Shutdown Pair

Tag: Mike Weber

  • Sorry, Ville

    Seriously, can this guy catch a break?  Er, bad choice of words.  The view from the press box probably isn’t helping him any, as his team struggles to find an identity (and their man in the defensive zone) managing only 1 point in the standings in four games.  Goaltending has been a bright spot, though they worked Miller so hard his groin kept him out of a game.  Jhonas Enroth ably filled in, but eventually, your team might have to chip in a goal or three.

    I wish I could say things are going to get better soon, but really, a team filled with teenagers, head cases and only one real scoring threat is not one that shakes off a slump easily.  All the line-juggling and benchings in the world won’t help.  Time, practice and teaching will.  That can’t happen if a player is in a suit.  Neither can it happen if he’s toiling on the fourth line alongside John Scott or Cody McCormick.  Mistakes suck, and they are hard to watch.  I get that.  But they need to be made if they are to be learned from.  Or, pessimistically, we need to see if a player CAN learn from them.  So give me Grigorenko and Larsson, Girgensons and Ristolainen.  Foligno, Pysyk, Hodgson – let’s see what we have.  If we’re going to suffer, let’s suffer with a purpose.

    Today’s lines at practice:

    • Vanek – Hodgson – Ott
    • Foligno – Ennis – Stafford
    • Girgensons – Larsson – Flynn
    • McCormick – Porter – Kaleta

    On D:

    • Ehrhoff – Pysyk
    • Weber – Myers
    • McBain – Ristolainen

    This is a problem.  Yeah, Grigorenko hasn’t been great.  But he’s not some 5 year veteran who needs to be shaken up by having to sit a few games.  He’s a KID whose best chance is to work on his game NOW.

  • Weber Re-Signs for 3 years $5 Million

    Defenseman Mike Weber, who was set to be a restricted free agent, is back with the Buffalo Sabres for 3 more years.  I like Weber, and the money works for a guy who isn’t going to be on your top pairing.  I think he plays tough, and that’s something I wouldn’t mind rubbing off on a few other guys.  It did make me curious to see what his advanced stats look like, so I checked.

    Weber played a decent amount – 42 games, just over 15 minutes at even strength per.  Though he doesn’t play on the power play, he lead the team in ToI on the PK, with an average of 2:59 per game.  As you might expect from a defensive d-man, his Offensive Zone Starts are in the bottom third on Buffalo, though the Sabres don’t employ zone-matching nearly as much as some teams.  I’m curious to see if that changes with a full season under a new coach.  Looking at Corsi Relative to Quality of Competition, you can see that after Sekera, who was facing by far the thoughest comp at evens, Myers, Weber and Ehrhoff were very similar in facing decent players, with Pardy a half-step below them.  Ruhwedel and Pysyk were being protected but that’s to be expected from rookie injury fill-ins – especially one you basically grabbed off the street.

    Mike Weber is never going to be an offensive juggernaut, but I think he was getting some tough jobs and doing about as well as you’d expect.  He played tough, thankless minutes on a bad team, and from his locker clean-out comments, he has the passion that the core of the team sometimes appears to lack.  I’m happy to see him here for a few more years.

  • 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).

  • 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 – Flyers at Sabres

    Hmm, so not only do we have former Flyer Ville Leino centering the first line, but Roy is at the point on the power play, with Gragnani out of the equation.  Might we get a Mike Weber sighting?  Lindy wouldn’t say, but it wouldn’t be a huge surprise.  The Flyers come in without Danny Briere who is nursing sore ribs.  Sorry, boo-birds, your ownly chance to boo him will be when they announce the scratches.  Pronger is also out after nearly having his eye scooped out.

    I know that it’s the first meeting after the Flyers eliminated the Sabres from the playoffs, but I just don’t feel any great anger at them for it.  I mean, I always dislike the Flyers, and that didn’t increase it any.  Maybe it’s the hangover from the Pegula effect.  Leino will doubtless have some butterflies playing his old mates, perhaps moreso because it hasn’t gone that well here.

    It’s another 7:30pm start time tonight, and it’s on Versus, so plan accordingly.

  • While you were sleeping…

    I don’t check the standings religiously this early in the season, but I saw them today and did a bit of a double-take.  In case you haven’t seen them either, Buffalo is now behind both Toronto AND Ottawa in the Northeast division, with Montreal 2 points behind.  There’s still plenty of time, no question there, but it’s a bit disconcerting to say the least.  Ottawa is supposed to be terrible, but they’ve won 6 straight.  They haven’t exactly been taking on intimdators (Columbus, Florida, Carolina, the Rangers) but you beat the teams you play and they are doing that.  Buffalo can’t afford to lay eggs when playing all the middling to bad teams, especially at home.

    So what’s wrong?  I think you have to start with the defense.  Myers has looked unsure of what to do at times, which is unlike him when he’s playing well.  He’s waiting too long to decide on whether to go for a pass or just clear the puck, and opponents are reaching him and making the decision for him.  Ehrhoff isn’t great defensively, but Canucks fans could’ve told us that.  He’s gotta be scoring if he’s not going to be defending.  Gragnani has just been a train wreck out there recently, passes to nowhere, difficulty in breakouts, pretty much everything seems hard for him.  Will not be surprised to see Mike Weber get a shot Wednesday.

    It’s not time to panic and trade everybody, but Buffalo can’t afford to be standing still for too much longer.  They just might end up where they were last January,with no new ownership boost available to save them.

  • The Shan-Hammer, Sabres Edition

    [poll id=”4″]

    Whoever wields this hammer, if he be worthy, shall ban the hell out of head-targetting assclowns.

    I think we’ve all seen so far this pre-season that the ‘new sheriff’ Brendan Shanahan is wielding a big stick when it comes to player safety and suspensions.  This is good, as there are a LOT of dangerous hits that can be taken out of the game without a huge change to how it’s played.  With that being said, until the players fully integrate this level of enforcement into their game, it’s likely that there could continue to be suspensions at a prodigious rate.  I’m curious as to who you think might lead the way for Buffalo in the regular season?  I hope that it ends up being just one guy with a two-gamer, but I’m nervous that it won’t be.  Buffalo plays a phsyical game now, and adding a guy like Robyn Regehr is just going to enhance that.  Tyler Myers makes me nervous too, since he’s gotten more physical and his elbows are right at Scott Gomez head level.  Have a different candidate?  Let me know who you think.

  • Even Up

    I will be attending tonight’s game (and possibly some of the Party in the Plaza) so if anyone wants to meet up, let me know.

    A lot of noise is being made about the fact that Buffalo has never rallied from being down 2 games to 1 in a playoff series.  I am not too concerned, as it only takes one win to make it 2-2, even steven.  It’s a best of three from there if you can get it, a big test for a very young team, but has the possibility to be a big character builder for the future.  Especially for the D, which is getting big minutes from a lot of really young guys.

    We got better contributions in game 3 from the top liners, especially Vanek, and that needs to continue.  The team needs to backcheck more effectively to help out Miller, and the only ‘undisciplined’ penalties I’d like to see is Weber and Goose levelling dudes in front of the net.  The PK has been amazing, reducing the number of times short-handed could be the difference in the series.  I’m still feeling positive, and I’m going to enjoy the ride.  Let’s go Buffalo!

  • Ty-Bomber!

    A pinpoint blast from Tyler Myers with 4.5 seconds left in overtime gave the Sabres their first 3 game win streak of the season, beating Florida 3-2.  Thomas Vanek and Mike Weber had the other goals.  That puts Buffalo 2 points out of 8th with 2 games in hand, and puts 6th and 7th in reach also.  This next week is tough, with 4 games in 6 days, starting with an afternoon game against the Islanders on Sunday.  I’ll be curious to see if that means Lalime (or Enroth) gets a start either Tuesday (in Montreal) or Wednesday (home for the Leafs).  Miller HAS to get some rest at some point, and you have to like Buffalo’s ability to score on whoever the Leafs put in net.  I’d go with that game for a backup appearance.  By the way, nobody’s talking about the Sabres facing backup goalies any more, are they?