Caps at Sabres observations.

[Eleven]

1. I'm not down on this team. I do think there's a good chance of playoff hockey here.

 

2. That said, while I can see a one-game lapse when playing three in four days, I didn't expect to see it during the first of those games. Most of the Sabres didn't look too sharp tonight.

 

3. Including Drury, who really is disappointing this season. I know, he won two big faceoffs against Tampa a couple of weeks ago.

 

4. Playing Brian Campbell at wing is not one of Ruff's more intelligent decisions. If he's given up on Pyatt, then make that decision and bring up one of the more talented wings from Rochester. Pominville immediately comes to mind. (FIVE goals the other night!) It's not like he would have had a long flight to the game.

 

5. Speaking of games in Rochester, I hope the experiment is over. Doubt it, though.

 

6. No surprise that the two that got by Kolzig were somewhat flukish. If you're giving up three goals against him, better plan on getting 40+ shots on net.

 

7. And the Caps' first goal--anyone else think that Miller failed to pick up on Friesen?...

 

8. ...who was wearing No. 12. Guess there's no love in Washington for one of their best all-time players, Peter Bondra. The guy probably hasn't even moved his things out of the District yet, and here's Friesen wearing his sweater.

[BuffalOhio]

Well I can tell you for sure that Bondra still lives here in the area.

 

His kid still wears #12 for the Washington Little Capitals Tier 1 Bantam Team

[Saber61]

hmm your righ washington did outplay us and we didn't look sharp at all... i had a bad feeling about this one from the beginning... ah well what can you do... lets hope the next 2 games are better... espcailly if there home games... i don't mean to push the panic button or anything but we need to start gettin production out of the other guys... hopefully it comes soon.

[DrunkenSabre]

wow that was disappointing. better beat NJD and NYI now. this game was two points. disappointing sabres...disappointing.

[Spandrel]

I was at the game, and just everything about last night was disappointing. We got clearly outplayed all night long. Washington outskated us, outhit us, and outshot us. We never got into any offensive flow. We lost nearly every face-off I can remember but a handful. If this was football, I would have accused the Caps of stealing our playbook, because they were one step ahead of us all night long.

 

The crowd last night was a complete disappointment. BCA was barely 3/4's full, if that, and there was little to no energy except for a brief spurt at the end of the game with about 4:00 to go. I think a lot of it may have had to do with the ticket prices. You just can't sell tickets for $77 per game to see the Caps, when we are used to paying less than half that for Amerks games. For that same price, you could just wait and go get a great seat to a Silver game or an OK seat to a Gold game. The 70 minute drive to Buffalo is not that big a deal when you could see the Sabres play the Habs or Sens for the same price on a weekend.

 

I'm not sure if we, here in Rochester, deserve another NHL game or if it is just not a good fit, but I doubt we'll see another one.

[zow2]

The Caps were actually worse than their record indicated. They are worse than Pittsburgh. Even in their wins they were outshot like 45-15 and Kolzig stood on his head.

For the Sabres to come up with that type of effort on "home" ice is disgusting. They should have dominated Washington. The Caps deserved to win and Buffalo got a cold hard slap of reality. In the northeast division, you cannot take nights off or the Sabres will find themselves at the bottom of the standings in no time.

 

I agree that the Rochester experiment should be over. The first time they did it was kind of cool....last night just looked like a dead building and very minor-league-ish.

[hopeleslyobvious]

The Caps were actually worse than their record indicated. They are worse than Pittsburgh. Even in their wins they were outshot like 45-15 and Kolzig stood on his head.

For the Sabres to come up with that type of effort on "home" ice is disgusting. They should have dominated Washington. The Caps deserved to win and Buffalo got a cold hard slap of reality. In the northeast division, you cannot take nights off or the Sabres will find themselves at the bottom of the standings in no time.

 

I agree that the Rochester experiment should be over. The first time they did it was kind of cool....last night just looked like a dead building and very minor-league-ish.

Yep 6-3-0, time to panic.

 

They lost against a bad team. I don't like it either, but the season is 82 games long, and they're going to lose some against teams that they should beat. Look at it as a test for the team, hopefully they will bounce back and play 2 strong games this weekend.

[bottlecap]

Sabres seemed over-confident. No team in the NHL is going

to roll over for them. They have to work hard every night.

[mphs mike]

Sabres seemed over-confident. No team in the NHL is going

to roll over for them. They have to work hard every night.

The biggest disappointment is that very good teams win the games they are supposed to win. No question the Sabres should have won this game, but efforts like that win NOT win in the nhl.

 

Sabres Character Test 10/26/05 F!!!!!!

[hopeleslyobvious]

Sabres Character Test 10/26/05 F!!!!!!

Every team in this league is going to lose a game or two that they should win.

 

The character test is tomorrow. Do they bounce back and play a strong game against the Devils, or do they take the loss hard and drop a couple more.

 

I would rather lose last night's game against Washington then to either the Devils or the Islanders. Last night they lost 2 points plain and simple. When April rolls around they're going to be fighting for a playoff spot with probably the Islanders and the Devils. That makes these games this weekend both 4 point games.

[DrunkenSabre]

its important to take this loss and learn that we cant let up against any team. if we didnt let up against them, who knows what the score would have been. i think if we cained a team once, instead of playing for two points, played for a real lopsided score, i think it'd do the team good and may get people interested.

[Kristian]

Every team in this league is going to lose a game or two that they should win.

 

The character test is tomorrow. Do they bounce back and play a strong game against the Devils, or do they take the loss hard and drop a couple more.

 

I would rather lose last night's game against Washington then to either the Devils or the Islanders. Last night they lost 2 points plain and simple. When April rolls around they're going to be fighting for a playoff spot with probably the Islanders and the Devils. That makes these games this weekend both 4 point games.

I see what you mean about the 4 point games, but I still have to disagree.

 

This was not just another case of a team underestimating an weaker opponent and thus forgetting to show up.

 

This was a trademark Saber-loss. The character test is not against NJ, it was against the Caps last night.

 

If ever there was a walkover in the NHL, then last night was it. Sabres had fresh legs, loads of confidence, home-ice (even if it was played in ROC) but little did it matter cause they just didn't feel like working.

 

If they win tomorrow, then what have they proven? That they can beat a middle of the pack team? We already know they can beat any team if they hustle night in and night out.

 

I've been waiting for the past three seasons for them to prove that they can come out firing on all cylinders against a bottom third team, and they still haven't.

 

Unless they get their act together against these teams, it's gonna end up costing them at least 10-15 points this season. And let's face it, beating The Caps wouldn't have taken the effort it's going to take to beat The Devils tomorrow, but it did take SOME effort. An effort that just wasn't there.

[DrunkenSabre]

I see what you mean about the 4 point games, but I still have to disagree.

 

This was not just another case of a team underestimating an weaker opponent and thus forgetting to show up.

 

This was a trademark Saber-loss. The character test is not against NJ, it was against the Caps last night.

 

If ever there was a walkover in the NHL, then last night was it. Sabres had fresh legs, loads of confidence, home-ice (even if it was played in ROC) but little did it matter cause they just didn't feel like working.

 

If they win tomorrow, then what have they proven? That they can beat a middle of the pack team? We already know they can beat any team if they hustle night in and night out.

 

I've been waiting for the past three seasons for them to prove that they can come out firing on all cylinders against a bottom third team, and they still haven't.

 

Unless they get their act together against these teams, it's gonna end up costing them at least 10-15 points this season. And let's face it, beating The Caps wouldn't have taken the effort it's going to take to beat The Devils tomorrow, but it did take SOME effort. An effort that just wasn't there.

we have to beat NJD and NYI now realistically. im gonna say we have to sweep NYI this season though due to zhit and satan. still alot of bad blood there.

[PromoTheRobot]

I'm not sure if we, here in Rochester, deserve another NHL game or if it is just not a good fit, but I doubt we'll see another one.

When I lived in Rochester 12 years ago, Bob Matthews used to argue that if Rochester built a new (decent) arena, they could bring NHL hockey to town. LOL! There is only one major league sport Rochester supports: Golf. Rochester is a strange place, hard to figure, but definitely NOT a major league city.

 

PTR

[PromoTheRobot]

I didn't see the whole game. I was wondering if anyone brought up the fact that the Rochester game was a homecoming for Olaf Kolzig as well? He played several seasons with the Amerks in the early 90's. I guess the Caps loaned him to the Sabres farm team, or something.

 

PTR

[Spandrel]

I didn't see the whole game. I was wondering if anyone brought up the fact that the Rochester game was a homecoming for Olaf Kolzig as well? He played several seasons with the Amerks in the early 90's. I guess the Caps loaned him to the Sabres farm team, or something.

 

PTR

It did kind of suck that they only introduced the Sabres lineup and not the Caps. I'm sure if they would have announced Kolzig in net for the Caps, he would have gotten a nice welcome from the fans. I would have given him a shout.

[PromoTheRobot]

It did kind of suck that they only introduced the Sabres lineup and not the Caps.  I'm sure if they would have announced Kolzig in net for the Caps, he would have gotten a nice welcome from the fans.  I would have given him a shout.

I must correct myself: Kolzig played one season (92-93) for the Amerks. It was mentioned in the D&C article in passing.

 

PTR

[Saber61]

I must correct myself: Kolzig played one season (92-93) for the Amerks. It was mentioned in the D&C article in passing.

 

PTR

interesting... i didn't know that... hmm keeping him would have been nice... but i guess we had hasek or other starter goalies at the time... so i guess that wasn't an option

[Eleven]

interesting... i didn't know that... hmm keeping him would have been nice... but i guess we had hasek or other starter goalies at the time... so i guess that wasn't an option

Kolzig was never a Sabre prospect. He did play with the Amerks for one season, but on loan.

[Taro T]

Kolzig was never a Sabre prospect.  He did play with the Amerks for one season, but on loan.

Yeah, the Caps thought Dafoe was their goalie of the future and kept him in Baltimore. They realized it was dumb to keep Olie on the bench if someone else would play him, so they loaned him to Rachacha, and the rest is history.