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GASabresIUFAN

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57 minutes ago, GASabresIUFAN said:

 

No, it’s on Jbot, because Jbot didn’t give him any alternative. 

 Literally any other center on the team was a better fit than Sobotka or Mitts on line 2. That includes Erod who was not used consistently in that role for several months after Berglunds departure. 

Jbott didn't give Housley much depth but Housley used the players he had in some of the most inexplicably terrible ways. Sobotka and Mitts as 2c was awful and it was compounded by Housley's inability or unwillingness to put Skinner or Reinhart on that second line to help out for more than a short stretch. Sure Botterill is partly responsible but Housley was a bad coach. 

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Just now, LGR4GM said:

 Literally any other center on the team was a better fit than Sobotka or Mitts on line 2. That includes Erod who was not used consistently in that role for several months after Berglunds departure. 

Jbott didn't give Housley much depth but Housley used the players he had in some of the most inexplicably terrible ways. Sobotka and Mitts as 2c was awful and it was compounded by Housley's inability or unwillingness to put Skinner or Reinhart on that second line to help out for more than a short stretch. Sure Botterill is partly responsible but Housley was a bad coach. 

I agree Housley player usage wasn't very good, but he literally had almost nothing to work with.  His choices for 2nd line center were Erod, Sobotka, a rookie in Mitts, Larsson and Girgensons.  Larsson and Z are 4th line players, Erod can't crack the current lineup and Sobotka stunk.  Please tell me what choice he had?

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3 minutes ago, GASabresIUFAN said:

I agree Housley player usage wasn't very good, but he literally had almost nothing to work with.  His choices for 2nd line center were Erod, Sobotka, a rookie in Mitts, Larsson and Girgensons.  Larsson and Z are 4th line players, Erod can't crack the current lineup and Sobotka stunk.  Please tell me what choice he had?

Erod. Taro laid it out in his post. 

2 hours ago, Taro T said:

Not exactly true.  After Berglund's last game (December 8 vs Filly) Mittelstadt was the 2C 8 out of 10 games in December and 5 out of 10 in both January and February. 

Housley didn't figure out that Rodrigues should consistently be the 2C until March 1 vs the Pens.  After that, the only times Mitts played 2C was when Eichel was out.

Absolutely, Botterill should've given Phil a better option at 2C, but Phil probably would've played Johansson on the 4th line in Girgensons slot.  He didn't even start bringing E-Rod into the mix (not counting a game Eichel missed in January) until mid-February.  Housley consistently threw Casey into the fire until after the season was officially toast.  That's on him, not J Bott.

(And there are about 3 games I don't have lines for, but even w / out those; the picture is clear.)

 

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From the Atlantic, timely!

 

Buffalo Sabres
Rasmus Ristolainen
Projected: 21.3 minutes
Actual: 24.0 minutes

Rasmus Dahlin
Projected: 24.4 minutes
Actual: 19.0 minutes

As mentioned in 16 Stats last week, I expected Buffalo to play Dahlin more this season and Ristolainen less and despite the latter losing his PP1 job that hasn’t been the case as Ristolainen is still eating big minutes. It’s working for now, but for how much longer?

Vladimir Sobotka
Projected: 12.4 minutes
Actual: 15.3 minutes

Casey Mittelstadt
Projected: 15.9 minutes
Actual: 11.0 minutes

At forward, I figured Mittelstadt would begin seeing some top-six time, but he seems to be in the dog house to start the season and skating in his place is … Vladimir Sobotka? While I’m no Mittelstadt apologist (and at this point, why not get some much-needed playing time in the AHL?), it’s hard to argue Sobotka is a suitable replacement. He was one of the league’s worst players last year and is somehow sporting a 47 percent expected goals rate this season when both of his regular linemates are well above 50 percent. While things are working for Buffalo for now, again I wonder if it will continue given this strange usage and the lack of true top six options. Ralph Krueger has fresh eyes on the sport after being out of hockey for many years and I’ll give him the benefit of the doubt after a hot start, but some of the early usage is puzzling.

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Let's put it this way... 

Housley was given 4 ingredients to make a dinner that required 10. He used those 4 ingredients in the worse ***** way possible. So yes the person giving him the ingredients is at some fault but Housley was also a lousy chef. The guy didn't do much better when he had ROR as one of his ingredients either. 

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Here is the problem.  Jbot knew what was going on and didn't find away to get his coach and this team better options.  That's on Jbot.  I wrote that then when I blistered Jbot for not getting reinforcements when Berglund went AWOL.  The team was playing good hockey and Jbot failed to support it which is his job.  He allowed the team to fail.  

I am very happy with his moves this off-season to get us the help we needed and it is showing on the ice.  However MoJo was available last year as well as other options.  We can blame Housley all we want for bad usage or not using Erod earlier etc... but if ERod is your best option you don't have much of a hand.  PH's player usage likely help get him fired.  I'd almost argue that Jbot set him up to fail, but I don't think Jbot is that cold blooded.

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5 minutes ago, GASabresIUFAN said:

Here is the problem.  Jbot knew what was going on and didn't find away to get his coach and this team better options.  That's on Jbot.  I wrote that then when I blistered Jbot for not getting reinforcements when Berglund went AWOL.  The team was playing good hockey and Jbot failed to support it which is his job.  He allowed the team to fail.  

I am very happy with his moves this off-season to get us the help we needed and it is showing on the ice.  However MoJo was available last year as well as other options.  We can blame Housley all we want for bad usage or not using Erod earlier etc... but if ERod is your best option you don't have much of a hand.  PH's player usage likely help get him fired.  I'd almost argue that Jbot set him up to fail, but I don't think Jbot is that cold blooded.

Again, how did Housley do when he had a good #2 center? Worse if I remember correctly because he was a bad head coach. 

 

I think Botterill is very cold blooded. How much though I am unsure. 

Edited by LGR4GM
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5 minutes ago, LGR4GM said:

Let's put it this way... 

Housley was given 4 ingredients to make a dinner that required 10. He used those 4 ingredients in the worse ***** way possible. So yes the person giving him the ingredients is at some fault but Housley was also a lousy chef. The guy didn't do much better when he had ROR as one of his ingredients either. 

Your analogy proves my point.  If you order a meal kit and it comes with only 4 of the necessary ten ingredients, no chef, no matter how talented could make a decent meal.  Now add that all 3 of 4 the ingredients were of mediocre quality including one which was already rotten and the only decent ingredient wasn't yet ripe and you have a recipe for disaster.

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5 minutes ago, GASabresIUFAN said:

Your analogy proves my point.  If you order a meal kit and it comes with only 4 of the necessary ten ingredients, no chef, no matter how talented could make a decent meal.  Now add that all 3 of 4 the ingredients were of mediocre quality including one which was already rotten and the only decent ingredient wasn't yet ripe and you have a recipe for disaster.

Yes they could. They do this on cooking shows as challenges. 

Again, if Housley wasn't complete trash how come his team was even worse with ROR at #2 center? 

Housley wasn't a good coach and had no idea how to overcome his own roster limitations. 

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1 minute ago, LGR4GM said:

Yes they could. They do this on cooking shows as challenges. 

Again, if Housley wasn't complete trash how come his team was even worse with ROR at #2 center? 

Housley wasn't a good coach and had no idea how to overcome his own roster limitations. 

I agree that Housley wasn't a good coach, but the ROR issue was more bad goaltending and a bad defense.  In PH's first year his D was primarily Scandella, Risto, Baloo, McCabe, Antipin and Falk, with Gorges, Guhle and Bogo playing when healthy or needed.  

Again PH wasn't ready for a HC job.  He will be eventually, but the roster Jbot gave him were just awful.

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11 minutes ago, LGR4GM said:

Yes they could. They do this on cooking shows as challenges. 

Again, if Housley wasn't complete trash how come his team was even worse with ROR at #2 center? 

Housley wasn't a good coach and had no idea how to overcome his own roster limitations. 

Actually, they don't.  The show may give them 4 ingredients they have to include, but they have a full pantry to draw from to supplement the dish.   

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44 minutes ago, Torpedo Forecheck said:

From the Atlantic, timely!

 

Buffalo Sabres
Rasmus Ristolainen
Projected: 21.3 minutes
Actual: 24.0 minutes

Rasmus Dahlin
Projected: 24.4 minutes
Actual: 19.0 minutes

As mentioned in 16 Stats last week, I expected Buffalo to play Dahlin more this season and Ristolainen less and despite the latter losing his PP1 job that hasn’t been the case as Ristolainen is still eating big minutes. It’s working for now, but for how much longer?

Vladimir Sobotka
Projected: 12.4 minutes
Actual: 15.3 minutes

Casey Mittelstadt
Projected: 15.9 minutes
Actual: 11.0 minutes

At forward, I figured Mittelstadt would begin seeing some top-six time, but he seems to be in the dog house to start the season and skating in his place is … Vladimir Sobotka? While I’m no Mittelstadt apologist (and at this point, why not get some much-needed playing time in the AHL?), it’s hard to argue Sobotka is a suitable replacement. He was one of the league’s worst players last year and is somehow sporting a 47 percent expected goals rate this season when both of his regular linemates are well above 50 percent. While things are working for Buffalo for now, again I wonder if it will continue given this strange usage and the lack of true top six options. Ralph Krueger has fresh eyes on the sport after being out of hockey for many years and I’ll give him the benefit of the doubt after a hot start, but some of the early usage is puzzling.

I’d bet a lot of Loonies that the author has watched very little of the Sabres this year.

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36 minutes ago, GASabresIUFAN said:

Here is the problem.  Jbot knew what was going on and didn't find away to get his coach and this team better options...

PH's player usage likely help get him fired.  I'd almost argue that Jbot set him up to fail, but I don't think Jbot is that cold blooded.

I think there is a tendency to assign JBot omniscience, and that the JBot in his third year is the JBot of his second year is the JBot of his first year.

It's entirely possible that it's taken the first two years of his tenure to figure out how to fix the roster, to figure out how to spend assets to get to the team he wants.  He made changes all along, but now he's finally getting to the point where the roster is close to what he wants. 

That doesn't mean he's cold-blooded; it means he was learning how to do the job.  Unfortunately Housley was a victim of JBot's learning curve, but I also think Housley didn't help his cause with usage.

9 minutes ago, dudacek said:

I’d bet a lot of Loonies that the author has watched very little of the Sabres this year.

Yep, I agree with this.

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I wonder why they think the usage is puzzling.  RK is trying to find the best places for these guys to succeed.  So far so good.  Like any coach he adjusts when he needs to.  So far no need to adjust other then Mitts' line showing some life.  The one thing to anyone who watched the Sabres is Mitts playing bottom 6 minutes. It's where he needs to be and to gives him better matchups.  As we saw in SJ and LA, when we play teams that lack our depth, it gives us a real match up advantage having skill guys like Sheary, Vesey, KO and Mitts so far down the lineup.  

This structure is not unlike having Vanek and Max on the 3rd line in 2005-6.  It created huge matchup problems for our opponents.  If these guys can build on their successful road trip, it's going to give opposing coaches nightmares.  That 2005-6 team had 6 guys chip in 20+ goals and another 4 players with 16 to 18 goals.  This team could be similar.

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We saw Mitts’ hi hockey IQ in OT last night.  Baron and Duff pointed out how he read SJs line change in OT and slide the puck to a streaking Risto to create a 2-1 and the eventual game winner. 
 

After a rough start we are seeing someone mature before our eyes.  Showing some nice chemistry with Sheary.  

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20 hours ago, GASabresIUFAN said:

I agree that Housley wasn't a good coach, but the ROR issue was more bad goaltending and a bad defense.  In PH's first year his D was primarily Scandella, Risto, Baloo, McCabe, Antipin and Falk, with Gorges, Guhle and Bogo playing when healthy or needed.  

Again PH wasn't ready for a HC job.  He will be eventually, but the roster Jbot gave him were just awful.

No, he lacks the ability to lead and he is slow to adapt. 

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1 hour ago, GASabresIUFAN said:

We saw Mitts’ hi hockey IQ in OT last night.  Baron and Duff pointed out how he read SJs line change in OT and slide the puck to a streaking Risto to create a 2-1 and the eventual game winner. 
 

After a rough start we are seeing someone mature before our eyes.  Showing some nice chemistry with Sheary.  

Gee, so giving him the sort of usage and role he should have had last year and linemates he doesn't have to carry is actually allowing him to grow as a player.  Who'd'a thunk?

The most noticeable difference in his play from last year to now is he doesn't look like a Labrador puppy out there chasing around now.

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