Sabres/Capitals Preview

The Sabres play the second of back to back games tonight as they head back home to face the Capitals. If you were paying attention to Versus on Monday, you would have seen the romping that the Caps laid on the Bruins to the tune of 10-2. Ovechkin had a hat-trick in the first period. The key to the Sabres keeping on a roll is playing with the same intensity as they did last night. It looks as if Tallinder will be out after the hit he took last night. It isnt known how long he will be back. Also out will be Tim Connolly who normally does not play back to back games. In their places will be Kalinin and either Paille or MacArthur, my money going on the first one.

Here are the standings for Eastern Conference heading into tonight and their points remaining to the magic 92 point mark:

1. Pittsburgh (9)
2. Montreal (11)
3. Carolina (19)
4. New Jersey (10)
5. Ottawa (12)
6. Boston (15)
7. New York Rangers (15)
8. Philadelphia (18)
9. Buffalo (19)
10. New York Islanders (21)
11. Washington (22)

* All Washington needs to do is to beat Carolina and not necessarily finish in the 8th spot or better.

Sabres/Flyers Recap

A couple bullets on the game

• This Sabres team looked like they actually gave a damn. And its about time. The fire has officially been lit with 15 games left on the schedule. Being one point back can be overcome pretty easily. Let's actually see if the Sabres can start on a roll now. The rest of the games on the schedule look like this (number of games against in parenthesis): Toronto (3), Ottawa (2), Montreal (2), Boston (2), Carolina (2), Washington (1), Pittsburgh (1), Tampa Bay (1), NY Rangers (1). This looks like a scary lineup knowing that we look bad against teams like Montreal and Ottawa. Mirtle's site has a record for each team to reach 92 points which always seems like the magic number to make the playoffs. The Sabres record is 9-5-1 after this game. Can this team win 9 games against the teams above.
  
• The loss of Tallinder for any period of time is a bad thought for this team. The defense is already starting to show its inexperience and lack of drive, hence why Kalinin was benched today for Sekera. Tallinder is now the top defenseman on this team, he always was but people thought it really was Campbell. Hopefully he returns to the lineup quickly.
• Ryan Miller looked like his sold self again. Mentioned in the post last night, he hasnt looked all that good in the past ten games. But the defense looked solid and he looked just as well. The first goal wasn't his fault while the second I didnt catch.
  
• The Flyers are complaining that the Roy goal shouldnt have counted cause there were too many men on the ice. Honestly, it happens. Breaks come and go and thats what happens in the turns of a season. Deal with it.
  

Tonight's Top Performer: This has to go to Max even though I'm not thrilled with it. Pominville had two goals as well but his were him being at the right place at the right time. Max looked good in his third game back with two good shots on the net with the second one tucked under the post to finally chase Marty. Afinogenov finished the game with 2 goals and 1 assist.

Sabres/Flyers Preview

This is it. This is going to be the game that decides the season. The Sabres are three points behind the Flyers and five points behind the Rangers each with 16 games left. The Sabres win, while still in the 9th spot, would be one point out and a good run to make it in. The Sabres lose, they are five points out and have a lot of work to do. Hopefully, the fact that Briere screwed up the last game by finishing the shootout in Buffalo gives a lot of things for the Sabres to think about. They need to turn on the gas and get the burners going. They have looked like an awful team against the top teams in both conferences and need to find there stuff back. Miller has looked like an average goalie, the defense look like they have lost their main component and forgot how to play and the offense cant keep them in games. So, here's to finding a way tonight.

Some Thoughts about the past couple of Games

Yeesh. Thats about all that can be said from the last couple of games. Granted that the Sabres have played the top two teams in the Eastern and Western Conference. But they looked really bad. Really, really bad. If the Sabres are going to have any chance getting into the playoffs, they need to fix their game and fix it fast. They head to Philly on Tuesday and they are 3 points behind the Flyers with the Islanders and Capitals breathing down their necks.

This team needs a swift kick in the ass. Ryan Miller has been, well, crappy. Here are the amounts of goals he has in the last 10 games: 4, 6, 4, 4, 4, 1, 3, 4, 5, 0. That is an ugly line. It would be nice if we could rest Miller but we need to ride him for the rest of the season because Jocelyn Thibault is about as helpful as a bag of wet cement.

The defense looks lost since Campbell left. Its not necessarily true that Campbell was a key piece to the Sabres, but with him gone Nathan Paestch is filling in. He and Pratt look like two lost puppies on the blueline. They were exposed in the last two games and need to tighten up their game.

The offense does not look all that bad but really need the return of Jochen Hecht. Hecht is just the key piece that seems to bring everything together. Bernier has been a nice addition to the lineup bringing more grit that the team really does need. Afinogenov needs to be permanently be scratched because his schtick has just worn out. A few tweaks to the lineup could turn the team around and be able to make a run in these last 16 games.

A look around the rest of the NLL

Friday Night

Philadelphia wins 16-12 over New York. New York hung with the Wings all night but just couldn't handle the Wings who took control of the game heading into the 4th quarter. With a couple lead changes and back and forth action, the Wings took control of the game heading into the 4th quarter finishing off the Titans by outscoring them 6-4. The Titans were helped by their power play which went 3 for 8 on the night while holding the Wings to only 1 for 5 on the man advantage.

Top Performer: Easily this had to be Athan Iannucci who scored 6 goals and had a total of 8 points. Iannucci is on pace to break both Gary Gait's single season goal scoring record and John Tavares's single season point record. Heading into Saturday's game he had scored 31 goals in 6 games.

Saturday Night

Toronto beat Calgary 9-7 in a defensive battle that was suited for the Rock. With only 9 total players able to put in goals on both teams the spotlight went towards the two goaltenders. Neither team was all that impressive on the power play with Toronto going 1-5 and Calgary going 1-4.

Top Performer: Since this was a battle of the goaltenders, this has to go to Toronto's Bob Watson. Watson allowed 7 goals on 48 shots including stopping 22 of 25 in the second half. Watson kept his team in the game enough to lead them to victory.

Rochester handed the Shamrox their sixth loss of the season by defeating them 18-8. Nothing seemed to go right for the Shamrox between their lack of scoring, their bad penalty kill (Rochester went 3-6), and their inept man advantage (going 1-8). Rochester capitalized on that by outscoring the Shamrox 14-4 through the first three quarters.

Top Performer: This duel title goes to John Grant who netted 5 goals and had a total of 10 points and Shawn Evans who had 4 goals and a total of 11 points. These two have been consistent all season long with Grant being the leading scorer on the team with 53 points and Evans fourth on the team with 37 points.

Third time is the charm for the Rush who get their first win of the season against the Lumberjax 9-7. The Rush were helped in most part by their man advantage by going 3-5 on the night and holding the league's best powerplay to only 1 for 3. AJ Shannon led the Rush in scoring by netting a hat trick while the Lumberjax were led by Brodie Merrill and Matt Holman who netted two each.

Top Performer: This honor goes to Curtis Palidwor who was fairly impressive in net allowing 7 goals on 54 shots. Having a 12.14 goals against average, Palidwor has struggled all season but tonight looked solid and was able to keep his team in the game to be able to hand them their first win.

Bandits Clip the Wings for the First Time

In a night where the small things didn't see all that right, someone forgot to turn out the lights during the opening, the opening just being a little off, the in game host being out, and on a personal note the mustard dispenser spraying all over the place instead of my hot dog. Normally when those things start to go wrong the whole game starts to go to hell. And in the first 7:25 it looked like it was going to be. Philly started the game on a 5-1 run, scoring 2 in the first :29 seconds. Then the skies started to part. The Bandits went on 12-3 run and never looked back. The Bandits ended up wiping the floor with a tired and undisciplined Philly Wings 21-12. The main scorers from the Bandits are Steenhuis and Smith, who is officially listed for 3 but really scored 4. What really killed the Wings were the undisciplined penalties that happened including 5 illegal substitutions, a bad slashing penalty from Blasdell. The Bandits capitalized on these by going 9 for 13 on the powerplay. The Wings did have league leading Iannucci score 4 including 2 in the first 2 minutes. But the defense really locked in on him and shut him down. When someone scores 30% of a teams goals, the rest really dont have the firepower.

The star of the game was Ken Montour though. He replaced started Mike Thompson who allowed four goals on eight shots. Montour then just stopped almost everything that was put in front of him, not showing any effects of the concussion he suffered. Montour allowed 8 goals on 49 shots, stopping 26 of 29 in the second half. If he has not earned the starting spot after tonight's game, I'm not sure if he ever will have the starting spot.

The Bandits will face the Minnesota Swarm again at HSBC Arena next Saturday while the Wings face Toronto in the Wachovia Center.

Preview of Saturday's Week 10 Games

There are three other games on the docket tonight in the NLL besides the big matchup in Buffalo. Let's run through them real quick.

Calgary vs. Toronto

The Toronto Rock have not played all that much in the last couple of weeks, playing 3 games in 39 days. They should be rested and ready to go against a fairly competitive Calgary Roughnecks who are coming off a road win against the Colordao Mammoth. The Rock are among the bottom of the league in goals scored at 74. What makes them so competitive is their defense which gives up 10.71 goals per game. The Roughnecks have been struggling as of late winning only 2 of their last five. It doesn't help when your star goaltender Steve Dietrich has been out the last five games as well. I really think that Toronto is going to start getting on a streak and it helps more that they are playing at the ACC.

Rochester vs. Chicago

The defending champs have been struggling as of late. Sitting at 3-4 on the season, the Knighthawks have been inconsistent all season, putting up good efforts against teams like Calgary and Toronto, but then have just crapped the bed again last week against the Titans. They head to Chicago this week to face a Shamrox team that just does not seem to have all cylinders firing. The Shamrox just cannot seem to find the back of the net only scoring 65 goals and their defense gives up 14.17 goals per game. This should be a pretty easy game for the Knighthawks.

Edmonton vs. Portland

The Rush just cannot seem to catch a break this season. They fired their coach and general manager Paul Day and the rest of his coaching staff and replaced them with Bob Hamley. And the Rush still can't seem to get a win. They are heading to a difficult place in Portland where they face the always dangerous Lumberjax. Dan Dawson and Ryan Powell lead this team in scoring with 37 and 31 points respectively. They lead the league in powerplay percentage while the Rush are the league worst in penalty kill. I still cannot see the Rush getting a win out of this.