PASabreFan Posted December 20, 2015 Report Share Posted December 20, 2015 (edited) I don't think Mike's wrong. Practice stats, really? No "feel for the moment." Gionta's ice time is another example. Something seems off with Bylsma. No feel — that could stick. Sabres coach Dan Bylsma, meanwhile, went mostly chalk on his choices. Ryan O’Reilly entered the game 10 of 26 in his career but 0 for 3 this season, Tyler Ennis was 15-41/1-2 and Zemgus Girgensons was 3-12/0-0. Defensible choices based on career numbers. But ultra conservative. The Sabres have the last two No. 2 overall draft picks on their roster. Sam Reinhart is skating well and delivered a sick pass to O’Reilly for what looked like the winning goal late in the third period. Jack Eichel looks like he needs a break. Reinhart has never taken a shootout while Eichel is 0 for 2 this year. They were ignored as Byslma said he relied on practice stats. How about having some feel for the moment? At home. Against the defending Stanley Cup champions. You’re a franchise that basically threw away the last 1½ seasons in order to draft some elite talent and now that you have them, you don’t use them? That’s crazy. Think of how the building would have erupted had Reinhart or Eichel gone to center ice to take a shot. Go for it. If they don’t score, how much worse would they have been than the efforts O’Reilly, Ennis and Girgensons put out? That’s not what the Blackhawks did. Toews (wrist shot stopped) and then Kane. You go with your best and win (or lose) with them. http://sabres.buffalonews.com/2015/12/20/he-came-he-heard-he-conquered/ Edited December 20, 2015 by pASabreFan Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spndnchz Posted December 20, 2015 Report Share Posted December 20, 2015 Truth. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Eleven Posted December 20, 2015 Report Share Posted December 20, 2015 I was amazed when I saw Girgensons go out for the third shot. O'Reilly and Ennis were good choices, though. I think Harrington's wrong there. And if not one of the kids for the third shot, Moulson would have been a good move. I mean it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PASabreFan Posted December 20, 2015 Author Report Share Posted December 20, 2015 What had Ennis done to deserve the chance? Shootouts are the canary in the coal mine for me. We don't have much raw offensive talent. 2-14 in the shootout, dead last in the league. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wjag Posted December 20, 2015 Report Share Posted December 20, 2015 I think ROR, SR and JE should have been the choices. I agree.. I am so down on Ennis I would have picked Linus ahead of him. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Eleven Posted December 20, 2015 Report Share Posted December 20, 2015 (edited) What had Ennis done to deserve the chance? Shootouts are the canary in the coal mine for me. We don't have much raw offensive talent. 2-14 in the shootout, dead last in the league. I believe this was his last attempt before yesterday: https://twitter.com/HockeyWebCast/status/657014384095571968?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Etweet Moulson scored in that shootout, too. So 2-14. Ennis and Moulson are the 2. Edited December 20, 2015 by eleven Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dudacek Posted December 20, 2015 Report Share Posted December 20, 2015 O'Reillly is our best player and has been our most clutch scorer. Ennis is probably our most skilled one-on-one player, at least until Eichel comes into his own. Each has a history of being good at the shootout; at the moment, they are probably our best choices. Girgensons was probably the definition of a "feel" choice. Not much to see here. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thorny Posted December 20, 2015 Report Share Posted December 20, 2015 I agree with the OP, have absolutely not been a fan of Bylsma's shootout choices to this point. And it leads into this: What had Ennis done to deserve the chance? Shootouts are the canary in the coal mine for me. We don't have much raw offensive talent. 2-14 in the shootout, dead last in the league. Completely disagree, here. We were 8-5 in shootouts last year. We were dead last in the league in record and talent. Shootouts in my mind don't speak to raw offensive talent, as evidenced by the fact we had almost zero last year and were pretty damn good in the shootout, especially relatively. It's akin to a mini-game that only requires one specific skill. If Nolan could come up with the guys that could get the job done last year, we have more than enough talent for Bylsma to be able to pick out the guys who excel in the one skill that matters in the shootout. Too many valuable points are slipping away here, I think. Take some time in practice to come up with the guys who are going to bury it more consistently, and send them out. I love O'Reilly, and he is our best player right now. But If I have to see him slowly weave side to side at a snails pace, before firing a shot that never had a chance of going in, again in the shootout, I will be fairly annoyed. I know he has historically been good in his career, but that move he keeps using has been scouted. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Taro T Posted December 20, 2015 Report Share Posted December 20, 2015 I agree with the OP, have absolutely not been a fan of Bylsma's shootout choices to this point. And it leads into this: Completely disagree, here. We were 8-5 in shootouts last year. We were dead last in the league in record and talent. Shootouts in my mind don't speak to raw offensive talent, as evidenced by the fact we had almost zero last year and were pretty damn good in the shootout, especially relatively. It's akin to a mini-game that only requires one specific skill. If Nolan could come up with the guys that could get the job done last year, we have more than enough talent for Bylsma to be able to pick out the guys who excel in the one skill that matters in the shootout. Too many valuable points are slipping away here, I think. Take some time in practice to come up with the guys who are going to bury it more consistently, and send them out. I love O'Reilly, and he is our best player right now. But If I have to see him slowly weave side to side at a snails pace, before firing a shot that never had a chance of going in, again in the shootout, I will be fairly annoyed. I know he has historically been good in his career, but that move he keeps using has been scouted. Can't forget that the majority of the shootouts were against the other team's backup. Had they been going against starters, it's very likely they wouldn't have been much/ any better in the shootout than they are this year. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PASabreFan Posted December 20, 2015 Author Report Share Posted December 20, 2015 Faced more backup goalies last year? Agree on the Foster Brooks approach to the shootout. This will border on interest in analytics, but does anyone keep track of the success rates for different approaches in the shootout? Can't forget that the majority of the shootouts were against the other team's backup. Had they been going against starters, it's very likely they wouldn't have been much/ any better in the shootout than they are this year. My brother. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thorny Posted December 20, 2015 Report Share Posted December 20, 2015 Good point there, from both of you guys....you know..great minds... But ya, I didn't think of that. I'm not sure that the backup goalie reason accounts for all of it, but probably a significant portion. I still think we have enough talent that we should be able to come up with a few guys who can bury it more consistently than we have been Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SwampD Posted December 20, 2015 Report Share Posted December 20, 2015 Haven't we been seeing backups this year, as well, though? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Taro T Posted December 21, 2015 Report Share Posted December 21, 2015 Haven't we been seeing backups this year, as well, though? Not nearly as many & definitely not yesterday afternoon. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Huckleberry Posted December 21, 2015 Report Share Posted December 21, 2015 Would just have love to see one of them actually try and shoot instead of doing something fancy. Like eleven said, moulson would have been a good choice for that. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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