Bear with me ...

[BetweenThePipes00]

I wrote this all late last night and sent it to some close friends just to get it all out ... bear with me, half of it is going to be emotional and irrational and the other half will be cold and as objective as I can be .... I know at times those things will contradict each other, but so be it.

 

-- I am very proud of this team. They left it all on the ice and I am more sad for them than I am for us. We've dealt with it before and we will deal with it again.

 

-- As much as I love them, they are not a Cup winning team yet. I know they played like it at times, and it really hurts that neither team still playing is any better over the long haul, but I can't help but feel like there is another notch to which they need to step up. There was a chance to win this year, don't get me wrong, and that is why the injuries leave us with a big "What if?"

But Carolina and Edmonton DO have something we don't ... actually a list of things: BrindAmour, Weight, Stillman, Ryan Smyth, Peca (yes, I said Peca), Pronger. Veteran guys who have been there and rise to the occasion.

The Sabres have Drury and Briere is MAYBE on the cusp. End of list. I'm not saying there are not guys on the roster who can be on that list someday ... but they are not there yet. And I'm not saying I was THOSE guys mentioned above ... just that we need more guys like that. As much as we wanted to believe that you can win just with heart and talent, look at the guys scoring the big goals: BrindAmour, Weight, Stillman, Ryan Smyth, Peca, Pronger. There is no substitute for experience. The Sabres got a lot of it these last two months. It will make them better. But if they get a chance to pick up a veteran this offseason, maybe they should do it. Depends on the guy.

 

-- I love Lindy Ruff. Maybe to a lot of the rest of the league he comes out of this series looking like a whining jerk, but so what.

First of all, his team was down 3-2 in a conference final and had rookie defensemen playing all over the place and guys like Max, Pominville, Hecht, Grier and Dumont who had not scored in the series going into game 6. By rights, the media should have been all over these guys, especially Janik, Paetsch and Jillson, asking them about playing in a Game 7 and reminding them how they should not be out there in the process. Instead, all anyone could talk about was Lindy. You think he cares what Laviolette or the Carolina fans think of him? After what he has been through this year? He took one for his team and they will not forget it. The effort he got and the way the kid defensemen played shows me that.

 

-- Let me preface this by saying that Fitzpatrick gave his best and did everything he could playing way more than he ever should have had to. I am not questioning his effort. That said ... he may as well have been wearing 42 tonight. Whitney (another vet) beat him behind the net to set up the tying goal, and the winning goal was sitting there next to his foot waiting to be cleared for a good 2 seconds before Brind'Amour whacked it in. I'm not laying the loss at his feet because the forwards did not produce enough offense to win. Carolina's D played a very good game. But going forward, he has to go. It wasn't just tonight. He got lucky in game 6 in regulation when he left his feet down low and Brindamour got a pass around him to williams but it was chipped wide, and earlier he played about the worst shift I have seen in playoff history. (again, sorry if I am kicking a guy when he is down but I have to vent a little bit too.)

 

-- I LOVED what I saw from Janik and Paetsch tonight. Loved it. I think they need to re-sign McKee, and I wouldn't mind another vet if Teppo retires, but I feel OK about one of these guys being the 7th guy and even they both make the club I think they will be OK ... because ...

 

--Brian Campbell came of age before our eyes, folks. So much so that I swear I just got a little teary-eyed typing that .. just snuck up on me. Campbell was right there with Lydman as our best players in this series, and he did it logginig way more time against WAY better players than he usually sees.

I'm sure people will give him crap for the penalty, but there was nothing he could do, and it was not careless ... watch the replay from behind (OK I know no one will do that so you have to take my word for it), and you will see the Canes guy hack at Campbell's stick as he was shooting the puck and it kept him from following through ... it was a good play on the forcheck and it led to a goofy penalty, but Campbell did not just throw it over the glass casually ... it was a bad break.

 

-- What do we do about Max? He totally disappeared ... the effort was there MOST of the time, but is he turning out to be the kind of guy that is just good enough to beat most teams but can be shut down by the best teams? Or was this just a learning experience, another step in his development? (actually, I could say the EXACT same thing about Kotalik ... but back to Max...) It's not just the lack of finish, although that is frustrating ... it's that much of this series he could not even get into position to finish or set someone else up because he would lose the puck dancing between the blue line and the top of the circles. I don't know about this one, he has come a long way and I'd hate to give up on him just before he gets totally over the hump.

 

-- Miller. Game 5 was disappointing, but he showed up for 6 and 7. I think he will be fine, although I don't like that he went off after the game about the penalty on Campbell ... that is not good. He can't be worrying about that crap. But it did not affect his play I don't think, I think he may have just been venting after 2 months of a pressure cooker and all the frustration just came out. Again, he is still learning. Now he has been there.

 

--OK I finally yawned ... sorry if I bored you to sleep too since you are probably reading this during the day ....

 

Thank you, Sabres. What a great year. October cannot come fast enough.

 

 

LET'S GO BUFFALO!!!!

[PASabreFan]

Not a boring word. Fantastic post.

[apuszczalowski]

I can only disagree with 2 points.

 

first one being the part about players who have been to the cup finals and the team not being a cup winning team yet. Players don't just come into the league with Stanley Cup experience, they all started somewhere. This team battled adversity all year, and it finaaly just got too big for ANY team to climb over. There was obviously a higher power involved in this, cause you don't lose 4 out of your 6 top defencemen in one series and still take the other "supposedly better" and healthier team, with playoff and Stanely Cup veterans to 7 games and come close to beating them. This team was poised to win it all even with the inexperience in the finals. If some of our forwards would have shown up a little more in this series and helped the young defence by giving them more then a 1 goal lead to work with so they could get comfortable, things would be different right now

 

The other point I disagree with is about Millers comments after the game. I think it was a good thing Miller was vocal about it, He has been very quiet in the past and most have criticized him for that. It is not the way you want to go out, on a penalty for a rule that is questionable anyway and knowing Buffalos luck, will now be removed next year just like the in the crease rule was removed after Brett's famous goal. (Is Buffalo the NHL's testing ground for questionable rule enforcement? The watch critical Buffalo games and it helps them remove rules that just don't work well)

[MBD]

The team wasn't a SC-winning team once they suffered all those injuries. There is a point where you can only overcome so much, because it's still a game based largely on talent. I realized this during this series when Tallinder got injured that even IF the Sabres got past Carolina, beating a well-rested and healthy Oilers team was going to be tough with so many players out (and frankly, I think Connolly is done for good). Call it horrible luck, but the team had the heart and talent WHEN HEALTHY to win the cup.

[BetweenThePipes00]

All valid points ...

I totally agree it was there for the taking if not for the injuries and experience may not have mattered. But it was there for the taking anyway ... but hey, Carolina's getting paid too and played well.

As for the Miller thing, I certainly don't have a problem with his frustration and like I said, I think it was just a release after everything that happened. I just love how far he has come dealing with his emotions since we first saw him almost lose it after a regular season game 3 years ago, and I don't want him to regress out of frustration. But like I said, he will learn from it and be better for it.

 

Thanks again for reading that long-ass post ...