Recap: 3/29 Sabres vs. Bruins - Dennis Wideman Pinball Edition

Recap (NHL.com)

The start of this game was anything but auspicious.  Boston came out determined to play physical, a fact that was most evident when Vladimir Sobotka freight-trained Tyler Myers of all people.  Craig "Cement Skates" Rivet, who with his poor season is making a strong case to not only be stripped of the captaincy but to also be run out of town with torches and pitchforks, followed up by standing still at the blue line and hooking Marco Sturm as he skated by, resulting in a penalty shot that was thwarted.  Finally, Andrej Sekera capped a miserable opening 7:43 by allowing David Krejci to get behind him, and Krejci danced around Miller for a 1-0 lead.

Two minutes later, game-changer Dennis Wideman demonstrated that he must be a big fan of The Who, because he became a pinball wizard. 

First, Wideman appeared to deflect a Tyler Myers wrister past Tim Thomas as it traveled between his arm and his body, and at the very least caused Thomas to not see the puck.  Game tied at 1.  A minute and a half later, Thomas gave up a fat rebound that Charles Barkley would have been proud of, and Gaustad launched a weak backhand that Wideman allowed to bounce off his skate past Thomas. Not content to simply let pucks deflect in off him, Wideman then decided to allow a Derek Roy cross-ice pass to Tyler Tim Kennedy on a partial 2-on-1.  That was it for Tim Thomas, who was apparently sick of such a terrible defenseman playing in front of him and pulled himself out of the game.  Or so it would appear.

These Sabres certainly are making a habit of getting opposing goaltenders pulled lately, huh?

The rest of the game was the Ryan Miller Show that we're all used to.  Miller stopped 40 Bruin shots in his usual ho-hum fashion, and by that of course I mean he stood on his head.  Apparently Miller got bored with this routine and decided I needed to watch the final 6-plus minutes with my sphincter firmly clenched by giving up a wacky goal to Dennis Seidenberg that first deflected ten miles up into the air.

Despite missing Thomas Vanek, Tim Connolly, Patrick Kaleta, and 9,000 other forwards (oh, just some guy named Raffi Torres?  Never heard of him), the Sabres didn't miss a beat.  In fact, the energy from Portland call-ups Tyler Ennis, Nathan Gerbe, and Mark Mancari was evident throughout the evening - I mean, there was actual bonafide end-to-end action at several points in this game.  Yes, in a game involving the Bruins!  I know, I can hardly believe it myself.

Next up are the boring as hell Florida Panthers.  I'm excited only because this is the first game I'm going to in two weeks.  Getting the first goal tonight is crucial, because if Florida gets it I'll have wished I brought a pillow.  My wife usually takes our daughter for a diaper change and a visit to Sabretooth's House during the second period; tonight, I may fight her for the honor of doing that.

Weekend Recap, Playoff-Clinching Edition: Sabres vs. Sens, Bolts

(Note: I'm switching to NHL.com for recaps because there's simply so much more info to be had.) 

3/26/10: Sabres vs. Senators (recap)

You can count on two things when the Sabres play Ottawa: as Rob Ray mentioned, the Sabres will sit back and let Ottawa dictate play; and whoever Ottawa puts in net will be a brick wall.  These things happened again Friday night, and that now makes it nine losses in a row.

I felt the Sabres outskated Ottawa for much of the game, and the 43 shots they poured on net reflected that hard work.  Ultimately, this was a game decided in part by bad bounces that went against the Sabres.  Miller really didn't have much of a chance on any of the goals - two were tips and the third was a turnover resulting in a shot so quick that he didn't have time to get set.

Yet another loss to a hated rival, although this time you can make the case that Buffalo played well enough to win.  That and a nickel will get you on a subway, but at least it's more entertaining than watching the Sabres skate through quicksand for 60 minutes, right? 

I'm not interested in dwelling on this game, though, because.... 

3/27/10: Sabres vs. Lightning (recap)

We're now officially in the playoffs!

This game was essentially over when Vinny Lecavalier was kicked out of the game for spearing Tim Kennedy in the berries.  Not only did Tampa lose its best player, but the score went from 1-0 to 3-0 just 2:16 and two power play goals later.  Put another way: if goals were awarded to a penalty killing team just for clearing the puck, the Sabres still would have outscored the Bolts 2-1 in that 2:16 span.

Bolts starting goaltender Antero Niittymaki was pulled at this point, and it was clearly a mercy pulling because he had no chance on any of the three goals.  Tampa failed to respond, and it became clear at that point that the Lightning hadn't come to play.  Much of the rest of the game consisted of the Sabres playing catch with the puck in the Tampa zone while Tampa was generally uninterested in gaining or clearing the puck.  In the second period, the fifth goal became the microcosm of the night: three Tampa players stood in crease and all five were within two feet of the net, all of them scrambling to find the puck with hilarious results as Derek Roy casually flipped a backhand over the prone goaltender. At one point, Rob Ray noted that the ice in the Tampa end was all torn up while it was pristine in the Buffalo end.  Quipped Harry Neale: "Maybe the Zamboni will just do half the rink."

Patrick Lalime finally got his 200th win.  Congratulations, Patty.  He wasn't very busy but did make four or five good saves through two periods, and the game was long over by the time Tampa got one past him.  It was nice to hear the ovation he got after his last start in HSBC ended in mock cheers and ridicule.

Despite the relative lack of drama, there are so many reasons to celebrate this game: a strong response to a frustrating loss the night before, the snapping of a three-year playoff drought, and the fact that the lack of drama allowed fans to concentrate on doing the wave in the third period.  (OK, maybe not so much on that last one.)

But for my money: the most exciting and worthwhile of these reasons was the coming out party of Tyler Ennis.

The stat sheet will show two assists, two shots on goal and a +1 in 19:26 of ice time.  What the stat sheet will not show is that it could have been a goal and five or six assists, and it certainly won't describe the sheer wizardry displayed by a player who many say will be the next Danny Briere.  Simply put, Ennis creates offense where there is none.  He always seems to have the puck and has an uncanny knack for finding the open player, unlike many who seek to get rid of the puck as fast as possible without turning it over.  His cross-ice passing is fearless and often finds its target right on the tape.  He even caused Adam Mair to score a goal.  You want speed?  Yeah, he's got that too - see his remarkable hustle in going into the corner and prevented the Tampa penalty killers from clearing the puck right before Derek Roy's first goal.

Ennis earned an assist on that Roy goal, albeit a bit of a fluky one - his attempted centering pass deflected off a Tampa defenseman right onto Roy's stick, who fired it past a helpless Antero Niitymaki.  (What is it with Tampa defensemen drawing the primary assist on Derek Roy goals?)   His second assist, though, was a thing of beauty; an unbelievable bit of stick handling in which Little Tyler faked a defenseman down, dragged the puck back, waited for him to slide by, and hit Mair at the goalmouth for an easy tap-in.

Roy had a hat trick, but could have tied Dave Andreychuk's Sabre record for goals in a game with five had he cashed in on two more Ennis feeds.  Ennis found Roy on the same five-minute powerplay the Sabres had already scored twice on, and Roy redirected it just wide.  Later, Ennis found Roy again on a great 2-on-1 chance that Roy should have scored on.  Not content to let his teammates score all the goals, Ennis gave it the old college try himself; he picked off a clearing attempt and turned it into a 2-on-1 with Pominville, barely failing to lift a backhander past the goaltender.  He then set up Pominville again in 2nd for a good one timer chance.

I could continue, but you get the point: Tyler Ennis is good at hockey.  What he showed Saturday night was dazzling for a 20-year-old kid in his second NHL game, and his 19:26 of ice time reflects that.  My goodness, some people actually wanted to package this kid in a trade just a month ago?  Go watch that game again and name me one player moved on deadline day that would have been worth sacrificing that for, especially if said player was a rental.

Next up is Boston tonight:  Foot on the gas, Sabres.  Let's take this division.

Recap: 3/24/10 Sabres vs. Habs - 71 Seconds

Recap (courtesy Sabres.com)

A win like this is very conflicting to me.  Fourteen hours after the game ended, I still can't decide if I'm more elated or concerned by the events of last night.

On one hand, the two points "earned" were important in the division race. Montreal is now ten back with eight games to play and is all but eliminated; Ottawa is now seven back and would likely face the same fate should the Sabres snap their eleventy billion-game losing streak to the Senators tomorrow night.  It's also important that they showed resiliency and never gave up and all that jazz, too.

But I can't shake the fact that the Sabres won by playing 71 seconds of good hockey.  71 lousy seconds.  That's a shift and a half (or, if you're Max Afinogenov, half a shift).  That is not "earning" two points - that's getting lucky against a team that, quite honestly, blew the game.

Once again the Sabres gave up a quick goal, this time on the first shift of the game.  Once again they outskated an opponent in the first period and had nothing to show for it.  Once again they played nearly the entire game from behind and struggled to catch up.  Once again they stormed the penalty box like the beaches of Normandy in the second period, killing any chance of gaining momentum.  Once again they made a backup goaltender look like the second coming of Patrick Roy by peppering him with easy shot after easy shot.

Yet they still escaped with two points, all because of 71 seconds. That, and because of Ryan Miller.

Miller may be the reason none of this ultimately will matter.  He's perfectly capable of stealing a hockey game - he has proven it all season long and did it again last night, making about 10 or 12 good saves.  The shots were 42-28 in favor of Buffalo, but Miller was by far the busier goaltender - even if Carey Price was named the second star and Miller, inexplicably, was not voted a star at all.

Even so, the lesson I do not want the Sabres learning in Game 72 of the NHL season is that it's OK to play like garbage for 58 minutes because your goaltender will bail you out.  Stealing a game is one thing, but stealing a series is quite another.  So don't let it happen again, you little punks.  Washington, Pittsburgh, or New Jersey won't let you off the hook.

One big test passed, one to go.  Ottawa tomorrow night.  You all know this isn't just another game.  It never is with the Senators.

Weekend Recap: Sabres vs. Panthers, Canes

3/20/10 - Sabres vs. Panthers (recap)

I had a lot of trouble staying awake through this one. Partly because I was out on Saturday night and watched the entire thing on tape delay, finishing about 12:30am; and partly because it featured the most boring team never coached by Jacques Lemaire, the Florida Panthers.

Nathan Horton would be Patrick Kaleta's personal punching bag if, you know, Kaleta threw punches.  Instead, he consistently suckers Horton into dumb penalties.  Horton got four minutes for trying to use Kaleta as a heavy bag while Patty smiled and talked trash about Horton's mother.  (Or so I imagine).  This, plus a pair of penalties on Panther defenseman Jason Garrison, allowed the Sabres to dominate play and shots on goal in the first period.

But by the second period, it was the Sabres who paraded to the box, at one point earning six straight calls spanning the first and third periods.  Unsurprisingly, this completely reversed the momentum of the game in the Panthers' favor, and an 18-5 Buffalo advantage in shots after one was cut to 25-23 after two.

The third period was fairly even until Grier essentially iced it with just over six minutes to go, because teams like the Florida Panthers do not come back from two-goal deficits with six minutes to play against goaltenders like Ryan Miller.

I'm now worried about Jason Pominville.  He took another penalty in this game, which is now two straight games with a penalty.  He's becoming a thug. What's next, Jason?   Two penalties in the same game?

All in all, a good road win, if a fairly uninteresting game.  Other than the above, it seemed like nothing really happened.  No fights, injuries, significant plays, or even end-to-end action.  Just the same old Panthers.  Yawn. (And on a fun personal note: I don't attend another home game until the 31st, which is against... Florida.  Yuck.) 

3/21/10 - Sabres vs. Hurricanes (recap)

This was a tale of three periods: one that was good, one that was really REALLY good, and one that was "OK, we proved our point, let's just go through the motions and get the heck out of here".  Fortunately, the third period was the latter; too often the Sabres have had that go-through-the-motions period to start the game, with predictably awful results.  This time around the Sabres toyed with the Candycanes through one period, opened up the floodgates (aided by terrible Carolina goaltending - stop me if you've heard that one before) in the second, and set the cruise control for the third.

I don't wish to alarm you, but the Sabres scored two powerplay goals in this game.  Two!  And neither one was a fluky bounce!   The first was the result of skill and actual hard work by Tim Connolly in going to the net; the second was because Jochen Hecht simply cannot be stopped.  Yes, I said Jochen Hecht.  What in the world has gotten into him?  Two goals in this game, plus one against Florida the night before and two last weekend against the Wings - all of a sudden, Mr. Not a Top Six Forward has five goals in five games. 

With the weekend sweep, the Sabres finish the road trip at 3-1-1 and sit nine ahead of Montreal and Ottawa with 11 games to play and one game in hand on each team.  Yep, the sky is falling alright.  Don't even bother paying for those playoff tickets.

Next up: Montreal on Wednesday, the 24th.  This is a big week - beat both Montreal and Ottawa, and you can stick a fork in the division because it will be done.  Go get 'em boys.

Recap: 3/18/10 Sabres vs. Lightning - Pominville has triplets!

Recap (courtesy Sabres.com)

I got home a bit late for the start of this one.  As I fired up the DVR, I tweeted: "Just starting the game now on tape delay. I'm sure the Sabres are already losing 3-0."

I love being wrong sometimes.

The Sabres came out determined to reverse the trend of slow starts as of late. As soon as the puck was dropped Buffalo slammed its metaphorical foot on the gas pedal with Vanek registering the first shot on goal just 13 seconds into the game, and never really seemed to let up.  Conversely, Tampa came out determined to deliver cheapshots, and after a period it was obvious which game plan was the better one: 3-0 Sabres and a 14-4 shot advantage.

About these cheapshots: it boggles the mind what Tampa was thinking, given the recent spate of violence, questionable hits, and suspensions (or lack thereof) in the NHL.  Yet just 2:07 into the game, Tampa began gooning it up when Todd Fedoruk boarded Chris Butler with a shove somewhat reminiscent of Ovechkin's hit on Brian Campbell: mostly from behind, well after the puck was gone, in dangerous proximity to the boards.  The hit effectively knocked two Sabre defensemen out for the first period after Rivet collected 17 minutes in penalties by sticking up for his teammate.  Fedoruk received no penalty, which in turn gave Matt Walker the green light to throw a high hit on Tim Kennedy right under the chin less than three minutes later.  Interference was called, but one could have easily tacked on an extra two for roughing.  Then another four minutes later, Kaleta headed off on a change and received a roughing call for getting his face in the way of a Steven Stamkos crosscheck, who was not penalized on the play.

So, to recap: we've got three Tampa cheapshots which resulted in two Lightning powerplays and one Sabre powerplay.  Cue "Three Blind Mice" in your music player of choice.  Said mice then decided to regain control of the game, calling three penalties in a 1:01 span.  It was clear that this was their intent because they even called a penalty on Jason Pominville, who takes a penalty roughly once per US presidential election.

The result of the sequence's final penalty was an actual, bonafide Sabres power play goal - OK, a bounce off a skate on a shot that was destined to miss the net by five feet may not exactly qualify as "bonafide" - and the craziness settled down after that.

Roy's shorthanded goal was a thing of beauty.  It's not often that you see a player score after passing the puck to himself off a defenseman's stick.  My fantasy team thanks you for the shorty points, Derek.

Ryan Miller was his usual self, and wasn't called on to do much until Tampa decided to try playing hockey in the second period.  He made about five or six good saves during the second frame, including three during the same Sabres power play.  Normally I'd insert a comment about the comically inept Sabres powerplay here, but that last sentence speaks for itself.

But of course, the biggest story of the night is Jason Pominville.  He has struggled to finish much of the year, shooting just 9.6% and constantly banging shots into a goaltender's pads or missing the net by five feet from five feet away, so it was particularly nice to see him get rewarded for continuing to plug away by getting a hat trick.  All of a sudden, Pommer has five goals in the last five games.  Right before the playoffs is a great time to get hot - you heard that, didn't you, Thomas Vanek?

All in all, a good 60-minute effort for a team in desperate need of one.

Next up: Saturday night vs. Florida.  Oh joy, the Panthers... possibly the dullest team in the league.  Trips to Sunrise, FL do not usually go well, so let's hope our heroes can keep it going.

Recap: 3/16/10 Sabres vs. Thrashers - Hey guys, the game is underway

(You may have noticed that I've shied away from doing game recaps for a while.  The truth is, I've often struggled to find enough to say about a particular game to make a recap seem interesting or original.  Unfortunately, I've also struggled to come up with anything to post about outside the context of any particular game.  The end result is a week between posts, which makes me feel like a liar when I say I write a Sabres blog.  So from now until the end of the season, I'm going to do a recap for every game regardless of how little or how much I have to say about it.  Maybe this will help inspire me to write about some other stuff as well.)

Recap (courtesy Sabres.com)

Stop me if you've heard this one before: the Sabres came out flat, fell behind quickly, and spent the rest of the game trying to catch up. 

Stop me if you've heard this one, too: the Sabres played down to the level of an inferior team, lost to them, and threw away two important points.

It's frustrating because we're now 68 games into the season, and this team still hasn't figured out how to play more than 40 minutes a night.  It's also frustrating because we see slow starts constantly now, and teams simply do not come from behind in the playoffs.  (OK, a certain 7-6 game against Ottawa in '06 notwithstanding.)  Right now the Sabres are giving up quick leads to bad teams like Minnesota and Atlanta and failing to catch up -  how's that going to work out when it's the playoffs and the opponent is Pittsburgh or New Jersey, if they make it that far?

Although he had no business giving up the first goal and his own bad giveaway led to the third, Miller had absolutely no help on any of the three goals he gave up.  Defensemen were seen standing around like they were waiting to get into a concert, and the forwards were apparently away on a quest for the Holy Grail.  Yanking Miller for Lalime was absolutely the right call - it woke the team up, and Buffalo finished the first period strong and dominated the second.  Lalime actually played very well in keeping the Sabres alive. 

But spotting your opponents two goals makes it a completely different game.  It is much, much harder to score when you're losing, and if you need evidence please note that every team in the league has at least a .500 winning percentage when scoring first.  The strong second period and Lalime's solid play leveled the playing field, nothing more.

I loved Matt Ellis' goal on the redirection of a Tim Kennedy shot.  It was so gorgeous that I couldn't believe it was Matt Ellis who scored it.  He did his best Vanek impersonation - you know, when Vanek scored goals - and plucked that thing right out of the air.  Then again, maybe this is the sort of thing that makes Lindy think it's a good idea to put the fourth line on the ice when down by a goal with two minutes left, only to take a dumb tripping penalty.

I'm still not convinced the winning goal didn't go off Slater's glove, and I'm honestly not 100% positive what that would have meant, if anything.

On the bright side, at least Johan Hedberg didn't make 300 million unbelievable saves against us like he always seems to do.

Next up is Tampa Bay tomorrow night.  When this road trip began, all four opponents - Atlanta, Tampa, Florida, Carolina - wouldn't have qualified for the playoffs.  As such, there were no excuses for not winning all four games.  But now?  It's absolutely mandatory to win the last three.  Ottawa is only three back, and all of a sudden Montreal and Boston - both left for dead - are only four and eight points back.

Let's go Buffalo!

A quick thought on headshots

Hits to the head have been a season-long debate in the NHL.  Some think all contact to the head needs to be punished; others call it a "hockey play" and worry that a ban on headshots will lead to legislating all hitting out of the game.  One thing that doesn't seem to be up for debate anymore: after Matt Cooke's disgusting hit on Marc Savard, everyone seems to agree that blindside hits to the head, in specific, are a Very Bad Thing and need to be removed from the game.  

If that's true, then just ban blindside hits to the head already and be done with that particular aspect.

Every day that goes by without punishing blindside hits to the head is another day that a Marc Savard or a Chris Drury is at risk.  I also believe it's possible that banning that specific hit may lessen the need for further debate by resulting in a reduction, if not an elimination, of all types of hits to the head as well.  So get that hit out of the game now before someone else gets maimed.  Changing the rules in mid-season isn't without predecent; just ask Sean Avery.  I don't understand why the rest of the debate should hold up something that everyone seems to agree needs to change. 

Recap: 3/7/10 Pirates vs. Amerks

I'd love to be able to tell you my thoughts on Sunday night's Sabres-Rangers game, but DirecTV decided that my DVR shouldn't bother recording it.  Because, you know, DirecTV hadn't done enough already this hockey season to piss me off.  So instead, you get my observations on Sunday afternoon's Pirates-Amerks game at HSBC Arena - in bullet-point format, because everyone loves bullet points.

• After noting on Twitter that there couldn't have been more than 2,000 people in the building, I was shocked to see attendance announced as 4,230.  That's some creative math right there. This is down quite a bit from more than 11,000 at the first Pirates game in HSBC a year ago, and as such I wouldn't be surprised if this is the last time the Pirates will play in HSBC.  And that's a shame.
• Our seats were in the 16th row of section 105, and I sat right on the center line.  Easily the best seats I've ever had in HSBC Arena.  You tend to forget how fast and loud the game is when you sit two rows from the top in the 300s.
• I thought Jhonas Enroth generally looked pretty good, but he seems to have a tendency to overplay the puck a bit and had to scramble on a few saves because of it.  Even so, with Patrick Lalime's contract expiring I wouldn't be surprised to see him backing up Miller next year.
• I wasn't terribly impressed with the defensive pairing of Mike Weber and Drew Schiestel.  Scheistel in particular misplayed a 2-on-1 - I believe on the Mike York goal - by allowing not one but two cross-ice passes.  
• Speaking of Mike York - he still plays hockey?!?
• Speaking of guys who still play hockey, guess who suits up for Rochester once again?  That's right, Rory Fitzpatrick.  Not only is he on the roster, but he's also the captain, which tells you everything you need to know about both Rory Fitzpatrick and the Rochester Americans.  From a potential joke of an All-Star to just a joke in general, it's nice to see that Rory is back where he belongs.  Welcome back to Buffalo Rory, and no, we haven't forgotten about Game 7 vs. Carolina.
• Plenty of Rochester fans made the trip, so there were a few dueling Let's go Pirates/Let's go Amerks chants.  I love dueling chants - I think that particular back-and-forth is part of what makes sports so great.  Despite the small crowd, at times I felt it was as loud as I've heard HSBC Arena in some time.  And yeah, that's an indictment on the crowds at the last few Sabres games.
• Matt Generous seems to be a pretty aggressive player.  He laid out an Amerks player with a huge, textbook open-ice check - and promptly got slapped with a penalty that can only be described as two minutes for hitting too hard.  It wasn't blindside, it wasn't a hit to the head, it wasn't interference, and he didn't leave his feet or use his elbows.  The official call was roughing.  One of the more ridiculous calls I've ever seen.
• During the game, I had a bullet point all planned out about how I think some Sabre fans are nuts for constantly wanting Cody McCormick and Jeff Cowan to be called up.  Sure, they're tough players, but I don't see what they can add to a team that's having trouble scoring goals.  So of course, McCormick scored on the power play and Cowan assisted on it to completely ruin this bullet point.
• Spotted in the crowd - an older gentleman wearing a Mike Robitaille jersey.  Except it wasn't a Sabres jersey, it was a Buffalo Bisons jersey.  All sorts of awesome.
• Sign of the night: "America will not tolerate Piracy".

All in all, my family and I enjoyed the game and I hope that I'm wrong about the poor attendance suggesting that it might be the last time.  $20 for a ticket right on center ice and just 16 rows up is hard to beat, minor league hockey or not.

Sunday Morning Stats Fun

Decided to look at some stats on NHL.com this morning and found a few things worthy of repeating.

- It's officially ridiculous how many goals Washington scores (3.89 goals per game).  The difference in goals per game between the Caps (#1) and Chicago (#2) is .69.  To put that in perspective, that's the same margin of difference between the 6th place Kings (3.02) and last place Bruins (2.33).  The Caps also lead the league in power play efficiency (25.1%) but that's not the reason they lead the league in goals - they've scored more goals in 5-on-5 play than anyone else, again by a huge margin (173 to #2 Pittsburgh's 139).  Who needs goaltending?  (Yes, I know this doesn't mean anything come playoff time.)

- For all the complaining about the Sabres' lack of goal scoring (and they certainly haven't bothered to put many pucks in the net in the last two months), they're decidedly average for the season.  Buffalo ranks #15 in goals per game with 2.68, tied with Ottawa.  Coupled with the #6 ranking in goals against per game, it's no wonder why the Sabres still cling to the lead in the Northeast.  (For the record, Ottawa is 19th in goals against.)

- Lots of comparisons have been made this year between this team and the '05-'06 edition.  Add penalty killing to the list: Buffalo leads the league in PK percentage at 86.3%.  If that holds up, it would be the highest percentage since that first post-lockout team (they finished #2 at 86.6% that year).  The Sabres still haven't lost a game when leading after two periods, and penalty killing has to be a major reason why.

- Believe it or not, there are actually eight teams with a worse faceoff percentage than the Sabres - although I'm sure that won't remain the case if Goose is out for an extended period of time.

- And finally, here's one that's truly bizarre: the Sabres have won 68.8% of the games in which they've been outshot, but just 38.5% of the games in which thye've outshot their opponents.  Only Atlanta (36.4%/51.3%) and Philadelphia 47.5%/57.9%) have won less than 50% of the games in which they've outshot opponents, and more than 50% in which they've been outshot.  They don't have anywhere close to the Sabres' discrepancy of over 30%, though.  As someone who tries to find meaning behind the numbers, I have NO explanation for this.  Could it be that Lindy's philosophy of "getting the puck to the net is never a bad play" might not be true?  Or is this just a very odd statistical anomaly?

I've figured out the Sabres' problems

It's not The System.  It's not the lack of scoring or the absence of a real go-to guy in the top six.   It's not Lindy Ruff.  It's not Miller being fatigued or Lalime being unable to get a W.  It's not defensive breakdowns or Steve Montador or Andrej Sekera.

Who's got two thumbs and is to blame?  This guy.
 
Ever since I posted some ridiculous garbage involving the foolish use of a certain "P" word, the Sabres have put up a 3-8-3 record.  Clearly the Hockey Gods have frowned upon this and are taking it out on my beloved team.  So, Hockey Gods, I'll do whatever it takes to reverse this.  I'll sacrifice a live chicken, or a bucket of chicken, or even Derek Roy if I have to.  Just let them stop losing.  For the sake of Buffalo fans everywhere who are not dumb enough like me to dare using the word pl*y*ffs.

Sorry guys.  I won't let it happen again.

Play like a team!

Last night on the postgame, Rob Ray suggested that the big problem with the Sabres right now is that they're playing like individuals and not as a team.  I think it's a valid point, and one worth discussing further because of the caliber of those individuals.

Many teams have guys that are capable of taking over a game on their own.  Pittsburgh has Crosby and Malkin. San Jose has the "Jumbo Patty Heater" line (a name I adore, by the way) of Thornton, Heatley, and Marleau.  Chicago has Kane and Toews.  Washington has Ovechkin and Semin.  The Rangers have Gaborik.  New Jersey has Kovalchuk.  You get the point.  Brilliant, creative offensive players that sometimes don't need any help.

Who do we have that can similarly put the team on his back?   Roy is too busy turning the puck over after trying to stickhandle between four guys to do that.  Stafford plays a game and takes the next ten off, Pominville consistently misses nets by five feet from five feet away, Jochen Hecht is Jochen Hecht, and Tim Connolly never stayed healthy until recently. Vanek used to be the guy, but has spent most of the season not scoring goals and being super depressed about it.

So when Rob made that comment, it hit home: if you don't have individuals that can take over a game, then don't play like individuals.  Yeah, maybe Pittsburgh or Washington can get away with that from time to time.  We can't.  Our top six forwards don't scare anybody right now the way a Crosby or Ovechkin does.

This Sabres team is clearly a whole that is more than the sum of its parts, as the saying goes, and as such it will never have any success if they're not on the same page.  So when I hear Lindy complain of this team not playing the system correctly, I think to myself: exactly how does this team expect to win?

Trade Deadline Day Mega Blog!

Ryan and Chris from the Goose's Roost had a great idea: what if we got a bunch of Sabre bloggers and other fans together in an all-day live chat for trade deadline discussion?

Enjoy the ride.

An ode and a farewell to the XXI Winter Olympics

It's a shame that 16 days go by so quickly after you anticipate them for four years.  Farewell, XXI Winter Olympics.  It's been fun.  I'll miss you, skiing and curling and bobsledding. You too, biathlon and speedskating.  Don't forget to write.  I'll see you in another four years, albeit on tape delay.  Maybe I'll have MSNBC in HD by then.

Thank you, each and every member of the US Olympic Team.  I am proud of all of you, not just for setting a Winter Olympics record with 37 total medals, but also simply for representing the red, white, and blue. My unathletic self could never dream of even making it to the Games, unless websurfing and Twitter suddenly become Olympic sports, so I appreciate and admire you all.  Since this is a hockey blog, I am especially (and incredibly) proud of my American hockey team, who nobody gave a chance but still came within one goal of a gold medal.  And although I hate that it had to be Sidney Crosby that scored the gold-medal goal, at least it's inspiring what promises to be a heck of a Photoshop contest at Puck Daddy.

And now, we return you to our regularly scheduled NHL season, already in progress.  Instead of hating 11 other countries, I now revert to hating 29 other NHL teams.  Especially Toronto.