Post-game / Pre-game / Fantasy game, take 2
Posted 10:53 AM ET | Comments 3
Post-game: Buffalo Sabres vs Boston Bruins, 3-2 (OT)
TWO BUNNIES FROM THE HAT!!!
If Lalime pulled a bunny from Saturday's game, Miller one-upped him with last night's performance. After another sluggish start, it was again up to the goalie to keep his team in the game. Then when the score was tied 2-2 at the end of the 3rd and then into the 5 minute OT period, Miller came up with two of his biggest saves of the game: an unbelievable glove snatch from a Krejci shot and the sprawl-save against Sturm.
It won't show up on the stats sheet, but Vanek scored the game-winner in the OT shootout.
Sadly, I had class from 6:20pm to 9:00pm (seriously infringing on my Sabres watching/listening) and was frantically refreshing the box score, quietly wincing every time I watched the shot total increase. I don't blame the defence for the two goals here as much as they were to fault against Atlanta; both Wideman and Kessel's shots were superb. But if the Sabres were going to test Fernandez in goal, they had to do it in the 1st period and not let themselves get run over by a desperate Bruins team, giving them 16 shots in the 1st to their measly 6 shots.
Quick shots:
1. Stafford finally woke up! Next up: Derek Roy.
2. Matt Ellis went 0 for 6 on his faceoffs; as a team, Sabres won 23 but lost 32. Yikes.
3. Roy earns a well-deserved 2nd star for getting 6 shots on goal and being excellent on the PK.
4. Big body-checkers were conspicuously quiet (Kaleta, Mair, and Peters).
5. Sekera had three giveaways.
The most reassuring thing in the past two games is that the Sabres can come away with points (an OTL and a win!) despite being way outperformed, especially right at the start. Keep that in mind. I'm sure these kind of games are extremely tiring, but if the Sabres can keep doing this, they'll be robbing teams of points all season long.
Pre-game: Buffalo Sabres at Minnesota Wild
Minnesota is one of the last two legitimately undefeated teams with four wins and no losses. They boast a 100% PK and a 29% PP. Their goalie has been spectacular in all four starts. Sounds a little familiar? Sounds a lot like the Buffalo Sabres, going into their game (and eventual OTL) against Atlanta.
The Wild are coming off a 1-0 shootout win against the Lightning -- yes, that means that in the 65 minutes of play, there were no goals. This means that the Wild can keep up their defensive play in tight situations. Not only does Buffalo need to get off to a quick start (meaning shots on net in the 1st), they need to score first. They have to capitalize on any mistake (a giveaway, a breakaway) that Minnesota makes.
These seem like obvious things you can say for any game, but the Sabres can't rely on their PP as much when going up against a team that's 100% on the PK.
A repeat performance from Miller wouldn't hurt either. Just sayin'.
Fantasy hockey
Big moves here! I took millertime's advice and dropped Huet, so I'm just going back to having two goalies (Brodeur and Legace). I picked up Shea Weber instead. I traded in two Sharks as well: Dubinsky for Marleau, and Kotalik for Selanne.
Therefore, my line-up of awesomeness:
C Jason Spezza
C Henrik Sedin
C Brandon Dubinsky
LW Thomas Vanek
LW Aaron Voros
LW Alexander Semin
RW Martin St Louis
RW Ales Kotalik
RW Martin Havlat
D Niklas Kronwall
D Brian Rafalski
D Andrei Markov
D Teppo Numminen
D Shea Weber
G Martin Brodeur
G Manny Legace
TWO BUNNIES FROM THE HAT!!!
If Lalime pulled a bunny from Saturday's game, Miller one-upped him with last night's performance. After another sluggish start, it was again up to the goalie to keep his team in the game. Then when the score was tied 2-2 at the end of the 3rd and then into the 5 minute OT period, Miller came up with two of his biggest saves of the game: an unbelievable glove snatch from a Krejci shot and the sprawl-save against Sturm.
It won't show up on the stats sheet, but Vanek scored the game-winner in the OT shootout.
Sadly, I had class from 6:20pm to 9:00pm (seriously infringing on my Sabres watching/listening) and was frantically refreshing the box score, quietly wincing every time I watched the shot total increase. I don't blame the defence for the two goals here as much as they were to fault against Atlanta; both Wideman and Kessel's shots were superb. But if the Sabres were going to test Fernandez in goal, they had to do it in the 1st period and not let themselves get run over by a desperate Bruins team, giving them 16 shots in the 1st to their measly 6 shots.
Quick shots:
1. Stafford finally woke up! Next up: Derek Roy.
2. Matt Ellis went 0 for 6 on his faceoffs; as a team, Sabres won 23 but lost 32. Yikes.
3. Roy earns a well-deserved 2nd star for getting 6 shots on goal and being excellent on the PK.
4. Big body-checkers were conspicuously quiet (Kaleta, Mair, and Peters).
5. Sekera had three giveaways.
The most reassuring thing in the past two games is that the Sabres can come away with points (an OTL and a win!) despite being way outperformed, especially right at the start. Keep that in mind. I'm sure these kind of games are extremely tiring, but if the Sabres can keep doing this, they'll be robbing teams of points all season long.
Pre-game: Buffalo Sabres at Minnesota Wild
Minnesota is one of the last two legitimately undefeated teams with four wins and no losses. They boast a 100% PK and a 29% PP. Their goalie has been spectacular in all four starts. Sounds a little familiar? Sounds a lot like the Buffalo Sabres, going into their game (and eventual OTL) against Atlanta.
The Wild are coming off a 1-0 shootout win against the Lightning -- yes, that means that in the 65 minutes of play, there were no goals. This means that the Wild can keep up their defensive play in tight situations. Not only does Buffalo need to get off to a quick start (meaning shots on net in the 1st), they need to score first. They have to capitalize on any mistake (a giveaway, a breakaway) that Minnesota makes.
These seem like obvious things you can say for any game, but the Sabres can't rely on their PP as much when going up against a team that's 100% on the PK.
A repeat performance from Miller wouldn't hurt either. Just sayin'.
Fantasy hockey
Big moves here! I took millertime's advice and dropped Huet, so I'm just going back to having two goalies (Brodeur and Legace). I picked up Shea Weber instead. I traded in two Sharks as well: Dubinsky for Marleau, and Kotalik for Selanne.
Therefore, my line-up of awesomeness:
C Jason Spezza
C Henrik Sedin
C Brandon Dubinsky
LW Thomas Vanek
LW Aaron Voros
LW Alexander Semin
RW Martin St Louis
RW Ales Kotalik
RW Martin Havlat
D Niklas Kronwall
D Brian Rafalski
D Andrei Markov
D Teppo Numminen
D Shea Weber
G Martin Brodeur
G Manny Legace
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13 start it up!
14 My Take on DiPietro
16 HELP ME!
18 Straight from the Coliseum
19 stay classy!
26 Sabres 5, Rangers 2
14 My Take on DiPietro
16 HELP ME!
18 Straight from the Coliseum
19 stay classy!
26 Sabres 5, Rangers 2
13 back to blogging: start-of-season notes
13 Sabres at Islanders, 7-1
15 Sabres at Rangers, pre-game
15 Sabres at Rangers, 3-1
18 Sabres vs Canucks, 5-2
21 Post-game / Pre-game / Fantasy game
22 Post-game / Pre-game / Fantasy game, take 2
24 Sabres at Minnesota, 4-3
29 Sabres vs Ottawa, 2-5
30 Sabres vs Lightning, 2-5
13 Sabres at Islanders, 7-1
15 Sabres at Rangers, pre-game
15 Sabres at Rangers, 3-1
18 Sabres vs Canucks, 5-2
21 Post-game / Pre-game / Fantasy game
22 Post-game / Pre-game / Fantasy game, take 2
24 Sabres at Minnesota, 4-3
29 Sabres vs Ottawa, 2-5
30 Sabres vs Lightning, 2-5
A little weak at LW on your fantasy team I see. As much as we want to see Roy break out of his "slump", he has been playing really well in all areas of his game. He's working the system and as long as he continues to it will pay off. It's hard to say anything bad about a team that is 5-0-0-1 but we really need Hecht back for the faceoff circle. We have been overcoming lack of possessions so far but it will be tough to keep that going. Hopefully we can break Minnesota's PK streak like we did the Rangers. Go Sabes!
Hopefully, the Sabres will need to get off to a fast start for a change, because they are not at home and won't have the hometown support. Also, some of the scorers are long over do, such as, Roy, Pommy and even Max.As for your dream team, mine looks a lot different. Dream teams don't play for the Cup, so who cares!
Pominville had his goal against Atlanta, skating right through the Thrashers defence. He's been putting up points quite consistently too. Roy has been playing very consistently especially on the PK, but yeah, he needs a goal for sure.