much time and space. Without time and space, the puck carrier would be angled into the corner, forced to reverse up the boards, or attempting a rushed pass that the Sabres are in position to pick off.
Without the pressure, the puck carrier is talented enough to pick his spot between Mitts and Dahlin and put it on the tape for Kopitar.
Really it's not much different than defence in football: get in the QB's face and he'll miss his throws. Give him time and he'll pick you apart.
Not disagreeing nor disputing what either of you are saying. Just throwing out a bit more info. When LA was coming through the neutral zone and into the Sabres zone, the King that's just inside the Sabres blue line HAD been ahead of Kopitar and Mittelstadt had been covering him while he was the most dangerous uncovered King on the rush.
But he curled to give the puck carrier (Kempe?) another option and when he did, Mittelstadt did not look back to see Kopitar breaking in hard towards the far post but rather turned towards the King that Dahlin had been 1 on 1 with as Dahlin started to move a bit towards the puck carrier presumably anticipating the possibility that the puck carrier smoked the D (Bryson?) that had him.
And in that decision by Mittelstadt, Anze was left all alone. It's a very interesting thought that Mittelstadt actually did what he's being coached to do which is to help with the more easily accessed (via pass from the current puck carrier) threat than the more dangerous threat. Not sure I'm completly buying it as Mittelstadt NEVER looked away from the play in front of him to even know that Kopitar hadn't stepped up to rejoin the attack of the rush as his teammate turned and held the Sabres blue line. Had Mitts looked that way and THEN made the decision he did end up making would give it more credence that he did what they wanted him to do.
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1 minute ago, Doohickie said:
Nah. @nfreeman is asleep.
Yeah. Will watch the last half of the game tomorrow. Too friggin' late.
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14 minutes ago, SwampD said:
Levi will be fine.
Yes, but likely not tonight.
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9 minutes ago, Brawndo said:
I dunno maybe send him to Rochester?
Yep. The long layoff got him off his game.
When he's off, that low glove side shot is kryptonite. He absolutely has to have that 3rd one and the 2nd one was bad too.
Let him get it back. He wasn't on his game in his Ra-cha-cha game either. Let him spend February in the A and see where he and the Sabres are at come March and put him where it makes sense at that point.
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1 minute ago, HumanSlinky39 said:
Alright, friendos, i'm tuning in. Place yer bets if i make it to the third frame.
Will catch the full game. Probably right after dinner tomorrow night.
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Just now, JohninMinn. said:
I have no idea which Sabre team will be playing tonite. It would be hard to duplicate last night's performance.
Actually, pretty sure it wouldn't take any effort at all.
Sabres on 7-4 "run" in 2024 lose ground in playoff race
in The Aud Club
Posted
The ####ing extra skater situations are ####ing killing them. They have only 20 PP goals the entire season. They have all of TWO 6v5 goals for. (And 1 of those PP goals came with the goalie out, and was not included in the 6v5 stat.) They've given up 9 SH goals. So they've netted only ELEVEN PP goals through 47 games. And they've given up 3 6v5 EN goals. (And like w/ the PP goals, 1 of those SH goals came with the opponent's goalie out, and wasn't included in the 6v5 stats.)
Why don't they even get to OT (where they're only 2-3-1 and 0-1 in the SO) anymore? Would say that a complete lack of being able to score with the extra attacker is a HUGE part of that.
And the PP was an issue last year. Hate that they didn't upgrade the coaching there. Along with ALL the other issues hurting them this year, that is the single biggest in why they aren't legitimately in the hunt at the ASB.