Is it time to kill the Dahlin-Samuelsson pairing?

Is it time to kill the Dahlin-Samuelsson pairing?

Is it time to break up the Sabers top pair of Rasmus Dalene and Matias Samuelson we’ll take a deep dive on what their season has been coming up here on the locked on Sabers Podcast your locked on Sabers your daily podcast on the Buffalo Sabers part of the locked on podcast Network your team every Day and thanks for making locked on Sabers your first listen every day today’s episode is brought to you by Game Time download the game time app create an account use the code locked on for $20 off your first purchase check us out on our YouTube channel where you can watch

The show I’ve got a couple of Rasmus Dalene charts to show you so if you want to head over to our YouTube channel and check the visual out of that I’ll still describe them uh that’s always available to you be sure to like And subscribe us

There and if you want to get involved in the show go to join sub.com locked on saers and sign up for our locked on saers text line become a sority we’ll read through some of their comments and questions over the past couple of days from there and I got a

Deep dive to get to today on Rasmus Dalene and Matias Samuelson as a pairing is it time to break up the Sabers top pair and what’s Don Granado going to do about it I asked him about it on Wednesday morning on wgr and he then did some

Things at practice that are notable to this very topic so that’s all coming up here on the lockon Sabers podcast at lockon saers if you want to check out the show on Twitter I’ve got a PLL up on Twitter that pertains to our first topic of today’s show which goes to an

Announcement by the NHL that tomorrow the league will begin announcing Allstars uh and fan vote details uh that’ll come from the league for this year’s All-Star Game the first batch of Allstars 32 of them one representative from each team and then fans will vote on the remaining 12

Players and I saw you know Lance lysowski who we love from the Buffalo News tweet this out and many others that probably going to be Rasmus does it have to be though because Dalene who we will talk a lot about today when it comes to him and Samson has had a

Down year he is not having as good of a season as he did last year and it might not even really be close so he might still be the best player on the team but if you had the power is the way I phrased the question on Twitter if you

Had the power to send whichever saber to the all-star game that you wanted not even who was most deserving although that could be a part of your equation you could send whoever you want you are the Zar of the All-Star Game who are you sending I have four options up there

Dalene Casey midd stat who leads the team in points JJ petka who I would say is probably the biggest breakout of clearing expectations of any saber and Jeff Skinner who leads the team in goals and as that PLL stands very early on in the voting only put it up a couple of

Minutes before we’re getting going here I want to see what you think Casey midat is leading the way with 48% of the vote Dalene 28% PKA SE uh now that that’s actually changed PKA is at 15% and Skinner is at 12% so a pretty close vote

There let me know what you think we’ll love to read some of our text line uh chat from that as well my opinion it’s going to be Dalene I do think night toight even though he’s not playing as well as he did last year Dalene playing

At 70% 60% of his powers is still I think the best player on the Sabers this year he’s that dominant when he’s at his best he’s that impactful that even when he’s not at his best I still think there’s a good case that he’s the best

Saber on the team now who would I think it’ be cool to send I think it’d be cool to send JJ petka you know he’s flashy he’s got good numbers he’s on Pace for you know about 27 goals on the year just under 60 points so we are not talking

About the type of production that typically is you know good enough for an Allstar I think really if you really wanted petka to be in this conversation he needed to be a lot more hot in the last three weeks of the season because he really has cooled off petka in fact

Has not scored scored in his last eight games he had 12 goals in um his first 30 games where he was on like a 30 goal Pace much more All-Star caliber since he’s only got a couple of assists four assists in eight games uh even with Jack

Quinn coming back even with a lot of ice time still I don’t even think he’s played that poorly but the goals have dried up a little bit Skinner’s always good Skinner’s always good I I like Skinner Skinner’s become one of my favorite players on the team so I think

He deserves it I still feel bad for the guy that Skinner is the only human being in the world of hockey that has a longer playoff drought than a buffalo saber fan he has missed the playoffs I think it’s one more season because of how long he’s

Been in the league that saber fans have had to witness so I always feel bad for Skinner he’s been such a good player for such a long time um never made the playoffs so I I like giving that guy every uh little bit of extra stuff that

He can get so I’d send Skinner if he even wants to go uh he leads the team in goals by the way 15 goals so over a 30 goal Pace in fact we’re talking like a 305 goal pace for Skinner this year and that’s on a line that the other guys

Haven’t pulled their weight Thompson has not played as well as he did last year and Tuck has not played as well as he did last year but there’s Skinner right there 30 plus goals every time that he gets the he gets the role that that he

Deserves so check us out uh at lockon Sabers if you want to vote in poll or you can text us uh on our text line again you can sign up join sub text.com loock ons saers some texts that I wanted to run through on other subjects over

The past couple of days a little bit of a mailbag here before we get to the Dalene Samuelson pair starting with um starting with a commentary on Samuelson and Owen power at what point are we concerned about the development of power and Samuelson should coaching be focused

On them and dalen’s future because the offensive side seems to be okay defensive the question here is about defensive development and that might be a worthy talking point I would attribute that more to age and that being more of a learning curve for young players coming into the league plus the style

That the Sabers have played for two years minus the first half of this season and in large part I think it’s more a product of the style they play it’s more a product of their age than it is about their abilities if you want to talk me about the coaching part of that

That could be true all the development of the Sabres players in terms of their overall game most of the jumps that guys have taken are offensive Tage Thompson huge jump offensively not a good defensive player a little bit better this year but has not been historically Dylan cousins big jumps offensively

Never been a great defensive player even though the reputation might you know present that uh you look at who else Alex tuck you know Tuck’s always been a good defensive player but the big jump he took was offensive Dalene was more offensive him it was it was some defense

But more offense the guys I would say most notably took a big step defensively were Payton Krebs and I would have said Samuelson is it still fair to say that let’s get into that coming back here as we talk about the top pair should it stay together Ras

Mallene and Matia Samuelson a deep dive into some numbers and what I’ve seen this year that’s coming up here on the locked on Sabers podcast we are presenting by game time hey if you want to head down to that All-Star game that there’s going to be at least one saber

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Guaranteed sticky Joe dbos Beck here on the lock on Sabers podcast we want to remind you that lock on Sports today’s got the first ever National Sports 24/7 streaming Channel check them out with the local Experts of lockon plus our national shows covering every league go to lockon sports today today on YouTube

And subscribe to the first ever National Sports 247 streaming channel the sabes have had a top pair of Rasmus Dalene and Matias Samuelson for the large part of two seasons here and while there was a little bit of a break in the middle of this year where they put samelson with

Owen power it’s mostly been Dalene with Samuelson so far this year looking at Samuelson for instance Samuelson at five on five has played 385 minutes with Dalene and 174 minutes without Dalene we are talking about much more than half the time more than three quars of the time that Del’s on the ice

Samson on the ice and it is together what does the production look like this year it looks a lot worse than it did last year when this pairing had the perfect combination of style and was used as an example of what the Sabers needed to go get for Owen power I said

That the coaching staff and G and management said it that they’d like to have a guy for power that emulates Samuelson which is a stay-at-home big defenseman that has a long stick to break plays up to push guys out of the front of the net he’s not necessarily a

Mean player in Matia Samson but he’s got the size he’s a smooth skater and he’s a very good Defender pedy killing too but that Comfort level that ad Dalene has to do anything he wants in the offensive Zone take chances and know he’s got Samson back there to cover up for him if

He goes a little bit too far and the passing ability of Samuelson the smoothness they just complement each other perfectly big defensive defenseman super skilled offensive defenseman but dalen also had great defensive ability last year he was physical he was Elite at breaking plays up stopping Zone

Dalene was very talented very good last year a lot of that has gone away before we get to the numbers to me what I’ve seen more this year than anything compared to last year is turnovers and especially turnovers when those two are trying to move the puck

From the defensive Zone up to the offensive zone the transition game to me is what has really been lacking between these two Samuelson looks timid to take the puck himself move the puck himself and he’s not bad at it he’s a good passer he’s not going to do it

Himself skating with it too often but he’s looked timid to me Dalene has turned the puck over more than in past years he doesn’t look as smooth at it either and maybe this is a a a bit of the forward group not being as trustworthy but Dalene has not looked as

Good in these areas also what do the numbers say uh actually before the numbers defensive Zone to me also very poor between these two where they they get caught Puck watching far too often and Samuelson gets bodied off the puck way easier than it should be for a six

Foot six player and Dalene looks a little less aggressive in his own end and maybe that’s a maybe that’s a uh you know a factor and he doesn’t trust samelson as much as he did last year the numbers add up to all this last year at five on five when these two were

Together on the ice Matias Samuelson and Dalene had 39 goals scored their team scored 39 goals when they were on the ice together and they allowed 31 that’s just at five on five that’s a 56% rate when they’re on the ice the Sabers score 56% of the

Goals this year when these two are together the Sabres have scored 11 goals at five on five and have allowed 20 that is a massive change from 56 goals percent 56% of the goals scored when they’re on the ice to this year 35% a 21% drop now this year they’re

35% scor they scored 35% of the goals at five on five when they’re on the ice when they are not together Samuelson without Dalene this year 53% and Dalene is also over %. so these two are struggling and it’s really only together with every other combination they’re just fine so what is that

Telling you it’s telling me that for whatever reason it’s just not working right now so I think it’s time to split it up maybe you go back to it later in the year I’m not against that but it’s clear to me that the top two defenseman

On this team as a pairing it’s not working as a combination at this point in time so how long do you want to beat your head against the wall trying that and it’s not even though Dalene is still playing better without samelson his numbers in general are still down here

Are some numbers and here’s a chart to show you again if you’re not watching on our YouTube channel uh you are uh able to do that check us out there looking at the some of the numbers from Cody Schneider uh part of the all three zones project looking at some numbers that he

Puts together shots per 60 minutes this is Dalene last season shots assists shot assists per 60 primary contributions total shot contributions chance contributions chances chance assists and rebounds created these are some of the big categories of advanced offensive stats and of the seven stats of the eight stats I should say

Didn’t count right there Dalene was above average and more so in Elite territory in seven of the eight everything but rebounds created he was at an elite level and he was at a dominant level one of the best in hockey at chances per 60 chance contributions per 60 total shot contributions per 60

That was last year this season look at how bad the numbers get instead of being Elite at seven of the eight he is only above average at four of the eight he is below average at three of the eight and he is horrible at one of them shots per 60 for Dalene way

Way down minus 1.23 below average last year he was over one above average shot a uh primary contributions way in the negative total shot contributions way in the negative rebounds created once again in the negative every single number for his offensive game all of them have come down except for rebounds created which

Is still in the negative so your eyes are not deceiving you if you think Rasmus dalen is not playing to the level that he did last year you could just look at the general numbers that can kind of tell you that last year Dalene had 58 assists 58 assists this year he’s

Only at 19 through 37 games he’s on Pace for about 40 assists which is a massive drop we’re talking 20 fewer assists now he’s making up for it in some way with the goals he scoring more goals this year in part because his shot percentage

Is up but his overall game what is what makes D Elite yes he can score goals it is his ability as a playmaker from the blue line and that is not happening is it all his fault I don’t want to say that because there are definitely chances that guys like Tage Thompson

Alex tuck Dylan cousins are being set up for by Dalene that were going in the net last year that are not going in the net this year but what those advanced numbers tell me is it is in part on Dalene also it’s not just that his teammates aren’t putting the puck in the

Back of the net as much as normal and how much of that is Samuelson I think it’s time to find out and the only way to find out is to get a real good look at d a long look not just a game or two but a long look at Dalene playing with

Somebody else and Don Granado might already be on his way to doing that we’ll tell you what I mean by that as we have some new pairings at practice we’ll get to that when we come back here on the locked on Sabers podcast we are presented by FanDuel Sportsbook the NFL

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Let’s check out some new combinations on the blue line from Don Granado he returned to practice on Wednesday Tuesday excuse me and had new lines at practice on Wednesday on the blue line and before we give you those one quick update injury-wise zus gear getson returns against Ottawa over the weekend

They lost kylo poso to an injury he is considered weak to week week to week for uh for kyoso Eric Robinson goes in his place um on the fourth line what about the Blue Line let’s look at it we have a split already as I was ready to

Do this show on darene Samson it’s like Don Granado heard it ahead of time he is split them up at practice at least Dalene was skating on the top pair with Henry Yoki Haru Who funny enough had been a healthy scratch multiple times recently but he’s going back to the top

Pair I’ve liked alen Yoki Haru as a pairing this year and I expect that to look pretty good and better than what we’ve seen from Samuelson so Samuelson taking off the top pair Grado has Owen power with Eric Johnson do not like that at all would not put Eric Johnson in the

Top four at all like I would put everybody else on the current roster in that spot above him samelson was rotating on the third pair with Ryan Johnson and Conor Clifton which means to me one of those three is going to get scratched against Montreal on Thursday samuelson’s a part of those

Three I think it’s possible that they put him up in the Press Box and I put this potential situation in our text line that hey Sam going get scratched couple of uh thoughts made by some of our listeners on our some of our sorties can’t possibly hurt him his play has

Been rough to watch if he does sit I think it shows maybe don and Kev realize it’s not a punishment to sit him for a n or two that’s one another comment um I’d scratch Eric Johnson again put Power with Ryan Johnson put Sammy with Clifton

I love that I don’t think they’re going to do that because Johnson was Eric Johnson was skating the second pair but that’s what I would do I would put Power with Ryan Johnson put Samson with Clifton uh one other comment samelson needs it pretty much everyone has

Regressed this year uh but I feel like he’s one of our best player one of our players regression that have stuck out the most and I agree with that on samelson so far this year always a hard player to gauge because it’s not all about numbers it’s not all about points

Um but I definitely agree with that sentiment on samelson so we’ll see what we get but Granado already willing to do that and by the way when I asked him on Wednesday morning on wgr about this pairing he did say they need more from them he did call them out for saying

That they were not they did have an off night on Sunday against Ottawa I don’t think he’s going out the limb there I think that was pretty clear to see um and he responded by taking them away from each other so you know the numbers say it the Sabres are very analytically

Driven in their management and I do wonder if finally it was time that somebody Jesse vura or whoever you know got through to whoever or maybe Granado did it on his own to say you know with his eyes or with the numbers that I got

To split these guys up and see what it’s going to look like so aoso out week to week Yoki Haru to the top pair samelson to the third pair and potentially healthy scratched we’ll see what we get on Thursday night against Montreal that’s going to do it for us today here

On the lock on Sabers podcast again if you want to check us out on our text line go to join sub.com lockdowns saers where you can sign up there and thanks for making us your first listen every day but make sure you make your next listen lock on sports today on YouTube

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What is wrong with the Sabres top pairing of Rasmus Dahlin and Mattias Samuelsson? How much worse have the two been than they were last season? And is it time to split them up? Sneaky Joe does a deep dive on both players and their numbers together.

Plus, which Sabre deserves to be the team’s representative at the NHL All-Star game?

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