Man, I just felt like I watched three separate hockey games. The game could be summed up like this; 1st 10 minutes of the game, all Blackhawks. Next 30 minutes of the game, all Sabres. Last 20 minutes of the game, all Chicago. Luckily for the Sabres, their 30 minutes of play was better than the Blackhawks half-hour session. Just thank the man in net, Ryan Miller..what??? that wasn’t Miller in net?
-I’m not one to get all gushy and root for a specific player, but I am really happy for Patrick Lalime. You can tell when the final horn sounded and Lalime pumped his fist (glove) in the air, it was as if he was getting a huge monkey off his back. I think a lot of Lalime’s 1st star performance had to do with the conditioning he got last weekend in Portland. It’s very hard for a goalie to sit on his tail for almost 2-3 weeks at a time, and play like his predecessor. Lalime was able to weather the two storms from the Hawks in the 1st and 3rd period, turning away 17 and 16 shots in each period-
-Hopefully this will quiet all the Marty Biron lovers, who think the back-up goalie position is a pivotal part to making a Stanley Cup run (AKA, we love Marty cause he’s sooo funny). I’ve said it before, the majority of Lalime’s games weren’t about his performance, rather the Sabres inept defensive and offensive performances. Not to mention, whenever your team MVP takes a night off, a team is going to struggle normally-
-To think the Sabres have only allowed one goal in the last two games against the Capitols and Hawks, could be the most impressive two game stretch for the team since the President’s trophy year-
-To steal a phrase from Perry Fewell, it took some “gonads” for Lindy Ruff to decide to have Patrick Lalime start against the high powered Hawks offense. I would have rather seen Lalime against the Rangers (who have struggled), but what do I know-
-I don’t know what to say about Nathan Gerbe, he’s a completely different player his second time around with the Sabres. He’s always around the offensive zone and isn’t afraid to shoot the puck. It’s going to be interesting to see what Ruff does when Mike Grier and Paul Gaustad return to the ice. I think if Gerbe keeps it up, you have to sit Mair and Ellis-
-Lets be honest, do you really think Patrick Kane and Brian Campbell really care about being booed in Buffalo? You have one player who is making 50 million plus for over the next seven years and a 21-year old making 30 million over the next five years, who happens to be the face of one of the greatest cities in the country. Sorry, but I doubt they could care less-
-You want to know who must of loved this victory the most tonight? Larry Quinn. The Blackhawks are the epitome of what Sabres ownership hates about certain NHL teams. Chicago has been huge players in free agency, and have been very active in giving their young talent long term deals. I’m sure the next time Quinn rears his head on Buffalo airwaves, he will play the “money doesn’t win you hockey games” rhetoric and point to this game as proof. (Uh yeah, not buying that)-
-While I was in Buffalo, I was listening to Mike Robitaille on WGR and he teased the WGR hosts that he was going to be bringing cheese to studio the next day. Well, we all know where he must of got the cheese from. This may be an educated guess, but I doubt he paid for the cheese he was bringing to the studio-
-I would like to wish my condolences to Mike Grier and his family for the loss of Mike’s mother-
Add The Sports Daily to your Google News Feed!
