GDT GDT: NY Rangers at Buffalo, 7:00 PM ET 12/1/2016

[Thorner]

Favourite game of the year so far, I think.

 

Eichel took over at the end. The way he was all over the ice and took the game to the Rangers and controlled the pace, it reminded me of a game where a Lebron or Curry takes over.

[MODO Hockey]

Oh Swedish hockey gods, thank you for answering my pleas. May your light shine upon the Buffalo Sabres always. 

 

Wish i got to see this game, but i didnt. Reading the forum and this thread is lovley the day after a win! :D

 

Dem Swedish hockey gods though!

[Doohicksie]

Modo!  Good morning!

[MODO Hockey]

Modo!  Good morning!

 

Good morning Sir!

 

God what a morning, just saw the recap of the game here at work.. holy sh1t. :D you guys must been having a blast this night!

[Doohicksie]

The Rangers were doing a lot of clutching, grabbing and whacking and the refs refused to call the penalties.  They finally gave the Sabres a couple power plays in the third period, but they should have had more than that.  The officiating made it very frustrating.  But when Jack finally broke through, it was awesome.

[North Buffalo]

Good to have Eichel back. Too bad they didn't give him the 3rd drawn penalty when his buddy 26 cross checked him w/ about 3 minutes left. Might have gotten that elusive 2nd consecutive 5th goal. (Aside: mildly surprised Pi never gave having his # already taken in Buffalo for a reason Spoiled Jimmy didn't come to WNY. ;))

 

Fully understand Bylsma's reasoning on putting Kane out w/ the kids, his breakaway led eventually to Jack's bankshot goal, but in the 1 shift he had w/ the kids, Girgensons showed the chemistry w/ those guys he displayed last year. Would still like to see that combo more often.

 

Liked that Jack was on the ice towards the end. Pretty sure DB would like to have gotten O'Reilly & Larsson out for Jack & Kane at the very end, but it worked.

 

Fedun's oopses today were why though he could prove to be a reasonable #6, he'll never be a #4. Real speed puts too much pressure on him. He hasn't faced a team that brings the pressure the Rags do.

 

Right now the team is definitely running on the Eichel high. It'll be interesting to see how much of it's adrenaline & how much is Eichel. Without the adrenaline, this team probably doesn't win tonight, but if they can keep the key pieces healthy (& even get some other ones healthy) they should battle for a playoff spot. Can't get those 3-4 lost points on the 1st road trip out of my head. Hopefully they don't end up being the difference; they'll definitely make it closer than it should be. The full Moe-ray-all & TB are the only 2 teams that are definitely better on paper than the Sabres in division. Would have been nice to be even w/ the other scrubs at game 22 rather than spotting them all a couple.

 

And Kane seems to have been healthy for about a week (that's about when he started shooting again) & since Eichel came back O'Reilly's skating seems less labored. Hopefully he's healthy & it isn't just having a lot less weight on his back that's allowing him to have the extra spring to his step. If they are healthy, the timing only builds on the Legend of the Eichel. Awesome. :beer:

 

Fun game. Definitely looking forward to Saturday's matinee.

Learning Experience for Fedune, but he showed his speed getting back a couple of times later in the game and adjusted and was impressed by it.  Slower defenders would have been burned.  Disagree with your assessment.

 

Screw Vessey, glad he was booed and relatively a non-factor.  

Edited December 2, 2016 by North Buffalo

[Huckleberry]

Me waking up seeing eichel scored two goals in the 3rd 

 

Edited December 2, 2016 by Huckleberry

[MODO Hockey]

Me waking up seeing eichel scored two goals in the 3rd 

 

 

+1

[sodbuster]

I was curious about this. There were quite a few empty seats in the lower level that were visible on TV, but it sounded respectably loud. How full was the arena?

 

 

 

The arena was very top heavy tonight. The cheap seats looked full, but there were a ton of the 100s open. I was in 116 row 8, and there were two seats right next to me and three seats directly behind me open.

 

At the end of the game it was pretty loud. People actually believe again, now that Eichel is back.

[Jsixspd]

Good to have Eichel back. Too bad they didn't give him the 3rd drawn penalty when his buddy 26 cross checked him w/ about 3 minutes left. Might have gotten that elusive 2nd consecutive 5th goal. (Aside: mildly surprised Pi never gave having his # already taken in Buffalo for a reason Spoiled Jimmy didn't come to WNY. ;))

 

I saw that too!   Seemed like blatant cross-checking!   Ahhh well, still an awesome game!   

 

Two games now where the Sabres played night and day better with Jack Eichel back in the roster.   Let's hope it lasts.  I joked after the previous game that the Eichel difference was +4 goals (5 goals vs the usual 1).   Well, this game the Eichel difference was +3.   

 

BTW, DirecTV Genie auto recorded the Rangers feed for me - during the 1st period the Rangers announcers were discussing that fluke goal at 18 seconds in, and the very low full strength goal production of the Sabres, and that most of the Sabres' goals have come during the PP (something we've discussed at length here)  and the Rangers have a low PIM, so things were still looking good for the Rangers.

 

They just didn't realize (nor did I) how much of a pop having Jack back in the lineup would give the Sabres.  It's pretty amazing - let's hope it lasts!  

Edited December 2, 2016 by Jsixspd

[sabills]

- Still 5 under DeLuca .500, but there is life!  Hope!  Hockey!!

Somewhere a white 22 year old girl is getting "Life. Hope. Hockey" tattooed on the side of her foot, and she doesn't know why

[Taro T]

Learning Experience for Fedune, but he showed his speed getting back a couple of times later in the game and adjusted and was impressed by it.  Slower defenders would have been burned.  Disagree with your assessment.

 

Screw Vessey, glad he was booed and relatively a non-factor.

 

The bulk of his oopses occurred in the 3rd. How much later than them did you see his game improve?

 

Overall, he played well. But he had issues when the Rags got quicker guys against him. Maybe he'll continue to improve, but right now he's still scary vs quick forecheckers in his own end. He's been fine against the rush so far.

 

As mentioned in another thread, looking forward to watching him again on Saturday to see if he does keep his feet moving as much as it seemed against the Wings.

 

Right now, & it's a very small sample set definitely, he seems to be fine against the rush but can have issues reacting quickly enough when action is coming quick in the tighter spaces. Perhaps (hopefully) he'll get it, but until he shows he can consistently, this jury is out. And again, would rather see him at 6 than Franson at present, but have no/little confidence in him if he has to do emergency top 4 duty.

[LGR4GM]

Rotoworld: "Henrik Lundqvist felt the wrath of Jack Eichel in Thursday 4-3 loss to the Sabres."

[nfreeman]

My son wore my Ryan Miller jersey to school today.

 

This is better than him making the honor roll or getting into college.

[Doohicksie]

The bulk of his oopses occurred in the 3rd. How much later than them did you see his game improve?

 

The errant pass oopses can be coached out of him.  He needs to realize that there are times when it's better to eat it along the boards than pass it for the quick out.  Once he can identify when those times are, FEDUN WILL BE FINE.

[hsif]

I watched the game from 326 row 13...... there's only 14 effin rows...... But, it was a great perspective for seeing things develop and getting the big picture..... Lots of Rangers fans in the area, and in the arena in general..... Finally, a game where the crowd made some noise.....  My personal contribution to the win was to BOO Vesey every time he touched the puck, although from that altitude, I may have missed a few..... Big Fun!

 

I was really amazed watching O'Reilly in the warm up...... his puckhandling skills are unreal..... Seems the guy can touch the puck 8 - 10 times per second..... He'll skate around in the warm up putting the puck between guys skates as they stand there, or putting the puck under someone's leg as they stretch, or testing the boards for rebound...... I could watch his demonstration for hours..... it was really cool. With his on ice hustle, he's become my favorite player to watch......

[Claude_Verret]

That was the most fun I've had watching the Sabres in a looooong time.  Feels good.

[Stoner]

Time for the PP

 

That was a sweet PP goal.

 

I think you guys mean "peeper." (Eichelism)

 

Rick sounded great. That was so great.

 

And Samson's feed over there. Sublime.

 

His call of the first goal ("you can explain that one to your grandkids, but they may never believe you!") makes the Jeanneret Shortlist of Off the Cuff Remarks (Goal Category). That's the Jeanneret of old, my friends.

 

Also: Hammy looks better without the 'stache.

 

As for Grumpy's goal, it was brought to you by this 90's McDonalds commercial:

 

[Derrico]

How great does it feel getting a PP and just expecting to score??  :beer:

[North Buffalo]

I think you guys mean "peeper." (Eichelism)

 

 

 

His call of the first goal ("you can explain that one to your grandkids, but they may never believe you!") makes the Jeanneret Shortlist of Off the Cuff Remarks (Goal Category). That's the Jeanneret of old, my friends.

 

Also: Hammy looks better without the 'stache.

 

As for Grumpy's goal, it was brought to you by this 90's McDonalds commercial:

 

I loved that commercial.

[nucci]

I watched the game from 326 row 13...... there's only 14 effin rows...... But, it was a great perspective for seeing things develop and getting the big picture..... Lots of Rangers fans in the area, and in the arena in general..... Finally, a game where the crowd made some noise.....  My personal contribution to the win was to BOO Vesey every time he touched the puck, although from that altitude, I may have missed a few..... Big Fun!

 

I was really amazed watching O'Reilly in the warm up...... his puckhandling skills are unreal..... Seems the guy can touch the puck 8 - 10 times per second..... He'll skate around in the warm up putting the puck between guys skates as they stand there, or putting the puck under someone's leg as they stretch, or testing the boards for rebound...... I could watch his demonstration for hours..... it was really cool. With his on ice hustle, he's become my favorite player to watch......

Why?

[Taro T]

The errant pass oopses can be coached out of him.  He needs to realize that there are times when it's better to eat it along the boards than pass it for the quick out.  Once he can identify when those times are, FEDUN WILL BE FINE.

Hopefully. & that is possible. But none of that changes the fact that he had more of his oopses in the 3rd rather than earlier in the game, which contradicts the observation my post you quoted responded to, thus the reason for the question.

[hsif]

Why?

'Cause that what you do as a fan....... Boo the other guy.

[SabresBaltimore]

Eichel turning it on in the 3rd to get us the win was fantastic. Us putting up more goals than the top scoring team in the league was fantastic.

 

Us killing time in the last 2 minutes by forechecking? Holy ! When was the last time that happened?

 

I really hope we keep seeing this.

 

So 1 goal in his first game, 2 goals in his second game. That means Eichel is due for a Hat Trick against Boston on Saturday, right?

[Huckleberry]

How great does it feel getting a PP and just expecting to score??  :beer:

 

Don't get that when our 2nd unit comes on the ice though.

 

The look on the faces of those rangers fans though :p

Edited December 2, 2016 by Huckleberry