Jump to content

GDT: Tampa @ Buffalo, 7:00 pm edt, 11/5/2015

WildCard

By WildCard
in The Aud Club

 Share

Recommended Posts

Thorny Hall of Famer

Thorny

Posted
Posted (edited)

How can anyone be disappointed in Larsson?

 

Losing sucked, but that was a pretty fun game. I still think that almost all of our problems on offense are because of familiarity. Lots of disconnect between players. Eichel's so good he can make stuff happen all on his own. Not much of his magic involves others, yet.

 

Can't wait for January.

 

Larsson has added absolutely nothing to that line. Not making big mistakes and being generally unnoticeable isn't good enough for a scoring second line, particularly when paired with our franchise center. He has converted none of Eichel's set ups including several more today, including a nice cross crease feed from Jack.

 

I'm not disappointed in him, but he's being asked to play above his talent level. He shouldn't be sniffing the second line. He's a 3rd or 4th line forward and his play/style is perfect for that.

Edited by Thorny
Link to comment
Share on other sites
qwksndmonster All Star

qwksndmonster

Posted
Posted (edited)

As much as Ray can be off he is spot on about the physicality. This will get ugly if they allow Tampa to wheel.

Ray's constant "physical blah blah" got to me tonight.  So ###### annoying.  Sabres really need a new color guy.

 

Good stuff Flagg.

 

The D:

 

-As per usual, Weber played a solid stay at home game and gets slammed by the entire board over and over.  He was Weber with the puck and he had a bad penalty at the end.  Doesn't make him the worst defender in the league.  He's only in because Colo and Bogo are hurt, channel your energy towards hockey posts.

 

-Risto had some rough patches tonight, he needs to be more physically intimidating/tenacious.  Lost too many battles because he looked like he was trying to be way too methodical. Rasmus could stand to learn a few things from Bogo.  

 

-Speaking of methodical, Pysyk had another quiet game.  I'm starting to think that HD needs to give him more difficult assignments to challenge him.  He rarely makes a mistake, and that seems to be his game. See if he can do it against faster/better opponents (although I'm not sure who I'd give less ice time in his place).

 

-McCabe played great after some early hiccups.  I love watching him stand up fools at the blue line, and he even made some nice plays in the O zone.

 

-Gorges played a great game.  Played very well against some brutal assignments.

 

-I've been pleased with Franson's game lately. He's been using his reach well, and hasn't been a disaster in his own zone.

 

The Forwards:

 

-Gionta won a couple battles tonight, but was still a disaster offensively.  HD needs to get him off the PP and onto the 4th line.

 

-Poor Legwand, did anybody think for even a second that he was going to score on either of those breakaways? I certainly didn't. Great guy, smart player, but yikes.

 

-Ennis created some decent chances, but as others have noted half the time it seems like he's skating to nowhere.  He needs to look for his linemates more.

 

-Larsson has battled OK, but has been nowhere near good enough offensively to justify having him on Eichel's line.

 

-Foligno played another solid game.  I'm loving the consistency.  That booming hit that created a chance for Eichel was epic.

 

-Wasn't O'Reilly's best game, but he played hard defensively and had some chances (too bad he missed the net on half of them).

 

-Randall said it best about Samson tonight, good pass/bad pass/good pass/bad pass.

 

-McGinn looked solid.  Not sure about him on the PP, but I know he has good hands in front of the net.

 

-Deslauriers looked good on the top line in the first.  I've been hard on him getting so much ice time, but his play tonight was bringing me around.  He's such a smart, relentless skater.  The way he switches forward to backwards is pretty, you can tell he was a D-man.  He almost locks an entire half of the neutral zone down.  He didn't look quite as effective on the 4th line, but that's probably just because it's the 4th line.

 

-Girgensons was strong as usual.  Still desperately needs to find his scoring touch.

 

-Moulson played another good game.  He really is a pure O-zone lurker.  He'll never be that guy to create dangerous angles on his own, but he knows where the gaps in the defense are. Came up with a lot of loose pucks tonight.

 

-Yeichel. Jack Eichel. Wowza. Best game of the year so far for him. Still needs to use his linemates more, but his game away from the puck (offensively and defensively) is fantastic.

 

Weird Elephant People:

 

-Ullmark's flaws were on display tonight: Struggling to recover once down, and going post to post. Tough game for him.

 

-Johnson was solid as a rock.  Nice to see.

 

Zebras: Sucked.  Not only did they have blue and white tinted spectacles, they let more blatant interference go than I have seen in a game yet this year.  Both of these teams have such fast forwards, this should've been a beautiful game.  Instead, it was full of dudes touching dudes. Awesome.  The Lightning took advantage of the clutching and grabbing way more effectively than we did.  HD needs to have his players adjust to the refs game to game.

 

Hot Daniel: Our neutral zone trap got badly exploited in the first period.  Even though we stacked all of our players in there, the Lightning D men were consistently able to find lanes to the far wing. (I do think this is more because our players needed to find their legs/intensity after 3 days off, but I'll still lay that at the feet of HD)

 

I liked our fire tonight.  We came close so many times, but that refrain must die soon.  This team needs to start finishing.

Edited by qwksndmonster
Link to comment
Share on other sites
Randall Flagg Hall of Famer

Randall Flagg

Posted
Posted

Correct me if I'm wrong, but the only clean breakaways we have had in regulation this year have been split between Legwand (3) and Moulson (1). That's definitely interesting, because they are two of our slowest skaters. They just know where to be it seems. I thought I'd hate to see Legwand get ice time based on how people reacted to his being thrown into the Lehner trade, but I love what I've seen from him so far.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
3putt First Liner

3putt

Posted
Posted

Correct me if I'm wrong, but the only clean breakaways we have had in regulation this year have been split between Legwand (3) and Moulson (1). That's definitely interesting, because they are two of our slowest skaters. They just know where to be it seems. I thought I'd hate to see Legwand get ice time based on how people reacted to his being thrown into the Lehner trade, but I love what I've seen from him so far.

Or they were behind the play when we took the puck away. At least that was the case tonight.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
JJFIVEOH All Star

JJFIVEOH

Posted
Posted

I think we saw a first round matchup tonight.

 

 

 

...as well as the most likely series outcome.

 

If Tampa keeps playing the way they've played so far this year, that would mean BFLO will get home ice advantage. I've seen nothing from them that impresses me. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites
jsb Third Liner

jsb

Posted
Posted

No real issues with what Qwk noted except Ennis was atrocious in the first period, ZERO defensive effort, 2 of those goals were directly related to his lack of effort. And Gorges is softer than my Charmin in front of the net. He wasn't bad throughout the rest of his game but he lays way too much responsibility to Risto to clear the net area and constantly makes our GK's look worse for wear because of it.

 

Eichel earned his money yesterday. Legwand????? 2 breakaways, either one could have been a game changer and are we putting Vasilevskiy in the HOF?? My goodness we can't seem to score on this guy. Rant over. Back to work.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Rasmus_ Second Liner

Rasmus_

Posted
Posted (edited)

Translation:  Go with 2 pairs (ala Chicago) and get Weber the hell off the ice.

 

Pretty self evident.  Bogo where are you!  I didn't get to watch the game, so I cannot comment on his shifts.  But, I can imagine they were brutal.  They had less give ways, more hits, more shots on net,  but still lost because they got behind early.  

Got nothing. Qwk said it all.

 

But because it bears repeating: Jack's best game.

 

Did he look better in the FO circle?  Did he look more poised away from the puck? 

Edited by TheCerebral1
Link to comment
Share on other sites
This topic is OLD. A NEW topic should be started unless there is a VERY SPECIFIC REASON to revive this one.

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Restore formatting

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

Loading...
×
 Share
Go to topic listing
×
×
  • Create New...