the inanity of mike schopp concerning faceoffs

a day after the sabres lost to the bruins in boston, in overtime, paul hamilton made his usual appearance on wgr's mike schoppsie and the bulldog...the subject was faceoffs and their importance in games with the underlying theme of paul gaustad, his lack of production and his value being inflated and overstated because of his ability to win draws...

hubris



(schoppsie on faceoffs) "it's dramatically overstated...there are a handful of goals a season that come from the faceoff...i hear constant references to statistics and there's this sense that it's all important, well, show me, let's see how many goals are actually scored from draws"...



goose provides an "in your face"
moment for schoppsie



goose honks at schoppsie

ironic that the gaustad won a draw in the sharks zone last night, cody mccormick snagged the puck and sent a shot that pinballed off of gaustad's skate and the face-shield of san jose's dan boyld before floating over the shoulder of sharks goalie antti niemi for the first goal of the game which was credited to gaustad...

sabres take a 2-0 lead

the second sabres goal was a series of events that was caused by the sabres winning a faceoff in the sharks zone:

derek roy wins the draw from jamal mayers which goes directly to thomas vanek who sends a slapshot far-side forcing niemi to kick the rebound to an open wing...in a matter of one second, the sharks are on their heels...defensman chris butler pinches from the point and sends the puck to nathan gerbe in the slot who fires it wide...roy corrales the puck behind the net and sends it to a wide open vanek in the slot...vanek rifles a slapshot five-hole past niemi...that sequence took seven seconds...

diggin himself deeper

schoppsie, who was on his heels defending his inanity, came up with this:  "one thing i will not do...is ask hockey coaches to tell you"...ummm, you mean the guys who are ice-level and responsible for wins and losses on a team?...the guys who's career depends upon knowing the intricacies of the game?

if sharks coach todd mclellan didn't realize the importance of winning faceoffs in his own zone before this game (having blown the gaustad goal off as a fluke,) i'm pretty sure he understood the importance afterwards, "I had the wrong guys out for a faceoff in our zone," the coach said, "and it ended up costing us."

big hands?

yes, schoppsie, "lets actually watch games and count just how many times goals are scored from faceoffs."

i count two in this game alone...hope you got some big hands

some thoughts on the devils game

• derek roy--congrats on having your name up-top in the league for scoring, does that mean you can float in ot and let one of the league's premier snipers skate into the slot uninhibited?...dude...that was lame at best, but really abhorrent for a "leader" on this team
• andrej sekera--ummm...the puck in your own face-off circle is very important...especially in overtime
• ryan miller--single-handedly got the team a point...please, leave the ambassador role for the off-season...this sabres team is gonna really need you......again
• attendence--a sell-out?...really? (shakes head)
• cody mccormick--nice work dropping them with a big dog, way to show some passion
• pat kaleta--easy there, you're smarter than that
• drew stafford--how many times have we seen staff play like puke, have a kick-ass game after a talking to from lindy ruff, only to see his game deteriorate back down to puke a few games later?
• thomas vanek--was knocked on his ass numerous times while battling for the puck, but just kept fighting,..."got to kick at the darkness 'til it bleeds daylight" (bruce cockburn)

3rd period/ot faceoffs

• over the first two periods, the buffalo sabres went 19-11 in faceoffs
• from the third period on the sabres went 2-12 on the dot...
• the sabres did not win a faceoff from the 6:10 minute mark on
• tim connolly lost all five of his faceoffs, including both in ot
• derek roy lost six of seven
• rob niedermayer lost his only faceoff
• paul gaustad won his only faceoff

if this team, as a whole, played with emotion, i'd like them more...they'd probably win more...and am pretty sure that the fan-base would develop an emotional attachment with the team...right now the buffalo sabres look lame