GDT: #49 – Sabres at Canadiens – Tue Jan 31, 7:30PM ET – MSG-B

[Kyndig]

I wonder what on earth this could be attributed to.......

ROR w/ ennis: 66:56 TOI 5 on 5, 42.5% cf%
ROR w/ carrier: 127:30 TOI 5 on 5, 55.7% cf%

ROR was invisible before Ennis came back aside from a backhand goal. Ennis made everything worse, hes a shell of his former self.

I didn't think anyone had a great game other than Girgensons, Carrier, Reinhart, and Eichel.

Thought Lehner was actually pretty good to keep them at 5 goals sadly.

Franson, Bogosian, and Foligno were LOL bad.

 

[old kummelweck]

Why? Because he didn't get points last night? He was literally the only player doing anything.

It is so frustrating to see fast teams like Montreal find space for guys like Paul Byron, but Eichel can't get any space.

 

[joshjull]

It is so frustrating to see fast teams like Montreal find space for guys like Paul Byron, but Eichel can't get any space.

I get what you're saying but that's a tough comparison. Teams focus on Eichel in a way they never will on a Paul Byron. Which makes it a lot easier for Byron to find space to get open.

 

[jBuds]

Ennis has obviously been garbage. That doesn't take O'Reilly completely off the hook for playing poorly himself.

I agree that he hasn't played his best hockey in a few games. Something looks off with him, too. He doesn't look as explosive as he normally does. Wonder how dinged up he is

 

[old kummelweck]

I get what you're saying but that's a tough comparison. Teams focus on Eichel in a way they never will on a Paul Byron. Which makes it a lot easier for Byron to find space to get open.

Imagine Eichel's stats if he could play against the sabres every night.

 

[struckbyaparkedcar]

Eichel would be ridiculous if he just played wing or with special coverage rules like Briere/McDavid.

 

[Icicle]

Just put Eichel-ROR-Reinhart together and let the other lines suffer it out. If all they do is play a defensive no chances system, it shouldn't matter..

Eichel-ROR-Reinhart
Kane-Girgs-Gionta
Folingo-Ennis-Okposo
misfit toys

 

[joshjull]

I agree that he hasn't played his best hockey in a few games. Something looks off with him, too. He doesn't look as explosive as he normally does. Wonder how dinged up he is

I would imagine a system that relies as heavily on individuals, particularly the top players, to make things happen is grinding ROR down. When you factor in the amount of minutes that are thrown at him, its not surprising he looks tired at times. I love him as a player but think its crazy to play him as much as Disco does. He's playing about 2mins a night more than he did in Colorado

 

[Samsonite23]

I would imagine a system that relies as heavily on individuals, particularly the top players, to make things happen is grinding ROR down. When you factor in the amount of minutes that are thrown at him, its not surprising he looks tired at times. I love him as a player but think its crazy to play him as much as Disco does. He's playing about 2mins a night more than he did in Colorado

And he led their forwards in TOI by over a minute in '14-'15. Which makes it ever crazier.

 

[struckbyaparkedcar]

I would imagine a system that relies as heavily on individuals, particularly the top players, to make things happen is grinding ROR down. When you factor in the amount of minutes that are thrown at him, its not surprising he looks tired at times. I love him as a player but think its crazy to play him as much as Disco does. He's playing about 2mins a night more than he did in Colorado

And this has compounded our depth issues because rather than letting those players gain traction, we're playing 75-85% of O'Reilly in those minutes instead.

 

[kirby11]

And he led their forwards in TOI by over a minute in '14-'15. Which makes it ever crazier.

On top of all this, Bylsma said he recognized he needed to cut back on RoR's minutes during training camp/preseason...and has instead stubbornly refused to try that concept out for even a handful of games.

 

[Punished ROR]

I loved Franson's break-out pass sniping Okposo's ankle: bad breakout kills players and the puck ends up in the back of our net anyway.

The hockey gods were gifting us a live metaphor for Disco's breakout & system at large.

 

[jBuds]

I would imagine a system that relies as heavily on individuals, particularly the top players, to make things happen is grinding ROR down. When you factor in the amount of minutes that are thrown at him, its not surprising he looks tired at times. I love him as a player but think its crazy to play him as much as Disco does. He's playing about 2mins a night more than he did in Colorado

Yeah, this is about right. I'm a proponent of riding in on the horses that get you there, but there is a difference between doing that effectively and being insane about it. Bylsma falls towards the latter.

 

[tsujimoto74]

I would imagine a system that relies as heavily on individuals, particularly the top players, to make things happen is grinding ROR down. When you factor in the amount of minutes that are thrown at him, its not surprising he looks tired at times. I love him as a player but think its crazy to play him as much as Disco does. He's playing about 2mins a night more than he did in Colorado

Yup. He's repeating last year's mistakes with ROR and Risto -- overplaying them. They're tired, and it shows. You cant lean that heavily on just a couple players over an 82 game season.

 

[CrazyPsycho]

I dont see a big issue in giving risto 35 mins in an extreme case like injury, but you cannot give him 30 minutes the very next night, he hasnt been even close to the same player since

 

[struckbyaparkedcar]

Yeah, you wait to hit the NOS button when you absolutely have to.

Disco has been redlining for the entire race.

 

[OkimLom]

Yeah, this is about right. I'm a proponent of riding in on the horses that get you there, but there is a difference between doing that effectively and being insane about it. Bylsma falls towards the latter.

The issue is that we don't have the defensive horses to not ride Risto, AND Dan also doesn't trust anybody else back there and it might be for good reason. Unfortunately for us, Gorges would probably be the other guy Dan would trust.

At least with the forwards, he has more than ROR to trust, but unfortunately for us, those players are COR, Moulson, and Gionta.

 

[struckbyaparkedcar]

You can play Risto a jillion minutes or have him keystone the defense. You cannot do both.

 

[Myllz]

On top of all this, Bylsma said he recognized he needed to cut back on RoR's minutes during training camp/preseason...and has instead stubbornly refused to try that concept out for even a handful of games.

That seems to be a continuing trend with Dan. He'll talk about something that needs to be changed, will often make the change needed, but then over a period of time just stops doing it and goes back to the way he's always done things. He's been doing this in various ways since he got here.

 

[1972]

I'd love to see Risto play 22 minutes a night, and ROR to be sub 20. But we don't have near enough depth on the backend

 

[littletonhockeycoach]

I agree but half agree while having visions of better times I knew wouldn't come while thinking bettter times may come but are unlikely to come...did I do this right?

Yeah. Convoluted but accurate.

 

[littletonhockeycoach]

Nobody started a UUU thread yet?

It was just a case of running into a team with better forwards, better defense, better goaltending, better depth, better coaching, better effort, better management in a better stadium with better ice serving better beer.

Other than that, the Sabres were fine.

Ding, Ding, Ding...... And yes, we have a winner!!!

 

[jBuds]

The issue is that we don't have the defensive horses to not ride Risto, AND Dan also doesn't trust anybody else back there and it might be for good reason. Unfortunately for us, Gorges would probably be the other guy Dan would trust.

At least with the forwards, he has more than ROR to trust, but unfortunately for us, those players are COR, Moulson, and Gionta.

I have no problems with how we've used Risto. He can handle it. It's way more unrealistic to ask what we ask of ROR as a forward.

 

[Aladyyn]

I have no problems with how we've used Risto. He can handle it. It's way more unrealistic to ask what we ask of ROR as a forward.

Debatable. He was really really good for like 20 games but lately he's been mediocre to bad.

 

[struckbyaparkedcar]

I have no problems with how we've used Risto. He can handle it. It's way more unrealistic to ask what we ask of ROR as a forward.

His statline begs to differ.

Both players are being dragged well into the realm of diminishing returns.