Are we wrong about the Defense?

[Pimlach]

2 hours ago, JoeSchmoe said:

The D was bad. UPL was worse. If we had Reimer level play in net all season this discussion would be vastly different.

Not if it was Reimers first 9 games, he was not very good until he started playing games at the end of the season that didn't matter.   Like UPL, he played poorly and he played good. 

UPL had one very good stretch and couldn't maintain it, when he started his slide the overall team defense was terrible too.  UPL eventually looked like a bad backup out there.  

Fix the defense and get a goalie, its the same thing every year.  How long have I been asking for top 4 RHD?  Years upon years

[JP51]

4 hours ago, Archie Lee said:

I don’t disagree with this. Better is better. But, how much of Samuelsson and Clifton being bad is coaching and system related? How much better would they be on Dallas?  I look around the playoffs and see all kinds of d-men who were seen as journeymen, castoffs, not good enough, in some cases by the Sabres (Stecher, Klingberg, Sandin, Benoit, McCabe, Lyubushkin, Ceci, Petrovic, Collin Miller, Gostisbehere, Schmidt, Kulikov, Mikkola).  It feels a little to me like our need to improve the 4th line and then watching Okposo win a cup and Robinson and Girgensens play in the playoffs while Malenstyn, Lafferty, and Aubé-Kubel all underwhelm (to be charitable). I’m not advocating for no player changes. I’m just skeptical that the talent of the type of player we are most likely to bring in, will overcome the bad coaching and system and culture that they will encounter here. 
 

 

Exactly, put lipstick on the pig...rinse , wash, repeat.

[mjd1001]

6 hours ago, LGR4GM said:

Hi. Hello. 

I've been beating my fist on the table to change up the defense. I've argued that we need 3 new defenders and others have been very critical as well... but what if the defense isn't bad, it's just the goaltending was truly atrocious. 

You may be thinking, "wtf are you talking about Liger?!" Hear me out though. Let's talk about WAR. Ooo yea what is it good for? Absolutely SOMETHING.  

WAR stands for wins above replacement. The idea being what if you could replace a player with your average NHL guy at the same spot. I was shocked to find this chart while reading about the Redwings. You may notice that Buffalo isn't near the bottom. In fact we're pretty good. Some of that is Dahlin is truly special and some of that is they only pulled the 6 guys with the must TOI so that limits our analysis but what if this defense group is actually fairly good, just unlucky because of atrocious gt? 

What if the answer is simple? Switch out 1 defender and upgrade UPL? Is there some modicum of hope that this team actually isn't *****?

https://mystaes.substack.com/p/why-the-detroit-red-wings-missed

 

The Defense has not been great, but all year I have been saying in terms of goals allowed, the 6 guys on the blueline are the 3rd problem.  Problems #1 and #2 were the goaltending and the support the Forwards give the D-men.

Cozens singlehandedly put the D-men in situations where they looked bad on the replays of goals allowed. He's gone, but Quinn wasn't that far behind Cozens and Peterka had his moments also.

Watch replays of any game, good teams included.  They all allow goals and guess what? Usually about half the goals they allow on the replay has a D-man that looks like he his lost or has no idea what he is doing. Thats the NHL, a lot goes on and it happens fast?

So what is the difference between good teams and bad teams?  What is under-rated is the support that the forwards give the D-men.  To repeat myself, D-men look bad on goals allowed, for almost every team. Good teams have forwards that help out in the D-zone or Neutral zone so the D-men are simply put in that position less often than with Buffalo.

Yeah, and goaltending.  The good teams have their D-men get turned around by elite forwards all the time, or they might 'choose the wrong guy' and let a good scoring chance against happen.  So why do we think the Sabres D are so much worse? When those things happen, our Goalie allowed a lot more of those chances to go in. We see the replay of the D-men "not doing anything" where on many other teams the D-men play the puck the same way but if the goalie makes the save more often we don't see the replay and dwell on it as much.

This D-unit isn't great, probably not even good...but I think many on this forum put more blame on them when often it should be directed other places.

Edited 3 hours ago by mjd1001

[LGR4GM]

32 minutes ago, Pimlach said:

Not if it was Reimers first 9 games, he was not very good until he started playing games at the end of the season that didn't matter.   Like UPL, he played poorly and he played good. 

UPL had one very good stretch and couldn't maintain it, when he started his slide the overall team defense was terrible too.  UPL eventually looked like a bad backup out there.  

Fix the defense and get a goalie, its the same thing every year.  How long have I been asking for top 4 RHD?  Years upon years

Here's RFAs if you want a right shot 

 

 

[Night Train]

Agree with above who mention eyeball over stats.

Forwards float back on D far too often. D-men coughing up puck in own zone. Physical play next to invisible.

Physical fitness. Why so good in 1st period? Major decline once the 2nd period starts. 

Start using all 4 lines on regular shifts. Keeps the top guys fresh. 

[Pimlach]

6 minutes ago, LGR4GM said:

Here's RFAs if you want a right shot 

 

 

Noah Dobson - I like his size and skills.   Can he bring a strong defensive aspect to the team?   Will he cost as much or more than Byram?   

[LGR4GM]

13 minutes ago, Night Train said:

Agree with above who mention eyeball over stats.

Forwards float back on D far too often. D-men coughing up puck in own zone. Physical play next to invisible.

Physical fitness. Why so good in 1st period? Major decline once the 2nd period starts. 

Start using all 4 lines on regular shifts. Keeps the top guys fresh. 

That isn't a thing on any NHL team. 

10 minutes ago, Pimlach said:

Noah Dobson - I like his size and skills.   Can he bring a strong defensive aspect to the team?   Will he cost as much or more than Byram?   

More $$$ than Byram.

[DarthEbriate]

53 minutes ago, Pimlach said:

Not if it was Reimers first 9 games, he was not very good until he started playing games at the end of the season that didn't matter.   Like UPL, he played poorly and he played good. 

UPL had one very good stretch and couldn't maintain it, when he started his slide the overall team defense was terrible too.  UPL eventually looked like a bad backup out there.  

Fix the defense and get a goalie, its the same thing every year.  How long have I been asking for top 4 RHD?  Years upon years

This is Reimer erasure! 😇 Reimer was fine in his first 9 games with the Sabres.

Note: 2 games were coming in for a yanked UPL.

The larger issue is that game #1 was 11/23 at the beginning of the losing streak (Reimer was OK giving up only 2 goals in a 3-0 loss) and game #9 was all the way to February 4th. He rarely got a chance to start.

1st 9 games: 2-4-1   .908 sv%   GAA 2.2    no offensive help

2nd 9 games: 6-2-1   .900 sv%   GAA 2.9    offensive help!

final 4 games: 2-2     .882 sv%   GAA 3.5     largely influenced by the 7-goal game Tampa decided to unleash at the end of the season

Play him on a set, well-rested schedule--but play him consistently--and he'll stay fresh while also taking 5-10 starts away from UPL over the course of the season. But that's all last season. All that said, he should be upgraded next season unless is pounding on the door to keep his career going.

Edited 3 hours ago by DarthEbriate