JoeSchmoe

I'm not buying anymore tix to games until the Sabres are sitting in a playoff spot more than 10 games into the season. I thought about starting a new thread on this but I'm too lazy. The only way I see us making the playoffs is if we trade some of our pint sized prospects for actual good NHL players. These players would then replace Okposo, Girgensons, Robinson, and the rest of the scrubs we're trot out year after year.

Back to being mad about Mittelstadt

Sucks that we have fans willing to focus on a tiny sample size of data for two years ago to justify the trade. Sucks worse that our GM is seemingly doing the same. 🫣

Barring major improvements across the board from our existing roster or a major free agent acquisition, there is no way we make the playoffs next year. We are our worst team.

We are worse next year. Byram was a net negative on a very good team. Unless he improves greatly, he's going to suck on the Sabres. But because he's the shiny new toy, we're going to play the crap out of him. Meanwhile, we're missing Casey's production.

Agreed. And none of our countless tiny forward prospects are looking anywhere near ready for next year. Kulich has dropped back greatly. Savoie is too small to be NHL ready. The other guys are at least 2 years away.

Byram is a below 50% expected goal player THE COLORADO AVALANCHE. Clifton was a below 50% on THE BOSTON BRUINS. Why are we paying for stats gurus in our front office when our GM's M.O. is to take other teams' table scraps?!?!

Am I missing something? Did Okposo leave yet?????? No??? What the f#$@ are we doing here?!?!?!!

I'll admit I use the Moneypuck stats quite a bit. Tonight it says we had 2.645 expected goals for. That is ridiculously low IMO. We had sooooo many golden chances... That's how we got 7 GF. I'd say we should have at least been 4 xGF. I get that not all our shot attempts got through and/or we missed the net, but we were buzzing all night. Stats nerds... Any thoughts?

EJ sucks so bad. It's too bad Adams didn't do a bit better than him in free agency.

Miss the shark/barracuda meme. The random ones are the best.

I agree with this, but he has looked a bit better lately.

Wow!!!!

What's wrong with Power?

I'm not sure if you saw my comment a bit back. On the radio, I had absolutely no idea what was going on for the 3 on 3. TV, maybe you can let the picture do the talking, but on radio it was so disappointing to not be able to follow the play.

Was driving during OT. What a garbage call of the OT by Dunleavy. I had almost no idea of what was going on or who had the puck. Great win. With UPL's goaltending, EJ out of the lineup, Dahlin staying healthy while he logs big minutes, and Tage Thompson getting some "swag" back (as Dahlin put it)... maybe just maybe... 🤞

I see both sides of the argument. I'm also someone who despite numerous challenges worked my way out of poverty. Having gone through it, I think it's better to celebrate perseverance than apathy. Because of my numerous challenges, I think if I could have mentally pigeonholed myself into thinking I'll always be poor because it's society's fault, I might have been more content to stay there. Thankfully, we had more of a suck it up attitude back in the 90s. Still, some people need more of a leg up than others. I'll always be sympathetic to those people. Manufacturing was always the great equalizer in society. The disappearance of those jobs has been the major difference maker in the widening spread between the haves and the have-nots. Not everyone has the smarts to be a university grad or the connections to get into the trades. But if they're willing to work hard, they should still have options at earning a liveable wage such that they may one day be able to provide for a better life for their kids. Manufacturing jobs did exactly this. As the number of those jobs declined, it became that much harder to break the cycle of poverty.

Nope. But I definitely don't want one of our regular 12 starting forwards to be of his ilk. We trade for a scrub and KA will make sure he's in the lineup. That's a problem. One of many. Way ahead of the beer price or arena which I don't really mind.

I'm really glad Z scored last night to get us the W and that's definitely tempered my wish to send him down... At least a bit. 😉 I still have my biggest fear where we trade him for another team's cast-off that still has term. Picks- yes. Expiring contract- yes. An Anders Bjork part 2 is the last thing this team needs. KA seems to wait too long to give up on acquired veteran players, no matter how bad they are.

My daughter had a game out of town, so I missed it. I notice Bryson is way up on his xGF% on the game. Did the eye test match? Small sample size, but we seem to have a pretty good record with him in the lineup. Do we keep him in once Power comes back? 😉

I can, and as long as there's hope and progress, I can watch and be happy. Watching some key players taking a step back this year, and looking seemingly disinterested has brought out a lot of negativity in me I never had before this year. Also, KA's acquisitions have ticked me off. We're supposed to have a great advanced stats dept, but Clifton and EJ were both ugly advanced stats wise. They're looking every bit the part. It's like watching Moneyball, but instead of Billy Beane listening to Jonah Hill, he kicks him out of the room and listens to the old guys who like Clifton because "he plays the game the right way" and EJ because "he brings in much needed experience".

This expected goals % is a ratio of expected goals for your team when you're on the ice vs expected goals against. Eye test wise, he's actually pretty good at generating chances. The numbers support that too. Conversely, the eye test shows he has a lot of brain farts that lead to a lot of high danger chances against. Him and EJ also tend to get hemmed in quite a bit which rack up the low and medium danger chances against.

Clifton is 155 out of 182 in 5 on 5 expected goals % (min 500min played... EJ is 159). I find he's consis out of position on goals against and him and EJ always struggle to win pucks and clear the zone. On the plus side he leads the team in hits... So depending on how important that is to you it can improve your impressions of him. Anyhow, these two are by far our worst pairing and KA voluntarily brought them in. Given the cap room, he should have overpaid for someone or gone into the trade market with one of our all too many small F prospects.

I would put Clifton and E Johnson on par with those two factors.

Going snowboarding, thanks!