Author: Buffalo Winter

Buffalo 3rd in the Atlantic Division

Sabres 7 – Maple Leafs 4 (en) Buffalo Captain (D) Dahlin earned his first NHL hat trick and scored his 400th career point, in leading the Sabres to victory on the road versus a division opponent.

In his 500th NHL game, Sabres (C) Thompson scored four minutes into the first period for the early 1-0 lead, unfortunately Toronto successfully challenged the goal, but eventually Buffalo’s (C) Thompson scored his 28th of the season and earned an assist (27th) later in the game.

During this game the Sabres did not get whistled for any penalties and scored on the power play; Buffalo’s starter (G) Luukkonen left the game after allowing two goals on five shots approximately halfway through the first period with a lower body injury and rookie (G) Ellis finished the game.

Buffalo finishes January with two home games as the Sabres host the Los Angeles Kings Thursday night 7pm EST and for the third time this month the Sabres will play the Montreal Canadiens this Saturday night 7pm EST.

Two playoff seedings secured

Here along the Lake There are five regular season weekly matchups remaining to play, and our league now has three team managers eliminated, and two team managers guaranteed a playoff invitation one of which is me, Buffalo Winter.

In the next two weekly matchups Buffalo Winter is scheduled to play the top two Eastern Division team managers, Slapshot and Zach’s Honorable Team, before finishing the season playing against three basement teams.

TRANSACTIONS

As you can ascertain, I continue to switch in and out of my roster defensemen that are rated at 1.7, although (D) Durzi is now at a 1.8 rating, additionally I dropped my only Colorado player because a stronger forward became available and as much as I appreciate having an Avalanche player on the team, Colorado’s (LW) Lehkonen just is not consistent enough for me to keep him on the roster.

PLAYERS TO MONITOR

I keep the Buffalo Sabres (RW) Doan and rookie (C) Helenius on my list because I enjoy watching Sabres players doing well, even in an FHL, since I have two Buffalo players on my roster I keep to my strategy by utilizing no more than two players from any one NHL team.

STATISTICALLY SPEAKING

I maintain leads in the top three scoring categories and hits, then I am second overall in SOG and the all-important point producing blocks.

Remember, even if you are a team manager that has been eliminated, please do not throw away your opportunity to gain valuable experience by keeping your league’s playoff seeded teams honest, make them earn their victories, everything you accomplish this season, win or lose, will assist you greatly in managing a team in next year’s ESPN FHL season.

Buffalo (G) Lyon ties Sabres 1976-77 record

Sabres 5 – Islanders 0 (en) The Buffalo Sabres continue their torrid pace by shutting out the New York Islanders as Sabres (G) Lyon tied a Sabres 1976-77 season goaltending record of nine consecutive victories with his second shutout of the season yesterday afternoon.

Buffalo (G) Lyon was penalized in the first period, and if you look on the NHL web site you will see that the NHL “officially” recorded his penalty as a “hooking” infraction, the initial and correct call was “interference”, and as a former goaltender I can assure you how difficult it would be to “hook” someone with your catching glove.

Buffalo announcers for the game were surprised at the interference call on Sabres (G) Lyon with Rob Ray pointing out all the actual interference happening at center ice that does not get called and even Dan Dunlevy chimed in with a sarcastic remark about Sabres (G) Lyon’s vicious interference call.

Head Coach of the Islanders Patrick Roy pulled his goaltender with six and a half minutes remaining in a game when his team was down by three goals, this is a tactic of HC Roy who has his team “practice” 6-on-5 drills and he utilizes this strategy consistently, but to no avail as Buffalo Captain (D) Dahlin scored the empty net with (C) Krebs who has scored four empty net goals this season earned the assist on last night’s empty net score.

The Sabres premier penalty killers staved off all three New York powerplays, and the team as a whole scored five goals for the 14th time this season creating a solid +17 goal differential, and with the win and Boston beating Montreal last night, Buffalo is now in sole possession of third place in the Atlantic Division becoming a playoff contender and not a “wild card”.

The last game of the Buffalo Sabres current five-game road trip ends this Tuesday night in Toronto at 7 pm EST.

Sabres Close Out Canadiens

Sabres 4 – Canadiens 2 (en) Buffalo wingers skated quickly into Montreal’s end and before the Canadiens could react Sabres (RW) Quinn carried the puck into the zone, dished it off to Sabres (LW) Zucker who scored his 11th giving Buffalo a 1-0 lead just 44 seconds into the first period.

With five minutes remaining in the first period and the Canadiens on a power play, Sabres (LW) Malenstyn skated hard down the side along the boards into the Montreal zone fending off his defender and skated across and leapt in front of Montreal’s crease backhanding a beauty into the net for a Buffalo 2-0 lead.

An exciting second period with Buffalo leading 2-0 as a “scramble” ensued in front of the Canadiens net as Sabres rookie (C) Helenius backhanded a shot that Sabres (LW) Benson got his stick on but the puck hit the post, then the other post and as (LW) Benson stayed with the puck he was able to smack it home and Buffalo had itself a 3-0 lead 2:44 into the second period.

Give Montreal credit because they did not cave and responded with a goal a minute and a half later for the 3-1 score and once more for the 3-2 score but with nine and a half minutes remaining in the second period Buffalo (G) Luukkonen became a wall of ice.

During the third period Buffalo (G) Luukkonen became even more frosty as he stopped all nine third period Montreal SOG forcing the Canadiens to pull their goaltender affording Sabres (C) Krebs the opportunity to score the empty net goal for the 4-2 lead and victory.

The Buffalo Sabres travel to Elmont, NY to play the New York Islanders this Saturday afternoon at 1 pm EST in game four of the Sabres five-game road trip.

Road Victory Improves Wild Card Standing

Sabres 5 – Predators 3 (en) Buffalo Sabres rookie (C) Konsta Helenius scored his first goal and earned two assists for his first multi-point game in his second NHL game, additionally, the 19 years old Finnish standout played 17 shifts, blocked a shot, dished out two hits, and took four shots on net.

When Buffalo’s (C) Thompson scored his 26th of the year to increase the Sabres lead to 4-0 four and a half minutes into the second period you could almost hear a funeral dirge for Nashville.

But Nashville’s and former Buffalo (C) O’Reilly channeling his younger self beginning halfway through the second period scored when Nashville had six skaters in Buffalo’s end then assisted on another before scoring again halfway through the third period to get the Predators within one goal of tying the game at 4-3 with 10:30 remaining.

Buffalo (G) Lyon allowed only three goals on 34 Nashville shots earning himself a .912% save percentage while stopping 13 of 14 Predators SOG during the third period to assist in preserving the victory.

The Buffalo Sabres visit the Montreal Canadiens this Thursday evening for game three of the Sabres current five-game road trip at 7 pm EST.