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GDT: Sabres at Flames, THURSDAY 12/05/19, 9:00 pm ET


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2 minutes ago, 7+6=13 said:

Why in hell wouldn't Ollie shoot that puck?  Good grief.

Sabres have a maddening trend of having guys who are reluctant to shoot.  Need a greed guy or two who want the puck.  Passing up shots when it is a scoring opportunity is a huge problem with this team.

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7 minutes ago, Randall Flagg said:

There are no trivial fixes in the NHL, but the Sabres under Botterill do little to attempt them in-season. 

Teams that aggressively address problems they have don't always win cups, but they do win some cups. Teams that have demonstrable systemic issues yet DON'T fix them never aren't bad. - Wayne Gretzky more or less

Without trying to sound like a dick (I know, too late), can you cite examples?  

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1 minute ago, Nitro60 said:

Sabres have a maddening trend of having guys who are reluctant to shoot.  Need a greed guy or two who want the puck.  Passing up shots when it is a scoring opportunity is a huge problem with this team.

Sorta like an Evander Kane. Without the garbage drama. Skinner should just be the “greedy puck hog” to a point. He has a nice shot and is smart with creativity at times.

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Johansson, Sobotka, Skinner > Larsson, Sherry, Skinner.

Montour underwhelms (not just on the scoring play, Randal).

Bogo looks old.

Johansson looks <100%

Vesey has a place on my team.

It's amazing and sad just how little emotion I had watching this game.

 

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36 minutes ago, inkman said:

Without trying to sound like a dick (I know, too late), can you cite examples?  

Last year's cup winner dumped a coach when they needed to, and tried something desperate in goal while casting off a major reason their goaltending results were the worst in the NHL early on, which happened to pay off. it would have paid off in the form of winning more games if Binnington was the 28th best goalie in the NHL, given how bad the Allen-Johnson tandem was, but he was better than that. You can get lucky like that if you're not paralyzed by fear and indecision and trapping yourself left and right. It was clear when they were losing that their underlying game was just fine and being sabatoged by goalies and the psychological snowball effect, and the coaching and goalie changes were exactly what they needed to jar things loose - they weren't the moves because "oh that's what struggling teams do," that was calculated by an incredibly smart GM with a pointed vision. 

In contrast, we rode out Lehner-Johnson in 17-18 which very obviously sent the snowball right off the cliff, addressed that season's depth scoring issues with... Scott Wilson and nothing else, and hung onto Phil despite how lost last December, and then January, and then February, and then March were for our team. Putting these players through those two stretches of hockey, night after night, with zero meaningful change, was the most alarming and tone-deaf thing I've ever seen an NHL GM do, without exaggeration. The roster and special teams issues are tough to solve and I don't know how to solve them but he's burned all the rope any sane person would be willing to give him at this point, and we know what doing nothing will do to these guys, so the onus is on Jason/the Sabres to finally ATTEMPT to fix something they screwed up in the first place.

Coaching changes are the easiest examples to cite, as they're the most popular and easy-to-do quick fix, and sometimes work and sometimes don't, but the Kings' trade for Carter won them a cup in 2012, they were on pace to miss the playoffs before the trade and finished 12-4-3 after it, when center depth was their most talked about issue at the time. There are surely countless examples of adjustments on a coaching level, especially to special teams, that change the course of the team's PK/PP in that season, and other coaching things that we wouldn't really know about as fans. Colorado's timely dumping of Duchene, who was a major distraction, wound up working out well for them. After the Jones-Johansen strength-for-weakness trade in January, Nashville went from out of a playoff spot to a 22-11-7 record down the stretch (105 point pace) and win just their third ever playoff series. If you don't think we can make a big splash, in 2009-2010, Montreal added Pouliot and Moore midseason, and Pouliot's 15 goals in 39 games, and Moore's 40 point pace and superb defensive and PK play helped a team that was 19-19-3 at the halfway point make the playoffs and eventually the ECF. There are surely more examples like this, but my memory doesn't contain them.

Making changes doesn't always work, but sitting still with obvious critical flaws, whatever they may be, is guaranteed to not work, and I'm not ready to watch Jason do it for a third season in a row.

33 minutes ago, SwampD said:

 

Montour underwhelms (not just on the scoring play, Randal).

 

 

I just like to pick on your Montour criticism because of your routine uncritical attachment to the worst hockey players the Sabres have to offer : ) 

Also, ink, I'm really sorry for the wall of text response and am actively trying to work on condensing this stuff into a more readable form, but it ain't working quite yet

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10 minutes ago, Randall Flagg said:

.

I just like to pick on your Montour criticism because of your routine uncritical attachment to the worst hockey players the Sabres have to offer : ) 

According to your embryonic world of hockey analytics.?

I’ll just say that we started losing when he entered the lineup this year.

Hockey is more that just a spreadsheet.

 

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2 minutes ago, SwampD said:

According to your embryonic world of hockey analytics.?

I’ll just say that we started losing when he entered the lineup this year.

Hockey is more that just a spreadsheet.

 

Challenge - calculate the percentage of my hockey-related posts that have used analytics in the last calendar year. 

$500 that it's less than half of a percent. Dead serious. Make the bet so I can buy some Bills playoff tickets.

Phrased another way: I don't know what the hell you're talking about 

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1 minute ago, Randall Flagg said:

Challenge - calculate the percentage of my hockey-related posts that have used analytics in the last calendar year. 

$500 that it's less than half of a percent.

True.

Counter challenge - your comment about me being attached to “the worst players the Sabres have to offer” is a direct result of Sobotka’s analytics. ?

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Also, "we started losing when he entered the lineup."

You'd think that how badly this argument burned a lot of people, just one year ago, would have illustrated how foolish it is. 

it was a lot harder to stick to my guns in the face of "ROR is obviously a cancer, look at us now (17-6-2) compared to them (last in the league). What changed? He was here when we were in last, now he's there and they're in last." Of course, that was nonsensical and devoid of substance at the time, but it was so omnipresent among Sabres fans that I had to quit forums for half a year, and even then, dining 45 minutes outside of Buffalo on a non-game-day in january, a conversation wafted over the booth about ROR's cancerous nature, and I resigned to the fact that it doesn't matter whether or not things make sense, you just have to deal with the fact that they'll get said 

My point is, that if I could weather that hockey argument through all of that stuff even with our early success and their early struggles, and emerge on the right side of it while some Buffalo fans could fry an egg on their faces, this one ain't nothing in comparison, and Brandon Montour's presence is not why we're losing lol 

2 minutes ago, SwampD said:

True.

Counter challenge - your comment about me being attached to “the worst players the Sabres have to offer” is a direct result of Sobotka’s analytics. ?

I wasn't even thinking of Sobotka, because I don't remember you talking about him much last season and he's been nowhere near as disrespectful to the crest this season, but more of your inclination to play devil's advocate - hence the smiley :) 

Also, I'm the leader of the "don't post single-game advanced stats please" brigade 

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19 minutes ago, Randall Flagg said:

Last year's cup winner dumped a coach when they needed to, and tried something desperate in goal while casting off a major reason their goaltending results were the worst in the NHL early on, which happened to pay off. it would have paid off in the form of winning more games if Binnington was the 28th best goalie in the NHL, given how bad the Allen-Johnson tandem was, but he was better than that. You can get lucky like that if you're not paralyzed by fear and indecision and trapping yourself left and right. It was clear when they were losing that their underlying game was just fine and being sabatoged by goalies and the psychological snowball effect, and the coaching and goalie changes were exactly what they needed to jar things loose - they weren't the moves because "oh that's what struggling teams do," that was calculated by an incredibly smart GM with a pointed vision. 

In contrast, we rode out Lehner-Johnson in 17-18 which very obviously sent the snowball right off the cliff, addressed that season's depth scoring issues with... Scott Wilson and nothing else, and hung onto Phil despite how lost last December, and then January, and then February, and then March were for our team. Putting these players through those two stretches of hockey, night after night, with zero meaningful change, was the most alarming and tone-deaf thing I've ever seen an NHL GM do, without exaggeration. The roster and special teams issues are tough to solve and I don't know how to solve them but he's burned all the rope any sane person would be willing to give him at this point, and we know what doing nothing will do to these guys, so the onus is on Jason/the Sabres to finally ATTEMPT to fix something they screwed up in the first place.

Coaching changes are the easiest examples to cite, as they're the most popular and easy-to-do quick fix, and sometimes work and sometimes don't, but the Kings' trade for Carter won them a cup in 2012, they were on pace to miss the playoffs before the trade and finished 12-4-3 after it, when center depth was their most talked about issue at the time. There are surely countless examples of adjustments on a coaching level, especially to special teams, that change the course of the team's PK/PP in that season, and other coaching things that we wouldn't really know about as fans. Colorado's timely dumping of Duchene, who was a major distraction, wound up working out well for them. After the Jones-Johansen strength-for-weakness trade in January, Nashville went from out of a playoff spot to a 22-11-7 record down the stretch (105 point pace) and win just their third ever playoff series. If you don't think we can make a big splash, in 2009-2010, Montreal added Pouliot and Moore midseason, and Pouliot's 15 goals in 39 games, and Moore's 40 point pace and superb defensive and PK play helped a team that was 19-19-3 at the halfway point make the playoffs and eventually the ECF. There are surely more examples like this, but my memory doesn't contain them.

Making changes doesn't always work, but sitting still with obvious critical flaws, whatever they may be, is guaranteed to not work, and I'm not ready to watch Jason do it for a third season in a row.

I just like to pick on your Montour criticism because of your routine uncritical attachment to the worst hockey players the Sabres have to offer : ) 

Also, ink, I'm really sorry for the wall of text response and am actively trying to work on condensing this stuff into a more readable form, but it ain't working quite yet

I go back to the Botterill’s comment about the trade he took 14 months to consummate.

I gotta believe he’s not making a trade because he’s waiting to make the trade. It better happen soon.

Oddly enough, it was the defence that sucked most tonight. I thought Bogo and Miller were awful, Joki had one of his worst games and McCabe continues to struggle

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We really need good, big, fast, healthy, forwards who can actually score. 

1 minute ago, Randall Flagg said:

What sucks balls is that if I put as many words into my paper tonight as I did into this GDT, I'd be done with schoolwork forever

Procrastination is probably the best motivator.

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1 minute ago, SwampD said:

We really need good, big, fast, healthy, forwards who can actually score. 

Procrastination is probably the best motivator.

This is true. The subject of the paper is something i had to give a presentation on last night. I started the slides the night before, and was working on them right up until the presentation, didn't know anything about the topic until I started the slides, and ***** nailed the talk

It woulda been way worse if I had started the week before haha

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15 minutes ago, dudacek said:

I go back to the Botterill’s comment about the trade he took 14 months to consummate.

I gotta believe he’s not making a trade because he’s waiting to make the trade. It better happen soon.

Oddly enough, it was the defence that sucked most tonight. I thought Bogo and Miller were awful, Joki had one of his worst games and McCabe continues to struggle

Even if he can't find THE trade, I hope that he can put something together that makes sense on paper, because we do need SOMETHING, and nothing would be the kiss of death for a team that's painfully close to having a chance to make it. 

The sense of urgency I feel is only increased when I see how much the Canadiens and Leafs are floundering with us. There's no reason this team can't be competing at the end, and getting the leg up we've been begging for would be huge for that. Tampa is lurking and well behind in games-played, so we have to assume they pass us, but that still leaves us within distance of Wild Card discusson. And we know a bad sabres roster has the capacity to fall through the floor, and aren't confident that this isn't another one of them. 

Man, if he does it and it works, we're buying playoff tickets in April. Come on Jason!!! It's so much easier to forgive effort that doesn't pan out.

13 minutes ago, SwampD said:

We really need good, big, fast, healthy, forwards who can actually score. 

Josh Anderson. His stats (I think he's stuck on one goal lol) don't suggest he can score, but maybe they'll sell low, because he CAN score. And we know how heavy Columbus plays - he is a big boy. 

I doubt CBus would give him up though

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8 hours ago, 7+6=13 said:

With due respect - we don't have anything anyone would want.  That said we can only lose any attempted trade, IMO.

The keys are timing, and knowing how the pieces fit on your team.  The salary cap and free agency adds another dimension too  

When I ran the Expansion Sabres we did not start with very much at all.  I made a lot of trades in their early years and improved the team in small increments   

The Avs traded ROR and got better.  We traded him and got worse.  

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