mjd1001

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.

I'm not sure why people still think Cozen is good. Even some of the people in Ottawa (some, not all) are starting to think he's not as good as they hoped. I posted this in a thread the other day, but since he got to Ottawa, he's played 30 games, has 7 goals and 13 assists and is a -10(including playoffs, not preseason of course). Thats an 82 game pace of 19 goals, 35 assists, and a -27. Yes, a -27 on a team that made the playoffs last year. And I'm not sure what the numbers look like this year, but some of his deeper dive analytics....the guys he played with in Ottawa last year had their numbres get worse after Cozens started playing with them. Batherson is the guy that they put with Cozens the most. Batherson's Corsi% is down 4 whole percentage points with Cozens vs without him. Fenwick down almost 5 points. Shots down 3, expected goals down 8! Scoring chances down 5, High danger down 3. Maybe tomorrow Cozens will have a good game. Maybe after tomorrow he will turn the corner and become a good player. But right now he is a bad player. Teammates get WORSE when he is with them vs when they are with anyone else. There are plenty of things to criticize the Sabres for that are legit. Some people just don't do the work.

That 2011 year is the year he took over the team. Tehcnically he was owner during those playoffs, but he came on board that season when the coaching staff, roster, everyting was set before he bought them. He had very little if any input to any part of that team. Once he started having input and makign decisions, that is when the drought started. Since his first full season where he actually started making decisions, that is when they haven't made the playoffs since. So the team hasn't played a full season that he has been in controll and made the playoffs.

Adams time is up, but you are putting way too much of this on just one person.

That would be the worst case scenario for me also. I've gone from last year and even this summer. Hoping for an Alex Tuch extension... To about a month ago. Thinking... I'm on the fence about it.. to now today thinking I'd rather have them not extend him unless it's the most team-friendly deal ever. With the way this franchise works... That's probably going to trigger them to give him the biggest extended contract in franchise history... At the exact time they shouldn't. You also have to remember that we have a lot of arguments on this board as to who is the bigger problem... Adams... Or the owner.... But remember if they do sign him to an extension that's absolutely ridiculous and crazy that that it doesn't get done without The owner's approval and blessing.

I'm thinking... There might be a good general manager out there that would love to take the Buffalo job with certain conditions. Why? There might just be some people out there who enjoy the rebuild. Also, you do have assets on this team that are very good or can be used to bring in other assets to help with the rebuild. Now what are those conditions and how come they haven't happened yet? The top of the list for me would be to sign a contract and have it written that this person has total control over the hockey department.0 They can hire and fire coaches and staff and front office members at will, and they don't have to run trades or draft picks by the owner. I just don't think our current owner will allow that to happen or anything even close to it.