Grading the Sabres: Goaltending

by Anne

I've decided that I don't want to just bury the season and forget about it. Instead, I've decided to grade each player based solely on how I feel they performed this season.

Next up are the goaltenders, all three of them.

Keep in mind that these grades are grading how well the player filled their role as it seems to have been defined for them from this fan's perspective.

Here they are, in numerical order:

Ryan Miller


59 games 34-18-6, .918 SV%, 2.53 GAA
5 shutouts

Miller had 34 wins in 59 games. Last season he had 36 in 76 games. If that isn't an indication of his stronger play behind a weaker defense, I'm not sure what is. He was our best player by far this season, he was consistent, he was reliable. Of course he let in a few softies, but it happens to the best of them. The team played for Miller and Miller played for them it would seem. We missed the playoffs because he was hurt, plain and simple. If he hadn't been hurt, what are the odds we wouldn't have had at least two or three more wins, enough to make the playoffs? I really can't think of anything bad that Miller did this season. He demanded a lot from his teammates. He spoke up a lot last season and this season. The biggest difference was, Miller was playing like an elite goaltender this season and he had the swagger to back up his calling out of his teammates. He signed a big contract and played to it. If he hadn't been hurt, I'm guessing he would've played around 70 games this season and based on the number of possible points he got out of the 58 games he took the win or loss in, that alone would've given us 89 points. Toss in Lalime's five wins and thee OT losses and...well... that's all I have to say about that.

Anne's Grade: A

Mikael Tellqvist


(all stats as a Sabre)
6 games 2-1 .928 sv % 2.35 GAA

Ummm... I know he only played in 6 games but his stats in Phoenix were about the same. I don't really have much to say about his play except his rebound control didn't seem phenomenal. We didn't have a huge sampling to choose from for his Sabres stats so I'm probably not thinking rationally when I ask my next question. He's been reported to be a good guy around the locker room as well. You can never have too may Swedish goaltenders in an organization, right Jhonas? So, can we keep him, Darcy? Can we?

Grade (as a Sabre): A-

Patrick Lalime

24 games 5-13-3, .900 sv%, 3.10 GAA

We needed Patty to be better. We also needed the team in front of him to score more. Its hard to place all of his sixteen losses on him, but he can't be completely let off the hook. He plays a more athletic and frantic style of goaltending and that didn't really seem to help his teammates when they're used to Mr. Calm in net. If I had to choose between keeping Lalime and Telly Monster, I'd definitely take Telly Monster. Does this mean that Lalime is bad? No, but maybe he isn't a good fit. That being said, he's still worlds better than T-Bone was.

Grade: C+

Our goalies average out to a B+. That seems about right. They allowed fewer goals than last season and if Miller can continue to play the way he did before AND after his injury and if we can have a reliable back-up (TELLY MONSTER?) for the entire season, this team will definitely make the playoffs.

These are just my grades, what are your grades? Think I'm dead on? Way off the mark? Leave your thoughts in the comments.

Grading the Sabres: Defensemen

by Anne

I've decided that I don't want to just bury the season and forget about it. Instead, I've decided to grade each player based solely on how I feel they performed this season.

Next up are the defensemen. I'm grading all the defenseman that played in at least 40 games meaning Gragnani and Weber are excluded.

Keep in mind that these grades are grading how well the player filled their role as it seems to have been defined for them from this fan's perspective.

Here they are, in numerical order:

Toni Lydman

80 games, 3-20-23, 70 PIM, Even
Hits: 165
Blocked shots: 166
#1 on the team in both above categories
Average TOI: 21:46

Lydman played a lot of minutes for the Sabres and turned in an OK season. He took a lot of untimely penalties, the majority of which were not the types of penalties that one takes to stop a player on a breakaway, they were mostly sloppy hooking and holding penalties. He redeemed himself slightly with his ridiculous shootout game-winning goal against Montreal. He was fine, he wasn't our best defenseman, but he wasn't the worst. He played a pretty physical game, throwing a lot of hits and blocking a lot of shots and played the most short handed time of any defenseman and our PK had some swagger for most of the season.

Anne's Grade: B

Jaroslav Spacek


80 games, 8-37-45, 38 PIM, +2
Blocked shots: 126
Average TOI: 22:16
#1 on team in icetime
#1 scoring defenseman

Spacek had a strong season without too many obvious problems. He lead the defense in offensive output by a lot. He had 21 points more than the next highest defenseman. He manned the point on the power play decently with Pommer and was one of the best Sabres in his own zone. He's a UFA this summer and I hope desperately that we'll re-sign him. That and he's just about the only player who wore an "A" this season that I think should wear it next season (assuming Teppo retires). Also, he brought us the pigeon. What more does one need to know? He tied a career high in points and set a new career high in assists.

Anne's Grade: A-

Henrik Tallinder


66 games, 1-11-12, 36 PIM, -2
Average TOI: 18:46

Tallinder had a forgettable season that consisted of a few too many horrifying turnovers and earned him some time in the press box. He was fairly sloppy this season. However, he played a lot of minutes on the penalty kill which was pretty good throughout most of the season, so for that he slightly redeems some of his not so good 5 on 5 play. Offense is obviously not his game but he only registered 35 shots throughout his entire 66 games. Just put it on net and see what happens, Hank! He doesn't play a very physical game. When he's paired with Toni, who does play a physical game, it would be nice if Hank could try to be little better with getting the puck into the other team's zone without turning it over at the blueline and allowing point blank shots on Ryan Miller that he isn't prepared for at all. He was better in the previous three seasons.

Anne's Grade: C

Teppo Numminen


57 games, 2-15-17, 22 PIM, -4
Average TOI: 17:30

Teppo Numminen is 40 years old, had open heart surgery and has played in more NHL games than any other European trained player. He is above my petty grades and observations. He will probably retire and I think its probably for the best. Even if he does retire, he's made it perfectly clear that Buffalo is his home, whether he is a Buffalo Sabre of the present or the past. But, I shall grade him nonetheless

Anne's Grade: B-

Chris Butler


47 games, 2-4-6, 18 PIM +11
Average TOI: 16:43
#1 in defensemen in +/-

Butts turned a three game December call-up into a great rookie campaign. There were a few terrifyingly bad rookie mistakes that drew the ire of Sabres fans and writers alike, but he more than redeemed himself down the stretch. Being paired with Rivet and sometimes with Numminen has probably done wonders for his career. You could tell Rivs was rubbing off on Butler because, at times, Butler the rookie was the one in the crease making sure that the opposing team didn't sneak in any extra whacks with their sticks on Miller. He was one of precious few Sabres that exceeded expectations and he impressed coaching and management so much that his three game call-up became 47 games as a top 6 defenseman. I look forward to what he has to offer in the future.

Anne's Grade: A-

Andrej Sekera


69 games, 3-16-19, 22 PIM -11
Average TOI: 20:42

Reggie went through some seriously terrifyingly bad stretches this season and never really went through any stretches of brilliance. He had the usual sophomore growing pains of his first full season in the big show and it showed. He was touted early on in the season as our top puck moving defenseman but never came close to living up to that expectation. He pinched a few more times than he should have and he was a healthy scratch a few times in the hopes of shaking the cobwebs out. We needed and expected him to be better this season.

Anne's Grade: C

Craig Rivet


64 games 2-22-24, 125 PIM, +4
Average TOI: 20:14
#1 on team in PIM

Rivs brought a phyiscal presence whenever he was on the ice, which unfortunately he was not for 18 games this season. For many of the games he was playing before having knee surgery, he was playing hurt, and not many players play their best physical game when they're playing hurt. Also, when he and Paul Gaustad and Adam Mair weren't on the ice, and some times even Chris Butler, there was pretty much no one standing up for people creeping up on Miller's crease. I mean, every team clusters around the goal crease, but there wasn't really anyone else who took serious exception to it. By his personal standards, Rivs didn't have the best season offensively and, as a right handed shot, one of the precious few we have on our team, we could've used a little more offense from him. He lead the team in penalty minutes and won most of his fights handily. I'm not grading him as a captain, I'm grading him as a defenseman, keep that in mind.

Anne's Grade: B+

I didn't grade Nathan Paetsch because he only played in 23 games. If I were to grade him, he would be an incomplete.

Overall, this averages to a B-. The defense allowed more shots per game this season. Last year it was 28.4, this year, 31.4. That's a lot of shots. Fortunately most of the time our goaltender was on his game... when he wasn't hurt... and we managed to actually have a lower total goals against... no thanks to our defense. There weren't as many injuries to our blueline this season which makes this season even sadder. With the exception of a brief stretch in late 2008, we had at least 6 healthy defensemen for most of the season... and we still ended the season in exactly the same spot. The grade of B- seems oddly generous.

Fun Fact: We are waayyy better against our own division than against other divisions. Problem with scouting? Not getting prepared enough for these out of division and out of conference games? Coaching issue? I'm not sayin', I'm just sayin'.

These are just my grades, what are your grades? Think I'm dead on? Way off the mark? Leave your thoughts in the comments.

Next Up: Goaltending

Grading the Sabres: Forwards

by Anne

I've decided that I don't want to just bury the season and forget about it. Instead, I've decided to grade each player based solely on how I feel they performed this season.

I'm starting with the forwards just because. I'm only going to be grading the forwards that played at least 40 games meaning Peters, Gerbe, Kennedy, Kotalik, and Mancari are all exempt.

Keep in mind that these grades are grading how well the player filled their role as it seems to have been defined for them from this fan's perspective.

Here they are, in numerical order:

Derek Roy

82 games, 28-42-70, 38 PIM, -5
Faceoff win %: 50.7
9 PPG 2nd on team
Average TOI: 21:11

Royzie once again lead the team in points but was 11 off from his total last season, yet played in more games. He, like most of the forwards seemed to have trouble finding chemistry with his linemates, but more than once connected with Dan Paille for some amazing goals. Had his usual flashes of brilliance, interspersed with moments of defensive irresponsibility. He's certainly had better seasons but he was #9 in the league in faceoffs taken, so that's pretty impressive. Although, like many other centers, he's not very good at short-handed faceoffs. However, in one of the last games he won like 85% of his total faceoffs. Dang.

Anne's Grade: B

Dominic Moore


18 games, 1-3-4, 23 PIM, -1
Faceoff win %: 54.1
Average TOI: 16:50

Eh. He won some faceoffs but unless we played Toronto he seemed mostly emotionless and not physical at all. I don't want to re-sign him. He had a crazy high number of missed shots, like more than double most of his teammates. He set a career high in goals but not while he was in Buffalo. He didn't do much that was memorable, is basically what I'm saying about Dominic. He had a great season up in Toronto but I don't think he really added much to the team. Basically we gave up someone that was clutch in shootouts and got someone who was clutch in faceoffs but weren't all that helpful in many other situations.

Anne's Grade: C+

Tim Connolly


48 Games, 18-29-47, 22 PIM, +12
Lead team in +/-
Faceoff Win %: 42.1
Average TOI: 19:07

The same things we always say still hold true for Timmy, he's a magician on the ice... if he can just stay healthy. He apparently battled a slight wrist sprain at the end of the season but played through it. He signed a contract extension that makes many people in Buffalo light-headed but has still produced at almost a point per game pace (check out THAT alliteration). When he plays his game, he makes other players around him better and that's what we need. His faceoff % is not very impressive but he's good and for the games he was in he played that way.

Anne's Grade: A-

Dan Paille


73 games, 12-15-27, 20 PIM, Even
Average TOI: 11:54

It was unreasonable to expect Dan Paille to score 19 goals again. That was kind of a fluke last season. However, he had lengthy stretches this season where he just seemed to disappear altogether. He was scratched several times but in the end had a decent third liner season. He didn't take a lot of penalties and set up at least two shorthanded goals by Thomas Vanek. He filled his role. He was starting to really go into the corners with more enthusiasm as the season went on. He could use his body more, because when he does, he makes an impact.

Anne's Grade: B

Drew Stafford


79 games, 20-25-45, 29 PIM, +3
9 PPG - 2nd on team
Average TOI: 15:37

After a painfully slow start to the season, Staffy ended up setting new highs in goals and assists. When Vanek and Gaustad were down, Lindy tapped Staffy to be one of the guys in front of the net on the powerplay and after a terrifyingly bad first game with him at the front, he picked it up and really improved his ability to tip the puck in. As the season wore on, he started to show signs of becoming the player the Sabres drafted 13th overall in 2004. Fun fact: Staffy has never finished below +3 since turning pro in 2006.

Anne's Grade: B+

Adam Mair


75 Games, 8-11-19, 95 PIM, +4
Face off win % 48.3
Average TOI: 10:34

Mairsy set a career high in goals and +/-. I really don't have much to add about Mairsy other than he had a great fourth liner season. We could've done without the theatrics in October but those were hilarious and entertaining anyway. Like his other fellow centers, he could bulk up his face off numbers. The brief time of the line of Mair-Moore-Gaustad was a little strange but they were a good combination. I don't know that they would be a good line for the future but what they did while they were together was create a lot of pressure. Mairsy's good at that.

Anne's Grade: A-

Thomas Vanek


73 games, 40-24-64, 44 PIM, -1
20 PPG #1 on team, #1 in the league
2 SHG #1 on team
Average TOI: 17:11

Vanek broke out of the starting gates on fire and then cooled off. Then he was hurt and didn't really regain his form after coming back from his jaw injury. Like Royzie, he seemed to struggle with chemistry with linemates. I personally would enjoy a line of Pie - Royzie - Vanek but that's just me. Remember when Vanek was a +47? He needs to improve his 5 on 5 game and continue to improve his defensive game. He was clutch...sometimes... but not often enough. Much has been made of his time missed but he only missed nine games throughout the season. Imagine how different that time would've been if we'd had a healthy Tim Connolly earlier in the season. How many more goals would have been scored?

Anne's Grade: B+

Paul Gaustad


62 games, 12-17-29, 108 PIM, +4
141 hits
Faceoff win %: 52.7
Average TOI: 16:06

The Goose has always been a player about intangibles. We all know about his locker room comments after that repulsive game against the Caps in December. He set a career high in goals this season and scored his first NHL short-handed goal. He's just about the only player in recent memory to actually improve after signing a long contract. He definitely should be wearing an A next season. Take away Hecht's and give it to Goose.

Anne's Grade: A-

Jason Pominville


82 games, 20-46-66, 18 PIM, -4
Average TOI: 19:45

Jason had a pretty weak season. As did the rest of our "top 6" players, except for maybe Timmy, and he only played for 48 games. Pommer played every game but definitely struggled more than last season. Where was our kick-ass captain and his defensively responsible play? I don't think anyone would've believed he was nominated for the Selke based on this season's play. He ate up a lot of ice time and somewhat successfully manned the point on the power play. We needed more from him. It took him until the very last game to get the 20 goal mark.

Anne's Grade: C

Pat Kaleta


51 Games, 4-5-9, 89 PIM, +1
137 hits

Patty had a lot of neck/head injuries which hampered his season. He didn't make much of an impact this season and there really isn't a whole lot to say about it. He played an ok season by 3rd/4th line standards, but mostly it was overshadowed by his injuries. 137 hits in 51 games is nothing to sneeze at. Patty knows his role and played it well. Unfortunately he suffered a lot of damage because of it.

Anne's Grade: B

Matt Ellis


45 games, 7-5-12, 12 PIM, +4
Average TOI: 8:49

Matt Ellis was a healthy scratch or in Portland for most of the season but when he did play he made way more of an offensive impact than I think any Sabres fan expected him to. He was one of precious few Sabres that actually exceeded expectations this season. A solid fourth line player with a great attitude and a great work ethic. Ellis came to play every night, he never took a shift off and never quit. He filled his role as it was asked of him and then some including his first multi-goal NHL game and came amazingly close to scoring a hat trick. He actually took 239 faceoffs and won 46.9% of them, in spite being a natural winger.

Anne's Grade: A

Clarke MacArthur


71 games, 17-14-31, 56 PIM, -4
Average TOI: 13:50

MacArthur was scratched for several games this season to jumpstart his game and he managed to produce a decent first full season in the big leagues. He produced more goals than expected, and at the beginning of the season he was our #2 goal scorer. Most of the season he was pretty under the radar... mostly because he wasn't doing all that much.

Anne's Grade: B-

Jochen Hecht


70 games, 12-15-27, 33 PIM, -9
Faceoff win %: 43.7
Average TOI: 17:23

Punch me in the, face Jochen Hecht was awful this season. Aw. ful. Get the letter off that man's sweater. He was, in my opinion, the biggest disappointment of the season. Last year he took 229 shots. This year? 173. I don't think its a coincidence that both he and Pommer, former perma-linemates, had pretty lame seasons. Ugh.

Grade: D

Maxim Afinogenov


48 games, 6-14-20, 20 PIM, -7
Average TOI: 12:36

There is nothing to say about Max that hasn't already been said.

Grade: D-

Overall this averages out to a B-. The team scored a few more goals than last season and our top three goal scorers were the same. Last year Pommer, Royzie and Vanek combined for 95 goals. This year? 88. Not so bad when you combine the three. Two of our top five goal scorers last year were Kotalik (23) and Hecht (22) This year? Kotalik is gone and Hecht scored 12.

This year the forwards were a combined -4. Last year the forwards that played 40+ games were a combined +5.

I could go on, but I won't because it takes too long to compare all these stats. Basically the grinders were good and the scorers were mostly average.

How would you grade the forwards? Think I'm totally off the mark? Dead on? Share your thoughts in the comments.

Next up: Defensemen