Sabres Flirting With Disaster
Posted 10:17 PM ET | Comments 14
They need more efforts like the one tonight in Montreal.
They played great. The other team was just better.
Goes without saying, the Habs have looked great to start this season. And Cristobal Huet played just phenomenal tonight. I've always liked him. I think it's unfortunate the Montreal media and Canadiens' fans can give him so much flack, but maybe that is helping him up his own play.
But back to Buffalo, if they don't right their ship soon, if they don't find their legs and get the team going in the next few months time, they're going to be in serious trouble come the second half of the season.
I must add, I'm not surprised the Sabres are where they are at this point in the season. Just look back to my Season Preview blog from a month ago! I predicted a 5-5, slow start (at least slow by Buffalo standards the last few years). I totally saw this coming.
But now's the time for them to get themselves together. What better time than the next eight games against divisional foes? Keep playing like they played tonight, and they'll be OK. But they need to bring that same effort every night. They need to keep that energy flowing.
Lose your confidence now, throw points away, then we're in trouble.
Pull it together, boys. You can start Wednesday at HSBC Arena.
They played great. The other team was just better.
Goes without saying, the Habs have looked great to start this season. And Cristobal Huet played just phenomenal tonight. I've always liked him. I think it's unfortunate the Montreal media and Canadiens' fans can give him so much flack, but maybe that is helping him up his own play.
But back to Buffalo, if they don't right their ship soon, if they don't find their legs and get the team going in the next few months time, they're going to be in serious trouble come the second half of the season.
I must add, I'm not surprised the Sabres are where they are at this point in the season. Just look back to my Season Preview blog from a month ago! I predicted a 5-5, slow start (at least slow by Buffalo standards the last few years). I totally saw this coming.
But now's the time for them to get themselves together. What better time than the next eight games against divisional foes? Keep playing like they played tonight, and they'll be OK. But they need to bring that same effort every night. They need to keep that energy flowing.
Lose your confidence now, throw points away, then we're in trouble.
Pull it together, boys. You can start Wednesday at HSBC Arena.
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well done my friend. I agree the slow start isn't a huge suprise but rather is still very disturbing. I have confidence Lindy will get the boys going sooner rather than later
The ghost of Larry Quinn haunts the Sabres on the ice. This is the worst front office in sports history. Darcy is just a figurehead.... You know Quinn is calling all the shots. Just like the brilliant decision to represent our team with a slug. You might as well feed this season to the wolves... Or any other season with Quinn and co. driving the ship.P.S. Lydman and Tallinder need to head back to Sweden. They are wayyyy too soft for the NHL. You can tell they are European players just by watching them. Nolan Pratt will be no savior. Numminen is faaaaar past his prime. Campbell is comparable to Sheldon Souray, but not as good. Spacek is overrated and out of shape, lacks toughness. Oh yeah, hes from Europe, that explains it.Missing Jay McKee yet Sabres fans?
88 while I agree with somethings you say. You are far off on somethings. Spacek out of shape???? He was in the best shape of his career untill the shoulder injury. Something tells me he was rushed back to soon. those things need time to heal properly or they can give you trouble. Lydman is from Finland not Swedan. Teppo would have been a solid addition to the d. A grizzly vet providing leadership is what he is about. and yes we miss McKee but did you see "Soft" Lydman eat a puck to save a goal last week? The guy eats a puck gets stiched back up and returns to play. Soft Toni is not. The team needs to be more physical as a whole. Starting up front. Please think before you spew off. PS dont get hurt falling off the bandwagon.
Straighten it out within a few months? Are you kidding? Try a few games dude.....By the end of November they will be out of playoff contention. Don't look for them to make changes....They do not have the courage in the front office to do that.....What you see is what you get...Enjoy..........
No worries yet. If we're under 500 at the all-star break, that's when you need to start sweating. It's a long season, and there's a lot of time to recover from early struggles, even if we drop 6 of these nine, you can come back from that. This team will take a while to find itself and re-discover their work ethic. Remember that the 05-06 team had an awful start to the season and came back to get a fourth seed. This team is much more like that team and much less like last year's.
Exactly what does it mean "they have to find themselves"? What????? They have played hockey all their lives. I would assume they know what it takes to win....What is this finding themselves crap.......
Sidney Crosby played with a broken foot for months. Spacek can't play with a tweaked shoulder muscle? What a wuss. Yes Lydman was also wearing a full facemask yesterday. Another wuss. This is why we suck in the playoffs every year.
88, let's see you out on the ice even skating with the big boys before you have the right to call anyone a wuss. Please, take just one hit without crying to your mommy.
Rapperay and sabresx88, I agree 100% with your opinions. Action is required from our front office and we won't get that because they think so highly of themselves. One of the more frustrating things about this team has been the ridiculous amounts of injuries that continuously occur. There are a couple of ways to combat this problem and one way is to fire the strength and conditioning coach, but I could care less about this right now. The second way to solve this problem is to get rid of some of these injury pron guys like Kalinin, Spacek, Tallinder, Connelly and Afinogenov. I was very worried coming into this season that if this team were to suffer massive amounts of injures, then the season was going to be lost. It is a little early to make this conclusion yet, but if November turns out to be another injury plagued month and our management doesn't attempt to fix the problem then this season will be a bust. As for the bandwagon comment, that's getting old. I don't see either one of these comments or mine an example of 'jumping off the bandwagon', but instead we are seeing the cold hard facts and expressing concern for them. I am well aware of this teams abilities because I have watched every game for the last 2 and a half years (rough estimate), so I know they can turn the season around. The lack of care and discipline is very alarming. On a positive note I have been impressed with the play of Weber. He by far has played better than Sekera. Sekera needs to go back down to Rochester. The guy simply is not ready yet.
sabres, rapperay, and 88, your comments are fair enough, but i agree more with RITBeast and Co. This team does look a lot like the 05-06 product. it does not come flying out of the gate, but if they get their stuff together and get on a bit of a role, watch out. Confidence is huge in pro sports and they don't have much of it right now (although the PP has been looking better and they did have a sound effort monday). if they keep up the hard work they will be rewarded, and so will us fans. let's not give up on them just yet.
jtswinehart - It doesn't matter about me... I don't play for the Sabres!
What I'm saying is that it's very easy to point to a player's injury and say "oh, what a wuss, he must not be in good condition". You have no idea of what it's like. As the saying goes, walk a mile in their moccasins.
Yeah.... but it takes a lot to win a Stanley Cup. Toughness is part of it. We suck in the playoffs because our players aren't as tough as many other teams... Our players get tired of getting hit every other night... So if you are content with never winning a Stanley Cup, then I can understand your argument. But I am a Buffalo sports fan who is getting a bit antsy for his teams never winning a championship.
Miller, good post. I share your concerns. I do think they need to really turn it around sooner rather than later. While I also agree they played a good game against the Habs, I also think they need to put forth that effort for 60 minutes AND turn it up a notch or two if they want to win and continue to do so. The most frustrating part of watching these days is knowing that they can turn it up and they don't!!