Archives for March 16, 2011

‘The Sabres put 40 shots on Cam Ward tonight, but I wasn’t impressed with the quality of the chances, on the whole. Yes, Connolly, Vanek and Ennis all had great chances in front of the net that were stopped, but I would have liked more. Now there is 1 meeting between these two teams left this season, on April 3rd at RBC Center. We are a long ways away from that tilt, but it should be the one you are circling on your calendar now.’

‘With the clock winding down, the Hurricanes were applying pressure deep in the Buffalo zone, and Brandon Sutter dug a loose puck out of traffic in the slot and backhanded it into the Sabres’ net while falling to his knees to give Carolina a 1-0 lead with 43 seconds remaining in the first period.’

‘“He hit the blue line, he was going to find a way to put it in the net,” said Mike Robitaille, a Sabres broadcaster and former teammate who as a defenseman for the Vancouver Canucks played against Martin. “Scoring was everything to him,” Robitaille said.’

‘”This was a guy we grew up together with in Buffalo,” Ramsay said. “We came to a new team as a new group of new players and had some good success. He was a wonderful player, but a really good person. He stayed in the area and did a lot of charity work and put a lot of time in to maintain the image of the Buffalo Sabres. He was always an upbeat guy who was fun to be around. He’s a player I’m going to miss, as will everyone.”‘