darksabre

Ridiculous? More condescension that I'm just supposed to ignore eh? The window Jack had to hit to get that puck in the net was incredibly small. Like, Luke using the force to blow up the Death Star small. It's amazing that he put the puck where he did on that goal. Absolutely amazing. I'd love to see him hit it twice in a row.

The real comments or the fabricated ones?

It's not a negative post at all. You're projecting.

I think that would make sense for things that are more controversial or possibly offensive. But this isn't any of those things lol

@... The problem here is that if you read, say, my post you quoted as negative that's YOUR problem. You're projecting on to my posts something that isn't there. That's not my fault in any way.

Again, literally no one is saying that. I accept PA's apology then.

It's not a thing. He called me out because he didn't like my analysis of the Eichel goal. It upset him. So I hit back. Again, don't start nothing...

Again, this isn't even a thing. You're literally making up some perceived attack.

The condescending overtones are largely imagined, in my opinion. There seems to be a perception among a certain group that the stats people are here to make everyone else sad or something. God forbid the stats people find the stats and discussion fun. Damn them! The anti-stats people seem to love to snipe at the stats crowd and then get upset when the stats crowd gives it back. I don't know why anyone is surprised. Don't start nothin wont be nothin. And hell, my comment about Eichel's shot wasn't even a stats comment. It was mostly eye test based on knowing how the position is played. But that simple analysis was STILL too much for PA. Basically, the anti-stats people need to stop acting like the way they enjoy the game is under attack. There's a lot of disingenuous cross-bearing going on.

No one is trying to convince you it's not marvelous. Actually, no one is trying to convince you of anything. But if you, like a lot of people, want to understand why the Sabres won 10 in a row and are now not doing that, looking at the improbability of those 3 marvelous goals is a pretty good place to start. It's all about how much you want to dig. If you don't want to dig, fine. But the people who want to dig aren't obligated to care too much about people who find that digging upsetting or offensive or whatever.

I think most fans are this way. The trick is that there are some fans who don't even want to see people talking about the score. Because seeing people talking about the score upsets them. They think the score and the people talking about it are doing it to ruin the music for them. I made a comment about Eichel's goal being pretty lucky and it was PA who took offense. He could have, I don't know, not been a huge baby about it? But apparently my simply discussing that goal was enough to provoke ANGST. I'm RUINING THE GAME for him. ?

No one is actually doing this.

He very clearly wasn't. But this is also a smidgen of trolling.

This argument only makes sense if you can argue that hockey is the same as it has always been and nothing has changed. That's obviously not true though. Guys don't show up for camp with a pack of Marlboros after taking the summer off anymore. And you can't be successful as a GM by evaluating talent like the game is still stuck in that era either. We're learning a ton about the game, especially as the game has changed. Every single player in the NHL is faster, stronger and better trained than at any point in the history of the game. This isn't Perrault scoring on a low slapper because the goalies had no concept of the butterfly anymore. Those days are gone. The game is no longer that simple. And neither is how we analyze and discuss it.

Bingo.

Agreed. My hope was that with more playing time he would refine his movements and find some consistency. It appears to be happening and I'm glad.

It's fine to just admit you like watching hockey but don't actually care to understand it.

Okay, but it's not just about you. It's about the rest of the board commenters too, as well as everyone else out in the sports fan world. There are a lot of people who could benefit from understanding why their team is the way it is. So that's why we talk about the "why" of things.

The commentary in this thread is as predictable as the tides.

And give up that sweet sweet paycheck? Never! His stupidity basically prints money for them. He's a money tree for shady lawyers.

This is the trap that people keep falling in to that leads them to being super upset when the team gets blown out or struggles after a ten game win streak. A lot of us would prefer to try to understand what this team actually is so that we can react accordingly. It doesn't make the win any less enjoyable either.

I think if you go and look at the streak what you'll see is the Sabres converting on more of their opportunities from the slot than they are currently. They were just as inconsistent then as they are right now wrt generating shots from that area. Sometimes they get 10+, other games they get only a few. They've since fallen off on their scoring in that area. The question is why. My guess is Skinner couldn't sustain doing it all himself. He chipped in a lot of goals during that streak from in close. I think they're also hanging on to the puck too long when they get to the slot. I regularly see the first line guys getting totally mugged in the slot while they're trying to get a perfect look. I think you just gotta get the puck off the stick whenever you get there, regardless of whether you even have a look. Housley keeps preaching "simplicity" in his pregames and I think it's just something that more skilled players struggle with. They want to make the best play. Not the simplest play. But sometimes you gotta make it simple. Jack's OT winner last night was a perfect example. He just shot it. He didn't try to dangle more. He just shot it.

Thing about Baloo is at least he has some offensive talent. We're getting caved in defensively anyway so we might as well be playing the guy who has a better nose for the net.

Yup. We are consistently bad at getting shots on goal from the "dirty areas". We get there, but other teams are doing a good job of preventing any actual scoring opportunities. 3 of our 4 goals last night were basically luck, including Jack's OT winner which was shot from an angle where most goalies have the entire net covered. It was a true seeing-eye shot. Dahlin's goal was tipped by a Calgary player. McCabe's was nice but mostly the product of a good but rare screen. You need to be a little lucky to win games like this. And the Sabres had the luck last night.

If you look at the shot chart from last night vs the game against Edmonton, you can see that Calgary managed nearly as many opportunities from high danger areas as Edmonton did. We just got lucky that half of them didn't go in this time. https://www.hockey-reference.com/boxscores/201901160CGY.html#all_shotchart