matter2003

Wasn't he the last helmetless player in the NHL? Always remember watching him on the Rangers the last year and wondering why he had no helmet. Actually looked it up and there were some guys without helmets into the early 90s, so I guess he was one of the last ones but not the last one.

I've posted about the goaltenders in other threads...in short, metrics wise other than UPL they have been brutal. Out of 75 goalies, none rank higher than 48th other than UPL who ranks 35 I believe, slightly below league average but with very respectable numbers. IMO, his biggest issue is rebound control where his metric is near the worst in the NHL(71st out of 75). His biggest chance for improving is to get better at that, which should happen as he matures, but the question is how much better can he becomes at that.

Hopium is not right I don't think. That means it is a false hope or hope with no reason for it, like sk many years with the Bills during the drought. There is real reason to be excited about this team moving forward with the glut of young talent they have ready to come up and the ones already here that should improve over the next few years.

This team is going to miss the playoffs again but they are definitely on the right track...they are fun to watch most nights, exciting, young, hungry, play for each other and are only going to get better. There is something to be excited about finally and I cannot wait for next season to start... Early prediction for next year? I think we are in the playoff hunt the last week of the season. Not predicting we will make it, but that would be a good next step for them.

The obvious was Eichel was a me first player who was the best player but a bad leader. He had to go for this team to have any success. He was here too long and had failed for too long to be able to be fixed. Same for Reinhart and Risto. Before getting the right people on the bus, you have to get the wrong ones off. And those three definitely needed to get off the bus or we would just keep spinning our wheels.

Tage is better for THIS team than Eichel...Eichel was not necessarily the problem but he damn sure wasn't part of the solution either.

Them boys...them boys are good right there 😃

1) Thompson 2) Only have 2 on the roster currently...Fitzgerald and Power. Since Power only has played a few games by default I would have to say Fitzgerald who has been capable. 3) Kyle Okposo or Jeff Skinner. Probably Skinner based on the depths to which he fell under Kreuger. Honorable Mention for Okposo setting new goal high of 20 wih the Sabres and needing 2 points to tie his best year as a Sabre point wise. 4) Vinny Hinostroza. Dude is all over the ice, a pest to other teams on the forecheck and can score when he gets his chances. 12 goals in 58 games, is probably good for 15-18 over a full season and 35-40 points. Really hope they resign him. 5) Tage Thompson. Don't think this is particularly close. Dude has become much watch TV with the puck on his stick in the offensive zone. 6) Rasmus Dahlin. Since Norris usually goes to the best offensive defenseman this is an easy one. Great turnaround year for him, excited to see how he develops further. I think he has a lot more to give. 7) UPL has to be the choice because the others have been nothing short of dreadful overall. Did a breakdown in another thread, but basically UPL is near league average metrics wise and had a respectable .917 SV% and 2.74 GAA. His issues is he is among the worst in the NHL at giving up rebounds, needs to work on that to take the next step, which will help all other areas, IMO. The others rank between 48 and 64th out of 75 qualifying goalies in goals allowed over average metrics combining for over 20 more goals than we should have given up over the year. So it's UPL by default. 8 ) Okposo. Dude has actually become a valuable player on the stat sheet this year and a key 2nd unit PP finisher instead of a slug. For the young kids, I would say Dahlin. He is showing a lot of promise that he will continue to improve. EDIT: Since I found out Samuelsson and Krebs are rookies I change #2 to Samuelsson. Krebs is good but Samuelsson has solidified the backend and is tracking towards being a very solid player for us.

IMO if UPL can improve on rebound control where he is 71st out of 75 ranked goalies, I think it will go a long way to helping in other areas. Cannot give up rebounds at the clip he was giving them up at and be a successful NHL goalie long term. Save percentage and GAA were both very respectable at .917 and 2.74 but his record was only 2-5-2

He was far and away the best goalie we had in his stint up here although still slightly below average based on metrics and among worst in the NHL in giving up rebounds. If he can improve that area of his game he will likely make a very big improvement in both save percentage and GAA as there will be less point blank chances where he is out of position. The other goalies we have are basically below replacement level, ranking 44th or lower out of 75 goalies in metrics like expected goals allowed below average and goals saved above average. See my post up thread for talk about this in more detail.

Can we get someone that isn't in their 40s?

The county only looked for costs over the next 5 years and it did not include replacement of the upper deck due to structural issues. If you think they are doing that for a small amount of money as they are saying then I've got a bridge to sell you.

I'm not a structural engineer but the report the Bills paid for by actual structural engineers was released and is freely available to the public. They basically would have to rip out the entire upper half of the stadium, rebuild the foundation it sits on and then build it back as the supports it is sitting on starting to crumble. also have leaks throughout the stadium that are causing more structural damage as time goes on that are not easy or inexpensive to fix. Perhaps you should go read the report(like I did) instead of spitballing your uneducated opinion about the issues the stadium is facing.

He has 20 now after scoring 2 the other night.

Reinhart is a much more complete player. VO is only a sniper, but a potential 20-30 goal scorer for the next 5 years. Probably would have easily had 25 goals had he not been injured for a good part of the year, even after he came back to play it took several weeks for him to regain his shot. VO probably is a max 55-60 point player, but he has had some nice passes lately to set teammates up, so he has a little more than only a sniper but he is definitely a defensive liability still. I think Reinhart has more points potential but VO is a better pure goal scorer. His shot on the PP is lethal...reminds me a little of Kotalik in that regards, sans the shootout wizardry

Campbell has been brutal for Toronto lately, definitely don't want him.

Especially with the goalie injuries and playing 5th/6th string goalies for a number of games. Tuch and Krebs have helped tremendously in that area as has Middlestadt coming back from a lengthy injury.

UPL should help, he was by far the best goalie stat wise on the team although he had a small sample size. Posted a very respectable .917 Save Percentage and 2.74 GAA. Record was only 2-5-2 however. The others have been mostly bad. Tokarski, Dell and Anderson rank 46th, 48th and 59th out of 69 goalies ranked in Goals Saved Above Average. In short, the 3 have combined to allow more than 20 goals over what an average goalie would have allowed. In comparison, Shesterkin from the Rangers leads the league in allowing 47 fewer goals than the average goalie would allow. In Goals Saved Above Expected per 60 minutes, with goalies who have at least 9 games played, UPL ranks 35th at -0.048 which is the best Sabre. Tokarski is 55th at -.306, Anderson is 57th at -.319 and Dell is 61st at -.467 out of 75 qualifying goalies. Clearly, no matter what way you slice it, UPL is far and away the best goalie of the bunch but even he was slightly worse than what would be expected. The others give up an extra goal once every 3ish games or so than what they should have. Part of this issue is the Sabres goalies are very bad at allowing more rebounds than expected, Anderson being the best but still well below average ranking 44th. Tokarski, Dell and UPL are 57th, 60th and 71st in this metric. UPL can kind of be expected as he is young and still honing his craft. I would expect him to improve in this area, which should lead to improvements in other areas. We definitely need better. Imagine if we had a goalie who actually HELPED in this department rather than hurt us. Probably the biggest need of the offseason. The Sabres should do whatever they need to do to improve that area. It is the weak link holding back even better progress from this group.

Oh...fair point. I was just counting games after the all star break

Well, I think he is counting Overtime/Shootout losses as regular losses, coming up with a 17-21 record. Technically he is correct, but since you get points for OT/SO losses, having more regulation wins than losses means you are assured more than half the points.

So far the second half of the season the Sabres are 17-17-4(38 points) after starting 12-21-7(31 points). Exciting to see the improvement this year under Granato from the start of the year to the end of the year. A lot of injuries to start with, especially to goalies hurt a lot. Getting Tuch and Krebs from Vegas in the Eichel trade was a big help as well. They have played well since coming over. With 3 of the last 4 against non-playoff teams, the Sabres have a good shot to finish the last half of the year with a winning record. Would be nice to see them post a 20-17-5(45 points) finish to the year. Can't remember the last time a Sabres team turned it on during the last half of the year instead of falling apart. Exciting and can't wait to head into next year with some upgrades in Quinn and Paterka likely being here full time. Sabres goaltending has been mostly awful this year, with Anderson, Tokarski and Dell among the worst in the NHL at Goals Saved Above Average, ranking 46th, 48th and 59th out of 69 goalies they have the metrics for. UPL likely would have been good in this but he doesn't have enough games to qualify. Combined, those 3 have given up 20 more goals than what would be expected over the course of the year. Can't help to think how many extra wins they could have had with even average goaltending from those 3 in this area.

Simple answer. Yes.

Have you lost your mind? There is literally EVERYTHING wrong with the stadium(Bills) in terms of structural issues, some of which would cost tens or hundreds of mullions to properly address. Makes no sense to try and renovate a stadium with those type of structural issues that are going to cost 2/3 as much as a new stadium would be.

Power says: I'm the man, I'm the man, I'm the man, I'm the man... Yes I am, yes I am, yes I aaaaammm...

The first half of the season and second half of the season were night and day. The team had a lot of learning to do, had ridiculous injuries, especially with the goalies, and we're missing Tuch and Krebs until after the Eichel trade. Since the All star break this team is 15-15-3. That includes a 6 game losing streak right after the break also. Since March they have a winning record and have played a murderers row of talented teams also, holding their own in many of those games and winning their fair share. The future is very bright. IMHO, if this team played like it did the second half of the year from the start we would be in a playoff race still. The future is so bright for them, just need a few more pieces, excited for Quinn and Paterka next year and a better second option in goal than Tokarski. In regards to Eichel, Reinhart, Risto, etc...they were not leaders who wanted to actually change things here...once they saw things weren't going to be great from the start, they basically just accepted the losing and that was more of an issue than anything else. There is a reason why Eichel's first year was the highest point total they had while he was here. If you want to change the culture of a team and get everyone to buy into turning it around it takes the best players to buy in and lead by example at the very least and a lot of hard work to develop better habits. They clearly were not going to be part of that process and hence had to be moved. IMHO once you are part of losing for a long period of time somewhere it changes you mentally. You become accepting of it regardless of what you normally are like. I just feel that you have to move those players 95% of the time before you can actually start to win because they are jaded and will have a very negative effect on the rest of the guys there because they will be a constant source of negativity and talking about how things are never going to change or have the woe is me attitude. Gotta start fresh with players who haven't experienced it like that before they get ruined. Obviously there are exceptions like Girgensons and Okposo who still bring the work ethic and positivity every night...they are different but the majority of players who have lost year after year in one place need to get moved to be able to have a truly fresh start and change things . Look at what the Bills did the first year...they basically cleaned house and got rid of what were considered the best players on the team. Dareus, Watkins, Gilmore, Woods, Darby, etc.. Reading a management book that talked about how to turn things around at places that has been chronically underperforming it talked about the most important thing was before even trying to start to change things you had to get the wrong people off the bus before getting the right people on the bus. I was known as something of a "fix it" person when I was in retail management, and that was one of the first things I did when I got to a new store. I talked in depth to every employee both as a group and individually. It was easy to see which employees were excited for things to get better and change and wanted to be a part of it and which ones were just jaded and negative about the losing they had done and were happy to continue that way . Those people HAD to go, didn't matter how good they were at what they did. This is exactly what the Bills did the first year, creating an NFL record 71 million in dead cap space the following year to do it, but they made the playoffs for the first time in 17 years the first season Beane and McDermott were here by removing good players who were not going to be a part of the solution. Most media members and a lot of fans thought we were tanking. But if you are not going to be a part of the solution and change you are going to be a part of the problem. Regardless of talent level, if they are going to be an impediment to change they have to go. Sabres are on the right path now for the first time in a decade and this team will be one of the better teams in the NHL within 2-3 years IMHO.