Disco Dan Now A Blues Man https://t.co/vgH1b4YueJ pic.twitter.com/9WHdWTcuV7
— SabresBuzz (@SabresBuzz) November 14, 2016
Iconic blues man Willie Dixon, whose 1,000+ compositions include "Hoochie Coochie Man", "Little Red Rooster" and Seventh Son" made him a foremost authority on the genre. Dixon was one of teh most prolific writers that the artform has ever known.
Dixon said it best when he said:
"People can't express the blues unless they have lived the blues".
Blues master Buddy Guy echoes Dixon's sentiments, which is to say that the blues can't be faked, nor mimicked. Your heart can't bleed unless you've had it broken. Pain, suffering, despair, rejection, and failure are all causes of the blues.
Dan Bylsma can sing the blues. For the past six weeks, Disco Dan has transformed into Dan The Blues Man. The former Stanley Cup champion head coach fo the Pittsburgh Penguins has had to learn how to cope with losses. Both on the scoreboard and in the form of injured players.
Bylsma's team has been ravaged by serious injuries to key contributors. His team has won only five of it's first fifteen games in this the first non-tanking season in the past three years.
Last week, the Sabres lost six of a potential eight points to Ottawa and New Jersey.
Bylsma's brittle and battered battalion is among the NHL leaders in terms of man games lost to injury. The Sabres ar eat 65 games and counting. That number will continue to escalated on Tuesday night.
To add insult to all of the injuries, Buffalo is ranked dead last in goals scored this season. Thay have scored just 29 goals (9 PPG) in 15 games played. I'll spare you the calculations. Bylsma's bunch is only manufacturing 1.93 goals per game. It's even worse at 1.33 goals per game scored when you factor out the 9 PPGs that the team has scored. Robin Lehner and Anders Nilsson have been masterful in their defending of Fort Pegula, allowing only 2.33 goals per game against.
In other words, even strength goal scoring is killing the Sabres right now.
Next stop: St. Louis.
* Cue the Eric Claption slide guitar *
Bylsma and the Sabres can sing the blues because they continue to live the blues.
Due to salary cap limitations, Bylsma was forced to have to practice with a short roster of only 10 forwards, just 5 and two goalies.
Buffalo trios on Monday:
Carrier-Reinhart-Okposo Foligno-Larsson-Gionta Kane-Grant-Molson
*Girgensons
Carrier has made a quick, impressiverise to Bylsma's top forward line. Carrier was acquired from St. Louis in the Ryan Miller-Steve Ott-Jaro Halak-Chris Stewart trade back in the day. Carrier is a tank of a power forward who struggled with injuries in Rochester last season. Carrier is a blend of NHL size, strength, speed, and skill both with and without the puck. Carrier dishes out and absorbs heavy contact on the walls and in the corners.
Bylsma is hoping that Carrier will kickstart the suddenly slumping Kyle Okposo and Smson Reinhart.
D-pairs:
Gorges-Ristolainen McCabe-Franson *Nelson
Bylsma said after the morning practice that injury-riddled defender Dmitry Kulikov will not be making the flight to St. Louis, where the Sabres and teh Blues will tangle on Tuesday night.
Bylsma also informed media that the status of Ryan O'Reilly is still unclear.
O'Reilly suffered a relapse of an existing (back?) ailment just 3:49 into the third period of Buffalo's loss to the Devils on Friday night. ROR did not play Saturday night in Newark and now his status is up in the air for Tuesday night's battle with Vlad Tarasenko and the Blues.
Doesn't sound positive, does it?
Kulikov was forced to sit out the Friday and Saturday double dip with the New Jersey Devils.
Bylsma could not divulge names, however, said that there will be call-ups later today.
Nick Baptiste, Cole Schneider and Justin Falk were demoted to AHL Rochester immediately following the conclusion of Saturday night's loss to the Devils. All three players skated for the Amerks on Sunday in Springfield, Mass. Baptiste scored two goals and Schneider added an assist in the Amerks win.
I think you can bet your lunch money that Baptiste and Schneider will be recalled for the trip to St. Louis.
"Through 15 games, the number is low for sure," Bylsma said.
The Sabres are 5-6-4 in the season's first 15 game segment.
Achieving 14 points in 15 games with Jack Eichel in the long term M*A*S*H unit is a moral victory to be certain considering all of the Chicken Little trolls on the internet, Twitter and sports talk radio had Buffalo dead and buried on October 12 when the super sophomore center suffered his high ankle sprain injury.
The Sabres have been scrappy and pesy in the face of tehir adversity. Now, they need Eichel to return to action to help light the lamp. That likely woin't happen until after Thanksgiving. Bylsma needs a new hero to emerge on every shift of every game until Eichel returns to perfect health.
"Maybe the biggest surprise is we haven't got to the power play as much as we need to to get opportunities to score there. We should be playing the way where teams have to take penalties against us. Given the lineup we have, we need to manufacture goals in a hard and difficult way", Bylsma to the team website on Monday.
Not to be an alarmist or anything but the next three opponents for the Sabres are heavy hitters in St. Louis, Tampa Bay and Pittsburgh.
Will O'Reilly play? Will his team score more than two goals against the Blues?
Kick them blues, Dan.