Week in Review

This was not a good week to be a Buffalo Sabres fan. Not the worst week, not all that different from most weeks this season and there were even a couple good moments here and there but the sum was decidedly less than its parts and the parts weren’t all that great to begin with.

NHL Week in Review January 10

We’re barely a week into 2011 and the NHL has already handed down its second suspension of the year. The “lucky” offender? Tom Kostopoulos of the Calgary Flames who hit Detroit Red Wings defenseman Brad Stuart last Friday, breaking Stuart’s jaw and keeping him on the bench for as much as eight weeks. Kostopoulos was suspended for six games, although he had been facing Stewart and had just touched the puck, which for better or worse, still qualifies as a legal hit (Greg Wyshynski of Yahoo Sports’ Puck Daddy has a great take on this). The first suspension, by the way, went to Atlanta’s Ben Eager, who was suspended four games for what the NHL calls a “blow to the head” and what most people call a “sucker punch” to Toronto’s Colby Armstrong, which also happened last Friday.

Speaking of hits, Sidney Crosby suffered a concussion and is going to be out for the next few weeks thanks to a hit in the Winter Classic against Washington, followed by a hit in an 8-1 win over Tampa Bay on Wednesday. And now to the Games of the Week.

Monday-Boston at Pittsburgh-Sidney Crosby is out for the Penguins but the team is still one of the strongest in the league. The Bruins are tied with Montreal atop the Northeast. Oh and these two teams have hated each other even more than before ever since Matt Cooke ended Marc Savard’s regular season with a hit to the head last spring.

Tuesday-Montreal at the New York Rangers or Philadelphia at Buffalo-the first game is a matchup of Original Six teams currently in the top eight. The other matchup pits the current #1 team in the East against a surging #10 team.

Wednesday-Washington vs Tampa Bay-the bad news: the NHL only has four games on tonight. The good news: one of them is a showdown between the two best teams in a suddenly resurgent Southeast Division, not to mention their two superstar goal scorers, Alexander Ovechkin and Steven Stamkos respectively.

Thursday-Philadelphia at Boston/Vancouver at the New York Rangers-Flyers-Bruins games are rarely dull but neither are goalie battles like the one Roberto Luongo and Hendrik Lundqvist could present at Madison Square Garden.

Friday-Vancouver at Washington-can you say “potential Stanley Cup Finals preview”, boys and girls?

Saturday-Atlanta at Dallas-this has to be the first time since 2007, if not ever, when a matchup between these two teams looked even remotely appealing. Who knows how long it will be before that happens again.

Sunday-Philadelphia at New York Rangers-both teams are playoff contenders and hate each other. Still, you might prefer watching football today, no truly compelling matchups besides this one and it’s not on Versus. Go figure.

Week in Review, January 9

Happy Drew Year indeed

Well, there’s still no ownership news to report with the Buffalo Sabres, although employees of Tom Golisano’s company, Paychex, are no longer being allowed use of the owner’s box so I suppose that’s proof that things are moving forward for the Sabres. They certainly are on the ice; the past week has to have been the best and most competitive week for the Sabres in at least a month.

NHL Week In Review, New Year’s Edition

It’s the first week of the new year, which can mean only one thing in hockey: it’s time to talk about the Winter Classic. First, the bad news: thanks largely to rain which delayed the Washington Capitals’ 3-1 win over the Pittsburgh Penguins at Heinz Field from 1 to 8 p.m., hockey’s premier showcase event came up short in the ratings against ESPN’s broadcast of the Fiesta Bowl. Instead of its usual slot as a more exciting alternative to the Capital One Bowl, the Winter Classic drew an average of 4.5 million viewers and a 2.3 rating hare while Oklahoma’s win over Connecticut drew an 11.3 rating and 20.6 million viewers.

Week in Review, New Year’s Day Edition

The Buffalo Sabres ended 2010 on pretty much the same note as the 2010-2011 season so far: a thoroughly uncompetitive loss followed by a fairly convincing win. As with many of their other losses this season, the defeat did have some extenuating circumstances and the victory had enough caveats to make one think twice about proclaiming the Sabres contenders.

NHL Week to come

Now that the World Junior Championships are underway in Buffalo, the Washington Capitals’ losing streak is finally over and Sidney Crosby’s point streak is still intact, let’s look at the best games this week, including the Winter Classic.

Week in Review and Derek Roy fallout

To be perfectly blunt, the Buffalo Sabres are really almost exactly in the same position as they were last league. They won against Anaheim 5-2 last Tuesday, they lost to Florida 4-3 last Thursday, albeit in a closer game where they rallied from a 3-0 hole and with more questionable calls and once again, they got a 3+day break, though this time it was the NHL’s Christmas break so at least they didn’t lose much ground in the standings. They’re still capable of dominating games, though usually not for all three periods. Sometimes the one really good period they can be counted on for comes early in the game as with Anaheim, other times it comes too late to get off to a good start and too early to secure any points (Florida).

Week in Review

I never like to admit this but with the 2010-2011 season almost half over, I think it’s time: this is not going to be a dominant season for the Buffalo Sabres. They’re probably not winning the Northeast Division, they’re probably not going to host a first round playoff series, if they make the playoffs at all, it will only be as one of the lower seeds and they’ll need every bit of the luck Philadelphia had last year to advance into the second round and beyond. I say this not because I think they’re a particularly bad team, they’re just not good enough right now to catch up to Montreal and Boston and that’s been made pretty clear in the past week or so.

Week in Review December 10

As I write this post, the Buffalo Sabres are less than a half hour away from taking on what may very well be their most talented opponent all year in the Pittsburgh Penguins. Despite former No. 1 overall pick Marc-Andre Fleury’s play suddenly regressing to the point where he’s splitting time with and has been outplayed for most of the season by Brent Johnson, the Pens come into Buffalo tonight with an 11-game winning streak, their longest since winning 17 straight in 1993 in their Mario and Jaromir heyday. They’ve been getting production from all around but Sidney Crosby in particular is on fire with a 17-game point streak and 26 goals so far. I know there are a lot of people who don’t want to admit this but between this current streak and last year’s 51-goal season, Sid the Kid actually is coming somewhat close to matching all the hype that’s surrounded him since before he entered the NHL.

Games of the Week

In lieu of the usual NHL Week in Review or commentary on the best games in the NHL this coming week, I’m just going to list my picks this week and that will be that. Sue me, it’s my birthday.

 

Sunday-Blackhawks 4, Flames 2

Monday-San Jose at Detroit

Tuesday-Buffalo at Boston

Wednesday-San Jose at Philadelphia

Thursday-Columbus at St Louis

Friday-Colorado at Atlanta

Saturday-Tampa Bay at Vancouver

Sunday-Washington at the New York Rangers