pi2000

Skinner-Eichel-Reinhart have played a total of 4-5 minutes together this season, and they looked good, generated some scoring chances, had some good zone time, moved the puck well. Hall-Staal-Cozens has looked pretty good too actually, Cozens being the only guy who scores tho, so naturally RK sits him after they put up a goose egg on Saturday.... ***** genius. What I see 5v5 is they like to move the puck around the perimeter, back to the D, down to the corner, behind the net.... at some point you need to force pucks to the middle of the ice otherwise you'll never generate enough high danger chances. They're bottom 10 in the league in high danger chances per 60min.... and top 10 in low danger (perimeter) shots. Not a recipe for success, especially when your high danger shooting percentage is hovering around 10% (league average is around 17-18%).

Yeah I'm getting there. It's tough to be patient, considering all the adversity they've faced, but they really *should* be better than what they've shown, all things considered (long layoff, no real practice time to gel with new teammates, covid, injuries, condensed schedule, stacked division, cursed puck luck, etc). They need a spark. A couple games with goals from the top guys might ignite this team.... right? Or no?

DON'T DO IT

Disagree. Lack of oversight has gotten them into this mess. Somebody more qualified than Terry and Kim needs to preside over the GM.

*****

ok coach <sad cozens noises>

With this marathon stretch of games you'd think the older vets would need a break here and there, guys like Okposo or Staal.... but no, he sits a fresh young Cozens instead, a kid who has legs for days and has been playing well.

Highly qualified president of hockey ops with full privilege to do anything they want.

It's still amazing to me that for how bad this team has been and for how long, I can't remember the last time they actually fired a coach during the season. Ron Rolston 2013? You're basically telling the players that the organization is OK with losing and we'll reevaluate the coach after the season. If they were truly desperate to win, they would've moved on from some of these clowns much sooner. That's how you build a losing culture.

============================================================== BUF even strength goal differential through 19 games = -23 BUF even strength minutes played through 19 games = 994.23 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 Jake McCabe 7.01 13 2 -5.01 21.8 BUF Rasmus Ristolainen 6.23 11 1 -5.23 22.7 BUF Riley Sheahan 5.32 18 1 -4.32 18.8 BUF Curtis Lazar 3.93 16 0 -3.93 17.1 BUF Jacob Bryson 3.09 3 2 -1.09 4.8 BUF Rasmus Asplund 2.88 4 2 -0.88 3.8 BUF Dylan Cozens 2.76 14 -1 -3.76 16.3 BUF Matt Irwin 1.67 9 -2 -3.67 15.9 BUF Jeff Skinner 1.42 15 -3 -4.42 19.2 BUF William Borgen 1.41 4 0 -1.41 6.1 BUF Casey Mittelstadt 0.70 6 -1 -1.70 7.4 BUF Jack Eichel 0.63 16 -6 -6.63 28.8 BUF Tobias Rieder 0.18 16 -4 -4.18 18.2 BUF Kyle Okposo -0.02 13 -4 -3.98 17.3 BUF Brandon Davidson -0.09 2 -1 -0.91 3.9 BUF Henri Jokiharju -0.45 14 -6 -5.55 24.1 BUF Brandon Montour -0.55 16 -8 -7.45 32.4 BUF Tage Thompson -0.55 9 -3 -2.45 10.7 BUF Cody Eakin -0.74 18 -6 -5.26 22.9 BUF Victor Olofsson -1.60 18 -8 -6.40 27.8 BUF Eric Staal -2.86 18 -9 -6.14 26.7 BUF Sam Reinhart -3.45 16 -10 -6.55 28.5 BUF Colin Miller -4.07 18 -11 -6.93 30.1 BUF Taylor Hall -5.00 18 -12 -7.00 30.5 BUF Rasmus Dahlin -8.33 18 -16 -7.67 33.3 ==============================================================

He sounds like a politician.

Reporter: Did you injure yourself in warmups? Eichel: No, I hurt myself in New Jersey. RK: When I mentioned it, the specific region that actually took him out of the game, the first time I had heard about it was warmup, but that he was injured that he came out of that jersey game injured was clear to me but it turns out there were multiple lower body injuries and whatever, i mean it uh, the point is that he came out of jersey hurt, uh the uh the warmup call uh and the region that ended up being aggravating it was his first time back in his skates since that game uh and it changed the game and now were working on his health and getting him fit again.

Because trading a franchise center with his talent would be a mistake. He'll eventually snap out of it, and the team will be better off with him on the roster. I'll predict he has a breakout game here soon and everybody here will be singing a different tune. Fickle fans.

3 studs: 3 duds: eichel, reinhart, hall, olofsson, skinner, staal, okposo, eakin, reider, lazar, sheahan, mittlestadt, dahlin, risto, davidson, montour, jokiharju, irwin

Skinner with Jack and Sam.... and they make stuff happen. Imagine that.

🤦

It's a high risk PK strategy. If Dahlin gets moving and rotating they can break this pressure generating scoring chances from the high slot or down low as the D press up.

Will there be more goals scored than goalposts hit?

If he requests a trade you simply tell him, and the entire league, that you're not trading him. If he holds out, you let him hold out, if he checks out you let him self destruct. Think of it as parenting a whiny spoiled kid who refuses to do his chores.

There's several reasons for this... Their PP1 is the same lineup as last season with the exception of adding Hall to the mix. Their umbrella of Dahlin, Olofsson, and Eichel have been together for a few seasons, have elite puck movement and shooting skills. 3 of the bottom 5 PK teams are in their division. They're 2nd in the league in offensive zone PP face off win %. Why they're struggling to score 5v5... Historically low shooting % at even strength (5.3%). As someone who played at a high level, I have no explanation for this. The amount of posts they've hit, etc. is unlike anything i've ever seen. You may have a game here and there where the team just can't score no matter what.... but this team, this season, has had many many games like this. This is not RK's fault. This is by far the worst case of bad puck luck I've ever seen. Consider, there's only been 1 team in the past 13 years (couldn't find stats before 2007) that had an even strength shooting % less than 6%... the 2014-15 Coyotes tank squad. There are 8 former 20 goal scorers on this team, the shooting % can only improve as they play more games. It has to.

The time to fix the goaltending situation came went over the offseason. Now their hands are tied and they're going to have to overpay for a starter with picks and prospects if they want to upgrade Hutton. Unless a fair deal comes along, I would not recommend mortgaging their future for what is most likely going to be another season out of the "playoffs". I'm using quotes here because this is not a normal season, they're playing in a stacked 8 team league. Considering where they are in the standing, and with a shortened season... even with peak Hasek I'm not sure they could make up enough ground at this point, especially considering the teams they'd have to chase down.

This is the only correct answer. To compare this team statistically to past seasons, or any other team in a different division, is apples to oranges. They're playing in an 8 team league, 6 of which made the playoffs last season. They had a 10 month hiatus, replaced half their forwards, a 1 week training camp, no pre-season, play 10 games, then a 2 week break... come out of break sans their top defensive pairing, then their #1 goalie and #1 player get injured. To bundle that up and use it as ammo to say this is the worst Sabres team that ever existed, and the coach should be fired, and the captain traded... is simply being short sighted and hitting the panic button.

Sorry to hear this. Hoping for the best for your mother 🙏. Stay strong, friend.

How you can say PHI didn't look like a top team? Did you watch the game? 40 shots on net, their puck movement, goaltending, etc.. were all first class.