Author: Chris Ostrander

Deskchair Quarterback: Bills 24 – Giants 27

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The writing was on the wall as the second half progressed in the Meadowlands. The Buffalo Bills defense hadn’t found a way to take the ball away from Eli Manning and the Giants and Fred Jackson’s dominance on the ground was faltering.

Ryan Fitzpatrick’s second interception and the subsequent Giants drive put the game away, literally and figuratively. The Bills defense couldn’t muster a stop – they haven’t all season – and the Bills offense hadn’t shown the ability to piece together a long drive.  The Giants kicked a field goal and the Bills went four-and-out. Game over.

Some of the Bills’ problems have maligned them for the entire season. They have failed to rush the passer which, in turn, has made it very easy for the opposing passing game to capitalize down the field. That issue also goes the other way, the inability Buffalo has shown in coverage limits the number of blitzes they can use. It’s a vicious cycle. It didn’t help that the Bills defense was without three of their starters along the front seven.

A lot of people have been saying the Bills’ run defense has been bad, but unless I’m watching a different team I’m not seeing it. Outside of a late, 30-yard run, Ahmad Bradshaw was held in check. Sure he scored three touchdowns, but they were all from one-yard out, so I don’t think that can really count against the defense. Frankly, the defense has been stout against the run; it is the pass defense that has been bad. Continue reading →

Observations from the opener, off the ice

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Friday’s home opener was the first chance the fans had to see all of the First Niagara Center renovations first-hand. It was the first night the new-look team played on home ice without prospects sprinkled into the lineup. It was also the first night the Sabres opened up the F’N Center press box to the blogging community.

The awesome new signage on the video board is visible here, along with the questionable sponsor banners in the rafters.

It is just another one of those things the Sabres organization continues to do right. The PR staff was good enough to accommodate myself – along with a pair of other Sabres bloggers – with a press credential for the game. In addition to my game story, I wanted to reflect on a few other things I noticed during the home opener: Continue reading →

Double Minors: Sabres 3 – Penguins 2

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A strong bounce-back effort, led by Jhonas Enroth’s 29 saves, gave Buffalo their first win against Pittsburgh since 2009.

While the Sabres power play didn’t get on the score sheet, they were better in controlling the puck and didn’t allow a half-dozen odd-man rushes. The penalty kill was called on only once, but answered the bell, they have killed 13 of 15 chances against for a respectable 86.7% rate.

Enroth was the story of the game, he made several sparkling saves, including a point-blank opportunity while the Penguins skated with six men. Entering the year, Enroth was expected to be a significant upgrade over the past two backup goaltenders. He seems fit for the task as he played a sharp game despite a layoff of over a week.

While the Sabres do not see a back-to-back set again until November, I wouldn’t be surprised to see Enroth get another Saturday start in Tampa. He could also get the nod as the Lightning return to Buffalo next Tuesday to close a home-and-home set.

  • Luke Adam doesn’t appear to be going anywhere. He has found great chemistry with linemates Thomas Vanek and Jason Pominville. The top scoring line has found the net in all four games, accounting for 18 total points along the way (7+11). In addition, Vanek, Adam and Pominville are the top three scorers on the roster, respectively.
  • While Jochen Hecht may not bump Luke Adam from the lineup, there is probably a good chance that he bumps Brad Boyes or Cody McCormick from their spots. It will be a tough choice, despite Boyes’ struggles last night, as the Boyes-Leino-Ennis line continues to create chances and carry the play and McCormick offers a a physical edge that would be significantly decrease if he were to be pulled from the lineup. The one plus will be Hecht’s addition to the penalty kill. While the shorthanded unit has been stout, Hecht has long been one of Buffalo’s most responsible defensive forwards, his addition will make the unit much better.
  • Marc-Andre Gragnani has had two tough games in a row. He made a few bad choices with the puck against Carolina and had similar trouble yesterday in the Steel City. Mike Weber will likely see some time in the near future, particularly if Gragnani continues to struggle. While he has become a fixture on the top power play unit, I have to think Andrej Sekera brings the same benefits that Gragnani offers to the unit.
  • The power play, after converting three of eight chances in Europe (37.5%), has gone 0-7 since returning to North America. Christian Ehrhoff’s spot on the top unit is somewhat perplexing. As a defenseman acquired to boost the power play with his shot, Ehrhoff has been playing to the top of the right faceoff circle rather than the top of the unit. While it is still a prime shooting location, he has begun to drift low on many plays, effectively eliminating himself as a shooter. I’d like to see him at the top of the set up in order to capitalize on his shot.

Three Stars

1. Luke Adam

2. Nathan Gerbe

3. James Neal

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Event Summary

The Morning Skate: Sabres vs. Penguins

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Coming of a disappointing home opener, the Sabres will need to bounce back quickly as they travel to Pittsburgh tonight for the first of four meetings with the Penguins.

Buffalo will also be looking to exact revenge a bit of revenge against the Penguins; Buffalo has lost six-straight against Pittsburgh. The last Buffalo victory came on December 29, 2009. A dismal effort on the power play by Buffalo doomed them last night. I expect to see a few changes made to shore up the giveaways that cost the Sabres last night. Of note, this is the first of Buffalo’s league-high 22 back-to-back sets. They started 2-0-0 after their trip to Europe last week.

I would like to see Lindy Ruff shuffle his lineup a bit this evening. I think this would be a good opportunity to get Jhonas Enroth his first start along with inserting Mike Weber in against a physical opponent. I fully expect the, “Ryan had a long layoff so we thought he could go again tonight” excuse as to why Miller starts the back-to-back set. But Enroth needs to get in a game soon, this seems like the perfect opportunity. I would put Weber in because the Penguins are going to play a more physical game and Marc-Andre Gragnani struggled last night.

The Penguins will be wearing their blue alternate jerseys this evening but will be without Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin. While this will make the matchups for Buffalo a bit easier, the Penguins had no trouble steaming to the playoffs without their two marquee players last season. Pittsburgh is riding a hot start from the league-leader in goals, James Neal. The Pens are first in the East as they have jumped to a 3-0-2 start.

Highlighted Matchup

Tyler Myers/Robyn Regehr vs James Neal: Neal has caught fire early for the Penguins and is the main source of offense for a Penguins team missing their two marquee players. Neal has four goals through five games and should see a healthy dose of the Sabres top defensive pairing. Myers and Regehr matched Eric Staal for much of last night, but the match tailed off as the special teams issue heated up. Expect Ruff to stick with this match for most of the game.

Projected Goaltenders

BUF: Jhonas Enroth 2010-11: 14 GP, 9-2-2, 2.73 GAA, .907 SV%

PIT: Marc-Andre Fleury 3 GP, 3-0-0, 2.59 GAA, .911 SV%

2010-11 Season Series BUF 0-4-0

11/24/2010, HSBC Arena, Sabres 0 – Penguins 1

12/11/2010, HSBC Arena, Sabres 2 – Penguins 5

2/4/2011, CONSOL Energy Center, Sabres 2 – Penguins 3

3/8/2011, CONSOL Energy Center, Sabres 1 – Penguins 3

Double Minors: Sabres 3 – Hurricanes 4

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Simply put, the Buffalo Sabres gave the game away in their 4-3 loss to the Carolina Hurricanes.

On numerous occasions, particularly on the power play, the Sabres were careless with the puck and gave the Hurricanes numerous chances on the counter attack. Lindy Ruff said he counted five shorthanded opportunities against. There were at least that many in a game where the Sabres gave up two shorthanded breakaways due to careless play at the offensive blue line.

” We were trying things we didn’t need to try,” Ruff said. ” We pushed too hard in situations where we didn’t have to push.”

Ruff went so far as to say his team played stupid at times. It is hard to disagree with his assessment. The Sabres were only credited with five giveaways, but that is an extremely generous number based upon the counterattack the Hurricanes were generating.Ruff cited back passes and forced plays as the contributor for his team’s struggles.

“Those types of plays, you hope. They are [10% plays] and we burned ourselves.”

The Sabres fed off the raucous crowd at the First Niagara Center and scored an early goal, just 6:28 into the first period. However, another nasty trend that plagued the Sabres bit them as Carolina answered just one minute and twenty two seconds later. The Canes scored the winning goal one minute and three seconds after Drew Stafford had tied the game in the third period.

Buffalo was the better team for much of the contest. They dominated much of the play early on, generating 13 shots in the first period alone. The Hurricanes also put 13 shots on goal in the period thanks to a pair of power plays.

Vanek and Derek Roy tallied the two Sabres’ goals and it seemed as though Buffalo would cruise to an early victory. The Sabres had all the momentum and had continued to create quality chances on a late power play before Brandon Sutter capitalized on the first of Carolina’s shorthanded goals. Sutter jumped on a puck that Vanek fumbled at the blue line and beat Miller with a great shot to the glove side.

The shorthanded party continued all night for Carolina. The Canes were quick to jump into passing lanes against Buffalo’s umbrella set up. Perhaps what killed the Sabres was the depth their defensemen were playing on the power play. Often the backside defender would be well below the dots when the Canes would start a counter attack. This led to the breakaways and 2-on-1s and a pair of Hurricanes’ goals.

Buffalo will face another strong penalty killing team tomorrow night in Pittsburgh. The Penguins are an aggressive killing team that is not afraid to push out on point men and wingers playing the side boards. Ruff and company will need to make some adjustments to avoid giving up a plethora of shorthanded opportunities again.

  • Cam Ward was the better of the two goaltenders tonight. Aside from his 39 saves, Ward came up with at least five sparkling stops that should have been sure goals for Buffalo. Ryan Miller was strong, turning aside 30 shots, but he didn’t come up with the big saves Ward made on the evening. Namely, a split save on 2-on-1 between Luke Adam and Vanek. The play came after Bryan Allen shook up Jason Pominville. The Hurricanes scored their first shorthanded goal on the ensuing kill.
  • The Sabres utilized quite a few of their offensively gifted forwards on the penalty kill tonight. Vanek and Drew Stafford saw regular time on the kill along with Derek Roy. While Roy has seen time killing penalties throughout his career, Vanek and Stafford are bit green. It showed at times tonight. The rotation on the kill was out of sync for much of the evening and it seemed as if the Sabres couldn’t settle in when killing penalties. Jochen Hecht’s return will do wonders for that unit.
  • Christian Ehrhoff got trapped low in the zone more than any other defenseman on the power play tonight. He eliminated his shooting angle far too often as Marc-Andre Graganani became the trigger man for the top unit. Beside the fact that Gragnani struggled for most of the game, the reason Ehrhoff is here is to shoot the puck. If he gets to the top of the umbrella the power play will continue to benefit.
  • Tyler Myers had a quietly efficient game. He made the play that led to Stafford’s tying goal and was relatively strong on the puck most of the night. No complaints regarding his play.
  • The Ennis-Leino-Stafford line is going to produce points. They were nearly impossible to contain in a low cycle, if they pull the trigger more often they will put up big numbers.
  • I would start Jhonas Enroth tomorrow in Pittsburgh. He has had a long layoff and Miller wasn’t stellar this evening. There is no “hot hand” to turn to. Get Enroth a game now and keep his mind, and game, sharp.
  • There is no reason to think the Sabres will not put forth a better defensive effort against the Penguins tomorrow. While Pittsburgh has owned the Sabres in recent years – mainly due to Marc-Andre Fleury – the Sabres have a good benchmark for what they need to change after tonight.

Three Stars

1. Jeff Skinner

2. Drew Stafford

3. Cam Ward

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Game Summary

Event Summary

The Morning Skate: Sabres vs. Hurricanes

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There will be plenty of fanfare at the First Niagara Center as the Buffalo Sabres open their home schedule against the Hurricanes after a five-day layoff tonight at 7:30 p.m.

Buffalo, currently 2-0-0 and tied with Toronto for the Northeast Division lead, have enjoyed a five-day layoff as they recuperate from their trip to the NHL Premiere. Carolina is fresh off their first victory of the season, a 3-2 triumph over the Boston Bruins on Wednesday.

A pre-game plaza party will take place outside the First Niagara Center as there will certainly be some fireworks in store for those holding a ticket for the first home opener in the Pegula Era. There is a chance the hoopla surrounding the first game may end up being distracting, but there is no reason for Buffalo to come out flat. Between the five-day break, the brand new locker facilities and the momentum they built with their two convincing victories in Europe, the Sabres should have little trouble finding energy for this game.

Carolina has struggled a bit as the season opens up. The Canes have managed three out of a possible eight points and have allowed at least four goals in all but one contest. They should build off their win over the defending Stanley Cup champs and the fact that they held the Sabres attack at bay in the 2010-11 season series.

The Hurricanes didn’t do much to upgrade their roster in the offseason, bringing in a trio of ex-Maple Leafs (Tim Brent, Tomas Kaberle and Alexei Ponikarovsky) and promoting some youngsters. Between the pipes is where the Canes will win this game. They boast two goaltenders – Cam Ward and newcomer Brian Boucher – who have a good history against Buffalo.

Buffalo will likely ice the same lineup they had in Europe, with Matt Ellis, Jochen Hecht and Mike Weber as the scratches. The Sabres potent line up will be foreign to the Canes and could create matchup problems early in the contest.

Highlighted Matchup

Buffalo’s three scoring lines against the Carolina defense. The Canes have plenty of forwards that are capable of serving in a checking role. However, they have three defensemen under the age of 25 and at least 50% of the blueline would fall under the offensive defenseman classification. If the Sabres can exploit the last change to get their skill players against a non-checking line, they should have success in generating offense.

Projected Goaltenders

BUF: Ryan Miller 2 GP, 2-0-0, 1.50 GAA, .952 SV%

CAR: Cam Ward 3 GP, 1-2-0, 3.35 GAA, .885 SV%

2010-11 Season Series: BUF 2-1-1

1/13/2011, HSBC Arena, Sabres 3 – Hurricanes 2

3/3/2011, RBC Center, Sabres 2 – Hurricanes 3 OT

3/15/2011, HSBC Arena, Sabres 0 – Hurricanes 1

4/3/2011, RBC Center, Sabres 2 – Hurricanes 1 OT

Team Stats

BUF 2-0-0 4pts (T-1 NE), PP 3/8 37.5% (2), PK 6/7 85.7% (T-15)

CAR 1-3-1

Game presentaion in the Pegula era, will it change?

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The opportunity is there for the F’N Center to be loud this season.

Amid the whirlwind offseason at One Seymour H Knox III Plaza, a great deal of changes were made to the cosmetics within the First Niagara Center. There are plenty of new features that greet the fans when they enter the building for the home opener. (Note, this was lost in the original post, my apologies).

Personally, I’m interested to see what changes, if any, have been made to the game presentation for the regular season. With a new attitude surrounding the team, I am wondering if the game presentaion will reflect a more aggressive attitude as well.  Some have stronger opinions on this than others, but I feel that the overall atmosphere in the First Niagara Center has been somewhat dull in recent years.

The fans are due just as much guilt – or perhaps more – as the arena staff. Ted Black said it right when he described the job as one where nearly 51% of the people watching will be unhappy with what you’re doing. There is no right answer for the Sabres game presentation staff, which is an unfortunate situation to be in. Even if they come and absolutely kill it this season, a major portion of the fans won’t be happy. It isn’t a fair position and I wish them all the luck in the world getting things right.

However, the one thing I hope has changed is the overall attitude of the show the fans witness. The game is paramount to anything else going on around it. Therefore the on-ice product is the main factor in stimulating the fans. Based on the changes to the roster, the Sabres should have little trouble playing entertaining hockey games.

For much of last season the Sabres were pretty lousy, that didn’t help one bit. What made matters worse was the relatively stale atmosphere within the arena. I feel the biggest contributor to that was every stoppage in play was filled with deflating ads and videos. Rather than having the opportunity to create a hostile atmosphere, nearly every second of time outside of the game is being sold.

If there are less Aspen Dental commercials – and more compilations of goals, saves or Pat Kaleta steamrolling people set to hard, edgy music – the fans will be riled up and they will create a little more noise. For the record, more noise = better gameday experience. Continue reading →

The odd men out

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Mike Weber was particularly good for the Buffalo Sabres last season. So good, in fact, he earned a two-year contract extension in the offseason.

Yet, he is stuck in the press box as the season begins for the second year in a row. Lindy Ruff has opted to dress Marc-Andre Gragnani and Andrej Sekera as his fifth and sixth defensemen over the stay-at-home defenseman. In previous seasons all three players would be seeing regular shifts. In fact, Drew Schiestel would probably be seeing some time as well. That was all in the past, life with Terry is much better.

Now the deep-pocketed Sabres are stuffing salary in the minors and stockpiling blue-chip prospects as they strive for a Cup with veteran additions. Mike Weber just happens to be a casualty in this particular scenario. Continue reading →

New Sabres locker room open for business

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The Sabres returned to the First Niagara Center – which is receiving new outer signage this week – for their first practice session since returning from Europe. They were greeted with a shiny new players lounge and locker room.

I don't know why, but this is my favorite feature. It screams professionalism for some reason.

John Vogl and Bill Hoppe were quick to Tweet pictures (thanks for the entry image Bill) and Jessie Pegula followed up with some later in the day. The Buffalo News gallery has some very good shots that are slightly higher quality than a camera phone offers.

From the few pictures I have seen, this thing is outstanding.

The signage, decor and overall look of the outer features are very cool (entry image). It translates to the Sabres Hall of Fame wall and the retired numbers. All of this is equally impressive and incredibly cool. For some reason the Buffalo Sabres wall strikes me as one of the coolest features. I’m not sure why, but it just looks like something a winning team has.

As for the interior, I can’t tell much from the pictures. However, the player’s lounge looks pretty cool as does the locker room itself. It is very open – to promote communication – and the decor is very similar to the outer portion. The Sabres logos at the center of the room are the obvious focal points, while each player stall has a picture of the player in action. There is also a quote over the door way that reads, “Belief, Commitment, Character, Discipline, Trust” all above the word “Excellence.”

It has a “Play Like A Champion Today” feel to it. While I’m not an NHL player, I have to say this is quite an awe striking renovation. It wouldn’t be fair to say they have gotten anything right or wrong, but from where I’m sitting there can’t be too much missing. I know the goal was to catch up to some of the newer buildings and the state-of-the-art rooms around the league. I think it is safe to assume this locker facility is second to none.

Between the minor touches around the arena and this project, I have to think that Terry Pegula took the First Niagara Center from a 15-year old building to a five-year old building with little more than a snap of his fingers. There are certain things that can’t be changed in that building, but he certainly put it in the neighborhood of the newest buildings in the league.

Keep an eye on The Buffalo News and Sabres.com for more pictures as the week progresses.

Where does Hecht go in the lineup?

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There are a few facts and a few delusions floating around the First Niagara Center right now. The fact is the Sabres were very impressive in their first two wins during the NHL Premiere series in Helsinki and Berlin last weekend. Some of the delusions are that this team will be virtually unstoppable as the season progresses.

The Sabres are not going 82-0, sorry. That doesn’t mean they aren’t a good bet to finish high in the East, or even to snag the Northeast Division crown. However, there are some overzealous fans out there with expectations that are far too lofty.

One factor that could seriously change the fortunes of the Sabres will be the return of Jochen Hecht. I am going to leave out the two extremes – he provides an even greater spark or sends the team down the abyss – but it is safe to say that his return to the lineup will disrupt the status quo.

Continue reading →