Zednik retuns to hockey

After getting his neck slashed open seven months ago, Zednik is ready to play another season. This was by far the worst injury that the NHL saw last season, and it's good to know that he is doing all right and will be returning. He does however plan on wearing a neck guard this season, similar to the one that Tallinder started wearing after Zednik got cut.

Tallinder looking after his own neck

Over the past few games Henrik Tallinder has been wearing a neck guard to further protect himself. I can't find a picture right now, but it appears as if is something relatively small that is built into his underarmour than as a separate piece of equipment. Such things are a required in most european leagues (where Tallinder is from) and are considered to be rather effective.

However most NHL players don't use them, and considering the rareness of neck injuries in the league most feel perfectly safe not wearing them. However after seeing Zednik's neck get split open in a game a few weeks ago, Tallinder probably decided that a little extra protection would probably be a good thing. Hopefully he stays healthy, because the Sabres need him more than ever on the blue line.

Sabres win game tainted by serious injury

The Sabres beat the Florida Panthers 5-3 to continue their push towards the playoffs. The Sabres came through despite some big mistakes, and saw the first NHL goal for Patrick Kaleta. However in the end the game was largely overshadowed by a skate blade cutting Richard Zednik across the neck.

Midway through the third period, Jokinen fell after being checked in the corner, and had his skates fly up and hit Zednik. Zednik skated himself over to the bench immediately, while leaving a huge trail of blood across the ice. Reports from Buffalo General Hospital indicate that he is doing ok. However this was a very serious injury, that is very rare in sports. After the incident, there was some question over if the game would be resumed or not, although after a long delay it eventually was.

As for the game itself, things went pretty good for the Sabres. The Sabres were shockingly 3 for 4 on the powerplay (with thanks to Roy who got two). The Sabres were the better team all night long, but were not always rewarded for their chances as they finished the first down, 1-0 and saw too many posts, while they had fluke goals being scored against them.

Buffalo got its first point of the game early in the second on the first ever NHL goal for Patrick Kaleta. Glad to see him get rewarded like that, and continue to prove that he deserves a spot ahead of Peters. Peters interestingly enough had an assist on that goal, which was his first point this season. Kaleta also has an AHL point this year, and had five goals in the AHL last season.

In the final minute of the second and the first minute of the third the Sabres gave up two goals to blow their 3-1 lead, and began to scare fans as things started to look like last weeks meltdown against the Bruins. However the nights second Roy powerplay goal regave the Sabres the lead, which the held onto and then added to later.

Official Three Stars

Derek Roy

Jason Pominville

Patrick Kaleta

My Three Stars

Derek Roy (two powerplay goals)

Brian Campbell (three assists)

Patrick Kaleta (first NHL point)

Buffalo hands Panthers a win on a Platter

Theoretically the Sabres are a much better team then the Panthers. Buffalo really should have won this game, but that would require them to actually show up. The Sabres had a few stretches in which they massively outplayed Florida, but they were unable to score on these opportunities, and followed them with catastrophic Defensive breakdowns.

Thibault actually played rather well, but just got no help on the night. A bit more of a back check was really needed in this game, as too often Buffalo's defensive was just outnumbered deep in their zone, for no apparent reason. On the few offensive opportunities the Sabres put far too many pucks wide of the net.

Pratt looked ok in his first game with Buffalo, but was by and large just average in his play. He was in for Spacek who presumably re-aggravated his prior injury in the game last night.

The line of Vanek and Afinogenov was on the ice for were both on the ice for three goals against, and their linemate Roy has been putting up some very poor defensive numbers all season long. You need to play both ways. After leading the league in plus minus last season Vanek is at -4 so far this year.

Official Three Stars

Richard Zednik

Jozef Stumpel

Stephen Weiss

My Three Stars

Richard Zednik (two goals)

Jozef Stumpel (assisted on both the Zednik goals)

Radek Dvorak (got the games first goal)