apuszczalowski

But thats the job of a backup goaltender, you don't get to play every night, only when needed or the starter is given the night off for a rest. You don't hear of a problem in Jersey with Brodeurs backup who gets 10-15 games if Brodeur stays healthy maybe he just isn't that great of an NHL goalie, and like many in the league, came in and got lucky living off the fact they had a hot streak at one point to start their career. Nah, its gotta be that he is an all star that Ruffs screwed up by not giving him 30+ starts a year to keep him fresh.........

Just wait, Enroth gets a shutout tonight and this board will explode with everyone suggesting that Miller be moved immediatly............

Showing his points and all is fine, but theres alot more to playing defence then scoring and getting assists. Take away the points and how is he doing at actually playing defence? Using offensive stats to value a defencemen is like using batting average to evaluate a pitcher in baseball

poor Pardy and Weber.....................

Thats what gets you in trouble with a salary cap, paying players for their potential, not for what they have actually done.Myers has done nothing to deserve that kind of money right now, his play has been getting worse every year, not better, yet we all hoe he is going to be the next Chara and use that to justify his salary.

That happened to me last week, had dinner with friends at their place the night of the bruins game and they only had basic cable and no Centre Ice. I didn't check the score at all til we were heading back home cause I figured it was going to be a loss. Tonight I can't watch the full game (only 7 til 8) before I head out to go play some pickup hockey, I'm guessing horrible 1st period then incredible blow out finish which will lead me to cancel anything that will allow me to watch anymore games this year. I was at the Toronto OT game, I watched Saturdays games til after Vanek scored, and came back home to catch from the end of the second period on against the Panthers.........

The point is, Semin is still a very good player who can be lazy at times, AND they picked up the second best Staal brother to go with the best Staal Brother. That more then makes up for the loss of Sutter. Sutter has one season with 40 points in his career, Semin has not had a season with less then 42 points since his rookie season

If theres one thing working in the Sabres favour right now its that Ottawas scoring is down right now, hopefully the Sabres won't try to be the nice guys and help them out with that like they always do.As for the Pardy/Myers combo, It may not help Myers game, but can it hurt it anymore? Maybe they are being paired together because they are both going to have their ice times limited?

But, But, Edmonton will be good one day, and then it will be proof that bottoming out is better then just making the playoffs! I believe they have drafted #1 overall the last 3 years in a row. In the last 12 years, only 2 teams drafting #1 overall have won the cup. Pittsburgh did it after they picked Fleury #1, then in a draft that was modified due to the strike were gifted Crosby #1 overall after getting to take Malkin at #2 the year before. The other team was the Blackhawks when they picked Kane #1 overall. The other teams in the last 12 years to draft #1 overall, Islanders (2x's), Thrashers (Now Jets 2x's), Blue jackets (once), Capitals (Once), Blues (Once), Lightning (Once) and Oilers (3x's). Of those teams The Islanders have made the playoffs 4 times, (only once since 2003-04) never making it past the Quarter finals, and finishing no higher then 4th in their division only 3 times in the last 19 years Thrashers and Blue Jackets have only qualified for the playoffs once in that time frame and have yet to win a playof game (both teams were swept in the quarterfinals) The Blues made it past the quarter finals 3 times (once into the conference finals in 2000-01), but since the #1 overall pick have made the playoffs 2 times and last year was the first time they have won a playoff game since) The Capitals have only missed the playoffs 4 times since 2000, and have only finished lower then second in their division 3 times in that time period (from 2003-07) The Lightning last won a cup before the first lockout and have only made the playoffs once since drafting #1 overall in '08 (they made the conference finals in 2010-11 then missed the playoffs the next year (They have missed the playoffs 6 times since 2000) The Oilers have not made the playoffs since they made the Cup finals the year after the lockout, and have only made the playoffs one other time since 2000, and have never finished higher then 3rd in their division over that time frame So after looking over stats from the last 12 years, only 2 teams have won the cup after "bottoming out" for the #1 overall pick, most have stayed as bottom feeders Its gotta be a little of both, if it was just good scouting, they wouldn't have let those players drop so far prior to taking them if someone knew what they would eventually become.

This si exactly what I am seeing too much of from the Sabres, and one of the problems with the defence right now, they leave too many guys wide open to just stand near the net by themselves. I would say almost half the Goals scored on this team are by players who get to just stand in front of the net all day til the puck gets to them, usually from a rebound. Then, when itsa the Sabres turn to do that in the other end, no one can get in front of the net and the other team just collapse 3-4 guys in front of their goalie and force the Sabres to shoot through them. I watched most of this game last night with the wife, We have come to the conclusion if babies can learn from hearing things in the womb, our daughters first words are going to be right as she is born and will be "Shoot It! F**K!"

i wasn't taking a shot at you with that comment, that line went with teh rest of what I said before it about needing to know every little detail of what goes on to fuel conspiracy What I do find interesting about it is that there are some here who would tell us that Ruff doesn't like Vanek or that he would limit his ice time when this shows that he is trying to get him out more

They must lead Mutinys very differently in Austria then hereUsually you want to play real bad to try and make the coach look much worse (See Ovie as an example), guess in Austria they try and be the best player in the league to get the coach fired? has an Austrian Mutiny ever worked before?

Actually, its even easier to evaluate what was more important to their cup run, just look at the performance of their goaltender during the season and cup run and it should clear up if the C or Winger were more important...........

Happens to me here and on the Bills board So we can blame you for it happening to us? Maybe we can call it "sizzlemeisting""crap, the board is Sizzlemeisting my post again!"

i was once like you, thinking it was Regiers fault, but I had been corrected many times here by others that Quinn and Golisano are the reason why.

Because in todays world with the internet, social media, and 24hr sports news stations we need all the fuel we can get to feed our tantrums and to come up with more conspiracy theories to be outraged at someone. Did you hear, Vanek is against Ruff and is openly trying to have him fired, he refuses to play for him anymore!

I believe thats still all on Quinn from what I have been told............ I'm not going to argue with you on that, the biggest issue has never been that they were let go, but that they were never replaced. Quinn and Golisano just filled their spot with guys already in thier system Both were signed as FAs by their current teams (Ducks and Devils)

After losing most of the starting defencemen on this team due to injury, the last one just before game 7 due to a staph infection.

IIRC, thats exactly what Pegula had said whe he took over, that he wasn't going to evaluate anyones performance prior to him taking over and that he was giving them a clean slate to see what they could do because of the belief they were shackled and handcuffed by the previous ownership.

The 8th place Oilers also made it to the Finals the year after the lockout and may have had a different outcome if they didn't lose their starting goalie in Game 1.......... Yup, that method has worked wonders for the Oilers, same for the Islanders too.............

You also can't say that Drury and Briere would have had the same careers since leaving Buffalo that they had if they stayed. Drury might still be playing, and maybe Briere would have worked as a #1 centre here. The Flyers have had plenty of other options that he wasn't needed in that role there, and drury is out because of injuries. And as i was corrected before here, Black Sunday wasn't Regiers fault, that was Quinn and Golisano who take the blame.

While Kessler and the team play dressup for a photo shoot, apparent their GM Gillis is causing a stir showing up at other teams games, possibly scouting deals for Luongo? McPhee in Washington wasn't too happy that Gillis was at teh Pens/Caps game yesterday and that it started a Luongo to the Caps rumor....... http://www.tsn.ca/nhl/story/?id=415236

C'mon, you can cherry pick 11 forwrads off of any other team in the league to make 5 goals to compare them to Kassian also, right? Probably about 70-80% of the people here While I agree that the team has suffered since Quinn made those horrible moves to let Drury and Briere leave, I disagree about the full rebuild part. They pretty much replaced the guys they lost with young players in their system, which is what usually happens when teams rebuild. Had they went out and tried to fill those spots with veteran FAs, then I would say its not a rebuild. I would say teh issue with this team is that whomever is the scape goat GM has been in permanent rebuild mode that when they let a veteran player go, they just replace inhouse, and up until probably Regher, Ehrhoff and Ott, they very rarely traded for veterans that were more then a rental at the deadline, most of the players they pickup were guys they hoped were diamonds in the rough that have yet to develop

Carolina also has another Staal added to its roster, along with SeminWashington still has one of the best offensive players in the league who has yet to break out this season like he has the ability too (Plus the rumors that Vancouver is trying to deal Luongo there) Of course all the credit will go to the new coaches though for turning them around.........

yeah, cause the reason they lost to the Canes in teh conference finals was due to coaching.....