Big Guava

They played Carolina even in November also and lost by the same score.

UPL has played the same number of games now as he did last year, 33. He has 4 more shutouts, allowed 38 fewer goals, faced 173 fewer shots, made 136 fewer saves, decreased his GAA by 1.13 Goals per game(3.61 vs. 2.48), increased his save percentage by 0.21%(.892 to .913) and won one fewer game(17-11-4 vs. 16-14-2). Not sure how that is possible, but shows how much they are struggling to provide goal support for him like they did last year even tho they are doing a much better job defensively. The Sabres have scored more than 3 goals only 8 times this year with UPL in net versus 18 times last year.

See...the worst team on February 25th in league history loses again!

Erik?

Meaningless stat for tonight? Of the teams active in the NHL, Carolina has the worst record on today's date compiling a 6-11-0-1 record all time, good for only a .361 points percentage. Sabres have a 12-10-1-3 record good for a .538 points percentage. Advantage Sabres.

Was just doing some stuff on statmuse and it didn't give me back the result I wanted but instead gave me back a teams all-time record on a day. So I put in today's date and got some meaningless knowledge. Toronto is the all-time winningest team on February 25th compiling a 31-14-6-1 record. However they are not the best in terms of point percentage at .663. The Rangers(.695), Kings(.675) and Sens(.667) have better points percentages. Ironically, of teams that are active in the NHL, our opponent tonight, the Carolina Hurricanes have the worst record on this day, going 6-11-0-1 for .361 points percentage. The Sabres are 12-10-1-3 for a .538 points percentage. Advantage Sabres tonight?

Same...how hard is it to put the graphic for shot totals next to the score? Literally every other team in the NHL does it. Which is why I always watch the opponent feed.

Sabres also are 5th in the NHL allowing only 29.07 shots per game. That's far better than last year's 33.05 shots against per game.

Slightly? They are averaging .65 goals a game less. That's over 2 fewer goals every 4 games. That's significant.

Yeah their offense is killing them right now. They are looking like the last place Sabre teams that scored 2 goals a game every night and it was a minor miracle when they got 3 or more. They are way too talented to be in this position. They need to figure it out.

As is the team D...they are helping him out as well. That they are playing good defensively?

Interestingly enough, analytics suggest that the team playing better defensively is most of the reason and his actual numbers are not that much above where they would be expected. Possible there could be a large split between 1st half and 2nd half of the season tho and those numbers are significantly better in the 15-20 games.

So irritating the Sabres seem to need 15 good chances to score 1 goal most nights. Last year they'd have scored 5 with those same chances.

Kinda crazy as this team was horrible defensively and now has become mostly very good. They have only allowed 40 goals since January 1st, the best number in the NHL. Their issue? They have sacrificed a LOT of offense to do it. They need to figure out how to do both at the same time. Shots are about the same as last year on average but their shooting percentage has gone from 5th at 11.0% last year to 9.3% which is in the 20s this year. Is it a regression to the mean and last year was a career year for many players? Maybe. But almost 2% seems like a huge dropoff. More likely they will be somewhere around 10% most years which means they are underperforming this year in terms of scoring. Seems this year a lot of chances they would have buried last year have stayed out of the net. If they continue their defensive play and can figure out how to play offense this team could start making some noise. Maybe too late for this year but it would bode well for next year.

After all this time they should be happy they still get the support they do. They don't deserve it with the way they typically play in front of the home fans.

Once again we make a whatever goalie look like Dominik Hasek in his Prime. SMH

This team needs 100 chances to score most games while other teams are getting garbage goals left and right...WTF...they aren't even fun to watch anymore

That play just summed up our season. SMFH

Another goalie we make look like Prime Hasek, SMFH

Don't understand how this team goes from scoring 7 goals to nothing. Keep generating good chances and they can't score. WTF is wrong with this team? Everyone decided to have a down year at the same time? Except Peterka and Middlestadt

So that's what happens when you stand in front of the net...

I mean that's just too easy. Amazing how the Sabres seem to be on the wrong end of those frequently but almost never get any of their own.

There are pros and cons to both.

It's pretty bad. Mostly just a revolving door that has prevented any real chemistry with the full team from developing at all. One comes back, two go out. Two come back, three go out. Just nonstop all year long.

SMH...if we didn't have bad luck this season with injuries we would have none at all. Just a constant rotating door...one comes back, two go out. Two come back, three go out. It's ridiculous.