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)

Merry Christmas

"...and I heard him exclaim as he pulled out of sight, Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good night!"

A Disappointing Loss

The Sabres were the better team in this game, and should have found a way to win. Instead they repeatedly failed to hit the back of the net and ended up losing to the Toronto Maple Leafs 2-1.

The Sabres controlled most of the game, but missed many good chances. Stafford had a wide open net that he was unable to hit, Afinogenov had two great opportunities that he put straight into the goalie's pads, and Vanek was unable to even get the puck on net half of the time. Buffalo's lone goal came from Lydman who scored for the first time all season.

Pominville had six shots on net, and Gerbe, Roy, and Stafford all ended up as plus one on the night. Still they need more offense if they wanted to win. Both of Toronto's goals came on very nice shots, but given the chances that Buffalo had they have nobody to blame for this loss but themselves.

Official Three Stars

Vesa Toskala

Mikhail Grabovski

Lee Stempniak

My Three Stars

Lee Stempniak (one assist, plus two)

Toni Lydman (one goal, plus one in the loss)

Jeremy Williams (one goal, three shots)

Gaustad and Stafford both score two

Following their five game loosing streak the Sabres have won two straight games against some of the toughest teams in the East. Players such as Afinogenov and Stafford who have struggled lately both played well in this game helping Buffalo reverse its fortunes. Max Afinogenov played his best game of the year, giving Stafford an easy tip in for the Buffalo's first goal of the game. He created a number of other opportunities and ended the game with three shots, no giveaways and one takeaway.

Stafford who also has been struggling lately had a great game, with two goals and an assist. These were goals numbers three and four on the year for Stafford, but the primary assist that he contributed was more impressive as he set up the Goose for a powerplay goal.

After starting the season injured Gaustad scored his first two goals of the season in this game, including the game winner late in the third. Gaustad spent most of the night on the top line with Hecht and Pominville, but was back with Mancari for his powerplay goal.

Buffalo did some things that they haven't done lately, mainly coming back in the third period to win the game. They never really gave up at any point in the game despite a bad turnover by Spacek that resulted in a goal by Crosby, and a goal by MacArthur midway through the third that didn't count.

Besides not counting MacArthur's goal, the refs were really bad throughout this game, with many boarding calls against Buffalo on what should have been legal hits, while some blatant trips by the Penguins were not called.

Still this managed not to hurt the Sabres too badly as Pittsburgh's powerplay turned out to be horrible. Crosby did get two goals off of assists by Malkin in this game, but both came at even strength. Buffalo was able to kill off all eight of their penalties including a lengthy five on three. This was lead by Toni Lydman who blocked an impressive seven shots in this game.

The Sabres finally sat out Peters for this game. Paetsch sat out this game for the defense, but may come back as it was very clear the Rivet was playing injured. The Sabres once again have to play a very good team on Saturday, when they travel to Montreal to play the Canadians. Too bad they don't plan on continuing to wear the classic jerseys.

Official Three Stars

Paul Gaustad

Drew Stafford

Sidney Crosby

My Three Stars

Drew Stafford (two goals, one assist, five shots)

Paul Gaustad (two goals)

Toni Lydman (seven blocked shots, six hits)

Defense allows Buffalo to hang on

While still in the hunt mathematically, giving another point to Boston is not going to help. Assuming Buffalo wins out the season, they still have only a 16.5% chance of getting into the post season.

The Defense had all of the goals for Buffalo as Lydman scored on the powerplay in the first (from Gaustad), and Sekera got the game winner in overtime. None of the goals in the game were scored five on five, with the Sabres goals coming five on four, and four on four, while Boston got their one goal shorthanded.

The Sabres highlights of the past month are still captain Pominville, and Mike Weber who had an assist on the game winner, and was plus one in this game. After 13 games played this season Weber is plus 14 and behind Pominville is the second highest on the team.

After the dramatic Sabres overtime win, every other team I was rooting for also won in OT. The Chicago Blackhawks won their game in a shootout, and both Boston College and the University of North Dakota won their games within the first overtime period to get to meet each other in the NCAA semi-finals.

Official Three Stars

Andrej Sekera

Ryan Miller

Alex Auld

My Three Stars

Andrej Sekera (one goal, plus one, lead the team in ice time)

Derek Roy (one assist, plus one, 67% on faceoffs, lead Sabres in shots)

David Krejci (one goal, plus one in loss)

Memories of 2006

All of these injuries to the defense is starting to bring back memories of the Sabres collapse in the 2006 playoffs where Campbell was our one and only healthy defenseman. I'm not talking about the injures to make excuses for the team, but rather because the 7-3 loss to the Penguins was so bad I don't want to talk about it.

The Sabres flat out played very poorly in the game. Miller didn't mess up huge, but probably could have played better. Adam Mair, Andrej Sekera, and Nolan Pratt were all -3 on the game. Given the insane number of goals given up while shorthanded, that is even worse. Sekera and Pratt have been pretty bad all year and I have no idea why we are giving these two any ice time at all. Both finished the game with more minutes then Tallinder.

On the other side Mike Webber played very well. He was plus two in the game with a primary assist. If the rest of the defense played that well the Sabres would make the post season no problem. Lydman and Tallinder were also both plus one, but need to put in ten more minutes a game if they really want to help carry this team.

The other Sabres with respectable stats were the ones known for working hard. Hecht, Roy, Gaustad, and Bernier all had decent or good games, and Paille also picked up two goals for Buffalo. Lindy needs to start adjusting the playing time accordingly.

Back to the original topic the Sabres are very short on defensemen. Currently they have to do without Paetsch, Kalinin, Spacek, Numminen, and the traded Campbell. That's five defensemen out of our line up. All who came into the season as our top seven. I don't even know who the next defensemen in the system is. Rumour is that it may even be Pominville.

Official Three Stars

Sergei Gonchar

Tyler Kennedy

Darryl Sydor

My Three Stars

Tyler Kennedy (one goal, two assists)

Kristopher Letang (two points, plus three)

Danial Paille (two goals, plus two)

Pominville on Fire (but one point is still not enough)

Jason Pominville had a good game, but the defense was still lacking as the Sabres lost in the shootout to the New York Rangers.

In addition to Tallinder being out, both Spacek and Kalinin both got injured this game as well. Neither player had been doing well before getting hurt, but this doesn't really help the team. With Campbell traded, Numminen still out for the season and these three injured, and Paetsch, Pratt, and Sekera all playing poorly that leaves only Lydman. To his credit he played good. However he saw only 29:27 of ice time. While that may seem like a lot, Buffalo needs him to be out there for the full sixty minutes or else we don't have a chance. Fortuneatly Tallinder may be back by Wednesday, I'd split the line up and make sure either Lydman or Tallinder are on the ice at all times.

Like Lydman, Pominville was also carrying his weight. He scored the first goal of the game 16 seconds in, and then had another one of his shots deflected for Buffalo's other goal. Then in the shootout, he scored the only goal for Buffalo on a very nice shot. Derek Roy saw even more ice time than Pominville, and played very well himself.

The Sabres biggest problem was on the powerplay where they got one goal on seven powerplays. However one of those was a full two minute five on three opportunity, that took the Sabres around 65 seconds to even get a shot on net. The Sabres need to accept the gifts they are given.

Miller wasn't all that great for Buffalo either. He did ok, but should have had the first one that went by him, and was coming way out of the net again in the shootout.

Buffalo still has a chance, but needs to get some wins first. Buffalo's next game is against the Penguins.

Official Three Stars

Jason Pominville

Brandon Dubinsky

Paul Gaustad

My Three Stars

Jason Pominville (all of Buffalo's scoring)

Brendan Shanahan (one assist, plus one)

Toni Lydman (all of Buffalo's defense)

Bernier starts strong

In his first game with the Buffalo Sabres Steve Bernier showed that he was a decent player, scoring the first two goals of the game against the Nashville Predators. Besides the goals he also finished the game plus three with an assist. Furthermore his chemistry with Vanek and Roy looked good (although almost everyone looks good with those two), and he appeared to be rather solid (and responsible) defensively and wasn't on the ice for any goals against.

The Sabres won the game 8-4. The main reason was that Nashville's goaltending was bad, so bad in fact that Andrew Peters scored a goal. Kaleta nicely set up the play for Peters first goal of the season, and fourth of his career. Furthermore it actually came at a critical time when the Predators were starting to make a bit of a comeback. Other Sabres goals came from Paille, Connolly, and Kotalik, while the population of Pominville went up by one as well.

Ryan Miller got hit in the mask, and was bleeding, which as a result gave up the first goal of the game. Thibault had to come in for a little while and didn't look too good giving up two goals in a little over eight minutes of ice time.

Later in the game things turned a little violent as these two teams who barely play each other apparently are not the best of friends. I do recall someone from Nashville sucker punching Spacek from behind when these two teams met last season though. Anyhow there were a number of fights including Roy who seemed a bit more aggressive this game and Bernier who proved himself ready to drop the gloves. Furthermore Peters must have been feeling good off of his goal and actually took a swing in his fight (and landed it), although Mair got absolutely destroyed.

Official Three Stars

Stever Bernier

Derek Roy

Andrew Peters

My Three Stars

Steve Bernier (Two goals to lead off a Gordie Howe hat-trick)

Toni Lydman (four assists, plus three)

Derek Roy (on goal, one assist, plus four)

Needing more Tallinder

The Buffalo Sabres could use more players like Henrik Tallinder on their team. So far this season he is the most defensive defenceman in the NHL. His linemate Toni Lydman came in ninth on the list.

These two were Buffalo's key to victory last season, and they appear to be helpful this year as well. Keeping Tallinder healthy has been critical for the Sabres success in the past two seasons, and haven't had the offense this year to hide it. Too often the Campbell and Spacek line has been, but out for the games most critical points, when perhaps the Tallinder Lydman line should be used instead.

In a similar comparison of forwards, Jason Pominville was the only Sabre to make the top 20 at number eight in the league. Personally I would have expected his linemate Hecht to be the top shutdown man up front for the Sabres. After a slow start to the season, Pominville is showing how good he really is.

Interview with Toni Lydman

Sabres.com has recently posted an interesting interview with captain of the month Toni Lydman.

In the interview he is asked how he feels the team is doing, and as a player who puts defense first in everything on the ice, he responds in that mindset. The truth is from a defensive perspective the Sabres have been playing really well recently. Their goals against is really low, and Lydman notes that they are "playing better hockey, [and] acting like five-man units out there". As long as you keep the mentality that the Sabres are bound to get lucky eventually, things are not so bad. Given all the chances the Sabres have had in the last few games, its not really as if they have been playing bad.

Lydman is also asked about some other players around the league. He has nothing but praise for the recently retired Lindros, and when asked about Forsberg states that he 's "been one of the best in the league", but qualifies it with a "when he's healthy" and then hints that he doesn't think Forsberg will ever play healthy again...

The veteran player that the Sabres really need is Numminen, but that looks as if it may still be a while. The Sabres play Ottawa tonight, if there ever was a good time for the team to finally get back to scoring, tonight would be it...

After giving up Three soft goals the Sabres lose in OT

The Sabres came in to Boston and proved themselves to be the better team, then Miller gave up three easy goals, and Buffalo was only able to come away with one point. Although it took the Sabres a while to score the offence looked good all night, and actually outshot the Bruins 30-24 despite having fewer powerplay opportunities.

The Sabres were lead by new Captain Lydman and Afinogenov throughout the game, who both gave huge efforts throughout the night. Afinogenov got the first goal after a nice set up by Vanek and Gaustad, but was constantly the source of the Sabres push throughout the game. Lydman on the other hand lead the push on the defensive end, playing up to the expectations that come with being the team captain. Lydman had a number of big blocks including one that came off his face, but that sacrifice saved an otherwise certain goal. Lydman had to leave the game to get stitched up, but came back to play in the third.

The Sabres real problem in the game was in goal. Although Miller didn't have much of a chance on the first goal all the rest of the goals came on shots that Miller really should have had. It's kindof hard to win a game when you give up three easy ones like that.

Part of the reason the Sabres were able to pick up a point in the game was their special teams play. Boston scored a nice goal early on their first power play, but Buffalo killed off the other four later in the game (thanks to mainly to Paille and Lydman, although not to Pominville who missed what should have been an easy short handed goal). On the other side of things the Sabres were two for three with the man advantage, which is clearly where they need to be. Next game is Friday night against Florida.

Official Three Stars

Marc Savard

Marco Sturm

Glen Metropolit

My Three Stars

Marc Savard (a goal and an assist and by far the best player on the Bruins)

Maxim Afinogenov (goal and Buffalo's best on the night)

Glen Metropolit (a goal and an assist at the most important times in the game)

A New Month, A New Captain

The Sabres have announced that Toni Lydman will take on the role of captain for the month of November. The assistants will be Campbell and Hecht. As I predicted this is a move of the teams leadership towards the defence where this teams strength needs to be. The defence will be where most of this teams leadership will be all season long.

Hecht did really well in his term as captain. He acted as the leader of the team, and played what very well might have been his best month of hockey in the NHL. If Lydman can pick up his game in the same way Hecht did, the Sabres might finally have enough defence to be able to win some close low scoring games...