2010-2011 Player Outlook: Paul Gaustad

It’s kind of amazing that Gaustad escapes criticism when you consider his salary/production. I know he offers a lot of intangibles but it seems for the price you would expect more. I do remember him getting off to a fast start last year, even garnering talk of becoming a 30 goal scorer. He had some injury problems of course.

If we had to give awards for most overrated player (at least as far as fans are concerned), I’d have to go with goose. Don’t get me wrong, I appreciate him and his contributions but he’s no Ryan Miller.

I’m gonna be optimistic and say he goes 12/22/34 with a plus 6 this year. I base this on my lack of sleep and early morning consumption of cheap, crappy beer.

We’ve been waiting for a while now for Goose to take that ‘next step’ and fill Drury’s shoes, and he has, in part. As mentioned, the faceoffs are huge, especially when considering that some of the other Cs the Sabres have suck at them. He’s never seemed to be too consistent offensively to me, though, but he’s handsome and kept getting mentioned as the next captain or Drury’s successor, so the blame goes elsewhere. And there are plenty of places for blame to flow.

First off, Goose is what he is. Is it his fault that the Sabres saw a 20-20 per season guy and gave him a huge ass raise? Simply, no. He just signed on the bottom line, and probably went home and bought some cool shit.
As a player, you can’t ask for a better guy. Is he the best skater on the team, no. In fact, he might be the worst (aside from the rather crucial stumble in his own zone with the puck on his stick in the playoffs moment by Montador…) yet he somehow is always in the right position, and ends up springing himself on a few breakaways every year. He is a typical lead by example player, and I think he should be the C of this team, and have thought so for a few years now. With that being said, Goose had an atrocious year last season. In his defense, he was banged up (although he literally banged himself up by flying balls-out into the boards attempting to lay a crushing blow behind the cage). Injuries slowed the Goose down, which is something he can’t afford, because his game is much like Kaleta’s just with less of the goading-the-other-team-into-wanting-to-take-your-life type of stiff that Pat has a knack for. He is always the first to stand up for a teammate and takes no crap from anybody. Over the two years prior to last years division winning year, it seemed to me that the only player who wanted to win every night on this team was Paul Gaustad. And sad as it may be, it seemed like when they had no energy, he put the team on his back and got shit moving. I know Goose is overpaid, but in my mind, in terms of effort, no one earns their money more than Paul Gaustad.

It’s time to let the Tim Kennedy story die. He didn’t get the million dollars from the Sabres, OR ANYBODY ELSE. That’s because he isn’t good enough. Gaustad is more useful that Kennedy. He may not be worth 2.3-million a season, but he’s an honest player who is willing to get his nose dirty and we need those type of players in our line-up.

I expect more from Goose, especially at that loot. Dude needs to stay healthy. He’s missed a quarter of the season for three of the last four years. That’s not dependable in my book. If you ask me, him and Paul Posluszny are the same guy; players we want to rally around, but don’t deliver to the expectations.

Goose is a key to me for Sabres success this year. If he stays healthy and gets a little nastier (only 4 fighting majors last year), this team will be better for it. I don’t buy into the hype that Neidermayer is the given third line center. I see this team as having two “third lines”.