dudacek

If Casey continues playing like he has his first five games he should stay in the lineup. It’s certainly been the best stretch we’ve seen from him. He looks like he has a better understanding of how the game works at this level - where to go and what he can and cannot do.

@IKnowPhysics I don’t expect everyone to read all my rants, especially when they are as unpopular as my opinions on Skinner. But your stat breakdown fails to properly address Skinner’s first Krueger season by looking at it in linear fashion, the way a new coach would. October: Skinner scores 7 goals in 13 games while getting 18 minutes a game November: Skinner slumps to 3 goals in 14 games, but Krueger keeps playing him 17 minutes a game December: Skinner’s slump continues. He scores once in 12 games putting him on a two-month streak of 4 goals in 26 games, and 11 in a row without scoring before he gets injured in a Dec. 27 game against Boston. Krueger starts cutting his ice time more as the streak continues and he ends up averaging a shade under 16 minutes - still top six minutes - for the month. January: Skinner averages 19 minutes in his two-game return, but is -3 without a point. February: Skinner’s goalless streak grows to 22 games where his stat line reaches 0/3/3/-17 before he finally scores. Skinner’s stat line for the month ends up 3/1/4 at a little over 14 minutes a game. March: Krueger, perhaps encouraged by a brief spark of recent offence, gives him more ice time - 18 minutes a game over 4 games. Jeff responds by going -5 and pointless. To me it looks like a textbook case of a player who played himself out of his coach’s good graces and then failed to play his way back in. What am I missing? https://www.espn.com/nhl/player/gamelog/_/id/5540/year/2020/jeff-skinner

Just because people keep saying this doesn't make it true. Skinner continued to play close to 18 minutes a night in November and December last season despite the fact he only scored 4 goals in that period and started what eventually became a 22-game goalless drought. Skinner stopped scoring well before Krueger started "jerking him around"

Ralph Krueger should have given Jeff two weeks straight with Jack at some point over the past 50 games in order to see what would happen. Jeff Skinner sucks, I never wanted him on my team, and his first three months in Buffalo were a mirage. Framing this as "one of them has to go" as the reason why this team is good or bad is a false argument

Skinner got 7 of his 14 goals in the first month of the season, playing with Sobotka and Johansson. He got 12 goals in Housley's final 41 games playing mostly with Jack and Sam. Krueger has not done everything he could to restart Skinner's game, but Skinner stopped scoring long before Krueger got here. And you don't think the numbers I posted have anything to do with it (the benching, I mean)?

My question was about how much more leeway does he get? He's had one good month out of the past 10. When does his current performance start outweighing his past performance?

Okposo was recovering from injury and Skinner's stretch of bad play stretches back way further than Kyle's

How much more? Jeff Skinner's monthly goal totals since the second half of his last season in Carolina (the bolded marks his first three seasons in Buffalo: Jan. 2018 3 Feb. 2018 5 Mar. 2018 4 Apr. 2018 0 Oct. 2018: 6 Nov. 2018: 14 Dec. 2018: 6 Jan. 2019: 5 Feb. 2019: 5 Mar. 2019 1 Apr. 2019: 3 Oct 2019: 7 Nov. 2019: 3 Dec. 2019: 1 Jan. 2020: 0 Feb. 2020: 3 Mar. 2020: 0 Jan. 2021: 0 Jan. 2021: 0 Think a graph might show and interesting trend? He's had one good month out of the past 10, four out of the past 19. Kyle Okposo has a good history of scoring goals prior to turning 27 and signing a big contract. EDIT: Also, interesting to note that his second-best month came playing under Ralph (italics)with Sobotka and Johansson on his line.

Maybe I'm off here, but could it have something to do with the 4 goals and 7 points in 46 games? I mean 4 goals and 9 point in 31 games got Casey Mittelstadt sent to the minors...?

Thompson was dropped from the Eichel line partway through the second game of the season and got another two periods with Jack a few weeks later. Skinner played five periods with Jack before he was dropped back down and then sent to the press box. The production of Thompson and Skinner this year has been identical with similar ice time and similar usage, except Thompson was benched a half-dozen times before Skinner was benched even once.

No, it's all Krueger's fault. How can he bench a player that hasn't done his ***** job in a year and a half? Now I'm off to the Eichel and Dahlin threads to complain about how Krueger hasn't benched them yet. This board (not you, and you are right on the money with this post) is so schizophrenic at times.

4 goals in his past 46 games has nothing to do with it?

When was the last time Jeff Skinner was clearly playing better than the guys who are dressing ahead of him? We're talking October 2019, right?

Six weeks into the year and we've only seen five teams.

This is good news This is better news. I am making up all sorts of wild rumours already. Eichel and Skinner to the Rangers for Lafreniere and their two worst contracts, confirmed.

It's funny, Curtis Lazar hasn't had trouble scoring goals playing on the Sabres fourth line — has nearly twice as many over the past calendar year as Jeff. Zemgus too. Stop making excuses for Jeff Skinner.

I know everyone looks good compared to the Sabres, but in the past 10 years, they've missed the playoffs four times and won three playoff rounds

Another buy high sell low special, eh? With Risto and Jake out it will be a sign of tossing in the season.

Nice work. The lack of authority with which he is moving and protecting the puck (feeding the high number of turnovers) are the in-game manifestations, but the most troubling thing is the body language. The number of times he projects '(deep sigh), what's the point' on a turnover, a rush, a puck battle, a backcheck, or even skating to the bench tells me his mindset has approached Sabrespace levels of fatigue. Have you seen this dramatization of Jack's career?

Feel for Jake. Guy can play for my team any time, and deserves better than what the Sabres gave him. This might improve our chances of re-signing him, because I was more or less convinced he was heading to Chicago this summer.

But he's not. He's not productive at all. He has no goals and one assist the entire year, and if I remember correctly that was a secondary assist that came thanks to an amazing (flukey?) pass by Sheahan. I'd be more willing to buy into the fancy stats if Skinner's dip was short enough to call a slump. Eichel is in a slump. As @PASabreFan correctly pointed out, Jeff is in down stretch that predates Krueger, encompasses nearly two calendar years, and (other than a month-long bump when Krueger first took over) has gotten progressively worse. Things like ice time, linemates or slumps change players from 35 goal scorers to 23 goal scorers, not 35 goal scorers to 10-goal scorers. I don't think people have really put into perspective how non-productive Jeff has been, and for how long. In the past 45 games Skinner has 4 goals and 3 assists! Brian Flynn, Nick Deslauriers, Cody Hodgson and Torrey Mitchell put up better numbers with similar ice time, playing with each other in the depths of the tank! It's funny how everyone says Jeff's bad play coincided with Krueger (which isn't entirely true) and almost no one talks about how it also coincided with a contract that set him up for life. The second might be true. The first undoubtedly is. Jeff Skinner was magical his first three months in Buffalo. That player hasn't been seen for years and I suspect he never will be again. Blaming it all on Krueger is just fooling yourself.

Since Nov. 1, 2019 — despite playing more games — Jeff Skinner has scored fewer goals (7) and/or fewer points (14) in a Sabres uniform than Marcus Johansson 5/21 Jimmy Vesey 9/18 Johan Larsson 5/16 Zemgus Girgensons 11/15 Conor Sheary 6/15 Kyle Okposo 8/14 Curtis Lazar 8/14 He's well behind Risto, Dahlin and Montour in points and barely ahead of McCabe, Miller and Jokiharju. Heck, he's only 4 points ahead of Taylor Hall. Mittelstadt has as many points in two games this year as Jeff has in 14. This isn't a slump, it's 60 games and 18 months of not producing. I say it's about ***** time he sits out.

I played in a 3-on-3 ball hockey league for a few years that had all its games in small elementary school gyms. Missed or blocked shots or big rebounds became scoring chances at one end or the other end literally within seconds. Power plays clicked at about 80 per cent. It seemed like 80 per cent of the time the ball was within high-danger range of one goal or the other and at almost all times, the attacking team only had to beat one defender to get a scoring chance. Compare that to the NHL where the puck spends at least 80 per cent of the time out of high danger range and you can go whole periods without seeing a puck carrier with just one man to beat. The more distance to the goal and the more bodies on the ice, the larger the advantage to the defender. It should be obvious to anyone who has played variations of the standard game.

This isn't about the Sabres, it's about the game.

"The clever cat-and-mouse game between goalies and shooters has run its constructive course. The goalies, by winning, have changed the game. Hockey is a game that needs open ice. It is made for open ice. The problem is the goalies. The answer is the goalies." Hall of Famer Ken Dryden has convinced me that changes must be made to open up the offensive zone, the same way the three-point shot opened up basketball. A must-read for fans of the game. https://www.theatlantic.com/culture/archive/2021/02/hockey-goalies-are-too-big-now/618021/?utm_source=pocket-newtab