Jaharmi’s Irreality renewable hyperlinks with 0% transfat since 1999

The Buffalo Sabres are in a serious situation now; they have fallen to eleventh place in the Eastern Conference as of this afternoon's 5-2 loss against the Atlanta Thrashers. This means the blue and gold would be out of the playoffs if they started today — which they don't, since we haven't even reached to the All-Star break yet. However, it's going to be awfully hard for the Sabres to get out of this slump and get into the playoffs with about half the season left.

Meanwhile, both the Flyers and the Rangers are now sitting in the last two playoff spots. The Sabres — who were the top team in the league during last year's regular season and lost one their co-captains each to those two teams since then — are possibly on their way out. As a fan, this is depressing, so I have to wonder if this is, as many say, because of the loss of Briere and Drury? Or, is it a self-fulfilling prophecy coming true because everyone has talked about it so much? Hard to say.

One thing I can say: the Sabres gave up a lot of their offensive firepower in the off season, didn't get any in return, and are in their six game losing streak largely because they can't score goals. This, even when the opposing goaltender has a blinding snowstorm driving at him and seventy thousand fans cheering for their home team.

On a somewhat lighter note, the comments on the Game Thirty-Eight Open Thread: Sabres at Thrashers post at BfloBlog.com are amusing. For example, "I think someone mentioned that Roy has a pulled purse arm muscle," referring to Derek Roy's injury, and, "That game stunk worse than the guy’s foot in the smoking commercial," for which you'd just need to see certain public-service announcements that air on MSG during the games.

Well, the AMP Energy NHL Winter Classic game between the Buffalo Sabres and Pittsburgh Penguins is over. The Penguins won their second straight against the Sabres with a 2-1 shootout victory.

Rewinding a bit, the Sabres were doing really well before Christmas, with two really exciting games against Philadelphia and a nice win streak. The icing on the cake was the shootout win when Miller stuffed Briere. As much as I like Danny, hey, I’ll still root for the home team so it was great to see Miller stop that shot.

Now, the up-and-down Sabres have dropped several games straight, including the home-and-home series against Pittsburgh which culminated today in the Winter Classic. They also lost against the New Jersey Devils during this current streak.

The Winter Classic lived up to the billing in at least one sense: the wintry weather. While we’ve had some mild weather in Western New York of late, it did turn cold with some snowfall today. That was sort-of ideal if you want to televise the first outdoor NHL game in the United States, and have an obvious topic for your telecast. It resulted in some interesting camera views of the game, and a lot — I might say too much — of Zamboni work and ice repair. It certainly didn’t help the flow of the game on television.

On the plus side, the game was carried by NBC in high definition. We went over to Aaron and Missy’s house to watch it on their big set and it really does make a difference. (I’m sure it would have been much harder to figure out which was a puck and which was a snowflake here at home. Although my answer that is that the pucks are all the same and the snowflakes are all unique.) I call it ridiculous that Time Warner Rochester doesn’t carry the HD feed of the Sabres games, given that the team is all of an hour away and has been so popular of late.

Also rating up there on the ridiculousity scale:

• The maddening frequency that the NBC crew started questions to players and coaches with some variation of: “I know you spent a lot of time playing on frozen ponds, so …”
• The sheer number of references to how great Sidney Crosby is. Guys — whether you’re at NBC or the NHL — please get off this. There are lots of other players on the ice who are interesting and at least as deserving of air time. I’d hate your national broadcasts less if you brought out the character of the league and the game. Plus, the Penguins will play the West Coast teams what, maybe once every seven years? Most of the North American continent, even if they have an NHL franchise, will never see this guy again. Maybe you should prop up all of your players, coaches, teams, and cities. Oh, I forgot, no one but hockey fans are even watching these games anyway because the NHL is so broken, so it doesn’t really matter.
• The stoppages of play when the Zambonis rolled out. Can we go ten minutes without them, pleasethankyoubye?

All in all, it would have been more satisfying if the Sabres had just won. Sigh.

The Washington Capitals started the scoring tonight, but they didn’t finish it. Spacek evened up the score, and Afinogenov put the Buffalo Sabres in front.

The Sabres then jumped ahead to a 4-1 lead before the Capitals notched two. Reducing their deficit to two points was as close as the Caps got, even though their last one was Ovechkin’s 101st goal. Final score: 7-3.

Both Spacek and Campbell have four goals on the season, making the two Buffalo defensemen offensive leaders on the team.

In contrast to years ago when the Sabres could barely must 15 shots, they took 53 tonight.

I was able to follow this game and yet the Sabres still won; I’d been wondering if my on-again, off-again jinx was in effect this year. After all, I’d watched the two losses to the Islanders that started the season, then missed the 6-0 shutout victory against Atlanta the other night. I watched most of the games last year and they wont the President’s Trophy. So, I’m either superstitious or I haven’t figured out the “magic trigger.” Grin.

The Buffalo Sabres, with a successful year of the lightning slug logo under their belts, take the ice tonight in the first game of the 2007-2008. Let’s see whether the “new” team, minus their co-captains, have any of the magic that propelled them to two straight Easter Conference Finals series left.

I’m just hoping I can catch some of the game on TV. I managed to see at least snatches of nearly every game last year, and it was a wild ride.

Go Sabres!

The Buffalo Sabres lost the last game of their season series with the Ottawa Senators tonight, 5-6, in Ottawa.

The game was tied 1-1 in the first. MacArthur just missed taking it to 2-1 at the end of the period; his shot was just a second too late.

The Senators surged up 4-1 in the second period. While I was away from the TV for our nighttime baby routine, Tallinder scored one to bring it back to 4-2. I got back in time to see another Sabres goal, closing the gap to one. The Sens and Sabres then traded scores, before the score was tied with just a handful of minutes left.

Unfortunately, Miller and Tallinder both missed the puck on a bad bounce behind the net, resulting in the game winner on the final Ottawa goal.

The Sabres’ average age dropped to under 26 with the recent call-ups from Rochester. Hm.

While the Buffalo postgame show focuses on Emery’s play in net for Ottawa, I don’t feel like Biron (who was pulled after four goals) and Miller were spectacular either. There were times when their defense really left them hung out to dry, which scared me.

Buffalo pulled out a much-needed shootout win tonight against the Ottawa Senators, 6-5. A few notes on the game:

• Drury becomes another statistic on the injury list for the Sabres. He was taken out — attacked, really — by a late hit to his head in the second period. I didn’t see it live but the replays looked bad, and he didn’t return to the game.
• After the hit on Drury, Mair and Peters instigated fights that eventually led to both of them being ejected. Both goalies — Biron and Emery — skated out to rough each other up and were also ejected for fighting. The coaches, Ruff and Murray, were arguing and yelling at each other over the glass between the benches.
• “You can’t respond any other way,” said Ruff in the post-game press conference.
• Thomas Vanek picked up two goals, notching numbers 30 and 31 for the season. At this point, I think he’s the leading scorer of those who aren’t on the injured list.
• Ottawa came back in the third period, after the Sabres had gone up by two. The Senators had three power play goals.
• Tallinder very nearly won the game — I think it was in overtime, not regulation — on a nice shot that just happened to hit the left goalpost.
• Drew Stafford got another shootout chance, and scored the game winner.
• Miller’s sharp left glove save — he caught the puck with authority and shook it — ended the shootout round and the game. He did well in relief of Marty Biron, even with the two late Ottawa goals.
• The Sabres spilled out onto the ice after the save, and looked more ecstatic and excited than they have in quite some time.
• The Senators racked up an impressive 43 shots.
• Buffalo had five forwards left on the bench at the end, and had to switch Paetsch over to offense. (He plays two ways.)
• ”I think there were more Rochester Americans sitting on the bench than Buffalo Sabres,” Ruff said of the makeup of his team at the end of the game. Two of the top three Amerks scorers have been called up to Buffalo, leaving the Rochester AHL franchise depleted.

I hope that the Sabres will be ready for the repeat match with the Senators on Saturday. Hm.

The name of the television postgame show for the Buffalo Sabres broadcasts on the MSG Network, “The Shootout,” is apropos. The Sabres, after all, are in a lot of overtime shootouts this season. And they win them.

In the latest installment of this story, tonight the Sabres overcame a late NY Rangers lead and tied the game. Then, after a scoreless overtime period, Briere put the first shot of the shootout behind Weekes. No other goals were scored in the shootout, so the Sabres won, 4-3.

The Rangers had a good night for their power play unit, scoring two goals in 46 seconds on different one-man advantage shifts. Unfortunately for NY, Straka had earlier knocked over his own goalie, which led to a Sabres goal.

It sure felt like there was uneven penalty calling, and the local announcers were talking about it. The lack of a call by the officials when Spacek was checked from behind late in the third and the weak penalty to Campbell that led to one of NY’s power play scores were both frustrating examples of this.

In any case, Chris Drury had a sweet goal—it looked effortless—to tie the game in regulation; he has racked up five goals and one assist in seven games. Spacek had a great block with his foot, which might have saved the game, during a critical Buffalo penalty.

Miller had 36 saves and Weekes looked good, too, even though he stopped the smaller number of shots the Sabres took. Weekes withstood an early and exciting series of promising scoring chances in the first period. I don’t know how some of those Buffalo shots didn’t go in, so credit goes to Weekes for that.

The lights in HSBC Arena were dim late in the game, apparently due to the extreme weather in the region. We’re cooling down from an abnormally warm week, with snow on the horizon this weekend. As I type this, I’m leaning up against an outer wall of our house and I can feel the pounding from strong gusts.

There were also audio problems with the TV feed early in the game, and Jim Lorentz had microphone problems later that RJ commented on.

The Buffalo Sabres have now scored fourteen goals in two games, against the Tampa Bay Lightning and last night against the Toronto Maple Leafs. Ten of those goals came in the two games’ second periods.

I admit that I nodded off in the third period last night so I didn’t see the three goal outbreak that ended the game.

I did see the Leafs go up very quickly in the first, on two back-to-back power play scores. It looked to me much like the Ottawa game a few nights ago—when Buffalo got in penalty trouble early, lost momentum, wore out their PK unit, and ended up losing. I was hoping that the outcome wouldn’t be the same against Toronto, of course.

In the second twenty minutes against Toronto—similar to the previous game against Tampa Bay—the Sabres racked up an impressive four goals. Buffalo seems to really jump ahead in the second period. Unfortunately, the Maple Leafs ended the period with the game-tying momentum of two goals.

The final minutes were key. I didn’t see what transpired—I woke back up for the postgame, where I found out only who won without learning the score—but the recap tells the story. Three Sabres goals crossed the line, the last two of which were on an empty net.

Maybe I should doze off more often during games. Yeah … that already happens too much.

There comes a time every fall—or, if we’re lucky, winter—when every Western New York sports fan contemplates a change of primary loyalty from the Buffalo Bills to the Buffalo Sabres. At least, that’s the way I see it.

This has nothing about being a fair-weather fan; it’s just some pragmatism. You occasionally have to make some hard decisions if you’re going to waste your time—which could be spent with your family, importing all your old blog entries into a new blog, rebuilding your basement, and so forth—on both pre-game and post-game shows, as well as on talk radio shows during drive time, and that’s in addition to the games themselves. You also have to determine how emotionally invested you want to get in a set of players and their particular season—it can be refreshing to just sit back and watch the events unfold, rather than putting all of your effort into fandom.

The Buffalo Sabres, shorn of the black-red-and-white uniforms that took them so close to three Stanley Cups since 1996 (losing one Stanley Cup round and two division finals), take the ice in Carolina tonight for their season opener against the Carolina Hurricanes.