GDT: Canadiens @ Sabres, 7pm 10/27/22, msg wgr

[Taro T]

Only saw the 2nd & 3rd as some truck driver heading west was having a far worse day than any of us and added over 2 hours to the commute.  But from that, my observations.

Montembeau was giving up rebounds galore but the Sabres rarely had somebody in position to capitalize.  The couple of times somebody was there, usually Skinner, they'd thrown the puck to a spot where he could actually catch it, so no rebound.

Both teams dominated for stretches but neither could capitalize on a long stretch until late when Moe-ray-all got their 3rd goal.  Dahlin had changed after a long shift but Power couldn't change and he and Bryson do not play well together.  Power made the nice play to knock the puck to the boards, but no Sabre was able to gain control of it.

Will have more on Power shortly.

Comrie is absolutely gold on low shots.  Those long legs take away the entirety of the bottom of the net.

As others have said, the PP needs to be reworked from top to bottom.  Eichel is no longer here, so HIS entry no longer works.  All that drop pass & then skate into the zone does is ensure that the other 4 guys are all standing at the blue line waiting for the puck to enter the zone so there is no support upon entry.  Having everybody but the D-man QBing & the Eichel fill in remaining stationary allows the D to stay in position & no shooting lanes are generated.  Have no idea how they can draw up a scheme that is so bad but not only have they drawn it up, they're sticking with it.

Back to Power.  For the most part he played well, he only had 1 turn the puck over on the pass rolling off his stick moment and had several nice breakout passes, but ...  on that last shift he was letting the game get too big, they FINALLY won a faceoff in their own zone & he promptly cleared it off the boards giving it right back to the Habs.  When they did gain the zone he dumped the puck into a corner 2 separate times again giving g the puck to the Habs, but ... he then had the beautiful pass to Dahlin that gave him a great opportunity to get it to OT.  He's going to be fine (better than, actually) but is still a rookie.

Would say the shots on net was indicative of how much each team dominated play.  The Sabres were outshooting them 27-14 midway through the 2nd and ended up ~27-23 through 40 minutes.  There were similar periods throughout the 3rd.  Sabres played well enough that they easily could've won it but let down enough to end up losing it.

Fix the PP & they do win this one, likely going away as the Habs took a lot of dumb penalties.

PK looked good, the 1 time they had to go to it in the final 40.

Bring on the Hawks.  

[Believer]

9 hours ago, Taro T said:

Why?  Go ask Granato.  

Rotating Asplund out was just plain dumb… Granato is a development coach his whole career… He is an NHL Head Coach now… He needs to balance the need to develop his youngsters… with winning hockey games… by putting out his best team every night…

[Taro T]

2 minutes ago, Believer said:

Rotating Asplund out was just plain dumb… Granato is a development coach his whole career… He is an NHL Head Coach now… He needs to balance the need to develop his youngsters… with winning hockey games… by putting out his best team every night…

And who is disputing that?

Making an observation of what is happening is not the same as an endorsement of it.

[LGR4GM]

Tage Thompson looked good last night. A couple of minor things but he had 8 shots and just seemed to get unlucky. He was carrying plays and making passes and setting himself up for opportunities, it is the first time this year I have felt like "yea he's good". 

[Taro T]

2 minutes ago, LGR4GM said:

Tage Thompson looked good last night. A couple of minor things but he had 8 shots and just seemed to get unlucky. He was carrying plays and making passes and setting himself up for opportunities, it is the first time this year I have felt like "yea he's good". 

Most everybody had moments where they looked good including the board's favorite whipping boys.  Problem was, even when they were hemming Moe-ray-all in their zone, there was a disconnectedness to it.  They rarely could generate a flurry of rebounds from the 1st shot.  And at the other end, though they didn't give up many high danger chances, they broke down just enough to let the Habs convert on 1 more opportunity than they did.

[WhenWillItEnd66]

6 minutes ago, Taro T said:

Most everybody had moments where they looked good including the board's favorite whipping boys.  Problem was, even when they were hemming Moe-ray-all in their zone, there was a disconnectedness to it.  They rarely could generate a flurry of rebounds from the 1st shot.  And at the other end, though they didn't give up many high danger chances, they broke down just enough to let the Habs convert on 1 more opportunity than they did.

That's because we are back to "Scared to go in front of the net" Sabres. We have needed that for a long time. 

[LGR4GM]

17 minutes ago, NJhopelessSabresfan66 said:

That's because we are back to "Scared to go in front of the net" Sabres. We have needed that for a long time. 

Quotes from post game all acknowledged this and Cozens I believe basically said this exact thing. 

[Scottysabres]

12 hours ago, LGR4GM said:

Lol what cliche nonsense

Are you saying the score wasn't Montreal 3, Buffalo 2, in regulation?

The fact is, yes fact, Montreal capitalized on their chances 3 times, Buffalo only 2. Yes. That is fact, the scoreboard says so and the video of the game backs that up.

Now, you can point out the Sabres outplayed the Habs for large stretches of the game, but the scoreboard says when it comes to "Finishing", i.e. actually putting the puck in the opponents net, Montreal wanted it more. And Montreals play at the end of the game, the last 2 minutes, cemented that fact given they gave Buffalo near nothing to pull the goalie to try and set up a game tying goal.

Edited October 28, 2022 by Scottysabres

[WhenWillItEnd66]

6 minutes ago, LGR4GM said:

Quotes from post game all acknowledged this and Cozens I believe basically said this exact thing. 

That's great they all acknowledge it, now let us try something new and actually do it. 😁 Or, lets find someone that we can pick up or trade for that makes his mark in front of the net. Hell, let us find one for every line while we are at it. Sorry, this story of no net presence is getting old. Can we bring back Andreychuk?

Edited October 28, 2022 by NJhopelessSabresfan66

[Scottysabres]

38 minutes ago, LGR4GM said:

Tage Thompson looked good last night. A couple of minor things but he had 8 shots and just seemed to get unlucky. He was carrying plays and making passes and setting himself up for opportunities, it is the first time this year I have felt like "yea he's good". 

Speaking of "cliche's". This one is an infamous excuse cliche.

No such thing as "luck".

You either do, or you do not. Thompson did not. Luck had nothing to do with it.

Edited October 28, 2022 by Scottysabres

[LGR4GM]

11 minutes ago, Scottysabres said:

Speaking of "cliche's". This one is an infamous excuse cliche.

No such thing as "luck".

You either do, or you do not. Thompson did not. Luck had nothing to with it.

k

[Pimlach]

12 hours ago, Richard Noggin said:

Embarrassing also that Montreal apparently had home ice advantage on the road.

Sounded like the Habs were the home team on their 3rd goal.   The 100 level was 90% Montreal jerseys. 

12 hours ago, #freejame said:

Were you expecting otherwise? Cheaper than going to a home game. 

Yes.  I am expecting a bigger home crowd after a 3-1 west coast trip. I was expecting a bigger Sabres crowd and a win. 

12 hours ago, jad1 said:

Fanbase is not buying into the direction of the team.  Franchise is losing a generation of fans.  

Agree. The younger fans have never seen a good product.  The amount of Star players is embarrassingly low since Hasek era teams.  The older fans probably prefer to watch it on TV. 
 

 

[nucci]

1 hour ago, Sabres Fan in NS said:

Dahlin needs his Mule and Power needs his Lube Man.

gotta be a better way to say that

[Taro T]

10 minutes ago, Pimlach said:

Sounded like the Habs were the home team on their 3rd goal.   The 100 level was 90% Montreal jerseys. 

Yes.  I am expecting a bigger home crowd after a 3-1 west coast trip. I was expecting a bigger Sabres crowd and a win. 

Agree. The younger fans have never seen a good product.  The amount of Star players is embarrassingly low since Hasek era teams.  The older fans probably prefer to watch it on TV. 
 

 

The 100 level was 50% Habs sweaters, but that's still more than 45% more than it should be.

[Sabres Fan in NS]

10 minutes ago, nucci said:

gotta be a better way to say that

I don't think so.

I was trained by the best (Inky).  Am I right @inkman ??

[shrader]

6 minutes ago, Taro T said:

The 100 level was 50% Habs sweaters, but that's still more than 45% more than it should be.

Do they need to consider going Regis-style and papering the crowd a bit?

[Taro T]

1 minute ago, shrader said:

Do they need to consider going Regis-style and papering the crowd a bit?

Can you translate that into English, please?

[shrader]

6 minutes ago, Taro T said:

Can you translate that into English, please?

Pump up attendance a bit by giving away some tickets.

[mjd1001]

Again I watched the game and didn't get a chance to look at all the goals until this morning, some thoughts on the goals allowed:

1st MTL goal:  Bad luck, off of Power's skate, can't see a direct breakdown.  If you are looking for something that went wrong there, It would be 80% Peterka and 20% Cozens.  Puck went to the boards, and Peterka couldn't control it or clear it (the lack of a play he made was similar to the battle Krebs lost that caused the first goal of the season).  Cozens was skating toward that battle, but he turned away at the last minute.   Peterka is playing great so far this year, but him and Krebs are losing battles on the boards that are causing goals against/scoring opportunities against.  There are always small breakdown on every play, you can point to 5 or more things that cause a goal against if you go back far enough, but the young wingers losing battles on the boards (again, mostly Krebs and Peterka) are becoming a bigger issue.

2nd MTL goal:  This looks to possibly be on positioning Tuch, MAYBE a little on Power. 1 MTL player in front of the net and he was covered by both Sabres D-men.  Dahline collapsed to the middle of the ice when the puck went to the left (Power's side) so maybe Power could have came out from the net quicker than he did.  The bigger issue was one of the Forwards needs to come out to cover that D-man on the shot and it looked to be on Tuch's side.  Even though the front of the net was covered by both D...all 3 of the forwards were drifting lower in the zone, AND they were all covering the center of the ice.  I have no idea why the wingers were bunched up so close to the center, all 3 forwards at times were touching each other and running into each other.  Those wingers have to spread out to the wings more, so this one appears to be on Tuch. (BTW, if you look at the entire replay, it looks like Tage is playing the Defensive zone right side, with Mitts as the center, and Tuch on the left.  So while the goal happened on Tuch's side, Tage drifted to the center of the ice when he probably should have been a bit more to the right. Mitts looked to be the only forward in the correct position at the time of the goal.)  

This is really a complex goal. In Tuch's defense, he needed to shadow Savard to not allow him a wide open shot.  So that might be why he stayed in the center, taking away an open shot...So maybe Tuch had to make a decision, to cover the puck or cover his side. That would normally be Mitts guy, but Mitts was tied up with another forward crashing toward the center of the net. I still want Tuch a little farther to the outside. That is where you would maybe HOPE when Dahlin came to the front of the net to cover that area, Power could have gone out farther to at least pressure the shot by Guhle.  All in all, it was good puck movement by Montreal, the best way to prevent that goal was if the Sabres got the puck out of the zone quicker.

3rd MTL goal:  This one again might be Tuch. I don't know how long that line was on the ice, but it was the Tuch-Tage line again that was too far down low (almost like the forwards don't trust the defense and are going to deep in the zone to support the defense). Skinner actually plays his side well. When the puck goes back to the MTL D-man on his side, he skates out there very quickly to put pressure on the guy. But when he flips the puck over to the other side (Tuch's side), Tuch is very deep in the zone and he never even gets close to the shooter.  I'm not quite sure why, but Tuch always goes back deep into the D-zone, but the bigger issue is when the opposing team gains control, he wants to defend in the middle of the ice (not his side) and he tends to collapse toward the net, and not get out to his wing to challenge the shooter.   I haven't seen that from him where it caused a problem in any game before tonight, but it was a primary factor in 2 of the Montreal goals last night.

 

 

 

Edited October 28, 2022 by mjd1001

[Taro T]

9 minutes ago, shrader said:

Pump up attendance a bit by giving away some tickets.

That would goose attendance.

The concerns though would be, if they start giving tix out very cheaply do they alienate the STHer base who are supposed to be getting the seats in their section at the cheapest price available?  And, would the other teams & the PA even let them do so?  With ticket sales from the past couple of years being as low as they are, they have to be a revenue sharing recipient.  Does that go away if average ticket price goes down?  (Haven't looked at what the MOU says about team revenue sharing rule revisions.)

But would having cheap tix available just mean more visiting fans could attend more cheaply as the 2ndary market now has many more lower priced seats?

 

[SwampD]

29 minutes ago, mjd1001 said:

Again I watched the game and didn't get a chance to look at all the goals until this morning, some thoughts on the goals allowed:

1st MTL goal:  Bad luck, off of Power's skate, can't see a direct breakdown.  If you are looking for something that went wrong there, It would be 80% Peterka and 20% Cozens.  Puck went to the boards, and Peterka couldn't control it or clear it (the lack of a play he made was similar to the battle Krebs lost that caused the first goal of the season).  Cozens was skating toward that battle, but he turned away at the last minute.   Peterka is playing great so far this year, but him and Krebs are losing battles on the boards that are causing goals against/scoring opportunities against.

2nd MTL goal:  This looks to be on Tuch, MAYBE a little on Power. 1 MTL player in front of the net and he was covered by both Sabres D-men.  Dahline collapsed to the middle of the ice when the puck went to the left (Power's side) so maybe Power could have came out from the net quicker than he did.  The bigger issue was one of the Forwards needs to come out to cover that D-man on the shot and it looked to be on Tuch's side.  Even though the front of the net was covered by both D...all 3 of the forwards were drifting lower in the zone, AND they were all covering the center of the ice.  I have no idea why the wingers were bunched up so close to the center, all 3 forwards at times were touching each other and running into each other.  Those wingers have to spread out to the wings more, so this one appears to be on Tuch. (BTW, if you look at the entire replay, it looks like Tage is playing the Defensive zone right side, with Mitts as the center, and Tuch on the left.  So while the goal happened on Tuch's side, Tage drifted to the center of the ice when he probably should have been a bit more to the right. Mitts looked to be the only forward in the correct position at the time of the goal.)  

This is really a complex goal. In Tuch's defense, he needed to shadow Savard to not allow him a wide open shot.  So that might be why he stayed in the center, taking away an open shot. That would normally be Mitts guy, but Mitts was tied up with another forward crashing toward the center of the net. I still want Tuch a little farther to the outside. That is where you would maybe HOPE when Dahlin came to the front of the net to cover that area, Power could have gone out farther to at least pressure the shot by Guhle.  All in all, it was good puck movement by Montreal, the best way to prevent that goal was if the Sabres got the puck out of the zone quicker.

3rd MTL goal:  This one again might be Tuch. I don't know how long that line was on the ice, but it was the Tuch-Tage line again that was too far down low (almost like the forwards don't trust the defense and are going to deep in the zone to support the defense). Skinner actually plays his side well. When the puck goes back to the MTL D-man on his side, he skates out there very quickly to put pressure on the guy. But when the flips the puck over to the other side (Tuch's side), Tuch is very deep in the zone and he never even gets close to the shooter.  I'm not quite sure why, but Tuch always goes back deep into the D-zone, but the bigger issue is when the opposing team gains control, he wants to defend in the middle of the ice (not his side) and he tends to collapse toward the net, and not get out to his wing to challenge the shooter.   I haven't seen that from him where it caused a problem in any game before tonight, but it was a primary factor in 2 of the Montreal goals last night.

 

 

 

First goal was not bad luck. It was lack of effort. Both D stopped trying because they thought it was icing. Montreal player negated icing through effort. One pass later and Power being flatfooted and it was in the back of the net.

I felt like we were outworked the entire game. Every pass was contested, mostly because there was little urgency to them. Most never even made it through the first Hab’s feet or stick. If it did get through, our guys couldn’t collect it. It was very frustrating.

Long season. Beat Chicago and Detroit and let me forget about this game.

[Taro T]

17 minutes ago, SwampD said:

First goal was not bad luck. It was lack of effort. Both D stopped trying because they thought it was icing. Montreal player negated icing through effort. One pass later and Power being flatfooted and it was in the back of the net.

I felt like we were outworked the entire game. Every pass was contested, mostly because there was little urgency to them. Most never even made it through the first Hab’s feet or stick. If it did get through, our guys couldn’t collect it. It was very frustrating.

Long season. Beat Chicago and Detroit and let me forget about this game.

If they were outworked the entire game, how do you account for the 44 shots they took?

[Buffalonill]

2 easy games that they  Should have handled business .

Oh well 

[JohnC]

1 hour ago, SwampD said:

First goal was not bad luck. It was lack of effort. Both D stopped trying because they thought it was icing. Montreal player negated icing through effort. One pass later and Power being flatfooted and it was in the back of the net.

I felt like we were outworked the entire game. Every pass was contested, mostly because there was little urgency to them. Most never even made it through the first Hab’s feet or stick. If it did get through, our guys couldn’t collect it. It was very frustrating.

Long season. Beat Chicago and Detroit and let me forget about this game.

Everyone has their own perception when watching a game. On balance, I thought the Sabres had an overall edge. Was it a decisive difference? I thought it was but if another observer comes to a different conclusion, I can't say they were wrong. The Sabres had more scoring chances. They just couldn't capitalize on them. I thought both goalies played well. The difference in this game for me was that there were not enough players in the low (dirty) area when the puck was being scrambled for around the other team's net. 

The goal that went off Power was a quirky goal. The goalie made the stop, and it then ricocheted off of the defenseman who was in a good position to support his goalie. That's simply hockey! There were some positive takeaways in this game. The main one is the solid play of Comrie, and the second was the obvious value of Samuelsson. Not having him made a big difference. 

 

[Taro T]

18 minutes ago, JohnC said:

Everyone has their own perception when watching a game. On balance, I thought the Sabres had an overall edge. Was it a decisive difference? I thought it was but if another observer comes to a different conclusion, I can't say they were wrong. The Sabres had more scoring chances. They just couldn't capitalize on them. I thought both goalies played well. The difference in this game for me was that there were not enough players in the low (dirty) area when the puck was being scrambled for around the other team's net. 

The goal that went off Power was a quirky goal. The goalie made the stop, and it then ricocheted off of the defenseman who was in a good position to support his goalie. That's simply hockey! There were some positive takeaways in this game. The main one is the solid play of Comrie, and the second was the obvious value of Samuelsson. Not having him made a big difference. 

 

Guess it's a good thing he got locked up for 7 more years when he did.