Shutdown Pair

Category: Sabres

  • Woo, I guess

    Seems like the Sabres won last night.  They even got some secondary scoring from Gerbe and Stafford.  Huh.  Wish I had seen it.  In the battle of two banged-up teams, the one that hadn’t travelled from Long Island to Chicago to Buffalo for 3 in 4 won.  Amazing.  It would be just like this team to start winning during a stretch where a good portion of people can’t easily see them.

    Bright spots would be Stafford (1G 2A), Gerbe (1G 1A) as above, and I’d toss in Brayden McNabb who picked up two assists.  Buffalo is 4 points out of 7th in the East with that win.

    By the way, the Edmonton media is a bunch of whiny annoying bitches.  Whether declaring that Kaleta is worse than Matt Cooke, or lamenting a quiet arena on a weekday for an underachieving team with a Western opponent, they all came off as super lame last night.  Cover the game, man.

  • Unwatchable Games

    I am stuck with TWC in the short-term, so no more Sabres on TV for me beyond the Versu-er, NBC Sports Network games and the like.  I can’t even fill in my knowledge this month by being pressbox blogger guy as they are away for most of the games, and 2 of the 3 home games are this week.  Ugh.  I have hope for a speedy resolution to this, but I have no illusions that it will be so.  If I have time and the inclination tonight, I may live-tweet what I assume is happening during the game, based on the box score.

  • Perspective, Again

    This comment at the Buffalo News article about the rest of the team needing to be like Vanek stopped me dead in my tracks:

    Listen, exactly one year ago, would it have been plausible that the expectation for the 2011-2012 season would have been President’s trophy and Stanley Cup? Come on, really? Do you realistically think Terry and Ted had that expectation for this season? The long term outlook for this team is not just good, it’s friggin’ great! The owner is a bleed-Sabres-blue high integrity guy who wants success more than any of the knuckleheads who post here. Color me naive, but even with the inconsistent team performance, I absolutely believe that the players want it too – why, because they say so and I don’t think they’re BS’ing me – I actually like them. It’s just not something you can wave a magic wand over – it’s going to take time, and not months-time, but years-time. Sorry about that reality for you gotta-have-it now-wantski’s.

    Dude, what?  A positive comment, thought out, with decent spelling, punctuation and grammar?  What the hell?  Dan from Charlotte, you are in the wrong place my man.  Don’t let the rest of the trolls over there eat your soul.  In all seriousness, I can see the right of what Dan says here.  I sometimes felt I was the only person who wasn’t in full-on freakout mode after the Sabres’ recent struggles.  I WANT them to win every game and win the cup and poop in the Leafs players’ gloves.  But it won’t be happening, not right away.  Having the money to spend to the cap and eat a bad contract or two and upgrade the facilities doesn’t mean the wins just roll in.  Do their chances go up?  Yes.  It does not mean, however, that James Reimer will simply bow and step aside to allow Vanek to score a quadruple hat trick the next time Buffalo goes to Toronto.

    Me, I’m here for the ride.  I learned a few years ago to stop letting sports teams make me miserable.  I will still get on the players not pulling their weight, raise up the ones who are raising their game, and when I attend as a fan, I’ll cheer and clap and chant and boo.  Let’s just do that and have fun.  The wins will be there.

    As for tonight, Buffalo is in Washington tonight, to try and beat the only team nice enough to lose to them in the past five games.  Miller is in tonight, maybe Enroth tomorrow.  Gragnani in for the injured Sekera, out ‘weeks’.  So there went a whole couple of days where we could think the Sabres were getting healthier.  Let’s go.

  • Which is it?

    Are the Sabres really as good as they looked last night?  Did getting two NHL players back in the lineup (even ones derided as much as Boyes) make that much of a difference?  Or were the Capitals really playing that poorly?  I’m inclined to think the latter, and I only heard the first period on the radio and watched the other two.  There was a lot of cruising around by Caps players, and Buffalo could consistenly break out of their zone and gain entrance on the offensive side.  For any of us that have watched Sabres games this year, you know it hasn’t been THAT hard to stop ’em from doing that.

    Christian Ehrhoff did some great work last night.  Scored what turned out to be the game winner, blocked four shots, had some other solid defensive plays.  Robyn Regehr frustrated Ovechkin quite a bit, including that hard hit behind the net.  Though my favorite ‘hit’ on Ovi is when he ran into Kassian and went flying backwards right along with him.  I’d like to give a shout out to Roy also, 21 minutes of ice time, had a point, won 65% of his faceoffs.

    Michal Neuvirth deserves ‘special’ recognition for being terrible, letting in 3 goals on 6 shots, none of which was some amazing, unstoppable shot.  He had nothing last night, not sure if it could be fatigue since there was that whole Christmas break thing.  On the other hand, it was Miller’s sixth straight start, and it was his best in that stretch, with both goals scored on him due to a screen in front.  The first might’ve even been goalie interference.

    The rest of the week is busy for Buffalo, as they play the Devils tomorrow in Jersey, then go to Washington for these same Caps for Friday.  Saturday (Tux and Pucks) they return home for the Senators.  Enroth one of those games if Lindy still has ‘The Schedule’ going.  Might try for a press pass for Saturday depending on what ends up happening for New Year’s Eve.  We don’t usually go out.

  • Comfortably Numb

    Okay, nice headline, nerd.

    I missed the later goal when my wife came home after the second period, but I just can’t get too worked up over this loss.  Miller played better, which was my main concern.  There needs to be some more scoring.  They didn’t take many shots, and when they did, they seemed to go right into Anderson’s chest.

    The Sabres forwards, almost to a man, deserve much of the blame for last night’s game.  Nine of Buffalo’s anemic 23 shots came from the blue liners, including the only two guys to have more than two shots (Sekera and Ehrhoff), and the only Sabre to score (Leopold).  On a night where you give up five shots to Erik Condra and SIX to Chris Neil, that’s not good enough.  I’m perfectly OK with any shake-ups Darcy wants to try for the forward group, although getting everyone back healthy might count as a shake-up too.

    Buffalo next plays tomorrow night in Toronto.

  • Gameday 2011-2012 – Sabres at Senators

    The Buffalo Sabres (well, mostly the Amerks) are in Ottawa to face the Sens tonight, and it seems the media there really like the idea of the two Foligno kids playing against one another.  Buffalo needs to come out swinging after getting their asses handed to them by the Penguins the other day, and beating the Senators, who currently sit 1 point behind the Sabres, would be huge for their place in the standings.

    I wish I could get all ‘venomous’ on the team, but they are (barely) in a playoff position, dealing with an almost laughable amount of injuries, I pretty much only feel sorry for them.  It’s a miracle that they are only a tire fire some of the time.  I’m perfectly happy watching whatever happens now, with the hope that they can get healthy enough (Myers practicing!) to push for a higher seed.  There is time, though it’s hard to remember that in the midst of a season.  The young players aren’t going anywhere.  There’s plenty of time to make changes if things continue to spiral down.  I’ll still be here.  Go Sabres.

  • Losing My Patience

    This isn’t about the Sabres, not directly, but about the cable television industry, which now exends into phone companies, the internet, and more.  Most Buffalonians who follow the Sabres have heard that MSG might get dumped from Time Warner Cable after the end of the year (2 weeks) if the two parties don’t come to an agreement.  The last time this came up, MSG was gone for 2 months.  Considering there’s also been other channels that have not been on the air for various periods (including missing Bills games because of a similar problem with CBS), I’m about to the point where I’m going to drop cable TV altogether.  We’ve been hanging on by a live sports related thread for a couple of years now thanks to hockey, if the main channel for that is gone, I literally have no reason to stay on.  I have a Blu-Ray player that can connect to Hulu and Netflix, tablets and phones which can do the same.

    That being said, I find it very silly that MSG wants to up the per-subscriber charge into ESPN’s range.  The percentage of TWC’s subscriber base that regularly watches MSG (even in NYC for the Knicks/Rangers) has to be quite a bit smaller than the percentage that what ESPN.  Especially during baseball season.

    Nice coincidence, considering all of this, FiOS will now have MSG in HD.  Just in case any of you had any reason coming up to switch.  FYI.

  • Gameday 2011-2012 – Senators at Sabres

    The moderately disliked Ottawa Senators visit Buffalo tonight for a 7pm game against the Sabres.  The Senators currently sit in 12th place in the East, though that’s only 2 points behind Buffalo.  Ottawa has lost 3 straight games, giving up 14 goals in the process.  Buffalo, of course, has been treading water of late, alternating wins and losses while dealing with a ton of injuries.  There are some improvements in that regard, with Gaustad, Kaleta and Weber all practicing and possibly playing tonight.

    Paul Szczechura has been a good story over the past few games, and John Vogl at the Buffalo News has it laid out here.  He gets to center the top line again most likely, which is nice work for a callup to get.  I may not be able to watch tonight as I may be looking at a new vehicle, but I’ll be checking Twitter (as usual).

  • Gameday LIVE – Rangers at Sabres

    Getting set up in the pressbox for tonight’s visit from Martin Biron and the New York Rangers.  It’s the Sabres’ first game against the Rangers, and Jhonas Enroth gets the call after Miller played in the win last night.  Leino comes back from his suspension, but Hecht (‘lower body’) and Corey Tropp (concussion) are both out, so Colin Stuart gets the recall from Rochester.  The wheel turns, does it not?  Eventually all of this focus on head hits might mean you don’t have a new player concussed every night.

    Some notes from the Sabres’ gameday crew:  Vanek has only been held scoreless in consecutive games twice, gaining a point or more in 20 of 28 games.  Stafford has 1+1 in the past two games.  Ehrhoff leads the team in ice time with 24:33 per game on average.

    I’ll be updating this post after each period with my thoughts.

    1st Period:

    Buffalo begins the game by taking a high-sticking penalty, Robyn Regehr 9 seconds in.  PK is no big deal for this team, and with some help the lineseman’s leg, they get a break.  Biron almost mishandled the puck right in front of him.  The penalty was killed.  Beautiful play from Kassian to Adam but it didn’t go in.  Enroth is absorbing shots, good sign.  Ehrhoff joins Gragnani with early giveaways.  The Sabres aren’t generating zone time or chances, though Drew Stafford is working hard.  Excellent opportunity from Chewie/Vanek/Pominville, then another partial break by Vanek afterwards.  Play picked up after the 8 minute mark, with the top three lines finally getting some chances.  Enroth had a big save on Brad Richards.  Cody took a number after getting knocked down in front of the net shortly after.  Rangers and Sabres trade interference penalties.  Vanek with a near-beauty out of the box.  Buffalo got a little scrambly at the end but managed to avoid the late goal being allowed.  Scoreless after one.

    2nd Period:

    Stafford/Ennis/Roy some solid work to start the period.  Seems to be more balanced early, Buffalo making some plays.  Not so many stoppages.  Good steal by Roy, and save by Biron.  Nice breakup by Ehrhoff coming back on a Rangers rush.  On the power play Vanek seems to forget how to puckhandle for a minute.  The Rangers score on a short handed rush when Hagelin picks his corner on Enroth.  Vanek answers not long after on a ‘fuck you I’m scoring’ blast from between the circles.  Brandon Prust took exception to Vanek giving old friend Marty Biron a show shower.  This is fun.  Not so fun when Callahan scores another shorty.  Ehrhoff has to knock him down there.  The crowd let’s the Sabres hear it at the end of the second for that second shorthanded goal.  2-1 Rangers.

    3rd Period:

    A few good chances to start the period.  Adam just missed on a great pass from behind the net.  And then Enroth lets in another softy.  Just a killer, that one.  Not even sure what really happened.  Ennis and Stafford had some great chances not long after that but to no avail.  Just don’t seem to be making good decisions when the puck.  Vanek has 2 great chances, then Kassian decks a dude along the boards and gets a penalty.  PK letting too many Rangers stand in front of the net.  Puck possession is a problem.  The Rangers ice the game on the power play, whistling a shot past Enroth’s glove hand.  It’s Gaborik.  There is a baby crying nearby, I don’t blame him or her.  4-1 Rangers.  Your three stars:  3 – Callahan, 2 – Biron, 1 – Hagelin.  Biron got a big cheer.

    Postgame Thoughts:

    Lindy felt the powerplay was too stationary, not making the defenders change their angle of attack.  He also felt that they had more and better chances than last night, but made more mistakes.  There were a lot of shots missed high, he noted that they had discussed shooting high on Biron, but they couldn’t make it happen.  Marc-Andre Gragnani had been coached to join the rush more, but he still made some tough plays.

    I’m honestly not sure where to go with this tonight.  They weren’t terrible, though maybe Enroth was in the second and third.  Some blame can be laid on his teammates on a couple of the goals, but none of them were impossible stops.  It’ll be interesting to see if Miller starts to get more starts or if Lindy sticks with The Schedule.

  • Gameday 2011-2012 – Panthers at Sabres

    These guys again.  I was in the pressbox for the last home game against Florida, and that didn’t go so well.  It will be hard to say what the game will look like tonight, as the Sabres’ lineup is a disjointed mess of guys getting injured (Gerbe), guys returning (Commander Cody, maybe some others this weekend) and guys suspended (Leino).  Will we see the world-beating team that seemed to cruise through period one of the last game?  Probably, but for how long?  20 minutes ain’t enough.  Dineen has the Panthers leading the Southeast division by a wide margin, they’ve won three in a row including a 2-0 shutout of the defending champs by Jose Theodore of all people last night.  I’d say at least the Sabres are rested since Florida just played but somehow I doubt it will matter.

    We’ll know more about the potential lineup soon as the morning skate should be underway soon.  I’m thinking Enroth tonight as I’d rather have Miller in the marquee matchup with the Rangers, but then, I don’t have The Schedule in front of me.  It’s a 7:30pm start.  Need to start piling up those home wins.