To be fair, the Sabres defense was pretty awful last night.
Leopold, Mike Weber, Sekera, Regehr, Brennan and McNabb.
Pretty poor defensive play most of the game that Miller bailed them out on. The offense could not find the back of the net besides some random crazy scrum that Leino scored on.
The second goal against Buffalo was terrible defensive play from the entire team. Sekera pinches in, and no forward drops back far enough to cover for him. Read gets a puck chipped up in the air to him, and he completely burns Regehr along the boards to go in alone on Miller and score. Regehr tried to spin like an apache helicopter and do some poke check thing on Read, which did absolutely nothing but make him look like an idiot.
Orpik escapes suspension...again. I'm not sure how many times a player can "accidentally" hit another with a knee-on-knee hit before it becomes painfully obvious they're not accidents.
In this case I'd say that's far more management's fault then Miller's. He's looking like the new Curtis Joseph at this point, but a scrawny, whiny, media-hound with a crooked horse-face.
fixed
Management, Ruff, players....Whatever it takes for them to keep failing and deepening the depression up there, I'm good with.
A win tomorrow and Phoenix could win their division.
Who would have thought, at the beginning of this season, two teams with the goaltending tandems of Smith/LaBarbera and Theodore/Clemmenson would be division leaders? Over powerhouse teams like LA, San Jose, Washington and Tampa no less.
I hate to say it, but I wonder if the fact the Playoffs start in 4 days maybe had something to do with his not getting suspended.
Shanny: "Hi Pittsburgh, your best defenceman is now on the shelf for your first round series against a team that wants to curb stomp you American History X style. Have fun with that "
I love the fact that all teams are in action today. It seems like such an obvious idea now that it's being done that you question why it wasn't done in the past.
I remember last year (or maybe the year before) one of the teams had almost two weeks between games because they finished their season far earlier than their playoff opponent.
Sadly, the only reason I'll even be watching the Canes game is to see how Welsh does. Otherwise my attention is strictly on The Masters and the Frozen Four today. Full day of games on the last day of the year is a fantastic idea, and they should have done it sooner, but sadly it's also anticlimactic today since everything but the seeding has been decided.
This game has been insane. I have no idea how Franzen was able to snipe that goal past Crawford though, there was maybe 4 inches of space in which to shoot.
He was on my "I thought that guy fell off the face of the Earth" list. Last I heard he was playing in the ECHL... Now I guess he's playing for the Flames, and color me surprised even WITH all their injuries.
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