The Sabres host the team that stole our cup in 05-06. Will never let that go. Anyways tonight's 4 point match up could be the final nail in the coffin for the Hurricanes or a big step back into the race. Buffalo go help last night with loses by Tampa, Toronto, and Washington. Two of the three teams losing important players to injuries in the process (Garon and Lupul). Now the Sabres have to take advantage of it and make up ground. Tonight could be a tale of two tired teams. Carolina comes
With a month left in the season and the race for 8th place in the East heating up. I am going to give a break down of the teams that I think will be part of the race. I'll work my way down the current standings starting with 3rd place Florida and then 7th place Ottawa to 12th place Toronto. All teams below Toronto are out of the race in my opinion. Florida Panthers (Currently 3rd) 74 pts 17 games left Away Schedule (9): Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Philadelphia, Carolina, Montreal, Minnesota, Co
In my blog last night I said the game would come down to who wanted it more. Well the Jets wanted it more without a doubt. Buffalo looked slow and was sloppy throughout the game. They could maintain no puck possession, poor passing, and numerous turnovers, 16 to be exact. 16! The Jets won every single battle within the game last night. They came with odd man rush after odd man rush. The headline to this game was the struggle of the Sabres top line. They are the reason that the Sabres did
Tonight is the first time since Game 7 of last year, I am this amped up for a game. The Jets and Sabres will battle in the MTS Centre for 8th place in the Eastern Conference tonight. Last night the Flyers stonewalled the Caps in a 1-0 win that made tonight's match up even more exciting. Thank you Philly! The MTS Centre is one of the hardest places in hockey for a road team to pick up a W. It is loud and the Jets always come to play at home. It will be key for the Sabres to get out in front
Last night the Sabres skated to a 2-0 win over the surging Ducks. The first 30 to 40 minutes of this game belonged to the Sabres. However in the 3rd period it was the Ryan Miller show. Miller stoned Perry, Getzlaf, Ryan, and others on numerous occassions. Turning away 20 shots in the 3rd and 43 in total on his way to his 4th shutout this season. You can see some of the saves on NHL.com here...http://video.nhl.com/videocenter/console?intcmpid=nhl-hp-vidchn-highlts. Sabres goals were scored b
It feels like opening night again, with the anticipation of seeing the debut of Cody Hodgson tonight. The ironic twist is that the Anaheim Ducks are the opponets tonights like on opening night in Helsinki. Hockey Heaven is buzzing about tonights game and the rest of the season for that matter. Tonight's game features two of hottest teams in the NHL fighting for a furious come back to make the playoffs. The Sabres are 8-3-3 in their last 14 and the Ducks are 9-3-2 in their last 14. The last
The deadline was a snooze fest yesterday until the 3pm deadline hit. First the Gaustad trade broke and the return of a 1st round pick. I tipped my cap to Sabres GM Darcy Regier on robbing a team of a 1st rd pick for Goose. I was ready to turn off the TV until all H-E-Double Hockey Sticks broke loose. It came across that Zack Kassian was traded to Vancouver. Two thoughts came into my head immediatley. First was..Whaaaaat?!?! Second was wait for Kassian it has to be a huge player coming bac
Twas the night before the trade deadline and all through hockey heaven not a creature was sturring not even a mouse. Ok enough of that. It looks like right now to be the silence before the storm. We've seen a few teams make some move, but not many competitors. I think this is good news and could make a very exciting run to the deadline. On the Sabres front all is quiet. Gaustad has a minor injury, making his availability less likely. I think with he recent play and desire to stay in Buffal
Sabres Needs: scoring, physical players, and leadership Dustin Brown: scoring, physical, and leadership Perfect match! The city once known as Los Angeles acquired Jeff Carter yesterday for Jack Johnson and a 1st round pick this year or next. Thus becoming Philadelphia West with the reunion of Jeff Carter and Mike Richards. All LA night club owners just made some extra loot. All kidding aside Bob McKenzie is reporting that LA has put Dustin Brown on the trade block. Brown the current captain
The Sabres and Flyers share the ice for the 3rd time tonight, however the first at the Wells Fargo Center. These two teams do not really like eachother after last seasons 7 game series. Philly has won the first two meetings in two different ways. The first they chased Ryan Miller early and held onto a 3-2 win. The second they pulled a 2010 playoffs come back. The Flyers trailed 3-0 and came back to win 4-3 in OT thanks to a great pass by MA Gragnani to Claude Giroux sending him in alone on
I was doing my usual morning cruise around the hockey internet making stops at tsn, nhl.com, and hockeybuzz to get my crazy Ek rumors for the day. I'm surprised it took Ek so long, but at long last the Miller for Kane rumor was in his rumor blog today. So since the Sabres give me nothing interesting to write about I'll kick this around. Now let me say this first off IF this happens I find it hard to believe it goes down at the deadline. I think Chicago will take a shot at Nabokov, Bulin, or a
After watching the Sabres vs Lightning game on Saturday I once again come back to the how the NHL has gone backwards thoughts. Coming out of the lockout the NHL claimed they would be different. Players were no longer allowed to clutch and grab. Slow players could no longer interfere with fast players. Scoring was up and the game was growing. Seven years later it seems we have gone back to pre lockout. How many times a game now can you sit there and say "that's interference" or "that's holdi
On Wednesday I declared the 6-0 win over the Bruins could be the game fans look back at to point to when the comeback started. However last nights game might be another one of those games. Kari Lehtonen stood on his head for 40 minutes and early in the 3rd Dallas increase their lead to 2-0. Buffalo appeared to be on the path to a frustrating L however, minutes Radek Dvorak took an awful penalty hauling down Vanek in the neutral zone. Vanek would capitalize on a nice tip on the PP. The score
Tonight the Dallas Stars make a visit to the First Niagara Center. Of course with Dallas in town the famous "No Goal" from the 99 cup final must be mentioned. Brett Hull scored the game winning goal in game 6 while his foot was in the crease. Therefore should have been no goal. However the NHL did not (proven fact) review the goal. So in typical Buffalo sports heartbreaking fashion "No goal" falls in with "Wide Right" and "Music City Miracle". Anyways onto tonights big game. Dallas is comi
The past couple days I have noticed a lot of things around the hockey world. A lot of small sometimes unnoticed stories are signs of things to come in my opinion. Before I begin let's all give a stick tap to Mr. Scott Gomez. It was 359 days between goals, Gomez hit twine last night against the Isles. I can finally watch a Sabres vs Habs game not saying to myself "just don't let Gomez score". Thank you Isles! Ok back to the signs. Over the past week or two a lot of small stories have come o
Boston the big bully of the Northeast was prepared to come into the First Niagara Ceneter and run the soft Sabres out of the building. Not in Pegula's house! Cody McCormick set the tone 2 minutes in challenging Shawn Thornton to a scrap. The Sabres brought the pressure early. Christian Ehrhoff scored on a goal that I think I could have stopped. Pominville would then score on a beautiful spin o rama pass by Ville Leino. I think Leino has found his linemate in Pominville. Ville has been a n
Buffalo make the final trip to Long Island this season. The Isles have won both meetings this season and have won 6 of the last 7 meetings overall. For some reason the Isles just have the Sabres number. Things will be a little different this time around. Tonight will be the first time the Islanders face the red hot Ryan Miller. Also this is will be the first time the Islanders meet a healthy (minus Vanek) Sabres squad. Buffalo comes in winning 2 of 3 and getting 5 of 6 points in their 3 g
Buffalo is back at home tonight at the First Niagara Center for the first time since January 13th a 3-2 win against the Leafs. The opponent tonight are the 1st place New York Rangers. They are coming off a 4-3 shootout loss to NJ last night. The last time the Sabres lost in regulation at home was to these very New York Rangers on December 10th. Since then they have put a pretty good home streak together. Marty Biron played last night in NJ, therefore Henrik Lundqvist will be between the pip
Two in a row! First two game winning streak since November 9th! Determination is the word that can best describe this game. Habs took the early 1-0 lead on a mistake by Matt Eliis that let Max Pacioretty walk in alone and bury his own rebound. From that point on it was all Sabres. Price stood on his head until something crazy happened. Ville Leino came to play. How ya doin Leino?....http://video.nhl.com...id=35&id=154067. As NHL.com called it Ville String. Nothing like the toe drag s
Believe it or not the Sabres are fielding their opening night lineup for the first time since the October 15th contest (4th game of the year) against Pittsburgh. The only players that will be missing from the lineup will be Jochen Hecht and Brayden McNabb. Things should get interesting when McNabb is ready to go tomorrow. Gragnani and McCormick will be the healthy scratches tonight. Tonight the Sabres will visit the Bell Centre in an effort to begin the second half push and win back to back
Couple things I want to hit on before I start the grading. First Tim "Teeth" Kennedy is now on his 3rd team since being cut by Buffalo. If he has not fired his agent after the offseason disaster with Buffalo he needs too. Kennedy had a spot carved out in the Sabres lineup and had a decent rookie season. Best of luck to Teeth. Last the hockeybuzz rumor involving Derek Roy and Paul Stastny. I'll play along even though it came from EK. I could see this deal working for both teams, the Sabres
1. New York Rangers 31-12-4 66 pts. (1st in Eastern Conference) Buyers PP: 14.1% (25th) PK: 87.5% (3rd) GF: 132 GA: 96 (+36) Leaders: Goals-Marian Gaborik (25) Assists- Derek Stepan (21) Points- Marian Gaborik (39) GAA- Henrik Lundqvist (1.87) Injuries: Jeff Woywitka (IR), Steve Eminger (IR), Mike Sauer (IR), Chad Kolarik (IR) Cap Space: 975K UFA's: Ruslan Fedotenko, Erik Christensen, Brandon Prust, John Mitchell, Steve Eminger, Jeff Woywitka, Marty Biron RFA's: Wojtek Wolski, Michael Del Zotto,
Where has that Ryan Miller been all season? He stole 2 points for the Sabres tonight in NJ. He even out dueled future hall of famer Marty Broudeur in the shootout. Kovi scored for NJ and Pominville and Gerbe were the shootout goal scorers for Buffalo. 12 Game road losing streak is over. With Ehrhoff and Regher back Miller looked more confident in his crease. I don't think that is a coincidence. Miller needed his team to pull that W out for him and I'm happy for him. I'm also happy for Pa
Tonight the Sabres will invade Newark trying to pick up a W on this awful road trip. I personally have turned my attention to watching prospects more instead of doing personal scouting of other teams potential trade bait. With the Sabres now being in 28th place in the NHL they are in line for a lottery pick. I have my eye on Nail Yakupov and Mikhail Grigorenko. A top 3 pick could be just what the Sabres need. It also does not involve blowing up your team. However there's still 34 games lef
The Sabres have lost 5 in a row and 11 straight on the road. They just finished the first leg of the nightmare road trip that ended in 0 points in 4 games. They were outscored 19-5, the 2nd leg features a stop in Newark tomorrow and Montreal after the All-Star Break. With any point tonight by Carolina the Sabres will hold sole possession of the Eastern Coference basement. They have gone from contender or lottery pick in a matter of 6 months. A large fall from grace. I don't want to dwell on
