Sabres Edge

By Mike Harrington

We're expecting to get an update in the 1 o'clock hour from interim coach Ron Rolston regarding the Brian Flynn callup, so here's some items to ponder about today's Sabres-Devils matchup:

---The Sabres are trying to win three straight for the first time this season. 

---Buffalo is trying to avoid its first four-game winless streak at home since it went 0-3-1 from Feb. 13-20, 2011. The Sabres haven't dropped four straight here in regulation since Oct. 15-Nov. 5, 2010.

---Buffalo is just 1-4 in afternoon games thus far. The Sabres have three more after today. 

Continue reading "Numbers to ponder" »

Islanders center John Tavares has seven multi-point games this year, second in the NHL to Steven Stamkos' eight. (Getty Images)

 By Mike Harrington

Yes, you read that headline correctly. Thanks to Alex Ovechkin's hat trick and the Capitals' 5-1 win over New Jersey earlier this afternoon, the Sabres have slipped into 15th and dead last place in the Eastern Conference. 

And things could get even worse in Ron Rolston's home debut tonight against the New York Islanders: If the Sabres lose tonight in regulation and Columbus gets a point at St. Louis, the self-proclaimed "Hockey Heaven" will be dead last in the NHL. Ooof.

A few more numbers to ponder for tonight:

---Thomas Vanek is now tied for the NHL scoring lead with Sidney Crosby at 25 points and Vanek has gone pointless in five of the last six games. John Tavares of the Islanders is tied for fifth at 22 points and his 11 goals are one behind Vanek and Pittsburgh's James Neal for the NHL lead.

---Watch the second period tonight. The Islanders lead the league with 23 goals in the middle stanza -- while the Sabres' 28 goals against are the most by any team in any period. I asked Ryan Miller about the middle-period troubles Thursday night in Toronto and he attributed it to long changes, which is still because every team has that issue. Then Miller fessed up to the changes combined with the team's lack of puck possession.

"Long changes and we don't have the puck and we're not getting the puck deep. There you go," Miller said. "Start form the simplest thing to do and build from there. Guys have to execute. It's brought up, it's mentioned, it's highlighted. You got me.

"I'm trying not to be caught up in it too much. I'm trying to do my job but you guys ask me questions about the game and that's my evaluation. We're trying to figure it out. I think we got a pretty good handle on it. We've just got to execute."

Continue reading "By the numbers: Tonight's key points to start the climb out of last place in the Eastern Conference" »

Sidney Crosby has a point in all 12 of his career games in First Niagara Center. (AP Photo)

By Mike Harrington

Greetings from high atop First Niagara Center as we get set for today's Sabres-Penguins matinee. It's a 12:30 faceoff on NBC. Will the Sabres parlay any momentum from Friday night's third period against the Bruins? Will the Penguins continue to dominate on the road, where they lead the East with seven wins? Those are my two quick questions this morning. 

Be sure to join me in a new thread on the Edge at 12:30 for our live game blog -- and have your questions and comments ready in the second intermission for another Sabres FlashChat. 

Today's game is the opener of Hockey Day in America and will be followed at 3:30 by the Kings at the Blackhawks on NBC and the Capitals at the Rangers at 6 on the NBC Sports Network.

Gord Miller, the TSN veteran renowned for his work on on the World Junior Championships, will be doing today's play-by-play and former NHL defenseman and longtime MSG analyst Joe Micheletti will be the inside-the-glass man. Rick Jeanneret and Rob Ray will be doing radio only today on WGR.

Some quick numbers to ponder:

Vs. Pittsburgh: The Sabres are just 2-8-0 in their last 10 against the Pens. 

Power play: The Penguins are third overall (27.6 percent) and are fourth on the road (28.6) but lead the NHL with 10 road power-play goals. The Sabres are 26th overall (12.7) but are ninth at home (24.0) and 29th on the road (1-30, 3.3. Yikes).

Continue reading "Morning numbers for today's matinee vs. the Flying Crosbys" »

The Sabres take Miami Air charters across North America and have a much lighter travel load than most NHL teams. (Graphic from Miamiair.com) 

By Mike Harrington

OTTAWA -- The Sabres are in Scotiabank Place tonight and it's another quick jaunt for the team in a season full of them as they're playing an all-Eastern Conference schedule.

Just once in 48 games (April 9 at Winnipeg) will the Sabres play a game outside the Eastern time zone. Pretty incredible for a whole season.

On the Forecheck, an SB Nation blog that covers the Nashville Predators, has become the go-to place in recent season for what it calls the "Super Schedule" -- a calculation of the miles each NHL team travels during the season. Not surprisingly, the Sabres rate low on the list.

Continue reading "By the Numbers: Travel fatigue no issue in shortened season" »

By Mike Harrington

In Saturday's paper, I take a look at Thomas Vanek's burgeoning ice time -- which is the most in his career even if it's slightly behind that of other big-name forwards in the NHL. 

If Vanek hits 20 minutes tonight on Long Island, it will mark three straight 20-minute games for just the second time in his career. The other time? October, 2005 in games 3-4-5 as a Sabre!!

The story also included a chart showing Vanek's standing compared to the league leaders. Graphic elements sometimes don't make the Web site, so I've reproduced the chart here:

-------------------------

Comparing Vanek’s ice time to NHL leaders among forwards

Player                     Per game    Even      PP       PK   Secs/shift Shifts

1. Ilya Kovalchuk, NJ    26:02      17:47     6:15    1:59       58.0     27.0

2. John Tavares, NYI     21:52      17:13     4:29   0:10       54.0     24.3

3. M. St. Louis, TB        21:50      16:23    4:35    0:51       56.0      23.2

4. Steven Stamkos, TB   21:49     16:26    4:34    0:47       55.0      23.6

5. Travis Zajac, NJ        21:43     15:22    3:49   2:32        48.0      27.1

6. Claude Giroux, Phil    21:41     15:07    4:44   1:49       51.0       25.5

7. Alex Ovechkin, Wash  21:32     15:49    5:26    0:16       58.0      22.5

8. Alexander Semin, Car  21:31    15:39    5:33    0:18       50.0      26.0

9. Jarome Iginla, Cal       21:24    16:42    4:03   0:39        47.0      27.1

10. Eric Staal, Car          21:23     14:56   5:13    1:13        46.0     27.7

42. VANEK                    19:47     15:02   4:24   0:21       51.0     23.1

Vanek’s rankings among forwards:
Even strength ice: 41st
Power-play ice: T-21st
Penalty kill ice: T-240th
Seconds per shift: T-17th
Total shifts: T-114th

Sabres winger Thomas Vanek put together three more points Sunday against Florida and the league's white-hot leading scorer was named the NHL's First Star of the Week today (The other stars were Pittsburgh's Chris Kunitz and Vancouver's Roberto Luongo).

Vanek had five goals and five assists in just four games while compiling a plus-6 rating. For the season, he leads the league with 19 points (eight goals, 11 assists) in eight games. Steven Stamkos of Tampa Bay is next with 16.

Asked his thoughts on the honor today, Vanek said, "I don't have too many. Our line is going well but we're not producing wins so that's about it. I think I found two guys I feel real comfortable with. The passes we make and the shots that we take, a lot of them go in. But again, it doesn't matter. You do well and you lose games, it doesn't feel good."

Coach Lindy Ruff is obviously loving the way the line of Vanek, Cody Hodgson and Jason Pominville has combined for 41 points thus far. The problem? No other Sabre has more than two goals or five points.

"We have something special that we have a line that, as they say in Spanish, is 'en fuego,' " said Ruff. "Everybody else would be jealous of that line right now. But now we don't have the secondary so now we're jealous of the secondary around the league when the league is looking and going, 'Holy man, they got a line that's as hot as any line in the league.'

"You love having that. That line has so much confidence and makes so many plays and is playing so well together, now we've got to find the other side
again."

Click below to hear audio from Vanek on the award -- he's not impressed -- and the current sad state of the Sabres.

Thomas Vanek

(Vanek photo: James P. McCoy/Buffalo News)

By Mike Harrington

We should hear an injury update from Lindy Ruff in the 1 p.m. hour as we head toward the 3 p.m. faceoff downtown between the Sabres and Florida Panthers. Can this club play any worse than it did Saturday during what John Vogl aptly called its beatdown in Montreal? Doubt it. But there's still 40 games left. 

As I went through the NHL stat pack this morning, I pondered some of these numbers:

---Thomas Vanek enters today tied for the NHL scoring lead with Tampa Bay's Steven Stamkos. Both have seven goals and nine assists for 16 points, although Vanek has played one less game. Frankly, Vanek needs to get on the ice more. He enters today averaging 19 minutes, 13 seconds per contest -- and that's only 58th among NHL forwards. (Stamkos is at 21:13).

Here's the leader board in that department.

Here's the second page, which pegs Vanek right between Michael Grabner of the Islanders and Joe Pavelski of San Jose.

Continue reading "Not-so-Super Sabres numbers" »

Mikhail Grigorenko has been a surprise in the faceoff circle. (Getty Images)

By Mike Harrington

BOSTON -- The Sabres have to be quicker on the draw. That's become plainly obvious this season. But it could really be a major issue tonight.

Buffalo enters the game last in the NHL in faceoff percentage at 42 percent -- and the Boston Bruins are No. 1 at 60.7 percent. There's been plenty of chatter on Twitter in recent days over how significant the Sabres' troubles in the circle really are. I say it's one key problem to the season (although I would list lack of secondary scoring and poor play along the blueline as bigger trouble spots).

(*I acknowledge a decent argument can be made that six games is a small sample size, although I remind you it's already 12.5 percent of the season. And it also can be pointed out that the numbers might even out a little bit as well because 42 percent is historically bad; the last-place team in the league has never been under 44 percent since 1998.).

Let's start by comparing the two teams' numbers. The NHL lists faceoffs in wins-losses format so a team or player that's, say, 20-25 has won 20 and lost 25 and is NOT 20 OUT OF 25 (Going 20-25 essentially means 20 of 45).

Continue reading "By the numbers: Faceoff follies could spell difference tonight" »

Ryan Miller has kept his eye on the puck. (James P. McCoy/Buffalo News)

Ryan Miller has gone 2-2 while playing four of the Sabres' five games and I don't think you can blame him for any of the eight goals he's given up. Some deflections (Cody Hodgson has to get out of the way of the Caps' second goal Sunday), some screens and a couple howitzers by Claude Giroux and Alexander Ovechkin that no goalie stops.

Lindy Ruff said before the season Miller would make 36-38 starts. After the way Jhonas Enroth played Thursday in Carolina, that number is almost certain to hit 40. (I say Enroth next plays here Sunday against Florida). 

A look at Miller's season to date:

Continue reading "Miller by the numbers: Strong start in the net" »

In addition to the former NHLers killed Wednesday in the crash of the plane carrying KHL team Kokomotiv Yaroslavl, the victims include two members of the Russian team that won the gold medal at the World Junior Championships in January at HSBC Arena.

Forward Daniil Sobchenko, San Jose’s sixth-round pick in the 2011 draft, and defenseman Yuri Urychev are confirmed among the dead.  Sobchenko had four goals, tied for second on the team, and three assists in seven games of the tournament. Neither player registered a point during the five-goal third period that stunned Canada in the gold medal game.

One of his Sobchenko's goals, assisted by Urychev, was the tying tally late in the second period of the Russians' 6-3 preliminary-round loss to Canada. He had two more in an 8-2 win over Norway, and talked to Amy Moritz of The News after that game. His final goal came in an 8-3 win over the Czech Republic. The latter two games were played at Niagara University's Dwyer Arena.

Urychev had a goal and three assists, with his goal the first tally in a 4-3 overtime win over Finland in the quarterfinals. 

Sobchenko and Urychev were both 20 and were born 10 days apart in 1991.

---Mike Harrington
(www.twitter.com/bnharrington) 

Lindy Ruff and some other NHL coaches are moving into some historically interesting territory when it comes to victories.

Ruff finished the 2010-11 season with 526 wins as the Sabres coach. That's the second-most of any coach for wins with the same team.

Quietly, other names are moving up the all-time list. Take a look at Barry Trotz of Nashville, who is sixth -- ahead of Dick Irvin and Scotty Bowman. Paul Maurice and Mike Babcock joined the top 20 this year as well:

Name – Team – Wins
Al Arbour – N.Y. Islanders – 740
*Lindy Ruff – Buffalo – 526
Billy Reay – Chicago - 516
Toe Blake – Montreal – 500
Glen Sather – Edmonton - 464
*Barry Trotz – Nashville - 455
Dick Irvin – Montreal - 431
Scotty Bowman – Montreal – 419
Jack Adams – Detroit – 413
Scotty Bowman – Detroit – 410

Punch Imlach – Toronto – 370
Art Ross – Boston - 361
Bryan Murray – Washington - 343
Emile Francis – N.Y. Rangers – 342
Jacques Martin – Ottawa - 341
Sid Abel – Detroit – 340
*Paul Maurice – Carolina - 315
Fred Shero – Philadelphia - 308
Joel Quenneville – St. Louis – 307
*Mike Babcock – Detroit – 304

--- Budd Bailey

I remember Scotty Bowman talking about a player who had many more goals than assists. He looked at the scoring line for the season, which was 34-18 (goals and assists), and said something like, "He may win the Cy Young Award with a stat like that."

The winner of the NHL's Cy Young Award for 2010-11, then, is Michael Grabner of the Islanders. He didn't score all of his goals against the Sabres, although it might have seemed that way. And Drew Stafford of the Sabres wasn't far behind:

Name – Team – Goals – Assists – Diff.
Michael Grabner – N.Y. Islanders – 34 – 18 – 16
Brian Gionta – Montreal – 29 – 17 – 12
Ryan Jones – Edmonton – 18 – 7 – 11
Scottie Upshall – Columbus – 22 – 12 – 10
Drew Stafford – Buffalo – 31 – 21 – 10
Brenden Morrow – Dallas – 33 – 23 – 10
Nikolay Zherdev – Philadelphia – 16 – 6 - 10
David Jones – Colorado – 27 – 18 – 9
Matt Moulson – N.Y. Islanders – 31 – 22 – 9
Ryan Kesler – Vancouver – 41 – 32 - 9

You can find the all-time leaders by going here.

--- Budd Bailey

I've heard a bit in the past two days about the Sabres record in a playoff when they lose Game Three. I figured I'd go back at 2010 and see just how predictive each game of a playoff series was.

As it turns out, Game Three is the least reliable barometer. Teams that won Game Three in 2010 only won 6 of 15 series. Here's the game-by-game breakdown:

Game 1 - 7-8

Game 2 - 11-4

Game 3- 6-9

Game 4 - 12-3

Game 5 - 10-3

Game 6 - 10-1

Game 7 - 4-0

I didn't need a calculator to figure out that teams that won Game Seven do really well in the series.

-- Budd Bailey

The Broad Street Bullies teams of the Philadelphia Flyers get most of the publicity for being the toughest team of the post-expansion (1967) era. Yet, the Flyers teams' of the Seventies don't crack the top 10 when it comes to average penalty minutes per game.

Who is on top? That's right, the Buffalo Sabres.

The 1991-92 Sabres averaged 33.9 penalty minutes per game. Rob Ray led the way with 354 PIM that season, which is more than four per game personally. Brad May was at 309, and Gord Donnelly was at 305. Four other players had more than 100 penalty minutes.

Here's the top 10 (1967-2011):

Team – Year – Average
Buffalo Sabres – 1991-92 – 33.9
Pittsburgh Penguins – 1988-89 – 33.4
Chicago Blackhawks – 1991-92 – 33.3
Calgary Flames – 1991-92 – 33.0
Philadelphia Flyers – 1980-81 – 32.8
New Jersey Devils – 1988-89 – 31.2
Chicago Blackhawks – 1988-89 – 31.2
Philadelphia Flyers – 1981-82 – 31.2
Calgary Flames – 1988-89 – 30.6
Boston Bruins – 1987-88 – 30.5
Calgary Flames – 1987-88 – 30.4

For the list of the 10 least penaltized teams, click here.

--- Budd Bailey

When I'm following a playoff series, I like to see what the odds are when a team has a particular advantage during the course of the season. In other words, I ask questions like, "How many times does the team with the extra home game win a series?" and "What is the home team's record in Game Sevens?".

So I did some counting, from the 2004 to 2010 playoffs. The chart below shows the results.

A series "favorite" is the one that has the extra home game. Let's take the Flyers-Sabres matchup as an example. Entering the series, favorites have won 61.1 percent of the series since 2004. That might be a little less than you'd think.

If the Flyers win tonight, they'd be comforted by the fact that 71.0 percent of favorites that win the first game go on to win the series. However, if the Sabres win tonight, the Flyers' chances would drop all the way down to 39.3 percent. If Buffalo comes home after Game Two with a split, its chances of advancing, historically speaking, are 50-50.

The biggest surprise here might be that a visiting team has won the majority of Game Sevens over the time span. Road teams went 4-0 in Games Sevens in 2010.

Series – Favorite Wins
0 – 0: 55-35 - .611
1 – 0 F: 44 – 18 - .710
1 – 0 U: 11 – 17 - .393
1 – 1: 19 – 19 - .500
2 – 0 F: 34 - 5 – .872
2 – 0 U: 2 –11 - .154
2 – 1 F: 28 – 13 - .683
2 – 1 U: 11 – 14 - .440
2 – 2: 20 – 14 - .588
3 – 0 F: 16 – 1 – .941
3 – 0 U: 0 – 7 - .000
3 – 1 F: 25 – 4 - .862
3 – 1 U: 1- 15 - .063
3 – 2 F: 28 – 7 – .800
3 – 2 U: 2 – 16 - .111
3 – 3: 9 - 12– .429

--- Budd Bailey

It's always fun to look back and see what players who were traded in the middle of the season ended up doing for the full year.

I've looked over the list of traded players in 2010-11, and the one with the most points was Brad Boyes of the Sabres. He finished with 55. The top 10:

Player – Teams - Pts.

Brad Boyes – St. Louis, Buffalo – 55

Chris Stewart – Colorado, St. Louis – 53

James Wisniewski – N.Y. Islanders, Montreal - 51

Tomas Kaberle – Toronto, Boston - 47

Alex Goligoski – Pittsburgh, Dallas – 46

Kris Versteeg – Toronto, Philadelphia - 46

James Neal – Dallas, Pittsburgh – 45

Dustin Penner – Edmonton, Los Angeles – 45

Blake Wheeler – Boston, Atlanta - 44

Keith Shattenkirk – Colorado, St. Louis - 43

For the all-time list, headed by Joe Thornton, click here.