Category: Hockey History 1917-2023

Buffalo Bests Toronto

Sabres 5 – Maple Leafs 3 Buffalo is now in third place in their division after beating Toronto at home last night in a game where Sabres wore their brawny black & red sweaters for the first time this season and (D) Samuelsson scored twice, (RW) Tuch scored shorthanded, and (G) Lyon once again posted another solid .900% save percentage.

The only negative was Sabres (C) Kozak sustained an upper body injury after only three shifts and will not play this afternoon, it will be interesting to see who gets the call up from Rochester.

Game two of Buffalo’s home-and-home series with Toronto begins at 5 pm today to accommodate Toronto’s two major league teams, hockey and baseball, both playing in downtown Toronto today.

Two games remain for Buffalo in October after today’s contest, home versus the Bluejackets on the 28th then on the road on the 30th to visit division rival Bruins.

Buffalo netminder wins NHL debut

Sabres 4 – Red Wings 2 Buffalo set a quick pace and pressured Detroit all first period, at one point the Red Wings had twice as many icings (6-3) as they did shots on goal and did not register their first SOG until shortly after the midway point of the first period.

After completely outshooting the visitors in the first period, Buffalo continued to put pucks on the net and scored twice in the second period for the 2-1 lead but watched Detroit tie the game late in the period.

Buffalo took the 3-2 lead four minutes into the third period and four minutes after that scored again to double up on Detroit 4-2, for the game Buffalo killed off both Red Wings’ penalties, newcomer (G) Colton Ellis stopped two Detroit break aways cold, and (RW) Quinn scored on the power play.

Goaltending Bonanza

Goaltenders UPL (conditioning) and Levi (excluded) are in Rochester while Lyon and Ellis sit on the nest in Buffalo, which begs the question who will eventually be the Sabres starting and backup goaltenders?

Friday & Saturday time change

Here along the Lake The NHL has changed the start times of two Sabres games versus the Maple Leafs this coming Friday and Saturday to accommodate MLB and their Toronto franchise’s appearance in this year’s World Series.

I can understand the Saturday change from 7 pm to 5 pm to allow the Maple Leafs and Sabres game in Toronto to probably finish before the 8 pm start of the baseball game.

I am not sure why there is a Friday time change of only a half an hour to a game played in Buffalo, from 7:30 pm to 7 pm, (television/streaming conflict?) the first game of the home-and-home series between the Sabres and Maple Leafs.

First things first, the Sabres host the Red Wings tonight at 7:30 pm.

(C) Crosby writes letters

Here along the Lake Thank you paper2021 for the heads up on this commercial, I think it is outrageous that retired goaltenders could have received an apology letter from Sidney Crosby, absolutely brilliant.

Buffalo drops the first contest of the four-game season series with Montreal

Sabres 2 – Canadiens 4 (en) Buffalo (G) Lyon is consistently playing at a .900% save percentage, the Sabres prevented Montreal from scoring on the power play while taking over 30 shots on the Canadiens netminder, and Centers Kulich & Kozak scored for Buffalo.

Sabres newcomer (D) Metsa in his NHL debut was a +1 in the plus/minus column, played 12 shifts, earned one block and one penalty for roughing with Montreal standout (LW) Slafkovsky.

Buffalo comes home for two games, tomorrow versus Detroit at 7:30pm and then hosting Toronto Friday night which is the first game of a home-and-home series with the Maple Leafs.