Shutdown Pair

Author: TheTick

  • You Just Don’t Know

    Really, you just can’t know how a team, any team, will respond to an injury to a key player.  Many of us wrote off the season after Roy got hurt (myself included), but all the Sabres have done since then is go on a run.  Since the 5-2 loss in Calgary, Buffalo has gone 4-0-1, including a 7-6 barnburner highlighted by a Drew Stafford hat trick, and a 3-0 real shutout of San Jose, and a 2-1 win against the Coyotes, games in which the Vezina quality Ryan Miller made appearances.

    Players and coaches will always throw out the ‘other guys need to step up’ cliche when an injury like this happens, but it really is true, and it’s happened here.  EX:

    “Since Derek’s (Roy) gone, there’s a chance for a lot of guys to step up and play some extra minutes. Guys are trying to take advantage of that.”  Jochen Hecht

    Stafford is on a tear (in addition to the hatty he had an OT game-winner in Phoenix), Jordan Leopold has 10 goals, Shaone Morrisonn has brought an increased physical presence, Mike Weber has too (in addition to a few goals!) and there have been goals by Jochen Hecht, Luke Adam, and Jason Pominville, all guys who are in that ‘needs to step up’ category.

    Looking at the standings, Buffalo is currently 10th, 8 points behind Boston and Montreal (catching both would jump them all the way into 3rd).  The schedule for the month means Lalime will be keeping the bench warm quite a bit, as there is only 1 back to back set of games as part of a 3 in 4, with two of them against the Isles.  Gotta get him in once there, I’d think.  There’s a game each against the teams they are chasing in the Northeast, how successful January is probably turns on how they do there.  It’s a tough lead to make up, but a team that plays the way they have in the past few games can do it.  They are making it interesting, at least.

  • Unthinkable

    I freely admit I dozed off last night, when Canada was up 3-0 and looked to be in complete control.  I stirred for a few minutes, saw them still leading 3-2, and went back to sleep.  My wife came home from work and changed the channel to Top Chef (BARF) so imagine my surprise when I check twitter later and see that Russia kept right on scoring and WON.  Was it a comeback or a chokejob?  Probably depends on your allegiance, really, how you look at it.  After winning 5 straight golds, that’s two straight silvers for Team Canada, and as I stated before, it’s great for the tournament.  Congratulations to the Russian team (who apparently got so schnockered they got kicked off the plane home), my condolences to Zack Kassian, Marcus Foligno and the rest of Team Canada, and see you in Calgary next year.

  • In my experience, there’s no such thing as luck

    Tyler Ennis did what he was supposed to do.

    He went to the net, created traffic, but unfortunately instead of deflecting a goal in, he stopped it.  Of course, some still think it went in, but doesn’t show as such because of the angle of the camera above the net.  Until we have cameras IN the goalposts, there’ll never be a better angle, so we live with it.  Unfortunately for the Tiny Tyler, he followed up that ‘save’ with a high-sticking penalty in OT, and the Avs capitalized for the game-winner (4-3).  Both Budaj and Miller had stretches of spectacular saves, sandwiched around a goal or two that made you roll your eyes.

    The game was definitely a spiritual successor to the Bruins game from the other night, defense optional.  I don’t think there was one d-man that was really any good, Montador got a goal from a bad angle thanks to Budaj brain-farting on the shot.  Thomas Vanek scored on a 4-min power play (yay!), but then the team gave it right back by allowing a shorty after that (boo!).  Hecht scored, Vanek had 1G, 1A, and Drew Stafford had 2 assists.

    Buffalo travels to San Jose for a game tomorrow, a painful 10:30pm start.

  • Gameday 2010-2011 – Sabres at Avalanche

    The Sabres are at an odd place as they visit Colorado.  They came home during a lull in the World Juniors and beat Boston in a wild 7-6 affair, after we all declared the season and the offense dead minus Derek Roy.  The Avs aren’t exactly going gangbusters right now either, 1-4-1 in their last 6 and 4 straight home losses.  It’s apparently Peter Budaj instead of Anderson, so add another backup to the tally, though neither one is good right now:

    Peter Budaj will get the nod in net for Colorado in place of starter Craig Anderson, who’s 1-4-0 with a 3.63 goals-against average in his last five starts.

    Budaj, who will make just his second start in the past month, hasn’t been any better than Anderson. He’s 1-1-2 with a 4.18 GAA in four starts since Nov. 27.

    Budaj has done well against Buffalo, but if the ’11 goals in past 2 games’ Sabres show up, Colorado may find themselves getting blown out.  I’d settle for any kind of win, even a shootout, as bonus points given up to the West don’t matter.

  • Canada Needs Us

    Pondering the Team USA loss to Canada in the World Junior Championships last night (4-1 and it wasn’t that close really, thanks Jack Campbell!) and the split mindset the Canada fans have.  On the one hand, they WERE the ones chanting “We Want USA!” while winning their quarterfinal game.  On the other hand, they dismiss the USA, saying that we aren’t a rival.  Which is it?  Here’s the truth:

    THEY need US.

    Canada desperately needs the US to care about this tournament.  While Sweden and Finland will always be in the mix, and Russia is OK but not where they were 30 years ago for international competition, but how fun is it to play them?  Hard to chirp fans when most don’t speak your language.  No, they need Americans to care about the competition.  If you’ve been reading any of the Twitter or blog coverage from our neighbor to the north, they’ve been doing everything they can to try and pull us in, whether it’s jabbing at our patriotism, insulting our cities (thanks for helping them with that, Etem), or bringing up the Olympic tournament as if the grown-up game matters when thinking about this.  It must drive Canadians crazy that we can shrug off the loss so easily, when they’ve been thinking about last year constantly, sharpening their skates and taping their sticks, listening to Bryan Adams and watching Brendan Fraser’s Dudley Do-Right.  American coverage of the tournament (beyond a few die-hards) is basically teams tweeting about good performances of their prospects.  Heck, once I got the NHL Network, that’s why I started watching the Junior games (Memorial Cup along with WJC), to get a glimpse of Tyler Myers, among other prospects.  It’s neat to have that inside knowledge of a guy before he gets to the show.  It’s fun to get all patriotic and cheer our kids.  We’re taking our medicine on Twitter, but by tonight, we’ll be back to worrying about the Sabres forwards or mocking the Devils about Kovy’s contract.

    And it will drive Canadians NUTS.

  • Shootouts, Showdowns, and Angry Eyebrows

    Some random thoughts from someone who’s sports-watching was limited over the holidays…

    1.  So I guess Drew ‘Angry Eyebrows’ Stafford sure does love playing the Bruins, eh?  Another hat trick, this time in a wild 7-6 shootout victory.  Stafford’s third goal tied the game with 30 seconds to go, and he added a shootout ‘goal’ too.  Tyler Ennis made some moves for the shootout winner on a night that wasn’t exactly goaltender friendly.

    2.  Canada-USA goes down at the Arena tonight, in the semifinal round of the World Junior Championship.  Patriotic fervor is in full effect, even with the limited number of Americans who are aware of/care about the tournament.  All you need to know is that you can cheer for USA to beat Canada in hockey, and we won the last one too.  Let’s do it.

    3.  Tomorrow’s Sabres game is at 9pm, which isn’t terrible, but the one after that is 10:30pm.  For someone that works at 6am, that sucks.

  • Mike Weber, Scoring Machine

    SOMEONE needed to step up while Tyler Myers is out, and last night it was Mike Weber, who got his first 2 NHL goals and led the Sabres to a 4-2 lead over the Edmonton Oilers.  Weber also had an assist for a 3 point night, while Luke Adam and Jochen Hecht had the other 2 goals.

    Buffalo needs to win these games, but they just haven’t consistently.  Secondary scoring happened last night, and honestly you might as well call it primary scoring with Timmy, Roy and Myers out.  The Sabres need to win 4 or 5 of these games for me to think about them managing a playoff berth.  Do you see that happening?

    Congratulations, by the way, to Ryan Miller for finally getting win 200.  Despite the team struggling, he’s having a pretty nice few weeks (engaged to a hot actress, etc.).

  • Burned to a Crisp

    Hey, I’m making a Flames joke after that game, OK?  What utter crap.  If there was any doubt that the Sabres are done for the year, I think it’s gone.  Here is another game where they the opponent is supposedly just as bad, but the team didn’t show up.  Miller wasn’t great, the power play went 0-fer, and Ales Kotalik and Olli Jokinen both scored on them.  Kind of embarrassing, really.  Love that Drew Stafford scored (might he finally figure things out?) and of course, the Kaleta.  They turn right back around tonight in Edmonton (another 9pm game).

    By the way, lay off Mark Jeanneret, guys.  He’s filling in for a legend, who is also his dad, and the biggest problem (volume) should’ve had a technical fix.  Let’s give him time.

  • That’s Decidedly NOT Great, Derek

    By now you’ve probably heard the news:  top center Derek Roy is out 4-6 months, due to a quad tendon tear.  The surgery is scheduled in the next few days.  Considering the next guy down the depth chart is Tim ‘I just had my face rebuilt from spare parts) Connolly, that leaves Buffalo extremely thin at center.  Derek lead the team in assists and points, and was second behind Thomas Vanek with 10 goals.  I guess this is one way to get Luke Adam back in the lineup.  Ugh.

    What this goes to show is how lacking this team is in the heart department.  I keep coming back to the teams from 05-07 and how they soldiered on despite player after player dropping from the lineup.  Whether it was Biron stepping in and rattling off 13 straight wins when Miller was out, or rallying around their injured captain and beating Ottawa that night and continuing to win some games after that after the infamous brawl (down 6+ players for much of that).  Why does that not happen now?  Was it really Drury and Briere that drove that?  Jay McKee?  We thought Grier was, and Rivet seemed like the kind of guy that would bring that, but look at where they are.  Back in ’06, if one guy went down, whatever, someone else will step in.  The system would adjust.  Now?  It seems like the balance is so delicate even when things are going well that one minor change sends things into a death spiral.

    Where do the Sabres go from here?  I’ve already looked at tradeable assets, and it seems more likely that Buffalo WILL be sellers.  Unfortunately, it’s hard to justify trading Connolly when he might very well be the only ‘healthy’ center here.  Goose needs to say on the third line, so Luke Adam should see time on the second.  They can trade Rivet if anyone wants him.  Beyond that, it’s just playing out the string on a lost season, and giving guys like Weber, Gerbe, and Ennis as much time as possible to prove they belong.

    The ONLY way Buffalo shouldn’t gear up for next year right now is if they can pull off a deal for one of the big-name forwards rumored to be available, Jarome Iginla or Brad Richards.  Richards makes the most sense, being a center, and if there is one thing that Buffalo has in abundance it’s picks and prospects other teams will covet.  He’s got an NTC, and is playing for a team that’s challenging for 1st in the west.  Dallas may not be able to re-sign him, and their ownership situation is unsettled, but it doesn’t make much sense for either side to move at this point.  Especially to go somewhere which has some ownership questions also.

    I’ll be watching what does (or doesn’t) happen after the freeze with interest.  We’ll find out soon whether Darcy and company have decided to go for broke, or for next year.

  • Games That Don’t Matter

    There were feeds to watch the non-televised game against the ducks on Tuesday, but the game didn’t matter for some very good reasons.  The Sabres faced yet another backup goalie, and the Ducks were on game 5 in 7 days of a cross-country trip, so there was probably no way the starter was going back in.  They got gift-wrapped power plays to start the game, including a 5 minute one for Jason Blake running Kaleta head-first into the boards.  I mean, the only way Craig Rivet is scoring is against a team that has mailed it in.  All I hope to gather from that and carry forward into tonight’s game against the Panthers is getting little Gerbe scoring.