Archives for February 12, 2012

“I thought we were going to tie it up,” center Derek Roy said after the Sabres’ 2-1 loss. “We worked hard. We got some pucks at the net. We had looks. We hit a crossbar late. Those got to go in. We worked hard in the third, and we got to come out at the start of the game like that.”’

‘What they can learn from Saturday’s showing is 20 minutes of effort won’t cut it. Of course, that’s a lesson they should have learned long ago.’

‘”There were some tough times,” said Stamkos, who signed a five-year, $37.5 million contract in July. “We went through some injuries, obviously didn’t play as well as we wanted at the beginning of the year, maybe realizing what we did last year and how special that was and maybe coming into this year expecting to win and not earning it.”‘

‘“We’ve had some instances where we were down a goal late, up a goal late,” he said. “We knew how to react to those situations. You have that poise and that swagger you need to do well in this league that we didn’t have in the beginning of the year and it cost us some games.”’

Garon, Bolts grind out win over Sabres (Tampa Tribune)
Boucher tries not to change chemistry (Tampa Tribune)
Tampa Bay Lightning beats Buffalo Sabres 2-1 (Tampa Bay Times)
Tampa Bay Lightning coach Guy Boucher supports fine of Dominic Moore for Ruslan Fedotenko hit (Tampa Bay Times)
Lightning 2, Sabres 1 (TampaBayLightning.com)
Photo gallery (TampaBayLightning.com)
Photo gallery (Sabres.com)
Photo gallery (AP)
Photo gallery (WGRZ-TV)

‘“We played one period, but one period is not good enough,” Sabres coach Lindy Ruff said. “I was glad to see at least we came out in the third with some determination to try to make a difference.”’

‘It’s the third time the Sabres’ 2009 first-round draft pick has been called up this season. Saturday’s move comes a day after forward Cody McCormick was hurt in a 3-2 shootout win over Dallas.’

‘Buffalo had its chances to tie the game down the stretch.’

‘The Sabres continued to add pressure as the final period went on, coming up with a couple of great scoring chances with about 5 minutes to play in regulation. Vanek and Pominville both had quality opportunities, with the latter player robbed by Garon on a one-time shot from the near faceoff circle. Christian Ehrhoff had the best chance to tie the score in the game’s final minute, but rang a slapshot off the crossbar.’

‘Lindy Ruff said, “Right now Adam’s confidence level is low. He needs to go play, he needs to go play a lot of minutes, he needs to get back on the scoresheet and I don’t think it’s unlike a lot of young players, it’s been a tough stretch for him and Zack has been going well down there, he’s been scoring.”’