GDT: Buffalo Sabres vs Arizona Coyotes 8:30pm EST in Glendale Az.

[RonHextallsShoulderPads]

deja vu

 

Edited February 27, 2017 by RonHextallsShoulderPads

[WildCard]

@ByMHarrington  9h9 hours ago

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Eichel III: "We're just slowly pissing our chances away. It's frustrating for all of us." #Sabres

[Derrico]

What a season

[Randall Flagg]

You guys ready to watch the Leafs play Ottawa?

[Samson's Flow]

 

@ByMHarrington  9h9 hours ago

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Eichel III: "We're just slowly pissing our chances away. It's frustrating for all of us." #Sabres

 

I'll give Eichel one thing - he certainly isn't afraid of speaking his mind or showing emotion. I haven't heard a Pominville "athlete speak" quote from him all year.

You guys ready to watch the Leafs play Ottawa?

The Leafs aren't making it. Too many hot teams playing better than them directly behind them in the standings.

[Randall Flagg]

Eichel also spoke, again, about letting up too much with a lead, not going for that third goal.

[Samson's Flow]

Eichel also spoke, again, about letting up too much with a lead, not going for that third goal.

It's almost like the members on this board are not complete morons. Almost. :nana:

[Taro T]

Eichel also spoke, again, about letting up too much with a lead, not going for that third goal.

So simple a cave man can get it. So, wtf can't a Goober get it?

 

:censored:

[I-90 W]

Need a new coach and system, need better dmen. Beginning to miss the days of one and done in the playoffs. Remember the response when Lehner called the team out? Maybe a coach that does that would help.

[Doohickie]

deja vu

 

 

Funny!

 

Sad, but funny.

[qwksndmonster]

If we had a real coach, this game would've broken me. But since we have Bylsma, I've known we're out of the playoffs since December.

[darksabre]

If we had a real coach, this game would've broken me. But since we have Bylsma, I've known we're out of the playoffs since December.

Ah-yup. I've been pretty much mailing it in since then too. All I want at this point is for them to play a good game against the Leafs for the meetup. I couldn't care less about what they do otherwise. We've lost an entire season of development to Dreary Dan. 

[Thorny]

I went to bed after two periods thinking this was in the bag.  WTF.

The Sabres were in La-La Land for the 3rd.

 

You guys ready to watch the Leafs play Ottawa?

They had some pretty classic series in the early 2000s. I doubt they'll get to that level yet if they play this year, though.

[WildCard]

Ah-yup. I've been pretty much mailing it in since then too. All I want at this point is for them to play a good game against the Leafs for the meetup. I couldn't care less about what they do otherwise. We've lost an entire season of development to Dreary Dan.

Same here

[apuszczalowski]

I'm glad I have put in as much effort caring or paying attention to this team this season as they have in playing the games......

 

Good thing they 'tanked' though, we could have never reached these levels without purit

[Sabres Fan in NS]

Burn it down.

 

#DownwithDiscoDan

 

A little 'Panic' ...

 

 

... 'burn down the disco ... hang the blessed DJ' ...

[qwksndmonster]

Ah-yup. I've been pretty much mailing it in since then too. All I want at this point is for them to play a good game against the Leafs for the meetup. I couldn't care less about what they do otherwise. We've lost an entire season of development to Dreary Dan.

GMTM also proved to have some Darcy in him when he didn't fire Dan after we lost that back to back against Boston. The team could've ridden the momentum from the firing into the playoffs. And we'd also have been in a perfect position to court Sexy Julien (he still could've picked Montreal but Jack, Sam, and Risto would've given him reason for pause).

[SwampD]

Did Ennis look like he was starting to figure it out again last night? I think he's going to start producing again soon.

[Doohickie]

Did Ennis look like he was starting to figure it out again last night? I think he's going to start producing again soon.

Ennis showed a couple of flashes of old, but looks more like Bad Afenigenov than Good Ennis, if you know what I mean. Pulls off a couple of nifty moves, then loses the puck.  Maybe that's the first step in getting back to his old self or maybe it's as good as he'll ever be going forward.  For a smallish guy, though, he has been playing a very physical game.  Maybe he needs to reinvent his game based on his current toolset.

[dudacek]

GMTM also proved to have some Darcy in him when he didn't fire Dan after we lost that back to back against Boston. The team could've ridden the momentum from the firing into the playoffs. And we'd also have been in a perfect position to court Sexy Julien (he still could've picked Montreal but Jack, Sam, and Risto would've given him reason for pause).

I think those Boston games is where we missed the playoffs and posted to that effect at the time.

Now it's all about evaluation, and that includes the coach.

 

I'm mostly just waiting to see how closely Murray's take matches mine, based on the moves he makes between now and October.

[Doohickie]

I think those Boston games is where we missed the playoffs and posted to that effect at the time.

Now it's all about evaluation, and that includes the coach.

 

I'm mostly just waiting to see how closely Murray's take matches mine, based on the moves he makes between now and October.

 

I think many of us see it that way.

[Randall Flagg]

Alright, so here are the results of my zone entry calculations. I may have missed 2 or 3 of them throughout the game, but this information is 95% accurate at least. I could not do Arizona's entries and maintain that accuracy, so I didn't. I define a pass play entry as one where the pass was received within about 5 feet of the blue line on either side. I didn't count plays that were clears of our zone into the NZ or plays that didn't come within 5 feet of their blue line. I didn't count PK or PP entries either. There were some interesting things to look at. 

As a team, the Sabres dumped or chipped the puck in 25 times. 9 of these times resulted in a successful retrieval, some of which were direct retrievals, some of which involved the other team getting the puck right away but the Sabres forcing a turnover and keeping the zone because of that. This is a 36% success rate. 

Of those 25 dump/chips, I counted two of them as done for the sole purpose of getting players changed. This happens more often, IMO, when we play teams that are good and hem us in, but the Coyotes aren't very good. 

8 of those dump/chips were done because of a squeeze out in the NZ, with no other option but to get rid of it. only 2 of those were recovered. Of the remaining 15 dump/chips, the ones done by choice, there were 7 successful recoveries. 3 of them came from the 4 times a defenseman chose to dump, interestingly enough. 

 

Now, to the carry-ins. The Sabres had a player carry the puck in the zone 31 times. Defining a successful entry as one that results in a play to maintain possession or take a shot on goal, they were successful 21 times (6 direct SOG, 15 plays to maintain possession). This is a 67% success rate. Both goals came off of an Eichel carry - one from a direct SOG, one from maintaining possession on that 4 on 2. 

 

And, the pass plays. The Sabres made a pass to enter the zone 24 times. Of these 24 entries, 16 were successful, or 67%. 

 

Now some breakdown by players/lines:
 

Eichel: Jack dumped the puck in ZERO times. He carried 10 times, took 4 shots, made 4 successful passes, for an 80% zone entry rate. One shot and one pass resulted in a goal. 
Reinhart: Sam dumped the puck in 2 times, both by choice with other options available, and was successful 1 of those times. He attempted 2 carry-ins, and lost the puck both times. 1/4*100 = 25% success rate. Good thing he had Jack to defer to. Also, this guy should be playing center.

Kane: Evander did not dump or chip the puck in at all. He carried 5 times and was successful 3 times with a pass and 1 time with a shot, for a success rate of 80%, with half of the attempts of Eichel. 
This line: The second line of 9-15-23 attempted 6 pass plays to enter the zone and was successful 4 times, for a 67% success rate. In total, they attempted to enter the zone 25 times and only had 8 failures, so they entered the zone with 68% success. They dumped 2 times, and carried or passed 23 times.

 

O'Reilly: Ryan dumped the puck in 4 times, 3 of them by choice. His only successful attempt was by choice, and so he was successful 25% of the time with this. He tried 1 carry in and made a successful possession play. 

Okposo: Kyle dumped the puck in 1 time, he was pressed with no support or options, and they did not recover the puck. He had 1 successful carry and 1 failed carry. 33% success rate.

Bailey: Justin dumped the puck in 4 times, all 4 attempts failed, though 3 of them were due to being squeezed out in the neutral zone with no options. He had 1 successful carry in and 1 failed carry in.

This line: The first line of 56-90-21 attempted 7 pass plays to enter the zone. They were only successful 2 of them. It was funny - the two successful pass entries didn't happen until about 3 minutes left in the game, every single line was doing well with them and then this one started out 0 for 5. In total they made 21 attempts to enter the zone and were successful 6 of them, for a success rate of only 29%. They were 1 for 9 dumping and chipping, 3 for 5 carrying.

 

Foligno: Marcus carried the puck in once and was successful. No dumps.

Girgensons: Zemgus dumped it in once to change, it wasn't picked up by us (bc we were changing). He had 3 carry attempts and all were successful, 1 with a direct SOG and 2 with successful passes. 
Gionta: Brian dumped the puck in 3 times, twice by choice. 1 of those were successful, 33% success rate. He carried the puck in 1 time and lost it. 25% success rate overall.
This line: The third line passed the puck into the zone a total of 6 times and were successful 5 of them. In total, the line entered the zone 15 times, and were successful 10 of them, 67% success rate. They were 1 for 4 on dumps.

 

Rodrigues: Evan dumped the puck in 2 times, both by choice, and was successful 1 of them. He also had a successful carry-in. 66% success rate.

Ennis: Tyler dumped the puck in 2 times, failed once (the time he wasn't pressed) and successful when he had no other choice. He had 1 failed zone entry via carry-in.
Moulson: Matt did nothing to enter the zone on his own.

This line: The fourth line entered the zone via pass 5 times and were successful all 5 times. Their total success rate was thus 8/11*100 = 73%.

 

The team as a whole made 4 stretch pass attempts that went for an icing. The defense group had 6 dump-ins, 4 were successful. Rasmus had a successful carry-in, Kulikov had a failed carry-in. The defense as a whole was thus 5/8 for 63% at entering the zone. 

 

This confirms my eye-test that we were pretty good at getting in the zone, though line 1 needs to be shaken up, eh? Bad teams can't handle us. I can't wait to do these numbers when we play a team that's really good. 

Edited February 27, 2017 by Randall Flagg

[Samson's Flow]

Alright, so here are the results of my zone entry calculations. I may have missed 2 or 3 of them throughout the game, but this information is 95% accurate at least. I could not do Arizona's entries and maintain that accuracy, so I didn't. I define a pass play entry as one where the pass was received within about 5 feet of the blue line on either side. I didn't count plays that were clears of our zone into the NZ or plays that didn't come within 5 feet of their blue line. I didn't count PK or PP entries either. There were some interesting things to look at. 

 

As a team, the Sabres dumped or chipped the puck in 25 times. 9 of these times resulted in a successful retrieval, some of which were direct retrievals, some of which involved the other team getting the puck right away but the Sabres forcing a turnover and keeping the zone because of that. This is a 36% success rate. 

 

-snip-

 

The team as a whole made 4 stretch pass attempts that went for an icing. The defense group had 6 dump-ins, 4 were successful. Rasmus had a successful carry-in, Kulikov had a failed carry-in. The defense as a whole was thus 5/8 for 63% at entering the zone. 

 

This confirms my eye-test that we were pretty good at getting in the zone, though line 1 needs to be shaken up, eh? Bad teams can't handle us. I can't wait to do these numbers when we play a team that's really good. 

Well done Randall, well done.

 

Carry in the puck!!! :thumbsup:

[That Aud Smell]

Good stuff, Randall.

 

And I have to agree, yet again, on Reinhart.

 

What does the future hold? Does O'Reilly move to wing?

[qwksndmonster]

Good stuff, Randall.

 

And I have to agree, yet again, on Reinhart.

 

What does the future hold? Does O'Reilly move to wing?

Yes. O'Reilly would be a perfect winger for Jack.