No Punch Line Necessary

by Ryan

Question: What do Phil Kessel and Hitler have in common?

Apparently, they both have one testicle.



Still, I'd rather have him on my team than Andrej Sekera, who once again reverted to "balls" form tonight. Actually, the whole team was balls. All of them.



Okay, except Atlas Vanek, who was fantastic once again. If not for Thomas this would be a .500 team with a bleak future. Instead, they are a 9-6-3 team with a bleak future. Vanek has played well all year, but where has the rest of the team been?



The Sabres wasted another great start by playing awful, awful defense. Miller wasn't fantastic, but the guys in front of him didn't exactly help him out. Tallinder had another all-world giveaway, and Teppo didn't play smart hockey either. I have no idea how Rivet wound up a +2, but I suppose that only shows you how badly Teppo, Sekera, and Hank played.

What happened to this defense? Finally at full strength and still playing like last year's lazy group of waywards. Suddenly the goals for/against totals are even at 54 and we are looking at another tough weekend with very few answers. How do you fix a team that keeps saying the same things need to be fixed? Get pucks deep. Play smart. Simplify things. Okay, those are all good ideas. When does that start happening? Next game? The game after that?

A few quick things while I try to forget about this week:

- Did anyone see this?



Yeah, f#$k you pretty boy. The all star voting is a complete joke at this point, but there's no way I'm wasting my vote on you.



- Marc Savard. He ALWAYS kills us, and he was all over the scoresheet tonight. Why do we boo Chara when this guy is the one scoring all the big goals against us?

Actually that's all I have for you. I swear to God this week has taken a year off my life. We will have plenty to talk about, but is it just me that suddenly dreads this weekend? I can't take much more of this, I'm really starting to hate everything about everything.



The Ferrunginous Pygmy-Owl goes to God, who clearly wants some sort of recognition for his handiwork this week. You win, man, you win.

Last Time We Met

by Ryan



When I was coming up with a lede for the post game post I had a few ideas. My first thought was what Miller said after a Bruins game last year.

I never want to see the grin on his face like he had when he turned up ever again.

Not the most perfect of English, but what he said about Phil Kessel seemed to mean a lot to Ryan. It was a resolution of sorts, to shut Boston down whenever he had the chance. Now while he did score during the game a few weeks ago, we all knew there was no way he was scoring in the shootout.

That was the story of the game until Thomas Vanek did his thing, and what I ended up with was a little something like this. You could argue for either story, but I think it worked out for the best. Still, whenever Boston shows up on the schedule I'm going to think about what Miller said.

He may not get the chance to face them tonight, but I wonder if the team feels the same way.

A Bad Bounce at the Hub

by Ryan


What a way to start off November with an "eh." 4-3 OT Final.

A few things worth noting:

- I am absolutely terrified of Phil Kessel. The One Testicle Wonderboy is getting near Sabre-killer status, and is off to a great start overall. I remember him scoring his first NHL goal against us last year when he literally took the puck off a teammate's stick and gunned it by Biron.

- However, the real Sabre-killer has to be Marc Savard. 24 points in 25 games prior, and he picked up two more points tonight. A great shot on Miller in the third, even though I think Miller went down a bit early.

- I also enjoyed Glen Metropolit's game tonight. I've always liked him (possibly because his name is just sick), and I was pretty surprised the Thrashers were willing to let him go just to rent out Keith Tkachuk for two months. Then again, he stole Goose's third star. Screw him.

- If I were the GM of the Bruins, I would try pretty hard to avoid having a guy named "Thornton" on my team. Especially if he sucks.

- The ice looked just awful in overtime. The puck was already skipping around a bit throughout, but within the first minute of overtime a puckcarrier for both teams fell with no one around. There was a Van Halen concert there on Tuesday, but I doubt that affected the ice much. However, the forecast shows temperatures in the mid 50s in Boston tonight, and that may explain the bad ice at game's end. One thing's for sure, the Sabres certainly have had bad luck with bad ice recently.

- Goose has been a beast so far this year. He already has four goals, and was involved on all three goals tonight. How Gaustad didn't get at least the third star is beyond me. Maybe Wally was picking them tonight.

- Even though Vanek continues to struggle, you have to appreciate his game tonight. He actually tried to hit the Unfrozen Cave-Defenseman that is Zedeno Chara, and showed some great vision with that pass to Max for the first goal. He still looks a bit tentative, and I miss that arrogance he played with last year. Something happened after Opening Night. He had it then (slap shot on a breakaway), but its been nothing but cute passes and shots wide since. I thought the OT winner on Saturday would break him out of it, but it may take a bit more than that.

- You have to hand it to Love Potion Lydman for that shot block sequence tonight. He may not say much, uh, ever; but coming back from a puck to the face point blank does show some on ice leadership. Also, watching him take that ceremonial faceoff was just great comedy.

- I guess the Sabres did play a pretty decent road game, and a bad bounce cost them an extra point. Special teams looked great, killing off 4/5 (including two back to back thanks to Fat Crosby) and going 2/3 on their man advantages. Puck movement continues to be excellent, but tonight they actually got the puck into shooting lanes on the point.

The Sabres will be back at it tomorrow night against Florida, a team they played less than a week ago. Hopefully being back on home ice will get them in gear a bit quicker than usual. We may have our first look at our new toy as well.