GDT Anaheim Ducks at Sabres 2/9/20 3pm MSG, WGR

[Huckleberry]

13 hours ago, Scottysabres said:

Oh yea, they had a good 3rd, against a team that is on the verge of passing us in the league standings, sinking us in to the bottom 5, yet again.

Let's face it Huckleberry, there isn't a whole lot to grab on to positive wise, not only for this recent last 7 or 8 games, but this season and these past 2 years. I won't include the tanking years, although, I should, but this team is not only heading nowhere fast, I don't see it changing for the next year or 2 on top of that. Now I could be wrong about that last comment, but given the personnel decisions from this most recent management team the odds are heavily in my opinions favor, as of now.

I'm in tank mode anyways, I don't care if they lose a game, I want them to play well.   We are a bottom 5 time in this league again and I want a good shot at a top 2 pick. ?

[Torpedo Forecheck]

9 minutes ago, Huckleberry said:

I'm in tank mode anyways, I don't care if they lose a game, I want them to play well.   We are a bottom 5 time in this league again and I want a good shot at a top 2 pick. ?

Could we possibly be so lucky as to end up with Lafreniere or Byfield?

[Huckleberry]

12 minutes ago, Torpedo Forecheck said:

Could we possibly be so lucky as to end up with Lafreniere or Byfield?

How can we not, my mind is already set on them. ?

[Scottysabres]

1 hour ago, Huckleberry said:

I'm in tank mode anyways, I don't care if they lose a game, I want them to play well.   We are a bottom 5 time in this league again and I want a good shot at a top 2 pick. ?

I'm with ya. I started running the lottery generator and reading up and watching video on the top 10 picks of this c9ming draft. Bayfield at 6'4"? Center, but didn't look speedy on the videos I saw. Had hands though. Couple of RW'ers Holtz? and another guy, 6' or shorter.

Hope we hit in the top 2 I guess.

[Pimlach]

8 hours ago, SwampD said:

I was at work all day and finally got to watch today's game. It wasn't terrible.

It is unbelievable how may pipes we hit.

I thought Dahlin looked really good.

We cannot trade Risto.

There is something wrong with Skinner. I hope it's not concussion related.

 

Forwards that I know we have; Jack, Samson, Skinner, Larsson, Vesey, ERod, Girgs,… that's pretty much it.

Erod can go.  Vessey will be leaving.  Sheary can go.  Okposso can go.  I like Lazar better than any of them.  He can play 4th line, kill penalties and win face offs.  
 

We also have Mojo and Olofsson. Maybe Mitts, maybe Cozens. 

[freester]

17 minutes ago, Pimlach said:

Erod can go.  Vessey will be leaving.  Sheary can go.  Okposso can go.  I like Lazar better than any of them.  He can play 4th line, kill penalties and win face offs.  
 

We also have Mojo and Olofsson. Maybe Mitts, maybe Cozens. 

Unfortunately Okposo isn’t going anywhere. 

[freester]

1 hour ago, Huckleberry said:

How can we not, my mind is already set on them. ?

The German Tim Stutzke looks pretty good and may be available at 3. I’ve read that he could play in NHL next year as a 2nd line LW. 

[Carmel Corn]

2 hours ago, Huckleberry said:

I'm in tank mode anyways, I don't care if they lose a game, I want them to play well.   We are a bottom 5 time in this league again and I want a good shot at a top 2 pick. ?

 

2 hours ago, Torpedo Forecheck said:

Could we possibly be so lucky as to end up with Lafreniere or Byfield?

Sorry, but there is no way I see finishing below both the Wings and Kings.   We can hope to move up in the lottery, but we're not that lucky!

Edited February 10, 2020 by Carmel Corn

[Doohickie]

15 hours ago, Gatorman0519 said:

Skinner must be in the dog house 

I wonder if he's still not 100% coming off the injury.

[Doohickie]

15 hours ago, thewookie1 said:

The team that showed up in the 3rd could be a playoff team; problem is they show up only once in awhile.

And ultimately I put this on the coach.  They *do* have the talent, the *are* good enough, just not consistently.  I'm will to almost give a pass to "it's a young team coming together under a new system" but geez I think they should be past that by now.

Edited February 10, 2020 by Doohickie

[Doohickie]

15 hours ago, Sidc3000 said:

Johansson suuuuuucks.  He is nowhere near NHL ready

I'm not impressed with his style; he seems over-reactive- too much movement.  That could be managed with coaching I suppose.  I'm not willing to agree with your first statement until he is NHL ready though.

[Doohickie]

15 hours ago, Curt said:

I didn’t watch.  Was Johansson that bad?  I didn’t expect much from him but was hoping I would be surprised.

Seems like the same old story.  Need a couple better forwards and better goaltending.  Am I right?

He allowed 3 goals in the first..... 11? 12? minutes of the game.  The team in front of him was too loose though; they gave the Ducks too much room for clean shots from the slot.  They did tighten up but didn't have enough puck luck to tie it up (they came close, real close, several times).

[Doohickie]

14 hours ago, PerreaultForever said:

Best Sabre play of the day Risto's positioning and screen on the second goal. Done to perfection. Forwards need to learn from that.

I still think they should let Risto see a little more forward line time, especially when they dress 11-7.  Montour isn't awful as a forward but I just see playmaking (yes, playmaking) ability out of Risto I don't see from Montour.  Risto's a little more stubborn on the puck in the offensive zone and doesn't flip it to an open spot for a 50-50 fight.  He will eat it along the boards before just dumping it away, and usually keeps a play alive.  This is mostly from the odd times he joins the rush or moves in from the point, but I see him doing power forward moves better than most, maybe even all, of our forwards.

[darksabre]

I'm seeing perhaps a little too much criticism of Johansson given the circumstances. He is definitely raw, but most rookie goalies look like this when they get their first cracks at the NHL.

I think his foot speed has looked good, and for the most part he's battling. He'll spend time getting the right coaching and seeing the game at NHL speed and it'll make a difference.

There was one situation where he nearly got caught sitting on his butt which was caused by his own teammate standing behind him in the crease for some reason...

They also hung him out to dry early on, and I'm glad Krueger didn't pull him because it forced the rest of the team to get their act together.

This might be the learning experience these bums need now that they don't have Ullmark (or even Lehner) there to bail them out. It might do the team good to play in front of some washed up hacks and rookies in net for the rest of the year.

[Doohickie]

13 hours ago, Pimlach said:

I don’t understand. why can’t they be jazzed to play at home, work hard, and have fun winning. ????

Until recently they were great at home and sucked on the road.  Now it seems to have reversed:  Okay on the road, bad at home.  Maybe the booing is getting in their heads.  I will say this:  In the third period it sounded like the crowd was really jazzed by the effort.  For a period, anyway, it sounded like 2006.

[LGR4GM]

10 minutes ago, darksabre said:

I'm seeing perhaps a little too much criticism of Johansson given the circumstances. He is definitely raw, but most rookie goalies look like this when they get their first cracks at the NHL.

I think his foot speed has looked good, and for the most part he's battling. He'll spend time getting the right coaching and seeing the game at NHL speed and it'll make a difference.

There was one situation where he nearly got caught sitting on his butt which was caused by his own teammate standing behind him in the crease for some reason...

They also hung him out to dry early on, and I'm glad Krueger didn't pull him because it forced the rest of the team to get their act together.

This might be the learning experience these bums need now that they don't have Ullmark (or even Lehner) there to bail them out. It might do the team good to play in front of some washed up hacks and rookies in net for the rest of the year.

I believe the Sabres are something like 6th in shot suppression. They already are decent defensively. The goaltending is just really bad. 

Edited February 10, 2020 by LGR4GM

[Doohickie]

12 hours ago, Pimlach said:

I missed the 3rd but thought he was good in the first 2 periods. 

Dahlin is really the least of this teams problems.  Looking at the game stats many forwards were played sparingly.  Eichel had 28 minutes, Reinhart had 25.  We just don’t have enough top 6 forwards. With Mojo and Olofsson out today it really drops our the skill level down.  The saddest thing is they would be 3rd line on good teams.  

The problem with this team is not with the top players not doing enough; it's that they are expected to do it all.

[triumph_communes]

Johansson looked bad. Weak goals all around. Sabres hit posts all night. Luck isn’t always on your side. 

[darksabre]

11 minutes ago, LGR4GM said:

I believe the Sabres are something like 6th in shot suppression. They already are decent defensively. The goaltending is just really bad. 

What does shot suppression measure?

[Randall Flagg]

39 minutes ago, Doohickie said:

And ultimately I put this on the coach.  They *do* have the talent, the *are* good enough, just not consistently.  I'm will to almost give a pass to "it's a young team coming together under a new system" but geez I think they should be past that by now.

They have the collective roster talent for a ~77-87 point finish, fluctuations allowed for luck. They're on an 82 point pace. This team is producing in line with their talent level for the last 140 games 

[LGR4GM]

11 minutes ago, darksabre said:

What does shot suppression measure?

It looks at unblocked shots rates compared to league average. At least that was my understanding. 

[Curt]

43 minutes ago, Doohickie said:

And ultimately I put this on the coach.  They *do* have the talent, the *are* good enough, just not consistently.  I'm will to almost give a pass to "it's a young team coming together under a new system" but geez I think they should be past that by now.

They don’t have enough forward or goalie talent to be a good team.  That’s why they often are not good enough.

They can be good enough against teams playing poorly or when they get a little lucky, or when they have an especially good game, but they are not consistently good enough because they lack the type of talent you would expect a playoff team to have.

[darksabre]

2 minutes ago, LGR4GM said:

It looks at unblocked shots rates compared to league average. At least that was my understanding. 

Is there a quality of shot component?

I ask because I don't think the Sabres give up a lot of shots, but they're good for a handful of absolutely horrible opportunities against in every game and I feel like it's mostly good goaltending from Ullmark that has bailed them out.

[Doohickie]

12 minutes ago, Curt said:

but they are not consistently good enough

That's the point:  They *are* good enough, just not consistently.  If they're good enough some of the time, they should be good enough.... well maybe not all of the time, but at lot more of the time than they currently are.

It's up to the coach to get this out of them.  He did it for 10 games, the rest of the league adjusted, and he's had nothing to counter with since then.

I don't care if it's a tank quality team, over the last decade, when the Sabres play with energy and close the gaps defensively, they're a good team.   When they don't, the look terrible.  It's that simple.

[bunomatic]

18 minutes ago, Curt said:

They don’t have enough forward or goalie talent to be a good team.  That’s why they often are not good enough.

They can be good enough against teams playing poorly or when they get a little lucky, or when they have an especially good game, but they are not consistently good enough because they lack the type of talent you would expect a playoff team to have.

Or a team hard against the cap