Jump to content

Stanley Cup Playoffs Begin


SabresBeat

Recommended Posts

I will be in the chat room and hopefully someone watching can give me the blow by blow. I may have to leave early however because of a recital that my girl has good thing I have the XM i can be in the car until it starts.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

My game notes/experience...

 

I was in section 206, sitting directly behind jiri novotny, taylor pyatt and their girlfriends. pyatt told me that they were encouraged to present a businesslike attitude (i.e. no chearing or acting like classy sabres fans). I told them good luck and the game was on.

 

the negatives: Lydman sucks. i'd gladly replace his sorry excuse for fitzpatrick on monday. Mckee also gave away a couple chances, but his positives definitely outweighed the negatives. The sabres also must find a way to beat esche. Hopefully losing in OT will do the mental magic on mr. confederate flag blocker on monday. We'll see... Dumont? What was he thinking? He had about 4 or 5 chances where he could have shot the puck and had a scoring chance but made a failed attempt at a pretty play to set up a scoring chance. JP, just shoot the friggin puck!

 

The positives: 58 shots... can't really find a way to spell that positive out any clearer. You have to work hard and create chances to get 58. Hecht played great, so did mckee, and hell, everyone.. Mike Grier? People complaied about his lack of a scoring touch over the past month or so... This is why i'm glad that mike grier is a buffalo sabre. That was about the best game i could have imagined mike grier to play. He finished checks, moved the puck. Forced the flyers to pay the price. Miller... He made the saves when he had to. He got lucky on the goalpost shot in the first OT, but hey, you can't win 16 playoff games without luck. I'll take it. First playoff game ever, and it could have gone either way. Remember, this is the former mental midget of the Rochester Americans. Sure, he didn't get a shutout, and he let in a late goal (to which he had no chance at) but you couldn't have asked for a better performance. This team is primed and ready to go for monday. I just hope that the flyers backs are broken. They played a damn good game themselves, but the sabres out worked, out played, and out classed the flyers at every aspect of the game. Pretty humiliating if you ask me...

 

 

GO SABRES ON MONDAY!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

wait, i forgot something... what was it? Oh yeah, THE HIT!! Personally, i thought umburger may have had a life threatening situation there for the first couple of seconds. I had my eye on the zamboni enterance for the stretcher. Campbell delivered a texbook, legal, open ice body check. Keep your head up, rookie. Welcome to the playoffs. Hitchcock made the comment that he's a-ok and good to go. That's playoff talk. I'll be willing to bet that umburger is done for the series. And, about pyatt and novotny? They were in awe over campbell. Even they were cheering for that one.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

You know what I liked about Ryan's game? There was an element of cockiness to it. My mind is overloaded with images at the moment, so I probably won't describe it right, but at one point he made a save on a long shot and swatted the rebound out of midair off to the side. Get away from me, bitch puck. :) Shades of Hasek. Miller was fine. I remember one huge save on Forsberg's heavy shot from the right dot. There were others. I felt for him, standing back there for long stretches with nothing to do. He was looking at el crusho's Cup for a while. :)

 

Ahhhh, life is good.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

That folks is what you call an "Instant Classic". What a way to start the playoffs. Some game thoughts...

 

- Max was very quiet. He had that one chance off the post, but I didn't notice him much other than that.

 

- Kotalik playing a physical game. Pleasant surprise.

 

- Tallinder getting in the way of Forsberg's open net with only about 15 seconds gone in the game. You have to be good, but you also need some luck. ;)

 

- Grier playing the role the Sabres need him to in the playoffs.

 

- Miller was solid.

 

- Jochen Hecht is in my top 3 Sabres. The guy brings so much to the table when he is in the lineup.

 

- Esche stood on his head and the Flyers still lost. I don't expect him to continue to play at that level.

 

- Folks will still be talking about that Campbell hit 20 years from now.

 

 

GO SABRES!!!!!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

That folks is what you call an "Instant Classic". What a way to start the playoffs. Some game thoughts...

 

- Max was very quiet. He had that one chance off the post, but I didn't notice him much other than that.

 

- Kotalik playing a physical game. Pleasant surprise.

 

- Tallinder getting in the way of Forsberg's open net with only about 15 seconds gone in the game. You have to be good, but you also need some luck. ;)

 

- Grier playing the role the Sabres need him to in the playoffs.

 

- Miller was solid.

 

- Jochen Hecht is in my top 3 Sabres. The guy brings so much to the table when he is in the lineup.

 

- Esche stood on his head and the Flyers still lost. I don't expect him to continue to play at that level.

 

- Folks will still be talking about that Campbell hit 20 years from now.

GO SABRES!!!!!

I actually thought Max played a pretty good game. He did back the Phlyers off a few times.

 

Kotalik had too many turnovers for my liking.

 

Roy was fantastic. He worked very well with Drury and Grier.

 

Kalinin seemed to go back into his funk. The Knubble goal was directly attributable to him failing on 2 clearing attempts and then leaving Mike alone in front.

 

Lydman didn't seem to have his head fully in the game either. Although his partner failed to clear the puck a couple of times he set the tone for the game 12 seconds in and overall played a very strong game.

 

Connolly and Grier were great. Jochen was much faster than the Phlyers D. Dumont was hitting everything he could get his shoulder on.

 

Hopefully Danny breaking the seal will lead to him having a better scoring %age next game.

 

Vanek looked like he was in his 1st playoff game.

 

McKee was a monster. Strong at both ends of the ice.

 

Teppo was solid for the most part but can play better and I expect him to on Monday.

 

Gaustad and Pominville had strong games, especially right after Sabre powerplays when Jochen was on their line.

 

I'm thinking we are going to have to start calling Soupy "highlight reel".

 

Drury was solid.

 

Miller should be proud of his effort.

 

If the Sabres can figure out how to get the powerplay working it should be lights out for Philly in short order.

 

The Phlyers were definitely trying to keep the Forsberg line on the ice with the Connolly line and it blew up in Captain Kangaroo's fat face in the 1st period.

 

Handzus and Esche were the only 2 Phlyers that came to play 90 minutes.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Kalinin seemed to go back into his funk. The Knubble goal was directly attributable to him failing on 2 clearing attempts and then leaving Mike alone in front.

 

Lydman didn't seem to have his head fully in the game either. Although his partner failed to clear the puck a couple of times he set the tone for the game 12 seconds in and overall played a very strong game.

 

 

I'm surprised to see you say that about Kalinin dave! I ws really impressed with his play tonight. I thought he was hitting effectively, doing a nice job clearing the zone and pinching when he needed to. Also, I thought he played great in front of the net... I was trying to watch him when he was out there (I was watching on TV, so I didn't always have a great view), but he seemed to be doing a good job tying up his man, and playing his man, not simply watching the puck.

 

I agree that the Knuble goal could have been prevented by Kalinin clearing the zone, but how does everyone on the ice ignore Knuble and let him get free?

 

Lydman was horrible last night. Tony is funny like that...he'll toss in a really really horrible performance seemingly once every 10-15 games or so, then he returns to his solid, quiet, responsible play.

 

For what it's worth, I felt that every single Sabre Defenseman looked pretty jittery for the first two periods. They all seemed to settle down a bit in the third and OT, but at the outset they seemed very tepid.

 

 

 

Wow. I just used tepid talking about hockey. What the hell's the matter with me? I NEED A BEER! haha

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I'm surprised to see you say that about Kalinin dave! I ws really impressed with his play tonight. I thought he was hitting effectively, doing a nice job clearing the zone and pinching when he needed to. Also, I thought he played great in front of the net... I was trying to watch him when he was out there (I was watching on TV, so I didn't always have a great view), but he seemed to be doing a good job tying up his man, and playing his man, not simply watching the puck.

 

I agree that the Knuble goal could have been prevented by Kalinin clearing the zone, but how does everyone on the ice ignore Knuble and let him get free?

 

Lydman was horrible last night. Tony is funny like that...he'll toss in a really really horrible performance seemingly once every 10-15 games or so, then he returns to his solid, quiet, responsible play.

 

For what it's worth, I felt that every single Sabre Defenseman looked pretty jittery for the first two periods. They all seemed to settle down a bit in the third and OT, but at the outset they seemed very tepid.

Wow. I just used tepid talking about hockey. What the hell's the matter with me? I NEED A BEER! haha

Our opinions about Kalinin's game are roughly 180 opposite. I thought he had a lot of difficulty getting the puck out of the zone. I did think he was decent in the Phlyers end.

 

I actually thought he was playing worse than Lydman until Lydman got to the 3rd period when his game definitely dropped to a lower level than it had been in the 1st 2 periods.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

×
×
  • Create New...