I had the privilege of attending my 3rd Sabres’ game this year tonight, and I cannot help but be impressed with the team they have put together on the ice this season. But more importantly, one player stuck out in my mind: 19 year-old Tyler Myers.
Having seats in the Red Wings shooting twice end gave me a chance to focus on Myers’ defensive abilities up close. At least 3 times during the first period, my friend and I turned to one another and commented about how unique of a rookie Myers is proving to be.
With the Wings pushing for the opening goal, Myers had a rebound bounce right on his stick, but rather than trying to dump the puck down the ice, or force a bad outlet pass, he chose to bank the puck off the closest boards where not only were there no Red Wings players, but close enough for a Sabres player get to it and start a breakout.
Moments later, Myers again took control of the puck in the defensive zone. This time, he again decided against forcing moving the puck and chose, instead, to corral the puck against Henrik Zetterberg. As Zetterberg went for the poke check, Myers pulled the puck in, backed up a little bit, then banked the puck off the boards to Paul Gaustad, who, again, led the breakout.
Later in the period, Myers helped set up the game’s first goal while on the power play. He took the faceoff feed from Drew Stafford, then moved the puck across the blueline to Jason Pominville. Pominville then fed Paul Gaustad who’s shot was kicked right to the stick of Stafford who beat Chris Osgood for the goal.
In the 2nd, Myers again showed his offensive abilities by going coast to coast on the Wings. The play began in his own zone where he gathered the puck, then with the help of a pick from Mark Ellis, broke into the neutral zone and made a nice move around the Wings’ forwards. He entered the attacking zone having only Jonathan Ericsson to beat before getting to Osgood. He used his size and reach to elude the defender, then got a decent shot off on the keeper. His rebound was kicked into the low slot, where Pat Kaleta buried it between Osgood’s outstretched leg and the near post, a space of about 6 inches, for the go-ahead goal.
There is almost no doubt in my mind that the Sabres have something very special in Myers. Now that isn’t to take anything away from the rest of the squad, especially Ryan Miller, but Myers is one of those young players who you know in the future, you need to keep an eye on.
Miller played a phenomenal game tonight and was two lucky Detroit bounces away from getting the shutout. He made some critical saves including stopping Valtteri Filppula’s penalty shot in the 2nd period, and a number of glove and kick saves in the 3rd to preserve the multi-goal lead.
Within the next 5 games, the Sabres need to make a critical decision which could not only affect the effectiveness of their blueliners, but also the career of Tyler Myers. If he plays 10 NHL regular season games, his money will count against the cap and will have a year counted towards his entry level contract. The Sabres can either keep him on the team and continue to grow while helping the Sabres continue on their much improved season, or they can return him to his junior squad.
Manager Darcy Regier stated within the past few days that Myers needs to prove he can be an every day player, because if he does not, then there is no point in having him stay and be scratched while he can go back to juniors and play every day.
But based upon the effort of tonight (on special teams and his awareness on both offensive and defensive sides of the puck), his performance against Phoenix (where he registered a power play assist and still played a solid game even after taking a cheap shot from Shane Doan), and in the Toronto preseason game (where he showed toughness by not backing down from Jason Blake’s challenge. Granted there was about a foot in height difference between the two), there will be little doubt that Myers will remain with the squad this season.
If he stays, and continues to perform at this level which he has displayed, he will give New York Islanders’ John Tavares a run for his money in pursuit of the Calder Trophy.
As for the game, the Sabres routed the Wings 6-2 fueled by a 4 goal effort in the 2nd period. Kaleta had his first career multi-point game, Thomas Vanek had a 2 goal night, and Derek Roy had 3 assists.
NOTES: The Sabres in the second period out scored the Buffalo Bills' past weekend point total of 3...Following the game, Sabres head coach Lindy Ruff stated that Thomas Vanek would miss "weeks" after sustaining an upper body injury while scoring his 2nd goal...Next up for the Sabres are Tavares' Islanders on Friday night. Could this be a good way to see who is the better rookie?
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