Shutdown Pair

Category: NHL

  • Stafford Beats Bruins

    Stafford upped his season goal total to 8 (in 16 games) as he single-handedly beat the Bruins last night at the Arena.  Perhaps Stafford is going to sit out all of his bad games, and only play in his good games.  Would be a nice change.  Good job, Angry Eyebrows.

    I love the Bruins fan in the background there.  Regulation wins against division and conference opponents are huge right now, and this one puts the Sabres 6 back of 8th place Boston in the East.  There aren’t any teams at the top of the list, save the slumping Caps, who are playing poorly.  It’s up to Buffalo to do the damage themselves by winning games.

  • Gameday 2010-2011 – Penguins at Sabres

    The Sabres are hot right now, gaining 7 of their last 8 points available including 2 shutouts, but the hottest team around is in the building tonight as Sidney Crosby’s Penguins come to visit.  The Pens have won 11 in a row, and all the ‘kid’ has done during that time has put himself at the top of the list for goals and points.  And that’s without (for all or part of that time) Evgeni Malkin and Jordan Staal.

    On the positive side for the Sabres, they usually do well shutting down or at least curbing the production of top players.  They’ve frustated Alex Ovechkin, and caused Dany Heatley’s line to be -9 the other night with no goals.  If the secondary scoring that occurred last game can take the heat of Vanek a bit, these guys will be back in a playoff spot in no time.  Let’s break the Penguins’ streak TONIGHT.

  • Goose Bites Sharks

    Paul Gaustad has taken a ton of flack, really dating back to the end of last year, for not contributing more on the score sheet.  Last night had to be pretty satisfying then, as the Goose made some plays (and got a lucky bounce of Dan Boyle’s melon) including keeping a close eye on Joe Thornton and Dany Heatley (combined -6 on 4 shots).  Thomas Vanek continued his dominance, scoring 2 and very nearly netting a third.  Jason Pominville even scored on a shorthanded break.  A lot of positives, even if they kept letting the Sharks back in.

    I have to say, I’m impressed with Logan Couture.  He’s putting up Calder trophy numbers, including 6 goals in his last 5 games.  I remember hearing his name 10 times before I heard Heatley’s.  I actually forgot Dany-boy played for the Sharks for the first 10 minutes or so of the game.  A great win for the home fans.  The Sabres are 6-2 in their last 8 home games, by the way, with wins over Washington, Vancouver and LA.

  • Fins to the Left

    We get a visit from the San Jose Sharks tonight, who apparently managed a come from behind win last night against the Flyers.  It was 4-1 Philly when my wife got home, so good on the Sharks for coming back.  A Flyers loss is always a good thing.

    Buffalo has done quite well against the Sharks here at the Arena, owning a 13-1 record against them.  Pretty solid.  The Sabres will most likely be without Drew Stafford and Shaone Morrisonn, along with Tim Connolly.  Coach has Mike Weber’s back too.

    I have been dealing with a huge amount of stuff lately (sick little girl, cub scout party last night, etc.) so I haven’t been able to post much.  Should get things back up and running right soon.

  • Goose-Eggs

    I was going to create a photoshop involving Gaustad and laying eggs, but I think you all will fill in the visual much better than I could.

    Back to back genuine shut-outs for Ryan Miller, that dude is back.  He didn’t have to do much against Columbus who lost their focus pretty early, but Miller was great in out-dueling Brian Elliott in shutting out the Senators.  They’ll need this tomorrow and the rest of the week as well, as a visit to Boston is followed by home games against San Jose and Pittsburgh.

    This note also of interest from Bruce “Malkin to the Kings” Garrioch:

    The Sabres are looking to move veteran D Craig Rivet. He has been a healthy scratch six times this season and is the club’s captain. Making $3.5 million, Rivet is going to be a tough sell.

    It makes sense, but like Bruce says, not many teams need a $3.5 million defenseman who isn’t cracking the roster on the (current) 11th team in the East.

  • Waiting Game

    Interesting, really, that the whole Pegula business drops when the team has it’s longest layoff (barring holiday/all-star type breaks).  This story would’ve dominated the sports media here completely, were it not for the death of Jim Kelley.  There are a TON of tributes to him from writers all over North America, with perhaps one of the best by Jerry Sullivan.  Not having grown up here, I missed most of his era, but it’s obvious even to me how much a part of the sports experience here he was.

    On the Pegula story, it seems that the price is $175 million, a price Mr. Pegula is willing to pay as the rumors go.  Bucky Gleason has been doing some good work on this story, so he needs to be recognized for that so we don’t forget it after he brings up Drury and Briere again next week.

  • Billionaire Pegula Buying Sabres?

    It looks that way according to Ken Campbell at The Hockey News.  How quick did THAT story develop?  Rumors (deflected) yesterday, to letter of intent today.  The price of $150 million is quite jump from the $92 million Billionaire Tom Golisano paid for the team.  BTG has never denied the possibility of a sale, but wanted to ensure the team stays here.  Considering Terry Pegula’s ties here, that seems certain.  I have one question for Mr. Pegula – does he have any interest in a pro football team?

  • Jordan Leopold

    I talked about Jordan Leopold when he signed here, and said basically if he wasn’t a liability out there and notched 8 to 10 goals, he’d be a solid pickup.  Well, it’s safe to say he’s exceeded expectations there.  He’s got 7 goals and 9 assists, which is third in points on the Sabres (and second in goals behind the 9 that Vanek and Roy have).  Jordan has been on the ice for a ton of Sabres goals and a fair number against, but has been averaging quite a bit of ice time so it’s understandable.

    I guess I don’t have a specific goal in mind for this post other than to give Darcy and company some recognition for this signing.  I liked it when it happened, and it’s turned out pretty darn well for Buffalo. Thanks, Jordan.

  • Mixed Results and Who to Root For

    Didn’t get to see much of any of the sports this long weekend, so the emotions that are churning over the Sabres and Bills losing aren’t really affecting me.  I am bothered by the Sabres anemic offense in the past few games most of all.  Thomas Vanek is scoring, Miller is solid and seems to have his mind right, and there is a long break (no games until FRIDAY) for the team to work on their problems and get healthy.

    In the mean time, the rest of the league will catch up to the Sabres in games played during this break, to an extent.  Here’s who to root against (or for if you prefer) until Friday:

    • Monday:  Ottawa plays Edmonton.  Here’s hoping the Oil youngsters come through.
    • Tuesday:  Tampa Bay plays Toronto.  Stamkos hat trick?
    • Wednesday:  Edmonton continues their East coast swing in Montreal.
    • Thursday:  Tampa/Boston, Edmonton/Toronto, NJ/Montreal, San Jose/Ottawa all on tap.

    Nice thing about that is there are no NE versus NE situations where a team is guaranteed of getting two points while Buffalo is idle.

  • Gameday 2010-2011 – Leafs at Sabres and Clarke MacArthur

    It’s a post turkey day game tonight against the Toronto Maple Leafs, who have former Sabre Clark MacArthur as their leading scorer.  You are hearing a lot out of this article by James Mirtle, with this as the money quote:

    “In Buffalo, I didn’t really have the opportunity to do this,” MacArthur said. “You look at the minutes I was playing, like 12 minutes a game on average. What are you supposed to do with 12 minutes a game?”

    As you might imagine, this generated some snarky responses from Sabres fans.  Let’s deconstruct this a bit, shall we?  Clarke showed promise in his early cups of coffee with Buffalo, in particular getting 8 goals and 15 points in 37 games in 07-08.  He followed that up with an uneven 08-09 where MacArthur would show up for a few stretches and then vanish.  That included a 17 game and 20 game goalless streaks.  He had 5 goals in the last 8 games of the year, and 6 goals in the first 13, and ended up with 17.  His average TOI was actually 13:50, though he was definitely getting the Lindy doghouse treatment at times with some 6-8 minute games.  Those are balanced out though, even during the bad streaks he was given ample playing time (16min + more than once) to get going and couldn’t.

    His 09-10 season was more of the same, a burst of goals to start the season, then long stretches of inactivity, which lead to Clarke getting traded to the Thrashers for a couple of mid-round picks.  Atlanta didn’t accept the arbitration agreement (they specifically allowed the arbiter to set it high so they wouldn’t have to do a Tim Kennedy-style buyout) and he signed with the Maple Leafs.  MacArthur currently is on pace for 28 goals and 73 points for them, and good for him.  I just take issue with him acting like 187 games and 12 minutes 14 minutes a night is not enough to prove yourself.  The Tiny Tyler is making quite an impression with 15 a night, is that extra shift that huge a difference?

    Anyway, Miller and Roy are both in tonight as per the esteemed Mike Harrington.  Rivet is still sitting in favor of Weber.