Posts Tagged ‘briere’

Gameday - Flyers at Sabres

Nov 21, 2008 NHL

The Buffalo Sabres host the Philadelphia Flyers tonight at the arena, 7:30pm start time.  Buffalo is coming off a horrendous performance against the Bruins, where they took a 4-3 lead into the second period but messed around and lost 7-4.  Miller’s been ordinary since his back to back shutouts, but some of the blame falls on the defense who are giving up odd-man rushes and letting guys camp the net like Boy Scouts at a Jamboree.  Thomas Vanek, at least, is still playing well as he has 3 goals in the last two games.

Philly comes in hot, 3-0-1 in their last 4 despite having quite an injury list (including Danny Briere).  Martin Biron has improved, allowing 6 goal in his last 3 games (he’s the 2-0-1 part of that).  Riley Cote is out as well, so there goes one potential dance partner for Peters, but being the Flyers, I’m sure there’s someone else.  Here’s hoping for a better performance tonight.

edit:  Mark Mancari has been called up from Portland, and according to Mike Harrington, was skating with Paille and Gaustad at practice.  Mancari has 11 goals and 14 assists on the big line for the Pirates…we’ll see who’s benched for tonight.

edit again:  Harrington just updated the above link with lines, and the bombshell that Hank is on the shelf tonight as well.  Paetsch, then?

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Rebuttal Stuff

Aug 18, 2008 NHL

The Washington Times is doing a series of those ‘30 teams in 30 days’ articles, and the Buffalo Sabres’ number came up.  It’s good to get some insight on how others see your favorite teams, but there’s a few things to take issue with (starting the the silly stuff and getting more serious):

  • As pointed out in the comments, it’s Connolly.  To be fair, I always have to repeat ‘two Ns, two Ls’ to make sure I get it right.

the Sabres were no longer one of the most feared offensive teams in the league

  • They WERE still fourth in the league in scoring (whether you like goals per game or total goals for that measure).  The scoring is still there, despite the lack of Drury and Briere.
  • For a guy who went from being a threat on the third line to being expected to lead the team in scoring, Vanek did OK.  Bonus points to the Times writer for not calling it a $10 million year and using the overall cap hit for Vanek.

Things I agree with:

  • Roy and Pominville did indeed step it up.  I expect great things from them this year.
  • Yeah guys, which Max WILL show up?  I’m hoping for the one that brings the crowd to their feet and then actually finishes with a goal (or at least an assist for someone else).
  • The D-men could be ’sneaky good’.

Beyond that, it could be Paille and not Stafford that steps up, though both playing well would be HUGE.  And yes, Miller was a workhorse and showed he could shoulder that load for a time if needed, I’ll be more comfortable with Lalime getting sprinkled in a bit more.  We want training camp!

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Thomas Vanek

Jul 31, 2008 NHL

Thanks to valorfaerie at flickr

Sabres.com put up a feature on TV’s stats from this past year, and it got me thinking about him again.  I’ve defended him in this space before, and I must’ve inspired him as the next month he ripped it up big time.  Here’s a few key things for the sourpusses out there to consider this season:

  • Thomas Vanek was credited with 9 game-winning goals, 2 of which were OT winners.  Remember that the Sabres only won 39 games last year…so he had the winning tally in nearly 25% of games.  Chris Drury had 5 last year, and 9 in his last Sabres season BTW.  Briere had 3 last season and 4 in his final season in Buffalo.  By the way, check out the sponsor for Danny at Hockey-Reference.
  • 19 goals on the power play, behind only Alexander Ovechkin.
  • 20 points in February, when the Sabres really needed to make up ground in the standings.  Everybody mentions how he struggled early in the year, but you don’t hear much about that.
  • 36 goals, in a season when he had that rough start (and the eyes of every fan and media member drilling into him).
  • He’s missed only 1 game since making the big show after the lockout.  He works in front of the net a lot, and still manages to stay in the mix night after night.

I’ll be accused of fanboyism, or of having a mancrush, but whatever.  I like the guy, and I’ll be very happy when he scores 40+ goals this season.

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So, Timmy: Are we done?

Mar 17, 2008 NHL

With news that the oft-injured but sometimes dazzling Tim Connolly may not even play after this little break, well, see the poll:

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Personally, I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t tiring of the whole ‘is he playing or isn’t he??’ crap that we’ve had with him the past few weeks.  I think it had a negative affect on the team, and if he’s hurting so bad he should just be shut down and give it another (another!?!) try next year.  It’s been Roy and not Connolly that has ‘replaced’ Briere, Timmy at best has been a power play ninja but not much else.  I love his game when he’s on and healthy, but there are too many guys deserving of playing time to put him in and hope he can complete a game.

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Rivalry Renewed

Dec 23, 2007 NHL

The Sabres and Flyers have played two games in two nights, and both were smashmouth affairs won by Buffalo. Friday’s game at HSBC Arena was the first visit of Danny Briere, and he got the normal chorus of boos. The scoring started on a rebound sent in by Drew Stafford that had to be reviewed. Earlier Biron had stopped a shot that was batted out from in front of the net by his D, Stafford’s crossed the goal line first though. Philly scored the next two to take the lead in the second period, but Kotalik scored on the power play to tie it up early in the third. Jochen Hecht scored the game winner for the 3-2 victory. Yo-yo has been clutch lately, he’s been one of my favorite Sabres this year (Spacek is a close second).

Speaking of Spacek, he had two thundering hits (including leveling Danny Briere) as well as two assists. He really symbolized the challenge Lindy Ruff laid before his team for these games: take the physical play to the Flyers. Don’t react to it, initiate it. They did, and it showed.

Saturday’s game was even more rough-and-tumble if that is possible, 4 fighting majors and 6 roughing penalties for example. It was a back and forth affair, with Maxim Afinogenov putting the Sabres on the board first on the power play early in the first, with the Flyers’ Jeff carter tying things at the end of the first.

Things blew wide open in the second period however, with Buffalo scoring 2 goals in the first 8 minutes (Kotalik and Pominville). ‘lik’s goal came with him winning the draw and cleaning up the rebound from Goose’s wraparound attempt. Philly then tied it up with 2 quick shorthanded goals from Carter and Richards. The teams then traded power play goals (Spacek’s 8th of the season, Richards’s second of the night). Timonen gave Philly the lead early in the third, but Philly iced the puck with 14 seconds left in the game. After the game, their coach would complain loudly about the call on that, but Kotalik wins that draw next to Biron and the puck goes to Jochen Hecht, who rips it short-side where Vanek redirects it into the net to tie the game with less than 8 seconds to go.

OT was owned by the Flyers after Buffalo took two penalties, but they managed to keep the puck out of the net to reach the shootout.  Miller stopped all three Flyers (including one on a pretty sick poke-check) but Ales Kotalik netted one on Marty Biron to get the win for Buffalo.  I’d go into more detail but my PVR cut off the shootout thanks to all the penalties, I guess I need to have it record more than an extra 30 minutes from now on.  What a great way to go into Christmas break.  The Sabres return to action on Boxing Day, which is the day after Christmas for you folks who don’t live quite so close to the Canadian border, with a game against the Ottawa Senators.

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