mjd1001

Clifton got caught WAY up ice, he was basically in the Islander goal crease when they got control of the puck. Samuelsson was the other D-man on the ice. I have seen 2 replays and have no idea where he was. I have no problem with the D-men going to the net in the offensive zone, but ONE of you has to stay back. Since Clifton was in so deep, I'm going to put this on Samuelsson for 'where was he' as he should be covering for his partner. Again, I havne't seen a clear replay of where everyone was on the ice yet. EDIT: yeah, that one is on Samuelsson. He WAS on the blueline when Clifton went really far in deep, but then he pinched to the boards while clifton was still in deep. MAJOR BAD DECISION to try to pinch in the offensive zone when your partner is so deep. That is why there was no coverage. EDIT #2: ON the other hand, Samuelsson HAD Zucker behind him. It still was a bad pinch, but IF he knew Zucker was behind him maybe that is why he decided to pinch..Zucker just got caught flat-footed in the neutral zone and couldn't recover. Plus, Quinn didn't play it well, the near side was his wing, he over-rotated in the offensive zone and left the entire near side of the ice open (where the goal scorer came from.) I really don't have a problem with Clifton there. That one is mostly on Samuelsson and Quinn, with Samuelsson possibly getting a partial pass if Zucker could have recovered better knowing he was there. gl1_5fRNOvoA (1).mp4

When did he say it was a 'rule'? Again, I want my coach to be adjustable. Some guys may respond better to punishment, other guys respond better to playing through it. I don't want a coach that just sets 'rules' and sticks to them no matter what. Anyone can do that, have a computer generate the 'rules' you want to go by, and you have a MLB baseball manager. The reason a coach can be better is if he knows how to deal with each situation, each individual, differently. Now, I do not know if this is one of those cases, but that is the reason you hire a full time coach, to know the difference.

I don't think a good coach just says something and does it. I think you have to balance 'accountability' with 'letting a guy work through it.' And what determines which way you go? What you are seeing on film, what your assistants are saying, when you talk to the guy, what he says. How hard he is working. Sometimes accountability is justified, but a good coach knows when to go in that direction vs letting guys play through things.

Never said they should be written off totally. Never. Said they are less valuable in my opinion, most of the time, than goals.

If we are discussing that he is accumulating a lot more points than usual, then sure, its perfectly justified to see where they are coming from. Are they typical 'run of mill points' or is he making great plays? Totally justified...that is what a message board is, for us to talk about this stuff. And by the way, I agree with your premise, that a lot of points, mostly assists, are nothing home to write about. 100% agree, but I was engaged in a discussion in a different thread when I pointed that out.

The only way the Sabres lose this game is if they are outworked by a TON, or if they hit a hot goalie. Just show up and put a good nights work in and they should win. The Islanders are not a BAD team, they are pretty balanced, but they don't do anything great. They have good players but not great players. If Barzal is not playing, that just reinforces the above even more. Maybe the one way they Islanders can beat you is they do have good speed up front, but Barzal is a big part of that.

Right now take out the top line (Tuch, Peterka, and Tage) and he has more points than anyone on the team. -Now his assist on Dahlin's goal wasn't much, he just flipped it over to Dahlin and then Dahlin made a nice play...(any D-man should make the same play) -And on Byrams goal, the faceoff was won and all he had to do with control the puck and flip it across to Bryam (again, any D-man should make that play) -Krebs goal he got an assist and it was on a weak shot that was deflected 2 times... -McLeods goal he made a nice stretch pass, but again, not anything that half of your defensemen can't/shouldn't do -On Thompsons go it was kinda a 'modified' give and go, where tage gave him the puck and he just gave it right back to Tage.... Ok, OK, but the point is, He IS making these plays. There has to be something said for him being in position to get those assists so that means something. On a different topic, I know others disagree with me, but his assists are a great example of why I value goals so much more than assists. In going back and watching most of his assists, he made either 'decent' plays or 'incidental' plays but was credited with an assist, while the goal scorer on most of them did a lot more of the work/displayed a lot more skill than the guys getting the assist. On Tage's goal, he should have gotten credit for the goal AND an assist on his own goal equal to the assists given out.

I really REALLY want to agree with that. I just can't get there though because after his major injury(injuries), he came back last year and played well, and it wasn't for a handful of games...it was for a third of the season. Even after he missed time in February, he came back for a full month and had 4 goals and 3 assists in his last 7 games. So he comes back from a major injury, plays 1/3 of the season. Misses some time again, but comes back and finishes the season pretty strong. Then has the entire offseason, doesn't have to play a regular season game for almost 6 months, and looks like this? So again, I want to think his injuries are on his mind, but he came back from all of them and put up numbers right away, unless he had another injury in the offseason we don't know about it doesn't make sense.

I agree it doesn't happen much, but I think you are hurting yourself by not trading in your division. You want to make the BEST trade, I don't care if that is with Boston, Toronto, whoever. My goal as a franchise is not to beat the Bruins, it is to beat EVERYONE. If trading with Boston gives me a trade I think is 0.0001% better than an offer I have from a western conference team, I'm making that deal in the division. The only reason I can conceive that teams don't want to do it is if you are afraid you will 'lose' the trade and by playing that team more often it will look worse for you, as a GM. If my GM is afraid of 'looking bad' so hes going to rule out trading in the division, then I want a different GM.

Boston.....negative 13 now for the Bruins in goal differential, 3rd worst in the league as I type this. Marchand 1 goal in 10 games and a minus 6. Both goalies with a save percentage now below .900. Pastrnak the only player on the team with more than 3 goals. Yeah, they might turn things around, they aren't terribly old overall, but they don't just look bad, they look really bad right now.

Dawson Knox. Ok, we are at the halfway point of the season. Ok, 8 games used to be the halfway point, not we have a 17 game season but close enough. Knox. In 8 games, they have thrown him the ball 11 times and he has 7 receptions. Now I know he is good blocking, but he's on a pace for under 20 receptions, and I read his cap hit is over $14m next year and over $17m the year after. Maybe hes a good blocker, but they can't keep him around at those numbers, can they?

It could be all smoke and no fire. It could be a lot of different things. It could be trading a guy who has taken a step backward (Quinn) and a high level prospect for a guy similar to Quinn that might be more expensive but producing right now a bit better.

I lived in Daytona Beach, FL from the late 1990's to 2001, and in the 2000 election in Volusia county we had early voting back then 24 years ago and the lines were LONG for voting early.

Maybe he has a deal involving Cozens (I doubt it but...) and that team would be using Cozens at wing, not center, and wants to see just a small sample size of Cozens at wing....so Lindy was told to make the move to put that on display.

The issue I have is, I think he has been doing that all along. I think a Primary reason Murray is gone is the didn't like it and said something...and Botts, I think it has been written he didn't like how we was being 'managed' from above either. I think Adams is here becuase he would do what Pegula wants him to do. If Pegula fires Adams, he is simply firing his own mouthpiece.

I know I'm saying the same thing over and over every couple of days, but I actually would like to see but I actually would like to see "Adams unleashed" before I see him fired. The problem is we should have seen that last year or the year before. I really think Adams does the leg work but every move is approved by Pegula, and Terry even suggests some moves. My impression is that Adams is like a chef and waiter at a restaurant... He talks to other teams, does the work and puts together a "menu" of options for moves that can be made.... but it's really Pegula that is making the final choices. There is some evidence to this years ago and some circumstantial evidence recently. Beyond that there's no smoking shotgun but I just get the impression that's how things are run there.

As per my post above, what is up with Columbus? It is now more than just one or two games, they are consistently looking really really good.

Of the line combos listed above, who gets benched for Benson? Quinn? And is that a long-term thing?

Ok.... This isn't exactly the same but it came across that way to me or reminded me of something else I don't like... Commercials where they have really, really old people acting like young people, like people in their 70s and 80s out surfing or hang gliding or doing crazy stuff like tha....but also.... Just the same where I watch the financial news and there's a little 13-year-old kid who all of a sudden has this incredible knowledge of financial markets and is telling me what to do with my finances and investments... Or maybe even that insurance ad where the little babies are playing pickleball. I think maybe the first time somebody did something like that. It was fun... But those ads are really old and really annoying now.

From a strictly personal opinion standpoint: -Me 2 years ago: Cozens should be wing. Sabres: he's a center -Me last year: Cozens style of play suits wing, he doesn't have the mentality/style to know how to play C in the D-zone. Sabres: He's a center -Me earlier this year: He isn't scoring, his whole line is awful, demote him or move him to wing. Sabres: He's a center -Me 4 days ago: He's getting chances I guess, he is streaky, keep him at Center, give him time. Sabres: Lets try him at wing!

Firing Adams has to come with Pegula saying he is going to 'keep distance' from the franchise and let the new GM do his job...that he will just be a fan going forward. Until/unless that happens, you are going to likely get the same result with just a different name on the door.

Just noticed the Caps vs Rangers, and Capitals put the game away with an empty net goal....goal song? Kickstart my Heart by Motley Crue...same as in Buffalo.

Quinn has played 9 games this year vs 27 last year, so 1/3 the games. But look at the 2 screenshots of where he is getting his shots from. He thrived last year shooting from the center of the ice. This year, in 9 games, he has ONE shot from the center of the ice in front of the goalie, compared to 24 (not even counting the wrap arounds form behind the net, he hasn't had one attempt, or the one from near the blue line.) So, on a per-game basis, he would have 8 shots from between the circles if he was getting chances like last year though 9 games. This year....1.

I never looked at the numbers this deeply, but from watching the games, my opinion was he is the 2nd or 3rd best guy on this team. Ability in the offensive zone he seems tied for 2nd with Power. He seems to me to be pretty reliable with defensive zone exits (pass or skating out). yeah, I will admit he isn't a exactly a bear getting the puck out of corners or cleaning out the front of the net, but I've been decently satisfied with how he plays.

Cozens is taking a LOT of shots. Could it be he is so desperate to get that first goal that he's taking all the shots, not looking to get his wingers involved at all? Cozens leads the team in shots. He's taking 25% more shots per game than last year. 40% more than his career average. Its not the only thing for sure wrong with Quinns game, but if Cozens is just letting a shot off all the time without looking to get Quinn invovled, it might be something?