Published by hockeybuzz.com, 11-9-2017
If anyone can figure out what the future holds for this edition of the Buffalo Sabres, God love ya. It's been rough and rocky travelling thus far with the gamut of emotions in Sabreland leaning heavily towards the negative side so far. Mostly we've been subject to an on-ice product leaving us somewhere between frustrated and disgusted. On the positive side, however, there have been signs of encouragement lately and even a strong feeling of enthusiasm after Tuesday's win over the Washington Capitals.
Yet guarded optimism is standard operating procedure for Buffalo s in situations like this. It's been a while since we've seen a corner long since turned with a team moving forward in overdrive. On many occasions in recent years, turning the corner usually didn't mean finally getting on the road to respectability and beyond, it usually involved a head-on collision with a steam roller.
Buffalo put together it's most complete game of the season in a winning effort on Tuesday night. Although the win didn't leave you with a transcendent feeling as if the team had finally turned the corner, there was a positive vibe running through the locker room afterwards as coach and players had uplifting post-game interviews.
The start to this season has been tough on the Sabres and new head coach Phil Housley, who had a quick honeymoon phase in Buffalo as the team started out 0-4-1 with two embarrassing back-to-back clunkers in the mix. It took a four-game West Coast swing and some refocusing to stop the downward spiral but things have been noticeably better since.
On-ice positives are becoming more prevalent and since that ominous start the Sabres are 5-4-1. Yet there were indications that they hadn't completely shaken their early-season struggles. Within those four recent losses were two more clunkers, the latter of which came on Saturday night at the hands of the Dallas Stars in the second game of a two-game road trip. It took Dallas just over 10 minutes to go up 3-0 en route to a 5-1 rout of Buffalo.
What can you say after a game like that?
Housley decided to remain positive saying that they got the start they wanted but were victims of bad bounces. Sounded like a cover-up tied together by excuses. "When I evaluate the game," said Housley after the game, "I think we played well. The score tells you differently and there's probably going to be a lot of people that disagree with me."
There was an uproar over that quote. A Sabres print beat reporter wrote after the Dallas loss, "The Sabres have a fragile psyche, so maybe the coach didn't want to pile on in public.
"But it sounded like the Sabres have lowered the bar, that a four-goal loss is an acceptable effort. The feel-good vibe won't play to a fan base that knows better and expects more."
Earlier this week on radio we heard, rightfully so, that the mistakes made on the goals against are not the mark of a game well-played.
And it continued on this week with another print beat reporter going back to that Dallas post-game quote after the Washington win, as he chose to revisit it and further condemn it. "That was one of the most egregious quotes I've heard from a Buffalo coach in a long time," he wrote. "An affront to a battered fanbase.
"There's a difference in being positive and being Pollyanna Phil."
In both instances when Housley said his team played well in the 5-1 loss, the qualifier, and what the reporter didn't mention, was that the coach mentioned twice that he thought the team "got the start they wanted." Which is actually true. The Sabres did play well out of the gate when it came to the mechanics of how Housley wanted to see them skate and move the puck. They had plenty of possession and zone-time but couldn't score and when the puck was turned against them, two bad bounces lead to the Stars' first two goals.
Lack of coverage also played a big part in those two goals as well as the third one Dallas scored but Housley chose to focus upon the positives he saw early in the game. He explained it this way on WGR550 yesterday when he said that he didn't think it was "time to get really negative on the players."
"They've been through a lot here," continued the coach. "I try to keep it positive, but don't mistake [my positivity from not] holding players accountable. I think accountability and negativity are two different things."
For one game, it worked as they turned around and beat Washington. According to reports Housley put his team through a rather rigorous practice session after the Dallas loss and they bought in to the point where they played a 60-minute game and came out on the winning side of it.
However, you're only as good as your next game played and the Sabres are lined up with a back-to-back beginning Friday at home vs. the Florida Panthers. After that they travel to Montreal on Saturday for the first of three games away from KeyBank Center.
Reports from the rink had Housley with a lighter practice yesterday and one today that had a lighthearted moment. There's also more optimism as some of the walking wounded are beginning to return to the lineup.
This is a Sabres team that seems to be trending upward and without going all Pollyanna Buzz on y'all, hopefully they can put those clunkers to rest. Where it all takes them is anybody's guess, but it's not a bad thing to savor a win and in doing so, move on from the disappointment, frustration and disgust of a prior game.
It's what helps keep us Buffalo fans somewhat sane.
*****
Sanity can be a fleeting thing, however, especially with word today that top-pairing defenseman Rasmus Ristolainen has been downgraded as to week-to-week. Ristolainen suffered an upper-body injury in Arizona last week and won't be seeing the ice anytime soon.
On the bright side, two injured defensemen look real close to returning to game action. Nathan Beaulieu and Josh Gorges got a couple of practices in with Beaulieu being on the second powerplay unit at today's practice, an indication that he could very well be in the lineup tomorrow against the Panthers.
Gorges said he's ready but told WGR550 yesterday that it will be a coaching decision as to whether he gets in or not.
With Beaulieu and Gorges both seemingly ready to go, the Sabres sent defenseman Zach Bogosian back to Rochester.
Friday, November 10, 2017
Thursday, November 9, 2017
Game night: Washington Capitals
Published by hockeybuzz.com, 11-7-2017
Just the facts, ma'am.
From Buffalo Sabres PR:
Washington Capitals--8-6-1 overall; 5-3-1 on the road
Buffalo Sabres--4-8-2 overall; 1-3-1 at home
The Capitals are 4-1-0 in their last five games and are undefeated in their last three. Buffalo is 2-3-0 in their last five.
Washington is on the second game of a back-to-back having defeated the Arizona Coyotes at home in overtime. The Caps are 0-3-0 so far this season in the second game of a back-to-back. They went 3-0-0 against the Sabres last season and are 7-2-0 over the last three seasons.
Alexander Ovechkin leads a Washington powerplay that is 16th-overall in the NHL (18.4%) but 4th-overall on the road (7/24, 29.2%.) However, the Caps penalty kill is vulnerable as they're 27th overall (75.8%) and 20th on the road (78.4%.)
After an 0-4-1 start, the Sabres have evened things out by going 4-4-1. They've been blown out four times in 14 games but are 3-2-2 in one-goal games. They come into this game with a sagging powerplay (6/48, 12.5%) overall although they're slightly better at home (14.3%.)
However, the Sabres penalty kill has been good overall with an 81.4% kill-rate and they're perfect at home stopping all 17 powerplays against.
Buffalo injuries and projected linuep
According to reports from the rink, Buffalo's defensemen continue to drop like flies. The Sabres welcomed the return of defenseman Justin Falk last week but lost top-pairing defenseman Rasmus Ristolainen. With Nathan Beaulieu and Josh Gorges skating against, Matt Tennyson was felled in practice yesterday by a Jack Eichel shot that hit him in the ankle. Head coach Phil Housley listed Tennyson as day-to-day and the team called up Zach Redmond today.
The lineup on defense looks should look like this:
Scandella-Falk
McCabe-Fedun
Antipin-Redmond
Most of the forward lineup we saw on their two-game road trip last week remains intact save for the insertion of Nicolas Baptiste into the lineup. The odd man out looks to be Matt Moulson who has zero points and is a minus-7 while averaging 10:27 of ice-time through 10 games this season. According to the media at the rink this morning, these will probably be the lines:
Kane-Eichel-Pominville
Pouliot-O'Reilly-Okposo
Griffith-Reinhart-Baptiste
Girgensons-Larson-Nolan
Robin Lehner looks to get his 11 start in net for the Sabres.
Brendan Guhle
With all the injuries the Sabres have had on defense and with no goals yet from the Buffalo bleuliners, why would an offensive-minded defenseman like 20 yr. old Brendan Guhle not get the call. Guhle's been playing well lately with two goals and four assists in his last five starts.
When asked by the gathered media after practice today whey Guhle didn't get the call, Housley said that the decision is up to GM Jason Botterill and furthered what Botterill had been saying all alnong about player development. "I think [Guhle's] doing a great job developing where he is right now, " Housley said of the 20 yr. old Rochester rookie. "It's fair to say we don't want to rush him. He's in a good spot, he's playing well, he's getting the minutes right now that I think are going to help carry his game and develop him.
"We want to have him develop in the right area and continue to make strides in his development."
That's a fair assessment and a rather noble gesture to the future of the franchise although it really doesn't sit well with a lot of Buffalo fans who are looking for some relief right now. A slow start and four blowout losses, the most recent one on Saturday at Dallas, has left many queasy and uneasy about where this season is headed. Sabres fans have seen what the defense-corps has to offer and it hasn't been pretty.
Regardless of who's stepping in on defense, the Sabres need their best players to step up, most notably Jack Eichel and Ryan O'Reilly. We've heard the talk but have yet to see the walk. Buffalo could really use a win tonight and they're playing a Caps team tonight that should be vulnerable. The Sabres have been playing relatively better as of late, when compared to the train wreck we witnessed the first couple of weeks, but they need to show it on the scoreboard.
Both Eichel and O'Reilly are at or near the top of the Sabres leaderboard in scoring at 13 and 12 points, respectively, but they have one of those letter's sewn on their sweater. The team is begging for leadership right now and wearing an 'A' on a team without a designated captain means they're the ones that need to lead.
This would be a good game to show it.
Just the facts, ma'am.
From Buffalo Sabres PR:
Washington Capitals--8-6-1 overall; 5-3-1 on the road
Buffalo Sabres--4-8-2 overall; 1-3-1 at home
The Capitals are 4-1-0 in their last five games and are undefeated in their last three. Buffalo is 2-3-0 in their last five.
Washington is on the second game of a back-to-back having defeated the Arizona Coyotes at home in overtime. The Caps are 0-3-0 so far this season in the second game of a back-to-back. They went 3-0-0 against the Sabres last season and are 7-2-0 over the last three seasons.
Alexander Ovechkin leads a Washington powerplay that is 16th-overall in the NHL (18.4%) but 4th-overall on the road (7/24, 29.2%.) However, the Caps penalty kill is vulnerable as they're 27th overall (75.8%) and 20th on the road (78.4%.)
After an 0-4-1 start, the Sabres have evened things out by going 4-4-1. They've been blown out four times in 14 games but are 3-2-2 in one-goal games. They come into this game with a sagging powerplay (6/48, 12.5%) overall although they're slightly better at home (14.3%.)
However, the Sabres penalty kill has been good overall with an 81.4% kill-rate and they're perfect at home stopping all 17 powerplays against.
Buffalo injuries and projected linuep
According to reports from the rink, Buffalo's defensemen continue to drop like flies. The Sabres welcomed the return of defenseman Justin Falk last week but lost top-pairing defenseman Rasmus Ristolainen. With Nathan Beaulieu and Josh Gorges skating against, Matt Tennyson was felled in practice yesterday by a Jack Eichel shot that hit him in the ankle. Head coach Phil Housley listed Tennyson as day-to-day and the team called up Zach Redmond today.
The lineup on defense looks should look like this:
Scandella-Falk
McCabe-Fedun
Antipin-Redmond
Most of the forward lineup we saw on their two-game road trip last week remains intact save for the insertion of Nicolas Baptiste into the lineup. The odd man out looks to be Matt Moulson who has zero points and is a minus-7 while averaging 10:27 of ice-time through 10 games this season. According to the media at the rink this morning, these will probably be the lines:
Kane-Eichel-Pominville
Pouliot-O'Reilly-Okposo
Griffith-Reinhart-Baptiste
Girgensons-Larson-Nolan
Robin Lehner looks to get his 11 start in net for the Sabres.
Brendan Guhle
With all the injuries the Sabres have had on defense and with no goals yet from the Buffalo bleuliners, why would an offensive-minded defenseman like 20 yr. old Brendan Guhle not get the call. Guhle's been playing well lately with two goals and four assists in his last five starts.
When asked by the gathered media after practice today whey Guhle didn't get the call, Housley said that the decision is up to GM Jason Botterill and furthered what Botterill had been saying all alnong about player development. "I think [Guhle's] doing a great job developing where he is right now, " Housley said of the 20 yr. old Rochester rookie. "It's fair to say we don't want to rush him. He's in a good spot, he's playing well, he's getting the minutes right now that I think are going to help carry his game and develop him.
"We want to have him develop in the right area and continue to make strides in his development."
That's a fair assessment and a rather noble gesture to the future of the franchise although it really doesn't sit well with a lot of Buffalo fans who are looking for some relief right now. A slow start and four blowout losses, the most recent one on Saturday at Dallas, has left many queasy and uneasy about where this season is headed. Sabres fans have seen what the defense-corps has to offer and it hasn't been pretty.
Regardless of who's stepping in on defense, the Sabres need their best players to step up, most notably Jack Eichel and Ryan O'Reilly. We've heard the talk but have yet to see the walk. Buffalo could really use a win tonight and they're playing a Caps team tonight that should be vulnerable. The Sabres have been playing relatively better as of late, when compared to the train wreck we witnessed the first couple of weeks, but they need to show it on the scoreboard.
Both Eichel and O'Reilly are at or near the top of the Sabres leaderboard in scoring at 13 and 12 points, respectively, but they have one of those letter's sewn on their sweater. The team is begging for leadership right now and wearing an 'A' on a team without a designated captain means they're the ones that need to lead.
This would be a good game to show it.
Tuesday, November 7, 2017
Shake up or stay the course in Sabreland?
Published by hockeybuzz.com, 11-6-2017
After the Buffalo Sabres were drubbed in a 5-1 loss at Dallas on Saturday night, head coach Phil Housley said that his team got "the start they wanted" against the Stars, but were unhinged by "a couple of bad bounces." He would go on to say that he thought his team "played well" even though "the score tells you differently."
Housley also said that he thought a lot of people would disagree with his assessment and sure enough, from the beat writers on down, there's plenty of disagreement. "The Sabres have a fragile psyche, so maybe the coach didn't want to pile on in public," wrote Sabres beat writer John Vogl of The Buffalo News. "Maybe it was his way of not burying goaltender Robin Lehner, who got yanked after allowing three goals on seven shots in 10 minutes.
"But it sounded like the Sabres have lowered the bar, that a four-goal loss is an acceptable effort. The feel-good vibe won't play to a fan base that knows better and expects more."
Further review of the game and Housley's wording would render his assessment. Through the first 10:27 seconds the team did play well. The Sabres had plenty of puck possession and spent a good portion of the first three minutes in the Dallas zone before Lehner and defenseman Matt Tennyson miscommunicated in their own zone. A weak shot on net from the half-wall fell to Lehner's feet and Dallas' Remi Elie poked in the rebound at 3:09 of the first period. 1-0 Dallas.
The Sabres continued on with their possession and pressure registering the next five shots on goal. However, a seemingly harmless shot from the half-wall off the rush by Dallas was sent towards Lehner and it jumped his stick in the crease. The juicy rebound went right through Tennyson's legs in the blue paint and the Stars' Radek Faksa buried it. At the 7:07 mark of the first period Buffalo was now down 2-0.
With Dallas smelling blood, the Sabres held their own until a breakdown in coverage left a trailer wide open in the slot on a Stars' rush. An ill-advised check by Kyle Okposo on his off side in the neutral zone left the right side of the ice wide open while the Stars had numbers. Dallas defenseman Stephen Johns slipped into the wide open area and teed up a feed from Gemel Smith to make it 3-0 Dallas just 10:27 into the game.
A dumb penalty by Tennyson gave Dallas a man advantage and the league's top powerplay wasted no time making it 4-0 with just over seven minutes to go in the first period.
So Housley is correct in that his team was playing pretty well but some bad bounces and broken coverage put his team in a hole against a very good team.
However, he also needs to recognize that this team has a tendency to fall apart in dramatic fashion against good teams. Buffalo allowed three NY Islanders goals in a 2:47 span of the second period, which included back-to-back shorthanded goals, found themselves down 4-0 and eventually lost 6-3. The very next game New Jersey blitzed them for three goals in less than seven minutes of the second period, beginning with a shortie, and added a fourth to make it 6-1 after 40 minutes. Buffalo lost that game 6-2.
Those were Games 2 and 3 on the season and Housley's team seemed to stabilize things in the blitzkrieg department until they travelled to Columbus. Trailing 1-0 with less than five minutes left in the second period, they allowed three goals in 2:59. Buffalo found themselves down 4-0 headed into the third and lost 5-1.
Then came Saturday's game.
On the bright side, they have shown that they can come back from large deficits. Twice in Boston they were trailed by three goals and the came back to win the game in overtime, but that has proven to be the anomaly 14 games into the season.
Housley has been unable to get his team to buckle down when the other team is putting on the pressure. Much of it can be attributed to the blueline on down as he has a depleted defense-corps while his goaltending has been inconsistent at best, awful at worst. You can add the forward ranks into the equation as well. As a group they haven't been scoring, or worse haven't been putting themselves in the bloody nose areas to score, their coverage on the back check has left much to be desired and they've been caught cheating up ice, especially when finding themselves down by a couple of goals.
Having said all that, and in a nod to small steps, the team has been playing better as of late. After that clunker in Columbus they played a very strong game against the San Jose' Sharks and arguably did everything right but win the game. They pounded the Arizona Coyotes through much of that game before allowing three third period goals while on their way to a 5-4 win. And even in Saturday night's fumbles, they scored to make it 4-1 with a little less than half the game to go and went on the powerplay :27 seconds later.
So Housley's not crazy when he said that he's finding a lot of positives with his team, even in that 5-1 blowout loss to Dallas. However, the Sabres were a mess early in the season and still have a long way to go. Buffalo has managed to play some pretty good hockey at times but has yet to put together a complete game and come out on the winning end. And they're still subject to goals in rapid-fire succession.
This team has been able to move the needle from the poor play early in the season to somewhat respectable, but extremely inconsistent. Injuries need to be factored in as does the dead roster weight they're carrying and a style of play that doesn't seem to fit a number of players, especially up-front in the bottom-six.
With all that being said, what should they do at this juncture of the season?
Some are calling for a roster shakeup, which is a very reasonable call. Evander Kane's name inevitably comes up in the conversation as he's an impending free agent who got off to a whale of a start. Regardless of which side your on, the trading of Kane doesn't represent a shakeup as it's pretty much expected that he'll be gone if the Sabres are out of the playoff race.
Moving Sam Reinhart would shake things up. Reinhart. a second-overall selection in the 2014 NHL Draft by Buffalo, got off to a very slow start this season but has been playing much better as of late. And it's highly doubtful that the Sabres would move a player like Ryan O'Reilly unless it was tied to a player in the John Tavares realm. That's not to say that O'Reilly is Tavares, but he's still considered one of the top two-way centermen in the league, despite his slow start this year while playing for the league's 29th place team.
Unless Sabres GM Jason Botterill has something in the works, what we see is what we've got in Sabreland. For now. Although Botterill and Housley can change the dynamic of their struggling team by adding some youth with speed and skill to the lineup via Rochester. They did that with Justin Bailey and the team came out of it's early-season doldrums. After going 0-4-1, Bailey scored Buffalo's first goal in Anaheim and the team went on to win their first of the season. Although he shouldn't be remotely be dubbed the savior, the team did go 3-3-1 with him in the lineup before he went down with an injury.
Buffalo called up Nicolas Baptiste on November 1, but put him in the pressbox for the win at Arizona and the loss at Dallas.
Yet to be called up is defenseman Brendan Guhle. The 20 yr. old has really begun to pick up his game in Rochester and would add some needed speed and puck-moving ability on the back end. Guhle has eight points in 11 games for the Amerks thus far scoring both of his goals and adding four assists in his last five games.
It should be noted that the Sabres have yet to get a goal from a defenseman this season.
Someone on hear said that you won't know what a team is really made of until after November, which is a statement that can easily be agreed upon. Right now the Sabres are trending in the right direction but still have some serious kinks to work out and still need an influx of talent. There are 11 games to play in November against a stable of formidable teams including tomorrow night's matchup against the Washington Capitals.
That could be a defining stretch and may ultimately give us the answer as to whether a shakeup is coming (and if so, how much of one) or they'll simply remain on course.
After the Buffalo Sabres were drubbed in a 5-1 loss at Dallas on Saturday night, head coach Phil Housley said that his team got "the start they wanted" against the Stars, but were unhinged by "a couple of bad bounces." He would go on to say that he thought his team "played well" even though "the score tells you differently."
Housley also said that he thought a lot of people would disagree with his assessment and sure enough, from the beat writers on down, there's plenty of disagreement. "The Sabres have a fragile psyche, so maybe the coach didn't want to pile on in public," wrote Sabres beat writer John Vogl of The Buffalo News. "Maybe it was his way of not burying goaltender Robin Lehner, who got yanked after allowing three goals on seven shots in 10 minutes.
"But it sounded like the Sabres have lowered the bar, that a four-goal loss is an acceptable effort. The feel-good vibe won't play to a fan base that knows better and expects more."
Further review of the game and Housley's wording would render his assessment. Through the first 10:27 seconds the team did play well. The Sabres had plenty of puck possession and spent a good portion of the first three minutes in the Dallas zone before Lehner and defenseman Matt Tennyson miscommunicated in their own zone. A weak shot on net from the half-wall fell to Lehner's feet and Dallas' Remi Elie poked in the rebound at 3:09 of the first period. 1-0 Dallas.
The Sabres continued on with their possession and pressure registering the next five shots on goal. However, a seemingly harmless shot from the half-wall off the rush by Dallas was sent towards Lehner and it jumped his stick in the crease. The juicy rebound went right through Tennyson's legs in the blue paint and the Stars' Radek Faksa buried it. At the 7:07 mark of the first period Buffalo was now down 2-0.
With Dallas smelling blood, the Sabres held their own until a breakdown in coverage left a trailer wide open in the slot on a Stars' rush. An ill-advised check by Kyle Okposo on his off side in the neutral zone left the right side of the ice wide open while the Stars had numbers. Dallas defenseman Stephen Johns slipped into the wide open area and teed up a feed from Gemel Smith to make it 3-0 Dallas just 10:27 into the game.
A dumb penalty by Tennyson gave Dallas a man advantage and the league's top powerplay wasted no time making it 4-0 with just over seven minutes to go in the first period.
So Housley is correct in that his team was playing pretty well but some bad bounces and broken coverage put his team in a hole against a very good team.
However, he also needs to recognize that this team has a tendency to fall apart in dramatic fashion against good teams. Buffalo allowed three NY Islanders goals in a 2:47 span of the second period, which included back-to-back shorthanded goals, found themselves down 4-0 and eventually lost 6-3. The very next game New Jersey blitzed them for three goals in less than seven minutes of the second period, beginning with a shortie, and added a fourth to make it 6-1 after 40 minutes. Buffalo lost that game 6-2.
Those were Games 2 and 3 on the season and Housley's team seemed to stabilize things in the blitzkrieg department until they travelled to Columbus. Trailing 1-0 with less than five minutes left in the second period, they allowed three goals in 2:59. Buffalo found themselves down 4-0 headed into the third and lost 5-1.
Then came Saturday's game.
On the bright side, they have shown that they can come back from large deficits. Twice in Boston they were trailed by three goals and the came back to win the game in overtime, but that has proven to be the anomaly 14 games into the season.
Housley has been unable to get his team to buckle down when the other team is putting on the pressure. Much of it can be attributed to the blueline on down as he has a depleted defense-corps while his goaltending has been inconsistent at best, awful at worst. You can add the forward ranks into the equation as well. As a group they haven't been scoring, or worse haven't been putting themselves in the bloody nose areas to score, their coverage on the back check has left much to be desired and they've been caught cheating up ice, especially when finding themselves down by a couple of goals.
Having said all that, and in a nod to small steps, the team has been playing better as of late. After that clunker in Columbus they played a very strong game against the San Jose' Sharks and arguably did everything right but win the game. They pounded the Arizona Coyotes through much of that game before allowing three third period goals while on their way to a 5-4 win. And even in Saturday night's fumbles, they scored to make it 4-1 with a little less than half the game to go and went on the powerplay :27 seconds later.
So Housley's not crazy when he said that he's finding a lot of positives with his team, even in that 5-1 blowout loss to Dallas. However, the Sabres were a mess early in the season and still have a long way to go. Buffalo has managed to play some pretty good hockey at times but has yet to put together a complete game and come out on the winning end. And they're still subject to goals in rapid-fire succession.
This team has been able to move the needle from the poor play early in the season to somewhat respectable, but extremely inconsistent. Injuries need to be factored in as does the dead roster weight they're carrying and a style of play that doesn't seem to fit a number of players, especially up-front in the bottom-six.
With all that being said, what should they do at this juncture of the season?
Some are calling for a roster shakeup, which is a very reasonable call. Evander Kane's name inevitably comes up in the conversation as he's an impending free agent who got off to a whale of a start. Regardless of which side your on, the trading of Kane doesn't represent a shakeup as it's pretty much expected that he'll be gone if the Sabres are out of the playoff race.
Moving Sam Reinhart would shake things up. Reinhart. a second-overall selection in the 2014 NHL Draft by Buffalo, got off to a very slow start this season but has been playing much better as of late. And it's highly doubtful that the Sabres would move a player like Ryan O'Reilly unless it was tied to a player in the John Tavares realm. That's not to say that O'Reilly is Tavares, but he's still considered one of the top two-way centermen in the league, despite his slow start this year while playing for the league's 29th place team.
Unless Sabres GM Jason Botterill has something in the works, what we see is what we've got in Sabreland. For now. Although Botterill and Housley can change the dynamic of their struggling team by adding some youth with speed and skill to the lineup via Rochester. They did that with Justin Bailey and the team came out of it's early-season doldrums. After going 0-4-1, Bailey scored Buffalo's first goal in Anaheim and the team went on to win their first of the season. Although he shouldn't be remotely be dubbed the savior, the team did go 3-3-1 with him in the lineup before he went down with an injury.
Buffalo called up Nicolas Baptiste on November 1, but put him in the pressbox for the win at Arizona and the loss at Dallas.
Yet to be called up is defenseman Brendan Guhle. The 20 yr. old has really begun to pick up his game in Rochester and would add some needed speed and puck-moving ability on the back end. Guhle has eight points in 11 games for the Amerks thus far scoring both of his goals and adding four assists in his last five games.
It should be noted that the Sabres have yet to get a goal from a defenseman this season.
Someone on hear said that you won't know what a team is really made of until after November, which is a statement that can easily be agreed upon. Right now the Sabres are trending in the right direction but still have some serious kinks to work out and still need an influx of talent. There are 11 games to play in November against a stable of formidable teams including tomorrow night's matchup against the Washington Capitals.
That could be a defining stretch and may ultimately give us the answer as to whether a shakeup is coming (and if so, how much of one) or they'll simply remain on course.
Monday, November 6, 2017
Sabres benchboss Phil Housley has some problems on his hands
Published by hockeybuzz.com, 11-5-2017
This is the first go-round as head coach for Phil Housley at the NHL-level. Housley began his coaching career in Stillwater, Minnesota, which is a stone's throw away from where he was born in St. Paul. Housley coached their high school team from 2004-13. The other time he was the head man behind the bench was in 2013 coaching Team USA at the World Junior Championships in Ufa, Russia. The Americans won the gold medal that year with Housley behind the bench and Sabres defenseman Jake McCabe as captain.
From there Housley began paying his coaching dues in Nashville as an assistant with the Predators. In four years he transformed a Nashville defense-corps into a force that drove the Preds to the 2017 Stanley Cup Finals.
Yet, despite his various levels of success prior to Buffalo hiring him, being a head coach in the NHL is a different ball of wax. No longer are his players boys and/or young men and he's now the one making all the decisions for the players on the ice for a NHL team. As a 4-8-2 record to start this season (and his head coaching career) would indicate, Housley has some adjusting to do.
In all fairness to him, Houlsey took over a team that doesn't have the overall talent of Nashville and he began his tenure in Buffalo with a defense-corps that was at least a couple of notches below what he had with the Predators. To make matters worse, he's been trying to instill a defensive philosophy in a defense-corps that has been over-run by injuries. Last night against the Dallas Stars, the Sabres had four defensemen that were projected to be in the opening night lineup with only one of them, Marco Scandella, as a legit top-four defenseman.
The talent/injury woes aren't limited to the defense-corps either. The Sabres have the makings of two good, solid lines up-top, but after that it falls to pieces, especially with the injuries to forwards Evan Rodrigues and Jacob Josefson which hurts the bottom-six. Housley has filled out his forward ranks but has players struggling to hold their own with minimal contributions on offense and some pretty poor defensive zone practices.
The Sabres have been run over in four games this season--at NY Islanders (6-3,) vs. NJ Devils (6-2,) at Columbus (5-1,) and at Dallas (5-1.) In those four games there were a total of 42 even strength goals against. The top-six, which average just over 14 minutes of even strength ice-time per player, was on the ice for 20 of the goals while the bottom-six, averaging about 10:30 EV ATOI, allowed 17 goals against. Justin Bailey who was a call-up, played a good portion in the top-six and is now injured was on the ice for two while injured fourth-line center Josefson was on for three.
Last night against Dallas, with the Sabres down 4-1, the discrepancy in talent, and speed, was on display as the Stars toyed with Buffalo's fourth line as if they were NHL'ers playing against Bantams. Dallas cycled in the Buffalo zone for 1:16 before lining up a tip from the slot. Although the goal made it 5-1 late in the third period, but the game was pretty much decided in the first period.
The Sabres really needed stout goaltending last night, and they got the opposite. Robin Lehner, who boldly proclaimed that he had "nothing to prove" during the off season, has been inconsistent at best and abysmal at worst, which is what we witnessed last night. Lehner allowed three weak goals on seven shots before getting yanked and is now sporting a 3.25 GAA and .896 Sv%.
Backup goalie Chad Johnson is worse with a 3.84 GAA and .878 Sv%.
All that said, welcome to the world of being a head coach, Mr. Housley.
Throughout his short tenure Housley has nobly kept his players from taking the brunt of criticism being thrown at the league's 29th place team. Credit should be given to the team for pulling together a 4-3-1 record prior to last night's game after starting the season 0-4-1, but the product is what the product is and right now what the Sabres are losing more often than they are winning and last night they lost in grand fashion.
After skating well in the first few minutes with nothing to show for it last night, the Sabres proceeded to allow four goals in the first 12:51 of play. And they looked terrible in the process. It was yet another collapse, from goalie on out, that Housley tried to defend post-game. "I thought our guys played well and did a lot of good things," he told the gathered media last night.
"When I evaluate the game," said Housley in a response to how he avoids being negative, "I think we played well" then went on to say that "a lot of people probably will disagree with [him]" while acknowledging "the score tells something different." Yet he was adamant that the team got the start that they wanted and that they were victims of some early bounces not going their way.
Everyone who disagrees with his assessment of last night's game are probably wondering what game he was watching. With all due respect his team failed in goal, failed on defense, failed on team defense and failed to score on the minimal opportunities they had and got steamrolled. It was over at the end of the first period with Dallas up 4-0 and there should be no coddling of the players after that stinker.
Once again, the product on the ice is what it is.
Housley's got his hands full right now and he really has no one to fall back on in his coaching staff. He's out there by himself with a lot of problems on his hands and that would include how he handles the players on his team. If they want to be treated like men and paid like men, they need to be addressed like men and that includes calling a spade a spade.
This team had the utmost respect for Housley when he came on board, but the horrific start meant the honeymoon was over pretty quick. Coddling these players does no one any good. If they played a poor game, and if that can be alluded to without calling a player out, then it should be done.
Buffalo didn't play well last night. Perhaps after Housley evaluates the game he'll get different view than what he had post-game. The next game is against a Washington Capitals team that's beginning to figure things out after a real rough patch. And if the Sabres want to survive that one, Housley and company will need to figure some things out as well.
This is the first go-round as head coach for Phil Housley at the NHL-level. Housley began his coaching career in Stillwater, Minnesota, which is a stone's throw away from where he was born in St. Paul. Housley coached their high school team from 2004-13. The other time he was the head man behind the bench was in 2013 coaching Team USA at the World Junior Championships in Ufa, Russia. The Americans won the gold medal that year with Housley behind the bench and Sabres defenseman Jake McCabe as captain.
From there Housley began paying his coaching dues in Nashville as an assistant with the Predators. In four years he transformed a Nashville defense-corps into a force that drove the Preds to the 2017 Stanley Cup Finals.
Yet, despite his various levels of success prior to Buffalo hiring him, being a head coach in the NHL is a different ball of wax. No longer are his players boys and/or young men and he's now the one making all the decisions for the players on the ice for a NHL team. As a 4-8-2 record to start this season (and his head coaching career) would indicate, Housley has some adjusting to do.
In all fairness to him, Houlsey took over a team that doesn't have the overall talent of Nashville and he began his tenure in Buffalo with a defense-corps that was at least a couple of notches below what he had with the Predators. To make matters worse, he's been trying to instill a defensive philosophy in a defense-corps that has been over-run by injuries. Last night against the Dallas Stars, the Sabres had four defensemen that were projected to be in the opening night lineup with only one of them, Marco Scandella, as a legit top-four defenseman.
The talent/injury woes aren't limited to the defense-corps either. The Sabres have the makings of two good, solid lines up-top, but after that it falls to pieces, especially with the injuries to forwards Evan Rodrigues and Jacob Josefson which hurts the bottom-six. Housley has filled out his forward ranks but has players struggling to hold their own with minimal contributions on offense and some pretty poor defensive zone practices.
The Sabres have been run over in four games this season--at NY Islanders (6-3,) vs. NJ Devils (6-2,) at Columbus (5-1,) and at Dallas (5-1.) In those four games there were a total of 42 even strength goals against. The top-six, which average just over 14 minutes of even strength ice-time per player, was on the ice for 20 of the goals while the bottom-six, averaging about 10:30 EV ATOI, allowed 17 goals against. Justin Bailey who was a call-up, played a good portion in the top-six and is now injured was on the ice for two while injured fourth-line center Josefson was on for three.
Last night against Dallas, with the Sabres down 4-1, the discrepancy in talent, and speed, was on display as the Stars toyed with Buffalo's fourth line as if they were NHL'ers playing against Bantams. Dallas cycled in the Buffalo zone for 1:16 before lining up a tip from the slot. Although the goal made it 5-1 late in the third period, but the game was pretty much decided in the first period.
The Sabres really needed stout goaltending last night, and they got the opposite. Robin Lehner, who boldly proclaimed that he had "nothing to prove" during the off season, has been inconsistent at best and abysmal at worst, which is what we witnessed last night. Lehner allowed three weak goals on seven shots before getting yanked and is now sporting a 3.25 GAA and .896 Sv%.
Backup goalie Chad Johnson is worse with a 3.84 GAA and .878 Sv%.
All that said, welcome to the world of being a head coach, Mr. Housley.
Throughout his short tenure Housley has nobly kept his players from taking the brunt of criticism being thrown at the league's 29th place team. Credit should be given to the team for pulling together a 4-3-1 record prior to last night's game after starting the season 0-4-1, but the product is what the product is and right now what the Sabres are losing more often than they are winning and last night they lost in grand fashion.
After skating well in the first few minutes with nothing to show for it last night, the Sabres proceeded to allow four goals in the first 12:51 of play. And they looked terrible in the process. It was yet another collapse, from goalie on out, that Housley tried to defend post-game. "I thought our guys played well and did a lot of good things," he told the gathered media last night.
"When I evaluate the game," said Housley in a response to how he avoids being negative, "I think we played well" then went on to say that "a lot of people probably will disagree with [him]" while acknowledging "the score tells something different." Yet he was adamant that the team got the start that they wanted and that they were victims of some early bounces not going their way.
Everyone who disagrees with his assessment of last night's game are probably wondering what game he was watching. With all due respect his team failed in goal, failed on defense, failed on team defense and failed to score on the minimal opportunities they had and got steamrolled. It was over at the end of the first period with Dallas up 4-0 and there should be no coddling of the players after that stinker.
Once again, the product on the ice is what it is.
Housley's got his hands full right now and he really has no one to fall back on in his coaching staff. He's out there by himself with a lot of problems on his hands and that would include how he handles the players on his team. If they want to be treated like men and paid like men, they need to be addressed like men and that includes calling a spade a spade.
This team had the utmost respect for Housley when he came on board, but the horrific start meant the honeymoon was over pretty quick. Coddling these players does no one any good. If they played a poor game, and if that can be alluded to without calling a player out, then it should be done.
Buffalo didn't play well last night. Perhaps after Housley evaluates the game he'll get different view than what he had post-game. The next game is against a Washington Capitals team that's beginning to figure things out after a real rough patch. And if the Sabres want to survive that one, Housley and company will need to figure some things out as well.
Sunday, November 5, 2017
Another injury on the Buffalo blueline as Ristolainen's out for tonight.
Published by hockeybuzz.com, 11-4-2017
The injuries to the Buffalo Sabres defense just keep coming.
A mere one game after the Sabres got one of their defenseman back, another went down. Justin Falk had been sidelined the entire season with a lower body injury until he returned to the lineup on Thursday in Arizona. The 6'5" 223 lb. veteran d-man skated 15:32 and was a minus-1 in Buffalo's 5-4 win over the Coyotes and tonight, according to those in Dallas covering Buffalo's morning skate, Falk will be on the top-pairing against the Stars.
Reports from the rink have Rasmus Ristolainen, the league leader in average time on ice, out for tonight's game with an upper-body injury. Sabres head coach Phil Housley told the gathered after practice that Ristolainen is "day-to-day" with an injury apparently incurred in the Arizona game. Ristolainen joins a trio of defensemen on injured reserve--Zach Bogosian, Nathan Beaulieu and Josh Gorges--on the injured list.
As one goes down, opportunity arises for another and Falk looks to be the one to skate along side top-pairing defenseman Marco Scandella. The other pairings, according to reports have rookie Victor Antipin skating with Taylor Fedun and the duo of Jake McCabe and Matt Tennyson together as they have been for much of the season.
In all, there's not a lot of experience in that group outside of Scandella (386 games.) The 29 yr.old Falk has played in 224 games but has spent much of his shuttling between the AHL and NHL, including last season when he started out in Rochester. McCabe (24 yrs. old) has played in 175 NHL games while Tennyson (27 yrs. old) finally broke through with 45 NHL games last season after spending nearly all of his prior six pro seasons playing in the minors (178 AHL games, 60 NHL games.)
Fedun finally got a break last season after signing with Buffalo. The undrafted free agent spent his first four seasons playing 263 AHL games and only 12 NHL games before signing with the Sabres. Last year he split time between Rochester and Buffalo.
Antipin has played in nine games this season after coming over from Russia this off season.
Robin Lehner looks to get the nod in net for Buffalo tonight and he may need to be sharp.
*****
According to rink reports, we can look for the same forward combinations as in the previous game:
Kane-Eichel-Pominville
Pouliot-O'Reilly-Okposo
Girgensons-Reinhart-Griffith
Moulson-Larsson-Nolan
Thursday's game against the Coyotes was a good one for a number of players. Kyle Okposo got off the schneid with his first goal of the season while adding an assist and his line did some serious damage. Benoit Pouliot had two goals and an assist while Ryan O'Reilly had three assists, two of them primary.
Okposo's goal was a huge weight off of his shoulders and it came extremely late in the period with him at the end of his shift. With the puck in the neutral zone and heading up-ice, Okposo looked as if he was headed towards the bench for a change, but he continued on either of his own device or on a prod from the bench. He joined the play late as a trailer and one-timed a shot that lit the lamp with 0.9 seconds left, lifting his arms with a mixture of fatigue and relief.
Good for him and good for the Sabres.
*****
The Sabres also scored a shorthanded goal against Arizona, their league-leading third of the season and all of them scored by Evander Kane.
Kane is accustomed to being involved in the penalty kill, but Housley has been easing Jack Eichel into that role as well. The duo has speed to burn and the opposition always needs to be wary when they're on the ice as shown against the 'Yotes. after Arizona defenseman Jason Demers blew a tire at the Sabres blueline while on the powerplay, Kane gathered the puck, jumped over Demers and started up ice with Eichel on a 2-on-none break. Goal.
"They're very deadly," Housley said (via John Vogl, The Buffalo News.) "They do a terrific job. The other team has to be aware of that because if they get an opportunity they don't need many. They've been converting on them."
Two years ago former Sabres head coach Dan Bylsma used Kane and Eichel, albeit separately, on the kill in the preseason. Buffalo scored a shorthanded goal in each of their five preseason games with Eichel scoring two. Kane, O'Reilly and Johan Larsson also shorties.
"He’s used his skating for defending way more for play away from the puck than he has for offense,” said Bylsma at the time “Frankly, I didn’t really see that in a lot of the games I saw him play. … He’s tracked pucks down, he’s tracked back, he’s caught players, he’s stripped players, he’s played well away from the puck defensively down low with his skating ability. If there’s anything that’s changed my impression, that’s been it.”
Bylsma also stuck to the theory that a penalty kill unit should do just that, kill penalties, and not use it for offensive opportunities, despite seeing Eichel score on breakaways in that situation. “I have never ever been part of a mentality like that. It would be one thing if we talked about scoring a short-handed goal or we’re looking for opportunities, which hasn’t been the case. It’s not something we’re trying to do, trying to look for opportunities to exploit. They’ve come and you’ve got a skilled player like Jack out there and it’s turned into two of them for us.”
Housley has used Kane and Eichel as a PK duo sparingly, but they've gotten some pretty good results. Neither Kane nor Eichel have been on the ice for a powerplay goal against thus far. Kane has three shorties and Eichel has the primary assist on two of them.
Just sayin'
The injuries to the Buffalo Sabres defense just keep coming.
A mere one game after the Sabres got one of their defenseman back, another went down. Justin Falk had been sidelined the entire season with a lower body injury until he returned to the lineup on Thursday in Arizona. The 6'5" 223 lb. veteran d-man skated 15:32 and was a minus-1 in Buffalo's 5-4 win over the Coyotes and tonight, according to those in Dallas covering Buffalo's morning skate, Falk will be on the top-pairing against the Stars.
Reports from the rink have Rasmus Ristolainen, the league leader in average time on ice, out for tonight's game with an upper-body injury. Sabres head coach Phil Housley told the gathered after practice that Ristolainen is "day-to-day" with an injury apparently incurred in the Arizona game. Ristolainen joins a trio of defensemen on injured reserve--Zach Bogosian, Nathan Beaulieu and Josh Gorges--on the injured list.
As one goes down, opportunity arises for another and Falk looks to be the one to skate along side top-pairing defenseman Marco Scandella. The other pairings, according to reports have rookie Victor Antipin skating with Taylor Fedun and the duo of Jake McCabe and Matt Tennyson together as they have been for much of the season.
In all, there's not a lot of experience in that group outside of Scandella (386 games.) The 29 yr.old Falk has played in 224 games but has spent much of his shuttling between the AHL and NHL, including last season when he started out in Rochester. McCabe (24 yrs. old) has played in 175 NHL games while Tennyson (27 yrs. old) finally broke through with 45 NHL games last season after spending nearly all of his prior six pro seasons playing in the minors (178 AHL games, 60 NHL games.)
Fedun finally got a break last season after signing with Buffalo. The undrafted free agent spent his first four seasons playing 263 AHL games and only 12 NHL games before signing with the Sabres. Last year he split time between Rochester and Buffalo.
Antipin has played in nine games this season after coming over from Russia this off season.
Robin Lehner looks to get the nod in net for Buffalo tonight and he may need to be sharp.
*****
According to rink reports, we can look for the same forward combinations as in the previous game:
Kane-Eichel-Pominville
Pouliot-O'Reilly-Okposo
Girgensons-Reinhart-Griffith
Moulson-Larsson-Nolan
Thursday's game against the Coyotes was a good one for a number of players. Kyle Okposo got off the schneid with his first goal of the season while adding an assist and his line did some serious damage. Benoit Pouliot had two goals and an assist while Ryan O'Reilly had three assists, two of them primary.
Okposo's goal was a huge weight off of his shoulders and it came extremely late in the period with him at the end of his shift. With the puck in the neutral zone and heading up-ice, Okposo looked as if he was headed towards the bench for a change, but he continued on either of his own device or on a prod from the bench. He joined the play late as a trailer and one-timed a shot that lit the lamp with 0.9 seconds left, lifting his arms with a mixture of fatigue and relief.
Good for him and good for the Sabres.
*****
The Sabres also scored a shorthanded goal against Arizona, their league-leading third of the season and all of them scored by Evander Kane.
Kane is accustomed to being involved in the penalty kill, but Housley has been easing Jack Eichel into that role as well. The duo has speed to burn and the opposition always needs to be wary when they're on the ice as shown against the 'Yotes. after Arizona defenseman Jason Demers blew a tire at the Sabres blueline while on the powerplay, Kane gathered the puck, jumped over Demers and started up ice with Eichel on a 2-on-none break. Goal.
"They're very deadly," Housley said (via John Vogl, The Buffalo News.) "They do a terrific job. The other team has to be aware of that because if they get an opportunity they don't need many. They've been converting on them."
Two years ago former Sabres head coach Dan Bylsma used Kane and Eichel, albeit separately, on the kill in the preseason. Buffalo scored a shorthanded goal in each of their five preseason games with Eichel scoring two. Kane, O'Reilly and Johan Larsson also shorties.
"He’s used his skating for defending way more for play away from the puck than he has for offense,” said Bylsma at the time “Frankly, I didn’t really see that in a lot of the games I saw him play. … He’s tracked pucks down, he’s tracked back, he’s caught players, he’s stripped players, he’s played well away from the puck defensively down low with his skating ability. If there’s anything that’s changed my impression, that’s been it.”
Bylsma also stuck to the theory that a penalty kill unit should do just that, kill penalties, and not use it for offensive opportunities, despite seeing Eichel score on breakaways in that situation. “I have never ever been part of a mentality like that. It would be one thing if we talked about scoring a short-handed goal or we’re looking for opportunities, which hasn’t been the case. It’s not something we’re trying to do, trying to look for opportunities to exploit. They’ve come and you’ve got a skilled player like Jack out there and it’s turned into two of them for us.”
Housley has used Kane and Eichel as a PK duo sparingly, but they've gotten some pretty good results. Neither Kane nor Eichel have been on the ice for a powerplay goal against thus far. Kane has three shorties and Eichel has the primary assist on two of them.
Just sayin'
Saturday, November 4, 2017
One line at a time. (Beniot Pouliot)
Published by hockeybuzz.com, 11-3-2017
The Buffalo Sabres started out the season with one forward line rolling and the rest non-existent. The line of Jack Eichel centering left wing Evander Kane and right wing Jason Pominville did all the scoring in the first four games. Granted some of the goals were scored on the powerplay, and Kane was a beast with three shorthanded goals, but after four games, Kane and Pominville each had four of the Sabres nine total goals and Eichel had the other while also getting the primary assist on four of those goals.
Zemgus Girgensons would finally break that trend with a goal in the first period at Los Angeles in Buffalo's fifth game of the season yet Eichel would account for the Sabres only other goal that night with assists from, who else, Kane and Pominville.
Is it any wonder the team started the season 0-4-1?
Sabres head coach Phil Housley had a bear of a time trying to figure out how to get his other scorers going. Housley's line juggling included a number of combinations, some of which had Pominville changing lines and Sam Reinhart moving from center back to wing, a position he played most of the past two seasons. In Anaheim, Housley came up with an interesting trio as he moved Reinhart and center Ryan O'Reilly to the wings on either side of Girgensons.
However, call-up Justin Bailey to ignite Buffalo's secondary scoring as he scored his first goal of the season just 1:26 into the game against the Ducks. Bailey took advantage of some extended zone-time created by the Girgensons' line, barreled to the net on a change and buried a rebound near the paint. Reinhart would score his first goal of the season late in the second period and Johan Larsson would add an empty-netter in the third period for his first as well.
It was the first time all season, the Eichel line would be held off the scoresheet and ironically the Sabres got their first win of the season.
It wasn't long after that game that O'Reilly began to turn things around, mostly on the powerplay to start, but after landing only one assist through the first five games, he went on a point streak. Beginning in Anaheim he collected six points (3+3) in four games and after being shut out in the next two, he's was good for four points (1+3) in his last two games. O'Reilly sits fourth on the team in scoring with 11 points.
Housley bounced new Sabre Benoit Pouliot around much of this season after he began the season on the second line with O'Reilly and Okposo. It took him nine games to net his first goal of but after a two-goal performance last night, Pouliot has now four goals (plus an assist) in his last five games.
Perhaps no Buffalo forward has gone through a tougher stretch than Kyle Okposo. It was so bad that at one point for Okposo that Housley benched him for all but one shift in the third period against the Vancouver Canucks. However, Okposo would come back with a very strong game against the Boston Bruins the next night and even though he didn't score a goal, it was widely considered his best game of the year. "Kyle was fantastic," said Housley post-game, "moving his feet, winning a lot of puck battles."
Although still goal-less through his first nine games, that Boston game punched Okposo's ticket back into the top-six, first on the Eichel/Kane line then back to a more familiar position as O'Reilly's right wing. Okposo had an assist against the San Jose' Sharks last Saturday and netted his first goal of the season at Arizona last night as he scored with 0.9 seconds left in the first period to tie the score. Okposo added an assist to finish with two points and was a plus-2. O'Reilly had three assists and was also a plus-2 while the game's first star, Pouliot, had two goals and an assist and was also a plus-
It took a number of games but Buffalo's top-six is back to where they began the season with lines of Eichel-Kane-Pominville and O'Reilly-Pouliot-Okposo. If Housley can keep those lines mostly intact, while getting production from them, perhaps he can turn his attention more to the bottom-six in the hopes that he can get them moving a little more. Reinhart has shown signs of life in his role as a third-line center (although he still might be better off on the wing) and his winger Seth Griffith scored his second goal of the season last night as well.
The Sabres as a whole have been playing much better of late and are beginning to make a dent in the win column. They're 4-3-1 since that five-game losing streak to start the season and it looks as if they've evolved into a two-line team. Although two scoring lines is enough to beat a team like the Coyotes, who have only one win on the season, as the game against a very deep Columbus Blue Jackets club revealed, they'll need much more than that to compete with the better teams in the league.
That said, Buffalo seems to be headed in the proper direction and they look to be getting on track, at least up front, one line at a time.
The Buffalo Sabres started out the season with one forward line rolling and the rest non-existent. The line of Jack Eichel centering left wing Evander Kane and right wing Jason Pominville did all the scoring in the first four games. Granted some of the goals were scored on the powerplay, and Kane was a beast with three shorthanded goals, but after four games, Kane and Pominville each had four of the Sabres nine total goals and Eichel had the other while also getting the primary assist on four of those goals.
Zemgus Girgensons would finally break that trend with a goal in the first period at Los Angeles in Buffalo's fifth game of the season yet Eichel would account for the Sabres only other goal that night with assists from, who else, Kane and Pominville.
Is it any wonder the team started the season 0-4-1?
Sabres head coach Phil Housley had a bear of a time trying to figure out how to get his other scorers going. Housley's line juggling included a number of combinations, some of which had Pominville changing lines and Sam Reinhart moving from center back to wing, a position he played most of the past two seasons. In Anaheim, Housley came up with an interesting trio as he moved Reinhart and center Ryan O'Reilly to the wings on either side of Girgensons.
However, call-up Justin Bailey to ignite Buffalo's secondary scoring as he scored his first goal of the season just 1:26 into the game against the Ducks. Bailey took advantage of some extended zone-time created by the Girgensons' line, barreled to the net on a change and buried a rebound near the paint. Reinhart would score his first goal of the season late in the second period and Johan Larsson would add an empty-netter in the third period for his first as well.
It was the first time all season, the Eichel line would be held off the scoresheet and ironically the Sabres got their first win of the season.
It wasn't long after that game that O'Reilly began to turn things around, mostly on the powerplay to start, but after landing only one assist through the first five games, he went on a point streak. Beginning in Anaheim he collected six points (3+3) in four games and after being shut out in the next two, he's was good for four points (1+3) in his last two games. O'Reilly sits fourth on the team in scoring with 11 points.
Housley bounced new Sabre Benoit Pouliot around much of this season after he began the season on the second line with O'Reilly and Okposo. It took him nine games to net his first goal of but after a two-goal performance last night, Pouliot has now four goals (plus an assist) in his last five games.
Perhaps no Buffalo forward has gone through a tougher stretch than Kyle Okposo. It was so bad that at one point for Okposo that Housley benched him for all but one shift in the third period against the Vancouver Canucks. However, Okposo would come back with a very strong game against the Boston Bruins the next night and even though he didn't score a goal, it was widely considered his best game of the year. "Kyle was fantastic," said Housley post-game, "moving his feet, winning a lot of puck battles."
Although still goal-less through his first nine games, that Boston game punched Okposo's ticket back into the top-six, first on the Eichel/Kane line then back to a more familiar position as O'Reilly's right wing. Okposo had an assist against the San Jose' Sharks last Saturday and netted his first goal of the season at Arizona last night as he scored with 0.9 seconds left in the first period to tie the score. Okposo added an assist to finish with two points and was a plus-2. O'Reilly had three assists and was also a plus-2 while the game's first star, Pouliot, had two goals and an assist and was also a plus-
It took a number of games but Buffalo's top-six is back to where they began the season with lines of Eichel-Kane-Pominville and O'Reilly-Pouliot-Okposo. If Housley can keep those lines mostly intact, while getting production from them, perhaps he can turn his attention more to the bottom-six in the hopes that he can get them moving a little more. Reinhart has shown signs of life in his role as a third-line center (although he still might be better off on the wing) and his winger Seth Griffith scored his second goal of the season last night as well.
The Sabres as a whole have been playing much better of late and are beginning to make a dent in the win column. They're 4-3-1 since that five-game losing streak to start the season and it looks as if they've evolved into a two-line team. Although two scoring lines is enough to beat a team like the Coyotes, who have only one win on the season, as the game against a very deep Columbus Blue Jackets club revealed, they'll need much more than that to compete with the better teams in the league.
That said, Buffalo seems to be headed in the proper direction and they look to be getting on track, at least up front, one line at a time.
Friday, November 3, 2017
BIlls and Sabres tonight. Some notes
Published by hockeybuzz.com, 11-2-2017
It's not an annual occurrence by any means, but neither is it rare when the Buffalo Bills and the Buffalo Sabres have games on the same night. The Bills are on national TV with a big game at the Meadowlands in New Jersey against the NY Jets while the Sabres are headed to the desert to take on the Arizona Coyotes.
The Bills are eastbound and truckin' into the Meadowlands with a 5-2 record and playoff aspirations. They have a new regime, a new attitude a tone of new players and a recent addition at wide receiver to hopefully get them to the playoffs for the first time since 1999. Buffalo acquired WR Kelvin Benjamin from the Carolina Panthers on Tuesday with a trade that was right up against the trade deadline's 4 pm end. Most think Benjamin will get a few plays in tonight as the Bills try to get one win closer to a playoff spot.
Both the Bills and the Sabres jettisoned their GM and coach at the end of their respective seasons leaving Western New York sports fans to wonder where this was all headed. In addition to the Bills playoff drought, the Sabres haven't made the playoffs since 2011 and the question remained, which team, the Bills or Sabres, will make the playoffs first.
With the Sabres off to a 3-7-2 start, it looks as if the Bills have the inside track. But then again, it's not how you start but how you finish. The Bills have been there before only to go on second-half swoons that left the fan-base crying "Why, Lord!?"
Tonight the Bills kick things off with an 8:30 pm start while the puck drops in Arizona at 10 pm.
*****
The last time both the Bills and the Sabres appeared in primetime was last October 16 with WNY having a good night. The Bills beat the San Francisco 49'ers 45-16 at home while the Sabres took down Connor McDavid and the Edmonton Oilers 6-2 in Edmonton.
A few weeks later on Monday, November 7, the Bills lost a hard fought game in Seattle against the Seahawks while the Sabres were shutout in Boston 4-0.
And, back on November 12, 2015 WNY was happy as they Bills beat the Jets at the Meadowlands 22-17 while the Sabres were in Florida beating the Panthers 3-2.
*****
Word from the morning skate is that Sabres forward Justin Bailey is out with a lower-body injury and that Nicholas Baptiste, who was recently called up, is a game-time decision but probably won't play, according to WGR 550 Radio's Paul Hamilton.
Here's what the lines were reported as by the local media in Arizona:
Kane-Eichel-Pominville
Pouliot-O'Reilly-Okposo
Girgensons-Reinhart-Griffith
Moulson/Baptiste-Larsson-Nolan
*****
We're still trying to figure out how Seth Griffith has held on to a spot in the lineup and playing him on the third line doesn't seem to make much sense.
And for those having flashbacks to the 40 games Derek Grant played for Buffalo last season while beating your head against the nearest wall. You're not alone.
*****
And if you've been beating your head wondering why Matt Tennyson continues to skate second-paring minutes on defense, it doesn't look as if there will be a reprieve either. “With the injuries, we’ve had to rely on the other players," said Housley the other day to the gathered media, "and Matt’s done a terrific job."
Find 'X' on wall. Beat head.
The Sabres recalled Taylor Fedun on Tuesday, but it looks as if he'll be in the pressbox tonight and Buffalo will have Justin Falk back in the lineup after he missed the entire season thus far.
John Vogl of The Buffalo News has these defense pairings going tonight:
Scandella-Ristolainen
McCabe-Tennyson
Falk-Antipin
*****
Robin Lehner looks to be the starter at Arizona.
It's not an annual occurrence by any means, but neither is it rare when the Buffalo Bills and the Buffalo Sabres have games on the same night. The Bills are on national TV with a big game at the Meadowlands in New Jersey against the NY Jets while the Sabres are headed to the desert to take on the Arizona Coyotes.
The Bills are eastbound and truckin' into the Meadowlands with a 5-2 record and playoff aspirations. They have a new regime, a new attitude a tone of new players and a recent addition at wide receiver to hopefully get them to the playoffs for the first time since 1999. Buffalo acquired WR Kelvin Benjamin from the Carolina Panthers on Tuesday with a trade that was right up against the trade deadline's 4 pm end. Most think Benjamin will get a few plays in tonight as the Bills try to get one win closer to a playoff spot.
Both the Bills and the Sabres jettisoned their GM and coach at the end of their respective seasons leaving Western New York sports fans to wonder where this was all headed. In addition to the Bills playoff drought, the Sabres haven't made the playoffs since 2011 and the question remained, which team, the Bills or Sabres, will make the playoffs first.
With the Sabres off to a 3-7-2 start, it looks as if the Bills have the inside track. But then again, it's not how you start but how you finish. The Bills have been there before only to go on second-half swoons that left the fan-base crying "Why, Lord!?"
Tonight the Bills kick things off with an 8:30 pm start while the puck drops in Arizona at 10 pm.
*****
The last time both the Bills and the Sabres appeared in primetime was last October 16 with WNY having a good night. The Bills beat the San Francisco 49'ers 45-16 at home while the Sabres took down Connor McDavid and the Edmonton Oilers 6-2 in Edmonton.
A few weeks later on Monday, November 7, the Bills lost a hard fought game in Seattle against the Seahawks while the Sabres were shutout in Boston 4-0.
And, back on November 12, 2015 WNY was happy as they Bills beat the Jets at the Meadowlands 22-17 while the Sabres were in Florida beating the Panthers 3-2.
*****
Word from the morning skate is that Sabres forward Justin Bailey is out with a lower-body injury and that Nicholas Baptiste, who was recently called up, is a game-time decision but probably won't play, according to WGR 550 Radio's Paul Hamilton.
Here's what the lines were reported as by the local media in Arizona:
Kane-Eichel-Pominville
Pouliot-O'Reilly-Okposo
Girgensons-Reinhart-Griffith
Moulson/Baptiste-Larsson-Nolan
*****
We're still trying to figure out how Seth Griffith has held on to a spot in the lineup and playing him on the third line doesn't seem to make much sense.
And for those having flashbacks to the 40 games Derek Grant played for Buffalo last season while beating your head against the nearest wall. You're not alone.
*****
And if you've been beating your head wondering why Matt Tennyson continues to skate second-paring minutes on defense, it doesn't look as if there will be a reprieve either. “With the injuries, we’ve had to rely on the other players," said Housley the other day to the gathered media, "and Matt’s done a terrific job."
Find 'X' on wall. Beat head.
The Sabres recalled Taylor Fedun on Tuesday, but it looks as if he'll be in the pressbox tonight and Buffalo will have Justin Falk back in the lineup after he missed the entire season thus far.
John Vogl of The Buffalo News has these defense pairings going tonight:
Scandella-Ristolainen
McCabe-Tennyson
Falk-Antipin
*****
Robin Lehner looks to be the starter at Arizona.
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