pi2000

A couple issues here... There was 20s remaining when Thompson attempted to freeze the puck in the corner. Too much time left to try that. But there were other issues leading up that play. Thompson came on the ice around the 30s mark for Okposo who was out there with Girgensons and Asplund. Olofsson replaced Asplund and Skinner replaced Girgensons at around the 20s mark. Thompson and Olofsson rank in the top 5 TRPM... OK.... but Skinner? Hagg and Bryson were the d-pair... why Hagg? He's 3rd worst TRPM on the team and should've been stapled to the bench the final 2 minutes in a close game. At the 25s mark Hagg has the puck on his stick at the Sabres blue line. Instead of clearing it up ice along the wall he inexplicably bats the puck into his own corner on his backhand, then proceeds to lose the initial puck race and ensuing 50/50 battle. 2 Sabres and 2 Rangers lock up in the corner. Bryson attemps to fish the puck out, leaving 2 Sabres to cover 3 Rangers in the zone. Not faulting Bryson here, that's the right play IMO, but you absolutely must win the puck in that situation. He fails initially, continues to poke at it until the 6s mark when Hagg helps Thompson gain full control. Instead of rimming the puck, Thompson tries to freeze it again. Skinner is open on the half-wall, Bryson anticipating a rim behind the net. Now, as a former player, Thompson has no idea how much time is left, so guys on the bench or the goalie or other teammates etc... are yelling at him how much time is left and I guarantee some of them are yelling at him to just eat it. He tried, but failed. At 3s Skinner drops down with the pinching d-man. Bryson caught in no-mans land below the goal line. Hagg has his man pinned up against the wall, smart. Olofsson... instead of tying up his man is simply puck watching about 2 feet away from his guy with his stick in the air. Poor positioning and in that situation you need your stick on the ice in the passing lane, hockey 101. Lindgren seeing that only 2 Sabres are above the goaline, smartly drops down into the crease all by his lonesome and the rest is history. Final thoughts: Blame can be shared all around. Granato... why is Hagg out there? Skinner? Olofsson? IMO Granato didn't anticipate a line change with that little time remaining and they just rolled lines at that point. Girgensons-Okposo-Asplund were already on the ice, maybe they stay on for the final 20s instead of changing at that point with the puck at your own blueline. Not a smart change, not a smart play by Hagg to bat the puck into his own end. Can't really blame Bryson or Skinner here... maybe Bryson does a better job communicating w Thompson... yells "back" or "rim it" as Thompson has no clue how much time is left. He also should've either fully committed to the puck battle, or back off and get his stick down to prevent the puck from squirting out front.

TRPM matchup.... ============================================================== BUF even strength goal differential through 17 games = -6 BUF even strength minutes played through 17 games = 880.15 exp+/- is a function of %min played at ES and team ES goal diff TRpm(team relative +/-) is the diff btwn actual+/- and exp+/- %min is % of ES minutes played ============================================================== Team Player TRpm GP +/- exp+/- %min BUF Mark Pysyk 7.91 17 6 -1.91 31.8 BUF Tage Thompson 4.71 17 3 -1.71 28.5 BUF Rasmus Dahlin 4.28 17 2 -2.28 38.0 BUF Rasmus Asplund 3.64 17 2 -1.64 27.3 BUF Anders Bjork 3.25 17 2 -1.25 20.8 BUF Colin Miller 2.99 17 1 -1.99 33.2 BUF Victor Olofsson 2.86 9 2 -0.86 14.3 BUF Zemgus Girgensons 1.48 17 0 -1.48 24.6 BUF Arttu Ruotsalainen 1.09 15 0 -1.09 18.2 BUF Vinnie Hinostroza 0.62 17 -1 -1.62 26.9 BUF Drake Caggiula 0.49 17 -1 -1.49 24.9 BUF Henri Jokiharju 0.10 1 0 -0.10 1.7 BUF Casey Mittelstadt 0.05 1 0 -0.05 0.8 BUF Jacob Bryson -0.01 17 -2 -1.99 33.1 BUF Kyle Okposo -0.45 17 -2 -1.55 25.9 BUF Brett Murray -0.92 1 -1 -0.08 1.3 BUF John Hayden -1.13 13 -2 -0.87 14.4 BUF Jeff Skinner -1.37 17 -3 -1.63 27.2 BUF Christian Wolanin -1.94 1 -2 -0.06 0.9 BUF Cody Eakin -2.99 12 -4 -1.01 16.9 BUF Robert Hagg -3.17 17 -5 -1.83 30.5 BUF Will Butcher -6.25 15 -8 -1.75 29.1 BUF Dylan Cozens -7.50 17 -9 -1.50 25.0 ============================================================== VS ============================================================== CBJ even strength goal differential through 15 games = -1 CBJ even strength minutes played through 15 games = 754.9 exp+/- is a function of %min played at ES and team ES goal diff TRpm(team relative +/-) is the diff btwn actual+/- and exp+/- %min is % of ES minutes played ============================================================== Team Player TRpm GP +/- exp+/- %min CBJ Vladislav Gavrikov 9.35 15 9 -0.35 35.1 CBJ Sean Kuraly 3.23 15 3 -0.23 22.6 CBJ Alexandre Texier 2.23 15 2 -0.23 23.1 CBJ Gregory Hofmann 2.20 14 2 -0.20 19.7 CBJ Patrik Laine 2.17 9 2 -0.17 17.3 CBJ Dean Kukan 2.04 2 2 -0.04 3.7 CBJ Eric Robinson 1.21 15 1 -0.21 20.8 CBJ Max Domi 1.08 5 1 -0.08 7.6 CBJ Jack Roslovic 0.21 15 0 -0.21 20.8 CBJ Gabriel Carlsson 0.10 7 0 -0.10 9.8 CBJ Justin Danforth 0.03 3 0 -0.03 3.4 CBJ Kevin Stenlund 0.03 3 0 -0.03 3.0 CBJ Zach Werenski -0.59 15 -1 -0.41 41.4 CBJ Andrew Peeke -0.73 15 -1 -0.27 26.9 CBJ Jakub Voracek -1.72 15 -2 -0.28 27.8 CBJ Adam Boqvist -1.84 8 -2 -0.16 15.7 CBJ Jake Bean -2.60 15 -3 -0.40 39.7 CBJ Cole Sillinger -2.75 15 -3 -0.25 24.8 CBJ Oliver Bjorkstrand -3.69 15 -4 -0.31 31.4 CBJ Gustav Nyquist -3.71 15 -4 -0.29 29.1 CBJ Yegor Chinakhov -3.84 11 -4 -0.16 16.4 CBJ Gavin Bayreuther -3.85 7 -4 -0.15 14.6 CBJ Scott Harrington -3.90 6 -4 -0.10 10.2 CBJ Boone Jenner -4.69 15 -5 -0.31 31.1 ==============================================================

I know I know, Sam is gone who cares what he's doing down in FLA... BUT as a critic of his I feel a regular update on his performance is warranted 😎 His last 10 games (FLA has scored 37 goals over that time): 1g, 3a, -2, 15 sog For the season he's accrued a TRPM of -5... tied for second worst on FLA.

haha yeah i'll watch... only after i mow the front lawn and water the plants by my pool 😎

might watch

I agree that Granato isn't telling them to play passive, give up the blue line, lob pucks out of the zone instead of maintaining possession, etc... That said, it's his job as head coach to instruct his team how to play late in close games. They've shown zero progress in that area and I'd argue they've actually regressed under his tutelage.

Has nothing to do with talent. It's scheme, positioning and mindset.

Once again got dominated in the third period... this time in a tie game. Outshot 13-4 Gave up 8 high danger chances against, and generated 0 of their own. It's a recurring theme. Teams make adjustments and Buffalo has no answer except to get caved in.

outcoached

The Eiffel Power

I was 160lbs entering college, it was extremely difficult for me to add weight as a late teen. Outside of being on the ice nearly everyday I didn't do any other cardio. Spent hours in the gym each week trying to gain muscle mass but I struggled, maybe added 5lbs my freshman year (as a 20yo). Was considered scrawny for a 5'11 hockey player back then when the game was much more physical than it is now. I saw doctors, dieticians, tried all kinds of supplements and powders, etc... spent a summer doing Cybergenics and finally was able to bulk up a bit, eventually reaching 185lbs by my junior year. After my hockey career was over I quickly lost all that muscle mass settling back down to 170lbs were I'm still at today in my late 40s... some people just have a naturally high metabolism. That said, diet science is mich more advanced these days and I wouldn't expect these kids to struggle with it as much as I did.

There are countless defensive systems, specifically neutral zone traps that make it very very difficult (even for superior talented teams) to maintain possession on zone entries. I didn't see any evidence in last nights game to suggest they implemented any such system at any point in the game. I don't care what the talent differential is, an NHL team should never give up 20 shots (16 of which were scoring chances) in the 3rd period when protecting a lead.

I'll preface this by saying I like Granato, he's the best coach they've had in a while (since Bylsma, who squeezed 78 points out of a team 1 year removed from the bottom of the tank). Granato is getting the most out of these guys and they're improving as individuals. That's what Granato is, a developmental coach, he's the right guy for the job at this time, and he's excelling at it. That said, he continues to struggle with in-game adjustments. Lindy was really good at this. His teams could adjust on the fly and protect leads. Granato has yet to show he can stop the bleeding mid-game or lock down a lead late in a tight contest. He'll need to evolve as other teams figure out how to neutralize his system.

The line with Cozens, Hinostroza and Caggiula will stay intact. They're fast, generate puck pressure, turnovers and scoring chances. That's the blueprint. R2 is the odd man out.

PIT had an astounding 80% CorsiFor advantage in the 3rd period. Tokarski beat their talent, not Granato. To me it looked like they were running around in their own end, out of position, nervous with the puck, making panic induced decisions. The next step here is to teach them how to play with a lead, it might take a few weeks before they're all comfortable, but there's simple things they can implement right away to help lock things down.

There's a number of effective neutral zone traps you can install to choke teams off. This makes it very difficult to maintain possession into the zone. One of my favorites was called the diamond press. They're really quite simple, but takes all 5 guys to execute correctly, hopefully Granato can install some of these systems. That said, to my eyes they didn't appear to learn anything from the last 3 or 4 times they had leads going into the third.

That's great, now let's see if he can teach them how to play with a lead. Really hope to see some progress. They work their bags off to get a lead then panic, get on their heels and give up glorious chance after glorious chance. It's not a difficult thing if implemented correctly.

I really hope Granato figures it out... how to protect a lead in the third. By the looks of it, they don't appear to have spent much time practicing it. Perhaps that's just growing pains of a young team, but as someone who's played it's not exactly rocket science either. There are subtle adjustments you can make to choke teams off in the neutral zone and give yourself the best chance to hold a lead. The Sabres aren't even close, they got absolutely caved in in the third. Not even a timeout by Donny to calm the boys down and talk some sense into them.

"Better" is probably the wrong word, "experienced" is the word I'm looking for.

A better coach would be able to make the necessary in-game adjustments. They're blowing multi goal leads. It's a concern because they're not improving at protecting the lead. Hope he figures it out and installs a system these guys can execute.

IMO it's not a matchup issue. It's a system issue. They're not making any in-game adjustments to counter aggressive offensive pushes.

Color me concerned about Don Granato. This is already 3 or 4 games in this young season where they've been severely outplayed in the third after holding a lead. So far he hasn't shown the ability to make in game adjustments to counter the onslaught.

I think Caggiula has solidfied his spot on the roster. He plays the game the way they want to play.

It's a hypothetical. What happens if Terry tells KA to go after player X to nudge them into the playoffs?

THN is the worst.