Game Discussion Thread

[Ghost of Dwight Drane]

It's amazing how we've been winning without many of our best players

-Miller

-Roy

-Leopold

 

I can't imagine how good this team could be if it were 100% healthy.

 

Well...they were 3-9-2....I know that much :doh:

[Robviously]

I just read the GDT for this evening's game on a Hurricanes fan site. All I can say is wow. Aside from not knowing anything about anything (one of them insisted that Pegula bought the team at the beginning of last season and abolished the slug), they are fuggin OBSESSED with Buffalo fans. Each one has a cute little horror story about a terrible Buffalonian marauding down to Carolina and saying the eff-word *gasp* in front of their darling family. I swear, some of these guys are literally afraid of people from Buffalo.

 

In one story, a Sabres fan spilled some nachos on a guy's wife while celebrating a goal and he swears he's never attending a Sabres-Canes game again. Nachos? OH THE HORROR!

Carolina fans are such drama queens. The worst thing I ever did to a Hurricanes fan was back in 2006 when I sneaked into his backyard after midnight and stabbed his dog to death. And he was a total crybaby about it.

[Cereal]

I'm not going to go back through 600 posts, but I just wanted to note that I thought all our D-men were very disciplined on Carolina rushes into our zone. I thought our D-men did a great job of not giving up many juicy chances right in the slot, keeping shots coming in from the outside.

 

Why does it seem that in general, we play very well in front of Ethron?

 

Also, as a team we did look sluggish, particularly on breakout plays and into the offensive zone. It was obvious they had played 24 hours previously.

[WowieHousley]

"Each one has a cute little horror story about a terrible Buffalonian marauding down to Carolina and saying the eff-word *gasp* in front of their darling family. I swear, some of these guys are literally afraid of people from Buffalo."

 

Stop it. I can't stop laughing. saying the f word in front of their darling family. Please stop. The prose is brilliant.

[Oakstream]

Carolina fans are such drama queens. The worst thing I ever did to a Hurricanes fan was back in 2006 when I sneaked into his backyard after midnight and stabbed his dog to death. And he was a total crybaby about it.

 

HAHA! XD :clapping:

[Dave Dryden]

Not trying to be argumentative, but there are only a few ways to get 3 points.

 

0-0-3: 4 points required

1-1-1 ROW win: 3 points required

1-1-1 SO win: 4 points required

 

I would argue it takes a unique set of point collection to require 3 points instead of 4.

 

Either way, Buffalo winning out would be awesome. :thumbsup:

But you are not factoring the Carolina side in--not to be argumentative. All three of their wins have to be non-shootout for them to get the tiebreaker. So to need four points, Canes need three non-shootout wins, and the Sabres collect three points with a shootout win or three overtime losses(highly unlikely). I have not run a regression analysis, but I'll stick with three.

[darksabre]

Carolina fans are such drama queens. The worst thing I ever did to a Hurricanes fan was back in 2006 when I sneaked into his backyard after midnight and stabbed his dog to death. And he was a total crybaby about it.

 

:w00t:

[wjag]

So now having a chance to sleep on it and reflect a bit:

 

1. The save of the game may very well have been the goal post on the 5-on-3. If the Canes get that goal, I honestly don't think the Sabres win.

2. I don't recall a game ever where the Sabres were so obviously tired that they didn't have the energy to break out 3 on 2. I can recall two times where they go to the blue line and just stopped.

3. Enroth stopped at least four point blank shots by the Canes.

4. The Staal brothers are incredible hockey players. No matter who they play, you always know when a Staal is playing. So I'm surprised to read on the Canes board some fans picking apart Erik for last night's game. From what I read, fans called 99.9 to complain about him loafing it a bit. I certainly think he is a really gifted player who is always pressuring and in the mix.

5. I actually like the call by the refs to not stop play because the goalie took his mask off. It's one thing to have it knocked off, but quite another to take it off. Doesn't matter a wit to me that it might have been broken. The ref couldn't know that. If a goalie could pop his mask off to stop play, chaos would ensue.

6. That hit Stafford put on Skinner was awesome. Now you see him, now you DON'T!! I think it was X to first call out what a super game Stafford had last night.

7. So a lot of the Canes fans were questioning whether it was goalie interference on the GWG. It never occurred to me when it happened. But I was able to relook the goal and can conclude it wasn't. Cam was well out of the crease and there was just a lot of traffic. Is it worth a debate. Probably. But so was Laroses' on the Carolina goal. Larose was closer to goalie interference than Stafford was.

8. I did not issue a single complaint about reffing last night. In fact I rarely do. The ONLY call I still don't understand was the hooking call on Ennis. I watched the replay. I guess I don't understand hooking. The call on Weber when he took out Staal in the crease was absolutely a penalty and a great play. You can't leave Staal alone in that tight.

9. I know Myers drew Staal last night. And he paid for it. You could tell how tired he was. He had no gas to take the puck out of the zone. He did a great job, but I'd be willing to bet that if these guys played a seven games series, Myers would be hard pressed to contain him night-in, night-out.

10. Buffalo made Skinner go away and maybe that was the difference in the game. Staal, Skinner and Cole all finished the night -1. How sweet is that? They finished the night a combined 1-11 so they clearly had their chances. Another noteworthy stat, they were a combined 0-5 on the PP.

11. Tim Connolly played another good game. His faceoff wins are becoming noticeable.

[DR HOLLIDAY]

Carolina fans are such drama queens. The worst thing I ever did to a Hurricanes fan was back in 2006 when I sneaked into his backyard after midnight and stabbed his dog to death. And he was a total crybaby about it.

 

LMAO............... :beer:

[LGR4GM]

So this technically happend during the sabres game broadcast so I will post it here. Did anyone else see the Make A Wish Foundation thing during the intermission? I bring it up because it said it was this past week I thought and Derek Roy was on the ice which was amazing to see. Derek is Alive and Is Skating and there IS footage of it. Lets hope we can get him back because its like trading for a good player in the middle of the playoffs. Just thought about it this morning after I stopped running around screaming ENROTH, GRAGANI, AND BUTLER OH MY!

[Buffalo Wings]

So now having a chance to sleep on it and reflect a bit:

 

3. Enroth stopped at least four point blank shots by the Canes.

And I had counted every one of them to be a goal. Enroth even made RJ go nuts.

 

8. I did not issue a single complaint about reffing last night. In fact I rarely do. The ONLY call I still don't understand was the hooking call on Ennis. I watched the replay. I guess I don't understand hooking. The call on Weber when he took out Staal in the crease was absolutely a penalty and a great play. You can't leave Staal alone in that tight.

Thank you. I thought there may have been a couple of questionable calls and non-calls, but I was wondering if I was the only one who didn't have that much of a problem with the officiating. The Sabres were winded and taking penalties because of it.

 

All in all, it was a gritty, gutty win. They had almost no legs at the end of the game and somehow pulled out the biggest W of the year. Jhonas Enroth may have extended their season into the playoffs on his own.

[spndnchz]

I expect the game day thread will sound alot like the manic-depressive ward at the county mental health building. The rollercoaster is going to go from too high to too low all game long.

 

Magic number 6.

 

Rangers lose tonight, number drops to three.

 

We beat Tampa in regulation, Carolina loses in regulation, Canes are DUN.

[Eleven]

Magic number 6.

 

Rangers lose tonight, number drops to three.

 

We beat Tampa in regulation, Carolina loses in regulation, Canes are DUN.

 

Emotionally, I don't care whether Carolina gets in, as long as Buffalo gets in.

 

Practically, I don't want Carolina in because I think that team is more dangerous than NYR or Montreal. Who would you rather see the Sabres face in a late round? I'll take the Habs, thanks.

[ROC Sabres]

Enroth got the first star from nhl.com and gave 102% according to them. His save percentage is listed as 1.029%.

[bills_fan_in_raleigh]

All this talk about bad buffalo fans I find it ironic that one of the TV adds the canes run* was forced to watch that broadcast last night but thank god for radio streams and a DVR) is a old man walking down street and a gal is skating in roller blades, helmet and full roller derby garb. It shows hes a red wings fan and she is a canes fan. So she lays an elbow into the old codger knocking him out. Classic.

[Derrico]

Magic number 6.

 

Rangers lose tonight, number drops to three.

 

We beat Tampa in regulation, Carolina loses in regulation, Canes are DUN.

 

As for us making the playoffs, if we win in regulation or shootout we only need the Canes to lose (regulation, OT or shootout) to make it. Anyone know if this is correct? Even if Canes go to OT and lose then we'll be four up with two games to go and hold the tie breaker?

[Derrico]

So this technically happend during the sabres game broadcast so I will post it here. Did anyone else see the Make A Wish Foundation thing during the intermission? I bring it up because it said it was this past week I thought and Derek Roy was on the ice which was amazing to see. Derek is Alive and Is Skating and there IS footage of it. Lets hope we can get him back because its like trading for a good player in the middle of the playoffs. Just thought about it this morning after I stopped running around screaming ENROTH, GRAGANI, AND BUTLER OH MY!

 

I did notice that and during the whole segment I was looking for Roy to see how he skated and it would only show quick flashes of him. Definetly a good sign he's skating though.

[thesportsbuff]

http://www.thesportsbuff.com/?p=504

[SDS]

It would be nice if this was a humble offering of bait for PA, but something tells me it wasn't planned.

 

Someone asked a question, I just answered it.

[PASabreFan]

So now having a chance to sleep on it and reflect a bit:

 

1. The save of the game may very well have been the goal post on the 5-on-3. If the Canes get that goal, I honestly don't think the Sabres win.

2. I don't recall a game ever where the Sabres were so obviously tired that they didn't have the energy to break out 3 on 2. I can recall two times where they go to the blue line and just stopped.

3. Enroth stopped at least four point blank shots by the Canes.

4. The Staal brothers are incredible hockey players. No matter who they play, you always know when a Staal is playing. So I'm surprised to read on the Canes board some fans picking apart Erik for last night's game. From what I read, fans called 99.9 to complain about him loafing it a bit. I certainly think he is a really gifted player who is always pressuring and in the mix.

5. I actually like the call by the refs to not stop play because the goalie took his mask off. It's one thing to have it knocked off, but quite another to take it off. Doesn't matter a wit to me that it might have been broken. The ref couldn't know that. If a goalie could pop his mask off to stop play, chaos would ensue.

6. That hit Stafford put on Skinner was awesome. Now you see him, now you DON'T!! I think it was X to first call out what a super game Stafford had last night.

7. So a lot of the Canes fans were questioning whether it was goalie interference on the GWG. It never occurred to me when it happened. But I was able to relook the goal and can conclude it wasn't. Cam was well out of the crease and there was just a lot of traffic. Is it worth a debate. Probably. But so was Laroses' on the Carolina goal. Larose was closer to goalie interference than Stafford was.

8. I did not issue a single complaint about reffing last night. In fact I rarely do. The ONLY call I still don't understand was the hooking call on Ennis. I watched the replay. I guess I don't understand hooking. The call on Weber when he took out Staal in the crease was absolutely a penalty and a great play. You can't leave Staal alone in that tight.

9. I know Myers drew Staal last night. And he paid for it. You could tell how tired he was. He had no gas to take the puck out of the zone. He did a great job, but I'd be willing to bet that if these guys played a seven games series, Myers would be hard pressed to contain him night-in, night-out.

10. Buffalo made Skinner go away and maybe that was the difference in the game. Staal, Skinner and Cole all finished the night -1. How sweet is that? They finished the night a combined 1-11 so they clearly had their chances. Another noteworthy stat, they were a combined 0-5 on the PP.

11. Tim Connolly played another good game. His faceoff wins are becoming noticeable.

 

8. He brought his stick down on the glove of the Cane, causing the Cane to lose control of his stick momentarily. Kind of ticky-tack, sure.

 

I didn't get the Montador cross check, Cane roughing sequence. Did Rob really say it wouldn't have been a penalty on Montador if the Cane hadn't punched him? :death:

 

The whining about the refs is intolerable in any game thread, worse last night.

 

I like that Lindy has all but stopped ref-baiting.

[thesportsbuff]

8. He brought his stick down on the glove of the Cane, causing the Cane to lose control of his stick momentarily. Kind of ticky-tack, sure.

 

I didn't get the Montador cross check, Cane roughing sequence. Did Rob really say it wouldn't have been a penalty on Montador if the Cane hadn't punched him? :death:

 

The whining about the refs is intolerable in any game thread, worse last night.

 

I like that Lindy has all but stopped ref-baiting.

 

I think Rayzor was right -- I don't think it would have been a penalty on Montador if not for the Canes player's punch. I think the refs were gonna chalk the crosscheck up to battling for position but when the Cane player retaliated he had to call both. In theory it's somewhat baffling but in real speed, one second to make the call, I think he made the right decision.

 

As for what the previous poster said about the refs making the right call not to stop play when Enroth's mask came off, I'm on the fence. Obviously it would suck if goalies started shedding equipment to get whistles but with a rebound in the slot like that, he's damn lucky he didn't eat the puck in the face at 90MPH from ten feet out.. I mean play absolutely has to stop when the goaltender's mask comes off. If it appears to be intentional, give him a delay of game penalty.

 

there'd be some gray area, because in this case Enroth clearly intentionally shook the mask off but it was also pretty evident he wasn't doing it to get a whistle, but just so that he could actually see the play. that was an awesome play for a goalie to make. he's a gamer

[bunomatic]

http://www.thesportsbuff.com/?p=504

:thumbsup:

[JoDo]

Holy ######, my blood pressure is off the charts with the stress of this game... so glad they pulled it out.

 

I'm with you, I couldn't even enjoy myself I was so wound up. I thought about having my wife check my BP in the third just to see where it was. I even FFWD through one of the late Buffalo penalties because I just couldn't take it. BTW I always DVR games, watch late, and then read the GDT the next day. It's pretty entertaining when you know the outcome.

[PASabreFan]

I think Rayzor was right -- I don't think it would have been a penalty on Montador if not for the Canes player's punch. I think the refs were gonna chalk the crosscheck up to battling for position but when the Cane player retaliated he had to call both. In theory it's somewhat baffling but in real speed, one second to make the call, I think he made the right decision.

 

As for what the previous poster said about the refs making the right call not to stop play when Enroth's mask came off, I'm on the fence. Obviously it would suck if goalies started shedding equipment to get whistles but with a rebound in the slot like that, he's damn lucky he didn't eat the puck in the face at 90MPH from ten feet out.. I mean play absolutely has to stop when the goaltender's mask comes off. If it appears to be intentional, give him a delay of game penalty.

 

there'd be some gray area, because in this case Enroth clearly intentionally shook the mask off but it was also pretty evident he wasn't doing it to get a whistle, but just so that he could actually see the play. that was an awesome play for a goalie to make. he's a gamer

 

According to the rules -- I always laugh inside when I type that -- when a goalie loses his mask, the whistle doesn't automatically blow. If the other team has an immediate and impending scoring chance, there should be no whistle. So if a slapshot takes off Thomas' mask and the rebound jumps to Vanek with an empty net, tough titty Jack Edwards. :)

 

The real gray area involves exactly what happened. Enroth's mask was loose. There's nothing in the rule book about what the ref does then. Enroth held up his arm to ask for a stoppage but didn't get it.

 

I love how the mask landed perfectly on top of the net. There's just something about Enroth!

[OverPowerYou]

The best part of the game was seeing all the sabres fans in the arena after the they won