mjd1001

I'm not actually too impressed with Benson tonight. He is just getting his legs back after being out for a while, but while he has won a battle or two, he doesn't seem to be moving well yet. After a bad start to the game, I think Krebs has had a good game. Krebs, Zucker, and Quinn actually looked like they played well when they were together. Never imagined that line combo. I'm really impressed with the 'look' of Doan. If he can start scoring, wow they may have a really good middle-6 winger.

He looked pretty bad in the first period, he wan't moving well, not reacting or batting for loose pucks. It was obvious in the first 10 minutes. Maybe getting that goal lifted him up in some way, he's looked better since.

He needed this game. Through the first 3, I think he was in the bottom 5 players for the Sabres, he wasn't making an impact and was playing awful overall. its not just the goals, he seems to be skating better this game than any of the previous 3.

What is up with Kulich? He just doesn't look the same. Probably not an injury, Ruff called him out publicly and he wouldn't have done that if Kulich was injured, but something seems drastically off about his game this year compared to last?

I can. I can't remember the last time I saw a game played so poorly by a goalie. The Sens are not playing a perfect game....but wow that goalie is awful.

Why didn't Buffalo. Every strength Cozens has, every tendency he has screams a player you WANT on wing and the exact thing you don't want at center. But I guess the league and the coaches know more than we do (they do on most things obviously, but with Cozens, I don't get it).

Not to pour cold water on this, but Ottawa's goalie has been comically bad. The first 2 goals allowed he looked clueless. The 2nd goal he is way out of the net and his play recognition and reaction time was worse than the guys at the senior center down the street. The 3rd goal he's kicking out huge rebounds and can't hold onto his stick. Zuckers first PP goal was a nice shot, but the goalie was set, saw the release of the puck, not screened and he didn't even get a piece of it. If they had a competant goalie in net, this might still be an Ottawa lead (just sayin)

I know Norris is out and that deal doens't look good at the moment for the Sabres. On the other hand, Cozens is who he is. he's a -2 this game, a -6 through 3.5 games this year. He was a minus player for the Sens in the playoffs and a minus player in his 20 game stint for them in the regular season last year. The Sabres have problems, but if moving him opened up ice time for someone else, I think thats a positive move regardless of the return.

Doan looks like a player. Hes not scoring and he has a slightly different style than Benson, but he looks like he is close to Benson both in terms of how hard he works and his ability to battle opposing players.

He went to the front of the net and just stayed there, and it resulted in a goal. The first 3 games he was basically a perimter player and nothing came of it. He goes to the net, and surprise! a goal!

I didn't see the whole ice view, but on the SH goal by McLeod, looks like our good friend Dylan Cozens helped out. Ottawa defense collapsed to the front of the net to follow the puck, McLeod was in the near corner by himself...Cozens was the only guy on that side of the ice for Ottawa and he just 'hung out' near the blue line, never bothered to go in deep to McLeod even though McLeod was left alone on that side of the ice right to the side of their goalie. Maybe, MAYBE its the design of the Ottawa PP where they want guys on the board ready for a breakout pass. But my eyes tell me if it would have been anyone else other than Cozens, that player would have gone in a little deeper to cover a totally un-accounted for McLeod.

No, they haven't been good this year yet. Lost 2 out of their first 3 by a combined 7 goals. Tkachuk is out. Cozens analytics with Ottawa might be worse than they were with Buffalo. They are playing their backup goalie. Yet so far they are dominating the Sabres this game.

I thought Krebs was pretty good last year, but this year both McLeod and Krebs have had an awful...awful start to the season.

He got the goal, but even strength in the firts period, Quinn's Corsi was 2 for, 10 against. No even strength scoring chances for, but 5 allowed when he was on the ice (the worst differntial on the team in the 1st period and truly awful numbers for just one period of play)

The other 2 were by a D-man (Dahlin) on the PP. No forward SOG other than the bank shot (which was actually a missed shot on goal)

No up to date to the moment, but as of about 6 minutes left in the period, even strength it was Ottawa 7 shots, Sabres 0. Ottawa 12 scoring chances, Sabres 2. Ottawa 2 high dange chances, Sabres 0. Team expected goals (xGa %) is Ottawa 80.71, Buffalo 19.29 Even strength the Sabres are getting utterly dominated.

On the negative side of things....Quinn boucing the puck off of the back of the goalie on the PP is the ONLY shot on goal by a forward almost 15 minutes into the game.

It was a pretty bad shot by Quinn that got him that goal, pure luck. But on the bright side, he took it from the front of the net. Yes it was on the PP, but he went to the front of the net which is the biggest thing he needs to do in the offensive zone.

Jack Quinn played well against Ottawa last year, 3 goals in 4 games last year. For his career vs Ottawa, 10 games 3 goals (all last year), 2 asissts, -5. (full season that would project out to 25 goals, 16 assists, and a -41)

That is the best case scenario for me. If they win by multiple goals AND control play, I'll at least have a shred of hope again they have a chance of turning this around quick.

I understand the concept, but to many people you're just rooting for the Jersey to a large extent. If the players aren't good enough, and some people legitimately don't like the management, or the ownership, or both, then it's not really your "team" to them, but rather some unlikable imposters that are temporarily filling in that role. I guess that's a long way of saying the team to some people isn't just the name or the Jersey, it's everything and everybody that encompasses it... And if you don't like a large part of that, I could see not rooting for it or them. Especially if you have a strong opinion that those people temporarily failing allows the organization to hire other people to make your team better. The reason I thought this was a good time for a poll... It seems like there's a lot of people that are openly rooting for chaos. I'm not 100% there yet, but I could thoroughly understand wanting massive change to this team being more important than a win to move you to 1-3 on the season. If someone feels that way I don't find it embarrassing at all.

Changed it to just win and lose. If people want to explain the reasons why, I guess they can do so in the thread by posting.

To answer my own poll, I'd say I want them to win tonight, but tonight's game might be the biggest swing game of the season in getting me to change my vote. If they lose tonight, it's going to be really hard to look anything positive at this season at all. But let's say they win tonight, by multiple goals, and look really good doing it. I'll be able to convince myself, at least temporarily, yeah, they can turn this around.

I'm just curious where everyone is on this right now. Ultimately most of us want the team to win but... I can understand some people wanting as many losses in a row right now, because they think that this team will never be good without major changes, and we need to get to those changes quicker. Can't see themselves to ever root for a loss ever. I just thought a poll might be interesting to see where we are right now.

I haven't watched the games live, but I did watch them on replay, so take this for what you will...just my opinion. I think through 3 games Tuch is playing like he normally does, with ONE exception. He's staying away from the net on the offensive zone. Everything I saw when watching him, his skating, his forcheck, seems the same...the one thing that stood out is he is just keeping to the perimeter on the offensive zone a lot more than he did last year. He doesn't have many shots yet, but if you look at a heat map of where he has taken them from, it backs this up.