Where Did You go Buffalo?

Please keep all sharp objects and firearms away from Buffalo Sabres fans tonight.

Boy. That had to be pretty disheartening.

Ryan Miller gave the Sabres the type of stellar goaltending performance that a team with its back against the wall needs. Unfortunately, he seems to be the only Sabre who bothered to show up as the Ottawa Senators took a commanding 3-0 lead in the Eastern Conference finals. Ouch.

I'm not sure what happened to the Sabres team that I watched with awe for most of regular season, but they appear to have turned into the...ummm...Ottawa Senators, in the playoffs. I had the Sabres and Cannucks in the finals. Obviously I'm an idiot.

Ryan Miller was stellar. Ottawa could have easily won this game 4 or 5 - 0 if not for Miller's heroics. Ottawa's lone goal was a complete fluke on a bounce of the boards, but when your goaltender only allows one goal in a playoff game, you are not supposed to lose. Buffalo's offense was abysmal, but take nothing away from Ottawa. They have probably been the most impressive team over all in these playoffs and they have managed to take the Sabres completely out of their game.

Game Notes:

- 15 shots on goal from a Buffalo team that is built on offensive pressure? Only 5 shots in the third period?
- 0 for 18 on the power play for a team that boasted SEVEN 20 goal scorers in the regular season? Some folks on the Buffalo blogs were asking, perhaps in an effort to laugh to keep from crying, if the Sabres had the option of declining the penalties. (Believe me, as a Canes fan, I know how they feel).
- Buffalo managed only one shot on goal on 6 power plays.
- The Senators are now a NHL best 11-2 on the playloffs this season and have won 6 straight games.
- Ray Emery had 15 saves, while his defense came up with 13 blocks. It was Emery's third shutout of the playoffs. Ottawa's team defense was astounding. As exciting as the likes of Alfredsson, Heatley, Spezza, Comry, and Vermette can be on the offensive end, it's guys named Wade Redden, Chris Phillips, Andrej Mezaros, Anton Volchenkov, Tom Preissing, Joseph Korvos and Christoph Shubert who have been the unsung heros in this series.
- Daniel Alfredsson notched his 9th goal and leads the playoffs in scoring. He has now scored in 5 straight post-season games.
- As stated before, Miller was stout in net for the Sabres, stopping 31 of 32 shots, with several spectacular saves. He was awarded the third star of the game for his efforts.
- Dmitri Kalinin might be public ememy #1 in Buffalo right about now. He was abysmal on defense, looking completely lost and overmatched for most of the game. Even the studio guys on Versus were killing him. Scott Norwood, meet Dmitri Kalinin...
- As badly as Kalinin played at least he did manage one shot on goal...that matches the totals of Daniel Briere, Chris Drury and Thomas Vanek...COMBINED. Ouch.
- Hats off the the oft-maligned Maxim Afinogenov, who was the only Sabre not named Ryan Miller who bothered to bring his A-game tonight.
-Three stars: Daniel Alfredsson (Ottawa), Wade Redden (Ottawa), Ryan Miller (Buffalo)

As bad as things look at the moment, all is not completely lost for the Sabres, but it does not look good for the fans in upstate NY. Two teams in NHL history have come back from 0-3 deficits in the Stanley Cup playoffs (Toronto in 1942 and NY Islanders in 1975) . And as a life long Red Sox fan, I can attest to the fact that nothing is impossible. But it usually seems that way. The road back will be long, and the odds are against you but the cliches ring true...all the Sabres can do at this point is win the next game they play. Take it from Terry Francona, they don't need to worry about winning 4 straight, right now they just need to win the next game, and take it from there.

As a Cane's fan, I do not have a dog in this fight, but unlike a lot of my bretheren, I am not pulling against the Sabres in this series. I just want to see a good series. And for anything approaching that, Buffalo will have to play a lot better than they did tonight in Ottawa.

-m

Game On...

Opening night...what a feeling.

The Big ATM was packed to the rafters (where your's truly's seats were) and the Caniacs were stoked.

Banner raising ceremony drug out a bit, but I suppose these things usually do...I mean, when you are introducing everyone from the assistant to the assistant equipment manager and all your pro scouts, right up to Staal, Cole and Brind'Amour, well it's gonna take a little time. Karmanos got a nice ovation, Rutherford too. Place went nuts for Laviolette. But the biggest cheers of the night definitely came for Cole and Brind'Amour. To be expected. I was not in full playoff throat so I just enjoyed the spectacle. It was nicely done, not too over the top, not excruciatingly boring...though you could tell the players were getting antsy towards the end. I thought Commodore was going to turn and check Whitney into the boards, just to hit someone.

Well, it's done. That's it. Finished. Closure. Last year is over. Let's get it on...

Game Notes:

-The Canes came out early firing on all cylinders offensively, seemed as if the ice was tilted towards the Buffalo goal for most of the first period. Canes were obviously fired up and feeding off the adrenaline rush of the pre-game ceremony, and Buffalo might have been caught on their heels a little to start things off. As things settled down a bit, both teams started to really skate well. The first period was some exciting hockey to watch. But despite some good chances (Cole hit the post on a beautiful quick-wrister from point blank range), the Cane's could not crack Ryan Miller, who had a great night. At one point I glaced at the shot totals and it was 11-1 in favor of Carolina. Then a few moments later a puck deflected off of two or three players in front of the net and snuck past Ward. 1-0 Buffalo. 1 goal on two shots. Not a bad ratio.

- Both teams were a little flat in the second period as the penalties started to pile up. Eric Staal tied the score on a breakaway, after a beautiful long pass from Ray Whitney. Cam Ward actually was announced as the second assist on the play. As Ward cleared the puck from behind the net, Whitney picked it up near the blue-line and found Staal breaking free on MIller.

- The penalty kill units for both teams were strong, each killing off chunks of 5 on 3 time until Eric Cole snuck one past Miller late in the second period with the Sabres down two skaters. The goal came at the end of a long stretch of 5 on 3 for the Canes (they had almost 3 minutes of two man advantage in a 5 minute stretch of the period) and the roar from the crowd seemed to be as much a cry of relief as anything.

- Chris Drury, who always seems to be in the right place at the right time, tied the score for the Sabres on a nifty deflection past Ward.

- The third period was grinder with both teams skating hard but not generating many scoring chances. The Canes seemed to tire a bit perhaps, which might be expected under the circumstances - high emotions early, a tough, physical, high-paced game throughout. It had the feeling of playoff hockey in the spring time already. These two teams are obviously very evenly matched and share similar styles of play. If all goes to plan, they should be seeing a lot of each other again next spring. But that's a long way away.

- Both goalies played exceptionally well. Miller in particular, was stellar early in the game, withstanding the Cane's initial charge/burst of energy, and remained steady throughout. Ward seemed to take a bit longer to get into the flow, largely because he was not facing shots early, but was huge in the third and in the overtime. From my vantage point there was not a lot he could do on either of Buffalo's goals. By my completely unofficial count the Canes hit the post 4 times.

- Briere's goal in the shootout was a thing of beauty, while none of the Hurricane's shots on Miller had much of a chance. Wondering how much we are gonna be missing my boy Matt Cullen in the shootouts this year. For all of his skill Staal really seems to struggle in shoot-outs and on penalty shots.

- The new guys for the Canes (Gleason, Bellanger, Walker, Letowski) looked solid. Gleason looked especially good. Was really impressed with his play. He's a big kid who doesn't mind banging in the corners or along the boards. Looks good on both the power play and the penalty kill. Seems to have a nice shot from the point. Logged a lot of ice time, I have not seen the official numbers, but he had to have around 25 minutes. I was impressed.

- A lot of the chattter on the post game radio call-in seemed to be all about slamming David Tanabe. Not sure where that comes from or why. Tanabe did not have a great game, sure, but he was not blatantly horrendous either. But then again, I was not obsessed with watching his every move on the ice as some seemed to be. From where I sat, he just looked like a guy who was a little bit tight, trying to hard to make a big play or a big hit, which threw him just a little bit off his game. Maybe a little jittery on his return "home". Hopefully, he will settle down now that this first game is under his belt. We'll see. Definitely seems to have lost some of his speed after the knee surgeries, but still a fluid skater.

- Definitely a different feeling walking out of the RBC Center on Monday night that is was last time around. But I don't think that, no matter what happens, I'll ever have an experience at a sporting event as amazing as Game 7 against Edmonton. That was truly special. But it's over now. The banners have been raised. The Cup goes back to Toronto (ok, I think it will stick around for one more game). Time to turn the page. Time to start writing the book all over again. Chapter by chapter. Night by night.

Hockey is back and I could not be happier.

Game on indeed!

-m