mjd1001

What is different? Mostly Dahlin. Some other very early observations: -Dahlin. I'm not going to declare him the Norris trophy winner now, but he is playing like a superstar. 4 goals, but it goes beyond that. Very few giveways (none of consequence I can remember). On odd man rushes, he is often times the first person back despite often times going deep into the offensive zone. When the Sabres have the puck in the offensive zone, he's always in control....rush him and he'll casually flip the puck to an open man, give him time and he'll take time and let someone come open. In the D-zone he is getting to loose pucks and getting them out of the zone. And he is playing chippy too. Through 4 games, he has been a controlling force on the ice. -Goaltending. Very good so far. In one game you got what you hope for out of Anderson this year, and its early, but MAYBE you are going to get your average-to-above-average goaltender in Comrie. Its early, but at least we know he has that in him. -Hinostoza needs to be in this lineup. I get it, he's not going to continue on the point pace he is on through 2 games and he does make some mistakes. But, he is fast, really fast and he uses that speed. he has pretty good offensive ability. He might be the rare example of a guy you do not want on your first line, but when on the 3rd or 4th line he makes the OTHER 3rd or 4th liners better when they play with him. He is not a star player, but he is one of my favorite players on the team to watch. -Tuch. He is a streaky scorer. I always get concerned he may have a really bad run in the course of a year and it will lead him to only having a 15 goal season. Doesn't look like that so far. Plus, its really, really fun to have a player on your team that is from the area, who is a fan of things in the area (Bills) and someone that is just really fun to root for. -Mittelstadt. I think he needs to be a 50 point player for this team, but the coaching staff seems to trust him with ice time, he is on the PP, penalty kill, and gets regular even strenght time. I'm nervous about his production but so far so good. -Skinner and Olofsson. Please score (other than empty netters) -Krebs. I know from some discussions on this board people disagre with me, but he has not played good this year so far. His ice time is way down. 2 times he lost a battle on the board or couldn't control the puck on the boards and it led to 1 goal and one great scoring chance. One time toward the start of a shift the Sabres had a goal scored against them and if he had more speed he would have been able to backcheck and bother the guy who scored but he just didn't have the speed or he was too far deep in the offensive zone. Now, he was back in the lineup last night and the coaches gave him more ice time, so hopefully that is a good sign. -Samuelsson. I think he is a good player, and I'm happy with the deal he signed. But he does have limitations. After the 3rd time he got the puck in his own zone the last 2 games (that I saw) he got the puck out from behind the net but it was obvious skating speed and acceleration is an issue he needs to work on if possible. I noted this in the gameday forum and a few people disagreed. I'm not sure what game you are watching but there are numerous times where he can't pull away from forecheckers, and often times they are catching him from behind. It happens and its right there to see. Again, I like him, and he did not give the puck up in any of those cases, but the reason he was a 2nd round pick and not a 1st rounder, and the reason he got a $4m deal and not more is he does have limitations. -D depth and Jokiharju. Jokiharju is not Dahlin...he is not a great 1st pair guy. He has gotten caught out of position in the games he has played, and he doesn't take over games. With that said, he is good overall. As much as I like Fitzgerald and Bryson and young guys, it was noticable after he went out of the game that the extra ice time the bottom pairing guys got, there was a little less 'calmness' from them in the D-zone. Jokiharju, despite some mistakes, makes his D-unit better when he is on the ice. -Power. He looked really good last year. This year he is a tad bit more shaky. The last 2 games he has been better though. I think opposing teams may be pressuring him a lot, as soon as he gets near the puck they are running at him. Once he adjusts to the speed of the game, he'll adjust to that a lot more and make some plays out of it. It looks like he is already getting better. Hopefully he'll be in the running for Rookie of the year. But I think he'll be a lot better next year (or even the 2nd half of this year) than he is now.

He is an amazing statistical case. 5th year in the league now. 2 of those years he played nearly half the NHL games for the Kings. And yes, it is early this year, but every single year, without fail so far, his numbers have gotten worse. Both GAA and Save percentage were the best his first year and both have gone down every year, year after year.

I would have liked to see a bit more effort on that PP....it looked like they are just trying to run out the clock, but still 2:30 left

I'm not making an excuse, as I think their play in their own zone could be better in the 3rd....but this is the 2nd road game in a row they are allowing a lot of shorts in the 3rd...also the 2nd game in a row they are on the road and down 1 d-man in the 3rd.

I don't mind Byrson, I think he can keep getting better. But the last game or two, when I see him on the ice in the D-zone I am getting nervous for a goal against.

Even the goal they allowed in the first wasn't a really bad play by anyone. Fitzgerald and Bryson were the D-unit, and it was more of a case of non-communication than anything. Bryson went into the corner after the puck, then followed his guy up the boards. The puck came back toward that side of the net, Fitzgerald WAS in front of the net, but decided to chase the puck into the corner. Cozens went in with him. With Cozens and Fitzgerald both into the corner, and Bryson not having a chance to get off the boards and back to the front of the net, the goal was scored. Had Fiztgerald had a little more time with Bryson, they would likely hold their positions better. That Calgary goal just scored now, give the first assist to the ref.

I like Samuelsson, but it is noticable that he isn't that fast and doesn't have a good first step. when he gets the puck in the Sabres zone, he doesn't have the ability to pull away from any defender.

And he is fast. And he isn't making many mistakes this year so far. He needs to stay in the lineup for a while.

Buffalorising is a website I no longer visit because about a year ago they changed the layout and now it is awful. Before the change, it was simple, one column, all the articles arranged in a row. Nice. But now, you start with a huge banner ad up top, Followed by 3 pictures (2 small and one large) that are clickable for articles in them, then the page changes format again under that to a few more articles (with an ad on the side), then it changes again to videos, then it changes back to articles but now they are smaller with pictures and 2x2. I really wonder sometimes who redesigns things and says "yep, this is way harder to read and to use, but i think it LOOKS slightly better so lets go with it"

Actually the Matthews draft year Buffalo didn't finish last, not even close. They had 81 points, and were 8 spots from the bottom. That is the year the Leafs did tank, finished last, won the lottery, and picked Matthews. One of the funnier things is, there was a big-time tank job by the leafs leading up to that draft...but listen to fans out of Toronto and they say "Buffalo deserves Eichel and not McDavid because they tanked and that was wrong", but they are convinced that isnt' what they did that year.

The thing I like about Dahlin in terms of his defense so far this year is he has the ability, and positioning, to get back. You would think with him pinching and going deep in the offensive zone, he would get caught up ice a lot. But it seems to me not only is that not happening much anymore, often times HE is the one d-man back when his partner gets caught up ice. Being able to control the puck in his own zone, get it out of the zone (and out of danger) because of his carrying/control or first pass ability, and the fact he has the speed and awareness to get back in his zone really well this year....those skills may make him more of an asset keeping the puck out of the Sabres net than a typical 'stay at home, shut down' type of D-man.

In never put much thought to it, but the Sabres have really never had a dominant D-man. Housely was great in the offensive zone, Ramsey, and to a lesser extent Hajt were great in the D-zone. Talinder was balanced but not 'great' in any one aspect of the game. But no-one who you could even say would approach dominant from the Back end. Up front, you had Lafontaine, Mogilney, Perreault, Gare, even Briere and Andreychuk. If not dominant they all had seasons where they were considered legit stars. Of course Hasek in net. But until possibly Dahlin, no one like that on the back end.

Because he was such a big part of this franchise, and especially at the end of his time here such a polarizing figure, there will be a lot of talk about him for a while. Personally, I like talking and posting about his success, or failure, because seeing what he is/turns into has a lot to do with how well the Sabres did in that trade. Does it matter for the team going forward? Nope, not really, but this is a message board and we are fans and the reason many of us are here is we like talking about things that are emotial triggers. Once a game starts and I watch the Sabres, I have zero thoughts about Eichel, but between games, I like to follow the entire NHL, especially players that used to be part of the team.

Great. Glad you agree and took the time out to post that you do.

ALMOST great. Lacking in color..too much white. A bit more blue up top near the shoulders would have done wonders for this. But the way it is, so much white up top it almost has a "plain white T-shirt with a logo" vibe to it. As others have said, no color or no logo on the shoulders makes it just too plain. SO CLOSE!

The problem with that statement for Eichel is, there are too many steps between Eichel and Mcdavid. Many wanted to (and some still do) beleive there was McDavid then a step down to Eichel. The reality is there is McDavid, then Matthews, Draisatil, Ovi, Kaprizov, Kreider, Gaudreau, Huberdeau, Stamkos, Tkachuk, Panarin, McKinnon, Crosby, Barkov, Connor, a few others, and THEN Eichel. Eichel is taking up over 12% of his teams cap space on a team that is stretched in that a regard. His team gave up 3+ first rounders for him (Tuch, Krebs, and last years 1st). He is tied for 111th in the league in points per game since you have been with Vegas. Since he started his career, he is 25th in the league in points per game, and 47th overall in points (partly because he has had so many games missed to injury). My point is you simply cannot have the lack of effort you displayed on that play the other day, or he has displayed many other times over his career and even since he has been with vegas (many of those plays shown here and/or on Twitter). If you are getting paid that much, and your team gave up so many assets for you, you have to be better in the D-zone, regardless of how long your shift was (if his shift was something absurd like 1.5 minutes, then he needed to get off the ice and let someone else on)

I have no feeling at all about this game. Zero. A win would confirm a lot of potential positive thought though, but going into it...nothing.

Yes I did, and I stand 100% by what I say. That they were outplayed in the 3rd period, but they rarely totally lost control of the game. Very few of the chances the Oilers had in the 3rd were screened chances or off of huge rebounds. They gave up a lot of 'good' chances, Comrie had to make a lot of 'good' saves, but not many of the nearly impossible type saves where he was hung out to dry. Edmonton had a lot of shots, and if there was a rebound many were either cleared out of the zone or their players were kept away from the rebounds right in front of the net.

I agree with you. I don't want to say the Sabres played GREAT overall in the 3rd, but they did what they had to do. It wasn't all Comrie, as you said the D-unit did what the needed to do. Complaining about the number of shots given up in the 3rd is somewhat justified, but also somewhat like saying in the NFL your Defense gave up too many passing yards in the 4th quarter when you played strictly prevent up by 10 points and the opposing offense was running a no-huddle the entire quarter.

Yes, but there are about 125 forwards this year (nearly 1/3 of the league) whos coaching staff is giving more ice time to than Eichel is getting.

Its early, but so far when I watch him it doesn't appear the game is too 'fast' for him mentally. He is a quick player physically, but so are a lot of young guys. The difference I see with JJ is, he reacts to things quickly. Not a lot of time to stop and think of where to go or what to do. He recognizes things and then reacts. A trait that a lot of young players (maybe Quinn?) take a year or two in the NHL to develop, he seems to have already.

I'm wondering if he is still hurt, or has another injury that no one knows about yet. Vegas is 4 games into the season. A small sample size yet but we can notice a few trends: -Eichel is not getting the ice time you would think your franchise (or at least star) player should be getting. Star forwards are getting 21m-24m minutes of total ice time per game. Eichel so far is at 15:36...5 to 6 minutes less than most other star forwards. That is a huge difference. -Even strength might be even more telling. Most star forwards are around 17 minutes of even strenght ice time, some (Gaudreau, McDavid, Quinn Hughes) are in the 19-20 minute range. Even strength though, Eichel is getting about 12 minutes (12m 15s). That puts him 6th among forwards on his own team. This year so far he is down almost 4 minutes of total ice time compared to his time with Vegas last year, and down nearly 3 full minutes of even strength ice time compared to last year with Vegas (where he was coming off surgery AND had a different injury later in the year) Does the new coaching staff not buy into his effort? Is he injured again? Or is his overall game not even close to that of an elite player that deserves top ice time, but are there a legit 5-6 forward on that team that have an overall game better than him?

It is early in the season so looking too deep into how the coaching staff is awarding ice time might be premature to figure out what they are thinking, but it is something I like to look at. So far this year. D-men, Power is getting his ice time, mostly at the expense of Bryson, with Joki getting less too. Forwards. Most guys close to last year, Mittelstadt and Cozens getting a big increase. Girgensons and Krebs with a LOT less than last year. Dahlin. 28 seconds more per game than last year Power. 29 seconds more than last year Jokiharju. 1m 41s less than last year. Samuelsson. 47s more than last year Bryson. 4m 26s less than last year Forwards: Tuch. 15s more than last year Thompso. 14s less than last year Mittelstadt. 1m 26s more than last year Cozens. 1m 25s more than last year Skinner. 28s less than last year Olofsson. 14s less than last year Asplund. 7s less than last year Girgensons. 2m 31s less than last year Krebs. 3m 29s less than last year

I am wondering how much of it was that it was an ugly win, vs how much of it was the way they decided to play, going into a shell in the 3rd. It seems the Sabres figured out that by collapsing the D and Forwards toward their own net, the Oilers would control the puck AND they would get off shots but those shots would not be of the extremely dangerous kind. A lot of Edmonton's goals are of the tick-tac-toe passing variety, but last night they had very little of that puck movement. 1 pass maybe and then a shot that Comrie could see. I'm sure they would rather control the puck more than they did in the 3rd, but maybe part of it was a strategy call based on how Edmonton was playing. Add to that the Libyuskin injury and a shorter bench for the D-men, and that adds to the possibility.

Krebs is the next guy that could use a day in the press box. He just needs to 'slow down' and let the game come to him, and be aware of his limitations and play to his strengths. I think last night was his best game so far. However, he has had some giveaways so far and lost some battles on the boards (that led to opportunities/goals against). Also, the coaching staff must recognize something is 'off' in his game, or maybe, just maybe he has a slight injury? He only had 9:51 ice time last night, with only about 6 minutes being even strength. For the year, he is only getting just over 11 minutes ice time per game and just over 8 even strength. Very, VERY low ice time minutes, especially even strength. Again, either he is nursing a slight injury, or the coaches just think he needs to work on something because they are not using him much and as each game goes by he is used less and less. (compared to last year, in 3 games this year he is getting 3-4 minutes less ice time per game, most of that coming out of his even strength ice time.)