on kovalchuk: it was speculated, according to msg analyst ron duguay, that kovalchuk and devils head coach john mclean had a spat...no further information has been released but this is what mclean had to say, “That’s between him and I,” MacLean said, “That was my decision"...and he did not elaborate on the reasons for scratching the two-time 50-goal scorer...
kovalchuk is an incredible offensive player, an elite sniper in the nhl...perhaps mclean found his defensive play offensive as well...who knows, but one thing for sure, the off-season turbulence is affecting the devils, who are off to a 2-5-1 start...
brodeur was given the night off, until he was summoned half-way through the game...hedberg, who had a 12-2-2 record vs. buffalo and a gaa of 2.25, got the hook after giving up four goals on 15 shots...
the sabres played a totally different team in the devils...basically they had a pretty easy night...some notes:
--mike weber had a solid game after a rough first couple of shifts and looked real confident in his first game of the season patrolling the blueline
--it seems as if tyler myers needs to add an extra inch to his stick, and maybe he should dump the composite stick for a wood one...it's as if the puck is always half-an-inch out of reach (maybe because myers grew an inch since last season) and is bouncing off his stick more often than not...yeah, he's having a rough start, but there will come a time where the game will slow down and it will start making sense again...he's going through some changes--height, weight, opposition, d-partner...kinda like going through puberty all over again
--chris butler seems to be rounding into his'08/9 form, which is a good thing
it'll be interesting to see how these three acquit themselves throughout the season...as of now andrej sekera and butler have had the most ice-time, and of the two, buts has looked much better...it seems as if the game has slowed for him
tyler ennis has been on a line with vets rob niedermayer and mike grier...as mentioned in another blog here, it's a good thing...the gripes from sabredom have been about him wasting his talents on the third line with checkers and defensive-minded players were at a fever-pitch when this line was announced...just to remind everyone, danny gare came into the league as a scorer and spent his rookie campaign with don luce and craig ramsay, two of the best defensive forwards in the league...he had a 50-goal rookie season...
on hank tallinder: jerry sullivan of the buffalo news brings up the point that maybe tyler myers is having a poor start because of the loss of hank tallinder...the article is more about the loss of tim kennedy, but he ties in hank as well...as part of "the core" hank really didn't do much for me...yes he had a comeback year last season, and that can be attributed more to myers than anything, but he was one of the biggest wusses on the team...two instances where he failed to protect his goalie, the face of the franchise--the scott gomez (nyr) hit on ryan miller and the chris phillips (ott) hit on miller as well...totally inexcusable...
lack of compete was a hallmark of henrik tallinder when he was in buffalo...it seems as if tallinder carried it with him to new jersey as exemplified in a play where 5'6" nathan gerbe out-competes 6'4" tallinder for the puck setting up a bang-bang, derek roy to thomas vanek goal...
myers will shake his heebie-jeebies...as for hank?...so long and thanx for all the fish
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