IKnowPhysics

I thought they were used merely the supporting evidence of the problems pertaining to Ruff and Regier, respectively.

Anyone want to blame Ruff, Regier, or Pegula for this? It's happening in every other thread right now. I want you guys to be perfect.

Grigorenko doesn't have a great ring to it. GRIGORENKO DAY! GIRGORENKO DAY! GRIGORENKO DAY! TIS THE SEASON FA-GRIG-GRIG GRIG-GRIG GRIG GRIG O-RENKOOOO!

Puck Daddy speculating that the NHL might have showed its cards for expansion when they announced realignment: http://yhoo.it/VnKlpE (for reference, the realignment post: http://yhoo.it/WydYIi)

And for all of dumping on Leo, I'd like to voice praise for Steve Ott. Every time he's on the ice, he's far and away the hardest working player. He's always backchecking hard- harder than dozens Sabres forwards in the past years. I literally watch a play develop, see the opposition on a rush or a defensive zone turnover creating an odd man situation in the high defensive zone or a lost battle along the half wall in the defensive zone, and I think to myself "aw ######, here we go" and then BANG Ott hustles in there, does the dirty job, and makes the play out of the zone. He doesn't quit. Steve Ott: Come for the physical play, stay for a the sound defensive ones.

Agreed. It's Miller's choice not to post-up on that save, but it's a choice that's somewhat defendable- there's another Toronto player rushing who was not well defended because Myers gets off balance, so Miller may have to expect the cross-ice pass (although I know the goalie always has to play the shot). Leo has to make the play.

Leopold is playing horribly. The only two upsides to his game right now are his decent skating and his good first pass. The rest is atrocious right now- he's getting in bad positions, he's playing with zero physicality, he's not clearing out screens, he's not winning battles, and when he loses battles, he's not adjusting well to the play that develops away from the puck. The stats byproduct might be telling too: He's a team-worst -3. Edit:And reading back through some of the posts, it looks like Leo's be blamed for the last goal. I'm basing most my opinion off of previous games and in no small part to the first Toronto goal last night. Leo loses the battle in the corner and decides to chase, picking up nobody, and leaving the rebound to be picked up from his side of the ice. On the last goal, Leo gets beat cleanly around the outside by his own lack of hustle and makes a last stand by trying to hook. Hooking is the lazy man's play. Any ounce of physicality from Leo could've stopped Frattin at the boards. In fact, any other defensive play selection short of a penalty shot, which would not very likely have been called anyways, could've put the game to shootout. If he didn't want to make the physical play, he could've chosen to take the inside straight route and laid out for the shot/pass block. I don't like to pick apart individual goals like this, but these are typical in my opinion of how Leo's been playing. I hope he can re-right his ship.

Not sure you have to rescale the x-axis if you don't want to (I actually like the x axis the way it is), maybe just rescale the y values of this season OR the other seasons so that they have similar meaning. For example: multiply this season's points per game by 82/48, so that a +10 point pace this season really is equivalent to a +17ish point pace historically. Maybe you've already done that by scaling to a 54 point pace or incorporated it into the points per game math- my eyes can't tell yet.

A little interesting. Sulzer and Regehr are the lowest on the team in ice time. They have 15.5m and 17m respectively; everyone else is 19m+. This could be a shake up, to rotate in some fresh blood. Could speculate and say that maybe we're planning on rotating 8 guys through the lineup throughout the season to keep guys fresh. But if this was the case, maybe I'd rotate them in and out as on-ice pairs. If I'm benching guys, Regehr wouldn't be one of my first choices.

In the first plot you may or may not want to normalize the points of seasons past to a 48 game season by dividing the previous seasons differential to the 93 point pace by the ratio 48/82. Might give it more meaning. I think we're shooting for at least 55 points this season instead of 93, but who the hell really knows with the compressed schedule. Also, thanks for doing this. Always worth a look.

Now is the time on Shprockets ven ve play hokey.

The system isn't supposed to be predictable and is subject to both situational conditions and player improvisation or read and react to opponent movement. That said, trends I've observed these first few games: - A relatively straightforward breakout, focusing on puck movement up the boards with some puck support from the center. The defender carries the puck only with minimal forecheck pressure. The far winger almost always takes off to receive a cross-ice pass. -A combination of carry ins and dump ins into the offensive zone, mostly determined by the amount of defensive pressure at the opponent blue line. (IE, they trap,we dump). On dump ins, the dump in is almost always to the same side of the ice, to ring the puck around the boards. The far side wing always rushes on the dump in, attempting to catch the puck along the boards in the far corner. Carry ins usually rely on close puck support from one or two other rushers, making quick passes to beat defenders at the line. On a carry in, puck posession is usually established with some sort of pass-back to the point after the first rusher takes the one or more defenders with him, relieving the point man from defensive pressure. We use a similar method of entering the zone on the power play. -The power play this season looks to be a little different than last season. We use a modified umbrella formation with one forward at the net and one forward often in the high slot, forming a shape like a plus. Puck movement is similar to a umbrella, except the high forward can often provide more puck support, offering potential 2- and 3-on-1s against the defending PKers at the point. This seems to have helped our puck posession time with the man advantage. Upon a turnover, that guy seems to crash hard to force the PKers to turn over or have trouble clearing. -The PK hasn't changed much, playing a large box formation with an active puck attack. The forwards seem like they've been told not to cross/switch positions, which, while it prevents us from chasing the puck too much, seems to allow a little bit of hesitation in some situations when attacking the point when PKing. -The forecheck and neutral zone pressure seem to vary considerably depending on the game situation. We don't seem to rely on the trap that often, relying instead on a more active 1-2-2 attack-the-puck and jam them at center ice type of approach. This often forces the opponents to dump, but relies on defenders not getting beat because the situations are often 1 on 1, not 1 on 2 or 3 like a trap. That said, successful turnovers can turn into a quick-counter type of transition game. -Sustained offensive pressure seems to be a result of quality puck possession that is a result of a lot puck work on the outside and along the boards. We seem to use the boards a lot for puck movement, often starting with a point man ring the puck around the boards, with players that are well defended "optioning" out of catching the puck as it goes by. The puck is usually caught by the next guy along the boards, who is often a forward left undefended behind the net. We've generated a lot of chances using this technique, but many of the goals scored this way have been outside shots that pinball around a little (see: Cody Hodgson).

With the old CBA your odds of selecting first overall were about 48% if you were in last place. Now I'm reading that it's very close to the NBA draft lottery weighting system, where the last place team only has about a 25% chance of selecting first. 80% chance that a bottom-five team now selects first, as opposed to 100% previously.

"Is it good to see RJ back?" "It's great to see RJ back. That should bring us the W!"

Feeds coming back on in LA. 638-1 now on.

Also out on DTV here too. Center ice logo and muzak on MSG, FS-Car, 773(-1), and 774(-1).

I think he should stay. Many of the reasons have already been stated. -He's been playing like he's our 3rd best C out there. -He's looking better than his possible replacements. -He sees the play really well and his hockey IQ has gotten him to learn our systems quickly. -He's been battling hard in tough areas and skating very well. He's working hard. -He looks like he's trying to make the most out of every shift. He plays like he's trying to stay. He is susceptible to forcing plays or passes once in a while that look like an opponent in the Q wouldn't be able to stop, but an NHL opponent can stop easily. I think that's a speed-of-the-game type of adjustment- likely something you don't improve by continuing play in the Q. He's demonstrated to me an impressive raw talent and work ethic for an 18 year old that has only played three NHL games. I think he has the ability to be successful in a full season and I think his path of development is ready to take on the challenges of improvement by playing and practicing at the NHL level.

Also, that was some zany ###### last night in Edmonton. No goal on a (possibly) pushed-in goalie interference call that they announced in the arena for "being in the crease" to cancel out the tying last minute PP goal. Edmonton fans go bonkers, throw ###### all over the ice. Then with 10.6 seconds left, Edmonton wins the faceoff and manages a shot on net, which Nail Yakupov baseball bats a rebound in to tie with 4.7 seconds left. Then Gagner puts home the winner in OT.

That's some weird level of paranoia, and the vexing part is that the believer will never find enough evidence to disprove it to themselves.

Eight pages of this Assistant Coach slop back in July. http://forums.sabrespace.com/topic/20892-do-you-know-ruffs-system/

Hartnell's out for 4-8 weeks http://www.tsn.ca/nhl/story/?id=414392

Facts: 1) You accuse them of having no balls. 2) You bail out after one loss. Got it.

Hodgson now on pace for 48 goals this season. Kassian merely on pace for 32.

Don't look at me, I'm not in that time zone.

He touched the puck twice tonight. Career high. Just kidding, I like him, but he really is slow as balls. Pretty sure I skate faster.