Shutdown Pair

Tag: Tampa Bay

  • Bolt It Down

    Despite the quick start, last night’s tilt against the Lightning turned into the typical tough loss.  A couple of goals against off your own defenseman’s skate, a couple of other guys have a rough outing, and the end result is a 4-3 loss.  Vanek and Boyes opened the scoring early, and Gerbe made it interesting late, but ultimately Mathieu Garon got another win against the Sabres.  You can bet we’ll be seeing him in the other two games against the Lightning.

    You hate to lose two in a row to the same team, but I scratch my head a bit at some folks out there.  They seem to forget that Tampa was a playoff team last year, taking eventual champ Boston to seven games in the Eastern Conference Finals.  But hey, if it makes you feel better to panic a few games into the season, go ahead.  I’ll just be over here, enjoying the action.  Next up, the Blue Jackets come for a visit tomorrow night.

  • Let’s Play Two

    The Sabres play the Lightning again tonight, at home this time after getting their hats handed to them by the same team on the road.  Tyler Ennis cut his hair and got hurt…coincidence?  I think not.  Anyway, it does leave Buffalo an interesting option – move Ville Leino to the wing and play Hecht at center.  You’d never have a better time, as the injury is the perfect excuse to try it out.  If Leino goes gangbusters back at the wing, you can leave him there as long as you like.  If not, he can go back in the middle.  It doesn’t mean he’s a ‘bust’ if he plays better on the wing, he might just need more than a couple of weeks to adjust and get his feet under him.  No big deal.

    It’s a 7:30 start time again (seems like we’ve had a bunch of those already).  Garon is apparently going to be in goal again, as the Lightning noticed Roloson hasn’t beaten the Sabres in 9 tries.  Still, Buffalo needs to solve the TBL defensive scheme and get some shots on net.  Garon is beatable, and Vanek has eaten these guys up in the past.  I think we’ll see some solid play tonight.

  • On Vanek and Stamkos

    Let me preface all this with:  I don’t think anyone will do an offer sheet on Stamkos, least of all the Buffalo Sabres.  I don’t think there’s an amount of money you could offer that would get him, no way Tampa let’s him go now that they finally seem ready to stay competitive again.

    That being said, the talk of Stamkos has gotten me thinking about Vanek and the Sabres.  There are two questions I’d like to put to you fine people:

    1.  Would Steven Stamkos score 50 goals as a member of the Sabres?

    2.  Will Thomas Vanek ever score 50 goals as a member of the Sabres?

    This is assuming Lindy Ruff is still coach, also.  For number one, I am thinking no, probably not.  He’d be a 40 goal guy, for sure, but I just don’t see Lindy Ruff using him in ways that would lead to 50+.  Would Ruff double-shift him?  Put him out for a whole power play?  Stamkos averages a full minute more of PP ice time than any Sabre – and that was Derek Roy.  Vanek was next at 3:15 per game.  You could look at it like this:  the Lightning had about 1 minute more per game of power play time, and Stamkos was always on the ice for it.  No, the ‘system’ wouldn’t have that happening.  Not that I think that’s completely bad – the system works when the parts are competent – but it’s enough that Stamkos would not eclipse the 50 goal mark.  He’d get the same grief Vanek got after signing his big offer sheet at that point, “we signed this guy and he’s not scoring???” even though it also wouldn’t be his fault.

    That brings us to question number 2.  I personally don’t think Vanek will ever break 50 goals, for much the same reasons as above.  Though I’d be interested to see him back with a true playmaking center now, with another working line of actual scoring to keep the pressure off.  Even with that, I think Lindy’s preference is to keep things more balanced, so Vanek would have to go OFF (think Stafford hat tricks last year with his normal tip-ins and deflections).  Don’t see it happening.

    Don’t agree?  Comment away…let’s kill off some of this ‘no Sabres hockey’ time.

  • Vanek, Stafford Overwhelm the Lightning

    The Sabres recovered from a bad start (and a few tough goals given up by Miller) to roll over Dwayne Roloson and the Lightning 7-4.  Drew Stafford notched a hat trick, Vanek scored twice, and Jordan Leopold and Tim Connolly had the other goals.  Mike Weber and Tyler Ennis both had 2 assists.  A Vanek goal late in the second to make it 3-2 Tampa was the turning point, and the Bolts came completely unraveled after Stafford bumped Roloson on Leopold’s goal (he was pushed into him).

    I was listening on the radio and tracking it on the phone, and was shocked when I saw the score jump from 3-3 to 6-3.  Now the big discussion point while we await Pegula-mania to kick in is what to do with Stafford.  Did he finally ‘get it’?  My feeling is yes, knowing how hard he worked in the offseason and seeing the pace he is on (37 goals in 64 games after last night).  His longest stretch held pointless is 3 games, and it’s only 4 games for goals.  He’s shooting more, and I’m having a hard time thinking of a bad game for him.  Sign him to a Roy-like contract, $4mil a year for as many years as he wants.  I’d be A-OK with having Angry Eyebrows around long-term.

  • Gameday 2010-2011 – Sabres at Lightning

    It’s a 7:30pm game on Versus, which is always a wonderful thing.  Kind of feels like we are just biding our time until the ownership change is final, doesn’t it?  Didn’t have much time to investigate and elucidate about tonight’s festivities, so I’ll just say:  GO SABRES!

  • Beachcombers

    It’s one of the yearly Florida road trips for the Sabres, facing the Florida Panthers tonight and the Tampa Bay Lightning tomorrow.  The Panthers, thanks to injuries and also being the Panthers, have a cast of characters you mostly haven’t heard of, save only their goalie (Vokoun).  Tampa Bay, on the other hand, has Steven Stamkos and other stars up front, but horrible goaltending in the form of Dan Ellis and Mike Smith (matching .880 save percentages).

    The Sabres, of course, come in off a win against the Bruins, where Drew ‘Angry Eyebrows’ Stafford provided all 3 goals.  It might help if someone else scores, especially against Tampa.  I feel kind of bad not having more to say about these teams, especially Tampa, but they just don’t come up except when we’re playing them.  A playoff run by one of them would help.