Sabres Open Five-Game Homestand

Drew Stafford celebrates after scoring to tie the game
with just under two minutes remaining in the third period.
(Bill Wippert/NHLI via Getty Images)

After pulling out to a three-goal lead in the first period of Wednesday's game against the Flyers, the Buffalo Sabres appeared to have strongly reciprocated how the Flyers quickly chased Ryan Miller from goal in their last meeting in Buffalo a month ago.  They also seemed to finally have snapped out of their losing funk on home ice.  But then the game went awry.

Maxime Talbot scored with less than a second left on the clock in the first period to make the game 3-1, which proved to be the turning point for the Flyers.  "It was tough to have it turn that sharp," said Ryan Miller.  Philadelphia Flyers left-winger Scott Hartnell said "It's something you don't want to do, get behind three goals, because sooner or later it's going to come back and become a bad loss.  But there was lots of hockey left, and we kept going.  As the game went on, we got stronger and stronger."

Hartnell said it proper.  The Flyers stiffened up defensively allowing the Sabres only five shots on goal in each of the remaining periods.  Their only lapse was when Drew Stafford (pictured left) one-timed the puck into the net to knot the game at four goals apiece with 95 seconds remaining.

The overtime period lasted just over two-and-a-half minutes until Flyers center Claude Giroux picked off a pass and broke clean down the ice for the breakaway game-winning goal.  Giroux's four-point night now has him leading the league with 36 points on the season.

Lindy Ruff wasn't pleased with his team's performance in front of the home crowd again.  “What killed us was what we did with the puck, our puck management.  It cost us probably four goals on the night.  Including the last play where we just threw it blind across the ice for a breakaway.”  What boggles me is how the Sabres can manage the puck so efficiently in another team's arena but they just cannot seem to do it at home.  After Wednesday, the Sabres are 6-8-2 at home and 8-3-0 away.  The only team with a better winning percentage on the road are the Flyers (10-3-1).  I think the Sabres need to relax at home, loosen the grip on their sticks, and just play some hockey.


Besides the bad pass in overtime, the Sabres did play well offensively and the goals by Ville Leino and Zach Kassian are definitely worth another look.  In this play, Adam, Kassian and Leino hooked up for a perfect tic-tac-toe of a goal to open the scoring.  Kassian responded later in the first period with an Ovechkin-type laser-beam goal of his own bringing Sabres lead to two.

While the Sabres did not come out as the victors, it was another one of those action-packed Sabres/Flyers games that the rivalry always brings upon us.  This game, along with other nationally televised games from around the league make me wonder.  I don't know how Versus picks such outstanding displays of hockey to televise but they never seem to fail.  Physicality was plentiful in the form of fights and hard hits along with enough odd-man rushes and stone-cold saves to keep the crowd unusually alive and kicking at the First Niagara Center.  Lately, I have really noticed the bitter silence that lingers in the arena.  Wednesday's game did the opposite though as believe it or not, there were a few "Let's Go Buff-a-lo" chants.

The injury bug has not finished eating it's way through the Sabres lineup just yet.  It seems the Sabres lose a player to injury every game nowadays.  While Nathan Gerbe just returned from a facial laceration, it looks as though he'll be missing more time.  In the second period, Philadelphia's Marc-Andre Bourdon hit Gerbe from behind into the boards.  Gerbe did not return to the game.  Afterwards, Lindy Ruff said Gerbe was not feeling "clear" and will miss some time with an upper-body injury.  Although we can only hope it is not a concussion related injury despite Lindy's hints, Ryan Miller was held out of last season as we all can remember with what was known as "an upper-body injury," only to be revealed later as a concussion.

The Sabres are now without seven injured regulars as they continue their homestand with two games this weekend against the Panthers on Friday and Rangers on Saturday.