Miller~Ruff Reunion (kings sabres nolan)

kings sabres nolan

Miller~Ruff Reunion

By GARTH'S CORNER

Mar 11, 2014 • 1:44 pm

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Ryan Miller will look up and see his former coach and mentor staring back at him from the visitor's bench on Tuesday night. Miller and Lindy Ruff spent ten seasons together in Buffalo.

Tonight, they go to war against one another.

Seemingly, the Stars' players and their thoughts are focused on their friend and fallen teammate Rich Peverley who collapsed from a cardiac event while on the Stars bench during the first period on Monday night. Peverley was hospitalized after being taken ill collapsed on the bench due to a heart-related issue during a game against the Columbus Blue Jackets. The game was postponed with 13:37 left in the first period and the Blue Jackets leading 1-0.

“There’s nobody in there that wants to play hockey right now, and I think everybody understands that when you’ve witnessed what they had to witness and that’s their teammate,… Stars coach Lindy Ruff said after the Stars-Blue Jax game was postponed on Monday night.

“And that’s the right place to be. That’s the right emotion to have. They’re not doing very good, and I wouldn’t expect them to be.…

Peverley, whom the Stars acquired in a July 2013 trade with the Boston Bruins, missed a game in Columbus on March 4 with an irregular heartbeat, a health issue that cost him all of the preseason and the team’s Oct. 3 season opener. The 31-year-old center had seven goals and 23 assists in 62 games entering Monday.

The Stars did fly to St. Louis as scheduled Monday night.

Dallas has won two games in a row and three of five in March to take hold of the second of two Western Conference wild-card spots for the Stanley Cup Playoffs. Tim Thomas, acquired last week from the Florida Panthers at the NHL Trade Deadline, will get most of the work for the Stars while No. 1 goalie Kari Lehtonen recovers from a concussion sustained Saturday night when he was plowed over by Minnesota Wild forward Erik Haula.

Thomas made his first start with Dallas on Monday before the game was postponed due to Peverley’s medical issue. He and Peverley were teammates on the Bruins’ 2011 Stanley Cup championship team.

Stars forward Tyler Seguin, who also played with Peverley in Boston, on Monday was named the NHL’s First Star of the Week. He had four goals and five assists in three games during the week ending March 9.

St. Louis climbed to the top of the League standings with 94 points with a 3-2 shootout win against the Minnesota Wild on Sunday night, and they held on to that position when the Toronto Maple Leafs defeated the second-place Anaheim Ducks (93 points) on Monday.

The Blues will not only be going for a sixth straight win when the Stars visit Scottrade Center, but they’ll also be attempting to remain unbeaten in regulation this season against Central Division teams. St. Louis is 18-0-1 against divisional foes; the only setback came Oct. 18 in a 4-3 shootout loss to the Winnipeg Jets.

The win Sunday in Minnesota improved St. Louis to an NHL-best 21-9-3 on the road.

“We’ve been kind of a ‘homer’ team in the past, and I think it’s really good that we’ve made that step,… Blues forward T.J. Oshie said, according to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. “The road games have been tough to win. It seems like we haven’t had that many games where they were

***

This is the third of five meetings between the Stars and Blues this season.

*The Stars are 0-1-1 in the season series and the Blues are 2-0-0.

*November 23, Dallas at St. Louis: Blues 6, Stars 1

*December 29: St. Louis at Dallas: Blues 3, Stars 2 (OT)

*The Stars have lost four straight at St. Louis.

Statistical tidbits

*The Stars are 10-3-2 in their last 15 games.

*The Blues are 11-3-1 in their last 15 games.

*The Blues rank second in goal scoring at 3.17 goals per game.

*The Blues rank third in goals against at 2.22 per game.

*The Stars have scored on the power play in the last four games and are 6-19 (31.6 percent) during that stretch.

*The Blues are 23-24 (95.8 percent) on the penalty kill over the last seven games.

*St. Louis is 36-1-4 when scoring the first goal of the game and 8-13-2 when the opposition scores first.

*The Stars are 21-9-3 when scoring first and 10-14-7 when the opposition scores first.

*Tyler Seguin leads the Stars in goals (29) and points (66).

*Alexander Steen leads the Blues in goals (29) and is tied for the team lead in points with T.J. Oshie (50).

**

Ken Hitchcock is so fascinated by Ryan Miller's uncanny ability to absorb frozen hockey pucks that are fired at him at 100 mph.

Thanks, Blues.com

Miller is 4-0 with the Blues (.933 save %, 1.50 GAA) since the trade from Buffalo. Miller has faced 90 shots and has only allowed 6 goals against in his first four games in St. Louis.

****

There are only five weeks remaining in the regular season for the Buffalo Sabres.

There will be no playoffs to look forward to. No Chris Stewart either.

Head coach Ted Nolan said on Tuesday that his recently acquired power forward Chris Stewart is likely done for the season with his lower body (knee) injury.

“Stewart doesn’t look good right now,… he said this morning inside the First Niagara Center. “There’s only five weeks left in the year. I think his injury is four or five weeks. I’m quite sure we probably won’t see him the rest of the year.…

Thanks, Sabres Hockey Hotline.

Stewart was wiped out by Tampa backup goalie Anders Lindback last Thursday night as the two men were in a game of high speed "chicken" for a 50-50 puck.

Stewart, 26, appeared in just two games for the Sabres after coming over from St. Louis in a pre-deadline blockbuster. Jaroslav Halak was traded to Washington last week. The Sabres decided to hold on to Stewart rather than trade him at the deadline last Wednesday. He has one year remaining on his current contract deal ($4.15M). Stewart, Girgensons, and Mitchell were all shelved after the Florida roadie last week. Zemgus and Mitchell will return soon.

Lindback went knee on knee with Stewart. Looking back on it, Stewart should have dropped his shoulder and buried Lindback who had no right being that far out of his net to play the puck. he was fair game to get muscled over, however, Stewart did the respectful thing and tried to avoid him.

Nice guys finish last, eh?

***

The Vancouver Canucks are in full meltdown mode right now.

As a team, they have fallen and they can’t get up.

Last Thursday after the Canucks dropped a 6-1 decision in Dallas, Veteran D Kevin Bieksa called the loss “rock bottom… for his team.

Not so fast, Kev.

The Canucks were flogged at the town square on Monday night and now the meltdown versus the Islanders is far and away the lowest of the low point for the Canucks in this season from hell.

The Islanders are an NHL cellar dweller and are playing out the string without their best player John Tavares who was injured at the Sochi Olympics. Thomas Vanek was traded away last week to Montreal. Good on Jack Capuano for keeping his kids focused and motivated enough to drop seven goals ( from seven different players) in the third period on the hapless Canucks to wipe out a 3-0 deficit.

Final score: Islanders 7, Canucks 4.

Josh Bailey, Ryan Strome, Calvin de Haan, Frans Nielsen, Matt Martin, Anders Lee and Cal Clutterbuck had the third period goals for the Isles, who snapped a three-game winless skid against the Canucks dating back to January 11, 2011.

The seven goals scored in the third period by the Islanders equaled a couple of NHL records. The feat of scoring seven goals in a period equaled their record for most goals in a single period. They had not accomplished that feat since December 23, 1978 against the New York Rangers. For the Canucks, it equaled their franchise record for most goals allowed in a single period. They had previously allowed seven goals on two occasions both to the Edmonton Oilers (October 19, 1983 and November 8, 1985).

**

The Dallas Stars have announced that forward Rich Peverley has been hospitalized and is conscious after a cardiac issue that he suffered during their game with the Columbus Blue Jackets. The NHL has postponed the game. It will be resumed at a later date.

There have been recent reports out of Dallas that have linked Peverley to cardiac issues earlier this season.

Hockey doesn't matter right now. Peverley's health and well being are the only things that matter at a time like this.

My thoughts and prayers are with Peverley and his family right now.

****

Having a couple days off in sunny Tampa last week seemingly has put Ted Nolan's mind at ease. When the Sabres left Buffalo last on Sunday March 2, he was in an emotional stste of mind, and rightly so. His great friend Pat LaFontaine had just resigned from his post as President of Sabres Hockey Ops. Ryan Miller and Steve Ott had been traded to St. Louis hours before the road trip started and the NHL trade deadline was looming in Nolan's windshield. Talk about triggers that can stress a person out. Thats too much for one person to have to handle, let alone the leader of a team of young kids in the most tumultuous season in franchise history.

Nolan needed some time away to process things and to think about things.

Today, Nolan has reviewed his contract offer from the Buffalo Sabres and he has now placed it in the hands of his lawyer to work out the fine print, legalize and all of the formalities.

Nolan said after today's practice that he expects his representative and Tim Murray to get to work real soon on the contract extension process.

"I put into my representative's hand and I guess he and Tim will be talking soon if not have talked already," Nolan said. "Just formality and getting a couple of things ironed out and doing all the legal stuff. We'll leave it in their hands for now."

Sounds to me like Teddy ain't goin' nowhere.

Thanks, Sabres.com

Three year coaching contracts are hard to come by in the NHL these days.

I'm glad Nolan will be atop the Buffalo bench to guide the team through this exciting re-building project.

***

LA Kings energy forward and resident tough guy Jordan Nolan has been suspended for one game by the NHL for punching a "unsuspecting" Jessie Joensuu of the Edmonton Oilers on Sunday night.

The NHL has ruled that the scrum was over and the refs had restored order when Nolan cranked Joensuu in the face when he didn't see it coming. Joensuu's arms were locked up by the linesmen when he was punched.

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