Sabres VERSUS Flyers

I'm trying a running blog tonight during the Sabres/Flyers game for a couple of reasons. One, because I have a shiny new blog and I want to play with it. Also I'm interested in really listening to the VS broadcasters, and comment on their presentation of the game as a whole. John Forslund and Daryl Reaugh commentating.

1st Period

• Pre-game interview: Bob Harwood with Vanek, asking how he went from a -11 player to a +26, and just 1 goal shy of being a 30 goal scorer. Vanek responds by noting that alot had to do with learning how to play a long season, and learning how to "play smart" when the legs aren't there.
• Campbell and Umberger going at it! "Where do you think this stems from?" comment the VS announcers...I'm guessing we'll see Campbell's hit from Game 1 of the playoffs at least 3 times tonight.
• Pretty accurate recap of the Sabres/Flyers rivalry, noting the 1975 Finals match up, playoff series and the 9-1 game earlier this season.
• 1-0 Buffalo. Roy on the PP, off a nice shot on a rebound that Roy puts top shelf (where momma hides the cookies). Good analysis by the color man, stating that Esche had absolutely no idea where the puck was. Continues on with stating that Roy is usually a set-up man (10 goals 29 assists)
• Peters and Fedoruk are fighting at center ice. Lots of grappling, Peters got a couple good punches in, but a draw overall. Two consecutive fights where nothing much happens.
• Bob Harwood is actually on the Sabres bench, interviewing Nathan Paetsch during the 1st period commercial break. Couple relevant, quick questions regarding the Flyers "physical" start to the game, and Paetsch gave good answers - nice point about Soupy drawing an instigator penalty on Umberger, which gave the Sabres their PP goal.
• The play by play man is doing a very admirable job of describing the play and mixing in appropriate stories. Honestly, I'm pretty impressed so far. I've yet to hear the statement that any two players are "playing catch" with the puck, which for some reason I find to be the very grating.
• Good call at w/ just over 10mins to go by the broadcasters to notice that Drury was in excellent position to break up a Philly scoring chance.
• Harwood with Zhitnik who is playing in his 1,000th NHL game. A little hard to understand, simply because Zhitnik kept missing the mic high and wide with his answers.
• Gagne scores with 8:35 to go on a pretty impressive individual effort. Somehow Miller didn't get his stick all the way down, and had it slide through his legs.
• Great rush by MacArthur and oh my goodness...ANDREW PETERS pokes in a rebound of a point shot. Dear lord. I'm speechless.
• (still speechless)
• The crowd is chanting "PETERS, PETERS, PETERS", which is hilarious! Peters used a "goal scorer's touch - for a guy getting rid of a zero (no goals this season) he looked like he knew what he was doing!" haha
• I really like Tony Lydman's play so far tonight.
• Damn, Clarke MacArthur is fast.
• John and Darryl comment that there has been a good cadence to the game, which is accurate, and continue on to say that it has had "everything you'd like to see". I know I'm cynical, but I can't help but feel that anytime an NHL broadcaster comments about how good the game is, they're simply doing so to fulfill a requirement mandated by the NHL.
• Derek Roy is mic'd up! Surprisingly, there was no useful audio that came from Roy's 1st 6 shifts. I'm not sure why Marty Biron doesn't just have a microphone permanently installed in his shoulder pads. "Hey Lindy!"
• Great PP pressure by Buffalo at the end of the 1st
• Again -"Everything you'd want to see in a hockey game" is tossed out at the end of the period, meaning John only has 4 more "this is a great game and has everything you'd want to see" mandatory statements.
• Andrew Peters is 2/3 towards a "Gordie Howe" hat trick and is the 1st intermission interview. I would like to state that two weeks ago on Chippewa, on a Saturday night after the Sabres lost a road game in Long Island, Andrew Peters showed up with a small following of tools at 67 West. He saddled up to the bar right next to me and my group of friends, and was promptly handed a case of Labatt Blue Light. Cans. Peters proceeded to pass out CANS of beer to pretty much anyone around him who came up and said - HEY! You're Andrew Peters! You played 3minutes tonight, and sat throughout the last 16 minutes of the 3rd period! I think that the NHL should probably get word of this, and use it for their uber-effective marketing campaign "Hockey players are just like you and me, just really really good at hockey". Except, Peters and his boyz were the ONLY people I've ever seen drink straight out of CANS at a bar, let alone a trendy one downtown. Speaking of the ad campaign, I understand the premise of trying to make the players in the league easier to relate to, but I want my sports idols to be cooler than me. I don't want to think of them as regular people, struggling to get Kit-Kats out of a vending machine, quitting on video games or drinking out of CANS at bars. I want to think of hockey players as cool, rich and not worrying about losing $0.55

2nd Period

• 3-1 Buffalo - A point shot gets tipped in, after a "filthy little move by Roy", a GREAT comment. This is at least the 3rd game in a row that Roy has pulled a ridiculous misdirection move just inside the blue line. So great.
• I've really really liked the way that Buffalo has come to play tonight. I suppose there could have been a chance to look past this game to Thursday night vs Ottawa
• 4-1 Buffalo - Paetsch from the point and Briere gets the tip. Wow. 27th of the year for Briere. Another PP goal, which means that in his last 2 games in the HSBC Arena, Robert Esche has allowed 13 goals. Yummy.
• The Sabres did something I never noticed before after the 4th goal...they blew 4 short blasts on the fog horn, rather than the standard, long continuous blast which has been used as long as I can remember. I hope this doesn't become a trend. Color me conservative, but keep it simple and classy.
• Apparently I can turn the game off at 15:58 left in the 2nd. The Sabres are 27-0 when leading by 2 goals at any point in the game.
• When you watch a goalie like Esche struggle with rebounds, you really appreciate what a black hole Miller is on most any shot he can see. Ryan Miller's crest - where point shots go to die.
• Lindy Ruff is live, with a headset on...Bob Harwood is getting nachos apparently, and honestly he didn't really say anything of importance. I like the touch of interviewing coaches during breaks in games - they're generally intelligent and it's cool to hear what they're thinking. Baseball did this throughout the regular season and playoffs last year and it was great. If this catches on in the NFL, I'll be shocked.
• Flyer goal. 4-2 Buffalo. Gagne gets an absolute garbage goal, somehow banking in off Kalinin's leg 3 feet away from the net.
• VS get's their 3rd required "it's a good one" comment in, during the game recap with 7:30 left in the 2nd.
• Does anyone else think that the Rock'em Sock'em Robots/Dodge Ram commercials are complete ripoffs from Toyota Tacoma's Meteor proof/Lochness monster proof ad campaign?
• John states that the Flyers are trying to work hard to rebuild their team and are "in the neighborhood" of doing so. What neighbohood is this? The Flyers are currently using public transportation and squatting in an abandoned warehouse.
• The Biron question - to trade or not to trade- is addressed for the 1st time tonight.
• Dear lord- what a save by Miller - dove across the crease and stopped Gagne from getting his hat trick. The Flyers have really been taking it to the Sabres the last 5-6 minutes, which the VS broadcasters have just appropriately pointed out.
• Miller is plugged as "THE" guy for the US Olympic team in Vancouver 2010. If he is, the Americans will get at least a silver.
• Good rush in the last 30seconds by Philly, drawing a penalty to Lydman just before the end of the 2nd. Not a bad 1st 10 minutes for the Sabres, but the Flyers were pretty much buzzing around the Sabres zone for the last half of the period.

3rd Period

• As well as the Sabres played in the first 30 minutes, the last 10 minutes of the 2nd period were not very good. It will interesting to see how much Ruff continues to roll 4 lines in the 3rd.
• Pretty solid analysis by Bob Harwood on the different expectations for the rookies playing for Buffalo and the rookies called up to the Flyers. The Sabres rooks are expected to be plugged in, produce, and keep the team rolling. The Flyers are using the call-ups as more of an evaluation process.
• Flyer goal. 4-3 Buffalo - Kapanen scores on a 1-1 vs Kalinin. A pretty point blank shot on Miller, and suddenly it's a game.
• Buffalo gets a PP with 12 mins to go...need some good pressure here.
• 5-3 Buffalo Drury from Briere- thus increasing the amount of money they'll get in the off season, and simultaneously decreasing the chances that both will be wearing Sabres sweaters in 2007-08.
• The goal seems to have energized the Sabres, who are back to attacking the Flyers more aggressively.
• I think this postseason I'm going to try and keep track of the number of times that a broadcaster/journalist notes that Chris Drury won a Little League World Series when he was 12. At what point in someone's life does this stop having an impact? Are you labeled a "winner" for the rest of your life, just because you won the LLWS 20 years ago? I mean if I'm 47 and I'm posting for a new position at Bank of America, do I include my LLWS championship on my resume? When asked how I respond in stressful situations, do I talk about how in the Regional semi-finals Jimmy, our 3rd baseman couldn't find his Rawlings batting gloves, and I realized that I could share mine, and I ran out to the on-deck box and gave Jimmy my gloves? Does Drury being on the winning team when he was 12, help him at all compete in the 3rd period of a playoff game?
• 7:21 left and Miller just reminded everyone in the building that he's about as good as it gets these days moving laterally across the crease. Damn.
• Oh hohohohohoho ho WOW! Great pass from Briere to Pominville. 6-3 Buffalo. Good night. Drive home safely.
• The Sabres have fortunately returned to their classic 1 long horn blast after a goal, because if they gave 6 short blasts, it would sound really gay.
• VS just showed the Eastern Conference standings, and jeez...what the hell happened to Montreal? I know that Huet is down and out, but holy crap, they're in 10th place as of tonight, and it seems like 3 weeks ago they were comfortably in 4th. Unbelievable.
• Poor Michael Ryan just got robbed. This just came after Daryl Reaugh commented that the Sabres young guys look like clones.
• I honestly think that Geoff Sanderson and Simon Gagne are the only two Flyers that would have a chance at making the Sabres roster.
• All wrapped up from Buffalo - very nice effort tonight by the Sabres, and honestly a very solid production by Versus. I liked John Forslund more than Doc Emmerik, and just about as much as any of the play by play men that work for CBC.
• This was the 10th game this season that the Sabres have scored 6 goals or more.