#wristshot from last night before

[andrewuttaro]

New Look Sabres: GM 46 - EDM - Arctic Blast

Time for an arctic blast from the past! Ignore my desire to talk more about weather patterns than this Sabres club right now and remember back with me to 2014-2015: there were caravans of Buffalonians driving down to Erie, Pennsylvania to see future Buffalo Sabre Connor McDavid! Oh those were the days; the shitty shitty days! We had a GM back then who openly discussed the shared boner we all had for potentially getting a generation talent. That term has been overused since then and a lot has changed for both clubs: most notably we got Jack Eichel instead in that 2015 Draft and Tim Murray’s candor worked against him signaling the disappointment of picking second overall that year and probably damaging that relationship. If we’re all being honest we were pissed too. I almost put a chair through my dorm window but luckily I skip arm day all the time. Jack Eichel goes first overall any other year and in spite of a couple ankle injuries over the years since his draft he is still a more than worthy franchise cornerstone. Connor McDavid’s story has been only ok since it diverged from its collision course with Buffalo. He only got to see the playoffs once of his three and a half years in the NHL so far and somehow the supporting cast just isn’t there yet; this is not to mention he is probably the lone reason for 75% of the points the Oilers have in the standings right now. I’ll save the Peter Chirelli jokes for the P.S. because Edmonton was only three points out of a playoff spot entering last night’s game. Ken Hitchcock, mushing the Oilers forward like a gaunt dog sled team on the back of McDavid, might just get there. The Buffalo Sabres happen to be in a situation right now where they too might just get there although even pessimistic observers probably say Buffalo is in a better position all things considered. When these teams met in 2014-2015 it was the Battle of the Basement but now it’s two teams clawing at playoff spots like Mufasa clinging to the edge of the cliff over the stampede. Unfortunately, in this matchup the Oilers were Scar and the Sabres were Mufasa because Buffalo got fucking stomped. Shit… I apologize, that’s a little on the nose; sorry Simba.

Normally I do these posts like straight up postgame recaps. This team did not earn that treatment last night. They did not earn traditional postgame because what we saw was fucking horseshit! I wanted to go all Jim Lights in Dallas on this team after that performance! I watched the second period and had absolutely no desire to watch the third: it was a Monday night and I was tired after having guests over in the evening. I MADE A GOOD FUCKING CHOICE! One player played well in this game and he only did so for one period. No, it’s not Jack Eichel and or the top line for somehow suppressing Connor McDavid’s line. McJesus still scored and I am not convinced the time on ice stat some of us were using on twitter to show domination is Eichel and company playing hard against them or Ken Hitchcock throwing tons of shit at the wall trying to see what sticks because guess what: THE OILERS SUCK! They’re in a slide too, and we. should. have. beaten. them! I am not smart enough to dissect the intricacies of corsi for and against. I’m not old fashion turning my back on those advanced stats: I’m just uninterested in how shot suppression went in a game where the Sabres lost 7-2! SEVEN TWO! I’ve wandered off the point a little bit: the one Sabre player who played well this game was Rasmus Dahlin. Dahlin was a wall at the defensive blue line in the first period. The kid set up every good thing that happened in the first frame including getting the secondary assist and zone entry for the Sabres first goal exactly a minute in. Congratulations Conor Sheary, we missed you, hopefully you stick around scoring goals. Here’s an apple, Casey Mittelstadt, you’ve actually looked passable in the last few games and if this wasn’t such a miserable defeat I would have more to say about you and your deployment.

The Edmonton Oilers responded to the Sabres breaking the ice by scoring three goals in 1:55. Notably happy to not be a Sabre anymore Zach Kassian scored two of those. The first of those reads assists from two Oilers but let me tell you ZACH BOGOSIAN GOT AN ASSIST ON IT! Some of the reaction I heard this morning was that including that goal two of the last four goals scored on Carter Hutton have been off a Sabre stick. Hutton got pulled in the second for allowing five goals on fifteen shots and has two wins since the ten game fantasy in November; but goal support has not been there and when you’re defense is working against you it minus well be your worst case scenario as a goalie. THAT WAS NOT EVEN THE WORST DEFENSIVE PLAY THIS GAME! Oh do I want to celebrate Evan Rodrigues’ sausy little goal later in the first? OH SO BADLY I DO: E-Rod, you have earned that little wristshot past Mikko Koskinen so much throughout the last two dozen games since you’re last got a goal. Sorry bud, this shit show has too much shitty shit SHIT to get to! The second period was worst! There were no good Sabres on the ice now and our favorite Marco Scandella, IN FOR LAWRENCE PILUT, served up the worst defensive zone turnover I have seen in my entire hockey watching life! Scandella gets the uncredited assist on a goal by… wait for it… MILAN LUCIC!!!!!!!!! Guess how many goals Lucic has scored this season. Wrong: That’s his third of the season. THIRD! SINGLE DIGIT THIRD! SCANDELLA HELPED MILAN LUCIC SCORE HIS THIRD GOAL THIS SEASON EVERYBODY! Connor McDavid scored too but I already mentioned that… oh and there were two other goals in the third period; yeah, another by Lucic. Oh, and an Oilers powerplay goal because even our nice penalty kill couldn’t be nice in this game. *Deep breaths* You know what, that’s all the recapping I’ll do for this little nightmare. The Sabres get arctic blasted 7-2 in what I am declaring their worst loss of the season.

The only reason I didn’t name this post Rock Bottom is because I can’t be sure it is. Tomorrow night the Sabres take on Calgary whom *checks notes* leads the Western Conference right now. If the Sabres are not being bag-skated out in Alberta right now then maybe all the lunatics on twitter saying Housley should be fired and left to find transportation home on his own are right. The Sabres are playing at a 62 point full-season pace since that November wet dream we all collectively had and are dropping out of the playoff picture like a rock. That’s the pace of last season and dear lord, tell me this team is better than last season. What’s wrong? Shit, the Sabres outshot the home team 43-25 in this game! Over the last five games players without the last names Skinner, Eichel and Reinhart have actually started making their presence felt! Even Captain Disappointment Marco Scandella got a goal recently! The powerplay is consistently diseased ass and assistant coach Davis Payne should be fired for that but that’s not so much a solution as it is a vendetta. Should GM Botts pull the trigger on a cost controlled trade? If you really believe it shakes something loose in this shit show than I probably won’t complain about it. Put Pilut back in for one; if Scandella is in tomorrow night against Calgary that may just be enough for me to not fucking watch. I named my Rocket League team the Sabres just so I can see some God forsaken W’s next to the fucking word! FFFFFFUUUUUUUUUUUUCCCKKKKKKK!

I’m not always like this. You should share this blog with you friends and family, like it and comment. I’ll accept just swear words as comments at this point. What’s your fix for the disaster? Captain Jack said it’s a rough patch right now and they just have to stick together and find their way out of it. Perhaps the solution is in the room, it probably needs to be considering the long-term stability of this core group. How about all of us change our diapers now and pretend we’ve been here before and can handle a young team’s growing pains? We Sabres fans seem to bathe in the filth of this team sometimes and maybe it’s time to take a breather and restart. Hopefully a restart for the guys on the ice is in order as well.

Thanks for reading.

P.S. Peter Chirelli and the Oilers are supposedly commissioning scouts out to the four corners of the earth looking for solutions and are open to trading a whole lot for a playoff berth this season. Did you see that news, Jason Botterill?

[womw]

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[andrewuttaro]

New Look Sabres: GM 38 - STL - Bitter Blues

We all remember that distinct fragility that existed on last season’s team. If it was a couple goals down, even one goal sometimes, they sat back like the die was cast and gave us boring hockey. If nothing else changed this season it has been a renewed determination to win and a never let those Sab losing habits come back. Find a way to win. Jack Eichel fanboys such as myself like to say his drive to win came out an infected the whole team since he got the Captaincy, and that’s certainly an element, but there were other changes too that probably have something to do with it. One of those changes is the leading goal scorer on the St. Louis Blues: Ryan O’Reilly. Actually, he leads the Blues in every major statistical category except save percentage and goals against because well… the Blues suck ass. There is an abundance of similarities between the two clubs including both having productive off seasons in trades, signings and minor moves but for now let’s focus on how their different. The Blues love beating their hated rival Chicago Blackhawks and this season the Blues came through again challenging the Hawks for positioning in the basement of the league. Most observers puzzle just like we do at how a team that could’ve been viewed as loading up for a deep playoff run before the season turns into a gong show with Steve Ott breaking up fights in practice and what not. I got no good answer with you on that front. Going into this game the Blues are in the midst of a tiny bit of a comeback going .500 over the last dozen or so games so maybe that’s your silver lining although it may be a stretch to see them make the playoffs. The playoff percentages for the Sabres are far better approaching the halfway point in the regular season. That said, Buffalo is not a lock for the postseason and the next five to six games may have a lot to say about what this team is going forward. Jason Pominville out and Carter Hutton in net in St. Louis for the Sabres first game after the Christmas break to start a vital stretch bridging into the New Year.

The game started with the Sabres doing everything right: the better possession, shots, chances transitions, everything really. Hell, Rob Ray was even making jokes back and forth with Ryan O’Reilly from that little box between the benches like they were old chums. Kyle Okposo in particular seemed hungry as his third line with Casey Mittelstadt and Remi Elie got a favorable matchup against the Blue first line and manufactured chances like all American St. Louis Beer. Should I go with that bit? Beer production? That feels weak but I don’t know what else St. Louis produces other than racial controversies. Tage Thompson also made his fair share of plays turning on an axis around that big hind end. On the Sabres one powerplay in first frame Lawrence Pilut ate up the Blues clearing attempts and quarterbacked a powerplay that looked perfect short of actually scoring a goal. The goaltenders took over play as the first period winded down and ended 10-6 in favor of the visitors in shots. The second period was a bit less favorable. Rob “not the Rob Thomas your mom likes for no good reason” Thomas got credit for a goal at 2:03 in what was really a case of Carter Hutton failing to lock down a puck right in his grill and thrashing around in his crease like a suffocating fish. I’ll leave it at that because it’s not even the worst goal against in this middle period. The Sabres did kill a Blues powerplay before things got worse but the stupid floodgates had opened and Jay Bouwmeester scored a wristshot straight down the center over Hutton halfway through. That I can excuse, even as the Sabres seem to be in full retreat at this point, but then Patrick Maroon tapped in a goal that was simply Carter Hutton not doing his job. 3-0 Blues hurt and I got grouchy as the Sabres got a powerplay after Joel Edmundson got called for tripping Captain Jack on a breakaway. Jack Eichel shot from the high circle on the ensuing man advantage and it was 3-1 after 40 minutes and I was noticeably less grouchy just because Buffalo now looked like they were playing their game again, transitioning, passing and shooting like normal again almost getting another before the horn blew.

I don’t know how these Blues got these Sabres off their game other than just saying they were better 5 on 5. That looks weird on the screen in front of me considering this club’s special teams so far this season but that’s what this game was: weird. The third period was a bit of resurgence at first. Buffalo got some wicked chances up the sides even seeing a few good shots from lines not a part of the Jack Sandwich line. All the while the Blues get the loose pucks. That was really the key in this game particularly in the third: you give his angry St. Louis team any daylight and they’ll get back down ice. That was exactly what happened when at 6:13 left in the third Ryan O’Reilly got a breakaway along the boards and roofed one over Hutton. That one hurt, particularly because it emblemized a final ten minutes of this game when the Blues really took over. I am not going to call it a Sabs performance but gee, 4-1 loss to St. Louis right now feels like a missed opportunity wrapped in moldy old bitterness. This game felt like a good old fashion case of chasing and losing. Buffalo didn’t have the puck for most of this game and it felt like it. For how much crap we’ve all talked about St. Louis so far this season they just took it to us 4-1 in regulation. The Blues have now lost 7 straight in that building going back to 2009 and the only thing stopping my overwhelming desire to say whatever at that is the anxious press of a 4-6-3 record since the win streak ended. That’s not good to say the least.

Now Buffalo gets three straight at home to figure it out against Boston, the Islanders and Panthers? Well shit. I feel like if I tried to prognosticate why it would turn into fifty shades of no secondary scoring. Sustained zone time? Should I make the case for better possession and zone time? That’s a little above my pay grade and frankly I don’t want to join the merry band of nitwits bitching about a single time zone change and same day flight to St. Louis. Good teams win games where there are a few variables against them; good teams have their dynamic top line set fire to the rest of the lineup. This ain’t it, Chief. I’ll apologize for all the shit talk to Blues fans but let’s just say if y’all are in a playoff race when you come to Buffalo on St. Patrick’s Day it will be a special season for both of us. Hell, if you win that game I’ll buy one of these twelve million heavily discounted O’Reilly jerseys in every Western New York sports store.

Boston got Patrice Bergeron back too, Saturday will be interesting. Sorry, I’m just a little bitter O’Reilly had to tack on that beaut goal late in this one. At least Jack Eichel knows what went wrong: this was one of those nights it’s really comforting in postgame hearing him break it down like he was watching from our angle knowing he has a C on his chest. Perhaps his point about them not making the adjustments necessary in game to win is really poignant: that’s a trait of good teams that will come in time. I suppose a game like this is growing pains. I hope it’s not a pain reading this blog. Like it, comment on it and share it around to help my bitterness. Boston and the Islanders are the teams that together pose the biggest threat to the Sabres playoff chances on the back half of this season and these two games to close out the calendar year of 2018 will likely prove instructive in that regard. Make them winning lessons, boys.  

Thanks for reading.

P.S. There is a fantastic Sports Illustrated article on Jack Eichel I recently retweeted. It might be exactly what the doctor ordered for you if you’re as bitter as I am about this loss.

[andrewuttaro]

New Look Sabres: GM 34 - BOS - Revenge

There was palpable pain the night the Buffalo Sabres lost their home opener against the always-hated Boston Bruins. At that point all we had was one of the shittiest seasons in Sabres history and a pretty awesome offseason to look back on: we had no proof anything was actually going to be better on the ice. It was a 4-0 shutout and it was gruesome. The Fire Housley bandwagon fired up into high gear after a game when the home crowd booed. Although that same home crowd has booed as recently as the LA game this past Tuesday the season has gone much better than that first result would have you believe. The Sabres were 19-9-5 going into this game good for 43 points in the standings and a rank higher than the Boston Bruins. Arguably no team in the Atlantic Division has been hit worse by the injury bug than Boston but that is a feature of this league and the consistent winners are the ones who are deep enough to play through injuries on the roster. Don’t @ me but I, a Sabres fan, am saying the Boston Bruins are not a consistent winner. Do you want this divisional playoff spot, Boston? Well, come and get it! Even a regulation win tonight puts y’all three points back, asshats! It’s revenge time for that loss opening night! Surely the players don’t care two months later but this is fan blog and this fan declares revenge! REVENGE I SAY!

The first period was about as exciting as you can get without a goal. Jack Eichel, already a man possessed in his last six games if not this whole season, got a handful of wicked scoring opportunities. Each team got a powerplay and played like their stats in those categories would have you think. Boston sucked ass on their PK but survived, Buffalo looked good on their PP but couldn’t quite sink one. Late in the first Bruin Ryan Donato got a breakaway and couldn’t get it past Linus Ullmark before a weak tripping call on Matt Huntwick who finally made his Sabres debut this night. Is he a Toronto sleeper agent or something? Either way Ullmark bailed him out stoning Donato on the ensuing penalty shot. The first ended with donuts on the board. If you thought that penalty shot situation was odd then the second period was when it really got funky. The pace of shots and possession change only increased. A melee in front of the Sabres net very nearly yielded a Bruins goal before Ullmark reached out his mitt while on his back and saved it. Moments later the next play is back in the O-Zone and Jack Eichel goes behind Tuuka Rask’s net and back passes it to Jeff Skinner who put the puck in high. The home team answered back about three minutes later off the stick of Steven Kampfer and yes, I used NHL.com to spell that name. Guhle got taken off of the rapidly sinking Huntwick’s line as this period went on to play with Dahlin. It was a fun combination as the period went on. Then came perhaps the weirdest moment of the month: Brad Marchand is at the center of a crowd of Bruins and Sabres in front of Linus Ullmark who tries to sit on the puck to stop it from going in. The puck made it to the back of the net but not before a linesman blew the whistle. Everyone goes to their bench sides and awaits the call. Maybe if it’s changed to a goal Phil Housley challenges it? No, after three maybe four minutes of the refs looking at a tablet one of them comes out and says the play was not reviewable. Not reviewable? I love a sad, dejected Brad Marchand as much as the next guy but what were you watching on that tablet? The game remained 1-1 through forty minutes.

Someone has to win and the third period was decisive. Overtime was not needed and frankly I am thankful for that. 5:43 into the final frame and Captain Jack got the puck from Sam Reinhart and outmaneuvered the defenders and beat Rask short side. Jack celebrated hard in front of his hometown crowd. Jack said afterward that one of the big things that’s different about this team is the pride it takes in the game it plays every night. That much was clear as the visitors guarded their 2-1 lead for the majority of the period. Right when I was ready to fire up the celebration for a guarding a lead under quite some direst Torey Krug capitalized on a few Sabres on the ice in front of Ullmark and wristshot one home for the equalizer. That goal came with 7:39 left in the third and the pace did not slow down before Jeff Skinner bounced off a couple Bruins in front of their net like a pinball and retook the Sabres lead with a sneaky tap in around Rask. 3-2 Sabres with 4:31 left in regulation? Do I feel a regulation win coming on? In Boston, could it be? The Bruins pulled Rask shortly thereafter and Buffalo was able to force the puck out to neutral ice a couple times before Sam Reinhart fought off the Bruins defense long enough to slice it over to hometown Jack who shot it down ice to the empty goal. This one ended 4-2 Buffalo.

To be fair there were a lot of great Boston players missing not least of which was Patrice Bergeron but this win felt very like sweet revenge. Revenge that saw a sad Brad Marchand! That maybe the third time I mention that but I’ll just come clean and say I enjoy the man’s suffering… within reason of course. Evan Rodrigues looked good in this game, Marco Scandella looked ok barring a look at what will certainly be awful advanced stats, and even Kyle Okposo had a few good plays. Matt Huntwick looked… not like a total liability? I’ll leave that one as a question mark. Jeff Skinner featuring this prominently in the game following his absence from an OT loss feels appropriate. Jack Eichel is simply indescribable with words at this point. In the big picture the Sabres are now 7-3-1 against divisional rivals and the two points gathered from this regulation win allows Buffalo to hop Toronto up to 2nd in the Atlantic Division. I sense the Bruins games yet to come will feature an even closer race than this game considering who will come back but for now the Sabres look onto Tuesday night at home when they have another shot at revenge in the division, this time against a Florida Panthers team surging as of late.

The Sabres are humming again and it is so fun to watch. Like, comment and share this blog and join me in enjoying it with the most amply named blog for the state of these Sabres. After Christmas we’ll have a discussion a bit longer than these postgame posts about the team through half the season. Leave me your thoughts on that! This team has made two months of doing this quite fun and nothing makes my Sabres pride well up quite like a win over Boston. Let’s go Buffalo!

Thanks for reading.

P.S. Jeff Skinner has now reached his total goal output of last season before Christmas. Just saying.

[andrewuttaro]

New Look Sabres: GM 15 - NYR - A Eulogy

One hockey blogger who has the bravado to appear on camera unlike yours truly exclaimed last month when saying one thing about each NHL team that: Buffalo is the best team in New York… That’s New! It was a humorous and very apt observation. My brother and my father both were surprised to discover the Rangers sit at the bottom of their division. My brother had been with me seeing the Sabres beat them live last month! In the years following me first really diving into hockey in 2009 the Rangers were a team to beat. It was in no small part because of Henrik Lundqvist that his team consistently made the playoffs and found themselves in a Stanley Cup Final in 2014. By that point I was in exile from my Sabres, following the Rangers full time because confession: I just cannot actively root for a team that is aggressively tanking as much as those Sabres were. Yes, I followed that Rangers team pretty closely. That team is not this team. Not even close. Rasmus Dahlin was bruised pretty badly by a stray puck near the end of the game against Ottawa last night and was a very tense game time decision. The frustrating thing about absolutely stomping a team like that game yesterday is that you don’t want to come back down to earth. The Sabres did come down from the high tonight, down they came in downstate.

The first period played like a shootout. The Sabres went down the ice and then the Rangers ran back down the other way. Buffalo gained the edge as it went on and the only big takeaway was the visitors outshot New York 15-5 in that opening period. Ristolainen wrecked a couple Rangers but that period just felt like a comfortable adjustment from Buffalo’s highest scoring game yet last night. Bogosian played defense refreshingly and Skinner got tripped in the middle of the ice but nothing wild happened. And then, like I’ve written at least three times this season: the second period happened. The second period tends to happen one way or another but somehow the Sabres don’t act like it every other game. 41 seconds in Neal Pionk shot one from the wall that got deflected in past Hutton. Okay, bad break but… oh shit. Before you even process that one the shittiest thing that can happen in a game against the Rangers happened: Jimmy Vesey scored. It was lightning fast wristshot through traffic but it went in. The Rangers took that lead and ran with it, bombarding Buffalo and nearly scoring a 3rd goal on a Mika Zibanejad breakaway. At some point the Sabres calmed it down and began firing back but the second period ended 2-0. The third period has been a refuge for this team in games like this and sure enough a shade over six minutes into the final period Lumberjack scores on a third (?) touch of the puck on a splitting Henrik Lundqvist. It sat at a tense 2-1 until the BU boy who didn’t come to Buffalo scored an empty netter with less than two minutes left. This one ended 3-1 in favor of the New York Rangers.

Buffalo outshoot New York 40-22 and if you watched this game you probably think the Sabres were the better team. The only stat that matters though is goals and while our boys were hunting a way to win after that ass start to the second they just did not find it. It just hurts to not get a point out of this game… but more on that later. Some other stats that tell the story: this score line is the same one as in the last Rangers-Sabres matchup back on October 6th. In both games the team that outshot their competition lost the game. The fruitless powerplay and solid penalty kill, and even the incredibly cunning play of Rasmus Dahlin are all really footnotes in this game. This was also Henrik Lundqvist’s twenty first win against the Sabres and another notch toward 7th on the all-time wins list for goalies. I have no problem saying this game would have been a Sabres win if Lundqvist doesn’t play; it’s a Sabres win if he is subject to concussion protocol after that hit in the second. That moment in the first when he flipped off his helmet in the midst of a play to stop the game and didn’t get a delay-of-game penalty is going to stick with me. I digress: this four day layover ought to be a thinking one and not a celebrating one following destroying Ottawa last night as handily as they did.  

This game didn’t feel like the losses to Columbus or Calgary. It’s not because those were overtime losses it’s frustrating because Buffalo was better than their competition in this one. Moreover, winning matters again for the Sabres. You can tell in Eichel’s postgame interview when he does not want to show his eyes. He’s not angry because he knows he played his best and he could tell most of his teammates did as well. He’s pissed because his team needed a win to keep rolling and hold down their advantageous spot in the standings. That is a special note all its own: the Buffalo Sabres care about winning again. I think we should mark this occasion: this funeral should have eulogy. Get the Buffalo News on the line: the Tank died tonight having lived a long, fruitful life. He is survived by three high end draft picks named Reinhart, Eichel and Dahlin as well as a nephew named Mittelstadt. He lived a celebrated life: he made us laugh, cry and watch Junior Hockey. He gave us a new team and don’t you dare defile his memory and say he gave us nothing. Even with no new points in the standings after this game and an all but certain decent from the heavens of power rankings from earlier this morning during this coming layover, we can celebrate tonight: Buffalo lost a game they should’ve won and they felt like it. We have an intrinsic winner on our hands in Buffalo now.

I would love to end on that note but I am an unassociated writer with a blog to promote! If you want to celebrate the death of the tank with me for the next 65 games this season and hopefully more, you can find this blog on the best NHL team in New York State on newlooksabres.tumblr.com after every Sabres game and a few other occasions. The next big thing on the docket over on the blog is the November Amerks Angle post; let’s say it’s only gotten better for Rochester since the last update. Share this, like it and leave me comment if you’re really feeling charitable. There is a fantastic Foo Fighters song called Walk featuring David Groll yelling “I am dancing on my grave.” I can’t help but feel this way about the tank. Dance on the grave with me and invite your friends.  

Thanks for reading.

P.S. Mats Zuccarello is a name you may want to get familiar with. Of all my favorite Rangers from that 2014 run he is the dwarf king of them all and he won’t be in New York long. He’s going to be a Sabre before the end of the decade.