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GDT: Montreal at Buffalo Sabres Oct.9th, 7pm ET, MSG-RSN and WGR 550


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Okposo is really surprising me this season. he is fighting tooth and nail for every puck possession and is husling hard every time I see him out there. Most of the players are

 

Its been a real treat this season. I hope that they keep it up.

Edited by miles
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8 hours ago, Randall Flagg said:

I really couldn't watch this game closely because I was watching with family, but it was enjoyable to see goals and Jack points! Seemed like a lot of the guys who had rougher games were still rewarded with stats. Reminded me of the first two games against the Canadiens last year. Like, a lot. In fact, the last two games against these two opponents (CBJ, MTL) were eerie in their similarities to the October games against them last year. In a good way, because the Sabres were pretty good early last year. 

Two more points bby 

Seems like Dahlin takes a lot of penalties. 

Olofsson scores a lot. He's pretty quiet at even strength for now. But not bad, per say. 

Ralph really seems to use the third line (Mitts) sparingly. But I haven't looked at the numbers, it just feels that way. Seems justified based on what I've seen from them. Haven't hurt us, but haven't done too much to help since game 1. We'll see how their games change going forward

Being in WNY >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> being anywhere else on earth 

Hate seeing Montreal red take over the lower bowls on TV. Lotta empty seats there, I'd have loved to be sitting in one of them cheering on our boys

That was an interesting selection of players to play the OT power play. Miller now has two Eichel-like cross ice feeds for Johansson goals. His Zhitnik-esque shot is more endearing than frustrating

Eichel spent some shifts looking funky, and others looking like the best he's ever been. 

Keep smilin' and keep scorin' Jeffrey.

Florida up next - ***** I hate Sabres-Panthers games as much as I love Sabres-Habs games

no kidding, what's the mental block we have with the Panthers? it really is annoying

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6 hours ago, PerreaultForever said:

literally that is correct, but some do it better than others. Sabres have a habit of inconsistency in effort. So often a quick start with solid work is followed by another period where they seem to think it'll just keep happening and they coast a little. Sometimes this is shift to shift. Good teams don't score a PP goal and think ok this won is in the bag, they bear down harder and make it 2, 3...This is where your coaching and leadership comes into play. They have to play better with a lead or they will be in trouble later in the year, that's all I'm saying. 

It's coming though. You can see it little by little.

I mean do they?  I think this is one of those things that people think the Sabres are the only team that ever suffers from this...Toronto was up 4-1 in the 3rd period against the Canadiens the other day and lost 6-5 in a S/O.  Last time I checked the Leafs are a pretty damn good team.  Can we please just stop with the "the Sabres are the only team in the NHL that doesn't play 60 minutes every night" or "the Sabres are the only team in the NHL that gives up 2 goal leads in the 3rd period" narratives? It is completely incorrect and just frustrating to keep reading when clearly other teams have a lot of the same issues to varying degrees.

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8 hours ago, nfreeman said:

My game notes: 

- Reino had his 2nd lousy game in a row.  He was the only one of the big 5 forwards who was ineffective.  And his allegedly good skating betrayed him on the GTG.

 

Reinhart scores breakaway goal in part because of his skating. Nfreeman says nothing. Offensive player makes a good play and Reinhart turns the wrong way, "allegedly good skating" take on standby. 

 

Anyways:

Scandella was good last night. I enjoyed his and Miller's games. 

Vesey is basically useless. Erod was meh, Mitts was non existent. 

Girgs - Larry - Okie line was very good last night. I have seen a different version of Okposo this year. He still isn't fast but he is a beast down low and throw the neutral zone. 

Skinner looks better and better with Mojo. They had some bad moments too but overall they were good. 

Dahlin had one of his worst games as a Sabre. He was indecisive with the puck, his feet weren't moving, he lost battles. It might be a partial sophomore slump but he needs to rebound next game. 

Sobotka was on the ice, so there's that. 

Reinhart had an up and down game but this was the 2nd game in a row I thought he needed to be better. I feel like he starts slow most seasons but I want him to replace Sobotka on the Mojo line and then see someone else take that Eichel line spot. My hope beyond hope is Tage to finally become the player he could be but we shall see. They seem to have decided to reset with him completely which is probably a good move. 

6 minutes ago, WildCard said:

We have a new goal song? Wasn't aware of that

I vote this: I come from the land of the ice and snow from the hockey town of Buffalo. 

 

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8 hours ago, nfreeman said:

 I can’t quite put my finger on the reasons/tactics that CBJ and MTL were able to apply much more offensive pressure than Pitt and NJ were.  It could’ve just been more intensity and talent, but it seems like there is something going on with the opposing forecheck that the Sabres aren’t adjusting to.  

I had this impression, too.  It seemed MTL was doing something similar to what CBJ were doing.  Something to the effect of pressuring the Sabres D at the same intensity the Sabres pressure the opponent's D.  I think maybe the added pressure by the enemy causes panic and they break-down individually in various ways, so RK will have to fix it by addressing each player individually, not as a unit and then bring it back together.  Just a guess - I think it's a pressure/panic thing.

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40 minutes ago, miles said:

Okposo is really surprising me this season.

8 minutes ago, LGR4GM said:

I have seen a different version of Okposo this year.

He really jumped out at me last night. God love him. He may have found his legs and confidence. A return to NHL form on his part would do wonders for this team.

Rodrigues looked awful. And I really don't understand what Vesey is doing out there; constantly on the wrong side of the play.

I can't really post in-game because I'm streaming the games on my phone. I'll have to scroll through to see more overviews, feedback.

 

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6 hours ago, Broken Ankles said:

Observations after watching tape delay.

  • Surprisingly few complaints about Sobotka the last half dozen pages.  Didn’t read the entire thread but has the hate dissipated?   Every game I see him play I feel like MoJo and Skinner are losing points.  His contributions are frustrating.  His lame attempt at a juicy rebound in the third didn’t even excite me b/c I saw who was taking it.  And isn’t he supposed to be great in face offs?
  • Nothing said on the Broadcast regarding Vesey on the top line the last few shifts.   Any reason for it?  Was Olofsson injured?   If it RK’s method of motivation, it failed.   Really disappointed in his play.
  • Can we now call Larsson/Zemgus/KO the third line?   They play third line 5v5 minutes, they play PK minutes, match up against FL#2 and FL#3 more than against any fourth lines, and they actually can be trusted in a close game.  I don’t think I saw the 4th line out there the last 8 minutes. 
  • Jack has an inherent ability to take over a game, and should have more 4 point nights this year playing with Oloffsson and Sam plus anchoring the new and improved PP.   Not sure why he seemingly takes nights off like against Columbus.  Dominant. 
  • With Sheary out, we have 5 legitimate Forwards.  Love the 3rd line grinders but scoring will be challenging for them.  Everyone else is replacement level.  
  • Bring Tage on the West coast roadie.  Has to be worth a look.  Unless things get better you can put Casey, Vesey or Vlad in the press-box.  

I was complaining about Vlad.  Vlad is bad.

Paul Ham-Sammich said this morning that RK has pulled Victor late in the third when we're nursing a lead in prior games already.  I suspected this was the case and agree that's probably the reason.

The Angry Larry line is effectively the third line, maybe even the second line in TOI (haven't checked). I barely noticed Mitts line expect the one pass from Mitts that could have been a goal, and then Mitts following that with a no-look pass that resulted in another turn-over.

skip, skip

I think I agree with you on Tage.  I don't want to, but I think I do.

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6 hours ago, Broken Ankles said:
  • Can we now call Larsson/Zemgus/KO the third line?   They play third line 5v5 minutes, they play PK minutes, match up against FL#2 and FL#3 more than against any fourth lines, and they actually can be trusted in a close game.  I don’t think I saw the 4th line out there the last 8 minutes. 

For freakin' sure. That is the third line. I don't care how it's listed or drawn up.

The Mittlestadt line was adrift last night. And with wingers that were just foundering, I don't blame the young centre.

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The love for Okposo in this thread is a little weird. He's making $6 mil/yr to play 10 minutes a night on the 4th line: he better ***** look good.

His CF rel is an insane +24 and he's getting 72% d zone starts. These are good numbers.

But he's making 6 million effing dollars. Unless he can contribute further up the roster he's just a massive waste of cap space.

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9 hours ago, dudacek said:

So it hasn’t been getting a ton of attention, but Ra Kru ( @PASabreFan Im missing the Zevon) has been consistently pushing the message that we have a world of offensive talent and ways to go on the way we play defence.

No one has called him on it. The Sabres? Offensive talent? Our Sabres?

But after four games, he has described us to a ‘T’

We are prone to breakdowns. And we can absolutely shoot our way out of them.

We are skilled. We pick corners and we make plays. We’ve had close to 40 shots in three of the four games. We’ve scored a minimum of three goals in every game, and we have 18 in four.

And damn are we exciting to watch.

The calculation is an interesting one: do we have a better chance of winning 5-4 or 3-2?

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32 minutes ago, LGR4GM said:

Reinhart scores breakaway goal in part because of his skating. Nfreeman says nothing. Offensive player makes a good play and Reinhart turns the wrong way, "allegedly good skating" take on standby. 

 

As I've said previously, that goal was a nice goal and an excellent play by Reino, but it had zero to do with "good skating". 

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5 minutes ago, darksabre said:

The love for Okposo in this thread is a little weird. He's making $6 mil/yr to play 10 minutes a night on the 4th line: he better ***** look good.

His CF rel is an insane +24 and he's getting 72% d zone starts. These are good numbers.

But he's making 6 million effing dollars. Unless he can contribute further up the roster he's just a massive waste of cap space.

Yes, but I think we have to accept that he's not the player who signed for $6M for a few reasons.  He's not going anywhere, so we have to be happy with this level of output otherwise he's a player making $6M who doesn't belong on the team and that's even worse.

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8 minutes ago, darksabre said:

The love for Okposo in this thread is a little weird. He's making $6 mil/yr to play 10 minutes a night on the 4th line: he better ***** look good.

His CF rel is an insane +24 and he's getting 72% d zone starts. These are good numbers.

But he's making 6 million effing dollars. Unless he can contribute further up the roster he's just a massive waste of cap space.

He's on the 3rd line at this point and yup, he's overpaid for sure. However he is making a positive contribution to the team this year and that is really all I need. 

2 minutes ago, nfreeman said:

As I've said previously, that goal was a nice goal and an excellent play by Reino, but it had zero to do with "good skating". 

And the goal that was scored while he was on the ice last night had nothing to do with his "allegedly good skating". He got faked out and turned the wrong way. 

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7 minutes ago, darksabre said:

The love for Okposo in this thread is a little weird. He's making $6 mil/yr to play 10 minutes a night on the 4th line: he better ***** look good.

His CF rel is an insane +24 and he's getting 72% d zone starts. These are good numbers.

But he's making 6 million effing dollars. Unless he can contribute further up the roster he's just a massive waste of cap space.

He's found a role that he can contribute to in the twilight of his career.  It's not his fault he was signed to that contract - some around here like to make the argument that these guys should get paid a lot of money to set themselves up for retirement.  Well, we have our dude getting paid a lot of money, setting himself up for retirement.  At the very least he's effective.

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27 minutes ago, That Aud Smell said:

For freakin' sure. That is the third line. I don't care how it's listed or drawn up.

The Mittlestadt line was adrift last night. And with wingers that were just foundering, I don't blame the young centre.

I think he is pretty solid in defense but haven't watched the last two games, getting him some wingers would be nice though.

I think the 2C spot is for cozens next year.   Maybe Tage makes the jump but we'll see.

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47 minutes ago, ... said:

I had this impression, too.  It seemed MTL was doing something similar to what CBJ were doing.  Something to the effect of pressuring the Sabres D at the same intensity the Sabres pressure the opponent's D.  I think maybe the added pressure by the enemy causes panic and they break-down individually in various ways, so RK will have to fix it by addressing each player individually, not as a unit and then bring it back together.  Just a guess - I think it's a pressure/panic thing.

And yet they took 3 of 4 points in those two games.  Yes there is stuff to work on, but they're already coping with this adversity pretty well.

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