You Know Its Saad But True (sabres)

sabres

You Know Its Saad But True

By GARTH'S CORNER

Oct 12, 2014 • 9:25 am

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Here's the Sabres Saturday night in a microcosm.

Propos to Tyler Myers for punching Andrew Shaw in the face. Nobody takes liberties with the family jewels.

***

I'll make it brief.

The Sabres are a 40 minute hockey team. In their first two games, they've put forth a solid effort in the first and second periods .

They crash and burn in the final twenty minutes.

For the second game in a row, Buffalo died in the third period after competing hard in the first 40 minutes.

On Thursday night, Columbus scored twice in the third period.

On Saturday night in ChiTown, the Hawks potted four third period goals.

Here's the scoring by period this season:

1st period: Tied 2-2 2nd period: Tied 1-1 3rd period: Opponents 6, Sabres 0

The Sabres got into penalty trouble vs. Columbus and then lost the game on a PPG.

In Chicago, same result. The score was2-0 Chicago early in the first period. Then Zemgus Girgensons and Tyler Ennis tied it up.

With the score tied 2-2 after 20 minutes, both teams were scoreless in the third period. Then, the walls fell down on the Sabres when they allowed a shorthanded goal and a PPG against in the third period.

The big boys play hard in the third period.

Patrick Kane scored the GWG in the third period. Kaner has scored 8 points (5G, 3A) in 9 career games vs. Buffalo

For the second game in a row, Ted Nolan praised the play of Jhonas Enroth while he questioned the contributions of his forwards and D.

The Sabres could only muster 21 shots on Corey Crawford, and they didn't bury the majority of their chances.

Jhonas Enroth made 40 saves on 46 shots faced.

***

Chemistry. Its a head coach's dream.

Hawks bench boss Joel Quennville reunited the Brandon Saad, Andrew Shaw and Patrick Kane line against Buffalo. He was looking for more of the same chemistry and grotesque offensive production as the line had created in the 2014 Stanley Cup Playoffs.

Mission accomplished.

Saad had three assists and Shaw and Kane each had 1G, 1A. Kaner scored the GWG against his hometown team.

You know its Saad but true.

Thanks, CSN Chicago

***

The stars were shining brightly in Chicago on Saturday night.

Marian Hossa scored the 30th short-handed goal of his career, the most among active players. Jonathan Toews had two assists. Patrick Sharp and Duncan Keith scored their second goals of the season and Daniel Carcillo had his first goal of the season.

The Blackhawks got off to a blazing start in their home opener and they had the same type of finish, too. When it was all said and done, that second-line combination was once again tallying points.

***

Patrick Kane's Buffalo roots run deep. He will be a Chicago Blackhawk for the next nine seasons, however, he will always be a part of the Buffalo community. Whether he's being a Buffalo Bills fan, a summer rec hockey legend, or an unabashed Buffalo booster, Kane knows what side his bread is buttered on. He waves his Buffalo flag proudly.

This morning, he met with the Buffalo media. PK88 says that he's impressed with the roster and lineup that the Sabres have assembled for the 2014-15 season. He cautions that its not wise for teams to take the Sabres lightly.

Kaner also propped the Pegulas for their noteworthy investments in the Buffalo Bills, Buffalo Sabres, and the HARBORCenter complex.

PK88 may be a high profile pitch man for national corporations like McDonalds and Gatorade, however, his best work is his role as de facto president of the Chamber Of Commerce of Buffalo.

Thanks, Sabres.com

***

The American Hockey League today announced that Adirondack Flames left wing Trevor Gillies and Rochester Americans defenseman Nick Petrecki have each been suspended for one (1) game as a result of being assessed instigator penalties within the final five minutes of the third period of a game between the teams on Oct. 10, under the provisions of AHL Rule 46.22.

Kids, its not okay to smash a defenseless opponent's face off the ice. Gillies knows better than this. He has a reputation of being a cement head and doing dumb things on the ice.

Its a black eye for hockey.

GIF: Here's the Trevor Gillies incident from tonight on Twitpic

Any further supplemental discipline will be announced following the league’s official review of the game. Gillies will miss Adirondack’s game tonight (Oct. 11) vs. Albany.

Petrecki will miss Rochester’s game tonight (Oct. 11) vs. Hamilton

Shortly after the suspension was issued, Gilies wrote the below apology on his Facebook wall.

I commend the kid for being humble and contrite. He's owning his idiot actions.

Is he apologizing because he truly means it, or, is it a ploy to sway the AHL from adding more games to his suspension? You'll note in the AHL statement that more discipline can be added to Gillies' suspension. I hope that he gets 25 more games.

Look at the PIMs that Gillies has accumulated in his career. He's a one dimensional player who is becoming extinct from pro hockey. What value does he provide for his teams?

Note:

In an earlier post I said that Gillies had played for the Amerks. That is incorrect. Colton Gillies played for the Amerks.

***

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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