Sabres continue to play well

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.

Possibly the end

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)

Sabres stay alive with Win

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)

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)

Buffalo beats Tampa Bay again

While the Sabres just played Tampa Bay last week, they earned yet another win against the Lightning with a 4-2 win. As was seen last time, these teams do not appear to like each other as four fighting majors were given out to four different players in this game.

Buffalo excelled in the non-even strength areas of this game. They scored two of their goals on the powerplay. The Sabres were also able to kill off all of Tampa Bay's opportunities, and even scored an empty net shorthanded goal.

Vanek was on fire again this game, scoring two goals to bring his season total up to a lead leading 22 after 28 games. This puts him on pace for an impressive 64 goals on the year.

Official Three Stars

Thomas Vanek

Ryan Miller

Jason Pominville

My Three Stars

Thomas Vanek (two goals)

Jason Pominville (one goal, two assists)

Jochen Hecht (one assist, three shots, plus two)

Sabres outscore Tampa Bay

The Buffalo Sabres have finally won a game after holding onto a 4-3 victory over the Tampa Bay Lightning. This was a high scoring game, and despite the many penalties, every goal was scored during five on five play.

Stafford scored the first goal of the game, off of an assist from Gaustad. St Louis tied it up just a few minutes later. The same thing happened in the second period, with Buffalo twice scoring, and Tampa Bay both times quickly making it up.

In the third period Derek Roy scored, and the Sabres were able to prevent the Lightning from coming back this time.

This was an aggressive game with three fights in it. I was unaware of any hostility between these teams, but there appeared to be some in this game. The final fight of the night was the most unlikely between Jochen Hecht and Vincent Lecavalier. This is the first time that either of them got into a fight this season, and only Hecht's third fight in his career.

This was Nathan Gerbe's first NHL game, and he looked good throughout. While he had no points on the night he was on the ice for the Sabres first goal, and their game winner in the third, while not being on the ice for any goals against. The one penalty that was called against him, was a bad call, so his game was largely mistake free. He showed aggression and tied Stafford for the most shots on net for any of the Sabres in this game. He also won the single faceoff that he took in this game.

Buffalo next plays on Monday against the Penguins.

Official Three Stars

Derek Roy

Drew Stafford

Martin St Louis

My Three Stars

Drew Stafford (one goal, two assists, plus three, four shots)

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

Martin St Louis (one goal, one assist, plus three)

Finally a win (with thanks to Derek Roy)

The Sabres change to the slugless jerseys has appeared to work, as the team finally wins a game. Furthermore this 3-2 win came against the best team in the East after Buffalo failed to beat two of the conferences weaker teams.

Tallinder and Afinogenov both returned to the lineup for this game as Paetsch and a sick Paille both sat out. Both played well, including Tallinder who never should have really been out anyhow. Mancari, the newest Sabres, didn't have quite as good of a game without being on a line with Gaustad, but won for the first time since he got called up.

Roy played an excellent game, scoring the first two goals almost all by himself. The other Sabre goal was scored by Jochen Hecht shorthanded, and turned out to be the game winner.

The game had alot of hits with Kaleta named the third star after getting an astounding 8 hits, but still had less then Boston's Milan Lucic who had nine in the game.

Hopefully this game is not the exception, as Buffalo has two more games against good opponents in Pittsburgh and Montreal this weekend.

Official Three Stars

Derek Roy

Jason Pominville

Patrick Kaleta

My Three Stars

Derek Roy (two goals, plus two)

Matt Hunwick (one goal, plus one)

Jochen Hecht (shorthanded goal)

Hecht returns to health

Jochen Hecht will return to the Sabres lineup after being out a few weeks with an injury to his hand. While this is good news, it is also a problem as Hecht coming off of IR will put the Sabres over the roster limit with 24 players.

Only three players can be sent to Portland without needing to clear waivers, and they are Clarke MacArthur, Drew Stafford, and Andre Sekera. In preseason MacArthur would have been sent down, but he has played very well for Buffalo so far and is fifth on the team in points and second in goals to only league leader Thomas Vanek. Sekera has been solid as well, so of those players the one most likely to be sent down is Stafford.

More likely is that one of the team's current scratches will try to clear waivers instead. Paetsch, the team's seventh defenseman is no better then Portland's Mike Weber, but the drop off is a bit steep after that, and the two of them already found themselves both playing already in this early season. Paetsch would almost positively get taken by another team so keeping him is in Buffalo's best interest. Peters may be able to make it through waivers but is clearly better than Matt Ellis. Does anyone really care if the team losses Ellis to waivers? Are we not better off if Gerbe or Kennedy or Mancari get a few occasional starts with Buffalo instead? The obvious solution is to let Ellis go and hope that someone does take him.

It is also possible that nobody will need to be sent to Portland as guess who is injured? While the injury may not be serious enough to put him on IR, it may as well be done now, as it is just going to have to happen by the end of the weekend otherwise. Two straight games already exceed any expectations that anyone had for him.

Captain Rivet?

Today Lindy Ruff named Craig Rivet as captain of the Buffalo Sabres. For the Sabre I know the least about to be named captain is a move that nobody expected, including Rivet himself. The selection was the result of the players choice, which early last season resulted in Hecht being captain in October.

Rivet is a bit of a surprise as he has never played for Buffalo before, but did well in the preseason, and was given the captains role from time to time there as well.

The Sabres also named four alternative captains, which will rotate on a home and away basis. They are Jason Pominville, Teppo Numminen, Jaroslav Spacek, and Jochen Hecht. None of whose selection is surprising, except for the fact that there are so many of them.

This also results in a shift towards the defense as three of the five captains are defensemen, which is not only odd because the role of captain usually goes to an offensive player, but also because a typical roster has twice as many offensive players to begin with.

Sabres still need a captain

Last season I tried to anticipate who the team would pick as captain, and was completely off picking Connolly and Campbell. Instead the Sabres went with a rotating captaincy, and besides Campbell who is no longer on the team, the obvious captain appeared to be Hecht and Pominville.

Despite the assumption that the Sabres will stick with a rotating captain, I think it is likely that they will not do so for this season. I think the pattern that we saw before with Lindy Ruff and the Sabres will hold true, in that after a single year of a rotating captain, that Ruff will pick from those who were captain during that time, and give them the full time job.

The obvious candidates are Jason Pominville, Jochen Hecht and Teppo Numminen. Both Hecht and Pominville were very strong in the role of captain, and would be the go to guys to take on the role. Numminen meanwhile was the alternate captain behind Briere and Drury before having to sit out all of last season due to heart issues. Teppo is unlikely to wear the C, but will probably represent the defense as an alternative captain.

Between Hecht and Pominville, Pominville most likely has the slight edge to act as captain, but unless he signs a contract extension, the team is not likely to grant him the role if only to avoid seeing their captain leave the team again. As such, Hecht (who has a four year contract) becomes the obvious choice. There is also the possibility that the two of them are named co-captains as the team has done before. In fact the last captain that was neither a co-captain or a rotating captain was Stu Barnes.

End of the year player awards

With the Sabres season over, and the NHL taking a few days off from any on ice action, the time seems good to acknowledge those players who put in a really good season for the Sabres this past year. Despite not making the playoffs it wasn't all bad. Based on the categories used in the OHL coaches poll heres how the Sabres did this past year.

Most Underrated Player : Derek Roy - The success he has had on the ice with Vanek, and whoever on the other wing has been critical to the Sabres all year. However Roy get very few of the goal and little of the credit despite also being one of the top faceoff guys and a solid two way player. Gaustad and Kaleta are underrated league wide, but are well known and loved in Buffalo.

Most Improved Player : Jaroslav Spacek - He was really bad last year. While he only really moved himself up to be the team's number four defenseman before Campbell left, thats quite an improvement over last season when he was quite the defensive liability. The upside is that it appears as if last year was the exception given that he did decent back in Edmonton with Pronger. Jochen Hecht is also a candidate for being the most improved given his greatly expanded leadership role.

Smartest Player : Jochen Hecht - Ryan Miller also gets consideration for being good at constantly assessing the whole team's big picture. Hecht gets this due to his smart play, and his ability to make the players around him better.

Hardest Worker : Paul Gaustad - The Goose earns this by never giving up on any play or opportunity. Also his hard work on the powerplays resulted in the little that the team ever got out of them.

Best Playmaker : Maxim Afinogenov - Granted half the time he would just spin himself into the corner, but when his moves worked, they set up great scoring opportunities for his team. Max was willing to attempt stuff that no one else was. For more sane playmakers, Roy and Connolly are also candidates.

Most Dangerous in the Goal Area : Thomas Vanek - Vanek was the guy whose job it was to sit in front of the goal and to bang in any pucks that came his way. While he may not have done as well as he did last year, he was still the team's leader in this regard.

Best Skater : Maxim Afinogenov - The Russian has a bit of a different style to his skating, and it seems to work for him. In terms of both pure speed, and unpredictable maneuverability he is tops for the Sabres. Mike Ryan may come close on just speed though.

Best Shot : Ales Kotalik and Jason Pominville - I couldn't choose just one, and Hecht was close as well. Most of Pominville's many goals this past season came from good shots during five on five play, and included very few rebounds and other easy shots. Kotalik had less goals, but all of the ones he did score were pretty ones. Additionally he was known to bust out his solid shot in the shootout as well.

Hardest Shot : Jaroslav Spacek - This is of course allowing for a definition that doesn't require the shot to actually be on net. From back on the blue line Spacek consistently had a shot that was harder than others such as Lydman, even if it wasn't always anywhere near the net.

Best Stickhandler : Tim Connolly - Afinogenov is a close second, but Connolly gets the top spot as it actually looks as if what he is doing is on purpose. Connolly is among the best in the league in this regard and is really good a transitioning his moves into passes or shots as well. If only he was ever healthy.

Best on Face-Offs : Paul Gaustad - He was our most reliable guy out there in this job, something that really hurt the Sabres after losing Drury in the past offseason. Stafford also did surprisingly well, but not as well as the Goose.

Best Body Checker : Pat Kaleta - Is there really any question about this one? Kaleta Collision made his way into the league mainly on his ability to put people through the boards. Furthermore the whole town loves him for it.

Best Defensive Forward : Jason Pominville - Pominville played a solid two way game all season, and was the best forward that the Sabres had in their own end. Jochen Hecht followed close behind, and would have been the clear winner here until Pominville massively picked up his game in the final two months.

Best Penalty Killer : Toni Lydman - While he might have been second behind Tallinder in pure defensive ability, he was almost always the one to be able to clear the puck and knock large amounts of time off the clock for the penalty kill. Mike Ryan also deserves a mention for his aggressive play and speed for going after the puck when its cleared and making the move much more effective.

Best Offensive Defenceman : Brian Campbell - We traded him away towards the end of the season, but while he was here, he was the go to guy for goals on the blueline. Additionally he had the speed to take the puck up the ice himself, and had that still pretty awesome spin move.

Best Defensive Defenceman : Henrik Tallinder - The number one guy for the Sabres back in their own zone, and one of the best defencemen in the league. While nowhere near the fastest or more offensive on the squad, Tallinder had to be the most important on the team, and there was quite a noticeable difference whenever he was gone.

The Conference finals start today out in the West between the Detroit Red Wings and the Dallas Stars.

The Captains carry

The Sabres continued their playoff hopes by beating the Maple Leafs 6-2. This win actually looked a lot like the Sabres last.

Captains Jason Pominville and Jochen Hecht were both plus three with three points. Also Paille continued his current streak and scored yet another goal. Drew Stafford also had a good game, ending plus two with a goal that was set up by Kaleta.

The Sabres didn't get much help though as the two teams ahead of them ended up with a three point game. However they are now only one point out of eighth place (although they currently don't have the tie breaker).

Official Three Stars

Jason Pominville

Jochan Hecht

Paul Kubina

My Three Stars

Jason Pominville (one goal, two assists, plus three)

Jochan Hecht (one goal, two assists, plus three)

Paul Gaustad (two assists, plus two)

Pominville takes the Captain's chair

Jason Pominville has taken over the role of the Sabres captain for the month of March. I had expected that Pominville would have been captain last month before Hecht had been given a second month in that role. Jochen Hecht was a good captain, and the team really needs him back. The Sabres have a 8-23 record in the last 31 games Hecht has been injured, but need to be much better than that to make the playoffs.

The scoreboards across the league were favorable to the Sabres last night with the Senators, Bruins, and Canadians all losing. The Bruins got blown out by the Capitals 10-2 with Ovechkin getting a hat-trick and five points in the game.

The Sabres need to win their next game against the Flyers desperatly in order to make the post season. As of late, their odds have not looked too good.

Sabres beat the Bruins

Led once again by the line of Paille, Pominville and the returning captain Hecht, the Sabres beat their divisional opponent the Boston Bruins 4-2.

This was a game that the team really needed, and they play Boston once again later in the week, to really get a good shot at moving up the standings. Buffalo is in about eight to ninth place in the east, but too many of the teams that they are ahead of are in the southeast. Buffalo needs to keep moving up and getting wins against the Northeast and Atlantic teams, such as when they play the New Jersey Devils tonight.

Pominville, Paille and Hecht set Buffalo up for an early lead in this game, only to see it get tied up before the end of the first period. Vanek then got an easy goal at the beginning of the second off of great passes from Stafford, and Campbell. The Sabres carried their one nothing lead into the third period.

In the final period of play, the line of Paille, Hecht, and Pominville managed to score another goal to secure the win. Soon after on the powerplay, Lydman rocketed in a shoot from the blue line to go up 4-1. The Sabres then held onto that lead before giving up a meaningless goal with under a second left in the game.

Patrick Kaleta had a very noticeable presence in the first two periods, picking up five hits in the game, and even drawing some retaliatory penalties. While Kaleta is always known for his big hits, they really stood out early in this game.

Official Three Stars

Ryan Miller

Daniel Paille

Jochen Hecht

My Three Stars

Daniel Paille (two goals)

Jochen Hecht (set up Paille's two goals)

Per Johan Axelsson (scored the Bruin's meaningful goal, had an assist on the other)

Hecht is captain again

Jochen Hecht is once again the Captain of the Buffalo Sabres for the month of February. While I have been of the opinion that Hecht has deserved to be the full time captain, it is good to see him starting to get into that role. After Spacek was chosen as captain for the month of February, I assumed that the job would keep on rotating for the rest of the season, and that Jason Pominville was next in line for the job.

However, Jochen has earned this honour, and the last time the Sabres had rotating captains Drury was the first to get a second month in March, from which he finished out the season as captain before sharing the job with Briere full time after the lockout. Come playoffs, and the next four seasons I fully expect Hecht to be the teams go to leader.

The Sabres play tonight against division rival Boston. Despite what I said yesterday, more recent reports reveal that Afinogenov still is not quite ready to return, and will sit out this game.

Sabres win second straight

The Buffalo Sabres won two games in a row for the first time in 2008 after beating the Tampa Bay Lightning 4-2. The Hecht, Pominville, MacArthur line was dominate in this game, and was responsible for three of the Sabres four points. The other goal went to Derek Roy, who also picked up an assist.

The Sabres got out to an early lead thanks to good passing and shooting by Pominville and MacArthur in the first who picked up primary assists each others goals. Ryan Miller was also very solid in net the first two periods, only allowing one goal, and that was a five on three situation with under a minute left in the second.

The Sabres goals in the second were rather odd, but they count any way that they go in, and gave Buffalo a comfortable lead. Tampa Bay came back with two points in the third period, but never really came close to retaking the lead.

Official Three Stars

Jason Pominville

Ryan Miller

Jochen Hecht

My Three Stars

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

Clarke MacArthur (one goal, one assist)

Jochen Hecht (two assists, plus three)

Sabres win streak ends short as they lose to the Leafs

The Sabres dropped yet another game this year as they lost to the leafs 4-2. The Sabres got off to a slow start giving up two early powerplay goals and could never make it back into the game.

Official Three Stars

Alexander Steen

Jochen Hecht

Jason Blake

My Three Stars

Jason Blake (goal to seal the win)

Hall Gill (one assist, plus two)

Jochen Hecht (one goal, plus one)

Hecht is the new Drury

The Buffalo Sabres got off to a slow start this season. This was the first season in a while in which Chris Drury wasn't there to be the leader for the team. However with a little more than half the season left to go the Sabres have found their new leader. That man is the German Jochan Hecht.

The past two season Hecht wasn't ever really noticed all that much. Jochan was a winger who while not playing poorly failed to match the point totals of others like Jason Pominville. Even his defensive abilities went largely unnoticed as he was outshinned by Drury and Gaustad in regards to two way play. This year all of that is beginning to change.

At the start of the season Hecht was named captain of the month. At the time the move was a tad bit surprising, but since then has proven to be more than justified. Hecht began to take Drury's role of the lead by example solid two way player. Even after he passed on the captaincy after the end of the month, he has stayed on as an alternate for every month since then. Additionally Hecht has already almost reached his goal total from last season.

Besides the solid two way hockey play Hecht has picked up another one of Drury's attributes, he has become a clutch player. He has twice as many game winning goals as he had last season, and is equal to Drury in that regard for the current year. Last weekend in the first game against Philly, Hecht scored the game winning goal in what was a come from behind one point victory for the Sabres. Then the very next night Vanek tied the game with just eight seconds to go, but got the goal by deflecting a shot from Jochan Hecht.

The Winter Classic is fast approaching and the Sabres will be naming a new team captain at that time. I think I know who it might be...

Sabres fall to Ottawa

The Ottawa Senators defeated the Sabres 5-3. Ottawa had a big second period that saw them take a 3-1 lead that was quickly padded to 4-1 in the first. Buffalo started making a comeback, but gave up an empty netter to lose the game.

Miller did not have a good game, and probably should have been able to stop a few of the shots that he let in this game. That said the rest of the team had to play better as well.

Peters seemed to get alot of ice time this game, and was always half a second from being in a fight, although no one took up that challange tonight...

Official Three Stars

Wade Redden

Mike Fisher

Tim Connolly

My Three Stars

Danny Heatley (two assists and an empty netter)

Wade Redden (one goal, one assist)

Jochan Hecht (played well as always)

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)