Heading in the wrong direction

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)

Shutout by Philadelphia

The Buffalo Sabres played better in this game, but once again were unable to win. However, while they finally turned their game around defensively they were unable to score at all. Statistically they looked good outshooting the Flyers 40-25, but most of these were low quality shots, or an absolute inability to score with the two man advantage.

Buffalo had two longish five on three opportunities, but were unable to score one both of them. Had they turned both of these chances into goals then they at least would have made it to overtime. At least the Sabres generated chances and had a good penalty kill.

The two goals that did not go into an empty net both were the result of careless mistakes by the defense. On the first goal both Numminen and Rivet should have gotten back and had Hartnell covered. The second goal was the result of a failed clearing attempt and Roy and Stafford refusing to play any defense.

Lindy Ruff mixed up the lines a lot for this game, putting Paetsch in on defense for Tallinder, and benching Afinogenov. Also by putting Kotalik on IR the team was able to bring up Mark Mancari from the AHL. Why Afinogenov was sat out instead of Peters, Roy and Stafford is beyond me. Why Roy keeps getting ice time is beyond me. That should instead go to players that are having a good season like Mair, Kaleta, and MacArthur.

Mancari played very well in his first NHL game of the season, and drew a large number of penalties and was tied for the highest number of shots in the game. Buffalo had a solid second line whenever Mancari and Gaustad were on the ice together.

Buffalo has another chance to stage their comeback tonight against the struggling Islanders.

Official Three Stars

Marty Biron

Jeff Carter

Mark Mancari

My Three Stars

Marty Biron (shutout, 40 saves)

Mark Mancari (five shots, three drawn penalties, no goals against)

Jeff Carter (two goals, plus two)

Still Failing in the Shootout

The Sabres blew an early three goal lead to lose 4-3 in the shootout. Coming into this game the Sabres' opponent the Philadelphia Flyers had the worst shootout record in the league. Yet once again one the shootout started the Sabres were unable to score.

Kotalik continued to be the best for Buffalo in the skills competition and scored on his chance, however Connolly fumbled the puck straight into Biron's stick, and Roy just completely failed to hit the puck on his shot. You can swing the stick all you want, but it's got to come into contact with the puck at some point. Miller was ok on the other end, but really shouldn't have let Briere score on him. Also, where was Henrick Tallinder?

Once again alot of the goals against came from mental breakdowns in a game that the Sabres really needed to win. Only seconds after getting their third goal, the Sabres gave up a breakaway to Jeff Carter who scored on a nice shot to the top corner.

The Sabres first two goals in the game did look pretty, with Roy proving that good things happen when you throw the puck at the net, and MacArthur getting set up real nicely from Connolly and Pominville just eleven seconds later. Paille ended the game minus one, but looked to be one of the better Sabres players on the night. Rookie Gragani once again only got around six minutes of ice time during the game, but seemed to get half of it during overtime and twice almost prevented the shootout from ever happening.

The officiating in this game was really bad. There were calls all over the place that really left everyone on the ice wondering what was going on. It didn't really have anything to do with why the Sabres lost, but it made the game really hard to watch.

Official Three Stars

Jason Pominville

Scott Hartnell

Jaroslav Spacek

My Three Stars

Jeff Carter (one goal, six shots, and a goal in the shootout)

Jason Pominville (one goal, one assist, plus three)

Mike Knuble (two assists)

Sabres Beat Flyers Again

Buffalo once again beat Briere's Flyers, but this time in more dramatic fashion as the Sabres won the game 6-5 in a shootout. The Sabres scored the game tying goal with only seven seconds left in regulation, then killed of three minutes of penalties in overtime to get the win in the shootout.

After a close first period in which the teams exchanged goals, Buffalo took a solid 3-1 lead early in the second. This was followed by a series of powerplay opportunities that backfired, as Buffalo allowed two quick shorthanded goals to let the Flyers back into the game. Buffalo scored on a five on three quickly afterwards to retake the lead, but then Philly got a five on three goal of their own at the end of a penalty prone second period (combined twenty min of penalties, all minors).

In the third period the Flyers got out to an early one point lead, and stayed there until Thomas Vanek deflected a shot from Jochen Hecht past Marty Biron to tie the game. After a scoreless overtime, Kotalik got a goal for the Sabres beating Biron with a wrist shot to his glove side. On the other end of the ice Ryan Miller stopped all three of Philly's shots to secure the victory for Buffalo.

The Sabres have now won a season high six straight games. Next game is on Boxing Day against the Ottawa Senators.

Official Three Stars

Mike Richards

Jeff Carter

Jason Pominville

My Three Stars

Jason Pominville (four points on the night)

Ales Kotalik (one goal, one assist, plus one, and the shootout win)

Mike Richards (three points including two goals)

Sabres Beat Flyers

The Buffalo Sabres defeated the Flyers 3-2. Former Sabre Daniel Briere was minus two in the game and held without any points. Buffalo was lead by the increasingly dependable Jochan Hecht who scored the game winning goal with only 2:51 remaining in the game. The other Sabres goal were by Drew Stafford and Ales Kotalik. Both Miller and former Sabres Marty Biron played well throughout the game.

Rematch Saturday night back down in Philly...

Official Three Stars

Jaroslav Spacek

Brian Campbell

Daniel Paille

My Three Stars

Jochan Hecht (game winning goal)

Jaroslav Spacek (two assists and a big hit on Briere)

Jeff Carter (plus one with a goal in the loss)