SB Nation User Blog: D.O.

Buffalo Sabres vs. Philadelphia Flyers [Game Thread]

D.O. — Fri, 21 Nov 2008 02:24:00 -0000

Game #19

Buffalo Sabres (9-6-3, 21PTS) vs. Philadelphia Flyers (7-6-4, 18PTS)

7:00 PM EST, HSBC Arena

TV: MSG-B (Buffalo)

Radio: WGR 550 (Buffalo), XM 208 (National)

Listen Here

08-09 Series :0-0-0

Enemy Blogs: Flyers Goal Scored By

It's always interesting when the Buffalo Sabres and Philadelphia Flyers meet and I don't expect this game to be much different. Last season the games against Philly meant a little bit more because of ex-Sabres Martin Biron and Daniel Briere's presence on the ice. That has all but worn off now (and Briere isn't even playing) but the game is still very important.

Buffalo comes into this game searching for answers. This is a team that began the season by earning at least one point in each of their first eight games but they have lost three in a row and have allowed at least five goals in each of those three games. In the first couple of weeks of the season it was easy to find Ryan Miller and Patrick Lalime in the goalie leaders...they were one and two. It's not as easy to find those guys now...Ryan Miller is now 16th in goals against average and Lalime would be near the bottom of the league if he qualified.

The Flyers come from the other end of the spectrum (No pun intended). They are playing the best they have played all season. After struggling early in the season Martin Biron and Antero Nittymaki have both been lights out. Simon Gagne is back in the lineup after missing most of last season and he has really made his presence felt for the Flyers.

	GP	G	A	P	+/-	PIM	PPG	SHG	GWG	GTG	SOG	PCT
2008 - Simon Gagne	16	11	11	22	8	8	2	4	0	0	40	27.5

Players to Watch

Buffalo Sabres

	GP	G	A	P	+/-	PIM	PPG	SHG	GWG	GTG	SOG	PCT
2008 - Thomas Vanek	18	15	4	19	0	12	7	2	2	1	77	19.5

	GP	G	A	P	+/-	PIM	PPG	SHG	GWG	GTG	SOG	PCT
2008 - Jason Pominville	18	8	8	16	1	4	2	0	1	1	55	14.5

	GP	G	A	P	+/-	PIM	PPG	SHG	GWG	GTG	SOG	PCT
2008 - Clarke MacArthur	18	6	4	10	-3	20	3	0	0	0	23	26.1

Philadelphia Flyers

	GP	G	A	P	+/-	PIM	PPG	SHG	GWG	GTG	SOG	PCT
2008 - Mike Richards	17	5	14	19	6	13	2	1	1	0	45	11.1

	GP	G	A	P	+/-	PIM	PPG	SHG	GWG	GTG	SOG	PCT
2008 - Jeff Carter	17	11	3	14	-1	12	2	2	3	0	80	13.8

Goalie Matchup

Buffalo Sabres

	GP	MIN	W	L	T	EGA	GA	GAA	SA	SV	SV%	SO
2008 - Ryan Miller	15	851	8	4	2	1	37	2.61	405	368	.909	2

Philadelphia Flyers

	GP	MIN	W	L	T	EGA	GA	GAA	SA	SV	SV%	SO
2008 - Martin Biron	12	672	5	5	2	1	35	3.13	329	294	.894	0

Notes

Buffalo earned seven out of a possible eight points against Philadelphia last season.
Danny Briere scored the shootout winner in the only Flyers victory against Buffalo last season.
Mark Mancari was called up from Portland to replace Max Afinogenov in the lineup. He has 11 goals and 14 assists in 14 games and is leading the AHL in scoring.
Nathan Paetsch will be inserted into the lineup to replace Henrik Tallinder who has been ineffective and had a horrible giveaway that ended up as a goal on Wednesday against the Bruins.
This will be the second game that Thomas Vanek will play on a line with Jason Pominville and Jochen Hecht.
Jason Pominville has scored a goal in four consecutive games.
Buffalo has allowed 18 goals in last three games played, all losses of course.
Don't forget to get your SPG picks in and help increase the prize giveaway.

After a hot start Sabres cool off

D.O. — Fri, 21 Nov 2008 00:43:23 -0000

After an incredible but unlikely hot start to the season the Buffalo Sabres have struggled mightily as of late. Buffalo began the season 6-0-1 and beat teams like Montreal, Boston and the New York Rangers in the process. Since that time the Sabres are just 3-6-2 have been embarrassed a couple of times in the process. The Sabres recent struggles can be summed up in a loss to the Columbus Blue Jackets last Friday night. Buffalo lost that game 6-1 at the HSBC Arena despite outshooting the Jackets 37-25. With all due respect to Jacket fans, they aren't exactly a power house team especially on the road. Buffalo followed that game by allowing four third period goals in a 5-2 loss to the Penguins on Saturday and of course they blew a two goal lead last night. The season seems to be spiraling out of control when just a month a go it looked like the Sabres were an easy pick for the playoffs.

I can't sit here and tell you what they need to do to fix but I agree with Ryan, the answer is not in Portland. Unfortunately guys like Nathan Gerbe and Tim Kennedy are not ready to make the jump to the NHL yet (although I think they both have a bright future). Mark Mancari might be able to contribute at the NHL level but he is not going to make the difference on this team. They need to go back to playing the same hockey they were playing in the first seven games.

What has changed for the Sabres since they began the season rattling off win after win?

Goals Against - In the first seven games Buffalo allowed more than two goals in a game only once and that was a 4-3 overtime victory against the Minnesota Wild. Since that time they have allowed three or more eight times and only won one of those games was a win.\

There are many reasons for the increase in goals against. The goaltending has been suspect in recent games, the penalty killing isn't as good as it was early in the season but mostly it is costly mistakes. It's frustrating to see these mistakes because we all know how good this team was defensively in the first couple of games. They haven't been bad lately, they just make mistakes that seem to always end up in the back of the net.

Penalties - Last night was a perfect example of bad penalties hurting you. Adam Mair took a couple of bad penalties and the puck ended up in the back of the Sabres net. The best example of penalties hurting came in the Sabres shutout win against New Jersey. Buffalo dominated that game for 30 minutes but than Buffalo took a penalty. The Devils responded and took control of the game but they failed to score a goal because of great goaltending by Ryan Miller.

Buffalo was able to get away with penalties early in the season because they were not allowing power play goals. Opponents scored just two power play goals (and one was scored by Ryan Miller himself) in the first seven games. The Sabres have allowed nine power play goals in their last 11 games. They were 31-of-33 killing penalties in their first seven and they are 35-of-44 in the last 11.

Power Play - The power play has been less effective but hasn't been terrible. They began the season 9-for-39 through seven games and they are 10-for-54 in the last 11. This hasn't been a huge problem for the Sabres during their recent slump.

Obviously the point of the game is to score more than the other team but the Sabres have a huge discrepancy between their goals for and goals against. In the first seven games Buffalo scored 24 goals while allowing only 12. In the time since than they have scored 28 and allowed 40. It is unbelievable to see how far this team has fallen in such a short time...it kind of reminds me of another team.

It seems the answer is simple to the Sabres problems...stop making stupid mistakes. It appears that Lindy Ruff agrees with me. Tallinder had one of the worst giveaways I have ever seen and he spent most of the game on the bench after that. It will be interesting to see if Lindy decides to send a message by sitting Hank and play Paetsch. We'll have to wait till tomorrow to see if that is the case.

Scoring hasn't been a huge issue for this team although it seems that most of the goals are coming from Thomas Vanek and Jason Pominville. Vanek was moved onto a line with Pominville and Hecht and it paid off with two goals against Boston. Derek Roy is now on a line with Clarke MacArthur and Drew Stafford and he too scored a goal. When the Sabres were down they moved Paul Gaustad with Daniel Paille and Max Afinogenov...we'll keep a close eye to see if that line stays together. It's really all about the defense at this point.

Sabres embarrassed in Beantown

D.O. — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 04:48:55 -0000

How many times do you score four times in the first period and lose by three? Answer, not very often. The Buffalo Sabres managed to accomplish that unbelievable feat tonight. Buffalo held a two goal lead twice in the first period but the Bruins scored five unanswered goals to beat Buffalo 7-4.

There was a question as to whether Buffalo could score enough goals with Tim Connolly and Ales Kotalik out of the lineup and it was a resounding yes. The problem is they can't keep teams off the scoreboard. Buffalo has allowed at least five goals in each of their last three games, all losses of course.

This game was comedy of errors for the Blue & Gold. Miller has to take some of the blame for allowing seven goals but the team deserves much more. The defensemen gave the puck away, they were caught standing around on more than one occasion and they basically left Miller out to dry. The forwards deserve just as much blame for a lackluster effort. One goal was scored because Thomas Vanek was too slow on the backcheck and another was scored when Daniel Paille failed to get back in time.

In addition to the terrible defensive play, the Sabres took too many bad penalties. Adam Mair found himself in the box with a couple of dumb penalties that cost his team. Andrew Peters and Derek Roy can not be absolved for their penalties either. Patrick Kaleta got away with a hit on Scott Thorton that should have been called as well. This team is not good enough to give teams opportunities and that is exactly what they did tonight.

The only good thing that came out of this game was the play of the newly formed top line in the offensive zone. Jason Pomminville started the scoring early in the game on a pretty feed from Thomas Vanek. Pominville returned the favor for Vanek in front of the net and Vanek added another goal on the power play. The move seemed to pay off for Roy as well, he had a goal and an assist in his first game after being demoted from the top line.

I wish I had more to say but this game has me in a really bad mood. The only good thing is that Buffalo will be back in action on Friday and better yet...they get another shot at Boston next Wednesday. All we can hope for is that the team is as embarrassed as the fans are and use it as motivation.

Buffalo Sabres @ Boston Bruins [Game Thread]

D.O. — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 01:40:01 -0000

Game #18

Buffalo Sabres (9-5-3, 21PTS) vs. Boston Bruins (11-3-4, 26PTS)

7:00 PM EST, TD BankNorth Garden

TV: MSG-B (Buffalo)

Radio: WGR 550 (Buffalo), XM 204 (National)

Listen Here

08-09 Series: 1-1-0

Enemy Blogs: Ghosts of the Garden, Here come the Bruins

The Sabres will debut new lines tonight with Thomas Vanek playing along side of Jochen Hecht and Jason Pominville while Dereek Roy will Center a line with C-Mac and Drew Stafford. Buffalo beat the Bruins back in October but looked awful in a loss to the Bruins last week.

While Buffalo has been sputtering as of late, the Bruins have been outstanding. They haven't lost in regulation in what seems like forever and to take it a step further they don't ever allow over two goals in a game. This is not good for a team that has to play without Tim Connolly and Ales Kotalik.

Previous Matchups

Other Notes

Don't forget to get your SPG picks in and if you haven't signed up yet it is not too late! Head on over and sign up to be eligible for a prize.

In Lou We Trust joins SBN - From The Rink

D.O. — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 02:25:38 -0000

In Lou We Trust joins SBN - From The Rink

Please head over to the newest hockey blog to join the SB nation family. There are plenty more coming the next couple of weeks so get excited...get really excited.

Sabres will have a new look

D.O. — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 23:52:25 -0000

It seems as though Lindy Ruff has had enough of this team losing and he is making changes. Some of the changes are necessary due to injury but others became necessary because of poor play. Ales Kotalik will be out of the lineup for several weeks with a hamstring injury and Tim Connolly is out with an upper body musculoskeletal injury. Connolly has recently been listed as week-to-week with his most recent injury.

Unless the Sabres decide to call up a player from Portland they will have to use every healthy forward on the roster. The biggest change is the demotion of Derek Roy to the second line. Lindy Ruff has made it clear that he is not happy with the play of Roy while 5-on-5. I have been an avid supporter of Derek Roy but he has struggled lately and needs an adjustment. I still believe in the talent that Derek Roy has but he is hurting this team right now. Lindy feels that he may be pushing too hard and that a lesser role may help him get out of it.

Derek Roy is expected to play on a line with Clarke MacArthur and Drew Stafford. C-Mac has to be wondering what he did wrong to get stuck with two struggling forwards. Stafford has been a huge disappointment this season and has spent a couple of games watching from the press box and Derek Roy has been more of a liability than an asset this season.

The pair of Thomas Vanek and Derek Roy has been a fixture for the Buffalo Sabres, as has the pair of Jochen Hecht and Jason Pominville. Vanek will now try to be the tird man in the Hecht-Pominville pairing. It should create a high-powered offensive line for the Sabres but it may make them one dimensional. The Roy line has some potential but beyond that you have to wonder where the goals will come from. Throughout the past couple of seasons we have heard so much about secondary scoring and there is concern that Buffalo will not have any.

The fourth line will be a hard hitting energy line with Gaustad-Peters-Kaleta but will not be turned to offensively. The third line will consiste of Mair-Paille-Afinogenov. Mair has played well this season but he is better served as a fourth liner. The problem is that he has outplayed Gaustad this season and deserves to be on the third line ahead of him. It seems so far that Paul Gaustad may be the highest paid fourth liner in the league and he hasn't been very effective in that role. Gaustad is still the Sabres go-to-guy for face-offs but they expected a lot more from him. It's still early in the season and he missed plenty of time with a thumb injury but at some point he has to be held accountable for sucking (yep I said it).

The Sabres will get their first chance to show off their new look lines on Wednesday against the Boston Bruins. Check out Die by the Balde for game preview and update.

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Another thing that I found interesting was from Lindy Ruff's press conference today. He basically told the media that the season has gone the way he expected. He knew they weren't as good as their start but it's nice to see that he doesn't think they are as bad as they have been lately. How do I know that...he is changing the lines. He knows that he can get more out certain players and he obviously likes what he is getting from others.

Buffalo Sabres - News: UPDATE: CONNOLLY'S INJURY STATUS - 11/18/2008

D.O. — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 21:49:47 -0000

Buffalo Sabres - News: UPDATE: CONNOLLY'S INJURY STATUS - 11/18/2008

I know I'm the only one who isn't surprised by this. Well it seems like yesterday I was saying this same thing...get well Timmy, we need you.

SB Nation Hockey Upgrade

D.O. — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 20:16:03 -0000

If you frequent Die by the Blade or any of the other hockey blogs on SB Nation you may have noticed a few changes to the site. If you are an avid reader of Buffalo Rumblings or any of the other great SB Nation sites in other sports you have already seen these features at work.

New Die by the Blade Features

Team Page - This is a one stop destination if you want to know what posts have been associated with Sabres, news items regarding the Sabres and information about the next game.
Team Roster - This is an up-to-date Buffalo Sabres roster.
Player Page - This is probably my favorite feature of all the new goodies we have been given. If you click on any players name on the roster it will take you to the players page. The player page is complete with all the relevant statistical information as well as any blog posts/fan posts/ fan shots that have been tagged to that player. Here is Tim Connolly's page.
Team Stats - You no longer have to leave Die by the Blade to get any statistical information you may have been looking for...it is right on the site with the click of a link.
Team News - There is also a page now designed for all relative Buffalo Sabres News as it happens.
Team Schedule & Scores - This has been there for sometime but they have no incorporated more data to this page. There is now a complete line score of each game and best of all it now indicates whether or loss occurs in overtime or a shootout.

This is only some of the upgrades the site has and will be receiving. Stay tuned for many more updates and features to make Die by the Blade the best place for Sabres fans to visit. The BEST part of the site is a feature that has been here all along...Fan Posts. Many sites are offering a way for you to write your own blog and we have been doing it all along. The best part is that we are all Sabres fans here and share in one common goal...we want a Stanly Cup Championship.

NHL All-Star voting scam

D.O. — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 19:27:35 -0000

I wasn't going to talk about the All-Star game on this site because I think it is a boring exhibition but this year it's even worse. The Montreal Canadiens are set to play against the Western Conference all-star team. It seems that either Montreal Canadiens fans have voted in record numbers or there has been some voter fraud. I understand that the NHL wants to get the fans involved in the process because they are hoping to sell this game to the fans but the current situation has (or should have) all hockey fans turned off to the whole idea.

Canadiens fans have voted in record numbers and have the entire starting lineup just about locked up for all Habs players. Alexei Kovalev, Saku Koivu and Alex Tanguay lead the forwards in voting while Andrei Markov and Mike Komisarek lead the defensemen. Second year goalie Carey Price is leading all goalies despite not being anywhere near the best goalie in the Eastern Conference.

This isn't a knock on the Montreal players who I mentioned, in fact they are all very good players that I would love to have on the Sabres, the problem is...they aren't the best at their position. As a Sabres fan I would like to say that a Sabres player deserves to be their instead but reality is that there are plenty of candidates more deserving in the conference before any of the Sabres or Habs players.

Alex Tanguay has started the season by scoring eight goals and nine assists which is pretty good, problem is that Evgeni Malkin has seven goals and 23 assists...get my point. Alexander Semin (called out Sidney Crosby and Thomas Vanek a couple of weeks ago) is off to an outstanding start with 13 goals and 14 assists. I don't need to go on because I think you get the point.

As for the Sabres players on the ballot...Thomas Vanek is 8th in the forwards with 51, 621 votes, Teppo Numminen is 6th in defense with 47, 023 votes and Ryan Miller is 3rd in the goalie voting with 51, 135 votes.

Sabres to lose lead, game to Pens

D.O. — Sun, 16 Nov 2008 14:25:25 -0000

It was a much better start than on Friday night but the result was the same after allowing four third period goals. The Sabres fell 5-2 to the Pittsburgh Penguins at the Igloo in Pittsburgh. Buffalo held a 2-1 heading into the third after a power play goal by Thomas Vanek but failed to hold on to the lead.

It's the same old story for the Sabres they play well early in the game but fail to pull away. Eventually they have break downs and the opponent takes advantage...the result is another mark in loss column. This was the story all of last season and recently it seems to be the case this season as well. In this game it was Daniel Paille who failed to back check on Jordan Staal allowing him to net the game winner in the third.

I only caught the highlights of this game so I can't comment on the entire game but if the stats tell the story it was all Sabres early and all Pens in the end. Buffalo outshot the Pens 11-6 in the first period but the Pens outshot Buffalo 19-12 through the final two periods.

Miller played this game in place of Lalime who had a rough one on Friday night and it worked for two periods. Miller allowed three goals on eight shots in the third period and the Pens added an empty netter to seal the game.

If you're interested in the Pens point of view Pensburgh has their recap of the game. As Frank pointed out in the comments of the game thread...the Pens have been outstanding in the third period lately.