German Atlantis Forum » basically never being shuffled to the penalty box.

EDMONTON -- Not many teams have managed to make the Buffalo Sabres look good this season, but the Edmonton Oilers found a way to do it on Thursday. Cory Conacher had two goals and an assist as the Sabres snapped a lengthy seven-game losing skid, emerging with a 3-1 victory over the Oilers in a battle between the teams with the worst records in the NHL. Drew Stafford also scored for the Sabres (20-42-8) who had been outscored 21-6 in their previous seven losses. "It was huge," Stafford said. "The way that this year has gone and the challenges we have gone through, we will take any win at this point, regardless of who it is against. That was one of our more complete efforts. "We had some discipline issues, but had a great PK. We also had more than one goal, which is big. Getting a 3-1 lead, Im not sure I can remember the last time we had a comfortable lead like that where we could lock in our system and take over the game." Sabres head coach Ted Nolan said his team earned the two points on the night as they ran their road record to just 8-22-3. "It is good to finally play a half decent game," he said. "When you lose, you get what you deserve, and we have been getting what we deserved. We werent playing very well, but tonight we got what we deserved." Conacher scored his first goal as a Sabre since being claimed on waivers from Ottawa at the trade deadline, and his first goal overall since Dec. 28. "It was refreshing," he said. "Ive already had to get the monkey off my back once before this year, and it feels like it came off again tonight. Maybe this was the game I needed to open the floodgates a bit. The most important part was getting the win, though. Taylor Hall responded for the Oilers (25-37-9) who saw a two-game winning streak end. The Oilers, now 10-5-3 in their last 18 games, are in second-last behind the Sabres. "You look at some games on the schedule and you think, oh, its going to be an easy night, but Ive learned in this league that anything can happen," Hall said. "Whether youre playing the St Louis Blues or Buffalo, you have to come in with the same mind-set. "It doesnt matter what place theyre in or anything, every game is hard and just because we lost to the team behind us doesnt mean were going to come to the rink and sulk tomorrow. As long as the work ethic is there and the battle and the compete ... as long as we have that, were proud." Oilers captain Andrew Ference said his team just didnt seem to have that second effort that has seen them come back in games of late. "Weve been able to take the tempo of game and take control of the third period recently and we just didnt do that tonight," he said. "Their second goal was just putting the puck to the net and it didnt seem as though we responded as well as weve had in the last two weeks. "We just lacked that extra couple of notches on the dial tonight." Little happened for the bulk of the first period, save for a spirited scrap between Edmontons Luke Gazdic and Buffalos Zenon Konopka. Edmonton had numerous chances on the power play late in the first, including posts hit by Justin Schultz and Hall, before the two connected for a man-advantage goal on Buffalo goalie Matt Hacket, who was making his first start of the season for the Sabres. Schultz made a quick pass to Hall in the centre of the right faceoff circle and he blew a one-timer past Hacket with two minutes left in the first period for his 24th goal of the season. Hacket was recently called up from Rochester of the AHL with normal goalies Jhonas Enroth and Michal Neuvirth out with injuries. The Sabres tied the game with a power-play goal of their own just before the midway point of the second period as Conacher was able to tip a Jamie McBain point shot past Oilers goalie Ben Scrivens. Buffalo took a 2-1 lead 1:09 into the third period as a soft Schultz clearing attempt was intercepted by Torrey Mitchell and his shot on net was once again tipped past Scrivens by Conacher for his second of the game and sixth of the season. The Sabres took a two-goal lead five minutes into the third as Scrivens was down and out on a rebound that came back to Stafford, who scored his fifth goal in the last seven games. Hacket made 35 saves for the victory in the Buffalo net. The Oilers play the third game of a six-game homestand on Saturday against the Calgary Flames. The Sabres play the third game of a five-game road trip on Sunday in Vancouver. Notes: It was the second of a pair of meetings between the Oilers and Sabres this season. Edmonton won the first game 3-2 on Feb. 3a In their seven losses before facing the Oilers, only two Sabres players recorded goals - Drew Stafford (four goals) and Tyler Ennis (two goals)a Hacket became the fourth goalie used by Buffalo in the last four gamesa Both teams were fairly banged up for the game. Notable absences for the Oilers included forwards Jordan Eberle (knee) and Nail Yakupov (ankle), while the Sabres were without defencemen Tyler Myers (elbow) and Alexander Sulzer (upper body) and forwards Chris Stewart (ankle) and Zemgus Girgensons (lower body). Wholesale Air Max Plus Nz .Tatjana Haenni, FIFAs head of womens competitions, told a FIFA Live Your Goals Tour news conference Friday that the artificial turf is being tested to make sure it meets standards. Air Max Plus Nz Online .com) - Bradley Beal deposited a season-high 33 points and John Wall posted another double-double as the Washington Wizards went on the road and beat the Houston Rockets, 104-103. http://www.airmaxplusnz.com/ . One out away from finishing off an impressive shutout, they let a must-win game slip away. Discount Air Max Plus Nz .DeMarco Murray got his 20th carry late in the fourth quarter with a 10-point lead, not long after Dez Bryant made his final catch of the day.Sure enough, a 44-17 win over Washington didnt change Dallas post-season position. Air Max Plus Clearance Nz .com) - The Toronto Raptors set their sights on a second straight victory with the Oklahoma City Thunder visiting the Air Canada Centre tonight riding a two game streak of their own.There has been trade speculation about Carolina Hurricanes center Eric Staal recently – and even though he has a no-move control, it’s impossible to resist considering the possibilities. The organization appears headed towards a full-fledged rebuild, and Eric Staal – whose $8.2-million AAV contract expires at the end of the 2015-2016 season – is an asset that could be shopped to potential suitors. If Staal’s ever made available, expect numerous playoff-hopeful teams to show interest. A lot of this is because Staal has been durable for most of his career and has been a regular point-producer for as long as he’s come into his first-line, twenty-minute-a-night role. He’s averaged about 2.1 points per 60 minutes over the last seven years at five-on-five, which is in the upper echelon of forward talent. Like most players inching toward their 30’s – he actually turns 30 Oct. 29 - Staal’s underlying numbers have been in decline. It’s the type of trend less concerning if you’re buying Staal as a true rental at some point this season, but far more concerning if you are considering negotiating a new contract. Let’s focus on basic numbers at 5-on-5 for Staal since the 2007-2008 season to capture where things have slowed. In the table below, you’ll find his per 60 scoring rates and shot-attempt rates. So, for example, in the 2007-2008 year, Eric Staal scored 2.1 points and attempted 17.2 shots for every 60-minutes played at even-strength. Staal Shooting Year Per 60 Scoring (EV) Per 60 Shot Attempts (EV) 2007-08 2.1 17.2 2008-09 2.1 22.4 2009-10 2.1 18.9 2010-11 1.6 16.9 2011-12 1.9 14.8 2012-13 3.3 13.9 2013-14 2.0 14.3 The year-to-year, downward trending shot-attempt rate is alarming. Further, consider this: from 2007-2010, only six forwards in the league generated more shot-attempts per 60 than Eric Staal. From 2010-2014, 75 forwards have been better in the shot generation department. Only Alex Ovechkin, who still ranks first in the league over that span, has experienced a bigger decline in the individual shot-share. The point-scoring hasn’t caved yet, but it’s interesting to note that his high-scoring 2012-2013 was created almost entirely by unsustainable on-ice shooting percentage. That year, Eric Staal and his linemates – primarily Jiri Tlusty and Alexander Semin - shot a ridiculous 12.8% at 5-on-5, masking his individual shot generation numbers. One wonders where the point-scoring will go in a year where the percentages slide unfavorably, particularly since the shot generation has started to slide. Let’s look at a couple of additional data points for Eric Staal. In the table below, I have compiled Eric Staal’s RelativeCorsi% and Relative Offensive ZoneStart% over the same time span. RelativeCorsi% is simply a comparison of a team’s Corsi% with the player on the ice, versus a team’s Corsi% with the player off of the ice. The higher the RelativeCorsi%, the more favorable the numbers are when the player is on the ice. As for Relative Offensive ZoneStart%, it gives us a quick glance to how the player was deployed. Players with high numbers here start a lot of shifts in the offensive zone relative to the team average, deployed in a more offense-oriented role; players with low (negative) numbers here sttart a lot of shifts in the defensive zone relative to the team average, deployed in a more defense-oriented role.dddddddddddd Staal Relative Stats Year Relative Corsi% Relative Offensive Zone Start % 2007-08 +4.6% +2.5% 2008-09 +15.2% -1.0% 2009-10 +6.7% +4.1% 2010-11 +11.3% +1.4% 2011-12 +6.6% +2.1% 2012-13 -4.2% +5.3% 2013-14 +6.8% +16.8% The RelativeCorsi% has held up for the most part, but the last two years make you wonder. The acquisition of Jordan Staal in Carolina has really given the coaching staff the luxury of deploying Eric Staal in big, offense-heavy minutes, but raw point-scoring aside, Staal’s 2012-2013 season wasn’t impressive – the Carolina Hurricanes were actually 4.2% better in Corsi% with Eric Staal off of the ice. These poor possession numbers in 2012-2013 were followed by extremely high offensive zone start numbers (+16.8%) in 2013-2014, which does raise the question of whether or not the coaching staff identified a problem and felt the need to insulate Eric Staal’s line. Is there something to the radical change in deployment, or are the last two years simply noise? If I’m a front office considering trading for and extending a player like Staal, it’s precisely the kind of question I need to find an answer to prior to making a move. There’s one other metric I like to glance at when it comes to pinning down whether players are losing a step via aging, and that’s penalty differentials. It makes intuitive sense that players who aren’t as fleet of foot will see a spike in penalties taken, and a drop in penalties drawn. Staal Penalty Differential Year Per 60 Drawn Penalties Per 60 Taken Penalties Per 60 Differential 2007-08 2.1 0.7 +1.4 2008-09 1.6 0.7 +0.9 2009-10 0.9 1.1 -0.2 2010-11 1.1 1.1 0.0 2011-12 1.1 0.9 +0.2 2012-13 0.9 1.5 -0.6 2013-14 0.7 1.2 -0.5 The early years of Staal’s career saw him drawing penalties like a maniac and basically never being shuffled to the penalty box. Put six years of mileage or so on Eric Staal’s body, and the story has flipped. He doesn’t draw virtually anything these days, and he’s committing penalties at nearly double the frequency. I think there’s merit to conducting this sort of multi-level data evaluation to any player, but it’s infinitely important when you’re talking about trading likely multiple assets for a player nearing the end of his long-term contract. In the case of Staal, you’d like to think that the trading team would like to extend him, too. In Staal’s case, I don’t think there’s any question he’s still an impact player. On the other hand, knowing what we know about the aging curve and the deterioration of players in their 30’s, there’s reason to be concerned about Staal before you even get into the declining shot rates and increased insulation and growing predilection for taking penalties. Thus, teams looking to go for it may be right to pursue Staal as a hired gun at the trade deadline. Teams looking to improve long-term? There may be better options. ' ' '