- 42 shots to 29
- Myers was strong defensively and save a goal against
- Two goals from the defense
- The road trip is over
The Bad -
- Blowing a lead
- The injuries and illnesses are catching up with them. Parrish was crap tonight again. Mancari didn't make any difference out there. Butler was missed.
- Boyes and Ennis on for three of the goals against. One of them directly blew coverage on the Grabovski goal as they had collapsed to the wrong side.
- Another goal off a defenseman's skate. A dozen, probably, for this season. Criminy.
The Ugly -
- Getting owned at the dot never helps. 33%? Horrible.
- Leafs only four points back.
- Some terribly executed three-on-twos lead to bubkiss.
- Having to play the Sens tomorrow
- People making GDTs on other boards. Yeah. Here's the kharma.
We used to have the Leafs' number, not I think they have ours. Next game against the Leafs I wanna see Enroth start.
I figured the Leafs would win tonight anyway. Pretty much everyone on here was expecting the Sabres to dominate them (even Leafs fans). Sabres continue to not give a 60 minute effort, and they continue to blow their leads. A loss tomorrow against Ottawa would crush this team's morale too. If they lose tomorrow I'll be right back to believing this team won't make it to the post-season.
Good
-Vanek-Hecht-Pominville was their best line
-42 SOGs
-Still very successful road trip, 9 of 14 possible points
-Boston getting a lower pick
-Carolina losing
Bad
-Defense (not only the pairings) as a whole was horrible. Odd man rushes, open shots, botched pinches, zone coverage, lost battles along the wall...
-Myers and Sekera on the same line. Negatives both their offensive strengths.
-Boyes, Ennis both -3
-Leopold-Montador started strong, finished weak
-Face-offs without Gaustad
-Effort was at times embarassing (tired from the long road trip?)
Eventhough we blew the 3rd period lead, I was happy that our D kept pressing. We didnt play trap hockey. I dont know if we woulda won if we sat back, but I hate it when we do that.
In general I really liked the tempo of the game. lots of speed and open ice hockey. Youre not gonna beat the west playing like that, but it was entertaining.
That they looked gassed by the middle of the second is probably not much of a wonder given the roadie... but that they couldn't deaden the game and bore-to-victory is a missed opportunity.
Enroth gets to go against the Sens. Since it's an afternoon game after a long road trip, he's going to have to be sharp since most teams are invariable weak on that return home.
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It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it. - Aristotle
The Sabres are incredibly bad at holding on to leads. It's really annoying.
The Hurricanes losing helps. Hopefully San Jose will beat the Rangers as well, which is a very good possibility. The Sharks don't lose in the tank very often.
Another bad: I was one of those people who wanted Mancari up and thought he wasn't given enough opportunities. In the 4 games here, his best move was him defending the Ennis hit. He hasn't done crap, I haven't seen one good offensive move, he floats, he doesn't use his size and he generally doesn't seem like he wants to stay up.
Time for Vanek to get some new linemates. Hecht can't finish for ****, and Pominville's been plain **** lately. Make a line of Ennis-Boyes-Vanek or something.
Roy haters might not like it, but Derek was missed tonight (and against the Leafs in general). He gets up for HNiC and Leaf games... they missed a true offensive center tonight.
We have to hope the Sharks win against the Rangers tonight but man, the Leafs are so excited after that win, but they still won't get in. Sucks to see us lose, but it's funny to watch how happy they are that they've beaten us twice in a season.
Disappointing loss and I continue to believe the Sabres go and lay back when going into the 3rd with the lead against teams that we're better than. We don't take it seriously, then we end up losing. We had the lead and we lose after 20 minutes. Not acceptable but you can see why the Sabres think they can just relax for the rest of the game I guess.
Especially not when they need both of them and still have so many other non-scorers on the team. They need some of the injured guys to rub some mud on it and get back in the lineup tomorrow.
