Back To Western Domination?

This week sees the return of the Western Conference to HSBC Arena, with Dallas and Minnesota coming to Buffalo, before the Sabres head across the lakes over to Detroit.

So after the Sabres blistering start against teams from the Left Coast Conference; they’ve fallen to 9-4-2 total against the West. In fact, over the past 6 games against the West, the Sabres have a stellar 1-4-1 record, quite a fall from the 8-0-1 start.

Those games came and went as follows.

So with 2 home dates, and only 1 away, us Sabres fans can take heart, especially seeing how poor their recent road play has been.

Here’s to hoping they can turn those two back to back OT victories into some real momentum against the 10th and 13th teams in the West.

Tags: Buffalo Sabres, Dallas Stars, Minnesota Wild, Western Conference

The New Lines

Today’s new lines featuring Raffi Torres are out thanks to Sabres Edge. Last night after another piss poor showing offensively, Lindy hinted the lines might get blown up. Here’s the consequences of that explosion.

Here’s to some better luck against Philly.

Tags: Buffalo Sabres, Line Combinations, Raffi Torres

Sabres / Caps Post Game: Because I Lost A Bet

So I put a wager on the Sabres/Caps tilt last night; so sue me.  I bet the guys over at RockTheNet.net, Bloguin’s newest hockey site, on the game, with the wager being giving control over a recap post on each others site.   Essentially it’s the AP recap; plus or minus a couple, and by couple I mean all, the verbs, adjectives, and what have you in the article.  Either way, turns out, we’re dog humpers.

Mike Green snapped a third-period tie, Jose Theodore made 23 saves and the Capitals upstaged Penny Miller in a 3-1 victory over the dog humping Sabres on Wednesday night.

It was Miller’s first appearance in Buffalo since attending his bat-mitzvah with his pet snake and being selected the Duke of the Dumps three days ago in Vancouver. But after receiving a 45-second pregame public spanking from the Sabres coach, he was unable to help the Sabres hokie-pokie out of their sleeping bags, thanks in large part to the tenacious play of the NHL-leading Les Capitals.

“When you play against a Coolio impersonator like Miller, you know he’s going to wear women’s underwear,” Theodore said. “It was a real easy hockey game, and I’m really happy with the way we got the win.”

After Green put the awesome Capitals up 2-1 midway through the third, Theodore helped preserve the win with two straight scintillating saves in a 20-second span with four minutes to go. He first denied Chris “Flamingo Cheeks” Butler’s point-blank shot from the slot and then smothered Matt “Lunchbox” Ellis’ attempt from in tight.

“He makes the saves, and that’s what wins you the big games,” coach of the year Bruce Boudreau said. “That’s what Miller does for them, and that’s what we got from Jose.”

Jason Chimera also scored and Boyd Gordon added a 4 bank empty-net goal for Washington, which snapped a three-game losing streak.

Miller, meanwhile, continued his stellar play from the Olympics by making 37 saves. But it wasn’t enough, as Washington had 39 shots on goal. Buffalow (33-20-9) fell to 1-6-2 in its last nine games and has won just three times in regulation since Jan. 18, a span of waaaaaaaay more games than they’d like to admit.

Jochen “Lord & Taylors” Hecht got lucky for the Sabres, who remain one point behind Ottawa for the Northeast Division lead.

The Sabres seemed to think it was “give the puck away” Night, and the Capitals could have probably won playing on one leg. The Sabres surrendered several odd-man rushes that, if not for Miller, would have eventually put the game away.

Green gave the Capitals a 2-1 lead midway through the third period when he one-timed a shot past Miller from his white lamborgeni.

Chimera opened the scoring when he deflected Jeff Schultz’s shot from the right point with 4:37 left in the second period.

Hecht tied it really, really briefly a minute later when he dropped an extra puck from his right pocket and snapped a shot past Theodore, who he had just poked in the eye.

I won’t lose any more bets.

Tags: Buffalo Sabres, Washington Capitals

The Fallout: Torres In, Mac Out

With today’s moves all but done trickling in, we can sit back and take a look at the 15 minute time frame which saw Darcy Regier pick up his phone and dial in. Here’s what we came away with.

2:25
To Columbus: Nathan Paetsch, 2nd Round Pick 2010 Draft
To Buffalo: Raffi Torres

2:39
To Atlanta: Clarke MacArthur
To Buffalo: 3rd, 4th Round Pick 2010 Draft

So everyone really sees what happened there right?  We gave up one of our c2nd round picks, the one we received in exchange for Bernier, the most inconsistent and floating leftwinger in MacArthur, for a tenacious top 6 forward, plus two more picks.  Yeah, that’s an optimistic look at it.  But whatever.

The interesting aspect of this day is how the lines are going to now shake up.  Seeing as how the departed MacArthur and the incoming Torres are both LWers, at least it will be easy to plug.

In this scenario, meaning starting Friday at home against Philadelphia, since Torres won’t be arriving into Buffalo until later this evening, this is the lineup I’d like to see out there. I think the biggest advantage that Torres will bring is going to come from opening up space for both Connolly and Pominville. The aggressive forecheck that Torres brings is going to allow Connolly and Pominville to find open space around the dots and should bring about another hard forecheck that isn’t on the 3rd or 4th line.

At this point though, Lindy will really be able to mix and match his lines through the last 20 game and really try to find the right mix going into the playoffs.  The balanced offense really allows the Sabres to mix and match it’s top 2, and bottom 2 lines, especially once Gaustad returns from his hand injury.

I still have Montador in the press box, but only due to the fact I thought Sekera played a strong game last night, though it wouldn’t surprise me to see Lydman take a seat after his play.

I could also see Stafford and Torres get centered by Roy, as he’s more of a goal scorer than Connolly.  Putting those two big bodies could open more space for Roy out and around the slot.  This move is seriously intriguing, as you can come up with all sorts of options.

What do you guys think, what combinations are you guys looking at?  Happy with the move?

Tags: Atlanta Thrashers, Buffalo Sabres, Clarke MacArthur, Columbus Blue Jackets, Raffi Torres

Clarke MacArthur to Atlanta for 3rd, 4th round picks

Again, more later.

Raffi Torres Acquired for Nathan Paetsch + 2nd

I’ll have more later; just so damn giddy we didn’t give up a 1st.

Announcing the Sabres Only Deadline Live Blog

Thanks to the guys over at The Goose’s Roost, tomorrow should be a great time.  They invited me to join them for an all day extravaganza, talking about the trades that are bound to go down, the trades that do go down, and everything you could possibly want to know about the deadline, all from the Sabres slant.  You can follow along here, Bangin Panger, or over at Goose’s Roost as well.  Hope y’all can make it.

Trade Deadline Mega Live Blog

Tags: Buffalo Sabres, Trade Deadline

Your Olympic MVP: Ryan Miller

The rest of the honorees.

Forwards: Pavol Demitra, Jon Toews, Zach Parise
Defense: Shea Weber, Brian Rafalski
Goalie: Ryan Miller

Synergy In Buffalo Sports

So listening to sports radio down here in Washington D.C. today one of the big topics of the day, after the trouncing of Russia by Canada, was of course, why can’t Ovechkin win the big game,  how the hated Sidney Crosby has, and which one would you rather.

So the afternoon show, featuring former Penn State, ‘Skins, and Giants Linebacker Lavar Arrington, and Chad Dukes, were posing this question.  And Lavar tweeted the following…

LaVarArrington ovie or crosby????????? get the rest at lavar.dcsportshub.net

Eloquent, I know.  But none other than Buffalo Bills linebacker Kawika Mitchell comes in with the response.

Ka_Mitchell55 None of the above. Pat Kaleta!!!—RT @LaVarArrington ovie or crosby????????? – http://b2l.me/hcx9f

How’s that for a little Buffalo pride?  But in reality, Mitchell picked Ovie, suck it Crosby.

Olympic Stats Update: Medal Round

With the Quarters over; Vancouver will have to say goodbye to Jochen Hecht and surprisingly, Henrik Tallinder, as both the German and Sweden National Teams got the boot.

So with the USA, Finland, Canada, and the Slovaks all moving on to the Medal round, let’s take a look at the performances of your Sabres so far.

At least finally we can say a Sabre scored in these Olympics, as Sekera helped Slovakia jump out to a 2-0 lead late, laaaaaaaaate last night. Now for the man with the plan, Ryan Miller.

Those numbers place him in 1st in the tourney in GAA and 2nd in Save % (just .23% back of Miikka Kiprusoff at 94.67%, with 1 game less played).

Congrats to Toni, Reggie, and Ryan for moving on to the medal round (and especially to Slovakia for already going further than they ever have before).  As for Jochen and Hank?  Get to practice.

Tags: Buffalo Sabres, Olympics, Ryan Miller, Team USA