ska-T Palmtown

Well ... 3-1 is certainly worse ...

hahaha - a little adversity and this board folds like a wet paper tower. We need some grit around here. Some effort. Some jump. But seriously, calling it a loss with 12 mins left is pretty sh1tty ...

You could see that goal coming ... in honor of cozens taking the penalty, the PK'ers decided to chase all over the ice and leave a guy wide open far post ... sigh

A good powerplay right now would be swell.

sick move by Quinn, draws the penalty.

LMAO at this thread ... game can't start soon enough!

I'll take the "L" on this one ... I watched less than an actual minute of live game play ... and it was the 4 v 1. The boys could feel I was watching and got nervous. My bad.

I'll put this here - since I am not sure where else ... it is "meh" vibes at worst, but not all bad:

And he is not consistently taking dumb spicy penalties like Dahls.

I'm not sure if I buy that considering he played just fine BOTH times he came back last year. I get the feeling this is the first time he as been asked to play in a complex system that even has the word "defense" near it. Not saying he can't do it - he just looks like he is over thinking a little. The west coast trip actually had a few flashes of the Quinn we need going forward. Also, perhaps it is The Cozens Effect? Two years ago, Cozens somehow played out of his mind and Quinn and JJP just sorta had to show up. This year JJ is with the big boys on line one and Quinn is with "not so great" Cozens and struggling. Causation? Correlation? A bit of both?

@xzy89c1 - you gonna contribute to the conversation or just fly by with vomit emojis?

This missing piece is the actual goals. The Tage number tells us that when he is on the ice, he (his line) should get about 61% of the goals scored. When he is not on the ice, the rest of the team is only at 49%. But that is purely a function of where the shots are taken and whether the "average" NHL player would score on the shot. If you have a high xGF% but a low actual GF - you (and your linemates) are either terrible shooters or are having bad puck luck. Conversely, if you have a low xGF%, but high actual GF - your goalie bails you out a lot and you bury the few chances you get. One without the other does not paint a clear picture of actual performance. A line stacked with snipers (or D-men he get those seeing eye pucks through) should actually have a better GF% than their xGF, since xGF is based on the "average". Based on that chart, if Gilbert's actual goals for % is higher than the expected, once could argue he is outperforming expectations, as low as those may be. Statistics without context can be made to say just about anything you want. There are very few players who single-handedly carry or sink their lines consistently.

Cozens scored and Quinn found himself in the middle of the slot with the puck several times ... fingers crossed.

This. This sums up my Sabres fandom right now. I want to believe. I also want to eat healthier, exercise more often, go to bed on time, and do all the recycling. Alas, I have been conditioned to do otherwise. 😉

The highlight package I watched, the Sharks broadcasters were drooling over Dahls. Something to the effect of "one of THE elite players at his position in the league." But, I guess compared to what the Sharks have been watching the last few years?

are we all just going to gloss over the timeline of "Idemo" disappearing about the same time Thorner made his triumphant return? 👀👀👀

$30 for a 12-pack on Amazon ... no thanks. Jeez - the commentators are in the RAFTERS!

Is no one going to comment on how bad AI is at hockey? The ref has a stick? TF?

At this risk of a little hyperbole - pair him with a good solid stay-at-home type and he will be a nightmare for other teams.

I considered it and my tired brain responded "Well, that sounds like a tough nickname ... he has not shown to be tough"

lol - i felt shame doing - but the caffeine had not kicked in and there was no way in ferk I was gonna be able to spell his last name. 🤷‍♂️

So, uh ... is the the GDT?

But it is the exact thing we all know the Sabres have done too often in the past. Kulich is playing fine, sure. But he has been just as invisible as some of the other players on most nights. If he was lighting things on fire, I'd agree - but he is not. He has two whole goals. Once the endorphins of an OT game winner wear off, unless he has another great game - the correct move is to send him back down. Replacing an NHL vet JAG with a rookie JAG (I think Kulich will be awesome, but unless this game was his "ah-ha!" moment, he is still at 'replacement level') is just not something successful teams do. I could be wrong ... happens a lot - but it seems like shiny new toy syndrome and I feel it is the wrong thing to do.

This is great or whatever - and maybe true for the short term if they only keep 7 Dmen until (if) Sammy comes back ... but the roster math just won't work beyond that point - he and Rosen are the only players who can be sent down without being exposed. For a team with the marginal talent level we have, exposing any of the rostered players to waivers is insanity. Kulich has played fine - but not so well that we can jettison other NHL talent willy-nilly over one OT goal.