mjd1001

OK, Ellis was good enough. Lots of rebounds, he wasn't great. I don't think "can he be great" this year is important. Is he a guy that mentally is good enough to be a decent backup goalie though? A guy you can rely on for 20-30 starts?

Net front presense as mentioned by others...his analytics look good...Lindy is giving him a lot of ice time. Those are all good things. But if he wants $10m per year on a medium-to-long term deal, he needs to do all that AND score.

I said this in the GDT but I'll say it here in the Owen Power thread. He played a good game tonight, he wasn't that bad the last few games either. I think a lot of people are just expecting him to be bad that anytime something bad happens near him they blame him out of instinct. He took a lot of criticism in the GDT for the Detroit goal he was on the ice for, but I think of the 3 Sabres on that side of the ice, he played things the BEST among them. Yeah, he's not perfect yet, but so far I see more positive out of him this year than negative. I think right now he's outplaying Byram for sure as an example.

2 games in a row vs the leafs. Other teams win both games of a back to back right? Other teams go on a 3 game winning streak, right? If the Sabres can do it just this time...not only are they now back in the middle of the standings, but they put the Leafs in pretty big trouble.

I've liked his overall game tonight. I think this game is a good example of how (besides not hitting tons of people) he is maturing, understanding the game in his own zone.

Someone on the Sabres (Adams, the scouting staff, everyone) got obsessed with the size of goalies. They wanted everyone 6'3", 6'4" or more. Well, both Ellis and Lyons are only about 6 feet tall (MAYBE 6'1) and they are outplaying the 'big' guys on the Sabres in net so far.

Watch the replay online if you get a chane where they show it from different angles. For sure looks like a 'set play'. I don't know if thats a good thing or a bad thing. A sign of actual good coaching by the Sabres? Or a bad sign that they can't just put the guys out there because they can't figure it out with their own hockey sense/talent unless there is a play set for them (looking at Dahlin and Thompson here...this year)

On the Quinn PP goal the Sabres set that up by moving around, forcing Detroit to turn their PK "Box" into a "Diamond", giving Quinn that short window of opportunity to shoot from there. I'd have to say that looked like a set play that was actually an example of good PP coaching.

As per my post above, of the 3 Sabres closest to the puck on that last detroit goal, Power, Doan, and McLeod....I think Power played it the best among the 3.

Watching the replay on that last goal, I wouldn't be so hard on Power. If you watch Larkin coming down the near boards, McLeod is stride for stride with him. Just inside the blue line, Larkin does a little move on McLeod and gets some seperation. 2 missed stick checks later, McLeod lays off Larkin as Larkin goes into the corner. At that Point, Power goes into the corner after larkin because McLeod layed off. The goal scorer comes up the middle of the ice, Doan is with him stride for stride but just as Power shades to the corner, Doan lets up just a little bit and lets the guy get a step on him. All 3 guys, Power, Doan, and McLeod are looking around not quite sure where to go. I do not blame Power for going into the corner at all AFTER McLeod held up and let Larkin into the corner. Its just once McLeod lays up there and Power continues on Larkin, McLeod and/or Doan need to make sure they have the trailers going to the front of the net. Power seemed to be the one guy that played it better than either Doan or McLeod. If McLeod follows his guy into the corner, Power is closer to the middle to break up the pass. IF McLeod peals off like he did, that kinda forces Power to go to the corner, so someone else (McLeod himself or Doan) needs to be in the center to cover the guy crashing to the net. If you watch Power, he LOOKS at the goal scorer coming up the center of the ice and at the moment he does, he sees Doan is side by side with him, before deciding to go to the corner. It was the moment power turned to go to the corner that Doan fell a step behind him. The more times I watch the replay of the goal..the more I think Power didn't do anything wrong. He analysed the situation, read what McLeod was doing, reacted to McLeod letting Larkin go, and only left his spot AFTER checking to see if Doan had the slot covered. Only problem is Doan lost his guy. Yep, that is what I saw, he was with him and just let him get that half step on him. (see above)

Sabres kinda lucky it wasn't too many men on the ice before that goal. It looked like Quinn and Zucker had skates on the ice already when Tuck and Doan were still 20 feet from the bench.

On that red wings goal I jus watch the replay. When Ellis kicked out the reboundon the first shot, I could swear the puck was dribbing on the ice, Tage put his stick in front of it, and at the last minute it jumped right over his stick and right to the Red Wings player. I'd have to see another angle to be sure, but if that is actually what happened, some real bad luck (vis possible bad ice) there.

Peyton Krebs, the one good thing he does is makes Jack Quinn somewhat respectable. Quinn's analytics are pretty horrible the last 1-2 years. He brings everyone else down. However, When Krebs plays with him, his numbers, pretty much across the board...are respectable. Not good, but respectable. Even the ones related to offense. One example: High danger chances generated: Quinn with Krebs: 1 high danger chance for every 6.3 minutes. 'regular' scoring chance generate every 2.1 minutes. Quinn without Krebs: 1 high danger chance for every 7.9 minutes 'regular' scoring chance generated every 2.5 minutes. And both of those numbers are with a pretty decent sample size. They have played 280 minutes together, and over 600 apart.

A few days ago I brought up similar McDavid stats to the ones below, but with a few more games played, and Austin Matthews getting criticized in Toronto quite a bit right now...thought it was interesting: Austin Matthews: -2020-21 through 2023-24: 280 games, 210 goals, 364 points, +103 (61.5 goals, 106.6 points, +30.2 per 82) -Since, Last year/so far this year: 74 games, 37 goals, 84 points, +14 (41 goals, 93 points, +15.5 per 82) Connor McDavid: -2020-21 through 2023-24: 294 games, 173 goals, 513 points, +106 (48.3 goals, 143.1 points, +29.6 per 82) -Since, Last year/so far this year: 74 games, 27 goals, 108 points, +18 (29.9 goals, 119.7 points, +19.9 per 82) So...is the most recent year just a statistical anomoly? Or are these guys past their statistical peak and not likely to see the production they had in the past?

Not funny at all, a lot of us have thought about this very thing. Its not about what they have done up to this point, it is about what they are doing right now and going forward this year and beyond. Also, Sound defensive play and a physical game can make up for any extra offensive production. Doan scored 17 goals per 82 so far in his career, Peterka is at 23. Not to mention Peterka has played with higher quality linemates/offensive ability and with a lot more minutes on the PP. There is a case to be made that Doan will prevent MORE than 6 goals a year than JJP over the course of an 82 game season. I'm not saying Peterka is worse than Doan. JJP may very well be the better player. But in the very small sample size we have of Doan, it is worth the discussion (that is what message boards are for, right?)

-I could see Doan and Peterka getting close to the same productions numbers and Doan having a better all around/physical game making him the better/more impactful player. -I could also see Doan slowing his offensive pace and getting half the goals of Peterka, even with a better 2-way game his overall impact being less than Peterka. I could see it going either way. Its too early to tell.

Not keep: Quinn, Greenway, Bryson. I'd move them for very little return. Everyone else, it "depends" -UPL. I'm starting to lean toward getting rid of him. Need to see when he comes back is he closer to 2 years ago form, or last year's form. -Norris. When he comes back from this injury if I can get the majority of the rest of the year from him..Keep. If he has another moderate or worse injury, I'd like to wave a magic wand and get rid of him. -Samuelsson. Same as Norris above. -Tuch. Extend him medium term for $8 per year, love to have him. If its going to be 7-8 years at $10m or more...nope. -Bryam. I'd see what is out there for him. He's not hurting the team, but he's not worth what he's getting paid. I'd want to see what the return for him would be.

A lot of talk about Jack Quinn's game here, so I thought this was interesting... Since the start of Last season: Jack Quinn vs Ottawa: 5 games, 5 goals, 1 assist, +5 (82 game pace of 82 goals, 16 assists, +82) Quinn vs everyone else: 75 games, 12 goals, 24 assists, -24 (82 game pace, 13.5 goals, 27 assists, -27) Trade him to Ottawa and convince them its worth it so they don't have to face him anymore.

1. Not sure yet, could be ok 2. Good. 3. Not bad, leaning on the good side. 4. Not good. 5. Big (ish) names but not really helping/hurting either way. 6. Doesn't matter. 7. Not good. 8. Doesn't matter. 9. Not good. 10. Doesn't matter. 11. Not good. 12. Decent. Risto was hurting this team, needed to go. 13. Bad. 14. Doesn't matter. 15 Doesnt matter.

I don't think Quinn really has much value right now at all. He's not a good player.. you can make a case He's a bad player that most teams would be better with a veteran journeyman instead of him, plus it's an additional negative how much they signed him for. Maybe, maybe another team would give up not so much for him and take a flyer on him... If it didn't cost them much. But he's a reclamation project at this point, and probably I would assume other teams would rather do almost anything else with that amount of money that he has to get paid the next 2 years. If Buffalo doesn't want him, I think he falls into the category of. Why would anybody else.

I just don't see it with Byram. What I see in him is a player with above average to very good raw skill, but he only executes it to an average-to-slightly above average level. I equate him to the defense version of what Cozens is/was at forward. Lots of skill...looks good doing it...but the execution just isn't there. I just put Bryam a bit higher than Cozens because he doesn't kill you with as many boneheaded plays. But overall for me he's still in the "looks like a Ferrari, Drives like a Camry" category.

To me its probable that the new GM is Jarmo. The reason he is on the payroll now is so he can be closer to the team and is alread starting his roster evaluation.

What are the easy ways? As mentioned previously you also have 3 'bottom of the roster' guys who are up. Whether you resign them or replace them with bargain basement guys, you are still looking at $3-$5m for those guy sbefore you even get to Tuch, Benson, Doan, and Kesserling.

Everything I see shows Skinner's numbers accelerating next year to 6.44..for one year. I got my numbers from cap wages also.... I looked just that next year. That also doesn't include Tuchs current contract. Unless their data is incorrect... But I don't think it is because they've had those numbers out for quite some time now. I'll double check when I have a chance later... But my initial post about this a couple days ago was partially in response to another person who came up with the same numbers I did.

I still want to, and do have patience with Power. I just know that it seems like too many D-men in the league...you look up and say "yeah, that guy is pretty darn good" but it took to age 24 or 25 to get there. Quinn I was done with last year. He is showing nothing. Even if he put in 20-24 goals this year, its not good enough with his black hole of play in every other way. And my opinion on Tuch is the same as it has been for the last 2 months: short term extension I'm OK with. But something like $10million at 8 years...heck no. The team still needs the chance to add some talent, or if you get a young guy that is legit good, to lock THEM up. I don't want a guy starting his new contract in his early 30's to take so much money that it prevents either of those things.