Buffalo Winter

Tuesday Trivia

Last week’s answer: Eddie Shack aka The Clown Prince of Hockey

Buffalo’s Memorial Auditorium began as a Public Works project, it’s first event was a Republican rally, which President of the United States of America signed the approval for the project?

A) JFK

B) FDR

C) Hoover

D) Eisenhower

Sabres 3 – Oilers 2 On January 25th in Edmonton Buffalo beat the Oilers 3-2, and just to show it was not a fluke the Sabres beat the Pacific Division playoff bound team by the identical score last night here along the Lake.

Goaltender Luukkonen stopped 32 of 34 shots and positioned himself so well he forced Edmonton to ring four shots overall off the posts and stood tall as the Oilers kept pulling their goaltender during the remaining five minutes of the third period.

Center Thompson scored twice with a great assist from newly acquired Center Norris on the game winning goal, and our new Center also created a sweet set up for RW Tuch who had scored the second goal earlier, but the Oilers goaltender made a terrific save.

Through the Ides of March, the Sabres are in Detroit Wednesday, hosting Nevada on the 15th, then visiting Boston on St. Patrick’s Day.

State of Hockey

Pittsburgh versus Minnesota (Crosby, Malkin vs Fleury)

Penguins 3 – Wild 1 (en) St. Paul, Minn. Literally, goaltending is the last word on scoring, and last night two goaltenders provided an entertaining game as well as being able to watch three powerful HOF players perform superbly in the twilight of their NHL careers.

Minnesota Goaltender Marc-Andre Fleury is a three-time Stanley Cup Champion who also won the Jennings and Vezina Trophies in one season, and for the last time faced his former Cup teammates who both scored on him last night.

Then there was the unknown factor of goaltender Tristan Jarry back up from the AHL and was the main reason the Wild could only score once during the game, and it was a 4 on 1 odd-man rush aided by a blatant non-call that spoiled Goaltender Jarry’s shutout bid.

It is also worth noting that Goaltender Jarry collected an assist on Center Crosby’s empty net goal giving him 11 total assists in his NHL (AHL 8A) career.

Additionally, I appreciate how the Minnesota Wild have created a uniform kit that resembles the color scheme of the Minnesota North Stars, with the state of Minnesota Captain and Alternate patches, although the original North Stars franchise relocated to Texas, this is still a cool nod to Minnesota’s hockey history.

Trades of March

No Blockbusters

***Scored at the 4 Nations Face Off Tournament***

Here along the Lake Yesterday Defenseman Jokiharju departed Buffalo after five years for a fourth-round draft selection in next year’s NHL Entry Draft from Boston. The Finnish, six foot, 200 lbs., stay at home defenseman should play more minutes for the Bruins than he was getting with the Sabres.

***Penalized, but did not go to locker room, stayed with teammates until game was over***

Additionally, the “Workhorse from Whitehorse” Center Dylan Cozens and Buffalo, NY born Defenseman Dennis Gilbert who played just 25 games for the Sabres are bound for Ottawa. In exchange Buffalo received Center Josh Norris and Defenseman Jacob Bernard-Docker who recently came off IR and has not played since December 28th.

The Rangers took the ineffective and seldom played RW Aube-Kubel off Buffalo’s roster for diminutive 5′ 10 “, 185 lbs. Defenseman Erik Brannstrom.

Not making a trade for an outstanding goaltender or another stud winger is not always the wrong move if for example a coaching change is imminent, patience is not just waiting for the team to get better, but how we play while getting better.

Jets Bedevil New Jersey

Winnipeg the #1 team in the NHL

Jets 6 – Devils 1 Home cooking did nothing to help New Jersey as they could not capitalize on their offensive chances while playing the puck in front of their own net instead of putting a body on the attacking player.