Buffalo Winter

April 20th, 1975

Buffalo Sabres earn a 3-1 Stanley Cup Quarter Finals series lead

Sabres 6 – Blackhawks 2 After dropping game three during overtime in Chicago, the Sabres fell behind 1-0 after the first period of game two and the Blackhawks backstopped by goaltender Tony Esposito and led by Cup Champion Center Stan Makita and tough guy Defenseman Captain Keith Magnuson the ‘Hawks were feeling confident.

Just 30 seconds into the second period however Captain Schoenfeld passes to LW Spinner Spencer whose sweet feed to Center Peter McNab who scored his first of the playoffs to tie the game at one.

For the rest of the second period Buffalo earned seven of their nine overall penalties as Referee Newell did his best to aid Chicago, one example was when he gave Sabres Defenseman King Kong Korab a roughing and misconduct penalty and a paltry high-sticking penalty for the Blackhawks player involved.

The Sabres scored even quicker to start the third period as Center McNab earns a primary assist on Center Jim Lorentz’s first goal of the playoffs this time only 17 seconds into the third period for the 2-1 lead.

Chicago earned one of their five penalties for the game 14 seconds after Buffalo scored giving the French Connection their turn as LW Rick Martin scores his third of the playoffs during the powerplay and four minutes later the French Connection scores again for the 4-1 lead.

The Blackhawks got one back, but Buffalo answered with two more goals while out shooting Chicago 16 – 5 in the third period, RW Danny Gare (3) and again the French Connection on the powerplay with five minutes remaining built a commanding 6-2 lead and final score.

Jets Flying High

Presidents’ Trophy & O’Brien Cup 2024/25 Champions

Winnipeg, Manitoba The Winnipeg Jets have earned the top spot in the NHL this season and are endeavoring to play past the early rounds of the playoffs for the first time in over 20 seasons.

Former Buffalo Sabres former Left Wing from the late 1980s and Assistant Coach in the early 2000’s, Scot Arniel has earned his position as Head Coach evidenced by the best regular season record in this franchise’s history in his first season as Head Coach of the Winnipeg Jets.

Much ado is made of the fact that the Jets goaltender plays spectacularly in the regular season but not so much in the playoffs as the Jets exited the playoffs in the first round the past two years ultimately costing Winnepeg’s HC Bowness his job.

Winnipeg appears poised and ready to make a deep run into this season’s playoffs if not capturing the Cup itself, I am confident the Jets can win it all this year, but there are a few other teams that I have considered just as capable in their abilities to win the Cup.

Six o’clock tonight the 2024/25 Stanley Cup playoffs begin with two games, the Presidents’ Trophy winners Winnipeg Jets versus the Western Conference second wild card seeded St. Louis Blues.

In the second game tonight at 8:30 pm, the Dallas Stars host the Colorado Avalanche in a Western Division rivalry between two teams that are closely matched record wise as the Stars and Avalanche curiously have identical 277 goals scored total this season.

A Fine Finish

Winning game 82 at home…priceless!

Sabres 5 – Flyers 4 (en) Buffalo scored first and never relinquished the lead in an entertaining end to the 2024-25 NHL regular season, the Sabres set the NHL regular season record for blocks by a forward (RW Tuch 113), perfect attendance goes to RW Tuch and Defenseman Byram who played in every game this year.

There was a coach’s challenge and disallowed goal, Center Krebs scored on a breakaway shorthanded earning Buffalo 10 shorthanded goals for the season, newcomer Center McLeod became a 20-goal scorer for the first time in his NHL career, RW Tuch scored 36 goals for the second time in his NHL career.

The Buffalo Sabres head coaching position after becoming a carousel of five different coaches over a dozen losing seasons hired Don Granato who coached the Sabres to consecutive winning seasons but barely missing the playoffs each time. Sadly & prematurely, the Sabres fired him, imho.

The Sabres showed towards the end of this year what we can expect to see in the 2025-26 NHL regular season, a winning season and securing a playoff seeding, nothing less will suffice.

Thursday Night Engagement

Buffalo hosts the “broad street bullies”

Here along the Lake The final game of the NHL 2024-25 regular season for the Buffalo Sabres is at home and the players will be sporting their brawny Black & Red sweaters tonight versus Philadelphia.

The Flyers have dominated the first two games of the three game regular season series between these two teams, both play their final game tonight and recently both teams have earned similar 5-4-1 records, with one glaring positive statistic going into this game is that the Sabres are now 10th and Philadelphia is 24th overall in scoring.

Although the Sabres must endure one more season without a playoff seeding, this streak of misfortune ends come September NHL 2025-26 preseason, with the hopes of strengthening the team’s netminding for next season the Sabres do have a solid opportunity to barge boldly into next year’s playoffs.

Fantasy Hockey Update

Congratulations to Puck Yoself Bud who is soon to be this season’s ESPN FHL Chicago Pro H2H points league Champion, with a 59-point lead heading into tonight’s final Finals game versus Team MVP, it appears to be a given.

While still fresh in your mind now is a good opportunity to begin your FHL draft list for next season, initially you can just write down the two best players from each NHL team, then do the same for each team in your fantasy league, this provides a powerful starting point for a team manager in the upcoming season.

The NHL Playoffs Are Here!

Now that teams know who they are seeded against, fans can begin to fill out their brackets, and quickly since Saturday starts the exciting run to the 2024-25 Stanley Cup Finals.

This is just how I see the opening round possibly playing out and my official Buffalo Winter bracket submission for this season, my apologies to fans of the teams I have eliminated early in my prognostication, lol.