News Article: Elliotte Friedman's 30 Thoughts - 2/11/13

[jfb392]

Some thoughts that relate to the Sabres:

7. It's interesting to hear executives talk about some of the struggling teams. "This is a tough year to make an honest appraisal of your group," one said. "Everything is so screwed up by the lockout." Players showed up in different degrees of conditioning and the injury situation is already ugly. As you can imagine, there are coaches, GMs and players who feel they will be unfairly judged by this 48-game mess.

How likely is it that this excuse is brought out for the Sabres?

19. Two goalies are en route to seeing the most rubber since 2000. Through 11 games, Ryan Miller of the Buffalo Sabres and the Oilers' Devan Dubnyk lead the NHL in shots faced: Miller at 33.5 per game; Dubynk at 33. The last goalie to face the most shots and be that high on a per-game average is Roberto Luongo, who saw 33.2 a game in 2005-06 and 34.4 a game in 2003-04 with the Florida Panthers.

This is sad but hilarious.

20. Miller and Sabres GM Darcy Regier have reached an "understanding" into improving the goalie's mask. The Sabres thought it wasn't safe, especially when he took a puck off it almost two years ago and suffered a concussion. It's not exactly easy to get a goalie to change his equipment, but there is a change with the interior padding. The bottom line for both is that Miller's been excellent.

Thought this would have happened ages ago..

23. The NHL's collective bargaining agreement must be finished Saturday and already there are complaints with the new practice rules. The Memorandum of Understanding states teams shall endeavour to schedule four days off per month and those won't be "altered absent compelling circumstances." There's a lot of room for interpretation there.

24. Case in point, Sabres head coach Lindy Ruff was so annoyed at his team that he cancelled a day off for a practice. Personally, I have no problem with that and, as it turned out, the players didn't either -- they were going bad and they understood. However, when the final document is finished, will the NHLPA have no choice to but grieve to protect precedence? And what will the penalties be?

So, Mike Harrington's attempt to cause trouble may have been effective after all.

http://www.cbc.ca/sports/hockey/opi...s-devils-out-to-prove-last-year-no-fluke.html

Click to read more...

 

[BuiltTagonTough]

It was my understanding the practice was the players ideas in the first place, not the coach's. Interesting about the mask.

 

[Jame]

Derrick Brassard is available again... I'll sink with the ship on that one

 

[Jim Bob]

Miller is known for sticking with older styled gear.

It doesn't surprise me to read that he liked to remove padding in his mask, likely to get the mask closer to his face to improve his vision.

He also likes his gear to be styled after the Vaughn gear he wore at MSU. His Reebok stuff just has the newer graphics, but it's nothing like what I can buy from the company.

He's Brodeur-esque like that...

 

[Jame]

Miller is known for sticking with older styled gear.

It doesn't surprise me to read that he liked to remove padding in his mask, likely to get the mask closer to his face to improve his vision.

He also likes his gear to be styled after the Vaughn gear he wore at MSU. His Reebok stuff just has the newer graphics, but it's nothing like what I can buy from the company.

He's Brodeur-esque like that...

That's the only "Brodeur-esque" thing about him

 

[Zip15]

Derrick Brassard is available again... I'll sink with the ship on that one

Hide yo kids, hide yo draft picks! (JK)

 

[Jame]

Hide yo kids, hide yo draft picks! (JK)

Stafford for Brassard ?

 

[Jim Bob]

That's the only "Brodeur-esque" thing about him

Not this year.

Miller is 16th in Save% and Brodeur is 17th.

 

[Jame]

Not this year.

Miller is 16th in Save% and Brodeur is 17th.

Brodeur-esque should mean consistently posting a sub 2.50 and taking your team to the post season every year...

 

[Eichel 9]

The shortened season excuse would maybe make a little sense for a new coach like Oates in Washington but how can Lindy be unfairly judged after 15 years? I'll puke if I hear that as an excuse for him.

 

[Royisgone]

The shortened season excuse would maybe make a little sense for a new coach like Oates in Washington but how can Lindy be unfairly judged after 15 years? I'll puke if I hear that as an excuse for him.

You might want to keep a bucket handy.

The obvious excuses we will hear at season's end are already piling up in my head.

It's maddening.

 

[AlexanderMogilny89]

The shortened season excuse would maybe make a little sense for a new coach like Oates in Washington but how can Lindy be unfairly judged after 15 years? I'll puke if I hear that as an excuse for him.

Sooo true. I have no clue either.

 

[SabresFanNorthPortFL]

The shortened season excuse would maybe make a little sense for a new coach like Oates in Washington but how can Lindy be unfairly judged after 15 years? I'll puke if I hear that as an excuse for him.

They (DR & LR) were spoken of as "forward" thinkers coming out of the last lockout. I guess we could chalk that up to dumb luck seeing they came out last time with a fast, skilled team that the league called every infraction on obstruction to help them. Ruff's team just looks lost and confused.

 

[Zip15]

You might want to keep a bucket handy.

The obvious excuses we will hear at season's end are already piling up in my head.

It's maddening.

They (DR & LR) were spoken of as "forward" thinkers coming out of the last lockout. I guess we could chalk that up to dumb luck seeing they came out last time with a fast, skilled team that the league called every infraction on obstruction to help them. Ruff's team just looks lost and confused.

Well, if they do pretty well in the next two games (3 of 4 pts), I'm pretty sure we're going to hear something like this: "Not a lot of people realize this, but we had only 14 pts through 15 games after the last lockout, too, and I thought that team should've won the Cup. We just need to stay the course...the answers are inside the room...blah blah blah."

Get the Pepto ready.

 

[Sabretip]

Some thoughts that relate to the Sabres:

7. It's interesting to hear executives talk about some of the struggling teams. "This is a tough year to make an honest appraisal of your group," one said. "Everything is so screwed up by the lockout." Players showed up in different degrees of conditioning and the injury situation is already ugly. As you can imagine, there are coaches, GMs and players who feel they will be unfairly judged by this 48-game mess.

How likely is it that this excuse is brought out for the Sabres?

I'd bet my house on it - unless the more rehearsed excuse of injuries becomes available through a long-term injury to Vanek or Miller. And I can easily see not only Regier / Ruff resorting to the "shortened season"/"lack of rest" crutch but Pegula and Black doing so as well.

The ostrich with his head in the sand seems to be the Sabres' favorite role model in dealing with reality.