mjd1001

I never compared them. I was just saying that Skinner DOES come away with some.

Dahlin actually ended up with LESS than 28 minutes, and that was with OT. Practically a day off for him! All 6 D-men did get decent ice time. I think everyone was above 16 minutes....normally you have one guy with 10 minutes or less. Up front, some interesting things with ice time...Peterka and Benson both only around 12 minutes total, Krebs with just over 10 minutes....while Robinson had 15.5 and Girgensons ahd 14.5 minutes.

I've Skinner more than a few times come away with a puck from a battle on the boards. It usually has nothing to do with him being physical, rather coming to an existing battle and using his hands/stickwork to come away with the puck. Its not that impressive, but he does get SOME loose pucks/pucks from battles along the boards.

Ok, Quality starts for a goalie. From what I can tell a goalie is awarded a quality start IF you have a save percentage in a game above league average for the year, OR you allow 2 goals or less. With that game, I beleive UPL now has the best percentage of quality starts this year (passing Hellebuyck tonight), for 1st in the league in QS percentage.

Trying to look positively at how they are playing since January 1 of this year: -22 games. 13 wins. 9 losses. 6 of those 9 losses by one goal or were 1 goal games until an empty net allowed. In 22 games this calendar year, they have only 3 total games where they were down by more than one goal entering the final few minutes.

I think so. OT goals yes, shootout goals no. At least that is what I thought it used to be.

Well, yeah he can be dry at times and he still doesn't show emotion on all goals scored. But the Carolina game, I thought he was really good. Maybe he just needs a good team playing a good game to call.

He doesn't bother me anymore. Some of the last few games, I thought he was really good.

For me its more about keeping Cozens on the wing, where he seems much better. I have complained and lamented all year long about how bad he has played, but he actually looks good on that Mitts/Greenway line, especially when he spends more time on wing when there. Maybe its a matchup thing?

As far as 'thread locking', I don't know how I feel. I think overall I think threads, as long as they are getting posted in, should be allowed to exist. If you have 2 (or more) posters who are going at it really bad, name calling, getting the thread off topic, how about a mod stepping in and saying something like 'lets get this back on topic' (which I have seen done before) and maybe, MAYBE banning the offending parties for 1-2 hours just to cool the topic down? Or maybe not allow those people to post in that particular thread if it gets that bad? I don't now the solution, but I do know in the past there have been threads that I was interested in, WANTED to post in....but because a couple other people got off topic and those few people got out of hand, the entire thread was closed and I wasn't able to post about what the thread was supposed to be about. Here is one I think of all the time but never post. Major businesses that just can't get their web sites correct. There are a lot of them, but Marriott is one. Their in house booking/reward site is Bonvoy. Most parts of the page load painfully slow, but try to book a hotel by selecting the 'map' feature where you can see all their hotel brands on one page in relation to each other? Its like you are back on dial-up internet. Not just a little slow, but really really bad. Can't understand how a major company like that can make their 'gateway' to their product so hard to uses.

I don't like trading top prospects. Yeah, I know MOST don't turn out to be stars, but each of them are lottery tickets. If you trade most or all of your tickets, you aren't going to win. With that said...the Sabres have SO many top pick forwards, if you can spin/turn them into a really good D-man in his mid to late 20's...I'll do it.

Ottawa is very interesting to me. I really thought they would be the team to take the biggest jump between Buffalo, Ottawa and Detroit. -Stutzle has regressed in terms of production (Tage level regression) Was almost a 40 goal, 90 point guy last year in his 3rd season at age 20-21. This year in season 4, he is on pace for high teens/maybe 20 goals. Big drop. -Giroux had 35 for them last year. Is on pace for about 10 less, age might be catching up with him. -Tkachuk is just as productive (more goals, less assists) but why were there rumors of him having an issue with maturity? -Chychrun has been a bit of a disappointment. They are getting 'good' overall play from him but I think they expected 'great' play. -Jake Sanderson. He's playing 'good' from what I can see and what I hear, but I think they were expecting him to take a big jump to being a legit top 30 d-man in the league. He's good, but not that good. -Chabot is a really good D-man, I don't think he gets credit for how good he is, but he has missed a lot of games for them. Ottawa is facing a lot of the same issues Buffalo is....top star regression in terms of goals scored, young D-men not taking as big of a step as you want, and injuries to key player(s). The thing is they don't have a lot of potential high-end talent in the pipeline: -They have had no first round picks the last 2 seasons. Every other first round pick in the past decade is either already on the team, or looks like a bust (Thompson, Boucher) -Add to that they have big time cap issues....this is a team that TRULY needs development from within, even more than the Sabres.

If they want to get rid of fighting AND have the cheap stuff gone, they need to start fining stuff even if penalties are not called. A deliberate slash to the back of the legs behind the play but caught on camera? $1000 fine. A punch to the back of the head even with the gloves on...same thing. If you start fining all of that, guess what, guys will get sick of paying fines and it will go away. BUT, try to get the players association to agree to that much of an increase in fines....not going to happen.

Yes they are. Just because it doesn't fit your narrative doesn't make it untrue no matter how much you want it. I don't consider Tuch and Skinner as having that much worse seasons in light of their injuries and games missed. Power? He is having a lot of bad games this year...guess what? He had a lot of bad games last year but for some reason this board gave him more credit than he deserved. I think Jokiharju is having a better year than last year. I think Clifton is having a better season than the group of players that played 3rd pair roles last year. Mitts is statistically slightly better in terms of production than last year, but he is playing better in his own end by quite a bit comapred to last year (eye test AND metrics show that). Okposo is scoring more than last year, AND he is on the ice for less goals against. How is that a worse season? If you want to say 'the eye test' shows he is slowing down, late to get back on some plays...I can agree with that. But if that is true, then HOW is he scoring more and on the ice for less goals against than last year UNLESS it is postive coaching? The ENTIRE forward group has gotten better i their own zone the last 2 months...numbers show that..the eye test shows that...compared to what they did all of last year and the first part of this year. If an entire group playing better in an aspect of the game isn't a result of coaching...I don't know what is. You all can just blame coaching, blame DG and say he is awful if you want to. But if you actually watch this team, if you analyze what is going on, the ONLY thing you can chalk up to being worse last year with regard to 'coaching' is the Power play. I know 'fire the coach' makes all of you feel better, but tell me specifically how the coacing is worse than last year. I see the TEAM being worse than last year for various reasons, but I just don't see how coaching has dropped off considerably. I'm waiting for examples from this board, but I'm getting very few of them, just accusations I am 'cherry picking' things to support my argument, but the ones I am getting on the other side (if I get any) don't even have any depth to them. Pay a good, experienced assistant to fix that. MOST of the fall-off in offense is due to more injuries to key players than last year, and an decrese in shooting percentage from Tage and Cozens (they are getting about the same number of shots from last year....the number of high danger and center of the ice chance by both is about the same, they are IN POSITION like they were last year to score, they are just doing it less, coachign has them in position to take the same shots and get them from the same areas.)

I still have no (well, a LITTLE) problem with Granato. The limit of the issue I have with him is....I THINK the PP needs a new direction/new assistant coach, and he has (or should have) the power/ability to make that change. I see a lot of positives with this team COMPARED to last year. They are better on defense. They are getting better goaltending. Many of the players are playing BETTER than last year (Mitts, Peterka, Greenway). Benson has developed. After a rough start Cliton is playing better, Jokiharju is playing much better after a slow start. Quinn came back and in a short stint looked even better than last year. The players who are playing worse (Tage and Cozens) have had injuries. The players whos production is slightly down (Skinner and Tuch) have also had injuries. The roster is still flawed, but when I look at the coaching job...I see a head coach who isn't perfect, but who wasn't perfect last year, but I still do not see one of the retreads out there that everyone who wants DG fired stepping in and doing a better job. Not at all.

There was, and is a market for that. Some fans are patient. Some fans just want everyone to get along and feel good about everything. Other fans want wins, they want wins now and when the team doesn't do that they want changes. His show catered to the second group.

March 1, my company I work for part time is doing their major 'streamlining'. Most part timers are gone as of next week. Full timers, still all there but all 'peer training' positions, all 'assistant manager' positions, any position where they could make a bit of extra money, are eliminiated and everyone goes back to the 'base' position on their level. I'm temporarily out, but while disappointing, it was just 2 days a week PT, extra 'spending cash' that I can do without. I only worked Monday and Tuesday for a few hours. A lot of "streamlining of operations" going on out there right now.

So who was the last guy they drafted with that intent with a first rounder? Zack Kassian? Even that is going back 15 years. COULD it be Cozens? He didn't do well taking on a heavyweight earlier this year, but isn't he 6'3" put on 10-20 lbs over the next couple years...get someone to teach him to fight? We know he is somewhat willing. I don't know, probably reaching here.

The CLOSEST thing in recent memory would probably be Evander Kane. He would drop the glove, win his share of them when he did (although not an ultra-heavyweight) and put up 25-30 goals for you. Not at the same level as those other guys though. Honestly, the more I think about it...go back 30 years..I can't think of anyone else that was even a 'moderately dangerous'/potential top 2 line player who would drop the gloves even a few times per year.

People are frustrated I get it. I am too, although I don't take the team, or sports, as seriously as I used to. But I wanted to re-read your original post. I'm finding out lately that its not so much being a fan of the team that is frustrating the most lately, it is the art of talking about the team. In most of my posts, I will try to not be emotional....I might disagree with someone and I'll point out where I do (at least in my original post) but I am finding more and more emotional responses, getting attacked when you disagree with someone. Worse yet, I noticed in the gameday threads...it is getting really bad. Yeah, the team is not making the playoffs this year, but since January 1, this team has been playing much better, and even most of the losses are close. Yet, play the best team in the league, lose by one goal, and there is just hatred, venom all over the boards, (I won't even mention twitter). Attacking people you don't agree with. Hatred, resentment, outright hostility in more and more posts. Yeah, this message board is here for people to give their opinion. To vent, I get that, but things are getting over the top (at least to me)

So we have a bunch of people saying that he's too placid and showing no emotion and criticizing him for that. Then you say him showing some emotion and getting a bench minor loses the game. Honestly, the guy probably deserves better than this fan base. The negativity on this board is just too much sometimes.

Please get Dahlin off of the penalty kill I don't know if he's that much better killing penalties, It doesn't take a bunch of skill to slap the puck down the ice...but whenever this penalty is over, I want him more rested for even strength.

Of course not hockey related, but one of the coolest videos I have seen in a while....engineering a drone to follow an F1 car at full speed.

Skinner's value might drop off quickly before his contract is up. I need him as a consistent 30 goal scorer to be of value. BUT, is he a 'floater' coming back to his own zone? Yes. I have seen replays of goals scored against the Sabres where on the way back he LITERALLY stopped at the blue line, doing a semi 'goal hang' instead of playing defense. HOWEVER, what I also don't see from Skinner is when he IS in the defensive zone (and he is sometimes) he doesn't give the puck away, doesn't vacate his wing leaving it wide open for other opportunities, and he actually DOES win some loose puck battles (not because of his size of course, but more because of his hands). OVERALL he is net 'negative' in terms of D-zone play, but at 30 goals per year his offense more than makes up for that. He is one of the few players who will go to the front of the opponents net AND he has the skill/hands to put the puck in the net. As long as he is giving this team 25-30+ goals per season...and as you said, doing some 'agitating', I'm happy with him being here (I'm for sure not shipping him off for a 'bag of pucks' and in no way do I think this team gets better by him simply not being here.)

No, but that is because I do not believe in Firing Granato or blowing things up at this point. I think this team needs surgery with a scalpel, no a sledgehammer. I DO believe in making a big trade in the offseason for a top 25 D-man in the league (multiple prospects if that is needed), having Tage, Quinn, Tuch and Cozens fully healthy starting next year (keep Cozens more at wing and keep Tage off of the PK) and hopefully bringing in a highly paid/highly effective assistant specialist to help out. This group of Defensemen is SO YOUNG that they are going to gradually get better as time (seasons) go on.