Sabres shock world, beat Panthers 5-2
by Donny Rivette on Oct 21, 2009 10:37 PM EDT
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Cats coach Peter DeBoer following the Sabres' 13th 4th goal: vowin' revenge and stylin' to boot.
Sabres vs Panthers coverage Die By The Blade
Panthers win! If one leaves out the first period...oh well...if you've got to fall, make it hard.
Buffalo earned this from the start, chasing Scott Clemmensen at the 1:56(!) mark of the first period, off goals by Mike Grier and Jason Pominville (PP, ). Enter Tomas Vokoun; clear skies?
Not a chance: Matt Ellis and Tyler Myers continued burying regular-strength pucks until Steve Reinprecht's backhander at 14:11 from Michael Frolik and Rostislav Olesz cut the lead to 4-1, but the damage was done.
Well, not quite: Buffalo's Thomas Vanek, the Sabres' leading scorer from a year ago, was obviously feeling lonely. His goal at 16:48 lent proof.
The second period was a far different arena; the Cats had some pluck, but no one was getting the better of Buffalo's Ryan Miller (41 saves). Not nearly the train wreck of the first, Florida had a targeted sense of purpose, but the Sabres were able to stifle any semblence of a comeback. Hats off.
Cue the third, and other than Nathan Horton letting the faux trade rumors get the better of him, it was more of the same. A late goal by Olesz, assisted by David Booth and Ville Koistinen, did nothing to change the outcome. Horton, however, became the consummate Team Guy, taking on Patrick Kaleta, not once, but twice; upon the end of the primary penalty, Horton decided to Make It Count, getting tossed in a meaningless blowout.
NOTES: Yuck. This was disgusting. Embarrassing. Where to go from here? We discussed a few different possibilities in the live blog this evening, but ultimately, who should be called on the carpet? When does Pete DeBoer and his coaching staff take responsibility for the mess that Florida finds itself in? I remain convinced he's The Man to deliver the Cats to the promised land, but it's been a long gestation period. He wasn't here for the nine years previous to his arrival, but the club has looked woefully under-coached. There has yet to be a game this season which the Panthers have earned from the start. Can't win much that way, or so a manual I read told me.
Whatever: nicely done, Sabres. You made this one suck with a capital "S". Two points.
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I can't believe I missed the only exciting part of the game!
Yeah, we suck! We have two more wins than the Leafs, but the only other team right now with a worse record is the Wild (yeah, the Isles beat Carolina in the skills contest tonight).
If this team didn’t have such a toothless power play, it might have been closer after all those Buffalo penalties in the second. But the real problem is that they have no sense of urgency. They don’t play a whole game like they want to win. And even when they were in the Sabres’ end and getting shots, they looked a step behind. Something’s horribly wrong with the Panthers.
I always thought the point of a fight was to change the momentum of a game. I respect that if Nate isn’t getting it done on the scoreboard, he’s at least trying to use his fists to get the team motivated. However, by the time he was sent off, the game was way out of hand and his effort was for naught.
by IceCat69 on Oct 21, 2009 11:32 PM EDT via mobile reply actions
I can’t say I understand pulling Clemmensen after 2 minutes… yea the first one maybe shoulda been stopped, but no chance on the 2nd. The team was sleep walking, I’m not changing goalies 2 minutes in is a move that would inspire the skaters to wake up. Much rather woulda seen a timeout, calm the guys down, remind them that it’s only 2 goals with 58 minutes left in the game, etc… pulling Clemmensen that quick seemed like a panic move.
Of course, Vokoun redirecting a slap shot from the blue line that was going wide by whiffing it with the glove doesnt help any…. but still. It’ll be interesting to see what happens Friday against the Pens…
Agree, pulling Clemmensen was a panic move that maybe a more experienced coach would not have made. I would have much rather seen a timeout.
This team is not mature in any way. Players are sleepwalking skating through the games. Nice to see Ballard benched for a bit, need the same with Horton.
Not at all impressed with his last minute stupidity with the game out of reach.
Where was that when Booth went head first into the boards in the first period.
No heart, no guts, no emotion. Today’s practice should be 45 minutes of hard skating, no pucks, no sticks. First one to toss their cookies, adds 5 minutes.
Get in shape, get prepared and play like professionals.
This is embarassing.
PdB had to try something, even if it came right out of Mike Keenan’s playbook. Honestly, I was far more surprised that Pete didn’t re-insert Clemmer later in the game.
I actually thought that Clemmensen was going to get back in, which would have been out of the Keenan playbook.
DeBoer needs to do some soul searching and find a way to get these guys to respond, cause right now they aren’t
by The Rat Trick on Oct 22, 2009 12:46 PM EDT up reply actions
Well, last night was exactly how I expect this team to perform all season. I’m sorry to rain on anybody’s parade, but that is kind of how I saw the entire season play out. The Cats just don’t have enough offensive talent to compete, I’m pretty sure nobody here really deluded themselves into thinking this.
What we have is solid goaltending (for the most part). We continue to have a marginal D that gives up way too many shots and we have a great 2nd line, decent 3rd line (which is playing 2nd line) and a 4th line that would be ok if it wasn’t playing as the 3rd line and a line that probably shouldn’t be in the NHL.
This team is going to win games this season (I expect not a lot though) by hard work and taking advantage of opponent miscues (Peter DeBoer’s system) – See Philly game as example. However, if they get down a few, they are done like dinner.
I am hopefully that somehow they play way above their heads and actually compete for that 8th playoff spot, but other than a few lousy teams in the East, I don’t know if the Cats can realistically expect to be in that hunt.
Managing Editor - HockeyOutsiders.com
by HockeyOutsiders on Oct 22, 2009 10:48 AM EDT reply actions
Well, if you think this is a Cup team or even a real playoff team then you’re a homer or insane. However, there is some talent there and, as shown last year, if they play hard and are responsible defensively they can grind out wins. When they play like a bunch of drunken grade school children like last night, then they’re going to get their asses handed to them and there’s going to be no one in the building to see Yormark’s ads.
As one of our group said last night, “I don’t mind the losing, it’s that they didn’t show up to play.” And that’s the problem. That was why they missed a playoff spot last year. They didn’t show up to two or three games late in the season and lost the points they needed for a spot. Also, there was PdB’s feud with Nick Boynton and his refusal to bench Jay Bo when he played like he didn’t give a damn after the trade deadline. That cost the team as well.
The realistic among us realize that this team is not nearly as skilled as our divisional competition in Washington and Carolina. But the bottom line is that we at least expect the team to show up.
Tampa and Atlanta aren’t exactly scraping by… We look like the 5th place team in this division, and it’s not even close.
by Karl Selvig on Oct 23, 2009 11:43 AM EDT up reply actions
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Southeast Standings
| GP | W | L | OTL | PT | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Florida
|
51 | 24 | 16 | 11 | 59 |
|
Washington
|
51 | 27 | 20 | 4 | 58 |
|
Winnipeg
|
53 | 24 | 23 | 6 | 54 |
|
Tampa Bay
|
51 | 23 | 23 | 5 | 51 |
|
Carolina
|
54 | 20 | 25 | 9 | 49 |
(updated 2.5.2012 at 9:10 AM EST)
Eastern Standings
| GP | W-L-OT | Pts | |
|---|---|---|---|
|
New York Rangers
|
49 | 32-12-5 | 69 |
|
Boston Bruins
|
50 | 32-16-2 | 66 |
|
Florida Panthers
|
51 | 24-16-11 | 59 |
|
Philadelphia Flyers
|
51 | 30-15-6 | 66 |
|
Pittsburgh Penguins
|
52 | 30-18-4 | 64 |
|
New Jersey Devils
|
51 | 29-19-3 | 61 |
|
Ottawa Senators
|
55 | 27-21-7 | 61 |
|
Toronto Maple Leafs
|
52 | 27-19-6 | 60 |
|
Washington Capitals
|
51 | 27-20-4 | 58 |
|
Winnipeg Jets
|
53 | 24-23-6 | 54 |
|
Tampa Bay Lightning
|
51 | 23-23-5 | 51 |
|
New York Islanders
|
51 | 21-22-8 | 50 |
|
Buffalo Sabres
|
52 | 22-24-6 | 50 |
|
Carolina Hurricanes
|
54 | 20-25-9 | 49 |
|
Montreal Canadiens
|
52 | 19-24-9 | 47 |
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