I wrote up a nice review of the game last night, but a website crashed my browser 🙁 I was looking for a video of Ryan Miller’s big save on NBC.com and some video on their site made my browser shut down 🙁
So, no good review… just click the photo above to watch the save (I recorded it myself!) And, check out the article links below:
Newsvine || NHL.com || ESPN (includes video)
The Buffalo Sabres were the one team everyone figured was a lock to advance to the second round. The outcome of every other series going into round one of the Stanley Cup playoffs was at least a little bit in question. But almost everyone agreed that there was really no chance that the Islanders could actually upset the President Trophy winners.
So how is it that three teams have already advanced before the Sabres?
The Sabres have a chance to become the fourth team to advance to round two tonight as they host the Islanders in Game 5 at the HSBC Arena in Buffalo, leading the series 3-1. (Note: If the game goes into super overtime – maybe third or fourth OT? – then there is a chance that Buffalo would be the fifth team to advance, should the San Jose Sharks finish of the Predators in a game with a start time that is two hours later than the Sabres. But… that’s unlikely.) 🙂
The NY Rangers were the first, finishing off the higher-seeded Atlanta Thrashers in a sweep. (The only sweep in round one.) They are the likely opponent of the Sabres, if indeed the advance tonight, or any time in the next three possible games. Also moving on yesterday were the Ottawa Senators, making easy work of the Pittsburgh Penguins, and the Anaheim Mighty Ducks sent the Minnesota Wild home with a 4-1 win last night.
Just over a week into the playoffs and we’re getting ready for round two! It’s getting pretty exciting here! Let’s hope Buffalo can finish off the Islanders tonight and get a bit of a rest before suiting up to take on the Rangers, or perhaps the Tampa Bay Lightning? We shall see!
Chris Drury scored two more goals as the Sabres outplayed the scrappy Islanders, taking a 3-1 series lead with the win. The Sabres were the better team overall, but they never could put it away by scoring a few “buffer goals”. The lead was only one goal until Jason Pominville scored on an oustanding individual effort with 1:12 remaining.
There’s been a lot of whining by the Islanders, which I (as a Sabres’ fan) find interesting… from my perspective, many of the calls/breaks/whatever have gone their way as well. Problem is, they need them ALL to go their way in order for them to have a chance in the series. I like Ted Nolan, but I have not liked the way he has handled himself in the post-game press conferences so far. He definitely feels like his team is being treated unfairly, that’s pretty obvious.
But, no matter. His woes will soon be over as Buffalo should finish up the series at home Friday night. Game time is 7pm. With a win, the Sabres advance to round two, and most likely will take on another New York team, as the Rangers swept past the Thrashers with a win last night. If Tampa Bay can upset #2 seed New Jersey, then the Sabres would play them in round two… but that’s not that likely as NJ tied up their series last night with an overtime win.
I am of course getting ahead of myself. The Sabres still need to win one more game, but with three chances to do that… it’s pretty likely.
Go Sabres!
(read the game recap from nhl.com)
It wasn’t easy, but they did manage to pull out the win, never trailing in the game.
Quite different from game two, Buffalo scored the first (and second) goal of the game, and then added a 5-on-3 power play goal to make it 3-1, holding on for the 3-2 win.
All of the scoring was in the second period, with Ryan Smyth scoring at 19:22 of the 2nd to make it seem close. It was lazy play by the Sabres (as though the period was already over) and great play by the Islanders… but NY just never quite matched up tonight.
The game felt close, right down to the finish, but this was another game where the Sabres were just better. New York played a great game, but never really caught up.
If the Sabres can win on Wednesday night, it would be really, really difficult for the Islanders to even win another game – let alone compete to advance to round two. Game Four is definitely important to both teams.
Things are looking good for the Sabres again! They now lead the series 2-1. Go Sabres!!
(Other Eastern Conference action… The Devils (2) lost tonight and now trail Tampa Bay (7) 2-1 in that series…. New York Rangers (6) are leading their series 2-0 against Atlanta (3) … and Ottawa (4) leads Pittsburgh (5) in their series 2-1. If they advance, the Sabres will play the lowest seeded team to advance to the second round.)
One more hockey related item today…
We read this article yesterday about Sabres’ centerman Chris Drury. It was fantastic. Well-written, and just a great story. Makes us want to root for him even more (and hope the Sabres KEEP him, since he’s a free agent at the end of this year… and that’s sort of in question…)
A long article, but worth the read when you have time. I believe it’s in the latest SI magazine as well, if you get the paper version.
(PS… the photo is Kirsten standing next to a VERY large, lit up photo of Drury at HSBC Arena yesterday!)
I have been watching SO MUCH HOCKEY since last Wednesday when the playoffs got off to a GREAT start with a 4OT game out in Vancouver! (Unfortunately, the 4th OT was pre-empted for an infomercial… that was not good…) But it’s great! There are 3 or 4 hockey games per day!!! And it’s GREAT hockey. Everyone just plays much harder. Everyone. (Except the Sabres for that first 15 minutes on Saturday… but hopefully they learned their lesson!)
I’ve been watching the Vancouver series, another great game last night. The Canucks won in OT. The only two Canadian teams this year are Vancouver and Ottawa. As a Sabres fan, and not a fan of goon hockey, I can’t really root for Ottawa, but you have to root for at least ONE team from Canada to reach the second round!!
It will be interesting, if the Sabres advance past round one as they are expected to, the Rangers are also currently leading their series against Atlanta, so they might be the next opponent for the No. 1 seed Sabres. And, likely, the New Jersey Devils might be the other team to make the Eastern Conference Finals, so it’s plausible that the Sabres could play three opponents all from the same area to get to the Stanley Cup finals.
But, I’m getting ahead of myself. 🙂
Sabres play game three tonight, and then game two of the double-header on Versus is Nashville at San Jose!
The Sabres actually lost last night! The series is now tied at 1-1. They did not match the intensity of the Islanders for the first 15 minutes of the game, and so were down 2-0. They finally scored late in the first, and then the NYI goalie made some fantastic saves to keep the score 2-1 till mid-way through the 3rd period. A questionable call led to a NY power play (the only time they managed to get any scoring chances for the final two periods, for the most part) and they cashed in. They held on, Sabres lose the game.
So, perhaps this loss will remind them that they aren’t invincible, and we’ll win the rest of the games from here on out?
That’s what we’re hoping for!
Today is a bit of a fog. I know the Sabres won last night… that much I can remember. I also know that we will be getting a new window and a new front door (the outside one) installed relatively soon. It will look nice, but mainly it should save us some bucks in the winters. And the summers? I want to check into grants for EneryStar home improvements… that may be helpful.
But mostly, today is a fog. I have this nasty head thing that set in throughout the afternoon yesterday. Stuffy (and leaky) sinuses, a bad cough (when I cough) and just overall grogginess. Ugh. It’s not very fun.
I don’t know if any of this made sense, but…
Sabres are up 1-0 over the Islanders! (I do feel a sweep coming…)
This Thursday night the Sabres will be hosting the NY Islanders to start the NHL playoffs! We can’t wait!!! The regular season was sort of a formality for the Sabres. Their presence in the post season was pretty much a given. The best part this year is that all of the injured players have healed, and are back – apparently in great shape and ready to go!
You can’t predict a sweep, but, in this case we almost can. The Isles did beat Buffalo once this season in 4 tries. And it is the NHL playoffs…. anything can happen.
But not this time.
I think I will go out on the proverbial limb here and predict that Sabres advance to round two in just four games. The Islanders are coached by a former Sabres coach, who did not leave on the best terms. They also have our former star player, Miroslav Satan (pronounced “Shuh-tan”). But…
4-0.
We’ll see. I think the next round could be more interesting. We will most likely (barring big upsets) be playing either Ottawa or Pittsburgh. Both teams are significant steps up from the NYI and will definitely be more of a challenge.
This is our year for the Cup though. There may be some challenging games, or series, but I will be surprised if we’re not at least in the Finals as the Eastern Conference Champs.
And it all starts in two days!!!
With only two games remaining, the Sabres are tied for the top record in the NHL, and well in command for earning the President’s Trophy for the team that finishes the season at the top of the league. Detroit is the only team who can catch the Sabres, and they only have one game left. With a win, the Sabres can guarantee at least a tie in points with the Red Wings and a better W/L record with at least 53 wins. (Detroit can only get to 50 wins if they win their final game.)
Buffalo should have a good chance to do that in either or both games this weekend as they face the Washington Capitals and the Philadelphia Flyers. Both teams are currently out of the playoffs, and dwelling at or near the bottom of the league.
The Sabres have never won the President’s Trophy, so it would be an historic accomplishment, but they all say they are not focused on that. They do know that having home ice advantage throughout the playoffs is definitely a plus.
So look for the Sabes to finish the season with TWO more wins, winning the President’s Tropy, and top spot in the NHL in 2007, outright with 115 points, and a 54-21-7 record.
I think this really might be the year Buffalo FINALLY wins a Championship!!!
(I’m not counting the Bills AFL Championships, or the Bandits MILL Championships… I mean the Big Four major sports. So close in the Super Bowls… and yet… SO FAR.) 🙂
