matter2003

You honestly think Zemgus would be putting up 90 points? C'mon man...let's be real...nobody in the history of the NHL is an 18 point player on one team and a 90 point player on another...that's the dumbest thing I've heard in a long time.

It wasn't always like this...for about 7 years or so the Sabres did VERY well finding guys like this: Pominville and Roy both in the 2nd round in 2001(Pominville over 700 points for his career and Roy over 500), Stafford in 2004(over 400 points), Afinigenov in 1997(395 points), MacArthur in 2003, Kotalik in 1998... But since 2010? Zemgus Girgensons might be the best...and that is a pretty terrible draft record over a 9 year period...that you couldn't even find ONE guy to contribute outside the top 10 players drafted each year...

On the instigators, Craig Rivet said he is the real deal and doesn't care if its only 1 game...

I mean just look at some of the players in the league on other teams who have scored more than 70+ points that were drafted in the mid/late first rounds or after... Matthew Barzal, Alex DeBrincat, David Pastrnak, Dylan Larkin, Kyle Connor, Brock Boeser, Sebastian Aho, Max Domi, Brayden Point(3rd round!), Jake Guentzel(3rd round!), Mark Stone(6th round!) etc... I am sure i am missing some and there are a lot of others who are in the 17-25 goal range with 45-60 points...like Travis Konecny, Jakob Vrana, Alex Tuch, JT Miller, Phillip Danault etc who are never going to be stars but are fairly good players who will chip in with 45+ points over a season... It seems all the Sabres do is draft guys like Zemgus Girgensons, Mikail Grigorenko, Brendan Lemieux, Joel Armia, JT Compher,(who might be the best forward of the bunch with 16 goals and 32 points this year) or Defenseman that never pan out...other than Jake McCabe who i think is a solid 2nd pair Dman...but that's really about it...no 40+ point players and a bunch of junk they traded away... Just so frustrating to see these other teams draft these studs/good players outside of the top of the draft but the Sabres never can seem to find them...where does the fault lie? Scouting? Coaching? Playing style? When can we actually find a guy who can play that isn't picked in the top 3?? I mean we are all excited about Reinhart and Eichel but these teams are finding guys in the mid/late first rounds who are putting up more points than either of them...then you have Leon Draisatl who just scored his 100th point and 47th goal last night... Listening to the Instigators this morning and Rivet was very high on Olafsson even though it was 1 game...said he can play and he will make the team and contribute next year...I hope so, because we need someone that can score more than 18 points in 80 games from players drafted there...

This team blows...how much longer before Housley gets canned?

Unbelievable..Sabres should have won this game 5-1.

UB Women won Quarters 2-4, just a shame they lost Q1 by 12 points or they would be winning

UB looking completely overmatched today...they got eviscerated...

I think pretty much any Joe Schmo off the street or any poster on this message board could have managed to win 13 of the last 49 games like Housley has...its an utter disgrace what he has done to this team.

Let's hire Gene Sterratore as coach...I mean he seems to do everything else...Rules analyst for the NFL broadcasts, now he is in the NCAA Tournament as a Rules Analyst...why not Hockey Coach..could he do worse with this team than what we have had??

I think the question becomes how closd to 100% of what a player has to offer is the coach able to get from him on a consistent basis, and how often is he able to get the entire team to give it on a nightly basis. It does no good if the coach can get 5 players to Give him 100% of what they have to offer in a game if the other players are giving him 50%. It would be better if he could figure out a way to get the whole team to give him 75% than a few players giving max effort and the rest half effort. And this is where Housley seems to fail. To be a successful head coach you need to be able to get at least 80% of what a player has to give each game consistently, with closer to 90-95% for long stretches. This is why some coaches will make the playoffs with the same roster another coach has near the bottom of the league. Housley consistently gets less than what he should from his players ability, which is not the sign of a good coach. This team woukd be in the playoffs or within 2-3 points of the playoffs with at least 10 other coaches in the league in my opinion. Thats why Housley needs to go, he is never going to get the best out of what he has.

Moulsson and Okposo come to mind...

I'm just sick and tired of watching the same garbage for 5 years...teams have gone from being good to bad to good again in that time and we still cant figure out how to stop turning the puck over in our own end.

What other team makes the same stupid mistakes eveey game, 5-10 times a game? Its like they never have been coached to stop doing it. Its just utterly mind boggling...like its their goal.to set up the other team with prime scoring chances 5-10 times a game...I mean what other team does this stupid stuff? This has to be the dumbest team in the NHL...they never learn from their mistakes...they keep making the same ones every game. 70+ games and they STILL do the same idiotic things?? If the coach can't figure out how to teach them anything then why is he coaching the team? They are absolutely clueless in their own end. Housley has to go...when your players are still making the same mistakes in game 72 aa they are in game 1 that is garbage coaching. That should NEVER happen.

Ok...I am on board with this. He has no answers...the team is in disarray...they are trending back towards worse team in the NHL status after keading thr NHL in points late in November...its inexfuseable.

I'm guessing no because it would require an almost mind boggling collapse of epic proportions and an equally inept coaching job for a team to fall that far... The Sabres have managed to accompliah this in under 4 months...this team is a joke...the coaching staff is a joke and JBotts better start cleaning house at the end of the year. Tired of watching this complete defensive zone ineptitude year after year...they Give the puck away so often in their own end you'd think they are being coached to do it...its a complete joke show. This crap has got to end. Its not good enough and giving more time to a coach who clearly has no answers and has created far more problems than he has fixed is not good enough either. Watching this team play is just utterly maddening...it makes your blood boil to see the stupid ways they lose games game after game. The same dumb mistakes. Over and over again the entire year. How many games into a season is fair not to expect the same mental breakdown?? How many games Can you keep doing the same stupid play and givign the other team 5-7 prime scoring chances they should never have gotten? Is this team the dumbest team in the NHL? I mean I don't know...I think if the coach points out the same mistake over and over again every game that I'm making,maybe after a few games Of actually learn from it? How many games is fair? 5 games? 10 games? 20 games? 50 games? Nope...not this team...its been 70+ games and the same idiotic Bantam level mistakes are being made...just give the puck away with reckless abandon in our own end like its their goal to set up the other team with point blank scoring chances. I just can't take this anymore...then you have to listen to the coach talk about how you can't fault their effort after every game...well who cares?? The thing that matters is results. When you make it hard on yourself game and game by making absolute boneheaded rookie mistakes 5 times a game, you are giving yourself almost NO chance to win. How about figuring about a way to stop doing this?? It just shouldn't be that hard..what other team does this?? None that I see...its been going on 5 years here now...when can we expect this team to get its collective head out of their ***** and play smart hockey??

This team just sucks...my God can the season just end after tonight's game?

Umm...what the hell just happened there...this is like the stuff that usually happens TO us, not for us... two goals in like a minute and a half??

Nylander is really looking like he might be a quality player for us...leads the team in Corsi and is getting points and goals...

They have too many players who were SUPPOSED to be good on big contracts but aren't...

Honest to God how many times can the Sabres play an unbelievably terrible 2nd period?? This is just a clinic on how NOT to play Hockey...just absolutely embarrassing...like they are a bunch of Pee-Wee or Bantam players out there...Housley hasn't been able to fix this all year long? I mean at some point, the coach needs to be able to figure out how to fix the issue or the GM needs to find someone who can.

UB is whooping ass just like last year in the first round....guess Arizona teams should avoid us in the first round...

Alice? Alice? Who the F is Alice?? Oh wait....nevermind...

Makes sense since Hedman is already established as one of the best defensemen in the NHL and Dahlin is perhaps regarded as a future best defenseman in the NHL, with both being from Sweden.

Well, here is the problem with this argument. Even when controlling for Offensive zone versus Defensive Zone starts, Risto is not good in comparison to other NHL defensemen, ranking 47th(-2.9% Relative Corsi For %) of 88 Dmen in the NHL who have Defensive Zone Start % of 52% or higher and have played more than 25 games this season. So you might argue it's because the Sabres are a bad team. Except about 15-20 players ahead of him are on bad teams as well. You then might argue it's because he is young, only 24 years old. Except the #1 Dman in relative Corsi For % for Defensemen who have high D Zone Start % and have played more than 25 games is only 21(Filip Hronek). He also plays for Detroit, a team much worse than us. Again, about 15-20 Dmen ahead of him are 24 or younger. Some of these players play for bad teams as well such as New Jersey, Detroit, NYR, and Los Angeles. You then might argue it's because he plays so many minutes. Except 25 Dmen ahead of him play 20+ minutes a night as well. When you factor in all positions(not including goalies obviously) who have played more than 25 games with 52% or higher defensive zone starts, Risto comes in 152nd out of 248. Evan Rodriguez, who has over 60% defensive zone starts, 6% higher than Risto's 54% is a +1.9% Relative Corsi For%. Zemgus and Larsson, who both are in the mid 60% for Defensive Zone Start % are -0.7 and -1.0 respectively which is fairly good considering they are 10-12% higher than Risto in defensive zone start percentage and are still much higher than him. Basically there are no real excuses left to give for why Risto sucks so bad in terms of possession metrics. He just sucks at this, period. No matter how you slice it or how you want to try and find "yeah buts", there are really none to be found.