Shutdown Pair

Category: Sabres

  • Pain and Suffering

    I’ll admit it, I quit watching this game after the second period, listening to it in the background.  I picked it back up partway through the third, just in time to see Stafford tie it.  This game went from an easy win for Buffalo after the first, even if they give up that late goal, to a performance so bad that I don’t even think they deserve the loser point.  I mean, Leino, Kassian and Vanek scoring in one period is basically a fan’s dream.

    Ryan Miller.  He’s got all the eyes on him still, after all the hits he’s taken (a few more last night, including the puck when his helmet came off), and to see 5 goals given up might give you pause.  Shitty defense is to blame here, though, and not Miller.  Maybe he could’ve saved a goal here or there, but when your D is giving up odd man rushes and breakaways with wild abandon, not to mention passing the puck straight to the Flyers’ best players (Gragnani to Giroux), there’s only so much he could do.

    Were there positives?  Zack Kassian seems legit, both with the sick passing with Adam on the Leino goal to start things, and his own snipe.  Corey Tropp handled Rinaldo (I’m reading that they have a history, have to check that out).  The boys sticking up for Ennis and Gerbe was great, I don’t think we have to worry about that anymore.  That’s about it, though.

    I was impressed with Jaromir Jagr, that was the first time I had really seen him play since coming back.

    If there’s one person I’ll feel bad for today, it’s Brendan Shanahan.  He’ll be forced to watch swaths of this game to look at the hit on Gerbe and the elbow by Leino, and hopefully whoever hit Ennis in the head.  The Sabres host Florida tomorrow, let’s hope they play like the first period for oh, say, the whole game.

  • Gameday 2011-2012 – Flyers at Sabres

    The Flyers visit the Sabres tonight, for a 7:30pm Versus game.  Ilya Bryzgalov gets the start for Philly, and I haven’t been following Twitter closely today, but I’m assuming there’s been at least three snide weather/city remarks by Philly beat reporters.  I haven’t seen any lines/practice notes for Buffalo today but with the way injuries are, I don’t think it’s nailed down until the puck is dropped.  Will we see Miller again?  Yeah, I bet we do, as there are (surprise!) back to back games this weekend, though both are at home.  Enroth Friday against the Panthers makes sense to me.

    The other bit of news is Jordin Tootoo’s 2 game suspension for bowling over Miller.  I am not surprised, though I thought it might go 3-4 games.  At least he’s established as a repeat offender for the next time he doesn’t mean to take a stroll right through a goal crease, I didn’t mean to, honest!

  • Realignment!

    You know, when the Thrashers moved to Winnipeg, and the talk of realignment started, I was SURE the league would take the easy way out.  Move one team here, one there, and call it a day.  As time went on and some big-time changes were talked up, I still scoffed.  It’s easy to talk about big changes, harder to get everyone to agree on them.  But then the past few days you kept hearing that the four conference plan was the favored one, and I couldn’t ignore it anymore.  Imagine my surprise when the tweets came down that it was the one that was approved.  You can get full details here, but the important thing for us is, we add Tampa and Florida to our current ‘division’, now a conference, and play them all 6 times a year.  Everyone else, home and home.  The eight team divisions have a bit more math for the conference games but thems the breaks.

    This idea is growing on me the more I think of it.  The key for me is not so much the new conferences but the playoff format.  It’s going to accentuate rivalries to an even greater extent.  Imagine Pittsburgh and Boston battling for six regular season games, only to meet in the playoffs for 7 more.  I wouldn’t be surprised at a whole new rivalry forming out of this.  I can’t wait to hear when it’s going to be put in to play.

  • Open Season – Tootoo Phone Hearing Today at 1PM

    The title says it all.  The fact it’s a phone hearing usually means 5 games or less (3 or 4 seems most likely).  We’ll know in a few hours.  At the very least Shanny can establish a baseline for this clown to be a ‘repeat offender’ later in the year when he cheapshots or sucker punches someone else.

    It’ll be interesting to see what happens with Booth for his Kipper crashing in light of this also.

  • Sabres Win; Miller Gets Tootoo’d

    What a wild affair in Nashville, as the Sabres beat the Predators 3-2.  Luke Adam, Zack Kassian and Tyler Ennis scored, but the real story will again be Miller getting flattened.  This time, the team came to his aid like he owed them money, though Ryan tried to fight his own battle by punching whoever came near.  Jordin Tootoo was the culprit, and though he was being gently touched by Ehrhoff at the time, he practically leaped into Miller’s chest like a linebacker making a tackle.  Gaustad dove in to take care of business and it basically seemed like exactly what we should see when that happens.

    Kassian’s goal was sweet, there was some hard work, but the team was severely outshot.  Miller made some huge saves, before and after getting mauled.  We all now wait to hear what Tootoo will get for a suspension, if any.  He’s no boy scout though I don’t know how much of that would count for Shanny’s repeat offender status.  Lindy Ruff was outraged after the game, and this might be the first time I would wish we could play Nashville again in a season.

  • Catching Up

    So while I was gone (Disney with the kids) it looks like…

    • We killed Bruce Boudreau’s career for about a day
    • Miller is getting healthier
    • A whole mess of Amerks came up and did some stuff
    • The Legend of Joe Finley became a thing
    • INJURIES

    What else did I miss?

  • Myers To Miss A Month

    Multiple Twitter reports from the Sabres beat writers have Tyler Myers out for about a month with a broken wrist.  This is a huge blow for the big guy, who I thought had responded well after his benching and might’ve been rounding into form.  TJ Brennan is back up with the club and may see some time as Weber is also on the shelf (he practiced today with Ehrhoff).

    The Sabres need to pull together and play a team game from here on out.  One might even suggest a strong adherence to The System (I guarantee Roy or Pominville mention The System several times in their next few interviews).  They can keep winning games here – they do play Columbus after Boston – and it’s worth remembering that no team has more wins than Buffalo right now.  The ones ahead of them in the standings all have more loser points.  Even a dip in the standings now will not spell doom for the season.  Let’s see if the boys can dig in and keep getting points in front of a patchwork D and the backup goalie.

    By the way, I would apparently be remiss in blogging today if I did not mention Sidney Crosby at least once, so:  Sidney Crosby.

  • Prep Time

    The Sabres split the weekend, shutting out the Canes 1-0, while losing to the Coyotes 4-2.  Other than suffering the ignominy of allowing Biz Nasty to score, the worst news came in the third period on Saturday, when Tyler Myers didn’t return to the ice.  He’s got an ‘upper body injury’ that we should hear more about today.  He had just picked his game up after his benching (though he still had a few bad decisions) so losing him now (if indeed they do) would be tough.

    All of this becomes background noise as Wednesday approaches, and the rematch with the Boston Bruins looms.  I talked before about the likely scenarios we’ll see for that game, though we now have even more injuries that make brawls and fights even less likely.  Cody McCormick is still sitting, he’d be the most likely to go after Lucic on his own.  If Myers is out, I don’t think I’d want any defensemen to take themselves out of the play challenging Lucic (Weber or Regehr…obviously Leopold isn’t stepping in there).  So barring a Commander Cody recovery or callup cannon fodder, what we’re probably going to see is a bunch of hard hits, Kaleta-style charges, and a shit-ton of after the whistle tough-guy posturing without punches.  It’ll be annoying until the refs start tossing guys into the box to discourage it.  I’d much rather just see Buffalo win the game and keep their players upright and available for future games at this point.  Get Lucic later.  The anger will keep.

  • Gameday 2011-2012 – Sabres at Hurricanes

    It’s hard to know what to write about this team right now – that was a rough loss last game, but if Myers is going to score and go beast mode on guys, well, that I’m glad to see.  Carolina sucks so hopefully Jhonas Enroth can rebound against them.  Weber is hurt, TJ Brennan is recalled, Hecht practiced, Ennis is still non-contact (think I got all that right).

    Wins tonight and tomorrow (Enroth gets both?) would be great for putting some distance on Toronto who is struggling through injuries and questionable goaltending also.

  • Gameday 2011-2012 – Devils at Sabres

    It feels like a really strange night tonight.  The Devils don’t exactly excite anyone, and there’s so much other stuff happening around the Sabres it really feels like this game is an afterthought.  They players are all answering questions about their injured goalie, the injured goalie is snarking at the media, and some of the media is snarking right back (looking at you, Sully).  Add in a few other injuries (Cody McCormick is out, Corey Tropp is back), a goalie ‘controversy’ now on simmer thanks to the concussion, the return of Tyler Myers (Grags sits) and you’re one ring short of a circus.

    The Devils might have Kovalchuk back tonight if he feels OK during the pregame activities.  New Jersey played in Boston last night, losing on a late goal, so for once Buffalo will be (slightly) more well rested.  Enroth is firmly entrenched in the net, though I’m curious about what happens this weekend.  It’s a 7:30pm Versus game, though Dave Strader is calling it and he’s solid.  We do get more Pierre though, so look for Rob Ray to ‘accidently’ elbow him in between the benches tonight if he starts close-talking.  Let’s go.