GDT: Bruins at Sabres 4/20/21 6:30pm MSG/WGR550

[nucci]

48 minutes ago, Sabre fan said:

All is not doom and gloom although that is what it appears to be on here right now...Granto has this team getting better leaps and bounds and each individual player is clearly improving in every aspect of the game and this clearly is a work in progress... Boston is playing very well right now and if not for goaltending we may have won this game. I have no doubt Boston were impressed with the diference in the Sabres. We are not going to win every game here on out and we are playing teams that are the elite of our division thus I see no reason to suddenly jump off the bandwagon. I am on and I like what we are seeing. If Rask hadn;t stopped that crazy save on Dylan in the 1st things may have gone differently. Either way it's all good...they keep improving and showing that what we've seen is no fluke. Gives hope and hope is a really good thing about now considering we had none just a while back before DG...

kinda need to score to have a chance at winning

[Doohickie]

8 hours ago, Broken Ankles said:

This was a horrible idea. 

On the plus side, I passed my random drug screening.

[inkman]

37 minutes ago, Doohickie said:

On the plus side, I passed my random drug screening.

Sounds like there was some doubt 😀

[Doohickie]

Actually there was no screening, I was just trying to be funny. 

And to be honest I've been clean since my college years (except perhaps for the contact high from being in the upper bowl for a Pink Floyd arena concert in 1987).

[inkman]

1 minute ago, Doohickie said:

Actually there was no screening, I was just trying to be funny. 

And to be honest I've been clean since my college years (except perhaps for the contact high from being in the upper bowl for a Pink Floyd arena concert in 1987).

Sounds great.  I’ve chosen a different path. 

[Doohickie]

1 minute ago, inkman said:

Sounds great.  I’ve chosen a different path. 

I know.  😉

[Scottysabres]

6 hours ago, Broken Ankles said:

I’ll attempt to get you back on.  And by no way am I suggesting he had a good game but consider this:

4 defensive zone starts and 8 defensive zone face-off’s.  Dahlin in comparison took zero D face-offs and only 2 DZS.

Risto took 5 Ozone face-offs, Joki and Dahlin had 11 each.

Paired with a rookie playing his second game, and was caught on the ice multiple times with defenders like Joki and Bryson for extended shifts.

Miller, Bryson, and Joki all had a worse xGA for the game 5v5.  And Samuelson was extremely close.  

Multiple shifts he worked to clear the zone and exited before a forward registered a shot.  One sequence occurred at the end of the second period where the Sabres had pressure including a scoring chance with less than 20 seconds remaining.  He doesn’t get credit for being on ice for a SoG, but Bryson and Miller change (WTF - worst decision ever considering it’s the long change) and Boston’s gets two shots before Toker freezes it.  Then with 8 seconds, the Bruins win the face-off (insert  joke about the significance of this) and Bergeron almost scores to end the period. That’s three shots against. Not just shot attempts. 

In another sequence, where the Bruins score their second goal, it’s a defensive zone face-off the Sabres lose again followed by extremely poor play by Artu and Bjork to clear and then a poor save/kick in by Toker.  

He played well on the PK with almost 2 minutes on ice.  Would have played more but was in the box for a dumb penalty against.

He played 4 minutes on the PP and outside the abomination of the final 6-3, a few of the PPs looked much improved.  This against the leagues best PK.

And while I know you are carrying the proverbial cross on the Face-off crusade, the fact is losing 62% against a good team hemmed them in their own zone and allowed Boston to maintain possession throughout the game.   No stats, just observation.  On any given evening an NHL team is maybe losing 51-55% of face-offs.  Losing 34 of 55 put them behind the eight ball all night.

Six blocked shots isn’t a bad thing, as implied in the tweet.  Kinda good.  

No stats on who he was on the ice with, but it seemed liked 3/4 lines.  Asplund, Bjork, and Sheahan did not have good games. 

A few random thoughts why “underlying” stats can be deceptive.

 

The Bruins are constantly moving in the O zone, repositioning themselves and not just gliding but their legs are in constant motion, creating open players in various places in the O zone.

Now, contrast that with the Sabres, who almost always are caught standing still, or lightly gliding with little leg motion. They create less space in doing so, making it much easier for the Bruins to apply pressure to the puck carrier.

This happens with most Sabres opponents, game in and game out. When they move, they create, when they don't move they turn over the puck, again, in most cases. They are getting better at movement however.

Also, when they are on a 2 v 1 or 3 v 2 situation as they rush to the O zone, they are linear in their movement in most cases, 3 abreast, that actually makes it easier for the opponent D to defend. Notice when Boston is in those rushes they usually have perpendicular movement as well as linear, creating more open space.

The Sabres have speed, if they can learn to utilize that speed to create consistent open space, as their opponents do, I surmise their shot attempts in danger areas and their GF% will increase dramatically, thereby altering the momentum and flow of the game.

Just my observation.

[inkman]

Just now, Doohickie said:

I know.  😉

[LGR4GM]

I always forget that Dahlin is only 10 months older than Cozens. 

[dudacek]

7 hours ago, Broken Ankles said:

I’ll attempt to get you back on.  And by no way am I suggesting he had a good game but consider this:

4 defensive zone starts and 8 defensive zone face-off’s.  Dahlin in comparison took zero D face-offs and only 2 DZS.

Risto took 5 Ozone face-offs, Joki and Dahlin had 11 each.

Paired with a rookie playing his second game, and was caught on the ice multiple times with defenders like Joki and Bryson for extended shifts.

Miller, Bryson, and Joki all had a worse xGA for the game 5v5.  And Samuelson was extremely close.  

Multiple shifts he worked to clear the zone and exited before a forward registered a shot.  One sequence occurred at the end of the second period where the Sabres had pressure including a scoring chance with less than 20 seconds remaining.  He doesn’t get credit for being on ice for a SoG, but Bryson and Miller change (WTF - worst decision ever considering it’s the long change) and Boston’s gets two shots before Toker freezes it.  Then with 8 seconds, the Bruins win the face-off (insert  joke about the significance of this) and Bergeron almost scores to end the period. That’s three shots against. Not just shot attempts. 

In another sequence, where the Bruins score their second goal, it’s a defensive zone face-off the Sabres lose again followed by extremely poor play by Artu and Bjork to clear and then a poor save/kick in by Toker.  

He played well on the PK with almost 2 minutes on ice.  Would have played more but was in the box for a dumb penalty against.

He played 4 minutes on the PP and outside the abomination of the final 6-3, a few of the PPs looked much improved.  This against the leagues best PK.

And while I know you are carrying the proverbial cross on the Face-off crusade, the fact is losing 62% against a good team hemmed them in their own zone and allowed Boston to maintain possession throughout the game.   No stats, just observation.  On any given evening an NHL team is maybe losing 51-55% of face-offs.  Losing 34 of 55 put them behind the eight ball all night.

Six blocked shots isn’t a bad thing, as implied in the tweet.  Kinda good.  

No stats on who he was on the ice with, but it seemed liked 3/4 lines.  Asplund, Bjork, and Sheahan did not have good games. 

A few random thoughts why “underlying” stats can be deceptive.

 

Thanks for taking the time. By the eye test, this is Risto's career.

Semi-related, remember how one of the reasons Corsi was touted as much better than plus/minus because it gave you a much-better sample size and removed the noise? Now people are regularly dropping period-by-period no-context charts where you were out shot-attempted 8-2 as "proof" of how bad you are.

 

1 hour ago, Scottysabres said:

The Bruins are constantly moving in the O zone, repositioning themselves and not just gliding but their legs are in constant motion, creating open players in various places in the O zone.

Now, contrast that with the Sabres, who almost always are caught standing still, or lightly gliding with little leg motion. They create less space in doing so, making it much easier for the Bruins to apply pressure to the puck carrier.

This happens with most Sabres opponents, game in and game out. When they move, they create, when they don't move they turn over the puck, again, in most cases. They are getting better at movement however.

Also, when they are on a 2 v 1 or 3 v 2 situation as they rush to the O zone, they are linear in their movement in most cases, 3 abreast, that actually makes it easier for the opponent D to defend. Notice when Boston is in those rushes they usually have perpendicular movement as well as linear, creating more open space.

The Sabres have speed, if they can learn to utilize that speed to create consistent open space, as their opponents do, I surmise their shot attempts in danger areas and their GF% will increase dramatically, thereby altering the momentum and flow of the game.

Just my observation.

Not talking about last night specifically, but don't you think constant forward motion is generally the thing the Sabres have done better systemically under Granato? it's certainly been the key to Mittelstadt's improvement.

Krueger seemed very rigid in where you had to be, making it predictable, and easier to attack and to defend.

[Scottysabres]

13 minutes ago, dudacek said:

Thanks for taking the time. By the eye test, this is Risto's career.

Semi-related, remember how one of the reasons Corsi was touted as much better than plus/minus because it gave you a much-better sample size and removed the noise? Now people are regularly dropping period-by-period no-context charts where you were out shot-attempted 8-2 as "proof" of how bad you are.

 

Not talking about last night specifically, but don't you think constant forward motion is generally the thing the Sabres have done better systemically under Granato? it's certainly been the key to Mittelstadt's improvement.

Krueger seemed very rigid in where you had to be, making it predictable, and easier to attack and to defend.

Yes.

[Drag0nDan]

22 minutes ago, dudacek said:

Thanks for taking the time. By the eye test, this is Risto's career.

Semi-related, remember how one of the reasons Corsi was touted as much better than plus/minus because it gave you a much-better sample size and removed the noise? Now people are regularly dropping period-by-period no-context charts where you were out shot-attempted 8-2 as "proof" of how bad you are.

 

Not talking about last night specifically, but don't you think constant forward motion is generally the thing the Sabres have done better systemically under Granato? it's certainly been the key to Mittelstadt's improvement.

Krueger seemed very rigid in where you had to be, making it predictable, and easier to attack and to defend.

The thing ive noticed is how much quicker dahlin,joker,bryson are when exiting the zone.  They're trying to get it out of the zone quicker instead of the constant back and forth between defensemen allowing the other team to set up.  They still get stuck and do that here and there, but trying to attack the zone with pace is better than dump and chase and cycle the wall.  

[Randall Flagg]

30 minutes ago, dudacek said:

Thanks for taking the time. By the eye test, this is Risto's career.

Semi-related, remember how one of the reasons Corsi was touted as much better than plus/minus because it gave you a much-better sample size and removed the noise? Now people are regularly dropping period-by-period no-context charts where you were out shot-attempted 8-2 as "proof" of how bad you are.

 

Not talking about last night specifically, but don't you think constant forward motion is generally the thing the Sabres have done better systemically under Granato? it's certainly been the key to Mittelstadt's improvement.

Krueger seemed very rigid in where you had to be, making it predictable, and easier to attack and to defend.

Grateful for you pointing this out. Drives me up a wall

[Drag0nDan]

50 minutes ago, Randall Flagg said:

Grateful for you pointing this out. Drives me up a wall

Expected goals is the one where I understand the concept of it, but the execution and charts they put up make no sense to me.  It still doesn't take into account d-zone starts though, or contextually what line you are playing against.  If you are countering the ovechkin line all game, its considerably different than the sheary line or something.  

[Doohickie]

1 hour ago, dudacek said:

Not talking about last night specifically, but don't you think constant forward motion is generally the thing the Sabres have done better systemically under Granato?

I thought the defensive breakouts last night were very Kruegerish:  lots of back and forth between D partners and a supporting forward before even attempting to move the puck up ice and when they finally did, Boston was in position to defend.  It almost seemed like it was by design (to counter what Boston was doing in the last game perhaps?) but it didn't work any better.  Seemed like there was little offensive pressure for much of the night, but that was due to weak breakouts originating from the Buffalo zone.

[Figster]

7 hours ago, nucci said:

kinda need to score to have a chance at winning

 Tokarski's been fun to watch IMO.   Ullmark's the man, but hey

My expectations are growing...     

[PromoTheRobot]

Bruins roll out their rookie goalie since UPL may be playing Thursday.

 

[Taro T]

On 4/20/2021 at 8:53 PM, Carmel Corn said:

Casey has made several nice feeds tonight....too bad nothing got cashed in.

Only got to watch the 1st, but that sounds suspiciously like how his games at Minnesota went.

[Taro T]

23 hours ago, Claude Balls said:

I can't even tell you what number Caggiula is. I honestly never saw him tonight.

91.  Only knew that because saw that # in one of the pregame photos & wondered wtf that was.

[thewookie1]

3 hours ago, PromoTheRobot said:

Bruins roll out their rookie goalie since UPL may be playing Thursday.

 

Well we nearly beat him last time so that's good news

[Norcal]

This pass though