Still unable to beat Ottawa

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)

Still unable to beat Ottawa

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)

Unable to beat Ottawa

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)

Comeback leads to a shootout loss

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%)

Buffalo wins third straight

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)

No comeback against Ottawa

The Sabres failed in their comeback against Ottawa losing the game 5-2 for their first regulation loss of the season.

Buffalo outplayed the Senators for most of the first period, but both Alex Auld and Patrick Lalime did a good job of keeping the pucks out of their nets. Ottawa eventually scored one on a powerplay with less then two minutes to go in the period.

In the second period the Sabres began to fall apart allowing Heatley to score a powerplay goal, just 19 seconds in. Ottawa also got two goals from Spezza in the second as well. Buffalo went down 5-0 early in the third, before finally scoring on the powerplay when MacArthur tipped in a nice shot by Afinogenov. Teppo Numminen then scored another goal in the game's final minute to make the score 5-2.

Despite the lopsided score Buffalo didn't actually play too poorly in this game. While their powerplay didn't score until late, they had been generating chances all along. Also the refs didn't help much calling a number of penalties against the Sabres without any real good reason at all, especially a very poor one on Afinogenov just before the end of the first.

Patrick Lalime looked very shaky in net after letting in the second goal. He had played very well in the first period, but was giving up too many rebounds for the rest of the game, and should have covered some of the ones that did end up going in. Hopefully this is just a bit of a fluke game for him and not the beginning of a downward spiral.

Mike Weber looked good in his first game with Buffalo this season and had three blocked shots. Afinogenov meanwhile still hasn't scored a goal this year, but did have the assist on both of the goals that Buffalo did score.

Official Three Stars

Jason Spezza

Dany Heatley

Antoine Vermette

My Three Stars

Alex Auld (25 saves)

Jason Spezza (two goals)

Dany Heatley (one goal, one assist, plus two)

Northeast Division

The northeast has been one of the toughest divisions since the lockout, but the competition is beginning to level out. Neither Ottawa nor Buffalo are as dominate as they used to be, and Montreal and Boston have improved into playoff contenders.

#1 Montreal Canadians
They took second in the division last year, and have mostly brought back the same team. Their most notable addition is Robert Lang who they picked up from Chicago, and will give them some additional offense. The main downside for this team is that Price is still rather unproven in goal, and could go either way.

#2 Buffalo Sabres
Buffalo missed the playoffs last year, but should make it this season. Their main weakness was on defense, but they have shored up that position with the addition of Rivet and the return of Numminen. Buffalo also has the division's best goaltender in Ryan Miller.

#3 Ottawa Senators
Ottawa won the division last year, but fell apart at the end of the season and then got swept out of the playoffs in the first round. The team has some talent, but there is no reason to think that they will recover from their collapse and are unlikely to make the postseason.

#4 Boston Bruins
Boston is a bit of a question mark as they have the possibility of easily making the playoffs, and also finish near dead last. The team has some big name players, but lacks the depth to be a top of the league team. Goaltending is also a huge question mark for this team as it could end up being anywhere from amazing to awful.

#5 Toronto Maple Leafs
Toronto has been having a very tough time getting things together since the lockout and this season doesn't look any more promising for them. They have no consistent scoring, and only mediocre defense. They surprisingly upset the defending champion Detroit Red Wings in their season opener, but that is not how the entire season is going to go for this team.

NHL season starts in Europe

With games in Prague, and Stockholm the NHL season got underway yesterday as the Pittsburgh Penguins and the New York Rangers beat the Ottawa Senators and the Tampa Bay Lightning. Once again starting the regular season in Europe as they did last season in England. Two more games will be played in Europe today, and then the regular season in North America finally gets started later this week.

The Sabres have another preseason game late this afternoon, at the same time as the Bills game ensuring that nobody will be watching it. Then Buffalo gets its first real game of the season in on Friday.

The Penguins sweep the Senators

No, I did not photoshop that picture. And, Yes, I am loving it.

The Penguins followed through on my (and pretty much everyone else's) prediction and beat the Senators in round one. Ottawa was in so much of a slump coming in that I was eagerly anticipating the sweep as well.

I believe that Spezza Heatley and Alfredsson combined for one assist and zero goals in the playoffs. While that trio did have some time missed due to injury, the Senators traditionally count on those three to have half of their goals. If zero goals is half of your production, you're going to be in big trouble.

Still as a Sabres fan I couldn't have asked for any better results. Lets just hope that Dallas can finish off the Ducks, and that the Rangers find a way to lose as well.

Nashville also had an awesome game last night, and have come back to tie the series with the Red Wings at two a piece. This was really unexpected and I still don't think that Nashville can pull of the upset, but I would be loving it if it did happen.

An actual good shootout

The Buffalo Sabres won their third shootout of the season, to get a 4-3 win over Ottawa. Had the Sabres performed in more shootouts like this, they wouldn't be out of the playoffs.

Most of the players who did poorly last game came through in game two, including Afinogenov, and Hecht who both scored goals. Max was looking good in this game and really turned it on. His goal was a tremendous effort, and he worked hard all game long. In fact all three of Buffalo's goal scores lead the team in shots, and all had five or more, including Paul Gaustad who had the Sabres final goal and six shots on the night.

The Sabres took a number of dumb penalties including twice getting called for too many men. Fortunately they managed to kill all of them off. The Sabres powerplay looked ok in this game as well, and was where Hecht picked up his goal.

It was a very physical game, and the refs let things get out of hand. Neil got away with a number of cheap shots throughout the night, and didn't get anything called on him unless Mair got sent to the penalty box as well. Kaleta was physical as always, and Kotalik and Gaustad lead the team in hits with four and five. The goose got his goal off of some very physical play that found him alone with the puck.

Come shootout the Sabres did very well. First they didn't allow Vanek to take a shot (although Kotalik is apparently no longer any good). Second Miller was responsible and came very very close to saving all three of the shots against him. Pominville has shown his skill on the shootout recently, and had a shot that was impossible to save. Roy more or less got lucky, but that was all the Sabres needed, besides the Senators had gotten lucky on most of their goals in the game anyhow.

How exactly did Gerber get into the three stars? He got bailed out by the post far more than his glove, and let in a weak goal to Roy in the shootout. The Sabres have a quick turnaround and play the Canadians Friday night.

Official Three Stars

Mike Fisher

Derek Roy

Martin Gerber

My Three Stars

Paul Gaustad (one goal, lead both teams in hits and shots)

Mike Fisher (two goals, plus two in the loss)

Derek Roy (two assists, shootout goal)

Once again Ottawa ends our Season

Technically the Sabres still have a shot at this thing if they win out, but based on their play in the 6-3 loss to the Senators I highly doubt that is going to happen. How the team managed to fall apart so badly is beyond me. Worse yet the breakdown came from some of the teams better players.

While usually the among the best on the team, Hecht, Lydman, and Tallinder all had a rather poor showing in this game. Our top two defensemen ended the game a combined minus five with three giveaways. The Sabres best two way player (Hecht) finished the game minus three. Even Gaustad had a less then stellar game. If these players don't show up there is no way Buffalo is ever going to win.

That said, the Sabres were by far the best team in the first two and a half periods of this game. While the score was 1-1 going into the third, the Sabres had far more chances, and were getting stopped by lucky goaltending more than anything else. One huge mental lapse by the Paetsch and Pratt pairing allowed the Senators an easy goal in the first, but for the most part only rookie Lee in his first ever NHL game looked impressive for the Sens.

Then the Sabres made an even bigger mental mistake, somehow allowing a three on one while being up a player. Shorthanded goals will kill you every time. After that Buffalo never really had any chance.

A (small) handful of players did play well for Buffalo. These were Derek Roy, Jason Pominville, and Mike Weber. Roy had two of Buffalo's goals, and did so with very little help from Vanek or any of his other line mates this game. Pominville continued to show how good he is as a captain, and played excellently both ways and even scored a goal.

Weber had an almost perfect game. Despite the three point loss, Weber ended the game plus two, and even earned a primary assist on Roy's second of the night. Even before that going into the second I was starting to fell that he may very well be our third best defenseman. After the third period I'm not even sure that he shouldn't be number one. Another rookie playing well was Brian Lee for the Senators. In his first NHL game, he played very solid and saved a sure goal by kicking the puck out of the net.

The Sabres play again in a day or so, but for real the season is over now.

Official Three Stars

Daniel Alfredsson

Derek Roy

Anton Volchenkov

My Three Stars

Daniel Alfredsson (two goals, three points, plus two)

Mike Weber (assist, plus two, had a perfect game)

Anton Volchenkov (goal, three points, plus three)

Vanek nets three against the Sens

Thomas Vanek got his first career hat-trick in a 5-1 win over Ottawa. The Sabres outplayed the Senators all game, and outshot them by a wide margin in the first two periods.

Vanek's first career hat-trick was boosted by two goals of of the powerplay. After having a poor powerplay all season the Sabres scored two against Ottawa, and were three for four last game against the Florida Panthers. Apparently having Connolly back in the line really is helping things out.

As for the Spezza-Heatley-Alfredsson line as good as they were expected to be, they were completly blanked. It was awesome to see this "big three" get outscored by Clarke MacArthur.

The Sabres have been on a bit of a hot streak lately, but need to keep winning to secure their spot in the playoffs. They face the Maple Leafs at home on Wednesday night, but have not fared too well against the struggling leafs so far this season.

Official Three Stars

Thomas Vanek

Brian Campbell

Clarke MacArthur

My Three Stars

Thomas Vanek (first career hat-trick)

Ryan Miller (only let one past him)

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

The new look of the Senators

The Ottawa Senators will have quite a different looking line up when they face off against the Buffalo Sabres tonight. For only the second game in quite a while the line of Spezza Heatley and Alfredsson will be intact as they are all healthy, plus the Sens have picked up Mike Commodore and Cory Stillman in a trade with the Carolina Hurricanes.

The Sabres haven't done to well historically against the Senators big three. The main task for Buffalo will be to shut down the Spezza-Heatley-Alfredsson line, and work on the assumption that the Sabres are in good position to outplay the Senators on the other shifts.

The other changes in the Senators line up are due to a trade with Carolina. In the deal the Senators sent defenceman Joe Corvo and forward Patrick Eaves to the Hurricanes in exchange for defenceman Mike Commodore and forward Cory Stillman. In the short term (of this season) Ottawa comes out way ahead as a result of this deal. While expiring contracts made this deal worth doing for Carolina, the Senators have improved themselves for this season. Commodore is a real good player and should make a difference for the Sens. Lets just hope that they are still too unadjusted to the team to be any good tonight.

The other (possible) change for the Senators is in net, where Martin Gerber and Ray Emery have been trading starts all season. Neither is the clear number one, but Emery is expected to get the start for his second straight game.

As a follow up, things are continuing to look positive for Richard Zednik after he had his jugular slashed open last game. Last word is that he is still in stable condition, and is expected to be moved out of ICU soon.

Sabres Drop the most exciting game of 2008

The Sabres came back from a two goal deficit to send their match against the Ottawa Senators into a shootout, but like all teams who give up a short handed goal, they eventually lost.

Both teams came out strong, with an exciting first period that didn't have any goals. In the second the Senators got out to an early lead, and then were able to double it when Alfredsson was allowed to skate in untouched for a short handed goal. The entire Sabres powerplay was pretty bad this game, not only giving up the shorthanded point, but also frequently getting outshot, and failing to score on all of their opportunities.

The third period was much better for the Sabres. Clarke MacArthur Scored his second goal (and third point) in his third game since being in Rochester. He's starting to look like Stafford did last season, when nobody wanted to see him go back to the Amercks. Kaleta also looked good in his second game with the Sabres this season, getting two shots on goal and a ton of big hits. 12:52 into the third Paille nailed a shot into the top shelf of the net to tie up the game.

While the team did get one point, the Sabres can not afford to go this many straight games without a win. Last year the team hardly ever lost two straight let alone this many.

If your looking to blame someone for the loss, choose Kotalik. I have no clue what he thought he was doing on the shorthanded goal. Just drive the other guy into the corner, and wait for all of your numbers to get back and that play wouldn't have been so bad. Then in the shootout Kotalik failed to go with his dependable backhanded move that served him well last game. While mixing it up can be useful, there is no reason to do so if no one can come close to stopping your normal move.

Official Three Stars

Mike Fisher

Danial Alfredsson

Jason Pominville

My Three Stars

Danial Alfredsson (shorthanded goal)

Clarke MacArthur (recently the Sabres best scorer)

Mike Fisher (an assist and a shootout goal)

Sabres drop fifth straight

The Sabres lost their fifth straight game of the season in a 5-3 loss to the Ottawa Senators. The Sabres are now 1-3 on the season against Ottawa, and desperately need to turn their season around.

The Senators got out to a sizable lead as they looked to be the better team in the first. Following the third Ottawa goal, Ruff pulled Miller despite the fact that he was playing relatively well, and couldn't really be blamed for any of the goals against him. However the magical goalie change had the intended effect, and the Sabres got a goal within the next minute, and then came back to tie the game midway through the third. However the Sabres then gave up two soft goals to Heatley and Alfredson.

Stafford was back after being out for a few games and really played hard. I get the feeling that he was rather disappointed about having to have sat out of the Ice Bowl and was looking to make up for it. He took the place of Afinogenov who sat out of the game with a groin injury.

Lindy Ruff moved around the lines for this game, and the player that seemed to benefit the most from this was Ryan, whose greatest asset is his speed. He was able to use it to his advantage much better on a line with Stafford and Gaustad than he was on the fourth line.

Official Three Stars

Dany Heatley

Thomas Vanek

Andrej Meszaros

My Three Stars

Andrej Meszaros (first two points of the game)

Daniel Alfredson (two points, plus two)

Drew Stafford (only Sabres plus one)

Sabres to play their 38th indoor game of the season

The Sabres move back indoors tonight in their game against Ottawa. This is an important game for Buffalo and one that they must win.

Buffalo has lost four straight games now. This fact was mostly lost in the fact that all of the games were close (all by one goal not counting empty netters) and that the Sabres did manage to pick up two points over this span, by losing in a shootout instead of regulation. And with all of the excitement of the winter classic it is easy to overlook a few close losses. Buffalo won the six games before this streak, so they are still doing ok, but need to do better.

The Sabres are 1-2 against Ottawa so far this season, and need to establish that they can compete with the Senators. To do so they might want to look to the Washington Capitals. The Capitals have learned how to put up big points on the Senators, beating them last Saturday 8-6, and then coming back from down two goals to beat them 6-3 on New Years. Washington has been one of the weaker teams in the league this year, but if they can find a way to beat the Senators, then the Sabres should be able to as well.

One last note on the Ice Bowl, In two starts in outdoor games Ryan Miller has gotten a tie in both of them. With Michigan State, Miller tied Michigan 3-3 in 2000 and then with the Sabres tied Pittsburgh last week before losing in the shootout.

The NHL was kept quiet about any future plans for outdoor games, but is expected to do something for next season.

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)

Long Odds

Just because something is unlikely, does not mean that it won't happen...

Mark Recchi has long been one of the NHL's best players and is 23rd on the all time points list, yet that was not enough to prevent him from being placed on waivers by the Penguins yesterday. Furthermore he actually cleared waivers without any team signing him. Most of the reason for the lack of interest is due to his high salary, but why no team is interested in him is beyond me. Although is getting older, it appears as if the Penguins' decision to cut him was more due to his salary and disagreements with the coach. There will be an opportunity for a team to claim him for half his salary should Pittsburgh decide to recall him, and for only half of the salary it would be hard for many teams not to sign him. For the Sabres, being a team the emphasizes speed, and has Clarke MacArthur waiting in Rochester the Recchi would not be all that helpful to the club. Had this happened back at the beginning of the season you could argue that the Sabres needed the veteran leadership, but given how well Hecht and Campbell have been doing at that, I don't think that is no longer an issue that needs to be addressed.

The Rochester Americans and the Buffalo Sabres have the oldest relationship in the league with an AHL club, and are conveniently located an hour away from each other, but that doesn't mean that it will last. It is looking more and more unlikely that this relationship will still be in effect come next season, and that's quite a disappointment. More on this in a few days...

Jonathan Toews has been named an alternate captain by the Blackhawks, just three months into his rookie year. Toews may note even be the best rookie on the team with his teammate, and Buffalo native Patrick Kane also having a very good season. For Chicago to have two rookies that are so good, is such a large boost to this team...

The top team in the East, the Ottawa Senators, have now lost seven straight games. Even Buffalo hasn't had a stretch that bad in the team's slow start this year. And while some of the losses have come in overtime, many of the losses have not come to good teams. They play the 12-14-1 Panthers tonight, lets hope they lose again...

Buffalo also plays (late) tonight against the Ducks out on the west coast. This will only be the second time these two teams have played since the lockout, and the first time the Sabres have played anywhere in California since the lockout...

Falling apart in Ottawa

The Senators got off to a great start this season winning 13 of their first 14 games. Since then things have begun to fall apart. When Buffalo played the Senators on November 21, Ottawa was still dominating and was 16-3. The Sabres won that game and Ottawa has not won since. The Senators have now dropped 6 straight games to allow Buffalo and some of the other teams to begin catching up. Ottawa's next two games are against relatively easy opponents in Tampa Bay and Florida.

Since that game against Ottawa the Sabres are 5-1. Buffalo is set to take a trip out to California to play all three of the teams in that state over the next week starting with the Ducks on Wednesday.

Sabres beat Ottawa

The Buffalo Sabres have now won two straight (both 4-2), and now that they are scoring, look like a decent team.

Buffalo benefited from getting Connolly back for this game. Furthermore they kept MacArthur up with the team, and scratched Peters instead. MacArthur deserved that spot, and played well this game even though he didn't get on the score sheet. Mike Ryan is suddenly in danger of losing his spot, but he did get himself onto the scoring sheet as he got the first goal of the game.

Stafford got the night's final goal, and Paille got an assist on Ryan's so the Sabres are really starting to rely on their younger players. Combine that with MacArthur's recent success and almost all of the Sabres points are reliant upon players who were not on the roster to start last season.

Miller played good enough this game, and deserved the win. He even got an assist on Kotalik's powerplay goal.

Official Three Stars

Thomas Vanek

Ryan Miller

Mike Ryan

My Three Stars

Mike Ryan (first goal of the game)

Daniel Alfredsson (first goal for Ottawa)

Ryan Miller (the win in net)