‘Laliming The Steam’ Out Of The Night

February 3, 2009   ·   Brian Sanborn   ·   Jump to comments

Living here on the West Coast and being a fan of a hockey team nearly 3.000 miles away, you know for a fact there will be very few chances to throw on the hockey jersey of your favorite team, go to a NHL arena, and root for your team. Well Groundhog Day was one of those nights for me, as my better half and I went to the Honda ‘Pond’ Center (or whatever they call it) to see the Buffalo Sabres take on the Anaheim Ducks.

Driving on the I-5 South towards Anaheim. Check. Paying $15.00 for parking. Check. Buying a hot dog, nachos, and a soda and applying for credit to pay for the exorbitant concession prices. Check. Seeing Patrick Lalime starting in net for the Buffalo Sabres.

Check please?

I began to sink in my chair just a little bit, at the sight of not seeing Ryan Miller between the pipes for the Buffalo Sabres made me feel a bit ill. But alas, I refused to let this disappointment get me down, and for the first two periods last night, Lalime played strong and the game was tied 1-1, but I began to notice something disturbing.

With Lalime in the lineup (at least from my vantage point) it appears that the Sabres sit back a bit more to compensate for the drop off between the pipes when Lalime in the lineup.

Then once the 3rd period began, it was the beginning of the end for yet another disappointing night for Buffalo fans here in Southern California. As the refs determined (Rob Schick, what a shock) that the Ducks played a clean game for over 55 minutes (sarcasm off), they provided two powerplay opportunities in the 3rd, as Chris Kunitz and Corey Perry scored with the man advantage as the Ducks prevailed over the up and down Sabres, 3-2.

Craig Rivet tallied for the Sabres late in the 3rd to give the Sabres a chance down 3-2, and the Sabres were awarded a powerplay with under 2:00 to go, on a call which even I admit was a bogus interference call against Chris Pronger. Buffalo Head Coach Lindy Ruff decided to pull Lalime with under a minute to go, but the Sabres were too passive with the puck instead of shooting on net, and despite having a couple of decent chances, the Sabres failed to capitalize.

The Buffalo Sabres concluded the West Coast trip with a 2-2 record, with performances indicative of the ups and downs of the Sabres in 2008-2009.

The Sabres return home tomorrow night to host the Toronto Maple Leafs, a game in which the Sabres should and need to win to start gaining some separation in a very tight Eastern Conference playoff race.

NOTES:

Lalime fell to 2-7-1 between the pipes for the Sabres, and while it is hard to fault Lalime for his teams lackluster effort in Anaheim last night, Lalime must pickup his game if this team expects to play in the playoffs.

How did the Sabres ‘Big 3′ perform last night (Jason Pominville, Thomas Vanek, and Derek Roy?) 0 goals, 0 assists, 3 SOG. That is simply NOT going to get it done.

How many times does Tim Connolly have to try to beat 3-4 opposing players all by himself to realize that it simply does not work?

Annoying fan of the night: Duck fan behind me talking about J.S. Giguere’s woes of late and saying “what do we Ducks fans do to deserve this?” and I simply replied “You won a Cup 1 1/2 years ago, try 40+ years without one”

Not another peep said.