LTS

Their success will make it impossible to trade the UFAs they have without turning off the fanbase. So now they will have to decide to sign a few and a few will walk for nothing which might interrupt the plan they had in place for the first 5 years. Of course, winning this year is cementing them with the fans as well so it's kind of a damned if you do and damned if you don't situation. It was okay to be good... but perhaps they are just TOO good. :) The Leafs had a wonderful tribute to Johnny Bower. I really liked it. No overblown pomp and circumstance. It was classy and meaningful. http://www.sportsnet.ca/hockey/nhl/maple-leafs-give-late-johnny-bower-amazing-farewell/

I had a quota. :) I used even strength because it removes special teams play from the mix and teams score more often on special teams across the board. Even the Sabres and Blue Jackets (seriously how are THEY still lower than the Sabres) score around 12% of the time. After that I am not sure what I am cherry picking. I used the top 16 goalies and compared to the playoff teams. Lehner's numbers are right there with teams in the playoff mix and he plays for the second worst team in the league. I was actually surprised Elliott's numbers were as high as they were given my overall impression of him as a goalie and it was surprising to see Crawford's numbers so high on Chicago who sits outside a playoff spot right now. It was rather entertaining. :)

It's easy to blame Lehner when you watch him play more than any other goalie. It's easy to blame Lehner when you get more upset when his team loses than any other team. Lots of people like to be completely irrational and blame it on fandom and then want to project their evaluation of a player as if they can be objective. It's a bit of a reach to be objective when you also get so worked up when your team loses. For goaltenders who have played 20 games or more this season (Even strength numbers) Lehner's SV% is .924 and EV GA is 56 Lundqvist is .926 and 64 GA Bobrovsky is .928 and 59 GA Quick is .927 and 55 GA Holtby is .927 and 55 GA Dubnyk is .923 and 47GA Crawford is .934 and 45GA All of those goalies are within the top 15 of the league. Looking at the top 16 goalies in the league in terms of EV SV% there are 6 teams who have goaltender in that list that are not in a playoff position. Chicago - 42 points (2 points out) Minnesota - 43 points (1 point out) Calgary - 42 points (2 points out) Vancouver - 37 points (7 points out) Philadelphia - 40 points (4 points out) Buffalo - 29 poiints (13 points out) Lehner seems to be performing fairly well with the top goaltenders on the top teams in the league this year. Does he let in a soft goal? He does. Lots of goalies do and you don't ever notice it because you don't watch every minute of every other goaltender. Finally, he's got to get fairly frustrated when the defense in front of him still doesn't clear bodies. The first Rangers goal should never happen and it's not the goaltender's fault. The Sabres had all 5 guys in the crease area and still a Ranger gets his stick on the puck. The only purpose of a defender once the puck is near the goalie is to get the offensive player and his stick nullified and away from the crease so the goaltender can cover the puck. When there are 9 sticks and 18 feet in the crease area it's pretty difficult to get a big glove down on the ice to cover the puck.

All goals scored in the same end. The Sabres have that end to finish the game. Better get another goal or two.

Already stopped watching the game. Shadows make it hard enough and then the camera angle completely kills it. I can't deal with that. NBC blew it.

My son and I were on our way home having just watched Team USA pull off a last minute win against Finland. We listened to the end of the game and then got to listen to Bulldog basically go speechless when the Bengals scored and the game ended. It was pretty cool to be driving down 90 and listening to it take place. I'm nowhere near the football fan I was when I was growing up in Buffalo but it's nice to have the team making the playoffs and getting people happy.

I think I will skip this game. Nah.. no way.

Last Bills game I was at ( a few years ago) they had a few as well but it still took an hour to get through the gate. It's a bit ridiculous. If their detectors don't work in the cold they sure didn't plan very well on their purchase of equipment. Even if they never had to plan for January games they know it can still get cold in December.

Truer words were never spoken.

Seems like the border delays are quite significant. I wonder if that's keeping people from attending as well? There was a video on tsn.ca about one of their reporters backed up at the border and it being a super long drive just from Toronto.

If we want to add to why is Brady pretty damned cool, let's go with this. https://www.bardown.com/brady-tkachuk-stop-to-thank-the-ice-crew-for-their-efforts-before-heading-to-the-locker-room-1.955229

Relax "Gramps". Get off my lawn much? I'm merely pointing out that your initial post looks only like a comment on Reinhart and making a suggestion on what would have communicated your point better. If you are not interested in my feedback that's fine. Your retort about every other player is possible, but they are still here and the topic of the thread is why is Jack on fire. Moulson is gone, so that actually did change and it may be related. If he doesn't like Larsson and Larsson is still here then I doubt that's much of a reason for his improvement in play as nothing has changed there eh? Calm your blood pressure and go grab something to eat at Cracker Barrel and then perhaps settle in and watch Jeopardy.

Eleven - another point on the discussion of outdoor rinks. https://www.bardown.com/sam-steel-s-outdoor-anaheim-ducks-and-regina-pats-themed-arena-is-fantastic-1.955470 Pretty cool stuff... and a heckuva a rink.

No, I given him full marks for being quick and agile, but he's nowhere near the top end speed that Eichel is and he certainly does not accelerate like Eichel (very few players do). Casey can stick handle in a phone booth, there's no doubt about that. Eichel cannot, but he can also keep pucks further from players than Middlestadt. If Middlestadt can come to the NHL and do what he's doing right now we will be pretty happy fans. I just hope there isn't TOO much put on him. Even McDavid isn't making Edmonton a playoff team this year. Absolutely. He said it in an interview and you see it on the ice. He hates losing the puck and he's damn determined to get it back. He is relentless and that's just an awesome thing to see.

Well, you say nothing of Eichel. Simply Reinhart sucks. You single out one player and now in your response you add "and others", etc. Your first post doesn't relate back to the thread topic so it appears you are simply looking for another way to slam Reinhart. If you had just come in and said "Perhaps Jack is realizing he needs to step it up given the lack of production from Reinhart and others." it would have been a completely different interpretation of what you were posting.

Middlestadt does not have the speed or the shot that Eichel has. They both have incredible hands and can put the puck on a teammates tape from seemingly anywhere be it forehand or backhand. Middlestadt does better along the boards where as Eichel uses his reach to create open ice space. Right now Team USA runs its power play through Middlestadt the same as the Sabres running it through Eichel. They are both players who drive puck possession and they do it in different ways which is what makes me very excited. It's quite possible those two will never see a line together as they can both make every one of their linemates better.

I think there are a few reasons for Jack's change. Waiving Moulson. Either Jack didn't like having Moulson around (seems unlikely) or he now understands there are impacts to people other than himself if the team doesn't perform and that he has a responsibility to help the team perform. Rodrigues return to the lineup. It's quite possible that Rodrigues and Eichel can talk about things having shared time at BU together and that it's helping Eichel relax a bit or something that translates to performance on the ice. I don't think they moved Kane from his wing right at that time did they? I don't know that it's made a big difference. Jack's game has changed since the beginning of December. It's very noticeable. His back-checking has improved. He threw a pretty solid check last night and it was clear the Devils player did NOT expect it. I like what I am seeing, that's for sure. No need to bring this comment into a thread about Eichel.

Reread this thread. There are a lot of people wrong about a lot of things. Including me thinking this would be a double disappointment day. I'll take it all! Woo hoo.

Smelling salts are nasty but they certainly wake you up fast. I'm not saying they help performance but you definitely are jolted. I tried it once. My nose hated me and that was that.

Certainly snarky... and i posted this elsewhere and perhaps you saw it.. perhaps not. http://www.startribune.com/casey-mittelstadt-lifting-gophers-with-strong-start-to-college-career/454779223/

Do you mean this article? http://buffalonews.com/2017/12/28/world-juniors-ready-to-break-the-ice-with-first-outdoors-game/ (I searched pond hockey 2008). I see this quote Reading that article it doesn't seem to support your notion so my guess is that you are referring to another one that doesn't pop up with those search terms (there are only 2 articles, that one and one on Fehr and the NHLPA.) If you have a link I will read it.

Man. Just drop players on their in front of the net. That was horrible defense for Lehner.

No. I'm on my phone. I'll look for it. But I'm not sure how it refutes the story on the kids talking about playing on the pond and me referencing the number of rinks I know we have around here.

Can someone fire the MSG sound production people? The sound mix has been terrible this year. You can barely hear RJ,Dan, and Rob. The crowd is mixed too high. The radio listening is impossible. Also, noticed that RJ is calling a lot of road games this year and Dan is at home a lot. Is RJ on an unannounced farewell tour?

I guess the kids from Minnesota were all lying then?