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Evander Kane told me after Buffalo's 2-1 overtime win that he knew that Dion Phaneuf would be stepping up at the blue line to make a play on him in the third period. This wasn't Evander's first rodeo. He had the puck and got it past the Toronto captain in an effort to retrieve it. It's Evander's puck, right? Kane told me that he has the right to advance to the puck that he had gotten behind the Toronto D.
Phaneuf is bleeding after Evander Kane gets his stick up as Phaneuf is delivering a hit pic.twitter.com/abTyAkMjju
— Stephanie (@myregularface) October 22, 2015
The replay revealed to me that Phaneuf clearly interfered with Kane at the Toronto blue line. Its the oldest play in the defenseman handbook: flat-footed D gets a piece and wedges himself between forward with speed without the puck on his stick.
The two men collided and Phaneuf was cut in the collision. After a brief discussion the officials chose correctly not to penalize Kane.
Anyone who watches Dion Phaneuf on a regular basis knows that he likes to step up at his blue line to make hits. He's been playing that rough housing style since his Calgary Hitmen days.
Kane scouts his opponents as much as they scout him. He finds opportunities to take advantages wherever he can on his opponents. Against Phaneuf, it was Kane bringing his physicality and skill to the fore.
This time, Kane made Phaneuf pay.
Phaneuf is 6'3 and 220 lbs. Kane is the same size.
Instead of being the hitter, Phaneuf became the hittee. The thunderous body check by Kane on Phaneuf served as an ignition switch that activated his teammates and the 19,000+ fans in the seats.
The momentum created by the Kane-Phaneuf collision would carry Kane to scoring his first ever goal as a Buffalo Sabre. Talk about clutching up!
Evander Kane made tied the game with his first goal as a Buffalo Sabre with just 4:29 remaining in regulation time. Kane swooped in on a Nazem Kadri gaffe and took a wicked wrister from the wall that beat Bernier high cheese.
Tyler Ennis and Matt Moulson scored in the shootout.
Chad Johnson thwarted four of five shootout attempts to give the Buffalo Sabres a 2-1 victory against the Toronto Maple Leafs .
Johnson made 23 saves for huis second win of the season.
The Sabres will host the undefeated (7-0) Montreal Canadiens n Friday night.
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Leafs center Nazem Kadri will likely be getting a phone call from NHL Department of Player Safety on Thursday for this greasy hit on the aforementioned Evander Kane.
Phaneuf is bleeding after Evander Kane gets his stick up as Phaneuf is delivering a hit pic.twitter.com/abTyAkMjju
— Stephanie (@myregularface) October 22, 2015
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We are a little over an hour away from the opening faceoff of the next chapter in the QEW Border Battle.
The 1-4 Sabres play host to the 1-3-1 Maple Leafs.
There are so many story lines to talk about tonight including Mike Babcock's first official visit to the city of Buffalo as the head coach of the Toronto club. You will recall that Babcock selected the Leafs heading coaching job over the Sabres bench boss vacancy. In my opinion, Dan Bylsma is the right man for the Buffalo job. I like the way that Bylsma established his control over the Sabres room from his first day on the job. Having seen him coach in practices and in games, I'm happier with Bylsma as Sabres head coach than I am of Mike Babcock in the leadership role. Babcock has proven to be a quality head coach over the years and he will no doubt change the culture in Toronto in the years to come but for right now, Bylsma was the exact type of head coach the rebuilt Sabres needed. He's strict, fair, mentoring, nurturing and he relates well to Buffalo's impressionable 18-25 years old in a uniquely positive manner.
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Cody Franson played nearly four years in Toronto. The Sabres puck mover will get his first official shot at his former teammates tonight. I expect him to make solid plays in all three zones and to create chances for his forwards tonight. I'll call my shot now and say that Franson's name will be on the score sheet at the conclusion of this grudge match.
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There will be many scouts on press row in Buffalo tonight. With the season being only two weeks old, it's very common for NHL teams to send their scouts out to do their diligence on AHL and NHL cities at this time of season.
The Sabres and Leafs are two teams with local AHL affiliates so that allows scouts to maximize their visits and do live scouting on both AHL and NHL players.
There are scouts from Eastern and Western teams scheduled to be here tonight.
Rival teams also do their advanced scouting for upcoming opponents which would explain why Montreal have two scouts in the building tonight. The 7-0 Habs play in Buffalo on Friday night. Two very intriguing names sit atop the scouting sheet for tonight's game. They belong to Anaheim Ducks AGM and his Player Personal Director Rick Patterson.
Hmmm, said I to myself upon first scan of the list.
The Ducks and Sabres don't play until December 17 in Buffalo.
Why are the Ducks, a struggling Western team, sending their heavy hitters like AGM and PPD to game six of the NHL season? Why are they in the East and not at home in the Western Conference tonight. The Ducks will play in Nashville on Thursday night.
I have a couple of theories:
1. Goaltending
Tim Murray may be looking to add a goalie to his roster right now to help ease the work load on Chad Johnson who is filling in admirable for the injured Robin Lenher. The big Swede will be out of the lineup until Christmas time.
If so, is he interested still in John Gibson, the current starter with the AHL San Diego Gulls?
Gibson cannot crack the Anaheim lineup right now because Freddy Andersen and Anton Khudobin are the tandem there. For the time being, that is.
The Calgary Flames waived Karri Ramo on Wednesday afternoon. Are the Ducks interested in making a deal for a goalie that would preempt a Tim Murray waiver claim of Ramo by the Noon Thursday waiver deadline?
Another theory on Anaheim goalies is that perhaps the Ducks management feels strongly that they will not be able to get a long term, mutually beneficial contract done before the end of the season with the 26 year old Andersen. The young Dane will be RFA in July. He earns $1,150,000 this season and will be looking for a heavy duty, multi-year, multi-million dollar pay day in his next contract. The Ducks already have Gibson, 22, signed for the next four years at $721,000 for this season and $2.3 million for the three remaining years.
Will Gibson be the next main man in the Anaheim net? Or, will it be Andersen?
It's looking more and more like the Ducks will have to decide which young goalie they will be committing to for their long term. It's not likely that they will sign Andersen so that they can platoon him with Gibson for the next four plus years.
Maybe Murray is looking at the Eastern standings right now thinking that his team can take an immediate quantum leap forward by bolstering his goaltending. This is not a tanking season. There is no reason to rule out the Sabres for one of the eight playoff seeds in the East. The rebuild is over. THe days of struggling and tanking are dead and buried.
Its now time to win games and strive to make the playoffs.
Murray will tell you that his #1 priority each and every day is to make the Buffalo Sabres a better, more competitive hockey team.
Loading up on high quality goaltending is not such a ludicrous idea as its the one position that most Eastern Conference teams are struggling at today.
Ask Columbus what a bad goalie can do to your playoff aspirations and goals.
2. Head Coaching Change
The Ducks have struggled mightily to get out of the gate this season. They won their first game of the season the other night. They enter tonight's action with a 1-3-1 record. Their high octane offense has only scored 5 goals for in their first 5 games. Ducks goalies Freddy Anderson and Anton Khudobin have surrendered a combined 11 goals in their five starts.
Is Bruce Boudreau the next NHL head coach on the hot seat. The Columbus Blue Jackets (0-7) fired their head coach Todd Richards this morning and replaced him with had nosed bench boss John Tortarella.
Columbus management had seen enough of the lethargy and sloppiness of their high priced roster so they made an immediate coaching change in an attempt to save their season.
The Ducks are in a similar situation in the wild, wild west where every point squandered in October will have a negative impact on the playoff berths in late April.
There should be no good reason at all that Ryan Getzlaf, Corey Perry, REyan Kesler, Carl Hagelin and the high flying Ducks offense should be as bad as they have been in their first five games. Have the starts and vets finally tuned out Boudreau's message like Alex Ovechkin had done in Washington a few years ago?
Rumors of a Randy Carlyle return to the the Ducks have been swirling all week. Is there truth to the rumors? Carlyle guided the Ducks to the Stanley Cup championship in 2007. If he is in fact a candidate to replace Boudreau in SoCal, hiring the former Maple Leafs head coach would require compensation because he is still under contract to the Leafs.
The Blue Jax had to hand over a second round draft choice as compensation for the Tortarella hiring to the Vancouver Canucks. I guess that's a function of the new CBA. Torts was still under contract to the Nucks at the time if the hiring by Columbus. I'm speculating, but maybe if Carlyle is hired by the Ducks he may want to coach James Van Riemsdyk and/or Dion Phaneuf again. Not sure Babcock wants to part with Phaneuf right now since he really values his captain's overall game and leadership qualities.
You will recall that former Leafs GM Davis Nonis was fired by the Toronto and was replaced by Brendan Shanahan. Nonis is now the Special Assignment Scout & Consultant to General Manager in Anaheim.
Might the Ducks have a certain player in mind as suitable compensation in the event that they want to hire Carlyle to replace Boudreau?
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