the beauty of the movie trouble with the curve, is you can see what is going on


apply that to hockey


you can see where mccabe sucked and gave up an odd man rush that led to a goal

you can see where staal coughed it up right in front of his net and led to a goal

you can see the dahlin turnovers that led to goals


those 3 things alone, led to half the even strength goals we allowed this season


the beauty of watching a game
- homiedclown

Well done. Stats can be very misleading. I have watched all the games and this team if they play consistent will make the playoffs for sure.

And the goalies won't improve? The toughest position in sports, toughest position to get a grove going, especially when your team keeps feeding the other team within 10 feet of our net
- Keepcomplaining

They very well could.

However including sample sizes from the past 2-3 seasons what we are seeing right now is what we’ve been getting for years.

I also think Defensive back is the toughest position to play in all of sports considering the rules put in place the last 5-10 years. I believe the 2013 Seahawks and 2015 Broncos deserve much more credit as the best defences of all time because of it.

These guys make no sense, literally the hardest position in all of sports and these guys want them to be perfect in the first couple games after almost of year of not playing competitive hockey
- Keepcomplaining

No one said “be perfect”

What’s so bad about wanting to improve or upgrade a position on our team?!

And the goalies won't improve? The toughest position in sports, toughest position to get a grove going, especially when your team keeps feeding the other team within 10 feet of our net
- Keepcomplaining

But this is happening WAY less relative to other teams. And that's exactly what that graph is telling us

i rather complain that our 8 mil+ players have a combined 1 goal
- SabresFaninIndiana

1- it’s logical to think they’ll start scoring
2- we all think Skinner should be moved up in the lineup
3- why is it an “either / or” situation?
Getting those guys scoring AND improving the goaltending only makes us that much better!!!

I have watched every game.

I also agree that special teams costed us two games because we went a combined 0/9 on the PP.

That doesn’t absolve the fact that our goaltenders underperform either though.

Sooner or later the goals are going to start piling in here we are the unluckiest team in the league right now
- Pegullaville

If not for those 5 blunders from mccabe staal and dahlin we are 4-1-1

If better pp we are 4-1-1

If better 5 on 5 scoring we are 4-1-1


Better goaltending maybe 3 more points

Maybe no more points

I mean for 3 weeks they b!tch about risto, dahlin, miller, montour


and then they blame the goalies 2 weeks later

it's one thing to say we need better play from the goalies, and they do

but they also need better special teams
more goals 5 on 5
better play from their 6 d men


the last 3 things are the bigger reason why we are below .500
- homiedclown

If we can make other trades to upgrade more positions....
then of course we should do that too!!!

No, I want them to be better than both bottom 20 out of 60 on a defensive team that limits chances.
- sbroads24

👏👏👏

If not for those 5 blunders from mccabe staal and dahlin we are 4-1-1

If better pp we are 4-1-1

If better 5 on 5 scoring we are 4-1-1


Better goaltending maybe 3 more points

Maybe no more points
- homiedclown

Every single team makes blunders

We make less of them than most teams

These things are all accounted for - They are not held against the goalie in expected saves against. They don't expect a save in that situation most of the times
- sbroads24

Yet those are what cost us games

Or going 0-4 in a shootout

Or two games when you get 1 whole 5 on 5 goal

Etc

Sure I’ll answer you. He had the balls to play hurt, put the team first and probably doesn’t give a rats ass what anyone else thinks. Appears to be the type of player I’d want to have around. Your point of having an under 900 season means as much to me as the under 900 seasons for Bob, Rinne and Murray. Pros bounce back.
The fact Skinner had a bad year only means to me he wants to prove everyone wrong and have a good year this year.
If you want to just use one year as a benchmark go take a look at Haseks career year by year. Super talent who had some off years.
- Camel

Hutton is no Hasek
He’s 35 years old
How many goalies “bounce back” at that age?
It’s just not realistic

this team should build it's top 2 line with hall, skinner and olofsson in the slot


instead it's bad puck luck again for season 14


maybe if the game plan was to put guys in position to succeed, it would be more then the broken record of puck luck
- homiedclown

Agreed
But none of that has to do with mediocre goaltending

They are 40th and 44th out of 60 eligible goalies in goals saved above expected.

One goalie is. Below his average numbers but its the beginning of the year and hes definitely got stuff on his mind. Maybe stop coughing the puck infront of them allowing for some sure goals. You don't talk about how bad Dahlin has been or Joker
- Keepcomplaining

Neither goalie are playing well.

They are 40th and 44th out of 60 eligible goalies in goals saved above expected.


It’s MUCH easier to trade for a goalie upgrade than to trade for multiple players to make us a better defensive team
*even though we’re actually pretty good defensively & the goalies are letting us down
*that’s what the “goals above expected” stat shows

Yet those are what cost us games

Or going 0-4 in a shootout

Or two games when you get 1 whole 5 on 5 goal

Etc
- homiedclown

Again, no one’s blaming the goalies for the losses. That’s does not mean they’re playing well. They currently have been bad

who would get us in the playoffs when we score 1.3 even strength goals per game?


you act like we have all star d men, we don't


and our special teams are below average
- homiedclown

When did i say ANYTHING about our defense being AllStars? Or even playing well?
A better goalie can help cover some of that up though

AND I fully expect Eichel & Hall to start cashing in on all the chances they’ve been generating
*bc they’ve shown throughout their careers that they are good scorers

That’s all fine. I’m not directly blaming them for the losses.

That doesn’t mean they’ve been remotely good.

This team doesn’t give up many chances, when they do they hit the back of the net way too easily
- sbroads24

^THIS

X-Axis shows we are a very good defensive team.

Y-Axis shows our goalies haven’t given us the results that we should have considering how well we defend



- Pegullaville

^THIS

No one said “be perfect”

What so bad about wanting to improve or upgrade a position on our team?!
- jdfitz77

There is absolutely nothing bad about trying to improve the team. The problem lies with the cost of doing business and the timing. The old days with no salary cap money was everything. Today’s NHL a good GM has to have patience and so we.

half of our "poor" even strength goals allowed this season came from a mccabe blunder, a staal blunder and 3 dahlin blunders

clean them up or score on the pp and we are 4-1-1 with our "pathetic" goalies
- homiedclown

And if we do that.... AND improve the goaltending....
then we’ll be even better!!!

No, they're on the same level as Devan Dubnyk who's been terrible for the last few years

Hart is on the far right hand side, which means the Flyers are much, much worse on defense and are putting a ton on Hart's shoulders. That's the opposite in Buffalo
- sbroads24

BOOM

Hutton is no Hasek
He’s 35 years old
How many goalies “bounce back” at that age?
It’s just not realistic
- jdfitz77

tim thomas



I am not against upgrading the goalie position by the way, i just am curious what it will cost and will it actually be an upgrade if our D keeps making horrible turnovers

These things are all accounted for - They are not held against the goalie in expected saves against. They don't expect a save in that situation most of the times
- sbroads24

^THIS

Yet those are what cost us games

Or going 0-4 in a shootout

Or two games when you get 1 whole 5 on 5 goal

Etc
- homiedclown

Or having poor goaltending!
No one is saying it’s the ONLY reason we’re losing
We’re saying if we upgrade goaltending we’ll be better
It’s not all that complicated

There is absolutely nothing bad about trying to improve the team. The problem lies with the cost of doing business and the timing. The old days with no salary cap money was everything. Today’s NHL a good GM has to have patience and so we.
- Camel

If we have that patience, we could lose Hall & Eichel

Risking that with mediocre goaltending seems dumb to me
I’d rather pay the price, & give ourselves a better chance at a winning team that can keep Hall here & Jack from asking out

tim thomas



I am not against upgrading the goalie position by the way, i just am curious what it will cost and will it actually be an upgrade if our D keeps making horrible turnovers
- SabresFaninIndiana

Thomas is more the exception than the rule sir,
and i suspect you already know that

Hutton had 1 really good year- 4 seasons ago-
and has not been remotely close to that in his entire time with us

If he puts up a season like that this year,
I’ll HAPPILY admit i was wrong

But I’m not willing to risk Hall & Eichel on it

Hutton has spent his whole career proving that season was an outlier, and not the norm