Published by hockeybuzz.com, 12-16-2016
Having only one game in six night will have Buffalo fans doing weird things like trying to figure out what the Buffalo Bills would or should do with their football team which is never a good thing. For 16 years it's been the great mystery as to what the team will do. Blow it up? Save the coach? Save the GM? Save both?
Groundhog day. And all we're really left with is a big pile of rubber pellets and a headache.
Or we'll find forums filled with questions as to why the Florida Panthers went all-analytical with their hockey department after a hockey guy lead got the team to 103 points and an Atlantic Division crown last season. Florida team president Dale Tallon built most of the 2010 Stanley Cup-winning Chicago Blackhawks and even has his name on the Cup as a gesture of gratitude after being cast off into a senior advisor role with the club. He came to the Panthers organization in May, 2010 and proceeded to work magic with a club that hadn't been to the playoffs since the turn of the century. After a full rebuild and two playoff appearances in five seasons, it was with gratitude that he was shoved up to his role while analytics geeks took the reigns and began to turn the team into the floundering piece of mediocrity we now see.
But, alas. It's game-night with Buffalo taking on the NY Islanders tonight at KeyBank Center.
The Sabres have been having their own problems this season centering around injuries and scoring ineptitude which go hand-in-hand.
Do y'all remember the game against the Tampa Bay Lightning back in November featuring AHL'ers Will Carrier, Nick Baptiste, Evan Rodrigues, Taylor Fedun and Justin Falk replacing Jack Eichel, Ryan O'Reilly, Tyler Ennis, Zach Bogosian and Dmitry Kulikov? Of course not as it was one of many games to forget in the first half of that month. It was the fifth time in nine games Buffalo scored one or less goals, the third game in a row they gave up four goals and it was the first time all season that a defenseman scored a goal for Buffalo.
No need to fully rehash that portion of the season but it was brutal to watch and even worse to talk about.
A sliver of light came through the darkness, however, as the Sabres managed a 2-1 shootout win over the defending Cup Champion Pittsburgh Penguins and through the rest of the month they hung on while the walking wounded slowly returned to the ice. First O'Reilly, then Eichel and as the month turned to December, Buffalo got Kulikov back and Josh Gorges returned after missing a few games with a broken foot. Bogosian and Fedun are ready to return which would give the Sabres their most complete lineup of the season.
What's not so good for the fans has been a God-send for Buffalo as five days off with only one game between allowed for plenty of practice and an opportunity for the players to get to know each other once again. Head coach Dan Bylsma worked on compete earlier this week and the team came away with 6-3 win over the LA Kings. According to reports compete-drills were at the fore again so we'll see if it carries over.
The Sabres play their next five games in eight nights and have an opportunity to make some headway in both the Atlantic Division and Eastern Conference if they can get things rolling. The Western Conference did them a huge favor last night as every division or conference foe within the Sabres'
sights either lost in regulation or the extra session.
Within the division the Boston Bruins lost in regulation and remain seven points ahead of Buffalo but the Sabres have four games in hand. The aforementioned Panthers lost at Winnipeg in the shootout last night and since the analytics regime fired hockey head coach Gerard Gallant, the team is 2-3-4 and only three points ahead of the Sabres having played three more games. Detroit lost last night and are two points ahead having played three more games and the Toronto Maple Leafs moved one point ahead of Buffalo after their fifth shootout loss. The Sabres will make up their one game in hand over Toronto tonight.
The cool part about the 6-3 win over the Kings, other than the desperately needed two points, is that the team stayed out of the box. In fact both teams did which allowed the Sabres to even out ice-time. "Without the special teams - we had one power play and no penalty kills - we really rolled four lines for a big part of that game," Bylsma told the gathered media post-practice yesterday. "That's really kind of how we want to play."
Bylsma's only rocking one line right now but he may have found some pairings up-front in O'Reilly with Sam Reinhart while Kyle Okposo worked extremely well with Eichel. Evander Kane and Matt Moulson did some first line/fourth swapping while Carrier stuck mostly on the top line.
With the defense returning to health Bylsma will have a bit of a conundrum as they'll be overloaded. But it won't happen tonight as both Bogosian and Fedun aren't quite ready to return.
According to Jourdan LaBarber of sabres.com the projected lineup tonight:
Carrier-ROR-Reinhart
Moulson-Eichel-Okposo
Foligno-Larsson-Gionta
Deslauriers-Girgensons-Kane
McCabe-Ristolainen
Kulikov-Gorges
Falk-Franson
Robin Lehner gets the nod in net.
In a somewhat of a departure from the "one game at a time" approach most coaches tout, Bylsma pointed directly to the importance of this stretch of games. "After the loss to Washington, we really looked at these six games before the break for us to really bear down and focus here," he said yesterday. "I think that's really why the LA win is a real big win for this group and one we want to keep going here. Yes, you can look at our opponents - Carolina twice and the New York Islanders twice - but it's just a stretch of time I the season where we really have to bear down and try and get some wins here and go on a roll."
Buffalo has had only one three-game winning streak this season. There are four teams in the Metropolitan Division who are presently on a streak better than that--Philadelphia, 10 games; Pittsburgh and Columbus, 7 each; Washington, 5.
Time to get things rolling. At least the Sabres are almost healthy.
Saturday, December 17, 2016
Friday, December 16, 2016
Nicolas Baptiste serving notice
Published by hockeybuzz.com, 12-15-2016
A month ago forward Nick Baptiste was being sent down to the Rochester Americans after his first NHL stint with the Buffalo Sabres. A 69th-overall pick in the 2013 NHL Draft, Baptiste was entering his second pro season and had played in 12 games for the Sabres scoring his first two NHL goals while averaging 8:45 of ice-time per game with the big club.
Baptiste was sent to Rochester on the morning of November 13 and proceeded to score a pair of goals against the Springfield Falcons that afternoon. He has played in 13 games for the Amerks since being sent down and has lit the lamp for 11 goals total topped off by a hat trick last night against the rival Toronto Marlies. Baptiste actually scored four goals last night, but one of the goals was disallowed for some reason.
From Maple Leafs hotstove (since the Rochester Democrat and Chronicle decided to lay off beat writer Kevin Oklobzija and "staff reports" offer bare-minimum coverage,) "It looked for all the world as though the Amerks had scored a third goal after a terrific shot (by Baptiste) above [Kari] Ramo’s right shoulder. Immediately waived off by the officials, the home team and crowd were infuriated. A review was asked for, but it seemed pointless; it was clear to everyone watching that the puck had crossed the line. Why the goal wasn’t allowed remains a mystery."
Baptiste, however, did cap his night off with an empty-netter for the hatty and in doing so should have really caught the eyes of Sabres GM Tim Murray and head coach Dan Bylsma.
Murray has always known what the 6'1" 205 lb. Ottawa, Ontario native had to offer. That's why the new GM of the Buffalo Sabres didn't waste any time in signing a third-round pick of the former regime to his entry-level contract in May, 2014 while he still had a year left of junior eligibility. Baptiste has the heft to be able to play a rugged game and get into the dirty areas to score goals while he also has an array of shots that allow him to score in different ways from all areas of the ice as his first two NHL goals will attest to.
In only his second NHL game at Vancouver back in October, Baptiste followed his own shot on goal and barreled to the net outmuscling a Canuck to the puck along the goal line. He sent a pass to the crease where Nicolas Deslauriers was in a battle but the puck pin-balled into the net off of a couple of 'Nucks players. Deslauriers was credited with the goal until well after the game when it was determined that the last Sabres player to touch the puck was actually Baptiste. His second NHL goal came off of a quick feed around the face off dot as he wasted no time in snapping the puck low, far-side.
Baptiste is a Murray hybrid in that not only does he have the size to be one of the "heavies" the GM was attracted to when he took the job in Buffalo, but he also has speed. "You see it all over," said Bylsma as he talked about the speed of the NHL and how the recently called-up Baptiste fits in. "You see it from young kids that are bringing it, providing it, and Nick is of that ilk. He has that speed, that power to his game and with the strong preseason that he's had he has a chance to do it here with us."
The Sabres have been playing well as late, even prior to Jack Eichel's return. Beginning with a 2-1 shootout win over the Pittsburgh Penguins, which was four games prior to Eichel coming back, Buffalo is 6-3-2. Rookie William Carrier got his first NHL goal in that Pittsburgh game and although he's been playing very well, with plenty of top-line minutes as of late, he's only managed one assist in his last 10 games.
It's hard to see management messing with a lineup that looks as if it's beginning to gel a bit, but Baptiste is serving notice that he's ready to graduate to the big club.
If his past is any indication, playing a top-six role with highly skilled players around him brings out his skill as well. In junior he was with the Erie Otters featuring the likes of Connor McDavid, Dylan Strome and Alex DeBrincat, all 100 pt. scorers. Baptiste had scored 26 goals and added 27 assists in 41 games after the trade to Erie. He was put in a scoring role this season in Rochester playing alongside the Amerks leading scorers in Cal O'Reilly and Cole Schneider and Baptiste has responded well. Including his latest hot streak Baptiste has 18 points (14g+4a) in 18 games good for third on the team.
Although opportunity may not knock soon, Baptiste is showing he'll be ready for it when it happens. In the mean time, he and Justin Bailey can continue with their kids cooking show which will surely be a hit this holiday season.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IFdta5759e4
A month ago forward Nick Baptiste was being sent down to the Rochester Americans after his first NHL stint with the Buffalo Sabres. A 69th-overall pick in the 2013 NHL Draft, Baptiste was entering his second pro season and had played in 12 games for the Sabres scoring his first two NHL goals while averaging 8:45 of ice-time per game with the big club.
Baptiste was sent to Rochester on the morning of November 13 and proceeded to score a pair of goals against the Springfield Falcons that afternoon. He has played in 13 games for the Amerks since being sent down and has lit the lamp for 11 goals total topped off by a hat trick last night against the rival Toronto Marlies. Baptiste actually scored four goals last night, but one of the goals was disallowed for some reason.
From Maple Leafs hotstove (since the Rochester Democrat and Chronicle decided to lay off beat writer Kevin Oklobzija and "staff reports" offer bare-minimum coverage,) "It looked for all the world as though the Amerks had scored a third goal after a terrific shot (by Baptiste) above [Kari] Ramo’s right shoulder. Immediately waived off by the officials, the home team and crowd were infuriated. A review was asked for, but it seemed pointless; it was clear to everyone watching that the puck had crossed the line. Why the goal wasn’t allowed remains a mystery."
Baptiste, however, did cap his night off with an empty-netter for the hatty and in doing so should have really caught the eyes of Sabres GM Tim Murray and head coach Dan Bylsma.
Murray has always known what the 6'1" 205 lb. Ottawa, Ontario native had to offer. That's why the new GM of the Buffalo Sabres didn't waste any time in signing a third-round pick of the former regime to his entry-level contract in May, 2014 while he still had a year left of junior eligibility. Baptiste has the heft to be able to play a rugged game and get into the dirty areas to score goals while he also has an array of shots that allow him to score in different ways from all areas of the ice as his first two NHL goals will attest to.
In only his second NHL game at Vancouver back in October, Baptiste followed his own shot on goal and barreled to the net outmuscling a Canuck to the puck along the goal line. He sent a pass to the crease where Nicolas Deslauriers was in a battle but the puck pin-balled into the net off of a couple of 'Nucks players. Deslauriers was credited with the goal until well after the game when it was determined that the last Sabres player to touch the puck was actually Baptiste. His second NHL goal came off of a quick feed around the face off dot as he wasted no time in snapping the puck low, far-side.
Baptiste is a Murray hybrid in that not only does he have the size to be one of the "heavies" the GM was attracted to when he took the job in Buffalo, but he also has speed. "You see it all over," said Bylsma as he talked about the speed of the NHL and how the recently called-up Baptiste fits in. "You see it from young kids that are bringing it, providing it, and Nick is of that ilk. He has that speed, that power to his game and with the strong preseason that he's had he has a chance to do it here with us."
The Sabres have been playing well as late, even prior to Jack Eichel's return. Beginning with a 2-1 shootout win over the Pittsburgh Penguins, which was four games prior to Eichel coming back, Buffalo is 6-3-2. Rookie William Carrier got his first NHL goal in that Pittsburgh game and although he's been playing very well, with plenty of top-line minutes as of late, he's only managed one assist in his last 10 games.
It's hard to see management messing with a lineup that looks as if it's beginning to gel a bit, but Baptiste is serving notice that he's ready to graduate to the big club.
If his past is any indication, playing a top-six role with highly skilled players around him brings out his skill as well. In junior he was with the Erie Otters featuring the likes of Connor McDavid, Dylan Strome and Alex DeBrincat, all 100 pt. scorers. Baptiste had scored 26 goals and added 27 assists in 41 games after the trade to Erie. He was put in a scoring role this season in Rochester playing alongside the Amerks leading scorers in Cal O'Reilly and Cole Schneider and Baptiste has responded well. Including his latest hot streak Baptiste has 18 points (14g+4a) in 18 games good for third on the team.
Although opportunity may not knock soon, Baptiste is showing he'll be ready for it when it happens. In the mean time, he and Justin Bailey can continue with their kids cooking show which will surely be a hit this holiday season.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IFdta5759e4
Thursday, December 15, 2016
6-3 win over the LA Kings has Lehner saying, "Thank you boys."
Published by hockeybuzz.com, 12-14-2016
Sabres starting goalie Robin Lehner got a taste of what it's been like for back-up Anders Nilsson as of late. While Lehner was trying to keep things tight as the team in front of him was busy scoring 14 goals in his last 10 games, Nilsson was living the high life as the team in front of him was scoring 12 goals for him in his last four appearances. The end result was a 1-6-3 record for Lehner and a 3-1-0 record for Nilsson.
There must have been a strong sense of deja vu for Lehner last night as Buffalo found themselves down 2-0 in the second period. It was looking like a game that we'd seen so many times this year, especially with Lehner in goal. The Sabres would fall behind then work their way back to come within a goal, which was what happened when Ryan O'Reilly roofed a smokin' backhander to make it 2-1 last night, but ultimately they wouldn't be able to muster another and the final score would end up being 2-1, 3-1, or even 4-1 which happened a few times.
That was the November Sabres when injuries decimated the club with one in particular taking away everything this team was built upon.
When Jack Eichel was out, open ice was hard to come by but since his return the Sabres have been buzzing. In the seven games since his return to the lineup, the Sabres have had only two poor performances--a 2-1 loss vs. the Boston Bruins and a 4-1 loss vs. the Washington Capitals. In the other five games Buffalo's offense kicked in gear to the tune of 21 goals. During those five games they had a two-goal game only once and lost to Washington in overtime. In the other four games they won by scoring 5, 4, 4, and 6 goals.
The calendar reads December, not November, and after a ticked off O'Reilly willed that first goal, the flood gates really opened when Eichel surprised LA's Peter Budaj with a quick ice-level wrister that found the corner of the net to tie the score at 2-2. Twelve seconds later defenseman Justin Falk's shot from the point banked in off of Brian Gionta's leg and less than two minutes after that Eichel worked his way to the high slot where he sent a rocket past the Kings Jeff Zatkoff to make it 4-2 Buffalo in an explosion of goals.
Post-game Lehner was asked what it was like to finally hear the goal-horn, "It was nice," he told the gathered media, "it was fun. Jack [Eichel], Ryan [O'Reilly] and a lot of the guys stepped up and bailed me out a little bit. It was very nice the guys came up with some tonight."
The Kings got back in it with a goal that Lehner admitted he wanted back but Eichel set up Evander Kane to restore their two-goal cushion and Sam Reinhart added a rare empty-netter for the 6-3 final score.
Those of us in Sabreland who were slumped in our Lazy-boys with that sinking feeling may have felt a little bit different after watching the Sabres take over the game. Lehner wasn't perfect by any means but both he and Nilsson should now know that they don't need to be in order for this team, with Eichel and a full compliment of forwards, to win.
***
When Sabres GM Tim Murray took over the Buffalo Sabres in January, 2014, the Kings were on their way to their second Stanley Cup in three seasons with a Western Conference Final appearance in between. The formula centered around big, gritty players that could skate. The conference was rough and tumble as veritable trees skated up and down the ice knocking each other around. Chicago was the outlier as the Blackhawks boasted tremendous speed and skill but in order to get to their two Stanley Cups they had to maneuver themselves around the heavyweights that teams like the Kings, San Jose Sharks and St. Louis Blues were loaded with.
Murray was tapping into that western conference philosophy when he made a trade with the Kings to bring in "heavies," as he called them. He sent big defenseman Brayden McNabb along with two second rounders (both picks originally held by LA) to the Kings for 6'1" 230 lb. Nicolas Deslauriers and 6'2" 217 lb. Minnesota Golden Gopher freshman Hudson Fasching.
Times change quickly in the NHL and only two years after the Kings second Cup-win, the speed-demon Pittsburgh Penguins won the Cup in 2016.
Murray and his scouts altered their original plan somewhat by leaning much more towards the speed part of the equation. The Sabres still have some heft but they also have a lot of speed and skill when the forward group is healthy. Eichel is one of the fastest players in the league, Kyle Okposo, who had three assists and was a plus-three last night, is a very good skater with shifty moves while both Evander Kane and William Carrier have intense north/south speed and the tenacity to make a difference.
Last night's game was similar to a western conference heavyweight bout as both teams were laying the body on each other. Both the Kings and the Sabres were credited with 35 hits in the game and although the aggression they showed each other only beget one fight, tensions were high.
Since Eichel's return the Sabres have been able to skate with the Ottawa Senators, NY Rangers and Edmonton Oilers and come away with wins. Last night they beat the Kings at their own game.
It's a big step forward for the club.
***
Some may put an asterisk next to the win over LA last night as the Kings starting goalie, and two-time Cup-winner, Jonathan Quick., but the Sabres have been having troubles no matter who's been in net for the opposition. As we've seen many times the Sabres have often made a back-up look like a top-10 goalie.
Not so last night, although Eichel's first goal was a softie.
The Kings' Peter Budaj has been respectable in net with a 2.27 goals-against average and a .907 save percentage but the Sabres tortured him.
Jeff Zatkoff, the back-up to back-up Budaj, has not been very good, however. He has a 3.20 GAA and .882 Sv%. Last night he relieved Budaj with the score 3-2, allowed one goal against on three shots last and was quickly yanked by head coach Darryl Sutter. The fourth goal Zatkoff gave up proved to be the winner and he was saddled with the loss in only 6:12 of ice-time.
Zatkoff, as those of us in Sabreland remember, came to a verbal agreement with Buffalo before reneging and signing with the Kings which is a pretty legit move for him hockey-wise, save for backing out of the agreement. The Kings are a perennial powerhouse in the west and how can you argue with living in Los Angeles.
But it had to be very satisfying for Murray and the Sabres to convincingly come out on top in this won. And for a little cherry on the sundae, to have their franchise center in Eichel smoke a wrister past Zatkoff for the eventual game-winner.
***
Other quick notes:
--How many times do you think Sutter told his charges not to let Eichel into the slot with open ice. It happened and the 19 yr. old Eichel potted his fifth goal in only seven games this season. His assist on Kane's goal late in the third period was his third giving him eight points total.
--The line of Eichel, Kane and Okposo was a formidable one last night but they couldn't hit the scoresheet. Bylsma switched things up by switching Kane and Matt Moulson, who was on the fourth line. Moulson got on the scoresheet with the secondary assist on both Eichel goals. They were Moulson's first two 5v5 assists of the season.
--By the looks of it, Kane wasn't very happy with the switch. His north/south game was in overdrive last night and when he was dropped to the fourth line there was a notable difference. And when he scored Buffalo's fifth goal from the crease, he stood there with an angry, "in your face" reaction. Although it may not have been directed at Bylsma, it sure seemed like it.
--The aforementioned McNabb did not play for the Kings last night as the defenseman is still recovering from a broken collar bone suffered in an October 29 game against the Blues.
Sabres starting goalie Robin Lehner got a taste of what it's been like for back-up Anders Nilsson as of late. While Lehner was trying to keep things tight as the team in front of him was busy scoring 14 goals in his last 10 games, Nilsson was living the high life as the team in front of him was scoring 12 goals for him in his last four appearances. The end result was a 1-6-3 record for Lehner and a 3-1-0 record for Nilsson.
There must have been a strong sense of deja vu for Lehner last night as Buffalo found themselves down 2-0 in the second period. It was looking like a game that we'd seen so many times this year, especially with Lehner in goal. The Sabres would fall behind then work their way back to come within a goal, which was what happened when Ryan O'Reilly roofed a smokin' backhander to make it 2-1 last night, but ultimately they wouldn't be able to muster another and the final score would end up being 2-1, 3-1, or even 4-1 which happened a few times.
That was the November Sabres when injuries decimated the club with one in particular taking away everything this team was built upon.
When Jack Eichel was out, open ice was hard to come by but since his return the Sabres have been buzzing. In the seven games since his return to the lineup, the Sabres have had only two poor performances--a 2-1 loss vs. the Boston Bruins and a 4-1 loss vs. the Washington Capitals. In the other five games Buffalo's offense kicked in gear to the tune of 21 goals. During those five games they had a two-goal game only once and lost to Washington in overtime. In the other four games they won by scoring 5, 4, 4, and 6 goals.
The calendar reads December, not November, and after a ticked off O'Reilly willed that first goal, the flood gates really opened when Eichel surprised LA's Peter Budaj with a quick ice-level wrister that found the corner of the net to tie the score at 2-2. Twelve seconds later defenseman Justin Falk's shot from the point banked in off of Brian Gionta's leg and less than two minutes after that Eichel worked his way to the high slot where he sent a rocket past the Kings Jeff Zatkoff to make it 4-2 Buffalo in an explosion of goals.
Post-game Lehner was asked what it was like to finally hear the goal-horn, "It was nice," he told the gathered media, "it was fun. Jack [Eichel], Ryan [O'Reilly] and a lot of the guys stepped up and bailed me out a little bit. It was very nice the guys came up with some tonight."
The Kings got back in it with a goal that Lehner admitted he wanted back but Eichel set up Evander Kane to restore their two-goal cushion and Sam Reinhart added a rare empty-netter for the 6-3 final score.
Those of us in Sabreland who were slumped in our Lazy-boys with that sinking feeling may have felt a little bit different after watching the Sabres take over the game. Lehner wasn't perfect by any means but both he and Nilsson should now know that they don't need to be in order for this team, with Eichel and a full compliment of forwards, to win.
***
When Sabres GM Tim Murray took over the Buffalo Sabres in January, 2014, the Kings were on their way to their second Stanley Cup in three seasons with a Western Conference Final appearance in between. The formula centered around big, gritty players that could skate. The conference was rough and tumble as veritable trees skated up and down the ice knocking each other around. Chicago was the outlier as the Blackhawks boasted tremendous speed and skill but in order to get to their two Stanley Cups they had to maneuver themselves around the heavyweights that teams like the Kings, San Jose Sharks and St. Louis Blues were loaded with.
Murray was tapping into that western conference philosophy when he made a trade with the Kings to bring in "heavies," as he called them. He sent big defenseman Brayden McNabb along with two second rounders (both picks originally held by LA) to the Kings for 6'1" 230 lb. Nicolas Deslauriers and 6'2" 217 lb. Minnesota Golden Gopher freshman Hudson Fasching.
Times change quickly in the NHL and only two years after the Kings second Cup-win, the speed-demon Pittsburgh Penguins won the Cup in 2016.
Murray and his scouts altered their original plan somewhat by leaning much more towards the speed part of the equation. The Sabres still have some heft but they also have a lot of speed and skill when the forward group is healthy. Eichel is one of the fastest players in the league, Kyle Okposo, who had three assists and was a plus-three last night, is a very good skater with shifty moves while both Evander Kane and William Carrier have intense north/south speed and the tenacity to make a difference.
Last night's game was similar to a western conference heavyweight bout as both teams were laying the body on each other. Both the Kings and the Sabres were credited with 35 hits in the game and although the aggression they showed each other only beget one fight, tensions were high.
Since Eichel's return the Sabres have been able to skate with the Ottawa Senators, NY Rangers and Edmonton Oilers and come away with wins. Last night they beat the Kings at their own game.
It's a big step forward for the club.
***
Some may put an asterisk next to the win over LA last night as the Kings starting goalie, and two-time Cup-winner, Jonathan Quick., but the Sabres have been having troubles no matter who's been in net for the opposition. As we've seen many times the Sabres have often made a back-up look like a top-10 goalie.
Not so last night, although Eichel's first goal was a softie.
The Kings' Peter Budaj has been respectable in net with a 2.27 goals-against average and a .907 save percentage but the Sabres tortured him.
Jeff Zatkoff, the back-up to back-up Budaj, has not been very good, however. He has a 3.20 GAA and .882 Sv%. Last night he relieved Budaj with the score 3-2, allowed one goal against on three shots last and was quickly yanked by head coach Darryl Sutter. The fourth goal Zatkoff gave up proved to be the winner and he was saddled with the loss in only 6:12 of ice-time.
Zatkoff, as those of us in Sabreland remember, came to a verbal agreement with Buffalo before reneging and signing with the Kings which is a pretty legit move for him hockey-wise, save for backing out of the agreement. The Kings are a perennial powerhouse in the west and how can you argue with living in Los Angeles.
But it had to be very satisfying for Murray and the Sabres to convincingly come out on top in this won. And for a little cherry on the sundae, to have their franchise center in Eichel smoke a wrister past Zatkoff for the eventual game-winner.
***
Other quick notes:
--How many times do you think Sutter told his charges not to let Eichel into the slot with open ice. It happened and the 19 yr. old Eichel potted his fifth goal in only seven games this season. His assist on Kane's goal late in the third period was his third giving him eight points total.
--The line of Eichel, Kane and Okposo was a formidable one last night but they couldn't hit the scoresheet. Bylsma switched things up by switching Kane and Matt Moulson, who was on the fourth line. Moulson got on the scoresheet with the secondary assist on both Eichel goals. They were Moulson's first two 5v5 assists of the season.
--By the looks of it, Kane wasn't very happy with the switch. His north/south game was in overdrive last night and when he was dropped to the fourth line there was a notable difference. And when he scored Buffalo's fifth goal from the crease, he stood there with an angry, "in your face" reaction. Although it may not have been directed at Bylsma, it sure seemed like it.
--The aforementioned McNabb did not play for the Kings last night as the defenseman is still recovering from a broken collar bone suffered in an October 29 game against the Blues.
Wednesday, December 14, 2016
Bylsma addressing compete and the Sabres will need it going forward
Published by hockeybuzz.com, 12-13-2016
The Buffalo Sarbes got themselves some time between games and head coach Dan Bylsma put it to good use with compete drills and an intense 20 minute 5v5 drill at Sunday morning’s practice. Afterwards he told the gathered media, “That last 20 minutes was how we need to play an you’re going to see more of that drill from us in practice and hopefully see it in the game.”
The Sabres were coming off of a particularly dreadful performance against the Washington Capitals at home on Friday where the only thing worse that the 4-1 score was the compete-level. In the prior matchup against Washington earlier in the week Buffalo hounded the Caps for a good portion of the game and were driving the net hard in a committed effort to get to the dirty areas of the ice. The Sabres ended up losing in overtime after blowing a third period lead but it was an effort that usually produces wins more times than not. An effort like they had on Friday is the type that will ensure they end up at the bottom of the league.
In addition to the compete drills, Bylsma has the NHL standings posted in the dressing room and right now the Sabres are last in the division, last in the conference and near the bottom of the league resting in 27th place. Bylsma said that he doesn’t want to “over-obsess” about their place while also saying that he wanted his players “to have a good idea where we’re at and where we need to go.”
It’s not a pretty picture at this juncture as the Sabres are eight points behind the Boston Bruins for third place in the Atlantic Division, albeit with three games in hand. And as Mike Harrington of the Buffalo News pointed out, “the top five teams in the Metropolitan Division—NY Rangers, Pittsburgh, Philadelphia, Columbus and Washington—combined to go 17-1 last week and are 29-7-3 since December 3.” Washington, whomBuffalo
There’s still a lot of time left in the season as we’re less than a third of the way through it, but any run should start immediately and relatively speaking, it already has.
The Sabres have already been on a bit of a run compared to their struggles through October and nearly all of November. Those struggles happened to coincide with an overflowing MASH unit which included Jack Eichel the entire time along with forwards Evander Kane, Ryan O’Reilly plus defensemen Zach Bogosian, Dmitry Kulikov and Josh Gorges intermittingly joining him on the injured list. Prior to Eichel’s return the team went 7-9-5 but since coming back from his high-ankle sprain the Sabres are 3-2-1. Not an impeccable record by any stretch, but solid and pointing in the right direction none-the-less.
The biggest factor inBuffalo Buffalo Washington
Lack of goal scoring has been killing the team and more specifically, goalie Robin Lehner who’s been playing well but has gotten little goal support. It’s a situation we see often in baseball where a starting pitcher has a lower ERA but lack of run support has his record in the dumps. Lehner hasn’t been the second coming of Martin Brodeur but his .914 Sv% and 2.66 GAA has left him with a 1-6-3 record over his last 10 games as John Vogl of the Buffalo News pointed out. He also points out that Lehner has twice lost in overtime after allowing only one goal in regulation and he also lost after giving up only one goal toBoston
In direct contrast to that, backup goalie Anders Nilsson has allowed three goals per game over his last four with a save percentage that peaked at .919 and he’s 3-1-1. Sometimes that’s just the way it goes.
According to Jourdon LaBarber the Sabres defense-pairings look like this:
Jake McCabe/Rasmus Ristolainen
Dmitry Kulikov/Cody Franson
Josh Gorges/Justin Falk
***
Buffalo
The Sabres finished last season with 81 points and Bylsma put up 95 points as a stated mark. That 14 point difference equals just over two points per month and right now they’re only ahead one point on the year. If they can duplicate the six-game stretch upon Eichel’s return, they’ll add seven points which is good, but still not good enough.
That’s the hole they’re in right now.
Beginning with LA at home tonight the remaining games before Christmas are: vs NYI, @ CAR, @FLA, vs. CAR, @ NYI.
It’s not an extremely difficult schedule, but if the Sabres don’t up the compete, and pull off at least a 3-2-1 record, the hole they’re in gets a little deeper.
The Buffalo Sarbes got themselves some time between games and head coach Dan Bylsma put it to good use with compete drills and an intense 20 minute 5v5 drill at Sunday morning’s practice. Afterwards he told the gathered media, “That last 20 minutes was how we need to play an you’re going to see more of that drill from us in practice and hopefully see it in the game.”
The Sabres were coming off of a particularly dreadful performance against the Washington Capitals at home on Friday where the only thing worse that the 4-1 score was the compete-level. In the prior matchup against Washington earlier in the week Buffalo hounded the Caps for a good portion of the game and were driving the net hard in a committed effort to get to the dirty areas of the ice. The Sabres ended up losing in overtime after blowing a third period lead but it was an effort that usually produces wins more times than not. An effort like they had on Friday is the type that will ensure they end up at the bottom of the league.
In addition to the compete drills, Bylsma has the NHL standings posted in the dressing room and right now the Sabres are last in the division, last in the conference and near the bottom of the league resting in 27th place. Bylsma said that he doesn’t want to “over-obsess” about their place while also saying that he wanted his players “to have a good idea where we’re at and where we need to go.”
It’s not a pretty picture at this juncture as the Sabres are eight points behind the Boston Bruins for third place in the Atlantic Division, albeit with three games in hand. And as Mike Harrington of the Buffalo News pointed out, “the top five teams in the Metropolitan Division—NY Rangers, Pittsburgh, Philadelphia, Columbus and Washington—combined to go 17-1 last week and are 29-7-3 since December 3.” Washington, whom
There’s still a lot of time left in the season as we’re less than a third of the way through it, but any run should start immediately and relatively speaking, it already has.
The Sabres have already been on a bit of a run compared to their struggles through October and nearly all of November. Those struggles happened to coincide with an overflowing MASH unit which included Jack Eichel the entire time along with forwards Evander Kane, Ryan O’Reilly plus defensemen Zach Bogosian, Dmitry Kulikov and Josh Gorges intermittingly joining him on the injured list. Prior to Eichel’s return the team went 7-9-5 but since coming back from his high-ankle sprain the Sabres are 3-2-1. Not an impeccable record by any stretch, but solid and pointing in the right direction none-the-less.
The biggest factor in
Lack of goal scoring has been killing the team and more specifically, goalie Robin Lehner who’s been playing well but has gotten little goal support. It’s a situation we see often in baseball where a starting pitcher has a lower ERA but lack of run support has his record in the dumps. Lehner hasn’t been the second coming of Martin Brodeur but his .914 Sv% and 2.66 GAA has left him with a 1-6-3 record over his last 10 games as John Vogl of the Buffalo News pointed out. He also points out that Lehner has twice lost in overtime after allowing only one goal in regulation and he also lost after giving up only one goal to
In direct contrast to that, backup goalie Anders Nilsson has allowed three goals per game over his last four with a save percentage that peaked at .919 and he’s 3-1-1. Sometimes that’s just the way it goes.
According to Jourdon LaBarber the Sabres defense-pairings look like this:
Jake McCabe/Rasmus Ristolainen
Dmitry Kulikov/Cody Franson
Josh Gorges/Justin Falk
The Sabres head into tonight’s matchup with the LA Kings
sporting a 10-11-6 record good for 26 points through 27 games. Last year at
this juncture they were 11-13-3 good for 25 points.
The Sabres finished last season with 81 points and Bylsma put up 95 points as a stated mark. That 14 point difference equals just over two points per month and right now they’re only ahead one point on the year. If they can duplicate the six-game stretch upon Eichel’s return, they’ll add seven points which is good, but still not good enough.
That’s the hole they’re in right now.
Beginning with LA at home tonight the remaining games before Christmas are: vs NYI, @ CAR, @FLA, vs. CAR, @ NYI.
It’s not an extremely difficult schedule, but if the Sabres don’t up the compete, and pull off at least a 3-2-1 record, the hole they’re in gets a little deeper.
Tuesday, December 13, 2016
Dear Uncle Terry, please keep Russ Brandon away from hockey ops
Buffalo Bills fans are having yet another Groundhog Day Monday morning today. It's December, their beloved football team is effectively out of the playoffs and their hitting the various draft sites seeing who the Bills should pick with yet another middle-round draft pick. It's like clockwork. The season begins with hope, somewhere within the first handful of games a Jekyll and Hyde Bills team shows extreme promise and laughable ineptitude, things fall apart, they're "In the hunt" for a playoff spot in November and then the inevitable hits.
It's been going on for 17 years.
At the conclusion of this season, probably as soon as next week, the Buffalo Bills for the 17th consecutive season will miss the playoffs. It's the longest playoff drought in the four major North American sport.
The Bills have tried everything since 1999 to try and get it right. They're on their sixth GM, eighth head coach and have had a total of 16 quarterbacks play in a game since they last made the playoffs. They've tried it all and nothing has worked and throughout it all there have been only two constants--nearly unwavering support from Bills Nation, and Team President Russ Brandon.
"Russ Brandon, the team's managing partner and president, has been with the Bills 20 years and has been involved in football decisions the past nine years," writes Tim Graham of the Buffalo News this morning. "Since he became general manager in 2008, although his official bio in the Bills' media guide suspiciously omits any reference to him being GM, the Bills' record is 58-83."
Brandon "was appointed Chief Operating Officer of the Buffalo Bills on January 8, 2008 with the responsibility of overseeing the day-to-day operations of the organization, which includes Football and Business Operations" according to Buffalo Bills.com. Although he hired Buddy Nix as GM in 2010 then promoted the Bills present GM Doug Whaley to that spot in 2013. According to Graham "Brandon supposedly stopped having input on 'football decisions' after [Kim and Terry] Pegula bought the Bills. There are, however, myriad references to the contrary."
Graham quotes Terry Pegula as saying Brandon advised after interviewing Rex Ryan for the head coaching spot, "Don't let him out of the building," points to a Sports Illustrated story where Brandon gave Ryan tips on schmoozing Pegula and also states that Brandon is in on every Monday morning football call.
Since Brandon took the reigns in 2008 the Bills have finished with a record above .500 once at 9-7 and only because the New England Patriots were resting in the final game of the season to prepare for an eventual Super Bowl run.
Yet on July 27, 2015 Pegula Sports and Entertainment, the umbrella organization for the Pegulas, named Brandon Team President and Alternate Governor of the Buffalo Sabres. The statement from the Pegulas read like this:
"Since we purchased the Buffalo Bills last October, we have been highly impressed with the business acumen that Russ has shown with the Bills.
"Now is an appropriate time to give him additional responsibilities with the Sabres. Russ will work with Pegula Sports & Entertainment to create strong synergies between the Sabres and Bills. With Russ' strong ties to the area business community and sponsorship partners, he will effectively position both organizations for future growth."
Brandon's business acumen with the Bills rivals that of baseball's Chicago Cubs who filled the stands annually despite being the most lovable losers of the four major North American sports. For years Brandon worked his business magic selling hope at the beginning of the season and a promise of a better future at the end to keep Buffalo's Orchard Park stadium filled. And that's all well and good from the business side of the equation but his average at best track record as the head of the football department reveals a glaring hole in the football operations.
NFL owners have a veritable ATM when it comes to their team. Revenue streams are such that spending to the cap ceiling won't even come close to putting a team in the red. It's pretty easy to throw money around but the difficult parts are finding the right players to pay big money to and finding the right GM and coaches to get the most out of the team. Brandon has proven incapable of getting the football operations past mediocrity.
The NHL is a much different game. Outside of the big television markets, much of team's revenue comes from ticket sales and merchandising (although a recent 10-year, $2 billion television contract.) The Sabres and their fans have witnessed the small-market conundrum for years.
From 2003, when the league was running the team until 2011 when Terry Pegula bought them, the Sabres had only two seasons where they could hang with the big boys on an leveled playing field. After the 2004-05 lockout the NHL imposed a salary cap and brought about revenue sharing that allowed teams like the Buffalo to make a competitive run. Three of the final four teams that first season were the small-market Buffalo Sabres, Carolina Hurricanes and Edmonton Oilers. The fourth Anaheim, a team in a big market with little attention paid to them.
The NHL's salary cap kept things in check for the 2006-07 season but after that the big boys started taking over again as the salary cap increased. The owner at the time was Tom Golisano (along with managing partner Larry Quinn) and he was said to be ready to sell as early as 2007. From 2007 to 2011 the Sabres were on a strict budget with the mandate of "just break even" as Golisano looked for an owner that would keep the team in Buffalo. Mediocrity followed as the Sabres made the playoffs twice in four seasons but were bounced in the first round both times.
February 2011 brought about ownership change as Pegula bought the team. The presser was full of warm feelings and a sense of relief. Pegula teared up at the sight of his hockey hero, Sabres legend Gilbert Perreault, then famously stated what everyone in Sabreland wanted to hear, "Starting today, there will be no financial mandates on the Buffalo Sabres hockey department." There was one goal that the billionaire had for his team, "Starting today," Pegula said, "the Buffalo Sabres' reason for existence will be to win a Stanley Cup."
Cost was not an issue for the founder of an energy company he sold for over $4 billion. "If I want to make some money, I'll go drill a gas well."
He proved that by going on a drunken sailor, free agent frenzy in the summer of 2011, but when it all went south Pegula and his charges went with a scorched-earth rebuild plan culminating with consecutive last place finishes and consecutive second-overall picks due to the NHL's Draft Lottery. The architect of that rebuild was team president Ted Black, the man Brandon replaced.
The Sabres are into year-two of the build portion of the program and they're struggling because of a rash of injuries. Franchise cornerstone Jack Eichel missed the first 21 games of the season due to injury and other key components like forwards Ryan O'Reilly and Evander Kane also missed chunks of time due to injury. On the back-end the Sabres were elected to call up junior player Brendan Guhle on an emergency basis due injuries on the back end to Zach Bogosian, Dmitiry Kulikov, Josh Gorges and previous call-up Taylor Fedun.
Buffalo managed to stay afloat going 10-11-6 but they still find themselves at the bottom of the Atlantic Division, last in the Eastern Conference and 27th in the league with team butting up against the salary cap. It put management in a difficult situation.
Throughout the injuries the Sabres were calling players up and sending them down as quickly as possible to save what pennies they could on cap-space. According to CapFriendly the Sabres have only $1.7 million in cap-space right now making things really tight. However, they could have gotten $1.5 million in cap relief by placing Cody McCormick on long-term injured reserve. McCormick has been dealing with blood clots and wasn't expected to play this season at all.
That would be a February, 2011 Pegula-driven move. Instead of giving his hockey department $1.5 million to add to the salary cap, he had his management team yo-yoing players between the Rochester Americans and Buffalo on an almost daily basis to save money.
It's a practice that has compromised both clubs.
As the Sabres pull talent from Rochester, their AHL affiliate takes the hit. The Amerks right now are 9-15-0-1 after coming off of a 1-3-0-0 road trip where their goalies were pummeled by the opposition.
And here's the rub.
While the Sabres are pulling talent from Rochester, the Amerks are left to sign players to tryout contracts and maybe an AHL contract or two. Teams are allowed 50 professional contracts to fill their NHL and AHL rosters. According to CapFriendly the Buffalo Sabres have 43. Most times teams leave themselves some wiggle room at 48 or so meaning the Sabres have five openings but have yet to fill them.
"There's no NHL salary cap on scouting budgets and player development budgets," is another line from Pegula's presser and to his word, he's done that. But in a difficult year when adding only one NHL-level defenseman could have helped both Buffalo and Rochester, management stood pat. Why?
The prevailing reason is the salary cap yet as we've seen from a team like the Philadelphia Flyers, you can walk a tightrope if there's a commitment to do so.
The Flyers always seem to be against the cap and they always seem to find a way around it, most notably through LTIR. Their an organization willing to spend whatever it takes to ice the best hockey team they can year-in, year-out no matter what the circumstances.
That commitment doesn't seem to be there right now in Buffalo and questions should be raised as to where the weak link is on that chain. As far as we know, the Sabres are Terry Pegula's baby and if his words from the first presser ring true, he'll spend what's necessary and there's no reason to think otherwise, especially the virtual ATM they have with the Bills to balance things out.
We also know that GM Tim Murray isn't afraid to pull the trigger on a trade to try and improve his club. He and AGM Mark Jakubowski haven't been shy about dishing out contracts, with many of them as of late being very solid, team-friendly ones.
The man between Pegula and Murray is Russ Brandon.
Not being inside KeyBank Center it's hard to know just much say Brandon has in the hockey operations department and hopefully, based upon his recent record with the Bills, it won't be much.
It looks as if the Buffalo Bills will miss the playoffs for the 17th consecutive season with Russ Brandon at the helm for nine of those. It seems pretty obvious that his business acumen hasn't transferred to the operations side of the equation and maybe the Pegulas should consider hiring a respected football guy like Bill Polian or Tom Coughlin to take over for him.
As for the Sabres, they need to nip this in the bud before it reaches Bills-level ineptitiude by keeping Brandon out of the hockey operations. If it takes hiring a vice president of hockey operations to be the go-between, so be it, because according to Terry Pegula, money is no object and in the end, etched in the Sabres dressing room is this quote from him:
"From this point forward, the Buffalo Sabres' reason for existence will be to win the Stanley Cup."
It's been going on for 17 years.
At the conclusion of this season, probably as soon as next week, the Buffalo Bills for the 17th consecutive season will miss the playoffs. It's the longest playoff drought in the four major North American sport.
The Bills have tried everything since 1999 to try and get it right. They're on their sixth GM, eighth head coach and have had a total of 16 quarterbacks play in a game since they last made the playoffs. They've tried it all and nothing has worked and throughout it all there have been only two constants--nearly unwavering support from Bills Nation, and Team President Russ Brandon.
"Russ Brandon, the team's managing partner and president, has been with the Bills 20 years and has been involved in football decisions the past nine years," writes Tim Graham of the Buffalo News this morning. "Since he became general manager in 2008, although his official bio in the Bills' media guide suspiciously omits any reference to him being GM, the Bills' record is 58-83."
Brandon "was appointed Chief Operating Officer of the Buffalo Bills on January 8, 2008 with the responsibility of overseeing the day-to-day operations of the organization, which includes Football and Business Operations" according to Buffalo Bills.com. Although he hired Buddy Nix as GM in 2010 then promoted the Bills present GM Doug Whaley to that spot in 2013. According to Graham "Brandon supposedly stopped having input on 'football decisions' after [Kim and Terry] Pegula bought the Bills. There are, however, myriad references to the contrary."
Graham quotes Terry Pegula as saying Brandon advised after interviewing Rex Ryan for the head coaching spot, "Don't let him out of the building," points to a Sports Illustrated story where Brandon gave Ryan tips on schmoozing Pegula and also states that Brandon is in on every Monday morning football call.
Since Brandon took the reigns in 2008 the Bills have finished with a record above .500 once at 9-7 and only because the New England Patriots were resting in the final game of the season to prepare for an eventual Super Bowl run.
Yet on July 27, 2015 Pegula Sports and Entertainment, the umbrella organization for the Pegulas, named Brandon Team President and Alternate Governor of the Buffalo Sabres. The statement from the Pegulas read like this:
"Since we purchased the Buffalo Bills last October, we have been highly impressed with the business acumen that Russ has shown with the Bills.
"Now is an appropriate time to give him additional responsibilities with the Sabres. Russ will work with Pegula Sports & Entertainment to create strong synergies between the Sabres and Bills. With Russ' strong ties to the area business community and sponsorship partners, he will effectively position both organizations for future growth."
Brandon's business acumen with the Bills rivals that of baseball's Chicago Cubs who filled the stands annually despite being the most lovable losers of the four major North American sports. For years Brandon worked his business magic selling hope at the beginning of the season and a promise of a better future at the end to keep Buffalo's Orchard Park stadium filled. And that's all well and good from the business side of the equation but his average at best track record as the head of the football department reveals a glaring hole in the football operations.
NFL owners have a veritable ATM when it comes to their team. Revenue streams are such that spending to the cap ceiling won't even come close to putting a team in the red. It's pretty easy to throw money around but the difficult parts are finding the right players to pay big money to and finding the right GM and coaches to get the most out of the team. Brandon has proven incapable of getting the football operations past mediocrity.
The NHL is a much different game. Outside of the big television markets, much of team's revenue comes from ticket sales and merchandising (although a recent 10-year, $2 billion television contract.) The Sabres and their fans have witnessed the small-market conundrum for years.
From 2003, when the league was running the team until 2011 when Terry Pegula bought them, the Sabres had only two seasons where they could hang with the big boys on an leveled playing field. After the 2004-05 lockout the NHL imposed a salary cap and brought about revenue sharing that allowed teams like the Buffalo to make a competitive run. Three of the final four teams that first season were the small-market Buffalo Sabres, Carolina Hurricanes and Edmonton Oilers. The fourth Anaheim, a team in a big market with little attention paid to them.
The NHL's salary cap kept things in check for the 2006-07 season but after that the big boys started taking over again as the salary cap increased. The owner at the time was Tom Golisano (along with managing partner Larry Quinn) and he was said to be ready to sell as early as 2007. From 2007 to 2011 the Sabres were on a strict budget with the mandate of "just break even" as Golisano looked for an owner that would keep the team in Buffalo. Mediocrity followed as the Sabres made the playoffs twice in four seasons but were bounced in the first round both times.
February 2011 brought about ownership change as Pegula bought the team. The presser was full of warm feelings and a sense of relief. Pegula teared up at the sight of his hockey hero, Sabres legend Gilbert Perreault, then famously stated what everyone in Sabreland wanted to hear, "Starting today, there will be no financial mandates on the Buffalo Sabres hockey department." There was one goal that the billionaire had for his team, "Starting today," Pegula said, "the Buffalo Sabres' reason for existence will be to win a Stanley Cup."
Cost was not an issue for the founder of an energy company he sold for over $4 billion. "If I want to make some money, I'll go drill a gas well."
He proved that by going on a drunken sailor, free agent frenzy in the summer of 2011, but when it all went south Pegula and his charges went with a scorched-earth rebuild plan culminating with consecutive last place finishes and consecutive second-overall picks due to the NHL's Draft Lottery. The architect of that rebuild was team president Ted Black, the man Brandon replaced.
The Sabres are into year-two of the build portion of the program and they're struggling because of a rash of injuries. Franchise cornerstone Jack Eichel missed the first 21 games of the season due to injury and other key components like forwards Ryan O'Reilly and Evander Kane also missed chunks of time due to injury. On the back-end the Sabres were elected to call up junior player Brendan Guhle on an emergency basis due injuries on the back end to Zach Bogosian, Dmitiry Kulikov, Josh Gorges and previous call-up Taylor Fedun.
Buffalo managed to stay afloat going 10-11-6 but they still find themselves at the bottom of the Atlantic Division, last in the Eastern Conference and 27th in the league with team butting up against the salary cap. It put management in a difficult situation.
Throughout the injuries the Sabres were calling players up and sending them down as quickly as possible to save what pennies they could on cap-space. According to CapFriendly the Sabres have only $1.7 million in cap-space right now making things really tight. However, they could have gotten $1.5 million in cap relief by placing Cody McCormick on long-term injured reserve. McCormick has been dealing with blood clots and wasn't expected to play this season at all.
That would be a February, 2011 Pegula-driven move. Instead of giving his hockey department $1.5 million to add to the salary cap, he had his management team yo-yoing players between the Rochester Americans and Buffalo on an almost daily basis to save money.
It's a practice that has compromised both clubs.
As the Sabres pull talent from Rochester, their AHL affiliate takes the hit. The Amerks right now are 9-15-0-1 after coming off of a 1-3-0-0 road trip where their goalies were pummeled by the opposition.
And here's the rub.
While the Sabres are pulling talent from Rochester, the Amerks are left to sign players to tryout contracts and maybe an AHL contract or two. Teams are allowed 50 professional contracts to fill their NHL and AHL rosters. According to CapFriendly the Buffalo Sabres have 43. Most times teams leave themselves some wiggle room at 48 or so meaning the Sabres have five openings but have yet to fill them.
"There's no NHL salary cap on scouting budgets and player development budgets," is another line from Pegula's presser and to his word, he's done that. But in a difficult year when adding only one NHL-level defenseman could have helped both Buffalo and Rochester, management stood pat. Why?
The prevailing reason is the salary cap yet as we've seen from a team like the Philadelphia Flyers, you can walk a tightrope if there's a commitment to do so.
The Flyers always seem to be against the cap and they always seem to find a way around it, most notably through LTIR. Their an organization willing to spend whatever it takes to ice the best hockey team they can year-in, year-out no matter what the circumstances.
That commitment doesn't seem to be there right now in Buffalo and questions should be raised as to where the weak link is on that chain. As far as we know, the Sabres are Terry Pegula's baby and if his words from the first presser ring true, he'll spend what's necessary and there's no reason to think otherwise, especially the virtual ATM they have with the Bills to balance things out.
We also know that GM Tim Murray isn't afraid to pull the trigger on a trade to try and improve his club. He and AGM Mark Jakubowski haven't been shy about dishing out contracts, with many of them as of late being very solid, team-friendly ones.
The man between Pegula and Murray is Russ Brandon.
Not being inside KeyBank Center it's hard to know just much say Brandon has in the hockey operations department and hopefully, based upon his recent record with the Bills, it won't be much.
It looks as if the Buffalo Bills will miss the playoffs for the 17th consecutive season with Russ Brandon at the helm for nine of those. It seems pretty obvious that his business acumen hasn't transferred to the operations side of the equation and maybe the Pegulas should consider hiring a respected football guy like Bill Polian or Tom Coughlin to take over for him.
As for the Sabres, they need to nip this in the bud before it reaches Bills-level ineptitiude by keeping Brandon out of the hockey operations. If it takes hiring a vice president of hockey operations to be the go-between, so be it, because according to Terry Pegula, money is no object and in the end, etched in the Sabres dressing room is this quote from him:
"From this point forward, the Buffalo Sabres' reason for existence will be to win the Stanley Cup."
No answers
Published by hockeybuzz.com, 12-10-2016
There were a few bright spots for the Buffalo Sabres last night, but they were few and far between. In the end the Sabres had no answer for what the Washington Capitals threw at them. No answer for Washington's speed and tenacity in all three zones. No answer on the penalty kill. No answer for a back-up goalie.
The Sabres will into a three-day hiatus between games with plenty to think about and plenty to work on as a splotchy effort in front of a home crowd where boos could be heard lead to a 4-1 defeat at the hands of the Capitals.
Washington ratcheted up the speed and tenacity last night and after hanging with them through 20 minutes, Buffalo couldn't keep pace. Special teams played a huge role in the loss as Buffalo's powerplay was anything but and their penalty kill is drifting towards life support. The Sabres went 1-5 on the powerplay mustering a measly two shots on goal through the first four before finally breaking through with a goal from Kyle Okposo on the fifth to make the score 2-1. Unlike the game at Washington on Monday where they were constantly around the net, Buffalo didn't get any real net-front presence until that goal with 7:57 left in the third period as both Okposo and Sam Reinhart were parked right on the door step for the rebound.
For as much trouble as the Sabres were having throughout the game to this point, Okposo's goal still left them down by only one. The morgue that was KeyBank Center came to life and the Sabres rode that burst of energy for all of 1:25 before Sabres captain Brian Gionta was whistled for interference. Although Washington's Evgeny Kuznetzov gave an Oscar-worthy performance on the play, the ref felt there was enough to send Gionta to the box. Less than a minute later the Capitals regained their two-goal advantage on their second powerplay goal of the game off the stick of defenseman John Carlson. It was Carlson's first goal since April of last season.
As was the case on Monday, the veteran Capitals team took advantage of the opportunities the Sabres gave them. On their first goal a defensive lapse by Buffalo's Dmitry Kulikov allowed TJ Oshie to waltz to the front of the net and bury a wrister top-shelf from five feet. On Washington's second goal Kuznetzov squeezed by a check from Buffalo's Jake McCabe in the Buffalo zone and from the goal line fed rookie Jakub Vrana who had sneaked past Ryan O'Reilly for the tap-in. And a seemingly confused Buffalo PK unit allowed Carlson plenty of space for his Phil Niekro-type knuckle ball from the slot to sail through a partial screen.
And so it went.
The litany of transgressions for this performance wasn't limited to the players on the ice and may actually begin at the top with the decision to bring in three players off of the injured list. Kulikov was back in the lineup after 13 games on injured reserve. Fellow defenseman Josh Gorges returned after missing three games and forward Nicolas Deslauriers returned after spending 19 games on IR.
Cap considerations could be at the crux of the decision to bring all three back at the same time as the Sabres have been tight against the NHL cap ceiling due to the rash of injuries. For the last month Buffalo has been bringing players up from Rochester for games and sending them back down as quickly as possible trying to save every penny they could against the cap.
Or they could have just wanted to see what the team would be like with nearly a complete lineup and if that's the case, it wasn't a pretty picture. Kulikov had a particularly brutal night. He was on the ice for three of Washington's four goals (including the empty netter) and looked completely out of sorts for stretches. The team speed and skating ability we saw when rookies Brendan Guhle and Eric Burgdoerfer were on the back end dissipated as Kulikov's confusion and Gorges' slower style bogged down the transition game. Deslauriers, who was not having a very good season even before his injury, saw 5:48 of ice-time and was a non-factor.
Having all three of them back in the line up may have been too much of an adjustment for a team that was playing very well during a 5-2-2 stretch.
Yet there were others who had plenty of trouble in this one. Reinhart had a disconnect between his brain and his stick again, McCabe was spastic all night and Zemgus Girgensons is still in his downward spiral trying desperately to gain control. Defenseman Cody Franson had one good hit early in the first but still lacks conviction and Jack Eichel's trying to do too much. Props to O'Reilly in the offensive zone as his line applied tons of pressure but he was also on the ice for three of Washington's four goals.
Not good enough. And that goes for the coaching staff as well.
Assistant coach Bob Woods came on board this summer to replace Dan Lambert who is at the helm in Rochester. Throughout Sabres broadcasts this season we hear analyst Rob Ray mention his talks with Woods and how the coach wants more out of his players from a possession and/or transition perspective, among other things. What coach wouldn't? But when your team is stifled through two powerplays mustering only one shot, adjustments need to be made and that didn't happen last night as evidenced by only two shots on goal through the first four powerplays.
And lest we forget, prior to Eichel returning from injury, the Sabres were averaging a league-low 1.81 goals per game, an output that rivaled the tank years for futility.
That said, head coach Dan Bylsma did shift his system to the defensive side when the team at one point was icing five AHL'ers but with the return of Eichel, as well as the inclusion of Guhle, they kicked it in gear. However, he'll need to adjust again as Eichel is not 100% and Guhle's been sent back to Prince George of the WHL.
And then there's the penalty kill. Assistant Terry Murray needs to find an answer. Should they be passive? Should they be aggressive? Should they be passive-aggressive? Whatever the solution, they need to start figuring it out. The Sabres are at 50% on the kill through the last six games having given up nine goals on 18 opportunities and have given up two powerplay goals in four of the last six. They managed to cheat death and pull out wins the previous three times but against Washington last night it finally got to them.
There aren't many teams that can overcome an inept penalty kill and the Sabres are not one of them.
Answers. That's what we're looking for. It's what will keep the home crowd in their seats for the entire game instead of heading for the exit when the opposition scores three goals.
Answers. It's what a good team has when facing difficult situations.
Answers. It's what coaches provide when the team is struggling.
Last night they had none, but they'll have three days to come up with some before the LA Kings come to town.
There were a few bright spots for the Buffalo Sabres last night, but they were few and far between. In the end the Sabres had no answer for what the Washington Capitals threw at them. No answer for Washington's speed and tenacity in all three zones. No answer on the penalty kill. No answer for a back-up goalie.
The Sabres will into a three-day hiatus between games with plenty to think about and plenty to work on as a splotchy effort in front of a home crowd where boos could be heard lead to a 4-1 defeat at the hands of the Capitals.
Washington ratcheted up the speed and tenacity last night and after hanging with them through 20 minutes, Buffalo couldn't keep pace. Special teams played a huge role in the loss as Buffalo's powerplay was anything but and their penalty kill is drifting towards life support. The Sabres went 1-5 on the powerplay mustering a measly two shots on goal through the first four before finally breaking through with a goal from Kyle Okposo on the fifth to make the score 2-1. Unlike the game at Washington on Monday where they were constantly around the net, Buffalo didn't get any real net-front presence until that goal with 7:57 left in the third period as both Okposo and Sam Reinhart were parked right on the door step for the rebound.
For as much trouble as the Sabres were having throughout the game to this point, Okposo's goal still left them down by only one. The morgue that was KeyBank Center came to life and the Sabres rode that burst of energy for all of 1:25 before Sabres captain Brian Gionta was whistled for interference. Although Washington's Evgeny Kuznetzov gave an Oscar-worthy performance on the play, the ref felt there was enough to send Gionta to the box. Less than a minute later the Capitals regained their two-goal advantage on their second powerplay goal of the game off the stick of defenseman John Carlson. It was Carlson's first goal since April of last season.
As was the case on Monday, the veteran Capitals team took advantage of the opportunities the Sabres gave them. On their first goal a defensive lapse by Buffalo's Dmitry Kulikov allowed TJ Oshie to waltz to the front of the net and bury a wrister top-shelf from five feet. On Washington's second goal Kuznetzov squeezed by a check from Buffalo's Jake McCabe in the Buffalo zone and from the goal line fed rookie Jakub Vrana who had sneaked past Ryan O'Reilly for the tap-in. And a seemingly confused Buffalo PK unit allowed Carlson plenty of space for his Phil Niekro-type knuckle ball from the slot to sail through a partial screen.
And so it went.
The litany of transgressions for this performance wasn't limited to the players on the ice and may actually begin at the top with the decision to bring in three players off of the injured list. Kulikov was back in the lineup after 13 games on injured reserve. Fellow defenseman Josh Gorges returned after missing three games and forward Nicolas Deslauriers returned after spending 19 games on IR.
Cap considerations could be at the crux of the decision to bring all three back at the same time as the Sabres have been tight against the NHL cap ceiling due to the rash of injuries. For the last month Buffalo has been bringing players up from Rochester for games and sending them back down as quickly as possible trying to save every penny they could against the cap.
Or they could have just wanted to see what the team would be like with nearly a complete lineup and if that's the case, it wasn't a pretty picture. Kulikov had a particularly brutal night. He was on the ice for three of Washington's four goals (including the empty netter) and looked completely out of sorts for stretches. The team speed and skating ability we saw when rookies Brendan Guhle and Eric Burgdoerfer were on the back end dissipated as Kulikov's confusion and Gorges' slower style bogged down the transition game. Deslauriers, who was not having a very good season even before his injury, saw 5:48 of ice-time and was a non-factor.
Having all three of them back in the line up may have been too much of an adjustment for a team that was playing very well during a 5-2-2 stretch.
Yet there were others who had plenty of trouble in this one. Reinhart had a disconnect between his brain and his stick again, McCabe was spastic all night and Zemgus Girgensons is still in his downward spiral trying desperately to gain control. Defenseman Cody Franson had one good hit early in the first but still lacks conviction and Jack Eichel's trying to do too much. Props to O'Reilly in the offensive zone as his line applied tons of pressure but he was also on the ice for three of Washington's four goals.
Not good enough. And that goes for the coaching staff as well.
Assistant coach Bob Woods came on board this summer to replace Dan Lambert who is at the helm in Rochester. Throughout Sabres broadcasts this season we hear analyst Rob Ray mention his talks with Woods and how the coach wants more out of his players from a possession and/or transition perspective, among other things. What coach wouldn't? But when your team is stifled through two powerplays mustering only one shot, adjustments need to be made and that didn't happen last night as evidenced by only two shots on goal through the first four powerplays.
And lest we forget, prior to Eichel returning from injury, the Sabres were averaging a league-low 1.81 goals per game, an output that rivaled the tank years for futility.
That said, head coach Dan Bylsma did shift his system to the defensive side when the team at one point was icing five AHL'ers but with the return of Eichel, as well as the inclusion of Guhle, they kicked it in gear. However, he'll need to adjust again as Eichel is not 100% and Guhle's been sent back to Prince George of the WHL.
And then there's the penalty kill. Assistant Terry Murray needs to find an answer. Should they be passive? Should they be aggressive? Should they be passive-aggressive? Whatever the solution, they need to start figuring it out. The Sabres are at 50% on the kill through the last six games having given up nine goals on 18 opportunities and have given up two powerplay goals in four of the last six. They managed to cheat death and pull out wins the previous three times but against Washington last night it finally got to them.
There aren't many teams that can overcome an inept penalty kill and the Sabres are not one of them.
Answers. That's what we're looking for. It's what will keep the home crowd in their seats for the entire game instead of heading for the exit when the opposition scores three goals.
Answers. It's what a good team has when facing difficult situations.
Answers. It's what coaches provide when the team is struggling.
Last night they had none, but they'll have three days to come up with some before the LA Kings come to town.
Saturday, December 10, 2016
Sabres penalty kill is atrocious or; David Legwand, where are you?
Published by hockeybuzz.com, 12-9-2016
Ok. So it wasn't all David Legwand last year leading the Sabres to the league's ninth best penalty kill rate of 82.6%, but you gotta believe that when the 35 yr. old veteran of 17 NHL seasons was on the kill for Buffalo, that experience and dedication.affected the entire unit. Outside of the first month of the season, it's something that hasn't been replicated yet this year and it's making life difficult for the Sabres.
Buffalo heads into tonight's matchup with the Washington Capitals with the league's second-worst penalty kill at 75.6%. They went from an 86.7% kill rate at the end of October (seventh-overall) to 78.7% at the end of last month (25th) and as John Vogl of the Buffalo News points out, "Buffalo has given up a power-play goal in eight of the past 11 games while going just 17 for 29 (58.6 percent)" dropping them to 29th.
Legwand was a fourth-liner for the Sabres last year, but he was rock-solid on the top PK. After fits and starts to last season where the PK was near the bottom of the league, the Sabres eventually found their top unit of Legwand with Ryan O'Reilly, Rasmus Ristolainen and Josh Gorges. The second unit was anchored by defensemen Zach Bogosian and Jake McCabe with a myriad of forwards including Brian Gionta, Marcus Foligno, Zemgus Girgensons and Evander Kane. Gradually they went from 29th in the league to 17th to ninth after the month of February and it coincided with a strong finish to the regular season.
This year they're slipping very fast and it's causing them to walk a tight rope. In three of their last four games Buffalo has allowed two powerplay goals. Fortunately for them, they've scored four or more goals in each leading to three wins with the most recent being against the Edmonton Oilers on Tuesday. Kane's cross checking penalty at the midway point of the third period against Edmonton allowed the Oilers to take the lead on their third unanswered goal. Luckily the Sabres were able to tie it on Kane's goal with :29 seconds left in the third and then win it in overtime, but they can't afford stupid penalties with a second to last PK.
“The goals are good. The penalties are bad,” summarized head coach Dan Bylsma yesterday after practice. The gathered media got a chuckle, according to Vogl, but the Sabres aren't a team like the Chicago Blackhawks who have the fire power to overcome a poor powerplay. The Hawks are dead last on the kill (71.4%) but are tied for second overall in the league standings and are sixth with a +10 point differential.
Bylsma's philosophy is pretty simple right now, penalties taken while being aggressive is one thing, dumb penalties, and he points to Kane in particular, is another. “The penalties away from the puck, the cross-checking last game, those are not good situations to put yourself in, put your team in," he told the media yesterday. "That’s really been a big part of us giving other teams opportunities in the last few games, the Edmonton game in particular."
In defense of the penalty kill units, continuity has been a problem due to the rash of injuries the Sabres have incurred. Bogosian and McCabe developed a lot of chemistry last season and they had it again this season until the former went down with an MCL sprain on November 1. That affected the second PK unit. O'Reilly missed five games in the middle of November while Gorges suffered and played through a broken foot against the NY Rangers and has missed the last two games. That affected the top unit.
Going back five game to the return of Jack Eichel to the lineup, the Sabres have allowed seven powerplay goals in 15 attempts for a kill-rate of just over 50%. They gave up two PP goals in three of those games and one in another but came away with a 3-1-1 record. Ironically, Buffalo's only regulation loss was against Boston where the Bruins went 0-2 on the powerplay. It's a tightrope walk right now with the Sabres deservedly having bounces go in their favor but it's something that can end at any minute.
The Sabres are at home against the Washington Capitals tonight, a team that boasts a top powerplay unit featuring the likes of Alexander Ovechkin, Ryan Johansson, and Nicolas Backstrom. This the third and final meeting between the two clubs this season and so far Buffalo is 0-1-1. The Caps have had seven powerplay opportunities and scored twice. But one of them really hurt.
With the Sabres clinging to a 2-1 lead late in the third period, Kane went off for a hooking penalty. It took the Caps all of five seconds to tie the score and they proceeded to win in overtime. It was a bad penalty to take at a bad time with a PK unit that wasn't ready to bail him out. At this point in the season, it's hard for Buffalo to overcome stupid penalties like that. After all, they don't have Legwand.
Ok. So it wasn't all David Legwand last year leading the Sabres to the league's ninth best penalty kill rate of 82.6%, but you gotta believe that when the 35 yr. old veteran of 17 NHL seasons was on the kill for Buffalo, that experience and dedication.affected the entire unit. Outside of the first month of the season, it's something that hasn't been replicated yet this year and it's making life difficult for the Sabres.
Buffalo heads into tonight's matchup with the Washington Capitals with the league's second-worst penalty kill at 75.6%. They went from an 86.7% kill rate at the end of October (seventh-overall) to 78.7% at the end of last month (25th) and as John Vogl of the Buffalo News points out, "Buffalo has given up a power-play goal in eight of the past 11 games while going just 17 for 29 (58.6 percent)" dropping them to 29th.
Legwand was a fourth-liner for the Sabres last year, but he was rock-solid on the top PK. After fits and starts to last season where the PK was near the bottom of the league, the Sabres eventually found their top unit of Legwand with Ryan O'Reilly, Rasmus Ristolainen and Josh Gorges. The second unit was anchored by defensemen Zach Bogosian and Jake McCabe with a myriad of forwards including Brian Gionta, Marcus Foligno, Zemgus Girgensons and Evander Kane. Gradually they went from 29th in the league to 17th to ninth after the month of February and it coincided with a strong finish to the regular season.
This year they're slipping very fast and it's causing them to walk a tight rope. In three of their last four games Buffalo has allowed two powerplay goals. Fortunately for them, they've scored four or more goals in each leading to three wins with the most recent being against the Edmonton Oilers on Tuesday. Kane's cross checking penalty at the midway point of the third period against Edmonton allowed the Oilers to take the lead on their third unanswered goal. Luckily the Sabres were able to tie it on Kane's goal with :29 seconds left in the third and then win it in overtime, but they can't afford stupid penalties with a second to last PK.
“The goals are good. The penalties are bad,” summarized head coach Dan Bylsma yesterday after practice. The gathered media got a chuckle, according to Vogl, but the Sabres aren't a team like the Chicago Blackhawks who have the fire power to overcome a poor powerplay. The Hawks are dead last on the kill (71.4%) but are tied for second overall in the league standings and are sixth with a +10 point differential.
Bylsma's philosophy is pretty simple right now, penalties taken while being aggressive is one thing, dumb penalties, and he points to Kane in particular, is another. “The penalties away from the puck, the cross-checking last game, those are not good situations to put yourself in, put your team in," he told the media yesterday. "That’s really been a big part of us giving other teams opportunities in the last few games, the Edmonton game in particular."
In defense of the penalty kill units, continuity has been a problem due to the rash of injuries the Sabres have incurred. Bogosian and McCabe developed a lot of chemistry last season and they had it again this season until the former went down with an MCL sprain on November 1. That affected the second PK unit. O'Reilly missed five games in the middle of November while Gorges suffered and played through a broken foot against the NY Rangers and has missed the last two games. That affected the top unit.
Going back five game to the return of Jack Eichel to the lineup, the Sabres have allowed seven powerplay goals in 15 attempts for a kill-rate of just over 50%. They gave up two PP goals in three of those games and one in another but came away with a 3-1-1 record. Ironically, Buffalo's only regulation loss was against Boston where the Bruins went 0-2 on the powerplay. It's a tightrope walk right now with the Sabres deservedly having bounces go in their favor but it's something that can end at any minute.
The Sabres are at home against the Washington Capitals tonight, a team that boasts a top powerplay unit featuring the likes of Alexander Ovechkin, Ryan Johansson, and Nicolas Backstrom. This the third and final meeting between the two clubs this season and so far Buffalo is 0-1-1. The Caps have had seven powerplay opportunities and scored twice. But one of them really hurt.
With the Sabres clinging to a 2-1 lead late in the third period, Kane went off for a hooking penalty. It took the Caps all of five seconds to tie the score and they proceeded to win in overtime. It was a bad penalty to take at a bad time with a PK unit that wasn't ready to bail him out. At this point in the season, it's hard for Buffalo to overcome stupid penalties like that. After all, they don't have Legwand.
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