GASabresIUFAN

Done with concerts for the year, but closed out the year with a bang. Saw Jason Bonham and his band perform Led Zeppelin's Physical Graffiti 50th anniversary show. Awesome. They added some hit songs at the end as well. His guitarist, Jimmy Sakurai, was amazing. Just got home from seeing David Bryne. A unique and terrific experience. He mixed his solo songs with Talking Heads hits with a crazy stage and light show and a completely mobile band. It's almost impossible to explain, but it was part rock concert, part stage show, part marching band. These videos give a feel for the show. If you get a chance, go see both shows.

Went to the David Byrne concert. Not sorry I missed the game.

No it’s not. 60 pts last year made you tied for 74th in forward scoring. That’s first line level scoring. Florida’s 2nd line had from 45-53 pts last season.

The Sabres have a 23 man roster right now with Kesselring, Kulich and Danforth on IR. I doesn't look like Danforth and Kulich are coming off IR any time soon. If they take another D (Johnson?) on the WC swing the choices to create a roster spot are 1) Do nothing if there is another injury against the Flyers or 2) Send Östlund down. This is the simplest move and we know how much Adams likes simple. If they like what Östlund brings then they move on to one of options 3-5. or 3) Waive Dunne - He is 26 year old journeyman. I doubt he gets claimed if waived and if he does such is life. or 4) Waive a skater not named Dunne - guys like Krebs, Kozak, Bryson all fit the bill of "replaceable" depth players. I doubt any are on KA's list. Bryson because he must have some incriminating photos of Adams (no other reason he is still a Sabres or in the NHL for that matter). Kozak because he can play anywhere and is an absolute effort forward that even Adams wouldn't be stupid enough to part with. Krebs because he can play anywhere in the bottom 9 and Adams would never admit he screwed up in acquiring him. or 5) Move on from one of Lyon, Ellis or UPL - If we move on from one of the goalies, odds favor Lyon. He's on a two year contract and might clear. If not, not. Adams again won't move on from his guy UPL and Ellis is cheaper and has more upside than Lyon.

The Sabres are 9-5-2 at home, but only 2-6-2 on road. Philly is the next game. They are 14-8-3 (8-4-2 @ home) Wpg is next. 13-12 overall (6-5 @ home) Calg is the 3rd game. 9-14-4 (4-4-2 at home) Edm is 4th. 11-10-5 (5-2-2 at home) (This is the 2nd night of a back to back) Van is 5th. 10-13-3 (3-7-1 at home) Seattle is the 6th and final game of the road trip. Sea is 11-7-6 (6-3-3 at home). I believe the Sabres need to win at least 4 of these games to slowing climb back into the race in a crowded Eastern Conference. Calg and Van are the obvious should win games. Wpg without Hellebuyck is very beatable (as we just saw). Now just find away to beat Philly or Seattle and the road trip will be a success. I doubt they’ll beat Edm on the back end of a back to back with the Oilers having rested for 3 days.

If this remains the case long-term, Utah will probably move him at some point. It could also be a case of matchups or a player having a periodic poor game. I was recently looking at Connor Timmins PT (playing time) and he’s averaging a career best 19:30 a game. This is a 3 minute a game increase over his career PT and he’s earned the extra PT with his play this season. However his game to game TOI (time on ice) varies significantly from a low of 14:06 to a high of 24:36. When I looked at the games with the low TOI, I saw games where either he was struggling or the Sabres were behind early and Ruff added shifts to Byram, Power and Dahlin to get more offense. I wonder if something similar is happening with JJP. In games that Utah is trailing, JJP gets more TOI to create offense, but in tight games his TOI diminishes to protect the lead. They do seem to be giving him a higher % of Ozone starts than we did and his PT per game is down over a minute than last year in Buffalo. I’m still not thrilled with the trade, but there is no denying that Doan has made a very positive impact on the team. I’d have rather kept and signed JJP and had Adams make a McLeod type trade for Doan. We are down .3 goals per game vs last season and I believe losing JJP is a factor in the downturn.

I think the stats are telling the story pretty well. This team remains at the bottom of the standings because they don’t score enough and give up to many bad goals. There are many factors that play into those stats such as coaching and roster construction, but in the end these stats are a reflection of our 3 mediocre goalies and the forwards lack of playmaking skills to create offense.

Correct. If he can stay healthy and play like he did last night then he’ll make a huge positive impact. Unfortunately, he has played in 5 of a possible 47 games since joining the Sabres. That doesn’t exactly lend confidence that he’ll be in the lineup often enough to make a difference.

Another nice game at home. UPL wasn’t challenged and that’s a good thing. Great initial game by Norris. Just imagine if he can stay healthy. The Sabres are now 9-5-2 at home. They are sadly 2-6-2 on the road. 11 of the next 14 games are on the road, including the next 6 straight. If they want to prove that they are more than the same old crappy team, winning 4 of the next 6 road games would go along way to proving that it may be different this time. Maybe. It was nice to watch a full game where the Sabres were the best team on ice from the opening puck drop.

That's good news from a pipeline front. Ziemer seemed like a bargain on draft day. Nice to see him doing well.

It takes more than some improvement on defense to change the team. Why are we still are the bottom? 1. Terrible goaltending. Below average save % overall and 5 in 5 illustrates that despite the improved defense, the goalies are allowing to many goals. 2. The offense is down year over year. Last season we scored 3.28 goals per game, now we are at 2.96. Injuries are a factor, but our shooting % has fallen from nearly 12% down to just over 10%. Our differential last season was -20 for the season. We are already at -10 for 25 games. With the goaltending worse and scoring down, this is a worse team than last year despite an incremental improvement on defense. 1 step forward two steps back. Shuffling deck chairs on the Titanic?

He’s had some bad games, but they usually coincide with bad Sabres games overall. However he was excellent against Minn and has been good the majority of games this season. If you look at his PT, Ruff seems to play him 20+ when he’s going well.

I don’t fully agree on the defense. With Samuelsson’s re-emergence and the addition of Timmins, I think the Sabres are one defensive D from being above average defensively. All the defensive metrics are improved this season. The goaltending remains a black hole. The Sabres save% (.887 vs .891) overall and 5 on 5 (.902 vs .913) is subpar. These numbers are pretty disappointing in light of the improved defensive metrics and the excellent PK. If we just had average goaltending we’d probably have another couple of win already (in regulation no less).

Cozens, Quinn, Nylander, Ristolainen, Mitts, and Savoie were all top 10 picks in this era. Not a lot to show for those picks. (Mrtka is a new draftee) Our top 1st and 2nd overall picks Eichel and Reinhart are great but traded away. Dahlin is great, but Power sucks. The only second rd picks to make an impact are JJP (traded away), UPL and Samuelsson. That’s all we have so far for 18 2nd rd picks and UPL stinks as well. Our other 1sts are still developing or made little impact with the Sabres such as Johnson, Zadorov, Östlund, Rosen, Kulich (out with blood clots), Benson, and Helenius. I like some of these players, but none are elite. Our top 2 players outside of Dahlin were both former 1st rd picks acquired in trade in Tage and Tuch. Both are 1st line players, but neither is truly elite. That’s not a lot to show for 15 years of bad play.

Scoring wise Tuch is a top 10 RW and top 50 of all forwards. Add his PK ability and he is a top line, but not an elite forward. FYI he is the Sabres top scorer (pts wise) and is 50th in the NHL (forwards). Colorado has 2 players in the top 10 and 3 in the top 38. We have a ton of middle 6 forwards and and 2nd pairing D of various quality, such as Power, Byram, Samuelsson, Doan, Benson, Norris, & McLeod. Quality is the issue. Mcleod, for example, is a high end 3rd line center, but a low end 2nd line center. The real issue for the Sabres, besides bad management and goaltending, is the lack of elite talent.

Is this news to anyone that the Sabres lack high end players?

It didn’t take 8 games.

Can you add the NJ debacle?

It was a joke.

The ECHL.

Tie the game and fall apart. I think we have seen this video before. Shocking! Ok, not really.

He isn’t according to the article. They are looking to get younger. Their biggest issue is how to keep Quinn in town if he wants to go East and play with his brothers.

I remember a few years ago when the watch word from management was how fast the new guys, like Malenstyn were. How did that work out? Speed is great, but speed without skill isn't all that helpful.

Keon Coleman has a high max speed as well.

Beck’s goal shows that any guy in the NHL, even an Adam Mair or Beck Malenstyn has more talent at hockey than most of us can even imagine. The issue for Beck is the distance between him and McDavid is also the size of the Grand Canyon.