mjd1001

Short answer, for me yes, it is too early. As much as I am frustrated with this team now, I do not think they are going to finish this season as a bottom 10 team. Over a long season I think they are a better team than they are showing now. Long(er) answer, it doesn't really matter to me anymore. Why? Last 10 years for the Sabres: -10 "top 10" picks -15 overall 1st rounders -2 "number 2" overall picks -2 "number 1" overall picks -1 supposed 'generational or at least 'semi' generational forward' (Eichel) -1 generational D-man (Dahlin). Add to that 15 2nd round picks (10 of those in the first 1/3 of the 2nd round where fans like to think they can get 'left over' first round talent)....and yet here we are, below .500 and riding a huge losing streak. Would another top 5 pick matter? Sure, I guess it would but at this point, how many of us want to wait for that player to become a 'great' player a few years down the road, and even if he does, it doesn't matter unless this current team can turn the corner.

I agree. Its not like 30+ years ago. The players don't fear the coach anymore (at least not like they did). The "Star" players can tune out the coach if they want. It sounds great to blame the coach for a team not being motivated or putting in the effort, but in reality, that simply isn't true now like it was a coupe decades ago. If the players don't want to put in the effort, there isn't much the coaching staff can do. You have guys like Torts now (maybe Keenan in the past, or Babcock) but if those guy do have an impact in 'todays nhl', it often doesn't last long and ultimately they get tuned out and often times forced out before reaching the ultimate goal.

People yelling or 'acting up' to get attention. Politicians who yell at rallies, does that actually change peoples mind? Commercials where the person trying to sell me something is yelling at the camera (just saw one where woman is trying to tell me how great some cleaning product is and shes face first right in front of the camera talking at 90+ decibals) Not quite yelling, but the 'old guy' at the store who is talking to one person (usually about what he thinks is wrong in society) but gets louder and louder to make sure that EVERYONE around hears exactly what he is saying. Just loud, yelling, in your face attitudes....enough already.

He is sometimes so aggressive that it looks good, but he takes himself out of position a lot, in both end of the ice. At times he almost looks like a Dog that can't control itself when chasing a squirell...Cozens can be like that with the puck. He can be all gas-no brakes at the expense of positioning.

Coming to think about it, it has not been a good first part of the season for former Sabres on their other teams, with the exception of Eichel who is doing fine so far: -Reinhart: 3 goals, 3 assists in 16 games -Risto: getting called out and scratched by the new coach for his bad play -O'Reilly: 3 goas, 2 assits in 14 games and a minus 12 -Evander Kane: Serious wrist injury -Johan Larsson: Not even in the NHL, playing in Sweden after only playing a total of 43 NHL games in the past 2 NHL seasons -Jake McCabe: now the 4th or 5th D-man for Chicago. Points was never his thing but only 4 points in 12 games -Marcus Foligno: 1 goal and 2 assists in 11 games, even when he does play he is now only getting 3rd or 4th line minutes Not to slam on those guys, but it is more of an indictment of how this team was run the past decade. If you took the entire team now, picked and chose anyone and/or everyone that has ever played on this team in the past 10 years, you still might be able to ice a team that contends toward the top of the division.

Anyone know what is up with Sam Reinhart? Not to troll him but a serious question, is he playing hurt? He has played 16 games, he is getting a good number of minutes per game, but he only has 3 goals and 3 assists on the year so far. An injury that isn't well known?

I like the hitting in the game. Some of the hits Lyubushkin had on the western trip were great. Fighting, no need for it. I'd give up every single fight in an entire year (not that there are many anymore) for one single more exicting goal. The game for me is end-to-end rushes, it is goals like the last few Thompson scored....a one timer from Ovi (or Olofsson) for that matter. Those are the things to me that are 100x better than fighting. Thats just me though.

To me the last week or two the Sabres have had bad goaltending, but I think earlier in the year it was OK. As far as Defense, Pick on Pilut and Bryson all you want, I don't see them as playing poorly. Could they be better? Yes they could. But I think the Positioning and effot the Forward are putting forward in the D-zone is much worse than even the 3rd pairing on Defense. Cozins is out of position (overly aggressive) and leaves spots open all the time. Krebs might be the worse Forward I have ever seen in the Defensive zone (skating by guys, not winning any battles, late getting back), Quinn and Peterka put the effort (more than Krebs) but they need to learn a lot more positioning). Even the Veteran forwards have occasional breakdowns (not for lack of effort, but they just don't have that 'Boston bruin' like knowledge of knowing where all their linemates are going to be and not missing coverage. I also think Lyubushkin is still playing hurt. He was rock solid with positioning until his injury, since he came back he seems to be a step slower recovering in his own zone.

I agree with you, also the one thing the stats don't tell you is how clean a draw it was. Pull the puck right back to a guy ready for a shot on net cleanly is one type of win, pulling it back into a scrum where you eventually gain control of it after a second or two is another. Both will be called 'faceoff wins' but they are 2 totally different things.

Yep. People who don't care about faceoffs show the fancy stats that say they don't matter. People who do care about faceoffs point out every goal that is scored against when one is lost. Easy to argue this one however you want.

That 2nd Vancouver goal.....I know to some I am picking on Krebs alot but I don't like anything he did there. He was the last one back into the D-zone by a lot and when he does get the just kinda glides his way to the side boards....Before the last pass is made the guy who made the pass is right in front of him and Krebs does nothing, makes no move to go toward the guy, doesn't even put his stick on the ice to try to disrupt anything. Then as the pass goes to the slot where the goal is scored for, he kinda heads that way but he just coasts there doesn't even take a stride. I don't know if he was at the end of a 2:00 shift and he was dead tired or not, but everything about his play in the Buffalo zone was absolutely awful there.

I always thought Power play was mostly a function of 3 things and not much else: 1.) do you have a couple of guys with a skillset that lends itself to the PP. 2.) Luck 3.) coaching (and this is by far the last of the 3). You have Dahlin, Tage, and VO to satisfy the first one. The third one I have no idea how good the coaching is with these guys on the PP. The 2nd one comes and goes. All I would be worried about is the coaching, and right now I think the Sabres anre middle-of-the-pack in PP so i'm not overly concerned.

They have 5 solid, but not spectacular D-men that they roll out there with pretty consistent minutes. No one is asked to carry too much of a load, they are all under 30 but yet none of them are too green-behind the ears. I have watched 2 devils games and they look solid back there. Same thing up front. They pretty much 'roll' 3 lines but even the 4th line doesn't get left out. They stay fresh at the end of games. Main difference I see between them and the Sabres is they have almost a perfect blend of young guys up front, late 20's guys, and older-than-that veterans. But they 2 main young guys up front are Hirschier and Huges. They have almost 500 NHL games experience between them already, so they aren't going through the same D-zone mistakes and 'learning' the 200 foot game anymore that the likes of Quinn, Krebs, Peterka, etc are. They played those guys the last couple years, they made mistakes (part of why they weren't that good) and now they are better for it. Something the Sabres can look forward to with their young guys up front next year and the year after. What will make them dangerous is in the next couple of years, they still have 2 more top 5 picks that will eventually make the team that aren't there now....they have their top guys locked up, but will have a lot of cap room/flexibility next year also.

Yes, The bottom 2 or 3 on the D-unit aren't great but they didn't cost the game/all the goals tonight. -First Boston goal on the PP, everyone was positionally sound, a defelction and then the puck going through players like a pinball. No ones fault on that one. -2nd Boston goal, Quinn/Krebs not winning battles/getting to loose pucks on the boards strikes again. Quinn this time, not even close to controlling it (I swear that exact same spot is where Quinn and Krebs lose all their battles in the D-zone). -3rd Boston goal. This one was a mess all over. D-play here was an issue I have to admit after watching the replay. I want Bryson's to pass that puck up the ice and out of the zone on the original zone entry. After the puck goes up the boards, I would LIKE Skinner to control it better (but it was a tough puck to control) Then Boston kicks the puck off a skate UP to a stick in the air, to ANOTHER stick in the air, Pilut overskates and takes himself out of the play, Skinner could have broken it up if he hustled back quicker. Bryson played the 2-1 as good as he could. Thompson no-where to be found (probably because he NEEDED to be up the ice because he needed to press with the Sabres down a goal). This 3rd Boston goal has a lot going on, but part of it is a bad exit pass/choice by Bryson, Skinner not scooping up a loose puck and getting back late, and pilut overplaying the puck/guy.

I missed that play but I have said that the young guys, Krebs, especially, need to learn a bit more situational awareness. Krebs 'advanced' numbers can be pretty good, but one thing they don't tell you is when he is out of position. He frequently loses battles on the board and his lack of top end speed often means he is late to get back on rushes. Those are the 2 biggest things I think he needs to work on.

Pittsburgh actually IS what many of us thought Boston would be...an aging veteran team that has some, but not enough, young guys hitting the roster, while the veterans slowly fade. Calgary I'm just super surprised about. Thought they would be a legit top 10 team all season long and possibly top 5 team. Ottawa I thought people were over-rating coming into the season, but I didn't expect another terrible start like last year.

It may have been Thompson or Hinestroza to come over to cover Eichel on the off Wing, but once he walks to the side of the Net, Power needs to get back there. Again, it is situational awareness and how quicly he recovers. I said in my original post you can't blame power 100% here, but if i'm going to put it on someone, I don't want him going to the other side of the net and leaving the entire lower half of his side uncovered. Maybe there was a defensive play being run and he did the correct thing? But I would rather have him stay in his position (where Eichel scored the goal from) and trust Tage (as the Center) to drop lower to cover the front of the net if/when Lyubushkin goes to the corner. In general, you want your Wingers to cover the high points and the walls up high, the Center to be about where Tage is, but if a D-man runs into the corner, I want Tage to drop to cover the front of the net and Power to not leave his side 100% uncovered. Ultimately, if you don't get the puck within 5-10 seconds, everyone will start chasing and then you rely on the other team to make a bad pass or your goalie to make a great save. It is something the Sabres have an issue with, the way the 2 D-men and the Center play in the Defensive zone. Guys like Tage stay up top and don't leave the slot open, but they don't provide that assist to the D-men. Cozins, on the other hand, will leave the slot open right away for the chance to play down low. I put this on the Centers over the D-mean though. The D-men are often in a position where they don't know if they are going to get help or not. If Tage and Cozens are going to play the same position, for the sake of D-zone coverage they have to play the same way or the D-men won't know where to go or who to cover. Hockey is a lot more complicated i'm sure at the NHL level than I understand, but I would think if Skinner isn't going low into the corner after the puck, then Lyubushkin will. If that is the case, Skinner has to cover the top of the faceoff circle on his side, Hinnestronza should do that on the other side. With the top of the zone kinda covered, Tage is free to drop down a bit and, if needed, tie up the opposing center in the front of the net, while Power doesn't have to leave his position. We talk about how can a team like Boston be still so good as they are, maybe its not because of their pure physical talent, but because the above is second nature to them. Quite possibly they hardly ever get caught out of position and their system is 2nd nature to them that it is automatic. Can save them 50+ goals a year just by knowing where the need to be and knowing EACH OTHER so well they can rotate without making a mistake.

I agree. I still think this is a high 80's point team with the potential to be in the low 90's. They got hit hard by injuries, and Comrie has had a couple bad games after having a couple good ones. If this turns into a 5 game losing streak I'm not worried as that is likely. 6 game losing streak and then get back to me.

So many goals allowed last night, I rewatched them but just don't feel like putting a huge breakdown of every single goal and going frame-by-frame through the replays, so just some general observations on what cost the Sabres on the goals specifically: -Comrie. He had a bad game, gave up a lot of rebounds, BIG rebounds, and you would want him to make more big stops than he did. Bad game. -Power, i don't want to say he is 'lost' in his own end because he isn't, but his positioning isn't great all the time. On Eichels goal Lyubushkin goes into the corner and Power goes to the other side to cover..not the bad play. But when Lyubushkin comes back toward the net, Power is very slow to get back to his side, leaving Eichel open for the goal. Not an Awful play, but as he gets better hopefully his reaction time on positioning will get better on plays like this. Overall, you just want Comrie to be better. Even though the Sabres gave up a lot of chances, if they had good goaltending they should win this game with 4 goals scored.

I legit believe this team is better, but I cannot fault you for how you feel. Even if the team is better, on hot start that falls apart is one thing, 2 is another, but what are we up to? 4 in 5 seasons?

I think the coaching staff/organization are happy with him still. He's 4th among all forwards in ice time per game, he gets PP time he kills penalties. As far as production, his current 82 game 'pace' is about 18 goals, 35 assists, 53 pts.

I have watched and re-watched every goal the Sabres have allowed, and what I can say for sure is zero of them have been Lyubushkin's fault when he is on the ice. Maybe the analytics point to play in other parts of the ice, but when the Sabres have the puck in their own zone and he is on the ice....he is the 'anti-Risto', meaning so far he has not been out of position and hasn't made one mistake all year that cost the Sabres a goal.

There has to be someone out there, a prospect, a player that is fairly young....that has the talent to play on the ice at least at the Rochester level and does not HAVE to fight to be of value.....but yet is (or can be) a good enough fighter to take on the heavyweights. I'm not asking for a team full of them, but how about finding one to add to at least Roch?

Took me 2 episodes to get used to Strange New Worlds, but by the end of it, you just might conisder Strange New Worlds a contender for the best trek show ever. Also, whether its the acting or how the role is written, Pike comes across as the most likeable captain ever in trek, if not the best overall. Lower Decks? I like it, but it doesnt' seem like a full 'Trek' series to me. More a decent-to-good generic cartoon that just happens to be set in the Star Trek universe and likes to make a TON of comments and name dropping from previous Trek shows and movies.

it might be a good message. If the team is busting their butts out there, and most of them would probably see that he isn't playing up to how he should be....if both of those things are true I think the rest of the team would WANT that change to be made.