My Sabre thoughts
Posted 7:24 AM ET | Comments 8
Though winning the last two games thanks large in part to Carter Hutton (who I believe could become the best surprise signing of the off season) The Buffalo Sabres and head coach Phil Housley better find a cure for their defensive zone play. If not for Carter Hutton's play the Sabre's could easily be 0 -3.
Don't get me wrong, I love that we're 2-1. I love the play of Sam Reinhardt, Evan Rodriguez (who should be elevated), and the play of Casey Middlestadt (who looks smaller the J.F. Sauve) both Rasmii and Capt. Jack Eichel, but the crisp passes out of the zone aren't there enough.
Whats prevalent are Sabre players are just chipping the puck along the boards in the defensive zone when trying to clear the zone, especially from below the goal line allowing the opposition to collapse around the puck, gain possession, then cycle the puck for a scoring opportunity.
Enter, Carter Hutton, "The Bacon Saver".
Lets not forget the lack of offensive support. How many times have we seen a Sabre with the puck alone without any trailing wingers? That's a result of bad line changes.
Jeff Sinners wasting away with the puck alone in the O-zone.
The good luck of the puck bouncing our way or a missed call will lessen as will the wins as the opposing teams get better and better.
I would also like to see Dahlin show me his best impression of a rushing Connor McDavid.
Don't get me wrong, I love that we're 2-1. I love the play of Sam Reinhardt, Evan Rodriguez (who should be elevated), and the play of Casey Middlestadt (who looks smaller the J.F. Sauve) both Rasmii and Capt. Jack Eichel, but the crisp passes out of the zone aren't there enough.
Whats prevalent are Sabre players are just chipping the puck along the boards in the defensive zone when trying to clear the zone, especially from below the goal line allowing the opposition to collapse around the puck, gain possession, then cycle the puck for a scoring opportunity.
Enter, Carter Hutton, "The Bacon Saver".
Lets not forget the lack of offensive support. How many times have we seen a Sabre with the puck alone without any trailing wingers? That's a result of bad line changes.
Jeff Sinners wasting away with the puck alone in the O-zone.
The good luck of the puck bouncing our way or a missed call will lessen as will the wins as the opposing teams get better and better.
I would also like to see Dahlin show me his best impression of a rushing Connor McDavid.
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Still would like to know how a coach who is supposed to be the "D man Whisperer" could have such horrible defensive play and still have a job. Housley should not be an NHL head coach. They need a competent head coach, not a guy who stands behind the bench looking dazed and confused 99% of the time.
I agree, I'd like to have Phil be the defensive coach, Ted Nolan as Special teams coach, if you can lure him back Irbe as goalie coach or even Dom Hasek. As far as head coach I dont know whos available but for offensive coach Eric Lindros or perhaps Nylanders father.
Colorado game exposed this team again. This team is broken. Problem is, as players now come and go and we see the same issues appearing again you have to start looking at the situation like a math problem. What is the "constants" here. Scary part is one of them had a hand in removing a previous coach, was rumored to not have a great relationship with a player removed this past summer and is in year one of a 10mil / 8year contract and is now your captain and face of your franchise...like I said, broken. If Botterill does not find a way to fix this, this team is going to implode. Now, since you already replaced half the roster in the offseason, the only thing he can do is replace the coach. Might have had a legit shot at Trotz over the summer, and my personal opinion is he really blew it by not going after him hard. I know Housley only had one year, but it does not take a year to get your players to show up and play hard. And here we are in year two, and still seeing the same lack of effort in games showing up yet again while our fearless bench coach chews his gum and stares off into space...
The players look confused under Housley's system. They're not buying into it. Last year how would you feel as an NHL player if management brought in a high school coach? Phil, the buddy systems going to cost you your 1st h.c. job in the bigs.Jason's got to see it's not working. Getting shut out in the season opener, two games you won from puck luck, and a burial in snow from the avalanche on home ice is embarrassing.If I were Carter Hutton I'd be very unhappy and very vocal to the team after being hung out to dry after standing on his head game in and game out. Lehner had to be laughing at Buffalo when the horn sounded on his 1st shutout of the season.The team's not appreciating his great play and now it looks like the teams content relying on Captain Jack. I've thought about Jack Being the problem. Are the players committing mutiny? I don't think so.My vote : fire the coaching staff. who's available?
Hang on, hang on, hang on. Okay? Everyone just... put the armchair amateur coach scouting report away for a moment, let's put up the hang ropes for a minute, and just consider what has to be taken under advisement here.This team is 50% last year vets, and 50% new faces. It's easy to execute on the ice when you're practicing because there's no pressure. But when you're under the lights and it's game night, it's not easy for the new guys to adhere to a system they're JUST learning. It has to become muscle memory before it's going to work.And we ARE seeing improvement. As we know, it's the first time we've been above .500 for a long time. There's goals. Even in the the Avalanche game, there was a goal. They're catching some swagger. They're learning to play the game with each other. They're finding the dynamic. We're not gonna hoist a cup this year, we know that. Let them get their footing. They're already finding it, you all have to see that.
Ah, an optimist! We're well over a decade, approaching two that Sabre fans have been waiting for a system is learned. The common denominator in it all is the hiring of inexperienced management. There was a time when Ken Hitchcock was available but The Sabre's stood pat with understudy coaches, then traded away the farm and top end talent
for some Legos and got stuck on the wheel of rebuild that eventually led to rapid repel to the bottom floor.
MLew65, I appreciate you're a win-now fan, but I still feel you're seeing a team that has turned 180 degrees. We're still losing some games. But we're not losing in spectacular fashion, but we are winning games, and actually coming BACK from games. I wouldn't be surprised if this team has already scored more goals by December than they did all of last year. Sure, I'm an optimist. I'm optimist now because I see a change. I see players stepping up. I see two goalies presenting a challenge to the other team every night. I see improvement.