ska-T Palmtown

The "progress" at the end of the year two years ago sure appeared to be sustainable. They were playing MUCH tighter team defense along with smart breakouts and intelligent play in all three areas of the ice. Then ... poof ... up in smoke. I love this team, but until I see good play from the start of a season, I shall remain skeptical of any and all "progress". I culled your post down to one point I wished to explore further - I don't think it takes anything out of context. A shooter that is 10-15 feet out, no screen ... I would expect the league average on shots like that to be at least 20% scoring, probably higher. That the Sabres regularly give up these types of chances is pretty much a great reason to absolve UPL of some of the blame for team performance. Unfortunately, I don't know of any fancy stat that adjusts for how much a team leaves their goalie out to dry. High danger chances doesn't quite get it done for me; a weak swipe at a loose puck on a back-hand is a high danger chance, but so is the guy the Sabres consistently leave wide freaking open at the far post. One, I would hope the goalie saves 98% of the time, the other I would be astonished if they could save 50% of the time. The Sabres give up too many high quality high danger chances for this kid's liking.

Right - at the current pace of all the teams - 85 points gets you that last wild card. I forget what year, but a few years back, 84 got you in. 6g + 5a in 12g since the start of Dec. Please stop with the injury fallacy - TWICE he came back from two different injuries last year and both times, he was playing fine and scoring at a rate that outpaced his rookie year. Something was off to start the year, but it was most assuredly not the previous injuries.

He went after #38, but every good legend deserves some embellishment 😉 Edit: you may have been talking about a different play than the scrum where ZB pulled out a step ladder and grabbed 38 around the neck ... oops.

holy *****.

I'd be happy to see either of them go if it was a Panthers-Flames, Huberdeau for Tkachuk type trade. Sadly, since neither is a Huberdeau, we are not likely to get a Tkachuk back. Double sadly, any player who desperately wants out of their current situation would probably sign a life-long extension before coming to the Sabers 😞

Most people before the game "OMG, we're gonna get killllled!" Sabres get a point on the road in Colorado - "we suck!!! wahhhh" lol, get real

Rob at the end "ugh"

you had to know the next few calls were going the Avs way

haha - right? all that and we are still just right back at Sabres +1

lol, I know we all have severe PTSD about numerous Sabres collapses over many many years ... but geez guys - it was one bad, long shift against the Avs top line ... get it together! This board is soft! 🙂

two apples for Señor Dangles so far

gotta love benson whackin the dude with his stick, lol Rob: well, with Benson it's never nothing

They have no leverage (not that it has mattered to KA before) and I would love to see them on "prove it" deals.

I think that is why Quinn in on the powerplay?

That got both a genuine chuckle and the haha reaction thingy outta me.

touche. I actually thought you did a decent job defending yourself yesterday, so it struck me as an odd choice that you would choose to go on the offensive today. Nothing less, nothing more. I actually feel a little Swiss around here lately. I tend to agree with a lot of the points made by the "burn it down" and "is that a ray of sunshine?" crowds and I think there are a lot of great discussions around both sides that allow folks to type out some frustrations. But yea, the mob can rise up and turn on one pretty quickly, especially in the heat of another disappointing loss. Once the petty bickering sets in, I Homer Simpson into the bushes and come back later.

you did an awful lot of complaining about people piling on you in a different thread, then come in hot to this thread with some pretty thick sarcasm. Well done. To be clear, I don't support anyone (other than the mods for really mean or out there things) gate keeping another poster's posts. You want to post about the bright spots in a loss? You should! You want to post about how effing awful this team has been / is / will continue to be? You should! You want to complain super hard when someone attacks your posts, but then find a different thread and start attacking posts? You should! It might just not be the route I would choose.

i mean - Quinn might also be nearly a point per game player if we were playing with Kirill The Thrill instead of Dylan Not Thrillin' (that worked out better than I could have hoped for)

Absolutely. I think the team will be weaker next year without Zuck, unless we find another mother zucker like him? I was thinking about Foligno in Chicago when I talked about vets coming in to help. By all accounts Bedard follows him around like a puppy dog - and Foligno had to know they were not going to win in the window he signed for.

I found out when I tried to go get a hair cut in the neighborhood adjacent to wrigley and it was a total mess with the game traffic 😞

The "we" was just meant to refer to the "general board sentiment", not purposely include anyone other than myself. The bold - great point and that is sort of another tick in the "it's the system" column, no? AKA, being asked to consider defense (or at least not just go for offense at all costs) is frying his brain?

Thinking a little more on this ... I am wondering if this sudden manifestation of 'The Yips' is actually the system. Just spit-balling here, but he gets in between the circles with the puck and knows he needs to make a 7/10 or higher move to get around a guy to get a shot ... but, in the back of his brain Lindy is telling him "if you cough this puck up, you better hustle your little butt back on D!" and that split second is enough to where he either bails or does indeed cough up the puck? We may also be falling for our own hype? Don't get me wrong, I think Quinn has oodles of talent, but we got ourselves all worked into a lather over <checks notes> a 40-point per 82 games pace from his rookie year. Right now, he would pace out for ~34 this year in 82 games, a mere 15% reduction in production. I will freely admit that I thought he had 60 points in him this year after the way he played post-injury last year (see long-winded rant a few posts ago). The second half to it - his hope-inspiring rookie year was with 68-point D-Co, not the current 41-point Cozens. Cozens drove "The Kid Line" and his struggles are bringing down everyone that plays with him so far this year. Hell, that was also the year of 82-point Skinner, 94-point Thompson, and 79-point Tuch which probably took A LOT of pressure off "the kids". So I guess "what happened" is that Jack has thus far failed to take the mythical "step forward", but we should not pretend he has regressed with any statistical significance. Plus, he had 8 points in 8 games in December, comprised of four 2-point games. He might be heating up? Figuring it out? Getting luckier? Sucking less?

It is crazy annoying! We should have had a never ending rotation of Zuckers over the past 5 years. Instead we got status quo vets like Girgs and Okposo, a vet without enough in the tank for the craziness he stepped into with E Johnson, and the incessant drumbeat of "No Blockers!! No Blockers!!" The one other vet we had around, Craig Anderson, did an admirable job of passing for a veteran backup and I would not be surprised if some of his savvy and veteran leadership helped UPL take the steps we have seen him take. Just imagine if we had that for JJP-Cozens-Quinn ... sigh. Some vets will do it just to be a part of mentoring the "next" kids.

I don't know why The Myth Of Jack Quinn's Recovery persists. The numbers and the fabled 'eye test' from last year - the time most immediate to his two recoveries contradicts this sentiment in every way. **Tears Achilles Tendon, owwie! comes back at the early end of the recovery window** Dec 19 - Jan 27: 17 gams, 12 points, or ~58 points/82 pace (better than his rookie year of ~40 pts/82gms) **Breaks leg, ouch! misses ~8 weeks** Mar 27 - April 15: 10 games, 7 points, or ~ 57 point pace (again, better than his rookie year) So TWICE last season he came back from injury and both times he was outplaying his rookie year numbers. The 👏 injuries 👏 are 👏 not 👏 his 👏 problem 👏 this 👏 year 👏. @PickaPecaPickles might be on to something about the style of play or trying to play responsibly.

After going a MONTH (including sitting some games) between points ... December was not bad - 8 pts in 8 games: