GDT: Buffalo Sabres at Ottawa Senators - 7PM - TSN5 / RDS2 - 4th and Final Sabre Rattling Rigmarole with the JBD Juggernauts (no Brady)

[L'Aveuglette]

Check out his playoff numbers lol. Or don’t if you don’t want to feel sick

Oh I'm well aware of his playoff numbers, but I don't think his regular season has been great either, and I thought he'd at least show more consistency during those 82 games.

 

[PlayOn]

No he didn’t. He did what he had to do. He played good. And we played good.

He gave up October where he and forsberg were both dog shit while the guys in front of them were playing elite defence.

Ullmark was outplaying his expected goals against quite significantly in December. I don’t think you’re wrong that our defensive game has slipped, but then again our goaltending was not going to hold up to the extent it was in Dec/Jan (Merilainen), and our offensive game has improved. I’m not seeing how we are terrible now vs then. We have struggled in different areas at different times throughout the season and done well in others.

 

[frightenedinmatenum2]

If true I hope they sell for a loss

Nosebleeds are selling for $250-300 just on the notion that we might play Toronto. The moment we clinch playing Florida or Tampa, that probably gets cut in half. If we clinch playing Toronto, it goes up.

 

[Gil Gunderson]

"Peak of its rebuild".

My brother in Christ... our best forward and best defenseman are 22 and 23 years old and are barely scratching the surface of their potential.

I think that stems from the fact that we don’t really gave anyone special coming like you’d expect from a team that’s been dog shit for so long. We don’t have someone like Demidov or Leonard. Yak has potential but he’s been such a dissapointment in jr’s.

Dorion’s dog shit criteria for drafting and that same scouting staff that’s still here put us there. A team with our record for the last decade shold absolutely not have this bad of a prospect pool.

 

[Hotsam Batcho]

Nosebleeds are selling for $250-300 just on the notion that we might play Toronto. The moment we clinch playing Florida or Tampa, that probably gets cut in half. If we clinch playing Toronto, it goes up.

Where did you get that they bought tickets already?

They remind me of genital warts. You don't always see them but they are always there and when they do show up they're ghastly to look at.

 

[mysens]

What a painful game. They simply do not shoot enough. That extra pass does them in. Its scary how this team plays without Brady

 

[PlayOn]

Chicago are not in the 8th season of their rebuild…

Sure but my point wasn’t to compare rebuilds. Half this team wasn’t even here two years ago let alone 8 years ago. I am not sure why the eight years part matters in assessing how good they are today/right now.

 

[Burrowsaurus]

Oh I'm well aware of his playoff numbers, but I don't think his regular season has been great either, and I thought he'd at least show more consistency during those 82 games.

I haven’t seen his game by game numbers with Boston. Would be interesting to see.

But yeah. The guy is just all over the place. 8 mil don’t get you what it used to get you

 

[lang006]

They showed a clip of Green talking to Stutzle on the bench after the first PP. I wonder what he told him because it sure as hell didn't work as the game progressed.

Let's see how the team does against the Lightning who are comfortably in a playoff spot. This home heavy schedule could turn sour real quick if the team doesn't perform and the fans start to bring the negative energy from the stands. Gotta keep the faith. We're in a playoff position for a reason. Need to start playing the right way again.

Yup. We didn’t even play bad tonight but For some reason Buffalo is the globetrotters against us lately and Jimmy Reimer channels his inner Hasek and owns us. Frustrating it happens against the same team but no sense losing sleep over it. Just get a win Thursday against Tampa and then some of the negativity is flushed out of here again. Until the next loss at least.

 

[swiftwin]

eah he played well! Very well. Go look at his game before that where he was sinking this team. It evens out. Just because he played well doesn’t mean the team in front of him wasn’t playing well lol. The whole team was rocking.

At all strengths, our xGF% was:
26th in October
6th in November
15th in December
20th in January
28th in February
12th in March

Yes, our metrics were great in November and were sunk by bad goaltending, but March has been our 2nd best month by metrics, and our best month by record.

 

[Gil Gunderson]

Meanwhile leafs can pay their guys nothing and get solid performances. And the Habs.

Leafs are a perennial playoff team. Players will go there.

I don’t really blame Staios for Ullmark. It was do or die this season for the playoffs. Brady is not staying if we miss.

Ullmark’s NMC will be a big issue though once that expansion draft rolls along. Merilainen is gone most likely.

 

[Burrowsaurus]

Ullmark was outplaying his expected goals against quite significantly in December. I don’t think you’re wrong that our defensive game has slipped, but then again our goaltending was not going to hold up to the extent it was in Dec/Jan (Merilainen), and our offensive game has improved. I’m not seeing how we are terrible now vs then. We have struggled in different areas at different times throughout the season and done well in others.

A slipping in our defence is a sign of reverting back to what we were before this season. Which is not good. This team will never been an offensive juggernaut as it currently stands. The talent simply is not there. We need to play tough defence for most of the time. Which we were.

That’s how we’re gonna win. We’re not Florida Tampa Toronto where a good offence is a good defence. They can simply play keep away. I don’t think we can deliver three smooth passes in a row.

 

[Do Make Say Think]

Yeah not ready at all to make the playoffs.

I won't be surprised if we miss. Pressure murders this team.

 

[Gil Gunderson]

A slipping in our defence is a sign of reverting back to what we were before this season. Which is not good. This team will never been an offensive juggernaut as it currently stands. The talent simply is not there. We need to play tough defence for most of the time. Which we were.

That’s how we’re gonna win. We’re not Florida Tampa Toronto where a good offence is a good defence. They can simply play keep away. I don’t think we can deliver three smooth passes in a row.

We can’t even deliver one if we get 8 odd man rushes. Everyone on this team just becomes a moron once they’re in a position to make something happen.

How many extented periods of offensive pressure do we see where we don’t even generate a shot on net? I’ve never see a more hesitant team. Well, actually we don’t hesitate at all to make irrational passes when a scoring chance presents itself.

 

[swiftwin]

I think that stems from the fact that we don’t really gave anyone special coming like you’d expect from a team that’s been dog shit for so long. We don’t have someone like Demidov or Leonard. Yak has potential but he’s been such a dissapointment in jr’s.

Dorion’s dog shit criteria for drafting and that same scouting staff that’s still here put us there. A team with our record for the last decade shold absolutely not have this bad of a prospect pool.

Shiny new thing syndrome.

We have a ton on players on the team who are very young and have lots of room to grow. Sanderson(22), Stutzle(23), Cozens(24), Pinto(24), Greig(22) are all young and are far from a finished product. Even someone a bit older like Batherson(26) shows flashes of being an outstanding player.

 

[Burrowsaurus]

At all strengths, our xGF% was:
26th in October
6th in November
15th in December
20th in January
28th in February
12th in March

Yes, our metrics were great in November and were sunk by bad goaltending, but March has been our 2nd best month by metrics, and our best month by record.

ok. I see the games. I see how the team plays with the lead. I watched us against Detroit. I watched us nearly collapse against Detroit. And Columbus. And New Jersey. And somehow look bad against freaking Boston after we were up. Luck runs out. Tonight it ran out. And we have a grueling schedule the next week and a half. We need to get back to solid play now. Not next week. Immediately

 

[Hotsam Batcho]

I like how Sens fans were using the remaining schedule strength like it was some Ace card.

 

[PlayOn]

A slipping in our defence is a sign of reverting back to what we were before this season. Which is not good. This team will never been an offensive juggernaut as it currently stands. The talent simply is not there. We need to play tough defence for most of the time. Which we were.

That’s how we’re gonna win. We’re not Florida Tampa Toronto where a good offence is a good defence. They can simply play keep away. I don’t think we can deliver three smooth passes in a row.

We’re not the same team, Staios has turned over half the roster since he started. We’re not reverting back to anything. Didn’t we get shut out 5x in January? I think finding a healthy balance of defense and offense is the goal here. We still have not fully found it but that is likely going to come with more time and more change in personnel.

 

[Burrowsaurus]

Shiny new thing syndrome.

We have a ton on players on the team who are very young and have lots of room to grow. Sanderson(22), Stutzle(23), Cozens(24), Pinto(24), Greig(22) are all young and are far from a finished product. Even someone a bit older like Batherson(26) shows flashes of being an outstanding player.

Players primes are much sooner than you think.

Stutzle pinto cozens and batherson tkatchuk are all in their statistical primes as we speak. No help to speak of on the way even though we had a 10th overall a 7th overall and 12th overall and another 10th overall and nothing to show

 

[swiftwin]

ok. I see the games. I see how the team plays with the lead. I watched us against Detroit. I watched us nearly collapse against Detroit. And Columbus. And New Jersey. And somehow look bad against freaking Boston after we were up. Luck runs out. Tonight it ran out. And we have a grueling schedule the next week and a half. We need to get back to solid play now. Not next week. Immediately

"Nearly collapse" is not a collapse. In all those games (except the first Detroit game), we clearly dominated early, took a multi goal lead, and shut it down in the 3rd and secured the W. So what if the team doesn't run up the score?

 

[swiftwin]

Players primes are much sooner than you think.

Stutzle pinto cozens and batherson tkatchuk are all in their statistical primes as we speak. No help to speak of on the way even though we had a 10th overall a 7th overall and 12th overall and another 10th overall and nothing to show

Statistical prime is not the same as actual prime. Almost all our players had better stats last year, yet they are far more mature and effective players this year. That's why we are where we are in the standings compared to last year.

 

[Burrowsaurus]

We’re not the same team, Staios has turned over half the roster since he started. We’re not reverting back to anything. Didn’t we get shut out 5x in January? I think finding a healthy balance of defense and offense is the goal here. We still have not fully found it but that is likely going to come with more time and more change in personnel.

Yeah. This team will have trouble scoring. I’ve said this since last year lol there is no elite offensive talent on this team. And we will continue to struggle to score until
A. An Alpha dog is brought in at forward
And/or
B we learn to have the absolute best PP in the league by a large margin (not likely with f***ing Alfie running the thing)

So might as well play suffocating defence. Which we were. Now we do it for spurts and then these third period shit shows.

 

[frightenedinmatenum2]

Where did you get that they bought tickets already?

They remind me of genital warts. You don't always see them but they are always there and when they do show up they're ghastly to look at.

Stubhub shows you what sold recently as a way to incentivize you to pull the trigger. For example, game 1 says 5 tickets sold in the last 6 hours.

It could be Sens fans, but in all likelihood anybody who can afford to drop $600+ for a pair of tickets is already a Sens season ticket holder and would have playoff tickets. It also makes me feel better to buy into the narrative that Leafs fans will lose money.

 

[Burrowsaurus]

Statistical prime is not the same as actual prime. Almost all our players had better stats last year, yet they are far more mature and effective players this year. That's why we are where we are in the standings compared to last year.

That’s literally just coaching lol. Look at Jacques Martin compared to DJ lol. Night and day. These kids had the biggest bozos in the league coaching them for 6 years.

 

[Neil Patrick Harris]

Back from the game. It was a rough one, but my Dad had a good time, so I'm happy.

Chris Neil was the Sens alumni that presented him a jersey. Real stand up guy. Sat down and chatted with my Dad for a good while, and took photos with everybody who was there. Super cool.