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On Tuesday night the Sabres got a full frontal view of an aggressive, grinding Cup contending team. Much rest. Louis Blues. Respect to the St. Louis Blues. Skilled linebackers on ice. If the Sabres play their cards right in future years, they can emulate the Blues and their in-your-face style of play.
Brenden Morrow scored twice for the Blues in the 4-1 win over the Sabres.
Chris Stewart assisted on both Morrow goals. Tarasenko and Paajarvi also beat Ryan Miller.
The Sabres played with fire and got burned. They gave the NHLs #1 PP (25.6%) three first period PP opportunities. The Blues buried their chance while the Sabres whiffed on theirs.
"First, Jaro stepped up and made some big saves," Hitchcock said. "I don't think there was much difference in the scoring chances. They were pretty close or even. I thought we scored on our chances; they didn't on theirs. Getting the third goal was a big benefit for us, but even in saying that, we needed Jaro today. He was good. He was right back to task where he was before."
Ted Nolan pointed out that his team's youth was exposed by Ken Hitchcok's veteran grinders.
BLUES WIN! Morrow had his first two-goal game as a Blue in a 4-1 win against the Buffalo Sabres tonight. #stlblues pic.twitter.com/bwlMsGOZ29
— St. Louis Blues (@StLouisBlues) November 20, 2013Updated:
Day Two of Pat LaFontaine's "Autumn Hire A GM Tour" has yielded news.
As expected, the Sabres have asked the Boston Bruins for permission to interview their assistant general manager Jim Benning.
BUF has asked for permission to talk to BOS asst GM Jim Benning about Sabres' GM job. Permission has been granted.
— Bob McKenzie (@TSNBobMcKenzie) November 19, 2013Benning served an amateur scout for the Anaheim Ducks (1993–94) and then joined the Sabres as a scout (1994–98) and as Director of Amateur Scouting (1998–2004). In the Summer of the 2006 joined Boston Bruins was AGM.
Benning meets all of LaFontaine's qualifications to be Sabres GM:
* He has won a Stanley Cup with the Boston Bruins in 2011.
*He has ties to Buffalo, having worked for the Sabres for 12 yeras, 8 of them as the dorector of scouting.
* He has a keen eye for talent evaluation and is adept at assessing players for the NHL Draft.
* He's AGM with another NHL club right now.
No date set for the interview yet.
Benning is the second GM candidate to be granted permission by his NHL club. last week, the Penguins granted approval for LaFontaine to interview their AGM Jason Boterill.
_____________________________________________________________________ Five months and counting.
Nashville Predators GM David Poile is counting the days, like grains of sand through the hourglass, until his franchise goaltender Pekka Rinne is healthy once again and is back in his crease. In June, Rinne underwent hip surgery. By all accounts, the surgery was successful. Rinne participated pain free in training camp and in the exhibition season. He started the first 9 games of the season and went 4-4-1. Rinne was back, business as usual. That is until one night in October when the Preds played the Minnesota Wild. After the game, Rinne complained to the team training staff that he was experiencing pain and discomfort in his hip.A scope revealed that Rinne was suffering from a serious E. Coli infection in his surgically repaired hip. Five months after the face, the strange illness reared its ugly head. Since then, Rinne has been following strict doctor's orders. is only job these days is rest and recovery. Preds GM David Poile joined Sportsnet's Hockey Central At Noon on Tuesday and said that Rinne's hip will be examined again at the end of this month. Its not known at this time whether or not theinfection has subsided or if Rinne is still being bothered by it. Its a wait and see situation right now. The longer the injury lasts, the longer Nashville's challenges will continue.
In Rinne's absence, Poile has had to baptize his organizational depth in goaltending. The good news is that Poile has accumulated some very high-level goalie prospects in his in recent drafts. The kids been playing well in AHL Milwaukee. However, the NHL is a different animal in and of itself. Carter Hutton is 4-3-1 in his 8 starts in Smashville's net. His .891 save percentage and 3.39 goals against average are a huge concern to the Preds.Marek Mazanec is 1-2 with a .911 save percentage and 3.16 goals against average.Magnus Hellberg lasted only 12 minutes in his first NHL start, allowing a goal on four shots.
Poile admitted today that he has in fact called around to his fellow NHL counterparts to inquire about goaltending help while Rinne is in recovery mode. Poile said that hhe's in a tough spot right now because other GMs know that he needs a qualified starting goalie. Badly. Poile is in a position of weakness in that his counterparts know that if his kid net minders continue to play inconsistently that Poile may have to make a trade of top prospect or roster player that he simply doesn't want to part with right now.
Courtesy, Sportsnet
Poile's Preds enter Tuesday night's action with a 9-9-2 record. That puts them in 12th place, ahead of Calgary and Edmonton, 5 points out of last place. The Preds are 4-5-1 in their past 10 games. I expect that if Rinne's MRI results next week yield a status quo result, you'll see Poile make a trade. He said today that he's already put out his feelers.