mjd1001

I have been trying to follow this case on social media, message boards, twitter, etc. I've already started to see too many "its not big dea" and "Its boys being boys" responses to this.

We elect a presiden in this country that is under 70 years old again.

I know the AHL has their own streaming package, but I really wish there was a way we could get the Amerks games on MSG or some other local station. It may not be 'appointment' TV for me, but there are many nights where I just want something on the TV what I can 'kinda watch' while doing other stuff around the house, on the computer, etc. Amerks games would fit the bill for that.

I agree on Power. EVERYONE can be a great skater, but on D you don't need blazing speed unless you are a special talent that goes end-to-end like Paul Coffee used to (or to a certain extent, Housley for the Sabres). The forwards though, it would be nice to have a couple guys that have the abilty to blow past defenders on a regular basis. I think Tuch and Zemgus are the only 2 that have the ability to do that, but they don't even do it that often.

So we are looking at the same data and just weighing it differently. When someone says "one of the slowest in the league", I think there are 2 metrics 2 use. Overall top speed, he is near the middle of the leage. In speed bursts, he is toward the bottom but not on the bottom. I kinda average them together...and I 'average' Bad speed burts (but not in the bottom 10%) with 'middling' top speed...and I get a combined 'below average', not 'one of the slowest in the league'. I respect your point, however.....that how OFTEN a player uses their speed might be more important that overall top speed.

So if everything goes correct and he is able to play after 8 weeks, he'll be around for maybe the last 8-10 games of the year.

I'm almost there with you on this, and I wasn't before. He had a 'decent' and 'encouraging' rookie year. That was after he played great at the end of his stint in Rochester. Got hurt, came back off of a tough injury and immediately showed progress from last year...in a very small sample size playing at about a 25 goal, 60 point pace with 3rd line minutes. That may not be enough to PROVE he is or should be a core player....but very little has been show to say he shouldn't.

I'm not saying he is going to be worth much on the open market, but one of the slowest players in the league is just not true. The NHL edge tracking site is up and there are two ways to measure him (or anyone else), I brought this up in another thread: -In terms of 'pure speed' top speed hit, he is middle-of-the-pack on the Sabres. Top speed not even close to Tuch or Zemgus (the top 2 on the team), but better/faster than Benson, Okposo, Greenway, Quinn, and most of the D-men. -In terms of how fast he PLAYS, they have a metric that measures that also, how many times/how often a player has 'speed burts' where they go over 20mph for a few seconds. Not just top speed, but how many times they use their speed. VO Isn't good, he is 'below average' on the team, but not at the bottom. So in terms of pure skating speed, he is average on this team. In terms of how often he 'skates fast', below average but not at the bottom of the leage. Put those 2 things together and you get an "OK" or "slightly below average" guy in terms of speed, but no where near one of the slowest in the league. He has some problems and holes in his game. Lack of high end speed or 'fast play' is one of them, but its no where near being close to the bottom of the team, or the league.

Agree on your main point. I am not as down on Dahlin as many are right now. I think Jokiharju is actually "OK" . Power is having a rough/bad year, but he isn't a total trainwreck. R. Johnson looks encouraging if you DON'T rush him. Samuelsson is having a down year also, but hes overall good. I think the D-group is better than most think because they often look bad because of mistakes the forwards making putting the D in no win situations. HOWEVER, they are very, very young and inexperienced. The Sabres have no one in their 'top 4' in terms of minutes that is over 24, and they average 23 years of age. I put in another thread that most of the top teams in the league have their top 4 d-men average 27, 28, even 30 years old. This D may be good, great eventually, but they simply do not have enough experience to have all of the top minutes between all of them. I'm actually happy with R. Johson getting reduced minutes, I woud LOVE for power to get 5 less minutes per game...if you can bring in a legit, experienced vet that is good enough to plug into the top 4.

Hot off the presses today: https://www.marketwatch.com/story/taylor-swift-is-worth-331-million-and-counting-to-nfl-and-the-chiefs-05e4dbf9?mod=home-page

1.) pray for no injuries 2.) if someone is injured don't rush them back, or let themslelves rush back. No matter how bad the team needs them, don't let one of your stars back in the lineup when they get 'cleared to play 'but might only be 80% Give them another week, take the heat from the fans and the media for doing it, but don't put them back until they are at least 95% back to normal. 3.) Move cozens to wing. 4.) get a GOOD 4th liner who is 6'5 or more with a large reach....so he can play on the PK and take up as much space out there as possible AND GET TAGE OFF OF THE PK! Tuch too. ANYONE that you rely on for goals even strength or on the PP, do not let them spend any time on the PK where they could get hurt or aren't getting rest. Their minutes should be focused on scoring. 5.) Bring in an experienced group of dev coahces and assistant coaches who can teach forwards how to play in their own zone, or put in a system where they need to be more responsible to do that.

To answer your question why would anyone want to be here? They want to play "close to home" (I'm pretty sure I read a couple places more NHL players are from the Metro Toronto area than any other city by far). They want their family and extended family to be able to come to games, BUT they do not want to take less money in Toronto than in Buffalo (the big 4/5 in TO took all the money) or they just don't want the trouble/aggravaton of playing in that market (some players love it, others hate it). Now, this is not saying that people WANT to come to Buffalo, but there might be players who fit that description that would want to be here.

Agree on Tage, Cozens and Power..... But Skinner? He is giving you pretty much exactly what he did last year..and the year before. He is playing minimal defense, not helping out in his own end, but NOT giving the puck away in his own zone. He is scoring at a 34 goal pace. That is pretty much what I expect from him and at this point, if Everyone else listed was doing what is expected of them...what I need from Skinner given his skillset.

When I do the numbers he is averaging 75 points per 82 games since joining the Sabres. That is not "60'ish" at all.

I'm pretty confident he was playing hurt, but is getting better, and hopefully this week-and-a-half break does some good for him. -he had multiple days during training camp where he didn't participate, and he also had some days he missed practice right at the start of the year. -Through October, he had 5 points in his first 9 games where he as missing frequent practices (45 point pace). He has been getting better since then, 29 points in 33 games since (72 point pace). The first month of the season really 'hurt' his stats' -As I mentioned in the 'Sabres are playing slow thread', Tuch is one of the fastest skaters on the team, but the site tracks how many/how often a player has a 'speed burst' in a game of over 20mph. Tuch is WAY down from last year, probably has the biggest drop on the entire team. If he was playing hurt at the beginning of the year, that would be a sign that it is the case.

Right now, a 92 point pace would get you in the way things stand. Usually you need 94-96. Sabres have 33 games left. To get to 92 points they need to play at a 109 'point pace.' To get to 95, the need to play at a 117 'point pace.' To play at a 109 point pace, that means you are playing like a top 6 (6th best) team in the league. a 117 point pace? Only Boston and Vancouver have played at the pace for the season so far, so you'd have to play at a top 2 or 3 team in the league pace. Their current spot in the standings (how many teams to pass, how many points out), doesn't mean nothing, but the goal is the point total. Right now its 92, but usually ends up being about 95.

Ok, a huge break now between games. No one get injured on vacation. Tuch, Thompson, wrap yourself in bubble wrap over the next week. Any lingering injuries/issues, come back at full strength.

I really really dislike Cozens game in every way this year. BUT, he is valuable when he puts the puck in the net. Empty net goals to me are just as good/important as regular goals. If he can get going and start putting up some goals and points, I'll feel a lot better about him. I'm beginning to get some hope.

Seems to make sense. His 'top speed' is about the same as last year, but he is pushing himself to get to top speed MUCH less than last year.

Digging through the site a bit more, some interesting things: -Tuch seems to be the one who is peforming worse/slower this year compared to last year. His 'speed bursts' per game are WAY down. -Skinner seems to farther down the list of top speed on the team and also a very low number of 'speed burts' over 20 mph. Way less than I thought. One thing Skinner is good at, he is 7th in the entire league in shots attempted over the past 3 seasons combined from the front of the net (high danger) area. He is the ONE player on this team that is willing to go to the 'dirty' areas and take some punishment for prime scoring chances. -Zemgus has one of the highest top speeds on the team, AND one of the higher number of bursts over 20mph. When you figure in his ice time, I'd guess he leads the team (both last year and this year) in speed burts over 20mph with respect to his ice time. -Tage. Last year he had 210 shots then entire year from the high danger areas (right in front of the net, and between the faceoff dots). This year he only has 84. From those prime areas, he is taking 22% LESS shots per game this year than last year. -Cozens. Everything about his numbers are similar to last year. Skating speed, Speed bursts. Shots on goal location, almost every single metric you can measure is about the same EXCEPT shooting percentage. The worrying thing is his numbers even the year before are about the same. The ONLY thing that is different over the past few years is last years shooting percentage. His game offensively and skating is the same each year. Really hope last year's shooting percentage wasn't just an anomoly. For anyone interested, the highest top speeds recoreed this year of forwards: (League leaders: Owen Tippet 24.21, Braydon Point 24.15, Nate MacKinnon 24.05, McDavid 24.05,) Sabres Forwards: Tuch 22.99 MPH Zemgus 22.88 Thompson 22.64 Peterka 22.43 Cozens 22.36 Krebs 22.36 Mitts 22.16 Skinner 22.04 Robinson 21.92 Olofsson 21.76 Greenway 21.72 Quinn 21.71 Okposo 21.53 Tyson Jost 21.08 Rosen 21.05 Kulich 20.83 Benson 20.80 Highest skating speeds recorded all year by Defensemen: (league leaders: Mackenzie Weeger 23.61, Zach Werenski 23.50, Sam Girard 23.43, Miro Heiskanen 23.36) Samuelsson 22.43 Clifton 21.96 Jokiharju 21.70 Bryson 21.52 Dahlin 21.44 Ryan Johnson 21.35 Power 21.27 Eric Johnson 21.22

Actually, mostly been in retail my whole life, with a few times dabbling in economics (major in college). I just like numbers and statistics. Math was/is always my favorite subject..as long as it deals with numbers. When it comes to calculus and beyond, never interested.

They aren't skating as hard as the did last year....or Their 'faster' players are playing hurt...or They are playing a different style than last year....or. Some or all of the above

If you are going to make a change and go with an older/experienced guy, I'd have Ruff near the top of the list if he is available.

I don't know the names, but in concept: -a legit top tier defensemen who is a veteran. 26-30 years old. At least 400 games NHL experience. A guy who is great as a 2nd pair, but could even fill in on the first pair. -Pay whatever you need to in order to give Granato some top tier assistants. Lets cut down on the number of former players getting their first or 2nd job coaching/developing on the Sabres. I don't want/need a new head coach, but if I'm going to keep Granato he needs MUCH better staff to work with. -A goalie to compete with Levi for the backup role next year. -A 6'5" or taller forward who is will be a physical presense on the 4th line, but skilled/fast enough to be a good penalty killer....someone with that size and reach will take up a lot of space on the PK. -Re-sign Mitts and maybe, MAYBE get another legit NHL center so you can move Cozens to wing.

I looked at last year....below are the charts for last year. Main difference, while this year they are near the bottom for 'speed burts' over 18, 20, and 22 mph......LAST year they were above average compared to the rest of the league in speed bursts over 20, and near the TOP in terms of 'speed bursts' over 18. In terms of skating, last year they were an above average time, near the TOP of the league in how many speed bursts they had over 18, while they have turned into one of the, if not THE slowest playing team this year. Last year's data: