IKnowPhysics

Ullmark went full Hasek and seemed to tweak a leg muscle/ligament on a big glove save in a stretching split. Seemed to bug him, so they pulled him for period two and three.

Flopping Matt Irwin blocked Hutton from getting his stick across for the five hole shot/bounce.

Joker took the shot lane instead of the man. Joker not making the same mistake next shift.

Buffalo #4 Double Minor Penalty, two minutes for

RK [putting $19M on the bench]: "I really like what we saw from the group of twelve forwards we had last game and we decided to keep that energy together going forward."

"They really stepped up and overcame adversity... that I created."

If it were any smaller, it'd be even strength... ...with you!

NJ has small PP energy.

That's how Sheahan drew a penalty. Defender fell, stick got under Sheahan's skates, Sheahan falls. Penalty on defender.

Victor Goalofsson Creasy Megastats

Good setup and finish.

Matt Irwin got played easily. Hutton got beat easily.

Hutton is in.

Lol, Jack can't buy a goal and the second Sheahan steps in between Jack's linemates, he deletes Blackwood in spicy fashion.

Jack who? Olofsson-Sheahan-Reinhart

Sorry, this was more a continuation of my previous post, intended to read as: Gotta know what's up with Jack. He is the team. Is he injured? COVID? Protesting Skinner?

Now wait a minute.

Anyways, ***** all the off ice stuff. Must win.

He said before the last game, after specifically being asked, that Skinner being benched was not disciplinary in any way. edit: And definitively repeated that again today.

Also:

Sit rep. The Skinner history: Amasses three 30G seasons and three 20G seasons before Buffalo. Establishes as one the top 15 5v5 goal scorers in the league with a career 1.08 5v5 G/60. Has a "down" year in CAR before his contract year (49P, 82GP), and inexplicably gets traded for beans (Pu, 2nd, 3rd, 6th). Has a career year in his first year with Buffalo under Housley (40G 23A). He plays 18.5 min total TOI/GP and 3:05 PP min /GP. No PK time. He plays 70% of his 5v5 ice time with Eichel and most of his PP time with Eichel. He gets a 63% OZstart%. His even strength goals per 60 is simply prolific at 1.34 EVG/60, leading the Sabres by far. He leads Sabres, tied with Eichel, at 8PPG. Is signed to massive $9M x 8 year contract. Krueger takes over as coach. In 2019-2020: He plays 16.5 min total TOI/GP and 2:29 PP min /GP. No PK time. He plays 13% of his time with Eichel. Half his time not centered by Eichel is with Johansson (43%). The rest of his time not centered by Eichel or Johansson is centered by Sobotka, ERod, or Larsson (43% total). He gets a 52% OZstart%. Despite the lineup changes, Skinner still scores more even strength goals per 60 than any Sabre not named Dominik Kahun (who only played 6 games) at 1.08 EVG/60. However, he scores 0PPG, despite most of Skinner's PP time being with Eichel. Skinner records 14G 9A 23P in 59GP (19.5G 12.5A 32P in 82GP pace). In 2021 under Krueger: His ice time plummets to 13.5 min total TOI/GP and 1:32 PP min/GP. No PK time. Skinner and Eichel have played about 30mins 5v5 together, comprising 18.5% of Skinner's 5v5 ice time. They produced no GF and 1 GA, mostly favorable shots stats, and even HDCF%. Skinner has played 91min 5v5 with Lazar. They generated roughly even shots stats, but greatly favorable HDCF%. Skinner has played about 30mins 5v5 with Staal. Shots stats weren't good, but HDCF% was even. He gets a 43% OZstart%. Skinner's infamous stat line: 0G 1 A 1P in 14GP. ========================================================================================= Something caused Ralph Krueger to change his usage of Jeff Skinner, not just when Krueger arrived, but specifically this season. Staying with rational theories, wherein Krueger sees something about Skinner's on-ice performance that drives his decisions. It could be he's focusing (or hyperfocusing) on one stat (even though this approach is likely irrational). Jeff's HDCF/60 and HDCA/60 varies strongly with different centers. 5v5 HDCF/60 - HDCA/60 of Skinner with different centers: Eichel 5.82 - 5.82 (+0) Staal 12.1 - 12.1 (+0) Lazar 9.81 - 5.23 (+4.58) If you only focus on the differential of HDCF/60-HDCA/60, you would make the case that Skinner-Lazar is more productive when Lazar and Skinner are together. Now decide, after the last two games, if Casey Mittelstadt or Jeff Skinner should play with Curtis Lazar: Skinner 9.81 - 5.23 (+4.58) Mittelstadt 18.63-13.97 (+4.66) But I'm inventing stat-based reasons why Krueger would justify this usage. I'm positive we're not getting all of the information, even when digging into the stats and usage. ========================================================================================= Other irrational, but very possible theories: Jeff has a bad attitude. Krueger really doesn't know what he's doing. Sabres are trying to make Skinner want to fail to report to the team, a la Berglund, allowing Buffalo to escape the contract. Sabres are trying to make Skinner waive his NMC. NMC players must be protected in the Seattle expansion draft, July 21st. If you wanted to protect someone else over Skinner, you would basically have to get him to waive NMC and then trade him. It would also be possible for Skinner to waive his NMC specifically for Seattle in a pre-arranged Buffalo deal with Seattle. Maybe Seattle agrees to take Skinner and no other Sabre and does or does not return assets to Buffalo; maybe Buffalo keeps some salary. Note that Jason Botterill, who signed Skinner to his massive contract, is now the AGM in Seattle. Also note that Ron Francis is currently the GM of Seattle and was in the hockey dept of CAR for years and years, including the GM position from 2014-2018 while Skinner was a player. Francis was no longer GM when Skinner was traded. We can stab at Krueger about what appears to be ineptitude, but I honestly don't think the man is some dumb moron that makes decisions without a plan. It might be good execution of a bad plan or bad execution of a good plan or good/bad execution of a secret plan, but I don't think anyone jerks around a $72M player on a whim. There's something going on and no one's saying what it is.

We have a Jeff Skinner thread: We have a Ralph Krueger thread: Thought we could use a poll. See poll. I intentionally didn't allow multiple choices. Discuss here or in the respective threads. It don't matter, none a' this matters.

I care about Travis Yost. I think it's important to keep an open mind about unbiased opinions from outside the Buffalo sports echo chamber.

Eichel, Hall, and Reinhart are all in the top five for posts hit.