mjd1001

Overall, the Sabres have played worse games. I don't know if there has been a more boring 35 minutes this year though.

So the Sabres are on pace for 9-10 shots on goal for the entire game at this rate.

So, the forwards generated a total of 1 shot on net that period...by...Malenstyn.

I missed the first period, but I see UPL is sporting a .667 save percentage so far...ugh. I know for the season he's something like .895 and has the best GAA on the team of the 3 guys..I just do not trust him in net.

I had to look up who that was. I never really followed social news, wives and girlfriends, pop culture, etc. But lately when I see names of what celebrity is dating what celebrity, it seems like I have to look up who they are 80% of the time if not more.

I really, really like Tage at center more. I don't know if the numbers show he is better at center or wing, but when I watch him, I think he plays better at Center...and he seems to me to do his best work with the puck in the center of the nice, not from the dots out to the boards.

Its like they really, REALLY want an excuse for UPL to be the #1 starter. They will go out of their way to give him every chance over any other goalie on the roster, probably until he either turns into who he was 2 years ago, or he throws up on himself so bad he takes the team down with him.

No great teams, but some good teams. Carolina is good, but just like most years, not 'good enough' to be a dominant team. Washington is good. Not great, but solid. New Jersey is good. But they just can't get Jack Hughes to be healthy enough to challenge 'great'. Actually, I thought there would be more. Thats all I have.

I'm still not thinking this team is for real.... I think they are a below average team that is on a 1 to 2 week Good run, like we've seen many many times over the past decade. With that said, a win tonight will get me interested... Interested for the rest of the weekend. If they can take four of the next six points, I'll keep that interest, if they can take five or six of the next six points, I'm back in almost 100% I just want a good high scoring. Exciting win though. Tonight of course is about winning but the day before Thanksgiving? Give me pure entertainment.

I guess we are going to disagree on that. Is it a dump compared to the Aud at the end of its days? or the Boston Garden? Or MSG before the latest renovation? No its not that bad. But compared to a few other places I have been to, yeah, its a dump. Uncomfortable, worn out seats (when I sat down in our set, the seat 'wobbled a bit as did the seats to the left and right of me, and I'm not a huge guy either), pitted concrete, bathrooms with either no hot or no cold water (someone told me this MIGHT have been fixed since last time I was there?) Crowded concourses, no convenient place to meet and talk to friends that might be at the same game you are...going up to the higher levels on a game close to a sellout and waiting on that escalator...among other things. The Bathrooms always seem dirty and disgusting. Yeah, I know this is an arena with 15,000+ people at most games, they are going to get dirty, but the last game I was at out of town in Columbus, the ones there seemed to be 100x better. Yeah, for simply watching the game on the ice, once you are in your set, its ok. But I can do that at home. I actually look forward to going to other arenas around the country not just for the event, but for the arena, the things to see there, places to meet up. The last time I was at the KBC for a game, I was there for the game only, in spite of the building.

I think it was about $180 million....Now worth $1.42 billion with very little debt. They are worth about $60 million more than last year. He and the team can afford to invest a bit more into it.

https://www.cnbc.com/2025/11/25/cnbcs-official-nhl-team-valuations-2025.html Sabres 31st, ahead of Columbus. I'm a bit surprised, yeah Columbus has Ohio state,but the Blue Jackets are in a bigger city, have a much, much nicer arena and arena district, and have no pro competition in their market. Of course the market size and fan support drive these ratings, but looking at the list the building/facility and how good it is/how much revenue it gernerates seems to be a pretty big factor also. Plus, something surprising, for all we have heard over the years about Canadian cities not being able to compete on a level footing with US cities in the NHL due to taxes and currency, it looks like the Canadian teams are increasing, something drastically, their local TV revenue, while many of the US teams have that going down. The Canadian teams are bringing in a lot more money that way than their US counterparts. (the Rangers took a cut to their local revenue DOWN to $35 million per year, while Montreal's new deal has them getting $70-$75m per year.) I know they have a new Arena, but can someone explain to me how Edmonton led the league in Revenue, ahead of the Rangers, Boston, and even Toronto?

The Edmonton example is linked in there with an article. It took me about 30 seconds to find that article. For the rest, do your own work, the info is out there I'm not digging up anything else to justify my point (the info is out there) The collection of those guys are certainly better than the number of games the Sabres lost with 'top guys'.

In many cases it is true: -McDavid missed a bunch of games last year. In addition to those guys (at one point Edmonton had Draisaitl, Hopkins, Kane, Hyman, Ekholm and others out at the same time last year https://thehockeywriters.com/oilers-have-mishandled-their-injuries-2024-25/) -Eichel missed a bunch of games his first 2 years with Vegas (and we know about the Mark Stone time missed due to injury) -Last year Ottawa finally made the playoffs despite multi game injuries to both of their goalies, Nick Cousens, Perron, Pinto, and Tkachuk. -New Jersey made it back to the playoffs last year with Jack Hughes, Hischier, Luke Hughes, and both goaltenders missing multiple games due to injury. -Ovi was on a 50 goal pace and missed almost 20 games last year -Heiskanen missed about 1/3 of the season last year. Lundkvist and Dumba also missed time on their blueline, with Hintz, Marchment, Bourque and Seguin missing multiple games up front. -Over the last few years, Matthews in Toronto has missed some games (and played through injuries) across several seasons. All made the playoffs, some finishing very high in the standings. I'm sure there are other examples. I know at points the Leafs had Matthews out or playing hurt with other guys out at the same time.

So if you add up the record of when those guys are out (not knowing any overlap), its 6-16-2. If you add in Dahlin last year its 6-26-4 (or 6 wins and 30 losses if we consider OT losses what they are, losses). Well, guess what? Other teams lose their star players and still make the playoffs, other teams lose sometimes MULTIPLE important players and make the playoffs. Why? I'm guessing when other playoff teams lose important players, they aren't as good, but they for sure AREN'T 6 WINS and 30 LOSSES bad! The reason injuries doesn't work as an excuse is when you have them, you have to be good enough to do better than 6 wins and 30 losses. Maybe 15w, 21 losses. Maybe even 12 and 24. But not 6 and 30. That is in indictment on your roster construction.

I don't put too much into this, but this is the best I can find (keep in mind the numbers might actually under-estimate Doan because he gets so many more defensive zone starts than Peterka does.) Doan only gets about 45% offensive zone starts, and then the Sabres lose the faceoff (lose possession) almost 54% of the time. Peterka gets 68.2% offensive zone starts, and his team wins those offensive zone faceoffs 62% of the time. Doan has 63 defensive zone starts, JJP only has 28 defensive zone starts (all this even strength) So here goes: When Doan is on the ice: 127 scoring chances allowed. 54 high danger chances allowed. 15.9 expected goals allowed. When JJP is on the ice: 143 scoring chances allowed. 62 high danger chances allowed. 15.7 expected goals allowed. That expected goal number would likely be a LOT higher for Peterka and lower for Doan (allong with the rest of the numbers) if JJP wouldn't be sheilded so much from defensive zone starts. Their ice time per game is very close, and seeing how Doan is on the ice starting in the Defensive zone a lot more and the other team has possession of the puck off of faceoffs more, I'd say those numbers say Doan (and of course, his linemates) are performing positionally in the defensive zone better than JJP (and his linemates.) This might be the most critical stat favoring Doan over JJP: Despite the lopsided zone starts (offensive vs Defensive) where Doan starts in the defensive zone and JJP doesn't that much....total time on ice Doan has only 33.7% of his time in the defensive zone, while JJP has 40.9% of his time in the defensive zone. The goalies JJP is playing in front also have about a 1.5% better save percentage than what Doan has behind him. The fact that Doan starts in the defensive zone so much more, yet has less defensive zone ice time can only lead me to think he helps a LOT more with getting the puck out of the defensive zone (and keeping it out) than JJP does. When taken into context together, most of the fancy stat numbers through 22 games point to Doan being much better in defensive zone coverage and helping exit the puck from the defensive zone than JJP.

Doan vs Petekra though about 1/4 of the season by the numbers even strength: -Actual goals for vs allowed percentage: Peterka 52.63 Doan 47.37 -Expected goals for vs allowed: Peterka 48.71 Doan 52.16 -82 game goal/points Petera: 34 goals, 60 points, +7, 15 hits 15:58 ice time per game. Offensive zone starts 68.2% 82 game pace/points Doan: 26 goals, 56 points, -11, 90 hits 15:37 ice time per game. Offensive zone starts 45.2% As for as helping the PP, Peterka not only has zero pp goals or points, he hasn't even been in the ice for a single PP goal for Utah this season. On the other hand, I think many of us think Doan has actually improved the Sabres PP by going to the net, scoring 2 goals on the PP, having 2 PP assists. He has been on the ice for 8 pp goals for the Sabres (ties for the team best among forwards), but he has done than in less time than Tage, statistically equating to him being the best forward on the team in helping them score PP goals. Of the guys with over 40 minutes of PP ice time so far: When Doan is on the ice, the team scores a PP goal once every 6.9 minutes. Tage is once every 9.4 minutes. Zucker every 7.8 minutes. Quinn every 11.2 minutes. Tuch every 10.5 minutes. On the PP this team has its 'sniper' in Tage. It has its puck handler in Dahlin. It might very well be, possibly long term, that Doan helps this PP more than Peterka ever could. He does something this team needs more than it needs what JJP does well on the PP.

It kind of reminds me of the discussion that comes up... Could the best college football team beat the worst NFL team? Could the best Alabama team of the decade beat the Detroit Lions when they were owing 16? There are people who argue. Yes, the college team could win and I think that's crazy. I think those games would probably be 70 to nothing... Depending on how hard the NFL team wanted to try. Oftentimes the very best college teams of all time will have 10% or less of their roster that is drafted into the NFL, and many of those players may or may not even make an impact. Not to mention they practice less, they have less complicated schemes, it all matters. I agree with your original point, and it just made me think of that argument I just listed above.

They actually were pretty good: Corsi: 20 for, 6 against Fenwick: 15 for, 6 against Scoring chances: 8 for, 4 against expected goals: .65 for, .52 against. They were better possessionally that whoever the Sabres put out there against them. They were Carolina's best line. They just didn't finish.

Plus with Pittsburgh upcoming, the Penguins have lost 7 out of their last 9 after a hot start. They are old, pretty slow, and their 2nd and 3rd pair D-men are pretty much a collection of nhl journeymen. They will be well rested though.

Overall good game, but by far the worst line was Tuch/Thompson/Doan for most of the game. Even strength they had 2 scoring chance for, 7 allowed. Their shots for/against, Fenwick, Corsi, Expected goals for/against....all were awful. McLeod, Zucker, Quinn by far the best line of the night in terms of analytics. Dahlin has the best analytics of all D-men on the game. https://www.naturalstattrick.com/game.php?season=20252026&game=20347&view=limited

Tage 1 goal in the first 7 games... 11 in his last 15 games

He might. Often times on the official scoresheet and NHL.com, they list goals as 'unassisted' for a few minutes before adding the assists. Its like they want to get the goal scorer up as soon as possible, and iron out the details a few minutes later.

Big game Wed against Pittsburgh. For me personally, growing up I always looked forward to any games the day before Thanksgiving or the games on New years eve. The Wed before Thanksgiving, it was a long weekend from school (now sometimes a long-ish weekend from work), that a win that night just 'feels' better than most other nights.

UPL played well. I still don't trust him yet.