SabresFanInRochester Posted March 13, 2014 Report Share Posted March 13, 2014 Of Buffalo's 17 remaining games, only 7 are against playoff teams and other than Boston, St. Louis and a distant Montreal, the half of those 7 games are against bubble teams. Some of the teams... Carolina, Islanders, Vancouver, Calgary, Edmonton, ... are playing as bad as Buffalo. I do not think Buffalo is intentionally tanking, although with Leino playing quality minutes, one might wonder. Just from the quality of the opponent, they could go on a run and finish ahead of a couple teams in the standings. I really don't want to see that. I want to see progress, but not wins. I've suffered all year. To see them play .500 hockey and ruin their chance for the highest lottery odds at the #1 overall pick would be unfortunate. I remember a site that showed a team's chance of making the playoffs and the statistics of how they should finish out. I wonder if there is a site that shows the team's odds of locking up the #1 pick? And just curious, I remember a poll at the start of the year that asked everyone for their guess of the number of points earned by the Sabres this year. Did anyone guess fewer than 60? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Randall Flagg Posted March 13, 2014 Report Share Posted March 13, 2014 http://forums.sabrespace.com/topic/22091-prediction-thread/page__hl__predictions here's the thread for this year, will browse in a bit If we make Nashville look like they did, yesterday, I'm not too worried. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brawndo Posted March 13, 2014 Report Share Posted March 13, 2014 Of Buffalo's 17 remaining games, only 7 are against playoff teams and other than Boston, St. Louis and a distant Montreal, the half of those 7 games are against bubble teams. Some of the teams... Carolina, Islanders, Vancouver, Calgary, Edmonton, ... are playing as bad as Buffalo. I do not think Buffalo is intentionally tanking, although with Leino playing quality minutes, one might wonder. Just from the quality of the opponent, they could go on a run and finish ahead of a couple teams in the standings. I really don't want to see that. I want to see progress, but not wins. I've suffered all year. To see them play .500 hockey and ruin their chance for the highest lottery odds at the #1 overall pick would be unfortunate. I remember a site that showed a team's chance of making the playoffs and the statistics of how they should finish out. I wonder if there is a site that shows the team's odds of locking up the #1 pick? And just curious, I remember a poll at the start of the year that asked everyone for their guess of the number of points earned by the Sabres this year. Did anyone guess fewer than 60? Same website has the Sabres at 94% chance to finish 30th and 5% to finish 29th. Calgary and the Oilers are playing better as of late and 12 of the 17 games are on the road. It should be an interesting race to the finish. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hoss Posted March 13, 2014 Report Share Posted March 13, 2014 I don't think it'll result in any more Ws than previously "easy" games have. It's weird being on the bottom, because we see how bad other teams are not realizing that we're even worse. Nobody is playing as bad as this team is. This team is going to have a very hard time getting out of the last spot in the standings. Last in the league by eight points this late in the season is a lot. I broke it down similarly in another thread, but if this team plays .500 hockey (getting a point per game) then the teams in front of us would have to finish with these records to finish worse than us: Edmonton Oilers: 3-10-3 (9 points or worse in 16 games) Florida Panthers: 3-12-2 (8 points or worse in 17 games) New York Islanders: 2-13-0 (4 points or worse in 15 games) Calgary Flames: 1-14-3 (4 points or worse in 16 games) This factors in Calgary's win tonight. .500 hockey would leave Buffalo 63 points if you consider a point per game to be .500 hockey. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheMatrix31 Posted March 13, 2014 Report Share Posted March 13, 2014 Of Buffalo's 17 remaining games, only 7 are against playoff teams and other than Boston, St. Louis and a distant Montreal, the half of those 7 games are against bubble teams. Some of the teams... Carolina, Islanders, Vancouver, Calgary, Edmonton, ... are playing as bad as Buffalo. I do not think Buffalo is intentionally tanking, although with Leino playing quality minutes, one might wonder. Just from the quality of the opponent, they could go on a run and finish ahead of a couple teams in the standings. I really don't want to see that. I want to see progress, but not wins. I've suffered all year. To see them play .500 hockey and ruin their chance for the highest lottery odds at the #1 overall pick would be unfortunate. How could you progress without winning? Hopefully we go 17-0. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
That Aud Smell Posted March 13, 2014 Report Share Posted March 13, 2014 How could you progress without winning? Hopefully we go 17-0. that caught my eye as well. i think it can be done, from a big (big) picture perspective. upper level management clearly wants off the treadmill of mediocrity, and is planning to get elite talent in the '14 and '15 drafts. the roster is and will be built to achieve those goals. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Two or less Posted March 13, 2014 Report Share Posted March 13, 2014 Of Buffalo's 17 remaining games, only 7 are against playoff teams and other than Boston, St. Louis and a distant Montreal, the half of those 7 games are against bubble teams. Some of the teams... Carolina, Islanders, Vancouver, Calgary, Edmonton, ... are playing as bad as Buffalo. I do not think Buffalo is intentionally tanking, although with Leino playing quality minutes, one might wonder. Just from the quality of the opponent, they could go on a run and finish ahead of a couple teams in the standings. I really don't want to see that. I want to see progress, but not wins. I've suffered all year. To see them play .500 hockey and ruin their chance for the highest lottery odds at the #1 overall pick would be unfortunate. I remember a site that showed a team's chance of making the playoffs and the statistics of how they should finish out. I wonder if there is a site that shows the team's odds of locking up the #1 pick? And just curious, I remember a poll at the start of the year that asked everyone for their guess of the number of points earned by the Sabres this year. Did anyone guess fewer than 60? Easy? Nothing is easy for this Sabres team. 12 of the last 17 are on the road, which includes a Western Canada trip. How could you progress without winning? Hopefully we go 17-0. I think i just threw up. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Peppy22 Posted March 13, 2014 Report Share Posted March 13, 2014 There is only 2 games the Sabres need to win. March 15th and April 13th Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Claude_Verret Posted March 13, 2014 Report Share Posted March 13, 2014 http://forums.sabres...hl__predictions here's the thread for this year, will browse in a bit If we make Nashville look like they did, yesterday, I'm not too worried. Looks like DeLuca will be closest with predicting a 29th place finish and losing out to Calgary in the race for last. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SabresFanInRochester Posted March 13, 2014 Author Report Share Posted March 13, 2014 Good insight. I thank Arcsabresfan41 and BRAWNDO for sharing the two links that I referenced -- one to see predictions on points, and the other that showed the odds of Buffalo finishing last. My comment about seeing progress without the W's -- I want to see something click that carries over to next year. If their identity is going to be that of the toughest team to play against, I want to see that in their remaining games, not just a sprinkling of effort, or buy-in from one line. Or I want to see the PP suddenly click. Or the defensive assignments are figured out and they can lock down opponents without blowing assignments. One of those components alone is not enough to translate to automatic wins, but it would be one thing they could hang their hat on for next year, instead of having to try to fix everything. One other important question -- how many days until they can buy-out Leino? And do you think they bench him at the end of the year, once they have last place locked up? That was written, tongue-in-cheek, but on the serious side, if Leino gets injured, Buffalo wouldn't be able to buy him out, right? That happened last year and I think they were stuck with him. I could see that little SOB faking something to prolong his career because no one else is going to want him. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CallawaySabres Posted March 13, 2014 Report Share Posted March 13, 2014 There is absolutely no way this team does not finish dead last or 2nd to last. With Stewart done for the season and the chance that Enroth will come back to earth makes this so. Just take a look at the game day roster any time you have your doubts...... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Derrico Posted March 13, 2014 Report Share Posted March 13, 2014 As others have mentioned, the large % of road games (where we've played much worse on the road) should help. Even with an 8 point lead, I sure don't think we're a lock for last, especially considering we still play most of the bottom feeders. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hoss Posted March 13, 2014 Report Share Posted March 13, 2014 Of course you can make progress without winning... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
26CornerBlitz Posted March 14, 2014 Report Share Posted March 14, 2014 Of Buffalo's 17 remaining games, only 7 are against playoff teams and other than Boston, St. Louis and a distant Montreal, the half of those 7 games are against bubble teams. Some of the teams... Carolina, Islanders, Vancouver, Calgary, Edmonton, ... are playing as bad as Buffalo. I do not think Buffalo is intentionally tanking, although with Leino playing quality minutes, one might wonder. Just from the quality of the opponent, they could go on a run and finish ahead of a couple teams in the standings. I really don't want to see that. I want to see progress, but not wins. I've suffered all year. To see them play .500 hockey and ruin their chance for the highest lottery odds at the #1 overall pick would be unfortunate. I remember a site that showed a team's chance of making the playoffs and the statistics of how they should finish out. I wonder if there is a site that shows the team's odds of locking up the #1 pick? And just curious, I remember a poll at the start of the year that asked everyone for their guess of the number of points earned by the Sabres this year. Did anyone guess fewer than 60? Thanks for the :lol: :lol: :lol: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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