As expected, Matt Ellis has passed through waivers and will play in Rochester. The versatile veteran forward was waived on Sunday. His great work habits and team-first attitude will benefit the Amerks youngsters greatly.
Ellis became expendable in Buffalo due to the return from injury of Kaleta and McCormick
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Any surprises?
Sports Illustrated has named its annual 'Most Hatred Players In The NHL List".
Sabres choir boys Pat Kaleta and Steve Ott are #s 10 and 9 , respectively on the list.
Kaleta told me Sunday night that "I play my role very well. I do what I have to do to help my team win games." Fighting, blocking shots, chirping opponents. Whatever it takes.
Ott isn't offended by the inclusion on the "most hated list". He believes that if your opponents likes you, you aren't playing the game the right way.
I agree with Kaleta and Ott.
Thats the way they love it.
8. Jordin Tootoo
7. Alex Burrows
6. Mike Ribeiro
5. Raffi Torres
4. Dan Carcillo
3. Brad Marchand
2. Max LaPierre
1. PK Subban
This list is a joke. No Milan Lucic? No Shawn Thornton? No Matt Cooke? No Steve Downey?
Feel like punching something? Frustrated? Irritable? Upset Stomach? High Blood Pressure? Acid Reflux?
Scratching your head wanting to know why the Sabres are so up and down from one game to the next?
Look no further than their Little Shoppe Of Horrors: Their blue line.
The Sabres are an absolute train wreck in terms of team defense right now. The team should seriously consider having a Triple A tow truck parked inthe zamboni entrance to haul away all of their break downs that snarl up rush hour traffic. I’ve been following this team for the better part of 40 years and I cannot ever remember a more inconsistent group of defenders that his current vintage. From one game to the next, there’s a new culprit who’s guilty of one or more atrocious D-zone turnovers, like this Sekera felony from the third period in a one-goal game:
How many times is Ryan Miller going to have to play the role of defense attorney and bail his buddies out of jail? Seriously!
Miller played out of his skull in back to back games against the Islanders and Bruins, and yet, what does he have to show for it? His teammates almost obliterated his virtuosity by playing uninspired, dumb hockey in front of him. He’s been seeing more rubber this season than the Daytona 500.
In 11 games played, he’s only allowed 32 goals against on 368 shots. His .913 save percentage and 2.98 goals against average only tell part of the story right now.
The Bruins threw 36 shots on him. They Islanders landed 43 on him. He only allowed four goals on 81 shots this weekend. Thats an incredible .951 save percentage. Yet, his team nearly went ohfer the weekend. What’s wrong with this picture?
Miller is seeing far too many shots, according to Captain Pominville:
“You’re right with that. We’re giving up too much, we’re making it too easy on them. I feel like we have to earn every opportunity we get, we have to work for our opportunities. On the other hand, sometimes we give them the easy ones where they come around, whether it’s from a turnover we make or a miscue in our zone, they make plays. We’re running around a little bit and it ends up wasting a lot of time in our zone, and then you get the puck out, you’ve got to change and they’re coming right back at you with fresh guys. So it’s about playing in our zone first and that’s how it starts. It’s defense first.”
If you were to take Miller away from the Sabres, and you were to silence the 26-19-29 line’s production, you’d be in a world of hurt right now.
Miller has to have his head on a swivel at all times when the puck crosses his blue line because his D can’t consistently execute the break-out. Wingers are begging for the puck and the defenders can’t even complete a 3-5 foot pass. What’s more, the defensemen are opting not to complete the conservative, safe breakout pass to the walls and they are instead chucking the puck up the gut of the ice, through two or three enemy for checkers, only to have it picked off and thrown back in Miller’s face. It’s not just Tyler Myers committing these meat head errors either. He’s only one of the offenders. Jordan Leopold has butchered the break out on a routine basis this season.
Here’s Buffalo best D, Christian Ehrhoff getting torched on a two-on-one by an aircraft carrier named Chara.
The Buffalo forwards are just as guilty as the D. They are flying the zone early looking for the long-bomb pass that never comes because it routinely gets pick-sixed.
What Ennis on this shift. Rather than getting control of the puck and simply chipping it off the wall and out to clear the zone, he mishandles it like it has MRSA or botulism on it, and it leads to a sustained Boston attack for 30-35 seconds.
It’s totally unacceptable for the forwards to be turning pucks over in front of Miller at this alarming rate. They are not doing their chores in their own end. They are taking for too many risks and are relying way too much on Ryan Miller to pull their fat out of the fire. Miller has had to erase three dozen or more god-awful D-zone mistakes thus far in thirteen games. He can’t keep bailing out his D every game. He can’t make 100% of the saves to cover up for his forwards and D’s boneheaded mistakes.
How about this Jochen Hecht boner that led to a beautiful scoring chance for Tyler Seguin, twenty two seconds into the game?
Miller to the rescue. AGAIN.
Thanks, sabres.com
I think it’s time for Ruff to hold accountable James Patrick and Kevyn Adams, his respective D and forwards coaches. Hold the department heads to a high standard for their “employees”. In closed door, position meetings, the players sit and watch blooper reel videos of their nightly mistakes. They nod their heads and say they won’t make such stupid mistakes anymore. Yet, they keep making the same mistakes, game after game.
If Ruff isn’t leaving town anytime soon (and he’s not), maybe it’s time to address his assistant coaches. The players are a direct reflection of their position coaches. If they are playing the way they practice, with a lot of anxiety and panic, then maybe a shakeup is in order.
Let Teppo Numminen run the D from the bench instead of from the press box. Hell, the guy can lace up and play tomorrow night in Ottawa and he would not look out of place. You know why? Teppo was prepared for games and practices. He studied the opposition. What’s more, he maximized his assets. He had keen vision on the ice, and he knew the angles. He rarely ever panicked. He had grace under pressure. He always knew where he was going with the puck even when he was stuck in enemy fire. He was simple. Economical. Efficient. There wasn’t a lot of noise in his game. He was steady, dependable and always prepared to answer the bell. Sounds like Mike Weber, no? Guess who has been coaching Weber, Brennan and others, one-on-one, for the past two seasons in Buffalo? Guess who runs the bag skates for the healthy scratches, black aces, and injured players after practice? Teppo does.
As an organization, don’t the Sabres want their D to play more like Teppo and less helter skelter in their own end?
Why are the Anaheim Ducks actively scouting the Sabres?
The Ducks are one of a few Western conference squads who have been sending scouts to watch Buffalo play at home and on the road in recent games.
I'm not naive. I know what teams scout players. Most likely to determne if a player is worth trading for or not. Due dilligence is the best way to approach a trade.
Gets me to wondering, who on the Sabres roster are the Ducks interested in watching these days?
Myers was a scratch on Long Island and at home on Sunday night. Waste of time to send a scout to a game where the player is in the press box.
Stafford? Sekera? Brennan?
Miller?
I'll keep an eye on this...
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The Sabres are off today. No practice before they fly to Kanata for Tuesday night’s game with the bruised, injured Senators.
**
They can’t kill you if they can’t touch the puck.
Julien’s strategy was simple:
Stop the Buffalo Sabres by throwing a tarp over Vanek-Hodgson-Pominville. Make the other nine Buffalo forwards beat you.
It doesn’t take Tie Blake or Scotty Bowman to figure it out. Claude Julien can thank Mother Nature for the cancellation of the Bruins-Lightning game in Boston on Saturday night. The extra time off allowed Julien the opportunity to dissect game video from the January 31 laugher in Boston, which say the 26-19-29 line erupt for 5 goals, 6 assists, 12 shots on goal, and a +6 rating. Julien wisely opted to use a tight-gap approach on Buffalo’s top scoring line. In effect, Julien called his shot in the early stages of the game. His strict 1-2-2 neutral zone trap affected Vanek-Hodgson-Pominville and the rest of the Sabres forwards like a power outage. The Sabres said had no answer for the Bruins and their fresh legs. They sat idle since Thursday due to the crappy weather. They were prepared for the Sabres, who barely survived a bumpy ride on Long Island on Saturday night. Julien Lindy Ruff dictated the terms and conditions of the game, and thus, forced Ruff to have to try to manufacture offense from his other nine forwards, and his anemic powervplay units. The Bruins forwards and D did a good job of denying Buffalo’s time and space. They blanketed 26-19-29 with sticks and sweaters. There were very few chances to score, very few rebounds, let alone get shots on the Boston back-up goalie.
In the end, Buffalo’s results were less than stellar:
The Bruins took the 26-19-29 line out of the game. Their line score:
No goals, no assists, two shots on goal, and a combined -3.
Vanek ( 15:23 TOI)no points, was -1 with one shot on Khudonin.
Hodgson ( 17:05 TOI) had no points, was -1 with one shot on goal.
Pominville(17:57 TOI) had no points, was -1 with no shots on goal.
Result: 3-1 Bruins win.
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