jsb
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Posts posted by jsb
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WildCard, you have done another great job with this. Appreciate your time in doing these for not only the info but the entertainment factor. Thanks.
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I think unless we go on a unforeseen role to end the season, there are just too many teams in front of us to be able to push on thru to the playoffs this year. Having said that, the top 5 teams in the West...Chicago, LA, Minnesota, St.Louis and Dallas, we have already played them 8 of the 10 times we'll see them this year. Of the top 6 teams in the East presently, Florida, Detroit, Tampa Bay, Washington, NYI and the Rangers, we have played 14 times and have only 7 games left with these teams. So we have already played presumably the best teams in the NHL at total of 22 times in our first 46 games.
The schedule does get a lot easier in that scenario but that means we have to win a big majority of our games against the teams that are still in front of us. The rosy part of this scenario is we are presently playing our best hockey of the season right now, not just in winning 4 or our last 5 but our overall play. The kids are starting to understand their roles and have gained confidence plus they appear to have gained a new found confidence in themselves and their teammates.
I can only think of 2 games out of our last 15-20 that we've looked bad, the Florida game and the Boston game a few games back. All the rest we've at the very least have been very competitive in even when we lost. So there's hope until Melissa McCarthy starts singing.
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Damn, all this love for Weber and Bogo. Who is going to be the new whipping boys to take their place? I did see some picking on Varone after one and a half games and a top 3 star selection. There has to be more than one whipping boy, Gionta can't be the only one. This place needs somebody to bitch about no matter how well they're playing. :angel:
Franson?
Moulson and Lehner are definitely top 2 right now.
Franson has actually played much better with McCabe on his wing.
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OMG.....
You biotch about the Pegulas
You biotch when someone doesn't write nice about the Pegulas
You biotch when the team loses
You biotch when the team wins
What does that make you????
Buffalo Sabre Biotchers!!!!!!!!!!
Reference notes..... stolen but not necessarily word for word from the movie Bull Durham
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Nice catch Aud.... thanks for sharing
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Don't forget Reinhart going off for Roughing too....... Just sayingAHLers scoring, Johnson robbing Ovi, and now Foligno doing his job. I don't think this game could have any more shocking events.
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Bogosian doing a very nice job on the left side with Risto also...... Could this be a future pairing??When Kane is on his game he's a game changer. Really drives the play forward.
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Good post. However, I'll bet this doesn't sit well with guys like O'Reilly and Kane. They didn't come here to take part in a tank job. It might be the right move long term, but at some point you've actually got to put your best players on the ice. Replacing a hot Ullmark with an unproven tendy who hasn't played a full NHL game in a year, is not the right move IMO. I understand they can't Lehner down in Roch forever (14 days), but at least give him a few more games since it sounds like he hasn't shaken the rust off.
I'm guessing although ROR and Kane are probably not enthused about not making the playoffs, I don't think this is a tank move and they both knew what the Sabres have been the past few years and couldn't have expected this to be a SC year.
I agree with you about Ullmark, I think he was starting to play really well and if Johnson does get traded as I expect, he'll be back up shortly.
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They get a 1/2 season to see what Lehner has to offer. Ullmark gets quality games/minutes in Rochester. They get The Real Johnson some more games to hopefully raise his trade value for an extra month. All good things. They most likely are not playoff participants this year anyway so even if he technically is not ready for prime time that'll improve their draft stock for this summer. Another good thing. That will leave a top 2 LHD and most likely a draftable top 6 forward in the draft to pick up for next season's run to the playoffs. Another good thing. The rebuild is coming along just fine.
As for MODO, I'm guessing a case of Konig and a pint of Absolut Vodka will keep him happy :w00t:
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Sorry if this has been posted. But this is amazing
That was too awesome!!!!!
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Your 4 RD's.... Risto-Bogo-Franson-Pysyk
Your 4 LD's..... Gorges-McCabe-Weber-Colo
It will be interesting if anything much changes besides Pysyk getting a few minutes here and there until DB has faith in him to handle 3rd line minutes. I don't foresee him getting left side minutes though. When he's ready it looks like Franson may be the recipient of the odd man out.
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I agree with the white collar/blue collar guy. The majority of season tickets at one time were purchased by the diehard fans. When ticket prices went thru the roof the majority of season ticket holders became corporate sponsors. Instead of people who lived and died with the Home team it's now date night and hey I won free tickets to the game, let me ask my buddy who also doesn't really give a hoot about the team. Just a completely different fan at the games now a days. It's ok by me because one I don't like the drive in town anymore and I like the cheaper beer and parking in my garage as opposed to paying some extravagant price to park in the city's garage and $9 beers.
The atmosphere won't get any better until the team starts winning big-time and the ticket holder becomes cool to be seen at the games. Unfortunately 21st century sports.
As for the players, they are bigger, faster and have better skills than at anytime in history. I realize it's my opinion but bigger rinks, smaller gkeeper padding and calling interference would kick up scoring a bunch, but that's in a different thread I think. Merry Christmas by the way, my hockey fix has been helped by getting GCLive and finding this site. Have a fruitful Holiday Season my fellow Sabre fans.
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Heartbreaking loss but if you had told me we'd take 7 points in our last 5 games against the Blackhawks, Kings, Red Wings, Devils, and Ducks especially after the 3 road losses, I'd have jumped all over it. Should have been 8 with a little more luck but a very nice ending before the break. The team is slowly but surely getting better against some of the best teams. A time to let this particular game go and be optimistic.
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Man I have to give you guys major props, how you watch the game and comment here is nothing short of amazing to me, tried but can't do it myself.
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Don't look now but Arizona and Edmonton are presently in the playoffs if they started today. WOW,
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This reminded me of a thought I had during the Detroit game ... people seem to be expecting this team to play to the absolute best of its ability just because it has a legit level of NHL talent for the first time in like 3 years. I think that is unrealistic at this point. I am sure some will accuse me of making excuses for them, but so be it ...
This is what I saw in the Detroit game, especially early (the one they lost in a shootout Dec. 1 - http://www.nhl.com/gamecenter/en/boxscore?id=2015020362): One team that totally trusts its system and each other, playing fast and loose and reacting without thinking ... and then another team that was a half step behind, not always sure of what the right play was and chasing the game. Eventually the Sabres got up to speed but Detroit was always the same ...
With the exception of Larkin, every guy at that Detroit team has been playing that system for YEARS ... even the young guys, they have been in that same system from the minors under their current coach. Ten of the 18 Sabres skaters were new from last season and they are all in a new system with a new coach. Eichel and Reinhart were not even playing pro hockey ... some would argue the guys on the team last season were not playing a pro hockey system. That makes a difference. I believe we saw that again last night in Calgary ... yes, they overachieved to make the playoffs last season but they were not as bad as their start this year, either. Legit NHL coach, lots of young talent up front, strong D, together for more than a year ... of course they are going to have their crap together more than the Sabres.
Don't get me wrong, I am NOT saying "The talent is there, just give them time!" Not at ALL. I would guess before we are happy with this team Weber, Gorges, Moulson, Gointa, Franson will all be gone ... guys like Deslauriers, Foligno and Larsson will be obvious 4th liners if they are here at all ... so I agree they are not good enough yet.
But by the same token, less than 30 games is way too soon to say they are not making any progress. I am sure they caught some teams taking them lightly early, and also they had no games to watch to see what the Sabres do well ... now they have 20+ games on tape and teams are game-planning for them. Makes a huge difference. Now the Sabres need to adjust to that ... and it's not going to happen as quickly as it will next season or the season after when most of the team knows the system and all the adjustments off of it. What a veteran team like Dallas or Boston can do in between periods takes the Sabres a week. They may never have even practiced the necessary adjustment yet.
All that to say ... this part of the process is no fun, in many ways LESS fun than even last year, because there is reason to believe there is the beginning of a good team in there ... but they are making progress. Sometimes the hard way is the only way to learn.
+1 and another +1
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Speak for yourself. Pysyk has been a stud in my mind, for quite some time. I didn't think there was any good reason to send him down in 2013-14, unless they just wanted to protect him from the Tank (I ain't skeered to say it). When he went down he was arguably our best defenseman.
Whoa, whoa, whoa, slow down big boy, his avg. TOI is 5-6th Dman this year. Far far away from best Dman status. He's basically was getting Weber and Colaiacovo minutes. Again far far away from best Dman status. I like the kid long term but he's no savior now nor will be in the future.
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I think our Mojo just got all messed up these past 2 games when WE scored the first goal of each one. They were so excited they didn't realize the game was still going on until it was 3-1.
Larrson actually was one of our highlights yesterday if that tells you anything about how bad we were. I still have hopes for this kid though.
The season is basically 1/3 of the way thru and Eichel and Reinhart are on pace to score 20-30 goals each depending if they trend up or down and a total of approximately 50. I would have taken that at the beginning of the season.
I'm sure this is a fast paced roller-coaster ride for both of them. Add in Risto's age, McCabe and Pysyk first year and what did you really expect this year to look like?? Somedays they look like all-stars, somedays they look like 19-20 year old rookies. Breathe Deep you Gathering Gloomers.
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Not from my pov. This was the year to see if Eichel and Reinhart belong, They do and show signs that they will improve. Risto was a question mark from the perspective a taking a step forward or a step back at his relatively young age, and he answered the bell. The ROR deal solidified a tougher to play against team along with McGinn. Kane was coming back after missing half a season and I thought it would take him until now to get the rust off. Bogosian was unforatunate as was Kane and Lehner. But all those moves still left us with Gionta, Weber, Gorges (coming off serious surgery), Moulson as principle pieces. They are not part of a legit contender in my book so this year was about playing a better system and allowing the young guys to improve. too many changes to expect that all would click immediately. I similar draft and offseason this year will have less change and likely a playoff push if not getting in. I think the timeline started for me when TM was hired so we are just shy of two years. One more is about right in my eyes.
Pretty much agree with what you said except the bolded. To me this has re-started when Blysma was hired.
4 Part project, 1) finalize the tank 2) start the rebuild and re-evaluate talent 3) Make changes needed (draft-trade-free agency) 4) Final tinkering to win big.
I've been following this team since my senior year in high school in 1970 so I'm ok with being patient but I want a Cup before I go for good.
Reinhart, Eichel, Risto are the keys, major players ROR-Kane-Bogosian are needed to win big. Hopefully Pysyk and McCabe can become a good 4-5-6 defender, So that leaves 2 Dmen needed, a 1 and a 2 to pair with Risto and Bogosian. Hopefully Ennis will straighten out and Girgenson can also start to show up. That leaves a type A winger to team with Eichel and an overhaul of the 4th line and hopefully McGinn can team with Girgs and Ennis to give them a competent 3rd line moving forward. That adds up to at least 1 major winger and 2 Dmen plus a GTender to get to compete for cupville. Get-er-done GMTM.
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Gonna be that guy, I called that top line to start the season. ;)
Gionta most definitely goes to the 3rd when Ennis returns, if any logic is involved.
Dude you've had a 1000 posts since the start of the season, how do you remember that 1??? :P
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In our last 11 games, 10 of them have been played against teams that would be in the playoffs if played today. We are 4-4-3 in those games. 6 at home, 5 on the road. I would say we have come a long way since the tank years. Reinhart as good as he was today should have had a hat trick. Who would have thought that Eichel would most likely be a 2nd liner especially with the play of Kane-ROR-Reinhart line. I'm wondering when Ennis comes back, does McGinn stay on Jack's line and Gionta move down to the Moulson-Girgs line??? 1st period blues continues but we dominated the 2nd and 3rd.
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It is, It is.
If you put D4rk's and WC's words together, is that a phrase?
Not sure if it's a phrase but makes a great porn video!!! :w00t:
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In a league demonstrably different than young NHL dmen are playing in today.
GO SABRES!!!
+1
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As further proof of his improvement, he started the year at 9-10 minutes of TOI, by the end of October he averaged about 13 minutes, it kicked up to around 15 minutes in November but the last 3 games he's coming in at just under 19 minutes. I don't think it's a coincidence that Bylsma is much more confident with Samson also. A little extra PP time and he'll be in the 20's sooner than later. His scoring isn't outstanding but he's on track for 20 goals this season and I think the more he plays on that #1 line his assists will pick up also. Not a bad rookie campaign if he can keep it going.
2016-'17 Lineup
in The Aud Club
Posted
Great posts in here!!!! If they can swing Boedker, I don't think they can afford Yandle. Goligoski will be cheaper. Pluses are we will be both younger, bigger and faster. I've been so impressed with the Bogosian-Risto pairing, I want them to stay together. I also want McCabe and Pysyk to play together again also.
My dream team
1a Kane-ROR-Reinhart
1b Boedker-Eichel-DraftChoice (1 of the Finns hopefully)
3 Girgs-Larrson-Fasching
4 Foligno-Schaller-Gionta
Bogo-Risto
Goligoski-(Whoever we can coup from the inevitable Ennis-Weber-Johnson-Franson trades coming up)
McCabe-Pysyk
Lehner
Ullmark