26CornerBlitz Posted November 25, 2017 Author Posted November 25, 2017 Game Preview: 11/26/17 vs. MTLLAST GAMEFriday, November 24Edmonton 1 at Buffalo 3Goals: Josefson, Eichel, OkposoGoalie: Lehner (29 saves/30 shots)PP: 0/3; PK: 3/3; Shots: Buffalo 31 – Edmonton 30CURRENT INJURIES – (Man Games Lost: 117) Player (injury, first game missed) – total games missedZach Bogosian (lower body, Oct.5; injured reserve) – 23 gamesMatt Tennyson (foot, Nov. 7; injured reserve) – 9 gamesTaylor Fedun (lower body, Nov. 17; injured reserve) – 5 gamesTRANSACTIONS IN PAST 7 DAYS 11/22: Activated F Jacob Josefson from IR11/24: Activated D Rasmus Ristolainen from IR; Assigned D Casey Nelsonto Rochester (AHL)UPCOMING GAMES Tuesday, Nov. 28: Tampa Bay at Buffalo, 7 p.m.Friday, Dec. 1: Pittsburgh at Buffalo, 7 p.m.Saturday, Dec. 2: Buffalo at Pittsburgh, 7 p.m.Tuesday, Dec. 5: Buffalo at Colorado, 9 p.m.Friday, Dec. 8: Buffalo at Chicago, 8:30 p.m.TONIGHT’S GAME SABRES at CANADIENS This is the third of four meetings between the Sabres and Canadiens this season. Last meeting: Montreal defeated Buffalo 2-1 (OT) in Montreal on Nov. 11 Next meeting: Friday, March 23 in Buffalo The Sabres are 4-3-3 in their last 10 games vs. the Canadiens; 5-4-1 on the road This is the 278th game all-time between Buffalo and Montreal; Buffalo has a 126-110-41 series record. The Sabres are 54-71-14 on the road against the Canadiens all-time.
26CornerBlitz Posted November 25, 2017 Author Posted November 25, 2017 BROSSARD - Here's a look at the forward lines and defense pairings head coach Claude Julien featured at Saturday's morning skate at the Bell Sports Complex ahead of the Canadiens' game against the Buffalo Sabres. Galchenyuk - Drouin - Byron Pacioretty - Danault - Shaw Hudon - Plekanec - Gallagher Deslauriers - de la Rose - Froese Weber - Davidson Alzner - Petry Morrow - Benn Mete - Jerabek Price Niemi
BillsFan4 Posted November 25, 2017 Posted November 25, 2017 Highlights from the Rochester game last night - https://m.youtube.com/watch?feature=youtu.be&v=czTTQnsAGHk Rochester won 10-4 last night. They haven't scored 10 goals in a game since 2006 IIRC. Nice to see them playing better. Funny, Tim Murray couldn't turn that team around in 3 years despite trying. Botterill seems to have come in and done it in a matter of months (I hope...). Great win by the Sabres last night, too. They all worked their arse off and played a pretty complete, 60 minute game. Well, maybe more like 52 mins, as I thought they kind of went too much into defensive mode the last 7-8 mins. But I'm not complaining! It hasn't really shown up in the win-loss column yet but I see this team improving, especially the last few games. They are playing better, smarter hockey and have stepped up their compete level which is very nice to see. I honestly have have faith that Housley is going to get this team turned around. I mean, he needs more talent to work with first and foremost, especially on the blue line. But I really do think that ultimately he will get the job done. He has such a great mind for the game. Its actually very impressive IMO.
BillsFan4 Posted November 26, 2017 Posted November 26, 2017 http://www.wgr550.com/articles/news/sabres-waive-griffith Sabres waive Seth Griffith. I'm hoping that this means Bogosian is ready to come back... Also hoping that Griffith makes it through waivers. He's always been a very good goal scorer at the AHL level, so he could be a nice boost for a Rochester team already playing well.
26CornerBlitz Posted November 28, 2017 Author Posted November 28, 2017 Game Preview: 11/28/17 vs. TBL Game Notes NHL Stats Press Clips LAST GAME Saturday, November 25 Buffalo 0 at Montreal 3 Goals: N/A Goalie: Lehner (23 saves/26 shots) PP: 0/2; PK: 1/2; Shots: Buffalo 36 – Montreal 26 CURRENT INJURIES – (Man Games Lost: 120) Player (injury, first game missed) – total games missed Zach Bogosian (lower body, Oct.5; injured reserve) – 24 games Matt Tennyson (foot, Nov. 7; injured reserve) – 10 games Taylor Fedun (lower body, Nov. 17; injured reserve) – 6 games Jacob Josefson (ankle, Nov. 28) – 0 games TRANSACTIONS IN PAST 7 DAYS 11/22: Activated F Jacob Josefson from IR 11/24: Activated D Rasmus Ristolainen from IR; Assigned D Casey Nelson to Rochester (AHL) 11/26: Placed F Seth Griffith on waivers 11/27: Assigned F Seth Griffith to Rochester (AHL) UPCOMING GAMES Friday, Dec. 1: Pittsburgh at Buffalo, 7 p.m. Saturday, Dec. 2: Buffalo at Pittsburgh, 7 p.m. Tuesday, Dec. 5: Buffalo at Colorado, 9 p.m. Friday, Dec. 8: Buffalo at Chicago, 8:30 p.m. Sunday, Dec. 10: Buffalo at St. Louis, 7 p.m. TONIGHT’S GAME LIGHTNING at SABRES This is the first of four meetings between the Sabres and Lightning this season. Last meeting: Tampa Bay defeated Buffalo 4-2 in Tampa on April 9 Next meeting: Tuesday, Feb. 13 in Buffalo The Sabres are 1-8-1 in their last 10 games vs. the Lightning; 2-5-3 at home. This is the 95th game all-time between Buffalo and Tampa Bay; Buffalo has a 52-34-8 series record. The Sabres are 24-17-5 at home against the Lightning all-time.
BillsFan4 Posted November 28, 2017 Posted November 28, 2017 So I just seen that Alex DeBrincat just got his first career hat trick 22 games into his rookie season. He has 10 goals and 17 points in 22 games so far. That would put him 2nd in goals and 3rd in points on the Sabres. The reason I mention that is because Tim Murray traded the 2nd round pick used to draft him for Josh freaking Gorges! Its really going to start start showing how badly he wasted some of his picks. It bugs me when you look at how strong those 2015 and 2016 drafts were and the players that were available to us had Murray kept all those 1st and 2nd round picks we had. I think he really squandered a golden opportunity for Buffalo to build a true young powerhouse of a team...
26CornerBlitz Posted November 28, 2017 Author Posted November 28, 2017 Projected Lineup 9 Evander Kane - 15 Jack Eichel - 23 Sam Reinhart 67 Benoit Pouliot - 90 Ryan O'Reilly - 21 Kyle Okposo 17 Jordan Nolan - 22 Johan Larsson - 29 Jason Pominville 28 Zemgus Girgensons - 51 Kyle Criscuolo - 26 Matt Moulson 6 Marco Scandella - 55 Rasmus Ristolainen 19 Jake McCabe - 93 Victor Antipin 82 Nathan Beaulieu - 41 Justin Falk 40 Robin Lehner 31 Chad Johnson
BillsFan4 Posted November 28, 2017 Posted November 28, 2017 Buffalo Sabres: Rasmus Ristolainen finally turning the corner https://puckprose.com/2017/11/27/buffalo-sabres-rasmus-ristolainen-finally-turning-corner/ Quote However this season, though it's just a 15 game sample size, Ristolainen has seen a significant improvement. For the first time in his career, the Sabres are a better puck possession team with him on the ice than when he’s off it. Ristolainen’s expected goals for percentage at even strength is among the best in the NHL entering Monday, Nov. 27. What has been the cause of this sudden improvement? A lot of it probably has to do with the coaching staff and the team around him...." (continued in link) Like the article says, it's only a 15 game sample size. But it's still nice to see Ristolainen s underlying analytics numbers improving. Maybe he'll start getting the respect he deserves (outside of Buffalo, as most of us already knew that he was much better than his terrible analytics showed). I always felt that that some of his numbers, like shot suppression (etc) were a product of Bylsma's system first and his D partners, as well as playing on a terrible team (obviously). Bylsma asked/wanted him stay in front of the net and push the shots to the outside. He wanted guys staying in their positions, not attacking the puck. The purpose was to keep the shots on goal limited to the low(er) danger areas along the perimeter of the ice. He didn't care if teams took a hundred shots from along the boards (etc). as long as we didn't give up the slot area. So obviously that is going to make Ristolainen's shot suppression numbers look terrible. That doesn't automatically mean he's a 2nd/3rd pair defender, like those stupid hero charts show... analytics are just 1 small piece of information. Not the be all end all that some make them out to be. I'll definitely be interested to see if this new upward trend in his numbers continues.
BillsFan4 Posted November 29, 2017 Posted November 29, 2017 I thought they actually played a pretty good game tonight. They just can't score... Oh, and I just seen this - http://buffalonews.com/2017/11/28/sabres-road-to-the-winter-classic-will-air-on-nbcsn/ NBC Sports will be airing "Road to the winter classic", a behind the scenes look at the Sabres in the weeks leading up to the winter classic. It's supposed to start sometime in December. So glad this is moving from Epix to NBCSN since I don't get Epix. Should be interesting... I am very curious to see what the glimpse of the culture inside Buffalo's locker room looks like.
plenzmd1 Posted November 29, 2017 Posted November 29, 2017 6 hours ago, BillsFan4 said: I thought they actually played a pretty good game tonight. They just can't score... they were not awful in Montreal either by all accounts, but still consecutive shutouts not good. I am guessing a good deal of folks, like me, are just checking out. I did not watch one second of either of the last two games, nor have I bothered to even look if they are playing at home during the next two Bills games after this week Just no way I would go see them now, not because they are losing, they are just plain boring.
BringBackFergy Posted November 29, 2017 Posted November 29, 2017 46 minutes ago, plenzmd1 said: they were not awful in Montreal either by all accounts, but still consecutive shutouts not good. I am guessing a good deal of folks, like me, are just checking out. I did not watch one second of either of the last two games, nor have I bothered to even look if they are playing at home during the next two Bills games after this week Just no way I would go see them now, not because they are losing, they are just plain boring. I still watch. But it seems they are caught between trying to be a fast/finesse team and a dump/chase team. They don’t have the horses to do either one on a consistently good basis. That’s the hand Housely was dealt. Gonna take some time.
26CornerBlitz Posted November 29, 2017 Author Posted November 29, 2017 11-29: PHIL HOUSLEY ON WGR (14:32) #Sabres head coach Phil Housley joins Howard and Jeremy right now on WGR! Tune in: Housley - we're just going to have to get better every day and focus on areas we need to focus on. #Sabres Housley - Jason Botterill and I talk every day about the roster. We're just going to have to continue to change up the lines, keep things fresh and deal with what we have. #Sabres Housley - we haven't scored in the last couple of games, but we out-chanced Tampa last night, out-shot them. The bottom line is that we're not scoring. How do we change that? Have to get to the dirty areas and generate chances that way #Sabres Housley - we're going to have to create more, that's the desperation part of our game. We had chances the past two games, generating shots, but we have to get to the net better. #Sabres Housley - when Jason and I sat down before the season, we wanted to play a high-tempo game while getting on the attack. At this point of the season, the players and coaches aren't happy with the results. We have to try and put it all together and play a full 60 minutes #Sabres Housley - we can learn from what happened in the past. Right now, we're in a state where it's been tough mentally. Hopefully this makes us mentally tougher #Sabres Housley - we continue to evaluate our group every day and figure out how to get better. I believe this personnel can get the job done. #Sabres Housley - I think we are shooting enough, now we just have to get someone over top of the goalie to make it more difficult for them to see the puck. Goalies are too good in this league. If they can see the puck, they'll stop it. #Sabres Housley - we're not creating enough bounces because we're not getting to the front of the net. #Sabres Housley - I thought the PP looked really good last night, first time in about five games we've gotten some great chances. Our net-front guys need to continue to be on top of the goalies, we're waving too much at pucks. #Sabres Housley - we'll take things day-by-day with Zach Bogosian. We'll see how he gets through the next two practices. #Sabres
26CornerBlitz Posted November 29, 2017 Author Posted November 29, 2017 Buffalo: The Sabres could use Dahlin more than any team, in my opinion. The franchise already has a game-changing center in Jack Eichel, plus a great No. 2 in Ryan O’Reilly. Otherwise, the forward corps is decent and if Casey Mittelstadt and/or Alex Nylander can make the jump next year, it gets better. The back end is messy and a big reason is an overreliance on Rasmus Ristolainen, who is playing more than 27 minutes a night. Toss Dahlin onto that depth chart and things get so much smoother. Heck, maybe you even put the two Rasmuses (Rasmi?) together, with Ristolainen playing more of a defensive role and ceding power play time to Dahlin, getting his own minutes down in the process. Much like Edmonton, Buffalo has one centerpiece already (in Eichel), but Dahlin would definitely put them back in the playoffs.
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