Category: Hockey History 1917-2023

QUICK READ RECAPS

Kraken 2 – Hurricanes 1 The Eastern Conference leader, Carolina Hurricanes with 82 points, on the road faced off against the Pacific Division third place seeded Seattle Kraken (67 points) at Climate Activist Arena and could not crack Kraken (G) Daccord except once on 36 SOG as Seattle wins the game with only 15 SOG and tied the regular season series with Carolina at one apiece.

Stars 6 – Canucks 1 In another imbalanced SOG road game Dallas outshoots Vancouver 37 to 14 and creates a new Dallas Stars record for consecutive victories at nine, former Sabres and current Canucks (LW) Kane scored the game’s first goal, and another Sabres alumni Canucks (D) Myers was held out of the lineup for “roster management purposes”.

Red Wings 4 – Predators 2 Detroit continues to keep up with the Sabres as the Red Wings tied Buffalo in the standings with 76 points but the Sabres have one game in hand and sit in second place in the Atlantic Division with Detroit seeded third in the division.

Blue Jackets 5 – Rangers 4 (OT) The Broadway Blueshirts continue to solidify their position in the basement of the Eastern Conference losing at home in a game where each team earned only one penalty, but Columbus scored on their power play and shorthanded on the Rangers power play.

Down 4-0 after the second period New York came alive and scored four times in the third period on 17 SOG to tie the game and send it into overtime when the Blue Jackets scored a minute into the OT session for the win.

Flyers 3 – Maple Leafs 2 (SO) Both teams have a slim to outside chance of earning a wild card seeding, but still possible as each team earned at least a point and continue to climb positively in the standings.

Avalanche 4 – Kings 2 Even Los Angeles fans could not keep up with the new guys, an interim head coach’s first game, a defensemen’s first game and goal, plus two forwards having NHL debuts, but all for naught as the winningest team in the NHL continues to feast on their weak Western Conference foes.

Here along the Lake The game tonight could be a night of healing between imbittered Sabres fans and estranged Knights Gold Medalist (C) Eichel as the Sabres and Gold Medalist (C) Thompson host Las Vegas in the first home game since the Olympics ended so successfully, with puck drop downtown this evening at 7pm EST.

Sabres Score Quickly & Often

Sabres 6 – Lightning 2 Buffalo Sabres Captain (D) Dahlin scored the game’s first goal from near the top of the faceoff circle five and a half minutes into the first period then 50 seconds later Sabres (C) Norris scored giving Buffalo a 2-0 lead when less than two minutes after that (C) Norris scores again on a deflection lifting the Sabres to a 3-0 lead, and with about five minutes remaining in the period Sabres (C) Thompson scored to make it 4-0 heading into intermission.

Buffalo (G) Luukkonen had an outstanding performance earning a .947% save percentage while facing 38 Lightning SOG, Sabres (D) Metsa produced his first NHL multi-point game and earned the third star of the game, with this victory last night the Sabres continue to solidify their playoff aspirations and next up is a home-game versus the Golden Knights on March 3rd 7pm, with a possible gold medal celebration to honor Sabres (C) Thompson & Knights (C) Eichel.

Road Victory in Florida

Sabres 3 – Panthers 2 (en) The Buffalo Sabres have now beaten the two-time defending Stanley Cup champions twice on the road this February, last night the Sabres scored on the power play, even-strength, empty net, and even scored the Panthers second goal as Buffalo won the game and the regular season series with their conference foe, three games to one.

Sabres (C) Thompson and (C) McLeod each earned their 31st assist of the season, (RW) Tuch scored his 23rd goal on the power play, (LW) Malenstyn broke the 1-1 tie with his goal earning the game’s first star as Buffalo’s fourth line played exceptionally well, (G) Lyon earned an impressive .966% save percentage and the game’s second star backstopping Buffalo to another road victory.

Once again, this month the Sabres visit Tampa Bay to take on the Lightning and finish their three-game road trip tonight at 7 pm and last night’s win versus Florida vaulted the Sabres into sixth place overall in the NHL and second place in the Atlantic Division, even though the division rival Red Wings have a similar record to the Sabres, its Buffalo that has a +21 goal differential compared to Detroit sitting at zero.

Teammates no more

Sabres 2 – Devils 1 New Jersey (C) Hughes was quite the gentleman and all class during the game’s opening tribute to the Devils’ gold medal winner, he skated towards the Buffalo bench motioning for the Sabres (C) Thompson to come join him on the ice, and after a ceremonial faceoff between the two Olympian teammates with the puck being dropped by family patriarch Mr. Hughes, it was back to business.

Buffalo who had already built a 2-0 lead before New Jersey scored with their goaltender pulled for the extra attacker with 2:30 remaining in the game, both goaltenders played an outstanding game with each earning the game’s first and third star respectively.

There was no scoring in the first period, each team killed off all the other team’s power plays during the game, and after New Jersey spanked Buffalo 5-0 the day after this past Thanksgiving the Sabres won the next two games (Jan & last night) versus the Devils to win the regular season series two games to one.

Bizarre and wicked scheduling had the Sabres in the beginning of February (2nd & 3rd) playing Florida and Tampa Bay on the road and now to close out February the Sabres again have to play Florida and Tampa Bay on the road this coming (27th & 28th) Friday and Saturday.

The NHL resumes tomorrow

Here along the Lake It was a long Olympic break, but we are bright eyed and bushy tailed waiting with bated breath to get back to managing our fantasy teams, the previous weekly matchup was only four days of play and there are only five days to the upcoming weekly matchup.

As of this week, Buffalo Winter & asher1961-1, have already clinched a playoff seeding and there are now four teams eliminated leaving four teams vying for first place in the Eastern Division or endeavoring to earn the fourth and final invitation to the playoffs.

I would like to go over goaltenders once more; it is a fact that the ESPN FHL point system for goaltenders creates a high-risk high-reward player, some league managers when creating their league assign top points for goalies essentially having a “goaltender league” where the netminder earns incredibly high points, but goalies either earn you points or minus points from your weekly matchup score.

Highlighting my league’s last place team, (not to mock/make fun of), let’s go over this team’s goaltending points earned so far this season, this manager collected 37 wins (4 points per), 4 shutouts (3 points per), 13 OT/SO losses (1 point per), and 1,683 saves (.02 point per) which garnishes this team 206.66 positive points earned thus far, now the negative points, 190 goals against (-2 points per) which cost this team 380 points, now minus the lower number from the higher number and you get a negative 173.34 points which were taken away from their overall point total.

Now for the team in first place, this manager collected 29 wins, 5 shutouts, 11 OT/SO losses, and 1,506 saves earning a positive 172.12 points, and on the other side of the ledger, 161 goals against for a negative 322 points, again we subtract the lower from the higher number and we get, a negative 149.88 points, which can be taken away during the weekly matchup and overall points in the standings.

Nothing is 100%, not even in fantasy hockey, so your goaltender can earn you monster points one day during the week and help you win the weekly matchup, but then if your goaltender has one bad game during the week it will interfere greatly with your ability to win the weekly matchup, costing you valuable points that could have been utilized to strengthen your bid for a playoff seeding.

Finally, if you are going to draft and keep goaltenders on your roster, try not to select more than one or two, these players take up valuable roster spots, remember that even the best NHL goalies do not play every scheduled game, but your defensemen, centers, and wingers do.

In my experiences participating in ESPN FHL’s I have found that goaltenders are not worth the risk, and I present receipts to highlight just this, I put my ESPN FHL team out there for everyone to observe, statistics and standings to show other managers that I am a legitimate ESPN FHL team manager and not some content creator advising you what to do without participating in ESPN’s FHL.