Shutdown Pair

Tag: Ryan Miller

  • 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 – 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.

  • 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!

  • 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?

  • 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.

  • Backup Plan

    The Sabres backup goalie is Drew McIntyre.  If you are like me, you had to look him up to get the details, which include a grand total of 2 NHL appearances since being drafted in 2001.  He’s had some solid years but has never made the jump.  Ryan Miller has his second concussion in 8 months.  Jhonas Enroth is playing great…but in the worst case scenario of Miller missing significant time it’s worth noting that Jhonas has only had one season with more than 50 appearances.  Combine that with all the back to back weekends the Sabres have, and you can see that Enroth is in a bit of unknown territory.  It’s early yet, and I wouldn’t want anyone to panic (not that this fanbase has done that this year AT ALL), but the goalie situation beyond Enroth gets interesting very quick if Miller isn’t any closer to returning after this week.  Something to keep an eye on.

  • Head Games

    The plot, it does thicken.  After a resounding win over the Senators, Buffalo went to Boston and let the Bruins run roughshod over them (literally).  A lot has already been said about Lucic and Miller and responses.  I think Nick Mendola summed up the immediate reaction best for me:

    The Sabres immediate response to the offense was mostly fine in my book, given their personnel. Miller tried a blind baseball swing back at Lucic. Thomas Vanek tried to knock the train over. No dice. Andrej Sekera shoved Lucic and looked around for reinforcements. Not seeing any coming, he buried his head and hoped for the least beating possible. I’d like Paul Gaustad to look more interested in getting to Lucic, and maybe it’s above Tyler Myers’ weight class right now.

    While I did wonder where the Gaustad is that came off the bench to attack Ovechkin for cheap-shotting Briere, but the officials got their arms on guys as quick as they could and Goose apparently didn’t see it happen.  As for not taking care of Lucic later, well, for the rest of the 1st and 2nd periods, the game wasn’t out of reach (though those two goals later in the 2nd off stupid defense AGAIN had to drive even a concussed Miller crazy).  Would I want a full-on brawl to develop?  Would I have wanted Kaleta to run Tim Thomas?  Or the usual suspects to charge Lucic whenever they could, late/dirty or not?  I might’ve had a positive visceral reaction to events like that at the time, but after the fact, I’d be a bit disappointed.  I like Tim Thomas, and I wouldn’t like to see him get hurt, even in retaliation for a stupid shot on a Sabre.

    So, what happens next week when these two teams meet again, here?  There are a few scenarios:

    • Scenario One – The Sabres call up Kassian, roll out a line featuring Cody McCormick, Gaustad and BZK (backed by Regehr and Weber), and they brawl with whoever they are on the ice with, Neil/Drury game style.  EXTREMELY UNLIKELY.
    • Scenario Two – Cody McCormick fights Lucic, Kaleta hits him a few times.  Beyond that, a normal game.  MORE LIKELY.
    • Scenario Three – Gary Bettman or Colin Campbell attend the game, and the teams are on their best behavior.  SOMEWHAT LIKELY.

    There is one wild card in this – a Sabres player truly running a Bruins player.  Maybe Myers bounces Horton’s head off the boards accidently with his elbow.  Maybe Kaleta does the usual Carubba worthy hit near the boards on a guy in an awkward position.  It might even be an accident, and have nothing to do with the recent history.  But that’s the one thing that will kick that next game into clownshoes territory.  Still, the most likely one is the ‘one fight and done’ thing.  ‘The next game’ is always a disappointment.

    Miller is concussed, and Drew McIntyre will be the door opener for however long that lasts.  Jhonas Enroth is the man now, and it’s no easy stretch coming up, in Montreal tonight, home for NJ Wednesday, then another set of back to backs this weekend (Friday in Carolina, Saturday here for Phoenix).  You have to think Darcy and Lindy are hoping Miller is ready for the weekend but with a concussion, you just can’t know.  The team needs to pull together here and rally.