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The day after he held extensive meetings with his leaders and his assistant coaches, Ted Nolan spoke with media in Raleigh after the game days skate.
"It's frustrating," Nolan said. "It's mind-boggling to me when you don't work and you don't compete. You don't need any skill set for that. You need some insides to go compete and battle."
Nolan isn't targeting Meszaros 100% for all of the total lack of composure regarding his team's dumb penalties, poor play, and third period collapses.
"Meszaros is not going to be the (only) casualty," Nolan said. "We just need him playing better. But we can't sit out 10 guys. We only have a limited group, so nobody's safe from that position. I mean nobody."
Nolan hasn't thrown his hands in the air and given up on his team three games into this season. He's just frustrated and wants to see more consistency from his team in all phases of the game and in all three zones.
"I never lost sight of the fact this is a good group of guys," he said. "For whatever reason, it's not working."
Nolan will be making the following changes to tonight's lineup in Raleigh:
Marcus Foligno will play after missing the Anaheim game. Brian Flynn will sit this one out.
Nolan has extricated Cody Hodgson from the wall and has placed him between two heavy wingers in Marcus Foligno and Chris Stewart. Nolan is demanding offense from his 20 goal scorer who is -4 with just one shot on goal in three games this season.
The Matt Moulson-Tyler Ennis-Drew Stafford line will remain intact.
Zemgus Girgensons will center Torrey Mitchell and struggling captain Brian Gionta.
Samson Reinhart will have his ice time reduced dramatically tonight when he skates on the fourth line with Cody McCormick and Nic Deslauriers.
The hope is that by inserting Tyson Strachan into the starting lineup tonight it will stop the bleeding caused by Andrej Meszaros, who is a pedestrian -6 in his first three games in a Buffalo sweater.
Jhonas Enroth is expected to start for Buffalo against Cam Ward.
The Sabres and Canes are the only two teams in the NHL with zero points right now.
Thanks, Sabres.com
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The Canes will get concussed center Jeff Skinner back to their lineup on Thursday. He suffered his latest head trauma when he was cracked by Washington D Matt Niskanen earlier this month.
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After the 5-1 loss to the Anaheim Ducks, Sabres captain Brian Gionta and his assistants Josh Gorges and Matt Moulson met with a concerned Ted Nolan for approximately 45 minutes. The head coach and his leadership group laid it all on the table. All of the failures and follies that have comprised the first nine periods of Sabres hockey in the young season.
The Sabres are allowing 4.68 goals against per game while scoring only 1.33 goals for per game. Whats more, they are averaging 12.3 penalty minutes per game.
Nolan has seen enough.
The coach praised the structure and discipline of Western powers San Jose, Anaheim, LA, St. Louis and Chicago whose players gain the enemy blue line, throw shots at the opposing goalie and then crash the blue ice with impunity. Nolan says that his Sabres are content to gain the line, then launch ill-advised back passes and cutesy plays that end up being picked off and head-manned to the enemy forwards who are already on the move towards Enroth and Neuvirth.
Nolan is sick and tired of watching some of his guys as they do what is easiest for themselves and not what's best for the team.
Nolan has seen enough.
Lineup changes are coming. I suspect that Nolan will be pulling either Meszaros or Benoit, or both, out of tonight's lineup in Raleigh against that injury-riddled Hurricanes who will be playing with Eric and Jordan Staal, Jeff Skinner, and Patrick Dwyer.
Nolan told WGR on Tuesday morning that in all of his years of coaching and playing hockey that the firs three games of this 2014-15 season are the worst that he has seen. Nolan said that he's coached teams that have lacked in talent and skill, however, they played hard for one another. Nolan said point blank that he's seen a blatant lack of compete from several of his players in the three losses to Columbus, Chicago, and Anaheim. Nolan stressed not one or two, but several current Sabres are cheating the system by not dogging down pucks after losing them in wall battles. He also cited a few offenders for not back checking with urgency which exposes the D-men.
Nolan will not be embarrassed and short changed by his veterans and kids any longer. Nolan says that he and his coaches didn't see this type of hockey coming while the team competed well in exhibition games. Nolan said its as if his players jus "froze" when the bright lights of the new season were turned on.
Nolan will melt away the frozen aspects of his team's approach. H ewill do so with a blow torch, if need be.
Cue the theme song from the Disney movie "Frozen".
Let it go. Let it go.
Its put up or shut up time.
Long after the captains left the meeting, Nolan called in his assistant coaches to make sense of it all and to find an immediate, positive solution to their problems.
Nolan has coached in The Soo, in Moncton, in Buffalo, on Long Island, and in Latvia.
He said that he has never been around a group of players who don't compete like this Sabres vintage doesn't compete. Its a huge concern for Nolan because its a negative reflection on him and his coaches. This Sabres roster was selected by Nolan, not Ron Rolston. Nolan selected these players and sold the roster to Tim Murray, who in turn sold the final roster up the chain of command to Ted Black and Terry Pegula.
Just three games into the season, there is already skepticism that all of the players are working for the same cause.
The blue line is a huge area of concern for the Sabres right now. Their forwards are not getting the job done either. Nolan said that if he has to role 2 or 3 lines and 4 D, then so be it.
The Sabres must be licking their chops right now. Th ewinless Canes are a hurtin' unit right now.
They are the perfect victim, errrrr, opponent to drop a man-sized ass kicking on tonight to earn the first Buffalo win of the season.
A loss in Raleigh tonight might get a player(s) traded. Or, recalled from Rochester.
The Sabres-Canes will be broadcast lie to the U.S. and Canada via NBC Sports Network.
Win and keep Milbury off your asses, boys!!
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Nolan mentioned that Cody Hodgson might be moved back to center from the wing at some point. Hodgson was moved from center to wing last season. Nolan wants to see Hodgson get passes from his wingers so that he can create offense.
Hodgson may have played himself out of the lineup with his weak, passive play in the first three games of the season. He played his best hockey while playing the wing for Mikhail Grigorenko in training camp. Hodgson appears to be lost with Grigorenko's tape to tape passes.
Why move Hodgson back to center where his defensive zone weaknesses will again exposed be exposed by #1 centers like Crosby, Giroux, Stamkos, Staal. etc.
If I'm Tim Murray, I'm leaving Hodgson on the wing while recalling Grigorenko from Rochester to play his center position. I'm also sending Samson Reinhart back to juniors in Kootenay. The kid is smart enough and skilled enough to play in the NHL, however, he's just not strong enough to play the position with success just yet. I watched Ryan Getzlaf manhandle the 18 year old draw after draw after draw on Monday afternoon, and rightly so. Getzlaf is a top 5 center in the NHL. He's a mountain of a man at 6'4" and 230 lbs. Reinhart will benefit from another season in the weight room while dominating kids his own age in juniors amnd at the IIHF World Junior Championships.
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Nolan complimented youngsters Samson Reinhart and Rasmus Ristolainen for their play in the first three games of this season. Nolan mentioned that Ristolainen has ben exposed at times because the forwards are not back checking to the letter of the Nolan Law, which requires forwards to get back to their end just as fast, if not faster as they darted down the ice to the o-zone.
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From where I was seated in the lower bowl during yesterday's blowout laugher to the Ducks, I had a clear view of the owner's box at First Niagara Center. In the second period, Pegula watched his team play while NHL Commish Bettman was seen speaking with others in the suite. The score at the time was 2-0 and the Sabres were holding on ofr dear life. At the beginning of the third period, the walls fell down on the Sabres when the Ducks scored two quick goals to make the score 4-0. I watched as Pegula sat and watched the rest of the first period with Murray on his left and Black on his right. The three men remained seated until the final horn sounded on the 5-1 drubbing.
Murray and Nolan will have to fix the problems. The owner was in the building watching every mistake that was made on the ice in the Ducks game.
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The Sabres have now been outscored 8-0 in the third period in the first week of the 2014-15 NHL season.
Enroth and Neuvirth have the worst combined goals against average (4.67) in the NHL right now by allowing 14 goals against in 3 games played.
The Sabres have been outshot by their first three opponents by a combined count of 131-57 overall. For every one shot the Sabres are taking they are absorbing 2.5 shots on Enroth and Neuvirth.
Defensively, the Sabres are a mess right now. The Meszaros-Benoit duo is now a combined -10 on the season after going =2 combined in the 5-1 blowout loss to the Ducks. Ted Nolan hinted at defensive changes before the game. He even skated veteran Tyson Strachan as the seventh D in warm-ups. Nolan decided to play Meszaros-Benoit together and the move blew up in Nolan’s face. Face it, Ted. Meszaros and Benoit are a nightmare, especially in third periods. They cough pucks up, fail to hit the forwards on the tape with breakout passes, and are easily thrown aside by hard charging forwards looking to get to the scoring areas. Epic fail Nolan should scratch Meszaros and Benoit on Tuesday night in Raleigh. Why not lose with the young kids in the lineup? Meszaros-Benoit are poor role models for the young kids.Great job by Benoit taking a stupid penalty just 18 seconds into Monday’s home game.Though they failed to score on their first PP attempt, the Ducks worked the puck around the Buffalo zone with relative ease and precision. The Benoit penalty certainly gave the Ducks an early glimpse into the soft spots in Buffalo’s PK coverage. Corey Perry would then go on to score a PPG later in period one.
Penalties once undermined the Sabres. In three games played, the Sabres have committed a total of 17 penalties: 16 minors, 1 major. The total damage has been 37 PIMs. The Sabres are averaging 12.3 PIMs per game. No wonder Ted Nolan is pissed off. His PKers are getting the majority of the ice time and his lines and D pairs get screwed up when that happens.
The ferocious Ducks went 1-for-6 on the PP.
How about Ryan Kesler’s penalty shot goal at 12:25? Yeah, that was Benoit who dragged Kesler down from behind to give the former Vancouver Canuck a one-on-one breakaway on Michal Neuvirth. Nice tackle, Andre.
I’m all for sitting the mediocrity that is Meszaros-Benoit. UFA busts, if you ask me. I’m all for playing Jake McCabe and Nikita Zadorov on Tuesday night in Raleigh. I dare say that the two kids would provide more defensive clout then their two elders have in the first three games of the season.
Ted Nolan was spitting mad after the loss, and rightly so. He questioned which of his players are spectating and which ones are going to lead the group out of the burning wreckage to safe, even ground.
"Sometimes if you have nothing good to say, it's better not to say too much, especially after an outing like this," Sabres coach Ted Nolan said. "That was like an NHL team playing against a peewee team. They dominated us from start to finish. They did all the right things. Everything that we could do wrong we did do wrong."
Nolan’s squad was out-shot 44-12 by the Ducks. The landed 3 shots on Frederik Andersen in the first period, 4 in the second period, and only 5 in the third period.
“You just try to shoot the puck down the ice 15 times, you might hit the net 10 times,… Nolan remarked. “It was bad.…
The Sabres are ranked 28th in the NHL with 1.33 goals scored for in their 3 games played.
Nolan will find a solution for his team’s third period meltdowns.
“I mentioned to the guys yesterday, ‘Don’t confuse my patience with avoidance. Never do that,’… Nolan said. “It’s very frustrating to say the least, but we’ll sort this out and find out who really actually wants to play. If we have to play two lines and four defense, so be it.…
My guess is that Nolan was calling out Meszaros (-6), Benoit (-4), Cody Hodgson (-4, 1 shot), Chris Stewart (-3, 9 shots), Matt Moulson ( 1 assist, 5 shots, even) to name a few. Nic Deslauriers can't seem to get himself in position to get shots on goal. He's big and strong but he's living above the faceoff circles. If he's not crashing the blue, then he's just a five minute a night guy.
The great thing about the drubbing at the hands of the Ducks is that the Sabres had to immediately board a charter flight to Raleigh. The Canes are a hurtin unit right now with three of its leading scorers in the M*A*S*H unit. Jordan Staal (fractured fibula, 3-4 months) eff Skinner (concussion), Eric Staal (upper-body) and Patrick Dwyer (lower-body) will be in the press box for Tuesday’s battle with Buffalo. The Canes recalled AHL forward Zach Boychuk to fortify their lineup.
If Gionta, Gorges, and Moulson can’t light a stick of dynamite under the collective ass of their teammates to rally them for a win in Raleigh, then the Buffalo problems run deeper than I thought they did.
Tyler Ennis and Zemgus Girgensons have been Buffalo's best forwards this season. A pissed off Ennis put his foot down in the Buffalo room after his team got spanked by Anaheim.
“We need to get mad. We need to get angry,… Ennis said. “We need to play really hard tomorrow and we’re going to. We’re going to head into Carolina and we’re going to play really competitive hockey, stay out of the box but we need one tomorrow for sure.…
Thanks, Sabres.com