Short and sweet preview for tonight's tilt in Buffalo. And for the record, I can not stand the Sabres,l their fans or the city. Loserville personified.
Buffalo is 4-0-1 in five games this season. The Sabres have balanced decent goal scoring (19 goals for) withe exceptional defense/goalie play (only 8 goals allowed through 5 games). Starter Ryan Miller has allowed just 4 goals in the three games he's started. While offensively, LW Thomas Vanek is off to a 7G 2A start. As usual, the key for Boston will be special teams. Buffalo's PP is clipping along at a healthy 24.2% (although it is nearly 10 points better on the road than at home). Despite the defections in recent years, the Sabres still play a pretty up tempo game based on skating, speed and power play chances. Boston has to be the more physical team, while staying out of the box. ROUGH STUFF When it comes to the rough stuff, the Sabres still boast one of the legit heavy weights in the game today, in Andrew Peters. Peters is a typical 4th line hired gun. He plays under six minutes per game, and has limited (to be kind) hockey skills. But he's a big body, at 6'4" 247lbs, that enjoys the fight game. Perhaps because of Peters' presence, a few smaller Sabres also feel like "tough guys" out there. 6'1" 200LB Patrick kaleta is tied with Peters for the team lead in fighting majors, with two (he also got wailed on by Paul Mara in retaliation for a cheap shot he threw on Mara last season. Kaleta didn't receive a fighting major in that one though). Adam Mair, at 6'1" 208lbs also isn't afraid to drop the gloves. Ex-Canadien, Craig Rivet is now a Sabre as well. And while he's not known as a brawler, he does have one to his credit this season......as well as a double game misconduct for his BRUTAL, cowardly third man in penalty. He jumped an unsuspecting Islander (Nate Thompson, former Bruin) who was squared of with Mair. VERY cheap play. None of these "fighters" are mush of a threat, outside of Peters. Only person that "should" fight Peters if it comes down to it is Thornton, because that's his job. But he's also a much more valuable player overall than peters. So no trade with Peters is a good one for Boston. My suggestion, let him run around and take penalties in his limited ice time. The two points tonight are far more important than anything else
PREDICTIONS:
Boston wins 3-2, on goals by Sturm, Bergeron and Chara.
No fights, as hard as Peters tries to stir the pot.
No comments:
Post a Comment