SabresNation Feature Content

For any fans that are new (post-lockout), you have for the last week or so been witnessing real hockey. The Sabres, I’m proud to say, have returned to hockey that is 90% grit.

Tonight, the Sabres (now 9-10-1) finished the home-and-home sweep of the Canadiens (12-7-3) in a perfect fashion. Old time, hard hitting, shot blocking hockey. Jocelyn Thibault, in a relief effort, dominated this position and did something Buffalo has rarely seen since the departure of Dominik Hasek- pitch a shutout.

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Newly acquired defenseman Nolan Pratt has already become a force on the Sabres’ team. Call up Clarke MacArthur (right) has already made it incredibly difficult to send him back to Rochester when Tim Charmin- ahem- Connolly returns from a abdominal muscle strain (supposedly Wednesday).

Pratt has made a porous defense at least respectable and MacArthur jumpstarted the Sabres pitiful offense with three goals and a plus one rating in five games this season.

Before MacArthur scored twice in the last game, the Sabres had not scored first in 12 consecutive games, going 3-8-1 in that span. Big difference from last year when we scored first in about 85% of our games.

Both have added key elements to the Sabres game. Pratt with his desire to win, and MacArthur with his hunger to stay in Buffalo. Both supply grit and command respect even though they aren’t the top side of NHL talent.

Finally, we stopped applying band-aids to fractures and are halfway through putting a cast on.

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Ahem, keep your clothes on. I’m talking about the Sabres’ play this season.

The Sabres have went on three losing streaks and two winning streaks so far in this month old season. Remember at this point last year when we were on one streak- winning?

That’s old news. Inconsistency has reached a different level in the newly named runner up to HockeyTown, USA (Minnesota was first in a recent article by Ross McKeon of Yahoo! Sports). Something Buffalo isn’t used to. Read the rest of this entry »

The Buffalo Sabres have been known since the lockout as the deepest team in the league, going all the way down to the farm system.

But no one realized when people said that, they only knew about the offensive depth, like Drew Stafford, Mike Ryan (both now starters), Clarke MacArthur, and Pat Kaleta.

The Sabres are only short of one thing in their organization (besides brains in the front office, anyways) and that’s NHL ready defensemen. Especially ‘defensive’ defenseman, like Jay McKee was. Read the rest of this entry »

 
Jochen Hecht, October’s Captain, has gotten his contract extended. The new deal is a four-year extension that keeps our current Captain here until the 2011-2012 season.

It seems that Larry Quinn has learned his lesson and revoked the no-contract talks during the season policy, albeit a year or so late. All it took was the departure of Buffalo’s faces of the franchise- but that’s neither here nor there. Read the rest of this entry »

Sign at the dotted line, please.

Six different Sabres scored- four of the goals coming on special teams opportunities. I think that might match our special team output for all of last year. Read the rest of this entry »

The Islanders, led by their newly acquired center Mike Comrie ran rampant on the Buffalo Sabres both Friday and Saturday.

The Isles’ top line scored 16 points combined lead by Comrie’s six (4+2=6). Buffalo, though looking much better with their backchecking and active sticks this year, looks much worse defensively and on special teams.

No, I didn’t know it was possible either. Read the rest of this entry »

Sabres/ Islanders.

7:30 PM, HSBC Arena, Buffalo, NY

It’s been too long, SABRES NATION, far too long. The Sabres haven’t even got to the annual Blue/White scrimmage yet, but fans all over the world are frothing at the mouth waiting for the aforementioned date to come around. (Actual photo, right)

Not only has it been too long since we’ve seen a game (let’s face it, SABRES NATION, MSG’s “Twelve to Remember” was nice, but sad because it seemed ever game focused on our beloved, now departed, co-Captains), but nothing worth remembering happened this summer. Read the rest of this entry »

Guys, I don’t think I’m the only one who is thinking this:

I WISH IT WAS OCTOBER! Read the rest of this entry »

 First off, let me apologize for my long absence, I assure you my thoughts have been here as much as possible. I had surgery and have put in over 40+ hours a week at the same time, so, as you can guess, I’ve been tied up.

Was I still frustrated when I saw that Thomas Vanek had been signed to a 7 year, $50 million contract?

Yes. And I had a darn good reason. Read the rest of this entry »