Anyone who says it’s not a problem is delusional. Regardless of how bad the defense is.
Boot-Representative
Each game seems to be better than the next.
Empty-Refuse8923
Not all data is good data
sambosamurai
Goaltending and Defense. Oloffsson needs to peace out to another teams bottom 6. Good riddance.
BARDLER
xGF at 5v5 today for Boston was 1.6, they scored 6 goals.
Advanced stats were in favor of the Sabres, and they generated some decent chances, but you need better goaltending than that. Better goaltending would have given the Sabres a chance to make a push in the 3rd.
ShitHouseMcTits
People on here have been talking about UPL being the goalie of the future for 3 years.
BillsByABillion
Yeah, while I don’t care for DTW graphs too much I have to agree. While the Defense needs fixing and won’t be addressed until the offseason the goaltending is meh to abhorrent most nights. Hard to get up, and stay up, for a game when you know you have to work so much harder than the other team to score.
P_L_O_P
Can’t we put the top 6 back the way it was put Jost back in and just feed Tage? Am I wrong or is Granato trying to spread out talent and the result is just taking away opportunities from our top line? I’d rather go back to scoring 5-6 a game and hoping we win a boat race then being trounced trying to play a better all around game. Also Greenway needs to go down to playing with okposo and Girgensons.
Roll_DM
*scores zero goals*
Look what our goaltending has done to us
LaruePDX
Team defense and inconsistency from our goalies need some serious attention in the offseason. I don’t see Levi being ready for a year or two minimum.
BlackAce_BS13
*Coaching, UPL should have been pulled, forwards need to learn to help in their own zone, coach needs to get his head out of his fucking ass and putting the line thru the blender, sitting a Jost(healthy scratch btw), for oloff, injuries to dmen dont help either. Stop trying to blame it on the goalies, he let in 2 soft ones, so what every goalie does lol. He is super young and you ppl just want to move on from him cause Levi signed.
Material_Mall_5359
Maybe Ullmark will come back out of pity
2phatt
If only the Sabres had a goalie like Linus Ullmark.
ebclout
I’m thinking it’s more defense at this point. Levi is not the answer this year or next.
Buff716917
UPL is Comrie with better PR (yes UPL has potential to become a solid player, but right now he’s the worst “starting” goalie in the league)
mcmendoza11
Our goalies face more high quality shots than most others in the league. While our goalies are not good, they also get hung out to dry. There was a stat a week or 2 ago of the top 10 goalies in the league who face the most high quality shots per game and the Sabres were the only team with more than one goalie on it. In fact, all 3 different starting goalies we’ve had this season were in the top 7. There is a reason there is a trend of goalies sucking here, getting traded or leaving, then doing well elsewhere.
Left-Somewhere-2372
We need a goalie with a longer last name
palesnowrider1
15 Seconds
suppaman19
I’ve said this for months but always got blasted up front for stating facts, especially on UPL when we were winning.
I’ll say the same thing I’ve said months ago about this team.
We need some bottom six, physical, defensive oriented grinders up front.
We need another top four defensemen and one to two bottom pairing defensemen.
Most importantly, we need a starting goaltender. UPL might play himself into a decent NHL backup, but he’s not even there yet. Anderson should be retired and Comrie isn’t even a good by AHL standards.
The rest I’m not concerned on, as the other young players should hopefully continue their development curve upward as they gain experience.
_Darth_Grogu
Huge problem. Our best offense in years being squandered by terrible D and Goaltending. We were so close to making the playoffs…
scandrews187
Scoring goals for this team hasn’t been a problem until very recently. Goaltending and defense have been an issue the entire season and will continue to be until these kids mature and learn how to play defense in the NHL, an upgrade in personnel, or a combination of both. If they were to get the odd big save a little more often it could turn the momentum of at least a few games the Sabres’ way. But there’s definitely more than one issue at play here. It’s a work in progress and I truly believe that it will get better. Personally don’t care if they make the playoffs this year. They’re a project that needs another year or two to simmer in the pot. This management team is managing things quite well so far
Material-Bag833
I don’t care what the deserve to win o metre says. The bruins dominated start to finish.
sarcastic_man_13
Hoping that none of the 3 goaltenders that has suited up this season returns next season.
Artistic-Stick2816
Devon Levi enters the chat
TheFerricGenum
Here’s food for thought. I looked at the advanced stats, which reported an xGA of 1.6 tonight. And then I watched the highlights on repeat, and at slow motion, and then again. I’m not sure what drugs the models are on, but our xGA tonight should have been at least 4 if not 5+, because it is supposed to look at league averages. Which means our defense is playing so poorly we are expected to give up at least 4 goals a game. This still means UPL gave up 2-3 that he shouldn’t have (and honestly 3-4, since that kick goal should have been a save and he was lucky it was disallowed). If we got our xGA down to 1, even if our netminders give up 2 above expected, that still means we only give up 3 a game**.
**Note: I don’t necessarily think xGA per game of 1 is realistic, but I do think if the team defense improves, the goals given up by our netminders above expected will also improve, and shooting for not giving up more than 3 a game seems reasonable for where the team is currently.
This is where it gets interesting. In games where the team lets in 3 or fewer goals, we only have 8 losses. Of our remaining 28 losses, we had 3+ goals in 14 and 4+ in 6 of them. So that is 10 more points (from 6 regulation wins, less the 2 points from OTL we have with 4+ goals scored) we could have. In the remaining 8 games where we scored at least 3 times and lost, 6 games were games we lost in regulation and could have gotten points in. So we could be 16 points better off this season simply through better defense. That would put us firmly in WC1, and only 2 points behind Tampa for third in the Atlantic.
Don’t get me wrong. I would love to see our netminders make big saves over and over again like Swayman did tonight, but I think that’s a hard thing to ask on a night-in-night-out basis. Swayman put that performance down tonight because he knows he doesn’t need to play that hard every game, since he defense has his back. But our goalies know if they play out of their minds, they’re just going to be expected to do that again and again because we have no team defense.
So while I understand the frustration with our goaltending, I honestly can’t see any goaltender in the league plugging the leaks we have on defense sufficiently to take us over the hump into a real contender.
Inevitable_Bed_8850
Sharks fan here in peace, as I find this discussion very interesting.
I’m in the middle of the same sorts of arguments w/ my own fanbase. Our “goalie of the future” Kaapo Kahkonen has been dead last pretty much all season in GSAA(goals saved above expected). Everyone seems to blame the rest of the roster, instead of him, because some of the goals have indeed featured some pretty brutal d-zone turnovers which creates a bad look at times.
But I still watch him every game give up at least 2 that are “gotta have em'” saves. We’ve been on the wrong side of that deserve to win o’ meter numerous times. And while I dont think the analytics are ever going to be totally correct, I do think over the long haul it paints a pretty realistic picture.
To use an analogy, I see lots of home fans defending goalies in the same way that I see NFL fans defending their QB. The o-line sucks, the receiver’s didnt get open, so and so dropped that one ball. And all that may have some kernels of truth to it, but at the end of the day, everyone needs to be held accountable. QB’s gotta lead scoring drives. And goalies need to stop the puck. For some reason fans of teams have this weird need to defend the QB and goalie by calling out the rest of the team in order to defend bad performance. Like a coping mechanism of sorts.
For what it’s worth, both Ullmark and Swayman rank at the top of GSAA, so there may be some truth to the idea that their blueline and system helps them. But there’s also guys like Shesterkin towards the top of that list. And as someone who watches a lot of hockey around the league, bad clearing attempts happen w/ pretty much every team, even good ones. Bad turnovers happen w/ every team, not just the bad ones. At some point, you need to perform.
Just my 2 cents.
WorthPlease
I’m convinced people think UPL is way better than he is because he has a cool name.
His save percentage is 23 points lower than a 41 year old Craig Anderson.
28 Comments
No our defense is a big problem
Anyone who says it’s not a problem is delusional. Regardless of how bad the defense is.
Each game seems to be better than the next.
Not all data is good data
Goaltending and Defense. Oloffsson needs to peace out to another teams bottom 6. Good riddance.
xGF at 5v5 today for Boston was 1.6, they scored 6 goals.
Advanced stats were in favor of the Sabres, and they generated some decent chances, but you need better goaltending than that. Better goaltending would have given the Sabres a chance to make a push in the 3rd.
People on here have been talking about UPL being the goalie of the future for 3 years.
Yeah, while I don’t care for DTW graphs too much I have to agree. While the Defense needs fixing and won’t be addressed until the offseason the goaltending is meh to abhorrent most nights. Hard to get up, and stay up, for a game when you know you have to work so much harder than the other team to score.
Can’t we put the top 6 back the way it was put Jost back in and just feed Tage? Am I wrong or is Granato trying to spread out talent and the result is just taking away opportunities from our top line? I’d rather go back to scoring 5-6 a game and hoping we win a boat race then being trounced trying to play a better all around game. Also Greenway needs to go down to playing with okposo and Girgensons.
*scores zero goals*
Look what our goaltending has done to us
Team defense and inconsistency from our goalies need some serious attention in the offseason. I don’t see Levi being ready for a year or two minimum.
*Coaching, UPL should have been pulled, forwards need to learn to help in their own zone, coach needs to get his head out of his fucking ass and putting the line thru the blender, sitting a Jost(healthy scratch btw), for oloff, injuries to dmen dont help either. Stop trying to blame it on the goalies, he let in 2 soft ones, so what every goalie does lol. He is super young and you ppl just want to move on from him cause Levi signed.
Maybe Ullmark will come back out of pity
If only the Sabres had a goalie like Linus Ullmark.
I’m thinking it’s more defense at this point. Levi is not the answer this year or next.
UPL is Comrie with better PR (yes UPL has potential to become a solid player, but right now he’s the worst “starting” goalie in the league)
Our goalies face more high quality shots than most others in the league. While our goalies are not good, they also get hung out to dry. There was a stat a week or 2 ago of the top 10 goalies in the league who face the most high quality shots per game and the Sabres were the only team with more than one goalie on it. In fact, all 3 different starting goalies we’ve had this season were in the top 7. There is a reason there is a trend of goalies sucking here, getting traded or leaving, then doing well elsewhere.
We need a goalie with a longer last name
15 Seconds
I’ve said this for months but always got blasted up front for stating facts, especially on UPL when we were winning.
I’ll say the same thing I’ve said months ago about this team.
We need some bottom six, physical, defensive oriented grinders up front.
We need another top four defensemen and one to two bottom pairing defensemen.
Most importantly, we need a starting goaltender. UPL might play himself into a decent NHL backup, but he’s not even there yet. Anderson should be retired and Comrie isn’t even a good by AHL standards.
The rest I’m not concerned on, as the other young players should hopefully continue their development curve upward as they gain experience.
Huge problem. Our best offense in years being squandered by terrible D and Goaltending. We were so close to making the playoffs…
Scoring goals for this team hasn’t been a problem until very recently. Goaltending and defense have been an issue the entire season and will continue to be until these kids mature and learn how to play defense in the NHL, an upgrade in personnel, or a combination of both. If they were to get the odd big save a little more often it could turn the momentum of at least a few games the Sabres’ way. But there’s definitely more than one issue at play here. It’s a work in progress and I truly believe that it will get better. Personally don’t care if they make the playoffs this year. They’re a project that needs another year or two to simmer in the pot. This management team is managing things quite well so far
I don’t care what the deserve to win o metre says. The bruins dominated start to finish.
Hoping that none of the 3 goaltenders that has suited up this season returns next season.
Devon Levi enters the chat
Here’s food for thought. I looked at the advanced stats, which reported an xGA of 1.6 tonight. And then I watched the highlights on repeat, and at slow motion, and then again. I’m not sure what drugs the models are on, but our xGA tonight should have been at least 4 if not 5+, because it is supposed to look at league averages. Which means our defense is playing so poorly we are expected to give up at least 4 goals a game. This still means UPL gave up 2-3 that he shouldn’t have (and honestly 3-4, since that kick goal should have been a save and he was lucky it was disallowed). If we got our xGA down to 1, even if our netminders give up 2 above expected, that still means we only give up 3 a game**.
**Note: I don’t necessarily think xGA per game of 1 is realistic, but I do think if the team defense improves, the goals given up by our netminders above expected will also improve, and shooting for not giving up more than 3 a game seems reasonable for where the team is currently.
This is where it gets interesting. In games where the team lets in 3 or fewer goals, we only have 8 losses. Of our remaining 28 losses, we had 3+ goals in 14 and 4+ in 6 of them. So that is 10 more points (from 6 regulation wins, less the 2 points from OTL we have with 4+ goals scored) we could have. In the remaining 8 games where we scored at least 3 times and lost, 6 games were games we lost in regulation and could have gotten points in. So we could be 16 points better off this season simply through better defense. That would put us firmly in WC1, and only 2 points behind Tampa for third in the Atlantic.
Don’t get me wrong. I would love to see our netminders make big saves over and over again like Swayman did tonight, but I think that’s a hard thing to ask on a night-in-night-out basis. Swayman put that performance down tonight because he knows he doesn’t need to play that hard every game, since he defense has his back. But our goalies know if they play out of their minds, they’re just going to be expected to do that again and again because we have no team defense.
So while I understand the frustration with our goaltending, I honestly can’t see any goaltender in the league plugging the leaks we have on defense sufficiently to take us over the hump into a real contender.
Sharks fan here in peace, as I find this discussion very interesting.
I’m in the middle of the same sorts of arguments w/ my own fanbase. Our “goalie of the future” Kaapo Kahkonen has been dead last pretty much all season in GSAA(goals saved above expected). Everyone seems to blame the rest of the roster, instead of him, because some of the goals have indeed featured some pretty brutal d-zone turnovers which creates a bad look at times.
But I still watch him every game give up at least 2 that are “gotta have em'” saves. We’ve been on the wrong side of that deserve to win o’ meter numerous times. And while I dont think the analytics are ever going to be totally correct, I do think over the long haul it paints a pretty realistic picture.
To use an analogy, I see lots of home fans defending goalies in the same way that I see NFL fans defending their QB. The o-line sucks, the receiver’s didnt get open, so and so dropped that one ball. And all that may have some kernels of truth to it, but at the end of the day, everyone needs to be held accountable. QB’s gotta lead scoring drives. And goalies need to stop the puck. For some reason fans of teams have this weird need to defend the QB and goalie by calling out the rest of the team in order to defend bad performance. Like a coping mechanism of sorts.
For what it’s worth, both Ullmark and Swayman rank at the top of GSAA, so there may be some truth to the idea that their blueline and system helps them. But there’s also guys like Shesterkin towards the top of that list. And as someone who watches a lot of hockey around the league, bad clearing attempts happen w/ pretty much every team, even good ones. Bad turnovers happen w/ every team, not just the bad ones. At some point, you need to perform.
Just my 2 cents.
I’m convinced people think UPL is way better than he is because he has a cool name.
His save percentage is 23 points lower than a 41 year old Craig Anderson.
Both play in front of the same defense.
He’s a big goalkeeper that plays like he is 6’0″.