GDT - The Snarks (hey, Taro) @ The Mighty Sabres of Buffalo - November 27, 2018 - 7:00 PM (EST) - 8:00 PM (NS time)

[Doohickie]

9 minutes ago, Randall Flagg said:

Are you sure that they're bitter about the trade itself? 

They're just bitter.  The trade tie-in is simply that's the thread where I posted.

[Marions Piazza]

4 minutes ago, Randall Flagg said:

What is evidence that ROR was a locker room cancer? Why is the guy that was drinking and doing drugs to go to sleep every night, in a depressive spiral that almost killed him, with boatloads of evidence that this affected his locker room relationships and on-ice play from the most important position on the ice, notoriously absent when the discussion of ROR's pervasive negativity being a reason we're bad, pop up? 

I remember reading that RoR quietly asked for a trade at the deadline. I also read that the team was a bit divided, some players followed RoR and others were with Jack. Then there was the end of season comments etc. 

I don't feel that Lehner wasn;'t being blammed, in fact, i remember a lot of female dogging about Lehner and his inability to stop a shootout goal and give up bad softies etc. In my limited time on this forum, I have seen comments like "this is a thread about RoR, go talk about Lehner in the Lehner thread" etc.

[Doohickie]

The truth is though, although the general belief around here is that ROR was a "locker room cancer" there's very little direct evidence of it.  I mean, the Blues fans had a defensible position on that point.  Many of us here feel that it's only a matter of time until the Blues fans see the same thing, but maybe the toxic atmosphere was more about the Sabres as a whole than about a single veteran.

I think for JBot, the major driver for the trade was cap space.  He moved one guy on a long-term contract out, replaced him with two competent veterans and a prospect for about the same cap hit, and all those contracts roll off before the one he shipped out.  Considering the young talent he needs to sign, it could have been little more than a cold business decision to free up cap space for them.

[darksabre]

10 minutes ago, Doohickie said:

The truth is though, although the general belief around here is that ROR was a "locker room cancer" there's very little direct evidence of it.  I mean, the Blues fans had a defensible position on that point.  Many of us here feel that it's only a matter of time until the Blues fans see the same thing, but maybe the toxic atmosphere was more about the Sabres as a whole than about a single veteran.

I think for JBot, the major driver for the trade was cap space.  He moved one guy on a long-term contract out, replaced him with two competent veterans and a prospect for about the same cap hit, and all those contracts roll off before the one he shipped out.  Considering the young talent he needs to sign, it could have been little more than a cold business decision to free up cap space for them.

He was tho. And so were Lehner and Kane. Look at how much Jack has blossomed as a leader with those 3 dopes out of the way? 

[nfreeman]

26 minutes ago, Randall Flagg said:

What is evidence that ROR was a locker room cancer? Why is the guy that was drinking and doing drugs to go to sleep every night, in a depressive spiral that almost killed him, with boatloads of evidence that this affected his locker room relationships and on-ice play from the most important position on the ice, notoriously absent when the discussion of ROR's pervasive negativity being a reason we're bad, pop up? 

The evidence is that JB and Howie -- the guys who were best situated to evaluate ROR -- got a good, long look at him and decided to get rid of him.

[SABRES 0311]

1 hour ago, darksabre said:

Echoing the other points here, props to Larsson. Dude has found his role and is excelling at it. He can play on my team any day. 

The last couple PKs/games felt like a SH goal is in the near future. Impressive how ERod I believe just took the puck in the SJ end. The guy just stood there and didn’t move as ERod came by and took it off his stick. He probably thought ERod was going to just skate by like you see so many PK units in the NHL do.

[dudacek]

PK was outstanding last night, and against a good PP

[Cheektorado]

36 minutes ago, darksabre said:

He was tho. And so were Lehner and Kane. Look at how much Jack has blossomed as a leader with those 3 dopes out of the way? 

I will admit I was not sure how he would handle the C on his sweater.  He is doing an awesome job so far.

IMO all 3 of those guys had a lot of "me, me, me" in them and Jacks leadership and play is all about team.

Good for you Captain Jack...................keep it up!

[Derrico]

2 hours ago, darksabre said:

Echoing the other points here, props to Larsson. Dude has found his role and is excelling at it. He can play on my team any day. 

Very true.  I would almost throw Girgs in that statement as well.  The improvement from those two from last year is night and day.

[shrader]

54 minutes ago, nfreeman said:

The evidence is that JB and Howie -- the guys who were best situated to evaluate ROR -- got a good, long look at him and decided to get rid of him.

The term locker room cancer is what I question with this whole thing.  I don't know if he's a problem in the room, but there's definitely a disturbing trend on the ice at this point.  It's tough to pin it all on him, but for whatever reason, teams with Ryan O'Reilly don't win.  It definitely raises an eyebrow.

[pi2000]

1 minute ago, Derrico said:

Very true.  I would almost throw Girgs in that statement as well.  The improvement from those two from last year is night and day.

Their roles are definitely more defined and they're being used more appropriately, however I'd prefer similar role players with a bit more skill.

[That Aud Smell]

3 hours ago, nfreeman said:

My game notes:

- Other than the GTG, Hutton played another excellent game.

- Speaking of the GTG, that was exactly the kind of late-game softie that Lehner habitually gave up last year.  This year, of course, the team has the mental toughness to come back from that kind of setback.

I have not gone back and re-watched it, but I thought the GTG was an unfortunate, fluky one. I think I posted "fluky" in real-time in this thread. The puck was bouncing, became hard to keep track of, and Hutton lost sight of it. It happens. So he tried to cover every likely angle from which an attack could come. And Pavelski made a good play on it.

Not for nothing: Ray failed utterly to make a fair call on what happened on that goal. He remarked on the replay that Hutton "got there in time" (or something like that) but that Pavelski somehow managed to squeeze it through. Hutton had no idea where the puck was. And that was not really his fault -- bad luck.

14 minutes ago, Cheektorado said:

IMO all 3 of those guys had a lot of "me, me, me" in them and Jacks leadership and play is all about team.

Interesting. And each in their own, very different way, right?

[shrader]

15 minutes ago, That Aud Smell said:

I have not gone back and re-watched it, but I thought the GTG was an unfortunate, fluky one. I think I posted "fluky" in real-time in this thread. The puck was bouncing, became hard to keep track of, and Hutton lost sight of it. It happens. So he tried to cover every likely angle from which an attack could come. And Pavelski made a good play on it.

Not for nothing: Ray failed utterly to make a fair call on what happened on that goal. He remarked on the replay that Hutton "got there in time" (or something like that) but that Pavelski somehow managed to squeeze it through. Hutton had no idea where the puck was. And that was not really his fault -- bad luck.

I'm with you 100%.  Hutton misread the bounce and as a result wound up out of position.  It's a tough break but it happens.  I was thinking the same thing last night about Ray's horrible explanation.  He does that far too often.  I can't tell if its homerism or how much he really can see from down there between the benches, especially when it comes to replays.

[That Aud Smell]

3 minutes ago, shrader said:

I'm with you 100%.  Hutton misread the bounce and as a result wound up out of position.  It's a tough break but it happens.  I was thinking the same thing last night about Ray's horrible explanation.  He does that far too often.  I can't tell if its homerism or how much he really can see from down there between the benches, especially when it comes to replays.

I think a lot of it has to do with the angle from which he watches, and then the fact that he's watching a tiny replay screen. But there's part of it that also seems to be just an inability to quickly process what's happening on the replay. I mean, I saw it at home.

[shrader]

3 minutes ago, That Aud Smell said:

I think a lot of it has to do with the angle from which he watches, and then the fact that he's watching a tiny replay screen. But there's part of it that also seems to be just an inability to quickly process what's happening on the replay. I mean, I saw it at home.

It was crystal clear before even seeing a single replay.

[Cheektorado]

32 minutes ago, That Aud Smell said:

 

Interesting. And each in their own, very different way, right?

Actually yes, and I'm not saying that to trash them.  All 3 brought a little more "personal baggage" than most players do.

Each one on it's own probably could be easily absorbed by any established team.

One could speculate that in total this had a negative effect on a young team trying to find it's way.

 

Anyway, it's all water under the bridge and it's Captain Jacks team now and he seems to be handling it very well.

I'm really starting to believe his "unselfish" play is a conscious effort to inspire his players.

[nfreeman]

Rayzer has has flaws (like the rest of us), but he has a pretty good sense of humor IMHO.  Last night, at one point they showed an old clip of Craig Rivet fighting with Daniel Carcillo and mentioned that that those 2 fought twice in 1 game, at which point Rayzer, tweaking Rivet, noted several times how Rivet's teammates and everyone else who had seen the fight were shocked at how badly Carcillo had thrashed Rivet.

[Taro T]

1 hour ago, shrader said:

The term locker room cancer is what I question with this whole thing.  I don't know if he's a problem in the room, but there's definitely a disturbing trend on the ice at this point.  It's tough to pin it all on him, but for whatever reason, teams with Ryan O'Reilly don't win.  It definitely raises an eyebrow.

O'Reilly has been on teams with some seriously bad goaltending.  That seems to be the biggest issue with his teams. 

But not having his perspective in a leadership role could definitely have a role in it being fun to come to the rink.  They've been smiling since before this very well received though unexpected streak started.

Edited November 28, 2018 by Taro T

[Doohickie]

2 hours ago, darksabre said:

He was tho. And so were Lehner and Kane. Look at how much Jack has blossomed as a leader with those 3 dopes out of the way? 

I tend to agree but again, there is very little actual evidence to that effect.  Most of it was rumors.

[nfreeman]

Then there's this:

 

[TrueBlueGED]

2 hours ago, Hoss said:

I’m not ready for a full victory dance yet but I remember saying we would be pleasantly surprised and much better for having both Berglund and Sobotka. They weren’t just throw ins. They were win-now depth picks at the same time we got key futures.

Uh, Berglund has been pretty awful and is regularly a healthy scratch or playing 8 minutes. He's signed for 3 years after this season. Sobotka has been a nice surprise, but no way do you get a victory dance on this one. 

[TrueBlueGED]

2 hours ago, darksabre said:

He was tho. And so were Lehner and Kane. Look at how much Jack has blossomed as a leader with those 3 dopes out of the way? 

Would he not have blossomed anyway if they slapped the C on his chest? How much is just natural growth and maturation? We have no idea what Earth 2 would hold. 

Moreover, once again, can't we just enjoy the win and the guys who are here without dumping on the ones who no longer are? It's like people have this weird itch they have to scratch even though we just won 10 freaking games in a row. 

[nfreeman]

1 minute ago, TrueBlueGED said:

Uh, Berglund has been pretty awful and is regularly a healthy scratch or playing 8 minutes. He's signed for 3 years after this season. Sobotka has been a nice surprise, but no way do you get a victory dance on this one. 

This is well overstated IMHO.  Bergy's been healthy-scratched a couple of times, but usually plays when healthy, and is a key part of the checking line, which has become an important line for this team.

[Kruppstahl]

17 minutes ago, nfreeman said:

Rayzer has has flaws (like the rest of us), but he has a pretty good sense of humor IMHO.  Last night, at one point they showed an old clip of Craig Rivet fighting with Daniel Carcillo and mentioned that that those 2 fought twice in 1 game, at which point Rayzer, tweaking Rivet, noted several times how Rivet's teammates and everyone else who had seen the fight were shocked at how badly Carcillo had thrashed Rivet.

I love Rayzor, even if he is not that great of a color analyst.

His game-day segments with Schopp and Bulldog on WGR-550 are absolutely priceless.  Best thing on in the world of Buffalo sports radio IMO.  Rob has a never ending supply of stories from "back in the day" that you never would have known anything about at the time.

PS: Risto's goal was absolutely fantastic.  His celebration, not so much, but I'm glad he was loose and having fun.

 

 

 

[Sabres Fan in NS]

3 minutes ago, nfreeman said:

Then there's this:

 

Everybody is really having fun and enjoying this.  The players, the fans and even the coaches.