JohnC Posted December 7, 2020 Report Share Posted December 7, 2020 Attached is a link taken from The Hockey News on Sports Illustrated. What struck me when I looked at the list is how high Robin Lehner ranked. Life moves on and circumstances change but if we now had the rehabilitated Lehner as our backstop how more positive would the outlook be for the Sabres? On this list Ullmark is second from the bottom. That's obviously due to the fact that as a starter he is very inexperienced. Whenever the season starts the Sabres will be entering it with a lot of uncertainty with our tandem at one of the most important positions on the ice. The Great Goalie Ranking: How the NHL's 31 Starters Stack Up - The Hockey News on Sports Illustrated Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LGR4GM Posted December 7, 2020 Report Share Posted December 7, 2020 Is that Quick ranked over Ullmark... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dudacek Posted December 7, 2020 Report Share Posted December 7, 2020 (edited) I'm finding it mildly amusing how the Sabres goaltending wasn't talked about much until they fixed their forwards. Now everybody in the hockey world is saying it might be the worst in the league and the reason why the Sabres won't improve. It hasn't gotten any worse. It's almost like they are looking reasons to bury the Sabres. Wonder what they'll say if we acquire #8-ranked Darcy Kuemper. *** To the rankings, you can quibble with the fact that guys like Blackwood and Koskinen have done nothing to rank them 10 points higher than Linus. And you can accurately point out how every year, multiple goalies like Ullmark emerge from question marks to solid starters. But the fact remains that our goaltending unquestionably remains in the bottom half of the league until he does. Edited December 7, 2020 by dudacek 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LGR4GM Posted December 7, 2020 Report Share Posted December 7, 2020 Linus Ullmark... .03sv% below Robin Lehner last season. .02% better than Lehner was in the playoffs. The problem last year was Hutton and secondary scoring. I hope Ullmark improves a bit but the list is really bad and Ullmark isn't the 31st gt. There are several on the list above him (Greiss) who Ullmark played better than last season. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
klos1963 Posted December 7, 2020 Report Share Posted December 7, 2020 2 hours ago, dudacek said: I'm finding it mildly amusing how the Sabres goaltending wasn't talked about much until they fixed their forwards. Now everybody in the hockey world is saying it might be the worst in the league and the reason why the Sabres won't improve. It hasn't gotten any worse. It's almost like they are looking reasons to bury the Sabres. Wonder what they'll say if we acquire #8-ranked Darcy Kuemper. *** To the rankings, you can quibble with the fact that guys like Blackwood and Koskinen have done nothing to rank them 10 points higher than Linus. And you can accurately point out how every year, multiple goalies like Ullmark emerge from question marks to solid starters. But the fact remains that our goaltending unquestionably remains in the bottom half of the league until he does. They'll say it's a huge acquisition for the Sabres. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PASabreFan Posted December 7, 2020 Report Share Posted December 7, 2020 Just now, klos1963 said: They'll say it's a huge acquisition for the Sabres. Come on now. They'll edit the list to put him at 28. Because Click Bait or something. George is gettin' upset! Ullmark is clearly elite. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
klos1963 Posted December 7, 2020 Report Share Posted December 7, 2020 1 minute ago, PASabreFan said: Come on now. They'll edit the list to put him at 28. Because Click Bait or something. George is gettin' upset! Ullmark is clearly elite. Buffalo fans have such an inferiority complex. Really need to get help. Like George. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Eleven Posted December 7, 2020 Report Share Posted December 7, 2020 2 hours ago, LGR4GM said: Linus Ullmark... .03sv% below Robin Lehner last season. .02% better than Lehner was in the playoffs. The problem last year was Hutton and secondary scoring. I hope Ullmark improves a bit but the list is really bad and Ullmark isn't the 31st gt. There are several on the list above him (Greiss) who Ullmark played better than last season. Not everything is based upon simple statistics, and this team isn't going very far with 2019-20 Ullmark as its primary goaltender. Either he steps up, the Sabres find someone else, or the Sabres will not go anywhere. 3 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JohnC Posted December 8, 2020 Author Report Share Posted December 8, 2020 3 hours ago, Eleven said: Not everything is based upon simple statistics, and this team isn't going very far with 2019-20 Ullmark as its primary goaltender. Either he steps up, the Sabres find someone else, or the Sabres will not go anywhere. As it stands Ullmark is our primary goaltender. I'm more concerned about Hutton getting more playing time in a compressed schedule than I am with Ullmark as the primary tender. What should mitigate some of our goaltender worries is the probable increase in goals related to the addition of Staal and Hall to our primary lines and the hopeful added contribution from the secondary non-checking line. Another issue that needs to be addressed that impacted the goalies is our poor PK unit. The structure and lapses from the unit constantly put the goalies in vulnerable positions. Hopefully with an improvement in the PK unit and more scoring the goaltending issue won't be such a prominent issue. What it comes down to is as @dudacek pointed out: It's up to Ullmark to show what he is capable of or not. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
French Collection Posted December 8, 2020 Report Share Posted December 8, 2020 I think Linus still has some upside and think he will improve his numbers this season. One guy that jumped out at me was Demko for the Canucks. He is a very promising goalie but he has only played 37 NHL games with worse numbers than Linus. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zamboni Posted December 8, 2020 Report Share Posted December 8, 2020 It also may be a product of the improved team in front of Ullmark, and not necessarily him improving at all. That seems to be overlooked often... 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Taro T Posted December 8, 2020 Report Share Posted December 8, 2020 10 minutes ago, Zamboni said: It also may be a product of the improved team in front of Ullmark, and not necessarily him improving at all. That seems to be overlooked often... Will still likely need an upgrade to or a fully healthy Hutton to make Ullmark's consistency or improvement matter enough. (And still expect an upgrade to Hutton to arrive.) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PerreaultForever Posted December 8, 2020 Report Share Posted December 8, 2020 Wow, below Martin Jones, that's pretty bad. Better hope they're way off. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LGR4GM Posted December 8, 2020 Report Share Posted December 8, 2020 19 hours ago, Eleven said: Not everything is based upon simple statistics, and this team isn't going very far with 2019-20 Ullmark as its primary goaltender. Either he steps up, the Sabres find someone else, or the Sabres will not go anywhere. Team would have made the playoffs if Ullmark stayed healthy and they understood a passive pk was complete trash. 19 hours ago, Eleven said: Not everything is based upon simple statistics, and this team isn't going very far with 2019-20 Ullmark as its primary goaltender. Either he steps up, the Sabres find someone else, or the Sabres will not go anywhere. Also in that list Quick was ranked higher and he was bad, his team was bad, it was all bad. The list like all rankings is bad because the author neither watches or knows all the of the ppl they list. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Eleven Posted December 8, 2020 Report Share Posted December 8, 2020 1 hour ago, LGR4GM said: Team would have made the playoffs if Ullmark stayed healthy and they understood a passive pk was complete trash. Do you mean the 24-team playoffs or real playoffs? 1 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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