About the Sabres
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A preview of the Sabres.
Record: 28-22-8
Leading Scorer: Jason Pominville, 51 points (16 goals, 35 assists)
Last Game: 5-1 road loss against the Rangers Saturday.
Last Game Against The Penguins: 2-1 shootout loss at home Jan. 1. You may have heard about it. This game was played outdoors.
Sabres Player We Would Bet Money On Scoring: Thomas Vanek. He has 15 points (9 goals, 6 assists) in his last 14 games.
Ex-Penguins: Jocelyn Thibault, G.
Useless Sabres Trivia: Two former Penguins, Mike Ramsey (1983) and Jason Woolley (1999), share the Sabres record for most goals by a defenseman in a playoff season.
Best Sabres YouTube Videos We Could Find: We'd love to get a transcript of the conversation Matthew Barnaby is having with Rob Ray in this video.
NOTES:
-Sabres defensemen Brian Campbell and Jaroslav Spacek were on the ice for all four of the Rangers' first-period goals yesterday.
-Sabres Goaltender Ryan Miller was chased in yesterday's loss in New York.
-Things are a little different for the Penguins than the last time they went to Buffalo.
FIGHT NIGHT IN VANCOUVER
In the Canucks' 4-2 defeat of the Oilers last night, things went crazy. Apparently the teams got into an argument over who's Reebok Edge-Super-Duper-Mega-Ultra-Awesome-Humungo-Women-Will-Want-You Uniform System jersey was uglier. (And frankly, there is no winner in that argument.)
There were 14 fighting penalties, eight misconducts and 183 total minutes in penalties. Three misconduct penalties were doled out in the first 21 seconds of play and 10 fighting penalties were assessed in the final 40 seconds of regulation.
EMPTY NETTER ASSISTS
Penguins
-Sidney Crosby took part in a full-contact practice yesterday.
-The Sidney Crosby Show has some pictures of him practicing.
-People play hockey in Pittsburgh.
-The trade deadline is nine days away.
-John Curry made 23 saves for the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins in a 4-0 loss at Bridgeport. Marc-Andre Fleury did not dress for the game.
-EN Reader Adam Prince sent us a pretty evil-looking picture of Georges Laraque having a conversation with Ryan Whitney last week prior to their game in Carolina:
Atlantic Division
-Aaron Asham (huh?) scored two goals and Martin Brodeur made 37 saves in a 3-2 win at Ottawa. The win moved New Jersey within two points of the Senators for first place in the Eastern Conference.
-The Islanders out-shot the Thrashers 49-10 and claimed a 4-1 win. The Islanders and the Thrashers each set records for fewest shots allowed and taken in a game respectively. Sean Bergenheim had a goal and an assist.
-Check out this neat photo from the Islanders game.
-The Rangers signed defenseman Dan Girardi to a two-year contract extension.
-Rangers forward Marcel Hossa was assigned to Hartford of the AHL for a conditioning assignment. He has been out of the lineup since Jan. 14 with back spasms.
-Injured Flyers forward Simon Gagne will see a concussion specialist in Colorado.
-The Flyers' defense stinks.
-The NHL fined the Flyers $25,000 for allowing a ceremony honoring former goaltender Ron Hextall to run too long. We're normally in favor of anything that hurts the Flyers, but this is kind of stupid. Ron Hextall is one of that city's most beloved athletes. Let the fans show their love for Hextall.
-Something tells us Devils color commentator Glenn "Chico" Resch wasn't exactly a fun guy to be sitting around after he ate these nachos:
Northeast Division
-Canadiens Carey Price made 34 saves and recorded his first career shutout in a 1-0 defeat of the Flyers. You might be elated to know that this was Philadelphia's sixth consecutive loss but it pushed the Canadiens past the Penguins in the Eastern Conference standings. The Penguins are now in fifth place. Stupid Flyers.
-Check out how Andei Kostitsyn scored this game's only goal. Sick:
-Darcy Tucker's overtime goal gave the Maple Leafs a 4-3 win against Boston.
-Bruins defenseman Aaron Ward had trouble breathing for 20 minutes after he was checked in the throat by Penguins defenseman Sergei Gonchar last week.
-Eleanore Commodore, the mother of Senators defenseman Mike Commodore, has quite a jersey collection.
Southeast Division
-Trevor Letowski and Eric Staal each had a goal and an assist for the Hurricanes who edged the Panthers, 5-4.
-Hurricanes center Matt Cullen was activated from injured reserve after missing seven games with vision problems. To make room for him, defenseman Joey Mormina, who broke Penguins center Jeff Taffe's nose last week, was sent to Albany of the AHL.
-Alexander Semin had a goal and an assist for the Capitals in a 3-2 defeat of the Lightning.
-Thrashers forward Ilya Kovalchuk's knee injury is still bugging him.
-Panthers forward Richard Zednik returned home to Florida.
-Bucky Gleason of the Buffalo News had a pretty good piece on Zednik's recovery from his neck injury.
Central Division
-An overtime goal by Shea Weber gave the Predators a 2-1 win against the Blues.
-The Blackhawks will honor the victims of the shooting spree at Northern Illinois University today.
Northwest Division
-Flames defenseman Dion Phaneuf was run over by Kings forward Brian Boyle Friday night:
Forward Dustin Brown also got a good piece of Phaneuf
-Phaneuf came back with a solid hit of his own on Boyle later in the night:
Pacific Division
-Ed Jovanovski had a goal and two assists for the Coyotes in a 4-3 win at Los Angeles.
-Kings goaltender Dan Cloutier found an interesting way to use a second stick last night:
-Coyotes forward Bill Thomas, a native of Pittsburgh, was assigned to Phoenix of the AHL.
Wales Conference
-David Shoalts of the Globe and Mail had a pretty good piece about the trade deadline.
-Three years ago yesterday, the 2004-05 season was officially canceled.
-Three years after the lockout, players are now commanding a higher total payroll than they did during the 2003-04 season.
-Don Cherry's in favor of making neck guards mandatory:
-Random YouTube Find of the Day: Former Penguins goaltender Ron Tugnutt making 70 saves as a member of the Quebec Nordiques in a game in Boston in 1991:
-The Mid-Atlantic Hockey League pretty much shut down their inaugural season because they didn't have any money left. So naturally, players from one of the league's teams, the Jamestown Vikings, destroyed a historic landmark hotel in response. (Kudos to EN reader Alison Babel for the find.)
First Published February 17, 2008 7:23 am
