‘You can see a lot of teams that you think should be scoring, aren’t scoring. There are teams that I wouldn’t think would score a lot that are scoring some goals, but there are a lot of good teams having a tough time putting consistent numbers up. The numbers are down. That speaks for itself. Goal scoring is around five right now, which is down again from last year. If you’re going to blame it anywhere you can blame it on coaches and goaltending [which] is very good in this league.’
Archives for November 8, 2007
‘You don’t know it yet, but Happy Days are here again. And this time, they might just be for real. Happy Days? Last place in the Northeast Division, out of a playoff spot and already 13 points back of Ottawa? Yeah! And I love it!’
‘The message was clear after the Buffalo Sabres’ boring 2-1 overtime victory over the Boston Bruins on Wednesday: low-scoring hockey is back in the NHL, so get used to it. It might’ve been the first time this season the Sabres gutted out a tight-checking contest, but it won’t be the last. “There’s going to be a lot of it this year,” Sabres goalie Ryan Miller said. “That’s the way the league’s kind of shifting.”‘
‘“It helps us but I don’t think we’re going to let the pressure off ourselves. We have to climb here, start putting together a string of wins together. It’s not going to be easy now that we won one. It’s going to keep being harder and harder.”’
‘Go ahead and chalk it up to better coaching and looser officiating. But from what I’ve seen, this team lacks leadership, passion and competitive character. What they could use is someone like Drury to shut the locker room door, throw out the coaches, and tell some of the softer Sabres they’re not nearly as good as they think they are.’
‘“It was nice to see,” said Ruff. “Sometimes you get a hunch and I thought giving Clarke and ‘Staff’ a shot there in overtime was great. He’s been going real well in Rochester and it was nice to see him get rewarded for how hard he’s worked down there.”‘
'Maybe Jochen Hecht is the man. Or Henrik Tallinder. Or Toni Lydman. Whoever they are, those players need to emerge soon. But on this night, MacArthur was in charge of the Sabres' fate. "These are games we need to win," he said.'
'After scoring 24 goals in their first five games, the Sabres, who led the NHL in goals in 2006-07 with 308, have only 19 goals in the last nine games.'
'Although he didn’t register a point, Gaustad finished with a team-high seven hits. It’s the only stat that quantifies the value Gaustad, a one-time mucker who’s quickly becoming the team’s emotional leader, brings to a group in need of a true captain.'
'“It’s night and day. Usually when I scored last year, it was such a dominant team that it would be the eighth goal of the game. To get one in overtime like that is a dream come true.”'