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The Sabres better clean up their penalty issues, or they are going to get torched by "Showtime" and the Blackhawks PP units tonight.
Buffalo committed five minors in the season opener against Columbus. The nail in their coffin was captain Brian Gionta's minor with 7:15 remaining in the 1-1 game. Jax winger Cam Atkinson scored the game winning PPG with 3 second remaining on the CBUS power play.
After the game in the room, Gionta stood tall in the pocket and said that he and his teammates have to stay out of the box. He was correct. Jhonas Enroth was forced to make difficult saves to support the Buffalo PK efforts. The Blue Jax have a decent power play, however, the Chicago Globetrotters have one of, if not the best power play clinics in the world. If the Sabres lose their discipline the way they did in the season opener, Enroth will be seeing Kane, Sharp, Toews, Hossa, Keith, and Seabrook in his nightmares.
Last season, the Hawks scored 50 regular season PPGs and finished with a 19.5% PP success rate.
In the playoffs, they scored 12 more PPGs on 57 attempts with a 21% success rate.
If the Sabres play with fire they are going to get torched by the Hawks all star PP units.
Uncharacteristically, the Blackhawks committed six penalties of their own in their season opening shootout win over Dallas. Five minors is very un-Blackhawks-like number. The penalties put the Blackhawks in deficit mode, forcing them to kill way too much. Dallas gained momentum and nearly beat the Hawks like the Blue Jax beat the Sabres.
Joel Quennville won't tolerate another conga line to the sin bin.
Ted Nolan may want to follow Quennville's lead.
Thanks, CSN Chicago
“Usually our quota’s around two or three, sometimes four. Six is abnormal,… coach Joel Quenneville said on Friday. “Especially on the road, it’s tough to get through games like that. You get their crowd into it (and) they get momentum. We didn’t have a good start along with that. I’m not saying that’s the reason it took us 40 minutes to get into the game, but it was still tough to watch besides the penalties.…
Hawks agitator Andrew Shaw has a theory on why his team got into penalty problems in their opener.
“They didn’t call a lot of penalties in the preseason so I think we got away with a lot of stick work,… Shaw said. “If we bear down, keep our sticks to ourselves, we’ll be fine.…
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Mikhail Grigorenko brought Ted Nolan hockey to the Rochester Amerks on Friday night.
Trevor Gillies of the Adirondack Flames dared to slam Amerks power forward William Carrier's head off the ice during an altercation. So, Grigorenko, Nick Petrecki and the Amerks settled the score with the offender.
For the record, I think that Gillies is a gutless puke. There is no defending his acts of atrocities committed against Carrier.
Gillies, the former Amerk tuned gutless puke when he attacked the generally docile Carrier.
Forget that the Amerks won 6-1.
What is most important is that Grigo and his Amerk bros fought the Flames. They fought them hard. They fought the well.
They answered the bell.
Grigo scored a goal and accumulated 5 for fighting and a 10 minute misconduct in the eventful Amerks win. He finished the game an assist short of his first ever Gordie Howe hat trick.
The former 12th overall pick in the 2012 NHL Draft was demoted to AHL Rochester earlier this week. He played well enough to earn a roster spot In Buffalo, however, Samson Reinhart was given the roster spot over Grigorenko. Many wondered how Grigo would react to his demotion to AHL Rochester especially since he clearly outplayed Reinhart in training camp.
Grigo recorded his first ever AHL goal and his first ever AHL fight, all in the same game.
Ted Nolan will no doubt be impressed with Grigo's show of bravery, selflessness and courage.
I predict that Grigo will be back in Buffalo by this time next week.
I love his passion. I know that he is not happy with the decision of Tim Murray to send him to Rochester. On Friday night, Grigo sent a direct message to Murray and Nolan:
Play me In Buffalo. NOW!
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Props to Joel Armia for earning his first ever Gordie Howe hat trick
— SabresBuzz (@SabresBuzz) October 11, 2014