mjd1001

You make a good point, but size is only valuable how you use it: -Tage is big but not physical at all in the 'traditional' sense. But his reach is used for production. -Ryan Reeves is often considered one fo the tougher and better fighters in the league now. He is a total of 6'2 and 225. Not even close to 'big' comared to dozens and dozens of other players in the league. Give me 2 players with the EXACT same skills, but one is 2 inches and 25 lbs heavier and I'll take the bigger one. But size for the sake of size isn't really all that useful. Boston has more than a couple players that are average (or below average) in size but I feel are much more likely to come out of the corner with a puck than guys who are much bigger. Look at big hits. No one would say Mike Peca was even close to 'big' yet he was one of the most feared hitters in the league. Lyubushkin plays physical and he certainly lays out some big league hits, yet he is listed at only 200 lbs.

I'm not there yet. Hopeful, but not there yet. I still can't get there because of their past history. About 4 years ago (give or take a year) weren't they first in the entire league around January 1? And for most of the last 3-4 years, they had similar starts. Are things different now? probably. Is Dahlin a legit superstar on the back end that they did not have before? Yes. But in those previous years, many people (including myself) tried to belelive that it was 'different' that time and it wasn't. Besides, I'll enjoy not being 100% on board yet..because each win that isn't expected is more enjoyable. Once I beleive this time 'its real', expectations are higher and each loss then hurts more.

I kinda agree with you. I mean, if people like looking at stats like this and there is some meaning to them than fine, but this is an one example of analytics that I personally thinks goes to far. Meaning, even if you do identify it, and if it IS real and not random (which I question) but what do you do to change it. Again, I dig deep into stats for fun that may not mean much to anyone else and post about them sometimes, so I am not going to say this isn't something interesting or fun to look into or maybe paints a picture that stats support, just for me personally it doesn't mean much.

100% agree. There is another variation of it too: -You have the cruise control on, you are gaining on someone in front of you. Your cruise setting is about 5mph faster than what they are doing. You approach them, change lanes, but as you are passing them, they speed up. You have to speed up more and more as they do so, finally going 10 or more MPH faster than your original speed to compete the pass. You clear them and pull back to the right lane. After ALL that, they seem to go back to their original speed and you start to pull away from then again as they fade into the distance behind you. I think 50% of the time it is just people being total jerks. But part of me wonders if the other 50% of the time, there is something in a driver's head that when they see someone pass them, it is an instinct, not a thought but just a reaction that makes them speed up? Not sure, all I know is it is annoying and can be dangerous in certian situations.

I think I bring this one up pretty often, but it keeps getting worse and worse. Gambling promotion and talk on sports radio. I get it. it is going to be there. People like talking about gambling and fantasy and SOME people (no idea who) like hearing about other peoples wins and losses on their personal bets and fantasy. Its here, but can we PLEASE cut down on it a bit? I had to run to the office this morning so I was in the car for maybe 30 minutes total: here is the sequence: -about 9:40-9:45am turned on WGR. They were talking about making a bet of what celebtrity will be shown on Thursday night football. -Stuck with it for a few minutes, but they kept on going about this -turned to 590 out of Toronto (I'm in Niagara county so I get it clearly). They USUALLY stick to sports, but not now. Talked about prop bets on football. -Back to WGR about 9:45-9:50, still talking about placing a bet on Randy Quaid. Back to 590, still on the prop bets. -Go to Satelite radio, first thing I hear there is a commercial for fan duel or some other betting site. Turn the radio off in disgust, go into the office. -Come back to the car right about 10:00-10:02, turn on WGR, figure with Sal on a new show they would start with talking about the Sabres game. Not really, first 10 minute of the show were dominated by Sal talking about a bet he made on the Sabres game. Not how good the team played, not Tage's play, Dahlin's ice time....but about how he placed a bet on the game because he thought they could come back. I think I stuck with it until 10:11 or 10:12 and when they were still talk about gambilng, I turned off the radio totally for the rest of my ride home. This is getting out of hand. There are periods of time you can listen to sports radio and have zero chance of getting way from gambling talk WHILE gambling talk totally dominates talk of the games.

Unis would have been many times better with 2 simple, small changes. A BIT more color on the Jersey (5% more blue than is there) and don't go with white pants. Those two things and they would have gone from a pretty bad look to maybe actually good.

Something else interesting: -From late november until the end of February last year. (when Olofsson got hurt) He went 30 straight games played without a goal, and was goal-less in 35 of 36 games. -Since then (March 1st) he has played 38 games and scored 21 goals. 35 games in a row without a goal, then followed up by 21 goals in 38 games (45+ goal pace)

Dahline with almost 30 minutes. Krebs at the bottom with just a tad over 10 minutes.

The thing that stood out to me about the Pens, even when they were ahead if anything happened to them, a penalty,scoring chance allowed....it was visible they were losing their cool about it very often.

To be honest, even in the lowest of times, Girgesons has pretty much always given 100%.

Broadcast said Girgensons traced skating at the fast speed anyone on either team all night. For those who don't acknowledge he is a good/very fast skater, there you go.

Outshooting the Pens, 2:36 left, up by a goal, but this doesn't have a good feel from me. hope im wrong.

I'm not overly surprised at how good Dahlin is playing now and how long it took to get there. I can't find it but I looked up a couple years ago (when some were calling for Dahlin to be traded) just how long it took some of the other elite D-mean to develop. It took Charra 6 years to be recognized as even 'very good'. Erik Karlsson was so bad in his own end that he actually was being pulled off the ice in close games until his 4th or 5th year, Victor Hedman never scored more than 5 goals or 25 point until his 5th year in the league, and he came into the NHL with almost as high pedigree as Dahlin. There have been a couple D-men here and there that hit the NHL and are very good to start with, but it is MUCH rarer for a D-man to be like that, especially one that is known for being well-rounded and great in both ends of the ice.

I dont think they are getting a new Arena and I have no idea why building it outside of the Buffalo city limits would matter/be a good thing. If you built it right in the middle of amherst it might be easier for a few people to get to the game, but not a major impact. I do agree with you that I'm surprised they are that high. They are/have been at the bottom on attendence (and I'm sure as a result of that home-game revenue) for a while now. The Arena is old(er) and not really a good revenue generator compared to other ones around the league, and the team value is probably hurt by the fact that right now Buffalo is likely close to the bottom in terms of getting a shiny/new arena or major renovation to what they have. And finally, if they aren't the smallest market, they are sure close.

Just to be clear....you talking the Eichel trade because of the pass Krebs just gave Asplund? Or the ROR/Tage trade?

I won't go into the details because I dont' know them, but I saw someone posted VO's analytics and it was brought up by many people that only shows part of the picture. The truth still remains....Cozens has made SOME mistakes, again as I cited, that Cost the sabres at least one goal and a few opportunities. VO hasn't. As far as your analytics in the offensive zone...they don't mean a thing when his 6 goals trump Cozens 2 (to this point). The analytics you site MAY have an impact on future production, but as of this moment, current production AND mistakes causing goals...VO is WAY ahead of Coznes. Truth. you may not like it, but to this point it is simply true.

Please, cite me the multiple poor plays by VO so far this year that cost the Sabres....I'll be waiting. I CAN cite you a few plays by Cozens where it cost the Sabres at least one goal and a few great scoring chances. Just because you WANT to beleive that Cozens is playing better, and he might have the POTENTIAL to be a better 2 way player....it doesn't make it true so far this year.

I disagree. Cozens is good and he can turn into a very great player. But there are games where he simply is not great all the time. Don't confuse 'full speed effort' with a good game. I posted a couple games ago that a goal allowed by the Sabres was primarily because of Cozens chasing the puck too hard instead of playing his position. Another play I brought up was a Risto-style play where he actually went to make a hit that wasn't needed and took himself out of the play leading to a great breakout. Do I think he is a bad player? No not at all, but there are certainly games where Mitts and VO are more valuable on a game by game basis than Cozens is. VO doesn't give the full speed ahead/physical style of play and at times you don't notice him. But he has 6 goals in 8 games. 2 PP goals (when the Sabres PP was struggling), 2 even strength, 2 empty net (one of which is important to seal the win) and an over time winner. MORE IMPORTANTLY, I have watched replays of just about every single goal the Sabres allowed (with the exception of one last night) and he was not out of position or even partially responsible for any of them. Basically, he isn't hurting them in his own zone. Lead the team in goals, have some game winners, drive the PP production, and dont' hurt your team in your own zone...and I'd say at this point in the season he is one of your most valuable players so far.

As per my previous post, I agree with almost everything you say. There is so much they can do pretty easily. -How about opening the doors to the Arena earlier...keeping that entire atrium open for fans to mingle at. 2 hours before the game, maybe have a band playing. Bing in the games for the kids (shooting the puck, other stuff). sell food and drink ad a REDUCED (but still profitible rate)..Maybe bring in open vendors and before the game have them sell their food there instead of standard concessions. EVERY game have an alumni or maybe even a current player make an appearance/sign autographs. Put up a big projection screen there and show your 'beyond blue and gold', 'sabres embedded' or highlights of the season so far on it. Have Marty Biron, Duff, and/or Rob Ray mingle before the pre-game show its the air. Sure, that won't make the 'in game' experience better, but give peopel MORE Of a reason to show up at the game, to show up early with something to do. Maybe some of those are bad idea, but do something like that, something bigger than what you do now.

I agree that those charts only tell so much of the story. As far as scoring, with Olofsson you have to just take he is going to be one of the streakiest scorers you have ever seen. His skillset and history point to that. As far as their gameplay, Olofsson has been invisible defensively from what I have seen, and to me for HIM that is a good thing. Mitts has been on the ice for some goals against, but when I looked at the replay of those goals, he has NOT been the one out of position, it is often been his linemates making the mistake, not him. Scoring and points are one side of the equation for sure with both of them. But in terms of effort and forechecking and D-zone positioning, both of them are a fraction of the problem that Krebs has been all year, and to a lesser extent Cozens (due to being overly agressive), Peterka (losing battles on the boards) and even KO and Tuch (out of position) have been.

I don't know if it is still true or not, but a couple years ago there was an article about concession prices and it had Buffalo listed in the top 5 most expensive. I also think that is a bigger issue than most think. In terms of total numbers, the cost of 2 beers, or a soft drink and a pretzel and a hot dog....that isn't anywhere near as much as the ticket prices. BUT, mentally its a big thing. You pay for parking, you pay for the tickets, then when you go to the concession stand and pay $20 for something that would cost you $5 at home....that give fans that "What am I doing here paying this much for this" moment. Seriously correct me if I'm wrong on this: I remember Terry Pegula saying the Sabres didn't really want to raise ticket prices, they understood the Buffalo market, but they had to because in order to get revenue sharing, that was part of the deal with the NHL. HOWEVER, concessions are not part of that. Having concession prices SO high is a totally different issue that I don't think needs to exist.

Winning consistently is the easiest way, I agree with that. But.... I think some of this has to be on the Arena, and the experience there. I'll try to pre-empt some responses by saying I know the game is the biggest thing, among hard core hockey fans is likely the only thing, and year sand years ago the experience at buildings like the Aud or boston garden or MLG was a lot worse and less comfortable than it is at the current arena, I get that but.... The Arena and the experience there matters today. You don't get 20,000 hard core hockey fans at games that only care about the games anymore. A winning product helps, sure. But today, people want nice things to look at, they want to go to new buildings, they want to see different things in their environment. Like it or not, new arenas typically get sold out for years regardless of how the team is. One of those new, fancy movie theaters opens up where they serve you food at your seat and give you blankets and pillows and they are popular for a while regardless of the movies. Not only does Buffalo not have a 'new' arena, but they don't seem to care about the game-day experience and the arena is in pretty bad shape. I have been to a bunch of arenas over the past 6-8 years (whether for a hockey game, and event or whatever reason) and even among the ones built the at the same time as the Key Bank Center, the KBC is a lot behind them. Chicago, Toronto, Boston, Philly, Montreal, Nashville....all were built about the same time (or are older), most have already undergone MAJOR renovations....and I have been to most of them (or at least walked by all of them) and they all blow away the key bank center. Forget about bringing up the brand new places like in Detroit, they are so nice you can go there just for the arena and have a good time walkign around regardless of the game. So I get it. The team needs to be better for long. If this team becomes a 100 point team and makes playoff runs, I think the Key Bank Center will be sold or (or very close to it) for most games. That is the easiest way to fix attendance. But if anyone hasn't been out of town to one of the new arenas around the league, or even to a game at one of the older ones that has been renovated, try it a couple times. There is a huge, massive gap in the gameday experience compared to what you get in Buffalo.

I'm not sure this team needs to spend much to aquire another D-man for now, other than for depth. Have the guys on the back end played perfectly? of course not. Do you want your 3rd pair guys (Bryson, Fitz) to be better at getting the puck out of the zone? Sure. And you want depth because if you have one more injury back there then you are in real trouble. But, watching every game this year and going back and looking at all the goals allowed, none of the D-men, even the guys at the back end of the rotation, have really played that poorly in ways that have cost this team goals. Bad luck/bounces, forwards being out of position, young guys (Krebs and Peterka) losing battles on the boards and giveaways by them...those are the things that have led to most of the goals against. I'd say Forward play and positioning in the D-zone is a much, MUCH larger issue in terms of the goals allowed compared to what the D-men have caused. You want to play the young guys up front, you are going to have to put up with them making mistakes until they learn positioning better or learn how to battle on the boards better in their own zone. Getting another Depth D-man will not fix that. I've said it in other threads, but Dahlin has hardly ever been out of position. Power is a bit slow to react sometimes but he isn't awful. Lyubuskin has been an absolute rock in terms of his positioning. And the young guys haven't made terrible positioning mistakes. The back end is holding up pretty well compared to the Forwards.

Again I watched the game and didn't get a chance to look at all the goals until this morning, some thoughts on the goals allowed: 1st MTL goal: Bad luck, off of Power's skate, can't see a direct breakdown. If you are looking for something that went wrong there, It would be 80% Peterka and 20% Cozens. Puck went to the boards, and Peterka couldn't control it or clear it (the lack of a play he made was similar to the battle Krebs lost that caused the first goal of the season). Cozens was skating toward that battle, but he turned away at the last minute. Peterka is playing great so far this year, but him and Krebs are losing battles on the boards that are causing goals against/scoring opportunities against. There are always small breakdown on every play, you can point to 5 or more things that cause a goal against if you go back far enough, but the young wingers losing battles on the boards (again, mostly Krebs and Peterka) are becoming a bigger issue. 2nd MTL goal: This looks to possibly be on positioning Tuch, MAYBE a little on Power. 1 MTL player in front of the net and he was covered by both Sabres D-men. Dahline collapsed to the middle of the ice when the puck went to the left (Power's side) so maybe Power could have came out from the net quicker than he did. The bigger issue was one of the Forwards needs to come out to cover that D-man on the shot and it looked to be on Tuch's side. Even though the front of the net was covered by both D...all 3 of the forwards were drifting lower in the zone, AND they were all covering the center of the ice. I have no idea why the wingers were bunched up so close to the center, all 3 forwards at times were touching each other and running into each other. Those wingers have to spread out to the wings more, so this one appears to be on Tuch. (BTW, if you look at the entire replay, it looks like Tage is playing the Defensive zone right side, with Mitts as the center, and Tuch on the left. So while the goal happened on Tuch's side, Tage drifted to the center of the ice when he probably should have been a bit more to the right. Mitts looked to be the only forward in the correct position at the time of the goal.) This is really a complex goal. In Tuch's defense, he needed to shadow Savard to not allow him a wide open shot. So that might be why he stayed in the center, taking away an open shot...So maybe Tuch had to make a decision, to cover the puck or cover his side. That would normally be Mitts guy, but Mitts was tied up with another forward crashing toward the center of the net. I still want Tuch a little farther to the outside. That is where you would maybe HOPE when Dahlin came to the front of the net to cover that area, Power could have gone out farther to at least pressure the shot by Guhle. All in all, it was good puck movement by Montreal, the best way to prevent that goal was if the Sabres got the puck out of the zone quicker. 3rd MTL goal: This one again might be Tuch. I don't know how long that line was on the ice, but it was the Tuch-Tage line again that was too far down low (almost like the forwards don't trust the defense and are going to deep in the zone to support the defense). Skinner actually plays his side well. When the puck goes back to the MTL D-man on his side, he skates out there very quickly to put pressure on the guy. But when he flips the puck over to the other side (Tuch's side), Tuch is very deep in the zone and he never even gets close to the shooter. I'm not quite sure why, but Tuch always goes back deep into the D-zone, but the bigger issue is when the opposing team gains control, he wants to defend in the middle of the ice (not his side) and he tends to collapse toward the net, and not get out to his wing to challenge the shooter. I haven't seen that from him where it caused a problem in any game before tonight, but it was a primary factor in 2 of the Montreal goals last night.