LTS

CBJ and Buffalo are the worst two power plays in the league. The refs know better than to call penalties.

The audio tech for MSG needs to be fired.

Really like what I am seeing from Bugle. He's definitely excited about playing and his energy is infectious.

I upload and link from imgur.

I took the top 50 scorers on NHL.com. I looked at their total points and then calculated their percentage against the number of goals scored by the team. It's not perfect as I believe the stats will give a team a goal in the stats column for a shootout win (even though no players get points). There are 5 players whose point totals are 40% or greater of the goals their team has scored. Giroux - 52 points (Flyers: 123 goals) Gaudreau - 49 points (Flames: 116 goals) Voracek - 51 points (Flyers: 123 goals) McDavid - 48 points (Oilers: 118 goals) Eichel - 39 points (Sabres: 96 goals) Eichel is clearly what drives the offense in Buffalo and as such deserves to be there regardless of every team having a representative. Interesting is that the Leafs have the 4th most goals scored and no players in the top 50 in scoring. The teams above them, Lightning, Jets, Islanders have 4,3, and 4 players in the top 50 respectively. The Knights are 5th in goals and have 3 in the top 50. Toronto is pretty balanced.

All this focus on the coach is so wrong. A player who does not want to change is not going to change. Just like an addict who does not want to rehabilitate themselves. I am fine with Housley right now. The team needs to change its mindset and he's trying to make that happen.

-10000000000000000000000000000000000 F Cancer. I did see Emrick say he underwent successful surgery and is expected back for the Olympics so that's pretty awesome.

Totally agree with you.. but fans are gonna fan I guess. Go Sabres. Curious to see what last effort some players put in before they get traded. :)

Way too much invested in meaningless words. I don't think he WANTS to bring Guhle up this year. Evaluating the D could mean seeing what they have left after the break when they trade a few players and then deciding if they need to bring Guhle up. I think trades that are made are going to include some throwaway player from the other team just to fill in the D and G spot so he can leave them in Rochester for this year.

As much as I want to agree with you, I have to keep in mind that hockey GMs are strange cats. You know there's a coach and GM saying to themselves that Lehner can be the solution for them. They will blame the Sabres lack of defensive support that leads to a goalie not really trying his best because "what's the point". They will have a goalie coach who says we just need to do this to fix his game and he'll be in top shape. I look at the goals scored over gloves of Johnson and Lehner and I recall watching Kevin Weekes discuss how many goalies are coached to go down to soon and are now leaving that spot open. I am sure there is a goalie coach out there saying to themselves we can get this out of their game. There are similarities to what Johnson and Lehner are doing (besides both being bad) and at some point you have to look at the goalie coach and ask what is it he's telling them. I wouldn't be surprised if it is the Islanders because right now they are the only team in the league that has given up more goals than the Sabres. They have to be thinking that anything is an improvement. Halak: SV: .904 GA: 3.24 Greiss: SV: .881 GA: 3.89 Lehner: SV: .910 GA: 2.94 Johnson SV: .881 GA:3.76 The Islanders have to decide if they are going to try and make the playoffs (currently 1 point behind PIttsburgh for 8th and 3 behind NYR for 7th). The Islanders are 3rd overall in goals scored. They have to be looking at their goaltending and thinking to themselves that if we go get an upgrade at goal we have a great chance to go deep in the playoffs. The Islanders, Carolina, and Pittsburgh are all battling for the 8th spot. They are all -12 in goal differential. The Flyers are there at +1. I think those teams are the ones who are trying to see if they are chasing the playoff run or not. I think the Hurricanes are good with Ward and Darling and the Penguins are set in goal. The Western conference is less of a mess. You have Calgary, Minnesota, Colorado, and Anaheim battling for Chicago's 8th spot. I don't see any of those teams looking for a goaltender as the solution. Calgary and Anaheim will be looking for more offense. I think the Wild know they are a victim of injuries and ride it out and Colorado is so far improved over last year they aren't required to sell the house to make a run this year.

I thought that's where this board was at again, lamenting for better times. My mistake.

ZFG?

The league's deadline or the fans'?

Rex Ryan is coaching the Jets now? :)

His music career took off when he partnered with Nico.

Reinhart is actually pretty good at standing in front of the net and deflecting pucks. He's scored quite a few that way. Gionta was good at it as well. I think it's more about getting the defender occupied on moving you and adding to the screen than moving the defender. Just need to get the tip on the shot. The problems are nailed in this thread quite well and you have it down here with a few others. They can't win puck battles at even numbers and many times even with an extra guy. They are too slow at making decisions and moving the puck. They are not clean on the passing when they finally decide. The last two issues are real killers and definitely one of the major problems on the power play. Even if they could skate fast they will slow themselves down with decision making and passing. They are getting better at board battles and I think we've seen some control of the puck around the perimeter but they are terrible at retrieving the puck after a shot. This is likely because they needed to get a little more out of position in puck support (and battles) just to set up the shot and the players aren't able to get back into a workable area for scoring.

Well, everyone wants "something" to happen and so "something" is happening... I mean, I have to admit that the thread title got me a bit excited even if it's nothing much in the end. It's SOMETHING... :)

Just because crap doesn't sit with a coach doesn't mean that the player will change. There are completely different dynamics at play here. The Sabres front office is not the same as the Leafs front office. The ownership is not the same. The Leafs did not face a situation where a player the star player was accused of saying get rid of the coach or I don't sign an extension. You can say that's because of Babcock but we don't know. This is why I asked for what proof you had. Because these conversations get you to thinking.. i went and pulled the first 42 games from last year compared to this year. While the points are better the interesting thing is the scoring breakdown. This years team is outscoring last years at even strength. Last years team performed better purely because of the power play. At this time last year they had not even reached #1 PP unit in the league, that belonged to Columbus. Interesting coincidence, Columbus ended up at 12th overall and were #31 this season until the Sabres managed to bottom out in the past few days. I'm not sure what coaching changes occurred in CBJ but I know Torts is still there and yet that team has seen a dramatic drop in their PP unit performance as well. So is it just coaching? I don't know. It was good that the power play was prolific because last years team also gave up more power play goals. I'm not sure there is a dramatic difference. I see Even strength numbers improving but the PP failing miserably. The assistant coach left but let's be honest, it's the same players out there doing nearly the same thing as last year but they are nowhere near as prolific. Is this coaching or does it speak to something else going on? Stat- 2016/17 (2017/18) Win- 16(10) Loss- 17(23) Pts - 29(41) GF- 96(92) GA- 114(142) PP%- 21.3(12.4) PK%- 74.2(79.8) Shots For/GP- 29.2(30.9) Shots Agn/GP- 32.98(32.36) FOW% - 50.4(51.2) Scoring Breakdown PPGF- 29(16) EVGF- 66(72) SHGF- 1(4) ENGF- 2(6) PPGA- 33(26) SHGA- 0(8)

What proof is there of this? I think there is a lot of wishful thinking in those statements. I think Babcock and Gallant are great coaches but I don't think there's a coach that is fixing whatever is going on in that locker room.

The Jags D was superior to the Buffalo D and that was the difference. The teams are both awful on offense. The play calling of Buffalo continues to amuse me but the biggest problem is that Taylor presents zero threat for a QB to WR combination. Even if he manages to figure out WHICH receiver is open he misses on a lot of throws. That's not going to get it done. The fact that the Buffalo D did not stop Blake Bortles from running was unbelievable. Oh well, two teams that lucked into the playoffs... and it's over for one of them.

I don't think this team has a core. I think it has a split. It's becoming abundantly clear that this is not a TEAM but a collection of players. I'm not worried about anything right now other than what the management does to change the roster. The 10 new faces from last year are enough to cause problems early on with cohesion. However, the top groupings, other than Scandella, have not really changed. They moved out some of the "heart" players in Foligno and Deslauriers. Few were sad to see Foligno go and no one admitted to being sad about Deslauriers but they did bring something on the ice or in the locker room. The unfortunate part is that there is only so much Botterill can do unless he wants to give away players and I don't see that helping.

It's some IT work for the wife. It will most assuredly happen. But I'm still seeing everything that's going on.

Back to back midday games for the Flyers right? Sabres doing what they have to do. But they need to score.

Only from those who blame the coach for getting the same result with the same players as the last coach. I need to see some changes in the roster before I blame Housley.

Bills on the iPad. Sabres on the TV. I'm on my laptop posting away. Also trying to get some work done. What a fun day.