Taro T
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Posts posted by Taro T
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The way Ottawa is playing, it is going to be a tough road to hoe, but I hope the Sabres are at the very least competitive, unlike the first two meetings with the Senators.
This will be a very good opportunity to see the "character" of the team. They had it handed to them in the 1st 2 games. A loss against Ottawa will be acceptable to me provided they are competitive. Getting their butts handed to them will not be acceptable.
Maybe they'll get lucky and Ottawa will come out flat. I don't expect victory tonight, but hey, you never know. Assuming Buffalo skates hard in this game, I think it can help build momentum heading into a stretch of 5 very winnable games. I don't expect the Sabres to win all 5; but if they hustle, taking 4 of 5 is not outside the realm of possibility.
I must be warped, but I am very much looking forward to seeing the game tonight. I'm not sure why, but I do expect them to play much better than their last 2 outings against the Otters.
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The world has truly gone topsy turvy. I can't believe that I am the only person posting on this thread that was not impressed with the Sabres tonight. (There were parts I was impressed with, but overall I was disappointed in their play until the 3rd period. I WAS impressed with them in the 3rd, but boy was it a long 40 minutes to get there.) I was at the game tonight and have to say the Sabres are lucky to get the win tonight. If ol' Bats in His Belfour didn't stink, the Sabres would have been looking at their 5th straight.
Grier, until his goal played very poorly. He did not seem to hustle at all. Dumont played what was arguably his worst game ever as a Sabre. He got knocked around a lot and had great difficulty handling the puck. The Leafs outplayed Buffalo slightly in the 1st and tremendously in the 2nd. Buffalo did take the play to Toronto in the 3rd, but they need to put forth a better effort tomorrow or they will be embarassed again. Hopefully the way they played against Carolina and the fact they won tonight will provide them some momentum going into Ottawa, but I do not like the matchups.
Connolly's 1st goal was lucky but his 2nd was pure highlight reel. He also owned Sundin on faceoffs and was even with Lindros. Overall, good job Timmy.
I was impressed with Marty's play tonight. He had his usual mishandling of the puck on TO's 1st goal (in fairness to Marty, puckhandling seems to be one thing he did learn from Dom; he just never noticed that Dom did it poorly, in part, because he was bored), but he had no chance on their 2nd. I'm not sure who should have covered Lindros, but Lydman and Rory left him completely alone at Marty's side.
I was very glad to see Vanek get his 3rd. He could have had another in the 1st except Belfour made one of his few good saves against him.
Hopeless, your comment about the refs is very appropriate. After the game, I heard quite a few TO fans whining about the reffing. My thoughts at the time were, the refs didn't beat you; Belfour and the 3rd period were the reasons TO lost tonight.
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I was going to ask why Tallinder was getting so much ice time but then saw that McKee and Lydman are both out.
Tallinder needs to get his head back. He has already had at least 2 bad giveaways. Someone told me his wife had a baby about 2 weeks ago. His play has seemed to slump off since that time. He definitely needs to find a way to focus back on the game or the Sabres are in trouble.
During the broadcast the Canes announcers said that Carolina is down to 5 d (that was before Hedican got cut). Does anybody know what happened to their d corp? They usually go w/ 7.
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Well, let's see what they can do against Carolina. The game is a value game, so price will not be an issue for attendance.
I say bring Marty back and then let Mika play against Toronto. I expect them to come out firing on all cylinders on Wednesday, but I can't justify the expectation. In the past couple of years and this year as well, they have NOT played well after an extended layoff. I do not expect that trend to continue as Carolina will come in off a long rest as well and I expect Carolina to be overlooking the Sabres with division games coming up this weekend.
If they had played like this all game last night, they would have ended Moe-ray-aal's road unbeaten streak. Montreal played much stronger at home than I hoped they would.
I will admit my fears about somebody claiming Jillson off waivers when he was sent to the Amerks were grossly overstated as Jillson proved tonight why he is in the AHL.
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yep, but they need a strong effort tonight to prove to me that they havent lost their ability to win consistently, and to prove that, now that there is game tape on teams, they havent been figured out. Lindy must step up too with a good game plan that puts us in a position to win.
I can agree with that.
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This team has no right to lose on fluke goals, when they don't secure the 2 certain points against teams like The Caps, simple as that. They're playing themselves out of a playoff spot, and I can help but blame Ruff.
It is his job to keep his team fired up, and as usual he fails miserably. This team is nowhere near good enough to take nights off, and if he can't get that message across, it's time he got replaced with someone who can.
But this is The Sabres, the franchise that fires noone, and where consequence is something out of a dictionary.
Further, I'd like to hear Darcy's excuse for missing the playoffs in this "New NHL". I mean, this is the exact NHL he's built his team for the past 4 years, and guess what Darcy? They're STILL as crap as ever.
October was a fluke, here come the REAL Buffalo Sabres.... :angry:
This team lost to a Canadiens team that is off to its best road start in club history (going back to the teens). They are 6-0-1 on the road. Buffalo is not the only team Montreal has come back against on the road this season.
They outworked Montreal during the 1st half of the game but were outworked during the 2nd half. Should Buffalo gone into a complete defensive shell in the 3rd? Absolutely not, but lets have a little perspective here.
I don't want to hear Darcy's excuse for missing the playoffs because I don't want them to miss the playoffs. I've said before that I believe this team will end up most likely in the 7th spot in the East. To this point, I have not seen anything to shake my belief in that. If the Sabres go on an extended losing streak, then I will agree that they may miss the playoffs. Right now the longest losing streak is 2 games and the team is above .500.
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Dave, I can't say I noticed Drury except for the moment when he rang the shot of the cross bar. Granted, I think he has been a huge underachiever since he became a Sabre, but I'll give credit where credit is due, and the way I saw it, Drury was just another average Joe last night.
He drew the 1st penalty against the Habs in the 1st. Had a couple of real nice plays near the net in the 1st. Had several shots blocked. Good work on penalty kills. Hit a lot of Canadiens, unfortunately one of them on Kovalev was called boarding. Won most of his faceoffs, unfortunately did not win the one w/ 14 seconds left.
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I went to the game tonight. I thought Marty and Drury both played exceptional games.
Tallinder appeared to either be preoccupied by having just become a father or totally exhausted from having no sleep as he played what may very well have been his worst game ever as a Sabre. He took Smehlik's "clears the puck ... not out" to a whole new level. Hopefully he plays better tomorrow night or we are in trouble.
The team as a whole seemed to stop skating and definitely stopped forechecking after the review of whether Drury's shot went in or not. On the radio, the announcers were mentioning that Buffalo was outplayed the last 20 minutes. That is not true, they were outplayed the last 28 minutes. The team needs a much stronger effort tomorrow night.
I posted earlier that I hoped Mika would get the start on Saturday. After the way Marty played and the fact he still took the loss, I have changed my mind and would like to see Marty start again. Let Mika either start against the Canes or Leafs. As I mentioned, I thought Marty played very well tonight. The 1st and 3rd goals came off deflections and the 2nd goal came after Montreal held the puck in the Sabres zone for at least 1 minute (probably closer to 1-1/2 minutes).
Drury was a force on the ice tonight. If he had scored on the powerplay, he would have been the 1st star.
Fitzpatrick received 2nd star for his goal, but I did not feel he warranted being a game star. I've never understood why the game stars automatically go to the guys that put the puck in the net when there are other players that played much better. I guess it comes back to media guys being lazy or dumb, maybe there's another reason but at 1:30 AM I can't think of it.
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pretty bad at this point... im going to the friday night one... and im comin down for that game from burlington... they better shake this off... or else im not payin for anymore gold or silver games... yea it means nothing to them but it at least makes me feel like im not throwing money at a crappy product...
its like this... if you goto walmart and buy a flashlight and it works for a month then dies(not cuze of batteries)... what do you do... return it... well the sabres worked for a month, no more... but i can't return them... so i just won't shop at that box office for highpriced products anymore ;)
On paper it looks bad, but the games aren't played on paper.
I would start Marty on Friday. He now has more or less 2 games under his belt. He got off to a shaky start against the Isles but recovered well enough for the team to win. He got off to a shaky start against Ottawa, but in fairness, the team didn't clear any rebounds for him and he was playing against the best team in the east and he didn't expect to be starting much ahead of time. We will get a chance to see if age has allowed him to improve his mental toughness any and his ability to handle adversity. It looked like it had against the Isles. Ottawa was a cluster waiting to happen.
I would start Mika on Saturday. He will have a chance to get some shots in practice today and the morning skates on Friday and Saturday and will have 3 days to try to get his head back into it. He looked very shaky last night, but a lot of that was probably due to a lack of confidence that his positioning and reflexes would be ready for the onslaught that was to befall him.
I'm not ready to say that the team is doomed, nor am I ready to say the team will come through with flying colors. I am hoping the team survives the weekend, they will then be off until Wednesday and can regroup at that time.
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thats a good point but belfours job is secure and he'll bounce back... theres a huge gap beetween biron and miller... miller is just solid and extends and gets in position fast and hard while biron kinda just throws himself in the way or waves a pad at a goal... he looks more scared in there then confident... miller stands up against everything!
I didn't see any of the preseason games, but it did not appear from the stat sheets and game reports that Marty played poorly in the preseason. I will agree (again based upon what I read) that Ryan outplayed Marty in the preseason.
Based upon that, and the fact that Marty has not been as mentally tough as I might like him to be, I had hoped that Lindy would NOT play mind games with Biron for just this reason - the team might actually need to use it's backup. I had hoped that Marty would have had a start roughly every 4 games. He didn't and now he will have to play the "rust" off. Either that or Mika will have to play the rust off. It might be easier for Mika to put this game behind him as he didn't even think he would be a warmup goalie this evening, much less play when he woke up this morning. There is no way Mika could have been fully mentally ready for this game on this short of notice. He can get himself mentally ready for the next start, the question is, how long to get physically ready. He was going down VERY early, as he has more confidence in his positioning and reactions, that problem should abate.
In the Isles game, I was very impressed with the way Marty did not just fold up after he gave up the 2 quick goals. Hopefully, Lindy can find a way for Marty (& Mika) to put this game behind him. I think Lindy needs to tell the goalies who will start on Friday and what the terms are to play again on Saturday. My personal preference would be for Lindy to plan on playing one in Buffalo and the other in Montreal and let the goalies know that ahead of time.
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I don't think anyone would question that Muckler is by far a better GM than Regier. I never understood how we lost both Muckler and Nolan.
But that was 8 years, and two owners ago. We could just as easily moan about losing Bowman. That's in the distant past, too.
It was also with the SAME TEAM PRESIDENT THE TEAM CURRENTLY HAS. So, while it is ancient history, it may bear remembering.
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... were getting a bag of pucks for biron gaurenteed now.
Not necessarily. Biron and Noronen will both have opportunities to get the "rust" worked off especially if Ryan really is out 6-8 weeks. It would have been nice to see Biron (or Noronen) keep some of the rust off earlier in the season, but hey, it's a good thing to never play your backup because you know you will never need him in a pinch. <_<
Marty and Noronen will not be judged on this one game alone anymore than Belfour was judged on his last game against Ottawa. This may actually result in Marty or Mika having MORE trade value than just sitting on the bench or the press box.
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On the bright side, the Sabres can only get thumped by these guys 6 more times during the regular season.
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You guys are funny :lol:
What did you expect.
You sit two goalies for the first month of the season. Give one a token start. And then expect them to shut down the best team in hockey.
Take a good look at the Sen's.
They have had the same problems off the ice as Buffalo has had. They even have to deal with the currencey issue. And yet they are miles and miles ahead of the Sabres.
And by the way. Who is the Sen's GM? Who traded for Heatley?
OK. Come on. Start posting on how Regier is a great GM. Larry Quinn is moron. Getting rid of Muckler and signing the cheapest priced guy they could find. Muckler is building a Cup team in Ottawa just like he did in Buffalo. I doubt they will be as stupid as Quinn was and fire him before he is done. ;)
The Sens also had the 2nd overall draft pick when they came into the league and 4 straight years of finishing dead last overall. Give the Sabres (or any team) essentially the top drafting position for 5 straight seasons and they will most likely have a good nucleus to build upon. (It worked for Colorado as well.)
The Sens also in my opinion have the best scouting department in hockey.
Yes, Muckler is a better GM than Regier and you ABSOLUTELY HIT THE NAIL ON THE HEAD w/ regard to Larry. Larry coming back was the primary reason I was leary of the Golisano bid. Muckler brought in Heatley and Dom. He did not bring in Alfreddson, Havlat, Spezza, Chara, etc.
What could Darcy have offered Atlanta for Heatley, just out of curiosity? Ottawa had Hossa available (who Muckler did not bring to Ottawa by the way), do you think Atlanta might have been willing to give him to the Sabres for Dumont or even Satan had the Sabres re-signed him?
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Remember, Marty gave up 2 quick goals on the island as well, and that worked out ok.
That said, ouch. (These guys their playing aren't the islanders.)
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When you say the Sabres are scoring "a Lot" more goals. Is it possible it is an artificial inflation? Is not scoring up around the league because of the new rules? Are not other teams having the same increase in scoring? Have the Sabres gained anything? I am looking around at the rest of the Conference and it worries me. I want the Sabres to make the playoffs more then anything. More then the Bills. I see Drury with a history of pro-longed droughts and Vanek having trouble finding his touch and I worry. This defense is weak. They got knocked of the puck easily against a weak Caps team.
If Miller is not rock solid and Briere doesn't score this team can't seem to win. They need to be more than that. :(
It is possible that the additional goals are due to "goal inflation", but if that's the case then their giving up the same number of goals as last time would be the improvement. Toe-may-toe, Tah-mah-toe, I'll take it either way.
I wouldn't say the D is "weak" but it definitely isn't in the top 5. I'm not sure where I'd rank it, as I haven't really given that much thought yet. I'd probably put it somewhere in the lower middle of the pack (say between 15 & 20). If Ryan stays solid and the forwards continue to work hard & smart in their own end, the team should stay in good shape. IMHO, the D has been the weak link on this team for several seasons. They've overcome the D in the past, I think the way this team is assembled they can overcome it again.
I think it is way too early to know where the Sabres stand w/ respect to the rest of the east. Teams are still getting a handle on the new rules and new teammates. I don't think the "order" will fully display itself for about another month. That being said, I am comfortable with where they are now and don't expect a huge dropoff (nor a huge improvement for that matter).
I also think the team is much more than just Ryan and Danny. They are the flashy ones now, but the wins (and at least the Caps loss) have been team efforts.
One thing that hasn't been mentioned, but may be a factor in the Sabres favor as the season progresses, is the fact that the Sabres for the most part are interchangeable and they have some NHL level talent in Rochester. Injuries, which may decimate some other teams won't kill the Sabres (injury to Miller being the obvious POSSIBLE exception). The Sabres are a team full of 2nd and 3rd liners (for the most part) and they have guys in Rochester that can also play at that level.
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DeLuca,
My bad, I was not as clear as I meant to be this morning (no coffee or something). I did not mean to imply that the team is essentially no better off than where they were last time out. I think that they ARE better off than where they were in '03.
I wasn't saying they were essentially the same as last year, I was saying they were similar to last year, but with 1 BIG improvement. They are scoring a LOT more goals than they did last time. They still play a defensive style that limits the opponent's scoring chances, provided they stay out of the penalty box. They give up a lot of shots, but most of those shots are low percentage shots from the perimeter. Keeping the opponents at less than 3 goals against per game will translate into a decent # of victories especially if they keep scoring the way they have been.
For whatever reason, they did not skate from the time that Washington tied it up at 1 until the last 4 minutes of the game. I don't expect that to be a regular occurance. They have skated very well in the games I have watched. There have been people posting that the fact they didn't play well against a bad team causes them concern. I don't know if the problem was overconfidence or if it was due to bad ice and the strange dynamic of playing in Rochester. (NONE of these guys wants to play in Rochester, maybe there was something psychological to it.) We will know a lot more about whether this is SOS (same old Sabres) when they play Carolina in 2 weeks. Carolina is not playing like a bad team this year, but I have to believe the Sabres will have it in their heads that they ARE a bad team. (They're Carolina for crying out loud!) If the Sabres stink that game, then yes, it's SOS; if not, I'll write last night off as an aberration.
I did not have the opportunity to see the Florida game, so I can't comment on that.
As for Drury, I will agree with you, the guy makes more than a checking center should make. I think he signed a 3 year deal, so he will still be getting paid "a lot" through next season. The Sabres aren't going to waive him and it is doubtful someone else would trade for him, and he is good at what he does. So appreciate him for what he is: a good hockey player that brings a lot of intangibles to the team but is not going to give you more than 20-25 goals in a season.
Especially with Drury on the team, the Sabres are an oddity (no, I don't even want to think how you will respond to that partial statement, so please let me continue the thought (sorry smilies aren't working right now for some reason)) in that their 2nd line is a checking line and their 3rd line is their 2nd scoring line. That's not necessarily a bad thing, as now your 2nd line goes against the opponent's top line and your 3rd line gets to play against the opponent's 2nd line.
I like the Sabres make up so far this year. Yes I would like to see the team improved, but from what I have seen so far, I have seen nothing to alter my belief that they can be in the playoffs this year. (I don't expect any changes to the team until near the trade deadline (Darcy is the GM afterall), but on the bright side the trade deadline is a few weeks earlier this year!) They aren't legitimate Cup contenders YET, but they are young and can add pieces to the puzzle. I think they MAY be legitimate contenders in ~2 more years, maybe even next year. (It starts and ends with goaltending.) I plan on enjoying the ride this year, hoping they end up with something they can build on.
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Guys, it's ONE bad game. If they repeat it, yeah there may be reason to be concerned. I fully expect them to come out and play much better this weekend. It's not a good thing that they threw away the 2 points last night, but some good may come from it. Hopefully this was a wake up call for them to realize that they weren't winning because they were inherently better than the opposition, they were winning because they were outskating the opposition.
Just for a little perspective, they are now sitting at 6-3, last year they were 5-4 at this point. They gave up 25 goals through the 1st 9 both years. The difference in where that 1 extra win came from is they are sitting w/ 27 goals right now vs 21 last year. The extra goals came from them getting a ton more shots than last year. If they go back to skating like crazy, they will go back to getting a ton of shots. They score on essentially the same %age of their shots as the opposition. Outshoot (read: outwork) the opposition and the W's will come.
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The Caps look a helluva lot better than their record.
It looks like Buffalo just can't get it going and the Caps are able to slow down the pace of the game. Do you guys think that the smaller ice (it appears much smaller than regulation on the Comcast/Caps coverage) kind of plays in to Washington's hands?
It's only 3 ft shorter than an NHL rink, but it did seem to throw them off in the 1st.
I thought they were marginally outplaying the Caps in the 1st until they scored. Washington coming right back definitely took the life out of them and the little bit of life that was in the crowd. I was surprised the crowd was as quiet as it was, granted the Sabres gave us little to cheer about, but the crowd was close to a sellout (I'd say 90-95% of the seats were sold).
Washington scoring early in the 2nd pretty well crushed the team and the fans. It shouldn't have, but it did.
WAY TOO MANY stupid PENALTIES.
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Don't worry ... if the Sabres keep winning this board will get busy and the mods will whine to Scott until he caves on guest posting. Scott disappoints me.
Kinda curious how no one jumped up and down yesterday when the Rangers were jobbed by the officials. Can you imagine how many posts about small market conspiracies there would be if the roles were reversed.
No one circles the bandwagon like a Buffalo fan.
Rangers weren't jobbed. Quick whistles are a fact of life. The Sabres will be on the short end of more than one of those before the season is over.
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I have a question. Was at the game and was not certain what exactly the call was on the Rangers in the 1st. I know they called it delay of game, but was it because the Rangers were slow to the faceoff circle or something else?
Any clarification would be appreciated.
Also, to all the Pyatt haters out there, he finally had the game you've been claiming he's had the 1st few games.
GAME THREAD
in 2005/2006 Season
Posted
On the plus side, the Sabres don't play these guys again until February. (Also on the plus side, they scored A goal.)
On the downside, when the playoff races heat up, they play Ottawa twice in late March and twice in April. Actually, that may work out in the Sabres favor if Ottawa has locked itself into a particular seeding (1 or 2) and they may have nothing to play for in April.