Its not going to happen because Grags will never leave the lineup but........
Regehr/Leo --> playing well together
Sekera/Ehrhoff ---had some success together.
Weber/Myers ----> Give Myers some easy 3rd pairing ES minutes to settle his game down and put him with a stay at home dman.
its a good idea. After watching this game, i was thinking about Schiestel.
contraversial but...
in this game we could have used Morrisonn.
Our defense committed some mind numbing turnovers or mistakes in coverage that led to almost every goal.
Yet posters are rambling on about how are forwards aren't big enough or tough enough to win a Cup. I have no idea if they are tough enough to win a Cup. But that had little to do with the loss tonight. Is a bigger/tougher forward on the ice going to stop Myers from doing what he did on the first 2 goals? Or what Ehrhoff did on the 3rd goal? No would be the answer
What's sad is that all 6 losses this season can be primarily attributed to that - brainless mistakes by at least 2-3 of the defensemen. After the offseason, I think most of us all thought that the Sabres' defense would be its strongest position - yet, through 16 games, Regehr has been the only reliable and consistent defender. Myers seems to be freefalling back to his first half of last season; Sekera and Leopold are rollercoasters from game to game; and Gragnani and Ehrhoff are so careless and non-chalant with their passing and recoveries from mistakes, it's ridiculous.
Myers seems to be freefalling back to his first half of last season; Sekera and Leopold are rollercoasters from game to game; and Gragnani and Ehrhoff are so careless and non-chalant with their passing and recoveries from mistakes, it's ridiculous.
I wouldn't say Sekera and Leo are rollercoasters.
Sekera was rock solid up until 3 games, and being paired with Myers.
Since then two awful games and one decent one.
Leo has been fairly consistent, unspectacular, but solid, IMO.
I'm a Leopold criticized (actual word?), and I gotta hand it to the guy, on this team, he's very consistent.
As for tonight...
In any other sport, people would be talking about how they got beat by the defending champions in their own house.
In a 82 game season. Still a decent 10-6 start.
And they wouldn't be making a tragedy out of it.
And then, in any other sport, there's no way to let out your frustration.
You can't rough them up or send a message in soccer or basketball or baseball etc.
You eat it. You bite it.
And you don't act like a kid about it.
Yeah, Lucic ran Miller.
Yeah, it was cheap.
But talking about the Sabres "lack of response" 99% of the time since the hit is "meh" to me.
Whether the Sabres win a Cup or don't get to the playoffs does not depend on whether they can rough people up.
...
Reminds me, there's a thread about Lidstrom on the History Forum.
And it's kinda funny reading how Detroit fans were livid about their team in 94, 95, which didn't have any sandpaper apart from the Grind Line and were having issues with the Avs.
Some years and 4 Cups later, I don't think they mind as much.
...
The problem as far as I'm concerned isn't getting blown out (happens to every team here and there).
It isn't the lack of response.
It's that at no point in the game did Buffalo look like they were gonna win that.
The offense was non-existent, defense shaky, etc.
Everyone's noticed that Myers game is off. He started slow last year too but that was more like a growth spurt he hadn't adjusted too.
I personally thought Myers' slump has only been for 4 games tops - if that.
I think we all agree that Myers is valuable.
Quote:
Originally Posted by joshjull
Its not going to happen because Grags will never leave the lineup but........
Regehr/Leo --> playing well together
Sekera/Ehrhoff ---had some success together.
Weber/Myers ----> Give Myers some easy 3rd pairing ES minutes to settle his game down and put him with a stay at home dman.
Switch Leo and Myers
I know it defeats the purpose of your pairings but still
Getting really sick of the same crap the past few years with this group. It has zero identity, it has no idea what team it wants to be, not even game in game out, period in period out.
As far as the defense, this is what happens when you have 5 puckmovers and one guy who actually plays defense. No idea why Mike Weber isn't playing to help balance things out even a little bit.
Its not going to happen because Grags will never leave the lineup but........
Regehr/Leo --> playing well together
Sekera/Ehrhoff ---had some success together.
Weber/Myers ----> Give Myers some easy 3rd pairing ES minutes to settle his game down and put him with a stay at home dman.
I like this idea. Myers needs to simplify his game and focus on defense. I think he is feeling too much pressure to be an offensive threat. Frankly, I'd take him off the PP for a few games, too. I don't think he's looked solid all year.
I don't actually have a problem with them not charging in and throwing fists at Lucic. That shouldn't be our response especially with the guys on the ice. Have a guy like Kaleta give him a big hit later.
The response I wanted to see was them come out, score on the PP, play their ***** off and run the Bruins out of their own building with goals. That's what this team needs to do to respond.
I like this idea. Myers needs to simplify his game and focus on defense. I think he is feeling too much pressure to be an offensive threat. Frankly, I'd take him off the PP for a few games, too. I don't think he's looked solid all year.
I think I look at it a bit differently. I think he has put such an emphasis on improving his defense and his d zone play, his play against the rush, and his aggression level in our zone, that it has detracted from him being offensive minded.
So in my mind, he's overthinking defense too much and it is hindering him from thinking about picking better spots with regards to joining the rush and playing a simple offensive game overall.
I'd like to see him just play. Stop overthinking the defensive aspect, simplify it and get back to basics. Use the natural talent he has to be a steady presence in the d zone. Tone it down and put mental emphasis elsewhere.
Forget the non-response to Lucic. Yes it pissed me off, but that's not my main focus. It's almost expected with these guys. I swear it's Lindy that tells them some BS like "Lets get our pay-back on the scoreboard boys," when in reality sometimes you do need to turn to the Don Cherry response of get out there and get even.
What angers me about yesterday is Myers being Mr. Smooth skater getting burned on the 1st goal due to speed. And making a tape to tape pass for Boston's 2nd goal. Man is he's brutal. To make matters even worse, Ehrhoff gets burned with a terrible pinch the NEXT ****ing shift? are you serious. Game over right there. Ehrhoff with the sick pass to a Bruin in the 3rd was the nail in this ****-show.
I think I look at it a bit differently. I think he has put such an emphasis on improving his defense and his d zone play, his play against the rush, and his aggression level in our zone, that it has detracted from him being offensive minded.
So in my mind, he's overthinking defense too much and it is hindering him from thinking about picking better spots with regards to joining the rush and playing a simple offensive game overall.
I'd like to see him just play. Stop overthinking the defensive aspect, simplify it and get back to basics. Use the natural talent he has to be a steady presence in the d zone. Tone it down and put mental emphasis elsewhere.
This. I think after his rookie year and winning the calder, he felt pressure from that, and it may have affected his game at the start of last year. Same situation this year-new contract, trying to become a really solid all around dman who can become that next franchise player. I think Myers could use some time with weber or sekera on a 2nd/3rd pairing with a bit less pressure. Lindy should just tell him to stop thinking about everything so much and play within himself.
Forget the non-response to Lucic. Yes it pissed me off, but that's not my main focus. It's almost expected with these guys. I swear it's Lindy that tells them some BS like "Lets get our pay-back on the scoreboard boys," when in reality sometimes you do need to turn to the Don Cherry response of get out there and get even.
What angers me about yesterday is Myers being Mr. Smooth skater getting burned on the 1st goal due to speed. And making a tape to tape pass for Boston's 2nd goal. Man is he's brutal. To make matters even worse, Ehrhoff gets burned with a terrible pinch the NEXT ****ing shift? are you serious. Game over right there. Ehrhoff with the sick pass to a Bruin in the 3rd was the nail in this ****-show.
It wasn't because of speed. He made a bad decision to go down on one knee to try and keep the puck out of the zone at the blue line. He missed it and Peverly took it to the outside. There's no way on earth he's going to recover in time from one knee no matter how fast he is. The decision to try and keep the puck out of the zone was the problem, not his speed.
It wasn't because of speed. He made a bad decision to go down on one knee to try and keep the puck out of the zone at the blue line. He missed it and Peverly took it to the outside. There's no way on earth he's going to recover in time from one knee no matter how fast he is. The decision to try and keep the puck out of the zone was the problem, not his speed.
You're mostly right, but I think speed was a factor. You can't deny that Myers looks really slow recently. He's getting beat on speed pretty often. Most of the time it isn't resulting in a goal, but I notice him losing too many races to loose pucks. Even on offense, his acceleration looks much slower than last year. There's definitely something going on here. Injury? Conditioning? Quaaludes?
I'm mad about Lucic's hit and the lack of response. But what I'm really upset about is how terribly they played otherwise.
They could barely gain the offensive zone.
They could barely keep possession once in the zone.
Relatedly, there was barely any movement in the offensive zone, only players standing still watching their teammates lose board battles.
The team could barely break out of their own zone.
The defense turned the puck over an incredible number of times.
Defensively, the wingers are never close enough to the opposing pointmen
A lot of those problems have actually been present for the whole year, but they are able to get away with them because the other teams are remarkably, worse. But plain and simple the Bruins made us look silly. More like pathetic, actually. The Bruins moving well without the puck, making decisive passes, generating chances, and burying them, while suffocating opposing chances with excellent pressure and coverage. We did/do none of those things. We didn't even look like an NHL team last night.
Other than Vanek and Loepold no one seems to have a freaking clue how to score on purpose instead of by accident. Other than Regehr no one seems to have a freaking clue how to properly defend.
I'll ignore the Lucic hit other than my closing comment below (I only saw the last 10 seconds of the 1st, then all of the 2nd and 3rd, but I had the NESN broadcast, so I saw the Lucic hit replay about a dozen times in the first intermission).
Frankly, I felt this was the worst game I've seen Meyers and Sekera play, individually and as a tandem, in quite a long time. And perhaps the worst game I've ever seen them play as a tandem.
Early in the 3rd, Regher was paired with Meyers for a shift. Don't know if that was a result of a line change, or if was intentional. It did not last long...
Closing comment: NESN showed twitters from Bruins fans late in the 3rd period. One of them was "if a Sabre had done that to Thomas, they'd still be pulling Bruins off him". Sadly, how true.
