mjd1001

Yeah, I personally don't ilke fighting much anymore. If high scoring game occurs, I never think to myself "that game needed a fight" if the NHL totally outlawed fighting (and filled the void with SERIOUS penalties for stickwork), I'd be OK....However... With that said, i really wish the Sabres would have found ONE heavyweight. A guy who is a top 20 fighter, but can also play and not be totally out of place. Wouldn't have to play everynight, but even for someone like me who isn't into fighting anymore...that is what I'd want from my 11th/12th/13th forward.

There is one thing I'll agree with. He had some very good games last year also...not any worse than he is playing this year. Just last year he disappeared for weeks at a time. The team hasn't played long enough for him to do that. If he doesn't have those stretches where you don't notice him, if he plays consistently, THAT will be the sign that his game as taken a step forward. With him, you get that you are getting, his game-to-game play is probably at its ceiling. The way he can improve is by not having as may 'off' games.

I think that is totally untrue. I think this happens, and is caught on camera in most hockey markets it gets its own thread. I'd have to search to find it, but I think on some of the maple leafs forums when stuff like this has happened in the past...with players that aren't even top players, it gets brought up and talked about for pages, and pages.

Yeah, I mean, I wouldn't like it if this was happening everyday and guys were getting banged up..but occasionally, no big deal in a bad way to me.

-he's a positive player on a negative team. -he's 2nd on the team in hits -he leads the team in time on ice shorthanded, the team has only allowed 1 shorthanded goal with him on the ice and it wasn't a result of something he did -his advanced skating metrics are all in the top 30-35% of entire league -the eye test, he is noticable on the forcheck. He is engaging, not in fights, but showing up in scrums. He is tying up D-man in front of the net and across the offensive zone. -The coach singled him out in training camp AND again during the season for his play, how hard he is working, etc. (and Ruff has NOT done that with every player on the team, only a handful in press conferences but he has done it with Greenway).

Yeah, in the past the Bills have handled the Dolphins with Tua pretty well, and, most importantly, with THIS years team they were handling the Dolphins with Tua before he got hurt. I'm not worried about the Dolphins, if the Dolphins get him back and pass the Bills, its because the Bills are simply not good enough. If they let the Dolphins pass them at that point, they they wouldn't be going that far in the playoffs anyway.

The whole group is playing solid, so you would think it has something to do with the system they are playing. On the other hand, I thought the 2nd half of last year they were vastly improved compared to the first half of the year. I'm just wondering, what percentage of the good play so far is Ruff's system they follow, vs just that they were improving already and a very young D-group got one year older/more experienced.

I have Problems with a lot of the bolded. -He doesn't engage? a player like him sometimes is better not engaging. I have made the analogy before, but playing without the puck in the NHL is like being a DB in football, you can be great at man-to-man or you can be great at zone. Thompson covers a lot of ground just being in opposing passing lanes. When someone plays great zone coverage in the NFL, you don't usually notice it because by its nature, zone coverage is meant to prevent throws from being made. Not only does Thompson have the ability to play the NHL version of 'great' zone coverage. He actually does. When he is used on the PK and the Sabres hold the PK box together you can see how effective he is. Also, I don't always notice it when I am watching a game live, but when I rewatch the broadcast, I know what is going to happen so I tend to focus on individual players, and you can see Thompson is very aware of what position he is in defensively and often times the opposing team chooses to not pass o skate toward him. I'm not just saying it, actually isolate on him when you rewatch a game. Due to this size/reach AND his willingness to play a sound positional game, he is one of the most effect players when the other team has the puck. Its there. Watch it. -Secondly the 'doesn't get back 'thing simply isn't true. Technically it may be at times. The first goal allowed he was caught up the ice, but when you have your top center, you WANT him in the offensive zone and he is going to get caught up the ice some times. It happens to McDavid, Matthews, and yes, watching the playoffs last year, for all the 'effort' we hear McKinnon puts in, he was the last one back in the defensive zone quite a bit. But besides that, he DOES get back alot, you can see it. In defensive zone coverage he stays in the center of the ice and will drop down, sometimes below the faceoff dots, when the other team collapses on the net. I just went to NHL.com and watched part of their 'condensed game' and the first 2 times I saw Tage in the defensive zone, he was in the middle of the ice, and once the Panthers collapsed down toward the net he went right there with them. Look at 2:15 in the condensed game for one example, he 'gets back' and does EXACTLY what you want a forward backchecking to do. Now watch the replay of the game live an focus on him. He gets back most of the time, trailing the puck slightly to maintain coverage in the slot. Again, Not even using deep analytics here, but you can see he gets back on turnovers often, and when he does, he is where he is supposed to be. As far as not making his linemates better, well, Tuch has had his career years with Tage. Skinner had his over-30-year-old bounce back seasons when paired with Tage. The only measurable metric I can think of to see if he is contributing offensively to making his teammates better is to look at the ratio between primary assist and secondary assists (primary in general being you are more involved the the goal scored, while secondary in many/most cases is a bit more 'noise'. 61.3% of his assits are primary, not secondary assists so not only is he above that 50% line that you want to be, he also has 1.25 per 60 since he became a center, better than anyone else on this team by far (Cozens is below 1) Again, if you watch the game and watch him in isolation you will see the things I said above are true. The fact that the WAY he plays without the puck makes him so effective (Zone defense, remember), makes him the opposite of a 'one trick pony'. I don't like deep analytic stats that much. Personally I like a combo of the 'basic stats' with the 'eye test', but if you dig into some of the moderately deep analytics through just 4 games, Tage is excelling at most of them. His NHL edge overview (measuring skating, speed, shot power, goals. offensive zone possession) are all at elite levels through 4 games. Puck zone time when he is on the ice is at the 84th percentile, better than his linemates and better than the 2nd line (Cozens). The primary reason it seems he has no assists yet (through just 4 games) is one winger with him either got hurt or has been playing hurt the whole time (Peterka and Benson) and the other (Tuch) hasn't yet converted on any direct passes from Tage yet. I'm not sure, other than ONE time a goal was allowed, how you can make a blanket statement that he isn't getting back defensively. Most of the time he is, and he does.

Yeah, its early, still not worried about them. With D-men, even those high pedigree guys, need a larger sample size before I start projecting numbers.

Defensemen, even top D-men, often go many games between goals. I'm not worried about them.

4 days off, Pittsburgh and C-bus coming up. No game is a pushover in this league, especially for the Sabres, but 2 winnable ones coming up. Anyone at the game and know the actual attendance? Was the building 100% full? 80%? Couldn't really see the upper deck from TV.

He looked like a top 15 center today. The goal, controlled the puck, seemed confident that he could do what he want with the puck when he wanted it. Yeah, its only one good game where he looked like that (he kinda did against the kings) but lets see if he can keep it up. Its just so early. Austin Matthews has not played 3 games, no goals, no assists, 15 shots, 0% shooting percentage...but no one is worried about him. I know Thompson is not Matthews, but again, we need a little more sample size.

If he's not 100%, sit him a game next time out and give Krebs his minutes. Krebs earned them tonight. If Krebs reverts to his 'typical' form, you can always put in a well rested (and hopefully close to 100% healthy) Benson the following game. When you do have guy that can step into the lineup and give you a good effort, this is exactly WHEN you can take the guys how are banged up and give them that day or two off to get them back to 100% instead of playing them at 85-90% the whole year. Greenway seems like a different guy in his post game interviews (different than most other guys). Sure he uses a couple cliches, but most other players come across like they are giving you the answers they were 'taught' to give to the media. Greenway seems more like a real guy you are actually having a conversation with and he's speaking what he feels.

A very small thing but in the post game interviews, do you think the WGR550 microphone (I assume its Hamilton), well, can they get a new one for him? it looks like its about 15 years old and has been dropped and dragged across the floor 25 times.

I don't know if its a good or bad thing I didn't notice McLeod that much tonight. They won so its probably a good thing. I didn't notice just how much he played until I saw the box score...almost 18 minutes of ice time. Lindy must really like his play.

Overall, I have to agree with the bolded, but that is primarily because I firmly believe Cozens is absolutely awful and any skilled Center to take those 2nd line minutes would improve this team dramatically. Im good with Byram though, I really am. Today was his worst game handling the puck all year, but the first few games he was good that way. But, he is now part of a 6-man D-unit that is playing very well. I mentioned in another post that sometime the D-men are getting criticized because they look out of position, but I think in many occasions that is because they are trying to play their own role and cover for some bad coverage by the forwards. Yes, there have been a few glaring mistakes (the Power bad pass, the Samuelsson penalty) but I really like the overall play in the D-zone by 1-6 back there, and Byram is a big part of that based on simply the minutes he is eating up. Byram with 5 minutes less ice time tonight though than what he has been averaging the first 3 games, Lindy must have noticed something was off with him. But yeah, They 'need' Mitts right now more than Byram...unless/until Cozens gets his head straight again with hockey.

They just made a comment about Ruff vs Maurice on the post game show... Has there ever been a game played in the NHL where the opposing coaches had more combined career wins going into the game than what we had tonight?

Byram had his worst game of the year. He was still decent, but he was clumsy with the puck. Dahlin still looks off, like he is processing the game 5% slower than usual, or skating 5% slower than usual. But positionally, the Defense has been pretty good all year and today were very good in their own zone. I think they get 'picked on' on this board a little too much when it looks like they are out of position, but many of those times they are put in 'no win' situations by the forwards not helping out enough. Yeah, the D didn't carry/move the puck great today, but in their own zone, they have had a good year overall and a very good game today. Agree. 6 D-men and 12 forwards makes too much sense unless you have major injury issues.

Benson only played about 1.5 minutes from the beginning of the second period all the way through the end of the game. I hope in Lindy's post game press conference, that is one of the first 2-3 questions asked. Krebs may have led the forward in ice time, he had only a few minutes in the first, he ended up with almost 15 by the end of the game.

I have disliked Krebs game from the very beginning. I remember ONE game last year where he made a great pass and I was like...maybe he's getting it? And then nothing. I didn't want him getting a 2 year deal and dont' think he had done anything to earn a spot on this roster. Maybe this was just one great game, but I think he played so well, I want him in the lineup next game even if everyone is healthy again. For one game, he clearly earned another.

Maybe its not a 'benching' but rather...young guy, maybe Ruff saw him struggle with something in practice, and it carried over to the game. With Krebs playing a good game, just give the young guy a 'little time off' to watch the game from the bench while you have someone else who is playing great. Also, maybe the 'accountability' was calling him out in the press conference WITH something that happened in practice that we don't know about?

Ok but Byram went to the near side sliding to take out his guy and take out the possible initial shooter....Samuelsson slid when the shot was taken, I like that decision but he took himself off his skates. It was Benson being there that allowed the 2 D-men to do those things, and I don't mind that they did it. Had Benson hit the breaks, stayed back to cover the slot, then the 2 d-men would not have been able to do what they did and that would have likely (possibly) led to the first guy on the near side of the ice having a point blank shot or one of the other forwards. Florida had a 3-on-2...Benson getting back makes it a 4-on-3. I don't mind the play the Defensemen make there. Again, Florida made a GREAT breakout into the offensive zone there, the best way to defend that is if Tuch/Tompson were back or you need Levi to make that save (it doesn't appear he was screened and was facing the shooter when the shot was taken) its not an easy save, but the more I look at that...the more I think if I have to assign blame, 50% percent is on Levi.

Pretty good. He gave up a few big rebounds early. The first goal against was a good shot from the slot, but he saw it and I'd LIKE a save there. 2nd goal was a Shorthanded goal where Cozens did a Cozens thing and left a guy wide open leading to a breakdown. But overall I'd say good, not stellar but good (enough)

At least he shot it and hit a post..rather than holding it too long and either not getting a shot off or just pushing it into the goalies pads. Baby steps.

Yeah, I thought Benson at first but after watching both angles of the available replay, not Benson's fault. A quick breakout by Florida...Tuch and Thompson bumping into each other and neither getting back, and a save I want my goalie to make. It was a combo of those 3 things. Benson or the 2 D-men, they were not the issue.