Sabres 3 – Lightning 4 (OT) Buffalo outshot Tampa Bay 5 to 1 in overtime, unfortunately the Lightning’s only SOG, a breakaway in the waning seconds of overtime removed the probability of Tampa Bay losing to the Sabres in a shootout, where Buffalo is undefeated this season.
Sabres (D) Samuelsson scores from a tight angle
Sabres (D) Samuelsson continues to be an offensive threat again scoring two goals in a game this season as he notched his 10th and 11th, considering he had scored seven career goals during his last three seasons, this is impressive.
The boys are happy for their defenseman
Buffalo secured three out of four points during this recent road trip to the Sunshine State, earning a point from the Eastern Conference leader in their barn is a good way to begin this year’s four-game regular season series between the Buffalo Sabres and Tampa Bay Lightning.
The boy’s moms were there to cheer them on
The Buffalo Sabres play one more game at home versus the Pittsburgh Penguins tomorrow night at 7 pm EST before the NHL takes a leave of absence this February for nearly three weeks for international competition.
Sabres 5 – Panthers 3 Buffalo (G) Lyon who recently set a franchise consecutive win streak by a Sabres goaltender has now raised the franchise’s overall goaltending record by winning his eighth consecutive road game by stopping 38 out of Florida’s 41 SOG earning a .927% save percentage in the win last night.
Sabres (G) Lyon robbed Florida shooters all game
Before either team worked up a sweat, Florida scored 37 seconds into the first period with a nice snapper that deflected off of Sabres (G) Lyon into the net, and to make matters worse, the Panthers scored again five and a half minutes later for the 2-0 score just six minutes into the game.
Sabres (C) Thompson scores (29th) Buffalo’s first goal
Fortunately, Sabres (C) Thompson, (C) Krebs, and (D) Dahlin combined for two goals to tie the game 2-2 before the first period ended, and then in the second period Florida outshot Buffalo 19 to 6, but Sabres (G) Lyon stood tall as each team scored once and the second period ended tied three apiece.
Sabres (C) Krebs 1 G, 2 A, while dispensing 7 hits
In the third period Florida again outshot Buffalo by a wide margin, 14 to 6, but it was the Sabres who scored on the power play five and a half minutes into the third period for the 4-3 lead in what can only be explained as Florida (G) Bobrovsky losing his mind as the Panthers netminder skated into to the faceoff circle to his left to (unsuccessfully) prevent Sabres (C) McLeod from getting the puck, which was awesome for Buffalo resulting in Sabres (LW) Benson receiving a pass and scoring.
(G) Madman in the faceoff circle
With seven minutes remaining in the game and the Sabres halfway through killing off a penalty, incredibly Buffalo gets whistled again for another infraction giving the Panthers the 5 on 3 advantage for 67 seconds, which the Sabres not only successfully squashed but added another tally four minutes after that PK to take the 5-3 lead and the road victory.
This same Florida goaltender during a previous game skated 200 ft to initiate a fight
The Buffalo Sabres remain in Florida to take on the Tampa Bay Lightning tonight 7:30 pm EST in the second game of their back-to-back road games within the Sunshine State.
Here along the Lake The West Division has the top three teams, and the East Division has an ongoing battle for first place and the division’s only playoff seeding, currently Buffalo Winter has the East Division leader Slapshot for this week’s matchup.
At this point in the season, you can observe the “experts” from the NHL, ESPN, and other major media outlets and their compilations of players they rank by what they have accomplished and what they might produce for the rest of the FHL season, these pundits do not highlight their own FHL team/teams, if they participate at all.
For example, the above three writers are NHL contributors and have ranked Knights (RW) Stone 20th overall in point production for what he has already produced and what they think he will contribute over the remainder of the fantasy season, which is insane, I have (RW) Stone on my roster, and he is a beast who is a consistent point producer, not to mention he has IRL earned 55 points in 39 NHL games this year.
Another head scratcher is how they could possibly rank young Blackhawks (C) Bedard at 34th, can you believe it, there are at least 22 players on this list that should not be ranked ahead of Chicago’s young star, in fact (C) Bedard should be on every team manager’s top five list for next season’s draft.
Of course, this is just my opinion and perspective, I have won a couple of ESPN FHL championships but by no means am I an expert, just experienced, and I enjoy participating as a team manager in fantasy hockey which also enhances my interest and appreciation of the NHL overall and not just my city’s team that I cheer for here along the Lake.
No matter the final score, (C) Ostlund’s mom and the other ladies had a great time.
Sabres 2 – Canadiens 4 (en) Buffalo (G) Lyon posted a .900% save percentage while the Sabres launched 38 SOG and scored on the power play, but Montreal’s goaltender had himself a game enabling his team to even up the season series at two apiece.
Sabres (C) Ostlund scores on the power play
Visually the home crowd appeared overly attired in Montreal sweaters, there literally were massive sections all throughout our arena in “Le Bleu-Blanc-Rouge”, which will have to be countered with blanketing our home with Blue & Gold sweaters during our long-awaited playoff invitation and participation.
Sabres (D) Power on a delayed penalty scores Buffalo’s first goal
Buffalo travels to the Sunshine State for back-to-back road battles with the Florida Panthers Monday night at 7pm EST then the Tampa Bay Lightning Tuesday night at 7:30pm EST.
Sabres 4 – Kings 1 (en) It has been too long since any fan or Buffalo player has mentioned the Sabres and the Stanley Cup in the same sentence, here is a quote from (RW) Tuch who earned a hat trick last night, “We’re coming in with a lot of confidence,” (RW) Tuch said. “Everybody’s coming in trying to prove themselves, and we’re trying to prove as a team that we’re legit. We’re not just going to go for the playoffs, we’re going to go for the Cup, and that’s our goal: get better each and every day.”
(RW) Tuch 3G, (RW) Quinn 3A, (C) McLeod 2A
Sabres humble (G) Lyon has won his 10th consecutive game passing Buffalo veteran goaltender Gerry Desjardins’ 9-game win streak that was earned during Christmas time in 1976, and had this to say about the record, “It’s great,” (G) Lyon said. “It’s awesome to be a part of the history, but when you’re stacked up against guys like Ryan Miller and, obviously, Dominik Hasek, those were the guys that I idolized growing up. So, I’m certainly not going to put myself anywhere near the conversation with those guys.
Goaltender Interference
There has been concern about Buffalo’s success in faceoffs and the number of shots on goal, but last night the Sabres were clicking at a 79% winning percentage in faceoffs during the first period and finished the game with a 62.5% winning percentage overall.
Three players and one pylon could not prevent (RW) Tuch from scoring the empty net goal
During the second period alone, both teams combined for 33 SOG and the Kings had taken 31 SOG over the first two periods, but when Buffalo was up 3-1 the Sabres held the Kings to just 7 SOG during the third period, squashing any Los Angeles hope of a comeback.
Fans of all ages
The Buffalo Sabres are a wagon and are rolling towards the playoffs, they have now won 20 out of their last 24 games making the Sabres the hottest team currently in the NHL, and they look to continue this torrid pace at home during Hockey Night in Canada this Saturday 7pm EST as Buffalo plays Montreal for the third time in 15 days.
Buffalo Winter 