Shutdown Pair

Tag: Luke Adam

  • Gameday 2011-2012 – Stars at Sabres

    It’s a game night tonight, and a good time to get back in the bloggin’ swing.  There’s actual positive stuff that’s happened, and I got to see some of it.  Even though I had to put up with NBC Sports Network and their love of the Bruins.  The Stars come to town tonight, and my favorite stat of the say (from Mike Heika I believe) is that Dallas is 0-8-1 on the back end of a back to back set of games, of which this is one.  Pretty good odds Buffalo extends their home winning ways.  Thomas Vanek should be back, with Luke Adam the most likely to sit.  I agree with the Twitter consensus that if he’s not going to play, let him get his minutes with the Amerks.  Get straight, and come back when the next inevitable injury occurs.

    7:30pm tonight.  I’ll be radio only.

  • 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.

  • Calder Watch – Luke Adam to the Second Line

    It happened even faster than I figured, but Leino has taken over the top C spot with Pominville and Vanek, while Luke Adam gets put on the wing with Derek Roy and Drew Stafford.  Still, it’s not a bad place to be, as Derek Roy is a point per game guy when healthy, and Stafford can be a solid goal scorer.  But it’s still not the same as being between two guys in the top 10 for scoring in the entire league.  This could be a short-lived experiment if Vanek and Pominville look lost with Leino out there, but Lindy’s thinking is to get both lines going.  I can’t fault him for that.  Roy is an important player who hasn’t gotten going yet (1G 3A) and it’ll be interesting to see if Adam can help with that.  It’s a good test to see if he’s really a benefit to his linemates, or he was simply the beneficiary of sitting between two of the best point producers on the Sabres.

  • Gameday 2011-2012 – Panthers at Sabres

    I’m in the pressbox for this one, as the Sabres host the Panthers this lovely evening.  Florida is in the building at 5-4-0 having just lost to the Senators (ugh).  They might have something in young goalie Jacob Markstrom, who has a 2.11 GAA and a .945 save percentage so far.  Positively Enrothian numbers, that.  I’m going to focus in on Tyler Myers and Luke Adam as much as I can, I’m really curious to see how much of the top line’s performance is due to the youngster and how much is just him being in the right place at the right time.  Myers, well, I just want to see what he’s doing wrong to maybe figure out how hard it will be for him to change it up.

    I’ll be active on twitter tonight, though I might save my best stuff for my game recap.

  • Calder Watch – Luke Adam

    I did this for Tyler Myers during his eventual Calder winning season, so I thought I’d bring it back for Luke Adam with his hot start.  Centering Thomas Vanek and Jason Pominville certainly agrees with the young man, as he is second in rookie scoring with 8 points (3G 5A).  He’s getting solid minutes, including 2 minutes a game of power play time.  With what amounts to the top line center role, he’s facing tough competition each night.  He’s had a few offensive lapses, but it seems Lindy is going to stick with the kid through them.

    Adam’s main competition for the Calder trophy so far would be Edmonton’s Ryan Nugent-Hopkins (5G 4A) and Colorado’s Gabriel Landeskog (4G 2A).  Both have more goals early on, but what they have on Luke that would really help them is name recognition.  Assuming both stay with the big club and don’t get sent back to a Junior team (where applicable), both are recent high draft picks that are highly touted.  I feel Adam and other lesser known potential candidates like Craig Smith or Raphael Diaz would have to significantly outperform RNH and Landeskog to get the trophy.  Still, it’s not out of the question for it to happen, especially if Adam keeps getting time between Pominville and Vanek.  I’ll be updating this weekly throughout the season.

  • Sabres Hold Off Jackets

    Giving up 40+ shots isn’t how you want to win, but a strong performance from Jhonas Enroth allowed the Sabres to do just that last night.  Vanek/Adam/Pominville continue to dominate, with Pommers scoring twice, Vanek assisting on 3, and Brad Boyes scoring again.  There were penalties and giveaways, guys named Cody fighting, and a Kaleta goal celebration.  It was the sort of game where you are happy you won but you still work the team twice as hard so they don’t get it in their heads that this was okay.  Still, it was entertaining as hell to watch.  Two of the goals came on the powerplay, which looked to have better puck and player movement.  That’s one thing they don’t have to forget, at least.

    The Sabres will be back at it tomorrow night against the Panthers, and I might be in the pressbox for that one.

  • A Solid Start

    Four games in, and the Sabres have three wins to show for it.  Not too shabby.  Buffalo’s best players are heavily involved, with Vanek leading the way with 7 points (3G 4A), and youngster Luke Adam making his case to stay up all season with 6 points (3+3).  I love that Lindy has committed to Enroth playing a lot:

    “We plan on using Jhonas a fair amount. In back-to-back situations, we’re definitely going to use him. The overall plan for him is to get him in every three or four games.”

    This is music to my ears, and probably a load off Ryan Miller’s shoulders.  Jhonas battled for the win in the back half of this weekend’s back to back games against the Crosby and Malkin-less Pens.  Every weekend in November involves back to back games, so if you aren’t familiar with Enroth, you will be soon enough.  It’ll be interesting to see if he gets in on any games in the next two weeks first though, as there are 3 games each week with a day in between.

    Check out the ice time from that game, by the way, could we be back to the post-lockout ‘roll four lines’ Sabres?  Would love it.

  • Winning Weekend

    I only got to see bits and pieces of the Sabres games in Europe, since I was at work for one of them, but you can’t ask for much more than what they did.  Two wins, including one after a terrible night of travel.  Contributions from Ehrhoff and Leino, Thomas Vanek doing his Atlas thing, Luke Adam making a case to stick with the big club long term.  Oh, and your new captain Jason Pominville leading by example with 4 points already.  The Sabres got a bit squirrelly in the 3rd periods, but Miller seems ready to take care of business in the Buffalo end, so you’ve got that too.  The next game can’t come soon enough, though I understand they need time after the trip so I will manage to wait until Friday.  😀

  • You Gotta Wear Shades

    As in, the future is bright, man.  I watched a good portion of the Traverse City Tournament championship game that the Sabres prospects played in last night, which they won 5-2.  The most amazing thing to me, despite the Rangers-centric broadcast, is how much praise the Sabres were getting.  Our boys were being treated like the class of the tournament, the team the others were benchmarking themselves by.  It might even be right to do that, as they won several games in fairly resounding fashion (6-3, 6-3, 5-2).  There was one loss sandwiched in there but overall they were the class of the tourney.  Fun to watch.

    The other fun story from yesterday was the Season Ticket delivery.  Buffalo invited several of my fellow bloggers along for the ride, and you can read about Kate and Heather’s takes on it at their sites.  I need to ensure my email address ends up in Ted Black’s hands.  I want in next time!  I have very cute kids who could accompany me!  Seriously though, what an amazing adventure they had, and it’s great publicity for the Sabres to boot.  Good job, guys!

  • We’re Still Talking About HIM?

    Tim Connolly.  Say that name near Sabres fans, and you’ll get a reaction.  Largely, a negative one.  Maybe a few will reminisce about when he was ‘good’, recall his play in the playoffs after the lockout, but then they bring up the injuries, the concussions, and you end up back at the same place – good riddance!

    Except…have you seen the other options for centers out there?  You’ve got Brad Richards on the radar (you and every other team that is), but then what?  For UFA’s, the field is pretty bleak.  Jason Arnott?  Eric Belanger?  Brooks Laich?  Laich might be the best bet, but nobody out there is screaming Number ONE center loudly (or Number TWO for that matter).  RFAs aren’t happening either.  Offer sheets for the good ones will be matched, and if they aren’t ‘good’, see above.  You aren’t finding Danny Briere on the scrap heap every year.  Though if they could pull it off again…well, we can dream.

    So that leaves trades.  The trick here is having what others want, and the other team needing to make a move for some reason.  The fact that the salary cap went up as much as it did complicates that – not as many teams need to shed salary to keep their best players.  There are some targets out there (Stephen Weiss?  Paul Stastny?) but their are complicating factors (for Weiss, the Panthers are barely hitting the floor, and Weiss’s cap hit is over $3mil, and Stastny has a big money deal on another team near the floor).

    That brings things back to Tim Connolly.  He’s a known quantity, for better or worse.  He’s had productive stretches, though not in the playoffs lately.  He’s been brittle.  He infuriates you with his potential.  He doesn’t talk to the media very much, so despite the fact that he’s been here seemingly forever, we don’t really know him.  At least for Max, he had the language barrier, but Timmy is from this very state.

    Look, we all know the Sabres NEED a center for one of the top two lines.  I don’t think TC can do that anymore.  However, this year is not a year with an easy solution to that problem.  Sign Brad Richards! but for how much and how long?  Despite the loosened purse strings and Darcy flexing his deal-making muscles, you still don’t want to kill your flexibility.  Especially with Tyler Myers coming due for a pay upgrade.  Timmy might just be the only feasible option (at a much lower price than the last contract) while we wait and see if someone else comes available, or someone like Luke Adam takes hold of a spot.  I’m not sure I like it any more than you do, but what I am saying is, don’t be surprised if it does happen.