LTS

It's almost as if losing a star player is enough to make a team not be as good as it could have been and fall to the basement.... despite all the talent the Lightning have. I've no problem with you wanting to find the negatives but I wholeheartedly disagree with your assessment that Lehner was out of position. He was forced to commit to the original shooter and had he not then the more likely outcome of that play is that there is no pass and instead it's a goal. The glaring issue is that Evander Kane is standing IN the crease which clearly indicates he is not where he should be and creates the attack scenario in the first place. So Lehner made a great save. Someone compared it to Hasek who made saves like that routinely and rather than agree you tell people not to compare him to Hasek. Well, that save was Hasek like. It doesn't mean he's as good as him just that he made a great save. At least that's my take of the situation.... you do seem to want to be negative to be negative. It's your choice but at least understand that that's how people are seeing it.

It's fun to read the GDTs after the game just to see all the negativity people have early on when things don't go a certain way and then the Sabres still win. For back to back games I thought they did rather well and they had their opportunities. It wasn't a pretty game but they come away with 2 points and find a way to win using a few different players (Franson, Bogosian). I'll take it. All-star break is coming up.. Ristolainen will get his rest.

And as I pointed out.. show me another team that is missing 30% of its offense for a good amount of games and I suspect they are struggling just as much. You show me a team that lost 3 bottom 6 forwards and I think they'll be doing just fine. You can give whatever weight you want to anything. But if you want convince anyone of your point its probably not best to ignore that for nearly 25% of the season the team was playing without 30% of its offense. If the Sabres were lucky enough to have two RORs or Eichels in their system we wouldn't even be concerned. What teams have that?

I think you are arguing in a vacuum if you dismiss where this team is with or without Jack Eichel and do not also account for the other players missing time. The goal differential of a team with or without one player is only a good example if all the other players were playing at both times. This was clearly not the case. As such, the argument is avoiding key data points that matter. Ryan O'Reilly - 9G 18A - 10 games missed Evander Kane - 12G 5A - 11 games missed Jack Eichel - 10G 9A - 21 games missed The Sabres have 106GF in 45 games this season. Those players represent about 29% of the total goals scored by the team and set up another 30% or so of the teams goals. Now I'm not taking into account where they get A's on each other's goals.. so you can factor it back a bit. That said.. it's hard to argue for any one of those players without accounting for who is also missing. The Sabres are 7 points from the 11/12 overall spot in the NHL. If they were able to score 30% more goals in the games those players missed I'd like to think they'd be in a much better position.

The attitude that ROR displayed on his game tying goal is enough for me. Regardless of the coach these players are going to do what it takes to win and ROR is leading the way. That was as pure a "Hold my beer, I got this." moment as you can get in hockey. I loved it. Turrible officiating not calling Zetterberg for holding ROR's hands there in OT, but the Sabres made it out alive. The only thing I am concerned about with this team right now is their defensive zone coverage and breakout ability. They are too slow in both. Risto is developing a nasty streak that I love. He was all over Zetterberg last night.

I say.. when everyone is tired. Call in the Brute Squad and go Old Tyme Hockey... Line brawls, rack up the minutes, beat them until their whites become their reds... Or you know.. just go score a bunch of goals.

Why do all points get argued in a vacuum? The Sabres have had long term injuries to many of their top players this season. Does anyone deny that having ROR, Eichel, and Kane add a significant punch to the lineup? We can't judge Kulikov's impact yet because he's been injured too much this season. But it's probably safe to say that it's not insignificant. I'd go hunt down man games lost to injury but I hate that stat overall because losing a 4th line player isn't the same impact as missing Eichel, etc. That said, the Sabres have a lot of man games lost to injury and they aren't to their 3/4 line players. I think we need a thread that establishes the base foundation for arguing points on the forum. Take a question and debate it until we have an agreed upon foundation. For example, is Moulson a bust? Well, how much do factor in his presence for helping Eichel develop last year and bringing in Okposo this year? Do you agree that if you remove Moulson from the team you remove his salary (better served by X player that they would have definitely been able to sign) and they would have not signed Okposo either. Would that 1 player make up for Moulson/Okposo? If the Sabres hadn't been able to get Okposo would they have signed Shaw? These are all factors that play into the entirety of the debate. Unless we somehow agree they do not.

I guess it's a good thing I am still getting over this freakin cold... otherwise I am not sure a Friday evening out would not win over watching the Sabres game. (Can't always guarantee there is a TV where I'll be). Looks like I'll be watching. At least for a little bit.

This is a good point. He's a proven leader that can play up and down the top 9. He's a great option for a team looking for a piece to solidify their chances. He has Cup winning experience. I could see that happening and I could see him returning to Buffalo as well.

The drop pass is employed by many teams and the Sabres power play has been in or around the top 10 all season. Honestly not sure what we are complaining about there. The purpose of the drop pass is to get the 4 defenders lined up standing still on the blue line defending the 4 guys standing still. If you attack with speed you can chip by and attack. Of course that never happens because a D has to drop to protect against that and most of the time the guy attacking with speed will see which D drops and go to that point. The idea then is to gain the blue line and dish to the open attacker standing at the blue line where the defender left. If you attack up the ice with 2-3 the defending team can match you man to man and has a greater chance of breaking up the play. The thing about coaching... coaches can improve a team only so much over the base talent level. However, they hinder a team at a rate much lower than their base talent level. If every player were rated on a 1-10 scale with 10 being the highest talent level.. I'd estimate that a great coach at best can raise the play 1-1.5 points of a player where as they can reduce it by as much as the whole amount. Right now, I think Bylsma is reducing the talent output of this team by a 2-2.5 margin.

Go with the last option.

I also misread your post as pads and not pants. Less dubious changing pants than pads... I do remember the pants problem. :) It's been a rough day. The Sabres better not let me down tonight.

Haha... yea.. what a joke. Not too long ago they had a discussion on a high speed rail line. Louise Slaughter was asked how it would fund itself in year 5 and her response was "Let's build it first, then we'll figure that out." Brilliant business sense right there.

Mid-season pad changes? Did I miss something earlier in the year where this was the plan?

I'm thinking and I can't answer this myself.. Do we think Murray would throw Bylsma under the bus on the radio? I get the feeling he wouldn't. All he really said about Nolan was that they never spoke right?

The video was played there and was awesome. Having played nearly every version of EA Hockey since 1993 it resonated with me.

Man.. it takes serious strength to be able to post that. Thank you for opening your heart to us. The game be damned... your mother is your mother and you said it so well. Take care of her, take care of yourself. We're here for you when you need it. You have my deepest sympathy. And yes... ###k Cancer.

The twitter battle over the San Diego Chargers move to LA and their lame new logo has been fun to watch with the Lightning and the Stars getting in a good chirp. http://www.bardown.com/the-dallas-stars-got-in-on-the-la-chargers-chirping-with-a-new-logo-1.649199

I need something better than last night... need it. Also.. hopefully better officiating.

Yea. I think he's a power forward skater. He's very north/south. He does have that body twist and ability to make himself small. His acceleration/deceleration are incredible and I think that has a lot to do with his success. He can be full speed, take just enough off to screw up the timing of a hit and then accelerate to be through a space... most of the time. His acceleration is well document. Insanely good and it's deceptive because he is a quiet skater... he looks like he's floating.

Awesome. This is my heaven...(not that I get to experience it yet)

They are not solely related to that. It is many times with the puck. Allow me to retort.. no, not really, just clarify. I did not mean to insinuate he doesn't know what he's doing. He very much knows what he's doing. He's a damn smart hockey player. The problem, as I see it, is that he is too determined to make something happen when it won't. If, in the future, those plays that never happen for him now begin to happen because he was able to continue working at it, then great. If they are just plays that never get made then he needs to become wiser. I can't answer which it is yet. However, I do wish at times he wasn't practicing that mentality on the ice in a game. Call it him being Jonathan Livingston Seagull... we just don't know if eventually he'll pull up in time yet, until then it can be painful to watch. The thing with Eichel is that he's an elite passer and an elite shooter. I'm not sold on him being an elite skater yet. He's a damn good skater. So, the question is, will he be the one who dishes or gets dished too. Perhaps a better way to put it is that most of the time I see Eichel skating like a power forward compared to a dangler. Hell, I might not even be right on that.. I might just be spewing my consciousness at the moment.

It's an interesting thought.

Overall the game was good. Philly was quite sloppy which certainly helped the Sabres. The call on McCabe was absolute garbage. The ref called that because the attacker didn't score and just assumed it had to be because he hooked him. Garbage and that screwed Nilsson because I firmly believe he was getting a shutout. Eichel has his moments where he's magical and then he has his moments where I wonder if he even knows what he's doing. That said, that backhand upper corner shot attempt... I noticed at the end of warmups last Saturday when waiting for everyone to clear the ice he just kept working that shot and the forehand shot in the upper corner over and over. That's how you get that good at it. The lineup kept moving around tonight which was a bit hard to follow but overall I definitely like the game. The passive attack in the 3rd killed me and the Sabres are still caught in their own end too much. But it's a win so I will take it.

The Avs can keep asking for it, but unless someone gives it up they remain the same team and that can't last. That's the whole problem with waiting until suck to make a trade. The acquiring teams don't have the pressure. It's ownership and the GM in Colorado that have the pressure to do something. Either that or there needs to be a lot of patience.