mjd1001

Some of it is random, some of it is 'small sample size', some of it is luck. I'll put more into this as the season goes on (I happen to think Samuelsson is a very good penalty killer). But what it does show is those guys have not been part of an effective group PK'ing so far. That was a couple games ago, the updated list for PK: Cozens 13.78, Sameulsson 12.93, Tuch 10.47, Dahlin 9.7, Power 7.34. Cozen's numbers have gotten worse, Samuelsson slightly worse, Dahlin and Power a lot better. FYI, when you look at 'career' numbers, Tage is the best forward over the past 5 years on this team (of anyone with over 100 total minutes ice time.): Tage is at 6.72. Greenway at 7.3, Tuch at 8.3, Cozens at 10.1 over the last 5 years.

This comes across as when they win 3 in a row, they think they are great and that things will be easy just by them showing up. To me its interesting he said this. What will be MORE interesting is how they come out next game. If there a lot of sloppy plays and a lack of effort next game, then this quote may/will take on more scrutiny.

Get rid of offsides totally....let it never be called because its not a rule anymore. The only thing it does is remove offense. If someone wants to 'goal hang' in your zone, let them, the defense has the option to have a D-man hang back with him or basically have the goal-hanger have one less player to defend in their own zone. More excitement, more strategy, less play stoppages. Eventually the coaches may adjust to it but when they do, we still get less stoppages and less challenges.

That is a lot of minutes. More than half the game. Its either 1.) showcasing him for a trade (I don't think that is as much of a thing as it was in the past.) 2.) someone esle on the D-unit got injured. Or 3.) the coaching staff REALLY liked how he was playing. I'm guessing its #3.

Yes, it included overtime, but Byram with 32:34 of ice time. He was on the ice for more than half the game. For comparison, Gilbert with 10:19, Clifton 14:07, Bryson 18:01, Even power at 20:42...all 10 -20 minutes less than Byram.

As of this afternoon after the game...Sabres are now in a 5 way tie for 8th in the conference (playoff position). That could change by tonight when other teams play, but of the teams they are tied with, the Sabres have the best goal differential (+4). Still that makes them 1 point per game, on pace for 82...pretty sure that point-per-game pace won't be good enough by the end of the year, but for now...great. Montreal next...they are the 3rd worst team in the league in terms of points...dead last in goal differential..don't screw it up!

This will be an interesting game. I really don't know what to make of Calgary... -I only saw one game of theirs this year, a few weeks ago they lost to Winnipeg but at one point they were leading, but at least that game they hit everything in site (I think they were well over 20 hits through 2 periods) -They are a slow-methodical team. They have one guy who can fly, forgot his name but he's a bottom 6 guy. Other than that they don't skate all that fast. -I don't think the Defense has much depth, but the top 2 guys are good (Andersson and Weeger) and seem to be out there all the time. -No surprise from them in terms of who they beat and lost to when I looked at their schedule. They beat who they 'should' beat...Montreal, Pittsburgh, Chicago, Philly, and Edmonton (during the Oilers slow start) and they lost to the better teams they played so far (sometimes badly)...Carolina, Winnipeg, Vegas, Edmonton (most recently when they started playing a bit better) and Boston. So yeah, I think I could watch this Calgary team play 5 games before I had a feel for them. Should make the matchup interesting.

Here is another player I can't figure out, Elias Petterson. 2 years ago I watched him play a few games and I thought he was going to be the next superstar in the league. top 10, maybe even top 5 player. Then, he had a pretty bad contract extension negotiation with Vancouver. Last March 2, he signed his extension...8 years, $11.6m per season. -in the 1.5+ years before he signed the extension, he had 144 games played, 68 goals, 109 assists (39 goal, 62 assist, 101 points per 82 pace) -Since signing the extension, including playoffs last year, 45 games played, 8 goals, 17 assists (15 goal, 31 assists 46 points per 82 pace) That is a BIG drop in production. I searched a bit and didn't see much about him playing through an injury, and he's still getting ice time.

I'm not disagreeing with you, that is and has been the problem with this team. But I don't think it so much a 'consistency' thing as just a 'haven't been good enough team' ALL teams have stretches where they play well, all teams have games where they beat a superior opponent. In the past few years, its been true with the Sabres, Coyotes, Blue Jackets...a bunch of others. So the question is....are they a 'good enough to make the playoffs team' that just has huge lapses in consistency? Or is the perceived lack of consistency just a sign that they aren't good enough (as is the case with most other teams near the bottom of the standings?)

Great game last night. For myself, as I have said in another thread, I don't think 'big picture-playoffs or bust' as much as I used to. To me each game is a single game, I try to enjoy it as simply one nights entertainment. If I do look big picture though, I'm not buying in yet. I'd like to see this team get into the top 8 of the conference and stay there for a bit before I change my thinking. A big win against a top team helps, but they aren't close yet to where I need them to be to really even be thinking playoffs.

UPL played well, but Levi has now played only 1 game in the past 3 weeks. Not ideal for a young goalie that they team has said 'needs work' Do you not play UPL and give Levi a game even though UPL is playing well? Or do you consider sending Levi down to Rochester just to get 1 or 2 games in....Houser wouldn't play unless there is an injury, but he is playing really well in Rochester....do you consider making that swap for 2-3 days to get Levi some work and keep UPL in the net?

He hasn't exactly been stellar at center, and the mistakes he makes at center over the last 100+ games are so bad you don't need to be a coach to notice them. And lighten up, this is a message board, talking about what we see and giving opinions is what we do.

Ok, standings update with taking games played into consideration.... After beating the Rangers and Tampa leading late...it looks like the 8th and final playoff spot right now is at .542 points. Sabres now at .464. Win the next 3 in a row, they are at .558 and in the last playoff spot. They are at +3 goal differential right now. They had a positive goal differential last year and didn't make the playoffs, but in the Eastern conference over the last 3-4 years, if you are postive in goal differential, the numbers say you are 90-95% chance of making the playoffs.

I missed some of the game, did anything happen to Tage as far as an injury? I see Tuch had over 18 minutes of ice time, Peterka with almosty 16...but Tage only with 14:53 minutes. He didn't get hurt, did he?

He scored tonight, and early in the game when it was important. I'm still 100% on the Cozens to wing wagon though. Let him play like Tuch, just go full out with the forcheck. If he wants to throw his body into D-men, let at it. He just doesn't have the mentality, the hockey sense, the quick thinking to play center.

On the hit, I thought it was a penalty, I didn't think it was vicious though. Penalty yes. Something that required an immediate respons? ehhh....I've seen worse.

That gets his shooting percentage up past 5%. One more goal in the next game or two and he'll be back to respectability. No sarcasm there, he has something going, now keep it up.

Yeah, I think it was Granato (probably someone before him also) that said....when you have the puck you usually aren't throwing hits. Its a lot easier to get 'out-hit' when you are controlling possession.

Yeah, I can see that one not being a penalty but I can see it being called either. Stuff like that has been let go, but I can't complain too much.

The thing I noticed there is he was on the ice for a while, I get it, guys get caught out there, but he was 'running out of gas' and for the 2nd or 3rd time he carried it in all by himself, and ended up losing possession. I have seen him do that a few times. Its one of Cozens main problem....situational awareness might be something he has the least of on the entire team.

If they can stay in it that long, approaching the trade deadline would be a good time to add someone like that. I think the Sabres have a bit over $7m in cap space, while 14 teams have less than $2m....meaning the Sabres have a lot of room to fit someone in that another team wants to dump....plus the Sabres have every single one of their draft picks for the next 2 years, and extra 4ths and 7ths this year so they have the draft assets and cap space to pick up rentals.

Ok question on this stat...does it take into account shooting percentage? From what I understand its about the chances you have and how good those chances are. But some players, you can give them great chance after great chance and if they aren't good shooters, it doesn't matter. If I'm understanding this correctly, someone like Cozens who is a very bad/lower percentage shooter might be over-rated by this stat. He is getting chances, but if he (or his teamates) don't put them in, it doesn't matter much? For the Forwards at least, I would think this state might be more valuable if there was a version of it that incorporated shooting percentage into it. Like maybe take this state, and multiply it by the expected shooting percentage of a player or line (use their lifetime numbers) and that may be a more an indication of how they are playing? Benson can be near the top of the list and Cozens in the middle, but if they are naturally guys who shoot 50% lower than someone like Tage or Peterka, than wouldn't it be better to evaluate the overall play with Tage and Peterka being even 50% higher than they are (relative to Benson and Cozens)? I'm asking because, I'm not sure exactly how this stat is generated..but if my guess is correct I would think it over-values guys like Krebs and Cozens offensive performance.

Now that we are more than 15% of the way through the season, I was looking at some of the more obscure stats (at least ones not brought up everyday) to see what stands out with this team so far: -5 players have taken over 50 faceoffs so far, they rank: 1.) Krebs 58.9% 2.)McLeod 51.7% 3.) Tuch 46.2% 4.) Tage 43.2% 5.) Cozens 40.8% -Hits per 60 minutes...the best: Gilbert 20.9, Malenstyn 18.5, Clifton 10.2, Aube Kubel 9.4, Lafferty 9.2 -Hits per 60...the lowest: Peterka 1.2, Thompson 1.4, Power 1.5, Bryson 1.8, Benson 1.9 -Most penalties drawn on the opposition: Dahlin 7, Greenway 7, Krebs 5, Benson 5, Peterka 4 -Worst +/- Penalties taken vs drawn: Cozens -4, Lafferty -3, Zucker -2, Clifton -2, Kubel -2 -Best Penalty Killers (power play goals allowed per 60 among players with PK time): Lafferty 0.0. Malenstyn 0.0, McLeod 5.1, Jokiharju 6.3, Clifton 6.4 -Worst success PK (goals allowed per 60 on the PK): Dahlin 16.6, Power 15.0, Cozens 14.4, Samuelsson 11.9 Again, its so early to say those player are good or not good at what they do, but at least its showing who currently is good or not good at those particular items so far this season. Thought it was interesting.

Because his lack of production is a major impact on the team. The money yeah, but that isn't a big issue (yet). But the bigger issue is that he IS not just slotted on what many think is the 2nd line, but he is getting 2nd line minutes. He is getting top Powerplay minutes. When you are trying to win badly, and you are giving him 18 minute of ice time per game (only about 1:20 less than your top center), and he has the MOST powerplay time on ice on the team as far as forwards...it is a cause for "hand wringing" simply because you are trying to win. Now in the last 2 weeks I have convinced myself he is going to come out of this 'slump'. so I'll have more patience. But this is more than a slump now. Last game he dipped below 8% shooting (7.98%) when you consider this season and ALL last season. He is leading your forward in PowerPlay time on ice, yet he has a total of 3 (THREE) powerplay goals combined so far this year and all of last year. So yeah, I think he will 'come around' but the issue is, come around how far. There is no way he should be leading your forward in Power play time with that above record, and he is hurting you by taking up so much ice time without performing. I get he is young, but he is now in his 5th season and he is turning 24 in a couple months. I think a lot of us want McLeod to get the extra 2.5 minutes of ice timer per game, and drop Cozens down to that '3rd line' ice time by getting 2.5 minutes less and take him off the first unit powerplay. He can still 'work out of it' with 3rd line ice time. But right now, McLeod is producing more, he is more responsible without the puck, and even if you add in last years stats, he is scoring almost double the goals per 60 as Cozens. So the hand wringing about Cozens is all of that, but with me personally, again, get him off the PP first unit, and drop him down to 3rd line minutes for the time being, until he gets out of his shooting slump, that will help the team on the ice.

Ovechkin with 8 goals in 12 games this year. At the beginning of last year I had along talk with my cousin about him and said...he really has got to be close to hitting the wall, once he does he's not going to be able to score at all...and I was pretty sure he wasn't going to catch Gretzky. My thinking it would get to the point where he might be playing 80 games, hurting his team and maybe putting in 5-8 goals over that season. Well, I was wrong (at least so far). I think he is now only 32 or 33 behind Gretzky. It sill might be tough for him to do it this year (does he have a 40+ goal season in him at this age), but its looking more likely than not now. For reference, at age 39, Ovechkin has the same number of goals as Tage has, but Ovi has done it in one less game so far.