Post-Game Talk: The Beheading of the Goathead

[sabremike]

G: Paula's Donuts and the Chicken Parm at Bada Bing.

B: Ted's was closed.

U: Literally everything else.

 

[Zip15]

This is an 85-90 point team if I’ve ever seen one. Not good enough. Not bad enough to expect meaningful change. Purgatory.

 

[Sabresfansince1980]

Young and inexperienced players playing mentally slow, and more veteran guys making stupid plays. They look slow and flat to start every game. The staff has to take some responsibility for this, and somehow instill some level of urgency or intensity. It's just too cushy for everyone right now. They might not need a Torts, but some Torts antics should be part of the work week...else they never get to the level they need to win a playoff series (whenever they get there).

 

[SundherDome]

In watching all the games, it's the players.

They had a ton of chances tonight and couldn't bury them.

The forwards were blowing the zone early in the first and Philly's forecheck took advantage.

Forwards started playing back more and that resulted in the incredibly dumb east to west shit in their own zone that they were doing last year.

They also couldn't complete a simple pass, there was a stretch of time of time in the third where they did not make a single pass and chased the puck around for three minutes. Passes were rockets, in the skates, just out of reach, etc.

The power play is brutal. Nobody in front of the net is fireable. When we made it 4-1 and went on the pp they worked the bumper spot well but there was nobody to distribute to, mitts got the puck and there was nothing there, he got it a second time and fired a shot into Ersson. Second unit, same thing, Cozens got it and the other guy was right next to him for some reason. They figured out Tage, move him around.

I am fine with our goaltending. Upl is fine, terrible on break ways because he doesn't move or goes down super quick. You have to live with 2-3 scramble plays because that is his game.

What this team can't do is exactly what Tuch did on GA 4, Lost his man and provided 0 crease support. How that pass gets through is wild.

Krebs, Tuch and Okposo need to sit. Okposo needs to pull this room together because right now, this team has no idea who they are.

I can live with them losing, it's hockey, but they can't lose and provide zero effort.

One more item, get Oloffson off the team. He isn't playing the game we need him to play. Find a time who needs a pp specialist because he isn't getting that here, eat 50% and see what you can get.

 

[Fjordy]

I don’t understand how you can lose at home with such a score to the bloodless Flyers. Maybe they need a tough coach like Torts or someone like that to find the motivation and effort to play. Adams, of course, failed the offseason, but I don’t understand what the coaching staff is doing. Eternal losers.

 

[Deep Blue Metallic]

Players-only meeting time. I think the guys on the ice who know what's going on out there better than anyone, including their coaches, need to vent, yell, blame as they please and come together as a team.

I was cautiously optimistic before Game 1, but now I just shake my head. One thing I can say with certainty is that they're capable of much more than they've shown us so far.

The problem is, they piss away points for much longer, and it won't matter how much better they play. The playoffs will have slipped out of reach yet again.

 

[Sabre the Win]

Last year they had no assignments and they were able to play free. It seems like now that Granato is trying to get a more structured system with defensive assignments, the players are getting lost.

 

[HaNotsri]

My biggest fear for this year is quickly becoming reality. That they’re going to end up with the same exact massive needs they‘ve had the last two. Just spinning wheels and wasting time. They don’t get closer to finishing this roster. I’m glad fans aren’t buying tickets. Smart enough not to fall for this.

While the defensemen havdn't been great I think our main defensive problem are the slow and uneven forwards.
You can't have multiple dog poo-level players and expect to get away with it in the NHL.

Jost, Olofsson, Krebs, Okposo, Girgensons are all on the chopping block.

 

[HaNotsri]

alt. headline could be "Take the goat out back and shoot it"

 

[debaser66]

G: I feel asleep in the second
Rousek and Biro looked good until my exit dreamland

They looked completely disjointed, Dahlins passes going nowhere,
they couldn't sustained any prolonged zone time to circle the puck, just single guys making it in to lose it against 2 defenders.

U: losing the Cobra, hope its nothing serious

Bold:
They will collect themselves and bury the Leafs tonight

 

[old kummelweck]

I saw this coming with Philly. They are better than people want to believe. There is a lot of parity in the league and the Sabres aren't going to just blast their way through teams. More and more teams are going to match this puck-pressure and transition game style, and the Sabres just are not prepared to play any other way. They caught a break with Colorado who was also struggling, but that looks to have been an outlier.

I do not see this as a roster composition problem. This is 100% on Granato and the coaches, period. Teams are happy to give the sabres the wind up in the D zone, clog up the neutral zone or get in the passing lanes, use their legs to take away time and space and dare the Sabres to make that zone entry. Go ahead and dump the puck, because they aren't good fore checkers and the 50/50 pucks break for the other team.

Oh, you gained the zone? Fine, just keep cycling the puck around the perimeter - no one is going to get to the inside/high danger areas. Keep sending the puck to the D and we'll pressure those guys for a turnover and kick in their transition game.

 

[CrazyWayne]

Always thought the people that predict that the sabres won't be in buffalo in X years were being dramatic but I think I see it now

The booing at the end of the first (well deserved btw) I think shows the majority of fans are about done, not I'll be back when they win but actually done. If this team fails will fans ever come back? Am I just being dramatic now too?

On a side note when did every forward forget how to catch a pass? There was a play where a flyers player did a slapshot as a pass along the blue line and caught it beautifully but anytime dahlin feathers a pass to a player on the tape they bobble it and turn it over

 

[Dreakon13]

Where are all the posters who said we were on the right path and didn't need to improve the roster through UFA or trades this offseason and were happy to run it back with Okposo, Jost, Olofsson, Comrie, UPL?

The thing is, those five guys aren't the problem. You can make an argument for goaltending I guess, but the best goaltender in the league doesn't put us on the right track... it, at best, covers up the real issue, at worst changes nothing. Thompson, Cozens, Skinner, Tuch, Dahlin, Sammy, Power. Guys they never would've signed UFA's or traded to replace, and no one would've expected them to.

At this point, the teams success and future depends on those guys playing at or developing to a level deserving of playoff hockey. Not Okposo or Jost. That's what the Sabres brass are banking on, that's what they paid for, and that's not an unreasonable path to follow for such a young team with promising players... as much as it pains us to watch the process.

These are the players, this is the team. Our core is locked in for the next 7-8 years. Either those guys right the ship, or we blow everything up... again.

 

[Matt Ress]

Whew. I didn't watch the entire game. It seems like the Flies played us the way we're supposed to be playing... jumping on loose pucks in the D zone and transitioning up ice quickly, keeping the play to the perimeter until that happens... taking care of the puck in the O zone until players are tired/miss an assignment... jumping on loose pucks in the O zone... pressuring defensemen and staying tight to forwards in the N zone to create turnovers. All things the Sabres did well last year when they were at the top of their game.

Keep an extra forward close by for exits, skate the puck more through the N zone and pull defenders out of position for cleaner entries, work harder for loose pucks, get the puck on net quicker to create scrambles in the O zone and lessen the opportunity to turn the puck over, don't be scared to use skill to beat a defender 1on1 through the N zone and O zone which will break down their defense. Somebody in the locker room should be adjusting between periods and although I didn't see the 2nd half, there's all too often not enough in game adjustments.

 

[sabremike]

There's a good chance the Flyers return to the postseason before we do. Think of just how completely sad that is.

Coaching matters.

 

[Mattilaus]

Always thought the people that predict that the sabres won't be in buffalo in X years were being dramatic but I think I see it now

The booing at the end of the first (well deserved btw) I think shows the majority of fans are about done, not I'll be back when they win but actually done. If this team fails will fans ever come back? Am I just being dramatic now too?

On a side note when did every forward forget how to catch a pass? There was a play where a flyers player did a slapshot as a pass along the blue line and caught it beautifully but anytime dahlin feathers a pass to a player on the tape they bobble it and turn it over

Fans will always come back to a winning team. That's why they changed the expansion draft to benefit expansion teams. Have a winner right away to build a fan base up. But the winning needs to come first.

 

[Doug Prishpreed]

While the defensemen havdn't been great I think our main defensive problem are the slow and uneven forwards.
You can't have multiple dog poo-level players and expect to get away with it in the NHL.

Jost, Olofsson, Krebs, Okposo, Girgensons are all on the chopping block.

How can you not list Peterka? He’s been killing us more then a lot of guys you listed.

There's a good chance the Flyers return to the postseason before we do. Think of just how completely sad that is.

Coaching matters.

MTL will beat us there too, even though they basically just started their rebuild last year.

 

[Doug Prishpreed]

These are the players, this is the team. Our core is locked in for the next 7-8 years. Either those guys right the ship, or we blow everything up... again.

Buffalo fans are brainwashed to think trades aren’t possible and the team is locked-in until your next rebuild. Other teams simply make trades to address their needs instead of perpetual tanking to get top ten picks.

 

[toddkaz]

This team has a captain who is no longer an NHL level player.

They are gifting him a spot, it was a mistake and it shows. This team is lifeless. How is Okposo suppose to lead this team and change that when he can barely keep up?

 

[Howie Hodge]

Other than Ryan Jonson, and Mason Jobst, I saw little in Rochester last night to believe any solutions are in The AHL.

Samuelsson is becoming a big disappointment with the constant injuries also. Made of glass, or a low pain threshold?

Shame on Adams for not acquiring a defenseman n the offseason.

Let us pray to Grier that this guys not got that smile on his face after tonight's game...

 

[Sabre the Win]

While the defensemen havdn't been great I think our main defensive problem are the slow and uneven forwards.
You can't have multiple dog poo-level players and expect to get away with it in the NHL.

Jost, Olofsson, Krebs, Okposo, Girgensons are all on the chopping block.

The Flyers are running 3 lines of 4th liners and just absolutely wiped the floor with Buffalo.

 

[TheDawnOfANewTage]

In watching all the games, it's the players.

They had a ton of chances tonight and couldn't bury them.

The forwards were blowing the zone early in the first and Philly's forecheck took advantage.

Forwards started playing back more and that resulted in the incredibly dumb east to west shit in their own zone that they were doing last year.

They also couldn't complete a simple pass, there was a stretch of time of time in the third where they did not make a single pass and chased the puck around for three minutes. Passes were rockets, in the skates, just out of reach, etc.

The power play is brutal. Nobody in front of the net is fireable. When we made it 4-1 and went on the pp they worked the bumper spot well but there was nobody to distribute to, mitts got the puck and there was nothing there, he got it a second time and fired a shot into Ersson. Second unit, same thing, Cozens got it and the other guy was right next to him for some reason. They figured out Tage, move him around.

I am fine with our goaltending. Upl is fine, terrible on break ways because he doesn't move or goes down super quick. You have to live with 2-3 scramble plays because that is his game.

What this team can't do is exactly what Tuch did on GA 4, Lost his man and provided 0 crease support. How that pass gets through is wild.

Krebs, Tuch and Okposo need to sit. Okposo needs to pull this room together because right now, this team has no idea who they are.

I can live with them losing, it's hockey, but they can't lose and provide zero effort.

One more item, get Oloffson off the team. He isn't playing the game we need him to play. Find a time who needs a pp specialist because he isn't getting that here, eat 50% and see what you can get.

All this, except that when it’s pretty much every player.. and the pp.. and the captain.. at some point you gotta look upwards. Some (@Ace) blame Adams, I personally see a lot of young talent just completely off-script, confused, and stalled in their development because Granato is a big bag of rah-rah with nothin else. Like- these past 5 games we’ve almost blown a massive lead, we’ve gotten a too many men penalty down by a goal with a minute left, we’ve gotten outplayed by the Flyers twice- these are team wide mistakes pointing towards greater disfunction at the coaching level.

 

[La Cosa Nostra]

Oh the bottom 6 forwards in Okposo, Girgs, Krebs, Jost, Olofsson etc are holding the team back? Not like many of us weren't clamoring for a total rehaul of the bottom 2 lines. Instead they want the "feel good" " want to be a sabre" trash route. Okposo and Girgs should NEVER have been re-signed. Losers. They are as desirable to the rest of the league as Johan "elite 2 way center" Larsson was.

 

[Dreakon13]

Buffalo fans are brainwashed to think trades aren’t possible and the team is locked-in until your next rebuild. Other teams simply make trades to address their needs instead of perpetual tanking to get top ten picks.

We're a long ways away from them giving up on Thompson, Cozens, Dahlin, Power, etc. That's not brainwashing, that's common sense.

Less so guys like Skinner, Tuch... but at no point were we thinking this past offseason that they were in need of replacing. They were productive last year.

There was no way they were going to solve this teams problems this past offseason. No matter who they picked up, we'd be dealing with the same frustrations because our top guys aren't playing like top guys.

... unless we got rid of our top guys, which is what we call a rebuild.

 

[HaNotsri]

How can you not list Peterka? He’s been killing us more then a lot of guys you listed.


MTL will beat us there too, even though they basically just started their rebuild last year.

Yes he's been bad defensively but he has upside so he's more of a kitten that hasn't been potty trained than dog poo.
Of the named players I only think Krebs has any real upside.

It hurts watching okposo play right now. It's like he's been put in jell-o or something.

The Flyers are running 3 lines of 4th liners and just absolutely wiped the floor with Buffalo.

Yeah but their 4th liners know how to play d.
When we collapse around the net over and over it's a sign that forwards aren't doing their job. On top of that we have the boneheaded plays around the offensive blueline and suicidal turnovers.