Live from Philly -- a needed victory

PHILADELPHIA --The Sabres needed to win Tuesday, and they did. Guess what? They need to win Wednesday, as well.

The Sabres played a solid game during a 5-2 victory over the Flyers. The were able to get the puck out of their own zone, and they did it with style. A long pass set up the game-winning goal early in the third period. The Flyers were livid that the play came while the "short-handed" Sabres had five guys on the ice, but as Derek Roy said, they got away with one.

There's no time to relax. They host red-hot Alexander Ovechkin and the Capitals on Wednesday night. The Sabres' win pulled them within a point of the Flyers, but a Capitals win would pull Washington within a point of Buffalo.

They said every game is big from here on out, and they were right.

-------

9:32 p.m.: Sabres pull within one point of eighth-place Flyers with a 5-2 victory.

9:06 p.m.: Afinogenov shows the talent that makes him so dangerous when he's on, makes it 5-2 with 14:03 left. Biron goes to bench.

8:58 p.m.: Derek Roy scores on breakaway 1:06 into second period. Only 18 seconds later, Jason Pominville makes it 4-2 Sabres.

8:50 p.m.: Flyers fans cheer an announcement that Brett Favre has retired. Not sure if they're honoring one of the NFL's all-time greats or happy that Packers are now likely weaker than Eagles.

8:15 p.m.: Steve Downie ties it at 2-all with 5:51 gone in second.

8:12 p.m.: "Official" announcement on Tallinder is shoulder injury, will not return.

7:50 p.m.: End of first, Sabres lead, 2-1, but they are down one defenseman.

7:48 p.m.: Henrik Tallinder goes down (concussion?) after getting hit from behind into board by Upshall. Tallinder booed as Jason Pominville and Derek Roy help him to dressing room with 3.4 seconds left in first.

7:45 p.m.: Flyers get power play on roughing calls to Patrick Kaleta and RYAN MILLER. The goalie went after Scott Hartnell for jamming at crease, starting 10-man tussle. Kaleta also gets 10-minute misconduct, while Hartnell gets roughing penalty.

7:37 p.m.: Scottie Upshall cuts Sabres' lead to 2-1 with 5:26 left in first.

7:25 p.m.: Defenseman Jaroslav Modry give them real reason to boo. He imitates a pylon -- check that, he imitates a crumpled pylon -- as Maxim Afinogenov skates by him and puts a backhand between Martin Biron's legs to make it 2-0 with 9:55 gone.

7:24 p.m.: Flyers fans boo their own team for first time during stagnant power play. That didn't take long.

7:13 p.m.: Jason Pominville tips a tipped Henrik Tallinder shot. Sabres up, 1-0, just 1:02 in.

7:11 p.m.: Game on.

7:08 p.m.: Flyers national anthem singer and Philly institution Lauren Hart introduced. No booing, unlike the mixed reception for Doug Allen.

6:30 p.m.: The Flyers take the ice for the pregame skate, and the hot rumor buzzing the press box turns out to be true. No Daniel Briere tonight. The former Sabres captain sprained his right shoulder against the New York Rangers on Sunday and is out.

---John Vogl

Comments

[John]

VERSUS should not have to explain the rules to its viewers. Let's face it, people who watch hockey on Versus are not newbies---they are hockey fans---and they already know the rules. I don't know where the notion of "first time viewers" comes from.

The only sport that gets OTOs (one-time-only) is the Super Bowl, just look at the ratings, and I didn't hear Aikman and Buck explaining the rules to the 15 percent of OTO viewers (numbers based on 28 rating for NFC Championship Game and 43.3 Super Bowl rating).

An national NHL broadcast gets a 0.6 to 2.3 rating depending on the network, so the guy in Alabama---he ain't watching. Even in Buffalo, a great rating for a Sabres game is 13.0, meaning that 87 percent of WNYers are not watching. More people are interested in American Idol than the NHL and even the Buffalo Sabres.

[Myles]

Yeah I probably complain too much about the announcing on Versus and they are showing me three Buffalo games in three weeks so I have to hand it to them for that.

[John M.]

Where did TBN get the idea that Doug Allen is booed? As a season ticket holder I can tell you he never is. He is loved in that arena. People yell “Doug” or “Dougie" when he comes on.

[Slim]

The home of Monster Truck Shows and Wrestling is supposed to handle NHL? It's the NHL that has to prove it is big league to networks/cable. In other words, the Commish has to make the point about professional announcers....but then, they'd have to pay them. These guys obviously do it for a few bucks and a case of beer.

[Casey]

Hey John, way to unleash the fury on that caps lock key. I know you mean business!

And hating the Versus commentary has nothing to do with a hometown bias, and everything to do with them not calling the action, not explaining stoppages in play, not showing penalty replays, not explaining penalties, and a full half-period interview being conducted while play occurs on the ice.

If the NHL is expecting people unfamiliar to hockey to tune in and understand the game, Versus is a joke. They don't explain the rules. They don't call the action. They make the game seem as exciting as a staring contest, with the occasional blink. If I were a new-comer to this game and watched a game on Versus (or NBC for that matter), I would tune out too, as I'd have no idea what the hell was going on.

[John]

listen to the GR Internet broadcast for many games. Typically once a week it goes silent in the second period and never comes back. I've e-mailed GR about it but never got a response.

Posted by: Ken | March 05, 2008 at 10:33 AM

I had the wgr website synched up for a little while but you lose the timing every commercial. For the whole second period I got the gr broadcast over the internet pretty good but then it was off the rest of the night.

P.S. Anyone wanting to do this, DVR really helps.

Posted by: tim | March 05, 2008 at 10:12 AM

I agree teh commentary last night on Versus was terrible. So was the commentary during the fight. The talked about Miller bolting out of the net but we never really saw it. And can somebody please sit these guys down for thrity minutes and go through all the players names.

CAN YOU PEOPLE GET A LIFE AND FOR ONE GAME JUST WATCH THE VERSUS COVERAGE WITHOUT BITCHING ALL THE TIME? WHY MAKE LIFE DIFFICULT FOR YOURSELF BY WATCHING VERSUS AND LISTENING TO THE RADIO? DO YOU HAVE TO JENNERETTE AND NEALE FOR EVERY GAME?

VERSUS DOES A FINE JOB WITH THE NHL. WHY DO WNYers CRITICIZE A NETWORK THAT WANTS TO BROADCAST NHL GAMES DESPITE THE ATROCIOUS RATINGS THAT THEY GET?

ANYBODY WHO LISTENS TO THE HOMETOWN ANNOUNCERS ALL YEAR ALWAYS THINKS THE NATIONAL BROADCASTER HAVE A BIAS AGAINST THEIR TEAM.

IT AIN'T TRUE.

[Ken]

I listen to the GR Internet broadcast for many games. Typically once a week it goes silent in the second period and never comes back. I've e-mailed GR about it but never got a response.

[tim]

I had the wgr website synched up for a little while but you lose the timing every commercial. For the whole second period I got the gr broadcast over the internet pretty good but then it was off the rest of the night.

P.S. Anyone wanting to do this, DVR really helps.

[Myles]

I agree teh commentary last night on Versus was terrible. So was the commentary during the fight. The talked about Miller bolting out of the net but we never really saw it. And can somebody please sit these guys down for thrity minutes and go through all the players names.

[Don H]

The NHL should move from Versus to the Comedy channel because the production and announcers on Versus are laughable and the Comedy channel might be an improvement. A full ten minutes of second period play were devoted to an interview with a representative of the NHLPA while action continued with little or no comment. Three or four times after commercial breaks viewers learned for the first time that penalties had caused the stoppage in play. The NHL on Versus is a national joke.

[Tim]

DAVID IN BALTIMORE -- At the 1st intermission, Jonsey thinks that Bernier could be a 50 goal scorer someday. I think Brian Engblam (is that the other guy?) agreed with him but didn't go quite as far as to quote those numbers. I think they spent maybe 60 seconds on it. You didn't miss anything.

[Paul Theriault]

Kaletta 3 minutes of ice time, sabres win.
Peters, 4 minutes, sabres win. TOTALLY WORTHLESS PLAYERS WITH NO NHL TALENT!!!
Tallinder shows his soft side again.
Roy, if he ain't divin' or cryin' he's cheating and getting away with it.....hmmm
the Sabres' new recipe for success!!!!

[cranky]

Tallinder goes out and no goals are scored against the Sabres. I hope he recovers well and soon but that he is benched along with Kalinin.

I'm fine with keeping Kalinin as a scratch, too. Forever.

Lydman has his good and bad moments. What do you expect from a guy who listens to Scandanavian Heavy Metal all the time?

[JW]

I love Jeannerett, we all do, but if you're paying for Versus, you shouldn't have to stream someone else's play-by-play. Also, how ironic is it that they run an interview of some boring hockey union leader complaining about how they need to increase American hockey fans instead of commenting on the end to end action that's going on!! That would never fly in the other 3 major sports. Versus sucks and if it's not careful, it's gonna kill hockey in this country.

[DAVID IN BALTIMORE, ALWAYS A SABRE FAN]

Why not take the Sabres radio feed streaming live via internet, and if you subscibe to NHL Direct (both the TV version AND the on-line version), at least you can watch Sabres home games with Rick Jeannerett, and when the Sabres are on the road stream the radio while watching the home team cable feed - when the Sabres are not on Versus or NBC.

Both are a god send for ex-Buffalonians who want to feel connected to the hometown coverage.

FOr those who watched Versus... between period 1 and 2 they were going to analyze the Campbell trade. I missed it... what was their conclusion?

[Jason]

Here's the comment I left for the folks over at Versus:

I watched the Sabres-Flyers game tonight, and I would like to make a few comments known on the atrocious announcing and camera work. My first and biggest concern is during the fighting toward the end of the first period, when Biron skated out of his net to the blue line, instead of showing the ACTION, your producers showed the camera zooming in on Biron as he STOOD THERE, WATCHING THE ACTION!!! Names are constantly mispronounced (preparation, guys), and long interviews while a game is going on are a terrible idea. If I still lived in Buffalo, I would have had the game on mute with radio commentary within the first three minutes. One of my friends uses his Tivo to synch up your video with the Sabres' announcing team's audio. I think that with the playoffs coming, should the Sabres qualify I will have to start paying for DVR service to avoid these second-rate broadcasts. Please do hockey fans a favor and give the TV rights back to ESPN where they belong, or strike some kind of deal that would allow the home team's announcers to call the game on Versus. At least your broadcasts are better than the ones on HDNet... I miss Hockey Night in Canada.

[doug]

If you go to the Versus website, you can click on feedback and complain about their play-by-play. I did earlier and wanted to know why on earth they had an 11 min. interview during the action.

[waz]

The PA announcer mustve heard ur Goosery, he just Pronounced Gaustad as Goosetad.

[Champ Kind Sports]

It is I just googled gaggle... what the hell does a flock of geese have to do with the eastern conference playoffs... I really miss the mullets on ESPN

[waz]

Isnt it a group of geese??

[waz]

No worries Chad, I switched to RJ on the radio at the end of the first. I cant stand Versus either, except the 1 guy who is the devils commentator when not with versus, i like him.

[Champ Kind Sports]

These guys on versus are horrible, they just said the playoff picture is a gaggle... what is a gaggle?

[Chad]

It kills me that I can't watch it. I have class until 930pm ET. Besides, I live in down south and our cable provider doesn't have Versus as a free cable channel and I refuse to get a paid tier just for Versus's terrible broadcasts.

[Brian]

We should try reverse psychology from now on.

[waz]

Keep prayin Chad, Its workin!

[Chad]

So let's pick the heartbreaking way the Sabres will lose this game. My prediction: Philly takes a 3-2 lead early in the 3rd, Buffalo ties it with around 8 minutes left, and Philly wins it with a goal around the 3-minute mark.

(Praying for reverse psychology)

[waz]

....and he gifts the puck away in his own zone ON THE POWER PLAY..AGGGHHHH!

[Kim]

Maybe they ought to bench Lindy Ruff. If can't seem to motivate this team to play well at all. Lydman should be on the bench with Kalinin. He takes the dumbest penalities. It seems like he is on the ice every time a goal is scored against us too.

[waz]

Agreed Chad, just sad really how they let teams creep back into games, absolutely frustrating.

[Chad]

Buffalo's inability to knock a team out when they're on the ropes is startling. At the end of the season, that will be the reason that they don't make the playoffs. Since the calendars turned to 2008, I can count at least five occasions that Buffalo has given away at least a two-goal lead. Pathetic.

[waz]

BIG KUDOS to the typical flyer fan base who BOO!!! an injured guy leaving the ice, and....with the flyers players laughing on the bench. I wish this flyers goonery will get its commupence, they are dirty scumbags. I cant thinks of a professional team i HATE more than them, even more so since i live in philly, DAMM IT!

[rmc]

wow, the philly fans are a classless bunch. booing a stagnant powerplay, booing an injured player...brotherly love, eh?

[Brian]

I just got in from grad. class. What are the starting lines tonight? God I hate Versus.