pi2000

Gibson left with an upper body injury. Bernier dumpster fur.

i liked watching the game. it was nice. a win is a good. the players played good. the goalie did good stuff. it made me feel good. thanks for listening.

Flat start again. They look annoyed that somebody is making them play hockey today.

30 minutes to puck drop and still a single solitary GDT page. Kind of sums up the state of things... pathetic.

i like the white at home idea. that said, if we really care about change we should go full turdburger for the remainder of the season.

what?

no.

without Jack they gave up 2.76 goals against/gm with Jack 3.08 goals against/gm ...so that's a net positive of 0.18 goals per game.... not great... so yeah, maybe not much would be different if he wasn't hurt.

shocking

I'm not adding Jack's goals. The team as whole is averaging 0.5 more goals per game with Jack in the lineup. Doesn't matter who's scoring, that's 0.5 more goals per game. That's not right. You simply can't extrapolate out their record over those 23 games because they played different teams the first 21 games. If you add the Jack effect to the first 21 games, that get's them 0.5 more goals per game over that stretch, which means roughly 7-8 more points in the standings.

Give Moulson more ice ti... j/k I'll go with "What is replace Dan Bylsma?"

I think we'll see a nice game from the Girgensons line, they have a good matchup.

If you look at their goals per game average with and without Eichel, it's about a 0.5 goal per game difference (2.7 with vs 2.2 without). So you look at how many games they lost by 1 goal over the first 21 games... which is 9 games. Figure with an extra 0.5 goals per game, that's 1 goal every two games, meaning they would've gotten points in roughly half of the 9 games they lost by 1 goal... so that.s 4.5 games. Figure half of those 4.5 games they would've gotten 2 points (let's say +5 points), and the other half 1 point (+2-3 points)... That gives them roughly an extra 7-8 more points (50-51 points) in the standings if they had Jack the entire season, putting them right in the mix for the final wildcard spot (TOR w/ 50 points).

Zadorov with an egregious turnover late in the third gives ANA the game winner with 2min left on the clock. Other than that, Zadorov looked solid. Delivered a few big hits, held his own in a fight, and moved the puck well.

We're going to play a 30min 3rd period here in ANA. It's a school night!

And he's currently on a one-year deal (his previous 3 year deal was bought out by MIN), so at 33 he's playing for what is likely his final NHL contract. I expect him to get moved to a contender (ANA? LAK? WAS?) at the deadline as he's only making $2.6mil.

I agree that we're not looking at the finished product, however, I don't want him to panic in this situation. They are what they are, and trading away aging, slow vets for picks at this point in time won't help anything. Trading away goal scoring, ie Kane and extra for a top 4 defenseman probably isn't the right move either... I'd consider that pushing the panic button when we have guys like Guhle and Borgen in the system who might fill that role as soon as next season... so why trade away a 25 y/o 30 goal scorer for a stop gap on the back-end? Doesn't make sense. That said, I'm fully on board the fire Bylsma train now. If Julien becomes available you need to pounce. This team has accepted losing and that to me starts with the coach, if Bylsma can't snap them out of this losing culture, then try somebody else.

We use white pucks for goalie practice. http://howieshockeytape.com/store/white-hockey-pucks-6oz-training

You don't have to tank to draft good players. With this loss to the Leafs they can kiss their playoff hopes goodbye IMO. At least GMTM will have a plan at the deadline... unloading guys like Kulikov, Gionta, Franson and anybody else he doesn't see as a long term fit. He can acquire more picks and continue to build through the draft which sounds boring, but it's how you build a team that can contend year in and year out.

Consider there are infinite parallel universes, in at least one of those universes Terry Pegula doesn't strike it rich in the gas industry and the Bills and Sabres no longer exist. I'm glad we don't live in that universe. That said, I think the Sean McDermott hire is a step in the right direction (well firing Rex anyway), and the Sabres are on the upswing and will get better over the next few seasons as their core matures and guys like Gionta, Moulson (can't believe I'm saying this), and Franson are replaced with guys like Nylander, Bailey and Guhle adding much needed speed to the lineup. It's difficult to be patient with either franchise after all the pain and suffering, but we have no choice at this point.

You'd like to see progress.

Romo wouldn't survive training camp.

IMO, the jury is still out on Lehner. A .922 sv% is nothing to sneeze at (8th in the entire league). GMTM knows goalies, has he ever brought in a tendy that stunk it up? Look what Chad Johnson is doing.... Neuvirth and Lindback were better than advertised.. as is Nillson.

Toronto is a bit younger team that BUF, I expect them to come back down to earth as the season wears on. Production from guys like Matthews, Brown, Marner, will drop over the next few months. Buffalo is young too, but guys like Eichel and Ennis have fresh legs, as will Kulikov when he's healthy, so I expect BUF to close the gap on TOR... but will it be enough to earn a playoff spot? I don't think so.