SabresBaltimore

Haha. I like that.

I saw that too. I think Eichel is our energy/drive but ROR is our heart. He was pissed at his play on one of the King's goals and willed himself a goal, and got the crowd and the rest of the team going as a result. He reminds me of Drury a bit.

Haha. Nice job. December 13th is entirely too early to be this down on Buffalo sports, but here we are. I haven't been following the league at large but the Buffalo News had a story up today about how the Eastern Conference is dominating the west, making it even harder for us to come back. (http://buffalonews.com/2016/12/12/playoff-race-slipping-away-sabres-east-foes-stay-hot/) " the East is 92-54-19 against the West, while the West was just 73-74-18 against the East" Hopefully we can pile on by dominating a west team tonight.

I'll admit that when they let Edmonton tie it up and then went down 3-2 I gave up on the game. If I wasn't caught up to the live game by that point, I probably would have skimmed ahead to the end. If I pay to go to the game I always stay to the end no matter what though.

Ugh. I didn't even know who Fedun was, but he seemed to be a decent bottom 6/PP specialist call-up. We really need some more depth at defense tough..

So personally I think RoR should be our next captain. If we give him a letter I'd rather it be an A along with Risto. Jack should just focus on scoring. I still don't like the choice of making Ovechkin the captain of the Capitals. He's their biggest cheerleader, but hasn't been their best leader. That's maybe finally started to change in the last season or two, but he's been their captain for how long? I guess with that long term contract though it was a safe pick for someone who wasn't going anywhere. And McDavid being captain in Edmonton is ridiculous. Then again this is the same franchise whose had like 5 number one overall picks in the last few years and only now are starting to win some games. Probably due to McDavid. But captain? No he should just go out there and score. I don't really think the leading goal scorer should be captain in general. I prefer captains to be your heart and soul guy. That said, I'd be OK with it. The team certainly seems to have responded to his return. And as others have said, I think the players should vote. It's their team. If they vote Eichel so be it.

Eichel turning it on in the 3rd to get us the win was fantastic. Us putting up more goals than the top scoring team in the league was fantastic. Us killing time in the last 2 minutes by forechecking? Holy ! When was the last time that happened? I really hope we keep seeing this. So 1 goal in his first game, 2 goals in his second game. That means Eichel is due for a Hat Trick against Boston on Saturday, right?

Rags must be scared of Eichel

Thanks Peppy!

Man. I almost bought a Girgenson jersey a few years back. I guess I'm glad I waited. I can't tell if he was just a fluke under Nolan, or if he is that incapable of playing Bylsma's system.

Man. I hope Jack is fully healthy. I'm sure he wants to play tonight, and since he's declaring himself ready, I'll be surprised if he doesn't. I just don't want to see him re-injure himself coming back too quickly (not that it's felt that quick to me). Here's to hoping this is the start of turning our season around!

I'd love to make it three, we certainly need the points/wins. A four game losing streak scares me a bit though. Detroit is not accustomed to losing, and while their lines don't scare me, Buffalo's lack of effort in many games still does. Will they keep playing hard for a full 60 minutes, or has winning a few and finally breaking out more than 1 goal getting them complacent? I'm going to hope for the best again. It's worked out for the last two games.

I'm sure RoR wants to come back now, but if he's hurt and needs surgery, he should get it. I'd rather lose another season, or for the month of December then rush him back and lose him again later when it would matter more.

Man I hope we can put up back to back wins. I was pleasantly surprised when we held on to beat the Pens. I must say I wasn't surprised we only scored one goal and let them tie it up though. I did expect us to give up another goal and lose 2-1 or 3-1 with an empty netter. That's an awful state to be in again. Expecting to lose. I didn't feel confident we'd make the post season this year, but I was cautiously optimistic about it. It's certainly still possible, but we need to get a win streak going here. I agree that Calgary is pretty beatable, but we've shown that so are we. Let's hope we can get some goal scoring going..

This is about how I feel at this point..

I hope we can bounce back from that awful game in Boston. It would only be our second home win..

Hopefully that'll be a fun night, and if not, at least you'll be at a bar... ------------------ Oh and about the coverage, any know if Dunleavy is doing the call again? I like him fine, but he's no RJ. Also, it sounded like Ray was out "for a game" so I presume he's back tonight. I hope Biron stays on anyways..

Thanks for the tip, but I'm on at&t. Luckily I have a 32inch HD tv in my bedroom that's really easy to move. I just need to put an extra splitter in there. I do have Verizon FIOS though, and I was happy to see their Center Ice has the Buffalo/MSG-B coverage (they have both from the looks of it). If I had to listen to that blowhard Jack Edwards, I'd go crazy.

My buddy's take: "He's a big young kid, but seems to learn fast". It also sounds like he thinks Chara might be the weaker of the two as "he's not a shutdown defensemen anymore" And here's the Globe's take: https://www.bostonglobe.com/sports/bruins/2016/11/04/brandon-carlo-makes-early-strides-bruins-defense/ZiItx3XVJNNhyeKQIQyPyJ/story.html Sounds like he's pretty smart with the puck already, despite his age.

Well it's on the road, which seems to be the only place we win (when I'm not in attendance) so there is that. I need to set up a second TV in my living room so I can more easily flip between this and the Bills game. Then again I should be able to get through almost 2 periods before that starts, and with all the commercials and half time, I could probably finish this game and catch up on the Bills game by the 3rd quarter. I'd like to see them come out with a stronger start than they did in Ottawa. We can't rely on goal tending to keep us in every game like that. A buddy of mine is a Bruins fan (I try not to hold that against him) and he laments some of the players they have lost the last two seasons, and feels that their defense is especially weak. Chara is getting old and slow (his words) and they don't have enough talent to make up for that at the moment. So I hope he's right about that and we can capitalize.

So I know he's done so before, but is Marty Biron on the MSG broadcast going to be a more regular thing now, or was that just a special occasion? He works at the Harbor Center doesn't he? Can he be on all the home game broadcasts at least? I know he does commentating for TSN (and maybe a few others?) too..but I loved having him on last night. I initially missed that he was on the broadcast though, so at first I kept going "who the hell is that talking to RJ and Rayzor?"

Yeah. I think Ovechkin is more of an exception than the rule. Lucic puts up the hits, but no where close to the points. I think the point about hitting does tend to reflect a team with lower puck possession. Back in the Drury/Briere days we didn't hit a lot, but we controlled the play a lot. The last few years we've been hitting more often, but that hasn't exactly turned into wins.. (http://www.nhl.com/stats/team?aggregate=0&gameType=2&report=realtime&teamId=7&reportType=season&seasonFrom=20062007&seasonTo=20162017&filter=gamesPlayed,gte,&sort=seasonId) Then again, just looking at stats from the last decade or so, it's a bit of a mixed bag. You've got good teams like LA or the Pens in there but you also have the Leafs and Blue Jackets: http://www.nhl.com/stats/team?aggregate=0&gameType=2&report=realtime&reportType=season&seasonFrom=20062007&seasonTo=20162017&filter=gamesPlayed,gte,&sort=hits

Unless you're Alex Ovechkin.

When I moved here in 2004 and started going to Sabres/Caps games, it was all Sabres fans. Hockey isn't big down here. Of course back then the Caps only had Ovechkin and pretty much no one else. I think Kolzig was still on the team, but he was more of a mascot by that point I think. Backstrom didn't show up until 2007. There was very little energy from the few Caps fans in attendance, and often a bunch of empty seats in the more expensive areas. Now when I go, there are a lot more fans, and not just the bandwagoners with their Ovechkin jerseys. They are loud and excited. Of course the Caps regular season play probably has a lot to do with it. The Florida game had a similar feel to those early Caps games. I've been going to anywhere from 1-3 games for the last several years and this was one of the worst I remember. I had hoped with Eichel and the strides we made last season things would finally be turning around. There were a ton of empty seats that should have been filled with young fans because it was an afternoon game. There should have been a ton of energy after we scored an early goal. None of that really happened. Of course I spent that whole game nervous we were going to blow it just like we did in Philly, especially the second half the second period where we suddenly stopped fore checking and had like 1 shot. Hopefully things will be better when I'm back up for the Carolina game December 22nd.

Oh for sure. Sabres fans are way louder than normal during Leaf games. But I can still hear the Leaf fans way too much on TV, and it's kind of sad it takes an invasion of rival fans to get our own fanbase going. To be fair to fans, there hasn't exactly been a lot to cheer the last few years, but that's never stopped other team's fans. The Caps games are way louder, although there is a lot more manufactured noise too.