IKnowPhysics

Hall's face is a puck magnet. A few more minutes of that and he's gonna look like Ryan Smyth.

Goalies = Skill x Consistency. Skill looks sharp, let's see the consistency.

Ugh. Ullmark cannot get healthy fast enough.

Fifth highest GSAA among goalies. Among goalies with >600mins of TOI, third highest GSAA/60 at +0.661. Quick is sub-average at -0.276. For reference: Vasilevsky is tops in GSAA and GSAA/60 (>600mins) at +0.745. Ullmark is a respectable 17th in GSAA and 14th in GSAA/60 (>600mins) at +0.374. Hutton has a GSAA/60 of -0.713. JJ trailed just behind Hutton at -0.717. Buffalo should be inquiring about CAR UFAs Reimer (+0.075) or Mrazek (+1.026 but small sample size), or a longer term trade option in RFA Nedeljkovic (+0.580).

Yep. The rest of the season is a science experiment. We need to make trades and we need to evalute the team after making those trades.

The Wisconsin and Northeastern women are out here making Sabres games look rec league. If you can't get down with that, all you get is pity.

I'll happily take any data point that suggests the team didn't get reinfected.

61st overall and seven years of investment for a 6th rounder. I'm not one for the sunk cost fallacy, but yeesh.

There's simply no room for that kind of thinking in the game. And the statement declaring that womens hockey is unwatchably boring after having to watch the Buffalo Sabres Fecal Extravaganza is simply stupifying. Anyways, if anyone else wants to watch good hockey for a change, University of Wisconsin (16-3-1) squares off against Northeastern University (22-1-1) to battle for the NCAA Womens National Championship today at 7:30pm EST. Miracle hero Mark Johnson coaches the lady Badgers in their attempt to secure their sixth national title against the Northeastern program's first appearance in the Frozen four, backstopped by NCAAW Goalie of the Year and Patty Kazmaier finalist Aerin Frankel who's been nothing short of stellar (0.76GAA, 0.976SV%, 9SOs). Lots of Olympians and Olympic hopefuls in this one, so hold on to your hats. Game Preview ESPN online, 7:30pm EST

[everyone liked that] Agreed. Always wanted to see Hall-Cozens-Reinhart at least for a trial couple of games. An encouraging beginning to the incremental changes.

I look forward to a time when this kind of thinking is dead and buried. I think the Sabres would benefit from a head coach with NHL experience as a head coach, and if the barriers were already broken such that women had opportunities to be NHL coaches, I would hope they be considered for the current opening.

Play is sloppy, like disorganized, but player energy and speed is up. It's a response. With no practice and no team meetings until game prep time, they just had no time to get on the same page and undo what Krueger did.

Wtf Sammy

RK's gone now, THIS IS THE REAL ME

Had the impression that was a 1-4 NZ trap, which, while novel and successful at the time, leaned on the ability to clutch-and-grab and on Brodeur's bigly puck handling skills. By the end of the '05 lockout, NZ trap teams fell victim to drawing penalties against dump-and-chase offenses and being picked apart by effective short-pass-zone-entry offenses. NZ trap has evolved from 1-4 to 1-1-3 and 1-3-1 traps that are much more effective in today's faster/cleaner game, as they still trap, but use a high-pressure attack on the puck carrier to contest posession and force turnovers into the trapping players instead of literally grabbing and hooking puck carriers. 1-2-2 is still effective though, especially for up-tempo teams and teams that want to "keep it simple," as just about every player even in beer league knows how to execute it.

Olofsson's one timer is probably my favorite thing about the team right now. But the rest of Olofsson's game isn't great and his one-timer release doesn't work when he has to shoot across his body- so it's almost completely ineffective when he's playing LW 5v5 instead of right circle 5v4. He's a one trick pony, but the trick is exceedingly good. Other than that, watching Cozens figure out the NHL game in real time has been fun. Risto doing Risto things has also been enjoyable. Sam seriously gives a ***** about winning and he's usually very focused, so it's nice to see him do well despite the surrounding ***** show. Reider's speed is still impressive; his hands, however, are not. It's been a little interesting to see Mittelstadt retake the reigns on his career. I liked the season McCabe was having, same with Borgen. I see flashes of brilliance from Linus and JJ, but goaltending is a skill game multiplied by a consistency game. Taylor Hall, like Jack, is obviously an extremely skilled and determined, competitive player, and you can see it sometimes, which is very enjoyable to watch, but it's like the coaches were pressing a mute button on their abilities by hampering them with a system or usage that simply didn't fit.

Honestly, I wouldn't want Don Granato anywhere near that high-risk game if he hasn't already been vaccinated after the ***** he's been through.

Well, if Granato is better than Krueger... ...without Eichel... ...must win...?

It was a mixed bag, but generally worse. Ristolainen seemed to bounce back a bit before COVID, which is nice, but Dahlin's regression has been much worse than Risto's improvement was good, and likely much more impactful to the franchise health.

My comment has nothing to do with future success. Mostly spite disguised as accountability. Player performance had a significant, if non-majority, part in the debacle of this season. It wasn't all on Krueger or Adams. And the players need to be held accountable for their part. The players can say what they want to the media, but they're not backing their words up with effort. But really, small-mindedly, I just want someone to yell at them for a while. I want someone to rub their noses in the pile they made like the tail-wagging carpet shitters they have been lately.

I know in my heart of hearts that Torts is not a long term solution, but damned if I don't want someone to just simply yell at these players like an angry father for the remainder of the broken season. And bonus points for fun pressers.

Yeah, you don't say that you "need a fresh perspective" on a job if someone is excelling at it.

I can put my self in Kevyn Adams's shoes, understand his preseason roster he built, and then look at the bad injuries, the bad COVID, the bad schedule, the bad puck luck, having a taxi squad rotate into practices, not having enough practices, the fire-and-ice (mostly ice) goaltending, the brutal division, the time needed for new players to adjust, the time needed for coaches to make adjustments, the promising powerplay teasing what could be, and the god damned Amerks also getting COVID. And it's simply gotten so bad, that all of that entire zoo of mitigating circumstances, excuses if you prefer, even if they're valid, still do not add up to how bad the team is right now.