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. 

[John Tucker]

Ummmm… NO

[SABRES 0311]

They have improved on small things like bodies and sticks in passing lanes, sticking up for each other, and physicality.

They still lack offensive talent and have only improved a bit on overall team defense.

[PerreaultForever]

19 hours ago, mjd1001 said:

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.

You might have to rethink that "just outside the playoffs" belief. Although the points are still close and almost anything can happen, they are currently dead last in the east. 

[Night Train]

Place a soccer net on the ice in during practice. 

See if anyone can find it...even identify it. 

[COSabreFan]

[Wyldnwoody44]

We are for real... REAL Bad 

[Archie Lee]

4 hours ago, PerreaultForever said:

You might have to rethink that "just outside the playoffs" belief. Although the points are still close and almost anything can happen, they are currently dead last in the east. 

The Sabres have a .357 winning %. That’s 5th worst in the NHL. 

[LGR4GM]

Just now, Archie Lee said:

The Sabres have a .357 winning %. That’s 5th worst in the NHL. 

I can haz Nikita Klepov? 

Seriously though, we're about to hit another rebuild. 

[thewookie1]

They are better than last year and arguably a toss-up playoff team but are injured to hell and back and its hurting them. 

Last night's game was actively a bad matchup with the Blues clogging up the middle and the Sabres lacking Benson and Zucker who are both good at piercing those areas in their own ways. 

The PP relies heavily on the combo of Dahlin-Thompson-Doan-Benson-Zucker since 3 different guys like to net front scrum and Benson loves to skate around. Sans Benson, they try to move around but have less effectiveness and fall into standing minus Thompson and Dahlin passing or moving up and down/left and right. 

[Archie Lee]

6 minutes ago, LGR4GM said:

I can haz Nikita Klepov? 

Seriously though, we're about to hit another rebuild. 

Teams that are serious about winning, act in this situation. I have a lot of respect for what Ruff has done for the franchise. He is clearly not the future though. I would honestly welcome Appert as the interim head coach with an interim promotion for Leone or Prospal. It would be far from my 1st choice (Adams should be gone with much broader changes), but it would at least be taking a shot at something. They appear content with letting the season play out with Ruff. It’s not all his fault, but Ruff is not getting the most out of this team. 

[mjd1001]

4 hours ago, PerreaultForever said:

You might have to rethink that "just outside the playoffs" belief. Although the points are still close and almost anything can happen, they are currently dead last in the east. 

At the time that I wrote that post, they were not dead last and we're just outside.