matter2003

This should be Tage's new goal song.

What if this isn't an outlier pace for Thompson anymore?

Too bad we didn't have Greg Bauch there for Play By Play last night...

Clague has the best CF% on the team, FWIW

They aren't mediocre. They are actually really f**king good. As long as Samuelsson plays. Mediocre teams don't lead the league in scoring. Ever. I would much, much rather have an elite offensive team that needs to shore up defensively than the other way around...a defensive team that struggles to score. Unlike those teams that were trash analytically(bottom 5 team) and it was expected they would fall back down because they simply were not good teams and had a lot of fluky/lucky OT wins that were not sustainable, this one is REALLY good analytically. A top 6-7 team in the NHL by those metrics. By the same token, you should expect this team to start moving up the standings. Or does it only work one way with you?

Nope...Thompson is 2nd most all time for a Sabre in the first 26 games of a season---pretty elite company: LaFontaine: 48 points(1993 season) Thomspon: 40 points Perreault: 39 points Perreault: 38 points Turgeon/Perreault: 37 points

Sabres have scored 5+ goals 10 times now this year. In other words in nearly 40% of their games, they get to at least 5 goals...if that isn't best in the NHL, it has to be top 3. They have scored 4+ goals 16 times this year, or 61.5% of games. That is absurd. But now the question becomes...how much is their free-wheeling style leading to lots of goals against? And could they be better being slightly less free-wheeling and more defensively responsible?

1) I don't think so. Just keep winning more. 2) It depends. Mostly on Samuelsson being healthy. For whatever reason he seems to be the key for them.

Anderson has been pretty good this year...statistically and analytically for this team, so I don't agree with that...although he likely can't play more than 25 games.

I am sure based on Tage's comments postgame that he didn't care and was happy to go along with getting a breather to be fresher for the next game...Tage seems to be laser focused on getting this team to where they need to be in the standings rather than any individual achievements. He views those individual achievements as a means to that end, but in a game with a massive lead, he likely was happy to get some rest and get ready for the next game.

Not really. He seems to just be trying too hard because it doesn't come naturally to him. He's barely listenable at times.

Tage F**king Thompson!

Or analytics say we are a lot better than most here think and will start picking up more points. One of the two.

Sabres have played at a 119.8 point pace with Samuelsson in the lineup(9-3-1)

Both him and Adams admitted that with a young team like this, they don't have the depth to sustain multiple injuries over long periods of time like some other teams could. Said "we just aren't there yet" to be able to do it...thought that was pretty awesome they didn't hide from it and admitted what most of us could have figured out by watching them play.

That has nothing to do with him being a superstar. Logically you are making zero sense to anyone but yourself. Logic doesn't appear to be his strong suit.

For sure...it just seems that sometimes this team tends to play down to their competition level. Hopefully with Samuelsson back in the lineup they keep things rolling. He is definitely a major key for them. The difference in their record with and without him in the lineup over the past season and a half is astonishing. Sabres are 9-3-1 with him this year and 3-10 without him.

The 4-1 loss to Arizona earlier in the year when literally every goal they scored was a random deflection off a Sabre player(Cozens I think had more than 1) didn't seem too easy for them.

If Samuelsson stays healthy the rest of the way, they actually might be. They are 9-3-1 in the games he has played this year and 3-10 without him. In the games with him, they play at a 119 point pace.

Basically is the Sabres version of Josh Allen...obviously different personalities, but both sort of "came out of nowhere"

12 years of trauma is hard to let go of for some people...it's become their default coping mechanism and part of their persona now.