pi2000

No, it's up to the organization, and in Buffalo's case, unlike other properly managed teams, they let the player decide.

Further evidence of his mental fragility, both on and off the ice.

I dont believe a new special teams coach will fix the PK entirely, maybe a marginal improvement. They're ranked 10th worst in high danger scoring chances on the PK, could be better, but not historically terrible. Their xGA on the PK is 36, while they've given up 47. At 36 goals against, their PK% jumps from 74 to 80%... Which would put them in the middle of the league. They say your best penalty killer is your goalie. Fix the goalie situation, add a 2C and they're easily in the playoff mix.

If he was sitting out everyone would complain that he's soft.

It tells you who is on the ice for more net goals for/against at even strength when compared to teammates. It only compares players against eachother on the same team,... who contributes positively and negatively to the team's even strength goal differential. That said, Buffalo as a team is a -4 in even strength goal differential, not bad. Last season Buffalo had a -45 goal differential at even strength. That's a massive improvement. So why wasn't there a a big jump in the standings? ans... PK, league worst 74% kill rate. In fact, over the past 25 years only 3 teams have finished a season with a kill rate <74%. BUF has the 4th worst PK% on record out of the past 750 team years.

So you don't undertsand it then, confirmed.

pi2000@sfo-lvswy:~$ estoi_trpm.py BUF ============================================================== BUF even strength goal differential through 67 games = -4 BUF even strength minutes played through 67 games = 3436.92 TRpm(team relative +/-) is the diff btwn actual+/- and exp+/- exp+/- is a function of %min played at ES and team ES goal diff %min is % of ES minutes played ============================================================== Team Player TRpm GP +/- exp+/- %min BUF Brandon Montour 17.06 52 16 -1.06 26.5 BUF Jimmy Vesey 12.91 63 12 -0.91 22.9 BUF Johan Larsson 11.89 60 11 -0.89 22.2 BUF Jack Eichel 7.38 66 6 -1.38 34.6 BUF Zemgus Girgensons 2.90 67 2 -0.90 22.4 BUF Rasmus Ristolainen 2.41 67 1 -1.41 35.3 BUF Kyle Okposo -0.30 50 -1 -0.70 17.4 BUF Curtis Lazar -1.58 36 -2 -0.42 10.6 BUF Michael Frolik -1.75 18 -2 -0.25 6.1 BUF Victor Olofsson -2.09 52 -3 -0.91 22.7 BUF Rasmus Asplund -3.70 29 -4 -0.30 7.5 BUF Henri Jokiharju -3.76 67 -5 -1.24 30.9 BUF Lawrence Pilut -3.78 13 -4 -0.22 5.5 BUF Casey Mittelstadt -4.60 31 -5 -0.40 9.9 BUF Rasmus Dahlin -6.95 57 -8 -1.05 26.2 BUF Jake McCabe -8.80 64 -10 -1.20 30.1 BUF Colin Miller -9.12 49 -10 -0.88 22.0 BUF Sam Reinhart -11.67 67 -13 -1.33 33.3 BUF Marcus Johansson -13.03 58 -14 -0.97 24.2 BUF Jeff Skinner -19.08 57 -20 -0.92 23.1 ==============================================================

Oh yeah, that guy they're paying $9m for scoring 40g next to Eichel, only to move him away from Eichel for the entire ***** season? Yeah, good one Sabres, brilliant asset management. They'll probably give Reinhart $8mil out of desperation and play him with Girgensons and Okposo next season, then wonder why nobody is producing.

What was it.. 6 weeks where he had that black/blue mask? Those aren't even Amerk's colors. Reminded me of this story on Jack Campbell and thought of how inept the Sabres organization is... https://theathletic.com/1599625/2020/02/11/how-did-jack-campbell-get-his-leafs-gear-so-fast-inside-the-mad-dash-to-get-goalies-suited-after-a-trade/ ...summary is that it took <24hrs to get Campbell's gear wrapped in Leaf's colors.

what if the Johansson line scores a bunch?

You don't understand it.

Again, there's more to hockey than scoring goals.

A desperate attempt by JBOT to legitimize the Skinner contact... and save his job?

Guys like Simmonds, Frolik, Vesey were not brought in to create offense. They're role players. I still think the only way out of this offensive malaise is to build through the draft. Any established offensive player will either cost too much (Buffalo tax), or refuse to come here. I like Kahun, but not as a top 6 guy... those guys need to come from within the organization. I'm ok with Reinhart in the top 6, but only at the right price. I do blame JBOT for the goalie situation tho. The idea they need to rely on an ECHL goalie at critical points of the season, is a huge failure.

What do you expect him to say? Throw 50% of the roster under the bus in his comments to the media? That's not how it works these days. He's going to stand behind the roster when talking the media. Behind closed doors he's singing a different tune.

He's the captain, he needs to play through it, that comes with the territory. I applaud his effort to continue playing, that resonates in the room. It will pay dividends down the road.

https://twitter.com/stevebyrnelive/status/1235756231903416320/video/1

He hasn't really opened up offensively yet... he's shown flashes, but he's still working on the defensive part of his game. The offense will come, not worried in the least.

this comes as no surprise... i've partied with him on chip, he really does enjoy the odd bar scrap... was always getting into it with bouncers.

FWIW, my source says JBOT isn't going anywhere.

Would Sam do this?

I, for one, hope the new guys make a splash tonight on home ice.

muckler