nfreeman

Insane.

It’s go time.

Here we go. Time for JA to write the legend.

Come in D. Pull your weight!

Awesome.

Can’t agree with the statement on the D. KC is carving them up. But I agree that the O play calling stinks. False. It’s 2 penalties on the Bills and 1 on KC.

Another wasted possession where our MVP doesn’t get the ball on 3rd and short. Bad call Daboll. they are only going to get the ball 2 or 3 more times. They need to score every GD time or they’re toast.

Cannot waste any more midfield possessions. Questionable play calling on that last one.

Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhh!!!

How do? Because Eichel was more attractive in trade than ROR?

Please forgive my attempted witticisms. Tell me: other than "pacing for 40 points" based on a 37-game sample, what about Hall's time with the Sabres would you say was better than terrible? How would you describe his play? I would describe it as 5% to 10% more effective than Bjork's play this season, minus the mediocre penalty-killing. He was good at carrying the puck up ice on the wing at speed and then doing nothing with it. Otherwise he was invisible.

I've read that if Schoen got the NYG job, he was likely to hire Daboll as HC. Either way this hiring is a statement about how far the Bills' organization has come under McD and BB.

I think @Brawndo has posted not too long ago -- maybe in response to Lehner's accusations about poor medical treatment here -- that the Sabres have made a number of changes in their medical staff (Brawndo, I apologize if I am mis-remembering here). Still: WTF? Something appears to be amiss here.

That's not what I'm doing. I said that based on the eye test, he was terrible for the bulk of his time as a Sabre -- and frankly I still don't see how this is even arguable. You insisted on using stats to evaluate whether he was terrible. So, notwithstanding the small sample size of his time, which I think you'll agree renders a stats-based analysis fairly unreliable, I gave you some stats that are consistent with my (correct and incontrovertible) eye-test-based judgment that he was terrible. I have no interest in arguing whether a 40-point guy typically has streaks of poor production in a given season -- of course he does (although a 40-point guy who is also a 7-goal guy is probably closer to "terrible" than most 40-point guys). But that truism doesn't matter in evaluating whether Hall's 37 games as a Sabre were terrible.

I agree with all this. My point was simply that Hall was terrible for the Sabres. But I was totally on board when they signed him.

@Thorny -- you did say Hall was "bad" for the 14 games after Eichel went down, right? So, in counting the number of angels on the head of this pin, we're just talking about a sufficient number of games in addition to those 14 as to constitute "the bulk of his time as a Sabre"? And if we add the 11 games in which he produced only 3 assists vs NJ, we get to 25 games, out of his 37, yes? Do you not think 25 out of 37 games is "the bulk of his time as a Sabre?" I will also add that you frequently -- and correctly, IMHO -- cite small sample size as an important factor in hockey analysis -- but you're pointing to a stretch of 2 goals (a 7-goal season!) and 12 assists in 23 games as evidence of someone's performance being "objectively" decent by NHL standards -- when anyone with eyes who watched him that year was ready to drive him to the airport. I'll also point out that he's been panned regularly by the Athletic's Bruins writers this year, FWIW. And now I think I've beaten this horse enough.

Well, eye test is always subjective, and I'm not sure the concept of "objectively [anything] statistically" has any meaning -- but in this case I think Hall was freaking terrible as an objective matter. Since you are relying on stats, though, here are a few: - during the portion of the season when he allegedly made magic with Eichel, he had an 11-game stretch where his production consisted of 3 assists, all against NJ, a terrible team against which his competitive fires, such as they are, were presumably running hot since they dumped him after he won the MVP for them. - A few games later, after Eichel was done for the year, he had a 9-game stretch in which his production consisted of 1 assist. That's a total of 4 pts, all assists, 3 of which were against a terrible team, in 2 stretches comprising 20 of his 37 games as a Sabre. YMMV, of course, but IMHO that is being "terrible for the bulk of his time as a Sabre." EDIT: also, valuing assists equally with goals is silly. There's a reason 2 assists are awarded (most of the time) for each goal.

What happened to Vinnie H.?

@Thorny -- despite numerous glitches in his Hall tirade, @GASabresIUFAN is again right on the core issue -- which is that Hall was freaking terrible for the bulk of his time as a Sabre. This is one of those times where the eye test needs to take precedence over the stats (especially where the main stat is assists). He was shockingly ineffective.

FWIW, Paul Hamilton was on WGR yesterday and said he doesn't think Sammy is going back to Rochester.

I hate to say it, but I'm glad VO has been dropped from PP1. Without his slapper, he's just not effective. That half-wall spot needs a better passer/playmaker than a slapper-less VO. I'll look forward to Mitts taking VO's spot on PP2 when he returns -- I like the idea of Mitts and Krebs on the 2 half-walls.

I agree that Hall was a waste and a huge disappointment (and he's landed on my "least favorite NHL players" list as a result), but the rest of this post is peppered with (bolded) dodgy assertions. We'll never know whether signing Hall prevented a Reino extension. IMHO it's pretty likely that KA decided that the Sabres' long-term cap situation could only hold a fat extension for one, but not both, of Hall or Reino (since Eichel and Skinner already had them and presumably Dahlin would get one), and decided to see how the season played out before deciding which of them to offer the big contract to. In fairness to GA, it's also possible that KA, who was already probably leaning toward a culture cleanse, wasn't entirely sold on Reino being part of the solution -- and if that was the reason for not offering him an extension that summer, then it wouldn't have been related to Hall.

I agree except that I would rather have traded Roy or Vanek than Max, who was one of the most electrifying players ever to play for the Sabres and who played harder than Roy or Vanek.

An awful precursor of OSP and LQ deciding not to keep Grier and McKee (and, to a lesser, extent, Dumont) in the summer of 2006. You just can't let that much heart walk out the door, especially when it wouldn't have cost that much to keep them.

And even though Rico was done at that point, having had his knee wrecked by Mike Freaking Palmateer of the Toronto Freaking Maple Leafs (after scoring 45 goals the previous season), and only played 4 games for LA after being traded, I never forgave Scotty.