nfreeman
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Posts posted by nfreeman
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3 hours ago, inkman said:
Out of curiosity, why don’t you want McDermott fired.  He’s been at the helm for some of the biggest coaching gaffs in professional sports the last 3 years.Â
He’s come off very Weasley and pettyÂ
1 hour ago, Crusader1969 said:How can you not want him fired ? Â A man of details they say but mistakes at crucial times are killing themÂ
Fair question. They don't look like a well-coached team right now and there is something wrong with the team spirit. As others have noted, they seem unhappy, pressured and psyched out.
However (and I'll credit dave_mcbride, an excellent poster on TSW for this), pretty much every really good NFL team that's had an extended run over the last 20 years or so has had a down year at some point in that run. They key is how they respond -- the best organizations are able to make changes and return to contender status. I think McD/BB are of that caliber.
Why do I think that about McD? Because I remember the before times. And because I remember all of the great wins he's gotten out of this team. And because he gets them to the playoffs every year. And because he's a good man and his players play hard for him.
The most important near term objective right now IMHO is getting the right OC. It might not have been fair for Dorsey to pay the price, but as OC he was accountable for the offense, and the offense has been terrible to mediocre all year. Brady, or whoever the permanent OC is, has to get on the same wavelength as JA and get the most out of him. We sure haven't see that this season.
And FFS BB needs to get another real WR for JA.
We'll see.
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I don’t want McD to be fired, but Dorsey has to go, and it should be today. Â
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Unbelievable. They are given a ridiculous gift and blow it via penalty?
Someone needs to get fired.
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22 minutes ago, Gatorman0519 said:
Once again, not a single run that drive. It’s a broken record and our coaching staff is clueless.Â
But no passes on that drive!
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Gee, I wonder how these last 5 minutes are going to go?
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8 hours ago, Stormcloudmember66 said:
I guess you do not watch much hockey....LOL I think our bottom 6 has a collective 5 goals...... Pretty sad
This is obnoxious.
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If they lose this game and score 17 pts or so, I think they have to fire Dorsey tomorrow.
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16 hours ago, Big Guava said:
How do you know? Binnington was a rookie that year. Levi is fully capable of becoming that as he gains experience.
It's amazing how people act like young players just automatically reach their peak in their first game and if they don't there is no chance they improve during a season.
Do you even watch sports?
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15 hours ago, Big Guava said:I don't give a crap about that "stat".Â
Quinn will likely give them a significant boost on the back half of the year once he comes back.Â
Will probably take him a month or so to get back into the swing of things once he starts playing.
Blah, blah, blah...
You don't actually watch games. At least not with any knowledge of what you are watching.
Both of these are obnoxious and not how we communicate here.
Do better or keep quiet. Â
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47 minutes ago, Mango said:
I’ll get up for what the idea of Kane could provide because of who he was as a player.
But I don’t see how this fits. We have 100 prospects who all fill the Kane role. This team isn’t missing flash. It’s missing finish, and grit. This roster needs one, maybe two more Greenways.Â
EDIT: I am curious if we’d have any interest if he wasn’t a Buffalo guy. And if the answer is no, we should move along because we’re not making hockey decisions at that point.Â
Speaking only for myself, Kane's origins aren't relevant to my interest in him. For me it's all about the skill, the productivity, the PP and the playoff experience.
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1 hour ago, Curt said:
When you site possession stats like FF%, you really should use the 5-on-5 numbers as opposed to the all situations numbers that you sited. Â The inclusion of a bunch of PP time (or PK time in the case of different players) skews the numbers a lot.
Kane’s possession numbers were still pretty good that season, around 50%, which was about 6% better than the team’s average.
Fair point. (Not intentional by me -- I think the moneypuck page I saw didn't specify 5 v 5 as opposed to all situations).
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2 minutes ago, Doohickie said:
Here's the thing: Minnesota dictated the pace of play last night. The Sabres style is freewheeling; the Wild style is tight checking. The Wild forced the Sabres to play the Minny style and yet the Sabres still got the W. I also think that by beating the Wild at their own game for the first two periods, it loosened things up in the 3rd and the Sabres had more space.
This is significant because while the Sabres have a run-and-gun team there are other teams in the league that play a style that smothers that, and last night's game demonstrated that the Sabres can play that kind of game and win.
The other significant thing about last night is I think it's the first time this season we got the Devon Levi of last season.
Good stuff here, although I thought Minny had the better of it in the 2nd until Skinner scored that beauty with 1 minute left in the period.
Totally agree about Levi.
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JJP is really stepping up. He plays with force and finish, and he can both score it and pass it.
What a great pair of picks Quinn and him were -- they were drafted #8 and #34 in 2020, KA's first draft.
The previous year, JB did pretty well too with Cozens at #7 and Ryan J at #31.
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3 hours ago, Taro T said:Â
Agree on Power. The funny thing is, he IS having a sophomore slump as he gets asked to do more than he was last year. But he's still far and away their 2nd best D-man. Not wishing any of this season away, but really looking forward to seeing what he'll end up doing next year when all this is starting to become old hat for him and also when he will likely FINALLY be nearly as strong as a person with a body that large should be. He can very much be a Lidstrom-style player.
There also is a reasonable chance that R Johnson will be getting top 4 usage next year (at least at 5v5) which means Power can have either him or Samuelsson as his partner. Don't underestimate how much having a guy that SHOULD be top 4 as a partner will make him better. (Will also likely make the 3rd pairing better regardless of which 2 guys end up there.)
Can't wait for tonight's game and Tuesday's as well. Expect they'll play a lot better tonight than they did last night. Hopefully they do and the better team gets the W too.
Totally agree on both Power and Johnnie, and think both are going to keep getting better. I can definitely see Johnnie beating out Joki and/or Muel next year for a spot with Dahlin or Power.
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16 minutes ago, dudacek said:Probably weren’t the better team but we made enough stops and scored enough goals.
Mitts Peterka and Levi were really good, Krebs, Savoie and Jost barely played, Cozens was really bad, the refs were worse and the rest were various degrees of adequate to fine.
It was pretty close between the 2 teams, IMHO. Certainly the Sabres needed Levi to shine, and he did.
2nd bolded:Â and TT and Skinner!
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1 hour ago, Taro T said:
The GOAL this year is playoffs, NOT development. Wtf would they give him a few more games if they've seen all they need to see already about where he is at as a player?
Personally, expected he'd get 1 more game against a lesser opponent, but thought there was a strong possibility he'd get sent back after that game. They obviously decided they've seen enough and didn't need to overwork the rest of the forwards by giving him 4 more minutes in another game.
Yes -- and this move is very much evidence of that goal.
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1 hour ago, CTJoe said:This is awesome. Now we don't risk losing Bryson to waivers and can continue to play Okposo, Krebs and Girgensons about 14 mins/game too much. If our goal is to make the playoffs, why are we going with 2 lines? Okposo lines is incapable of scoring while whomever is on line 4 doesn't play
There are some nice-looking forwards in Rochester, and a certain UFA, all of whom likely would contribute more towards a playoff run than Savoie or Benson. I am pretty bullish on both prospects -- they just aren't ready yet IMHO.
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21 minutes ago, Sabres Super Fan said:Oh yes send Benson down too? I can’t wait to see the same usual 3rd 4th line overpaid, lazy Buffalo Sabres players be losers and skate around in circles the same ones year after year where do I sign up for season tickets. Some Sabres fans never have a conversation about that why Sabres fans are feed up with the crap from this Sabres organization while the Boston Bruins win year after year owned by Buffalo’s own Jacobs family. Terry Pegula is a carpetbagger and a disgrace as a sports team owner. Don’t tell me the Buffalo Bills they suck now too again sell the teams Terry Pegula you bum. I have zero tolerance for none Buffalo playoff teams anymore after almost 50 seasons of no Super Bowls or Stanley Cups while everyone else wins but Buffalo. With that said and out of the way.
If Buffalo Sabres coach Don Granato doesn’t make the playoffs this season and isn’t fired by this dysfunctional Sabres organization than just move the Sabres franchise out of Buffalo. I say that as a almost 50 year Sabres fan because there is absolutely no hope for the Sabres in Buffalo under Terry Pegula ownership. Buffalo would be better off applying for a expansion franchise in either the NHL or NBA or MLB if New York State is going to giveaway public money anyway look for a better ownership group that is interested in at least trying by making the necessary changes of upgrading the talent not the same crappy players filling out the bottom six of the Sabres roster stealing money by there yearly lazy play. The Sabres ownership don’t deserve public money if they aren’t interested in improving the Sabres roster. I have seen enough of lazy overpaid untalented third and fourth line players the same ones year after year stealing Sabres fans money with a thousand excuses why they can’t skate for less than 10 minutes a game in my opinion. Go Sabres! Let’s Go BuffaloÂOK, time to read your posts and take a breath before clicking "submit."
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4 minutes ago, dudacek said:I think a healthy Benson gets another shot to play out his 9 unless the Krebs Jost Rousek Olofsson group steps up, and/or they sign Kane.
I agree but I also think it's 80% likely he goes down before game #10.
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6 hours ago, mjd1001 said:
Edmonton might be the biggest story in the NHL now, or for the last few years:
-They have the leagues consensus best player, and another who is considered a top 5 player by many.
-Those 2 guys were the #1 and #2Â scorers in the league last year...over the last 3 years...and the past 5 years. Both are not right in the prime of their careers and should be as good as ever.
-They have no major injuries, no key players who are out of the lineup long term.
-Its not for lack of spending, they are right up against the cap, using just about every dollar they have to fill out the roster.
-This team has had over 100 points 2 seasons in a row. They lost last year in the 2nd round to the eventual cup winners, and 2 seasons ago made it to the conference finals before losing to the eventual cup winner.
-Pre-season better odds had the public placing bets on them with their over/under points at 104-107 points. Many preview publications and web sites had them at about 110 points and favorites to make the cup out of the west.
-This team still has pretty much the same roster. The minutes on Defense are pretty much the same as last year with the same 4 guys getting the most minutes, for the most part the same up front. They started with the same goaltending duo.
Looking at their stats (and watching 1.5 of their games), goaltending is the easiest thing to blame. But, is the goaltending just been THAT bad? or is the team in front of them playing that poorly making things so hard on the goaltenders? Either way, they are not only the 2nd or 3rd worst team in allowing goals, they are also the 4th from the bottom in goals scored.
I think they are going to turn this around. I see little reason why they can't, but how that team and fansbase must feel after losing to San Jose last night, it might be the biggest 'low' compared to the where they expected to be just a month ago.
Great post. I would just add that Edmonton is now 2-9-1! That is freaking terrible.Â
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10 minutes ago, Brawndo said:
I’m pretty confident a contract offer has already been made.
Â
Interesting. Do you think they've worked him out or otherwise given him a physical exam? Or maybe the offer is contingent on working him out?
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3 hours ago, French Collection said:
Get the home ice gorilla off of their backs.
This, more than anything else, is what I need to see. The Sabres can't be taken seriously until they start showing up at home determined and aggressive from the opening puck drop. That has happened maybe 10% of the time last season and so far this season.
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3 hours ago, French Collection said:
Backstrom  passed his physical, just couldn’t perform at his previous level.
OK, but what I meant by "pass with flying colors" was that they would work him out on the ice pretty rigorously, to the point where they were very comfortable that he has his legs all the way back.
I just find it impossible to believe that they would do a cursory physical exam and then hope for the best.
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3 hours ago, Brawndo said:Â
Unfortunately KA, Granato and Pegula are all in agreement on this oneÂ
I don't doubt it, but again, I gotta believe that their agreement on this is conditioned upon being very comfortable with Kane's physical abilities.
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Separately -- let's say, just for poops and giggles, that Kane is all the way back. The season before last, he had 92 pts in 78 games -- for a 68-pt Blackhawks team. And his fancystats were good too -- 54.5% XG% and 56% FF%. Who here doesn't want that guy on the Sabres PP, which is really freaking bad right now? Or getting 5-on-5 minutes over, say, Krebs, VO, KO, Zemgus, etc.?
It all depends on his physical condition.
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Serious question:Â does anyone really think the Sabres would sign Kane, especially to a multi-year deal, if he didn't pass a physical with flying colors?
It's fair not to want to give the Sabres the benefit of the doubt, but still. It would be such an ill-considered, incompetent bozo move. This isn't the way KA operates.
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Well, it’s 75% likely that he only goes to the Kings, the Rangers, the Panthers or Vegas.
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This doesn't match the eye test at 5-on-5 IMHO, but he's been terrific on the PK, as has the rest of the team. (I think the OP's #fancystat includes PK, but please correct me if I'm wrong.)
In any case he has clearly made significant improvements defensively, which is great.
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6 hours ago, phil_soisson said:
Respectfully, I get that, and I support the the right of any person that finds that post(or any post) offensive. I just abhor censorship, independent of whether for not I agree with. a particular point of view. Personally, hockey for me is a diversion from the crap show that is modern politics, socioeconomic, and geopolitical turmoil. Heretofore, the closest we came to controversy of that nature on these forums was the "pride" warm jerseys, which is a nothing burger.
You've been here plenty long enough to know that political posts go in the politics club.
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The D played pretty well last night after the 1st quarter IMHO. They lost that game for the same reason they've looked crappy since beating Miami: there is something fundamentally wrong on offense.
To beat the best teams in the AFC, you need to score 34-ish points. The Bills look miles away from a team that can produce that kind of offense.Â
I don't the fault is entirely with Dorsey -- they have major issues on the OL and at WR, and JA has been up-and-down this year too -- but the offense isn't working, and he's accountable.
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The Bills may or may not hold the Bengals below 50 pts, but that commercial with Diggs and Von was gold.
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GDT: Bruins @ Sabres - Nov 14, 2023 - 7:00pm, MSG/ESPN+📺WGR📻
in The Aud Club
Posted
Holy bad karma Batman.
Â
Separately: I want them to win, and I have various guys in mind whom I'd like to see play well, but more than anything I want them to present like a real NHL team -- i.e. they got embarrassed in their last game, they're back home against a division rival that has owned them for years -- they need to come out fast and determined and bring the heat all game. If they come out comatose again and the first 5 minutes are entirely in the Sabres' D zone -- I will continue to have real doubts about DG.