Category: Hockey History 1917-2023

Swiss cheese with your wings

Sabres 2 – Red Wings 5 There were three starters on the Sabres last night, and Buffalo scored both of their goals on the power play, but that does not cover the fact the Ruff’s goaltender Georgiev is not an NHL starter, if he was Colorado would have kept him.

I am literally at a loss for words why Ruff thinks this player has something to prove, because after eight years we know (G) Georgiev cannot keep his GAA below three and after playing for the Rangers, Avalanche, and one season with the Sharks, he has impressed no one, except Ruff.

(G) Devon Levi is the Sabres goaltender and if Coach Appert has any say in who is in net this upcoming regular season fine, but if left up to Ruff this is going to be a rocky beginning come October especially if Ruff insists that (G) Georgiev and career AHLer (D) Geertsen have to be in the lineup.

Fantasy hockey player to watch, Utah’s 6′ 4″ (D) “Smash” Simashev had three blocks last night versus (RW) Marner and the Knights and could be a sleeper defenseman that can consistently block. Buffalo Winter will draft a team tonight and at the very least will have this defenseman on the watch list.

Sabres Wings Order is Ready

Here along the Lake Culturally, Buffalo fans enjoy putting away an order of wings on game night, tonight beginning at 7pm EST we can eat and beat wings at the same time.

Historically Buffalo has earned nearly a 60% winning percentage at home versus Detroit, which means…the Sabres only win approximately 40% of the time in the Motor City. But with no Gordie Howe playing for Detroit tonight Buffalo has more than a 40% chance of winning tonight’s contest.

In the above photo you can see that not one fan is wearing their favorite team’s sweater, grown men are not wearing baseball caps backwards, even the few boys in attendance sport no paraphernalia, how times have changed in over 100 seasons of hockey.

Another entertaining preseason contest

Sabres 2 – Bluejackets 1 The Sabres had another good game versus the Bluejackets downtown last night, (g) Levi played another perfect period of shutout hockey to close out the game on a positive note, and (c) Norris won most of his faceoffs with a 79%-win percentage as he took 11 out of 14 faceoffs.

It was nice to see (c) Thompson and (d) Dahlin on the ice as well, special teams were not up to par with (g) Lyon playing, he let in the only Columbus SOG taken in the second period during a Bluejackets power play, although Columbus was credited with one more SOG with 8 seconds remaining in the period.

The Sabres are headed to the Motor City to play the Red Wings tomorrow night at 7pm EST then back home to replay Detroit Saturday afternoon at 3pm EST.

Defense and goaltending win the day

Sabres 4 – Bluejackets 0 Just another preseason game with players you will not see once the NHL regular season begins, but oh what fun they can be.

Defensemen Byram, Power, and Wahlberg provided timely checks and offense and goaltenders Georgiev and Levi combined for the shutout.

Of course there had to be a fight, Ruff even has one of his goons on the bench, a 30-year-old defenseman who has spent his entire career in the minors except for 25 games playing for New Jersey under Ruff, in those 25 NHL games he earned 77 PIMs and a -6 plus/minus, let us hope Ruff is not so enamored that (d) Geertsen will be on the Sabres roster.

The Stars of the Game as selected by Buffalo Winter: 1st (d) Byram, 2nd (d) Power, and 3rd (g) Levi.

The 2025/26 NHL Season for Buffalo Begins!

Sabres vs Blue Jackets Columbus, Ohio, Nationwide Arena will host the Buffalo Sabres tonight at 7pm EST.

Although it is just a preseason game it still gets the blood pumping, but with tempered enthusiasm I am looking forward to getting the season started, last night the back-to-back defending Stanley Cup champions were shut out 5-0, and so it goes with games that do not count in the regular season standings.

To all ESPN FHL team managers, we have approximately two weeks to build our player lists, edit & select the best we want to acquire, and go to the ESPN NHL FHL page to draft our team.

As always Buffalo Winter will draft only one public team and good or bad I will play my team until the final week of play, if I do not earn a playoff seeding, I will still manage my team as solidly as I can, because it will still be valuable for me to learn and earn experience for next year.