Certainly looked like bad ice, but that affects both teams.
Certainly missed good scoring chances, but also didn't put enough pressure on Johnson for long stretches. Rotten shame to not pounce on a tired team with a shaky back-up. I could go on about that but...
What I don't get is that the refs call ticky-tac on Buffalo, home crowd gets surly, and usually you see a make-up call at some point. But no, the no-calls just kept coming to the point that (and this happens in enough non-Sabres games I watch) I have to wonder WTF is going on. No respect in your own building, and the only calls were an obvious boarding and a no-brainer puck-over-glass.
By no means do I ignore that Buffalo should've played better, but holy hell how do refs go through a game like that and not start to feel like they're screwing up and favoring one team? Some of that crap was blatently obvious and I HATE watching so many games (non-Sabres games too) over the course of a season that just aren't legit.
I don't see why people are complaining. A healthy pittsburgh team playing well is going to beat our team playing well in a 7 game series. Even with Johnson in net.
Pittsburgh played better. Period. Yeah, there was some ref related BS. Sweep the leafs and see where we stand. That's all we can do.
Team Wins: "PEGULA WAS RIGHT WE'RE WINNING THE CUP!"
Team Loses: "WE SUCK EVERYONE SUCKS FIRE AND WAIVE EVERYONE! That includes you Sabretooth..."
C'mon people if you had to look at the last 5 games and pick one we were going to probably lose it was going to be against a healthy Pittsburgh team fighting for 1st place in the East. Trade Miller and Fire Ruff once the leafs sweep us.
That being said, we couldn't BUY a Power Play last night. Probably because Lemieux bought them all. We certianly wouldn't have wanted him to take his pucks and go home.
They have Montreal and Tampa coming up next. And the Rangers on the last game of the season when they'll be resting all their guys.
Washington's toughest remaining match-up down the stretch was Boston on the road. And they won that one. I think that was a game we were all counting on the Caps to lose.
Say what you will about the Caps being mediocre, but aside from Tuesday night they've got points in 9 of their last 11 games.
And that differs from us playing Boston--a team likely with nothing to play for in Game 82--on the last day of the season how exactly?
Caps fans are complaining that we get the Leafs in our next two and a Boston team that isn't playing that well and will likely have the 2-seed wrapped going into the final game. Sabres fans are complaining that the Caps get Montreal and Tampa, as well as a Rangers team who should have clinched the 1-seed by then.
I didn't care for the amount of respect they gave the Pens. A team coming into their third game in four nights? Take the body, wear on them early and make them even more fatigued by the end of the game. But no... not from the Sabres. This is where they failed early IMO. That and not drugging Crosby's waterbottle.
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It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it. - Aristotle
I didn't care for the amount of respect they gave the Pens. A team coming into their third game in four nights? Take the body, wear on them early and make them even more fatigued by the end of the game. But no... not from the Sabres. This is where they failed early IMO. That and not drugging Crosby's waterbottle.
I thought they were defiant, it's just one game. Against a good team. But on a night when they got all the bounces their way, they could not put away a good team. They needed more sweat and they didn't have it.
C'mon people if you had to look at the last 5 games and pick one we were going to probably lose it was going to be against a healthy Pittsburgh team fighting for 1st place in the East.
And if you had to look at the Caps' last 5 games and pick one they were probably going to lose, it would have been Boston, in Boston, trying to clinch their division.
If the Caps are going to win their "tough" games, we have to too.
I didn't care for the amount of respect they gave the Pens. A team coming into their third game in four nights? Take the body, wear on them early and make them even more fatigued by the end of the game. But no... not from the Sabres. This is where they failed early IMO. That and not drugging Crosby's waterbottle.
Agreed,
They backed off the Pens way too much. You cannot let that type of skill have a lot of room on the ice and not expect to get burned.
The biggest frustration was Buffalo's in ability to get pucks to the net. There was way too much puck movement on the outside, no drive to the net, not enough shots with the goal of producing a rebound. The Pens played a great game defensively, but the Sabres made it easy for them.
In that third period I was beginning to say to myself...we still need to go out and land that top line monster center, someone who can bull his way into the opposing zone and create chances. We don't have the size to play a dump and chase game effectively...
G:
- Battled hard in the third
- There's still four games to get into eighth
B:
- No longer in control of our destiny and just four games to get ahead of Caps
- More knocks: Myers (puck to face), Weber (boarding injury), Roy (migraines)
- The home ice continues to be sub-par
U:
- Watching Orpik and Michalek take Stafford and Vanek out of the play in those last few seconds reminded me of how pissed I was that the Sabres blew a point to the Avs because they couldn't do just that
I didn't care for the amount of respect they gave the Pens. A team coming into their third game in four nights? Take the body, wear on them early and make them even more fatigued by the end of the game. But no... not from the Sabres. This is where they failed early IMO. That and not drugging Crosby's waterbottle.
They didn't do this as much in the first, as soon as Crosby scored, that's when it started.
Also, Bylsma didn't have last change and just totally owned Ruff on matchups. That was frustrating.
The 4th line was awful last night, should have dropped down to 3 lines.
I was at this game and it was definitely the most ridiculous officiated game I have seen in quite some time. I counted around 4-5 blatant penalties that were not called on Pittsburgh with 2-3 suspicious calls on us that went in Pitts favor. The NHL as pointed out makes more money when Crosby (Golden Boy) wins. We had 4-5 chances to score more goals that should of been put away on a trashy goaltender in Johnson, Miller let in one softy. Tonight is a must win game for sure.
favoritism? Trying to fix who gets in? Come on guys. That's embarrassing. What would refs gain in terms of fixing who gets in? Pitt is already in... Were all four zebras also employed by the US Government, residing in DC and bleeding Leonsis/Snyder? Also, you really can't expect a positive outcome in a high scoring game against an offense like the Penguins, the mirage that was last meeting not withstanding.
Foligno took a pretty embarrassing dive, tripped indeed or not tripped at all. Still tried to sell the **** out of it.
Refs get to keep their jobs and make a little extra if they do it right or maybe they are just betting on the game and hate the Sabres like everyone else seems to? IDK but neither do you if we're both gonna be honest.
Hello Ovechkin vs Crosby in the playoffs?? They already jammed the Winter Classic down our throat now they want it in the playoffs.
Tyler Ennis gets flat out tackled a week or two ago and then they laid on him, Drew Stafford has a breakaway and gets slashed down, Miller got ran last game by a Cap forget who...all no calls!
Not to mention all the grabbing and hooking they get away with. We all said it was playoff hockey early on, thats why the no calls...but then we have to kill off 2+ ticky tacky calls a game (usually calls when we are pressuring in the offensive zone)...I rest my case.
A friend of mine who's a Pens fan messaged me in the middle of the 3rd "The refs are really ****ing you over tonight, this has been a travesty of officiating"
G:
- Battled hard in the third
- There's still four games to get into eighth
B:
- No longer in control of our destiny and just four games to get ahead of Caps
- More knocks: Myers (puck to face), Weber (boarding injury), Roy (migraines)
- The home ice continues to be sub-par
U:
- Watching Orpik and Michalek take Stafford and Vanek out of the play in those last few seconds reminded me of how pissed I was that the Sabres blew a point to the Avs because they couldn't do just that
He was a beast out there. The thing about Oripik is that he's almost as good a skater as Sekera, but he's HUGE and very physical as well. One play in the second he pushed Roy away from the front of the net and kind of banged him into Leino. He had them both standing behind the net and he just kind of looked at them like, "Stay". I also couldn't help but notice that it was orpik bearing down on Leino when he fluffed another Grade A scoring chance. He is unspeakably frustrating to watch.
