Post-Game Talk (GBU): Snatching victory from the jaws of defeat

[slip]

Haha true, which explains their record. Still, didn't realize they were scoring that much.

I didn't either till' your post inspired me to look it up.

As far as our defense goes, I'm reminded of a scene in Apocalypse Now where Martin Sheen, upon crossing into Cambodia, asks a soldier "who's in charge here?," and the soldiers shoots back "aren't you?" It's complete ****ing anarchy back there most nights.

 

[NotABadPeriod]

Good:
THIS TEAM SHOWING SOME ****IN' HEART!!!!!
Vanek
Ott
Ennis
Foligno
Ehrhoff
Myers (Good game kid, keep it up!)

Bad:
WTBH is up with Stafford??
Miller. Gotta stop Plekanec there, give us that pick-me-up.

Ugly:
Lindy's line management. Why was McCormick on the ice w/ a minute left??

Hoping to Vanek that Vanek's groin is alright, RJ and Rayzor were talking about how it seemed like he might have tweaked it on that onside play. Hopefully all is on the up and up.

Also, fans: Let's 86 the pessimism and this socially constructed expectation for this team to fail. I'm gonna enjoy this win like any other and cheer em on that much harder come Saturday on the Island. If they disappoint, that's fine, but if they're going down, I'm going down w/ em, devoted and screaming at my choppy GameCenter feed. We won. Screw confidence, let's show a little bit of swagger, because no one's gonna humble us any more than we already have been. Go Sabs

Duff asked Vanek in the postgame interview about "the play at the blue line"...Vanek at first had no idea what he was referring to, and then when they mentioned him trying to stay onside, Vanek said it was basically nothing. Doesn't look like anything to worry about there.

 

[Royisgone]

I didn't either till' your post inspired me to look it up.

As far as our defense goes, I'm reminded of a scene in Apocalypse Now where Martin Sheen, upon crossing into Cambodia, asks a soldier "who's in charge here?," and the soldiers shoots back "aren't you?" It's complete ****ing anarchy back there most nights.

And what's worse, we don't have The Roach.

1:07

 

[Man of Principles]

I agree with jfb -- terrible play effort most of the night against a team coming off a hard game last night. There isn't much spark with this team. If not for some superior efforts from very few individuals tonight, they go down to another loss.

Great -

- Vanek. He's in the zone, even after Prust rocked him he just kept going. I personally thought his best play up until the goals was the hard backcheck late in the second that broke up an odd man rush.

Good -
- Ennis went from nothing to four goals in a hurry. Nice hit on Gorges too.
- Brennan didn't totally suck tonight. He may be catching up to the speed at this level, at least enough to not be a void out there.
- Miller dialing it in for the shootout.
- Pominville with his patented wrister glove-side for the GWG.
- Foligno bulling to the net more, keeping pucks alive around the cage and a good tone setting hit on Markov. Best game of the season for him.

Bad -

- Hey Hecht, that limp shoot in to get your line change and then the limp hook you took right after it? Yeah, that **** isn't a vet play. That's candy ass. Go back to the DEL.
- Handgrenades abound from most of them in the d-zone.
- Miller was shaky most of the night.

Ugly -

- Scott nearly grabbing White from the bench during his tiff with Ott.
- Getting down 4-2 to a team coming off a game last night? The effort sucked.
- Static five-on-threes? Classic Sabre PP tactics and yet again easily defended.

Agreed, that could have gone badly. Who was it that grabbed him and held him back from making a dumb decision? Props to them. Probably wouldn't have gotten the 4 minute PP if Scott got involved.

Also, is Hecht ever going to score a goal again? That dude is just missing the net and taking weak shot after weak shot. He also isn't playing very well in the facets we would expect him to be strong. Can't blame it on being out of shape since he played overseas. Is his age catching up? Only thing I can really think of. He looks clueless.

 

[HockeyH3aven]

Has a player ever won the Art Ross & his team not made the playoffs?

 

[Old Navy Goat]

I'm trying to decide what's the worst 2 minutes in hockey; a Sabres' powerplay or the 2 minutes with Harry Neale.

 

[1TuchAnd1NoTuch]

Has a player ever won the Art Ross & his team not made the playoffs?

Probably, just look at how good stamkos was last year and tampa still missed

 

[sba]

Bad -

- Hey Hecht, that limp shoot in to get your line change and then the limp hook you took right after it? Yeah, that **** isn't a vet play. That's candy ass. Go back to the DEL.
.

The shift after this, he coasted on a backcheck and two Habs blew right past him. With like 3m left.

That will help the kids learn from a true professional.

 

[ryanbiggame*]

In Vanek We Trust

Back in summer '07 I was pissed they let go of Danny & Chris, and was really doubtful of Vanek. But looking back it was a great decision. Just wish they would of kept Danny, oh boy did he tear up the pens in the playoffs.

 

[Squantosawuss]

Back in summer '07 I was pissed they let go of Danny & Chris, and was really doubtful of Vanek. But looking back it was a great decision. Just wish they would of kept Danny, oh boy did he tear up the pens in the playoffs.

They almost lost Vanek to Edmonton---and I'm sure they would've let him go considering the price they had to pay to keep him, but they HAD to cough up the cash after the PR nightmare of letting Drury/Briere slip away.

As it turns out, however, Vanke has really come through for them in the end.

On a sidenote: I do like Paul Hamilton's cynical and sarcastic comments, especially when he criticizes the team after a loss, but after a win, he really does pour on the accolades. I admit I did laugh out loud when I heard him on the postgame show, say that if the Sabres can go on a streak now, they can basically restart their season.

Gee, I wonder if they thought of that?

 

[Wisent42]

G: Vanek! Winning faceoffs. Ennis' line looked pretty good. Thought the refs did pretty well too. And Vanek!

B: D-Zone. Power play.

U: Myers struggling. I feel really bad for the kid. It's like the more he tries, the worse it gets. I thought he was doing pretty good in the opening period but then he went and screwed up the last minute not being able to get the puck out of the zone. I still believe in him but man, it's ugly!

 

[Wisent42]

Another good thing btw: I love how Vanek responds after getting knocked down in front of the net, or getting bullied, tripped and pretty much roughed up. Sure, he talked to the ref, but instead of whining and hanging his head, he got angry and used it to work even harder.

From now on, I wish refs never call anything when Vanek gets taken down. As long as he channels his anger this way, he should be fair game. Plus our PP sucks anyways.

 

[revengeiseek]

Agreed, that could have gone badly. Who was it that grabbed him and held him back from making a dumb decision? Props to them. Probably wouldn't have gotten the 4 minute PP if Scott got involved.

It was Stafford.

 

[DixonWard15]

God-like:
Vanek, we are not worthy

Good:
Grigs forechecking led directly to a goal, nicely done
Ott goading us into a power play
Brennan's play, then again I am a Brennan fan boi

Bad:
See #8 and #55 on the ice late in the game

Ugly:
The negativity in this thread, btw we got 2 points. You don't get any more if you win by 10 goals.

 

[joshjull]

Back in summer '07 I was pissed they let go of Danny & Chris, and was really doubtful of Vanek. But looking back it was a great decision. Just wish they would of kept Danny, oh boy did he tear up the pens in the playoffs.

Looking back, Its till a series of horrible decisions that led to the co-captains leaving and us getting saddled with that offersheet. Vanek playing great hockey 5 1/2 years later does not change that. There was absolutely nothing great about what happened during the 2007 offseason.

 

[Jim Bob]

http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/nhl-puck-daddy/nhl-3-stars-rinne-shuts-door-j-t-044624353--nhl.html

The Buffalo Vaneks beat the Montreal Canadiens, 5-4. Thomas Vanek scored twice, as well as potting a shootout tally, because he is clearly better than everybody. Tyler Ennis had a 1 goal and 2 assists, which is great because he's on my fantasy team...

 

[OkimLom]

http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/nhl-puck-daddy/nhl-3-stars-rinne-shuts-door-j-t-044624353--nhl.html

Thats awesome but I usually flip flop from the Thomas Sabres or the Buffalo Vaneks...Either works for me.

Seriously, guy is on another level.

 

[Imagining Defeat]

I'm trying to decide what's the worst 2 minutes in hockey; a Sabres' powerplay or the 2 minutes with Harry Neale.

I actually flipped back to that from something else...I had NO idea what he was rambling on about...all I know it was akward so I turned the channel quickly...it was embarassing...I felt bad for Duff having to deal with that...

 

[DapperCam]

For all of the gloom and doomers:

Sabres 1 point back of 8th place Carolina (CAR has 2 games in hand).
Sabres 2 points back of 7th place Toronto (TOR has 0 games in hand).

 

[BuiltTagonTough]

http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/nhl-puck-daddy/nhl-3-stars-rinne-shuts-door-j-t-044624353--nhl.html

Well he's not wrong.

 

[Zip15]

For all of the gloom and doomers:

Sabres 1 point back of 8th place Carolina (CAR has 2 games in hand).
Sabres 2 points back of 7th place Toronto (TOR has 0 games in hand).

Everyone should be excited we're tied for 13th? Or have surrendered the most goals in the NHL? Or that only Dallas gives up more SOG than we do? Or have the third worst goal differential in the conference? This is not a good hockey club. They're capable of being mediocre if they correct somethings, but I find it difficult to be excited about that.

 

[HockeyH3aven]

They've really gotta get RJ a color man. Having Ray there just doesn't work. They pretty much never bring up any relative statistics, information, or offer anything interesting to say. For as much as the Sabres preach about being better at everything, they sure have skimped on the broadcast team.

There should be at least one person whose job it is to research interesting and relevant information and provide it to RJ/Ray. As of right now it appears to be just RJ up the and Ray talking about how "nice" everything is.

 

[BowieSabresFan]

Everyone should be excited we're tied for 13th? Or have surrendered the most goals in the NHL? Or that only Dallas gives up more SOG than we do? Or have the third worst goal differential in the conference? This is not a good hockey club. They're capable of being mediocre if they correct somethings, but I find it difficult to be excited about that.

I don't believe he was suggesting anyone be excited. It's one of those perspective things.

 

[flyingpig]

Good:

Vanek!!
Ennis for some of the game.
Foligno for some of the game, going hard to the net.
Clutch Miller in shootout.

Bad:

Ennis on the faceoff to start the third period. Not ready, didn't even bend down let alone get his stick set. Puck dropped, uncontested win by Habs and ennis stopod there and *****ed instead of getting in the play.

One shift int eh first where they must have touched the puck around fifteen times before they cleared their zoen. Folgino was a main culprit.

Stafford, who had been playing as thoughhe is interested, even if not productive scoring, looked disiniterested tonight.

Hecht with the sloppy play at the blueline and lazy hook.

Grigs needs to try to lean on someone. He plays a completely non-physical game. Good forecheck on Ott goal, but really a standard play, not a special one.

The lack of pressure on each penalty kill, allowing the Markov and Subban to set up and shoot without anyone being close.

UGLY:
Lines in the last two minutes.

I am happy for a win.

 

[MacOfNiagara]

Agreed, that could have gone badly. Who was it that grabbed him and held him back from making a dumb decision? Props to them. Probably wouldn't have gotten the 4 minute PP if Scott got involved.

Also, is Hecht ever going to score a goal again? That dude is just missing the net and taking weak shot after weak shot. He also isn't playing very well in the facets we would expect him to be strong. Can't blame it on being out of shape since he played overseas. Is his age catching up? Only thing I can really think of. He looks clueless.

Believe it was Stafford.