Shutdown Pair

Tag: Jochen Hecht

  • Some Random Thoughts

    I have a few rare minutes to sit and write, but of course, I didn’t get to see the win against the Leafs.  I am a big fan of Enroth, saw some of his World Jr. work, so I was glad to see him do well.  Watching the highlights and reading random stuff:

    • Love that even the Leafs’ arena crew were fooled by Jhonas’s stop on MacArthur.
    • Love Enroth’s mask even more.
    • Hey, Komisarek, I know fights after clean hits are stupid, but man up and actually fight.  Montador never wins, anyway.  Don’t wrestle him down and then punch.
    • Nice chipshot, Roy.
    • JOCHEN.
    • Enroth had to make some tough, tough saves on breakaways and 2 on 1’s.  Is Lalime making those?
    • Really need to work on that ‘The Two Tylers’ shirt concept.  Ennis!

    Should hopefully get to see most of the games this week.

  • Buffalo Sabres: A Look At The Depth Chart

    With training camp less than a month away, and the Buffalo Sabres roster looking pretty much set, I thought now would be a good time to investigate the lines and defense pairings for the coming season.  Starting up front:

    Ennis – Connolly – Pominville
    Vanek – Roy – Stafford/McCormick?
    Gerbe – Gaustad – Kaleta
    Hecht – Niedermayer – Grier

    It’s an odd mix of diminutive players and size/grit, to be sure.  Zack Kassian could make things interesting when he’s off his time-out from GMDR and gets to sign.  I’m not sure what happens if McCormick gets one of the RW spots, Stafford really is the only one that can come out.  I don’t think you play anybody out of position to try and keep him in the lineup.  Gerbe, I suppose, could end up on the fourth line if Lindy wants to keep Hecht up on the third, though my hope is with cagey vets like Grier and Niedermayer taking over the fourth line will get more than 6 minutes a night.  It’s a lineup that has some scoring potential, but should help out the revamped defense core quite a bit as well.  Speaking of:

    Myers (RH) – Morrisonn (LH)
    Montador (RH) – Leopold (LH)
    Rivet (RH) – Sekera (LH)

    Butler (LH)

    Obviously Myers is the top dog, and I slotted Morrisonn next to him as he’s another more stay at home type as Tallinder was for Tyler last year.  You get a similar Off/Def pair with Montador/Leopold, leaving Rivet and his bad shoulder to mentor Sekera and Butler in the third pair.  This keeps the left hand/right hand balance, and keeps Rivet healthier so he can bulldoze some guys in front of Miller.  If Leopold can chip in points to balance the Myers pairing, the offense from the backend will be right where it needs to be.  Now, Morrisonn may not fit in as a first pair guy which blows all this up but I think this works the best.

    I don’t HAVE to go over the goalies, do I?  Miller gets more work than we like (without the Olympics thankfully), especially considering the TWENTY TWO back to back game situations.  Does Lalime get 15 games?  Lalime and Enroth combined for 14 starts last year, I’d like to see that at 20 with all the back to backs but I can’t predict it.

    Look, it’s not the wholesale changes in the top 6 we were looking for, but as we’ve investigated before, there aren’t a lot of guys available who are a for-sure improvement.  Stempniak might be a one-hit wonder, and there’s that self-imposed cap…

  • Congratulations to Ryan Miller and Tyler Myers!

    The title says it all, congratulations to Ryan Miller for winning his first Vezina trophy, along with the NHL Foundation award for his charity work.  Both well-deserved honors, and I’m very happy for him.  I’m also happy that some of the out-of-town media got to hear him give a speech, as he got a lot of praise for being thoughtful and articulate.  It’s cool that we get to hear him all the time.

    Tyler Myers took home some hardware of his own, taking the Calder trophy in a landslide.  He had 94 first place votes, and the next closest was Jimmy Howard with 24.  I’ve been banging the Tyler Myers for Calder drum since he made the team, so it’s pretty satisfying to see him up there towering over everyone with the trophy.  Sweet.

    One thing that’s always interesting is to check the voting numbers for the various awards, which you can see here.  Of note:

    • Miller was 4th for the Hart, with 13 1st place votes.
    • Tyler Myers got 6 5th place votes for the Norris trophy.
    • Jochen Hecht had a 3rd place vote and 4 5th place votes for the Selke.  Grier, Connolly and Gaustad also got votes.
    • Lindy Ruff had 2 2nd place and 7 3rd place votes for the Jack Adams.

    All in all, an impressive showing for our boys, and you can’t help but feel the future is bright for this team.  Here’s hoping for more Calder candidates, and oh yeah, a Stanley Cup in there somewhere would work.

  • Sabres Special Teams

    As promised, a rambling exploration of the Sabres’ performance in special teams situations.

    PP:  Ranked 17th, 17.6%.  The Sabres scored 55 total goals in man advantage situations (49 5 on 4, 3 at 5 on 3, 3 at 4 on 3).  It’s interesting to note that at home, they were quite good (21.2%, 34G), but horrific on the road (13.7%, wow).

    It was no secret throughout the year that the power play was struggling, which carried over into their dismal performance in the playoffs.  When you consider that Vanek (10 PPG) and Hecht (3 PPG) missed most or all of the Boston series, it was that much worse.  At various points, they had issues getting pucks in deep and getting established positions, which is why the elusive ‘puck moving/power play quarterback type defenseman’ was a deadline target, and probably remains one this offseason.  On the positive side, Tyler Myers was a solid addition on the power play, with his willingness to shoot early and often helping things quite a bit.  Several of his goals were just ‘screw it, I’m shooting’ plays that found their way through.

    PK:  Ranked 2nd, 86.6%.  For the record, Buffalo took 333 minors (less than 20 other teams), 28 majors, 6 misconducts, 3 game misconducts.  There were 8 bench minors.  They were tops in the league at home, killing 89.8% there, while clicking along at 84% on the road (still a solid 6th place).  Total allowed power play goals was 38, one more than Boston, the best team in that regard.

    Night and day difference, eh?  Tyler Myers and Henrik Tallinder lead from the rear here, average just over 3 minutes of short-handed time per game, with Jochen Hecht (that name again) and Mike Grier taking charge from a forward perspective.  I have no complaints here, the team was great at keeping opponents around the edges and clearing the puck, for the most part.

  • Sabres Even Strength Scoring and Defense

    I will be breaking down the Sabres’ scoring and defense from the 2009-2010 season, starting with their even strength performance.  All stats come from NHL.com.  On the year, Buffalo had 159 Goals For (GF) 5 on 5, 7 GF 4 on 4, for a total of 166. On the flip side, they ceded 145 Goals Against (GA) 5 on 5, 8 GA 4 on 4, for a total of 153.  They had no scoring for or against 3 on 3, which is pretty rare anyway.  The Sabres were 7th at 5 on 5 scoring, and 11th as far as 5 on 5 goals given up.

    These are solid numbers, especially in the context of the Eastern Conference, where only two teams were better in overall scoring.  Buffalo had a balanced scoring attack overall, with 12 players in double digits.  Thomas Vanek led the way with 28, 18 of which were at even strength.  Jochen Hecht actually tied with Vanek as far as goals at even strength, though, with 18.  Both missed some time, it go to show how much Hecht and Vanek were missed in the Boston series.

    Barring a trade or other move, Clarke MacArthur is the only one of those 12 who is gone (traded to Atlanta), so there shouldn’t be a huge dropoff next year.  What Buffalo needs, though, is a consistent centerman for Vanek to get his production back up to the 40 goal plateau.  Lindy shuffled things a lot last season, trying to get Vanek going.  We’ll see what happens July 1.