Author: Buffalo Winter

Sabres Win 6th Consecutive Game

Sabres 3 – Devils 1 (en) The Devils were expecting to beat the Sabres since they were at home with (C) Hughes returning to the New Jersey active roster after missing a substantial number of games due to a “non-hockey” injury absorbing a “cut” during a dinner and he scored the first goal of the game giving the Devils a first period 1-0 lead.

Then Buffalo came out skating and shooting in the second period scoring twice, Sabres (C) Norris who has earned 10 points in the last eight games scored a nifty goal as the New Jersey netminder made an initial save but left a juicy rebound that was calmly poked past the goaltender’s pad and into the net to tie the game at one apiece.

The Sabres (LW) Benson scored after receiving a pass from (C) McLeod who took a hit along the dasher boards to complete the pass to (LW) Benson who convincingly faked a pass before ripping a greasy snapper glove side to give Buffalo the 2-1 lead with four minutes remaining in the second period.

Sabres (G) Luukkonen was an absolute brick wall with a highlight reel glove save and earned a .963% save percentage allowing just one even strength goal on 24 New Jersey SOG to preserve the victory.

Buffalo heads to Canada’s capital, Ottawa for a Tuesday night 7pm EST matchup before enjoying three days off for Christmas.

4th Consecutive Victory

Sabres 5 – Flyers 3 (en) Buffalo’s newest GM begins his tenure with a victory and inherits a four-game winning streak, (D) Dahlin earned his 23rd assist of the season last night giving him 300 for his career becoming the ninth Sabres player to achieve this milestone, (C) Thompson scored again with his fifth goal in five games.

(LW) Benson and (D) Samuelsson each contributed two assists, and head coach Ruff earned his 915th win making him the fourth winningest head coach in NHL history.

Notable injuries last night to (D) Timmins who broke his leg and will be out nearly two months, and an undisclosed upper body injury to (C) Kozak with no updates.

The Buffalo Sabres will host the New York Islanders this Saturday early evening beginning at 5 pm EST before embarking on a two-game road trip.

Buffalo has new leadership

Here along the Lake The Sabres Owner & President Mr. Pegula brought in our new General Manager last May hiring Jarmo Kekalainen as a “senior advisor”, GM Kekalainen has solid NHL experience and success that hopefully can translate to playoff participation for the Sabres.

Newly hired General Managers build their own staff and GM Kekalainen could bring in a new head coach or promote Assistant Head Coach Appert which could generate the productive results this team and their fans have been anticipating for over the last decade and a half.

The Sabres realistically still have a few solid months of regular season action to take our 500% overall record and create enough positive play to elevate Buffalo to a playoff wild card seeding, I am positively looking forward to seeing the Buffalo Sabres skate towards playoff success this season.

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.