1. That Gaustad is no longer on the team. It seems the lines are more balanced, and I like the team better late in games with him gone. They also seem to be faster on the ice, and more of a transition team. IMO, they seem to be better off without him.
2. Hodgson. Young kid just got traded and has been all over the continent over the last 10 days AND he still is centering our top line over that time. That line is having chances galore. It wouldn't surprise me to see a stretch with a couple multiple point games soon.
3. 10. He's really all over the ice, in a good way.
4. 36. Ok, I'm nit his biggest fan, esp since the headbutts but he really has been playing solid hockey as of late. Again, I wonder if the Gaustad thing effected some of these guys positively.
1. That Gaustad is no longer on the team. It seems the lines are more balanced, and I like the team better late in games with him gone. They also seem to be faster on the ice, and more of a transition team. IMO, they seem to be better off without him.
2. Hodgson. Young kid just got traded and has been all over the continent over the last 10 days AND he still is centering our top line over that time. That line is having chances galore. It wouldn't surprise me to see a stretch with a couple multiple point games soon.
3. 10. He's really all over the ice, in a good way.
4. 36. Ok, I'm nit his biggest fan, esp since the headbutts but he really has been playing solid hockey as of late. Again, I wonder if the Gaustad thing effected some of these guys positively.
Bad:
1. Ruutuu. He did have 3 penalties, right?
Ugly:
Nothing. We needed a win, we got it.
Say whaaatt!? They miss him at the dots BIG TIME. He was the only guy that is half decent at draws, and the Sabres will have to get used to giving up goals off the draw like they did last night. Gasuted was not a liability to the team, in any way. Let's make it perfectly clear that they traded 2 months of his service for a #1 draft pick. Just a good business decission, for a team with a tight cap.
Hodgson is slow and not very handsy at all, I guess he is in playoff mode? Awesome.
Say whaaatt!? They miss him at the dots BIG TIME. He was the only guy that is half decent at draws, and the Sabres will have to get used to giving up goals off the draw like they did last night. Gasuted was not a liability to the team, in any way. Let's make it perfectly clear that they traded 2 months of his service for a #1 draft pick. Just a good business decission, for a team with a tight cap.
Hodgson is slow and not very handsy at all, I guess he is in playoff mode? Awesome.
oh god, give it up. hodgson is/will be fine. i'm not sure what the "playoff mode" comment means, because he has quite the reputation for being a clutch performer. unlike paul ****ing gaustad, who has the same amount of playoff goals as i do.
Say whaaatt!? They miss him at the dots BIG TIME. He was the only guy that is half decent at draws, and the Sabres will have to get used to giving up goals off the draw like they did last night. Gasuted was not a liability to the team, in any way. Let's make it perfectly clear that they traded 2 months of his service for a #1 draft pick. Just a good business decission, for a team with a tight cap.
Hodgson is slow and not very handsy at all, I guess he is in playoff mode? Awesome.
We get it you don't like the trade does every post you make have to be about how much you hate Hodgson.
1. That Gaustad is no longer on the team. It seems the lines are more balanced, and I like the team better late in games with him gone. They also seem to be faster on the ice, and more of a transition team. IMO, they seem to be better off without him.
2. Hodgson. Young kid just got traded and has been all over the continent over the last 10 days AND he still is centering our top line over that time. That line is having chances galore. It wouldn't surprise me to see a stretch with a couple multiple point games soon.
3. 10. He's really all over the ice, in a good way.
4. 36. Ok, I'm nit his biggest fan, esp since the headbutts but he really has been playing solid hockey as of late. Again, I wonder if the Gaustad thing effected some of these guys positively.
Bad:
1. Ruutuu. He did have 3 penalties, right?
Ugly:
Nothing. We needed a win, we got it.
I don't see how you can argue with a straight face that the team is better without Gaustad. They might be stepping up a little bit more out of desperation, but his loss does not actually improve the team.
Ruutuu hasn't played hockey in 3 weeks. He's injured.
I don't see how you can argue with a straight face that the team is better without Gaustad. They might be stepping up a little bit more out of desperation, but his loss does not actually improve the team.
Ruutuu hasn't played hockey in 3 weeks. He's injured.
He can because he doesn't like him and still wants to throw shots at him.
I mentioned this in another thread. Since we're winning no one seems to mind that we have a 3rd line center making 6mil with a 4.5mil cap hit. Yet whenever we struggled this year (and in previous years) folks were up in arms that we had a 3rd line center making 2.5mil with a 2.3mil cap hit. Hell we even have a 4th line center with a salary and cap hit of 4mil at the moment.
He can because he doesn't like him and still wants to throw shots at him.
I mentioned this in another thread. Since we're winning no one seems to mind that we have a 3rd line center making 6mil with a 4.5mil cap hit. Yet whenever we struggled this year (and in previous years) folks were up in arms that we had a 3rd line center making 2.5mil with a 2.3mil cap hit. Hell we even have a 4th line center with a salary and cap hit of 4mil at the moment.
Yeah, but that 3rd line center has arguably been our best line recently. As long as we keep winning, I think complaints will be pretty muted.
I think crowd noise/enthusiasm is a big problem across all professional sports (other than soccer), although there is a bright spot in a few places like Winnipeg. There just isn't that kind of culture of cheering that exists in College. I remember my school's soccer team winning the national championship a few years back and I yelled loudly enough for the entire game that I lost my voice for literally a week afterwards. That kind of thing just doesn't happen with fans at the professional level.
........ is everyone really going to just sit there and accept a comparison of a game 7 playoff overtime goal for the first playoff series win in four years to a regular season game?
Or to Winnipeg, which got a team back THIS season after 15 years without one? These are the levels of comparison? Yikes
The crowd has sucked in the regular season since 2008-09. It steps up in the playoffs, and IMO that's what counts.
I think you misunderstood my point about the Ottawa Game 7 crowd. Of course there is a difference between a game like that and a regular season game. My point is simply that Ottawa Game 7 represents what a Sabres crowd can be like when motivated. And that we are maybe at 10% of that almost all the time now. I don't expect Playoff Game 7 OT participation levels at normal games, but I expect more than 10%. 50% would be a huge improvement.
Most home crowds are composed of season ticket holders. Most season ticket holders are probably serious Sabres fans. Most serious Sabres fans are likely fed up with the product on the ice which plays unexciting hockey most nights and which has grossly underperformed for a period of years now, while nothing really changes. That is likely why we see such lame crowd support at these games, regardless of how many are playing with a cell phone like a toy or reading a book.
It wasn't that long ago that this team could put the Boogie Man, Ray, May, and even guys like Barnaby and Wayne Primeau on the ice, in the same game. Compared to those rosters and the excitement they generated, this current team and the style of hockey it plays is boring. Maybe I shouldn't be surprised at just how anemic fan support at FNC is.
At the end of the 2006 playoffs, RJ said he went into the locker room and personally thanked every single Sabre for delivering to him the most exciting Sabres season in RJ's career. Have we all forgotten how exciting that team was and the sense of anticipation that came when RJ said "these guys are good, scary good"?
Compared to the physicality of the Ray/May years, or the raw talent/speed level of the 2005/2006 team, this current crew is just lame. Maybe the fans at these home games realize it.
