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Ted Nolan’s return to the Buffalo Sabres bench after a 16-year hiatus was by all accounts a successful one. The Sabres beat the Leafs 3-1 on home ice on Friday night, then lost 4-2 in Toronto on Saturday night. Splitting back-to-backs with a hated decades old rival is good for business in Buffalo. It was a nice measuring stick to chart the progress for the young Sabres. Lets not forget that the Leafs played both games without their top three centers in Bolland, Bozak, and Kadri. To their credit, they cleaned up the mistakes that had been undermining their opportunities to win in the first 20 games of the season and now appear to be on the road to good habits. Ken Hitchcock and the St. Louis Blues will provide stiff competition for Nolan’s Sabres on Tuesday night in Buffalo.
The euphoria and the intense feelings have subsided (at least for now they have), its time for the Buffalo Sabres to buckle down and start winning games. No one knows what roster changes lie ahead this week for the Sabres. Will Ryan Miller still be a Sabre at week’s end? Will Patrick Kaleta be promoted from Rochester to Buffalo? Will Luke Adam and his 13 goals in 14 games be given an honest tryout in Buffalo?
No one knows. Yet.
As Pat LaFontaine takes to the friendly skies to begin his GM interview process today, Nolan and his assistant coaches will apply the knowledge that was learned in the two games versus Toronto.
Sabres assistant coach Joe Sacco told the The Buffalo News not to expect Nolan to light the wick on a suitcase full of dynamite and blow up Buffalo’s system. Au contraire. Nolan is emphasizing patience and persistence. His philosophy is simple to understand:
Less is more.
“Right now he just wants to try to keep things as simple as possible, not change too much early on,… according to Sacco. “That’s just going to add confusion to everything. His (Nolan’s) message has been pretty clear to the players and the rest of the other coaches. Less is more right now, just letting them go out and play.“We have X’s and O’s and systems that are in place, but at the end of the day it’s not about that. It is about compete level. It’s about winning one-on-one battles. It’s about being engaged in the game all the time for 60 minutes. I think that’s what he’s preaching more than the tactical part of the game right now.…
Nolan’s theory that he is imparting on his young team is that if you deny an opponent time and space with aggression and frequency, the puck will be yours.
Nolan wants his troops to pressure opponents for 60-65 minutes.
“You give a bad player enough time, he’s going to make a good play,… Nolan said. “We have to make sure we get on top of people with the puck and back-pressure them. Get out there for 35-40 seconds, give everything you have, come back, have some rest and do it again.…
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On Saturday night, after the Leafs beat the Sabres 4-2 in Toronto, Big John Scott fired the shot heard round the hockey world:
On Monday, Phaneuf responded to Scott's name calling by saying:
"I've been called a lot of things, but I've never been called a Princess." #Leafs captain Dion Phaneuf
— Rob Longley (@longleysunsport) November 18, 2013
Isn't it ironic that nary a Leaf soul dared to challenge Scott to a fight on Friday and Saturday night?
The two teams play again in Buffalo next week.
Repeat after me: BLACK FRIDAY!
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Don’t let the 4-11-0 record mislead you.
Ryan Miller is red hot, and has been the whole season long. Throw out the six goals that he allowed in forty minutes of game action in 6-3 Anaheim loss from last Saturday night when he received zero help from his D and forwards, and Miller’s save percentage and goals against average are right there among the NHL leaders.
He’s already faced an astounding 568 shots on goal this season due to the litany of games where his team allowed 40+ shots against. Despite the tsnunami of 8 oz. frozen chunks of vulcanized rubber that he has faced in his 16 games played, Miller has allowed only 46 goals against. Despite the D zone dysfunction , Miller has made 522 saves already this season. He enters Tuesday’s home game vs. St. Louis with above average numbers in a .919 save % and a 3.13 goals against average. The Sabres are dead last (30th place) in goals scored this season with 38. That’s a 1.73 goals per game average. Right now, Miller is your classic Cy Young pitcher who won’t win the award because his team cannot give him adequate run support. Miller is over it. He can’t control the goals for. He can only affect goals scored against his team. He’s holding up his end of the bargain in games that he starts. His offense has done a better job of creating more scoring chances. On Tuesday night, Miller bid adieu to the Ron Rolston era with a 45 save masterpiece of a shootout win vs. Los Angeles. Miller allowed only two goals against and graded out at a .956 save %.
In his first two coaching efforts atop the Buffalo bench, Ted Nolan has focused his attention on denying shots against Miller. On Friday night, it worked to perfection as Nolan deployed the 1-2-2 neutral zone trap and the Sabres controlled the blue lines, thus, they controlled the puck. Miller made 33 saves on 34 shots faced. He won the game 3-1 and posted a .970 save %. Nolan no doubt loved what he saw from Miller on Friday night.
On Saturday night, Nolan started Jhonas Enroth to get a look at his backup tender. James Van Riemsdyk and the Leafs jumped out to a 3-0 lead over the Sabres and never looked back.
After the Hockey Night In Canada performance of Jhonas Enroth, Nolan declared that he is going to channel his inner Lindy Ruff and ride his “horse… in Miller. Nolan has already acknowledged Miller’s greatness and has called him “one of the best goalies in the league…. Nolan knows how special Miller is. He respects his 33 year old veteran tender. Nolan will likely play Miller until such that he needs a physical or mental break.
Begs the question: Which will come sooner? Miller playing to exhaustion or him starting until he’s traded?
Saturday night, during the "After 40 Minutes" segment on HNIC, Friedman told us about an important part of his interview with LaFontaine that unfortunately was left on the cutting room floor.
Ryan Miller news.
According to Friedman, LaFontaine said in his interview that if a rival team(s), contacted him with serious interest in a trade for his goalie Ryan Miller, the Sabres would not necessarily wait until their new GM is hired and in place in order to do a deal, if a deal is available to be made. Interesting.
Thanks, CBC
Lets say for example one of four NHL GMs, or all four, who may be interested in upgrading their respective goal tending positions: Doug Armstrong of St. Louis, David Poile from Nashville, Dean Lombardi from LA, or Garth Snow from NY Islanders were to call LaFontaine and ask about Miller's availability. If there is a deal to be made, that makes sense for both parties, it may happen sooner than later.
LaFontaine will begin his GM interviews on Monday. It may take him a week or two to fully and completely interview all candidates on his short list. The candidates are said to Rick Dudley, Jason Boterill, Jim Benning, and perhaps a dark horse candidate in Alexander Mogilny who is GM of the Admiral team in the KHL. LaFontaine and Mogilny are former Buffalo line mates. So, back to Miller. Lets say St. Louis, who will play in Buffalo on Tuesday night, want to trade for Miller while they are in town and at their hotel and LaFontaine is out on the GM trail? Sounds to me like LaFontaine might be willing to pull the trigger on a trade of Miller before a new GM is seated in Buffalo. This is an interesting aspect to the Miller story.
Perhaps this is why Miller was scratched in favor of Enroth on Saturday night in Toronto. The Blues are getting good goaltending with Halak (10-2-2) and Brian Elliott (3-0) however, their team is built for a long playoff run this season after getting punted out of the playoffs the past two seasons by the Los Angeles Kings. Failure is NOT an option for Ken Hitchcock. The Blues are a great goalie away from challenging the Blackhawks, Sharks, Ducks, and Kings for the Western conference title. Halak and Elliott have been good for the Blues, however, they may want to trade for Miller as their insurance policy. Miller would become an immediate winner in st. Louis due to the face that Ken Hitchcock's system is very similar to that of Lindy Ruff: low shots and low scoring chances against.
Poile's Predators are a mess in goal right now with youngster Hutton getting his baptism by fore while Pekka Rinne is making a slow recovery from his serious E. Coli infection. Poile needs goaltending in the worst way. The Islanders lost 40 year old Evgeni Nabakov Saturday night to a lower body injury. Kevin Poulin is a good short term solution, however, Garth Snow needs a more experience goalie if he plans on playing meaningful hockey in April and beyond. The LA Kings lost their starter and Cup winner Jonathon Quick to a Grad 2 groin strain in Buffalo last Tuesday night. Back-up Ben Scrivens has won his last three starts (2 straight shutouts) for the Kings, however, the Kings may want to acquire Miller as a solution to allow Quick the proper time to heal until he is truly 100%. The time table for Quick's return was originally set at 4-6 weeks. You never know with butterfly goalies. Quick may be back in 6 weeks. He may need more time than that to fully heal. Its hard to predict. The last thing the Kings want is Quick coming back early from the injury and suffering a set back. He's also a top two contender with Miller for Team USA starting goalie at Sochi. Better for the Kings to be safe then sorry.
Nolan will continue to play Miller until such time that the 33 year old needs a rest, or, he's traded away.
Which will come first?