matter2003

Not exactly true, Montour is a positive relative Corsi For player in every year except his rookie year. What's more impressive is that he has done it even the last 2 years with Anaheim where he had more defensive zone starts than offensive zone starts. Risto is mostly a terrible possession driver while Montour is a positive possession driver.

I'm not sure...my guess is no.

Corsi = Shots + Blocks + Misses CF = Corsi For(the amount of Shots + Blocks + Misses his team had when he was on the ice on the opposing team) CA = Corsi Against(the amount of Shots+Blocks+Misses his team had against when he was on the ice) CF% = CF/(CF+CA) * 100. Above 50% is good..it means your team was controlling the puck more than half the time when this player was on the ice CF% Rel = Relative Corsi...how good his CF% was versus the other players on his team...the more positive this number, the more he was better than other players on the team...the more negative this number, the more he was worse. For comparison, here is Risto's:

Actually, yes. Yes they do:

Based on what? All metrics indicate he is a 2nd-pairing defenseman. Credit for what? Allowing the other teams to badly outshoot us when they are on the ice? Risto is much worse than Bogo in this category.

Nylander has the best Corsi on the team helping to drive possession and chances...small sample size but the Sabres are DYING for a guy to help in this department...

The hype with Risto and the stats and advanced metrics just seriously disagree with each other. Risto is a terrible possession driver, and always has been. The team gets badly outshot with him on the ice versus him off the ice. His Corsi this year is 47.5% which is 3% above his career average of 44.5%, and his relative Corsi is -2.9% meaning the team is better at chances for versus chances against when he is NOT on the ice. He is a -39 this year and -141 for his career. He also seems to have these mental lapses a few times a game where he is just standing around while his player gets great opportunities right by the net...then he of course goes and shoves the guy in the face or gets physical...how about you do that PRIOR to him getting a great shot or scoring?? You know, actually prevent the chance in the first place?? What makes it even worse is that Risto's Expected +/- is -8.5, meaning he is far far underperforming what a "league average" player would be doing given his usage and opponent chances. The narrative is that he is going to be/is a 1st line pairing defenseman that eats minutes. Well he is a first line pairing defenseman that eats minutes but the results are terrible when he is out there. In comparison, Dahlin as a rookie is only -7 and has a Corsi of 52.5%, and a relative Cosi of 5.1% which means the Sabres generate more chances when he is on the ice than they give up, and the relative Corsi means they generate 5.2% better at this when he is on the ice versus when he is of the ice. Surprisingly Alexander Nylander is leading all Sabres in relative Corsi at 7.9%...I know its a small sample size but that is a very promising start...the guy helps the Sabres generate far more chances when he is on the ice than when he is not. Montour is 2nd at 6.6% and then Dahlin is 3rd at 5.1%. What I find amusing is the defensemen the Sabres like(d) sitting are the ones who help with the chances for/chances against(relative Corsi)...Tennyson, Beaulieu, Nelson, Pilut... The only D worse than Risto in this category are Guhle(-4.9%), Scandella(-5.3%) and Hunwick(-5.4%). Only Scandella is a regular player on the D of these 3. Even worse is that Housley loves playing Sobotka and he is the worst Relative Corsi(besides Remi Elie who is a bit player at best and is off the team now) on the team, meaning the Sabres get outchanced worse when he is on the ice than any other player(-6.6%), meaning when Housley puts him on the ice he is basically TERRIBLE at doing what he is supposed to be doing...namely limiting scoring chances by the other team. Housley's coaching decisions and usage of players is sometimes mind numbing.... Either way JBots should look into dumping Risto who soe team is going to love his upside potential of being a regular 40 point guy who can play big minutes and I'm sure they will believe they can "fix" his defensive problems...well, let them try it and get us a top 6 forward for him...he is still relatively young and will have value considering he is a good contract.

How about they simply win in regulation?

We have won 31 games, 13 of them have come in OT or SO, comprising 42% of our wins. Has any team won a lower percentage of their games in regulation than the Sabres? It's kind of sad...

Wow..the franchise record streak is over!

I just want to see how much time the Sabres add to their already franchise record goal drought....

Howard Simon tweeted the Sabres now passed the 3 game shutout stretch of 180 minutes set last year, which prior to tonight was the only time the Sabres had been shutout in 3 straight games, thereby also making it the franchise record for longest goal drought. Well tonight we cruised right past it and now stand at 197 minutes... This team continues to find stunning new ways to be abysmal...that's pretty much the only thing they have succeeded in routinely over the past 8 years.

This team just ***** sucks. No goal scoring. Let in soft goals too often. Everything changes except the results... How long can this team be this bad??

My God...did Hutton just channel Robin Lehner for that shootout?? That was awful

The goaltending largely was why we were leading the NHL through the end of November and largely is the reason why we have been dreadfull the past 3 months.

He didn't have as many friends in low places as he thought apparently...

But look at how many blatantly bad turnovers this team makes that gives the other team point blank scoring chances in situations where the Sabres have the puck and the goalie has no reason to think they are in any danger...I mean a tape to tape pass directly onto the other team's forward's stick while the D man is alone down beneath the red line is staple of this team over the past 3 months...realistically I think the putrid turnovers in our own zone leading to wide open chances for the other team likely explains most if not ALL of the poor 5 v 5 save percentage

3. Gilbert Perreault was his hero (*sniff)

I don't either, except against the Sabres

I don't get it...I look at that team and see middle of the pack talent and a lot of aging players...whatever they have the Sabres players need to learn how to get.

Who knows...maybe raise them? It's not like our D we had in there wasn't giving up glorious scoring chances every game like they are going out of style...

Guess we get to see someone else step in and play for McCabe...Nelson??

I think the same thing with coordinators in football can be said for assistant coaches in hockey. You can be a great coordinator but make a poor head coach. Housley was a great assistant coach but doesn't seem to be a good head coach. I don't know what the answer is but he clearly doesn't either, and that is a problem.

When is this team going to stop letting in disgusting goals?

All I can think about when watching the Sabres go from first to wherever they end up near the bottom is: