The Sabres Slide

So it’s another game, and another loss for the Sabres.  As Ed Kilgore on WGRZ put it, they appear to be in a free fall.  Again, it’s early in the season, and early to panic, but now comes a time fans have learned to dread.  The Sabres have gotten off to great starts in the past two years, only to go into a slide and never fully regain their momentum.  This has resulted in missing the post season by a few points each time.

Although none of the last three games have looked nearly as catastrophic as the game against the Flyers, and fans were hopeful after the OT loss to the Bruins, the last two games have been just plainly frustrating.  The game against the Senators was, by all accounts, much closer than the score reflects.  Vanek opened up the scoring in the first, and although they were still making slightly sloppy passes, they were moving.  Normally a good sign.  Then came the second, the defense fell apart in front of Lalime, and it was down hill from there.  Although valiant attempts were made in the third, with goals by Kaleta and Pominville, it just wasn’t enough.  I know Lindy has said repeatedly, that they do not need to address goaltending when Lalime is between the pipes, yet this is his second start, and second loss.  I’m willing to be the bigger person, and not completely blame him, but then what exactly is it that causes the defense to fall apart when he’s on the ice?  Because if you aren’t going to address the goalie, then I’m pretty sure that’s the next place to be looking.  I’ll admit, I’ve never played ice hockey, and I don’t get paid big bucks to coach a professional sports team, but I’d like to think that after years of playing sports like Field Hockey (Go Lady Panthers!), I have a general grasp of things that need to be worked on.  Since there is no way Miller can play every game, as much as we might like him to, please, please, fix it… I don’t care how.

As for Wednesday’s game, there were parts that, again, had me on the edge of my seat… unfortunately they weren’t for good reasons.  With six of the Caps top players injured, and also being on a three game slide, they showed that they can band together and get it done, even if it’s not the prettiest of games.   And it was an ugly game all around.  The Sabres just couldn’t find the back of the net no matter what they did, and the frustration was visible on the faces of Vanek, Roy, and Pominville.  There were plenty more sloppy passes, and they seem to have broken away from the “20ft pass” rule that Ruff had instituted earlier in the season.  Last, what should’ve been a rallying call for the Sabres, instead became one for the Caps, when Ovechkin drew a major for slamming Kaleta into the boards in the third and was removed from the game.  Although he had scored early in the first, the Capitals play was almost as sloppy as the Sabres, and didn’t have any energy.  As hoped, the Sabres immediately went for the Caps net, but were denied again and again, and instead Fehr was fed the puck from behind the Sabres net, and was able to get it past Miller.  Which leads me to the one thing that was decent about this game, the goaltending.  Varlamov earned his first career shut out, and Miller made some impressive saves.

Now I’m stuck dreading the Flyers/Sabres match up on Friday afternoon, and hoping that something clicks someplace and the Sabres can work their way back up the standings.  I still believe that we have a top notch team, and believe we can make it at least to the second round of the cup finals, if not all the way to the honored Stanley Cup.  Until then, hope everyone celebrating Thanksgiving has a great Turkey Day with their families and friends.

As always, feel free to leave comments, and get ahold of me on Twitter via abecker15.