mjd1001

The people wanting him out of town continues to baffle me. He is a good to great forchecker, he is one of the faster skaters on the team. He does not make glaring errors in his own zone leading to goals, AND he scores as much (actually statistically at a higher rate) than most 4th liners in the league. He's a 4th liner, and a very good one.

Yeah, as many have said you need both. If you give me the choice of 95 point team with gutsy scrappers, or a 95 point team of fast skating, goal scoring guys, I'll take the latter. For pure entertainment value, I strongly prefer the 6-5 win over a 3-1 win (even if the 6-5 win is a bit sloppy). But again, to GET to be that 95 point team you probably want a balace of both.

I still think he is playing hurt, as others have said. I also think, and have said a few times, that if he doesn't do anything silly and actually manages to heal up in the offseason, I think hes good for close to 50 goals next year.

No thank you. I'm not going to let someone so negative and filled with hate towards his team take away the fact that I liked watching this team play tonight.. And when they win a game, I have fun watching it. But hey... After a come from behind win.... Home game, a hat-trick... To make a post like at the start of this thread... I'll say this, you have to be really behind your agenda in order to preempt anybody who can actually enjoy the game making comments about it just in case they had a good time watching it tonight.

The hit stats with Power are truly amazing. Clifton has a LOT less ice time than Power but he has 182 hits on the year. Dahlin has 170. Samuelsson in half of a season has 106. Even Jokiharju has over 80. The top D-men in the league have over 200. Lauzon (Nashville) has almost 340. Power? 39 hits for the year. You have a bunch of guys around the league with over 20 hits per 60 minutes of play, Power? 1.53 hits per 60. I mean, hes not a physical player, we have to accept that, but you almost have to think with numbers that low, he spends a LOT of time on the ice looking to avoid contact (even accidental/incidental contact) rather than just playing hockey.

If they are going to be responsible for him being gone, I don't think its because they WANT him gone, I think its just a matter of they don't have any reason to listen, no desire to work. To me it would be more ineptitude and not caring enough...and not being motivated by the current coaching staf than it would be them WANTING him gone. Why would a player want someone gone who might make things TOO easy for them?

Cozens with almost 8.5 minutes ice time just in the first. (on pace for 25.5 minutes at that rate) Krebs with 2.5, Skinner with just 3, even Tage with only 3:44 (on pace for under 12) I know the Sabres were shorthanded taking 2 penalties, but it doesn't quite make up for THOSE numbers.

agree. If you are going to lose, score some more goals even if it means losing bigger. The 2 teams the Sabres played last (Devils tonight, Ottawa the other night) aren't any better in the standings than the Sabres, they allow more goals than the Sabres, but they DO play faster and score more.

The beauty of not being too invested in the team, or at least not caring too much...is if they keep getting down so early on a Friday night, its easy to change over to movie night with the wife (as soon as she is ready, that is)

Is it me or is Cozens/Benson/Quinn out on the ice as much as the other 3 lines combined?

You are right that I do not think the Sabres are that far off, but I also agree with you that, despite the Sabres being around the same place as NJ in the standings this year, I think the Devils are WAY ahead. Their performance this year (New Jersey) gives me a little doubt...but I still think, they come back fully healthy to start the season next year and they are a 110+ point team next season. Even in the most optimistic scenario, one where most things fal into place nicely, I do not see that for the Sabres there. (despite how positive I am on their direction compared to many on the board) The Sabres to me are a 'potential 95-100 point team' currently in an 85 point wrapper. The Devils are in that same 85 point wrapper, but inside is a 110 point team waiting to burst out. You want to be a 110 point team next season? 2 things to me that make you think that is possible. 1.) you were a 95-100 point team the year before. 2.) You were already a 110+ point team in the presious 2-3 years with a similar (young) roster. The Devils have that 2nd one.

I get it. Playing out the stretch for me, however, means the only reason I want to watch the games is to see a win on any given night. I'm not thinking of playoff implications, all I care about is watching a win, and I think NJ is a team, when they finally get healthy is one that can embarass anyone.

I think the thing that favors the Avs over a team like the Oilers is their blueline. When you have Makar and Toews back there (mostly Makar) who carries the puck a LOT, then you don't need McKinnon (or the other forwards) expending as much energy carrying the puck up the ice. I agree I do not like when forwards get well over 20 minutes of ice time average for the season...but the teams that do that with a STRONGER presense on the blue line are, at least slightly, better off for it. I still thing Toronto has a chance this year ane next year to take a deep playoff run, but I have doubts as to how thier top 2 lines will hold up having to play every-other-night for week after week after week. Their top lines don't get a HUGE number for ice time, but when they are out there, they have to work really hard and they are relied on so much. Carolina, on the other hand, they are just solid. 116 and 113 points the last 2 seasons. (the shortened year before they were on 'pace' for 117) On pace for 110 this year after a very rocky start. And they do not wear down ANYONE on the team. Top 4 D-men all around 20 minutes (no one anywhere near 25+ like the Sabres do). No forwards averageing even over 20. Even strength, the top line and the 4th line are only about 3 minutes per game apart in ice time (they really DO roll 4 lines out there)

I'm way more positive about the team right now than most, but I worry about games like this vs New Jersey. On one hand, a bounce-back game for the Sabres should not be out of the question. But on the other hand, I think New Jersey might be one of the most talented teams in the league, like top 5. They are having an awful year compared to expectations (probably worse than the Sabres), and Hughes and Hirschier (imo their 2 best players) have missed a lot of games and played hurt for a good portion of the rest of the year...and yes, Dougie Hamilton is stil out..but this team is got so much talent. If/when they do put it together, they are scary. This is a team that had 112 points last year, at one point won 17 out of 19 games...and is 'almost' as young as the Sabres, were one game from the conference finals last year, and this season has been 'mostly derailed by injuries. I do not like playing teams like New Jersey.

Depends on the timeframe. If you want to say who is the worst over the last 10 years, or 15 years, yes. If you want to say who is the worst run right now? Nope. They have had a dissapointing year this year, but there are currently many other teams that had even a worse year than the Sabres and are in worse shape going forward.

I don't know...Skinner has 12.5% of his goals as game winning goals. Historically for his career with the Sabres the number is about the same. As a ratio of percentage of game winning goals to game winning goal percentage, its about average (meaning better teams with more wins have a greater chance of each goal being a game winning goal due to more wins). Overall, he's not 'clutch' but hes not 'anti-clutch'.

You don't do anything with Skinner yet. He'd be hard to move, a buyout may not make sense yet...and he is one of your best scorers. UNTIL you have a new young guy who is not currently on the team ready to take his spot AND put in 25 goals per season, he stays here and he should. Skinner and his contract are not the biggest, or even close to the biggest issues this team has. Now, in a year or two, he might be, that was a bad contract. But we haven't gotten to that point yet.

I have to think and I am HOPEFUL that the scoring drought he has this year is due to playing through a wrist injury (and maybe a foot injury) as the type of player he is, the way he shoots, even a little wrist/arm injury could impact him a lot. I haven't checked the up-to-date numbers, but I posted a lot post on this a couple weeks ago. His shots per game are about the same this year vs last year. Deep dive into where his shots are coming from, and he was getting 'about' the same quality chances. His ice time is similar. The ONE thing that is different is his shooting percentage is down 5% compared to last year and the year before. A guy who shots like he does, it would make sense (to me) that playing through an arm/wrist injury would cause that. Austin Matthews played through a nagging arm/wrist injury (similar to what Tage had earlier this year) and it never fully healed for him in the offseason. The year he had the injury, Matthews had about the same number of shots as his prior years (like Tage) but his shooting percentage was about 30% lower (just like Tage). With an offseason to let it fully heal, he came back the next year to the same (actually slightly better) scoring pace that he had the previous years.

Agree. I'd like to see betting marketing material, betting ads on tv, print ads, and of course those awful betting shows on the radio with Vinny from New Jersey telling me how much money I can make sports better if I just give him a call....I'd like all of that shot into the Sun never to be seen again (especially on weekends when I turn on the radio just looking for a little weekend morning sports talk and I get the betting shows). But, I have come to the conclusion fighting those things is a batter that cannot be won.

I think things are going in that direction, not having starting pitchers (other than the ones who start the game but don't pitch more innings than anyone else). I don't like that myself, but things are going in that direction rapidly: -Last year a total of 5 pitchers had over 200 innings. The leader had 216. 5 years ago there were 15 starting pitchers with over 200 innings. 10 years ago there were 34. 20 years ago there were 43. The number of innings starters are pitching is going way down, and its happening every year. -I agree with you that guys like Verlander and some older vets won't like it, but the new guys in the system now...the teenagers, the 20-something breaking into the league...those guys aren't going to 'know' the game of pitching 7-8 innings per start, pitching with the goal of a complete game. So, once the guys with connections to the way the game was played 10+ years ago are gone, it will be even easier as each year goes on to having a pitcher be...simply a pitcher.

I agree, but I don't think they care. As long as the dollars keep coming in (and gambling appears to be adding a LOT of dollars), and the owners aren't arrested and going to jail, I don't think most of them care at all about ethics, what is right or wrong, the integrity of the sport. Owners want to make money first, win second (for bragging rights over the other billionair owners). For the majority of them I don't think they care how they do either of those.

Another thread about coaching management, but with some other points made. My opinion is still the same, both should be back for the start of next year, and then you keep evaluating from then on.

Just the eye test (my opinion, Quinn and Peterka were a bit more dangerous) and the stat sheet. Not saying Benson isn't playing well away from the puck, just when he is on the ice, I don't always think of him as a threat to score yet. With Quinn and Peterka their rookie years, I did. Just an opinion.

I think Tuch would get a lot. There are those on this forum that don't like the year he is having, don't like one or two things he said...but the 'thinking he is from the area', and him being visible as a Bills fan, I think that goes a lot way with fans liking him, especially the more 'casual' fans that either don't post here, or aren't the hardcore Sabres fans that post a lot.

I agree. The key is is he healthy? If he passes the physical, he can skate for a week or so without an setbacks, then sure play him. Going into camp next year, I think having played in a handful of games at the end of this season would be a LOT better for him than going months and months and months without playing. Even just getting in a game or two, if healthy, is a good thing.