Author: Chris Ostrander

Between the pipes: Pominville strikes in return to Buffalo

Chris OstranderLeave a comment

Yet another loss befell the Buffalo Sabres last night as they continue to trudge through the opening weeks of the 2013-14 season.

With an 0-6-1 record, the Sabres are firmly entrenched as the league’s worst club at the moment and it doesn’t appear they’ll be climbing out of the cellar anytime soon. The Sabres did, however, make some strides last night in stymying their opponents chances and generally playing quality defensive hockey. Not only did the Sabres manage to keep their opponent under 30 shots, but the Sabres actually led in the shots on goal department when the clock hit zero.

It didn’t matter much as former Sabres captain Jason Pominville registered the game winning goal on a pretty passing play late in the second period, giving the Wild their second lead of the game after Brian Flynn had knotted the score.

The game itself was something of a dud. Buffalo managed to keep the Wild quiet, despite losing the possession battle for long stretches. Meanwhile, Buffalo’s 23 shots weren’t littered with chances, leaving 60 minutes of relatively quiet hockey between the two teams.

Postgame criticism fell more on the organization as opposed to the players themselves as Pominville wasn’t honored or acknowledged during the game and many fans and media members alike felt that he should’ve been given some sort of recognition. As someone who isn’t prone to swoon over lost or departed players, I’m very much on the fence as to if this is a big deal or not. After all, the guy no longer plays for your team and was sent away in an effort to rebuild the roster. However, I think that they probably should have done something for Pominville. Continue reading →

Between the Pipes: Missing 40 minutes leads to loss in Chicago

Chris OstranderLeave a comment

Saturday marked what may have been one of Buffalo’s most complete efforts in this young season. In skating to a 2-1 loss to Chicago, the Sabres manage to keep their opponent within reach, due in large part to Ryan Miller, before mounting the counter attack to attempt to tie the contest.

Drew Stafford tallied midway through a third period dominated by the Sabres, but Buffalo couldn’t crack the code on Corey Crawford beyond Stafford’s tally. Miller shut the door on Chicago for the entire contest, recording 38 saves on the night but came away with his third loss of the year thanks to goals from Ben Smith and Patrick Kane.

The Sabres dug themselves an early hole due to a three separate infractions in the first period and five on the night. After Smith’s deflection gave the Blackhawks a lead in the first period, Kane and the potent ‘Hawks power play made the Sabres pay for their repeated penalties. Continue reading →

Tough to find patience with Sabres youth movement

Chris OstranderLeave a comment

The Sabres are a bad hockey team, we get it. What is surprising is that many fans entered the year under some sort of delusion that some form of tire fire wouldn’t unfold on the First Niagara Center ice this season.

With a 0-4-1 record and a looming matchup with the Blackhawks on Saturday, it’s safe to assume that 0-5-1 might not be too far away. However, the Sabres probably aren’t as bad as their record and their current play has indicated. They’ve already received three sterling performances in goal that resulted in exactly zero points for their efforts and a fourth solid outing that at least got the team to overtime.

Additional goal support should materialize eventually – although if their shooting and possession numbers don’t improve that may be wishful thinking. There are talented players on the roster who will eventually find a way to score more than once in a game. Perhaps it will take a little time for things to gel and when they do the Sabres will likely go from abhorrent to below average.

It’s a rebuild. This is what was expected to happen. Perhaps fans just weren’t ready for the worst of it. Continue reading →

Between the Pipes: Lackluster effort leads to lackluster result against #Lumbus

Chris OstranderLeave a comment

Things got ugly quick for the Sabres last night. Columbus scored just 1:51 into the contest and managed another early goal in the second period as well on their way to a 4-1 win.

Not pictured: the clothesline Ryan Miller was hung from last night

While the Sabres received a highlight reel tally from Thomas Vanek, there wasn’t much else to take away from the loss that set Buffalo back to 0-4-1 on the season. The Sabres added three more fights in a contest where they were badly outpossessed and outshot (33-27) yet again.

The first three Columbus goals – all scored in the first period – found their way behind Ryan Miller with little resistance offered by the Sabres skaters as Cam Atkinson and Marian Gaborik each tallied little more than tap-ins during the opening stanza.

Atkinson’s tally, a rebound off the crossbar, came with Tyler Myers spectating the play from beside the goal scorer. Nick Foligno scored the team’s second goal with an assist from Myers’ stick and ultimately Mike Weber’s skate before Gaborik deposited a two-on-one in which Weber entered the net before the puck did, effectively eliminating his goaltender from the play.

For the Sabres efforts, they nearly hit the 30-shot plateau but again didn’t offer many tests to their opponent’s netminder. Buffalo’s second line has been all but invisible this season with the vast majority of their chances coming off the sticks of their top line. Vanek and Cody Hodgson – who appears to deserve credit for playing injured – have been Buffalo’s lone offensive threats as the rest of the forwards continue to acclimate to what’s becoming unfamiliar territory (the attacking zone).

Saturday night shouldn’t offer much of a reprieve for the team as the Blackhawks will certainly be expected to steamroll the inferior opponents the Sabres will likely provide. Continue reading →

21st Century Park offers great opportunity for Outer Harbor

Chris OstranderLeave a comment

Momentum continues to build on Buffalo’s Outer Harbor as additional announcements continue to roll in after Governor Cuomo’s announcement confirming the NFTA’s withdrawl from the massive property  this year.park

The newest group to step forward is one pushing for a large park to be constructed on the Outer Harbor. Their plan calls for a massive 130 acre area to be occupied by a brand new park that would span between Wilkeson Pointe and the recently purchased Terminals A and B. The Buffalo News has all these details if you wish to learn more.

What interests me is the scope and approach of this proposal. While I’m not usually one to promote yet another open park in place of potential mixed use development along out waterfront, this strikes me as one of the strongest uses of waterfront land since the renewed interest in developing the waterfront began.

Of course, in typical Buffalo fashion, this is currently little more than a pretty drawing being promoted by a community interest group set to be presented along with other pretty drawings from other groups. Regardless, it serves as a strong use for a significantly large piece of land that’s sat vacant for far too long.

You may notice that this land is part of the proposed Bills stadium that was pitched earlier in the year. I’m not particularly fond of that stadium plan although I assume that group may be amongst those pitching ideas along with the 21st Century Park group – exactly how many wasn’t mentioned by the News.

Kudos to the 21st Century group for noting the Esmonde Template in securing noted preservation obstructionists as “close friends” as stated on the park website. This is the type of project that those two loveable “waterfront development enthusiasts” would promote, but it just goes to show the importance of securing the proper protection for your projects. Continue reading →

Between the Pipes: Sabres drop OT decision to Bolts

Chris OstranderLeave a comment
For my new goalie focused recap I chose a picture with two skaters.

For this season I’m going to try and mix things up a bit for game recaps. Since the blogging community continues to be well represented at each Sabres game, I know that there will be at least one or two quality recap for each game. In addition to the stories coming from the mainstream media sources in town I’d like to try to offer something of a slightly different ilk for my game recap.

So what I’m going to work out over these first few weeks is a little different take on the typical Sabres game recap. While I’ll still provide some basic elements of what occurred, my primary focus will be on the players between the pipes for both the Sabres and their opponents with some additional thoughts added at the end. So that’s the plan for now. If it happens to be garbage I’ll regroup with something that makes sense.

As for last night, it wasn’t the most painful hockey game that I’ve ever had to sit through. Buffalo’s inability to pass and cycle the puck was rather pathetic and their overwhelming lack of puck possession resulted in yet another imbalanced shot on goal tally that saw the Lightning nearly double Buffalo’s efforts at even strength (29 shots to 16 shots).

Despite that imbalance, the Sabres managed to stake themselves to a pair of one-goal leads thanks to their previously dormant power play and were a backwards whistle away from taking a two-goal lead early in the third.

That confusing play – which wound up being nothing more than a massive screw up by the officials – really wound up serving as the true turning point in the game. Somehow the officials missed Ott playing the puck on the sideboards – how I’m not quite sure – and waited until McBain shot to call the play. All of this combined to be massively confusing not only because of the goal, but because the Bolts had managed to get a whistle on a delayed penalty of their own after the puck struck one of their skates earlier in the period. So there was already a precedent of questionably ending plays on delayed penalties prior to this play. Add in that the high stick was a pretty weak call – as Vanek and Carle had gotten tied up behind the net – and it was a very ugly turn of events.

Oh yeah, and Tampa scored on the ensuing power play to tie the game.

The loss fell on Jhonas Enroth’s shoulders and his record is now 0-1-1 on the young season as the 31 saves matched his output against the Penguins on Saturday. Enroth’s play was strong despite fighting the puck early in the contest. His stiffest tests came from Tampa’s five power play shots and he responded well.

His counterpart, Ben Bishop, wasn’t very busy and coasted through most of the game without needing to make many impressive stops. Bishop’s finest save came when he flashed his glove on Mark Pysyk in the first and he was quite busy in the third as the Sabres fired 13 of their 23 shots during that stanza. Continue reading →

Extra Points: Injury and insult in Cleveland

Chris OstranderLeave a comment

In what has recently become a nearly annual blunder bowl for the NFL, the Bills and the Browns managed to put up some points on Thursday night in their primetime showdown.

A game that I joking referred to as the Mistake by The Lake Bowl has been exactly that for the last few meetings. In fact, three of the last five meetings between the two teams (entering Thursday) saw fewer than 20 points scored in the game. That includes the game played in a blinding snowstorm in 2007 and the windswept pillow fight in 2009, two games won by the Browns with a combined 14 points scored.

Thursday night, however was anything but a snoozer. The Bills leapt to an early lead, injured the Browns starting quarterback and had snatched momentum from the home squad. However, a pair of big punt returns, a strong return effort from Brandon Weeden and an injury to EJ Manuel turned the tables on the Bills quickly. Continue reading →

Ott and Vanek named co-captains, nothing to see here

Chris OstranderLeave a comment

This shouldn’t matter. At all. But because it’s Buffalo things have to be difficult.

The Sabres finally got around to naming their captains today and by choosing two , you know, instead of one, they managed to piss off plenty of people.

From an organization who unveiled the worst looking jersey this side of Gorton’s Fish Products in a painstaking slow process, it’s just another reason for annoyed fans to pile one. I personally don’t have that much of a problem with the decision to name Thomas Vanek and Steve Ott co-captains.

No word on if there is a third jersey captain who gets to wear one of these bad boys.

Yeah, it’s dumb to have two captains. I get it, I sat through the monthly captain rotation that Lindy Ruff instituted and I also watched as Chris Drury and Daniel Briere led the Sabres to the President’s Trophy sharing the “C”.

Ultimately this is pretty much a non-decision as Ron Rolston picking the two of the best candidates he had to wear a letter for this distinction. Why he couldn’t just choose one doesn’t make much sense, but it wasn’t a bad decision to pick the pair of Ott and Vanek. They both carry enough merit to be considered strong candidates to be named captain and were actually probably the two frontrunners along with Christian Ehrhoff.

Look at it this way, Rolston – and the organization as a whole – not only rewarded Ott for his contributions on the ice but in the locker room. He’s become a fan favorite, brings the ever popular blue collar attitude to the room and deserved recognition for that. His style of play isn’t necessarily that of a player you’d want as your captain, so perhaps that factored into the decision to keep him from wearing the “C” full time.

Vanek, on the other hand, is Buffalo’s best player. He’s one of the longest tenured players on the team, is probably the easiest choice when it comes to choosing a player to wear a letter (contract status not withstanding) and giving him a share of the captaincy could be an olive branch of sorts from management indicating they want him around.

Vanek stated that wearing the “C” doesn’t necessarily make him want to stay, but it is an indication that the team does indeed want him around. Even if it’s something that doesn’t cause him to sign tomorrow, showing him that level of respect is a step in the right direction. And if the team manages to open some eyes this season, perhaps he can be convinced to stay.

Or maybe they just want to artificially increase his trade value.

The Instigator Podcast 3.1 – Changing of the Seasons

Chris Ostrander1 Comment

Eric and I are back for season three of The Instigator Podcast. We wrap up the Sabres Blogger Summit that was held last night, chat about the roster for the upcoming season and play plus/minus with the candidates to wear the Sabres’ “C”.

Injuries present unique situation for Zadorov, Larsson

Chris OstranderLeave a comment

Something interesting happened to the Sabres in the past week. A run of injuries suffered at the tail end of the preseason created some unique roster opportunities for a handful of Sabres prospects.

Obviously the last thing any team wants is to suffer injuries. Particularly injuries to players who have been touted as key pieces to the future success of the franchise. Yet, the injuries to Joel Armia, Marcus Foligno and Nikita Zadorov aren’t going to cause the Sabres as much stress as you may originally believe.

All three players are bound to be shifted to injured reserve in order for the Sabres to meet the NHL’s roster requirements this afternoon. While it will prevent them from getting immediate ice time, they’ll have the opportunity to stay in Buffalo while they recover. Specifically for Armia and Zadorov it means spending more time with the team, working out here and just absorbing more time with the big club as they heal up. Particularly for Zadorov, that is a great benefit.

Zadorov’s injury should provide him some additional time in Buffalo before heading back to London.

Considering it appeared as if Zadorov was destined to be returned to London, he will now get approximately two more weeks to spend with the Sabres strength and conditioning staff and I’d gather he’ll probably have the chance to get on the ice a few times as well. While it wasn’t a guarantee, I do believe that the Sabres wanted to give Zadorov a nine-game tryout prior to his injury. Assuming that was indeed the case, his nine-game cameo might just come after he’s fully recovered. Comparing the two timelines is easy enough; two weeks plus nine games > nine games. Continue reading →