WTF with Buffalo?

[Chainshot]

How are the Sabres and Capitals comparable again?

Both are responsible for lots of goals against in Sabre games?

 

[Djp]

Regulation losses?

6 games buffalo lost, Montreal got to OT imwinning 3 of those 6.

OT is 50/50

 

[Djp]

It's the same thing with Quinn every year. He'll be injured or suck in october.

In the league for 3 yrs only.....

Rookie yezr... he adjusted to nhl. Not bad for a rookie.

Last year-- in the summer he had an Achilles injury in june. He returned in December and got injured again


This yarr-' he started in a slump over his first 20 or so games.

 

[Toby91ca]

To be fair, hard to say they “destroyed” Washington when they got outshot and gave up 5 goals. They effectively won by 2 goals as the last was an empty netter.

 

[tsujimoto74]

Buffalo is 6-4 in their last 10, they’re not exactly tanking

They’re slightly above .500 outside of that 13-game winless streak. They’re not exactly a great team, but they’re not total pushovers when Dahlin is healthy.

 

[ijuka]

Wasn't the meme with the Sabres that after they're mathematically eliminated from playoffs, they start winning every game?

The difference is, this time they aren't yet mathematically eliminated, and making up the 9 point difference is at least theoretically possible.

 

[BFLO]

I don't always lose 7-4 to the only team with a worse points % in the eastern conference than me, but when I do, I beat the team with the leading points % in the eastern conference 8-5 in the very next game.


Good teams will sometimes treat the Sabres like a bye late in the season. Other bad teams will often put in big effort against the Sabres as they know it's one of their best chances to put up stats to try to inflate their next contract. Sabres also have a 7-3 loss to the red wings, 6-2 to the Sharks, 6-4 Preds in recent games. They have recent wins against VGK, EDM, WPG and now WSH.

This is also the classic time of year for the Sabres to put it all together and go on a bit of run to end the season, moving from a bottom 3 team all season to like 8th worse. They've done this basically every year where they haven't come in last overall.

During this drought they've had zero top 6 overall draft picks in seasons where they haven't finished dead last. It's pretty bizarre.

 

[landy]

They do this every season. Suck enough to miss the playoffs then show signs of life ruining their draft position. I get it, NHL players arent gonig to quit and want to still win, but it will likely be the reason they dont get McKenna next year, which would finally be a step in the right direction.

If you go back to their post Eichel drafts and every one except Dahlin and Power, having a few spots higher drafting a Tkachuk or Makar would have been franchise changing. A lot of what ifs, but we see what drafting 1-2OA for consecutive years can do (Pit, Edm, Chi, COL).

 

[Kshahdoo]

View attachment 1003140
I don't always lose 7-4 to the only team with a worse points % in the eastern conference than me, but when I do, I beat the team with the leading points % in the eastern conference 8-5 in the very next game.


Good teams will sometimes treat the Sabres like a bye late in the season. Other bad teams will often put in big effort against the Sabres as they know it's one of their best chances to put up stats to try to inflate their next contract. Sabres also have a 7-3 loss to the red wings, 6-2 to the Sharks, 6-4 Preds in recent games. They have recent wins against VGK, EDM, WPG and now WSH.

This is also the classic time of year for the Sabres to put it all together and go on a bit of run to end the season, moving from a bottom 3 team all season to like 8th worse. They've done this basically every year where they haven't come in last overall.

During this drought they've had zero top 6 overall draft picks in seasons where they haven't finished dead last. It's pretty bizarre.

So you agree to WTF?

 

[Satoru Gojo]

Still think they’re better then their record

UPL is hilariously bad

 

[Dubi Doo]

It's not just scores. Philadelphia is one of the worst NHL teams on paper (and on the ice), and Washington leads East, is the second best team of the league overall and already has more than 100 points.

To be fair, Buffalo was missing Dahlin against PHI and had him against WAS. Their record when he's out is pitiful.

 

[centipede2233]

Washington loses to a minny with no JEE and kaprisov and now Buffalo. It seems midnight has struck for Cinderella!

 

[1point21Gigawatts]

0-10 without him in the lineup this year and we constantly see the same 3-4 posters in every Sabres thread on the main boards saying we should move him out because he's part of the issue.

shitty goaltending and unreliable defense will do that to you. Reality is, the 16 game losing skid in december or thereabouts is what tanked the season. Sabres have been a fairly consistent .500 team otherwise.

Re: Quinn. He technically has improved every season since his rookie year (injuries really took him out of last season) but his two way game is non-existent. He needs to become more responsible with the puck and join in on the backcheck or he needs to go. Personally, i really wished Buffalo drafted Cole Caufield that year instead of Quinn.

 

[Stickpucker]

One does not try to understand Buffalo. One simply warms themselves by the fire.

 

[1point21Gigawatts]

Still think they’re better then their record

UPL is hilariously bad

yes. he is. i want him gone but Levi is not quite ready, though he is tearing up the AHL.

 

[acor]

First they were destroyed by the Flyers with 1/4 of the roster filled by career AHLers. And then they destroyed Washington, who are one of the best NHL teams this season, in a back-to-back game.

And? New to NHL? Your account is nearly adult, you should know better how the league works.

 

[Ace]

I feel like it’s the same thing every year. The Sabres can score goals. The Sabres cannot play team defense. Sometimes the Sabres can outscore that problem. Sometimes they can’t. If their PP wasn’t inexplicably terrible they’d be in the mix for a wild card. But, for the second year in a row, it is terrible. Go back three years and they just missed the playoffs because their PP was good. The last two they haven’t been close because it isn’t.

This is what happens when you try to build a team that can maybe make WC2 if, and only if, every player has a career year.

They aim for the middle and getting there is a best case scenario.

Thats the Adams’ plan.

Year six coming up.

 

[voyageur]

They do this every season. Suck enough to miss the playoffs then show signs of life ruining their draft position. I get it, NHL players arent gonig to quit and want to still win, but it will likely be the reason they dont get McKenna next year, which would finally be a step in the right direction.

If you go back to their post Eichel drafts and every one except Dahlin and Power, having a few spots higher drafting a Tkachuk or Makar would have been franchise changing. A lot of what ifs, but we see what drafting 1-2OA for consecutive years can do (Pit, Edm, Chi, COL).

I don't get it with the Sabres. They should have the defense to win in the NHL.

Was subtracting Cozens the missing ingredient? Bernard-Docker the missing RD?

Guys like Peterka, Mc Leod and Byram might be trying to push the dollars on their next contract.

But I just don't get the Sabres. Philly will surely out tank them at this point. They might be lucky to draft #9 by the end of the season.

 

[landy]

I don't get it with the Sabres. They should have the defense to win in the NHL.

Was subtracting Cozens the missing ingredient? Bernard-Docker the missing RD?

Guys like Peterka, Mc Leod and Byram might be trying to push the dollars on their next contract.

But I just don't get the Sabres. Philly will surely out tank them at this point. They might be lucky to draft #9 by the end of the season.

Ive been meaning to start a thread around this but Id argue they dont have a 1C and havent had a 1C since Eichel. If you look at Thompson in terms of apples, defensively, and FO%, he is awful. He has an amazing shot though, so should be a LW parked in Ovi's office. You can put Team Canada's D out there and they'd still get shelled with opportunities aganst.

 

[HaNotsri]

After he plays an entire season without Injury, feels like an odd time to say this.

Why? I stated injured or suck.

 

[dire wolf]

Wait, did Allen become a self-centered d-bag who is shitty to staff and teammates while we weren't looking?

As for the premise of the thread, they beat the Jets in Winnipeg a few weeks ago. Over a longer horizon, they're still 6-9-1 in their last 16. Not exactly the LOLZ THEYS ONLY GOOD WITH NO PRESSURE bullshit narrative. They sucked with pressure, they sucked without pressure.

Also, Buffalo is something like 6-3 against the Caps over the last three years. It's not like Washington puts their best foot forward with them and it is often a track meet - Buffalo with 8, 7, 6, 5 goal wins and a 4-goal scored loss in those. Maybe look at why the Caps play them poorly.

From Matthew Fairburn's Athletic article today:
"Throughout the season, the Sabres have been capable of beating any team in the league and equally capable of losing to any team in the league. In their last six games against teams in playoff position, the Sabres are 5-1. Since the New Year, they are 8-8 against teams not in playoff position and 10-6-1 against teams in playoff position. The Sabres are just 3-6 this season against the Flyers, Seattle Kraken, Nashville Predators, Chicago Blackhawks and San Jose Sharks — the only five teams below them in the NHL standings based on points percentage — but they are 6-3-2 against the top five teams in the NHL based on points percentage."

 

[Golden_Jet]

After 14 years, I don't think it can be explained

 

[OysterForever]

Still think they’re better then their record

UPL is hilariously bad

Hearing he's fed up with how the team plays in front of him. Destroyed self-confidence

 

[Jeremy2020]

Some games they're sober.. some games they're not..

 

[Gil Gunderson]

For as bad as they’ve been, they still have a good home record.