Randall Flagg

He may be referring to having so many defensemen while having such bad forwards that you have to risk losing a guy tailor-made for your system as 7D, giving the best performance in that role we've seen since ... ? Not the vacuum act of waiving John Gilmour by itself. If he were to be gone, would you be shocked to be lamenting the 7D situation at some point before the season is over? If it were to turn into Casey Nelson again, after a trade and another Bogo injury or something?

I'm not sure how Sabres players feel, but Bennett is a -4 against us so rather than being scared when he steps on the ice, I get excited because there's a good chance we may just score a goal

For the most part, they ARE their value to the team though. None of these players are adding any significant amount less than their ideal value to the Sabres' standings position - Let's pretend you could find out that Montour contributed 4 more points than replacement level to Anaheim. He's doing that here too. Just because that 4 points means more when you're going from 88-92 than it does going from 74-78, doesn't remove any of the value of that player, because the difference in these two cases has nothing to do with the players we're referring to in the first place. So if you have players that move the needle in the positive direction relative to the same team without him, which happens in the case of the solid-to-good players we're talking about here, you shouldn't be interested in moving them unless a clear upgrade is available And fans liking the player and outlining this position doesn't constitute over-valuing

Yeah I'll pick on Tim when Jason can match his worst non-tank season for the first time

Sure he did. Replace him with a league average player, or worse, and you knock 5-10 points off of any of those seasons. Just because the rest of the team was up to snuff, doesn't mean you should be freed of any guilt in tossing the few parts of the roster that are functional It's still not smart unless there's a clear upgrade available, which nobody who likes Montour would disagree with This is why for months before the ROR trade I was adamant that the only acceptable one would be for a single player that's as good or better, or for two players a shade worse but still good, and in positions of need

Any time you can add a good NHL defenseman to your team, it's a valuable addition. Lost in the struggle of this season is the fact that our transition game is worlds better than it was a few seasons ago, and we've been consistently in the top half of the league in all defensive metrics, even score adjusted, since Phil got here basically. That stuff isn't a given and hasn't always been the case, and it's because of players like Brandon. Now our attention has shifted entirely to a different area of the roster because of it. In fixing that different area, you WILL see those skills leveraged more often. You already have - I'm pretty sure he has more than double the goal total of any other Sabre D since he was traded here. And that's true of all skaters, so let me know when we're not making that trade because we value Montour too much

1.) I'd put money on those being among the best metrics of any skater on Randy Carlyle's 2018-19 Ducks. 2.) Those are completely average metrics for a sample size equivalent to 2 full NHL games this season. RAPM charts are at their peak in uselessness when a.) the sample size is under ~500 minutes b.) players fall within +/- 1 STDV. Montour's Sabre chart falls under both of those categories. He's a puck moving defenseman who is playing in a system that discourages the defenseman carry past the red line and is handing pucks off to the worst depth forwards in the league, so we aren't seeing what he can be on a good team, but there are zero big issues with his game and a whole lot there to unlock, which is why his coach fed him minutes in a playoff run that was as good as anything we've seen since 99 just two years ago

In your view, what is the board's claim?

Cale Makar has 25 points in 22 games.

Do you remember that team? There was no ***** way he was coming back with an obviously interested San Jose on the radar. Montour is good at hockey and has played significant minutes on a team that was a couple wins shy of a Stanley Cup appearance just a couple seasons ago. If we were good it would be more obvious

I forgive him for that one because Kane was never coming back, and they reportedly only had one serious offer on him, and it came from SJ right at the deadline. And we got a first out of it.

Dahlin has been solid since the third period benching.

Sam Bennett is the right Sam in the same way that Josh Rosen is the right Josh

If you ever hit this point with a GM you have to fire them on the spot, no? Jason has made some weird trades but he's only REALLY lost one.

So he hasn't appeared to improve on last season? If this contract for that player comes aboard, then, I am done with Jason.

A reminder to all, Kyle Turris has 5 years left (including this year) at $6 mil per.

I dunno! This year I've watched the least hockey of any kind since 2005-06, when I didn't have cable or the internet. All of my views on players are from last season still. Thank you Sabres!

You should blame Jimmy Vesey for Jimmy Vesey's lack of offensive...anything. It's not Jack's fault Jimmy couldn't handle his cross-ice feed Or Evan's shorthanded feed to spring him on a mini breakaway Or ANY of the 2 on 1s he's been on this year, a higher number than any other Sabre, none of which led to a goal When he was brought here by our GM who has no idea how to look for depth scorers aside from checking out the "ES Goal" column on hockey reference, to do exactly what nobody is doing so far on this team, provide depth scoring

the initial establishment of his source was when he correctly called not only the Bylsma firing but the Murray one as well. Since then I believe the answer is no.

That's because he's not lifting them ?

I'm not crowning them cup champs, I'm describing the game that just ended in the game day thread

This is true too. My point is that they played pretty solid hockey tonight Again they literally just got done with a 9-2-1 month with the same roster

They won more than they lost for an entire month, by a lot, just this season. Bad teams are capable of going through good stretches in the NHL. I don't disagree with the ultimate conclusion, but a month of that play with this team and they'll come out 3 games above regular .500

I think it'd be claiming moral victories to feel good about the loss because they play well. I don't think it's a moral victory to be encouraged by their play, though, because of the fact that if they bring that game the next month they'll win more than they lose.

McCabe killed this game with such a dumb play against a team with such a lethal power play.