Hot Starts to the Season

[Porous Five Hole]

The Sabres started 3-0 last year, and 4-1-1. 
The Sabres started 8-1-1 in 2019. 
The Sabres started 17-6-2 in 2018. 
 

We all know how things turned out. 
 

While winning the first two out of three might not be a hot start just yet, does it not feel like things may be different this year?

There is growth of the young core, there is Dahlin solidifying himself as a D1, there is outstanding goaltending to steal a win, and there may be belief among the team that the Sabres of March/April 2022 are the real Sabres. 
 

Is this the start of something special? I think so.
Or is this just my overreaction to Eric Comrie playing out of his mind tonight and my hopium bucket runneth over?

Call your shot. How good are these guys?

Edited October 19, 2022 by Porous Five Hole

[Huckleberry]

Just need to avoid that December slump.

[SDS]

The two goaltending performances are not sustainable. Not sure what you mean by different. 

[aristocrat]

Need to stay healthy

[Porous Five Hole]

23 minutes ago, SDS said:

The two goaltending performances are not sustainable. Not sure what you mean by different. 

By different I mean that the core may have grown up some during the end of last year.  This may be a better hockey team compared to previous good early results. Or maybe it is just a couple of goalies playing out of their mind so far. What do you think?

[Stads]

Way too small of a sample size but it is encouraging. I agree with SDS that the goaltending in the two wins are anomalies. The constant odd man rushes will eventually bite us in the posterior

[Curt]

I think that they need to play a game where they actually outplay the opponent.  I still think this team will be better than last season (80+ points), but I doubt they are drastically better.

[Flashsabre]

Starting 17-6-2 and not making the playoffs is still so impressive.🤪

[Drag0nDan]

Its early - everyones healthy still.  And there are a few differences

• Last season we ended up having to use scrubs at goalie by mid-season. Dell, Subban, Tokarski, Houser started 42 total.  
• Some bad hockey players played... a LOT. Hayden Played 55 games. Eakin Played 69 games. Butcher played 37 games. Bjork played 58 games
• Eichel cloud hanging over their heads - they seemed to be a much different team upon adding Tuch and Krebs and dumping the "captain"

 

[bob_sauve28]

I remember how Hutton was fresh and ready to go early in his last decent season and then just fell off a cliff...hard! 

 

I could see that happening to Anderson if we play him too much so its good we have options 

[Weave]

9 hours ago, SDS said:

The two goaltending performances are not sustainable. Not sure what you mean by different. 

It’s not.  And winning when you are outplayed for the majority of the game isn’t sustainable either.

There is some irrational exuberance on display.  Needs tempering. There will be snap back if play doesn’t improve overall.

[GASabresIUFAN]

Lets see where we are after 10 games.  In those games we play (or have played) 4 playoff teams from last year (Edm, Cgy, Fla and Pitt), two teams viewed as significantly improved (Ott and Det) and 4 teams we should be able to beat on paper (Chi, Mon, Sea and Van).  

I think that schedule is a pretty good sample for what we will face this season.  If we are say 6-3-1, I think there is reason for optimism for the rest of the season.

That said two wins when being outplayed most of the game is not sustainable.  On the positive, most of the sustained pressure in our zone in the 3rd of both games came from teams pressing because they were down on the score board.  However, in both contests we went into a shell much much to quickly.

Honestly this should improve over the course of the season.  This is a very young team still learning to win.  

[Pimlach]

6 hours ago, Curt said:

I think that they need to play a game where they actually outplay the opponent.  I still think this team will be better than last season (80+ points), but I doubt they are drastically better.

Yes.  It’s a long season.  The good teams get even better by December.   DG has a big job managing several rookies and a very young team.  
 

Avoiding the long losing streaks of past seasons is going to be needed to hit 90 points.  If Comrie is real and consistent,  and Anderson holds up, and the rookies show steady improvement,  and the veterans play like last year, and we avoid major injuries … then we will take a nice step forward, even if we miss the playoffs. 

[PromoTheRobot]

11 hours ago, Porous Five Hole said:

The Sabres started 3-0 last year, and 4-1-1. 
The Sabres started 8-1-1 in 2019. 
The Sabres started 17-6-2 in 2018. 
 

We all know how things turned out. 

Yes. We lost our 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, and 5th sting goalies to injury. But when we got heathy in March and April we went 16-9-3, .625pts%.

11 hours ago, Huckleberry said:

Just need to avoid that December slump.

We need to avoid injuries.

[Weave]

11 minutes ago, Pimlach said:

Yes.  It’s a long season.  The good teams get even better by December.   DG has a big job managing several rookies and a very young team.  
 

 

Thanksgiving.  The league is tightened up and we know where our team stands relative to the contenders by Thanksgiving.  

[RochesterExpat]

First 10 games are teams finding footing and basically an extended preseason. By Thanksgiving we've got a pretty good picture of where teams really belong. By Christmas the media is already deciding which players to sell or buy at the trade deadline.

[Mustache of God]

Things are different this year. This November, instead of cooling off we'll be throwing on the ***** GOATHEADS which will give them them extra motivation and they won't fall off a cliff this year.

[Taro T]

23 minutes ago, Pimlach said:

Yes.  It’s a long season.  The good teams get even better by December.   DG has a big job managing several rookies and a very young team.  
 

Avoiding the long losing streaks of past seasons is going to be needed to hit 90 points.  If Comrie is real and consistent,  and Anderson holds up, and the rookies show steady improvement,  and the veterans play like last year, and we avoid major injuries … then we will take a nice step forward, even if we miss the playoffs. 

Don't know that Peterka can improve much over what he's done so far. 😉  We need him to keep that up.

Power seemed much more comfortable out there last night.  (And in the 3rd against Florida playing w/ Samuelsson.)  He really seems to be the type that once he finally has a good shift settles in and doesn't look back.  Hoping that's the case.  Expect it will be.  Tomorrow night will be a good follow-on test.

Quinn definitely has room for improvement.  Didn't expect him to look as overmatched as he has.  He didn't seem overmatched in his 2 games last year.  He'll get better, how much is the Q.

Don't believe Krebs still qualifies as a rookie, but will include him.  There's a lot to like about his game.  Just need him to learn what passes can actually get through & when he has a good enough scoring chance to actually shoot.  Once he gets those down, he should be fun to watch.

Have enjoyed watching them play these 3.  Expect that'll hold.

No idea which rookies/potential rookies get callups, but we know there'll be some & yes, they will need to improve from game to game.

The light at the end of the tunnel might finally not be a freight train.

[Mustache of God]

If we want to have a hot start this year they have to address the Power Play. I know they technically scored a PP goal yesterday, but that was a 4-3. The 5-4 performance has been godawful. I have no idea why VO isn't on PP1. They should have Tage on the opposite side of him and have Dahlin work the puck and feed them both one-timers.

[WhenWillItEnd66]

13 hours ago, SDS said:

The two goaltending performances are not sustainable. Not sure what you mean by different. 

This times 1000!!! The Sabres cannot afford to be so lax on defense and play 2/3 of the game running around in their own end. We are starting this season with some rough teams, hope they learn and figure it out and fix quickly. Just think of how much better the goaltenders would be facing 10 less high quality shots a game!

[Taro T]

2 hours ago, NJhopelessSabresfan66 said:

This times 1000!!! The Sabres cannot afford to be so lax on defense and play 2/3 of the game running around in their own end. We are starting this season with some rough teams, hope they learn and figure it out and fix quickly. Just think of how much better the goaltenders would be facing 10 less high quality shots a game!

1st game both teams had a hard time staying on their skates & all passes regardless of circumstances were seemingly all high danger.

Last 2 games were against 2 of the best 4 offenses (IMHO) in the NHL.  And tomorrow's game with be against another really good team that pummeled Granato's Sabres last year on at least one occassion.

If they still are giving up crazy scoring chances in games 5-9, THEN will agree they have a problem.  But having 4 points right now outweighs the gaffes in game 1 & the being outplayed in games 2&3 by teams that, on paper, should be outplaying them.

[Doohickie]

23 hours ago, Porous Five Hole said:

The Sabres started 3-0 last year, and 4-1-1. 
The Sabres started 8-1-1 in 2019. 
The Sabres started 17-6-2 in 2018. 
 

We all know how things turned out. 
 

While winning the first two out of three might not be a hot start just yet, does it not feel like things may be different this year?

There is growth of the young core, there is Dahlin solidifying himself as a D1, there is outstanding goaltending to steal a win, and there may be belief among the team that the Sabres of March/April 2022 are the real Sabres. 
 

Is this the start of something special? I think so.
Or is this just my overreaction to Eric Comrie playing out of his mind tonight and my hopium bucket runneth over?

Call your shot. How good are these guys?

Still too early.  It's the hopium.

[PerreaultForever]

22 hours ago, aristocrat said:

Need to stay healthy

This is it. There's virtually no depth to this roster. Any number of injuries to any one position will undo whatever they have going. 

[LGR4GM]

11 hours ago, Taro T said:

1st game both teams had a hard time staying on their skates & all passes regardless of circumstances were seemingly all high danger.

Last 2 games were against 2 of the best 4 offenses (IMHO) in the NHL.  And tomorrow's game with be against another really good team that pummeled Granato's Sabres last year on at least one occassion.

If they still are giving up crazy scoring chances in games 5-9, THEN will agree they have a problem.  But having 4 points right now outweighs the gaffes in game 1 & the being outplayed in games 2&3 by teams that, on paper, should be outplaying them.

I worry about tonight's game. 

Still, they need to fix their defense issues and get more lines working. We can't only score on the rush and need a better cycle game. 

[matter2003]

On 10/19/2022 at 12:45 AM, Porous Five Hole said:

The Sabres started 3-0 last year, and 4-1-1. 
The Sabres started 8-1-1 in 2019. 
The Sabres started 17-6-2 in 2018. 
 

We all know how things turned out. 
 

While winning the first two out of three might not be a hot start just yet, does it not feel like things may be different this year?

There is growth of the young core, there is Dahlin solidifying himself as a D1, there is outstanding goaltending to steal a win, and there may be belief among the team that the Sabres of March/April 2022 are the real Sabres. 
 

Is this the start of something special? I think so.
Or is this just my overreaction to Eric Comrie playing out of his mind tonight and my hopium bucket runneth over?

Call your shot. How good are these guys?

The best thing two things for me is their defensive zone coverage which I think is light-years ahead of any time in the last decade and the goaltending.

I expect Comrie to come back to earth a little but still be really good. His metrics say he was a really good goalie last year not lucky. Played on a team very similar to ours in terms of giving up a lot of shots and similar types of shots.

15 hours ago, Taro T said:

1st game both teams had a hard time staying on their skates & all passes regardless of circumstances were seemingly all high danger.

Last 2 games were against 2 of the best 4 offenses (IMHO) in the NHL.  And tomorrow's game with be against another really good team that pummeled Granato's Sabres last year on at least one occassion.

If they still are giving up crazy scoring chances in games 5-9, THEN will agree they have a problem.  But having 4 points right now outweighs the gaffes in game 1 & the being outplayed in games 2&3 by teams that, on paper, should be outplaying them.

Calgary should not be quite as good after losing Gadreau(sp?) and Tkachuk