Blue & Gold (of Buffalo)

Sabres lose Enroth's first start

2009-11-08T07:41:00.001-05:00

Tim Thomas and Ryan Miller are two of the best goalies in the NHL right now, and are the favorites to start for team USA in the Olympics in a few months. However instead of a battle between the Olympians both coaches started their backups and a match-up between Jhonas Enroth and Tuukka Rask.

This was Enroth's first NHL start, and despite the lopsided loss, he played pretty well. None of the 4 goals against him were bad, and he came up big on a few breakaways throughout the game, including one by former Sabre Daniel Paille.

The Sabres need to start playing better, losing two in the row now for the first time this season, and still yet to get a single win without Miller in net.

Sabres not looking so good this weekend

2009-11-01T10:02:00.003-05:00

The Sabres escaped this weekend with a 1-1 record, and are still among the best teams in the NHL with a 8-2-1 record. Still they didn't look all that great in their past two games against somewhat weak teams.

The Toronto Maple Leafs who only have one win to their name so far this season forced the Sabres to go to overtime on Friday. A second goal in that game by Tim Connolly earned Buffalo the win, but the game was still far closer than it ever should have been.

On Saturday the Sabres then got blown out 5-0 by the New York Islanders of all teams. While they did have former Buffalo goalie Marty Biron in net, the Sabres need to play better against what are the league's weaker teams. Buffalo is starting to show the same mistake of losing the easy games that cost them a playoff spot last season. Hopefully there is still time for them to turn things around.

Sabres continue to play well

2009-10-16T22:48:00.002-04:00

After a dominating 6-2 win over the traditionally very good Detroit Red Wings, the Sabres went on to beat the traditionally not so good New York Islanders by a score of 6-3.

Tyler Myers got the first goal of his NHL career in this game, after pick up two assists already this season. At this point Myers has proven himself, and his ability to play on this team. The weak line on the Sabres defense at this point appears to by Lydman and Montador, although neither of them are likely to get bumped when Sekera gets healthy again.

Clarke MacArthur and Hecht both played well against the Islanders. MacArthur got rewarded for his hard with with a penalty shot, that he masterfully used to get the second goal of the game. With that play MacArthur made a very serious argument to be used in the shootout for the Kotalik less Sabres. MacArthur than picked up an assist on Connolly's goal. Hecht got his own goal in the Second Period after blasting in a takeaway.

Kaleta also scored well, getting his second goal in two games. If he can continue to put up points in addition to his physical presence this year, that will do alot to help this Sabres team.

Former Sabres goalie Marty Biron was brought in mid-way through the second period for the Islanders and received a large cheer from the crowd. Biron was always a favorite here, and is one of a few former Sabres still loved by most. The Islanders other goalie, Dwayne Roloson is also a former Sabre, who played two playoff games against the Maple Leafs back in 1999.

Low scoring wins for Buffalo

2009-10-13T16:14:00.003-04:00

The Sabres have been winning close low scoring games, which is not something that they have really been known for doing so the past few years. They have gone 2-0-1 outscoring their opponents by a mere 4-3 and look more like the Sabres of the late 1990's.

While Buffalo did have a pretty good hockey team 10 years ago, that was not the style of play expected out of this group. And while Miller is one of the league's best goaltenders, this team can not rely on him like it used to rely on Hasek. Still at the very least this team does have a strong defensive mindset, lead mostly by the return of Grier.

They play tonight against the very good Detroit Red Wings, lets hope that they can keep this season going.

Real Hockey has started

2009-10-02T09:54:00.002-04:00

The actual NHL hockey season started yesterday with four games across the country. The most exciting was a 4-3 overtime win by the Canadians over the Maple Leafs. Already three players have two goals this season, including Alexander Ovechkin, Wojtek Wolski, and Patrick Marleau.

The Sabres still have one more day off before they start playing on Saturday. At least the real season is finally here.

Myers staying on

2009-10-01T12:56:00.002-04:00

Tyler Myers is staying with the Buffalo Sabres for at least the start of the season. The Sabres have up to nine games to decide to keep him, or to send him down. However as Lydman will be starting the year off with a hand injury, they might just be keeping him until that gets better, and then giving him another shot next year.

However if he does stay it means that Weber will be back in the AHL, and that the Sabres can afford to trade away a defenceman or two. The trade market in the NHL has been rather quiet of late, but that option is at least there.

Hopefully Myers can play up to the hype.

A pre-season win

2009-09-22T11:06:00.001-04:00

The Sabres avenged their opening pre-season loss, by beating the Washington Capitals 2-1 on goals from Stafford and Kaleta.

Peters scores a powerplay goal

2009-09-21T12:35:00.004-04:00

The Sabres have let Andrew Peters go this past off season, but now trying out for the New Jersey Devils he has done what he rarely did in Buffalo, and scored a goal. Furthermore he scored a powerplay goal.

Given his lack of offensive achievement (3 career goals), the Sabres never put him on the powerplay. Perhaps they should have and Peters would now be our fighting/power play specialist, and would be a valuable part of the team, scoring 20 goals a year.

Or maybe his goal was just a lucky fluke.

Either way I hope he is able to come back and play somewhere in the NHL, even though I agree with the Sabres decision not to bring him back.

Sabres defeated in pre-season opener

2009-09-18T00:37:00.002-04:00

The Sabres lost their first preseason game of the year 4-3 to the Washington Capitals in overtime. However, being the preseason, the fact that they lost is not important, and the only real news to take away from this is that the preseason has finally begun, and that real hockey will be starting soon. The NHL season starts once again in under two weeks. For the Sabres, the summer has been long enough already.

Stafford finally signed

2009-09-13T17:08:00.003-04:00

A week into training camp, the Sabres have finally come to an agreement with Drew Stafford, which will see him stay with Buffalo for two more years. The contract is worth $4 million, which will have a cap hit of $2 million per season.

This signing is the real last piece to the Sabres lineup this season, with the team pretty well set. The only question at this point is if any rookies (such as Tyler Myers) make the opening day roster or not.

Remembering Afinogenov

2009-08-31T14:06:00.002-04:00

Maxim Afinogenov has played for the Buffalo Sabres for 9 seasons, but will not be returning for next year. Well there is little demand for him to come back for another season, he played well during his time here and will be remembered fondly.

His jersey was always among one of the best selling on the team (and often in the league). He is a very good skater and stick handler, but never was quite able to finish and often wasted some very good opportunities that he created. But at the very least he was an exciting player to watch.

Now as a free agent it is surprising that nobody has signed him yet. While he has been a bit off the past two seasons, and would be expected to take a bit of a pay cut, there is no reason that Afinogenov should not be playing in the NHL again next year.

While his disagreements with Coach Lindy Ruff is reason enough for Buffalo not to take him back for one more year, he would be a very good third line player for some other team in the league. Perhaps Afinogenov has been offered more money to play in the KHL in his native Russia, and wants NHL teams to match that offer, which is not likely to happen.

For more on Afinogenov and his departure from the Buffalo Sabres see Top Shelf and The Willful Caboose.

With the exception of Drew Stafford who is still unsigned as a restricted free agent, the Sabres roster is pretty much set for next season, which is now only a month away.

A new Schedule for a new season

2009-07-15T22:45:00.003-04:00

The Sabres schedule was released today, but did not really include anything of note. Still 82 games, although starting a bit earlier in October to make time for the Winter Olympics.

This year's winter classic will be held in Fenway Park in Boston as the Bruins take on the Flyers. The idea of having this game in a baseball stadium still doesn't make all that much sense, but that seems to be the new direction that the NHL is going.

Sabres sign Joe DiPenta

2009-07-12T19:48:00.002-04:00

The Sabres have signed defenselman Joe DiPenta to a one year contract. No idea why really.

DiPenta has mostly been a career minor league player, who played one full season in the NHL to win a cup with the Ducks. Last year he spent the season on the other side of the world in Sweden.

The Matador signing made sense in that it was replacing the loss of Spacek. It is a bit hard to tell what this signing is setting up. There really appears to be no compelling reason to start him ahead of Tyler Myers.

Zack Kassian drafted by Buffalo

2009-06-27T07:18:00.000-04:00

With their first round draft pick the Sabres took Right Winger, Zack Kassian. Incidentally this is exactly what was predicted by James Mirtle and SBN. Given that nobody has really heard about any of these players besides Tavares and Hedman, I'll repeat their assessment of Kassian.

At 6'3" and 215 pounds, Kassian is the most NHL-ready prospect in the draft. His offensive upside may not be as great as some of the other prospects but he makes up for that with size, speed and strength. He is everything the Sabres are not. Big, strong and tough.

The knock on Kassian though is that sometime he will take a shift off, and that is really the last thing this Sabres team needs.

Sabres Pictures

2009-06-20T11:10:00.021-04:00

This Spring I had the opportunity to attend a Sabres game, and produced the following pictures (mostly during warm ups).

Penguins win the Stanley Cup

2009-06-13T10:05:00.004-04:00

The Penguins did the impossible, and actually won a game on the road this series in order to win the Stanley cup in game seven over the Detroit Red Wings. Malkin was the series MVP (as Mirtle predicted a week ago). Marian Hossa and Ty Conklin who both lost with the Penguins last year in the finals, did so this year with Detroit.

Sidney Crosby was hurt in the game and played only one shift in the second half. Being game seven of the finals there was really no reason to nurse the injury, but as it turned out, the Penguins didn't really need him anyways. The star of the game was Maxime Talbot, who scored both of Pittsburgh's goals.

Four months until the Sabres are back in action...

The home team wins again

2009-06-10T19:31:00.001-04:00

The Penguins won at home to force game seven against the defending champion Red Wings which will be played on Friday. The home team has won every game so far this series, which would indicate that Detroit would be expected to win the cup as they have the only remaining home date. Still now that it is up to a single game seven the series could very well be decided by a single lucky bounce, and Pittsburgh does not need to much of a fluke to happen to pull off the win. All the team really needs is a good game from Fleury. Still it may well happen that no team wins on the road all series, either way everything is over by the end of this week, with one team or the other taking home the trophy.

Short handed goal allows Pittsburgh to tie up the series

2009-06-05T09:47:00.000-04:00

Jordan Stall put together an all around great two way game including a short handed goal to tie up the Stanley Cup finals with Detroit. By winning two of the first four games the Penguins avoid the finals from being a repeat of last year, or a repeat of the Detroit-Chicago series.

Kennedy also had a real nice goal in the game, forcing a turnover, and then two passes later sending the puck into the net.

This has been a series in which match ups have been important, and the home team has won every game so far, in part because of the ability to get the needed match ups. If the Penguins want to win they will have to take at least one game on the road.

Still for the first time this series the Penguins have to be viewed as the favorite to win. Their two wins were far more convincing than the two by the Red Wings, and any chance of the defending champions simply overrunning Pittsburgh have now been shown to be unrealistic. This series is now guaranteed to go at least six games, and has a good chance of lasting the full seven.

Penguins use the powerplay to get a win

2009-06-02T22:51:00.003-04:00

The Pittsburgh Penguins won their first game of the finals Tuesday night with a score of 4-2 after earning two goals off of the powerplay.

The Penguins got the early lead in the game, but then quickly gave it up and even fell behind, before tying up the game 2-2 where the score stayed from the middle of the first period until midway through the third. Then the Penguins took a 3-2 lead off of a powerplay goal and got another empty netter to seal the deal.

The Penguins were two for three on the powerplay and it made all the difference in this game. Detroit for their part were one for two on their man advantage opportunities.

The Penguins now have a chance in this series, only being down 2-1. Still they lost in the finals last year after being in the same position, and will need to continue this production with the man advantage, and to get more out of Sidney Crosby if they want to win the Stanley Cup.

Buffalo's post season connections

2009-05-24T09:30:00.004-04:00

Sports Illustrated has a story about all the Buffalo connections in the conference finals this year. A story that is actually written by Jim Kelley who himself is a former writer at The Buffalo News.

The one player that stands out on the list is Miroslav Satan who really looked to be on the absolute downswing of his career put has had a rather good postseason. After getting sent down to the minors this season, and almost nobody sorry to see him go after he left Buffalo a few years ago now, suddenly Satan is having a good run of games when it matters most.

What is the deal with Osgood in the playoffs? He struggled all season, but has been playing excellently in the postseason and is being more difficult on the Blackhawks than Luongo even was. If it were not for him Chicago probably would have won game two and be up the series now. Last year he was not the starter for most of the regular season and came in to get sixteen wins in the playoffs, including wins in his first nine games.

Why a Hamilton team would be good for Buffalo

2009-05-21T16:07:00.005-04:00

There has been a lot of pessimism among Buffalo Sabres fans about a team coming to Hamilton Ontario. The two state senators have even sent a letter to the NHL in opposition (they should be more worried about the Islanders). However putting an NHL team in Hamilton would be good for the Sabres.

First of all giving the Phoenix Coyotes to Jim Balsillie and moving the team to Canada will be good for the league as a whole. It would generate more gate revenue, and higher TV contracts (in Canada) coming to a net profit for the league as a whole (including the Sabres franchise).

The arena in Hamilton is within 50 miles of the one in Buffalo, so Balsillie would have to pay off the Sabres (and the Maple Leafs), giving Buffalo a good amount of money in this deal right off the bat. While this payment wouldn't be too huge it will be significant and would be beneficial to the Sabres organization.

Particular to Buffalo is the fact that an estimated 15% of the Sabres tickets go to Canadians. Many are worried that somehow having another franchise in Hamilton will reduce this flow of Canadians to the arena in Buffalo. The problem with this outlook is that many of these people are not Sabres fans to begin with. Most only come when one of the Canadian teams are playing (usually Toronto and Montreal) and stay away for the rest of the season anyhow. The Sabres have noticed this and raised ticket prices on those games, knowing that it had no effect on their average fan and only took money from the Canadians.

With another team in Canada Buffalo will only have more opportunities to take money from Canada. With an additional three home games a year against a local Canadian opponent, that is three more games to pack HSBC arena full of northerners and continue to make money. Games against teams from Canada will increase from 13% to 16% and gate revenue will most likely go up to match.

Don't worry, hockey in Hamilton is not a threat to the Sabres.

Tellqvist to Russia

2009-05-05T16:03:00.002-04:00

Mikael Tellqvist has signed a deal with Ak Bars in Russia and will not be returning to the Buffalo Sabres or any NHL team next season. This isn't really too much of a surprise as all along Tellqvist was only brought in to play with Lalime during Miller's injury. With Lalime under a reasonable contract for one more year there was no place for Tellqvist on the roster anyhow.

Still better than Toronto

2009-04-09T14:41:00.002-04:00

The Sabres have showed that they have yet to bottom out completely, as they solidly beat the Toronto Maple Leafs 3-1. As a result the team is still mathematically in it. As they say, as long as their is life, there is hope. So as long as Buffalo wins their two remaining games, and the Rangers and Panthers both lose both of theirs, then the Sabres are back in the playoffs this season. Not likely, but possible.

The team finally got some solid play from Pominville who had two point and six shots in the game. Gaustad and Vanek came through as usual and score the other two goals.

Buffalo was actually outshot in this game 33-29 but got good play from Miller who has been wearing a new helmet the last handful of games.

Thursday night has three of the games that Buffalo needs to go their way. The Sabres, Flyers, and Thrashers all have to win or else that 2.1% drops to zero.

Official Three Stars

Ryan Miller

Nikolai Kulemin

Jason Pominville

My Three Stars

Jason Pominville (one goal, one assist, six shots)

Paul Gaustad (one goal)

Ryan Miller (32 saves, only one goal against)

And a loss to the Red Wings

2009-04-08T15:26:00.004-04:00

Buffalo inched closer to being mathematically eliminated by losing to the Red Wings 4-1 in a game that wasn't even close.

While there was a back and forth first period, Buffalo predictably gave up and allowed the game to get out of hand.

The one exception as usual was Paul Gaustad. After Detroit scored to go up 3-0, the camera went to Gaustad on the bench and he looked rather pissed that his team had been scored on. Had Gaustad been out on the ice for that shift he probably would have prevented that goal. Next shift when he did get on the ice, he put in Buffalo's only goal of the night.

Official Three Stars

Marian Hossa

Tomas Holmstrom

Chris Osgood

My Three Stars

Marian Hossa (two goals, one assist, plus two)

Nicklas Lidstrom (one goal, one assist, plus three)

Pavel Datsyuk (two assists, plus two)

Possibly the end

2009-04-05T16:03:00.002-04:00

The Sabres lost 3-2 to the New Jersey Devils in a defeat that could possibly mark the end of Buffalo's playoff hopes. While mathematically still in it, and still able to hit Mirtle's magic number if they win out, things do not look promising for the post season hopes of the Sabres. There is still a 10.4% chance so the team will have something to play for, but even if they win out, they will need some significant help.

The Sabres got out to a bad start against New Jersey, allowing two goals early in the game. In the second period Buffalo all but gave up, going down an additional goal and getting only four shots on net.

For the third period the Sabres seemed to be giving up, pulling Miller from the net and sitting in a three point deficit. Still the team came through for that single period and outshot New Jersey 23-6 in those 20 minutes. Despite scoring two goals to make the game close, they were unable to overcome their lazy play in the first two periods of the game and ended with a loss.

Official Three Stars

Jamie Langenbrunner

Martin Brodeur

Clarke MacArthur

My Three Stars

David Clarkson (one goal, plus one, four hits)

Martin Brodeur (35 saves)

Jochen Hecht (one goal, plus one, four shots)

Back to winning

2009-04-04T18:21:00.004-04:00

The Sabres continue to hang on by a thread with a 5-4 overtime victory over the Washington Capitals. Given the free five on threes that the Capitals were given, Buffalo clearly deserved to win this game, and finally did in overtime.

Alexander Ovechkin and Alexander Semin combined for 18 shots on goal, but Washington did not have the goaltending to back it up. Meanwhile Pominville finally had a decent game going plus two in the game, getting an assist, and the game winner in OT. MacArthur got a lucky goal, and Rivet and Afinogenov both put in good performances as well. Lydman and Spacek were the only two Sabres to play poorly in this game.

Official Three Stars

Alex Ovechkin

Jaroslav Spacek

Sergei Federov

My Three Stars

Maxim Afinogenov (one goal, plus two, four shots)

Tim Connolly (three assists, plus three)

Alex Ovechkin (one goal, two assists, nine shots)

Matt Generous signed

2009-04-03T14:21:00.002-04:00

The Sabres have signed Matt Generous to a one year contract following the conclusion of his college career playing for St. Lawrence. Generous was a seventh round draft pick in 2005 and is not expected to be up with the Sabres anytime soon. He will however help Portland with their defenseman shortage for the rest of this season. More details on his NCAA playing days...

The Sabres play the Washington Capitals tonight, although a win yesterday by Montreal is pushing Buffalo towards being mathematically out.

0-0-4

2009-04-02T15:33:00.005-04:00

The Sabres have failed horriably all year against the Ottawa Senators and the Atlanta Thrashers. These are two teams that the Sabres easily should have beaten and have repeatadly failed to do so.

Buffalo's overtime loss to the Thrashers on Wenesday night should have been anticiapated as indicative of Buffalo's lack of success against the team all season. At least getting the one point for making it to overtime is not close to enough against a weaker team like Atlanta. Once again Buffalo is going to end up just outside of the playoffs and throwing away points against easy teams will once again be the reason why.

Despite scoring two goals, Vanek still ended the game -2. Of all of the Sabres in this game only Henrick Tallinder and Craig Rivet played well, and impressed througout.

Official Three Stars

Alex Kovalev

Ilya Kovalchuk

Christopher Higgins

My Three Stars

Ilya Kovalchuk (one goal, one assist, plus two)

Thomas Vanek (two goals, seven shots)

Vyacheslav Kozlov (one goal, plus one, six shots)

Montreal and Florida win

2009-04-01T01:04:00.002-04:00

Both Montreal and Florida won last Tuesday night leaving Buffalo in an even tighter spot. Even if the Sabres do win out, they have little to no chance of making the playoffs.

Kaleta however says that he is up and ready to go despite his concussion. From the sound of it he intends to play through the injury knowing how much each game counts. The effort is why we all like Kaleta in the first place.

The Sabres win in a shootout

2009-03-29T18:19:00.003-04:00

The Sabres continue to slowly gain on the eight place Canadians, with a 4-3 shootout win over them that leaves Buffalo only four points out of the playoffs. Given the lack of game left that is doubtful to be enough, but at least they are finally trying.

This was a real even back and forth game with each team scoring one goal on the powerplay. Buffalo got goals from MacArthur and Mair who have both been quiet as of late (although MacArthur did get one last game), while Afinogenov was sat out again despite decent play in the last few games.

In the end the game came down to a shootout, and Miller proved once again why he was the Sabres number one goalie. Miller stopped all six shots that he faced, while the Sabres struggled to score on the other end until Lydman of all people got a shootout goal. Stafford needs to go back to being reliable in the shootout, had Miller not returned from injury, this most likely would have been a loss.

Official Three Stars

Alex Kovalev

Tim Connolly

Christopher Higgins

My Three Stars

Tim Connolly (one goal, one assist, four shots)

Alex Kovalev two goals, five shots)

Ryan Miller (32 saves, 6 for 6 in the shootout)

Sabres stay alive with Win

2009-03-28T18:34:00.002-04:00

The Sabres continued to pretend that they have a shot at the playoffs with a win over the Toronto Maple Leafs on Friday night. Ryan Miller returned in goal for Buffalo, but the real reason for the win was the return of Jochen Hecht who has all but disappeared this season. Hecht got the first goal in the game only 37 seconds in starting what would amount to a 4-0 lead. Hecht would later add an assist on the final goal of the game.

Of course Buffalo almost blew their 4-0 lead, but a third period goal by Paul Gaustad allowed the Sabres to hold onto for a 5-3 win. Toronto actually played ok, outshooting Buffalo 36-24, but saw Curtis Joseph allow four goals on just nine shots.

Official Three Stars

Tim Connolly

Paul Gaustad

Chris Butler

My Three Stars

Tim Connolly (two goals, plus two, four shots)

Paul Gaustad (one goal, one assist)

Matt Stajan (one goal, one assist, plus two, 71% on faceoffs)

The Sabres actually win

2009-03-27T11:05:00.003-04:00

After a few long weeks of losses, the Sabres actually came out and won a game against a team that they are chasing in the standings. Furthermore they did so coming back from a 3-1 deficit, and got goals from MacArthur, Afinogenov, and Pominville.

Jason Pominville has been a bit of a disappointment all season long but finally got things together in the third period for this game, getting a goal and two assists. Buffalo has needed him and MacArthur to pick up their games this season, and they both came through against the Panthers. Now Jochen Hecht just needs to get on board.

Max Afinogenov has been doing the same routine lately, where he makes dumb mistakes early on, and then plays full out for the rest of the game in an attempt to make up for them. If he can play like that without the early mistakes he may even be worth keeping for next season. Afinogenov was eventually rewarded for his work with an empty net goal.

Buffalo is still in trouble playoff wise unless they win out, but this game at least proves that they can play if they want to.

Official Three Stars

Jason Pominville

Brett McLean

Patrick Kaleta

My Three Stars

Jason Pominville (one goal, two assists, five shots)

Tim Connolly (one goal, one assist, plus three)

Brett McLean (one goal, one assist, plus two)

Ryan Miller practicing

2009-03-24T11:15:00.001-04:00

Ryan Miller has returned to practice and is back working out with the team. Regardless this may be a case of too little too late for the Sabres, who except by winning out the season have little hope of making the playoffs.

The Sabres next game is Wednesday, although it is unclear if Miller will be ready to play by then.

Air Force wins the Atlantic Hockey championships

2009-03-23T08:19:00.004-04:00

The final two rounds of the Atlantic Hockey playoffs were held this past weekend in Rochester, with the winner getting an automatic bid for the NCAA tournament.

The first game between Air Force and Bentley was extremely lopsided and at no point, really close. After a scoreless, but relatively even first period, Air Force pulled away in the second, and never let Bentley back into the game. Air Force completely dominated the play, and Bentley struggled to so much as get into the offensive zone. While they were the lowest seed still in the tournament, they looked as if they were not even deserving of being there.

The late game between RIT and Mercyhurst was between two of the three highest scoring teams in the country, and was exciting as it was expected to be. Mercyhurst got the early lead with a bit of a fluke goal within the first minute, but after that RIT proved to be the better team at even strength. RIT built up a 3-1 lead early in the second period, only to see Mercyhurst come back, going three for five on the powerplay to earn a 4-3 lead early in the third. RIT came back to tie up the game with one minute left, but than came out very flat in overtime. Mercyhurst dominated overtime play and won the game a little over two minutes into the extra period.

The final game between Mercyhurst and Air Force was a repeat of last years, Atlantic Hockey championship, with Air Force once again pulling off the win. Air Force outshot Mercyhurst 33-25, and was able to do what RIT wasn't, in killing off the Mercyhurst powerplays. Mercyhurst went zero for six with the man advantage, and ultimately lost 2-0, in what was Air Force's second shutout of the weekend.

Yet another loss

2009-03-22T10:07:00.002-04:00

The Sabres are now seemingly unable to win, and are more or less out of the playoff picture at this point. Even if they were to win out the season, they would need so much help, and currently only have a 9.8% chance at making the postseason.

The Rangers 5-3 win was much closer than most of the Sabres other games of late, but still resulted in a loss. The Sabres actually outshot New York 40-31, but were sloppy at times, giving to many chances to the Rangers. New York got some major help from Henrik Lundqvist who played well throughout the night.

Buffalo's next game is Wednesday against the Florida Panthers, but it is hard to say at this point that it matters.

Official Three Stars

Nikolai Zherdev

Nik Antropov

Ryan Callahan

My Three Stars

Nik Antropov (two assists)

Ryan Callahan (two goals, three shots)

Henrik Lundqvist (37 saves)

Still unable to beat Philadelphia

2009-03-21T10:34:00.004-04:00

Like with Ottawa and Atlanta, the Sabres seem completely unable to even compete with the Flyers this season. The Sabres 6-4 loss was not close at any point, and is resulting in the Sabres drifting farther and farther from the playoffs.

Moore got his first goal as a Sabre, and Chris Butler also played well, with two goals and plus two rating. Former Sabre Danny Briere scored two goals to put the game out of reach, just when the Sabres were finally coming back into it.

Official Three Stars

Mike Richards

Danny Briere

Claude Giroux

My Three Stars

Danny Briere (two goals, plus two, four shots)

Kimmo Timonen (three assists, plus two)

Mike Richards (one goal, two assists)

Atlantic Hockey

2009-03-20T11:02:00.005-04:00

Besides the two Sabres games this weekend, Rochester will be hosting the NCAA Atlantic Hockey finals and semi-finals. Friday's games will feature Bentley vs Air Force, and RIT vs Mercyhurst, with the winners playing in the championship on Saturday.

Last weekend in the qualifying games only Mercyhurst swept their series, while the other teams all had to go the full three games. Still in the end, the top seeds all ended up with the win. Mercyhurst is the top scoring team in the nation and has been very good recently. Still within Atlantic Hockey RIT and Air Force are undoubtedly the two favorites.

In the regular season both RIT and Air Force tied for first place with identical 20-6-2 records and 2-2 against each other. All season long they have been miles ahead of the rest of the conference and have rightly earned their top seeds.

Last year however neither of the top seeds made it past the semifinals as Army and RIT were upset by Mercyhurst and Air Force. While this is always as possibility in single elimination tournaments, the odds are still against it happening.

The Sabres play against the Flyers tonight, and need a win against a team that they have not had much success against.

Still unable to beat Ottawa

2009-03-18T11:46:00.003-04:00

The Sabres have struggled against some poor teams this year, such as the Atlanta Thrashers and the Ottawa Senators. If Buffalo had won at least half of their games against these teams this year, they would be in playoff position.

Buffalo's Tuesday night loss to the Senators was among the team's worst performances of the year. To begin with Buffalo was outshot 36-13. The Sabres were outshot an incredible 13-1 in the second period.

Buffalo main problem was with special teams. Ottawa scored three of their goals on the powerplay, while the Sabres did very little on their opportunities.

Still Buffalo had a 2-0 lead going into the second period, and a 2-2 tie going into the third. Despite their poor play they actually had a shot at winning, but completely failed to capitalize on their chances.

This was the first start for Buffalo newest goalie Mikael Tellqvist. While it was a loss, he was not the one responsible for getting only 13 shots on net all game.

Official Three Stars

Brendan Bell

Filip Kuba

Dany Heatley

My Three Stars

Brendan Bell (two goals, four shots)

Filip Kuba (three assists)

Toni Lydman (one goal, plus two)

Missing a Point

2009-03-16T10:56:00.007-04:00

The Buffalo Sabres played one of three periods well against the Atlanta Thrashers to get one point in a shootout loss. After the refs called a lopsided first period, Buffalo came back to control the second period and take a 3-1 lead. However Buffalo then gave up a shorthanded goal, and then allowed a last second goal to tie the game up after being unable to clear the zone for a full minute.

Pominville was all around bad in this game. He was hardly ever moving his feet, and passed it right to the other team to allow the game tying goal. Afinogenov on the contrary actually had a really good game. After taking a dumb penalty due to laziness in the beginning of the game, he was flying through the rest of the night, and finished plus two with a goal. Paille who also scored a goal, had a real good game, and was defensively responsible throughout the night.

Lalime played ok. None of the goal were real bad, and he had no help in the shootout. With four shots, Buffalo was unable to score a single time. Having Kotalik would have helped, as would at least seeing Stafford try the backhand himself. Still credit Kari Lehtonen for saving all of the shots, and for keeping the outshot Thrashers in this game.

Official Three Stars

Kari Lehtonen

Maxim Afinogenov

Derek Roy

My Three Stars

Daniel Paille (one goal, plus two)

Maxim Afinogenov (one goal, plus two, three shots)

Derek Roy (one goal, one assist, five shots)

Buffalo back on track

2009-03-13T10:40:00.005-04:00

The Buffalo Sabre returned to their winning ways in a very important game against the Florida Panthers who are just above them in the standings. Buffalo ended the first period with a 2-1 lead, and was able to hold onto it until Vanek got a fluke goal towards the end of the third to put the game away for good. Still the Sabres had far more chances then the Panthers throughout the game and especially in the scoreless second period and deserved to win.

Florida's best chance at coming back was during a solid powerplay opportunity at the beginning of the third period, where they had over a minute of five on three hockey. The Sabres, especially Lalime, were able to shut them down.

The one goal that Lalime did let in was a bit soft, but he more than made up for it, making many big saves throughout the rest of the game.

Furthermore, not everything went right for Buffalo's opponents Thursday night. Besides the Florida Panthers' loss, the Flyers and Hurricanes also lost, while the Penguins and Canadians both only earned one point. Of the teams close to Buffalo in the standings only the Rangers won their game.

Official Three Stars

Patrick Lalime

Jaroslav Spacek

Henrik Tallinder

My Three Stars

Daniel Paille (one goal, plus one)

Patrick Lalime (30 saves, one goal against)

Michal Repik (one goal, plus one, three shots)

Heading in the wrong direction

2009-03-11T12:09:00.004-04:00

The Buffalo Sabres lost in spectacular style for the second straight game in a 5-2 loss to the Flyers. With three losses in three games with Philadelphia this season Buffalo's success against them has been almost as bad as against Ottawa.

Lalime played poorly and was replaced by Tellqvist who didn't play much better letting in one of four shots against. However nobody on the team played well, with the possible exceptions of Hecht and Kaleta.

Still Buffalo got no help again last night as Montreal won, and Pittsburgh and Florida went to a shootout. The Sabres are starting to fall out of the playoff picture, and now need to do well above .500 hockey to get back into it.

Official Three Stars

Jeff Carter

Scott Hartnell

Joffrey Lupul

My Three Stars

Scott Hartnell (two goals, two assists, plus three)

Jeff Carter (two goals, plus two, eight shots)

Jochen Hecht (one goal, plus two in loss)

No Help

2009-03-10T17:22:00.002-04:00

While the Sabres have continued to play average hockey the teams around them have been doing better leaving Buffalo needing to pick up the pace if they want a chance to make the playoffs. Except for the struggling Rangers all of the teams near Buffalo in the standings have done phenomenally well. In their past 10 games the Carolina Hurricanes have gone 8-2-0, the Montreal Canadians have gone 6-4, and the Pittsburgh Penguins have posted a 8-1-1 record. Buffalo meanwhile has won less than half going 4-5-1.

Buffalo gets its next chance to win against the Flyers on Tuesday night.

In Memory of Kotalik

2009-03-09T08:02:00.001-04:00

Now a few days after a trade sent him to Edmonton, the Sabres are doing pretty well without Ales Kotalik, but he had been a huge part of Buffalo's franchise for a long while.

Ales Kotalik has often been criticized for not being physical enough, but just because he is a big guy, doesn't automatically imply that being physical has to be part of his game. His real problem was a lack of consistency, and the fact that his defense wasn't always there.

That said he wasn't bad. This was his sixth full season for Buffalo, which has been the only NHL team he has every played for. Recently he had been averaging around 20 goals a season, which is decent if not anything special.

Still the interest that Kotalik was likely to get in this coming summer is more than the Sabres would have been willing to spend, so giving him up is not too much of a loss. Kotalik was however, surprised to be traded, but was almost a casualty of Buffalo committing its future cap dollars towards Connolly instead. From the start of the season it appeared as if only one of Connolly, Kotalik, and Afinogenov would be resigned, and the team chose to go with Tim instead.

The thing that will be most remembered about Kotalik of course is his role in the shootout. He always went first for Buffalo and almost always scored when he went to the backhand, and only really ever went to a different move for the sake of mixing it up. He is still one of the top shootout players in the league, and those few extra points that he picked up for Buffalo really are important. Stafford has adopted Kotalik's backhander as his own for the shootout sometimes, but still doesn't do it quite as well.

Kotalik was never a critical part of the team in Buffalo, but still he will be missed.

Still unable to beat Ottawa

2009-03-08T08:19:00.000-04:00

The Buffalo Sabres have been unable to beat the Ottawa Senators all year, and failed to do so once again on Saturday night. The team came and went all night in a game that saw poor performances by both goaltenders. In the end though, Nick Foligno and Dan Alfredsson proved to be too much and outscored the Sabres 6-3.

Buffalo got all three of their goals on the powerplay, but allowed too many shots against in the game, and had too many breakdowns. While it was close until the end, at no point did the Sabres look like the best team on the ice. Lalime let in too many soft ones, and should have been pulled after the second period.

Buffalo also got no help from around the league as the Hurricanes, Flyers, and Panthers all won as well.

Official Three Stars

Nick Foligno

Chris Campoli

Daniel Alfredsson

My Three Stars

Nick Foligno (two goals, plus two, two for two on faceoffs)

Daniel Alfredsson (two goals, five shots)

Chris Campoli (one goal, one assist, plus three, five shots)

Buffalo wins second straight game

2009-03-07T07:31:00.009-05:00

The Buffalo Sabres soundly beat the Phoenix Coyotes 5-1, in their second straight win after the trade deadline. New Sabre Dominic Moore was in the line up for this game, but the team was really lead by Tim Connolly who just signed a two year extension.

Connolly scored the first goal of the game, and cleanly won a face off for the primary assist on the Sabres second goal. Once Buffalo got up 2-0 early in this game, it was mostly over as the Coyotes did not appear capable of making a comeback at any point. Connolly went on to score another goal on the powerplay in the second period and earned an assist towards the end.

The refs certainly did not help at all in this game, with many calls being rather unfounded. Buffalo did a good job killing off the penalties though, and only allowed one goal against on the powerplay in the third. Buffalo did get two more powerplay goals of their own in the game's final minutes though.

MacArthur and Numminen sat out of this game, and Tellqvist is expected to get the start in Buffalo's next game Saturday night in Ottawa.

Official Three Stars

Tim Connolly

Andrej Sekera

Patrick Lalime

My Three Stars

Tim Connolly (two goals, two assists, plus two, six shots)

Andrej Sekera (one goal, one assist, plus two)

Patrick Lalime (29 saves, only one goal against)

Introducing Dominic Moore

2009-03-06T07:23:00.001-05:00

On Wednesday the Sabres traded away Ales Kotalik to the Oilers for a second round draft pick, and then traded a second round draft pick to the Toronto Maple Leafs for Dominic Moore. The result is that the team lost Kotalik and gained Moore, the question is if they will be better for it.

At first glance the differences between Moore and Kotalik are not all that obvious. While Moore has slightly more points in a few more games played this season, he is one goal behind Kotalik. Offensively the output from Moore will be about the same as it was from Kotalik, except without the huge advantage in the shootout.

There are reasons that the Sabres choose Moore though. First of all he plays center, where Buffalo is bit weak, and where he can be good with faceoffs. Secondly, management may feel that they have a better chance of convincing Moore to stay then they did with Kotalik. In reality though, Moore has been around the league alot already and is not any less likely to avoid moving on. The final reason is defense. Moore has earned himself a reputation for being a two way player. He has a minus one plus minus rating, but that is still six points above where Kotalik was, not even considering the fact that he had to play for the Leafs.

Hopefully Moore can be a good addition to the Sabres lineup, even if it is only for a few months. His first game in a Buffalo uniform is Friday night against the Coyotes.

A post trade deadline win

2009-03-05T07:33:00.005-05:00

On this side of the trade deadline the Sabres are looking like a much better team. Buffalo didn't change all that much through trades, but looked really good in this game. While the Sabres have struggled to score in front of Lalime this season they got five goals Wednesday night against Montreal.

Lalime for his part also did really good especially in the first period when he saved all 18 shots taken on him. He came within a minute of earning the shutout before allowing a single goal against with a little over a minute to go. A trick Miller has pulled many times before.

Newcomer Tellqvist was the backup goalie for this game. Former Maple Leaf Dominic Moore was unable to get to the arena in time to play.

Afinogenov who is surprising still a Sabre played in the game for the first time in months. He was actually pretty good registering and assist, and two shots on net. Vanek was also back and played with a lower cage in addition to his visor.

Paul Gaustad and Derek Roy both had two goal games for Buffalo, each of them getting one goal on the powerplay. Gaustad's second goal then came shorthanded and was a real nice play. Spacek had the other real nice play in this game dancing around the defender, before blasting his shot into the net. He also had the primary assist on Roy's first goal.

Buffalo did really good on special teams in this game, scoring on two of four powerplays. Then on the penalty kill the Sabres killed off all six of Montreal's chances and even score a shorthanded goal.

Official Three Stars

Patrick Lalime

Paul Gaustad

Derek Roy

My Three Stars

Patrick Lalime (shutout, 38 saves)

Paul Gaustad (two goals, plus one, three shots)

Derek Roy (two goals, plus one, three shots)

Connolly sticking around, Tellqvist aquired

2009-03-04T12:11:00.004-05:00

The Sabres have signed Tim Connolly to a two year deal worth $4.5 million per year. This should end any trade rumors surrounding Connolly and confirms expectations that this trade deadline was to be a quiet one for the Sabres.

That Connolly is going to be given an increase in his salary is a tad bit surprising, but the good news is that he will continue to play in Buffalo and solidify that position for the team.

If Connolly can stay healthy, then he is easily worth the money. Tim has been doing pretty good for the past few months, and despite a rocky start to the season has been playing game in and game out for a while now. Still Connolly has still played in less games than Afinogenov this season. However the deal is only for two years, so if it turns out that Connolly's health doesn't last, Buffalo is not responsible for him year after year.

Buffalo also traded a fourth round pick for goalie Mikael Tellqvist in Phoenix. There is little danger of him replacing anyone's job in the system, but gives Portland some more flexibility, and a healthy goaltender to work with. Miller will still be the starter, Lalime will still be the back up, and Enroth will still be the future of the team. Still Tellqvist has been in 90 more NHL games than Enroth and will probably take over the backup role for as long as Miller is out. Enroth will then start for Portland, while Denis remains injured.

The Sabres are one of only four teams to be playing tonight as they take on the Montreal Canadians. As far as Buffalo goes, this may be as exciting as the trade deadline gets.

The Quiet Before the storm

2009-03-03T06:02:00.000-05:00

One day before the trade deadline, and everyone is mostly just waiting for things to start happening. With so many teams having a shot at the playoffs out west, really anything could happen at the deadline this year. However there is the possibility that overall things may just be a bit more quiet.

The Sabres strategy for the trade deadline is more predictable to guess than most, but even that is a bit of an unknown. Besides getting something in return for Afinogenov, Buffalo does not have any obvious goals. Besides the injured Vanek and Miller really no one else on the team is truly safe.

Afinogenov, Connolly, Kotalik, and Spacek are the big name players set to become free agents this summer and slightly more likely to be moved, but anything could happen. There is some talk about defensemen Tallinder and Paetsch who both have a full year remaining on their contracts. Technically Buffalo is still in this so they are not sellers, but it is questionable what may happen.

Overall this should be a quiet trading year. There will probably still be plenty of action, but not in regards to the bigger names. Most of the true cup contenders are all pretty well set, with the top four in each conference more or less decided.

The other impact on the trade deadline this year is the economy. The salary cap is likely to stay the same for next season, and for those GM's who were counting on an ever expanding cap this could be a problem. Some bigger name players may get traded just for the cap relief. In fact Buffalo getting back Drury for Afinogenov almost seems plausible despite it not being an even skill for skill trade.

The Afinogenov question

2009-03-02T10:38:00.003-05:00

With the trade deadline quickly approaching the Sabres have one player that stands ahead of the rest as one likely to go, and that is Maxim Afinogenov.

Unlike Kotalik, Connolly, and Tallinder there is obviously no interest in bringing back Afinogenov next season, and it doesn't look all that likely that he will play again this season either.

While technically still on the injured reserve list, the whole world knows that he is ready to go, but is more convenient to keep on the sidelines, now that he is behind Andrew Peters and half of the Portland Pirates on the depth chart.

So while the reasons that Buffalo wants to get rid of him are obvious, there is little interest that other teams are likely to have in him.

Any teams not making the playoffs will want nothing to do with Afinogenov as he will be a free agent this summer, and will only give them questionable quality in return. Teams towards the top of their conference also have no interest in Afinogenov as they would not want to break up their roster for a player of questionable talent.

That only leaves the teams in the middle, and despite how things appear I think it is more than likely that one of them will be interested in Max Afinogenov. For one, he can be had at a very cheap price. The Sabres have shown no interest in him, and will probably put him on waivers to the AHL if he can't be traded this weak, as a result Buffalo would be happy to get anything in return for him, so he could be had for very little, and a low round draft pick would be seen as a good trade for Buffalo.

The teams that will want Max will be those on the edge of making the playoffs, and realizing that they need to change something to turn things around. Montreal and the Rangers are two such teams that while currently in a playoff spot, are in freefall, and are desperate to change something to turn things around. The Canadians are unlikely to take a risk with Afinogenov, but the Rangers would be interested in him. New York has been struggling as of late, and needs to shake up the lineup in one way or another, Afinogenov does have the potential to be decent in the right system, and the Rangers have one where teamwork is already not a main priority. Furthermore Max is both cheaper and more reliable then the Rangers other option in Sean Avery.

Another team in the East who may be interested are the Ottawa Senators who appear to still think that they can make a run at the playoffs this season. Basic math indicates that they are out, but their GM is an idiot and who has indicated that the Senators look to be buyers at the trade deadline this year.

Out west the market for Afinogenov looks smaller as border teams such as the Ducks, Predators and Wild are all unlikely to be willing to take the risk. The most interested team in the west would probably be the Columbus Blue Jackets who may be looking for some extra fire power as they try to hold on and make the playoffs for the first time in the franchise's history.

Sabres hit a new low

2009-03-01T00:54:00.003-05:00

Things are at an all time bad for Buffalo this season, because nothing can really get worse than being shutout by the Islanders. If there was an easy win to come out of this stretch this game was it, and the Sabres absolutely blew the opportunity.

Seriously, has anyone even heard of Yann Danis before? Let alone that he had the Islanders playing in front of him with one player out of the game suspended, another out to be traded, and the rest of them Islanders. Yet that seemed to be enough to stop Buffalo completely.

Coming into this game the Sabres have struggled to score in front of Lalime, but at least they had not yet been shutout in any of those.

Lalime actually played well, saving 32 of 34 shots, and putting Buffalo in a position to win the game. At the very least three points against the third worst defense in the league shouldn't be too much to ask for.

The only hope is that Vanek should be ready to go play for the next Sabres game on Wednesday night. However he will have to do so all by himself. For this being the last game before the trade deadline, every player has given themselves great reason to get sent away.

Official Three Stars

Sean Bergenheim

Yann Danis

Jack Hillen

My Three Stars

Yann Danis (shutout, 31 saves)

Sean Bergenheim (two goals, plus two, six shots)

Jack Hillen (one assist, plus two, four shots)

Not playing offense in front of Lalime

2009-02-28T11:50:00.003-05:00

Patrick Lalime has a disappointing record of 2-8-2, but is actually a far better player than his win loss record indicates. The problem is that whenever Lalime gets in a game the Sabres don't play any good offense in front of him.

Last Thursday he played great against the Hurricanes stopping 31 of 32 shots, but ended up with an shootout loss after the Sabres could only manage one goal themselves and none in the shootout.

In Lalime's last ten games played the Sabres only scored more than two goals in a single one of those games and averaged only 1.9 goals per game. Overall this season the Sabres are averaging 2.82 goals per game. If Buffalo would keep up this scoring pace when Lalime is in net, they would have been able to win a number of those games, especially as many of them were very close.

There is also no reason to see why the change in goaltender would result in any significant change to Buffalo's play. Both Lalime and Miller play a similar style, and neither of them are big puck movers like Turco and Biron are.

Buffalo just needs to player better in front of Lalime, and stop making him look so bad. Buffalo will get a good chance to do so Saturday night when they play the New York Islanders. If there was ever a chance to run up the score on an opponent, this is it.

Sabres only get one

2009-02-27T15:24:00.005-05:00

The Sabres outplayed the Carolina Hurricanes through most of their 2-1 shootout loss, but were unable to take a commanding lead at any time. Buffalo outshot Carolina 37-32 and for most of the night were the all around better team. The Sabres real problem in this game is that they only had one goal to show for it, and ended the night with only one point.

Carolina for their part did just enough to hang on, and for the most part rode their goalie Cam Ward to the victory. Ward had 36 saves, plus he stopped all three shots in the shootout.

The Sabres shootout was in trouble this game, with none of the shooters scoring and even Kotalik not being able to get anything right. Buffalo was without Ryan Miller, who has been among the best goaltenders in the shootout this season, but still got a decent showing from Lalime who stopped two of three and had an all around solid game.

Official Three Stars

Cam Ward

Anton Babchuk

Joni Pitkanen

My Three Stars

Cam Ward (36 saves, one goal against, three for three in the shootout)

Patrick Lalime (31 saves, one goal against)

Anton Babchuk (one goal, five shots)

Another Loss to the Ducks

2009-02-26T13:37:00.003-05:00

Once again the Sabres came out very poorly in a loss to the Anaheim Ducks. Gaustad and Kotalik both scored, but they were the only players who did anything on offense. Both goals came from Kotalik just blasting the puck into the net, and it's something this team has to do more often.

The Ducks received solid play from Buffalo native Todd Marchant. While getting outshot by the Sabres in the first period, they better took advantage of Buffalo's defensive breakdowns.

Official Three Stars

Jean-Sebastien Giguere

Todd Marchant

Paul Gaustad

My Three Stars

Ales Kotalik (one goal, one assist, five shots)

Todd Marchant (one goal, one assist, plus two)

Teemu Selanne (one goal, plus one, four shots)

Life without Ryan Miller

2009-02-24T09:47:00.004-05:00

With Ryan Miller's ankle sprain he will be out for some time, and will leave the Sabres without one of the leagues best goaltenders to rely on. From personal experience I know that ankle sprains can mean anything as far as time out goes, but that the absolute worst thing you can do is to come back too early.

So for the short term that leaves Patrick Lalime and Jhonas Enroth as the Sabres goalies. Enroth is a promising prospect who played very well last season in Sweden and has looked decent so far this year in the AHL. He may well be the future goaltender for this team if something happens to Miller.

However in the coming days Lalime will be getting the vast majority of the starts. His record this season had not been too good, but more often then not that was the result of the play in front of him, and not Lalime playing poorly. Last season he had a winning record for a non-playoff team in Chicago getting a bunch of starts due to an injury to the starting goaltender there.

The other option is to trade for a goaltender, but with the trading deadline just over a week away there are only a limited number of options available. There is no obvious team looking to give up a quality goaltender and it is unlikely that the Sabres could pick up someone much better than Lalime. Detroit would probably trade Osgood, but given how he has played this season, the Sabres probably wouldn't want him. A trade for a big name player is more unlikely because Miller should be back in time for the playoffs, so this would be an even shorter term player rental.

The best option for the Sabres is to hope that their defense stays healthy and the Lalime is good enough to get the job done. He looked good the last two games in which he replaced Miller, lets now see him win some starts.

A Win mitigated by the possibility of injury

2009-02-22T11:00:00.004-05:00

The Buffalo Sabres soundly beat the New York Rangers on Saturday night 4-2. The Sabres may be in trouble as a whole though as Ryan Miller had to leave the game injured. Currently it isn't clear how bad it is, but Buffalo needs its starting goaltender going into the playoffs.

Buffalo soundly outplayed the Rangers for the first two periods. Then following Miller's injury at the beginning of the third, they started to allow the Rangers to get some shots on net. Still after allowing a powerplay goal right after going in Lalime played well enough to give Buffalo the win.

Tallinder returned for this game, and the defense was all around better as a result. The Rangers first goal where two players were on the guy with the puck looked like the only real defensive mistake that was made all game, and Buffalo is now doing better as far as injuries go, although having Miller and Vanek out isn't exactly ideal.

Official Three Stars

Derek Roy

Daniel Paille

Tim Connolly

My Three Stars

Derek Roy (one goal, two assists, plus two)

Daniel Paille (one goalthree shots)

Ryan Miller (zero goals against, 20 saves)

No Defense results in a loss

2009-02-20T16:04:00.003-05:00

The Sabres need to step up their defense a bit. Ryan Miller played a great game despite letting four goals in, while there was enough scoring to keep the Sabres in the game. The defense was repeatedly bad. If not for Miller the score would have been far worse. Players were forever uncovered right in front of the net, and the Flyers managed to get a three on two while shorthanded. Spacek scored two goals, and was still bad enough in his own end to finish the game minus one.

Hopefully Tallinder can get back soon, and the rest of the team can remember how to play both ways. Unless that happens, there is no way that Buffalo will be in the playoffs.

Official Three Stars

Mike Richards

Simon Gagne

Jaroslav Spacek

My Three Stars

Mike Richards (two goals, three assists, plus five, five shots)

Derek Roy (one goal, one assist)

Simon Gagne (two assists, plus two)

A Solid Win against the Leafs

2009-02-18T18:12:00.003-05:00

The Sabres won a 4-1 game against the Maple Leafs on Tuesday night, but still looked a bit shaky at times.

While the game was pretty well decided after the Sabres ended the first period with a 3-0 lead, things did not go perfect. Two of the goals were a bit soft and Justin Pogge did not play great in what was only his third NHL start ever. Also the Sabres were outworked in the first ten minutes of the game, and allowed a powerplay goal against, when just a month ago, the penalty kill was a highlight for this team.

Stafford played well scoring two powerplay goals, while the team also got bailed out by Miller most of the night. Ellis also had a good game filling in the role traditionally done by Gaustad.

Pominville had one of his goals discounted after it bounced off of his chest. The goal should have been good, but the game was pretty well decided by that point anyhow. Buffalo beat a team that they were supposed to, while Carolina lost giving the Sabres a bit more separation.

Official Three Stars

Ryan Miller

Drew Stafford

Niklas Hagman

My Three Stars

Ryan Miller (27 saves, .964SV%)

Drew Stafford (two goals)

Daniel Paille (one goal, one assist, three shots, plus two)

Coming apart against the Hurricanes

2009-02-17T13:29:00.003-05:00

The Sabres did not show up in this game at all. They gave no effort all night and failed to score any goals loosing the game 3-0.

Lalime was put in net for the final two periods, and while he played very well, the team in front of him was still bad. The one goal that did get past Lalime should never have counted, but given how bad the rest of the team was that is a minor issue.

The Sabres allowed 47 shots against, allowed an unassisted powerplay goal, and took advantage of none of their own powerplay opportunities.

Official Three Stars

Cam Ward

Eric Staal

Patrick Lalime

My Three Stars

Eric Staal (one goal, two assists, seven shots)

Cam Ward (shutout, 36 saves)

Patrick Lalime (28 saves)

An eventful game

2009-02-14T11:51:00.005-05:00

The Buffalo Sabres beat the San Jose Sharks 6-5 in a shootout, in what may have been the most exciting game of the year. The Sharks came in as the best team in the Western conference, while the Sabres have struggled in their last two games against a poor team in Ottawa.

However the Sabres came through in this game. Buffalo scored three early goals to take a commanding lead early and looked good throughout. They gave up a goal late in the first period to make the score 3-1, but Buffalo was consistently out skating the Sharks and had more scoring chances then them by far.

The second period was not as good for Buffalo with San Jose outshooting them 17-8 in the period and closing the score to a 4-3 Buffalo lead. Going into the third things did not look as promising and it was mostly assumed that the Sharks would take the lead in this game. They did, but instead of this turning into a 5-4 San Jose victory the Sabres tied up the game with four seconds left.

To get the goal at the end of regulation the Sabres had a line of Hecht, Pominville, and Ellis on the ice, none of who have been particularly hot lately. Ellis however won the faceoff, and without Gaustad in the lineup, I guess he must be our top guy.

Rivet had a good game against his former team, with his shots from the point being tipped in for both the first and final goals of the game. The final shot was tipped in by Jason Pominville who scored in the first time in forever, and then had another goal in the shootout after having an assist earlier in the game. Roy also posted the same stats as a goal, an assist and a shootout goal.

The shootout got off to a slow start for the Sabres with the regular three shooters of Kotalik, Stafford, and Connolly all failing to score. Kotalik did not even try to go backhand, but did have a decent game for the Sabres as he scored the team's lone goal in the second period. Miller however came through on the shootout and saved four of the five shots against him.

For a look at this game through the lens of the recent Flight 3407 tragedy, The Gooses Roost has a good look at things.

Official Three Stars

Craig Rivet

Joe Thornton

Jason Pominville

My Three Stars

Craig Rivet (three assists)

Jason Pominville (one goal, one assist, five shots, a shootout goal)

Patrick Marleau (2 goals, a shootout goal)

Unable to beat Ottawa

2009-02-13T17:07:00.004-05:00

For the second straight game in a row, the Buffalo Sabres failed to beat the Ottawa Senators scoring just one goal in the loss.

Ottawa is on a bit of a rebound now under their new coach, but are still a weak team and one that the Sabres should have beaten. The Penalty Kill was part of the Sabres problem as they allowed two goals against when down a player.

This team is really missing Gaustad and Vanek. While the two players are very different, they both take the job of standing in front of the net, and it is clear that the rest of this team is not in a position to easily take over that role. However both will still be out for a while.

Official Three Stars

Jason Spezza

Ryan Miller

Brendan Bell

My Three Stars

Jason Spezza (one goal, one assist, five shots)

Brian Elliott (31 saves, only one goal against)

Brendan Bell (2 assists, three shots)

AHL in Buffalo

2009-02-11T17:47:00.003-05:00

The Portland Pirates played a game against the Albany River Rats at HSBC arena Tuesday night. Without the game on television I didn't actually see it, but following a large brawl the Pirates lost 5-4 in a shootout.

The game was pretty well attended, and while the Arena was not full it drew a bigger crowd then most AHL games tend to do. Trying to do this more then once a year would be difficult, but showcasing the farm team once a year is a good move by the Sabres, and should be repeated again.

When Rochester was the Sabres farm team, they were just a short trip down the road from Buffalo and well within Sabres territory. Now in Portland Maine, things are a bit more distant and the tie between the teams isn't as close. Games like this help restore that connection.

Also the AHL is currently running five player shootouts like soccer does. I'm still not a huge fan of the shootout, but going for a full five players is a better system then having just three.

Nathan Gerbe will be playing with the Sabres tonight as they face the Ottawa Senators.

A look at the Standings

2009-02-09T13:02:00.002-05:00

While it may not feel like it, the end of the season is approaching fast and the Sabres have little time left to solidify their playoff spot. Fortunetlly things are looking pretty good for them.

According to Mirtle's simple standard of needing 91 points to make the playoffs, the Sabres need to finish the season with a 14-13-1 record. While that does not make Buffalo's entrance to the post season automatic, it is simple enough that they should have no problem in achieving it.

According to sportsclubstats.com the Sabres have a 76.5% chance of making the playoffs and can guarantee themselves a spot if they finish with a 20-8 record. Still even if they only have a 16-12 record they would still have a 96.8% chance of making the playoffs.

Currently the Sabres are seventh in the conference which would give them a playoff spot. However they are third in their conference and while they are right behind Montreal, they are well behind the Bruins and are unlikely to catch them, meaning that Buffalo is unable to get one of the top three seeds.

The Pittsburgh Penguins are in trouble though. Currently they are in tenth in the East and have already played more games than anyone else. They only have a 29.7% chance of making the playoffs.

Meanwhile out west, the Dallas Stars who started the season so poorly are now sitting in fifth place with a 72% chance of making the playoffs. Since getting rid of Avery they have really turned things around and are currently second in their division behind only the very good Sharks.

Comeback leads to a shootout loss

2009-02-08T11:26:00.004-05:00

After falling behind 2-0 in the second period the Sabres came back in the third to even the score at 2-2. However they failed to capitalize in the shootout, and walked away from the game with only one point.

Buffalo got outplayed badly in the first two periods, being outshot 30-18 and outscored 2-0. They turned things around in the third with goals from Mair and Stafford.

In the shootout Kotalik and Connolly scored for Buffalo, while Stafford and Roy missed. Miller allowed three of four to get past him, and probably should have saved two of them, but played well enough in regulation that this loss can not be blamed on him. In the shootout the first seven shots were all backhands, with all three of Buffalo's original shooters going for Kotalik's move.

Thomas Vanek left the game during the first period after taking a puck to the face. He will be out for a few games as a result. Hopefully it won't be for all that long.

Official Three Stars

Brian Elliott

Ryan Miller

Daniel Alfredsson

My Three Stars

Anoine Vermette (one goal, three shots, plus one)

Drew Stafford (one goal, three shots)

Brian Elliott (28 saves, 0.933SV%)

A big win over Montreal

2009-02-07T10:52:00.007-05:00

The Buffalo Sabres came through and earned a solid 3-2 win over the Montreal Canadians on Friday night.

For the first time in a long while the Sabres were able to dress a respectable blue line. In his first game back, Spacek scored the first goal of the game. Buffalo then got their second goal from Nathan Paetsch who was bumped up to playing forward in this game. Buffalo's scoring was then finished up by Tim Connolly who scored his ninth goal in the past nine games.

Montreal got scoring from Saku Koivu and Roman Hamrlik, but it was not enough to come back in this game, as Miller played well, earning the win in a game where the Sabres were outshot 37-22.

Official Three Stars

Ryan Miller

Tim Connolly

Maxim Lapierre

My Three Stars

Roman Hamrlik (one goal, three shots, plus one)

Ryan Miller (35 saves, 95% saves)

Nathan Paetsch (one goal, plus one, two shots)

Buffalo needs to stay strong against Montreal

2009-02-06T11:53:00.004-05:00

Coming into their Friday night game against the Montreal Canadians, there has been a lot of talk lately about the Sabres being a really good team. Still they haven't been any better than .500 as of late, and beating the Maple Leafs isn't the most impressive task that there is.

Buffalo should be commended for the way that they have dealt with injuries, and for continuing to hold on, but that is all. They need to beat some good teams, and recent games against the Ducks, the Red Wings, and the Blackhawks have all resulted in losses. The Montreal Canadians however are a good team, and if Buffalo can beat them in their game Friday night then the Sabres can start talking about how good they are. Buffalo did beat the Canadians to open the season, and there is no reason why they can't do it again.

Additionally the rumor is that Spacek should be returning to play for this game, so maybe we can have a respectable lineup on defense after all.

Beating up on the Leafs

2009-02-05T11:00:00.004-05:00

The Sabres team has had wild swings between success and failure recently, and solidly destroyed the Toronto Maple Leafs 5-0 Wednesday night. Thomas Vanek lead the way with a natural hat-trick while Tim Connolly scored his fifth goal in the past five games, and Drew Stafford scored another to continue his recent success.

Ryan Miller, who did not play last game against the Ducks, got his second straight shutout, after facing only 16 shots. Toronto has rookie Justin Pogge in net, but the loss was more of a result of the poor showing by those in front of him.

Buffalo has been short on defensemen for some time now. They got some help with the return of Numminen in this game, but Rivet still looks as if he is playing hurt, and did limp off to the dressing room at one point last game, before returning and playing for around 18 minutes in the game. At a few times Buffalo used five offensive players on the powerplay, and this was probably so that they could give their depleted defense as much rest as possible.

Still over the past six games Buffalo has dominated in this 5-0 win over Toronto, a 2-0 win over Phoenix and a 10-2 win over Edmonton, but then struggled in losses to Tampa Bay, Calgary, and Anaheim. It's hard to tell if all of these injuries on defense are actually hurting the team or not.

In an odd occurrence I agree with the three stars selection for this game. Buffalo next play the Canadians at home on Friday.

Official Three Stars

Thomas Vanek

Ryan Miller

Drew Stafford

My Three Stars

Thomas Vanek (three goals, one assist, six shots)

Ryan Miller (shutout, 16 saves)

Drew Stafford (one goal, one assist, plus three)

Defenseless against the Ducks

2009-02-03T18:33:00.004-05:00

The Sabres were the better team in the first period, but allowed 20 shots against in the second, and put together very little offense in the third to lose to the Ducks.

Lalime was in net, but played very well, and kept the Sabres in the game for far longer than they should have been. Buffalo's main problem was their lack of experienced defensemen. The team was down to just Rivet and Lydman for last night, and Rivet had 12 minutes of penalties so his on ice contributions were even further limited. Until the team can get healthy Buffalo either needs to overpower their opponents with offense or they are going to lose a few games.

Kaleta had the games first goal, and played really well, in part because Anaheim plays a physical game which is one of Kaleta's strengths. The other goal came from Rivet, off of a rebound from a shot by Gaustad. Paul also had an assist on the earlier goal as well.

Official Three Stars

Chris Kunitz

Scott Niedermayer

Chris Pronger

My Three Stars

Chris Pronger (one goal, plus one, five shots)

Corey Perry (one goal, five shots)

Patrick Kaleta (one goal)

Slow and Steady wins the game

2009-02-01T12:28:00.005-05:00

Buffalo earned a boring but solid 2-0 win over the Phoenix Coyotes Saturday night. The Sabres were in control for most of the night, but were unable to really pull away at any point.

Kaleta returned to the line up for this game after being gone for some time, while Adam Mair once again sat out with a minor injury. Injuries are still a serious concern on the defense, with things getting worse and Spacek not playing past the first period. We are honestly running out of defensemen and would be greatly benefited from getting one or two back. Pominville may be on defense for next game.

Tim Connolly scored again in this game, making this his third straight game with a goal. He has played real well as of late. The other goal came from Paille, who hasn't been as reliable in the past month, but who hopefully gets things going again.

Official Three Stars

Ryan Miller

Derek Roy

Tim Connolly

My Three Stars

Ryan Miller (shutout, 28 saves)

Tim Connolly (one goal, four shots)

Daniel Paille (one goal)

An opportunity lost

2009-01-29T10:10:00.004-05:00

The Sabres lost to Calgary 5-2 but had every opportunity to win the game. Buffalo was done in by their lack of depth on defense, and Mikka Kiprusoff outplaying Ryan Miller.

Buffalo got into a hole early after a bad turnover, but were able to come back from a 2-0 hole to tie up the game going into the third period. Once there they were unable to score again, and watched Miller allow some pretty weak goals to let the game get out of hand.

Mike Cammalleri scored a hat-trick in the game, while Buffalo's best player was Tim Connolly who followed up on his two goals and assist from the day before with another goal and assist in this game.

Official Three Stars

Mike Cammalleri

Todd Bertuzzi

Miikka Kiprusoff

My Three Stars

Mike Cammalleri (three goals, six shots)

Miikka Kiprusoff (25 saves, one assist)

Tim Connolly (one goal, one assist)

10-2

2009-01-28T16:21:00.005-05:00

For this game the score really says it all. It wasn't anywhere near being close for the entity of the night. With one goal ten seconds in, and a second goal just 61 seconds later, this game was more or less done at that point.

Still the Sabres poured it on and Roy, Stafford, Connolly, and Vanek all had three points and Spacek put up and impressive plus four. The game as a whole was a complete runaway. Buffalo even scored shorthanded with a little over a minute left to get into the double digits.

Buffalo almost outscored the all star teams in this game, and that was going up against an actual defense. While the Oilers made many mistakes you still have to credit Buffalo for taking advantage of them.

This game was so close to not being shown on television and would have been a real pity to have missed. The announcers were ok, but their comment about Buffalo putting the game away through the third to go up 9-1 seemed a tad bit late. This game was over at the 1:11 mark.

Official Three Stars

Drew Stafford

Thomas Vanek

Derek Roy

My Three Stars

Drew Stafford (three goals)

Tim Connolly (two goals, one assist, plus three)

Thomas Vanek (one goal, two assists, four shots)

Badly injured on Defense

2009-01-27T12:23:00.003-05:00

Once again the Sabres are experiencing a shortage of healthy players on Defense. Tallinder, Sekera, and Numminen are all injured as well as Weber who is still in the AHL. Rivet is currently doing ok, but has been in and out of the line up quite a bit this season.

Marc-Andre Gragnani is being called up to fill in for the depleted blue line, but I'm not even sure if there is anyone after him on the depth chart. Hopefully some people get healthy soon.

Reviewing the All-Star Game

2009-01-26T15:56:00.002-05:00

The All Star Game had it's usual inflated goal total of 11-12, with the Canadians Alex Kovalev being named the game MVP. The game went to a shootout, and in overtime a penalty was called for a blatant hooking, which marked the first penalty called in an all star game in years.

Buffalo's lone representative Thomas Vanek failed to score any goals in the game and that shouldn't come as a surprise. While Vanek is one of the top goal scorers in the league, he gets most of his points by sitting in front of the crease and tipping in shots and putting away rebounds. While these are useful skills during normal hockey games, they don't translate well to the no defense no effort style played in the all-star game. Still Vanek was glad to be there.

The Sabres get back to playing on Tuesday night.

All-Stars

2009-01-25T13:15:00.002-05:00

The All-Star game is tonight, and while I can't get too excited about there is really little other hockey news to speak of.

Last night was the skills competition and young stars game. Buffalo didn't have any youngstars in the game, which is mostly a result of the teams preference to keep its younger talent in the AHL.

Most of the winners were predictable. Chara once again won the hardest shot competition, and Ovechkin was his usual fun self in the trick shot category. Kane also was decent putting in a shot using the opposite end of his stick. Campbell for the third straight year failed miserably in the fastest skater competition coming in second last in the event, and only because the other skater almost fell.

Buffalo's Vanek I guess was in the shootout competition, but I had bored of the event by that point, so I can only pass on that he didn't win.

The big game is tonight, where Vanek will become the first Austrian to play in the NHL all star game.

No games on TV, or maybe there are

2009-01-24T10:50:00.005-05:00

The next four Sabres games will not be televised. Nobody really has a clear answer why. While later games on the west coast may not be the most profitable games, MSG is certainly not loosing money on them. Furthermore while the games will be on radio, Rick Jeanneret will not be broadcasting the games, which makes it even harder to listen to.

Combined with the all-star game this means around 20 days without seeing the Sabres play hockey. While I will still have Center Ice to show Blackhawks games, and college games to go to this is whole blackout is really pointless.

At the very least couldn't MSG just broadcast the other teams feed? Really what better thing does MSG have to broadcast. I don't think I have ever watched a single thing on that channel besides Sabres games.

At the very least the rumour is that the the other teams feed will be available via atdhe.net. We will see how it goes. Still there should be no need to resort to such sites.

Update:Common sense has prevailed and the games will be on television after all. Turns out this was mostly a squabble about money.

Buffalo can't get things together in loss

2009-01-22T13:13:00.004-05:00

Buffalo had a game that they were supposed to win against the Tampa Bay Lightning, but failed to gain control of the game and lost. Buffalo went down by two early in the game, and despite a bit of a comeback were never able to tie it back up after that. In the end Tampa Bay won 5-3.

Derek Roy lead the Sabres back by scoring two goals, but Buffalo was hurt by allowing two powerplay goals in the game. While one was a five on three that was the result of two bad calls, the Sabres need to continue killing off their penalties, as that is the only real advantage that they have had over other teams as of late.

Steve Eminger had a good game for the Lightning, scoring one goal, and shutting down Buffalo's offense completely for the first and last periods. Traditionally the knock on Tampa is that they have no secondary scoring, but that wasn't true in this game as five different players scored for the Lightning, and Lecavalier and St Louis were both kept from getting a single point.

Official Three Stars

Cory Murphy

Lukas Krajicek

Derek Roy

My Three Stars

Steve Eminger (one goal, four shots)

Derek Roy (two goals, three shots)

Cory Murphy (one goal, one assist)

The game of ugly goals

2009-01-20T00:48:00.005-05:00

The goals that were scored in this game were all around ugly, not a single one of them should have found the back of the net. Still Buffalo was able to prevail in the shootout against a team that is right behind them in the standings.

The scoring opened with David Booth scoring on a penalty shot, which while it doesn't really count was really the right call by the refs. Mid way through the second period it was beginning to look like neither team would score.

The comes in Tim Connolly who finished the game with the fun state line of one goal and zero shots. After nicking the corner of the puck in a failed attempt to control a rebound the Panthers then passed the puck through the crease, off of the defender and the goalie and into the net. Officially it went into the books as a wrist shot which is perhaps what Lydman took when he shot the puck half a minute earlier.

Vanek then gave Buffalo a lead on the powerplay after he hacked at the puck a few to score on his birthday. Horton came back to tie the game on a Florida powerplay with might have been the only goal in the entire game to come off of a legitimate shot.

In the shootout Kotalik did his thing going to the backhand, and Miller stopped both of the attempts at his end including another shoot by Booth. Then true to how the game went Roy messed up just as he was approaching the net, but was able to watch as the puck slowly drifted five hole and into the net to give the Sabres the win.

Official Three Stars

Ales Kotalik

Ryan Miller

David Booth

My Three Stars

David Booth (one goal, one assist, seven shots)

Ryan Miller (27 saves plus both in the shootout)

Tim Connolly (for scoring without shooting)

Buffalo handles Carolina

2009-01-19T13:06:00.002-05:00

Buffalo earned a 3-1 win over the Carolina Hurricanes Saturday night, winning a game that they were supposed to win. Buffalo was in control throughout the game, and Tim Connolly stole the show by netting two goals.

Buffalo returned to form by killing off all five of their penalties in the game. Teppo Numminen also scored a goal, but the downside is that he took a puck to the face and is hurt badly.

Official Three Stars

Tim Connolly

Ryan Miller

Thomas Vanek

My Three Stars

Tim Connolly (two goals, plus two, five shots)

Teppo Numminen (one goal, plus one)

Ryan Miller (36 saves on 37 shots)

Goose leads comeback against the Stars

2009-01-16T17:10:00.005-05:00

The Sabres came out flat to start the game and quickly found themselves down 3-0 to the Dallas Stars. However the Sabres came back, lead by Paul Gaustad to eventually win the game in the shootout.

The turnaround was twice the result of Gaustad's effort in this game. The Goose got the Sabres first goal. Then after Buffalo looked to have ruined their comeback chances after going down 4-2, Gaustad scored again to bring Buffalo right back into the game. After that there was little doubt that the Sabres would be able to complete the comeback. Buffalo did, and while they outplayed the Stars at the end of the game and in overtime, they were unable to win before the shootout.

In the shootout, two very good goalies were in, as was showed by the inability of both teams to score. Buffalo did win after six rounds, with Miller stopping five of the six shots against him.

Still not everything went well for the Sabres in this game. Dallas' first two goals both came on the powerplay, and the third right after another powerplay had just expired. Buffalo had been very good down a man until this game. Not only did the Sabres allow goals against, but they never really looked as if they had control, and gave the Stars multiple chances to score. Allowing Ott to walk in almost uncovered was a huge mistake, and how you don't expect them to press when up a player is inexcusable.

Official Three Stars

Paul Gaustad

Steve Ott

Trevor Daley

My Three Stars

Paul Gaustad (two goals, 8 for 10 on faceoffs)

Jason Pominville (two assists, five shots, shootout goal, plus two)

Steve Ott (one goal, one assist)

Outworked by Chicago

2009-01-15T11:18:00.005-05:00

As the Sabres took on my favorite team in the West, they got off to a good start with an early goal by Kotalik. However poor goaltending and an inability to produce on the powerplay cost Buffalo the game.

Lalime looked very bad in net, and allowed a number of goals by him that he really shouldn't have. While he is the second string guy, this should have been a winnable game for the Sabres and letting in that many soft goals ruined the chances for the team.

Not that the rest of the Sabres were playing all that well either. With the notable exceptions of Henrik Tallinder, and Tim Connolly nobody was willing to shoot the puck. The Sabres were given a six minute powerplay (which is weird in and of itself), but were only able to generate a single shot on net during that entire stretch. While Chicago does have one of the better penalty kill units in the league, that is no excuse for Buffalo to do that poorly.

The game was full of fights and confrontations usually surrounding Gaustad and Stafford. The goose actually had a pretty good game, disrupting the Blackhawks flow and finishing the night plus one with two shots on net.

Instead of the high flying Blackhawks the Sabres get to play the struggling Stars on Thursday night. Hopefully that is enough of a chance that they can actually take advantage of it.

Official Three Stars

Cristobal Huet

Jonathan Toews

Matt Walker

My Three Stars

Jonathan Toews (one goal, one assist, plus two)

Martin Havlat (one goal, plus one)

Ales Kotalik (one goal, plus one in the loss)

Around the blogs

2009-01-13T12:44:00.003-05:00

Sabres have a bit of a break in their schedule, which gives us a chance to look around and see what everyone else is saying. Die by the Blade has a look at everyone that has departed from the Sabres over the past two seasons, including Brian Campbell who the Sabres will play against for the first time on Wednesday.

Also wanted to point out the amusing NHLOL where our picture of "secret agent Roy" comes from.

Also an early look at the playoff picture that shows the Sabres of having a 64.1% chance of making the playoffs. For a less number heavy version Mirtle has once again started his playoff push where Buffalo currently has to finish with a 21-18-1 record to get in.

Detroit overruns Buffalo

2009-01-11T16:32:00.003-05:00

The Sabres really got overrun by Detroit in their 3-1 loss. Buffalo got outshot 48-22 in the game. Yet Miller put in one of his best performances, and almost stole a second straight game.

The Sabres scored the games first goal, but there was no question throughout the entire game that the Red Wings were the better team. The only difference was Miller, who was able to hold onto Buffalo's lead for a long while, before finally letting some by at the end of the third.

Detroit also dominated on faceoffs, winning an impressive 65%, with not a single Sabre finishing the game with a winning percentage.

Official Three Stars

Mikael Samuelsson

Ryan Miller

Johan Franzen

My Three Stars

Mikael Samuelsson (one goal, one assist, plus two, four shots)

Ryan Miller (45 saves, and the only reason the game was close)

Jiri Hudler (one goal, one assist, plus two)

Miller wins in the shootout

2009-01-10T11:17:00.004-05:00

While Ryan Miller is a good goalie, the knock against him seems to be that he doesn't steal games and win them on his own. However last night he did just that, as the Sabres were only able to score one point, but earned a win through Miller's strong play.

Buffalo started out the game real well, then gave up a goal and played poorly for a long stretch of time. Then a quick turnover forced by Vanek got Buffalo a goal, and then they played well enough in the third and overtime to get to the shootout. Like he had all game Miller once again came through in the shootout, saving all three of the shots at his net.

The game had almost no penalties, with only two called against the Sabres and none against the Rangers. Buffalo killed off both of their shorthanded situations.

Tim Connolly was back, and while he didn't make the score sheet he played well. He may even be healthy enough to play again as the Sabres take on the Detroit Red Wings Saturday night.

Official Three Stars

Ryan Miller

Derek Roy

Scott Gomez

My Three Stars

Ryan Miller (43 saves and 3 for 3 in the shootout)

Thomas Vanek (forced the turnover for lone Buffalo goal)

Derek Roy (one goal, 4 shots, 10 of 15 on faceoffs)

Vanek named to the All Star team

2009-01-09T14:18:00.002-05:00

Thomas Vanek was named to the All Star team which really shouldn't be much of a surprise to anyone. If you had to pick one player from the team to go, how could it not be him. That said the all star game is a joke, so it doesn't really matter much anyhow.

The more interesting thing is the AHL all star game where the Portland Pirates got in two players in Mark Mancari and Tim Kennedy. If either of them will be in the NHL at the time of the game is yet to be seen, but that's what happens when you have an all star game in a minor league.

A belated look at the Winter Classic

2009-01-08T07:36:00.002-05:00

Once again this new years day the NHL staged an outside game for the second year in a row. The game was quite different from outdoor games of the past, with the ice conditions actually good, and the weather ideal for the event. This allowed it to become a high scoring affair with Detroit making the comeback to win 6-4.

As I predicted the game was well watched in the Buffalo area, with the market just behind those that actually had teams playing in the game.

For a look at where the game may go in the future things haven't changed much from last year, but right now the leading contender looks to be Boston which really wouldn't be that bad of a choice. Still I wish the event could stay in Buffalo, as I am sure the city would be able to support it on a yearly basis.

I still feel that Baseball venues are ill suited for this type of event, but they made it work. Just 357 days until the next time the NHL plays outdoors.

Buffalo wins third straight

2009-01-07T02:53:00.002-05:00

Buffalo won their third straight game with a 4-2 victory over the struggling Senators. The Sabres started out strong, and despite a small collapse midway through the second period they were able to hang on to the win.

Ellis scored just fifteen seconds into the game to give Buffalo the early lead. This was Ellis' fourth goal of the season and his third in the past two games. Drew Stafford then scored another goal late in the first, and then Roy got a fluke goal early in the second to give Buffalo an early 3-0 lead.

This was not however until after Jarkko Ruutu decided to bite Andrew Peters finger. Fortunately Peters had his glove on so he wasn't too hurt, but that was still a tad ridiculous. Then to add insult to injury the only penalty on the play went to Peters who didn't really do anything, and backed out after Ruutu chomped down on his finger. The refs instead mostly pretended that nothing happened, which then forced them to break up skirmishes the rest of the game between two teams that already do not like each other. Hopefully the Senators take a hint from Dallas and keep Ruutu out of the NHL permanently, but we already know that they are not a classy organization.

Ottawa almost came back as Jason Spezza scored two goals just 32 seconds apart seven minutes into the second period. The first one was a bit of a fluke that Miller let bounce off of him and trickle in, while the second was scored on a breakaway. Buffalo however held onto their slim lead and got a fourth goal when Stafford set up Vanek for an empty netter.

The powerplay for both teams was rather weak in this game, with the only the empty netter coming with the man advantage. While Buffalo has had a good penatly kill all season, had they been able to put up an extra point earlier it would have gone a long ways towards giving them an easy win.

Official Three Stars

Derek Roy

Jason Spezza

Ryan Miller

My Three Stars

Jason Spezza (two goals)

Derek Roy (one goal, two assists, plus two)

Drew Stafford (one goal, one assist, plus two, should have been given another assist on Roy's goal)

Canada and the Tylers win gold

2009-01-06T20:52:00.001-05:00

Team Canada won it's fifth straight world juniors with a lopsided 5-1 victory over Sweden. Canada's final two goals were both empty netters, but this game really was not close at any point. Joining Team Canada in the victory were Buffalo Sabres prospects Tyler Myers and Tyler Ennis.

Myers played very solidly on defense for Canada. He used his size to his advantage and played well on the top penalty kill unit. It really will not be long until he will be in the NHL with Buffalo, or at least with their AHL affiliate.

Expected number one draft pick John Tavares lead the tournament in goals, and looked impressive on the ice. However in his post game interview he sounded like an idiot, and I'm not convinced that I would want him on my team. Canadian teammate P.K. Subban seemed to be a much more likable player, but is already been drafted by a northeast rival, so that may not work out as well.

Buffalo pulls off win over Boston

2009-01-05T13:10:00.002-05:00

Once again the Sabres have been a streaky team this season, but were able to pull off a 4-2 victory over the very good Boston Bruins. The team was lead unexpectedly by Matt Ellis who had two goals and an assist in this game.

I really haven't been a fan of Ellis this season, and would rather see the roster spot go to one of our talents in the AHL. However Ellis has been better since he was last recalled from Portland. He was the obvious star of this game, and may go to show that management knew what they were doing when they claimed him from the Kings.

The other Sabres goals came from Paul Gaustad and Thomas Vanek, and then an impressive third period by Ryan Miller to keep the Bruins from coming back into the game.

Official Three Stars

Matt Ellis

Jason Pominville

Milan Lucic

My Three Stars

Matt Ellis (two goals, one assist, plus three)

Paul Gaustad (one goal, four shots, 10 of 15 on faceoffs)

Ryan Miller (29 saves)

The Winter Classic enters its second year

2009-01-01T09:08:00.003-05:00

While Buffalo does not have the same excitement for this years version of the ice bowl, this is still a major event on the NHL calendar. The Chicago Blackhawks will host the Detroit Red Wings at Wrigley Field.

While Buffalo is not involved, and is actually playing later today against Toronto, there is still plenty of reasons to be interested in this game. For one these type of events do not happen all too often, although Ty Conklin always seems to be involved. This is Conklin's third outdoor NHL game, making him the only player to go three for three. Secondly after dismissing the game as the "fucking stupid ice bowl" Campbell is back to telling the media how awesome the idea is, and how much fun he is going to be having at the event.

Detroit is a very good team (they are the defending champions), but I will be rooting for Chicago, who has put together a very good past month themselves. I have mentioned by support for the Blackhawks before, they are a very good and very likeable team.

Last season I looked at where the Winter Classic might go next, and Chicago was an option, although I was thinking of their football stadium rather than a baseball field. Baseball fields are a bit different, and it is likely that some of the seats will be very far away and have almost no view of the rink. Overall I think the event would have been better served if it had simply stayed in Buffalo, but it will be interesting to see how long it takes to finally come back.

A few things to watch for in this game, first the ice conditions had a huge effect on the ending last time. Both goals were scored at the very beginning of the periods when the ice was in better shape. Both players who scored in that game were also traded away before the end of the season, expect that not to repeat itself. Watch for Ty Conklin to be in his third ever outdoor game, which is rather lucky. Also tomorrow look and see what the TV ratings in the Buffalo area are. My guess is that they will continue to be high, as the region remembers last years event with pride.

Tyler and Tyler take on the world

2008-12-26T10:02:00.002-05:00

Starting today is the World Juniors in Ottawa Canada. Playing for the hometown favorites are both of the Sabres first round picks from this draft, Tyler Myers and Tyler Ennis. Both of them play in the WHL, but this may be their first real chance to play together, and hopefully will be sign of things to come for when they move up to the Sabres organization.

Myers (who is ridiculously tall) and Ennis (who is relatively short) are both be playing for team Canada. As in most international hockey tournaments the Canadians are favoured to win.

The Buffalo Sabres play the Washington Capitals tonight in their first game since the Christmas break.

Merry Christmas

2008-12-25T08:19:00.004-05:00

"...and I heard him exclaim as he pulled out of sight, Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good night!"

Again Buffalo losses in OT

2008-12-23T13:55:00.001-05:00

Buffalo lost their second straight game in overtime in a 4-3 loss to the Pittsburgh Penguins. It was a rather slow game, which was odd, but the Sabres took an early 2-0 lead. While the Penguins tied it up, Buffalo took a 3-2 lead into the third.

However in the third period Buffalo took it first penalty of the game and immediatly gave up a goal. This ended their incredible streak of four on five play at 74 minutes and 48 seconds, and lost them the game. Buffalo did moderatly well on their own powerplay with a go ahead goal from MacArthur, but had many more chances then Pittsburgh.

In overtime the Sabres looked completely overwhelmed and at no time had control of the game. Crosby quickly scored to finish the game off. His stick may have been a bit high, but given how Buffalo was playing at that point, it was bound to happen anyhow.

Despite ending the game with eight shots, Vanek failed to score and ended the game minus three. Kotalik did much better, and besides his breakaway goal, also earned an assist. Malkin did not earn a goal in this game, but contributed with three assists. The best player in the game however was Alex Goligoski who had two goal and one assist for Pittsburgh.

The Buffalo Sabres are now done until Christmas. Their next game is on Boxing day against the Washington Capitals.

Official Three Stars

Alex Goligoski

Clarke MacArthur

Ales Koalik

My Three Stars

Alex Goligoski (two goals, one assist)

Ales Kotalik (one goal, one assist, plus two)

Sidney Crosby (game winner in overtime)

Killing off the penalties

2008-12-22T11:49:00.002-05:00

It is almost as if taking a penalty is not a problem for the Sabres anymore. Buffalo has become so good at penalty killing that it almost isn't even an oppertuity for the other team any more. The only real concern for Buffalo shorthanded is that they don't take a second penalty and go down two players. Even in five on three situations Buffalo has been impressive, notably killing of a full two minutes of five on three to win a close game against Pittsuburgh a little over a week ago. Yet when you look at the actual stats the Sabres are doing even better then they seem to be.

The last time Buffalo allowed a five on four goal against was before Thanksgiving. If they can kill off their penalties tonight then they will have spanned the entire holiday season without allowing a five on four goal. The last time Buffalo gave up a five on four goal was 14 games ago when the Islanders' Mark Streit scored an empty netter with two seconds left in the game.

Going into tonights game Buffalo has not allowed a goal against in their last 74 minutes and six seconds of five on four play. Nor is this even a new trend as Buffalo was the second last team in the league to give up a powerplay goal of any kind to start the season. Also this streak has involved games against some very good powerplays teams in Pittsuburgh and Montreal.

Perhaps that is how the Sabres can win this year. The ability to not give up that one more goal is certainly a factor in the close games. Tonight the penalty kill will have a rough time as they have to go up against the combination of Crosby and Malkin. Still if they can hold out, it greatly increases Buffalo oppertunity to win.

An Overtime Loss to Montreal

2008-12-21T14:05:00.005-05:00

The Buffalo Sabres played well for most of the game, but ended up losing 4-3 late into overtime. Buffalo scored a powerplay goal, and did ok killing off their own penalties but were scored on during both a five on three and a four on three opportunity by the Canadians.

Despite the loss Miller looked good for the second straight game in a row. Afinogenov was called up to take the place of the seriously injured Kaleta. Max spent most of his ice time with Peters and Ellis and didn't really have much of a chance to make a real difference in the game.

Buffalo was without Patrick Kaleta who is out with what appears to be a serious injury. In his place Afinogenov played, but was with the fourth line and had little help and little ice time.

As far as losses go this one was not as bad as it could have been, as at least the team earned a point for a tie. Of course last year the Sabres startd a ten game losing streak around this time last year, and the few ties in that didn't end up doing the team any good.

Buffalo once again has a quick turnaround as they play their third game in four days against Pittsburgh on Monday night.

Official Three Stars

Sergei Kostitsyn

Steve Begin

Ryan Miller

My Three Stars

Sergei Kostitsyn (two goals)

Alex Kovalev (one goal, one assist, eight shots)

Teppo Numminen (two assists, plus two)

As Easy Win over Los Angeles

2008-12-20T12:20:00.001-05:00

The Sabres got what may have been their easiest win of the year in a 5-0 victory over the Los Angeles Kings. The Sabres scored goal after goal on the luckiest and most random bounces. Meanwhile the Kings were shutout by good play from both the defense, and Ryan Miller.

Matt Ellis and Chris Butler were brought up from Portland for this game, and both played well. Afinogenov and Paetsch were sat out to make room for them, while Gaustad is out short term with an injury. This was Butler's first NHL game, and got an assist when the rebound from one of his shots bounced right to Adam Mair.

Bringing up Ellis was an odd choice as Kennedy or Mancari could have been called up instead. Still Ellis played well, and scored his first goal of the season.

The Sabres are back on the road as they play against Montreal Saturday night.

Official Three Stars

Ryan Miller

Derek Roy

Adam Mair

My Three Stars

Ryan Miller (shutout, 40 saves)

Derek Roy (one goal, two assists)

Chris Butler (one assist, plus two in NHL debut)

A loss to the Devils

2008-12-19T00:14:00.004-05:00

The Sabres lost their game to the New Jersey Devils on Wednesday night. A loss that came with little explanation beyond not having Gerbe or Rivet ready to play. Still while decent, the Devils are not one of the league's top teams and Buffalo has no excuse for allowing five goals against.

The Sabres did ok for the most part in this game, but made a few too many big mistakes. Buffalo was also unable to capitalize on any of their powerplay chances.

Official Three Stars

David Clarkson

Patrik Elias

Patrick Kaleta

My Three Stars

David Clarkson (one goal, one assist)

Jamie Langenbrunner (two assists, four shots)

Drew Stafford (one goal, plus one in the loss)

Gerbe out as Kaleta returns

2008-12-17T00:19:00.003-05:00

Little Sabre Nathan Gerbe is out for about two weeks with an upper body injury. He played very well during his time up in the NHL, and will be missed. It should be interesting to see if he is sent to the AHL once he gets healthy or if he stays up. Most likely there will be some other factors involved in that decision.

Patrick Kaleta on the other hand is returning from injury and will be back playing with the Sabres again in their next game on Wednesday night against the New Jersey Devils again.

The Blackhawks had an interesting game last night in a win over the Edmonton Oilers. Chicago won the game 9-2 in which the Blackhawks had 8 different players score and 15 of their 18 skaters had a point. In the beginning of the third period Ducan Keith scored a shorthanded goal to bring Chicago's lead to 8-1, at which point there was really little point to even playing the rest of the game.

Rivet out for a while

2008-12-16T11:11:00.003-05:00

Defenseman Craig Rivet, the Sabres Captain will be out for a minimum of two weeks. This is to deal with a shoulder injury that has been bothering him. While he has been playing injured for a few games he has decided that he is better off sitting out until he can be fully healed.

This is probably the right decision. The fact that he was playing injured has been noticeable the past few games, and while he still did well, you could tell that he was not at 100%. Hopefully he can come back soon and be better than ever.

The downside of course is that the Sabres will have to play a number of games without him. Buffalo has done significantly better when they have Rivet in the lineup, so there is a chance that they may struggle a bit for the next few games.

A Big win over New Jersey

2008-12-15T13:01:00.004-05:00

The Sabres got a big win over the New Jersey Devils Saturday night, as they won the game 4-2. Thomas Vanek scored two goals, including the 10,000 goal in franchise history.

Stafford also scored, the shot was very similar to the wide open net he had missed just the night before. This was set up when Nathan Gerbe shot on net, and the puck rebounded right to Stafford. This resulted in Gerbe's first point of his still short NHL career.

The game was also significant for being a comeback. Buffalo was down 2-1 midway through the game, but were able to score three straight to take a commanding lead.

The Devils goals came from Elias and Holik.

Official Three Stars

Thomas Vanek

Derek Roy

Patrik Elias

My Three Stars

Thomas Vanek (two goals, four shots)

Derek Roy (one goal, one assist)

Bobby Holik (one goal, six wins one loss on faceoffs)

A Disappointing Loss

2008-12-13T11:07:00.005-05:00

The Sabres were the better team in this game, and should have found a way to win. Instead they repeatedly failed to hit the back of the net and ended up losing to the Toronto Maple Leafs 2-1.

The Sabres controlled most of the game, but missed many good chances. Stafford had a wide open net that he was unable to hit, Afinogenov had two great opportunities that he put straight into the goalie's pads, and Vanek was unable to even get the puck on net half of the time. Buffalo's lone goal came from Lydman who scored for the first time all season.

Pominville had six shots on net, and Gerbe, Roy, and Stafford all ended up as plus one on the night. Still they need more offense if they wanted to win. Both of Toronto's goals came on very nice shots, but given the chances that Buffalo had they have nobody to blame for this loss but themselves.

Official Three Stars

Vesa Toskala

Mikhail Grabovski

Lee Stempniak

My Three Stars

Lee Stempniak (one assist, plus two)

Toni Lydman (one goal, plus one in the loss)

Jeremy Williams (one goal, three shots)