That's gonna leave a mark

So while we could focus on Vanek's 4 point weekend in a win (at home no less!!!!) over the Leafs, then the Sabres drop an absolute stink bomb in the 8-3 loss in Pittsburgh.

So, now it's Panic at the F-N Center time!

Fans are breaking out their favorite whipping boys and taking some whacks (Hey Roysie, DUCK!!!).

Even the normally ultra optimistic Terry Pegula is taking a cheap shot at his team's goalies.

I have no doubt that Pegula is frustrated that his spending spree on free agents, expanding the coaching staff, and renovating the locker room has given him a team that has a lineup that is decimated by injuries and rudderless on the ice.

So what comes next?

Ted Black was recently talking about being patient and waiting for guys to get healthy. But, will the injury list getting back to 9 deep and the egg they laid in front of Pegula in Pittsburgh change that?

I won't cry if the Sabres try and shake things up by dealing Stafford or Roy or even Miller. But, the really interesting thing is how long does Darcy Regier and Lindy Ruff get before the questions stop being about the players and about the GM that brought them here and the coach that isn't getting enough out of them?

Happy/Sad

Mark Pysyk makes Team Canada - Happy!

It's cool to see another Sabres prospect making Team Canada. Hopefully Pysyk has a post-WJC season like Tyler Myers did!

Ville Leino on the shelf for weeks with a lower body injury - Sad.......


Can the Sabres injury situation get any more ridiculous? Seriously, I can't remember a season where the Sabres have had to deal with so many injuries for an extended period of time like this one.

The Sabres signed 2010 3rd round pick Kevin Sundher - Happy!

First, I like avoiding all the re-entry doomsday drama that pessimistic Sabres fans love to bring out in the spring. Having signed Pysyk in June and now Sundher, that should lessen it a bit this year. Now if Regier gets JGL signed soon.....

Second, I wonder if these early signings is another indication of Regier being held back by the previous ownership group or not.

I saw this video of Patrick Kane's shootout goal last night - Happy!


Patrick Kane is filthy and even if I'm a goalie, watching highlights like this one is always fun.

VS had the debut of NHL36 and HBO and the first episode of the 24/7 series featuring the Rangers and Flyers - Happy!

I liked the Patrick Kane and his dad from the first episode of NHL36. I haven't finished the first episode of 24/7 yet. My only concern is whether I should let my 9yo son watch it after I give him the speech that I never want him to utter the F-bomb, even if he sees NHLers dropping it four dozen times in a one hour show.

The Sabres Jr Reporter video on Youtube - Happy!


This is one of the cutest things ever.

Players only meeting time.....

Bill Hoppe has a long list of Sabres problems.

Bucky Gleason is calling out Stafford, Roy, and Ennis.

Some tool errrr Mike Halford at Pro Hockey Talk is wondering why Christian Ehrhoff is dropping the gloves after Miller gets bumped again.

Bottom line is that the Sabres are now 7-9-3 at home and 8-3-0 on the road and that isn't good enough.

The Sabres have 81 goals for and Pominville and Vanek have combined for 24 goals and 61 points. Read: other guys need to step up.

How is Marc-Andre Gragnani a +11?

I like Chewy aka Paul Szczechura.

Ville Leino starts playing a little better and he misses practice today. I hope it's merely a maintenance day.

I'm waiting for Ryan Miller to get really hot.......

I'm also waiting for the uncuffed Darcy Regier to make a move. Especially one that moves out a core guy (read: one of the Rochester Core Captains like Stafford or Roy).

I might be waiting a while.

Up one/Down one and MAG scratched

With the Sabres splitting weekend games with the Panthers and Rangers, we may have learned a few things.

1 - Maybe Jhonas Enroth isn't all that and a bag of chips. Enroth certainly didn't get any help with the Sabres giving up 2 shorties versus the Rangers and the offense didn't help him by only putting one past Marty Biron, but Enroth hasn't been the same dominant 1a he was last year and earlier this year since Miller was run by Lucic.

2 - MSG needs to get better fact checkers/stats guys. The Sabres are now 5-3 in the back end of back-to-back games this season. Why they kept saying that the Sabres were unbeaten in those spots is beyond me.

3 - The Sabres need scoring depth and guys like Derek Roy and Drew Stafford need to step up and start producing. And Tyler Ennis' 2 pts in 12 games isn't cutting it, either. 

With Paul Gaustad and Mike Weber healthy, we may see Marc-Andre Gragnani in the press box. That would be a good idea to me. His boneheaded turnover in OT versus the Flyers was a benchable offense to me. And it was hardly his first of the season. Gragnani has nice offensive upside. But, he needs to get a lot smarter with the puck.

Holy Turnovers, Batman

The Sabres built a 3-0 lead against the Flyers. Gave up four straight goals. Then they tied it with the goalie pulled. Then they lost in OT when Marc-Andre Gragnani decided that Claude Giroux (now the NHL leader in points and a guy who already had 3 points last night) needed to be gift wrapped a breakaway.

Ummm, yeah......

Did I mention that Nathan Gerbe was boarded and suffered another UBI and that Ville Leino could be suspended?

But before I get to the negatives from last night, let's get to some positives.

Positive #1 Zack Kassian - Kassian had a beautiful assist on a tic-tac-toe passing play from Luke Adam to BZK to Ville Leino for the tap in. Adam started the play by getting a nice turnover as the Flyers were trying to transition out of their zone on the PK. Kassian had a sweet one touch backhand pass to Leino. Then Kassian picked up the puck in the neutral zone, carried the puck into the Flyers zone, used the defenseman as a screen, and beat Bryzgalov with a sneaky wrister. As long as Kassian keeps playing like this, he's going to make it impossible to send him back to the Amerks. I already want a Kassian jersey, too.

Positive #2 Leino-Adam-Kassian - The Vanek-[Fill in the blank]-Pominville line has been doing the heavy lifting offensively all season. But, this line has shown some quick chemistry and is giving the Sabres the secondary scoring that they need badly. Leino is starting to produce like a $4+ million per year guy and Luke Adam is showing that his strong rookie season isn't just a factor of playing with Vanek and Pominville.

Positive #3 The early and late offense - Jumping out to the 3-0 lead late in the first and getting the OT forcing goal with Miller on the bench were both great.

Now to the negatives.......

Negative #1 Gerbe gets run and Leino gets stupid - Just what the Sabres didn't need. Gerbe gets hurt on a play that may get Marc-Andre Bourdon Shana-banned and then Ville Leino with the stupid elbow that might get himself Shana-banned. Just when Leino was starting to get into my good graces with increased offensive production and he does this. Come on man!

Negative #2  Turnovers - Honestly, I don't know whether the Gragnani turnover in OT or the Gerbe turnover in the last 10 seconds of the first period was worse. In both cases, the Sabres need to make better plays with the puck.

Negative #3 Miller's head - I don't care about Miller's negative body language after giving up tipped and screened goals. I don't know that it bothers his teammates because I'm not in their heads. But, I do believe that Miller's body language and his reaction to less than ideal goals is an area that he could improve upon. And on Miller's mask coming off, how about mask maker's putting chin straps back on goalie masks and goalies actually using them.....

Tootoo gets 2

Jordin Tootoo was suspended two games for running Ryan Miller


My take: That's about right given Tootoo's lengthy rap sheet and the fact that the NHL GMs told Shanahan to do more to protect goaltenders after he didn't suspend Milan Lucic for hitting Miller. It will be interesting to see how other incidents like this one are handled in the future. As a goalie, I hope more is done to reduce the number of times that a goalie gets run by a forward trying to drive the net.

NHL realignment sees the Florida Panthers and Tampa Bay Lightning join the Northeast Division in Conference C


My take: I hope that they break out some good names of legendary players. But, I wish these were 4 divisions that are a part of 2 conferences like back in the day. I do like the return of the playoffs going through your "conference" rivals. The old days of the Adams Division rivalries were fueled by playoff clashes. And more trips to sunny FLA are nice for the team....

Kassian with a sweet goal & Miller gets run 2.0

Just like the rest of Sabres Nation, I'd like to forget the Red Wings game on Friday night. That was the difference between a really good team at close to full strength against a good team with a laundry list of injuries.

But, Saturday night was a little different. First, Ryan Miller was back in goal for the Sabres and he gave them much better play in goal than Nashville got from back up Anders Lindback.

Zack Kassian scored a filthy breakaway goal

My take: That was siiiiiick. I am ready to trade away Drew Stafford and insert Kassian in his spot. And I'm like 85% serious there.

Jordin Tootoo runs Ryan Miller and the team's response is quite different than the response to the Lucic hit

My take: First, can we put to rest all the speculation that the Sabres don't like Ryan Miller after that? Second, I think that Tootoo's hit was not as bad as the Lucic hit. But, I would expect Tootoo to get suspended because of his long rap sheet and the fact that the NHL GMs were not happy with Shanahan not protecting a marquee goalie in the Lucic hit. 

Tyler Ennis gets back on the ice and on the scoresheet

My take: The Sabres need more offensively from a lot of guys, and Tyler Ennis is one of the them. Ennis drove me nuts a few times, especially the one where he poked the loose puck past Lindback and didn't shoot sooner on the net being defended by a couple of Preds skaters. But, that was a nice snipe on his game winner and hopefully that gets the monkey off of Ennis' back. 

More injuries with Gaustad getting hurt in the Tootoo scrum and Hecht getting hurt, too

My take: At least Cody McCormick is healthy enough to get back in the lineup. This injury situation is crazy. And I'm starting to wonder if the Sabres need to sacrifice a live chicken in that fancy new locker room.

A New Legend?

With the Sabres calling up newly signed Joe Finley, is there a new legend being born?

My take: I can't wait to see what a pairing of Brayden McNabb and Joe Finley looks like tomorrow night versus Detroit. At  roughly a combined height of 13 feet tall and weighing in at 450+ pounds combined, the two definitely add some beef to the Sabres back end.

The Anaheim Ducks fire head coach Randy Carlyle and hire former Washington Capitals head coach Bruce Boudreau


My take: I think this can end most of the major trade rumors involving the Ducks. I can't see them replacing a coach and also making a major roster move right away. They will likely give BB at least until the trade deadline to get guys like Bobby Ryan, Ryan Getzlaf, Corey Perry and other going before they pull off a major trade. Now if the Sabres and Ducks were talking about a lesser deal, I could see that happening.

The Sabres have a lot of size and grit on the verge of being NHL ready


My take: For a while, and especially after the Lucic on Miller fiasco, people have said that the Sabres NHL roster is long on talent and short on toughness. Well, it would appear that the Sabres have plenty of in-house solutions to that issue with Zack Kassian, Brayden McNabb, Joe Finley, and Corey Tropp having been called up and guys like Marcus Foligno still down in Rochester. Add in that the call ups haven't looked out of place and it will be interesting to see how open the Sabres are to moving out established NHLers that are small and less gritty in place of a tough kid. For instance, has Kassian's play made a guy Drew Stafford more likely to get dealt? Has McNabb's play made a guy like Marc-Andre Gragnani more likely to get dealt? And could the kids allow Regier to package multiple NHLers to get a front line player? Like say the top 1 or 2 center that the team still needs?

That would be nice.......

Ryan Miller shoots down that he wouldn't mind a deal out of Buffalo


My take: I never really bought into that Miller wanted out or that the Sabres were shopping him. And while I accept his word that he's happy in Buffalo and he doesn't see the grass being greener elsewhere with Terry Pegula in place as the Sabres owner, his new gloves and pads will give the doubters fuel to speculate.

For those that don't know, many people believe that goalies get generic, all white gear, when they expect to be dealt because they can wear it with their new team without clashing.

My guess is that Reebok gave Miller a new set to try out. If he doesn't like them, I could use a new set. Ryan, hook a brother up for Christmas!