20 years ago Ron Tugnutt made 70 saves against the Boston Bruins. I can speak for Derek Plante when I say I’m glad he wasted most of them that night. But to be serious, what a game by Tugnutt that night.
Author: Chris Ostrander
Lighter, quicker, cheaper. Code for smaller, dumber, ineffective
I know dumber shows my prowess of the English language, but bear with me on this one. I had a long rambling post half written before I left work but all of my writing disappeared. So I get to start from scratch.
A while back I had a very productive conversation with a writer whose opinion I value greatly. Especially in the matter of development. We discussed a whole matter of topics ranging from the Outer Harbor to the Larkin District. However, the meat and potatoes of that conversation dealt with Canalside. The person’s name is Andrew Kulyk and he recently wrote a fantastic column regarding this topic for WNYMedia.net. Some of what is to follow will be quite similar to what Andrew wrote, mainly because we share a very similar opinion.
First I should thank Andrew for writing the column to give my brain a kick in the ass to write this post. I have been mulling over it for some time and I am now finally putting pen to paper….or fingers to keyboard in this case. Continue reading
The 24 hour “bug”
It is ironic to me that Sunday morning The Buffalo News ran a column by Bucky Gleason praising the run the Sabres have went on since January 1 as they have turned their playoff fortunes around. After a mind-boggling OTL to the Nashville Predators Jerry Sullivan is up to his usual tricks.
I read Sullivan’s column, he isn’t all that far off base. The Sabres were bad in the important moments of the game today. Sequences like that make you question if this roster is capable of making a playoff run. I have wondered that for the entire season. Last year I thought 5-7 would be a fitting seed for a Sabres team that was robbed of the postseason in 08-09 by Ryan Miller’s high ankle sprain (Scott Gomez is a d-bag). But, Miller channeled Dominik Hasek last year and helped to vault this team to a division title. Being overworked helped lead to a first round defeat at the hands of the Bruins.
This season the Sabres have fallen into the pace that I have pegged them for in the last few seasons. A finish that could put them anywhere from fifth place to tenth, depending on the point spread.
My problem is that Jerry Sullivan, who seems to only show up to Sabres games when it is convenient for him (being award-winning and all) always makes sure to shoot down the entire organization, if possible. Today he only targeted the players and he wasn’t off base. They played solid trap hockey for 18 minutes before Andrej Sekera reverted to his Eurotrash form and helped give the Preds some life. In no time at all Miller got beat with a questionable deflected bouncer that tied it up. When the dust settled the Sabres had gifted away one point.It was a classic example of a team assuming a finish and not driving to complete the task that they had so easily in hand.
I will say it again, Sullivan makes good points in his piece. This roster is simply not built to win in the playoffs. They probably aren’t well suited to make a run for the postseason when trailing by so many points. There are too many soft players and not enough guys who will punch you in the mouth and kick you while you’re down to win The Cup on this team. When management brings in those types of guys, losses like today won’t happen.
I want to try to stay on point here. The fact of the matter is that Sullivan attempts to demolish whatever faith is left in the people following this team. Maybe he is depressed because he works in a city that doesn’t really care about basketball and could give a rats ass about MLB. Still, rather than writing a critical, yet subjective column. He aimed to bring everyone to his miserable level. I guess you get that way when you’re overweight and root for Mizzou.
New Sabres goal song, learn it
The Sabres introduced a new goal song last night – well, it was supposed to debut against the Canes – and they got to test it out eight times. The song is “Swords of A Thousand Men” by Tenpole Tudor. It is a perfect goal song, just ignore the strange video.
The only thing I noticed about the song last night is that it didn’t fit well with what the Sabres have been doing after goals lately. They currently try and squeeze RJ’s goal call in with the song before the ensuing faceoff. It is just a little too much. They should take a page out of the Blackhawks book and start the song just after the horn goes off. Using Jeanneret is a cool touch but a goal song that will get the entire arena signing is much more effective.
Rick Martin has passed away
One of the most legendary players in Sabres history passed away today. According to The Buffalo News he died of a heart attack while driving this morning.
The Sabres organization and the Buffalo sports scene as a whole lost a great piece of their history today.
High fives for the NFL Lockout
I have to say I am very surprised that the NFL reached a lockout. I thought they would reach a deal after all of those extensions of the deadline.
But, they didn’t! I love it. Hopefully we all can go an entire year without looking at Bill Belichick while he thinks of new ways to cheat. We don’t need to hear how awesome Tom Brady, Peyton Manning etc. are at quaterback. Buffalonians also can go a year without watching the Bills stumble through the season. Continue reading
Roadie pays dividends for the Sabres
Just as the six-game home stand a few weeks back was supposed to define the Sabres’ season, the recent seven-game road swing was tabbed to do the same. I just love living in the present, don’t you?
Unlike the wasteful string of home games, the Sabres ran up a 4-2-1 record and vaulted into a playoff spot. While I never take too much stock in games in hand, they still have a few on the teams they are battling with in the race. Last night’s loss to Toronto cast a pall over the previous success because it was one of those “four point games”. Had Buffalo won, they would have taken a two point lead over the Rangers (albeit a brief lead), a four point lead over Carolina and effectively eliminated the Buds from any playoff contention. With the loss Buffalo dropped to eighth after New York’s shootout win and the Leafs are still within striking distance. Continue reading
Zdeno Chara almost killed someone
Last night Zdeno Chara, in an attempt to rub out Max Paciortetty, just about killed the Canadiens forward. See below:
Due to the severity of the injury and how viscous the play was, I think that Chara probably deserves a game or two suspension. Bob McKenzie has a similar viewpoint, which I agree with. It does look like he knew what he was doing as they approached the stanchion because his arm does come up a the last moment.
Was this more than likely a bad coincidence? Yes. But based on the severity of the play, you need to continue setting the precedent that head shots and dangerous plays have no place in the game.
I will say this, for the people saying Chara isn’t a dirty player. I have watched him enough to see that he takes as many liberties as he possibly can. Maybe he doesn’t take it to the level that Chris Pronger does, but he still takes his fair share of cheap shots.
If Tom Brady wasn’t a douche before, he is now
When Tom Brady let his flow grow out past The limit of being defined as “flow”, his douche status began to grow larger.
He has always been a douchey tool, his interviews alone confirm that. He has that obnoxious, condescending, nasaly tone that make me want to call Tanya Harding up for a clubbing appointment.
But that hairdo was just brutal. Then he busted out at Carnival with an even worse do and he showed just how bad a dancer he is too.
All of these things continue to pile onto the notion that he is a huge doucher. End of story.
Mark Parrish called to the big club
I’m not sure why, but innate always been a fan of Mark Parrish. His career has tailed off quite a bit, but his style of play has made him the type of guy I would like to see wearing blue and gold.
Therefore, when the Sabres brought him in on a PTO this summer I thought it was a brilliant move. He has 11 goals and 35 points in 42 games with Portland. He has scored eight points in his last two games, so there is still some talent there.
He certainly isn’t a long-term answer, but he has to be better than Mark Mancari. I’m fairly certain that Mancari’s photo and career stats serve as the definition for career AHLer on Urban Dictionary.
