GAME DISCUSSION THREAD

[Claude Balls]

I'm thankful the Sabres didn't trade Kotalik, like many here wanted. He is worth his money just during shootouts. The kid is MONEY with that nasty backhand. Looks like Staff even took a lesson from Al. And Miller is looking like his old self and I noticed how Lalime was talking to him before the SO started, like Biron used to. T-blo would just sit there and finish eating his sandwich. Lalime and Miller also skated off the ice together. I think Lalime will be a big help to Miller just being there. Of course, it's only one game......

[Samson's Flow]

Where was this Drew Stafford all of last year? this was the guy tonight that i was looking for all of last year!

 

The team defense thing worked to perfection. everytime i thought "#%^$#! we need to get back" there were 2 or all of the forwards getting back to pick up their men. Couple of missed assignments led to chances but its still early.

 

Loving the physical play - Paille, Kaleta, Rivet etc. all with big hits and the defense cleared the front of the net. yeah ill give you guys a minute to let that sink in.

 

As much as I hate to say it, but max played alright tonight. he created chances and gave the d trouble, although he still had a few take on everyone turnovers...

 

Overall pumped for the early win, and even better since it was against Montreal in the shootout (that backhand move works everytime) Go Sabres!!! :thumbsup:

[nfreeman]

I wanted to wait to say this all game long because I didn't want to jinx it, but Miller was phenomenal tonight. This team played a defensive gritty game. Miller was absolutely awesome. Miller was sharp and was fantastic in the overtime and shootout. We've got 2 points to start the season. Excellent game. Even if they aren't 5-3 wins, I'll take it. They got a big win in the division against the best team in the Eastern Conference last year and who many are predicting as the top team this year. Huge win to start the season. I'm jacked!

He really was, wasn't he?

 

:beer:

Aaaaaaahhh. Tasty!

 

That was an outstanding win.

 

A few thoughts:

 

1. We looked much, much better on D tonight. Miller was very sharp, but our D was very sound. I thought Teppo was excellent. And I've been as critical of Tallinder as anyone, but he was very solid. Sekera was a little shaky at times.

 

2. Lindy just said Connolly has a hairline fracture of a vertebra in his back. Hello, another 40-game season. And Robert Lang, a good, veteran center that Montreal picked up in the summer for a 2nd-round pick, with 1 year left on his contract at $4 million, scored Montreal's goal, was on the ice with 10 seconds left in OT, and shot for them in the shootout. Lang is 6-3, 220 and had 21 goals and 54 points last year. Would anyone have minded us picking him up?

 

3. Miller! Miller! Miller!

 

4. PP looked pretty bad. Not one setup for a Kotalik bomb.

 

5. I was pretty pessimistic entering the SO, but this team will surprise you.

 

6. My 3 stars:

 

Miller #1

Paille #2

Teppo #3

 

That was effing great.

[WayneGibbous]

Vanek looked great

[Bmwolf21]

Just got home from another blowout HS football game, and I am stoked to hear the Swords played a pretty good game, won a SO, and Miller was solid. I can't wait to see the highlights.

 

On a negative note, I do have to agree with another poster - this Timmy C problem, this early in the season, is disconcerting. Hopefully resting him now will prevent him from doing further damage down the road and will help keep him healthy.

[Corp000085]

connolly just needs to go away. His ridiculous injuries are either something that his playing style provoke or he's just not built for the NHL game. He was great for that like 1/2 season in 06. other than that, its time for him to go away. Glad the sabres won tonight as a total team effort. Goes to show you that the team either has learned to win without connolly or they simply have all written him completely off of their gameplan. TC is damaged goods to the max right now.

[BamBam]

So what was everyone's thoughts of Max tonight?

Is this just more of the same or what? Guy seems cursed or something. I just don't get it.

[Bmwolf21]

So what was everyone's thoughts of Max tonight?

Is this just more of the same or what? Guy seems cursed or something. I Max just don't doesn't get it.

Fixed.

 

Disclaimer: I didn't see the game.

 

But from what I'm reading on another board, it seems that he had a couple more bad turnovers? Maybe he is incapable of slowing things down in his head or slowing down his hands or staying in the system for too long. He's got that pond hockey feel, that urge to freelance that he cannot fight.

 

I dunno.

[Samson's Flow]

So what was everyone's thoughts of Max tonight?

Is this just more of the same or what? Guy seems cursed or something. I just don't get it.

 

I thought he played all right / pretty well. maybe its that i expect a train wreck from him everytime he touches the puck, but he had some chances on behind the net wrap arounds and hustled back on d when needed. He still had a few puck handling turnovers but no drop pass breakaway turnovers. I cant really rag on him too much tonight, although lets wait for a larger sample size than 1 game.

[carpandean]

2. Lindy just said Connolly has a hairline fracture of a vertebra in his back. Hello, another 40-game season. And Robert Lang, a good, veteran center that Montreal picked up in the summer for a 2nd-round pick, with 1 year left on his contract at $4 million, scored Montreal's goal, was on the ice with 10 seconds left in OT, and shot for them in the shootout. Lang is 6-3, 220 and had 21 goals and 54 points last year. Would anyone have minded us picking him up?

I remember the day that I saw that trade on TSN or Sportsnet; I just stared at it in disbelief. He's at the back end of his career, but would have been a really nice addition.

 

---------------

 

It was great to get a strong win right off the bat this year, but to get it in a shootout means so much more after last year.

 

I can't believe that we beat Montreal with no Goose, no Connolly, Mair centering the third line, MacArthur centering the fourth and Peters in the lineup.

[nfreeman]

I remember the day that I saw that trade on TSN or Sportsnet; I just stared at it in disbelief. He's at the back end of his career, but would have been a really nice addition.

Here's the way I look at it: the Sabres may be under the cap, but they are at their internal budget limit. They couldn't bring in an expensive veteran unless they unloaded either Connolly or Max, and I doubt there were any takers for either. Nobody in the NHL wants to solve someone else's $3.5 million problem. So, unless there is somehow a miraculous healing & turnaround for Connolly this year, they risked $10 million on him and got almost nothing. They lost the money and they lost the ability to bring in someone else with that money. But I think this is happening all over the league, and often at higher numbers. So at least it wasn't $30 million.

 

Still, it would have been pretty nice to bring in Lang. Or Brian Rolston. Oh well.

[Stoner]

I want to thank Toni Lydman for saving that puck off the goal line and keeping me from having to write about the season's first Miller Special.

 

Thanks Tone.

 

Miller was good though, especially late.

 

Paille was a beast.

 

Not a bad start, beating one of the league's preseason favorites while playing far from your best game.

[deluca67]

So what was everyone's thoughts of Max tonight?

Is this just more of the same or what? Guy seems cursed or something. I just don't get it.

I didn't see anything from Max tonight I would care to see the rest of the season.

[billsrcursed]

I didn't see anything from Max tonight I would care to see the rest of the season.

 

 

I was pretty worried when they announced our 3rd line tonight, to be honest. But I actually thought they played pretty well together. They all did a great job back checking and for their first game together on the same line produced some great chances. I think playing time will increase their productivity. Mair surprised me. Once again, though, Max tried a little too hard towards the end of the game. He looked decent on the power play and even had some nice passes throughout the night, but seemed to have lost the ability to play under control towards the end. Hope he can bounce back Monday night.....

[Doohicksie]

I enjoyed watching the game with my new friends at Buffalo Brothers in Fort Worth tonight. For Bills games the place is packed and 90+% cheering for the Bills. Tonight there were only six of us Sabres fans (one of whom I knew from the Bills games there) and a guy from Chicago who was there to watch the Blackhawks, so... kind of a slow night, but it was fun to watch the game with fans from Buffalo.

[Corp000085]

I want to thank Toni Lydman for saving that puck off the goal line and keeping me from having to write about the season's first Miller Special.

 

Thanks Tone.

 

Miller was good though, especially late.

 

Paille was a beast.

 

Not a bad start, beating one of the league's preseason favorites while playing far from your best game.

 

 

Granted its game 1 of 82 and I haven't seen a sabres game in about 5 months, but I can't remember seeing a more sound defensive game from top to bottom. I wholeheartedly agree with you about not playing their best game. They seemed to have troubles connecting on passes down low. The hitting was there, they got a lot of shots, but not too too many quality chances after that first period flurry. I guess I'll have to credit the canadiens, who also played a pretty damn good game. As for the PP? Good lord, it stunk. Sekera looked like a boy out there flopping all over the ice. Max? He had a great max special. As one defenseman was attempting to pass to the other D-man, max, stole the puck, skated up ice, and was pokechecked by the blue line. I think that was in OT or near the end of the 3rd period. It's just one game, but to pull that baby out was something special and something to build upon. Till monday...

[thesportsbuff]

Max struggled, I thought. Looked like he was trying TOO hard to make a play and force a pass, which resulted in a turnover, rather than maybe pulling the usual skate around and open things up. Ugh it's a see-saw.

[Kristian]

Didn't get to see the game, but I just wanted to chime in that I can't remember the last time we won an opener 2-1.

 

Very very positive.

 

Did see Al's gamewinner - Classic move, and he's still money in the bank on the shootout.

[DR HOLLIDAY]

A very nice way to start the season.............. :thumbsup:

[Assquatch]

.093 0.92 gaa and .964 sv% not including slamming the door shut during the shootout. He's also on my Sabrespace fantasy team.. so me likely alot..

 

 

fixed.

 

gaa = goals given up times 60 divided by minutes played.

 

1*60/65=0.923

[wjag]

fixed.

 

gaa = goals given up times 60 divided by minutes played.

 

1*60/65=0.923

I lifted it right off of yahoo at the end of the game. They've corrected it this morning I see.

 

A couple of thoughts about last nights game:

 

1. MSG HD glitched almost the whole first period. Thank goodness we had the SD to fall back to when it happened.

 

2. Vanek played an outstanding game throughout.

 

3. Paille played a great, physical game. I would've elevated it to outstanding if he had buried that SHG attempt which was a perfect 2 on 1 feed from Roy.

 

4. The whole game seemed to be played in Montreal's end of the ice. The Sabres consistently won puck battles. It's amazing to me that Montreal got that many shots off because watching the game it sure didn't seem like it.

 

5. I had an eerie calmness watching our defense in last night's game against a very good team.

 

6. As well as they played, not cashing in during that 4-minute PP should have cost them the game. It did cost them an enemy point. Now having said that, the PP was MUCH better this year. Passing was crisper. Puck control was better. They had their SOGs too. Having the face-off in the enemy ice is going to substantially change the game of hockey this year. I like it. Win the face off and you have a chance to setup. And what can you say about the PK. They really limited Montreal's chances.

 

7. Miller played his best hockey the last five minutes of the game.

 

8. Max had his moments good and bad but I graded him out significantly improved.

 

9. Was I the only one who thought the OT, 4-on-4 hockey looked slow, lethargic and boring. It was pretty clear they were tired.

 

10. Lydman had the save of the day and the play of the night.

[darksabre]

The real question here is, does Peters score a goal before Connolly does?

[LabattBlue]

I was out at a bar watching a game and it's always tougher to follow the game closely...

 

- The convincing shootout one against the top team in the east will hopefully give the team some confidence with future shootouts.

 

-Paille continuing his drastic improvement. Best Sabre on the ice?

 

-The first 4 minutes of OT was a bore and the last minute dominated by Montreal. So much for 4 on 4 hockey.

 

-Nice play by Lydman to save a goal!!

 

-Very disappointed with Connolly. I'm playing, I'm playing, I'm playing...coach I can't go. :doh:

 

-I couldn't hear ther audio of the game very well. Did they explain why the penalty time wasn't being displayed?

 

-Good win to open the season

 

GO SABRES!!!

[Bmwolf21]

LINK to the NHL.com recap and video highlights.

 

Tip: click on the "video" link under the sluggalo logo on the right if you don't want to watch the highlights in the tiny 2" X 3" box at the top of the game recap.

[Eleven]

My random musings:

 

Miller was great, but the save of the game belongs to Toni Lydman. VERY heads-up play prevented the Canadiens from going up 2-1 in the second.

 

The defense was terrific last night, but the stats up on the scoreboard (more on that below) didn't reflect the shots blocked by Buffalo. That number remained at 0 (on the board) throughout the game. Best block of the night belonged to Max--yes, that Max--in the third.

 

Speaking of whom, people who thought he had a bad game were looking for reasons to complain about him. He had another of his great keep-away possessions that allowed his four teammates to change, the blocked shot above, and generally looked ok playing with new company. No stupid penalties. Giveaways? I'm looking at you, Derek Roy. Taking it across the line by yourself through four defenders while on a power play? No, no, no. And it didn't work.

 

The power play was awful. I don't know why Rivet and Sekera are both at the point at the same time, but that didn't work either. And MacArthur shouldn't be on a power play unit at all.

 

Vanek was just awesome. The guy was everywhere last night, and his goal was the result of pure determination.

 

If I never see a weak backhand shot from the bottom of the left circle again, I'll be ok.

 

It's going to be fun having Ryan O'Byrne as an enemy. And what the hell was Steve Begin thinking in the third period?

 

Back to the scoreboard. Those of us who were lucky to be there were treated to an enhanced scoreboard system that shows who is on the ice at any given time, and that cycles through live statistics during breaks. Very cool.