pi2000

13th in shots for per game. 30th in shots against. It doesn't take a genius to figure out they need better defensive forwards.

You guys are cracking me up. PIT wins a Cup and it's all because of Crosby and Malkin. They don't win a Cup with Crosby and Malkin in the years following and it's all Bylsma's fault.

I stand corrected. That said, my eyes tell me BUF sucks at shot blocking. However (I looked it up before, I'm too lazy right now), they rank in the top half of the league in block shots per game... which I would argue is because they allow a ton of shots. A more telling stat would be shots blocked %... which I would imagine BUF is near the bottom. That said, to take the next step, they need to work on their shot suppression, and that will come by getting better defensive players in their bottom six. Gionta, Moulson, Ennis are not defensively skilled players, and I would argue neither are Girgensons or Foligno. It's a hot mess at the moment.

..and guess which team allowed the most shots against the past 3 seasons... Since Dan took over they moved from 30th in shot for per game to 13th this season... that's a huge improvement, and if you argue that's because of Eichel, Kane, etc., then you also have to agree that shot suppression is suffering because of players. That's you're entire Corsi right there. Until they lower their shots against per game, they're going to languish in the bottom half of the league.

...and #10 :P

How many shots you allow is 50% of the Corsi algorithm. To have good possession numbers you need players who can prevent shots on net... that starts with winning face-offs, blocking shots, shutting down other teams top shot generating line. BUF is supremely inept at defending.. and my eyes tell me it's not because of the "system", it's the players who are too slow, unwilling to block shots, can't win faceoffs.. etc.. intangible skills that aren't a reflection of coaching.

Over his 6 year reign in PIT, they had the 10th best Corsi% in the entire league during that time span.

No team has 3 equal lines. You match them up against the biggest threats.... Pavelski, Kane, Crosby, Ovechkin... you choose a few players to neutralize. Larsson and shutdown shouldn't be in the same sentence... ugh.

A big reason BUF has some of the worst possession numbers if because they don't have a shutdown line. They routinely get outshot because they don't have anybody in the forward ranks (other than ROR) who can defend. You improve the 3rd line, get a UFA shutdown checking C who can win draws and suddenly their possession stats look drastically improved because Bylsma can match them up against top lines instead of sending ROR out every other shift to take face-offs in their own end.

Unlikely. Moving Reinhart off Eichel's wing would leave a void.. he already has 1 void to his left, moving Reinhart would hurt Eichel's production and significantly water down the top 6. And Reinhart is not nearly good enough defensively to match-up against other teams top lines.

In a Veseyian move, his signing with Buffalo was contingent on him playing out the season with the big club. It's a good risk for the Sabres to take... they have nothing to lose, let it play out and see where he settles in. That said, he has very little chance of making the team out of camp next season unless he does something magical this offseason.

So you what... just snap your fingers and play possession hockey and you win a Cup? The Kings led the league in Corsi% this season, where are they? The Lightning 5th, the Hurricanes 7th, the Flyers 9th.... all on the outside looking in. Meanwhile the Rangers are 25th in Corsi and they're in, the Wild 21st. ...and that's all on Dan right? And the lack of depth on defense and bottom 6 tank leftovers have nothing to do with it?

I'm sure the players would be too.

Yes, Golisano was only holding onto the team as a tax write-off, he had no interest whatsoever in fielding a competitive team and no interest in being a long term owner. He sold the team to Pegula in 2011 for $189mil..... but there was also an unnamed bidder who submitted a much higher bid which was contingent on moving the team. Golisano decided to sell to Pegula to keep the team in Buffalo. Without Pegula, the Buffalo Sabres are no more.

He won't be fired on Monday.

"Routine" as in two first round exits in 6 playoff appearances? in order: Cup win Conf Semi's 1st rnd (7 games vs 103 pt TBL team) 1st rnd (6 games vs 103 pt PHI team) Conf Finals 2nd round That's a 67% chance getting past the first round.... but his system sucks and he's lost the room, right?

Well, yeah. Why is it unreasonable to say that? If he didn't save them, who did?

noooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!!!!!!!!!!

Why do you say this? If they make the playoffs next season, do you expect them to make it to the conf finals otherwise Bylsma should be fired? bookmarked yep. It will be annoying to hear about this all summer. We'll sign player X or trade for player Y to improve the D and everybody will just be like "Woont madder cuz ya kno... BYlsma!" sure

the blind leading the blind

Why hasn't anybody brought up the possibility that with a revamped defense and improved bottom 6, this team takes a big step forward next season with Bylsma behind the bench. If that happens, which IMO is likely, what will all the Bylsma haters have to say?

To me it sounds like CJ Smith and his mid-western accent. Or McCabe tussling with Lehner... Lehner: "How many assists you have tonight Caber?" Caber: " off, shut your mouth and stop the damn puck once in awhile." fisticuffs.

They do, they're our leading scorers... after that, there's a huge drop off in talent/ability.

consider there are infinite parallel universes, in at least one of those universes BUF wins the lottery... unfortunately we don't live in that universe.