GDT - Game #13: Sens @ Sabres, Nov 9, 2016, 7:30pm

I'm sick of cowards on twitter shaming Sens prospects and players for supporting Trump. Deal with it. It's their right to support whoever they want. Just because they support Trump doesn't mean they support racism, etc. People are ridiculous, they don't even see how what they are doing is the same thing as what they are criticizing Trump supporters of doing.

MarkStone wrote:All this talk of the offence struggling is weird. Like it will continue...It's all just luck. They are getting lots of shots. Ryan, Brassard, etc have a lot of shots in the past few weeks. there's virtually no chance this scoring struggle continues.

I just finished re-watching a few highlights. Although the shots were 8-0 in OT the Sens did have a few five-alarm chances, but just missed passes/shots. It could have ended early.

They also had many either blown or unfortunate chances, like that pass to a wide-open Pageau who would have had an empty net, but the pass was behind him. In fact there were quite a few really bad passes. Tired team, perhaps? Who knows. But the chances were there. Stone's shot that went through Lehner and landed in the crease behind him -- Brassard almost shoveled that one in (and if he just dove for Lehner, with two Buffalo players on top of him, puck may have ended up across the line.

Ryan had another 4 shots, on the second game in two nights. No, he doesn't have Dzingle's speed but 8 shots on goal in the two games since being put on Brassard's left is very encouraging.

Hoffman was what he is. Mostly a perimeter player with high-end skill. He made some really nice plays out there. If only he could do a mind-meld with Dzingel.

Stone is playing much better than first half dozen games or so. Much more noticeable out there.

Offense will come. Shots on goal against are down as are goals against. For some strange reason they've become really bad on face offs. No idea why, but it has to stop.

MarkStone wrote:

PTFlea wrote:That ristolinen is amazing.

Odd to say after getting torched on the goal

Yeah, but one mistake like that vs all the amazing plays he's made just against us in the last 2 games can be forgiven. The dude is fantastic. Big, mobile, good offensive awareness.

MarkStone wrote:All this talk of the offence struggling is weird. Like it will continue...It's all just luck. They are getting lots of shots. Ryan, Brassard, etc have a lot of shots in the past few weeks. there's virtually no chance this scoring struggle continues.

For sure. It's very frustrating to watch right now as a fan though, so I can understand people complaining. That said, the stats are there for these guys in previous years and I agree, it's a matter of time.

There was someone in Buffalo who saw them come into their hotel at 3AM after the Nashville game, so that would explain slightly the lack of finish etc.

FYI, Bobby Ryan has three goals this year, and one of them was an empty netter.

He hasn't scored a non-empty net goal since Oct 18. He has scored ONE non-empty net goal in his last 12 games. He has 6 points this year, 2 of which came in the first game against the Leafs.

The good news is that his advanced stats are actually looking good, so hopefully the offense picks up. But this is not what he's getting $7.5M for.

tim1_2 wrote:FYI, Bobby Ryan has three goals this year, and one of them was an empty netter.  

He hasn't scored a non-empty net goal since Oct 18.  He has scored ONE non-empty net goal in his last 12 games. He has 6 points this year, 2 of which came in the first game against the Leafs.

The good news is that his advanced stats are actually looking good, so hopefully the offense picks up.  But this is not what he's getting $7.5M for.  

The caveat to all this is no one is scoring, so there's intense pressure on the top 6 guys. Also, Ryan has actually been really smart with the puck in the offensive zone, making very astute passes - which I don't recall him doing as much as last year. There's just no finish yet. That said, I continue to be worried about that contract. I wanted them to sign him badly, but now there's buyer's remorse a bit.

Ceci has been really strong recently. People will point to the OT period last night and say he sucked, but he had a really good game, especially rushing the puck up the ice and making strong plays in the neutral/offensive zones to either set up chances or put pressure on their D.

He's good, I do know the stats community doesn't like him though.

MarkStone wrote:He's good, I do know the stats community doesn't like him though.

They probably don't bother watching the game properly, too busy looking at stats.

The bottom line is we're getting more Ws than Ls, and that's all that matters. We have every reason to assume that the offense will pick up a little, whereas our defensive game just seems to get stronger every game. So here's hoping for even more Ws as we pot more Gs.

But man I know we half assed said dzingel is doing nicely on the top 6 but we may have found an actual replacement for Mac going forward.

tim1_2 wrote:The bottom line is we're getting more Ws than Ls, and that's all that matters.  We have every reason to assume that the offense will pick up a little, whereas our defensive game just seems to get stronger every game.  So here's hoping for even more Ws as we pot more Gs.  

Totally. Although I was majorly pissed off yesterday when Buffalo scored first, I won't lie. I wanted to bust up the room.

Flo The Action wrote:But man I know we half assed said dzingel is doing nicely on the top 6 but we may have found an actual replacement for Mac going forward.

You nerds should always listen to me when I say things.

MarkStone wrote:I'm sick of cowards on twitter shaming Sens prospects and players for supporting Trump. Deal with it. It's their right to support whoever they want. Just because they support Trump doesn't mean they support racism, etc. People are ridiculous, they don't even see how what they are doing is the same thing as what they are criticizing Trump supporters of doing.

care to provide us some links? who from the sens is supporting trump?

PTFlea wrote:

Flo The Action wrote:But man I know we half assed said dzingel is doing nicely on the top 6 but we may have found an actual replacement for Mac going forward.

You nerds should always listen to me when I say things.  

Broken clock is right twice a day.

But no, you were right. He's an exciting player to watch. Wonder if it's the excitement of making the team that drives him or can he actually get even better and be a+20 goal guy every year.

Hoff-Machine wrote:

MarkStone wrote:I'm sick of cowards on twitter shaming Sens prospects and players for supporting Trump. Deal with it. It's their right to support whoever they want. Just because they support Trump doesn't mean they support racism, etc. People are ridiculous, they don't even see how what they are doing is the same thing as what they are criticizing Trump supporters of doing.

care to provide us some links?  who from the sens is supporting trump?

At this point I'm not sure I'd want to know. It's disappointing as it is to see how many people really just want change without caring much to the impacts it will have on immigrants , Muslims and visable minorities which are already being targeted by selfentiteld trump supporters. It's a mess right now in 'Merica and it's only going to get worse.

PTFlea wrote:

MarkStone wrote:He's good, I do know the stats community doesn't like him though.

They probably don't bother watching the game properly, too busy looking at stats.

Of day the "stats community" watch a lot more than most of us, and watch more closely. There is a risk of missing the forest for the trees, of course, but I wouldn't just dismiss them.

Hoff-Machine wrote:

MarkStone wrote:I'm sick of cowards on twitter shaming Sens prospects and players for supporting Trump. Deal with it. It's their right to support whoever they want. Just because they support Trump doesn't mean they support racism, etc. People are ridiculous, they don't even see how what they are doing is the same thing as what they are criticizing Trump supporters of doing.

care to provide us some links?  who from the sens is supporting trump?

Lehner has a Trump sticker on the back of his helmet. But he is not a Sens prospect.

I'm guessing someone in Bingo said something.