I was pretty disappointed with the play of the Sabres against the Red Wings last Saturday. If it wasn’t obvious to anyone before, Detroit is a much better team than the Sabres. They’re a perennial Stanley Cup contender. The final score was 3-1, but the score doesn’t adequately reflect the Red Wings performance. The Sabres were out-shot 48-22 by the Red Wings. Detroit had more shots in the third (23) than the Sabres had in the entire game. Wow.
This game reminded me of some of the regular season games against Ottawa three or four years ago. The Sens, like the Red Wings, used to badly beat us with superior puck control and skating. The Sens would score something like six or seven goals, and the game wouldn’t even be close. This Detroit game, likewise, wasn’t even close. » Read the rest of this entry «
The Sabres have a defensive system in place where they try to mix young developing defenseman with cerebral older veterans. If you look back, you see it in every Sabres team since Lindy Ruff’s been coaching here. The Sabres prefer a quick skating, puck control type of defense. It works well if you have the right players. But the effectiveness of this defense is also directly dependent on the forwards and defenseman playing within the system.
That means that the players need to play with a lot of effort. The Sabres win when they play harder than other teams. That’s fine, I’m confident with Lindy Ruff’s ability to motivate his players but this is the National Hockey League, everyone is literally a professional. As an organization, you can’t expect your professional team to outwork every other professional team in order to win games. » Read the rest of this entry «