Buffalo’s Back
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After struggling at the beginning of the year the Buffalo Sabres are slowly starting to look like the Sabres of old. Well maybe not quite the Sabres of old, but a team with talent, a team capable of winning and a team that causes pain for the Canadiens.
The Sabres defeated Montreal a week ago and also put the league best Senators down 3-0 in the first period on their way to a 4-2 victory.
They are dangerous right now, and they just happen to be playing a back to back series against Montreal.
Two Divisional “4 point” games, a possible 8 point swing in the standings.
Should the Sabres find a way to beat the Canadiens twice that could slowly start them creeping back into the Division.
The Canadiens on the other hand, have a real chance to put them deep in the cellar while gaining on the Senators who have dropped 3 out of the last 4 games.
Carey Price gets the start tonight in Buffalo.
- goalie : I can't type.... what a faux pas on my behalf...
- goalie : I just realized what I said adn didn't say yesterday. What a fayx as on my behalf. Regarding coaching Randy Cunnyworth MUSDT stay as an assistant- he deserves at least that after the tremendous job he did in the latter part of this past season. I'd still mlike to have Robinson, Carbo adn Allard on the staff also.
- Avatar37 : I agree Senet, my choice if we can't have Cunneyworth would be Crawford, Robinson on defense, Cunneyworth for offense, and Carbo as offense/faceoffs .
- Senet1 : I think if I had my choice it would be Crawford and see if he could get Carbo and Robinson as assistants. That would be my idea coaching team.
- goalie : I witnesed Marc Crawford MANY times when the Avs, etc. played against Oilers and let me tell you - he is constantly on the referees asses virtually game after game. He is the complete OPPOSITE of J. Martin. Crawford is calm on TSN but he is one excited coach behind the bench. A friend of mine who was an NHL linesman for 26 years said they dreaded Crawford he was so tough on the officials!
- goalie : You know, I've bee thinking about the coaching situation. I'd be really excited if the Habs had Hartley as head coach and Carbo adn Robinson as his assistants. I also read it somewhere about a month ago that Toronto's goalie coach Allard (?) wants to relocate back to Montreal where he has his goaltending school/business. Add him to the mix and I'd say the Habs would be in great shape coaching wise.
- Avatar37 : Well, from what I recall, Hartley didn't do all that well with the Thrashers. But, I don't know enough about him to judge one way or the other. Crawford I do know, and he always seemed to be a good, level headed coach to me.
- Senet1 : even Pacioretty two years ago did not impress any of us. Younger players have to play and make mistakes and learn from those mistakes. If they sit in the press box they are learning nothing.
- Senet1 : Of course if he have some good assistants like a Larry Robinson to teach the young defence and someone like Carbo to teach faceoffs etc. then your coach does not have to be as good at teaching. If Hartley fits the bill you get no argument from me. My only previous point is that if he is impatient with your younger players to the point that he does not play them, then we are right back where we were with Martin. Martin was a good coach too, but how he handled Emelin, PK and even Pacioretty two
- goalie : I would like to see the Habs sign a coach who realizes that our team isn't tough enough (we need to get bigger and somewhat more nastier),the coach needs t be a great TEACHER and be a coach who can get the players to understand and buy into his system. Other than that I couldn't care what lingo he speaks. I wnat to see our team become a ligitimate contender fast!
- HabsLoseAgain : Well we dont know if he is or is not a teaching coach. I woukd just hate to paint Hartley something that he is not. There will always be questions but if Hartley was hired as the habs new bench boss i for one would not be overly upset.
- Senet1 : My thoughts are not that he is or is not a good coach but rather that when he won the cup he had an experience team of superstars on that team. Where as we have a group of young inexperienced players, is he a teaching coach or a tactical coach or both? I am not question whether he is a good coach, but my question therefore is he the coach for us at this point in the deveopment of our team?? Not sure we are all purely speculating at the moment?
- Senet1 : Something happened to my first post. I will try again.
- Senet1 : That is why I said I am not sure he is the coach for us at this time? Right now we are all speculating including yourself, because non of us know for sure?
- HabsLoseAgain : Crawford also won a cup with Patrick Roy so would you say he is a good coach or did he just have great players and one of the best goaltenders of alltime?
- HabsLoseAgain : Senrt so please give me some reasons why you think Hartley is not the coach the habs need right now. What is it that you do not like about him or his coaching style?
- HabsLoseAgain : Well all great coaches had great players playing for them so i guess you you add a a pile of other coaches to that list including Bowan......
- Senet1 : Hartley, was he a good coach or did he just have great players and one of the best altime goaltenders of all time. I am not sure that he is the type of coach that this organization needs right now. Unless of course we sign a ton of free agents.
- Avatar37 : However, my feelings may completely be wrong, Hartley may turn out to be a good fit.
- Avatar37 : I didn't say Hartley was unknown, I said we demoted a good coach in Cunneyworth and now have an unknown quantity because we don't have a coach. I don't have that great a feeling about Hartley, I'd be much more comfortable with Crawford.
- HabsLoseAgain : In my opinion i think he might be a good fit in montreal. Oh and he also likes to have a tough team.
- HabsLoseAgain : Also this year he coached the ZSC Lions to the swiss championship title.
- HabsLoseAgain : lol the so called "unknown" won a cup in 2000-2001 with the colarado avalanch.
- HabsLoseAgain : lol Bob Hartley is not an unknown lol.....sheesh.
- Senet1 : I think he has until the trading deadline to show us that he deserves to be on this team. If he does not get back on track then he could be simply a 2nd round draft pick to whoever we can trade him to.
- Avatar37 : Bourque reminds me of Pouliot, size, skill, and invisible. He needs to get back to playing a physical game and bang people around and maybe he'll start getting some of those garbage goals again. Need to get to the front of the net. I hope he can find his game again.
- Avatar37 : We had a good coach in Randy Cunneyworth. Now we have an unknown, with Bob Hartley rumoured to be the front runner. I'd rather have Cunneyworth.
- goalie : A player like Rene Bourwue has al the physical attributes of what would be a beter than average player. Hwever, he certainly didn't play that well especially after being in Montreal about three weeks. We NEED players like Rene to play hard AND produce points on a REGULAR BASIS in order for us to be competitive.
- Senet1 : MONTREAL – Rene Bourque had a rocky start to his career as a Hab, but he’s planning on using the next four years to make up for it. After arriving in Montreal under less-than-ideal circumstances in January, Bourque spent the following 38 games hoping to find the spark he needed to rekindle his offensive production. Despite flanking Tomas Plekanec on the team’s second line to close out the season, the 30-year-old sniper suddenly found himself firing blanks in his new NHL home.
- Senet1 : I think we have to be patient and not expect too much too soon. Let's get a strong management team in place, make a good choices in the draft get a good coach and then see what we need at the free agent market. I will not be too disapointed if we miss the playoffs again next year if it means a long term team success. We have the opportunity to make some major strides over the next two years at the draft table. Then we fill in the holes.
- goalie : I certainly agree that we need to get some impact forwards who will sign for 5 years, not for a season then walk away. That's not going to help us.
- goalie : I wouldn't trade PK for Ovetchkin no matter what. He is a coach's NIGHTMARE and a poor team player.
- Senet1 : I believe he will as we graducally put better players around him and build this team.
- Senet1 : Goalie I agree with Avatar. PK is the present and future of this teams defence. I would not even take Staal from Pittsburg unless I had him tied up in a long term contract of a Minimum of 5 years. Also once has to consider the salary difference. Pk is on the move up probably 3M plus for his next contract and then eventually 4-5M if he keeps on improving. He has moved his game up two gears since he came into the league 2 years ago. He now has to move to the next level and I believe he will as w
- Avatar37 : pressure playing in Montreal, since he has problems with the expectations in Washington and Montreal isn't any easier. Then again, the media were very easy on Kovalev, so maybe it's a Russian thing? No idea. Anyway, yeah, it would have to be an established star that gives us an immediate drastic upgrade at forward, that's the only way I'd trade PK, because we'd be giving up a potential QB on our blueline for the next decade.
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November 23, 2007 at 3:52 pm
Hopefully, this team will avenge last week’s poor effort against the sabres. Buffalo is
probably feeling pretty good with their win over the sens, (and rightly so). If we catch
them napping 4 points could be had this week-end.
Enjoy!
November 23, 2007 at 3:57 pm
I could go for a Buffalo Burger tonite.
Lets go Price get your first Shutout Kid..
Lets go Ryder score a couple, two or three goals and shut up those bahsers..
Lets go boys. Lets go.
November 23, 2007 at 4:04 pm
Can anyone figure out why Buffalo has managed to beat two good teams in a week? They outplayed Ottawa, and they definitely outplayed Montreal a week ago. They have very little talent, and Lindy Ruff is honestly not that great of a coach. The only thing that I can think of is that Tim Connolly is setting up plays.
Even so, Ottawa couldn’t get past the neutral zone trap and get much going. I will be forced to watch the game on the Sabres station MSG, so I won’t get to here the great calling from RDS, but Go Habs! I’m sure they can pull one off and shut the Buffalo loud mouths up! (I live in Buffalo now, and Sabres fans are far more annoying than Leafs or Sens fans)
November 23, 2007 at 4:53 pm
Sabres fans more annoying than Ottawa fans?? Let alone Leafs fans??? Thats a strong statement..but I have no idea what Buffalo fans are truly like…I’m sure they’re walkin around with the tail between their legs theses days though with their record…I’m a Habs fan in Ottawa…and this rink has the worst atmosphere and location (WAYYYY out in Kanata); I’ve pretty well stopped going to games there…
Let’s have a huge game tonight Price!! This guy is our future for sure, I’ve decided he is the name to go on the back of my sweet new Habs RBK jersey I got this year!!
GO HABS GO!!!
November 23, 2007 at 5:15 pm
Hey jeff dont let buffalo fool you. They are still a very good team even without drury and breire.They are on a bit of a roll and should not be taken lightly. GO HABS GO
November 23, 2007 at 5:41 pm
I seem to remember that Ruff out-coached Carbonneau each game last year…
November 23, 2007 at 6:03 pm
Come on Habs!!!! I’m actually confident that the habs could win both of these games! AND THEN BEAT THE MAPLE CRAPS!
November 23, 2007 at 6:58 pm
How come when Huet loses a game by playing “well” but not “amazing” and we lose. vey idiot blames him and says he sucks…morons! then we he steals another game we had no business winning, like many we won over the last 2 years, no one says a word about him and Price
Why is price starting tonight????? This is exactly why Huet is not as consistent as we want him to be….what other teamhas a goalie with a g.aa of 2.00 and a sv prcentage of 9.37 and only starts him half the games????? what is wrong with carbo?
November 23, 2007 at 7:03 pm
P.S. Ryder is not coming up out his slump, just like Samsonov was never the same, just like Theodore was never the same…..Why? The fans, the media, people on here….you play one or 2 bad games to start the year and people grind you in to te ground until the pressure finishes you off….Good thing Roy got out in time to save his career.. I get Huet full marks being the amazing goalie he still is and every games he loses by one goal, even if he lets in 3 goals , he gets made the scapegoat…ridiculous
and we aren’t going anywhere long term with some “real” top offensive stars…at least one…..koivu has heart…kovalev is heartless and only plays when he feels like it…can’t count on a bum like that….who else do we have? higgins can’t do it all….get out your chequebook gainey or trade and make it happen…I think we are all pretty sick of the “no one wants to play here” routune…although we can understand why if you listen to the ignorant bashers
November 23, 2007 at 8:06 pm
y’know this talk about bashers….enough already…!!!
The way to fix that whole discussion is to give 100%. Sure we the fans will still be pissed if we lose but then it’ll be a management thing. Right now, it feels (don’t get me wrong, it’s a different team than last year’s), the Habs have been in all their games for the most part, like we have a better team but we aren’t all pulling in the same direction. Sort of like working on 3 cylinders at any one time yet we have 6 cylinders. The main key is the goaltending and on most night it’s been stellar. Knock it off with Huet, there was a time when we had Dryden & Larocque and the Canadiens had offensive power to boot and they were matched to provide great tandem. So here we are just at the brink….we know where this can go we’ve been there far too often. I just wish the team played a solid performance. Man to man take out a complete check, set each other up and shoooooooot! Y’know it’s about the third game later….y’know Kovalev has one good game and then he’s invisible for the next three. I think we might see him tonight. As far as Ryder goes we need to bring two guys with energy to open space and get him the puck. Of course he’s got to shoot on net when the opportunity presents itself. So can we win these two games – yes! Are we?, that depends on whether we work on three, four, or six cylinders. The reason Buffalo is progressively better is that they have speed and get under the other team’s skin and eventually they bang the puck in. So eliminate this by counter attacking none of this laid back dump out and watch them come back…ala Ottawa game. This is where Carbonneau needs to shake his head and motivate the guys to go after the other team and become the pests/shakers to cause errors and take advantage. Come on…let’s go….!!!
November 23, 2007 at 8:32 pm
Did anyone catch the pre-game on RDS? I caught the very end and I think they were talking about fighters? Anyone kind enough to summarize was Demers et al. were saying? Thanks
November 23, 2007 at 9:03 pm
@MR Big Time.
Let me describe a Sabres fan to you. You can never question their dedication, because they always think that their team is going to win the cup, regardless of how bad they are doing. And you can’t talk hockey with them because besides knowing a few superstars, they only know their team. They have no idea how other teams are doing. They don’t understand how the game is played they blame the fact that they haven’t won a cup in 37 years on “bad luck.” Unlike a Sens or Leafs fan you can’t talk hockey with them, because they think the NHL has only one team.
I’d rather live in Florida where at the people admit they know nothing about hockey
If you want to understand the over enthusiasm of Buffalo listen to the Sabres radio at NHL.com. Then imagine someone who doesn’t announce hockey for a living and knows less talking.
November 23, 2007 at 11:04 pm
Listless. At least they didn’t get rewarded with any points for that effort. They came around at the end, and would have one point if not for a terrible call, but they’ll play better tomorrow night.
Ryder and Latendresse need a few games in the minors to get their confidence back. It’s not punishment, but neither or them are playing with any confidence at all, and I think the slower space and a chance to throw some hits and score some goals would bring them back around for the rest of the year. As it stands, those two are wasting space on the ice and I’m sure that they know this: it’s not helping them to have to play one bad game after another.
Price looks good. Higgins might be hurt. And Plekanac is ripping it up.
November 23, 2007 at 11:19 pm
It was not the penalty that cost them this game. It was the Stupid *** D-men. 4 Habs D-men could not move one Buffalo player away from the net come on. The D-men were the blame for all goals.
Price did a great job again tonite only for the D-men to blow it for him.
The Habs from last year are back. Win one loose one. Win one loose one.
The habs will not put together a winning streak of no more than 2 games for the rest of the year. Mark my words. The 9th place team is back….
November 23, 2007 at 11:22 pm
11th place team!
November 23, 2007 at 11:33 pm
Ya I agree, we need some goal scorers that score ,fighters that can fight, and D men that can control the action or we will get cooked,sad but true……
November 23, 2007 at 11:58 pm
I remember how bad it was at the end of last year–this is not that team. And this team also has more depth, at least insofar as it actually has two lines that can compete in the NHL and a third line that does well as a checking line. The fourth line isn’t NHL caliber, and I don’t mean the line itself but rather the bottom 3 forwards on the team, but that can be fixed for next year. A few of the D had a tough night tonight, but the forward lines weren’t anything close to brilliant.
I realize that they probably can’t send Ryder to the minors, but Latendresse isn’t getting any better and in fact I’d say that he’s playing worse than he did last year (when he was quite good). Now that the winning streak is on hold, I hope they shake things up and fix some of the squeaky spots for the long run.
November 24, 2007 at 12:07 am
here’s an interesting stat: in the last 42 road games, dating back to last December, Koivu has only 1 goal! that tells you a little bit about our so called 1st line. It is not a 1st line. Until that issue is resolved, and we get a power forward with scoring ability to put on the 1st line, this broken record will continue.
In their last 10 games, the habs are 5 and 5. They’re playing only 500, win one, lose one scenario. Playing 500 the rest of the season, won’t get you into the playoffs, and this team, without changes, won’t get the job done. Reality is starting to set in. Sorry hab fans, but the smooth ride is about to get real bumpy.
November 24, 2007 at 12:10 am
We will see where this team is come the last game of the year………
It will not be pretty………… you can all bookmark my comment… Carbo could not teach a dog to sit. Gainey could not run a ***** house ………..
November 24, 2007 at 12:38 am
so what’s the answer? We all know Gainey won’t be fired, but if the habs fail to make the playoffs, Carbo is gone. He’s not a great coach, but let’s face it. Gainey didn’t give him much to work with. I think until players around the league want to play here, we’ll have this stalemate. It requires some aggressive action from the Gillett on down. Let’s see how it will play out.
November 24, 2007 at 12:53 am
Yes, we will see Dude…….
November 24, 2007 at 3:32 am
You know last year I was pretty hard on KOVALEV,it was frustrating to see the most dominating and talented hockey player be so mediocre.I am so corrected by the Kovalev this year,good on you man, you go dude. So what I am trying to say is ,for a guy that’s been around for a while , you still impress me dude,NOT EASY TO DO!!!!
November 24, 2007 at 1:22 pm
we just need a better supporting cast around him, then watch his stats elevate.
November 24, 2007 at 6:39 pm
Habs2bfan how many assists does koivu have in those 42 games? probably at least 35-40.
November 26, 2007 at 12:30 am
Saku has 3 goals in 12 road games this year… poor stat, but better than stated