After another terrible road showing in Chicago and another blow out thist time 6-2, all I keep hearing is, whats wrong with the Sabres? I have 3 answers for you: poor hockey IQ, soft, and no passion. Last night I couldn't help but first scream at Ville Leino (I know he can't hear me) for his drop pass to nobody and then laugh continously throughout the rest of the game at what was occuring. Want to see what the Sabres pay Leino 4.5 million dollars for? Take a gander...http://video.nhl.com/vid
The Feburary 27th Trade Deadline is a little over a month away, but trades will start in the next few weeks. This is the first blog of a team by team preview broken down by division. Today I will start with the division I know the best the Northeast. 1. Boston Bruins 29-13-1 59 pts (2nd in Eastern Conference) Buyers PP: 18.2% (12th) PK: 86.4% (6th) GF: 156 GA: 88 (+68) Leaders: Goals-Tyler Seguin (17) Assists- Patrice Bergeron (25) Points-Tyler Seguin (40) GAA:Rask 1.61 Injuries: Rich Peverly
I love when I get the chance to watch the Red Wings play, so I am looking forward to tonights game. The Wings are a well oiled machine and give their opponents a lesson in puck control every night. Also Pavel Datsyuk is one of my favorite players in the league to watch. He plays a complete game in all areas of the ice. He has nasty hands and excellent vision, he doesn't get all the same run that Ovechkin, Stamkos, and Malkin get, but he is just as good if not better. Tonight starts the week
Look back into the past and all of Buffalo was full of joy with new owner Terry Pegula in charge. Fans in this city were as amped up as I've seen in regards to the Sabres. Fast forward one year and my oh my how things have changed. Pegula and his management are under huge fire in Buffalo. Fans in this city are calling the new ownership team liars, greedy, and uninformed. These are terrible accusations and a terrible way for fans to look at their teams ownership group. How could you argue w
On Feburary 18th of 2011 Terry Pegula took over as Sabres owner and gave a energize first speech even shedding tears at the sight of his hero Gilbert Perrault. All of Buffalo was full of joy calling for Feburary 18th to be known as Pegula Day for the rest of time. He promised Stanley Cups, he promised a changed atmospher, and he promised money no longer is an issue with this team. Pegula and Sabres President Ted Black spoke of a 3 year plan, in which they would be a "Championship Team, Attitu
The company I worked for picked a good weekend to send me to Atlantic City for work. I missed the 2 and a half games over the weekend. Loses to Carolina, Winnipeg, and Toronto. I walked off the plane last night and the first thing I saw on the TV at the bar outside my gate was a 2-0 Leafs lead last night. I said to my co-worker "It's like I never left". That score would hold up. The Sabres combined for 3 goals in their last 3 games. Vanek, Pominville, and Myers being the 3 goal scorers.
Tonight the Sabres invade the RBC Center for a meeting with Eastern Conference basement dweller the Carolina Hurricanes. These matchups with the Canes always bring back memories to the 2006 Easter Conference Final. I still say to this day the Canes stole Buffalo's cup that year, if only Jay McKee took care of a cut on his leg he wouldn't have been the 5th D-man to go out of the lineup. I remember those annoying "cheerleaders" holding the sound meter things showing how loud it was in the arena
I LOVE LOVE LOVE Trade Deadline time in the NHL. It's exciting, it's interesting, full of steals, full of laughers, and full of bad panic extensions. Every team is pretty much involved and almost every fan can hope for the new toy to watch the rest of the season. Luckily for NHL fans Christmas comes twice a year (Deadline and July 1st) and can even sometimes come early. Best sport in the world. With the news of the Ducks having a "Everything Must Go Sale" and Nash saying he wouldn't hesitat
The new year has started off well for the Buffalo Sabres. Last night they pulled out a 4-3 win over the Oilers with a 3 point game from Drew Stafford and a multi point game from Derek Roy. Lindy Ruff overhandled his team again by making dramatic line changes that started in a poor start for the Sabres. Ruff quickly put the lines back to normal and the Sabres started to control play and earned the W. The best news in months came down today. Big #57 Tyler Myers is ready to go and will play tom
The Sabres get one more chance starting tonight to hit the reset button on the 11-12 season. This has been a season full of injuries and inconsistent play. The year 2011 ended poorly for the Sabres losing 3 in a row and also losing Ehrhoff and Sekera for a period of weeks due to injury. Making the total now of 15 different opening night players to miss one game (Vanek, Pommer, Roy, and Adam only players to play every game). Pominville however may be in jeopordy tonight after missing the pre-
With only 2 days left in 2011 I'm gonna share my 10 steals of the year. 10. Phoenix signs Mike Smith to a 2 year 4 million dollar contract. Mike Smith has brought his career back to life in the desert. Before he recently went down with an injury smith was 15-10 with a 2.52 GAA and a .920 save %. This might be a prime example of the Dave Tippett system helping out goaltenders. Bryzgalov could be a benefactor of that same system. Nonetheless Smith has played well for the Yotes who continue to comp
The Sabres make my face hurt after watching them so I figured I'd change it up today. With 2011 coming to end this weekend I want to touch on the top 10 regrets and steals of 2011. I'll start with the regrets. 10. Philly acquires Kris Versteeg for a 1st and a 3rd pick from Toronto. An interesting trade deadline last year also involved this trade involving Kris Versteeg. I thought Versteeg was a good pick up for the Flyers however the price was a bit much for Versteeg. He started to tail off in
The Sabres and Devils meet tonight in Newark with 2 very imporant points on the line. The Sabres can pull into a tie of 7th and the Devils can pull away from 9 the spot a few points. NJ comes off a 4-2 loss to the Canes on Monday and the Sabres are coming off a 4-2 win against the Caps. NJ will get a boost tonight with the return of young D stud Adam Larsson. He missed the last two games after he returned to Sweeden to attend his grandmothers funeral. Former Sabre Henrik Tallinder will sit
Last night I got my second look at a full game from the Washington Capitals. In the first game the Sabres pounded the Caps in route to a 5-1 W and last night was much of the same resulting in a Sabres 4-2 W. The Caps team that I saw back in November only had one difference then the team I saw last night, a new coach. Watching this game to me proved that Bruce Boudreau was not the problem in Washington. The Caps started out red hot to start the season going 7-0-0, I was one of a few people at
The Christmas break is over, hockey went out of our mind and our families entered. Now it's time to get back to work. The Sabres will host the Washington Capitals tonight at the FN Center 4 points out of a playoff spot, tied with the Caps in 10th/11th place. All the patrons of Pegulaville wanted from Santa this year was a healthy hockey club. Well Santa delivered, Brad Boyes will return tonight, along with Jochen Hecht. Hecht is a bit of a surprise seeing he was wearing a walking boot near
The ACC in Toronto will feature two teams who have seen similar fates so far this season. The game in Buffalo last Friday, a 5-4 Sabres victory, was perhaps one of the best games so far this season. Both the Sabres and Leafs started off hot, but as of late both have sunk in the Eastern Conference standings. The Sabres currently sit in 10th place with 35 points and the Leafs in 7th with 36 points. A Sabres win tonight propels them into the top 8 again and a Leafs win propels them into 6th. W
Can't say I'm surprised the injury riddled Sabres showed up with a lacklust effort thus resulting in a 4-1 loss to rival Ottawa and dropping them to 10th place in the East. A couple quick notes before I get into the meat of this. First Marcus Foligno was sent back to Rochester today, he played hard last night, but showed is isn't ready for the NHL. Brad Boyes will not play tomorrow in Toronto, but Patrick Kaleta is expected to play (3rd time now this is being said I'll believe it when I see i
The Blue and Gold invade Scotiabank Place in Ottawa for a very important matchup in the Eastern Conference standings. The Sabres sit in 8th with 35 points and the Senators sit in 10th with 34 points. Depending on how tonight goes the Sabres could end up anywhere from the 6th spot to the 11th spot in the standings. A big 4 point swing is on the line tonight. For Ottawa Kyle Turris will make his Sens debut tonight after being traded from the Coyotes earlier in the week for David Rundblad and a
Man is it tough to be a Buffalo sports fan. Lets jump into the time machine and go back to October the Sabres were in first place and were only down 2 players. The Bills were also in first place and 5-2. Now back to reality the Sabres cling to the 7th seed with a one point lead on the 9th place team and the Bills have lost 7 straight to drop to 5-9, making it 12 years without NFL playoffs. Welcome to the life of a Buffalo sports fan. Life goes on. The Sabres seemed to be on the upswing afte
Last night the Sabres earned a hard fought 2 points with a Divisional 5-4 win over the Leafs. Thomas Vanek carried the team with a 4 point night (2g 2a). Ryan Miller played strong even though he gave up 4 goals. The Sabres PP clicked last night with 3 PPG in the 2nd period. The Leafs 30th ranked PK helped out the blue and gold. Dion Phaneuf was given a 5 min boarding penalty and game misconduct on hit to Kassian in the 2nd. Phaneuf will not be suspended for the hit, which is not surprisin
Tonight the rival from just down the QEW, the Toronto Maple Leafs invade the First Niagara Center. Along with them they bring fromer long time Sabre Tim Connolly. The Leafs sit 6th in the East with 35 points and the Sabres are barely hanging onto 8th with 33 points. The disaster of a 5 game homestand wraps up tonight for the blue and gold (1-1-2). This is the first meeting between of six between these teams and will have more punch to the season series than its had in past seasons. Both of
Sidney Crosby is out again with post-concussion symptoms from a collision with Chris Kunitz. The bad news in this situation is that it didn't even take a head hit to start the post concussion symptoms again. Not a good sign for the Penguins or the NHL. Sid is the face of the league and the NHL needs for him to play for it to grow (hate him or not you know it's true). This situation reminds of Eric Lindros or Pat Lafontaine, but worse with the caliber of player Crosby is. With concussions be
I'll slightly touch on the Sabres snooze fest of a weekend. Borning 2-1 win in OT Friday against Florida and boring injury riddled 4-1 loss to the Blue Shirts Saturday. Enroth had his performance since the game on Columbus and the PP continues to be a joke giving up 2 shorthanded goals 5th of the season. Unacceptable that lands on coaching. This team is dead in the water with the current injury status, when you have Paul Szezechura centering your top line your in trouble. Hopefully by the t
Tonight the Southeast division leading Florida Panthers are in town. They have been a surprise team this year led by new bench boss Kevin Dineen. Panthers had monster turnover in the offseason signing Goc, Jovanowski, Theodore, Fleischman, Kopecky, and Upshall to name a few. Trading for Campbell and trading Booth to Vancouver early in the season. Jose "Three or More" Theodore has been anything but his usual self this year. He is playing well and shutout a hot boston team 2-0 in TD Garden la
Before I get into Ruff Leino has his hearing today for his elbow to Matt Read last night, since Leino is a first time offender I expect a fine at most but wouldn't shock me to see a 1 game suspension which in my opinion is deserved. On the other hand the fact that there will be no hearing for Bourbon with the Czar of discipline is a little surpring to me. Gerbe has a concussion and is now added to the list of injuries thanks to that Bourbon hit. We will see how it all unfolds. Lindy Ruff the
