Gdt 2-15-2018 Sabres at Senators 7:30pm

[Sabel79]

This one is not on Lehner

As long as you're not going to hold him responsible,for knowing where his posts are. Otherwise... ugh.

And not to argue with anyone in particular, but the Sabres lack of scoring, while an issue, isn't all of the issue. Tonight the boys fought hard scored two... TWO!!!!! Goals. Played D well enough to have that's stand up. Lenny is horribly out of position (again) and a tip that shouldn't have mattered loses his team the game.

 

Should they score more? Absolutely. Anyone saying Lehner isn't a, or indeed THE problem hasn't been watching.

 

The above has been deliberately (somewhat) overstated. LEHNER SUCKS, basically.

[bunomatic]

As long as you're not going to hold him responsible,for knowing where his posts are. Otherwise... ugh.

And not to argue with anyone in particular, but the Sabres lack of scoring, while an issue, isn't all of the issue. Tonight the boys fought hard scored two... TWO!!!!! Goals. Played D well enough to have that's stand up. Lenny is horribly out of position (again) and a tip that shouldn't have mattered loses his team the game.

 

Should they score more? Absolutely. Anyone saying Lehner isn't a, or indeed THE problem hasn't been watching.

 

The above has been deliberately (somewhat) overstated. LEHNER SUCKS, basically.

I can't explain it any other way than he tried to throw a hail Mary save and in the process leaves the cage wide open. I liken it to trying to make the heroic save when simple fundamentals would likely suffice. I don't need to see him wildly out of position every time the game is on the line. He made many good saves throughout the game but can't make the save when we need it. In his defence our guys need to get in those lanes and disrupt the pass occasionally.

[Sabel79]

I can't explain it any other way than he tried to throw a hail Mary save and in the process leaves the cage wide open. I liken it to trying to make the heroic save when simple fundamentals would likely suffice. I don't need to see him wildly out of position every time the game is on the line. He made many good saves throughout the game but can't make the save when we need it. In his defence our guys need to get in those lanes and disrupt the pass occasionally.

And this is the thing. It's entirely in his head. And won't get better... no matter how many great saves he makes, he will, almost without fail, throw one or two in his own net.

[dudacek]

Be-loo sux

Three-quarters of the way through the first, 4 on 4, Hoffman skates halfway down the boards in the Sabres zone, pulls up and sets it to a streaking Duchene behind him. Beaulieu, in the lane between Duchene and the net, waves at Sam Reinhart, marking Hoffman towards the top of the circle. Beaulieu then skates away from the puck carrier coming at him to go cover the non-threatening, already covered Hoffman. A shocked Duchene charges down the suddenly open direct lane to the goal for a good scoring chance, drawing a penalty on Reinhart as 23 scrambles to cover up for 82.

 

That was Beaulieu in a nutshell. I don’t remember a dumber Sabre defenceman.

I’d be more forgiving of his defence if he was creating offence but he’s been about as effective there as Josh Gorges and Justin Falk.

 

 

Captain Obvious: The Sabres would be lost without ROR.

Yep. One of the few guys that showed up and unfairly starting to be unappreciated around here this year - by myself included.

 

I was surprised not to see more criticism of our game tonight, but I think the board is to the point it only cares about wins and losses and we were winning most of the night. Most of the team looked unplugged, Ottawa was just too bad a team to take advantage of that earlier.

 

The icing and the line change in OT was more lack of focus. Terrible.

 

It wasn’t Lehner’s fault we lost. It would have been nice to say it was his fault we won.

PA’s got it right. Too many reruns.

Edited February 16, 2018 by Mick O’Manly

[Thorny]

I agree. It wasn’t a great effort today. Even when they were winning, Ottawa had the better of the play a lot of the time.

[North Buffalo]

Sabres played with lead feet tonight, except Lehner.  Holy crap forwards looked out of sink.  Something about Gorges being in there stunk the whole place up.  That being said.  Sabres preserved there stahlin for Dahlin as Ottowa was getting way to close in the standings. Heck even AZ won.  So it was a 4 point night in the carrion league...  Still a rough game to watch.

[Kruppstahl]

This shows you how important Jack’s empty netters were. Difference between winning and losing sometimes.

 

We miss Jack. Not a great effort today against a bad team.

 

Let’s hope for a bounce back next game.

Sure we miss Jack, but that is not the story of this game.

 

We played usual disinterested hockey, little compete, and were beaten to the puck all night.

In the end, it caught up with us.  This group can't be broken up soon enough.

[PerreaultForever]

This one is not on Lehner

I'd put it on Reinhart and an extremely bad line change. 

 

Otherwise, I was entertained and still feel they are improved. 

[Wyldnwoody44]

I just caught the last of the 3rd on replay, and the Sabres looked good, zone control and drew a penalty and then for 2 minutes, owned the zone. A couple of posts.

 

They then choked and lost, but looked better in doing it

[nucci]

This is the reason I've totally lost interest in hockey this year. Well, the Olympics help too. Someone wake me up when the Sabres are playoff contenders again.

you could be asleep a long time...

Tank tank tank. 31st all the way!!!

last place forever...wonderful

[Eleven]

Wake up, check score, yep, they blew it.

I just caught the last of the 3rd on replay, and the Sabres looked good, zone control and drew a penalty and then for 2 minutes, owned the zone. A couple of posts.

They then choked and lost, but looked better in doing it

 

I'll trust you.

I'd put it on Reinhart and an extremely bad line change. 

 

Otherwise, I was entertained and still feel they are improved. 

 

You too.

[PASabreFan]

So, who had Hoffman in the library w/ the lead pipe?

Very nice.

 

But the game wasn't in Buffalo.

[LTS]

Watched on the iPad while drinking in the hotel in Cleveland.

 

Didn’t see a lot, but I immediately noticed Kane in OT lollygagging to the bench and figured that would lead to a goal. Kane needs to be moved soon. I’m guessing there are players in the locker room that will have a serious problem with the effort he displayed.

 

What should be pointed out is the icing just before that...terrible pass.

[LGR4GM]

Watched on the iPad while drinking in the hotel in Cleveland.

 

Didn’t see a lot, but I immediately noticed Kane in OT lollygagging to the bench and figured that would lead to a goal. Kane needs to be moved soon. I’m guessing there are players in the locker room that will have a serious problem with the effort he displayed.

 

What should be pointed out is the icing just before that...terrible pass.

At this point I would bench him because we know a trade is coming. There are 5 games before the deadline. 

[That Aud Smell]

It wasn’t Lehner’s fault we lost. It would have been nice to say it was his fault we won.

 

I saw several Tweets that were aghast at Lehner's technique on the tying goal.

 

4:00 mark here

 

 

The consensus seemed to be that if Lehner moves in a way where he remains more upright, he saves that puck. One Tweeted to the effect that Lehner must have thought he was in a beer league impersonating Hasek.

[nfreeman]

I thought the GTG and the GWG were good, bang-bang offensive plays that would've been very tough saves (more so the GWG), so I don't blame Lehner for those.  They both seemed more the product of breakdowns in the team D.  On the GTG in particular, all 5 Sabre skaters were on the left side of the ice, leaving Risto alone to scramble back to his right to cover 3 Senators when the pass went that way.

 

The first Ottawa goal, though, to tie it with less than 15 min to go in the 3rd, was another Lehner 3rd period choke.  Yes it was a deflection, but Gaborik was well outside the top of the circle and the puck went straight in from there.  If Lehner had been in the right position, it would've been a routine save.

[Sabres Fan in NS]

Oh, well.  Stuff happens.

 

GO SABRES!!

 

*Good night.  We love you!!*

[woods-racer]

It was a very hard game to watch as a Sabres fan. They where, for the most part, all passengers again.  Some sparks here and there from a few trying to make a difference, but not enough to get the team going.

[jsb]

It was a very hard game to watch as a Sabres fan. They where, for the most part, all passengers again.  Some sparks here and there from a few trying to make a difference, but not enough to get the team going.

I'm going to mildly disagree with you here. I watched the game and we were up 2-1, was called into work, by the time I arrived at my destination we lost 3-2.

Having said that the main difference I saw in the team when it was playing well was ROR was a beast on faceoffs, he was winning 70% of them and the Sabres were controlling the puck. This game ROR not only didn't take anywhere near as many as he has but he lost over half of them. Not to blame him but we weren't controlling possession because of it and it appeared that the Senators were controlling play, which they were but because we were working so hard to regain possession over and over again. 

We aren't a very good team to begin with and with our best player out, to blame their problems on work ethic I believe is not giving a fair impression on what happened in this game.

I'm also really starting to come around on Nelson, top pairing Dman, I don't think so but he has really improved his game down in Rochester. 

[Doohickie]

I'm going to mildly disagree with you here. I watched the game and we were up 2-1, was called into work, by the time I arrived at my destination we lost 3-2.

Having said that the main difference I saw in the team when it was playing well was ROR was a beast on faceoffs, he was winning 70% of them and the Sabres were controlling the puck. This game ROR not only didn't take anywhere near as many as he has but he lost over half of them. Not to blame him but we weren't controlling possession because of it and it appeared that the Senators were controlling play, which they were but because we were working so hard to regain possession over and over again. 

We aren't a very good team to begin with and with our best player out, to blame their problems on work ethic I believe is not giving a fair impression on what happened in this game.

I'm also really starting to come around on Nelson, top pairing Dman, I don't think so but he has really improved his game down in Rochester. 

 

And yet, we were ahead late in the game.  I actually saw the game as a positive- we were in the game despite being outplayed for significant periods.  And the Sabres still had several periods where they had the Sens penned into their own zone.  Considering the way this season has gone I thought this was a pretty good game (albeit not their best) for the Sabres.

[Winston]

The game tying goal was a silly attempt by Lehner. For a guy that normally trusts his size to a fault, I have no idea why he didn't trust his size there and instead went for the barrel roll.

 

OT winner wasn't on Lehner at all though. No goalie makes that save. That's the best passer in the world, setting up one of the best one-timers in the game today, with a man-advantage because Kane mentally traded himself 5 weeks ago.

Edited February 16, 2018 by EichSnipe

[That Aud Smell]

The game tying goal was a silly attempt by Lehner. For a guy that normally trusts his size to a fault, I have no idea why he didn't trust his size there and instead went for the barrel roll.

 

OT winner wasn't on Lehner at all though. No goalie makes that save. That's the best passer in the world, setting up one of the best one-timers in the game today, with a man-advantage because Kane mentally traded himself 5 weeks ago.

 

Agreed and agreed.

[SwampD]

I saw several Tweets that were aghast at Lehner's technique on the tying goal.

 

4:00 mark here

 

 

The consensus seemed to be that if Lehner moves in a way where he remains more upright, he saves that puck. One Tweeted to the effect that Lehner must have thought he was in a beer league impersonating Hasek.

I think I kinda agree with them. If he impersonated Miller instead, he probably makes that save.

[darksabre]

I have no idea why he felt the need to do that cartwheel but I suspect that he was too high in the crease so that when he had to push off to get over to the right he had to cover a lot more distance laterally. He over-pushed and was basically going to slide out of the crease, so he did that cartwheel to try to cover the net before he slid past the net. 

This is why people hate Lehner. If he had been just a bit deeper in the net he could have just pushed over caught the right post all while staying upright and square to the shooter. Instead he's at the top of the crease trying to cut down angles and put himself way out of position to make the reactionary save. 

[woods-racer]

I'm going to mildly disagree with you here. I watched the game and we were up 2-1, was called into work, by the time I arrived at my destination we lost 3-2.

Having said that the main difference I saw in the team when it was playing well was ROR was a beast on faceoffs, he was winning 70% of them and the Sabres were controlling the puck. This game ROR not only didn't take anywhere near as many as he has but he lost over half of them. Not to blame him but we weren't controlling possession because of it and it appeared that the Senators were controlling play, which they were but because we were working so hard to regain possession over and over again. 

We aren't a very good team to begin with and with our best player out, to blame their problems on work ethic I believe is not giving a fair impression on what happened in this game.

I'm also really starting to come around on Nelson, top pairing Dman, I don't think so but he has really improved his game down in Rochester. 

 

I agree with you about ROR. Nelson and  Antipin I think tried at some point to make a difference and did some bone head things trying to put the team on their back. The rest where passengers. 

 

Just because they got really lucky and their first or second shot on goal was a goal I don't consider that making it a good game. They where out played and out hustled for three periods, they never had a good full period of play. That was more like the team of November that has been of late.