Mustache of God

I'll be there tonight in section 103 where the sabres shoot twice. Rocking my new golden jersey. Would love to see oloffsson blast one in real life.

So you're saying put Sobotka on the top line?

I love seeing games at MSG, I've also had the pleasure of playing a game there. I would not describe it as a hell hole.

Skinner looks like he's covered by a million invisible ants in interviews

Agreed. I need to see more consistency from Eichel. Thursday in NY I need to see him put up at least another four. Mostly cause it's fun to see but also mostly cause I'll be there in person rocking my new Eichel golden sweater.

Is that 4 points for eichel tonight? Not. Shabby. Also I think the sharks had 15 seconds of possession that entire ot. Good comeback win sabres!

Off the top of my head I feel like scandella has one?

I'd like to see the power play do something today. It's gone cold and our pk isn't where it needs to be either. Depth won our last game. Let's see the big bois take it home tonight. Eichel with a hat trick. Hutton with a 3rd hatrick and dahlin gets one as well.

the veteran defenseman with zero playoff appearances?

Score a hatrrick and have a shutout in the same game.

6K on the mend

But imagine how many more goals we could have with an actual top-6 winger there? I am enjoying the run, but I think we can be better and as a fan base we deserve that. We also need our bunker-baby scapegoat. I am happy to pile on Sobotka until he is replaced.

NHL Player Ratings Explained Motivation Hockey stats have come a long way since the days of Plus-Minus and PIMs. A plethora of sophisticated evaluative metrics now exist for skaters and goaltenders alike, including Game Score and WAR. These new-age stats each individually represent vast improvements over mainstream norms, but even they are prone to blind spots. Inevitably, metrics developed by different people using different methods will each have their own unique strengths and weaknesses. We believe this diversity should be celebrated. Moreover, we see a tremendous opportunity for combination or “stacking” of these metrics. This principle is central to our Player Ratings. “Stacking is most effective when the base models are significantly different.” Method For more reasons than one, combining player metrics into a singular rating is not straightforward. Namely, we encounter the following hurdles: What “representation” of each statistic should be used? How can we combine metrics that may not resemble one another? What relative importance should be given to each metric? The first challenge can be demonstrated using Game Score as an example. Consider a player having appeared in 200 or more games over the span of 3 seasons. If you were asked to summarize this player’s performance to date using Game Score, what might your approach be? One option is to simply divide the player’s sum Game Score by 200 to obtain an average Game Score per Game (GS/GP). In doing so, we assign the same importance to games played 3 seasons ago as games played in the current or last season, which may not be optimal. Additionally, this approach may unfairly flatter players who are given more minutes. This is what we mean by using the best “representation” of a given statistic. Our approach to solving this problem was to develop a method of testing the “usefulness” of a particular statistic, then applying this procedure to a large array of different versions – effectively turning this into an optimization problem. Usefulness here was defined as follows: if measures of team roster strength (separated by player position) were taken using a given statistic, how successfully could we predict game outcomes using them in addition to basic predictors like home ice advantage and fatigue? This framework was used to select representations of each player metric. For Game Score, the optimal version was found to be a recency-weighted average of GS/GP over the previous 120 games. Another important consideration is how to curb results obtained in small samples such that they do not put forth an unfair representation of a player’s ability. Our solution is to regress a player’s metrics towards a known average in cases where they have not yet exceeded an arbitrary Games Played threshold. For a given parameter P and metric M, the mean value of M, mM is computed for all players whose cumulative games played are fewer than P. A regularized version of M, M’ is then calculated in cases where a player has played fewer games than P. M’ = (GP * M + (P – GP) * mM)/P In order to produce a single number from this set of components, we opted to use a linear combination: where Mi is the ith regularized metric and wi the corresponding weight. It is clear that this framework becomes totally dependent on the values given to the yet undefined weights w. Thankfully, we have already defined a method for expressing the “usefulness” of a metric. This method can be recycled in order to optimize the weights such that they produce the best-performing Player Rating. Results We think we’ve produced the best single-number representation of a player’s quality that currently exists publicly. Visit our Player Ratings page by clicking the button below and see what you think. So yeah, Sobotka is one of the worst forwards out there. Probably doesn't belong on the 2nd line.

What goes into determining that number? Fancy stats? Ugly stats? Stats that look so-so after a few ICE COLD LABATTS?

I don't think i'll ever understand what those line-up numbers mean. Why does Sobotka look like lava?

A year or so ago I was saying "this team will never be a contender while ERod is still on the roster not as a 13th forward" and then i eventually backed off when he started producing...I'm now swinging back to that line of thought. Mitts has had some chances but he needs to finish. I think once this line gets 1 or 2 in they're going to get clicking again and hopefully Sheary's return sparks that.

This will never happen. Vegas didn't make it to the finals by making deals with each team to take their terrible contracts. They're going to take the best player to suit their needs.

In my work addled brain I read the title of this a the sabres rolling out a line of : Jokiharju - Eiche from 3 years ago - McCabe and was VERY confused.

I'd like to see more 5v5 scoring, the power play isn't going to click every night. Put Jeff back on Jack's wing and give mojo Victor and Sam Skinner - Eichel - X Reinhart - Mojo - Oloffsson X = anybody but Sobotka and the larrygusposo line because why would you break that up?

I really hope the Sabres win tonight, I'm going to see Montreal host the Blues (first time seeing a game in MTL, super stoked) on Saturday and I'll probably rock a Sabres sweater, want to remind those frenchie jerks of that loss.

Me neither, he was quoted in the pre-season saying he wanted to be an elite goal scorer and would be shooting more, it feels like he's shooting less than usual and is forcing passes. He needs to use his shot and be less selfish (and also finish on f'n breakaways).

Somebody needs to stop Mantha.

Speaking of expansion, I hope Seattle either wins the cup in their first year or only wins like 10 games.

Personally I couldn't stand Housley as a person. His pressers were so deadening and he always came off as a complete turd-polisher. I couldn't see him inspiring an acorn, much less a hockey team and it's clear he lost the room last year.

What about Risto, Pilut and Sobotka (eating at much salary allowed) for Ehlers and....some forward from wpg on a small contract? Would people jump at that? This is purely theory and not based on a my rumor. Wpg needs more than 1 d and I think that could help both teams