GDT: Sabres @ Panthers - Feb. 24, 2023, 7pm, MSG, WGR

[JohnC]

Our first line composed of Skinner/Tage/Tuch is one of the better first lines in the league. Members of that line scored all our goals against Floridia. The Tuch goal was scored on a PP. An interesting aspect of that line brought up by Harrington of the Buff News is that none of the players were home grown. They all were traded for. The point is that teams have a variety of tools to improve a team. It took a little time to witness the benefit of the trading of ROR and getting Tage in that packaged deal. Also, it is evident now when watching the play of Tuch and Krebs that the Jack trade is looking even better. And the previously howling about the crippling long-term effect of the Skinner contract has noticeably subsided. What's evident is that by trading/parlaying some assets to get back other assets a rebuild can be accelerated. When an organization makes a lot of decisions it's likely that not all of them will work out as expected. But when the preponderance of decisions do work out then the GM and his staff should be given credit. 

[Quint]

Loved, loved Owen Power's touch pass on the power play to set up Tuch's goal. He's huge, he's mature beyond his years, has excellent calm and has great smarts

[JohnC]

1 hour ago, CallawaySabres said:

They need to run Anderson into the ground the next 20 something games.

Anderson is at his best when playing sparingly. If you overwork him, he falters. The old bones simply can't handle the workload that he used to easily handle when he was younger. The coach knows what he is doing in handling his netminders. 

[PASabreFan]

1 minute ago, Quint said:

Loved, loved Owen Power's touch pass on the power play to set up Tuch's goal. He's huge, he's mature beyond his years, has excellent calm and has great smarts

And the hair...

[JohnC]

2 minutes ago, Quint said:

Loved, loved Owen Power's touch pass on the power play to set up Tuch's goal. He's huge, he's mature beyond his years, has excellent calm and has great smarts

That's an excellent summary of Power as a player. Dahlin is more dazzling as a player. So it's easy to notice him when he is on the ice. But there is an efficiency to Power's game that sometimes results in his contribution being overlooked. 

[CallawaySabres]

15 minutes ago, JohnC said:

Anderson is at his best when playing sparingly. If you overwork him, he falters. The old bones simply can't handle the workload that he used to easily handle when he was younger. The coach knows what he is doing in handling his netminders. 

During post game interview last night, Anderson said you had to earn your ice time. He is ready for more games..

[Pimlach]

33 minutes ago, PASabreFan said:

"Buffalo, how do you like them now?"

I'm sure a bunch of posters here don't think Dan was talking to them.

Oh.   I don’t pay that close attention to his messaging.   I don’t see that comment as insulting or poking fans, but more as a comment that they are finally getting somewhere. 

I watch ESPN+ so when the games ends and they go to commercials I switch to the opponents feed, the Sabres do not show their post game show on ESPN+.   The Tampa and Florida post game guys were all very much up on the Sabres progress. 

Dave Andreychuck does Tampa’s show.   Last night Ed Jovanowski was on in Florida, he said he talked to Rob Ray before the game, he seemed to know a lot about the Sabres and he was very complimentary towards Adams and Granato for getting things back on track in Buffalo.  

We are talking about an NHL Historical amount of losing and suffering for this fan base and a lot NHL Insiders around the league seem to like seeing it hopefully come to an end. 

[Pimlach]

32 minutes ago, JohnC said:

Our first line composed of Skinner/Tage/Tuch is one of the better first lines in the league. Members of that line scored all our goals against Floridia. The Tuch goal was scored on a PP. An interesting aspect of that line brought up by Harrington of the Buff News is that none of the players were home grown. They all were traded for. The point is that teams have a variety of tools to improve a team. It took a little time to witness the benefit of the trading of ROR and getting Tage in that packaged deal. Also, it is evident now when watching the play of Tuch and Krebs that the Jack trade is looking even better. And the previously howling about the crippling long-term effect of the Skinner contract has noticeably subsided. What's evident is that by trading/parlaying some assets to get back other assets a rebuild can be accelerated. When an organization makes a lot of decisions it's likely that not all of them will work out as expected. But when the preponderance of decisions do work out then the GM and his staff should be given credit. 

In this case multiple GMs.  

Skinner was brought  in by JBot, who also signed him to that big and questionable contract. 
Tage was brought in by JBot, who had no plan on how to develop him. 
Tuch was a key piece in the Eichel trade, brought in by Adams. 

Adam’s knew how to develop Tage but it is Granato that gets the most credit.  Granato put them together and switched Tage to center, he rehabilitated Skinner, and he helped make Tuch reach new heights.  

Granato seems to know how to bring out the most in players.  

[Night Train]

 It's getting better. No denying.

 Yet if Cromrie or UPL were playing last night, we'd probably be singing a different tune. There was plenty of good luck in the first period with Florida missing a dunk shot and 2 posts. Then Anderson played out of his mind the last 2 periods. Lots of giveaways and poor D play at times. Cromrie and UPL cannot overcome that most nights. 

 Who's in net Sunday afternoon ?  Can they not tighten up at home for once ? 

[JohnC]

1 minute ago, Pimlach said:

In this case multiple GMs.  

Skinner was brought  in by JBot, who also signed him to that big and questionable contract. 
Tage was brought in by JBot, who had no plan on how to develop him. 
Tuch was a key piece in the Eichel trade, brought in by Adams. 

Adam’s knew how to develop Tage but it is Granato that gets the most credit.  Granato put them together and switched Tage to center, he rehabilitated Skinner, and he helped make Tuch reach new heights.  

Granato seems to know how to bring out the most in players.  

I agree with you that multiple GMs were involved in trades to rework the roster. My basic point is that if you are judicious, you can parlay some of your asset to reshape your roster to make it better. Another point should be made. When players want out, such as Jack and ROR, that doesn't mean that you can't use that disgruntlement situation to reconstitute the roster with players who want to be part of the future. I'm not criticizing the players who want out. The organization simply has to adjust to the situation. It happens everywhere, and in all sports. Especially with the Jack trade I feel the GM rebounded very well, if not to the betterment. 

[K-9]

2 hours ago, matter2003 said:

In that game Winnipeg literally could not get in the Sabres zone without being swarmed by 2 or 3 players and turning the puck over. They looked like a pee wee team.

The 2nd period (I think it was the 2nd) of that game was probably our best period of hockey since the Briere/Drury days. It was stunning and coming against a good team made it all the better. 

[shrader]

54 minutes ago, JohnC said:

Our first line composed of Skinner/Tage/Tuch is one of the better first lines in the league. 

91 goals so far. I bet you’d have to go all the way back to Mogilny’s 76 goal year to find a Sabre line with more combined goals. 
 

LaFontaine had 53 of his own, so good luck catching them. 

[OverPowerYou]

9 minutes ago, K-9 said:

The 2nd period (I think it was the 2nd) of that game was probably our best period of hockey since the Briere/Drury days. It was stunning and coming against a good team made it all the better. 

What will we call these days in 10 years from now, the Thompson/Tuch days?

[JohnC]

1 minute ago, shrader said:

91 goals so far. I bet you’d have to go all the way back to Mogilny’s 76 goal year to find a Sabre line with more combined goals. 
 

LaFontaine had 53 of his own, so good luck catching them. 

It's not out of the realm of possibility that Tage could get 50 goals or more this season. 

[shrader]

2 minutes ago, JohnC said:

It's not out of the realm of possibility that Tage could get 50 goals or more this season. 

60 is still a possibility. The way he puts up multi-goal games, I won’t rule that out yet. 

[Peter]

I was fortunate to be at the game. I have not had a chance to read most of the comments in this thread. 

A few observations:

- It was great to see and meet a lot of Sabres fans at the game;

- The way the Sabres break out of our zone is one of the most impressive aspects of the game (especially compared to how we could not seem to do that effectively and consistently for so many years prior to DG);

- I was worried that the Sabres would have trouble on the back end of this road back-to-back against two tough teams especially after the emotional overtime win against Tampa Bay AND the Panthers having four days rest. The Sabres did not seem to have any issue in this regard. They played with a lot of energy and as Ed Jovanovski said in the Panthers post game show, the Sabres played an excellent road game.

Great wins against the Panthers and Lightning. Well done.

Edited February 25, 2023 by Peter

[K-9]

4 minutes ago, OverPowerYou said:

What will we call these days in 10 years from now, the Thompson/Tuch days?

If we are, then that most likely means something great happened so I hope that’s the case.

[Ctaeth]

Kings of Florida!

[Taro T]

26 minutes ago, Night Train said:

 It's getting better. No denying.

 Yet if Cromrie or UPL were playing last night, we'd probably be singing a different tune. There was plenty of good luck in the first period with Florida missing a dunk shot and 2 posts. Then Anderson played out of his mind the last 2 periods. Lots of giveaways and poor D play at times. Cromrie and UPL cannot overcome that most nights. 

 Who's in net Sunday afternoon ?  Can they not tighten up at home for once ? 

Granato and Bales seem to have a good feel for the pulse of the goalie room for the most part.  Each of the goalies have won games that "the other 2 wouldn't have won that one."

And when there has been one that seems to be at a downstretch, there's at least 1 that is playing "good enough" to give the team a chance to win.  There have been very few TO games where the goalie didn't give them a chance to compete.

Don't have a good feel for who gets the go Sunday.  A case can be made for all 3 and also against all 3.  Personally, would run with Comrie Sunday and then Anderson against the BJs.

[dudacek]

1 hour ago, JohnC said:

Anderson is at his best when playing sparingly. If you overwork him, he falters. The old bones simply can't handle the workload that he used to easily handle when he was younger. The coach knows what he is doing in handling his netminders. 

We've been told this. It might be true.

But do we know it?

 

1 hour ago, CallawaySabres said:

During post game interview last night, Anderson said you had to earn your ice time. He is ready for more games..

You've got to go back to the 8-game losing streak to find the last time he was being used like more than a backup.

He lost 3 times in 5 days: .900, .844, .933 SV%, the latter was over 25 minutes in relief of Comrie. There were two games over 4 nights in late November, both of them over .930. And then .944 and .981 this week against the Leafs and the Panthers.

Might be time to give it a shot.

 

Edited February 25, 2023 by dudacek

[nucci]

1 hour ago, Pimlach said:

Oh.   I don’t pay that close attention to his messaging.   I don’t see that comment as insulting or poking fans, but more as a comment that they are finally getting somewhere. 

I watch ESPN+ so when the games ends and they go to commercials I switch to the opponents feed, the Sabres do not show their post game show on ESPN+.   The Tampa and Florida post game guys were all very much up on the Sabres progress. 

Dave Andreychuck does Tampa’s show.   Last night Ed Jovanowski was on in Florida, he said he talked to Rob Ray before the game, he seemed to know a lot about the Sabres and he was very complimentary towards Adams and Granato for getting things back on track in Buffalo.  

We are talking about an NHL Historical amount of losing and suffering for this fan base and a lot NHL Insiders around the league seem to like seeing it hopefully come to an end. 

Agree, I watched both feeds. Can't do Ray and Dunleavy anymore. Both crews praised the Sabre throughout. Impressed by speed and puck control in offensive zone

[PromoTheRobot]

41 minutes ago, K-9 said:

The 2nd period (I think it was the 2nd) of that game was probably our best period of hockey since the Briere/Drury days. It was stunning and coming against a good team made it all the better. 

Part of that was Florida looking disinterested/demoralized. They weren't giving full effort.

[Taro T]

10 minutes ago, dudacek said:

We've been told this. It might be true.

But do we know it?

 

You've got to go back to the 8-game losing streak to find the last time he was being used like more than a backup.

He lost 3 times in 5 days: .900, .844, .933 SV%, the latter was over 25 minutes in relief of Comrie. There were two games over 4 nights in late November, both of them over .930. And then .944 and .981 this week against the Leafs and the Panthers.

Might be time to give it a shot.

 

He may have found a second wind.  If so, trust that Bales will recognize it and set up the rotation accordingly.  But he was struggling from January through the AS break for the most part.  (The Dallas game being the notable exception.)

[Pimlach]

50 minutes ago, Night Train said:

 It's getting better. No denying.

 Yet if Cromrie or UPL were playing last night, we'd probably be singing a different tune. There was plenty of good luck in the first period with Florida missing a dunk shot and 2 posts. Then Anderson played out of his mind the last 2 periods. Lots of giveaways and poor D play at times. Cromrie and UPL cannot overcome that most nights. 

 Who's in net Sunday afternoon ?  Can they not tighten up at home for once ? 

[nucci]

59 minutes ago, Night Train said:

 It's getting better. No denying.

 Yet if Cromrie or UPL were playing last night, we'd probably be singing a different tune. There was plenty of good luck in the first period with Florida missing a dunk shot and 2 posts. Then Anderson played out of his mind the last 2 periods. Lots of giveaways and poor D play at times. Cromrie and UPL cannot overcome that most nights. 

 Who's in net Sunday afternoon ?  Can they not tighten up at home for once ? 

but they weren't. Using "what if" is a weak argument and irrelevant

Edited February 25, 2023 by nucci