Post-Game Talk (GBU): #23 The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly -- Breaking the Streak

[Chainshot]

The Good -

- Bounces. Finally getting some.
- Eichel's snipe was sweet.
- Seeing the Big Line playing big, forcing play. Nice to see some of the big guys taking the body early.
- Outside of the Gionta gift, they didn't give up a lot of gifts.
- Maybe the Anchors will get moving now that Gionta and Moulson got some points.
- Legwand giving one up for his teammate, gets rewarded later. I thought he was good tonight on the PK and in general.
- The Carolina broadcast. It used to really annoy me, but not so much any more.
- The PK seems to be getting better. Not taking penalties helps.

The Bad -

- Gio's giveaway. Stinker. Glad he got it back later, because that was rookie-level ****.
- Too much turkey yesterday.

The Ugly -

- Schaller at the dot. He wasn't alone, but he was flat out getting picked like he wasn't even there all night. Going 1-for-8 is no way to stay in the lineup.

Click to read more...

 

[joshjull]

Sweet sweet victory

And goals!

Hoping for some offensive momentum after this one

 

[CrazyPsycho]

Oreilly Reinhart is a thing of beauty.

Poor larsson.

They have probably played 90 percent of their games better than tonight, they just got the bad goalie for once

 

[Montag DP]

Good:
* The third period
* Kane - O'Reilly - Reinhart (How long have we been asking for this? Hopefully it stays together.)
* Moulson - Eichel - Gionta probably had the most chances. Still having trouble finishing and some rookie mistakes by Eichel from time to time.
* Legwand and Foligno I thought both had strong games.
* I thought Risto played a solid, albeit quiet, game.

Bad:
* The "compete" in the first two periods. We were lucky to be ahead at that point, honestly.
* Carolina goalies.

Ugly:
* Rod Brind'Amour

 

[Moskau]

Didn't expect anything less than a regulation win tonight. This team is clearly better than the bottom tier teams in the league. They just aren't good enough to consistently beat the top tier teams in the league. Dare I say they're a 11-13th overall pick type team.

 

[Man of Principles]

A good effort. The aforementioned puck luck was long overdue. Jack was amazing. Risto was good. Legwand is seeing some results for all his hard work. I guess sometimes "old" is synonymous with "awful", but Legwand is far from awful.

You're not gonna get many wins when you only throw 21 shots at the net.

 

[sabrebuild]

ROR and Reinhart make a generational iq pair.

 

[OkimLom]

Actually like the makeup of the lines. ROR's line was playing well and like that line, liked the Girgs' line, def a forecheck type of line to get momentum, the Schaller line, I really liked that line for some reason. Legwand has been a good acquisition for this team.

The Eichel line annoyed me to no end, especially when they had Anybody but he Risto-Gorges line. But of course they get half the goals.

 

[Kyndig]

So how many empty netters has Eichel setup now and has 0 points to show for it?

 

[Afino]

Good:
the glow on my son's face when Eichel potted that goal

Bad:
the first period

Ugly:
Rod Brind'amour
my ex wife



**** Carolina, I'm glad we could get off the schneid against them of all teams

 

[Ace]

Kane had a shift that led to them taking their timeout that was flat out incredible. Every time they'd turn to get the puck out of their end he was in their face taking it back. It was something else.

 

[JLewyB]

G: Reinhart and O'Reilly play so smart that it makes the right play so obvious for Kane. Eichel's snipe woke him up. He started smelling blood after that. Legwand getting rewarded. Risto was great.

B: I don't like how Moulson's is never there for the pass up to the half wall in our own zone. I know some of that us because he's covering up for Eichel when Jack jumps in for support a little too eagerly but most of the time he's just in an odd position. #1 reason why we got stuck in our zone.

U: Gionta's giveaway.

 

[EichHart]

Awesome:
Getting on the Sabres instagram with my new Eichel jersey I bought tonight that I got for $96.00 since the store made an error with the pricing. It fit perfect! Was able to get a perfect angle of Eichels shot and watch him celebrate 3 feet away from our seats. Such a great night for hockey! It made up for the last 2 games this week.

Good:
Kane-ROR-Reinhart
Eichels insane snipe
Risto is just incredible...
McGinn can be a core player, he fights for everything on the ice. He is fast, skilled, gritty. He has it all and I want him on this team going forward. Probably the most underrated player on our team.
Johnson with some nice saves
Thought McCabe had a good game, the defense as a whole played decent aside from that one 1 minute shift in our own end

Bad:
Bogo has to be hurt or something, not playing anything like he was last year
Folignos puck handling skills, he had some good chances tonight but no finish and kept losing it at the wrong moments

Ugly:
Gionta even with his lucky goal
Moulson isn't really good

 

[wunderpanda]

G- victory
- 4 goals
- Lacko Taco

 

[VaporTrail]

G: Eichel, and RJ now clarifying exactly what a "Yikel" is

B: Foligno's hands

U: Brind'a mour and my spelling of his name too

 

[tsujimoto74]

G:
-A win!
-Lucky bounces going our way for once
-Eichel's snipe
-PK looked good, but then Carolina's PP probably makes a lot of PKs look good

B:
-Pretty sloppy game for Buffalo, some pretty ugly defensive gaffs throughout the game, eg: Gionta's giveaway

U:
-Still Brind'amour

 

[Punished ROR]

Kane-ROR-Reinhart were great. And so, watching that line click, I felt some anger at Bylsma resurface.

As I've already said too many times, Moulson-ROR-Gionta was a terrible misuse of the team's best possession playmaker. Sure, ROR can cover for the shortcomings of those two defensively; but he was basically offensively neutered since they cannot, keep, the play, going. And I don't buy the line of reasoning that Bylsma was sheltering those two -- because if you want to shield those guys, why not, I dunno, give them less ice time instead of 1st line duties?

That line resulted in a lot of ROR dump-ins instead of controlled carries into the zone. No surprise that the team went on a losing streak and couldn't score basically for the duration of that line.

With Kane and Reinhart, ROR can actually use his linemates, and it's obvious that he becomes so much better by making those around him so much better, too.

I dunno. As someone who has primarily watched Western conference games for a decade+, I didn't know much about Bylsma and had mostly a good opinion of him dating back to the "best coach in the NHL" days. I hate to feel like I'm souring on him, but frankly, his usage is not inspiring much confidence in me right now.

One thing he can do to earn a little bit of my confidence back (not that anyone cares), is not break up a good thing for once. Because right now, after a big victory, I'm scared he's gonna bounce back with more Gionta and Moulson.

 

[Sabresfansince1980]

Kane-ROR-Reinhart were great. And so, watching that line click, I felt some anger at Bylsma resurface.

As I've already said too many times, Moulson-ROR-Gionta was a terrible misuse of the team's best possession playmaker. Sure, ROR can cover for the shortcomings of those two defensively; but he was basically offensively neutered since they cannot, keep, the play, going. And I don't buy the line of reasoning that Bylsma was sheltering those two -- because if you want to shield those guys, why not, I dunno, give them less ice time instead of 1st line duties?

That line resulted in a lot of ROR dump-ins instead of controlled carries into the zone. No surprise that the team went on a losing streak and couldn't score basically for the duration of that line.

With Kane and Reinhart, ROR can actually use his linemates, and it's obvious that he becomes so much better by making those around him so much better, too.

I dunno. As someone who has primarily watched Western conference games for a decade+, I didn't know much about Bylsma and had mostly a good opinion of him dating back to the "best coach in the NHL" days. I hate to feel like I'm souring on him, but frankly, his usage is not inspiring much confidence in me right now.

One thing he can do to earn a little bit of my confidence back (not that anyone cares), is not break up a good thing for once. Because right now, after a big victory, I'm scared he's gonna bounce back with more Gionta and Moulson.

I've talked about Kane on a line with Larsson and Foligno/Gionta, but yes, watching that line combo which is OBVIOUSLY better on paper than most of what Bylsma has tried so far and seeing it play well is quite frustrating. It's like he's committed to trying every junk combo first before fumbling around to what would be the obvious choices. That's not the right way to experiment or force players to learn within a system...it's just ----ing around and delaying progression. Bylsma's approach would make more sense if it were last year and the tank was still on.

 

[Sabre the Win]

I've talked about Kane on a line with Larsson and Foligno/Gionta, but yes, watching that line combo which is OBVIOUSLY better on paper than most of what Bylsma has tried so far and seeing it play well is quite frustrating. It's like he's committed to trying every junk combo first before fumbling around to what would be the obvious choices. That's not the right way to experiment or force players to learn within a system...it's just ----ing around and delaying progression. Bylsma's approach would make more sense if it were last year and the tank was still on.

While the tank is done; the rebuild is still happening hence the experimenting. The reason why it wouldnt work last year was because of the drastic roster turnover from last year to this year would make everything last year null.