Pominville Puts Sabres on the Verge

For the most part, the Buffalo Sabres are in the best position of any of the seven teams outside of the top 8 in the Eastern Conference.

Literally, they’re sitting in 9th place, a mere 1 point behind the Carolina Hurricanes for 8th and 2 points back of the New York Rangers for 7th.

What is more impressive is the fact that the Sabres are tied for the fewest games played in the East. They control their own destiny with two big games in hand on Carolina and three on the struggling Rangers.

Today, the Sabres rallied from being two goals down at the end of the first period to escape Philadelphia with a 5-3 victory over the top seeded Flyers.

First period goals from Kris Versteeg, who has benefited immensely thanks to a change of scenery after being acquired from Toronto, and James van Riemsdyk, the Flyers looked poised to cruise to the 2 points which would give them a 5 point cushion on the Boston Bruins for the top spot in the East.

But the Sabres would not leave the City of Brotherly Love without putting up a fight.

Thomas Vanek moved deep into the Flyers zone and fed Drew Stafford in front of the Philadelphia net. Stafford had snuck behind the defenders, took the pass on his forehand and lifted a shot above Sergei Bobrovsky’s left pad to cut the deficit in half.

Buffalo would strike again under two minutes later on one of the strangest looking goals of the season.

Tyler Ennis carried the puck to the blue line, looking as if he would fire a shot on goal and force a whistle. Instead, he lifted the puck and sent it into the corner where he would chase it down. He carried the puck towards the back of the net and then centered a pass looking for Patrick Kaleta who was battling Sean O’Donnell for positioning. O’Donnell pushed Kaleta into Bobrovsky and the Flyers goal as the pass then deflected off of O’Donnell and into the goal, right behind Kaleta. Ennis would get credit for his 8th of the year as the Sabres pulled even.

Andrej Sekera would add a rare goal to give Buffalo their first lead of the game just past the midway point of the 2nd period. Although a Thomas Vanek turnover lead to a shorthanded goal by Kimmo Timonen, the Sabres still maintained the momentum exiting the 2nd.

6 minutes into the 3rd period, Jason Pominville broke between the Flyers back check as Thomas Vanek fed him a pass from the left wing boards, which Pominville tipped into the back of the net for the 2nd Buffalo lead of the game.

Nathan Gerbe would add an empty net goal to seal the victory with just over a minute to go in regulation.

Buffalo has a quick turnaround as they head to Minnesota for a Sunday match up against the Wild.

Game 7: Chasing the Keepers

Earlier tonight, I posted that the Sabres would be in store for a challenge if the Panthers started Scott Clemmensen. Well, I was half right, as the Panthers started Clemmer, but I was way off with his performance and the problems facing the Sabres.

A mere 1 minute and 56 seconds into the game, the Sabres had a 2-0 lead and Clemmensen had himself an early exit.

Mike Grier got things started as he broke in on an odd-man rush and beat Clemmensen 5 hole for his 2nd of the season, just 1 minute 11 seconds into the game.

Jason Pominville sealed Clemmer's fate with a powerplay goal a mere 45 seconds later.

Clemmensen's line: 3 shots faced, 1 save, .333 save percentage.

Enter Tomas Vokoun who started off just as shaky as Clemmensen, surrendering a goal to Matt Ellis for his first, the team's 3rd, and the game wasn't even 5 minutes old at this point.

Buffalo would add another from Tyler Myers, his second, before Florida would respond with their first.

Steve Reinprecht would get Florida's only first period marker, but just over 2 minutes later, on a great never-give-up type of play, Thomas Vanek crashed the net hard while the puck was still loose and registered his 4th.

Buffalo held a 5-1 edge at the end of the first period, and they never looked back.

Stealing a line from the on-line soccer game hattrick.org, "at this point with a safe lead, the Sabres decided to focus on their defensive aspects of the game."

While the Panthers held a decisive edge in the shots on goal department, the Sabres' lead never looked in doubt.

Going back to Myers really quick, he looked quite impressive, including his shot from the point which narrowly missed Derek Roy's stick and deflected off of Vokoun's catching glove and into the net. He certainly rebounded from a shaky performance against the Thrashers on Saturday night.


Sabres 5 - Panthers 2

Running Tally of Sabres Chasers

1.) Chris Osgood - 10/13

2.) Dwayne Roloson - 10/16

3.) Scott Clemmensen - 10/21

5-1-1, 11 points

Next up: Saturday night @ Tampa Bay, 730.

Sometimes as a Hockey Fan, I Despise ESPN

Nights like Wednesday night make it really easy for hockey fans nation wide to hate the Entertainment and Sports Programming Network, and more specifically, Sportscenter. Better yet, make it this entire week. We’ll stat with Wednesday night.

On a night where LeBron James registered a triple double against the Knicks at Madison Square Garden, and three nights after Kobe Bryant dropped 61 on those same Knicks at the same place, Sportscenter dedicated the lead story to both men, then showed game clips, then interviews, then had in “experts” to discuss the feat. First off, it’s the Knicks. I bet the University at Buffalo men’s basketball team could beat them at the Garden. Regardless of what Mike D’Antoni has done for the franchise, its still a laughing stock. Yes, the Cavs avoided allowing the Knicks to spoil the night, but was it really worthy of being #1 in the top 10?

LeBron’s feat was no question better than Kobe’s 61 on Monday. James’ effort helped push Cleveland over a very close game against the Knicks. Kobe’s was just enjoyment for the fans as their team fell by 9, but the game was never really in question. LeBron is a special kid, and yes, sometimes I’ll even say wow watching his highlights, but there is just so many times you can see a guy drive uncontested to the net, do some showboating slam dunk and for some reason get nominated for a top play.

Dunks are awesome, you say? Go ask University at Buffalo guard Andy Robinson how awesome his dunk against Central Michigan was in the closing seconds of their contest Tuesday night. It was so awesome that the ball rattled around the rim and came out, allowing the Chippewas a chance to not only tie the 1 point lead the Bulls had, but embarrass them in their own Arena. While the comeback for the Chipps failed, and A-Rob had no explaination after the game other than "I went up and it was here, the it wasn't," it nearly cost the Bulls a valuable Mid-American Conference game.

On LeBron’s “magical” night (heck, the way Sportscenter was covering it, you’d think it was Access Hollywood getting their hands on scenes from the next Harry Potter movie, or the paparazzi getting once in a lifetime shots of some celebrity), ESPN neglected to even MENTION Thomas Vanek’s even more rare feat prior to the Top Ten plays segment.

Vanek netted a natural hat trick, the first of his career but 5th hat trick overall for him. While the 3rd goal was a simple tip in, the first two were truly amazing. The first was a battling effort in front of the net on the power play, the 2nd was an absolute laser of a slap shot. Even before Vanek got his first goal, Drew Stafford made one of the best plays in hockey I have seen this season. Taking the puck from his back hand behind him, through the legs, around a defender and then going top shelf, glove side behind the Leafs keeper.

There was no reason that that play couldn’t have its own spot in the Top Ten, but since ESPN doesn’t have any rights to the NHL, why bother covering it, right? Nope, let’s blow the Michael Phelps bong hit out of proportion or send Pedro Gomez to the place he knows best, covering Barry Bonds and giving us nothing that we haven’t suspected. We get it, he did steroids, we know, it is not that difficult to see nor figure out. It didn’t take a court order to tell us “the steroid syringes contain Barry’s blood” or “his urine tested positive for steroids. But did we mention some samples were from 2000?” Like the MLB didn’t know? Please, they kept it hush hush because interest in the sport was coming back thanks to the home run hitters like Bonds or McGwire putting baseballs 500 feet out of the park. But that’s a rant for a whole another post.

But thank you, ESPN, for proving to the world you care so very little about hockey, and continue to feed that bias. I would rather sit and watch an entire game of Mites on Ice than one NBA game for the simple fact that at least the little kids try and play for the love of the sport. Not for $25 million a season to play half assed, or be a ball hog, or dunk over a guy 18 inches shorter than him. Give me hockey, where even the smallest guy will stand up to the biggest, regardless of how bad it will make him look later on that night.

So props to you Thomas Vanek and Drew Stafford, and heck even you Gionta for standing up to Chara, and Chara for not stepping on nor killing Gionta, these clips are for you:

Vanek's Trick & Stafford's Goal:



Mis-match: Gionta vs. Chara