Scores are scarce for slumping Sabres
By Mike Harrington
NEWS SPORTS REPORTER

The Buffalo Sabres don't have anyone in the top 50 in the NHL in goals. They don't have anyone in the top 60 in the league in points. Ryan Miller can continue to sizzle in goal but his fabulous play will continue to get undermined if the offense doesn't hold its end of the bargain.

And that means the money players. For the most part, they've been equal-opportunity offenders.

We're essentially at the quarter pole of the season and no Sabre is on a 30-goal pace. Thomas Vanek leads the team with only seven and there are slumps all over the place.

Leading scorer Tim Connolly has 17 points — but no goals in his last 10 games. Clarke MacArthur has one goal in his last 11 games and Jason Pominville had one in 10 until scoring in the third period Saturday in Ottawa.

Derek Roy didn't score in October and is now on another four-game drought. Vanek is a minus-8 over the last five games and has three goals in his last 13. Drew Stafford has two goals in the last eight.

After the 5-3 loss to the Senators, coach Lindy Ruff pointed to the top six as a big reason for the 0-2-1 week that featured just six goals. He reiterated that point after practice Monday in HSBC Arena.

"We need our top six to push through for us and make a difference," Ruff said. "It's not easy. ... You're not going to have all six guys on a given night. More on a nightly basis, we need more even-strength scoring out of that top six. Before [Saturday], we had nine even-strength goals in 10 games. That makes it awfully tough on the plus-minus."

"We definitely need to generate more offensively, especially five-on-five," said Pominville. "Our power play has gotten a couple goals and our penalty kill has been good but our five-on-five has just not been where we want it to be."

Ruff keeps tinkering with lines as a way to get his marquee names going. Roy was between Vanek and Pominville at Monday's practice with Connolly between MacArthur and Stafford, who practiced fully after missing Saturday's game with a bone bruise on his foot.

"We need Tim [Connolly] to score. We need Derek Roy to score," Ruff said. "That pack of those top six guys offensively has to make it tough on the other team. They have to be scared that these guys are going to score."

The Sabres tallied first in all three games last week and didn't win any of them. Penalty troubles in the second period killed momentum Friday against Boston and again on Saturday.

"We've been taking quite a few penalties, and I think when you do that the other teams' top forwards get to snap the puck around a little bit and get some chances," Connolly said. "When we get on five-on-five, we've got to refocus and go back on the attack instead of sitting back."

The Sabres entered Monday's play 26th in the league in goals and 13th out of 15 teams in the East. They have just 31 even-strength goals for the season — a paltry 1.55 per game — and have tallied three or less overall for 11 straight games.

For his part, Connolly said he doesn't think the team is frustrated.

"Sometimes when the puck doesn't go in you maybe overthink the game a little instead of just shooting," he said. "You're shooting when you should be passing and passing when you should be shooting.

"But it's never a bad play to put it on net. At the same time, trying to be a playmaker if a guy's open you've got to be able to find him and put it on his stick and give him the chance to shoot and score. That's part of my job, to try to make the guys around me better."

What the team really needs is somebody to go on a hot streak. Roy is the only Sabre thus far to score in as many as three straight games.

"Everybody is in that same pack," Pominville said. "The good thing is that we've got a lot of guys capable of scoring ... Get a goal here and there, some confidence and all of a sudden you'll take off."


Just confirms what we all actually knew prior to the season starting. Its time for Darcy to pick up the phone and make the call to Atlanta. If anything he should atleast make a concerted effort to bring Kolvachuck here.

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Lord Stanley's Cup is what its all about.
Mr. Pegula, your destiny awaits you sir.

Again, it all comes down to the Top 6 not getting it done. A team can't be a serious cup contender when their top two lines are the worst two lines. All of them, and I mean every single one of them, are playing shit hockey and not scoring enough to justify their pay.

It's amazing, really, that we have no scorers in the Top 60 and our top lines are the worst +/- on the team, and yet we're not in last place. It's a true testimony to great defense, sensational goalkeeping, and the magnificent play of Kaleta, Gaustad and Ellis.

If the top six would get hot, and our 3rd/4th lines keep playing as well as they are now, and the defense continues to play great hockey, than we'll be right back up at the top of the conference again.

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Oh lord, it's hard to be humble, when you're perfect in every way. I can't wait to look in the mirror, 'cause I get better looking each day. To know me is to love me, I must be a hell of a man. Oh lord, it's hard to be humble, but I'm doin' the best that I can.

It is an issue -right now. But we have several guys that are always at 70-80 points. Vanek, Pominville, Roy, Connolly are all guys that aren't producing but always do.

I do think we need another top 6 forward, though. A RW would be nice.

I hate how this team starts the season like bats out of hell just to cool off when the meat of the season starts. The sabres are 27th in the league in goals for. Granted, they are tied with Atlanta with the the least amount of games played but even Atlanta has 70 compared to the Sabres with 52

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They can score when they make good decisions with the puck. It's pretty simple.

Lack of production has stemmed from poor TEAM play in the offensive zone, not the slumping of individuals.

It's something that can be corrected, and I think will be corrected.

That said, if things don't change, we have two very talented young wingers in our system that would probably give us a heck of a spark.

I'd love to see management get the stones to bench some vets and bring them up if necessary.

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Wheelhouse

Lindy's new system is the reason we're even in 4th... (besides Miller... he is #1 reason.)
The way our top players are playing we should be out of a playoff spot

we need to acquire more goal scorers....period.

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"It is more about them than it is about the team...Cannot play with them, cannot win with them, cannot coach with them. Can't do it. I want winners. I want people that want to win." - Mike Singletary

Tyler Myers - Future captain of the Buffalo Sabres, and future Norris Trophy Winner

Manning the machine gun on the Tyler Myers Bandwagon - just in case any teams have an idea of prying him away from us (3 GM's shot already)

Connolly/Roy - 2 goals in the last 47 playoff games

Vanek in a package for Kolvachuck.
A second package of our abundance of D-men and lesser talent for a RWer (20 goal scorer, 24 to 26 yrs old).

Clean up some of that over abundance of players, free up cap space and sign Kolvy to a 7 yr 8 mil a yr contract. This guy is going to keep producing. If he wants 9 mil, up his contract to 10 yrs. He'll be in the top 10 of talent for years to come and well worth the price of admission.

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Lord Stanley's Cup is what its all about.
Mr. Pegula, your destiny awaits you sir.

slesh...how about vanek , mac arthur , gerbe, and rivet for kovie ?

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"It is more about them than it is about the team...Cannot play with them, cannot win with them, cannot coach with them. Can't do it. I want winners. I want people that want to win." - Mike Singletary

Tyler Myers - Future captain of the Buffalo Sabres, and future Norris Trophy Winner

Manning the machine gun on the Tyler Myers Bandwagon - just in case any teams have an idea of prying him away from us (3 GM's shot already)

Connolly/Roy - 2 goals in the last 47 playoff games

Whatever it takes man, whatever it takes.

You can build around a guy like Kolvy and the kicker is, Roy and/or Connolly (if not involved in the trade) would have an instant increase in production and success due to Kolvy's skill alone. The RW situation can be handled as well. Obviously not another superstar, but everytime I look at the logjam of talent both defensively and offensively waiting to break into the lineup, the more I am convinced that Darcy and Lindy are hanging on to a pipe dream with these same players.

Trades are possible, no player is beyond the pale or "untradable" (ETC, Hecht maybe the only one, sorry).
But if change is to come, it should not be suttle, but a blockbuster.

After seeing Myers in the lineup and Kennedy, I would want to bring Ennis up as well. Start cleaning out these wanna be's and has beens and bring in picks and/or prospects. The management of this team has blinders on. Thats not good leadership. Business wise, Kolvy would be a boon for the Sabres. Sign him to a longterm contract and I'll go buy all 3 of his jersey's. (My wife and have bought jerseys for #11, Lafontaine and Molginy, Hasek, Drury and Briere, we haven't bought one since.)

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Lord Stanley's Cup is what its all about.
Mr. Pegula, your destiny awaits you sir.

I agree to some extent, but I think some of you guys are missing the bigger picture. The last few seasons the team as a whole was playing more run and gun, not so well defensively, and the forwards had acceptable stats while the d-corps looked awful.

This season the team is playing a better brand of hockey (which I agree with) that consists of a better team effort defensively. It shouldn't be a surprise that the goals are down, and therefore offensive stats in general are down.

I mean really...do we all think that the d-corps all of a sudden became better as a whole? No. It's the style they have committed to, but that same style is limiting the offense to some extent. It's not that these forwards are all of a sudden tanking, but they aren't free of blame either. The fact is that not one of them is a truly dominant two-way forward. Roy and Connolly come the closest, but they aren't good enough offensively to be a threat by themselves. They, and the other four, require a more open style to generate points. Short of that they just aren't good enough to produce no matter what.

As much as I liked the consistent line combos, I wonder now if it might be better to mix and match to have four identical type of lines. Maybe all four lines should have a playmaker, scorer, and grinder (at least our best version of these anyway). Something like...

Ellis - Connolly - Stafford
Hecht - Roy - Pominville
Vanek - Kennedy - Grier
MacArthur - Gaustad - Kaleta

The new system has effectively caused six players to suddenly suck in many fans eye's. I hate to be the bearer of bad news; but it isn't the players that suck. Too much of a coincidence there.

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"I'll rap you with my cane; you pencil necked geek!!"

-Bowler, imitating Freddy Blassie, at the very first M & G.

No, they do suck. I'm sick of making excuses for these underachievers. Time for more accountability, not less.

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Oh lord, it's hard to be humble, when you're perfect in every way. I can't wait to look in the mirror, 'cause I get better looking each day. To know me is to love me, I must be a hell of a man. Oh lord, it's hard to be humble, but I'm doin' the best that I can.

I concur.

I hate to say this guys, but we are once again going to have to call into question "the system". Every hard core fan that bleeds the Sabres has questioned it at least once, and many have nearly lost their minds over it. If this slump continues long, I think I'm gonna lose my mind.

No they don't suck. Are they game breaking studs? Nope; not in my books they're not. But they are nowhere's near as bad as they've performed this season.

I f we can get better top six forwards I'm all for it. We can't; and we won't. As such, I would get a coach who can get more out of our current group.

It's not all Lindy's fault, but it is time - was time last year, for Lindy to go.

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"I'll rap you with my cane; you pencil necked geek!!"

-Bowler, imitating Freddy Blassie, at the very first M & G.

This team cannot FINISH!

We hadn't noticed!!!

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"I'll rap you with my cane; you pencil necked geek!!"

-Bowler, imitating Freddy Blassie, at the very first M & G.

When I play Captain Obvious, I wear a cape....

With a bold "O" on your 46" chest!!

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"I'll rap you with my cane; you pencil necked geek!!"

-Bowler, imitating Freddy Blassie, at the very first M & G.