I did a post the other day about the Sabres roster as it is currently constructed and I received a response at the NHL Arena message board.
Also, I think I would sub out MacArthur for Peters because Peters really gets in the team's face and we need more of that grittiness. When I used to be on the official Sabres board someone posted a thread that showed an interesting pattern - whenever Peters was starting we seemed to win more games than when he was not because he agitates the other team. I don't know about MacArthur, I just don't like how he plays and I've never seen anything special from him.
The statement above had me thinking about how accurate it was and whether or not the Sabres do play better with Peters in the lineup. You will be stunned by the results of my investigation.
| Player | Record | Points | Percent of Possible Points |
| Teppo Numminen | 1-0-0 | 2 | 100% |
| Mike Funk | 3-1-0 | 6 | 75% |
| Mike Weber | 10-5-1 | 21 | 65.63% |
| Andrew Peters | 22-14-8 | 52 | 59.09% |
| Nolan Pratt | 27-18-9 | 63 | 58.33% |
| Patrick Kaleta | 19-13-8 | 46 | 57.5% |
| Jaroslav Spacek | 29-21-10 | 68 | 56.67% |
| Henrik Tallinder | 35-26-10 | 80 | 56.34% |
| Ales Kotalik | 39-29-12 | 90 | 56.25% |
| Jochen Hecht | 36-27-11 | 83 | 56.08% |
| Steve Bernier | 9-7-1 | 19 | 55.88% |
| Derek Roy | 39-30-9 | 87 | 55.77% |
| Michael Ryan | 22-17-7 | 51 | 55.43% |
| Clarke MacArthur | 17-13-7 | 41 | 55.41% |
| Daniel Paille | 37-29-11 | 85 | 55.19% |
| Paul Gaustad | 39-31-12 | 90 | 54.88% |
| Thomas Vanek | 39-31-12 | 90 | 54.88% |
| Toni Lydman | 39-31-12 | 90 | 54.88% |
| Jason Pominville | 39-31-12 | 90 | 54.88% |
| Brian Campbell | 30-24-9 |
69 | 54.76% |
| Adam Mair | 33-27-12 | 78 | 54.17% |
| Max Afinogenov | 27-23-6 | 60 | 53.57% |
| Andrej Sekera | 17-15-4 | 38 | 52.78% |
| Drew Stafford | 29-27-8 | 66 | 51.56% |
| Tim Connolly | 21-20-7 | 49 | 51.04% |
| Nathan Paetsch | 26-26-7 | 59 | 50% |
| Dmitri Kalinin | 18-18-10 | 46 | 50% |
| Marc-Andre Gragnani | 0-1-1 | 1 | 25% |
Now don't read too much into this because it isn't exactly rocket science. It's simply a guide to the Sabres record while each individual player is in the lineup. Do I think that Andrew Peters being the lineup helps the Sabres more than Tim Connolly being in the lineup? Absolutely not, but maybe it's not as bad as I make it out to be when Peters is in the lineup. I still don't think it helps the Sabres to have Peters in the lineup but it certainly doesn't hurt the team either.
I'm not surprised that Kalinin and Paetsch were so far down the list but I was a little surprised to see Tim Connolly, Drew Stafford and Adam Mair near the bottom. How about you, what are your thoughts on this chart.