Video Review: Sabres @ Devils 01/24/12

Final Score:  Buffalo 2 – New Jersey 1  (shootout)

Goal 1 – Jordan Leopold from Nathan Gerbe and Matt Ellis (Buffalo 1 – 0)

Starting out the Devils are looking pretty bad coming out of the zone.  3 players on one side of the ice.  If Buffalo has some sense of urgency in this rush, it could’ve been a passes in the neutral zone allowing New Jersey to recover by the time they reach the blue line.  Leopold makes a smart play by passing it to Gerbe.  This allows him and Ellis to crash the net while Gerbe can decide to shoot and hope for a rebound, attempt a pass to one of the streaking players to the net, or shoot it high and wide in what seems to be the story of the season.  He decides to shoot at a terrible angle and distance.  Kurtis Foster from the Devils gets a piece of it with his stick, sending the puck even more off trajectory.   If you watch Adam Henrique (#14 on the Devils), he seems to be tracking the puck along the glass and vacates his back check to pick it up on the half wall.  Not sure what he was looking at because it definitely wasn’t the puck.  Leopold, heading hard to the net, scores the goal by a bad bounce off the glass behind Brodeur.

Goal 2 – Patrik Elias from Zach Parise and Kurtis Foster (Tied 1 – 1)

Hurray!  What I’ve been saying the Sabres need to do on the PK actually takes place.  Stafford and Pominville are more towards the point covering the point shot.  That is until Elias fakes Stafford out of his shorts.  Ugh, he bought it.  Leopold would’ve been fine.  Despite Stafford’s minor check up, they are in good position.  Miller can clearly see the shot.  The shot is rifled into Myers’ junk, enough to put anyone down for a good 5 minutes with or without protection.  Parise makes a beautiful pass to Elias who puts it past Miller.  Other than Stafford not buying the Elias deke, not much went wrong here.  It was just the combination of Myers’ life flashing before his eyes and New Jersey making a nice play.

Vulgar Opinions: Is It Time For Jochen Hecht To Retire?

I tweeted back and forth briefly with Bill Hoppe about this earlier today, and his response gave me pause. My initial reaction was that Hecht should shelve himself, but Hoppe said it’s too soon to know if playing again is a good idea. I don’t really know enough about concussions and their impact on the brain to be able to refute that intelligently so I didn’t (and won’t) dig any farther from a medical perspective.

A Smattering Of Thoughts

Photo Credit: Andy Marlin, Getty Images

The Sabres won a road game for the first time in 50 days (too lazy to do research, crediting Jason Griswold with that stat) when Nathan Gerbe beat Martin Brodeur in the shootout. That contest’s conclusion marked the beginning of the Sabres’ inclusion in the All-Star break. They’ll play next in Montreal to close up the month of January. In the meantime, behold a smattering of thoughts on the team and organization!

Vulgar Statistics: Power Rankings Week 13

Good lord the Sabres are awful. Haven’t been watching? No fear, I have numbers that say so! Oooohhh…numbers…ahhhh…

Vulgar Opinions: Concussions, Where Do You Draw The Line?

So at this point in the 2011-2012 NHL season, barely halfway through, it seems like every team has not only had a player miss time due to a concussion, but a prominent player at that. This epidemic reminds me of my time spent in college. You see, I majored in Environmental Engineering, a part of which deals with the contaminants in things that we eat or drink. There’s a small problem with that; we as human being have aversions to things that are bad for us, but as we progress technologically we find that virtually everything we touch possess harmful materials in some quantity.

Recap: OKC Barons @ Amerks 01/20/12

“If I could be just what you need, maybe we’d be better off.” (Green River Ordinance, Learning)

A full house for round two

I feel like the Amerks are singing the fans that song lately. Anyhow … yesterday afternoon, an unexpected tweet came across my feed: Derek Whitmore (@dwhitmore21) boldly stated:

Game against OKC tonight at the BCA before we head to Grand Rapids. #packthehouse tonight #Amerks fans we will be much better tonight.—
Derek Whitmore (@dwhitmore21) January 20, 2012

My initial reaction was “Oh, man. Derek. You’re going to regret that …” I’m alright with admitting that I was wrong, however. Hey! There’s a first time for everything!

Video Review: Sabres @ Jets 01/19/12

Final Score:  Winnipeg 4 - Buffalo 1

Goal 1 – Andrew Ladd from Ron Hainsey and Kyle Wellwood (Jets 1 – 0)

First of all, I’m not quite sure what Gragnani was doing or even trying to do.  He accomplished letting Ladd walk in to the slot and get a clear look at Miller, with a few swipes of his stick.  Missing on all of them.  Miller makes the save, and the Sabres are already collapsed.  All five are below the hash marks.  Why is Adam so low and why is Ellis chasing the puck into the corner?  Adam should be up at the top of the circle, Ellis near the face off dot and Weber with the puck pursuit.  We then see why when you pause it at the 9 second mark.  Hello, Hainsey and Enstrom are all alone at the point.  Do what you want with the puck here boys.  Pass it over to Enstrom for the one timer, or just let one rip while the 4 of the Sabres watch near the top of circles.  Just a hunch, but I think Hainsey chose to let ‘er rip.  It does go off of Ladd, who was credited with the goal.  Now I ask this simple question on this disaster:  In a matter of 7 seconds, Gragnani who was in front (pause at 6 seconds) vacates it, and Weber is left all alone with Ladd in front?  You can see Weber pick up Ladd from the corner at the 7 second mark.  So Gragnani felt everything was okay and and ends up near the top of the faceoff circle.  Goats on this goal (in order of “BAHHH” level) are: Gragnani, Adam, and Ellis. Wow.  After doing Chicago’s review yesterday, this has been the worst goal so far.  Just a defensive zone nightmare.

Recap: OKC Barons @ Amerks 01/19/12

“I wish you would try and look a little more excited …” (People In Planes, Last Man Standing)

The Amerks played host to the OKC Barons tonight, in the first of back-to-back games against the Barons. Rochester, ever a pleasant hostess, was cordial, polite, and … wait, they showed up for the game? Well, either way, I was there and I have some thoughts on this mess.

Ugh

Something needs to happen with this club. Problem is, the Sabres are operating from a place of extreme weakness within the league right now. The only silver lining in the storm cloud right now is the mercury we’re all about to be poisoned by.

Fire/trade/demote all the things.

Video Review: Sabres @ Blackhawks 1/18/12

EDITOR’S NOTE: David is Black & Blue & Gold’s newest member and he’ll be doing something I didn’t even know I wanted on the blog – he’ll be doing goal-by-goal video analysis from each game. It’s like having our very own Robi-strator without Roby flipping off the viewing audience every clip!

My name is David and I’ll be bringing you video review of the Sabres games. Most importantly, I’ll try my best to cover what the coaches would in their audio/video meetings with the players. A little about myself: I live in Rochester and played hockey for 19 years before being forced to stop due to injury. I enjoy watching hockey, am an Amerks season ticket holder, and like analyzing why things happen. Was it a mistake, or was it just a good play? I went to college at Niagara University and have a degree in Computer Science. Enough of me, lets get to last nights game after the jump!