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In competitive athletics, it’s not how you start. It’s how you finish.
Had a crappy first period? No worries. You have 40 minutes to correct your course.
You had a an over-par front nine? Make the turn and shave strokes off your round?
Blew a tire on the second lap of the race? Don't freak out, its a 500 mile marathon?
The Sabres did just that on Friday night in Motown. Before the foamy draft beer head on the 24oz. beers had been snarfed up, the Sabres found themselves in the pit of a 3-0 hole at the end of twenty minutes. Familiar territory to be sure. The slow, atrocious start was a shock in that the team had battled so courageously for the full sixty minutes the night before in St. Louis.
Friday night was the perfect microcosm of this dreadful, yet very encouraging season for the young Sabres. Sure, they lost control against a superior opponent and ended up face first in the ditch. However, their moxie and fortitude shone through as they hacked, slashed, and fought their way back to make it a 3-2 game in the late stages. Too little too late. It’s the story of their lives.
It doesn’t matter how you start. It’s how you finish, right?
You loyal Sabres fans can take solace in the fact that Friday night’s loss to the Red Wings has cemented Buffalo’s position as the thirtieth place team out of thirty NHL teams. For the first time since the 1986-87 season, the Buffalo Sabres are on the bottom looking all the way up to the top. I remember the 1986-87 team very well. I covered that season while in university. That team played bad hockey. Night after night. But, it scored a ton of goals and left its end of the rink unprotected for long stretches of games. After 80 games played that season, the Sabres were 28-44-8, good for 64 points. They scored 280 goals, however, they allowed 308 goals against! Dave Andreychuk scored 25 goals and finished with 73 points. Phil Housley scored 21 times and added 46 helpers. Christian Ruutu potted 22 pucks and added 43 assists. Mike Foligno scored 30 goals and provided 29 helpers. John Tucker scored 17 goals and added 34 assists. Adam Creighton scored 18 goals and added 22 assists. Doug Smith went 16 and 24, while Mike Ramsey had 8 goals and 31 assists. Wilf Paiement potted 20 and 17 assists. Paul Cyr chipped in 11 goals and 16 assists, while Clark Gillies jammed home 10 goals and 17 assists. Scott Arniel and Ken Priestlay scored 11 goals, while Gilbert Perreault scored 9.
By comparison, this 2013-14 Sabres team is more competitive and defensively structured (translation: boring and predictable) than the fire wagon hockey crew from ’86-’87. I’ll never forget being around the Aud for the ’86-’87 season. There were dozens of 6-5 and 7-6 final scores against Quebec, Boston, and Montreal. Scotty Bowman was 3-7-2 that season when he was relieved of his head coaching duties in Buffalo. Craig Ramsay would fair not much better during Gilbert Perreault's final season in Buffalo.
That team created so much offense that dulled the pain caused by their dreadful D-zone coverage and the at-times pitiful goaltending. Stylistically, that team was more entertaining to watch than this team was. After 77 games played, the Sabres are currently 21-47-9 for 51 points in the NHL standings. 5 games remaining, the best point total that the Sabres could achieve is 61 points, the fewest amount of points since the 2000-07 season when the Philadelphia Flyers finished with 56 points. This Sabres team has scored an NHL-low 148 goals for while surrendering 229 goals against.
Tom Barrasso’s GAA was 3.65 (.873 save %), while Jacques Cloutier’s GAA was 3.79 (.868 save %).
For all their failures and mistakes, their reward was the first overall pick in the 1987 NHL Entry Draft, Oooo La La Pierre Turgeon. The Sabres needed a top line center man and they scored a monster in Turgeon, who torched The Q for 116 goals and 268 points in his two junior seasons at Granby. Turgeon later became Pat LaFontaine. Not a bad first overall pick, eh? Ah, the good old days.
There’s a long way to go, and a short time to get there. Tim Murray, Kevin Devine, Ted Nolan, and the hockey ops department have a ton of premium draft picks and a ton of salary cap space to work with to sign the Buffalo free agents, and ultimately to go shopping for difference-making UFAs in July.
Ask yourself: Would I rather watch my Sabres give up 308 goals against and score 280 at-will? Or, would I prefer them to play a more defensively responsible system while only scoring only 160 goals and giving up only 240?
Enjoy the basement, Sabres fans. You now have the highest percentage chance (25%) of selecting first overall in June's NHL Entry Draft. There's a pot of gold at the end of this rainbow.
Aaron Ekblad, Sam Bennett, Sam Reinhart, Leon Draisaitl, and Michael Dal Colle. will make an immediate impact. The Sabres may well end up having three picks in the first round this June when you factor in their top two lottery pick. I still say that Garth Snow will be giving Tim Murray his 2014 conditional first rounder (from Vanek-Moulson deal). Snow has said several times on the record that he believes that the 2015 Connor McDavid draft is richer in talent than the 2014 draft class. Fine by me. Imagine Murray grabbing Ekblad and Draisaitl in the top for. Or, drafting Reinhart and Michael Dal Colle in the top five. Its no longer a pipe dream. The Sabres will be picking either first or second overall. Getting the Islanders' first rounder now will add more value. When Ryan Miller signs long term with St. Louis, or, they advance to the 2014 WCF, Murray would then take ownership of the Blues' 2014 first rounder. Yet another talented, difference-making player for Buffalo in the 2014 entry draft..
It doesn't matter how you start. Its how you finish.
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Now, the Buffalo Sabres players are falling like flies.
Seemingly, the Buffalo Sabres spend more time in gauze bandages than King Tut.
Drew Stafford and Marcus Foligno are injured. Hank Tallinder is dinged. Mike Weber is playing with a busted foot.
On Friday morning the team summoned center/winger Luke Adam from AHL Rochester to replace Foligno who was injured on his first shift of the 2-1 Sabres loss in St; Louis on Thursday night. Foligno's knee was wrecked on this battle play with Blues D Polak.
The extent of Foligno's injury has not yet been revealed.
His replacement Adam took an unfortunate friendly fire bullet to the mouth in the first period in Detroit.
Thanks, @MyRegularFace
McBain bullet with butterfly wings met Adam's mouth.
(insert face palm here).
If it weren't for bad luck, the Sabres would have no luck at all.
The poor Rochester Amerks need all of their players to themselves. They are in peril of missing the playoffs. The Sabres have called up the Amerks difference makers at a time when they are needed most in Rochester.
Good news. Adam answered the bell and played in the second period.
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The Montreal Canadiens needed an infusion of offense. They went shopping for a veteran scorer at the NHL trade deadline. Thomas Vanek started slowly. He was held scoreless in his first five games with le bleu, blanc, et rouge.
He's ben scorching hot in his last nine games, On Friday night, Vanek notched three assists in Montreal's 7-4 win over Ottawa.
Vanek now has 14 points (6 G, 8A) in 14 games with Montreal
— SabresBuzz (@SabresBuzz) April 5, 2014
The Habs and Lightning will battle tooth and nail for second place in the Eastern conference.
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Its hard to keep a good man down.
God Bless Jim Kelly! Machine Gun Kelly brought his wife and his daughter to the NY Knicks game on Friday night.
Thanks, MSG
Keep praying for Jim in his battle with cancer.
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