time to end the myers/sekera pairing (Andrej Sekera, Mike Weber)

no soup for you, "big-tex"

tyler myers is having a helluva time this season...presently he sits at a team-worst minus-15 and his points-total is projected out to be 9 goals, 22 assists...last year he had 11 goals, 37 assists and was a plus-13...

as intimated on an early season blog, i really thought "big-tex" would equal last season's output and would make his defense-partner better...i thought the "sophomore slump" would hit him, but that he would fight his way through it...he's still fighting...doesn't mean he won't break through, but he's still fighting...

recently, his d-partner has been andrej sekera...rej has been much maligned over his career in buffalo, and most of the criticism has been warranted...a soft-but-skilled "puck-mover," rej can, and does find a way to get the puck out of the zone quite often...problem is, when the team is hemmed in he looks lost, there's a defensive zone breakdown and there's either a premier scoring-chance or a goal...

myers/sekera has been a long experiment dating back to the nj game in early november...the duo racked up one goal (myers,) three assists and was a hefty plus-5 in a 5-4 shootout win for the sabres that game...with the steve montador/jordan leopold tandem shouldering the burden of top-pairing, myers and rej have anchored the second-pairing logging tons of minutes on special teams...

this has, pretty much been the case thru last night's 5-3 loss on long island to the isles...

but watching sekera last night (and many other nights as well,) it doesn't seem as if he's grasped the game yet...he's still indecisive in his own zone, especially on the penalty kill...the boy sure can move it up ice, but seems to lose composure once he hits the dots...on the powerplay, he still can't handle the point as evidenced by yet another short-handed goal against because milan jurcina picked his pocket on the half-wall in the islanders zone...and just take a look at what transpired on that 1st period two-on-oh that miller stopped (somehow)...how did it all begin?...that's right, rej missing the net (yet another problem area) and his slow curl back to the point...here are the highlights:




although it's easy to disect an individual throughout a game and pinpoint every error, i had no intention of nitpicking rej going into last night's game, or any other game...some bad plays jump out and it seems as if he's the culprit on many occasions (not to say that there are no others)...

time to find another partner for "big-tex" myers and relegate rej to the third-pairing...he's a solid #5/6 d-man and would strengthen that pairing...

who would you move up?...mike weber has been playing real well as of late and i think that he should get a shot...couldn't be any worse, imo....



mind if i cut in, rej?