GDT: 10.18.11 // Buffalo Sabres at Montreal Canadiens // 7:30PM EST [RDS, TSN]

[habsman56]

SABRES AT CANADIENS // 7:30 PM EST // RDS (HD), TSN, MSG-B





GAME PREVIEW

LINE-UPS Lars Eller - Tomas Plekanec - Erik Cole Travis Moen - Scott Gomez - Brian Gionta Max Pacioretty - David Desharnais - Andrei Kostitsyn Mathieu Darche - Andreas Engqvist - Aaron Palushaj Hal Gill - PK Subban Josh Gorges - Raphael Diaz Alexei Yemelin - Yannick Weber Carey Price Peter Budaj Lines:LINK [Unconfirmed] Thomas Vanek - Luke Adam - Jason Pominville Nathan Gerbe - Derek Roy - Drew Stafford Tyler Ennis - Ville Leino - Brad Boyes Cody McCormick - Paul Gaustad - Patrick Kaleta Robyn Regehr - Tyler Myers Christian Ehrhoff - Jordan Leopold Andrej Sekera - Marc-Andre Gragnani Ryan Miller Jhonas Enroth Lines: LINK [Unconfirmed]

TEAM COMPARISON Team Comparison 3 (.375%) Points (%) 6 (.750%) 2.75 Goals/Game (Rank) 3.50 3.00 Goals Against/Game (Rank) 2.25 1.50 5 on 5 F/A 2.00 12.5% Power Play 20% 79% Penalty Kill 86.7% 33.2 Shots/Game 30.2 25.0 Shots Against/Game 32.0 48.6% Face Off Win % 49.2%

LAST MATCH-UP For two days, the Buffalo Sabres had been stewing in their own anger over allowing the Nashville Predators to score twice in the final 2:27 of regulation and again 27 seconds into overtime to steal away what looked to be a sure victory. The Sabres found the best possible way to bury that bad memory by playing a nearly perfect road game in Montreal on Tuesday and beating the Canadiens 2-0 behind a 31-save shutout from Ryan Miller. "There was a lot of anger and frustration with us giving away a point the other night," Sabres coach Lindy Ruff said of Sunday's 4-3 home loss to the Predators. "This was a real good answer for it." It was Miller's fourth shutout of the year and 21st of his stellar career, but even he was able to admit it was just about as easy as a shutout can be thanks to his teammates sticking to the game plan and preventing the Canadiens from entering the same area code as his net. "That might have been our best chess match of the year," Miller said. "We did a good job, we stuck to it all night. I thought all three periods we did exactly what we needed to do." With Carolina beating the Ottawa Senators 4-3 in Raleigh, the victory allowed the Sabres (36-28-9) to maintain their three-point cushion over the Hurricanes for the eighth and final playoff spot in the Eastern Conference. LINK Three Star Selections: 1st - Ryan Miller Goalie - BUF Saves: 31 | SV%: 1.000 2nd - Carey Price Goalie - MTL Saves: 22 | SV%: 0.957 3rd - Nathan Gerbe Center - BUF GOALS: 2 | PTS: 2 ASST: 0 | SOG: 3 +/-: 2

TEAM STATISTICS GOALS: 1. Max Pacioretty [2] 2. Tomas Plekanec [2] 3. Travis Moen [2] 4. David Desharnais [1] 5. Brian Gionta [1] ASSISTS: 1. Max Pacioretty [2] 2. Tomas Plekanec [2] 3. David Desharnais [2] 4. Brian Gionta [2] 5. Josh Gorges [2] POINTS: 1. Max Pacioretty [4] 2. Tomas Plekanec [4] 3. Travis Moen [3] 4. David Desharnais [3] 5. Brian Gionta [3] PIMS: 1. PK Subban [6] 2. Erik Cole [4] 3. Brian Gionta [4] 4. Yannick Weber [4] 5. Raphael Diaz [4] PLUS/MINUS 1. Yannick Weber [+4] 2. Josh Gorges [+4] 3. Travis Moen [+1] 4. Max Pacioretty [+1] 5. Raphael Diaz [+1] GOALS: 1. Thomas Vanek [3] 2. Luke Adam [3] 3. Drew Stafford [3] 4. Jason Pominville [1] 5. Nathan Gerbe [1] ASSISTS: 1. Thomas Vanek [4] 2. Jason Pominville [4] 3. Christian Ehrhoff [4] 4. Luke Adam [3] 5. Nathan Gerbe [3] POINTS: 1. Thomas Vanek [7] 2. Luke Adam [6] 3. Jason Pominville [5] 4. Drew Stafford [4] 5. Nathan Gerbe [4] PIMS: 1. Paul Gaustad [9] 2. Christian Ehrhoff [6] 3. Thomas Vanek [4] 4. Drew Stafford [4] 5. Robyn Regehr [4] PLUS/MINUS 1. Nathan Gerbe [+4] 2. Andrej Sekera [+3] 3. Jordan Leopold [+3] 4. Derek Roy [+2] 5. Tyler Myers [+2]

LINKS Team Sites: Canadiens Team Site: http://canadiens.nhl.com/ Sabres Team Site: http://sabres.nhl.com/ Boards: Canadiens HF Board: http://hfboards.com/forumdisplay.php?f=16 Sabres HF Board: http://hfboards.com/forumdisplay.php?f=18 Blogs: HabsHQ: http://habshq.com/ Habs Inside/Out: http://www.habsinsideout.com/ Habs Eyes On the Prize: http://www.habseyesontheprize.com/ GoHabs: http://www.gohabs.com/ Habs Blog: http://www.habsblog.com/ Die By the Blade: http://www.diebytheblade.com/ Sabre Noise: http://sabrenoise.com/ Sabres Edge: http://blogs.buffalonews.com/sabres/ Sabre Space: http://www.sabrespace.com/ Top Shelf: http://www.topshelfblog.com/ General Hockey Sites: TSN: http://tsn.ca/nhl/ NHL: http://www.nhl.com/ RDS: http://www.rds.ca/ HockeyDB: http://www.hockeydb.com/ ESPN: http://espn.go.com/nhl/ HockeyBuzz: http://www.hockeybuzz.com/ NHL on Yahoo: http://sports.yahoo.com/nhl

GO HABS GO!



Thanks to VSN's albidinis for some of the image layouts!

Stream: http://kiwi-sportz.eu/stream-3.html

[shamrun]

go habs go

ps: very nice thread

[Habsland35]

wow awesome GDT!!! good job!!


gonna be a bounce back game from the habs

3 1

go habs go!!

[MooseOllini]

Habs win 6-1 just for you Habsman! Awesome GDT

[WhiskeySeven]

Great thread, go habs go!

[Metropolitsky]

GDT look great

[Moen in Glory]

Impressive GDT!

No prediction for this game. We badly need points, at least ONE against a tough opponent/division rival would be nice.

[Capitaine Gionta]

Insane GDT.

[Rushin Joo]

Habsman56 should do every gdt. Seriously.

[Aceekay]

Shiny

[Tuggy]

Don't really know what to think about tonight. Better defense and goaltending is definitely going to be needed.

[Vasculio]

Now that's a great, great thread, congrats !

Hope the team will show the same commitment as you did...

[Zorro]

i was looking at the Sabres line-up and i can't get over how similar of a line-up we have. We have some really small players but so do they, and while they do have one "superstar", ie Vanek, i think we have better complimentary players. How is it that they can get it to work while we can't...so far? Is it coaching? injuries? or just that they are in fact better than us?

I believe that it is coaching, JM has a set formula in his head and will not deviate from that. Sometimes you have to look at your player's strength and exploit that, it shouldn't be the other way around.

[Tuggy]

Originally Posted by Zorro

i was looking at the Sabres line-up and i can't get over how similar of a line-up we have. We have some really small players but so do they, and while they do have one "superstar", ie Vanek, i think we have better complimentary players. How is it that they can get it to work while we can't...so far? Is it coaching? injuries? or just that they are in fact better than us?

I believe that it is coaching, JM has a set formula in his head and will not deviate from that. Sometimes you have to look at your player's strength and exploit that, it shouldn't be the other way around.

Their defense is clearly better.

[WeThreeKings]

4-0 Sabres.
Adam (3) Gerbe

[dfk711*]

What a crappy GDT

Habs win 2-1

[Zorro]

Originally Posted by Tuggy

Their defense is clearly better.

I fully agree with that...our D is a little like Swiss cheese, slightly patchy

[Boris Le Tigre]

The Sabres top 4 is very nice.

Should be a good test tonight. Too early for must win language but it'd be nice to grap at least four points in our games this week (2vs. the NE Div. and 1vs. the Pens). We're going to have to tighten up a bit and make sure we get our coverages in the d-zone. Too many guys getting easy looks from us this year.

[Habs 4 Life]

The Sabres aren't no push over, will not be an easy game for the Habs tonight. Hell after watching the Avs the other night and I watched the Panthers game last night, not sure the Habs will have any easy games this year well besides the Jets maybe

Go Go

[PunkinDrublic*]

Taking a look at our fourth line and going like ......

4-1 Sabres

[PK76]

Originally Posted by Tuggy

Their defense is clearly better.

This. Their top 3 defenseman are all arguably better than any of ours. We're in for a tough one tonight!

Great GDT btw! GO HABS GO!

[Hawkguy]

Any word on who is in net?

On one hand, I want Price. I want him to not get down on the last game and it's a division game.

On the other hand, I want to see what Budaj will bring and give Price a rest from this team that hasn't played well for him.

Originally Posted by HabzFanatik71

This. Their top 3 defenseman are all arguably better than any of ours. We're in for a tough one tonight!

Great GDT btw! GO HABS GO!

Arguably? If the NHL was a one season type deal, I'd trade any of our d-men for any of their top-3. Seriously. Obviously it's not, so the only guy you could consider is Myers (if Subban was the other piece), but I doubt Subban gets Myers either. Ehrhoff and Regehr are both great players.

[Et le But]

Ehrhoff is great but he's overpaid and wouldn't really help us, especially if Markov is actually returning.

Regehr on the other hand is exactly what our blueline could use, even if he is on the decline.

[number72]

Price needs to play big he is starting to remind of Theodore's decline.

[Bill McNeal]

Big win. 3-2.

I wanted to say 4-2, but we don't score on empty nets.