Category: Hockey History 1917-2023

Last night’s noteworthy highlights

The Columbus Blue Jackets mathematically eliminated the San Jose Sharks playoff hopes last night in overtime 6-5 as Mr. Gaudreau earned five points which has not happened for Columbus since the Bread Man scored five points six seasons ago.

Goliath went to Chicago and was dropped like a bad habit 6-3 as the Blackhawks tag Mr. Ullmark with five goals, get an empty netter, and a Blackhawks player scores his first hat trick while Pasta whiffs on a penalty shot giving Boston their second consecutive loss.

Montreal marches into Pittsburgh and makes Swiss cheese out of Mr. Jarry by scoring four times on six shots with the last dagger being driven in with only 11 seconds remaining in the first period along with an empty net to seal the 6-4 victory.

The Devils lost to the Lightning 4-1 in a game where New Jersey won 60% of the faceoffs and scored the first goal of the game but only took seven shots in the second period and even fewer with six shots in the third period. 

The Kings put New York in checkmate 5-2 for their 21^st home victory and holding down the Islanders in the standings and bringing them even closer to losing their wild card seeding to Buffalo.

Rest of the Winners

Vancouver wins their fifth game in a row 5-2 as they hand Dallas their ninth road loss.

Arizona douses the Flames in overtime 4-3.

Edmonton doubles up on Ottawa 6-3.

Nashville wins with 16 SOG for the entire game including overtime by 2-1 over Detroit.

Jets are blown off course by the Hurricanes in a 5-3 loss.

The Rangers and Mr. Kane solidified their playoff seeding by beating the Capitals 5-3.

Philadelphia rolled the dice at home versus sin city and lost 5-3 as Mr. Quick continues to play impressively with his new team.

After being outshot by a four-to-one margin and taking the game’s first penalty in the first period Buffalo survived the period but things turned bleak quickly as Toronto scored twice in three minutes early in the second period to take a 2-0 lead.

Buffalo battled back relentlessly as Mr. Quinn scores with five minutes left in the second period and the Sabres outshot the Leafs by a five-to-one margin and were awarded two power plays alas the game remained 1-2 heading into the third period.

Less than four minutes into the third period Mr. Tuch in his first game back from a lower-body injury ties the game at two with his 29th of the season, six minutes later Mr. Cozens bats in his own rebound and Buffalo takes the 3-2 lead.

Approximately 30 seconds later Toronto is whistled for their third penalty and Mr. Tuch scores his 30th of the season building the game’s 4-2 lead with less than nine minutes remaining in the contest but the Leafs make it close as they score with 62 seconds remaining.

Buffalo repels the Buds in the final minute for an important road victory as the Sabres seek to secure a wild card seeding by continuing to win the two holiday road games this week in Washington and Philadelphia.

In the closest FHL regular season that Buffalo Winter has participated in, five teams competed for four playoff seedings up until the last day of the last weekly matchup that came down to .3 of a point that prevented the West Division’s second-place team from entering the playoffs.

The ESPN FHL 2023 Semi-Finals begin tonight March 13th through March 26th matching the League Champion team Downton Flyers (18-3) against surprise combatant and division rival that scored the most points in the final weekly matchup, Team Beaulieu (12-9) whose high score earned them the fourth playoff seed.

A classic battle is brewing between teams West Division Champion Buffalo Winter leading every team in (G) goals and (A) assists, and (SOG) shots on goal versus the second place team from the East Division Team Alex who has had the least amount of (PA) points scored against this season.

The NHL has three games scheduled tonight with Buffalo skating into Toronto seeking additional points toward the Sabres’ wild card aspirations.

This game was a great effort and gut check from the entire Sabres team and Buffalo takes the one point moving forward to the wild card possibility.

Mr. Luukkonen had his shutout bid performance marred by a pass from Mr. Kane to the front of the net that deflected off of Mr. Power’s skate past UPL for the Rangers’ only regulation goal in the game during the second period.

Along with New York’s goaltender playing at .970 save percentage, the team at 61% faceoff win percentage, and out-blocking the Sabres was what allowed the Rangers to make it to overtime.

The Rangers do not score as often as Buffalo in the regular season but they are a solid playoff Cup contender and providing them with the man advantage by playing four on three in overtime gave them the opportunity for the win.

Mr. Skinner burns Mr. Shesterkin with a laser shot to reap his 29th of the season receiving a beautiful pass from Mr. Lyubushkin who collected a bounce pass off the dasherboards from Mr. Thompson for the 1-0 lead.

Buffalo has three road games, Monday in Toronto, during the Ides of March the Sabres travel to our Nation’s Capital then finish up the week in The City of Brotherly Love on St. Patrick’s Day Eve to positively improve on the Sabres’ outstanding 19-10-2 road record.

With this recent drubbing Buffalo infamously earned their fourth in 52 NHL Seasons with the last three games having an identical 4-10 score.

1970-11-07 The first double-digit loss was an eventual probability for a team playing in only its sixth week of regular NHL season play in the Forum versus the eventual Cup Champion.

The second loss was to a powerful Calgary team that tagged Mr. Barrasso for 7 goals where he was in net for Buffalo for only 10 games that season before he left for Pittsburgh and Mr. Cloutier in relief was even more terrible with a .625 save percentage.

1988-03-12, Lost 4-10 versus the Flames who won the Cup in their next season, the Sabres scored the game’s first four goals all in the first period, then Calgary scored 10 consecutive goals 5 each in the second and third periods.

2005-11-02, Lost 4-10 versus Ottawa this was an early season lesson that saw the Sabres in the second round of the playoffs dispatch the Senators in 5 games.

Playoffs matter

2023-03-09, Lost 4-10 versus Dallas it was 3-5 early in the third period when the Stars score 4 times in 3 minutes and 3 seconds for the 3-9 lead before notching the final tally.

Historically as fans, we can console ourselves that three out of the four losses were to eventual Cup Champions, with the third double-digit loss resulting in a powerful lesson that propelled us over our opponent in the playoffs.