Are We For Real?

[Archie Lee]

3 hours ago, MattPie said:

Sabres are 5-1-4 in the last ten, which is 0.700 points%. That's playoff pace every year, even 0.600 is solid for the playoffs. People can complain about OT losses all they want, but the Sabres could play 5-1-4 or 4-2-4 hockey all season and be pretty safe for the playoffs.

It remains to be seen if the last ten or the first three are the aberration. The Sabres have never been afraid run to a zero-for-a-month streak.

It sort of depends on where you slice the pie. 5-1-4 over the last 10 games is great. 1-0-4 over the last 5 is not so good. On balance, things have been encouraging after the 0-3 start. I think goaltending has been good to very good in all but 2 games. They seem like a more mature group than the last two years. Hopefully Benson, Zucker, and Danforth are all back soon and we will get a closer look at what the near full line-up looks like. 

[mjd1001]

4 hours ago, MattPie said:

Sabres are 5-1-4 in the last ten, which is 0.700 points%. That's playoff pace every year, even 0.600 is solid for the playoffs. People can complain about OT losses all they want, but the Sabres could play 5-1-4 or 4-2-4 hockey all season and be pretty safe for the playoffs.

It remains to be seen if the last ten or the first three are the aberration. The Sabres have never been afraid run to a zero-for-a-month streak.

My personal opinion is neither one is an aberration but neither one is who they are. 

They are a combination of both. They are a team that is just outside of the playoffs. 

They are a combination of three games that they were at the start of the season with the better team that they've been since.

Now when they get some injured players back, let's see if they can improve on that.

[matter2003]

Sylvester sure thinks so...

 

 

[MattPie]

1 hour ago, Archie Lee said:

It sort of depends on where you slice the pie. 5-1-4 over the last 10 games is great. 1-0-4 over the last 5 is not so good. On balance, things have been encouraging after the 0-3 start. I think goaltending has been good to very good in all but 2 games. They seem like a more mature group than the last two years. Hopefully Benson, Zucker, and Danforth are all back soon and we will get a closer look at what the near full line-up looks like. 

Even 1-0-4 is 0.600, which is playoff pace. In the old 82-game season, that's a 98-point pace.

[shrader]

15 minutes ago, MattPie said:

Even 1-0-4 is 0.600, which is playoff pace. In the old 82-game season, that's a 98-point pace.

And 5-1-4 is a Presidents’ Trophy pace. Of course that’s not going fall off a bit.

[Thorny]

88 point pace. Not close to good enough - but the abundance of OT losses probably begins to shift somewhat towards outright wins or outright losses as the season goes on, I’d wager. It’ll depend on how that cookie crumbles. If we can get a few more breaking our way than not, they’ll have a reasonable shot at playoffs. Injuries should work in our favour, on the other hand teams tend to gear up as season goes on and historically we’ve fallen by the wayside as that happens so that likely cancels out

still too close to call 

[Taro T]

13 minutes ago, Thorny said:

88 point pace. Not close to good enough - but the abundance of OT losses probably begins to shift somewhat towards outright wins or outright losses as the season goes on, I’d wager. It’ll depend on how that cookie crumbles. If we can get a few more breaking our way than not, they’ll have a reasonable shot at playoffs. Injuries should work in our favour, on the other hand teams tend to gear up as season goes on and historically we’ve fallen by the wayside as that happens so that likely cancels out

still too close to call 

The biggest thing working against them at this point is they're about to play their 10th home game with having only played 4 on the road.  Their record at home this year is good (5-2-2), not great, but good and should they win tonight good enough.  But they've been horrible on the road.  Personally feel they've played better on the road after that 1st debacle in Beantown than the record indicates but they have to be 0.500 on the road to be on a playoff pace overall and they aren't anywhere close to that (0-2-2) and they'll have 6 more roadies than home games the rest of the way.

They HAVE to figure out how to get W's on the road, or it'll be another doomed season.

[Mango]

My take is that for the first time in a long time we are fielding what looks like a professional NHL hockey team. Albeit a team that is lacking talent. 

I know Ruff is a whipping boy, but he is a real life, acredited NHL coach. He gets a lot of credit for managing this team the last year and getting it to where it is right now. 

Does that mean he is amazing? Or the best hire? No, not at all. But he may have been the only realistic/possible hire that could manage PegAdams and field what looks to be a professional hockey team. 

I have no faith in Appert next year and I think we go back to whatever the fork the last 13 years were. 

Hoping we keep Jarmo and Ruff in house in some way going forward so there are at least hockey professionals in the room with Pegula, Adams, and Forton. 

[MattPie]

5 hours ago, shrader said:

And 5-1-4 is a Presidents’ Trophy pace. Of course that’s not going fall off a bit.

Oh, of course. But the Sabres *could* go 1-0-4 per 5 for the rest of the season and make it into the playoffs with a few points to spare. This last stretch isn't at all dire.

[shrader]

3 minutes ago, MattPie said:

Oh, of course. But the Sabres *could* go 1-0-4 per 5 for the rest of the season and make it into the playoffs with a few points to spare. This last stretch isn't at all dire.

Coincidently, that pace over the remaining 69 (hehe) games would be 82 points. So there’s that baseline of the .500 point percentage. 

[matter2003]

2 hours ago, Taro T said:

The biggest thing working against them at this point is they're about to play their 10th home game with having only played 4 on the road.  Their record at home this year is good (5-2-2), not great, but good and should they win tonight good enough.  But they've been horrible on the road.  Personally feel they've played better on the road after that 1st debacle in Beantown than the record indicates but they have to be 0.500 on the road to be on a playoff pace overall and they aren't anywhere close to that (0-2-2) and they'll have 6 more roadies than home games the rest of the way.

They HAVE to figure out how to get W's on the road, or it'll be another doomed season.

I mean it beats being the worst team in the NHL at home like they were for so long...

[PerreaultForever]

What does "real" mean?

Do they look more like a real hockey team this year? yes. 

Do they look like a real playoff contender? no. At least not yet.