Leafs at Sabres Tonight
What’s with this trend for the Sabres to be playing on the road in the middle of the week while their opponent for the next game is already waiting for them, all snug in a Buffalo hotel? Happened last week with the Sabres/Devils combo, and we’re seeing it again today with the Senators/Leafs combo.
Regardless of why (league conspiracy! They want Toronto to win! They hate Buffalo!), the Sabres have proven themselves to be – ahem – quite the resilient team of late. They beat the Devils in a shootout last week after giving up a two-goal lead and playing the third period with heavy legs, and last night they beat the Senators in a game that very few people expected them to even compete in, much less win. How the Sabres respond in tonight’s game will tell us much about if last night was a landmark game or just a fluke.
But no matter how tonight turns out, last night sure was a fun game to watch, wasn’t it? I lifted the stats directly from Mike Harrington’s article today, and I liked them so much I decided to just slap them in here:
The Sabres finished with a 39-26 advantage in shots on goal and it was 27-11 through 40 minutes. Ottawa’s top line of Jason Spezza, Daniel Alfredsson and Dany Heatley, which had 15 points in Saturday’s 6-1 win over Montreal, was blanked in this one thanks largely to strong work by defensemen Henrik Tallinder and Toni Lydman. The Senators’ big three were a combined minus-four.
In addition to all that, we also got to see Thomas Vanek’s first career hat trick (why, yes, it is hard to believe someone would be making $10 million this season despite never having scored three goals in one game, but that’s the crazy NHL we live in today). That gives him seven goals in the last seven games, and has me thinking back to the article Harrington wrote, a post I wrote, and numerous comments here urging patience with him. Let’s not all hurt ourselves patting each other on the back, OK? Still, it was one game. For the Sabres to keep climbing the standings, he needs to keep producing (and more Pominville wouldn’t hurt, either).
The standings certainly are more enjoyable to look at today, and for the first time in a while I feel the mood around here isn’t worried about the teams behind the Sabres, but it’s an eagerness to see how many teams they can overtake in the standings. They are a point out of seventh with three games-in-hand, and trail the slumping Flyers by a mere three points. Heck, they’re only five behind Montreal with a game-in-hand, and they’re not exactly on fire of late either.
As for the Leafs, they may have won two straight (including one against Detroit), but their playoff chances are between slim and none, and slim just left the building (thanks, Saturday Night Live). They trail Buffalo by seven points, the Rangers by eight, and would have to jump over five or six teams to make it. If there’s one thing that could help them, it’s the fact that they are returning injured players to the lineup on an almost daily basis. Bryan McCabe has played in two games since missing an extended stretch with a broken hand, Alex Steen is back after missing time with a dislocated shoulder, and they are also hoping to have Alex Ponikarovsky and Chad Kilger back tonight.
Coach Paul Maurice says that Vesa Toskala will be his man between the pipes for the remainder of the season, and he’s shown himself to be worthy of late, going 2-0 against Montreal and Detroit with a .943 save percentage. Ah, the beauty of small sample sizes! But he has held opponents to under three goals in nine of his last ten games, so the Sabres are going to have to keep putting the puck in the net.
The local papers are figuring on a Leaf win because it’s Mats Sundin’s 37th birthday, and because the Leafs won twice in Buffalo last year. Hockey be damned! These guys are on fire in Buffalo – they won a game here this year for God’s sake.
A drowning man will reach for just about anything.
It’s a rare 7:30 weekday home-start for the Sabres tonight, allowing all those wonderful Toronto fans plenty of time to consume their two-fours of Labatts before settling in to root for their Leafs in a modest, soft-spoken manner. Or something like that.
No Comments
-
Advertisement
-
Latest
-
Paul Wolf
Latest: Positive News! -
Alan Bedenko
Latest: Not All Information is Good Information -
Sports Road Trip
Latest: Profiling OKC’s Ford Center – USRT roadie Day 2 -
Chris Smith
Latest: Economic Development 2.0 -
Brian Castner
Latest: Al Gore as Skeptic -
Tom Schuh
Latest: Hometown News at Noon: Fri 11/20/09 -
The Goose's Roost
Latest: I Blame the Spotlight Guy -
Christina Abt
Latest: Question of the Day.....Jim Kelly for Coach??? -
BfloBlog
Latest: Kevin Maguire Open Thread: Bruins as Sabres -
Marc Odien
Latest: Calls for Parks Usage Input from Community Groups
-
You need to log in to vote
The blog owner requires users to be logged in to be able to vote for this post.
Alternatively, if you do not have an account yet you can create one here.
Powered by Vote It Up
not seeing this game on my center ice schedule, anyone know what channel its supposed to be on?
Nevermind, its on NHL Network, stupid channel…
Re: how good the Sabres were last night
How often does Danny Heatley have more penalties in a game than points?
Last night was one of those occurrences.
” …and more Pominville wouldn’t hurt, either”
Isn’t he on a 9 game consecutive point streak?
Let’s hope tonite he makes 10. What’s the team record?
Can we talk how solid Miller has been of late? You watch and guys get shots on, and he kicks them out of harms way right away. But seriously can Darcy pick up a better backup at the deadline. T Bone is frightening.
Just to clarify, perhaps I should have said more games like last night when it comes to Pommers. And he does have nine points in February, so maybe I’m making too big a deal out of what seems to be good production.
Kevin, he is the leading scorer on the year, and a +11. Danny Briere has 3 more points then Jason and is a -20 on the season.
“Kevin, he is the leading scorer on the year, and a +11. Danny Briere has 3 more points then Jason and is a -20 on the season.”
Wow. Not that I distrust you, but I had to check out a couple sites and verify it before I believed it. Go Pommers.
Yea, I think Pommer has been the one bright spot all year. I could link back to my post last week where I pointed that as well, but that’d just be rubbing it in. Right?
http://bfloblog.wnymedia.net/?p=3020#comment-610675
BAM!
-20? Holy crap!
Interesting view from Buccigross on the Campbell situation:
“The market says he gets seven years, $42 million. Which means a highly competitive team probably would go to eight years, $50 million. This is the reality the Sabres have to deal with. This is why this should have been dealt with a year or two ago. If they aren’t prepared to pay that or can’t stomach that kind of contract, they will need to trade Campbell before the Feb. 26 deadline, then get out of the NHL business.”
I wonder if Bucci realizes that the Sabres couldn’t have dealt with it “a year or two ago”, as the CBA prohibits extending a player’s contract until it’s in its final year.
Dear Bucci,
You are the leading hockey voice on the leading sports network and website in the world. LEARN THE CBA, you tool.
Oh who am I kidding. As long as ESPN employs Joe Morgan we know that “knowing the sport you talk about” isn’t remotely a prerequisite for working there.
Sabres 6-1. Trevor stole my thunder yesterday…for those of you who do not have him set to ‘ignore’.
My favorite part about the Bucci article was the mock mock draft he does. Like that’s something interesting? Ever play Eastside Hockey Manager dweeb? Because half your readers have a do that little mock draft half the time they start their new league!
oh man oh man, I couldn’t be more excited about these recent trends. Right in time for my afternoon seats at MSG this weekend. So glad I am going to this one and not the one back in January during the 10 game skid.
weird – that January game was on the 16th as well. What a difference a month makes!
Any word on Connolly’s availability for tonight?
Miller in goal?
Lindy Ruff said this morning he’s not sure if Connolly will suit up against the Leafs.
“We don’t know yet,” Ruff said in HSBC Arena. “It’ll be a game-time decision.”
please, no letdown. i hate the laffs. maybe we get to see something rare. the sabres crushing a team that deserves to be crushed.
i’d play miller until his hands fall off. and tiny tim, suck it up and play
Please no TBO.
I’ll be at the afternoon game at MSG on Saturday too. Here’s hoping we carry a 10 game lossless streak into midtown Manhattan.
errr, make that 10-games-with-at-least-a-point streak. Or 10-game-lossless-in-regulation streak…
Gil,
The important thing is that there is a 10 game streak in there.