Islanders Vs. Sabres, 11/4/2009 ~~~ 7:00 PM

Well when you win only 8 faceoffs out of 47, you should lose the game. Looks like i'm going to delete my Tivo. Good thing i checked the score first.

I bet we drop 15 places in the faceoff win category.

I have a beef with Jaffe and Howie.
last night they came across as homers.

That replay close up showed the puck clearly across the line despite the shadow.
The official was at an angle where Biron's pad was blocking the puck thus the initial no goal.

I saw the one replay and knew we were doomed but how they were carrying on that it was not in is beyond me. I hope they see this photoshop I made from a screen shot off the web feed.

it went as expected.

We missed the net so many times it was frustrating. We were in good position, got the shot we wanted and almost every time we missed the net or hit Miller in the logo.

I noticed one other thing- our guy in front is often too close to the keeper. Rebound or pass from the corner and we're tied up. Weight missed what would have been an open net in the second as an example, and he wasn't the only one.

Oh, well, we were ripe for this one.

What I want to see is a win against the Devils.

What I don't want to see is a losing streak to dismantle the good and the momentum we've created.

To me, the Devil game is key. Second of our "14 of the next 17 on the road" swing. Only 3 home games left in the entire month.

Defining stretch, let's see what we have here.

One other thing (and it's been said earlier), we sucked on faceoffs. It goes to show that puck control in any zone is and obvious key for any team, but it is an absloute key to our heavy forecheck. Without the puck we run around. A lot.

Reality. It hurts, doesn't it? Motto for this year: Don't get too excited. Hope for Lighthouse approval and then hope even more for management to take winning seriously.

The only exciting/memorable thing from last night's Isles game were the kind words about our guys
from Rob Ray and the rest of the Sabres broadcast team.

Shooter, it was one loss in 5 games. Reality? What will be reality is how we respond. I know the only vaildation of this team is if we win all of our remaining games with no ties, go unbeaten through the playoffs and win the cup. Anything less than that and we suck. I get it.

Gordon must go, we lost a game.

Couldn't you have at least waited a game or two before the inevitable doom and gloom stuff?

Rifle, get with the program.

I am with the program. Maybe you should change channels?

As bad as our faceoffs and forecheck were we were in this game throughout til 5 minutes to play. If we stuff one in it could've changed everything. We didn't get blown out, we didn't get embarrassed, we just got beat. We beat them much more convincingly the last time we faced them.

I agree Nick. A goal at 1-0 or even 2-0 and the tide changes. We had four quality chances (per Jaffee at the 2nd period break) which he showed. Any one of 'em goes in and its a different game.

We have not been outplayed except for the Montral game.

Let's get back on ttrack Friday night.

Agreed.

We played them pretty evenly, we were skating right with them the whole game. At no point did I want to change the channel. (Except for the whole game because it wasn't in HD)

We frustrated them because they couldn't get that 2nd goal earlier nor 3rd one earlier.
We were out worked and outplayed. They dominated us for 2 periods.
IN that 2nd period I was expecting us to come out better and we didn't.

VERY lucky to not get blown out. I kept waiting for a lucky break for us to turn the tide but there was not enough hustle and sacrifice from our guys except for the PK units who tried their best.

3rd period was a little better but this time we faced a HEALTHY, non flu-ridden Sabres team.