Well, this is becoming a habit around here. The Sabres are now 5-0 against Boston this season and if the Bruins miss the playoffs they can look back on the two leads they blew in the past two games as the final nails in the coffin of a misguided, mispent season.
These were two teams that took radically diffrerent approaches in preparing for the lockout. The Sabres chose to have as many of their guys under contract or own their rights as possible. Showing faith in the rebuilding plan that was started with the forced trade of Dominik Hasek. The B's, on the other hand, chose to leave the 03-04 season with only 4 guys under contract and only a handful of free agents. GM Mike O'Connell then had to assemble a team in a similar manner to your average fantasy hockey pool during the free agent shark tank period of last summer.
Going into the season Bostons' free agents signings like Brian Leetch, Dave Scatchard and Alexei Zhamnov were met with praise and huzzahs, while the Sabres' signing of Teppo Numminen was met with indifference bordering on sonambulation. All the attention was spent on the loss of Zhitnik and Satan, even within Buffalo.
Hmph.
The difference between these two teams was in evidence tonight. The Sabres were clearly the better team in nearly all areas of the ice and all phases of the game. The Bruins squad that was iced tonight was far more engaged in interested than the ones who took the ice back in October and November. The 3 guys acquired from San Jose for Joe Thornton practically guarantee that. But, that said, if not for some unbelievable goaltending by Tim Thomas my flippant pre-game prediction over on HF (5-2 Sabres) would have been virtually prescient.
Briere/Hecht/Dumont were outstanding again tonight. Thought there was a little bit of a stink put up by Jack Edwards and the other guy in the Boston TV Booth over Danny's repeated running of the goalie. And, I hate to say it, but, I agree with them. This is something that has really gotten me angry during games this year.. the lack of protection of the goalies by the officials, and the classic over-reaction by them in penalizing the retaliation by the defending team. While all of the incidents tonight involving Briere were definitely interference, there's little doubt in my mind that he intended any injury or malice, unlike many of the ones that have gotten me out of my chair screaming at the TV over the course of the season. I'm all for limiting the goalies wandering around acting like defensemen, but, that said, then their crease should be close to inviolate and any attempts to run them gratuitously should be dealt with severly, both by the league and the team on the ice. For all of the NHL's talk about enforcing the rulebook with respect to obstruction and hooking why can't they enforce their own rules on crashing the crease?
Rory Fitzpatrick continues to make me worried about him being our #6 guy going into the playoffs. With Dmitri Kalinin having a terrible season and rapidly running out of time to turn it around it truly is incumbent upon Darth Regier to make some kind of move to acquire some depth for the blueline. That help needs to be a right-hand shot as well. Having another guy to pair up with Kalinin on the 3rd pair would be huge for us.
While I'm sure that Regier is trying to get a maximal deal for Marty Biron, tyring to land someone like Matt Greene or Derek Morris. It is more likely that he's going to get a guy who we over at HF have been talking about for a long time now, namely Willie Mitchell from Minnesota. While not a right-hander, he does play the right side, is big, mobile and responsible in his own zone. With Kalinin's game a basket-case right now, getting a guy like Mitchell might just be thing to get Tri back into a comfort zone. And allow us to keep Numminen's minutes under 15 a night going into the playoffs.
My predictions for the trade deadline are now as follows:
- Noronen will be moved to a team out of the playoffs (after they move their high-profile guy... i.e. CuJo or Luongo)for a pick 2nd or 3rd rounder, possibly being packaged with a surplus forward for a higher pick or swap thereof.
- A lesser light defenseman, like Mitchell, will come our way for either a pick or a prospect not named Zagrapan, Paille or Stafford. Yes, Jiri Novotny is probably not long for this organization.
Ta,
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