Pegulaville26

Ehrhoff has been a horse the last weeks after a slow start playing 30 min a game on average last night he was fanning on every thing his stick touched. Miller I kinda feel bad for he takes shot after shot to the head. Tootoo Satruday and last night McNabb cut him and then JVR I think took his mask of with a bullet of a shot to the head from the top of the circle.

Thanks for letting me know I updated it, Leino should be getting a call from Shanahan too.

Well well well....where to begin here? Another home game another blown lead and another home loss. This kind of felt like groundhog dog of the 2010 playoffs, just missing the goalie change. The Sabres got a quick start pushing the play and got a 3-0 lead, then the turnovers begin and Philly makes it 3-1 with 1 second left in the first. Tropp did he best to get the momentum back as time expired in the first with a good scrap with Rinaldo. The late goal probably saved Bryzgalov from a hook after the first he was off all night continously looking behind himself for the puck. Then the 2nd period started and Philly added 3 more to take a 4-3 lead at the end of 2 and then the third started and the Sabres thought they were up 3-0 still and generated nothing. Thankfully they managed to get a tying goal with 1:30 left in regulation. But the capper of the night Marc Gragnani sums up his poor play by making a blind pass across the blue line and Giroux easily picked it off and walked in to beat Miller in OT. Sabres are lucky to get a point in the one. Lets start with the good Kassian and McNabb continue to impress, and Leino is playing better with Adam and Kassian. Miller played well this game isn't his fault. That's all the good. Finley? Glad he stuck up for Ennis but can't skate. Gerbe out with a head injury due to a hit from behind from Bourdon how that was only a 2 min minor is beyond me and of course Sabres don't get a PP because a player stood up for their teammate. MA Bourdon should hear from Shanny but not holding my breathe. I'm done with the excuses! Done! I don't want to hear injuries, or young players, or this, or that. Roy was to busy flopping the entire game instead of playing hockey and Stafford is I don't know I have no word for him, I don't care that he scored. Gragnani doesn't deserve to be on this club his soft play and turnovers continue to kill this team. Only problem no bodies to replace him. Giroux and Jagr showed up for Philly superstars being superstars take note Sabres. Lindy Ruff, it's time. 15 years is long enough he has lost this team. He needs to be accountable for blown lead after blown lead after blown lead after blown lead after blow lead and oh yeah after blown lead! Your team dominates the 1st period and you order them to into a shell in the 2nd period?! Remembers the playoffs? Remember Nashville when your team almost blew it on Saturday? Remember Florida earlier in the season? Remember Boston a few weeks ago? Why does he continously order this team into a shell to protect leads?! It doesn't work!! Bryzgalov was leaky and bad in the 1st and I was surprised to see him come out for the 2nd. The Sabres respond by throwing 5 shots at him in the 2nd and 5 in the 3rd. Why pull your foot off the pedal? You are allowed to blow teams out of your home arena. Lindy Ruff blog to come tomorrow and some surprising stats on his coaching career.

Center experiment has been over for about a month now and he's actually produced more on the 3rd line because he is playing his natural position. A 3rd line winger that provides some secondary scoring only problem is 4.5mil cap hit.

The Flyers invade the First Niagara Center tonight for the 2nd and final time this season. The last 2 meetings between these two teams have less than ideal for the Sabres. Both games seeing Ryan Miller getting chased and luckluster starts. Game 7 of the '10 playoffs Philly won 5-1 and earlier this season the Flyers jumped to a quick 3-0 lead before the Sabres faithful could reach their seats. The Sabres made it close but still ended up losing 3-2. The First Niagara Center has not been a place the team likes to play this year. They're 5-8-1 (Helsinki doesn't count) and have not put together a single good effort at home except the Capitals game a few weekends ago, where the Caps were trying to get their coach fired. Caps succeeded in their goal and so did the Sabres. Other than that goaltending has been shaky, scoring has been nonexsistent, and inspiration has been at a minimum. The hometown team NEEDS a good start tonight to try to get things going in the right direction. Lets not forget this team sent you packing in the postseason, I know the fans sure remember. They have to build a winning streak not continous losing streaks. Teams come into the Center and expect to win, that just cannot be the case anymore. With 4 home games coming in the next 7 days, I think 3 or 4 wins is a must anything less could be a real real problem. Injuries have been an issue for both these teams, but the Flyers will be better off tonight than the Sabres. JVR and former Sabres captain turned Sabres killer Danny Briere will be back in the lineup. Bryzgalov to my surprise is expected to be guarding the 4 x 6 cage. The Flyers will however be without captain Chris Ponger still after knee surgery. His rein seems to be nearing an end in the NHL. Also young promising prospect Bayden Schenn will be out as well. The Sabres however are not getting healthier they will be without Myers, Weber, Gaustad, McCormick, Leopold, and Kaleta. Gerbe will return tonight after his scary cut the other night and is sure to provide the team with a spark. Miller gets his second straight start in goal after a strong outing against the Preds on Saturday, he could use another good start against Philly tonight. Will tonight also be the night Stafford, Roy, Gerbe, and to a smaller extent now Leino (3 pts in 2 games) get going? Leino may want to show his former team that it indeed was a mistake to let him go, just my thought. Expected Lineup: Vanek-Hecht-Pommer Stafford-Roy-Ennis Leino-Adam-Kassian Gerbe-Ellis-Tropp Ehrhoff-Sekera Regher-Grags/Mcnabb (depending on how Grags starts off) Grags/Mcnabb-Finley Miller (Enroth) Prediction: If not now then when? Sabres come out flying tonight W 4-2.

Hopefully this topic never comes up again, Tootoo received a 2 game ban for charging Miller Saturday night. Good, end of story, hopefully the Sabres let it go too. Now onto the NHL radical realignment that puts the NHL into 4 conferences, which in fact I hate that they are calling them conferences instead of divisions. If they are divisions you can keep the East and West format. Anyways I digress, I like how the conferences are set up, everyone is happy in a way, nobody got left out of a West to East conference shift, and rival teams stayed in the same conference. Now the bad, how does Tampa and Florida end up in basically the Northeast Division? Splitting Stamkos and Ovi might not have been the best decision in the world, but in honestly when you look at it they didn't really have a choice. A bigger issue I have is the 16 teams in the west and 14 in the east. This sets up the expansion theory, which I think would be a terrible terrible terrible idea! They're too many teams having trouble already (NYI, Florida, Columbus, Phoenix, and Dallas) making this a 32 team league would be outrageous. The obvious places for expansion would be Quebec City, 2nd Toronto team, Hamilton, and Hartford. Hockey already failed in two of those places and the other two places teams already exsist close by (Buffalo and Toronto). If anything the NHL should go to 28 teams cut out Phoenix if they can't stay in the dessert and either the Islanders or Panthers go. The last large problem I have with the new realignment is the playoff system of rounds 1 and 2. I am all for creating rivalries, but how old will it get seeing Buffalo v Boston every year or Philly v Pitt or Ovi v Sid. What about the playoff rivalries of Buffalo and Philly? Chicago and Vancouver? Boston and Philly? Detroit and Colorado? Carolina and Buffalo?. Those playoff matchups will rarely happen unless those teams can make it to the new Frozen Four and they still might not matchup then. Onto the Sabres and there list of growing injuries, heres a recap of the current players out for at least Wednesday's game: Myers, Weber, Gaustad, Boyes, Kaleta, Leopold, and maybe McCormick. Will this team ever get healthy? If you look at the list of injured players the bad news is they are losing their size and strength (Kaleta, Myers, Weber, Goose, McCormick). Sure Kassian and McNabb have proven to be good replacements and Finley is big but has trouble skating. This cannot continue for the Sabres they are staying afloat right now but another big injury and this team could be done. Look at the players who have missed at least 1 game this year: Gerbe, Stafford, Regher, Goose, Weber, Miller, Myers, McCormick, Hecht, Kaleta, Ennis, and Leopold. That's 12 of the 23 man opening night roster! This reminds me of the 05-06 playoffs against the Canes when they lost almost the entire D core and Connolly (still bitter that was our cup). Pregame blog for Flyers v Sabres tomorrow , I'll be in the First Niagara Center as the Amerks/Sabres try to pull out a much needed 2 points at home.

I think Detroit should stay in the West too but I keep hearing the NHL promised they'd move them back East and they can't afford to leave Columbus in the West or they are going to lose another franchise. I would hate to see the Hawks, Wings rivalry broken up too. I really hope Detroit stays West though.

Before I get into Tootoo and Realignment I want to make a few comments on the Sabres vs Preds game Saturday night. It's good to see Leino start to get going and be rewarded for his hard work. He is starting get point and be a difference make on this team, I hope he can stay on track. Kassian continues to impress using his size and strength to keep the puck away from defenders he is going to be a stud. Ehrhoff is a horse. The line of Stafford, Roy, and Ennis did it's best to try to get Nashville back into the game Saturday. Stafford took 1 dumb penalty and after Nashville didn't score decided to take another which they did capitalize on. Roy and Ennis gave the puck away numerous times and overhandled the puck late. The irony however is Ennis did get the game winning 3rd goal. Good for Ennis not so good for Roy and Stafford as they continue to struggle. Ryan Miller was back in net and looked to be back in Vezina form, including a few highlight reel saves. If he can keep that up the Sabres will be up in the running for the NE division. Not a great win Saturday but a W is a W and this team needed one badly. Now to the meat of this blog first I want to touch on Tootoo. He has a hearing today with Brendan Shannahan for his hit to Ryan Miller Saturday that got him a 5 charging penalty and a game misconduct (yet Buffalo received only a 1 min PP when all was said a done). A few angles to look at here on this one. Tootoo was driving to the net with Ehrhoff in pursuit pushing Tootoo right towards the near post. That's all the credit Tootoo gets from me, Tootoo then loses the puck looks up to see he is near Miller and continues to drive the net without the puck and leap into Miller. When he leaps his elbows and hands are at Miller's head level. Ehrhoff and Tootoo were on the same path and Ehrhoff ended up behind the net, so this hit was more than avoidable. From there mayhem breaks loose with the Lucic hit coming to mind of all Sabres players and fans. Tootoo should receive a suspension for this act in the 3-5 game range. The problem here is that Shanny has a bigger issue on his hands. Like Lucic, Tootoo is a repeat offender which could be the result in getting the 5 game penalty in this situation. However the difference is Lucic plays for the Boston Bruins and Tootoo plays for Nashville. Shanny isn't going to win in this situation and that's his own fault when he wiffed on Lucic. If he doesn't give a suspension the Sabres and GM's will go nuts and it may really be open season on goaltenders. However if you do give a suspension the NHL fans of 29 teams are going to go nuts and wonder why the Nashville guy got a suspension and not the Boston player who leveled a far worse hit. Shannahan has nobody but himself to blame for that one, this is worst case scenerio for him especially with it being Miller's first game back from the Lucic hit. Either way get your popcorn out this is going to be interesting. Also today NHL realignment is being discussed at the owners meeting and a decision could be announced today. I don't think it really needs to be that complicated here's how I see (with current teams I'm not predicting relocation). Northeast: Buffalo, Detroit, Toronto, Montreal, Rangers, Islanders, Boston, Ottawa Southeast: Pittsburgh, Philidelphia, Tampa Bay, Carolina, Florida, Washington, New Jersey, Columbus Northwest: Vancouver, San Jose, LA, Anaheim, Edmonton, Calgary, Phoenix Central: Dallas, Chicago, Colorado, Winnipeg, St. Louis, Minnesota, Nashville Ok I'll admit that took me a little longer than I thought it would. I put NJ in the Southeast because I don't see the need for basically 3 NY teams anyways so I moved one. I did this on the belief that the NHL will want to try to save a dying franchise in Columbus. It may be unfair having 16 teams in the east and 14 in the west, but it's best for the NHL. If Phoenix was to move out next season the NHL will need a plan B. I think to avoid the NHL becoming a heavy east coast league they may look at KC and Seattle as new destinations. If KC is the choice the Avs and new KC franchise can switch divisions. Quebec will have to hold out hope for Isles, Panthers, or Jackets. Sorry. Let me know what you think.

Well last nights game against the Wings looked rather familiar. Another slow start by the home town Sabres, another uninspired 1st period, another early 3-0 hole, another road team walks out happy, another home loss, and more injuries. First the injuries Gerbe left early after Gaustad's skate cut through his lip and nose on a faceoff and Kaleta again left early (sound familiar? he has a little Timmy Connolly in him). Cory Tropp has been recalled from Rochester and Matt Ellis will jump back in the lineup tonight in Nashville. The Sabres also now have 2 goals in 2 games both recorded by Jochen Hecht. Not the idle situation and the stingy Predators defense and goaltending are not what the doctor ordered. The usual players continue to struggle, just in case you forgot heres the list: Stafford, Roy, Leino, Gaustad, and Vanek. I wasn't a big believer in the Roy injury being the reason the Sabres rebounded last year. Now over 20 games into the season I'm not so sure Roy isn't a problem for this team. His tripping penalty on Kronwall last night where he lazily for no reason stuck his stick in between Kronwall's skates and brought him down summed up his entire season...lazy and low effort. Leino continues to be well Leino. He puts in the effort but refuses to shoot, over stick handle, and fall down. He would be a good 3rd line winger at 2 million not at 4.5 million. Vanek has cooled off since the line of Adam, Pommer, and Vanek was broken up. Ruff should reunite that line but will not because he never fixes something when he makes a mistake. Stafford and Goose what else can you say? Inconsistency has riddled their careers. Want to see a scarier look at how bad it is?: Leino: 6 yrs 4.5 mil cap hit: 2G 5A 7PTS -5 25 Games Stafford: 4 yrs 4 mil cap hit: 4G 8A 12PTS -5 24 Games Gaustad: 1 yr 2.3 mil cap hit: 1G 5A 6PTS +1 25 Games Roy: 2yrs 4 mil cap hit: 6G 10A 16PTS -4 25 Games The good news for the Sabres is that Ryan Miller will patrol the blue paint again tonight for the first time since the Lucic hit. Just in time for the struggling squad. The former Vezina Trophy winner is a leader on and off the ice, he should have given the Sabres faithful a real dose of humble pie while he was out. Not many teams have a player of his caliber between the pipes. I anticipate Miller playing very well tonight and getting into a good groove this month. The only problem for the Sabres is that Nashville does have a goalie up to Miller's caliber, in Pekka Rinne. He won't be easy to beat tonight but the Sabres need to play inspired and drive the net against the defense first Preds (I'm not holding my breathe though).

Tonight begins a very important month for the Buffalo Sabres when the red hot Detroit Red Wings visit the First Niagara Center. The interesting part of this matchup is that these two teams could have a similar situation occur. In October the Wings were struggling to score goals and pilled up a long losing streak. Datsyuk and Zetterberg were ice cold and people started to talk about the Wings finally hitting the wall. Not the case in November the Wings became red hot and so did Datsyuk and Zetterberg. Now in November if you look at the Sabres they have had problems scoring with Roy, Leino, Gerbe, and Stafford going ice cold. With the new month of December beginning could the Sabres see a Detroit or Boston type month? Tonight would be a good start for confidence. Tyler Ennis is back, as well as Ryan Miller in a backup situation. Miller will probably get his first look at action since the Lucic hit tomorrow night in Nashville. With the health of the team getting better and the new infusion of young talent in Kassian and McNabb, I can see this team having a fantasic month and being back on top of the NE division. On the other side of the coin should the Sabres continue to struggle, they could slide right out of the top 8 and possibly out of playoff contention. They have a lot of divisional games this month as well as conference games against top 8 teams. Stafford, Roy, Leino, and Miller need to have a good month or we could start to see their names appear in trade rumors more as the deadline approaches. In Leino's case his contract would be untradeable but could cause a benching if his drought doesn't end. I look forward to see Datsyuk play tonight, as good as he is I think he is one of the most underrated players in the NHL and he shows it every year in the playoffs when the entire hockey world is watching. He has slick hands and lightning quick shot. Enroth will need his "A" game tonight to handle Datsyuk and Enroth's fellow Sweedish country men. Post game thoughts to come tomorrow.