The Buffalo Sabres are returning from the All Star Break a little healthier than they were at the start.  Tyler Ennis is set to return tonight after tweaking his high ankle sprain back in the beginning of December.  Grags will be the odd man out tonight as both Ehrhoff and Regehr are healthy.  Miller will get the start and has a chance to tie Dominik Hasek’s franchise record in games won (234 games).

This will be Tyler Ennis’ first game since December 17th and according to Garth over at HockeyBuzz, he will be centering a line with Stafford and Gerbe on his wings.  Ennis tweaked his already injured in a game against the Penguins.  He has not been incredibly amazing thus far this season, but considering he’s spent the majority of the season hurt, I’d say he’s doing pretty well.  An interesting fact I found, the Sabres are 30-8-5 when Ennis scores a point.

» Continue reading “Ennis In, Gragnani Out Tonight Vs. Habs”

Jason Pominville, the lone Sabres player (rookie not included, sorry Luker) to be participating in the All Star festivities, was selected in the 18th round of the player draft this evening in Ottawa. Pominville will represent Team Alfredson; ironic, I think yes. Either way, congrats to the captain!

Tonight the Sabres faced off against the New Jersey Devils in New Jersey.  Before the game, the Sabres were on a 12 game road losing streak, the longest in franchise history; their last win on the road was December 3rd against Nashville.  This lengthy slide had the Sabres sitting in last place in the Eastern Conference, 10 points out of the final playoff spot.  Christian Ehrhoff made his to return to the line-up tonight after missing the last 11 games with an upper body injury.  Robyn Regehr, who had missed 4 games with an injury also returned to the line-up.

So what does Ehrhoff and Regehr’s returns, plus a stellar game by Ryan Miller, plus Jason Pominville being Captain Clutch (Jr.), plus Nathan Gerbe playing hero add up to?  The Sabres first road win of the new year and the end of the longest road losing streak in 41 years!!  Finally does not even begin to describe that feeling.  After lackluster effort for the last dozen games, this was a welcomed sight for Sabres fans, a complete effort from all parts of the team.

Jordan Leopold opened the scoring 16 minutes into the game with his eighth goal of the game, but as with any game against the Devils, that would be it for the Sabres until the shootout.  Patrick Elias tied the game up at one a little over 10 minutes into the second period on the power play.  Derek Roy took two penalties in the second period one for tripping at 6:37 and another for boarding at 9:07, the later leading to the Devils tying goal.  After an uneventful third period, the game moved into OT where the Devils had plenty of opportunities to end the game then and there.  However, unlike previous games, Ryan Miller was up to the challenge.

Now I don’t know about the rest of you, but I don’t particularly like shoot outs all that much.  They are far to nerve wracking for me and I feel like its silly for a game to come down to a skills contest, but thats just me.  Either way, New Jersey’s shooters were Kovalchuk, Parise and Elias (shocking, I know) and the Sabres countered with Thomas Vanek, Brad Boyes and Jason Pominville.  Kovalchuk managed to not choke this time and scored on the first shot.  Vanek’s shot was saved by Marty Brodeur, as was Brad Boyes’, whose shoot out record is no longer perfect as a member of the Buffalo Sabres.  Miller stopped both Parise and Elias, meaning the pressure was on Captain Pommer to score and keep the shootout going and guess what, HE DID!

That brings up Gerbe Gerb’s heroic’s to end the losing streak at 12.  My sister and I were sitting in her car listening on the radio to the game, thanks again for that Time Warner Cable.  When Pominville scored we both screamed and threw our hands in the air like we had already won, but hey its been a while, give us a break.  As we continued to sit there, I said, “I bet he puts out Roy or Stafford…”  She followed with, “Is there even a difference?”  My first thought was wow my sister actually pays attention to hockey now, cool!  My second though was, crap she’s right.  The whole conversation turned out to be pointless anyway because Gerbe was tapped to take what would turn out to be the final shot of the game.  Hearing the words, HE SCORES, blaring over the radio was the single best thing that could have happened at that moment.  What’s better than the Sabres finally winning a game?   Well that would be that Mr. Nathan Gerbe was the one to end it.

Up next is a very welcomed break for the All Star festivities.  This will give the flu bug that has been making its way around the locker room a chance to work its way out and for the few injured stragglers to finally return to full health.

The Buffalo Sabres are spinning out of control, there are literally no bright spots for this team right now.   Tonight , they continue their quest to end their 11 game road losing streak.  Unfortunately, they are running into a brick wall named the St. Louis Blues.  The Blues are arguably one of the best teams in the league when playing at home; they are coming off two straight shut-out wins at home.  Fabulous…

The Sabres cannot score on the road, or at all really; they have been outscored 19-5 in their last four games.  The defense is extremely weak, the goaltending is mediocre at best, and the offense has completely shutdown.  That to me sounds like the perfect recipe to give the Blues that third straight shut out win at home.

Just when it appeared we were returning to a healthy state, the Sabres lost three of their defensive cogs in the forms of Christian Ehrhoff, Brayden McNabb and Robyn Regehr.  McNabb has been the most pleasant surprise of all this season and was arguably the top defenseman on the ice for several games before going down with what many suspect is a concussion in the Jan. 13th games against the Maple Leafs.  Regehr has done pretty much exactly what many expected, he provides grit and solid defense.  When you don’t hear his name, he’s doing his job.

Ehrhoff was brought into Buffalo to quarterback the powerplay when he was signed to a mega deal by Buffalo standards at $4 million a years over 10 years.  While many argue he has not lived up to the hype, I disagree.  I like Ehrhoff, I liked him when he played for the Canucks and I’m glad we signed him.  He may not be scoring a the rate he was, but you know what, he has showed a tremendous amount of heart and strength through out the season.  Twice, he has fought someone when they took liberties against Ryan Miller.  The first time he did it, I stared at the TV for a minute, then looked at my dad and said, “That is why I like him.”  Where is the rest of the team to jump to the defense of a goaltender who gets pushed around way to much?  No where to be found.

In the grand scheme of things, this team has no chemistry outside of the Vanek-Hecht-Pominville line.  They have almost no passing ability, they won’t battle for pucks, they take stupid penalties at terrible times, and they cannot put together a solid 20 minute effort let alone a complete 60 minutes.  Now they run into the Blues, a team that has totally transformed since Ken Hitchcock took over the reigns from Davis Payne.  They are undefeated in January, going 7-0-1, with Halak providing some of the best goaltending in the league right now.   Needless to say, this does not look like its going to be pretty for the Sabres tonight.  Eventually one of these games is going to serve as the turning point, when management finally decides to pull the trigger on a trade or the coach, as I’ve been saying, its only a matter of time.

Well ladies and gents, its official, the Buffalo Sabres have hit rock bottom.  They are currently on an 11 game road losing streak and have slid from competing for the 8th and final playoff spot to sitting in 11th place, 9 points back of the Washington Capitals.  Let me tell you, this is not what Terry Pegula signed up for…

When he came in this summer, flaunting his money and selling Buffalo on the idea of having a REAL owner for the first time ever, we were all salivating at the idea of actually being able to compete with the Blackhawks and Bruins-like teams in the NHL.  Now, we have no answers.  Halfway through the season and they have hardly lived up to the expectations set for them when the Pegula’s took over the team last year.  Ryan Lambert over at Puck Daddy has an interesting take on the situation, check it out here.

No one can argue that Pegula’s spending spree was just as shocking as it was unnecessary.  I have been adamantly against the Leino signing from the minute it scrolled across the bottom of TSN’s nightly broadcast.  Leino has done absolutely nothing, let me repeat that NOTHING, for this team so far.  10 points in 36 games for a player that was supposed to be your second line center and is earning $4.5 million a year hardly “cuts it.”  The Sabres went out and dangled money in front of a player that was comparable to a Paul Gaustad, without the center ability, before his year with the Flyers, playing alongside Danny Briere.  In his first full season with the Flyers he scored 57% of his career goals (19 of 33) and 64% of his career points (53 of 83).

Leino clearly does not mesh with this team, but now with his sinking value, it would be very difficult to unload his contract, especially because of the length, enjoying that thought Sabres fans, SIX MORE YEARS!!  Another player that no longer meshes with this team, is Derek Roy.  I know, I know, I’m extremely biased and I despise him, but seriously, tell me I’m wrong…  He is not the same player as he was last season before his leg injury.  He makes stupid choices on a nightly basis, doesn’t win face-offs (primary job?), and falls on top of himself regularly, can someone please explain to me why we are paying him $4 million a year to do nothing?

My biggest problem with this team comes back to management not being willing to part with players who have outstayed their welcome.  It is a known fact in this league that Darcy overvalues his players, making him the most unideal trading partner for other GM’s.  No one is going to over pay for the players on this team, especially not the way they have been playing.  At this point, if there is anything out there for Derek Roy or Drew Stafford or anyone not named Jason Pominville, Thomas Vanek, Tyler Myers, Brayden McNabb or Ryan Miller, do it immediately.  There shouldn’t be a question at this point in the season with a team that isn’t living up to its expectations.  At this point try and do what you can to make this team better for the future, there;s absolutely no way it could be any worse than it is right now.

After yet another meltdown on the road, a 6-2 thumping by the Chicago Blackhawks, the Buffalo Sabres jetted off to Winnipeg to face the Jets in what, I feel, has become a must win game.  If they do lose this game, the Sabres will continue to break their franchise record road losing streak, currently sitting at 10 games after last night.

The game against the Blackhawks didn’t really turn into a complete manhandling until late in the second period.  Marian Hossa broke a 2-2 tie shortly after Jason Pominville had tied the game.  After that goal, the Sabres shut down and the Blackhawks took over the game.  Jimmy Hayes, Dave Bolland and Jonathan Toews added three more goals to finish off the Sabres.  Toews and star rookie Andrew Shaw added the other goals for the Hawks.  All of our scoring was provided by captain Pominville, more proof that there is a serious problem with this team.

Don’t get me wrong, I love Pommer, he’s easily one of my favorite players and always has been, but where is Vanek, Stafford, Roy, Hecht, anyone really?  If you are only going to have one player show up every night, you don’t stand a chance at winning a period, let alone a whole game.  After the last two games, a 5-0 rout by Detroit and the 6-2 loss to Chicago, it has become extremely clear that something needs to change.  There is no excuse that can be used anymore, this team is in a downward spiral and someone needs to step up and fix it.

Whether its Darcy finally pulling the plug on Lindy or Darcy orchestrating a fair (yes Darcy, FAIR) trade to move some of the old, stale and underperforming players (Derek Roy, Drew Stafford, Patrick Kaleta, etc.), or Terry Pegula/Ted Black making the choice to get rid of Darcy and/or Lindy.  I’m not going to say that I am in favor of firing Lindy, but if this was any other team in the NHL, the coach would have been long gone at this point.  However, this is Lindy Ruff, this is not just any other coach.

Tonight the Sabres face off against another struggling team in the Winnipeg Jets.  The Jets have caught a similar injury bug that has been plaguing the Sabres all season and have lost a total of 210 man games.  They have been without the backbones of their defense in Dustin Byfuglien (11 games) and Zach Bogosian (4 games).  Blake Wheeler is the latest Jet to go down and has missed 2 games with an upper body injury.

Buffalo is still without Robyn Regehr, Christian Ehrhoff, Brayden McNabb, Tyler Ennis and now Paul Gaustad, who suffered an upper body injury after being boarded by Jamal Mayers.  The defense is obviously feeling the pain of this latest string of injuries more than the offense, as far as  far as bodies missing.  This string of defensive injuries leaves massive holes in the line-up that are being filled by Mr. Give-away ( Gragnani), Mr. Hot then Cold (Sekera) and Mr. “Rookie” (TJ Brennan). Good news for Brennan, not so much for the other two, especially because you will NEVER be able to figure out which side you will get from either Sekera or Grags on any given night.

Hopefully tonight will be one of those good nights, after all it is Thomas Vanek’s birthday.  I for one, could not think of a better birthday gift for Vanek than breaking this horrendous streak.

Thomas Vanek might have a difficult time celebrating his 28th birthday his year given the current state of the Sabres, but its still his birthday!! While T-Van might not be my favorite player on the team, he’s one of two players essentially carrying the team as of now.  Who knows, maybe because its Vanek’s birthday, the Sabres will actually, you know, win a game.. I know crazy thought, but hey anything is possible!  Happy Birthday Vanek!!

Update: Enroth will start in goal tonight for the Sabres.

The struggles the Buffalo Sabres have faced this season appear to be never ending.  When our goaltending is passable, everything else falters, when one player returns from injury 3 more get hurt, when the offense clicks (which is a miracle in and of itself) the defense looks like swiss cheese.  Needless to say, it hasn’t been a good go around for the team that was supposed to contend for the Stanley Cup at the beginning of the season.

After a 5-0 thumping by the Red Wings on Monday, the Sabres continue their road trip with a stop in Chicago to visit the 1st place Blackhawks (hooray…!).  They will try to break their franchise record 9 game road losing streak, which if all signs point to correct, will absolutely NOT happen tonight.  Even with the Hawks missing a key piece, Patrick Sharp, they are still finding ways to win, aka their secondary players are stepping up to the plate.  Who knows, maybe the Sabres can take a page out of the Blackhawks playbook and learn what secondary scoring, or just scoring in general means.

It would appear that our injury woes are finally starting to fix themselves, since we are only missing 4 regulars as of tonight, the bad news is that 3 of the 4 are defensemen… Brayden McNabb, Roybn Regehr and Christian Ehrhoff will all miss tonights game.  Tyler Ennis is also still recovering from a re-injured ankle sprain suffered back in the beginning of December.  Both Joe Finley and TJ Brennan have been recalled from Rochester to help fill the gaps.

Since I can actually watch the game tonight (thanks Time Warner Cable and MSG for ruining that otherwise…), stay tuned for a recap! 

Maybe they’ll never win consecutive games ever again, maybe they will, but at the rate the Buffalo Sabres are going, it doesn’t look like they’ll even survive the season.  The Sabres snapped their “winning” streak at one game by losing to the Islanders last night 4-2.  The effort was actually there, which made the loss even harder to swallow.

Joe Finley was recalled before the game and attempted to provide some sort of spark for the Sabres by engaging in his first NHL fight, a fight he pretty much dominated considering he’s a nine foot tall brick wall… but really hes 6’8″ without skates and weighs in at 260 pounds (for those of you who like comparisons, Tyler Myers is 6’8″ and 227 pounds).  His opponent was Matt Martin, meaning he had about 5 inches and 50 pounds on the “little” guy.  Martin is listed at 6″3 and 210 pounds, hardly a fair fight, but he held his own, well as best he could anyway.

Patrick Kaleta and Derek Roy provided the scoring for Buffalo, who have now lost a franchise record eight straight games on the road.  Kaleta was awarded the goal after a review showed he tipped in Mike Weber’s shot from the point.  Derek Roy was the beneficiary of Nathan Gerbe’s hard work behind the net and slipped the puck over Nabakov’s shoulder.  Matt Mouslon, Kyle Okposo and Michael Grabner (2) provided the scoring for the Islanders.

The Sabres allowed 2 goals, both to Michael Grabner, in the last three minutes of the game, which led to the loss and further ground in the playoff race.  Thomas Vanek missed on a penalty shot with just over a minute remaining in the third period, a goal which would have tied the game at three.  Vanek was wearing a cage for the majority of the game after being hit with a shot near his right eye earlier in the game.  He had Nabakov clearly beaten on the shot, but luck appeared to be on the side of Nabby as the puck rang off the right post.  After that, the Islanders proceeded to score an empty net goal and put the final nail in the coffin.

Injuries are continuing to build up for this team.  Brayden McNabb, our stellar rookie defenseman, was injured during the Sabres win against the Maple Leafs Friday night in Buffalo, Ruff said he is expected to miss some time.  Robyn Regehr was injured early in the third period and did not return.  Lindy Ruff said he is also expected to miss sometime.  And just when the defense was getting healthy, its ruined in a two game span.  What this means is we will be seing much more of Mr. Marc-Andre Gragnani, something I’m sure most people are very skeptical about considering you never know which Grags is going to show up.

What this also means is we will probably be seeing more of TJ Brennan, as he will most likely be recalled from Rochester to fill the spot until Christian Ehrhoff or Andrej Sekera are healthy.  This, however, is a good thing, heck its a great thing!  Brennan is a solid defenseman who can cover his zone and knows when to jump up and join the rush.  In 5 games, hes averaging around 15 minutes of ice time and registered his first NHL goal in his first NHL game on his first NHL shot.

Next up for the Sabres is the Detroit Red Wings in Motown.  Unfortunately for the Sabres, the Red Wings currently boast a 14 game home winning streak.  Well see how that one goes…

Well now that I have successfully saved my computer from certain death (or the lovely Apple Genius’ did), I have rejoined the wonderful world of technology!  In the 10 days I have been sans-computer a lot has happened in Sabre-land… Let’s recap and discuss.

Losing Streak

The Sabres have lost 6 of their last 7 games, most to teams they should have easily beaten.  There seems to be an extreme case of the lazybug travelling around the Sabres locker room as of late and no one seems to have a remedy for this pest.  During many of those games, the team looked lost and put forth an effort that was an absolute embarrassment.  The Sabres have looked disconnected for many weeks now and have given fans every reason under the sun to complain and criticize.

Many fans are now screaming for a coaching change or a major trade to shake things up, but many also are saying those thing will not fix the problem.

Player Problems

This is a topic of interest for many fans simply because what was considered the core of this team has been together for more than 7 years between the minors and the NHL.  People have said certain players do not want to play here or play for Lindy anymore and if this is the case, that could be a huge factor as to why this team has so many problems.  If there is a disconnect in the locker room, that always translates into poor play on the ice  (see Philadelphia).

Since I have a personal hatred for Mr. Derek Roy, I figured he’s the best place to start.  Roy has always been a selfish player, who refuses to play the “system” that Lindy has put into place.  In my opinion, Roy has been nothing but a virus that has plagued this team for years.  He is, supposedly, largely disliked by the team around him.  While many fans just simply “adore” him, many more see him as a second or third line center at best, who does nothing to make the players around him any better (see job of NHL Center).  Roy has been the main point of trade discussions, but don’t get too excited about this people… Darcy will try to overvalue him and no one will be willing to part with whatever his asking price is.

As for the rest of the players on the team, if you can get anything for them now, DO IT.

Injuries 

While everyone, including the players, will sit here and tell you injuries are not an excuse, guess what in this instance they might be just the smallest excuse they can use.  The amount of man games lost this season are reaching a menacing total of 188.  Between Tyler’s Ennis and Myers, Jochen Hecht, Christian Ehrhoff, Andrej Sekera, a strong of rookies and call-ups and now Derek Roy and Thomas Vanek, there has been zero consistency on this team.  Can you really expect a team to have any semblance of success when there is a new player coming into or leaving the line-up every other game?  No probably not…

However, now that more players are returning, this team could stand a fighting chance to secure a playoff spot, IF they get their acts together.

So what does all this mean in the long run?  Now that we’re halfway through the season, a heck of a lot more than it did a month ago.  Every point is so much more important now, every game means that much more and if the Buffalo Sabres can’t get it together ASAP, there is going to be a much bigger problem.  With almost all the regulars back in the line-up or very close to being back in the line-up we might finally have some consistency.  With that consistency will come scoring and more all around play.  When that consistency factor is put into play the lines will more than likely be the same for a whole game and then a string of games.  That alone will allow the team to develop some chemistry which will lead to scoring (from other places besides Pommer and Vanek).

They have their first chance to turn it around tomorrow night against the Toronto Maple Leafs, a team who just beat them pretty solidly last night.  Will this be an instant turn around, probably not, but tomorrow night can at least be a starting point.  Lets see how this goes ladies and gents!