Randall Flagg

I think, aside from some puck skill, if you switched the roles/minutes of Risto and McCabe the last 4 years, they'd each perform like the other has. And I think either of them can be that gritty bottom 4 defenseman that fans all harp on but play roles on cup teams a la Bortuzzo/Gunnarson/Edmundson last year.

Are they lumbering like the last couple years, or have some of those younger guys weaving their way into the lineup made them a faster team?

For a comparison, the 7th highest scoring center last year was Barkov. I'm not saying I'd trade Dahlin for Barkov, but if we were going to be left with the best D in the league anyway and had zero top six centers in our organization, in a more accurate mapping of the situation...it'd look like less egregious of an idea. Jones wasn't traded for nothing, and Johansen hasn't been a disappointment for the most part, and still that trade was bad. I'm no longer talking about Dahlin, just daydreaming about Jonessssssssssssss

Has anyone watched any Kings games? It seems like Quick has tanked them, but I wonder how they look otherwise. Jack's stat line against the Kings is identical to his stat line this season - 7 games, 4 goals, 6 assists, 10 points. He generally enjoys playing against Kopitar and Carter, which is weird because usually strong two-way guys are his kryptonite in Barkov, Bergeron etc (both his 4 point Boston games came with Bergeron out IIRC)

"There's a reason Jones was traded" is that reason because Ellis, Ekholm, prime Weber, Josi were all above him in the depth chart, and they got a 70+ point 1C in return straight up (in a season where the scoring was so low the leading scorer did not touch 90 points, so Johansen was the 7th best offensive center in the league) ? ? Dahlin WOULD have developed massively to be capable of winning several Norris trophies. Only the GOATs win multiple Norris trophies. He's not close to one right now, so I don't see how that would imply stagnating development. Don't forget, I'm comparing to what I think will have happened to Jones by the time his career is over, not what those garbage award voters (especially for the Norris, those guys don't have a ***** clue what they're doing) have said Jones has done to this point.

It's one of the most fun topics out there! And any team can use improvement in the cap era. The fun thing about the Sabres is that, while they might be good enough to get there on their own right now (too early to tell but obviously promising signs), one single move that meshes just right could knock us off of a precipice and firmly into "playoff team" status.

I think all professional scouts are better than the numbers. The issue is that professional scouts can't watch the thousands and thousands of hockey games to get all-encompassing views of every player out there, and so numbers become useful to look at to help increase the amount of information an organization has at their disposal.

And I'd be HAPPY with that result, in that the Sabres would have a Norris caliber franchise D for years. I wouldn't call it a maximization of Dahlin's pre-draft potential, but I wouldn't be upset either.

Probably, because I think even right now there are only 2-3 defenseman I'd take before him for a game right this second. Maybe only 1. And I doubt that is the case for most of the league And no, Jones wasn't better, but just like we never saw Dahlin's offense in Seth, we haven't seen Seth's cerebral, calm, safe defensive zone play from even his early years in Dahlin, so it's not as if they're equal on one end and Dahlin blows him out of the water on the other. That's what I was pointing out with the last sentence. There are very, very few defensemen of any age (including 19 yo Heiskanen last year) that I've seen with the consistent defensive zone gaffes Dahlin has had, and it ain't just me, since inkman and PA talk about it plenty. They don't really bother me all that much, because I value long-term play far more than highs and lows of single games, much less single shifts. But it's definitely still a thing and not unreasonable for inkman to feel the way he does

And Olofsson was benched for Vesey like five times now. Does that mean he's a worse player than Jimmy, or that Ralph believes he is? E-Rod has not been our worst forward right now, he's been fine, and even broaching the subject of having a "worst forward" after seven, or FOUR games for Evan, is nonsense and useless analysis. It's not a well-posed "ranking." TWENTY FIVE games was not enough last season to make the conclusions many fans made. FOUR is in la la land.

My view is that Seth Jones will end his career with 2-3 Norris Trophies. I stand by my view at the time that I will be very happy if Dahlin collects the same amount, and has the same type of career that I project from Seth Jones. I didn't say, nor am I saying here, that they ever were or should be viewed the same way at the same age. Jones has never shown the propensity for mind-melting gaffes that Dahlin does a couple times per period.

I just got done re-watching the Stars and Ducks games. The first thing I'm going to point out is that the number of teams that play tougher, more physical hockey than these two over the years can be confined to one typical human hand. The second thing is that the identity of the Mittelstadt line has been made clear. Three of its four players are strong transition players. It's what they do. They amassed only about 13-14 minutes 5v5 together in these two games, but were able to consistently generate positive strong transition plays as shown (and this is missing the Rodrigues partial breakaway, sprung by Casey): Coupled with Eichel and Johansson, we have three lines capable of generating chances on the rush reliably, and defensemen that can get them the puck. It's pretty neat. I know we want the goals to be there, but these guys are playing hockey that will make that happen sooner than later, especially if Sheary comes back. And they're playing seriously limited minutes, which exacerbates the lack of scoring. So many times even in these two games I re-watched, they did something good the second they got on the ice, to get an offensive zone faceoff, and Ralph (smartly) took them right off to give the Eichel line the faceoff in the offensive zone. So their lack of production is as much a usage thing as it is anything else. When you consider that Sheary and Rodrigues were both in the top 6 skaters in terms of ES production per minute played last season, I don't think that will be an issue for too long. It's only been 7 games for the team, and 4 for this line, in which the first 2 it was obvious that Rodrigues needed to get up to speed. But they're there now. I know we lost, but I don't really see a reason to jerk around any of them too much. So much of hockey is getting settled into your role, as I mentioned before with the Larsson and Girgensons example. This line has one and should be allowed to grow into it, with typical asterisks for internal competition and whatnot. The line was essentially sat for the last two periods last night, and jumbled up when allowed to play in the third briefly. I didn't understand the reason for it, as it led to alternating shifts between 9/90's lines a lot, and they were getting caved in playing on just a minute or two's rest. The reason I didn't understand it is that I didn't see anything egregious with these guys at all in re-watching the game, even though they're all kinda small and kinda weak for the games that Dallas and Anaheim bring. In fact, in both games, I didn't see anything alarming in the tape, and I watched and re-watched every single shift more than once. Which funnels into my ERod exasperation at this point, which has flared up in my GDT comments for tonight's game and last night's game. Guys, I legitimately have no idea what you're all talking about. He and his linemates were fine-to-good in each of these games. Rodrigues' "mistake" on the goal was less egregious than typical nhl DEFENSEMEN mistakes from the same position you'll see all season long. It was a split-second inability to tie up a guy from the LHD position for a RHD forward, and he was still draped on him anyway. And there were seven Sabres who made seven worse mistakes on the other goals against last night, from their actual, natural positions. It's hockey. It happens. I understand that Evan isn't great, and I don't argue that he is. But the sentiment that he has been awful these last two games? You have to show me, because I've seen them several times now, and his shifts probably 4 times each, and I simply didn't see it. It wasn't there. SHOW ME! Of course he was rusty in the first two, but in these most recent two I saw his typical strong transition game, smart positioning, and capable defensive stick that led to a full season of positive impacts on anything imaginable relative to teammates, which was also backed up by stuff you can see yourself on a shift-in-shift-out basis: I had time constraints in this video, so there are only a few clips, but the guy provides hours of smart, heady, nifty plays that ultimately add up to tilting the ice in the right direction and scoring a reasonable amount given the ice time handed to him (again, 5th among all skaters for them last year). His game literally hasn't changed this season, so I simply don't understand the gloating for giveaways, and the general "wow this guy is awful out there" I'm seeing all over the internet. Where is it? And we're only 4 games into the guy's season! I thought that, after 25 games absolutely burned some people, the tendency would be to be more cautious with declarative statements, and yet here we are after 7, and 4. Nuts! Show me the film! Anyway, steering this in the direction of the second video posted here...my entire summer's work was dedicated to watching off-puck players in the offensive zone and how they move to create space (or don't). It was clear that the Sabres had no idea what to do and where to go, and over long periods of time, this manifested in some of the worst offensive zone scoring chance metrics, and therefore some of the lowest goal totals, in the NHL. We saw our team doing stuff like this: or this: (referring just to one shift at a time when linking these.) Watch the forwards off the puck in these clips. They're stagnant, and only move as a reaction to following the puck from one side of the rink to the other, with little meaning to the motion. This is while other teams did stuff like this: The purposeful position-switching and off-puck rotation of players is designed to confuse defensemen and open up space, increasing the chances for generating scoring chances, and making your team better at offense over long periods of time. We had none of it last season. You know what I saw this third line doing in these games? Check it out yourself: Ladies and gents, it's identical to what these other teams were doing to us. Whatever it is, Ralph is showing them how to do it, and it's leading to extended possession and scoring chances. And our third line can do it! Look at Evan dice up the middle of the ice longitudinally like Kucherov's purpose was in the Tampa clips from the video, the way the other wingers defend, fill in, switch positions, and continue the storm-cell rotation. The line is fine, and might even be good. I'd love for Krueger to give them more offensive shifts, and up their ice time to ~14 minutes at ES per game. They'll start scoring when Vesey figures out how to finish, or Sheary comes back and can contribute to this hockey. In conclusion, our third line is fine, Mitts keeps growing slowly, everyone is out to lunch on Rodrigues until I see an actual analysis of any kind that either shows that his last year metrics and film were a mirage, or that he's a fundamentally different player this year, and Ralph may well be a damn good coach. It's all in the tape! And yes, I'm aware I reposted the same video eight times, I'm referring to the specific shifts linked in the video at different times.

Not by everyone! I said I'd love for him to have the same career for us that Seth Jones is going to put together for Columbus. I was taken behind the woodshed on that one Of course, I'm likely a bigger Jones fan than everyone

The coach himself says that's not how he coaches lines and makes decisions about who is going on the ice. He doesn't rank players or lines based on how "good" they are, and then decide to bench them when they're "not playing good," such that ice time is an adequate reflection at the end of a given game of player quality. Now, as my post mentioned, can you show me film of the problems? Because as I'm about to dump off in the 3rd line thread, I've re-watched the last two games and seen nothing to indicate what this growing consensus seems to be. Deferring to the fact that others have said so, and ice time, isn't convincing. Olofsson has sat for essentially entire third periods when we have the lead now - was he our worst players in those games? Dahlin was benched for over 9 minutes of a recent third period. Was he our worst player in that one?

I think we're pretty much in the same spot here, aside from Casey's 'sick hands' in any situation other than the shootout. They churn out soft-pass turnovers and muffin shots that roll to the goalie's pads far too often for me to call them anything but practice-hands just yet. I cannot recall an instance of his stickhandling look like anything that legit good NHL-stickhandlers can lay claim to, when not in the shootout. Maybe I just watch too much Tampa, Toronto, Philly, Kane, and McDavid in my down time. But if we're talking sick skills, there are a lot of players in there that set the bar exponentially higher than anything Casey has shown me, including players that could do it at 18, 19, even if overwhelmed in other areas of the game. But, he's growing as a HOCKEY player. So it doesn't bother me at all. And I'm going to put something together on Casey and his line in general, which have gotten the fewest minutes in these last two games. Which is good for the reasons you state re Casey's usage versus under Phil - and the results of which will likely lead to a bump in responsibility and ice time soon. I'll b r b

I've never learned a thing about hockey from hockey analysts, I just enjoy some of their gossip

So excited for Sunday. I love the fall. I googled it, it's some predictive metric ESPN developed. I lost interest before getting to the part about what it actually measures. I was reading about one predictive metric that the Bills are doing well in, over on TBD. Net yards per pass play, incorporating sacks, subtracted by the same number for your opponents against your defense. This does a good job predicting standings finishes, and the Bills are 6th.

Yeah, trade a big name for a good forward or just keep the depth. Which was not my stance in August, but that was before Scandella really actually did return to form.

I honestly missed that you had quoted two posts, which is why I was confused. Thanks for clearing it up! And me either, but considering that we saw it last year too, before Evan took the spot and never let it go around December, putting forth a completely solid season for any bottom six utility option in this league, and that Ralph has said he's taken everything perfectly well and is doing all the right things, I'm inclined to lean on track record and assume that will happen again given the opportunity. Combining the fact that he and Casey look good skating down the ice together, and Vesey's general meh-ness, I hope we don't break the line up so we can keep putting Vesey with Jack for 5 useless minutes at the end of every game when Sheary gets healthy. The level of Casey's actual in-game hockey talent is an argument I'd be happy to have, because I believe it's significantly lower than what other fans do, but in another setting cuz it's tangential to this current discussion ? but yeah, he's certainly better at stickhandling than Evan at the very least, if that's what you mean. NHL productivity both raw and relative to ice time, on-ice effectiveness via plays that translate over long periods of time to team-level results, and impact on these team metrics, from goals to the most obscure advanced stats around? It's a clean sweep to this point in actual NHL games, on a team that is indeed trying to win now too as well as develop for the future, and not by Mitts. Though I'm certainly not saying I'd bench Mitts or anything. It's pretty clear which Sabres forward has brought the least through 7 games, and it's neither 71 nor 37. But my compulsion to defend Evan is because, while not a traditional "whipping boy," he's the only player I've seen wide swaths of fans (not so much here, definitely on hf and twitter) downright WISH to fail spectacularly, ie GLOAT rather than MOAN when isolated plays don't go his way. It's strange, considering guys who skate like their hair is on fire every shift are normally endearing to fans. So I happily come to his defense any time his name comes up. Of course, I'm not accusing you of this behavior, moreso justifying the amount of words I'm willing to give a depth forward. One thing is for sure - Rodrigues isn't important enough for the future of the team to draw wide amounts of concern in either direction, and most importantly will not settle into a role effectively if not getting used more than every few games, and 5 minutes per game that he gets into. This is the same reason that Girgensons and Larsson were able to go from being so lost for years, to putting forth the defensive efforts we've seen the last 12 months. So at this point, I'd rather see him get moved than continue to point out that he can be and has been a more effective NHLer than what some guys in this lineup will likely have contributed once all 82 games are up. Because once attention has risen to this point, every puck jumping a stick becomes evidence a player sucks, and every shot on goal or completed pass becomes evidence they're good, and the quality of the hockey discussion around said player deteriorates. This is why I actively avoid trying to talk about my least favorite players in-game unless they do something good, because I'm so guilty of seeing a play die on Vlad's stick and going "SEE!" Which is why we're gonna trade Risto and Rodrigues and a 1st for Rakell

The encouraging thing about Dahlin's bad defense is that almost all of his bad defense involves using the body, be it on the boards or in front of the net. He's a wizard with reading passes and using his stick to intercept them, or using stickhandling to shield guys trying to take it from him. It's entirely possible that ALL he needs to stop being bad defensively is a stronger body, and a normal defensive skill trajectory that relies solely on practice he's already doing, and the passing of a lot of time.

So Vlad confirms that Ritchie was mad about the check he threw. If anyone missed it, it was a tiny reverse check with the elbow down, and Vlad is at least 4 inches shorter than Nick, so there was absolutely nothing wrong with the hit Ritchie is such a baby

Are you talking about the five shifts he played, in which he was a major part of three scoring chances on the rush? Does anyone have film of Rodrigues looking lost, besides having bad positioning for 0.2 seconds while playing left defense in favor of a left defenseman who was wandering in the neutral zone like an idiot? Because I spend so much time thinking I'm watching a different game from everyone else, and it may be a me problem, but that's why I spend so much time grabbing film for later use Dammit. Quick is a nightmare and I wish we were playing him. A snapshot of Quick tumbling down a mountain

The general lack of stuff like last night in this league no longer makes me sad. It's pretty damn irritating watching Dahlin's legs crumple into the boards awkwardly during hits that shouldn't happen, or Olofsson's head bounce off the dashboard for the same reason. I'm interested in winning hockey games, not hoping my guys can take their good guys out of said hockey games for equally long stretches of time with garbage hits

And what was even more egregious than that is when the camera cut to commercial, Vlad was on his hands and knees wiping blood off his face, and Ritchie comes in again from up top and suckers him right in the face