Buffalo Sabres

[Flyer Fan]

Ohhhhhh....I am soooooo hungover, but it's soooooooo very worth it!!! I found vid of Gerbe's 2nd goal of the game. Gates if you're reading this can you see if Dobber or Angus will put this in the ramblings? Pretty PUH-LEASE?!?

Watch this little freak o'nature break outta the zone, and do this all by himself. F-ing amazing....

http://sports.yahoo.com/nhl/blog/puc...urn=nhl-wp2115

I can't believe Gerbe got away with repeatedly head-butting the palm of Carcillo's hand on the shift before that, ...imho he should be suspended for at least 7 games.

And Miller too, ...yanno just to send a "message"

(It was probably the prettiest goal of the year though! I have a feeling that this playoff series is going to be Gerbe's coming out party, just like Giroux did in last seasons playoffs)

[Dutch]

well Bomm

I lost... very tight race, but my team just left me.. namelijk my goalies over the past 2 weeks!

Thanks for your Miller updates!

Good luck with Buffalo in the playoffs...

[Bomm Bastic]

Dutch, sorry about the loss, brother. I was really pulling for ya...seriously. We'll get 'em next year!!

Flyer Fan, hope you're right about Gerbe! Looks like it's me and you for a series, and I'm really looking forward to it. I enjoy your posts a lot so it should be a good go-around between us.

Good luck to you! When we playin?? Tue or Wed?

[Bomm Bastic]

Shout out to Vanek who, after posting back-to-back three point games, was named the NHL's first star of the week. I really am looking forward to watching him in the playoffs.

Of course, on all Sabres' fans minds is the disappearing act from Connolly, Stafford and Roy during last year's first round. Roy is out 'till at least the second round (assuming there is a second round for Buffalo).

That leaves Connolly and Roy. Regular season be damned if they don't submit an admirable performance. If that's not incentive enough, Stafford is playing for a new contract and Connolly is playing for his new team (whomever that might be).

Connolly did not practice today so he's off to a great start. Hecht and Grier are still out (which is fine, really), and Sekera should be back tomorrow when he will write on the team chalk board, 1,000 times "I will not cough up the puck under pressure...like a little girly man"

Priestess Ramboona assures me this nifty Pronger doll (complete w/ five "4 long needles) will be the hit of my pre-game parties.

Thursday can't get here fast enough.

[Flyer Fan]

Dutch, sorry about the loss, brother. I was really pulling for ya...seriously. We'll get 'em next year!!

Flyer Fan, hope you're right about Gerbe! Looks like it's me and you for a series, and I'm really looking forward to it. I enjoy your posts a lot so it should be a good go-around between us.

Good luck to you! When we playin?? Tue or Wed?

Thanks Bomm! We should be able to have some fun with this!
Game 1 is thursday night, ...lots of time for both teams to heal some dings, and for both coaches to gameplan. Should be a GREAT series!!

[Bomm Bastic]

If it's anything like when Ruff and Laviolette went off on each during the Sabres/Canes series it should be a blast for quote mining!!

[Bomm Bastic]

Ha! Let the jaw-jacking begin. An excerpt from a news article today...

"People are picking the Sabres? Who is?" said Philadelphia forward Claude Giroux, who paused after hearing the names of two sports channels. "I think it's important to focus on the right things. I don't think we control predictions and stuff. I guess we'll just have to see on the ice how things go."

Said Laviolette: "What'd we finish, third out of 30? That's not so bad."

[Bomm Bastic]

The kind folks at bodog.com have posted the odds for this year's Stanley Cup, and the various conference breakdowns. Odds of a Sabres v. Coyotes final? 225-to-1.

Bet now!!

• Gragnani practiced A LOT of power play today. Take that for what it's worth
• Connolly and Sekera were back at practice. We'll see how sore they feel tomorrow
• Vanek practiced fully. I expect this to be his "statement" series. Hope it works out that way for him. I've been a rather harsh critic over the past couple of years but he's won me back as a fan. As a fantasy GM I still see him as more of a 70-75 pointer than 80+
• If the Sabres commit the turnovers they're known to, the Flyers will eat them alive
• I own and will always own Giroux in a dynasty league, but my man-crush is on hold for the next seven games.
• Ruff is preparing for Pronger, despite Flyer Fan's double-agent subversive's (a/k/a Briere) comment earlier today. See previous post.

That's all for now....

[AtlantaSportsFan]

Boom, I'll be rooting for you guys here. I think you can definitely upset Philly. How did Buffalo match up agaisnt them in the regular season? Didn't they have a winning record?

[Bomm Bastic]

Boom, I'll be rooting for you guys here. I think you can definitely upset Philly. How did Buffalo match up agaisnt them in the regular season? Didn't they have a winning record?

Thanks, ASF, appreciate that. Yeah we're 2-2 vs Satan's Cerberus....err....the Flyers.

I can't stress this enough, Buffalo cannot give up the puck and consequential odd-man rushes. Philly will KILL them allllllllll day. And ya know Philly is going to come out like gang busters on the forecheck so Buffalo needs to recognize it and take advantage of pinching defense and score quick and often to calm Philly down some. If they can't, they'll be in for a long night.

Also, Buffalo needs to keep the play down low, behind the defense in Philly's zone. Create chaos immediately around and behind Bobber. Easier said than done, especially if Pronger is in the game.

We definitely have a chance, but it won't be easy by any means. Sabres I like, were I in a playoff pool:

Vanek, Gerbe, Gaustad, Myers, Sekera, Boyes, and Gragnani is a wildcard.

I think the Flyers can neutralize Stafford. And like Phil Kessel, if he's not scoring, he's not doin' much else.

Hope he proves me wrong....

[Bomm Bastic]

Bad news for the Buffalo Sabres. Recent photos have Chris Pronger attending a black tie affair after practice today. Apparently, w/out a noticeable limp, but stiff nonetheless.

EDIT: why doesn't the insert image url work? My joke is losing it's mojo!!

[Flyer Fan]

Bad news for the Buffalo Sabres. Recent photos have Chris Pronger attending a black tie affair after practice today. Apparently, w/out a noticeable limp, but stiff nonetheless.

EDIT: why doesn't the insert image url work? My joke is losing it's mojo!!

Haha! I couldn't get it to work either! But in desperation I tried "copy" and
"paste" ...somehow that worked!

[Bomm Bastic]

Not tooooo much to report so I'll keep it brief. Sekera practiced and was really optimistic at the conclusion. Does that mean he opens the series? Beats'a sh!t outta me.

Anywhooooo....Lines at practice looked as follows:

Vanek-Connolly-Pominville
Ennis-Boyes-Stafford
Gerbe-Gaustad-Kaleta/Mark Mancari
Niedermayer-Ellis-Grier/Cody McCormick

I prefer Mancari over Kaleta, and like a scorned lover am very leery about Connolly. Not that Connolly and I were ever...errr...you know what I mean [ahem...]

One power play unit consisted of Stafford-Vanek-Connolly, w/ Gragnani and Pommer on point. While another line consisted of Boyes-Goose-Ennis, w/Butler and Myers.

I am optimistic about Gragnani this series. I hope he plays, as I like his patience and passing. I think we're going to need a lot of that.

Until next time.

[Bomm Bastic]

Nothing like a cup of morning java on game day, and seeing this first thing in the news:

PHILADELPHIA -- WIP, the Flyers' flagship radio station, reported yesterday that Chris Pronger would not play tonight and, in fact, might need until Game Five to play in this series. The Philadelphia Daily News isn't going that far but the paper is also reporting this morning that Pronger is out tonight.
From the story: "Officially, Flyers general manager Paul Holmgren said Pronger would be a game-time decision tonight. Unfortunately for the Flyers, Pronger isn't going to go from no stickhandling and no shooting to ripping pucks from the point in the playoffs overnight."

The Flyers skate at 10:15. We'll see. Danny Syvret is expected to take Pronger's place on defense.

---Mike Harrington
(www.twitter.com/bnharrington)

[fantasyhockeygeek]

Since the allstar break, the Sabres have been the 3rd best team that made the playoffs in the NHL in terms of GF/GA ratio, which has one of the strongest correlations out there to success in the NHL (at least over the course of a season). I like them to beat the Flyers, who are limping hard.

GF/GA ratio since the allstar break:

West
VAN - 1.48
SJ - 1.49
CHI - 1.18
NSH - 1.16
ANA - 1.11
PHX - 1.01
LA - 0.99
DET - 0.97

East
BUF - 1.27
WSH - 1.23
NYR - 1.16
BOS - 1.13
TB - 1.12
MTL - 1.00
PHI - 0.93
PIT - 0.92

Add to that Philly's sputtering powerplay (14.4% vs BUF's 20.6%) and anemic penalty kill (81.8% vs BUF's 85.5%) and I think you've got the makings of a classic upset. So take heart Bomm... that's a pretty big difference.