The guy is an absolute fraud and I'm ****ing sick of fans sticking up for him. Watch him closely and you will see how truly lazy he is. Trust me, I APPRECIATE his work in front.. but at 7 million a year? No thank you. That's a grinder's job. Therefore he is NOT our answer upfront as a "clutch" player.
Trade our best player this year, makes sense. He has been anything but lazy, he's busting his ass out there. His overall game is at an all time high, in the top 25 in the league in scoring, and been solid defensively. He's in a rough scoring stretch, but he has been great overall. To say he is a fraud and truly lazy just simply is a terrible opinion.
Hey, I've made the same stupid play that Sekera made on Miller when he fumbled the puck and in panic told the goalie, here you take it.... Most goalies are never ready for this stupidity and their reaction is like "WTF are you doing *******? I don't want the dam thing". I could see it happening almost in slow-mo... Finally Miller realized he's got to cover this and he does. At that point the ref could have blown the whistle but didn't probably because he or his partner blew a quick whistle on the Preds in the 2nd and they gave him **** about it.
Miller had it covered and there's no way the ref could have had the puck in his vision given his position. But he held off and the Preds wacked it out from under Miller's glove.
I don't think it was Miller's fault because it looked like the Pred player may have gotten his stick under Miller's glove.
Ryan then comes back and makes two big saves just after goal #2. No lack of concentration there??
P.S.. McCormick lost the draw in his own zone on goal 3. Big no no. OT? It was 4 on 4. Lock on your check until you recover the puck. Sabres didn't and left a previously covered/dumped man open.
Stupid, stupid, and stupid but these goals were the result of other individuals not making the plays they are expect to make. Miller was left to save this all by himself and I'm betting he exited the ice so quickly because he didn't want to chew out his team mates right then and there.
I watched the post game interviews, just hoping Miller would have an opportunity to answer whether he was feeling ok. Really, are you feeling ok? No, honestly, you can tell me, are you feeling ok? Are ya? Are ya?
You duck the interview, your attitude is lousy. You do the interview and show anger, your attitude is lousy. Maybe he would like to play in the postseason and didn't feel he would present well after the team, including him, vomited away a point. Some people have a higher threshold for saying, "Gee, Bucky, obviously we would have liked to have that second point..."
At this point, I would like to nominate Terry Pegula to put the choke poster up on the wall. He's a true-blue fan and has to be as pissed as all of us over this one. Think of the message that would send!
I sure hope God doesn't decide he needs to sacrifice anymore of the French Connection in order to motivate these guys to play 60 minutes of hockey..........
Miller was left to save this all by himself and I'm betting he exited the ice so quickly because he didn't want to chew out his team mates right then and there.
That would be him. It's always somebody else's fault. I know watch the games. Blah! Blah! Blah! It's just sure coincidence that is save percentage is down to .913 and putting him in bottom half of goalies. Yeah, our D isn't great but there are goalies out there with better save % and worse defence. Look at the list.
Miller is what we have so I would keep riding him and hope he turns it around should we make the playoffs.
But I'd like to know how this guy would handle it if we got a good backup who got hot and Ruff rode him for a few straight games. My hunch is Miller's ego couldn't handle it and he'd pout.
Trade our best player this year, makes sense. He has been anything but lazy, he's busting his ass out there. His overall game is at an all time high, in the top 25 in the league in scoring, and been solid defensively. He's in a rough scoring stretch, but he has been great overall. To say he is a fraud and truly lazy just simply is a terrible opinion.
QFT
He will be the captain next season. IMHO, he already is.
He will be the captain next season. IMHO, he already is.
I agree. Give him the C.
I can see why some might be hard on Vanek. He's paid to score and he keeps missing. But he's been creating a ton offense which mitigates the fact he's not closing. And the lack of effort comments are nuts.
We're at the St. Patty's Day Parade in Buffalo, so I missed the first 55 minutes of the game. Suddenly, we decide to take a ten minute ride to a few more bars, and we put the game on the radio.
The Preds proceed to score 3 goals in about 5 minutes.
I'm happy with 3pts out of two important games this weekend.
On the other hand, last year it was enough when we scored 3 goals one night. Miller was so dominant last year and he clearly isn't as good as he was last year. That said, I'm still happy that miller plays for us. Whe know that he can decide games alone. We saw that last year. And I hope that he will put in his extra gear at post-season.
Now lets talk about Vanek: He is having the best season of his carreer imo. He won't hit 30 goals this season but he is creating so much offense for himself and his teammates lately. Even if he struggles to score a goale he still appears on the scoresheet with assists.
Whit his comment "I'm not good enough" you can see that he really cares for that team and he is willing to take the loss on him. He didn't mention that miller or sekera made some mistakes. He just said that he is not good enough. For me thats a statement from a true captain. Once he starts scoring once I expect a expect a hattrick from him in that game, book it.
I hope ruff rests miller the next game. Enroth should get the start in montreal.
Miller was fine tonight. Though there have been times this season when I have felt that he needs a rest. You simply cannot run your goaltender into the ground and expect to win...Vancouver tried that with Luongo...It doesn't work.
Seeing how many games the team has played as of late...I wonder how much conditioning factors into these blown leads...That and youth, especially on the backend.
Once the new ownership gets a complete offseason to get players on closely examined fitness/diet routines I bet we will see less and less of these late game meltdowns.
We're at the St. Patty's Day Parade in Buffalo, so I missed the first 55 minutes of the game. Suddenly, we decide to take a ten minute ride to a few more bars, and we put the game on the radio.
The Preds proceed to score 3 goals in about 5 minutes.
Flame away.
You can blame me also, I went to sleep around 5minutes left in the regulation and thought that "Even they can hold this lead".
Can you imagine the shock when I opened NHL.com and saw Nashville player celebrating in the first headline. Thats when I thought "Oh crap".
I don't see how you can pin this loss on miller. Like most games this season, I wish he played better, but there are much better candidates for the bad and ugly sections.
I really just want Sekera to bounce back strong in Montreal, he had been playing some great hockey as of late, and I would hate to see him lose that confidence.
I don't see how you can pin this loss on miller. Like most games this season, I wish he played better, but there are much better candidates for the bad and ugly sections.
That's the point. It's not all him but he's just so average this season. He's paid $6.25-million and not giving us nearly enough value.
Last edited by HogtownSabresfan: 03-21-2011 at 08:06 AM.
If Miller really wants to be a leader he can apologize to his teammates today all at once if he didn't do so yesterday. Not for the game, but for his overall demeanor yesterday. Step up, tell them you've got their back, and they'll have yours Tuesday.
That's the point. It's not all him but he's just so average this season. He's paid $6.25-million and not going giving us nearly enough value.
You are preaching to the choir friend, I'm far from a miller apologist. I don't think he's as good as most sabres fans do, a bit overrated to be honest.
Yesterday he didn't have much of a chance on goals 1, 3 and certainly 4. The second was far from his fault also, although I wish he would have found a way to keep it out. The third would have been a great save, but you cant blame a goalie on a deflection like that.
He also made some big saves to get it to OT, so you have to weigh the good with the bad.
Trade our best player this year, makes sense. He has been anything but lazy, he's busting his ass out there. His overall game is at an all time high, in the top 25 in the league in scoring, and been solid defensively. He's in a rough scoring stretch, but he has been great overall. To say he is a fraud and truly lazy just simply is a terrible opinion.
How many rough scoring stretches is it okay to have in a season?
Non goal scoring streaks this year for Vanek-
6 games
7 games
8 games
6 games
Not to mention all the 4's and 3's in there too.
He has 3 goals in his last 18 games. He's been playing pretty good, but as a "True Goal Scorer" that he's labeled he has to do better. He had probably 6 good chances to score yesterday and he didn't. Same thing vs Carolina last week.
We're 16-3-2 when he scores. 19-25-7 When he doesn't.
We say this all the time... We can't afford to go that many games without him scoring. He wanted the big bucks, got them now he needs to produce. 25-30 goals isn't going to cut it when you have bad streaks like that.
Last edited by S319R11S16: 03-21-2011 at 08:34 AM.
That's the point. It's not all him but he's just so average this season. He's paid $6.25-million and not giving us nearly enough value.
Everybody has down years, and I know Chain and others have said it multiple times, but I think he's been hurting from some sort of injury all year. I've never seen his movement so off in the six years he's been a starter. It seems like if he comes out to much to play an angle he can't really get back in position fast enough. I have to think something's nagging him because I just can't remember a time when he's been fully healthy and his movement's been so off.
But something good to think about. With the amount of points we have and the number of games left I think the Canes are the only team we really have to worry about. The Leafs, Devils, and Thrashers would all have to go on an incredible tear with us going on an incredibly bad skid for them to even have a chance. All we have to do is play even with the Canes, and we'll be in. While 7th would be great I'm more concerned with staying in 8th.
Wow, there are some crazy overeactions in this thread. Not every loss needs to act as a square-peg example to one's round-hole agenda on a player. Deep breath and move on.
I still don't understand why Ruff seperated Myers and butler; They had some great chemistry. It also allowed Sekera to be paired with Mony which is when we saw his strongest offensive games.
THe defense is young. That's the main problem. They'll play great for a long period of time, but then they'll have a bone headed play, and the puck ends up in the back of the net. It's costed them many games.
I have a hard time faulting Miller, I just watched the highlights on boxee and he made some big saves tonight. Funny how no one is talking about how he made a huge save on Erat on a mini break-away. I think he probably felt like the loss was his fault, and that is why he raced off the ice, but when your defense makes some turnovers like that, it's going to go in the net from time to time.
This team wouldn't be sniffing the playoffs without Miller.
That is a flat out lie. The offense is the reason we are where we are. Miller has been very average this year. I love him. I think he's elite when he's on his game, but he's had an off year this year. He's making the glorious saves, but he's also letting in the softies like he used to do. The youth of the defense isn't helping his stats either.
I wonder if he's injured, fatigued, or just unfocused.
If Miller was playing like last year, we'd probably be sitting comfortably in 6th
How many rough scoring stretches is it okay to have in a season?
Non goal scoring streaks this year for Vanek-
6 games
7 games
8 games
6 games
Not to mention all the 4's and 3's in there too.
He has 3 goals in his last 18 games. He's been playing pretty good, but as a "True Goal Scorer" that he's labeled he has to do better. He had probably 6 good chances to score yesterday and he didn't. Same thing vs Carolina last week.
We're 16-3-2 when he scores. 19-25-7 When he doesn't.
We say this all the time... We can't afford to go that many games without him scoring. He wanted the big bucks, got them now he needs to produce. 25-30 goals isn't going to cut it when you have bad streaks like that.
Then his "label" is incorrect, because that's not all he is at this point in his career anymore.
