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February 24, 2013, 12:55 AM ET [737 Comments]
GARTH'S CORNER
NHL news by Garth • RSSArchiveCONTACT
The Sabres had four glorious opportunities with the man advantage to bury Islanders on Saturday night. They failed to convert on one of them, thus, they allowed the Islanders to hand round long enough in a close game to make the Sabres blink first. Ron Rolston called it on Friday after his first practice with his new team. This year's Sabres squad tends to panic in the game of "chicken". They blinked first again on Saturday night in front of 19,000+ in their own barn. The fans jeered them for their blooper reel of mistakes and their carelessness with the puck.

The Sabres controlled play in the first 47 minutes of the game, but they had nothing to show for their effort. no 5 on 5 action, and certainly no PP love. They failed to bury their PP chances, then, the islanders took control of the puck and the game


The Buffalo power play is downright rancid right now.

Its 0 for its last 6. 2 for the last 46 PP opportunities in its last 11 games.

The putrid PP undermined an otherwise sold first thy minutes for the Sabres against the Islanders. Steve Ott has had it up to here with the constant failures. After the 4-0 loss, I looked Ott in the eye and asked him why his team seemed to sag after the Islanders killed off the Buffalo man advantage situations. Unlike some of his teammates, Ott didn’t blink first. He vented his spleen to me and told me his solution to fixing the pathetic PP and by extension, his team’s 6-12-1 record.


“You’re right. We have to.. Ron (Rolston) has talked about us blinking first….. we blinked first. We have to stick to the process. Its sucks, it’s a sh*tty process but, that’s the only way we can get out of this. Sometimes you’ve got to be kicked to the ground with no teeth before you can get back up and show your pride again, and, we’re down there. We’re down there. We’re bleeding and we’re kicked in right now. The big thing is its gonna come off a sh*tty goal of someone’s ass, or something of that nature that turns things around. On the power play that we can grab confidence from. Right now, every single in this locker room. We’re all making stupid mistakes and we’re hard on ourselves. That’s when we’re down that we need to find… to start having fun again. To find that instinct. Then, you’re a six year old again. Things are easy. 100%. The crowd has every right to boo. I wouldn’t want to waste my f***in night like that either. But that’s what we’re here for. it’s a brothership. We’re here to play hard for each other. We have to stick to the process.We can clean up a lot of things. You know what, it might take five games. But its something we can do, then its like “hey, we’re laughing again and playin’ hockey”.



I suggested to Ott that he and his team needs a long road trip to get away from the boos, the jeers and the negativity associated with the losing streak and the Lindy Ruff firing.

“You know what? You are absolutely right. In the West, trips are a little bit different because we were always on the road for long periods of time. You can get positive momentum from long road trips and the chance to get away, be boys, and have some fun. This is what we need. We need to go and get away from it all, have some jokes and laughs, pick our spirits up because right now, we’re at the bottom and its nothing fun. Its not exciting. It completely sucks. When we go out on the road, we have some fun, get the fun back in this game and continue to work and practice. Go through that process we need to do".


Clearly, Ott is frustrated. he has every right to be. He told me that there's too much talent assembled in the Buffalo room for the team to be playing so poorly for the past four weeks.


“I think we’re a good team with a lot of stupid mistakes right now. You take that in, and it sucks but the process is slow and we’ve put in the extra work so far already and I think we’re gonna continue to watch more video, and learn from it. We’re on the bottom.. We’re on the ground right now. Kicked in, but it’s the guys and the character that we have to show. That’s when we can start to get our of this hole”.

“You know what? Everyone is trying out there. Its got nothing to do with effort and more to do with the stupidity of playing on the wrong side of the puck. For us, its good hockey players making stupid decisions out there. That’s what hurts. You make a mistake, its ends up in the back of the net and you lose 4-0 to the Islanders for example.”

“I’d like to say that there’s a miracle out there that we can go and grab, but there’s not. We have to work on the process”.


Is there a leadership problem on this Sabres team?

“No, our leadership group is solid. I think we’ve got a great captain in Pommer. We have a goalie that’s a great veteran in Ryan. We’ve got Van and Staff. Its definitely not a leadership or accountability aspect. Its all of us. We’re all making stupid mistakes… once its 1 or 2 a game instead of 10 a game, and you clean up the process, that when we turn it around”



Ott refused to pass the buck. He took ownership of his mistakes and his at-times ketchy play. The more I speak with him, the more I envision him as the next captain of the Buffalo Sabres.


***

Ask me what's killing the Sabres right now and I'll tell you two things:

1. Stupid decisions with the puck
2. Zero sustained attack time in the enemy zone.

I'll be blunt:

The Sabres' young centres have got to step up their game. They are 19 games into an otherwise dreadful season and they have to start pushing back against the top centres in the NHL. Hodgson and Ennis have had nightmares against top centres from enemy teams this season. Think of the 12 games that the Sabres have lost, and look directly at their centre play.losing faceoffs to better draw-men is one thing, however, losing physical and mental battles to other centres is a huge problem for Buffalo. The Staal Brothers have feasted on Buffalo's young centres, as have Bergeron, Crosby, and Malkin. Steven Stamkos must be licking his chops looking forward to the Buffalo meeting in Tampa on Tuesday night.

Young, productive centres can be found on every roster in the NHL these days.

Take for example 22 year old John Tavares.

This jaw-dropping goal by the Mississauga native is a perfect microcosm of what is wrong with the Sabres this season: they lose battles, they allow opponents free will in the Buffalo zone, and they out-work the Buffalo centres and D.


Thanks, islanders.com

Tavares absolutely abused Reggie Sekera on his virtuoso one man cycle play. He used his big frame, tree trunk legs and forearm shiver to shield the puck and to cause Sekera to blow a tire and to lose coverage on the inevitable goal. Sekera's not the only person who deserves blame on this play. Where was Hodgson's puck support? Where was the battle and physicality on Tavares? There was none. No resistance. No aggression. No passion. No purpose.

No wonder the Sabres are 29th overall in the NHL.

Lindy Ruff said it numerous times before he was shown the door. The Sabres' young centres
continue to struggle this season in their baptism by fire. They are making far too many mistakes at this juncture. Meanwhile, Mikhail Grigorenko continues to sit and watch as his teammates fail miserably. The kid played only 6 minutes on 10 shifts in the 4-0 loss to the Islanders. Were I Rolston, I'd move Grigo to the top six, surround him with play makers and watch him develop. Will he make mistakes? Of course he will. he's young. However, he's going to make plays and he'll play on the correct side of the puck.

If they don't think that Grigo is ready to play a top six role, then make a trade today for a Tavares and Toews clone in Ryan O'Reilly. Seriously, I'd call Colorado GM Greg Sherman today and tell him to take anyone not named Ott, Vanek, or Miller. I'd throw in a D and call it a deal. My deal would include: Pominville, Leopold, and a draft pick for Ryan O'Reilly. If they balk at Leopold, I include Sekera. Thats how serious I am about healing the gaping wound in the middle of Buffalo's lineup. The sabres are at the 20 game mark and they have just 6 wins. Its way past overdue to pull the trigger and to make a major roster move that will add immediate value to the Buffalo roster.


Tavares is a #1 centre. There are very few like him. When a team is lucky enough to draft and develop one like JT, they don't let him skate away. They sign him to a long term contract.

The Sabres would be wise to bundle up some assets and to trade them to Colorado today for Ryan O'Reilly. Thats how they will get on the right side of he puck. Until then, its more cross your fingers and hope that the Sabres young centres can get to the same level as Tavares.



Before you tell me that JT is not a two-way centre, save it. He playes against the other team's top lines. He skates 21+ minutes a game. He's a 50+% face off man. He plays special teams. He's usually on the ice at the end of games.


______________________________________________________________________



Thomas Vanek is clearly frustrated. He's a goal scorer who is not scoring goals right now. He missed on a couple of glorious opportunities against Toronto. Nabakov denied TV on a couple of occassions, too.


Thanks, sabres.com


***


Christian Ehrhoff was visibly upset after the 4-0 loss to the Islanders. He earned that right as he made a couple of miscalculations with the puck. Ehrhoff had a hard day's night.

His one glaring error that come to my mind is the pick-six that he threw from his blue line directly to the tape on Michal Grabner's stick.

“Obviously, Grabner was cheating on that and I should know and I’m out against him on the ice. He gets about a breakaway once a game. Obviously, against him out there I cannot make that play.”


***

Ehroff play the point for the Sabres first unit PP along with Jason Pominville. The Islanders handed the Sabres six PP opps. If they convert on on or two of them early in the second period, its a different outcome other than a 4-0 skunk job to the Islanders. Instead, the Sabres PP looked indecisive and ill-equipped to act, with insufficient tact.

“It’s unacceptable; we put ourselves in that position again. We had a lot of chances on the power play but it was a chain and got away again.”



**

Whats the solution to correcting the terrible losing trend?

"You have to put it behind you. You have to go out there next time with confidence and keep going back at it; don’t be sorry for yourself. We put ourselves in that situation and it’s up to us to get us out of it again.”


Easier said than done.

**

Tyler Myers' take on allowing the Islanders to score two goals in the final 3:54 minutes of the second period, after the Sabres had failed to convert on their fourth PP of the game, and directly after Ron Rolston called his timeout to settle his team down with his team.

“We talked about it during the second intermission. We thought we were playing a solid game and then all of a sudden it looks like we get a little nervous that it’s going to happen again. Until we start getting the mindset of dictating it’s going to be really tough. “



The Sabres blinked first in a 0-0 game.


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