Buffalo Sabres

Sabres vs. Flyers breakdown

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The Sabres and Flyers get their series started tonight and many members of the media see this as one of the most even series of the entire first round. I’m not so confident in the Sabres ability to get past Philly. I certainly believe that they have the tools capable of pulling the upset. Of course, there is a reason the Philly was the second best team in the NHL for most of the season.

Why buffalo will win:

Ryan Miller. He has vastly improved his play from the beginning of the year. I feel that a great deal of that has to do with his workload and his health. He has played his best hockey since Jhonas Enroth has come up from Portland. If his extra rest has given him an edge then the Sabres will be in good shape. Continue reading →

2ITB first-round predictions

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After going just about o’fer on my regular season predictions, here is a look at who I think will advance in the first round of the NHL Playoffs.

East

1. Washington Capitals vs. 8. New York Rangers

This is an interesting series. If Ryan Callahan was healthy and the Rangers had better scoring depth they could really give the Caps a run. However, they don’t have those two things. The Rangers have Henrik Lundqvist and block a lot of shots. It ends there. The Caps play good defense and can score in bunches. Their goaltending is quite suspect but Alex Ovechkin has been heating up over the last half of the season. Plus, Jason Arnott and Scott Hannan were two fantastic acquisitions by George McPhee. Caps in five.

Continue reading →

Looking back at my conference predictions

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A prognosticator I am not. My mock NFL Draft senior year was about 15% correct. When I went about predicting the NHL’s playoff picture back in October, I didn’t have high hopes. Let us see how 2ITB did:

East

Prediction – 1. WAS, 2. PIT, 3. BOS, 4. NJD, 5. BUF, 6. OTT, 7. MTL, 8. PHI, 9. NYR, 10. CAR, 11. TOR, 12. TBL, 13. NYI, 14. ATL, 15. FLA

Actual – 1. WAS, 2. PHI, 3. BOS, 4. PIT, 5. TBL, 6. MTL, 7. BUF, 8. NYR, 9. CAR, 10. TOR, 11. NJD, 12. ATL, 13. OTT, 14. NYI, 15. FLA

So I was a bit off in the middle. Not too many people would have bet on that epic collapse by New Jersey and I, admittedly put far too much stock in Brian Elliott and Pascal Leclaire. Philadelphia overachieved (according to my original calculation) and I vastly underestimated Tampa Bay.

Washington was a pretty easy choice to make, as was keeping Atlanta, Florida and the Islanders at the bottom. Otherwise it was a hodgepodge of close calls and near misses.

West

Prediction – 1. LA, 2. VAN, 3. CHI, 4. SJ, 5. DET, 6. NSH, 7. ANA, 8. CGY, 9. COL, 10. PHX, 11. STL, 12. DAL, 13. MIN, 14. CBJ, 15. EDM

Actual – 1. VAN, 2. SJ, 3. DET, 4. ANA, 5. NSH, 6. PHX, 7. LA, 8. CHI, 9. DAL, 10. CGY, 11. STL, 12. MIN, 13. CBJ, 14. COL, 15. EDM

Since the West is such a crap shoot it would have been pretty hard to predict either way. I gave LA too much credit and it turns out the Hawks didn’t have close to enough depth to compete at the level they did last year.

My biggest oversight was with Colorado at nine, turns out they really stink. The Western playoff picture is extremely interesting this season, with the amount of parity out there it isn’t a stretch to say that any team can advance and any team could have finished two to four places higher.

Ryan Miller wants more from the fans. I agree

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In his comments to reporters today Ryan Miller came out and said he wants HSBC Arena to be louder for the playoffs. I think he is spot on in asking for more from the Sabres fans.

During far too many Sabres games this season, before and after Pegula Day, the Arena has been far too quiet. A great deal of blame can be saddled on the team for lackluster play (see, 3-0 vs. St. Louis) but the fans certainly don’t help the cause. Continue reading →

White at home. Please.

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It is about time the NHL switched back to white jerseys at home and dark on the road.

I say this for two reasons. The Sabres’ white jerseys might be the best in the league and I want to see them here, rather than on TV. Secondly, so many other teams have horrible white uniforms but great dark sweaters, see the Flyers.

After watching Buffalo sport their whites at home a handful of times this year, I really began yearning for the NHL to switch their mandate. It was originally set up to keep teams from needing to bring two sets of gear on long road trips in the event the home team would be wearing their alternate jerseys. Of course, the desire to sell more dark jerseys on a league-wide scale probably had something to do with it too. Continue reading →

Sabres clinch over Flyers

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The Sabres certainly didn’t make it easy on themselves. They only needed to earn one point over their final two games, but they were against teams that wouldn’t give Buffalo a free pass.

Four minutes of really bad hockey looked like it might doom Buffalo last night, but Nathan Gerbe had a goal of the year candidate to tie the game in the third and Thomas Vanek put it away early in OT.

"Yo Stanly Cup Playoffs. Here come the Buffalo Sabres."

Due credit goes to the HSBC Arena crowd for a high-energy night with the only lull coming during the Flyers’ second period run and a slow-going first period. Otherwise that was as loud as I have heard HSBC this season. Between the stirring pre-game ceremony to the rousing ovation at the end of regulation, the place was rocking last night. Continue reading →

A night in the booth with RJ

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I have done stats for a lot of play-by-play and color guy. There was one duo who I had never worked with, Rick Jeanneret and Harry Neale. Last night I was able to add them to my list.

Through some stroke of luck I was asked to sit and do stats for MSG for the Sabres final game against the Flyers last night. For someone who grew up listening to Jeanneret call games and watching Neale on Hockey Night in Canada, it was going to be a cool experience. Now, I had gotten to know these guys when I worked for the team previously, so I wasn’t all geeked up over getting to be in the booth with them. This was more of a professional accomplishment for me. Continue reading →

Time to do work

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Tonight could be the night. After December, fans were thinking a lottery pick was in the future. Now the Buffalo Sabres are one point away from the NHL Playoffs.

Thanks to a little help from the Thrashers – and a no-show by the Rangers – Buffalo has a magic number of one to clinch over New York or Carolina. The Thrashers could do Buffalo a huge favor tonight by putting away the Canes at Phillips Arena. Continue reading →

A potential Sabres Hall of Fame

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There is about to be 10,000 square feet of space open on the Buffalo waterfront. The problem is that most of Buffalo probably doesn’t know the space exists.

Because that is a GREAT location

For the past three years the Ira G. Ross Aerospace Museum has occupied the space in HSBC Arena behind the Sabres Store. They just learned that their lease will not be renewed.

This is both good and bad news. First of all, raise your hand if you knew the aerospace museum was located in the arena. Keep your hands up if you know where the entrance to the museum is…Bueller…Bueller….anybody? That is because the door is tucked around the corner of Main and Perry across from the “subway” tracks and the fenced in area that stores floating docks in the winter. Not exactly a prime location for foot traffic. Continue reading →

Hey Tim, thanks for showing up

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Tonight’s Bruins-Rangers game was somewhere in the limbo that exists between a catch-22 and a win-win scenario. On one hand, a Rangers win all but eliminates the Maple Leafs and makes Carolina’s mountain that much steeper. On the other hand, a Boston win would keep the Sabres in seventh place and knock off another game for the Rags and giving Buffalo a magic number of three.

Well, Tim Thomas let in three pretty bad goals as the Bruins gave up a three-goal lead and took one on the chin, 5-3 to the Rangers. Looking at the whole situation I’m happy the Rangers won. I think Zdeno Chara is a scummer and I enjoy seeing him lose. The same goes for Brad Marchand, Gregory Campbell and Milan Lucic. Besides, one loss for the Rangers doesn’t do all that much for the Sabres’ hopes. If the Canes lose Wednesday, that is a whole different story.

Still, the fact that the Bruins folded like a tent after building a three-goal lead isn’t a good sign for them. Not to mention, their Vezina Candidate didn’t make any big saves for them when they needed it. Actually, he didn’t make many saves at all, whether they were routine or big saves.

For my money I don’t know if I want to see the Bruins in the first round. The Capitals are the best matchup on paper but the Sabres don’t play them too well. That leaves the Flyers who are backing their way into the playoffs themselves. If it came down to the Bruins or Flyers, I would take the Bruins. The Flyers’ size and depth scares me more than the thought of having to exorcise demons from last years playoffs.