U need at least 1 line that can play heavy defensive minutes
Not recognizing that is foolish
- jdfitz77

Well we still have 2/3 members of the Dream Team. They should be able pull Larry Lazar Bird off the bench to play a few minutes

Larsson's role would be less important this season.
Less ice time. = more Sabres talent

We sucked , changes were/are neccessary.

If larry had such a irrereplaceable role, why didnt other nhl gms recognize this? Pay him well and with term?

I know we can do better. Plus eichel has evolved defensively and will play more than any forward in the nhl this season. #ralphhockey

And we signed stahl
And asplund
And cozens possibly at center
And fatty mc landstat
- Boss34

Asking Eichel to be Bergeron when we don’t even know if:
1- he can do it
2- don’t know if Hall can do it on his wing, offensively OR defensively
3- we hope we finally have secondary scoring, but that’s not a sure thing yet

Doesn’t make sense to me
It’s a short season in a tough division,
and we don’t have room for error
And we don’t have TIME to figure it out

We took a certainty and made it a question mark
That was dumb imo

I'm really not interested in litigating the failures of last year's team. The log line was the 3rd line by usage (in part due to horrible roster construction) and they didn't score enough. They were part of the problem and now one of them is gone. Hopefully the other two work with whatever new Larry they get. I hope they don't play as much as they did last year and I doubt they will.

This team should have actual talent in the forward lines now so we don't have to sit through unwatchable hockey from that line for 15 minutes a night
- jcragcrumple

Log line was pretty much the 2nd line by usage.

And we won a ton of games on home ice when they shut down other teams top forwards.

Nobody wanted them playing those types of minutes, however the importance of having a line that can neutralize other teams scorers is quite important.

Good stuff

I was in the Bill's backers for 5 or 6 years.
Probably from 2005 -2012 ?

Pretty cool. Speaker's were ex Bill's.
Thurman
Marv
Norwood
Polian
Excellent buffet 🛎
- Boss34

Yeah fun stuff, got to meet a lot of players and so cause of him. My one Uncle actually owned a Seafood store over in West Seneca Schenk's Seafood, met a lot of players working there. Unfortunately it won't be the same, but I have been waiting a long time for another playoff game at the Ralph.

Well we still have 2/3 members of the Dream Team. They should be able pull Larry Lazar Bird off the bench to play a few minutes
- jcragcrumple

We have no clue if he’s a suitable replacement

Playing against other teams’ top lines effectively every night is very tough

It’s silly that u seem to take that for granted

Log line was pretty much the 2nd line by usage.

And we won a ton of games on home ice when they shut down other teams top forwards.

Nobody wanted them playing those types of minutes, however the importance of having a line that can neutralize other teams scorers is quite important.
- Pegullaville

Worked great. 25th place

Log line was pretty much the 2nd line by usage.

And we won a ton of games on home ice when they shut down other teams top forwards.

Nobody wanted them playing those types of minutes, however the importance of having a line that can neutralize other teams scorers is quite important.
- Pegullaville

👏👏👏
Great post

Worked great. 25th place
- jcragcrumple

Dumb argument
Always was, always will be

Just be we were 25th doesn’t mean we didn’t have some good players
And it doesn’t mean we didn’t have guys perform well in their roles

Saying that crap shows u have zero clue in how to build a team

Worked great. 25th place
- jcragcrumple

Right, and the Leafs make the playoffs every year with a stacked top 6, a below average bottom 6, and mediocre defence corps and how does that work out for them ?

Stick the LOG line as the third line in Toronto last year and they make the Eastern Conference finals.

just keep with the status quo. 25th place.... one defensive line. sign me up!!!

Right, and the Leafs make the playoffs every year with a stacked top 6, a below average bottom 6, and mediocre defence corps and how does that work out for them ?

Stick the LOG line as the third line in Toronto last year and they make the Eastern Conference finals.
- Pegullaville

(frank) toronto.

just keep with the status quo. 25th place.... one defensive line. sign me up!!!
- TheHank

We paid Eakin more than Larsson.

Nothing wrong with having the LOG line give you 10 solid minutes of hockey a night.

Larry is a very good defensive centre and at that cap hit would have been great value.

Right, and the Leafs make the playoffs every year with a stacked top 6, a below average bottom 6, and mediocre defence corps and how does that work out for them ?

Stick the LOG line as the third line in Toronto last year and they make the Eastern Conference finals.
- Pegullaville

He acts like we want 4 LOG lines or something
Having 1 is valuable- very valuable actually

PIT won back to back Cups with Cullen centering their “log line” and playing an important role
Can’t have those 3 scoring lines without a good defensive one as well

When the Bruins won their last Cup,
there was plenty of talk about how important their “log line” was with Paille-Campbell-Thornton


We just don’t have top guys who can play 2way hockey like Bergeron, ROR, Stone, Kopitar, Toews,
etc etc etc

When we do- then we won’t need the LOG line
Until then, it’s important

Me thinks it was Larry that elevated those two and not the other way around
- Stripes77

I feel the same.

Dumb argument
Always was, always will be

Just be we were 25th doesn’t mean we didn’t have some good players
And it doesn’t mean we didn’t have guys perform well in their roles

Saying that crap shows u have zero clue in how to build a team
- jdfitz77

But Botterill did. That's why he was snapped up for a new job so quickly after the success of the past 3 years

But Botterill did. That's why he was snapped up for a new job so quickly after the success of the past 3 years
- jcragcrumple

Lol, moving the goalposts again

Guess we should get rid of Eichel then,
since we were 25th with him too

The defensive line was NOT why we lost games
It’s been well documented how good they were in their role
No secondary scoring killed us
Crappy goaltending killed us

This isn’t difficult- it’s actually very obvious

We paid Eakin more than Larsson.

Nothing wrong with having the LOG line give you 10 solid minutes of hockey a night.

Larry is a very good defensive centre and at that cap hit would have been great value.
- Pegullaville

after the last ten years I'll take some change in the lineup. anything but the same old same old. give me someone else to female dog about.

Lol, moving the goalposts again

Guess we should get rid of Eichel then,
since we were 25th with him too

The defensive line was NOT why we lost games
It’s been well documented how good they were in their role
No secondary scoring killed us
Crappy goaltending killed us

This isn’t difficult- it’s actually very obvious
- jdfitz77

You are either incapable of understanding or purposefully refusing to acknowledge that the LOG line contributed to that due to their usage.

All of these factors are interconnected. The roster was dog poop so the LOG line played too much. The results sucked because the log line played too much. The formula failed because it relied on the Sabres special teams to make the difference on any given night to either win or get blown out. Unfortunately the larrys also sucked on the PK and led us to a historically bad PK which didn't help.

All of this is interconnected. It's why the GM is gone and why they took the roster in a different direction. It didn't work. Larry hockey is dead.

after the last ten years I'll take some change in the lineup. anything but the same old same old. give me someone else to female dog about.
- TheHank

I’m a huge fan of adding Hall, Staal, Cozens to this lineup. Tage is a wildcard. Olofsson is in year two. I’m expecting Skinner to bounce back and Reinhart and Eichel should have more to give.

Hopefully Eakin fits in our system and doesn’t shoot us in the foot defensively. Eye test and analytics don’t favour that but it’s a new team and a new slate and we’ll see what happens.

You are either incapable of understanding or purposefully refusing to acknowledge that the LOG line contributed to that due to their usage.

All of these factors are interconnected. The roster was dog poop so the LOG line played too much. The results sucked because the log line played too much. The formula failed because it relied on the Sabres special teams to make the difference on any given night to either win or get blown out. Unfortunately the larrys also sucked on the PK and led us to a historically bad PK which didn't help.

All of this is interconnected. It's why the GM is gone and why they took the roster in a different direction. It didn't work. Larry hockey is dead.
- jcragcrumple

Does Larry hop over the boards and dictate how many minutes he plays or does the coaching staff ?

The Skinner line and mixed bag 4th line is why we sucked.

The LOG line playing 10 minutes a night would be great with this new look top 6 we have.

Hopefully Lazar/Sheehan/Asplund can fill that role and they don’t miss a beat.

Log line was pretty much the 2nd line by usage.

And we won a ton of games on home ice when they shut down other teams top forwards.

Nobody wanted them playing those types of minutes, however the importance of having a line that can neutralize other teams scorers is quite important.
- Pegullaville

How do YOU define this?

I would imagine that would be HOME Games in which the Sabres won where the opposition was held to less than 3 goals, given the average GA/G was 3.14 (coincidentally was about the mean of the league for GA).
Also, must throw out games in which the Boys scored more than that 3.14, since scores higher than that is an indication that secondary scoring was more of a reason for the win.

So, out of those 8 wins at home that meet that criteria where actually because the top lines that the LOG played against were held to 1goal or less.

That narrative sounds good, but have you really done the research to make that specific claim?

We paid Eakin more than Larsson.

Nothing wrong with having the LOG line give you 10 solid minutes of hockey a night.

Larry is a very good defensive centre and at that cap hit would have been great value.
- Pegullaville

At $1.4, his market value, yes he would have been a good value.
Assuming that they had Larson around the same value as Girgs $2.4....el passo.

You are either incapable of understanding or purposefully refusing to acknowledge that the LOG line contributed to that due to their usage.

All of these factors are interconnected. The roster was dog poop so the LOG line played too much. The results sucked because the log line played too much. The formula failed because it relied on the Sabres special teams to make the difference on any given night to either win or get blown out. Unfortunately the larrys also sucked on the PK and led us to a historically bad PK which didn't help.

All of this is interconnected. It's why the GM is gone and why they took the roster in a different direction. It didn't work. Larry hockey is dead.
- jcragcrumple

Then u have to say Eichel was part of the problem too
Your logic is FLAWED

Just bc a “team” is bad, doesn’t mean there aren’t good players on it
The LOG line was EFFECTIVE in its ROLE,
it’s been well documented
The Eichel line was also effective

The “results sucked” even though those 2 lines played well BECAUSE other 2 lines that were supposed to help with scoring let us down & barely did anything positive with their icetime

Let’s say the LOG line played 5min less a night, would we have won those games?
NOPE. We sure as sh!t wouldn’t have,
Bc the lines that would’ve taken their place couldn’t do much of anything positive

How do YOU define this?

I would imagine that would be HOME Games in which the Sabres won where the opposition was held to less than 3 goals, given the average GA/G was 3.14 (coincidentally was about the mean of the league for GA).
Also, must throw out games in which the Boys scored more than that 3.14, since scores higher than that is an indication that secondary scoring was more of a reason for the win.

So, out of those 8 wins at home that meet that criteria where actually because the top lines that the LOG played against were held to 1goal or less.

That narrative sounds good, but have you really done the research to make that specific claim?
- IonSabres

The Sabres for a majority of the season were a top 7 team in the league in reducing high danger scoring chances.

If you look at each d-man individually and their respective underlying numbers that says everything I need to know about the LOG line.

You are either incapable of understanding or purposefully refusing to acknowledge that the LOG line contributed to that due to their usage.

All of these factors are interconnected. The roster was dog poop so the LOG line played too much. The results sucked because the log line played too much. The formula failed because it relied on the Sabres special teams to make the difference on any given night to either win or get blown out. Unfortunately the larrys also sucked on the PK and led us to a historically bad PK which didn't help.

All of this is interconnected. It's why the GM is gone and why they took the roster in a different direction. It didn't work. Larry hockey is dead.
- jcragcrumple

Solid post.
Spot on.