GDT: 11/8/2019 2pm ET Tampa at Buffalo Sabres in ModoLand, NBCSN and WGR550

[Mustache of God]

1 minute ago, Radar said:

Actually I've felt entertained in most games.

The past 3 or 4 games have not entertained me. Zero goals vs. the Islanders. Blown out by the Caps. Outshot 2-1 by the yotes. Heavily outshot today. 

[Zamboni]

3 minutes ago, Gatorman0519 said:

The great start is history.  The loses are piling up at an unacceptable rate.  Yet another coach has no answers.  

Only A month in ...

I’m not ready to bridge jump. Frankly, I never bridge jump. ?

It was a frustrating game. Against a very talented team. I wasn’t expecting a win. In either game. Ullmark was solid. 

[Gatorman0519]

1 minute ago, Zamboni said:

Only A month in ...

I’m not ready to bridge jump. Frankly, I never bridge jump. ?

It was a frustrating game. Against a very talented team. I wasn’t expecting a win. In either game. Ullmark was solid. 

It would be nice to actually start expecting wins.  

[Pimlach]

I saw the last 13 minutes and it was pretty even in that time.  Most noticeable was how little the Mitts line played.   We need NHL ready competitive forwards.   As the season goes on this will be even more evident.  Most likely we slide out of playoff picture by Christmas which will be very painful    

Cozens and Thompson are probably already better than Sobie, Vessey, ERod .... but we won’t see them until the end of the season.  

The LOG line has fallen off their game too and the Eichel line is not consistent enough to stop these losing streaks from happening.  

[Thorny]

7 minutes ago, Pimlach said:

Is that 4 losses in a row?  

 

 

And 5 in last 6. 

THIS is when we need a response, to know this team has a different mentality, which people were already saying we had, early in the year. 

[Pimlach]

3 minutes ago, Zamboni said:

Only A month in ...

I’m not ready to bridge jump. Frankly, I never bridge jump. ?

It was a frustrating game. Against a very talented team. I wasn’t expecting a win. In either game. Ullmark was solid. 

Tampa is talented and underachieving.  Why are you not expecting a win?   We have played Tampa tough in the past.  I expected to win today, now I expect to win tomorrow.  

[Tondas]

1 minute ago, Thorny said:

And 5 in last 6. 

THIS is when we need a response, to know this team has a different mentality, which people were already saying we had, early in the year. 

JBOT needs to do something before this turns into last year.  He needs to reinforce that message.  No one should be comfortable.

[Thorny]

7 minutes ago, Derrico said:

Where the ***** was Rasmus Dahlin today?  You’re playing in front of your home country.  Honeymoon is over.  Let’s ***** go.

Some would say the fact he wasn't noticeable represents an upward trajectory over recent games. 

[Sabres Fan in NS]

Well, that was tough.

The Sabres did not play a great, or good, game and still lost by 1.

We are starting to count on our goalies to save our bacon.  Not good.

[Mustache of God]

I feel bad for saying this but the brightest spot for this game was that Sobotka is no longer on the 2nd line for the time being.

[Tondas]

3 minutes ago, Thorny said:

Some would say the fact he wasn't noticeable represents an upward trajectory over recent games. 

My fear is that the Sabres are coaching the "Dahlin" out of Rasmus, just like the Bills are coaching the "Allen" out of Josh.

[Randall Flagg]

17 minutes ago, darksabre said:

Ullmark played well, but the rest of this team still needs to figure out how to play real hockey with any regularity. You have to finish checks n *****. You have to get to pucks first. It's simple stuff.

churn your legs with purpose even, or especially, when you're not the one with the puck

Edited November 8, 2019 by Randall Flagg

[Pimlach]

1 hour ago, Mustache of God said:

I feel bad for saying this but the brightest spot for this game was that Sobotka is no longer on the 2nd line for the time being.

Not good to welcome injuries.  This team has bigger problem than Sobotka.  He was never a second liner even during his prime years with St Louis so this should tell you all something about our top 6.  

He is one of the few that is exceeding expectations, albeit low expectations.  

Edited November 8, 2019 by Pimlach

[Thorny]

5 minutes ago, Tondas said:

My fear is that the Sabres are coaching the "Dahlin" out of Rasmus, just like the Bills are coaching the "Allen" out of Josh.

I don't really follow the Bills but I do know Allen isn't close to the projected talent that Dahlin is. But i'll take your word for it on Allen.

I worry a little about that too but, it's hard to dissect exactly what's going on with the coaching, and from there, the positive/negative affects of those things. 

I do know I'd rather him have been out there with the extra man than Johan. And I do know that when we were winning, that was enough for people to say we had to trust Krueger's usage of him. So if we don't start winning again, I think coaching will/should start to take on some blame, same principle as before but in reverse. 

2 minutes ago, Pimlach said:

Not good to welcome injuries.  This team has bigger problem than Sobotka.  He was never a second liner even during his prime years with St Louis so this should tell you all something about our top 6.  

He is one of the few that are exceeding expectations, albeit low expectations.  

Succeeding "Vlad Sobotka" expectations, sure, but not "2nd line forward" expectations, certainly. 

Edited November 8, 2019 by Thorny

[caseydean]

Team lacks talent, especially scoring talent.  Lucky to get 80 points. 

[mjd1001]

12 minutes ago, Mustache of God said:

The past 3 or 4 games have not entertained me. Zero goals vs. the Islanders. Blown out by the Caps. Outshot 2-1 by the yotes. Heavily outshot today. 

I agree.

I'll admit I'm probably only a casual hockey/Sabres fan at this point.  If I am entertained and I like what I see, I'll watch.  If I'm bored or upset, then there is no use for me watching.  That just how casual fandom works.  Going into the opener, I said that I'll see how that game goes...by 3-4 games in...they sucked me back in and I was watching everything. 

Now, I don't expect them to win every game...or even compete for the top spot in the league...and I realize losing streaks are a part of the NHL for even the best teams. But this doesn't seem like a 'good' team on a losing streak. This has more of the feel of an average or bad team that had a hot streak and is now coming back to where they should be.  It may be unfair to compare this team to last years team...but there are a lot of the same players on it and the uniforms look the same on tv to me.

[Pimlach]

3 minutes ago, Tondas said:

My fear is that the Sabres are coaching the "Dahlin" out of Rasmus, just like the Bills are coaching the "Allen" out of Josh.

Sophomore seasons can be tough.  He is 19.  He still needs experience, confidence, and some muscle.  

He is not Bobby Orr.  

[Randall Flagg]

Don't have any gripes with any of our skaters. They all did their best and were more or less who they usually are. 

Tampa is still the best roster I've seen since the 07-08 Red Wings or the 09-10 Blackhawks, regardless of their slow start.

The schedule is being a bit unfair to our boys. Consistent creampuff schedule early, with defenses in Pittsburgh and New Jersey setting an unfair standard (they each have a case for the worst group of 6 D in the league). Dallas, Columbus, San Jose reeling already when we caught them. Zero games against a team in the top 3rd of the standings until Washington. Followed by brutal travel, good teams, and lots of games this month. Had the schedule been more uniform, we wouldn't be on such a roller coaster. 

That said, it's not fun that we've been getting handled and beaten in every game against said teams in top 3rd of the standings (plus Tampa who will be there in short order) since we started seeing them.

[darksabre]

4 minutes ago, Randall Flagg said:

churn your legs with purpose even, or especially, when you're not the one with the puck

That's really all there is to it. I don't understand why they can't just execute with all this supposed skating talent they have.

[Thorny]

3 minutes ago, Randall Flagg said:

Don't have any gripes with any of our skaters. They all did their best and were more or less who they usually are. 

Tampa is still the best roster I've seen since the 07-08 Red Wings or the 09-10 Blackhawks, regardless of their slow start.

The schedule is being a bit unfair to our boys. Consistent creampuff schedule early, with defenses in Pittsburgh and New Jersey setting an unfair standard (they each have a case for the worst group of 6 D in the league). Dallas, Columbus, San Jose reeling already when we caught them. Zero games against a team in the top 3rd of the standings until Washington. Followed by brutal travel, good teams, and lots of games this month. Had the schedule been more uniform, we wouldn't be on such a roller coaster. 

That said, it's not fun that we've been getting handled and beaten in every game against said teams in top 3rd of the standings (plus Tampa who will be there in short order) since we started seeing them.

Setting an unfair standard, for whom? If we as fans can recognize the caveats of the schedule, surely we can expect the team to. That the schedule presented us a good chance for wins early on, to get our feet under us, doesn't really need to fit into the "unfair" category. 

Roller coaster, true, but we can still see things as they've been thus far, in totality - we can beat bad teams, but not good ones. 

Edited November 8, 2019 by Thorny

[Wyldnwoody44]

I will say, it was great seeing all the peeps here in Stockholm, but the in game experience was almost terrible compared to what I was expecting in Europe..... A home game for the Sabres.... Ha... No. Every stoppage was a Let's go Bolts chant or message or Bolts highlights.... It was 2/3 Tampa and the game itself sucked. 

I will not ever travel for another overseas Sabres game, that's how bad they were. 

Seeing modo, LTS and the gang, and Norway made this trip wonderful... The Sabres and in game experience tried to ruin it 

[Tondas]

3 minutes ago, Pimlach said:

Sophomore seasons can be tough.  He is 19.  He still needs experience, confidence, and some muscle.  

He is not Bobby Orr.  

I was a STH when Housley was drafted.  He was electric but sucked at defence (hit him with your purse, Phil was a popular refrain).  He even played a bit at forward that season.  In fact, I think Rasmus today is better at defence than Housley ever was.   I'm not suggesting they  play  Rasmus at forward, but I think getting him to focus too much on defending may be taking away his creativity.  There is a school of thought that you should spend more time improving your strengths than improving your weaknesses.  I just think that the Sabres are reversing that equation.  He is WAY overthinking his game.

[Derrico]

The forward group was abysmal last year.  So ok perfect, roster surgery coming.  They haven’t made a meaningful move in over four ***** months.  How is jimmy vesey and Johansson the answer??  I don’t get it.  The forward group is not good enough and for two straight offseason this was either not or marginally addressed.  I had backed jbott up to this point but it’s on him now.  This is year 3 and it’s obvious the forward group STILL isn’t even close to good enough.

[Nitro60]

1 minute ago, Derrico said:

The forward group was abysmal last year.  So ok perfect, roster surgery coming.  They haven’t made a meaningful move in over four ***** months.  How is jimmy vesey and Johansson the answer??  I don’t get it.  The forward group is not good enough and for two straight offseason this was either not or marginally addressed.  I had backed jbott up to this point but it’s on him now.  This is year 3 and it’s obvious the forward group STILL isn’t even close to good enough.

Vesey and Johansson are cheap moves.  Made no plays for real scoring talent..  Face it.  This team has to build through the draft.  That is all on management.

[dudacek]

5 minutes ago, Randall Flagg said:

They all did their best and were more or less who they usually are. 

Yes.

And when they do, and the opponent does the same, they are going to win most of their games against the bottom half-dozen teams of the league, and lose against the top half-dozen teams and hope to split against the rest.

Isn’t it kinda what we expected?