pi2000

I like it, I love it, I want some more of it.

I put the entirety of the blame on lottery balls. If they get McDavid, then they get Babcock and other FA's want to play here, so it snowballs from there....

buT thEy NeEd FOrWArD HeLp DUe tO INjUrIEs AnD HeS ScORiNG GoAlS iN ROcH

...since everyone keeps asking, he has a TRpm of -7.57, playing just 18% of even strength minutes... not great ============================================================== CGY even strength goal differential through 43 games = -13 CGY even strength minutes played through 43 games = 2176.22 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 CGY Derek Ryan 10.10 43 7 -3.10 23.8 CGY Mikael Backlund 7.79 43 4 -3.79 29.2 CGY Mark Giordano 4.71 43 0 -4.71 36.2 CGY Andrew Mangiapane 4.04 41 1 -3.04 23.4 CGY Travis Hamonic 3.86 37 0 -3.86 29.7 CGY Sam Bennett 3.82 27 2 -1.82 14.0 CGY Dillon Dube 3.33 19 2 -1.33 10.2 CGY Michael Stone -0.24 21 -2 -1.76 13.6 CGY Oliver Kylington -0.54 31 -3 -2.46 18.9 CGY Milan Lucic -2.20 41 -5 -2.80 21.6 CGY Matthew Tkachuk -4.21 42 -8 -3.79 29.2 CGY Rasmus Andersson -5.60 43 -10 -4.40 33.8 CGY Johnny Gaudreau -5.94 43 -10 -4.06 31.2 CGY Tobias Rieder -6.10 34 -8 -1.90 14.6 CGY Sean Monahan -7.14 43 -11 -3.86 29.7 CGY Elias Lindholm -7.32 43 -11 -3.68 28.3 CGY Michael Frolik -7.57 38 -10 -2.43 18.7 CGY Mark Jankowski -10.32 34 -12 -1.68 13.0 CGY Noah Hanifin -11.31 43 -16 -4.69 36.1 ==============================================================

middle 6 depth, an area of need

In JBOT's defense, he was hired as GM only 4 weeks before the draft that year. He didn't have his scouts in place for properly vetting the prospects, etc.. That said, he was the assistant GM in PIT so he should've had some type of grade on Mittlestadt... but we don't know where PIT was in that process before he left to Buffalo, so I'm willing to give him a pass on that one. Besides, all this talk of him being a bust, welll... only 1 player drafted after Casey that year has more NHL goals... Filip Chytil, who has 4 more than Casey... so it's not like there were stud forward prospects to choose from. He was the best of the lot at that time, the top D prospects were already gone (Heiskanen, Makar), and they needed forward help.

I'm not too concerned about their play in the offensive zone, or the neutral zone, or transition or zone entries.... those are all fine. Defensive zone play is the worst in the league and it's not even close. The amount of time and space they give the opposition reminds me of pickup hockey. The players on the ice simply do not defend with any urgency whatsoever. It's like they don't care one bit if the other team gets prime scoring chances. On the 5th Tampa goal, Dahlin is covering Killorn one-on-one and just kind of reaches at him instead of moving his feet and engaging him physicalyl by getting his body inside.... he just moves half-heartedly to stay near him... so he has an easy tap in, uncontested. And on that same play, Montour is playing 7 feet off the puck carrier, trying to block the pass... why not close that gap and take away time and space? It's must be an absolute dream to play against that type of defense. It takes effort and heart to defend, and this team simply doesn't have it. They have a bunch of offensively biased defensemen who can all skate well and move the puck, but they can't defend to save their lives.

fixed

Erod wants a trade now? Hahahahahaha, what a joke... guy is not even an NHL player. He, and Bogo, should be thankful they're still on an NHL roster.

I expect Cernak and Smith to start the game and drop the gloves immediately at puck drop. Get it done and out of the way, spark the crowd, etc. Then roll out Warrener, Barnaby, Boulton, etc

Islanders won't win a Cup because they don't have an Eichel or Dahlin. Sabres can't even make the playoffs because all they have is Eichel and Dahlin. It's easier to fill in around elite talent than it is to acquire the elite talent. They just haven't finished the filling in part yet. They played well against the beat team in the league, even out chanced and out shot them on the road. It's not like they're getting blown out night and night out. They're a lot closer than we think.

Okposo deserves a shot alongside Eichel. He can't do much worse than Reinhart.

I, for one, thought Buffalo played well. They created offensive chances, no puck luck tho. Johansson had some good looks. Thought Okposo played well, and Ullmark has been really steady. Dahlin is playing really well lately too. That said, you can't simply play well and expect to beat the Bruins, they're one of, if not the, best team in the league. This team isn't that far off, seriously. Ullmark gets red hot, maybe Dahlin goes on a tear, or a guy like Johansson starts finding the back of the net... and they're right there in the playoff hunt. Trade Reinhart tho, that guy is terrible. He's simply reaping the benefits of playing alongside Eichel. He cant score more than 3 feet from the net. What is it he does that makes him so special?

It's too late to do anything, now we must wait until the deadline. The time to act was over the summer, moving Ristoband pieces for a #2C, starting Casey in Roch, adding a proven veteran Goaltender. Those were 3 obvious necessary moves that needed to happen before game 1... JBOT wiffed on all 3 so here we are.

That's nice. Trade him now while he's at peak value.

Terrible team defense for the past decade. Drafting bias towards offensive skill for too many years. No two-way players in the pipeline.

What exactly has Reinhart done to solidify his spot on Eichel's wing? For a guy who was touted as a cerebral player who "sees the ice well" he has only 6 primary assists at even strength in 34 games, 2 on the power play. That's underwhelming IMO, especially playing with snipers like Olofsson and Eichel. I'd rather move Reinhart off that line instead of Olofsson. Skinner has shown a knack for cleaning up around the net... Olofsson and Eichel are shooters, from everywhere... let them do their thing and Skinner can hang around the net and clean up.

He started slow.. I expect him to continually improve throughout the season, not linearly... there will be ups and downs as he's only 19, but I wouldn't be surprised to see him go on an offensive tear at some point down the stretch.

Now he can legally buy chew... great!

Hopefully Casey is getting the help he needs down in Roch... video game addiction is a real thing for young people.

============================================================== BUF even strength goal differential through 35 games = 11 BUF even strength minutes played through 35 games = 1766.0 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 Jack Eichel 10.22 35 14 3.78 34.4 BUF Marco Scandella 7.57 27 10 2.43 22.1 BUF Jimmy Vesey 5.70 32 8 2.30 20.9 BUF Johan Larsson 3.56 32 6 2.44 22.2 BUF Rasmus Ristolainen 2.99 35 7 4.01 36.4 BUF Brandon Montour 2.84 21 5 2.16 19.6 BUF Victor Olofsson 2.73 35 6 3.27 29.7 BUF Zach Bogosian 1.01 10 2 0.99 9.0 BUF Vladimir Sobotka 0.75 16 2 1.25 11.3 BUF Rasmus Asplund 0.05 17 1 0.95 8.6 BUF Conor Sheary -0.08 29 2 2.08 18.9 BUF Henri Jokiharju -0.33 35 3 3.33 30.3 BUF Kyle Okposo -0.64 25 1 1.64 14.9 BUF Zemgus Girgensons -1.24 35 1 2.24 20.4 BUF Rasmus Dahlin -1.60 27 1 2.60 23.6 BUF Sam Reinhart -4.64 35 -1 3.64 33.1 BUF Jake McCabe -5.50 33 -2 3.50 31.8 BUF Marcus Johansson -5.52 28 -3 2.52 22.9 BUF Evan Rodrigues -6.15 19 -5 1.15 10.4 BUF Casey Mittelstadt -7.12 31 -5 2.12 19.3 BUF Colin Miller -8.49 26 -6 2.49 22.6 BUF Jeff Skinner -9.02 35 -6 3.02 27.5 ============================================================== vs ============================================================== PHI even strength goal differential through 34 games = 4 PHI even strength minutes played through 34 games = 1717.85 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 PHI Philippe Myers 13.34 18 14 0.66 16.4 PHI Sean Couturier 6.81 34 8 1.19 29.8 PHI Claude Giroux 5.81 34 7 1.19 29.7 PHI Ivan Provorov 4.48 34 6 1.52 38.1 PHI Jakub Voracek 3.92 34 5 1.08 27.0 PHI Oskar Lindblom 3.04 30 4 0.96 24.1 PHI James van Riemsdyk 3.03 34 4 0.97 24.3 PHI Matt Niskanen 1.64 34 3 1.36 33.9 PHI Travis Konecny 1.00 31 2 1.00 25.1 PHI Travis Sanheim 0.62 34 2 1.38 34.6 PHI Scott Laughton -0.56 19 0 0.56 14.1 PHI Mikhail Vorobyev -1.23 11 -1 0.23 5.7 PHI Joel Farabee -1.80 27 -1 0.80 20.0 PHI Carsen Twarynski -2.36 15 -2 0.36 9.1 PHI Morgan Frost -2.38 14 -2 0.38 9.4 PHI Shayne Gostisbehere -3.11 31 -2 1.11 27.8 PHI Tyler Pitlick -3.63 28 -3 0.63 15.8 PHI Robert Hagg -3.65 20 -3 0.65 16.2 PHI Michael Raffl -4.69 28 -4 0.69 17.2 PHI Chris Stewart -5.25 13 -5 0.25 6.3 PHI Kevin Hayes -9.17 34 -8 1.17 29.2 PHI Justin Braun -13.20 34 -12 1.20 30.1 ==============================================================