Saturday, September 19, 2009

Epic Third Period Win is the New Epic Third Period Collapse

by Anne


Last year the Sabres suffered mightily at their own irresponsibility during the third period. These two pre-season games have been exactly the opposite.

The Sabres have scored a respectable six goals in two games. That sounds fine, but the truth is they scored six goals in two periods: both of the 3rd periods they've played.

They looked absolutely abysmal tonight against the Red Wings... until the third period. Same goes for the other night against the Caps.

Royzie managed to score on the power play, and Vanek scored on a nice little deflection of a Chris Butler shot from the blue line. Goose added the empty netter to seal the deal.

The star of the game was most definitely Miller. The Red Wings were relentless, shooting double digit shots on him in each period. Nice to see that Miller's "dumb" ankle has smartened up. He looked fantastic in his first game of the pre-season.


Denied.

Myers looked just ok tonight. He made a few poor choices, including the ill-advised decision to slide to the ice to block a shot that ended up being just one of several bad Sabres choices that ultimately ended in the Red Wings goal. He saw his 20+ minutes of ice time from the other night drop to just under 17:00 tonight. On the converse, Weber looked better and his hefty number of shifts (28, most on the team) reflected that play.

The Sabres managed to win in the faceoff department with Kennedy, Ellis and Gaustad each winning over 50% of their draws.

If you were to just look at the last two third periods, the Sabres look fantastic. However, games are 60 minutes, not 20 minutes long.

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Glossary... Sort of

  • "Ryan Miller Shutout" - A 58 minute, multi-goal shutout lead that is blown when Miller allows one meaningless goal
  • Britney or SabreBritney - Thomas Vanek
  • Butter Snaps - Carolina Hurricanes. Because Butter Snap pretzels, like the Carolina Hurricanes, are disgusting
  • Greener - MATT Greene (LAK)
  • JBG - Jolly Blonde Giant - Tyler Myers
  • Little Foot - Drew Stafford
  • MK - Anne's sister; often leaves nonsensical comments under her Twitter name Mmmkizzle
  • Oscar - Anne's cat

Because it's never not funny

Completely adorable