Disjointed Sabres Drop One To Senators
Oct 28, 2008 NHL
Or should I reuse the ‘NOBODY PANIC’ title? I mostly felt sorry for Patrick Lalime, who was giving it his all but had to deal with guys coming free and pucks being given away within 15 feet of the net all night. You know your team is out of sync when the best scoring chance you remember is Thomas Vanek…shorthanded. The Buffalo players just couldn’t get out of their own way, constantly shooting and getting it blocked, or shooting and failing to get to the rebounds (or missing wide open nets, Roy).
It’s a loss that feels worse than it really is, because it was to the Senators, and the ‘big three’ got healthy on the Sabres’ D (Spezza 2 goals, Heatley 1, Alfie 2 assists). Any bright spots? I thought Teppo Numminen played very well, and Max wasn’t terrible.
The biggest news out of the game came just afterwards. Adam Mair (who’s had frequent battles with Chris Neil, including one that earned him a 10 game suspension when he was with the Kings) was so angry that he went to the Senators’ locker room to get after Neil. Ruutu and some other folks met him at the door and Mair backed off. There is video (h/t to Puck Daddy):
“You gotta protect that guy all year, he’s a fucking joke”
Mair, to Ruutu, referring to Neil. FYI, they play again on January 6th here. Good seats still available.
And since I was at YouTube, here’s a bonus feature, starring Lindy Ruff. It seemed appropriate. (skip ahead to 2:30 or so if you are the impatient sort).
Tags: buffalo, Daniel Alfredsson, heatley, Hockey, lalime, mair, neil, NHL, ottawa, roy, ruff, ruutu, sabres, senators, spezza, youtube
