elijah

Yes UPL, the OP implies though that DG was hinting that the Sabres organization were the ones saying that In context of the interview I think what he was actually implying was that fans/media were saying that UPL couldn’t do it

I’m here daily, just more of a lurker, 49 points in 3 years lol Thank you though 🍻

Good God UPL Have yourself a night buddy

For all of the “we have to play at an X point pace” Even after the OT loss last night, the Sabres are 5-2-2 since the losing streak. That’s a 110 point pace. They were 7-3 before the winning streak, a 115 point pace. Maybe I’m crazy but I’m here to buckle in for the ride

Feels like some excitement is slowly creeping back in to this team and that’s fun I, as some weird deranged Buffalo sports fan, will watch every game I can whether it’s 8 game losing streaks or 6 goal first periods Friends and family around me however seem to slowly be picking up on rumblings that this team might just actually be a good team with two stars and a few other budding stars, while just being held back by a couple things and are starting to tune into the games more frequently With that said, split these Pitt games and grab the dub against LAK and that feeling will just continue to cement itself even more Go Sabres

how do we feel about keeping this thread open but deleting the first post 😭

This was a hard concept for me to understand as a kid, why wouldn’t everyone take pay cuts to win championships? The older I get, the more I realize I’m a big fan of warm weather. I’d personally take a pay cut to play and live in the south, even if that meant playing for a perennial loser. It’s different for every athlete, they have different things that motivate them. They’re real humans too.

I’m sure there’s going to be a large portion of the board that won’t appreciate the analytics and will shake their fist at the fancy stats but .. According to moneypuck, the Sabres won on the Deserve To Win O ‘Meter in 2 of the games (Arizona & Carolina), and they were 5% off from a coin flip game against 2 of the NHL’s top 3 teams (Boston & Vegas), as well as Tampa and Ottawa Admittedly a touch skewed by the Arizona game, but at 5v5 the Sabres have actually WON the expected goals battle 14.49 to 14.15 over the 7 game losing streak. They’re scoring 1.7 goals per game compared to their 2.6 goals expected, and allowing 3.8 goals per game compared to their 2.7 goals expected. When you look at all scenarios instead of just 5v5, that’s where the xG battle flips, and now the Sabres are losing 21.84 to 27.77 over the losing streak. Blah, blah, blah fancy stat this, fancy stat that .. TL;DR - Fix the power play, let your finishing catch up to where it should be instead of hitting 2 posts per game, let the goaltenders get back on track and get rid of this putrid streak of puck luck and suddenly the Sabres look like an average NHL team again like most expected before the season. No one loves or likes losing 7 games in a row, but this isn’t a bottom 5 team in the NHL. It’s a rough stretch by a young team, as we all also expected to happen in the offseason, combined with some terrible puck luck. If any of these games were to have happened in a vacuum outside of the losing streak, no one would have batted an eye. A mid to high 80 point season with vast season long improvements over last year is still very possible, and on my own end I know it’s still very well expected. There’s not many excuses for losing 7 in a row, but it’ll snap eventually — hopefully sooner than later — and we’ll all forget about it and be happy with the progression the team made this year without even thinking about a top 3 pick.

In past years it seemed the fancy stats didn’t necessarily back the hot starts. This year? 10th in xG% (52.81%) and 11th in Expected Goal Differential/60 (0.3). That can certainly change, but at least it supports the idea that the Sabres are actually winning by playing productive hockey rather than by fluke comebacks and puck luck - so far. It’s hard to buy in this early, we’ve been burned so frequently over the past few years. My (completely arbitrary) mark for November to continue in that direction would be 17 points in the 14 games, and that does seem entirely possible. (0-1-1 @ TB, @ CAR | 2-1-1 vs ARI, vs VGK, vs BOS, vs VAN | 2-1 @ OTT, @ TOR, @ MTL | 2-1-1 vs STL, vs NJ, vs TB, @ DET — seems achievable, no?) And even if they were able to string Novemver together like that, I’ll be trying not to get my own hopes up until the New Year. Even the 10 game win streak year went well past a third of the season with the Sabres 1st in the NHL. The groups incredibly young, a tough losing streak has to be lingering here somewhere. I’ll start to truly buy in and move the line of expectations after we see what they look like after half of the season has passed.

Things we love to see: - Dahlin was clearly the best player on the ice - They seemed ready to battle back and recover in the second until the Seattle PP goal Things we hate to see: - Tired, empty effort - Mittlestadt slacking on the way off of the ice on Quinn’s ‘goal’ - Dahlin and Power as a pairing in Mule’s absence should not be the answer - Breakaway, after breakaway, after breakaway - Does this first line exist? Just invisible outside of one shift in the second - Outside of Dahlin, there wasn’t a single player that made you say ‘wow’ at any point in the game - The powerplay 🤢 Unpopular opinion: - Krebs passing could be used on the powerplay Onto Montreal

Also, Dahlin & Power were a pairing for a little bit at the end of the second there. I don’t know what the answer is right now, but I don’t think that’s it. Feel like Dahlin didn’t come off the ice for the last 10 minutes of the second

The energy was there for a little bit in the second before the PP goal for Seattle Do they win or even force a point? Unlikely. Worth watching still for a little bit into the third just in case? I’d say so

What a piece Asplund would be to have if he keeps producing like this and is a solid 40 point guy in addition to being one of the better defensive players in the league Such a quality complete type of depth player that this teams seem to have been lacking forever

Yeah he didn’t look very good, seemed scared to move when he was on the ice and then was very wobbly when he was coming off the ice

Hope we go 82-0 for no other reason than for people to continue to complain about when a thread gets posted 😭

0 goals allowed in a 3OT win

Also what I went straight to thinking, but with different numbers. With Cozens I feel there’s too much potential there for his agent to allow him to sign $4.75Mx7yr without getting blasted to the moon. Good (hopefully?) for GMKA and the Sabres if that’s what the deal were to come in at, but we’re still talking about a player that many people think is capable of being 2C or even better on the wing? Now I’m not too well versed on hockey money yet, but wouldn’t that be a historical type of steal if he reached 2C level? My initial thought was it’d be something like 7yr/$40M if GMKA got it done early in similar fashion to these two, but I don’t actually know anything so maybe I’m way off

Krebs - Cozens - Peterka is a bit nerve wracking as a line Would love to see Asplund and Krebs switch spots, just seems like a lot of inexperience that could get destroyed in their own zone

Learning moment for me here..? Why are the lines different in matchups depending who’s at home and who’s on the road?

If this is the price you don’t say no imo

What are we thinking the price is for Kane? I was under the impression of 2 B-level prospects and a 2nd or 3rd for him but then I’m also seeing suggestions like Oloffson, a 1st AND Peterka? Absolutely not, at that price I’m out. But if you can send Portillo, Ryan Johnson and a 2nd? Why would there be any reason to say no to that? I don’t see how the price can get very high for a 1 year rental, with a NTC, at 33-34 years old, and a team that is clearly tanking and should be desperate to move him for anything they can get

I think the key here is the original quote said since

Arizona just keeps loading up on picks, it’ll be fun to watch their pipeline play out

You’ve got $35M-$40M in cap space, I’m sure overbidding the market by $2M would sway a player or two this way. Again I understand we want the cap flexibility for when the core contracts and ELC’s expire in 2-3 years, but with the sheer amount of money there is to be thrown around I don’t understand the opposition to essentially ‘buying’ a year or two from contributing players by overpaying EDIT: This is of course all preliminary talk seeing as there’s still a long offseason for more cap dumps with good returns, along with the possibility the return on this is better than expecting. As well as possibly actually adding players at those positions of need and/or the short term moves I’m talking of, but the point is that this solo move doesn’t instill any confidence in me that any of the above is going to happen

1 year remaining on the contract and still eligible for LTIR if I’m reading correctly Sounds like we won’t be getting much more than maybe a 6th round pick with him if that 🤦‍♂️ I hate it here I understand the ‘maintaining flexibility’ mantra, but why can’t we just sign short term high money FA’s that contribute and actually improve a desolate team? Short term maintains flexibility no? Or why not take on more serious cap dumps where the extra assets are atleast a 3rd round pick? Personally I’ve been very pleased with GMKA this far, but if we play a second season in a row at the cap floor without utilizing the cap, whether through cap dumps or short term FA, I’m going to be very soured on him. Hell, even if we’re a 50 win, 110 point team next year, there’s still no excuse for leaving $20M of cap on the table without adding any assets wth it.