Updated 12:15 pm:
No game day skate for Sabres in Tampa, however, Ron Rolston briefed the media.
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Mike Weber is out "long term" with an upper body injury that he suffered while blocking a shot in the 3-1 win at Florida Panthers. I say: Keep Zadorov and Ristolainen right where they are at in the lineup and platoon Tallinder with McBain.
Rolston may opt to stick with his 11 forward and 7 D strategy that he's used vs. Boston and Florida. Or, he can go back to normal with 12 forwards and 6 D.
The Weber injury opens the door wide open for rookie
Nikita Zadorov to stay long term in Buffalo. Hank Tallinder, last night's scratch, will draw back into the lineup tonight.
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Ville Leino is a "possibility" to play in Tampa tonight. Leino has missed the last 11 games with a broken rib.
More later.....
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Thanks, Dan Hickling
Say what you will about their losing records and their team's poor 2-9-1 start to the 2013-14 regular season. Ryan Miller and Jhonas Enroth have been fantastic for their team this season.
Chew on this:
If Team USA and Team Sweden were to select their starting rosters for the Sochi Olympics right now, Miller and Enroth would be the starting goalies for their respective teams.
Here why:
Team USA goalies are struggling to win games and to stay healthy this season.
Jimmy Howard has been shaky in Detroit. Ditto Craig Anderson in Ottawa. Jonathon Quick has bee so-so in LA. Corey Schneider is now injured and didn't make their road trip with the rest of his team this weekend. John Gibson is still in the AHL.
By virtue of his body or work, Ryan Miller would win the starting tender job for team USA right now. The lopsided 5-2 loss to Boston on Wednesday night artificially bloated his stats. In eight starts, he's now a 3.01 GAA and a .918 save percentage. Throw away the Bruins loss, his worst game of the season, and Miller is a sub-3.00 GAA and a .930 save percentage. Miller has allowed only 24 goals on 291 shots against.
He's Team USA's best goalie right now.
Ditto Jhonas Enroth, who won the World Championships for Sweden last Spring in his hometown of Stockholm.
In his four starts, Enroth sports a 2.24 GAA and a sizzling .932 save percentage.
With incumbent starter Henrik Lundqvist nursing his nagging lower body injury, Enroth is the de facto #1 goalie for Team Sweden right now.
Thanks, Dan Hickling
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Could it be that 18 year old rookie D monster Nikita Zadorov is the catalyst for change with the Buffalo Sabres? The kid has only played three NHL games, however, he's made a dramatic and immediate positive impact on the at-time hapless Buffalo lineup.
Ron Rolston needed a hero to help stem the tide of negativity and to create continuity throughout his D and forward ranks. He may have found his man in 18 year old wunderkind Zadorov.
After his NHL debit last Saturday night, Zadorov charmed the media and the public in his postame media scrum when he said:
“I think I was ready to go and I just want to keep going, keep working and playing my game,” Zadorov said. “…(coaches) just told me like, ‘Play hard every shift. Play how you can and do your job.’”
The 16th overall in the the June 2013 NHL Draft, Zadorv has nearly doubled his ice time from 11:01 vs. Colorado to the 20:03 that he earned in Sunrise on Friday night. I'm here to tell you people that there is no way in Hell that this kid will be sent back to OHL London Knights afyer his 9 hame NHL tryout concludes. Like his London D mate, Olli Maata (Penguins), this 18 year old is ready to be a star in the NHL right now.
The Sabres will play him the requisite nine NHL games before they have to make a decision as to whether or not to return him to the London Knights of the Ontario Hockey League without using up a year of his entry-level contract.
Thats decision will be as easy to make as to whether or not hot sauce and blue cheese belong on chicken wings.
Rolston said it emphatically last Saturday night after the loss to Colorado:
“You’ve got an 18-year-old kid out there who looked like he played 20 years in the League and then you’ve got other guys who looked like it was their first game,” Rolston said.
The kid potted his first NHL goal vs. the defending Eastern Conference champion Boston Bruins on Wednesday night. He didn't look at all out of place playing his physical game against some of the best forwards in the NHL in Lucic, Bergeron, Krejci, Iginla, and Eriksson.
I'm going to start calling Nikita "Motown". All his does is pump out hit after hit after hit! He's landed 16 hits in his first three NHL games! Thats 5.5 hits per game. Project that over an 82 game regular season!
Keep in mind that Tomas Kopecky is not featherweight. He's a big, sturdy, nasty veteran forward. Zadorov reduced him to a puddle of goo on two different occasions on Friday night in Sunrise.
Tonight in Tampa will mark Zadorov's 4th NHL game. The 6'5 225 pounder loves to play hockey. He hated to lose. He loves playing in the NHL. His hunger and desire appears to me motivation his veteran teammates to play outside of their personal comfort zones. When this helter skelter season ends, I bet that we will look back at the moment that Zadorov entered the lineup as the exact point in time that this team started playing like a real team, not a group of individuals.
He's going to keep making plays until Rolston tells him to stop living in a hotel and start the search for a permanent address in Buffalo.
The kid has already passed his NHL audition.
i've been around this Sabres organization for a long time. I recall like it was yesterday when two 18 year olds named Phil Housley and Tom Barrasso had profound, winning impacts on the 1982 Buffalo Sabres. It happened again in 1987 when an 18 Quebec league star named Pierre Turgeon turned the Sabres franchise inn a positive direction.
In years to come, we will look back at four teenagers names Zadorov, Ristolainen, Girgensons, and Grigorenko as the catalysts for change in the 2013-14 season.
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The Boston Bruins handed Ryan Miler his only lopsided loss of the season on Wednesday night. Ron Rolston gave his starter the night off on the first night of a Friday-Saturday back-to-backer in the Sunshine State.
Good call by Rolston.
Jhonas Enroth had never started a game against the Panthers until Friday night when he turned aside 44 shots and was the reason why his Buffalo Sabres broke on through to the other side. Thats a .977 save percentage and a 1.00 GAA. The win improves Enroth's season record to 1-2-1. He has a 2.24 goals against averages and a .924 save percentage. Enroth has allowed only 9 goals against on 133 shots, in 240:37 playing time.
As this season moves along, Sabres GM Darcy Regier will be looking at trade options for Sabres incumbent starter Ryan Miller, who's current contract will expire on July 1, 2014. Its likely that Regier will be trading Miller in the next 4-6 weeks in order to take possession of key assets that will help the Sabres rebuild this young, inexperienced team. It should be heartening to Sabres fans that Enroth has played as well as he has since Ron Rolston took over the Buffalo bench in late February 2012.
The Sabres entered Friday night's game in Sunrise, Florida with the Panthers with a sub-standard 1-9-1 record. Their only win came in extra time on Long Island. On this night, Enroth carried his entire team to the finish line. In so doing, he earned the first regulation of the win for the Sabres.
The Sabres brought their hitting game to Florida, drilling 45 hits on Panthers. They also blocked 17 shots in the game. Nikita Zadorov had 7 nits while Marcus Foligno delivers 6 hits. Rasmus Ristolainen handed out 5 hits.
Ristolainen scored his first career NHL goal, courtesy of Cody McCormick's ditch digging skills. Ristolainen joins fellow teenage rookies Zemgus Girgensons and Nikita Zadorov as Sabres rookies who have scored their first NHL goals this season.
Steve Ott added the game winner off a point shot from Christian Ehrhoff. Ott also fired up his team with this scrap with Erik Gudbranson.
Cody Hodgson scored on the empty net to give Buffalo their first two goal lead of the season. With his goal tonight, Hodgson has collected points 4G and 5A in 8 of his last 10 games, a new career-best mark for a 10-game stretch.
Mikhail Grigorenko played right wing for Marcus Foligno and Steve Ott. He skated 16:23 TOI, the second highest ice time total of his NHL career. He played a simple, impressive game with one shot, one takeaway and two hits.
Not all news was good in this game. Sabres D Mike Weber left the game and didn'd return. He will be out of the lineup effective immediately.
Thanks, sabres.com
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Not to be outdone by his fellow 18 year old blue line bro Rasmus Ristolainen, Nikita Zadorov landed 7 teeth rattling hits in his 20:03 minutes TOI.
Look for Ristolainen and Zadorov to both stay in Buffalo after their 9 game rookie tryout period have been exceeded.
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