Author: Buffalo Winter

San Jose and Florida goaltenders duke it out

Here along the Lake Last week I wrote about goaltenders fighting decades ago, well history repeats itself as the Panthers continue on a downward spiral away from the playoffs.

Arguably the Panther’s goaltender was doing what he thought was just after watching the Shark’s goaltender leave his crease and attack one of the Panthers skaters who had taken a cheap shot on a Sharks player low into his back giving the San Jose’s netminder justification to jump in the ensuing scrum to go after the offending Panthers player.

Four officials on the ice and one of them could have prevented this as the Florida goaltender had to skate 200 feet to join in the fracas, they seen him coming and allowed it to happen, hopefully neither goaltender was seriously injured.

Buffalo Beaten by officials once more

Sabres 1 – Hurricanes 2 In a nationally televised game the announcers at TNT declared that both teams were playing like this was a playoff game, and it felt like it, but once again officiating has to be involved.

Even though the goonish tactics against our Captain was ridiculous Buffalo’s Captain (D) Dahlin still scored the game’s first goal, the Hurricanes (RW) Svechnikov was whistled for roughing the Sabres Captain no less than three times with our Captain responding only once.

The referees called the first two periods evenly but two minutes into the third period of a 1-1 playoff type game the officials hand the home team a man advantage that the Hurricanes were successful with and then the only other whistle came with three minutes remaining in the game with offsetting penalties, effectively halting Buffalo’s opportunity to pull the goalie until there was little time left to work with.

The Buffalo Sabres continue tonight versus the Predators in Nashville at 8 pm EST as the Sabres play the second game of a back-to-back in what is the second game of a five-game road trip.

81 Transactions / No goaltenders / Third Overall

Here along the Lake We have another team manager eliminated from playoff contention and the top five teams are in a quagmire of parity competing for the four playoff seedings.

Transactions In the past five days three team managers have been busy; there are defensemen that I rotate in and out of my weekly lineup, usually the ones rated at 1.7 points per game on average which is just low enough that most team managers do not notice them, but these defensemen are the ones who get me the most blocks, and the half points earned from them add up quickly.

This is why I am consistently moving (D) Chiarot, (D) Cole, (D) Pesce & (D) Lindell in and out of my lineup depending on which NHL team is playing and how many of my weekly allotment of transactions I have used, I am not losing anything even if another team manager selects one of these players for their roster because there are plenty of 1.7 rated players to go around.

My previous two transactions were to drop (D) Chiarot (rated 1.7) and added (D) Montour (rated 1.9) which strengthens my roster considerably, fortunately I am reviewing my watch list and the “add players” listing each day to notice which players are trending up to add to my watch list.

These are players I am currently monitoring, (D) Cole is rated a low 1.5 but has 98 blocks which can be useful and his NHL team Utah is the number one wild card seeded team in the Western Conference, so this player’s rating is a bit misleading so that most team managers will dismiss this player’s ability to contribute.

Six weekly matchups remaining before the playoff seedings are frozen and this final stretch of weeks is going to be interesting indeed.

Overly Officious

Sabres 4 Wild 5 (OT) The Buffalo Sabres were tied by the Minnesota Wild in a closely played game which saw both teams take the lead and score all their regulation goals and earned penalties including a fight in the first two periods.

During the second period the Wild were able to take a 3-1 lead just one minute into the period, then Buffalo scored three straight goals to not only tie the game but take the 4-3 before Minnesota was able to tie the score 4-4 before the end of the period.

The Sabres 9 SOG and the Wild 10 SOG could not score in the third period and neither team were whistled for a penalty until the Referee called a weak hooking infraction on Buffalo with only 11 seconds remaining in a tight 4-4 game handing Minnesota a power play to begin overtime with.

The Minnesota Wild earned a tie with the 5-4 overtime victory in the two-game regular season series with the Buffalo Sabres as each team won on the road, and now the Sabres embark on a five-game road trip beginning on Martin Luther King Jr. Day this Monday afternoon at 1:30 pm EST versus the Carolina Hurricanes.

Sabres (C) Thompson records Hat Trick

Sabres 5 – Canadiens 3 (en) There were many red Canadien sweaters in attendance last night and at times in some seating sections it looked as if Buffalo was on the road, but Montreal fan support was not enough as Buffalo defeats their division rival.

Buffalo’s rookie (G) Ellis looked a bit shaky at times earning only a .870% save percentage but was an absolute ice wall as he stopped all Montreal third period shots on goal preserving a Sabres one-goal lead until (C) Thompson completed his hat trick with the empty net goal for the 5-3 score and victory.

The Sabres fell behind twice but never panicked even when the Canadiens scored with the 5-on-3 power play to tie the game at two apiece early in the second period the Sabres did not falter and with the win have tied Montreal 1-1 in their four-game regular season series.

Buffalo hosts the Minnesota Wild who are the Western Conference’s third best and NHL’s fourth best team overall this coming Saturday afternoon at 12:30 pm EST in the Sabres final and fifth game of this current five-game homestand.