An eventful game

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)

Pacific Division

The Pacific division is set to be one of the toughest divisions in the NHL this coming season. The division's top two teams in Dallas and San Jose are almost guaranteed to make the playoffs, and a third is likely to do so as well.

#1 Dallas Stars
Stu Barnes may have moved into coaching, but the bedrock of the Dallas Stars is in goal. Marty Turco is the best goalie in the league, and is more than capable of carrying the team. However he now has the supporting cast to help him. Dallas doesn't have many big names (besides the aging Mike Modano), but has solid depth all around, and a talented forward in Brad Richards. That said, an injury to Turco would end their season.

#2 San Jose Sharks
This team is also able to benefit from top quality goaltending, and have the league's second best goalie in Evgeni Nabokov. The team however is weaker as a whole. They have lost both former Sabre Brian Campbell, and current Sabre Craig Rivet from their defense, and instead are going to have to rely on the overpriced Boyle. Up front the team is based around it's veterans like Jeremy Roenick, former Sabre Mike Grier, and the very talented Jonathan Cheechoo.

#3 Phoenix Coyotes
The desert dogs are a team on the rise, and have a shot at making the post season this year. They need to hope that goalie Ilya Bryzgalov's success last season was not a fluke, and that they can get better production from their younger players. They have also brought in Olli Jokinen from Florida, who while very talented leads the league in games played without a playoff appearance.

#4 Anaheim Ducks
While stocked with good players, this is a team that may be too dysfunctional to have a phenomenal season. They have a good shot at getting third in the division, but won't be able to get into the top two. The team is over the cap and is still trying to get Teemu Selanne onto the team. While stocked with good players like the Niedermayers and Gigure in goal, the team has also traded away other top line talent like Andy McDonald.

#5 Los Angeles Kings
The Kings being at the bottom of this conference shouldn't surprise anyone. They have a young team, a number of goalies that nobody has heard of, and a history of finishing last. The team is barely over the cap and has no expectations to do anything.

See also the reviews of the Central division and the Southeast division

Campbell helps the Sharks hang on

The San Jose Sharks pushed off elimination once again, with an overtime win against the Dallas Stars. This is the third game of the series to go to overtime, but the first one that the Sharks won. Former Sabres Brian Campbell had a very nice looking goal in regulation to help the Sharks earn the win.

Sharks hold on, Avery losses his spleen, Montreal is doomed

The Sharks held on to their very slim chances, and got a win against Dallas, but are still down three games to one. Because the games have been close, they have a better chance at coming back than any of the other teams do. Still, that said it remains incredibly unlikely. Turco is good enough that he can win one of three pretty consistently.

Unlike San Jose, Montreal is absolutely falling apart. In game four, they choose not to start rookie goaltender Caret Price, and instead went with Jaroslav Halak who has even less experience. The experiment obviously didn't work, and the Habs lost to the Flyers 4-2. Many still feel that it was a mistake to give up Huet, but if you are going to go with Price, you really need to commit 100% to him. Now Montreal's "goaltender of the future" is suddenly no longer wanted and the team is without any solid player in net at all. When Calgary pulled their starter in favour of Curtis Joseph it at least had the result of changing the pace of the game, and inserting a very experienced veteran. In Montreal, starting Halak over Price, does nothing to motivate the team, and gives you a goaltender with zero career playoff starts. Regardless there is no way that Montreal comes back from their current 3-1 hole, so it doesn't really matter what they try next game.

Furthermore it is a tad bit depressing seeing former Sabres Biron and Briere, get the first and second stars in the past game. Marty has had a very good string of games in the playoffs, and Briere has actually put forth some effort in the post season this year for some unknown reason.

Rangers forward Sean Avery is out for the rest of the season with a blown spleen. The New York Rangers only realistically have a single game remaining in their schedule, so it won't make much of a difference on the ice. He is expected to make a full recovery, but we can still hope that it won't happen. I'm not mean enough to hope that it's fatal, but if this ends his hockey career that would make me happy.

Playoff Predictions and Preferences

With all of the games that Buffalo has against the eastern conference teams, I tend not to like too many of them. With that said though, I have to root for the Capitals in the East. While I think Pittsburgh or Montreal is more likely to come away with it, I really have to root for the Washington and Ovechkin and hope that they win. Fortunately I think they will at least win their first round match up against the Flyers.

I think that Montreal will have an easy time against Boston, and that the Penguins will dominate the struggling Senators. The Rangers remind me alot of last years Rangers, and once again I think they are good enough to win in the first round (versus the Devils this season), but are not a real contender and will lose after that.

For the later rounds I guess that leaves me with Montreal over the Rangers and the Penguins over the Capitals (despite what I want). I have to pick Montreal and their killer powerplay in the Conference Championship over Pittsburgh.

Out west there are more teams that I like and can root for. Of course the top two are playing each other in the first round. I kindof like the San Jose Sharks, with two former Sabres in Grier and Campbell (plus a really good goalie). On the other hand I also like Calgary with Iginla (does anyone not like him?) and Phanuf (spelling probably wrong) and Kipersofv (probably messed up the spelling again). In the end, I guess I have to root for the Flames, but realistically San Jose is more likely to win.

I don't really like Dallas, but I'm a fan of Marty Turco so I have to root for the Stars as well (still kindof like Stu Barnes, I guess). While their first round opponent is the Ducks who I cheared for last season, I'm really not feeling that now. After Sealane and Niediemier sat out most of the season, the team traded away McDonald, and decided to pick up Bertuzzi, there really isn't too much reason to cheer for them. Also considering that I don't really like Pronger anymore, and their opponent isn't the Senators I really want them to lose. However, due to a lack of offense from Dallas, I think that Anaheim has to be the favorite to win.

While I still like JP Dumont, I don't like the rest of his team, and hope that Detroit eliminates them in the first round. In all likelyhood that will happen. The Wild should be able to beat Colorado in a matchup, where I'm not really rooting for anybody.

In the Second round, I would guess it will be Detroit over the Ducks, and the Sharks over the Wild. With the San Jose Sharks beating out Detroit to go to the final.

With Montreal and San Jose facing off for the cup, I'll pick the Sharks to win a close one. Oddly enough, that just so happens to be the same outcome predicted by the video games.

Buffalo picks up a win in California

After playing poorly for their first two games out in California, the Sabres looked good from the moment they took the ice against San Jose. Although they went down a goal mid way through the first period, they came back big in the second and third to win the game 7-1.

Unlike the past two games the Sabres played well from the start. Their passing was good and, they created plenty of chances, being kept off the scoreboard only by some solid goaltending by Nabokov. The Sharks only goal was even a bit of a fluke, as a shot that was going way wide, took a bounce of Nolan Pratt's leg, and went into the net. While it would be hard to blame Pratt for that goal, he did not have a good game besides that. He was one of only three players to be minus for the team, and failed to finish most of his checks and to have solid puck control, when he did have the puck. Meanwhile teammate, Andrej Sekera played really well. Sekera was plus two, and although he only registered one official shot, did a good job getting the puck to the front of the net all game long.

The best goal of the night was Connolly's, which came short handed as San Jose, gave up the puck at their own blue line. The San Jose player was coming out of the zone, when he suddenly lost his balance, and started crashing to the ice. He lost control of the puck, and managed to take out his only other teammate that was back on the play. Tim Connolly was able then to simply pick up the puck, put a move on the goal tender, and put it in the back of the net, to go up 2-1 in what would eventually be the game winning goal.

Official Three Stars

Derek Roy

Paul Gaustad

Tim Connolly

My Three Stars

Paul Gaustad (two goals)

Derek Roy (two points, plus three)

Andrej Sekera (quietly had a really good game)