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Road Trip ends on a High Note

Sabres 3 – Kraken 1 (en) The Buffalo Sabres ended their six-game road trip at 3-3 after winning the previous three games giving Buffalo a 14-14-4 regular season record, considering all 10 teams vying for a wild card in the Eastern Conference are between 32 and 38 points, the Sabres can realistically earn a playoff seeding by building on their current 3-game winning streak.

Hockey players get hit and crash into the dasherboards, it is part of the game, but when an opponent maliciously trips and causes a player to crash into the dasherboards, well that is a different story all together.

Last night, Seattle (D) Evans in front of an official dangerously “can-opener” tripped (C) Norris after he had passed the puck to (C) Ostlund who scored giving the Sabres the 1-0 lead in the first period, the unnecessary trip caused the Sabres center to fall and uncontrollably crash into the dasherboards.

Of course, the Seattle announcers would only say the Buffalo player lost control, and I do not blame any Sabres on the ice for not addressing the Seattle player but in real time it did appear (C) Norris did indeed just “lose control”, but after further review one can clearly discern the Seattle defenseman using the nasty “can-opener” trip.

But we are hockey players and fans that go by, “no-harm no-foul”, so Seattle has to travel to Buffalo next year March 28th for a Saturday late afternoon game beginning at 5:30 pm EST for the second game of their two-game regular season series, and (D) Evans should have to attend a disciplinary hearing from the NHL’s player safety department.

Buffalo has three days for travel and rest before two home games this Thursday night at 7:30 pm EST versus Philadelphia and Saturday’s afternoon 5 pm EST start when the Sabres host the Islanders.

1970 Expansion Teams

Sabres 3 – Canucks 2 Buffalo wins its second consecutive road contest during the 139th meeting between these two historic clubs (60-60-19).

Solid goaltending and timely scoring led the Sabres to victory over the Canucks as Vancouver belted Buffalo’s (G) Lyon with 12 shots and slowed the Sabres to just two SOG during the third period as Vancouver down by one goal with the extra attacker endeavored unsuccessfully to tie the game.

The Sabres can even up their six-game road trip at three apiece if they can defeat the Kraken this coming Sunday night at 8 pm EST.

Sabres Road OT Victory

Sabres 4 – Oilers 3 (OT) Buffalo is one of the premier PK teams in the NHL and they proved it again last night stopping all four Edmonton power plays, the Sabres took a commanding 3-0 lead after two periods of play on the strength of two power play goals from (RW) Doan.

Buffalo thought they scored their second of the game in the first period when (C) Thompson batted one in but an Edmonton coach’s challenge for a hand pass negated the score, however 90 seconds later in front of the Oilers goaltender (C) Thompson let rip a greasy snapper to regain the 2-0 first period lead.

Buffalo had to switch goalies as rookie (G) Ellis after stopping the first six Oilers SOG was taken out of the game during the first period for concussion protocol, backup (G) Lyon came in and stymied Edmonton’s next 12 SOG in the game.

When Sabres (RW) Doan scored his second goal of the night on the power play he did so with a highlight reel goal as he took the puck with his stick backwards, between the legs to then shoot the puck glove side to smoke the Edmonton netminder for the 3-0 lead heading into the third period.

The Oilers came out fast and furious in the beginning of the third period scoring 10 seconds into the period because of an alleged non-called icing as an Edmonton defenseman shot the puck into the Sabres zone from behind the red line, nevertheless the Oilers get on the board, and the period starts 3-1 and Buffalo still looks in control.

Edmonton scored their second goal before the third period was two minutes old and all of sudden the game is 3-2 still in favor of Buffalo, but the Oilers look like they are going to tie the game which they eventually did with less than two seconds remaining in the game, their goaltender pulled and the extra attacker off to the side of a congested Sabres net, Edmonton forced overtime.

It is always good to end overtime quickly, and that is just what the Sabres did by scoring the game winning goal 33 seconds into overtime as (C) McLeod along the dasherboard outplays two Oilers to make a great pass to a wide open (RW) Tuch whose quick shot went five-hole pretty as you please providing Buffalo with a 4-3 win and its third road victory.

Up next is the Vancouver Canucks this Thursday night 10 pm EST.

Another strong week

Here along the Lake I finished with the weekly matchup win and overall best score for the week, and I continue to lead the league as I defeated last week’s opponent who was the only team manager to beat me so far this season.

I have become the top producer in Goals, Assists, and Power Play points, and second overall in blocks, these are the fantasy point producing statistics that recently have catapulted me to the top of the league.

This weekly matchup finds the two division leaders, Slapshot in the East and my Buffalo Winter team from the West, if Slapshot wins then these two teams will share the overall lead.

TRANSACTIONS

The last four days of waiver wire action, as much as I like (C) Cozens I did want another point producer for tonight’s games to ensure a strong start to this weekly matchup versus the West Division leader, additionally, I dropped (D) Ekman-Larsson because he seems a bit inconsistent and I already have two other Maple Leafs players that produce solid points consistently and I think it best not to have too many players from one NHL team on the roster.

Regular Season Series 1-1

Sabres 1 – Jets 4 Buffalo beat Winnipeg at home three days ago and the Jets returned the favor and beat the Sabres in their barn last night.

Goaltending remains an issue with the Sabres rotating three players, two inconsistent goaltenders and one rookie netminder while our number one future star in net remains sitting on the nest in Rochester.

Buffalo remains one of the premier penalty killing teams in the NHL with an 87.2% PK percentage, and last night the Sabres special teams scored on the power play thanks to a Jonathan Toews tripping penalty then stymied the Jets on Winnipeg’s power play.

The Sabres have two days to ready themselves in Alberta for back-to-back games versus the Flames then Oilers this coming Monday and Tuesday nights.