GBU Levi Flames Out - Loss 4-3 at Home to Calgary 10/19/23

[Sabre Dance]

They are the ones causing the misery so...

Not every night. It’s just not a fun place to be anymore. Seems like we’re ready to be mad at the team.

 

[Beerz]

Not every night. It’s just not a fun place to be anymore. Seems like we’re ready to be mad at the team.

I wouldn't be surprised if the team is gone in 10 to 15 years

 

[sabremike]

Not every night. It’s just not a fun place to be anymore. Seems like we’re ready to be mad at the team.

The arena is awful, the gameday experience is even worse and the home team loses more often than not.

Pegulas -> hockey

Dan Snyder -> football

 

[1point21Gigawatts]

I am gonna be honest, reading the knee jerk reactions on this board is more frustrating than the losses. I get that we are a beaten down fanbase, but yikes. We are four games in. Let's at least wait until november before we start doing our best chicken little impressions.

 

[OkimLom]

I have to say I don’t think there’s a more miserable sporting event to attend then a Sabres home game.

It has to rub off on the players.

Which, when you consider that this fanbase will cheer for anything that the home team does, from a finished hit by the home team that sees the puck long gone, or a basic save from the goaltender, if you can't keep THAT crowd engaged and cheering, then maybe you need to look at how you are playing.

But I will say the physical environment and how the arena is laid out, leads to a very "produced" show. The host feels fake. The band, and the sound mixing leads to a very amateurish feel. The pauses in play and the "off-ice" show for the crowd does a terrible job of carrying over any sort of excitement/momentum from the crowd. The seating leads to a very distant feel of the crowd. Instead of the crowd feeling right on top of everything, which should be the goal for every small market team.

 

[brian_griffin]

For a team that begs fans to come in the building they sure love to shit themselves at home

The Sabres proved once again that no deficits are either too early or too recurring for them to overcome.

View attachment 755008

I suspect a forgery, of the opposite variety of the Piltdown Man.
Despite the 2011 date, I'm sure radio-carbon dating will show it to be much, much, older.

 

[Beerz]

I am gonna be honest, reading the knee jerk reactions on this board is more frustrating than the losses. I get that we are a beaten down fanbase, but yikes. We are four games in. Let's at least wait until november before we start doing our best chicken little impressions.

It's just an honest assessment of where the team is currently. Things can change .. but we're here now.

 

[TageGod]

17-20 was their record....3 more games of red and black so 20-17. Playoffs incoming.

 

[DapperCam]

No amount of tweaking the in-game experience will make up for the fact that the team has stunk for over a decade, and loses at home with bad effort performances.

If the Sabres were even a regular playoff team, the arena would be sold out and have great energy. There is only so much a DJ, organist and Jumbotron operator can do.

 

[Sabre the Win]

Waking up this morning after that loss and looking at the standings being 1-3-0 while Detroit and Ottawa sit atop doesn't sit right with me. Both teams look hungry and whether or not they can play with that intensity all 82 games remains to be seen but I don't sense any dog or hunger in the Sabres.

The in game performances from the Sabres have looked bad, optics show what advanced stats say but I want to look deeper into it. I want to see gameplan and preparations because this team looks like how they looked coming out of the All Star break after their vacations last year and I'm starting to wonder how serious players took their conditionings this summer?

This team screams of inexperienced youth with a coach still learning the NHL level as well. Teams are coming out and playing hard against the Sabres because they expected a tougher team but this team has given barely any fight.

I'm not mad with the Sabres at were they are but I'm hugely disappointed and if the arena being empty bothers the players, then start showing up and showing out and I will do the same.

Someone needs to send a letter with that last paragraph to the Buffalo News as a 'Letter to the Buffalo Sabres players' since they like to address letters to us and not hold up their end of putting on an entertaining game when we attend.

 

[ForsbergMoDo21]

I only saw the second half of the game ans after reading these threads I had to go back and watch because the amount of dumping on Levi was so much.

What? Sure, 1 or 2 of those you’d like to see saves. He saved more pucks that he shouldn’t have than didn’t save ones he should have. First GA, ok not great. A bit flukey that he struggled to find it for so long (and rebounds are definitely something he needs work on). Second GA is Johnson slow to pick up the guy on the back door. Not his fault at all. 3rd GA is a one timer of the inside of the post. You’re an asshole if you’re claiming that’s a soft goal. Only the 4th GA seemed notably bad to me. Wow, a young rookie keeper gave up 1.5 bad goals behind a dog shit team who can barely be said to be going through the motions.

 

[Jim Bob]

 

[Macbanan]

Last year relied on Thompson being an accurate sniper and Tuch being a high intensity play-driver and that's not happening so far. Others have been worse but that's the biggest downgrade.

Just a smidge of laziness and passivity across the board teamwise.

 

[HOOats]

Did Cozens try to pack on weight and muscle this off-season? I know there were some videos of his training going around. He looks noticably a step slower straight line and his edges are a mess right now. Bad ice or not last night, a high-end pro shouldn't be falling that much.

 

[SundherDome]

I just take solace in the fact that Levi can take his pads off, reflect on his hard night…and get sage advice from UPL or Eric Comrie.

I mean, they hired Anderson most likely for Levi

 

[Nikolajs Sillers]

For a moment not looking too good. Still can't win at home.

 

[Nikolajs Sillers]

G:
-Greenway
-Mitts
-EJ
-Clifton

B:
-Our best players not realizing the season has started already.. Tage, Tuch, Skinner and Cozens have been disappointing to start the season
-Officials per usual
-Dahlin retaliating to Mangiapane.. yeah it was a weak call but its not new that NHL refs suck. You're down a goal late in the 3rd and about to go on the PP. Don't give them a reason to put you in the box.
-Power needs to man up a little... Dude loses the battles along the boards to much smaller guys

U:
-Levi.. The goaltending situation in general.. Hard to believe we're going to the playoffs with not just 1, not 2 but 3 question mark goalies on this roster!!!



I know its still early into the season but right now we don't look like properly built playoff team at all

That U? We are going to the playoffs? Are we sure?

 

[oldgoalie]

I only saw the second half of the game ans after reading these threads I had to go back and watch because the amount of dumping on Levi was so much.

What? Sure, 1 or 2 of those you’d like to see saves. He saved more pucks that he shouldn’t have than didn’t save ones he should have. First GA, ok not great. A bit flukey that he struggled to find it for so long (and rebounds are definitely something he needs work on). Second GA is Johnson slow to pick up the guy on the back door. Not his fault at all. 3rd GA is a one timer of the inside of the post. You’re an asshole if you’re claiming that’s a soft goal. Only the 4th GA seemed notably bad to me. Wow, a young rookie keeper gave up 1.5 bad goals behind a dog shit team who can barely be said to be going through the motions.

Let’s be real. That last “non goal“ was a goal. He was definitely fighting it last night.

 

[rams]

NHL Goalie Statistics

NHL Goalie Analytics, Expected Goals, Expected Rebounds

www.moneypuck.com

46th out of 59 in goals saved above expected is not going to get it done.

Who creates 'save above expected' stats? AI? Do they watch the games? Does it take into consideration 4-on-2s, tips, screens? Nasty turnovers. Forwards that don't play a defensive game? Jokiharus or Brysons? I would suggest one generic formula does not work for an entire league. Some teams just play better defensively than others and that would wildly skew 'expected' goals.

 

[Faceboner]

Adams' needs to start threatening to send players to Montreal

 

[Der Jaeger]

Or quite there yet, but if they go this route I’d put money on it being Forton. Two things.

1. The Embedded draft video. Adams doesn’t just work with Forton, he relies on him for approval. I found it very weird.

2. The Fortons have known Terry for a long time. Like years before Terry ever bought the team.

It's odd to me that a leader would hire and maintain an expert in a particular area, and then not rely on his/her advice. Wasn't that the lesson of the Murray/Botterill eras?

I've been a leader continuously for 24 years, and I listen to my experts a lot. It seems odd to me that anyone would think working the other way has value long-term.

We see the same things over and over and over again. So easy for teams to confuse the Sabres dzone scheme and find huge holes in the coverage. Until Granato recognizes this is not a personnel issue but a coaching issue, this will continue.

I listened to his post-game presser, and he focused on how they need to play in the other teams end. It's a cliche of it being a copy-cat league, but the league is changing to a defensive focus and shutting down the high-powered attack teams. I call this Brind'amourization.

I don't see most of the stuff you've all posted about. My 13 year old son told me the "game was choppy."

The league to buttoning up defensively. The league watched Toronto constantly picked apart in the playoffs by physical, defensive teams. McDavid and the Oilers can't make the finals. It's a copycat league, so teams are putting systems into place which give them the best chance of winning.

Teams like Buffalo are built to score. It's not going to be an overnight transition. I am not surprised at all by the early season struggle.

And if Levi didn't let in the soft 4th goal, I think the Sabres win.

 

[ForsbergMoDo21]

Let’s be real. That last “non goal“ was a goal. He was definitely fighting it last night.

You know, I looked through the NHL and Sportsnet highlights and still didn’t see it. I can’t speak to that one.

 

[Jim Bob]

Who creates 'save above expected' stats? AI? Do they watch the games? Does it take into consideration 4-on-2s, tips, screens? Nasty turnovers. Forwards that don't play a defensive game? Jokiharus or Brysons? I would suggest one generic formula does not work for an entire league. Some teams just play better defensively than others and that would wildly skew 'expected' goals.

The advanced goalie stats that are done by people that watch games (ClearSight Analytics) have people complain that they are subjective.

The advanced goalie stats that are done largely by where on the ice the shots come from (I think that is how Moneypuck does it) complain that they are too objective.

I doubt you will find either model saying that Levi is playing above average right now.

 

[stokes84]

You know, I looked through the NHL and Sportsnet highlights and still didn’t see it. I can’t speak to that one.

It’s not even about whether it went in or not. It’s that it was right after another goal, and it was like he was completely zonked out or not paying attention. And it was also after a couple of other plays that made you think “woah he is not fully here tonight”. And after that play, the entire team felt it. It was like they were spooked, and the flames smelled blood and just dominated the course of play for the next 5 minutes before they settled down. Its a miracle they didn’t score again in that spurt, but it changed the entire feel of the game.

 

[BFLO]

I am gonna be honest, reading the knee jerk reactions on this board is more frustrating than the losses. I get that we are a beaten down fanbase, but yikes. We are four games in. Let's at least wait until november before we start doing our best chicken little impressions.

You're right that it's only game 4 and we shouldn't be overreacting, as there are 78 games to turn this around.

BUT... this is the same thing we were saying in the pre-season.

"It's the pre-season, the games don't count, they'll get it together by game 1. Stop overreacting! "

Then game 1 came.

"it's just game 1 guys, no need to panic. 81 games to turn this around. Stop overreacting!"

Then game 2, 3, 4...

I've got a bad feeling that, "it's only the xth game, stop overreacting", is going to turn into, "it's only the beginning of November, stop overreacting" and then before we know it, it's April and we're in position to draft 8th overall again.

We absolutely can still turn it around. But it's something we haven't seen in 12 years.