Reprinted with permission from hockeybuzz.com
Perhaps the best way for the 2014-15 regular season to ultimately unfold is for a young, inconsistent Buffalo Sabres team to have strong, entertaining home games balanced by lackluster performances on the road.
On Saturday night Buffalo entered the third period down 3-0 at home to the NY Islanders. For the only the third time in franchise history they were able to come back and win the game (4-3 SO) and they left the ice as a raucous First Niagara Center crowd gave them a standing ovation.
Last night on the road in Ottawa, the Senators scored three unanswered goals, including an empty-netter to take down the Sabres 5-2 in a game that was punctuated by soft, "fly-by" play from the Sabres. Buffalo is now 4-12-1 on the road this season. Only the Edmonton Oilers (what a surprise) have less wins (2) than the Sabres on the road.
For a team that simply doesn't have the firepower to even make a playoff run, a win at home/lose on the road mentality offers up a modicum success in what would otherwise be another bad season.
Wednesday, December 31, 2014
Monday, December 29, 2014
The Legend of Zemgus is growing
Hockeybuzz.com
The name "Zemgus" in Latvian means "one who eats lions."
It's not "one who is like a lion" or "one who eats like a lion" or "one who is king of the beasts like a lion." It's "one who eats lions." And Zemgus Girgensons is becoming all of that.
Last night with the Sabres down two goals and short-handed, Girgensons took a beautiful pass from Nic Deslauriers and barreled to the net with NY Islanders defenseman Johnny Boychuk closing in. Boychuk reached with his stick and tried to derail the "Latvian Locomotive," but it was fruitless. Girgensons boxed Boychuk out and snapped a shortie past Islanders goalie Kevin Poulin.
(Thx, Rolands Rivdikis)
It was a big time play that showed just how strong and well-balanced the 20 yr. old is as well as the skill-level he has. Sabres prospects like Mikhail Grigorenko, Sam Reinhart and Joel Armia, among others, should take note. It's how a man plays a man's game against men.
If Girgensons hasn't been turning heads yet, perhaps that goal will turn a few more. Sure, he'll be mocked because his Latvian countrymen are stuffing the All-star ballot boxes, but he's been playing a consistently strong game on a bottom-five team. He went from bottom-six to top-line and never missed a beat. In fact an argument could be made that he made his wingers, Matt Moulson and Tyler Ennis, better and that his ceiling is now top-six/possible top-line.
The name "Zemgus" in Latvian means "one who eats lions."
It's not "one who is like a lion" or "one who eats like a lion" or "one who is king of the beasts like a lion." It's "one who eats lions." And Zemgus Girgensons is becoming all of that.
Last night with the Sabres down two goals and short-handed, Girgensons took a beautiful pass from Nic Deslauriers and barreled to the net with NY Islanders defenseman Johnny Boychuk closing in. Boychuk reached with his stick and tried to derail the "Latvian Locomotive," but it was fruitless. Girgensons boxed Boychuk out and snapped a shortie past Islanders goalie Kevin Poulin.
(Thx, Rolands Rivdikis)
It was a big time play that showed just how strong and well-balanced the 20 yr. old is as well as the skill-level he has. Sabres prospects like Mikhail Grigorenko, Sam Reinhart and Joel Armia, among others, should take note. It's how a man plays a man's game against men.
If Girgensons hasn't been turning heads yet, perhaps that goal will turn a few more. Sure, he'll be mocked because his Latvian countrymen are stuffing the All-star ballot boxes, but he's been playing a consistently strong game on a bottom-five team. He went from bottom-six to top-line and never missed a beat. In fact an argument could be made that he made his wingers, Matt Moulson and Tyler Ennis, better and that his ceiling is now top-six/possible top-line.
Sunday, December 28, 2014
Islanders great start is being tested. Sabres can add to the pressure.
Reprinted with permission from hockeybuzz.com
Much to the dismay of many a Sabres' fan, the NY Islanders aren't anywhere near a bottom five spot at this point in the season, and it doesn't look like they'll even be close to bottom ten come season's end. The Islanders have been at or near the top of the Metropolitan Division the entire season and they head to Buffalo tonight sporting a 23-11-0 record.
With top-line forwards like 2009 first overall pick John Tavares and Kyle Okposo heading into their prime and a strong group of young, up-and-coming forwards hitting the ranks, the Islanders came into the season looking to take the next step in their six-year rebuild.
Isles GM Garth Snow has done a fine job bolstering his group of talented youngins and thanks to the Boston Bruins and Chicago Blackhawks he was able to take a big step forward this fall. Cap-casualties Johnny Boychuk (BOS) and Nick Leddy (CHI) were brought in at very little cost to Snow and their presence has helped stabilize a shaky blueline.
Veteran free agent goalie Jaroslav Halak was signed in the off season, a huge move in the right direction for a franchise that has been fumbling in net ever since former GM Mike Milbury decided that goalie Rick Dipietro was the second coming of Jaques Plante.
His trade with Buffalo, though, is a huge cloud hanging over the franchise right now. Snow sent a bounty to the Sabres for LW Thomas Vanek and a finish outside of the playoffs for the Islanders this season would give the Sabres a 2015 lottery pick and a shot at the top pick in the draft.
It's a lot of pressure for a the 7th youngest team in the league (according to nhlnumbers.com.) with a fifth year coach who's only winning record was in the lockout shortened 2012-13 season.
Much to the dismay of many a Sabres' fan, the NY Islanders aren't anywhere near a bottom five spot at this point in the season, and it doesn't look like they'll even be close to bottom ten come season's end. The Islanders have been at or near the top of the Metropolitan Division the entire season and they head to Buffalo tonight sporting a 23-11-0 record.
With top-line forwards like 2009 first overall pick John Tavares and Kyle Okposo heading into their prime and a strong group of young, up-and-coming forwards hitting the ranks, the Islanders came into the season looking to take the next step in their six-year rebuild.
Isles GM Garth Snow has done a fine job bolstering his group of talented youngins and thanks to the Boston Bruins and Chicago Blackhawks he was able to take a big step forward this fall. Cap-casualties Johnny Boychuk (BOS) and Nick Leddy (CHI) were brought in at very little cost to Snow and their presence has helped stabilize a shaky blueline.
Veteran free agent goalie Jaroslav Halak was signed in the off season, a huge move in the right direction for a franchise that has been fumbling in net ever since former GM Mike Milbury decided that goalie Rick Dipietro was the second coming of Jaques Plante.
His trade with Buffalo, though, is a huge cloud hanging over the franchise right now. Snow sent a bounty to the Sabres for LW Thomas Vanek and a finish outside of the playoffs for the Islanders this season would give the Sabres a 2015 lottery pick and a shot at the top pick in the draft.
It's a lot of pressure for a the 7th youngest team in the league (according to nhlnumbers.com.) with a fifth year coach who's only winning record was in the lockout shortened 2012-13 season.
Saturday, December 27, 2014
Sabres youngins get schooled in Detroit
Reprinted with permission from hockeybuzz.com
You don't tug on Superman's cape,
You don't spit into the wind
You don't pull the mask off of the ol' Lone Ranger...
If singer-songwriter Jim Croce was still alive and a Buffalo Sabres hockey fan he might have added, don't be stupid enough to put the Detroit Red Wings on the powerplay.
The Buffalo Sabres really helped the Wings out last night by putting the NHL's 7th best powerplay unit on the ice six times. And despite allowing a short-handed goal to the Sabres' Andre Benoit (his first of the season,) Detroit would score four goals with the man advantage en route to a 6-3 shellacking of Buffalo. It was a performance which vaulted their powerplay into fourth place in the league.
Buffalo's collapse with just over 22 minutes to play in regulation helped Detroit get out of a rut as the Wings were winless in their previous six games (0-2-4.) The six goals they scored were the most all season and matched the total number of goals they'd scored during the winless streak.
You don't tug on Superman's cape,
You don't spit into the wind
You don't pull the mask off of the ol' Lone Ranger...
If singer-songwriter Jim Croce was still alive and a Buffalo Sabres hockey fan he might have added, don't be stupid enough to put the Detroit Red Wings on the powerplay.
The Buffalo Sabres really helped the Wings out last night by putting the NHL's 7th best powerplay unit on the ice six times. And despite allowing a short-handed goal to the Sabres' Andre Benoit (his first of the season,) Detroit would score four goals with the man advantage en route to a 6-3 shellacking of Buffalo. It was a performance which vaulted their powerplay into fourth place in the league.
Buffalo's collapse with just over 22 minutes to play in regulation helped Detroit get out of a rut as the Wings were winless in their previous six games (0-2-4.) The six goals they scored were the most all season and matched the total number of goals they'd scored during the winless streak.
Wednesday, December 24, 2014
Joel Armia gets the call today as injuries mount in Buffalo
Reprinted with permission from hockeybuzz.com
The injury/illness bug has hit the Buffalo Sabres hard this month and the list grew longer in their 4-3 OT loss at Boston on Sunday.
Brian Gionta got leveled by Bruins defenseman Matt Bartkowski in the second period and left the ice woozy. It was a borderline suspendable hit that ultimately was deemed within the bounds of the National Hockey League Player Safety Department.
As is the case in the NHL, when your teammate is smoked by a hit, clean or not, it's expected that he be defended. In many cases it's silly as the gloves are dropped after a clean hit. Bartkowski's hit on an vulnerable Gionta was worthy of defense by a teammate.
Marcus Foligno sent the pass to Gionta which left him in a vulnerable position and Foligno immediately went to his fallen teammate's defense. Unfortunately he got too much helmet in his blind rage and busted up his hand.
The injury/illness bug has hit the Buffalo Sabres hard this month and the list grew longer in their 4-3 OT loss at Boston on Sunday.
Brian Gionta got leveled by Bruins defenseman Matt Bartkowski in the second period and left the ice woozy. It was a borderline suspendable hit that ultimately was deemed within the bounds of the National Hockey League Player Safety Department.
As is the case in the NHL, when your teammate is smoked by a hit, clean or not, it's expected that he be defended. In many cases it's silly as the gloves are dropped after a clean hit. Bartkowski's hit on an vulnerable Gionta was worthy of defense by a teammate.
Marcus Foligno sent the pass to Gionta which left him in a vulnerable position and Foligno immediately went to his fallen teammate's defense. Unfortunately he got too much helmet in his blind rage and busted up his hand.
Tuesday, December 23, 2014
Larsson and Schaller net first career goals. Plus, the Bartkowski cheapshot
Reprinted with permission from hockeybuzz.com
Kudos to Sabres forwards Johan Larsson and Tim Schaller, both of whom scored their first NHL goals over the weekend.
Larsson's goal came against the Colorado Avalanche on Saturday night as he drove to the net to bury the puck as it slid across the crease:
(Thx, Sabres Hockey Central)
The goal came in his fifth game this season, 34th of his career.
Kudos to Sabres forwards Johan Larsson and Tim Schaller, both of whom scored their first NHL goals over the weekend.
Larsson's goal came against the Colorado Avalanche on Saturday night as he drove to the net to bury the puck as it slid across the crease:
(Thx, Sabres Hockey Central)
The goal came in his fifth game this season, 34th of his career.
Sabres' Nolan playing Chinese acrobat role. Eyes on Pysyk in his first call-up.
Reprinted with permission from hockeybuzz.com
Ted Nolan's head coaching job this season might be akin to playing the role of one of those Chinese plate spinners. When it's balanced, it's a pretty amazing feat considering what he has to work with. He had the hockey world gazing in wonderment at his act as the Buffalo Sabres bench boss managed to make the Sabres look like a playoff contender for a few weeks.
During the Buffalo Sabres recent 10-3 hot streak, one which included two, four-game winning streaks, Nolan was able to delicately balance one-line scoring, rock-solid defense from his top-pairings and exceptional goaltending. But that came to an end the last two games.
The balancing act has been thrown out of whack in back-to-back 5-1 losses. Nolan's top line of Zemgus Girgensons, Matt Moulson and Tyler Ennis turned cold. His "Twin Towers" on defense, Rasmus Ristolainen and Nikita Zadorov, were a combined minus-10, while his goalies stopped only 50 shots of the 59 thrown at them (.847 sv.%.)
It was enough to send Nolan wobbling, and as injuries/illness eat away at the team's already thin depth, the sound we're hearing is the sound of plates crashing to the floor.
Buffalo began last night with forward Cody McCormick going on injured reserve and forward Torrey Mitchell ruled out. Defensemen Tyson Strachan and Mike Weber were also out. Although this group of bottom-tier players shouldn't be considered game-changers, they're decent depth players who have provided some good, solid play, especially during that aforementioned stretch.
That's four down with three more hitting the injured/illness list last night.
At 5:00pm over in, Rochester Amerks forward Johan Larsson got the call, jumped in his car and headed west to Buffalo. He was called up to replace Moulson who couldn't go because of "flu-like symptoms." Larsson arrived with barely two minutes left in the warm-ups and was thrown right into the fire. He was the only Sabre to score last night as he netted his first career NHL goal.
Top-pairing defenseman Tyler Myers suffered a "lower-body" injury in the second period of last night's game. Myers has been playing exceptionally well and is ninth in the league in time on ice logging 25:21/game. He's out for tonight's game at Boston.
Forward Patrick Kaleta, who left the game in the second period last night, is also out.
To replace this group, GM Tim Murray sounded the Rochester bugle. Amerks forward Mikhail Grigorenko was called up for the second time this past week and will remain for tonight's matchup at Boston. So will Larsson. And with Myers and Kaleta no-go's the team called up defenseman Mark Pysyk and forward Tim Schaller this morning.
It's the first call-up of the season for Pysyk, who was sent to the Amerks on October 16 after he recovered from a preseason injury with the Sabres. The 23 yr. old former first-round pick (23rd overall, 2010) has one goal and nine assists in 28 games for Rochester this season with a minus-9 rating.
Pysyk has been having a bit of a rough-go in Rochester to the point where Rochester Democrat and Chronicle writer Kevin Oklobzija suggested that "he wasn't himself" due to his demotion to Rochester.
"Pysyk isn't playing poorly," wrote Oklobzija back on November 8, "But he's not an elite AHL defenseman right now, and he should be. He has made some uncharacteristic turnovers in the defensive zone. He has made coverage errors that just don't happen very often."
Oklobzija thinks that Pysyk was caught fighting the mental aspect of getting sent down while rookie Zadorov (somewhat forcibly) stuck in Buffalo. "It's probably not surprising," he continued. "[Pysyk] played 44 games in the NHL last season. He played 19 with the Buffalo Sabres the year before as a first-year pro. And now he can't play for the worst team in the NHL?"
At that point in the season the Sabres were 3-10-2 and possibly playing worse than that. But it wasn't something that Pysyk should've taken personally. Not only was he caught up in a numbers game in Buffalo, but Zadorov's CHL/KHL conundrum complicated matters leaving Pysyk was left to fight through it being the odd man out.
"I think mentally it's probably been a hard thing for him," said Amerks head coach Chadd Cassidy at the time. "But you have to play where you're at. We've talked to him.
"He has to show Tim (Murray) that he can help the team win games, and he has to start doing that here (in Rochester.)"
Even with Rochester's poor record over the last six weeks, Pysyk will be getting his opportunity now thanks to the injuries and illness that's hitting the team. And it's up to him to make it work.
Ted Nolan's head coaching job this season might be akin to playing the role of one of those Chinese plate spinners. When it's balanced, it's a pretty amazing feat considering what he has to work with. He had the hockey world gazing in wonderment at his act as the Buffalo Sabres bench boss managed to make the Sabres look like a playoff contender for a few weeks.
During the Buffalo Sabres recent 10-3 hot streak, one which included two, four-game winning streaks, Nolan was able to delicately balance one-line scoring, rock-solid defense from his top-pairings and exceptional goaltending. But that came to an end the last two games.
The balancing act has been thrown out of whack in back-to-back 5-1 losses. Nolan's top line of Zemgus Girgensons, Matt Moulson and Tyler Ennis turned cold. His "Twin Towers" on defense, Rasmus Ristolainen and Nikita Zadorov, were a combined minus-10, while his goalies stopped only 50 shots of the 59 thrown at them (.847 sv.%.)
It was enough to send Nolan wobbling, and as injuries/illness eat away at the team's already thin depth, the sound we're hearing is the sound of plates crashing to the floor.
Buffalo began last night with forward Cody McCormick going on injured reserve and forward Torrey Mitchell ruled out. Defensemen Tyson Strachan and Mike Weber were also out. Although this group of bottom-tier players shouldn't be considered game-changers, they're decent depth players who have provided some good, solid play, especially during that aforementioned stretch.
That's four down with three more hitting the injured/illness list last night.
At 5:00pm over in, Rochester Amerks forward Johan Larsson got the call, jumped in his car and headed west to Buffalo. He was called up to replace Moulson who couldn't go because of "flu-like symptoms." Larsson arrived with barely two minutes left in the warm-ups and was thrown right into the fire. He was the only Sabre to score last night as he netted his first career NHL goal.
Top-pairing defenseman Tyler Myers suffered a "lower-body" injury in the second period of last night's game. Myers has been playing exceptionally well and is ninth in the league in time on ice logging 25:21/game. He's out for tonight's game at Boston.
Forward Patrick Kaleta, who left the game in the second period last night, is also out.
To replace this group, GM Tim Murray sounded the Rochester bugle. Amerks forward Mikhail Grigorenko was called up for the second time this past week and will remain for tonight's matchup at Boston. So will Larsson. And with Myers and Kaleta no-go's the team called up defenseman Mark Pysyk and forward Tim Schaller this morning.
It's the first call-up of the season for Pysyk, who was sent to the Amerks on October 16 after he recovered from a preseason injury with the Sabres. The 23 yr. old former first-round pick (23rd overall, 2010) has one goal and nine assists in 28 games for Rochester this season with a minus-9 rating.
Pysyk has been having a bit of a rough-go in Rochester to the point where Rochester Democrat and Chronicle writer Kevin Oklobzija suggested that "he wasn't himself" due to his demotion to Rochester.
"Pysyk isn't playing poorly," wrote Oklobzija back on November 8, "But he's not an elite AHL defenseman right now, and he should be. He has made some uncharacteristic turnovers in the defensive zone. He has made coverage errors that just don't happen very often."
Oklobzija thinks that Pysyk was caught fighting the mental aspect of getting sent down while rookie Zadorov (somewhat forcibly) stuck in Buffalo. "It's probably not surprising," he continued. "[Pysyk] played 44 games in the NHL last season. He played 19 with the Buffalo Sabres the year before as a first-year pro. And now he can't play for the worst team in the NHL?"
At that point in the season the Sabres were 3-10-2 and possibly playing worse than that. But it wasn't something that Pysyk should've taken personally. Not only was he caught up in a numbers game in Buffalo, but Zadorov's CHL/KHL conundrum complicated matters leaving Pysyk was left to fight through it being the odd man out.
"I think mentally it's probably been a hard thing for him," said Amerks head coach Chadd Cassidy at the time. "But you have to play where you're at. We've talked to him.
"He has to show Tim (Murray) that he can help the team win games, and he has to start doing that here (in Rochester.)"
Even with Rochester's poor record over the last six weeks, Pysyk will be getting his opportunity now thanks to the injuries and illness that's hitting the team. And it's up to him to make it work.
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