I would totally disagree that Vanek gets by on talent alone. I constantly see him trying to make that pass to the open guy or trying to score.

Just because he has loads of natural talent doesn't mean he doesn't work hard. I would say Vanek would be our hardest working player, without him this year, the Sabres right now would be dead in the water.

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No we wouldn't.

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"Counting all the assholes in the room, I'm definitely not alone!" ~ Michael Poulsen, Volbeat, Still Standing.

Umm I guess I chose my words wrong. I meant to say that he mostly gets by with just his talent, not all the time. When he brings his best effort he can dominate, but that's only happened a few games this year. But I'm not completely ragging on the guy, most talented players are the same way, it's only natural. And he's a lot more defensive conscious then a lot of skilled wingers around the league.

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"I love that you know how to do that." Cheryl/Carol/Crystal

"And I love that I have an erection that doesn't involve homeless people." Kreiger

Agreed, if anything I would say that Stafford gets by on talent alone. That's why when he has an off game, he's usually invisible, and when Vanek has an off game he's still a force, just not scoring.

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Proud LGBTQQ Individual

But then again, players like Vanek (not just targeting Vanek) are not as effective as players like Cody when neither is scoring.

I just attribute hardest working to hitting, getting to pucks first, getting into corners hard to dig out a play and containing players when the player needs to. Cody does this very well.

Example: Some players are naturally fast, like Roy, but somehow players like Gaustad and Cody get to pucks faster. Hustling > speed in certain cases.

But I guess it depends on the definition of hardest working.

I've never seen Gaustad get to a puck fast unless it was shot at him.

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Proud LGBTQQ Individual

Well he has several times throughout his career because of the intimidation factor.

Defensemen are known to slow down a bit in hopes of not taking a hit directly into the boards. Players like Gaustad and Cody are intimidating.

Vanek has been a PPG player since Roy went down, or very close to it.

Take away all the perfect passes for goals or the goals he's scored, and who makes it up then? No one.

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Take away all the perfect passes he's missed and you have over 100 goals.

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"Counting all the assholes in the room, I'm definitely not alone!" ~ Michael Poulsen, Volbeat, Still Standing.

Exactly, "hard work" implies exactly what it means. Which is not to say that Vanek doesn't work hard standing around the net missing chance after chance, but guys like Gaustad do that and they put everything into their hits and then some.

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"I love that you know how to do that." Cheryl/Carol/Crystal

"And I love that I have an erection that doesn't involve homeless people." Kreiger