Ryan Miller

[mphs mike]

If Miller isn't ready to even be the backup, why did they bring him back from Rochester. Playing, and knocking the rust off as an Amerk is perfect. If that is unnecessary he should be dressing (and playing).

 

Any either agree or disagree? This smacks of Lindy's inability to handle more than one goalie!

[Hsoj25]

absolutely, bring back nolan 4shure

[jp...]

Can someone tell me how Miller has been in Rochacha?...how many games, the quality of shots etc...

[Swedesessed]

absolutely, bring back nolan 4shure

:lol: :lol: :lol:

[Saber61]

Can someone tell me how Miller has been in Rochacha?...how many games, the quality of shots etc...

Id like to know too... been sorta outta the loop lately with christmas time and all... i wonder how he feels about not even sitting on the bench.

[shrader]

Go to the Amerks webpage. I'm too lazy too look it up. If you're posting here, you're obviously at a computer.

[Saber61]

If Miller isn't ready to even be the backup, why did they bring him back from Rochester. Playing, and knocking the rust off as an Amerk is perfect. If that is unnecessary he should be dressing (and playing).

 

Any either agree or disagree? This smacks of Lindy's inability to handle more than one goalie!

oh also i belive he's not playing because biron has been unbelievable so far in the last month... i don't think you could feasibly argue that miller should now get consistant starts... look what happend when they started noronen against san jose... granted they just got thornton... BUT why lose 2 games while a goalie knocks off rust when you can just have biron win those 2 games instead... 4 points are golden with 10 games left to play in the season.

[hopeleslyobvious]

Personally I'd rather have him knock off the rust now while the team is hot then wait for them to cool down a bit. Then he can have an off game and still have a chance to keep winning.

 

I thought Biron should have had the day off Saturday. 3 games in 4 days is tough, and if he's the guy I'd rather have him fresh against Philly. Let's hope Ruff doesn't run him into the ground.

[inkman]

Id like to know too... been sorta outta the loop lately with christmas time and all... i wonder how he feels about not even sitting on the bench.

He only played two games in Merks gear. The first, nobody played any D and they gave up 5 goals. The second he played well, got the win and only gave up 1 goal.

[hopeleslyobvious]

I think if they're not even going to dress him, he should still be down there. Keep him sharp so when we need him again he is ready to go.

[inkman]

It seems as if they are being rather ambiguous about the whole situation.

[mphs mike]

It seems as if they are being rather ambiguous about the whole situation.

I agree. Something is strange. He should be playing - whether as an Amerk or a Sabre. After healing and practicing you need to play games to get to your best.

 

Does anyone know if he had a setback? Is he practicing?

[hopeleslyobvious]

News article suggested he might get the start tonight...Talk about getting thrown back in. I would have played him during one of the Pittsburgh games. But, that's not my decision.

[jp...]

As long as they don't play Noranen i'm happy...It would be a rough place to start Miller but then again i'm sure he'd like a chance to beat them after loosing the opening nite there the last season they played.

[Corp000085]

I'm all for miller getting thrown in with the wolves tonight. Think about it: this is a playoff team... a playoff goalie can handle starting a tough game after an injury... a soft, weak goalie can't. I'd rather see what miller has now than find out in april.

[hopeleslyobvious]

I'm all for miller getting thrown in with the wolves tonight. Think about it: this is a playoff team... a playoff goalie can handle starting a tough game after an injury... a soft, weak goalie can't. I'd rather see what miller has now than find out in april.

Fair enough. I hope he has a great game if he plays.

[Taro T]

I'm all for miller getting thrown in with the wolves tonight.  Think about it:  this is a playoff team...  a playoff goalie can handle starting a tough game after an injury...  a soft, weak goalie can't.  I'd rather see what miller has now than find out in april.

I don't understand why would you rather throw him in against Philly instead of at home against Pittsburgh. In my opinion, while it is increasing the odds that Marty's start winning streak makes it to Florida, it also gives you much higher odds of messing up the overall goaltending. I was in agreement w/ Hopeless that he should have started on Saturday.

 

Ryan has only played in 2 AHL games since his injury and those were just about a week ago. Even without Gagne and Pitkanen and several other injured Flyers, Philly has some serious firepower coming from several lines. This game does not give Ryan nearly as good a chance to get a W as the home Pens game did. The kid is still a rookie and Philly is arguably the toughest team the Sabres will face in this current pass through the Eastern Conference.

 

Throwing Ryan to the wolves in his 1st game back makes little to no sense. If he wins, great he has confidence. Guess what, the kid already has confidence and he would still have it after playing the Pens. IF he gets shelled by the Flyers, what does that do to his confidence and the team's confidence in him? I'm not saying he will definitely lose to the Flyers, I'm not saying Marty will definitely beat the Flyers; I'm simply stating that Marty gives the team the best odds tonight and the odds are greater that Ryan's head will be messed with by playing tonight vs having played on Saturday or waiting until Thursday.

 

Lindy did this to Ryan last season. He called him up to play against Detroit rather than wait 2 days for him to play against the Rangers. That turned out to be a disaster.

[shrader]

Lindy did this to Ryan last season. He called him up to play against Detroit rather than wait 2 days for him to play against the Rangers. That turned out to be a disaster.

So are you saying that we're going to see Miller cry again? Seriously though, I don't understand Lindy's thinking here, but I'm willing to give him the benefit of the doubt with the way he has this team playing.

[Taro T]

So are you saying that we're going to see Miller cry again?  Seriously though, I don't understand Lindy's thinking here, but I'm willing to give him the benefit of the doubt with the way he has this team playing.

Forgot about the post game interview.

 

I don't understand Lindy's thinking on this one either. I think Lindy is a good - very good coach. If he handled the goalies better, I'd say he is a very good - great coach. Hopefully his intuition or Corsi's intuition or whatever they saw in practice works out, but this does not do much to change my opinion about his handling of the goalies.

[nfreeman]

Forgot about the post game interview.

 

I don't understand Lindy's thinking on this one either. I think Lindy is a good - very good coach. If he handled the goalies better, I'd say he is a very good - great coach. Hopefully his intuition or Corsi's intuition or whatever they saw in practice works out, but this does not do much to change my opinion about his handling of the goalies.

 

 

daveb -- we've had some back-and-forth on this before, so no need to repeat myself, but I must disagree with you on this specific situation. The team is on an amazing winning streak. Biron has been playing pretty well (not great, IMHO, notwithstanding the occasional flurry of great saves). It's 100% reasonable for Lindy not to want to mess with the streak.

 

I will admit that by that logic, Marty should start against Philly tonight. In fact, I'll go so far as to agree with you that I would start Marty tonight (but I won't agree that Miller should have started against the Pens, again b/c of the winning streak). Having said that, I thought Marty looked pretty shaky against Pitt. on Sat., and the team as a whole pretty much mailed it in for the 3rd period. Those 2 factors are pretty compelling for Lindy in deciding whether to put Miller in.

 

If we play Biron tonight and win, it would be crazy not to start him 3 nights from now vs. Florida. The streak would be alive and well and Marty would have a fair amount of rest. So that would put Miller in, if at all, the next night vs. Tampa -- which is 4 nights later (ie more rust), on the road, against the defending cup champions. Tampa is also pretty close to the flyers in the standings (42 pts. vs. 39) and has a slightly better record in the last 10 games (7-3 vs. 6-3-1) -- so hard to see any benefit to playing Miller against Tampa as opposed to playing him against Philly.

 

Bottom line is that although I would probably keep riding Marty at this point (and put Miller back in Rochester to play a couple more games) I think Lindy's decisions -- including if Miller starts tonight -- are very reasonable.

 

Go Sabres.

[jp...]

Ruff's biggest failure has been handling the goalies post Hasek...

 

Remember, he almost lost his job over it the last season after that long loosing streak...remember when his press conference was delayed and the speculation was that he was finished as coach...

 

With Hasek, Ruff had the best and hardest working goalie ever...a tough adjustment for any coach when that player moves on...especially the way Hasek carried the team for the most part...Hasek made Ruff look pretty good those early years

[Taro T]

 

daveb -- we've had some back-and-forth on this before, so no need to repeat myself, but I must disagree with you on this specific situation.? The team is on an amazing winning streak.? Biron has been playing pretty well (not great, IMHO, notwithstanding the occasional flurry of great saves).? It's 100% reasonable for Lindy not to want to mess with the streak.?

 

I will admit that by that logic, Marty should start against Philly tonight.? In fact, I'll go so far as to agree with you that I would start Marty tonight (but I won't agree that Miller should have started against the Pens, again b/c of the winning streak).? Having said that, I thought Marty looked pretty shaky against Pitt. on Sat., and the team as a whole pretty much mailed it in for the 3rd period.? Those 2 factors are pretty compelling for Lindy in deciding whether to put Miller in.

 

If we play Biron tonight and win, it would be crazy not to start him 3 nights from now vs. Florida.? The streak would be alive and well and Marty would have a fair amount of rest.? So that would put Miller in, if at all, the next night vs. Tampa -- which is 4 nights later (ie more rust), on the road, against the defending cup champions.? Tampa is also pretty close to the flyers in the standings (42 pts. vs. 39) and has a slightly better record in the last 10 games (7-3 vs. 6-3-1) -- so hard to see any benefit to playing Miller against Tampa as opposed to playing him against Philly.? ?

 

Bottom line is that although I would probably keep riding Marty at this point (and put Miller back in Rochester to play a couple more games) I think Lindy's decisions -- including if Miller starts tonight -- are very reasonable.

 

Go Sabres.

n,

 

I could see a legitimate case being made to keep playing Marty through these next 3 games (I wouldn't agree with it, but definitely do see validity to the "he's won 13 in a row, let's play him until he loses 1" logic), but I can't see this as the game to give Ryan his 1st start in 1-1/2 months.

 

This game seems to be a lot higher risk for Ryan's 1st start than any of the other ones near it. I'd actually rather see the Sabres give Ryan another "conditioning game" (if that is allowable under the CBA) against Syracuse or Hamilton and then let him start next week against the Isles or whenever Marty's streak has come to an end [EDIT: than have him play tonight in Philly].

[hopeleslyobvious]

 

daveb -- we've had some back-and-forth on this before, so no need to repeat myself, but I must disagree with you on this specific situation. The team is on an amazing winning streak. Biron has been playing pretty well (not great, IMHO, notwithstanding the occasional flurry of great saves). It's 100% reasonable for Lindy not to want to mess with the streak.

 

I will admit that by that logic, Marty should start against Philly tonight. In fact, I'll go so far as to agree with you that I would start Marty tonight (but I won't agree that Miller should have started against the Pens, again b/c of the winning streak). Having said that, I thought Marty looked pretty shaky against Pitt. on Sat., and the team as a whole pretty much mailed it in for the 3rd period. Those 2 factors are pretty compelling for Lindy in deciding whether to put Miller in.

 

If we play Biron tonight and win, it would be crazy not to start him 3 nights from now vs. Florida. The streak would be alive and well and Marty would have a fair amount of rest. So that would put Miller in, if at all, the next night vs. Tampa -- which is 4 nights later (ie more rust), on the road, against the defending cup champions. Tampa is also pretty close to the flyers in the standings (42 pts. vs. 39) and has a slightly better record in the last 10 games (7-3 vs. 6-3-1) -- so hard to see any benefit to playing Miller against Tampa as opposed to playing him against Philly.

 

Bottom line is that although I would probably keep riding Marty at this point (and put Miller back in Rochester to play a couple more games) I think Lindy's decisions -- including if Miller starts tonight -- are very reasonable.

 

Go Sabres.

Winning streak aside. Playing him 3 games in 4 nights was a bad move. Just because he's on a winning streak doesn't mean you should throw all logic out the window. Most teams in the league play different goalie's on back to backs...throw in the Dallas game just 2 days before, and it just makes sense.

 

My opinion of Biron is that he's been playing great, but he's starting to look tired. He looked shaky a couple of times Saturday (Can't comment on Friday, I was listening on the radio...driving back to B-lo for the Saturday game). Given his history of being streaky the last thing I would want to see happen is for him to have a bad game because he's tired and then have it effect his confidence.

 

Saturday would have been a great chance for Miller to get some time in and work the rust off.

[shrader]

This game seems to be a lot higher risk for Ryan's 1st start than any of the other ones near it.  I'd actually rather see the Sabres give Ryan another "conditioning game" (if that is allowable under the CBA) against Syracuse or Hamilton and then let him start next week against the Isles or whenever Marty's streak has come to an end [EDIT: than have him play tonight in Philly].

He can be sent to Rochester without being placed on waivers, so there really isn't any issue with "conditioning starts" here.

[Taro T]

He can be sent to Rochester without being placed on waivers, so there really isn't any issue with "conditioning starts" here.

You are correct, he can be sent to Rochester without it being a conditioning assignment. It would though be a demotion, and I don't like the idea of telling the kid he was "demoted" back to Rochester for whatever reason. He has earned a spot on the Sabres roster.

 

I have concerns that being told in effect "well, we're only taking money out of your pocket so you don't get rusty" might play with his head. (I truly doubt he is on a 1-way contract, so a non-conditioning assignment is not only a demotion in his head, it is a demotion in his wallet as well.)