My best source is sportsline.com. Good splits, etc.

I know what you mean about Afinegenov. Better to get rid of a player a year early than a year late, but oh well. He’s depth, anyway. Expensive as all hell, but maybe somebody will panic and overpay for him.

The way Portland is playing, the Sabres could take some minor leaguers and call it a good deal.

You are lucky that you can see the games, I have to go by listening or reading. Unless Santa gets me the Centre Ice package!

I’ll do some crunching on the days off in previous years. Its easier to do it this year with 15 games, but I’ll give the algorithm a workout.

And you are right about the talent vs. effort challenge. As one of the Sutters has said, I don’t mind losing to a more talented team. I refuse to lose to a team that works harder.

Thanks for the support.

Roy is another matter…I am not sure what his problem is, but he just seems to be struggling….Pominville seems to have broken out of his early slump, but not Roy.

I don’t give a lot of credence to too many days off as being a problem, other than potentially coming out a little slow (which they did against Atlanta last Friday). Your stats remind me of 06/07 when they won the President’s trophy. I forget the figures, but more than half their losses for the entire season were on a Saturday, and they had a terrible losing record on Saturdays (like 6-13-2 or something). It was really strange.

If you look at the last 5 games, I like the way they played in all but the Boston game. (Even losing to Atlanta, they out-played them 75 % of the game.) With the talent level of this team, they will win 8 out of 10 times that they commit to being the harder working team on the ice. I still think they are looking at a 4th or 5th seed. Though the Northeast looks like a battleground, the new structure makes it so there is only 24 of 82 games played against your own conference, so if you go 12-12 there, you can still have a pretty good record overall. (Sabres are 2-2 so far in NE.)

What still concerns me: Afinogenov and Roy. Nice to win without their input, but especially with Afinogenov. I guess $3.5 million doesn’t get as much as it used to…

He is regressing:

06/07 Points in October (11 GP): 17
06/07 Points in November(8 GP): 10

07/08 Points in October (10 GP): 4
07/08 Points in November(13 GP): 4

08/09 Points in October (10 GP): 7
08/09 Points in November(5 GP): 1

And he isn’t exactly known as a second-half guy.

But to the Sabres (5 game sections):

1st 5: 4-0-1, 19 GF, 8 GA, 9 Pts
2nd 5: 2-2-1, 12 GF, 17 GA, 5 Pts
3rd 5: 3-1-1, 16 GF, 11 GA, 7 Pts, 2 Shut outs

I think (hope) the 3rd 5 is what we are going to see.

The fact that those 2 wins in the 2nd 5 were a shoot out and overtime win is a bit of a concern as well.

The next three weeks are Wed-Fri-Sat. Interesting to look at the result after days off this year:

Wins in regulation (6):

0 Days off: 0
1 Days off: 4
2 Days off: 1
3 Days off: 1

Wins in OT (1): 1 day off
Wins in SO (2): 2 days off and opening night

Losses in regulation (3):

0 Days off: 1
1 Days off: 1
2 Days off: 1
3 Days off: 0

Losses in OT (1): 3 days off
Losses in SO (2): 0 days off and 1 day off

Not really a pattern to discern for losing, but it looks like long layoffs aren’t good for winning.

BTW, made some money on ProLine last night: got 6 for 6 betting everything on home teams to win. Yee Haw…

Do you think Obama does hockey too? Can he get the schedule changed, maybe after he fixes the world economy.

Yes, Connolly is definitely one of those “wouldn’t care if he went somewhere else). I think they are deep enough. It would put an end to the Peca trade, anyway:

Courtesy TSN.ca:

01-Nov-08 Missed 10 games (back injury).
10-Oct-08 Back injury, sidelined indefinitely.
05-Apr-08 Missed the last 12 games of the regular season (hip injury).
12-Mar-08 Hip injury, day-to-day.
08-Mar-08 Missed 1 game (hip injury).
05-Mar-08 Hip injury, day-to-day.
23-Feb-08 Missed 1 game (groin).
21-Feb-08 Groin, day-to-day.
10-Feb-08 Missed 13 games (groin).
10-Jan-08 Groin, day-to-day.
26-Dec-07 Missed 2 games (illness).
21-Dec-07 Illness, day-to-day.
21-Nov-07 Missed 5 games (strained oblique muscle).
06-Nov-07 Strained oblique muscle, sidelined indefinitely.
07-Apr-07 Missed 80 games (concussion).
14-Sep-06 Concussion, sidelined indefinitely.
01-Jun-06 Missed Game 3, 4 and 5 of Round 2 against the Ottawa Senators and all 7 games of Conference Final against the Carolina Hurricanes (upper body injury).
08-May-06 Upper body injury, day-to-day.
29-Mar-06 Missed 7 games (knee injury).
16-Mar-06 Knee injury, day-to-day.
09-Mar-06 Missed 12 games (knee injury).
25-Jan-06 Knee injury, mid-March.
04-Apr-04 Missed all 82 games of the regular season (concussion).
09-Oct-03 Concussion, sidelined indefinitely.
31-Jul-03

Would any team try to get him off waivers? Would it matter?

Maybe with Brodeur out, they’ll realize they have to score more. Or, more likely, get even more offensively defensive…

OK, admittedly it was a Monday night, and the Sabres even have trouble selling out there early week games, but the main reason there’s nobody in NJ at hockey games is because of the style of play…their own fans hate watching the team! Go back over the last five-ten years of attendance, and they are always among the worst in the league. (I’ll even give you a web-site to prove it.)
http://sports.espn.go.com/nhl/attendance?year=2009

Last year’s attendance averaged 15,500 for them, their highest post-lockout, and it was still only 81.7 % full on average. This year they are barely above 14,000. I don’t understand how management there can support the continued use of the trap when people don’t come to watch it.