mjd1001

Power play units in practice today... Yeah, I know Peterka is hurt, but this...this doesn't seem to inspire confidence...or fear in any opponent.

I agree. I just wanted to see more offense. If you are going to lose at least be entertaining. Plus if you lose by allowing a lot of goals, defense can be cleaned up. A total lack of offense...a lot harder to fix. And from what I saw of the goals allowed, yeah the Sabres were a bit sloppy, Powers pass in game one was awful, but I didn't see much that said there were awful positioning in the defensive end that can't be fixed. Its the breakouts and the lack of chances/scoring that is the bigger issue through 2 games to me.

If Peyton Krebs played the entire season on a line with Tuch and Thompson, how many goals does he get? 12-15, thats all I have.

Some dont' realize just how good that New Jersey team can be. That 112 point team. Their top 5 scorers were Hughes, Hischier, Mercer, Hamilton, and Bratt. That forward group was very young and should be better now (maybe much better) than they were then due to being 2 years older and closer to their prime. On Defense, Luke Hughes was too young to even make that team, but he'll be playing this year. With the other additions they made, their D-unit this year should also be better, maybe considerably better, than it was 2 years ago. In net, Vanacek then, Markstrom now. Now last year they were devasted by injuries, but if they can stay somewhat healthy this year, this year's NJ team should be better than that 112 point team from 2 years ago. Not much of a reason to not think so.

https://www.cnn.com/2024/10/08/sport/josh-allen-buffalo-bills-chris-nowinski-spt-intl/index.html Neuroscientist wants the NFL to investigate Josh Allen’s apparent head injury, despite the QB passing a concussion check

Carolina fired Matt Ruhle a couple years ago in week 5. They faced a 2-3 Rams team and lost 24-10 Jags fired Urban Meyer in 2021, the following week they lost 30-16 to a 2-11 Houston team. Mike McCarthy was fired by the Packers in 2018 mid year. The following week they beat a 4-8 Atlanta team. Colts fired Frank Reich during the 2022 season. The following week they beat a 2-6 Raiders team. Washington fired Jay Gruden in 2019. The following game they beat a winless Miami team (0-5) 17-16. So, in recent history, it doesn't seem to matter much. The game after a coach is fired there are some wins and some losses, but often time the wins are against very bad teams.

If I already have a job and I absolutely need to win, I 'guess' I'd take Rodgers. But I'm not taking a job as a new coach if I have to work with him, and my success/failure and how I interact with the team is with him as the 'defacto' leader of the team.

I'm not saying Saleh didn't deserve to get fired, but Aaron Rodgers is a cancer at this point. Its his way or no way, why would any team sign up for that? Its New York so I'm pretty sure they will get their choice of a few coaches, but if I were a candidate, I'd say "No thanks" to working with Rodgers and take my chances with another job in the future.

NJ was not good last year,but they were devasted by injuries AND had pretty bad goaltending. They are a very, very good team, especailly now that they look to have average-to-above average goaltending. No excuse for the Sabres but they may have been playing a team that is a top 5 team in the league.

I get people have the right to be mad, but on this forum there is a lot of reaching just to complain about something. Yeah, there are obviously legit complaints, but we are now deep into the situation where if the Sabres have a binary decision to make..if they select "0" people will complain they didn't select "1", but if they selected "1" many of those people will complain they didn't select "0". There is an agenda...an 'anti KA', 'anti Ruff', anti "pick your person associated with the Sabres", and no matter what happens, ANY perceived negative outcome will simply be the result of that person that is the focus of the agenda. (I'll admit I am getting to the POINT of having a full-on agenda against Cozens, but I'm justifying it in my own head because of the repeated bone-head plays he makes game, after game, after game)

Yeah, tell me about it. I lived in Florida a while ago, bought a house, bought an investment property. When we moved back up north we sold the house we lived in but kept the investment house. Sure, over the last decade or so its gone up in value, but I wish we would have sold it, and may do so now. The costs are skyrocketing. Its not just insurance (which has tripled in the past 10 years.) The property taxes are going up rapidly. Homeowners association fee is more than double what it was 10 years ago. From the family we have there we hear auto insurance has been going up about 10% per year. We visited last year for a week and we drove. No Hurricane, no MAJOR storms, just a few days of very heavy rain, and the day before we were leaving, we couldn't find gas. Had to go to 4 gas stations to find one that wasn't out of gas (Stuart, FL area). The heavy rain caused so much flooding that some roads were closed, and I think part of I95 was closed for a short period of time, but basically a bunch of gas stations didn't get gas delivered to them. If that is what happens in 2023 during a heavy rainfall, I can't imagine what its going to be like if a moderate hurricane hits a heavily populated area.

Technically, even if one of them gets hurt (as long as its not a major injury), the other can just play all the games for a short period of time. Is it optimal? No, but not terrible unless there is a major injury.

Yeah, I still believe it. Is there a smoking gun? Maybe not, but there is a lot of circumstantial evidence, that others, plus myself, have posted over the years when it has happened. If you want to wade into this, check out the old thread below. There is a lot of stuff in there you have to sift through, but there are also alot of quotes, some links (or screenshots) of articles/posts that, to me, go beyond 'circumstantial evidence' are are pretty close to the smoking gun of an owner who 'meddles' to the detriment of the team.

I get it, I said in my post a few times it might not work out, but I was simply answering the question of how do you replace the production of Mitts and Skinner, I gave the best 'possible' answer based on the current roster. It may not work, as I said, but with what we have, what I said is the 'best chance'.

Well, wind shear is supposed to pick up rapidly in the 12 or so hours before landfall which is why they are expecting it to weaken before landfall. For those in Tampa that want to look at the good side of things, the NHC 'official' forcast shows it going into Tampa directly. But, it appears very few of the models they use show that. A couple have it as a close hit just to the north, a couple have it way to the north, and a few to the south. At this exact moment, the 'line' is an average of them. So, there is a good chance it will be bad, but not a direct hit on Tampa...probably just to the north or to the south. Over the past 5-10 years, the one model that has done the best with forcasting the track/path has been the main Euro model. It isn't great at 'guessing' strength a few days in advance, but it generally gets the path correct (at least more than the others). That one this morning showed a landfall as a weak Cat 3 just barely north of Tampa/St. Pete. I guess each 6 hours we get closer will tell us more.

Short answer: I really don't now. Longer answer: You start by playing the way this team played after Jan 1 of last year, for more than half the season. The team turned a corner in some ways almost literally after Jan 1. Skinner played less. UPL took over as your #1 goalie. Part of that was after trading Mitts for Byram. You moved on from Okposo. Cozens actually started playing better in his own zone (although he seems to have regressed this year again.) All those things happened (primarily) after Jan 1 and the team went 24-18-2 and were a postive 24 in goal differential. That is your starting point -In that time after Jan 1 where the team played better, Skinner had his ice time reduced (the last 2 months of the season he was down to the 13-14 minute mark per game). He played 39 games, had 9 goals (less than a 19 goal pace per 82). He also didn't score in the last 13 games in a row. So, when this team played its best, for more than 1/2 the season, it was when Skinner had his ice time reduced and was scoring at a 19 goal per season pace. How do you replace that production? Have a winger on your roster score 10-15 and actually play defense so they prevent 4-9 goals vs Skinner over the rest of the year. -Mitts. Since the team starting playing better Jan 1 until he was traded, he played in 24 games, and scored 4 goals. He did have 12 assists, but that puts him at 13.5 goal, 54 point pace. Easy to replace with what the Sabres have no? No, but not a monumental lift. They also were 10-8-2 in the 20 games after he traded, so not a huge drop moving him out and Byram in. How do you replace his production? Simple, Tage and Cozens need to pick up what they did last year. Tage actually DID the 2nd half of the season, Cozens needs to lift up the rest. So the medium length (and best) answer to your question: Line #1 (Tage, Tuch, Peterka)..you need to get 90-95 + goals out of them. Line #2 (Cozens, Benson, Quinn)..you need to get 65-70+ goals out of them. For me thats it. IF we want to say the Bottom 2 lines are the same (or SLIGHTLY improved from last years team), then have the first 2 produce at that level, and you are there. Forget about 'just' career years, lets look at the last 3 years (ups AND downs combined). Tuch averaged about 29 goals per 82 games and is now in his prime. Tage averaged 41.5 goals per 82 over the last 3 seasons. JJ in his 2 full seasons averages about 21, almost had 30 last year and is still not in his prime yet. On the first line he will get more ice time and more chances. Again, is it a guarantee to happen? Nope, but that is HOW this team plays well, those players have it in them. You are paying Cozens over $7m per season, hes still a train wreck in his own zone so for him to 'earn' his money he should be able to give you close to 30 (he needs to). The above gets you there. Now, if they DON'T do that, you have a big problem. But they are capable of doing it, now its just those players, and the coaching staff, getting them to that point. I'm not 100% sure its going to happen, but after 2 games I certainly am not at the sky-is-falling, doom and gloom, this team will never ever win again point....that many others appear to be at.

I get all the concern, they didn't look good the first 2 games, but I really really need to see a lot more bad before I get to the point a lot of you have gotten to already. If they miss the playoffs by a lot, yeah, then my 'opinion' from October 7th will be wrong, I'll admit it at the time, but I think a lot of the problems that many are saying are so apparent...not all of them are that big of problems, yet.

That is part of it. The other part is, if you GET that guy, will Pegula stand back, not insist on input into hockey decisions? As I have said in another tread, Pegula seems to want input (at least to me he does) in hockey decisions more than he does with football decisions. And, why would he hire a guy that he knows will tell him to 'take a hike' or 'get lost' when he wants to be heard.

I agree, but I just don't think he will do that. I truly think he wants to be involved in decision making on the Sabres side of things much more than he should be. He's not just an owner who says "keep me informed, don't make a move until you tell me before". Rather he is someone that wants to be in MOST important personal decisions, and he wants to tell the GM his opinion, and if the decision is close his opinion is the deciding factor. I think that is what has been happening and I don't think its changing.

This play wasn't good. The clock management was awful too. I think all coaches make mistakes. I think McDermott is a pretty good coach, I don't want him fired now. I didn't want him fired last year, nor after 13 seconds. HOWEVER, lets see how this season goes. If this season goes worse than expectations and we see more signs of things like this, I'll be open to a change at the end of the year.

Still want to see more. Last year Florida lost their first 2 games, outscored 8-4. They had a few (at least 3) streaks in the year where they lost 4 in a row or 4 out of 5 (most teams do). They were shut out SEVEN times last year, and had another 8 games where they only scored 1 goal. So 15 times their fans thought they couldn't generate hardly any offense. Washington made the playoffs last year. Being a negative 37 in goal differential. They started 1-4 in their first 5 games last year, being outscored 19-7 and shut out once, including losses to Pittsburgh, Ottawa, and Montreal. They were awful for the first 2-2.5 weeks of the season. They they went on an 9-1-1 run over the next 11 games. Later in the year, they had another run where they lost 8 out of 9. IN the NHL, teams have pretty big swings. Streaks where good teams can look like the worst team in the league, and the other way around. We need more time. 2 bad games in the NHL i like having a bad first half in your first game in the NFL. You CAN recover. I get it, a few examples of someone else doing it doesn't mean the Sabres will, but it can (and does) happen after early season slow starts. I want to get to game 10 before even making an initial judgement on this Sabres team.

What are the odds (simple math) of a team going 13 straight years and not make the playoffs once? The statistical odds of missing 13 years in a row would be 1 in 11,062. There is NO WAY the one constant in that time (Pegula) doesn't have a lot to do with it. Terrible owner.

This is the biggest misconception I think on this board right now about Cozens. He is not a shutdown player. Far from. Maybe his raw talent, his size, his aggressiveness makes people think he could be. But he might be the farthest center on this team or forward on this entire team in terms of a shutdown player. He is a literal machine at making bad decisions. He has virtually no sense of what position to be on the ice. On the pk, for years now, he is a one-man disaster. There was a posting and thread I made about this a couple days ago, but look at the replay of the first goal allowed in the preseason. That's not an exception, that's the rule. Cozens has been, and continues to be the single best weapon the Opposing team has on the power play when He is on the ice. I haven't totally given up on him as a player, he has the raw talent, but he is, absolutely, positively, nowhere near being a shutdown player. He might be the worst forward the Sabres have on the team in that regard. Granato kept forcing him on the PK because I think he was trying to mold him into that role. It didn't work. Hopefully Ruff doesn't experiment quite as long with him.

Yeah, but I blame more the oringial post, the person who brought up politics to begin with that started it. The first person to bring up politics needs a bad. Not so much the people responding to it.

This is what happens when we have posters that CANNOT CONTROL themselves and have to post their poltical point of view. I do not like your response, but anyone who posts politics in here (starts posting it) should get a 3-5 day cool down 'ban'.