Month: March 2025

#1 Seeded team ousted by #4 Seeded team

Here along the Lake So close to advancing, beaten by less than two points, after taking the regular season title it is a bit frustrating to watch your top players point production come to a standstill early in the first round.

This highlights that no matter how skillful a FHL team manager you are, if the players on the ice do not perform, no amount of waiver wire, watch list, and ensuring every top point producing player available is inserted into the lineup will get you the win.

Kudos goes out to Team MVP the fourth seeded playoff combatant whose player’s lack of offensive point production was supported by a timely 8-0 shutout win which gave 12 points to Team MVP in a tightly contested playoff round.

Congratulations to the Eastern Division Champion team, Go Puck Yourself, who left no doubt in a crushing victory over team Hughes, Hugheser, Hughesest.

As always win or lose Buffalo Winter finishes the season with the best possible lineups, so in this year’s Winner’s Consolation ladder Buffalo Winter is matched up against Hughes, Hugheser, Hughesest, in a battle of surprised runner-ups, lol.

A Baker’s Dozen worth of goals

Sabres 8 – Capitals 5 (en) In the Capital city of the United States of America the Buffalo Sabres invaded Capital One Arena and scored eight times on one of the best teams in the NHL.

Overlooked possibly because LW Ovechkin scored his 890th goal skating even closer to the NHL scoring record so Capitals fans can be excused if they are not upset over losing one regular season game to one of the worst teams in the League.

Here along the Lake, we did take notice that for the second time in three games the Sabres have scored seven or more goals, so now Lindy has to win five out of the last nine games to reach 500%, a herculean effort considering his 13 game winless streak and losing the first two games of the season to the team that fired him before the end of last season.

Winning towards the end of our 14th season without a playoff seeding ensures losing out on a top lottery draft pick and maintaining a sense of meh, sometimes we win and sometimes we lose atmosphere from the team as fans watch exhaustively waiting for postseason play to cheer about.

Sid the Kid quietly passes the Great One

Sabres 7 – Penguins 3 Here along the Lake last night it was snowing goals as Buffalo tagged their fourth opponent this season with seven goals (Bruins, Islanders, & Rangers) all coming in the first two periods of the game.

Buffalo scored on their first SOG of the game 27 seconds into the first period and approximately four minutes later the Sabres take their second SOG of the game and score again for the 2-0 lead.

In the second half of the first period Center Crosby scored his 26th of the season giving him 80 points for the 80 games he plays this season (2 missed games due to injury) which gives him 20 seasons averaging a point a game surpassing Mr. Wayne Gretzky’s 19 season run.

Buffalo wins the final game of the three game regular season series with Pittsburgh as the Penguins won the first two to take the series two games to one.

Horrendous officiating dominates game

Devils 5 – Blackhawks 3 (en) In a game where only four penalties were whistled a fan wonders how the officials could influence the outcome of the game so dramatically.

When the announcers on TNT which hosts Wednesday Night Hockey not only complain that there was no penalty on the initial penalty called but kept harping on it, so obvious to those of us watching that it should not have been called.

But the nail in the coffin was the last penalty whistled against a Chicago player who was defending young Center Bedard who was literally being shoved/pushed/crosschecked while lying on the ice, the ensuing New Jersey power play scored.

This on the heels of a prior game where Center Bedard was issued an “abuse of an official” penalty because of something he said that hurt the Referees feelings.

Referees and Linesmen have one of the most difficult positi0ns in all of sports professional and amateur, from a young age 14- and 15-years old officials in minor leagues are even abused by fans.

I am always willing to give the on-ice officials the benefit of the doubt, but some Referees make that very difficult to believe that they are using their best judgement without any bias.

Around the League

Canucks 5 – Islanders 2 (en) Both teams are competing for the last wild card seeding in their respective Conferences and after a scoreless first period the Canucks and Islanders combined for 24 SOG and a 2-2 tie during the second period of play.

Vancouver scored quickly in the third period forcing New York to pull their goaltender and with two minutes remaining in the game the Canucks get the empty net score.

Stars 4 – Oilers 3 Dallas and Edmonton are keeping ahead of the wild card hopefuls in the Western Conference as Stars LW Robertson scored a natural hat trick in a nine and half minute stretch during the second period that contributed to a 4-0 Dallas advantage heading into the third period.

Edmonton roared back in the third period and after scoring three times to get within one goal of the Stars with 95 seconds remaining in the game, Edmonton could not score that fourth goal.

Ducks 6 – Bruins 2 Anaheim’s victory gets them within one game of playing 500% hockey and unfortunately for the Eastern Conference Boston Bruins they remain mired in 13th place.

Buffalo Beats Ottawa Again!

Sabres 3 – Senators 2 Referee Wes McCauley on average whistles power plays 53% of the time for the home team, not last night as the Eastern Conference number one wild card seeded Senators enjoyed a 4-1 imbalance of power play opportunities.

Head Coach Travis Green of Ottawa in a fit of delusion said that ” It’s easy to say, probably might easily win this game seven times out of 10.”, which is difficult to understand since Buffalo has beaten Ottawa for third time in their four game season series (Buffalo outscoring Ottawa 12-3) with game four on April Fool’s Day.

Former Sabres Center Cozens had the secondary assist on Ottawa’s first goal and was quoted, “I really wanted to win that game”, to the press in the locker room after the loss to his former team.

Former Senators defenseman Jacob Bernard-Docker tied the game scoring his first goal for Buffalo with seven minutes remaining in the second period, and was quoted, “It feels just unreal to be on the ice, honestly,” Bernard-Docker said. “I’ve had a tough year kind of prior to this, kind of just grinding and lots of skates by myself and work in the gym. It feels good to be back into games so yeah, it’s fun.”, …no revenge or negative remarks towards Ottawa.

Lindy Ruff becomes only the second coach in NHL history to win 600 games with the same team, putting him alongside legendary Stanley Cup Champion Head Coach Al Arbour.

Next up…a non-playoff team in the Pittsburgh Penguins are here along the Lake tomorrow night at seven o’clock.