Sabres at Devils, 2-0

Posted 1:19 AM ET | Comments 1

I ACTUALLY WENT TO THIS GAME!

Admittedly, not the most exciting game ever. The penalties in the 2nd made the game slow down considerably and the 3rd period was an overwhelmingly defensive period for the Sabres.

Quick stats:
1. Craig Rivet is back after missing 5 games. This means the last person left on the injury list is Jochen Hecht, who did travel with the team.

2. Kaleta picks up his first goal of the season on a beautiful deflection. This follows his first assist from the Capitals' game. Spacek picked up assists on both goals.

3. Buffalo went 1 for 5 on the PP (Pominville capitalizing on the 5-on-3) and killed all 7 of the (relatively phantom) penalties against them. After only one penalty in the 1st, Buffalo took 7 penalties straight in the 2nd and 3rd.

4. Shots were were Buffalo 30 (20-5-5) and New Jersey 24 (3-12-9).

5. Lowest icetimes:
Max Afinogenov 8:18
Adam Mair 6:35
Drew Stafford 9:17

Thomas Vanek had a conspicuously lower icetime of 15:32 as well. Take into account the key PK situations, so players like Paille (16:42) and Gaustad (15:10) had a little higher than usual. Ruff spread the minutes amongst his players more this game; the only two players over 20 minutes were Spacek (22:49) and Roy (21:26).

From the game1!!
1. It says NJ only had 7 giveaways but seriously, their passing was horrific. The puck bounced everywhere every time they touched the puck. The Sabres were able to block so many cross-ice passes, it was ridiculous. This caused the continuous offsides and the inability for NJ to have sustained pressure on their PP chances.

2. The Prudential Center looked so ridiculously empty. It's a really nice arena, but their jumbotron wasn't so great and they were pretty bad with showing replays. The score was also only on the jumbotron and in small lettering. They didn't have as much fun stuff as the other places I've been to, like MSG or HSBC Arena.

3. The fans ... oh the fans. My favorite is when they revert to "BUT YOU'VE NEVER WON A STANLEY CUP" when they're losing. My second favorite is when they say "BUFFALO BLOWS, GO BACK TO BUFFALO." I mean, we're in NORTH JERSEY. THE SOPRANOS TAKES PLACE THERE. There was this crazy girl in my section who seriously would yell/scream/shout/shriek for fifteen seconds straight. There were a good handful of Sabres fans in my section (we all bonded over being from Buffalo!) and we were all very afraid of this crazy girl. But aside from the people in my section, when we talked to some NJ fans one-on-one later, they were actually really friendly and realized that injuries are really hurting them and the team played poorly today on offence.

4. After the game, my friend and I went to the visiting team's exit to grab some photos of the players! They were all really friendly and nice about photos and autographs (seeing as there were like six of us there), except for Pominville and Vanek who ran away.

5. All in all, not really the most exciting game I've ever been to, but I love seeing hockey games for real (instead of relying on internet radio or the off-chance that it's playing on MSG here), so I had fun. Plus, the Sabres are 4-0 for every game I've attended!

6. Funny (OR SCARY?) moment: At one point in the 1st, Connolly lost his helmet and I was screaming, "OMG WHAT ARE YOU DOING GET YOUR HELMET BACK ON CONNOLLY!!!"

Here are some of the photos I took: