My Sabres vs Flyers game 2 recap

-Well, those were two totally different games. For the last month or so, I’ve been preaching about how I want the Sabres to balance the force between scoring and defense. After these two games, I don’t think they can do that. It seems like if they try to play a wide open style of offense, you start seeing kinks in their defensive armour, like we did last night. When they go into a defensive shell, the offense doesn’t really do much (See: Game 1).-

-If there is anything you can like about game 2, it’s how the Sabres only lost by one goal and were in the penalty box for much of the 2nd period. It also showed me that the Sabres can keep up with the Flyers when it comes to scoring, which was probably my biggest fear entering the series. Now, even though they can keep up, you gotta wonder if the Sabres should try and go back to their defensive style game plan that they had in game 1. I just think they are better served to try and slow down the pace of the game than get into a shootout with the deeper Flyers-

-I may have been a little intoxicated, but if memory serves me, a lot of the Sabres penalties were kind of self-inflicting. In other words: Don’t blame the officiating, because we’ve been taking some stupid penalties and letting the Flyers get in our heads. On a sidenote, we did score our first power play goal since game 5 of the 2007 Eastern Conference Finals-

-At around the 3rd or 4th Flyers goal, I just threw my hands in the air and wondered, “Who the fu#k do we blame for this, the defense or Ryan Miller?” I’m so confused. Last night marked the first time the Sabres gave up five or more goals since game 1 of the 2006 series against Ottawa. The Sabres better fix their play in their own zone.-

-Well, it took me about 4 years to really find a legit reason to hate Danny Briere. Well, all I needed was playoff hockey to find the hate. I want Briere’s head on a platter. Really, I do! He’s just a pesky, annoying player. Hell, all of the Flyers are annoying. They are just totally unlikable. Seeing Richards yell at Ryan Miller made me want to put my fist through the TV and punch the guy’s lights out. I don’t care what anyone says, they are the most hated Sabres opponent. Sure, I may be living in the moment, but when you take all their individual players and place them on the hate meter, they are all rated high. I mean, who do we hate on the Leafs right now? Um, Ron Wilson? The Sens still have Alf and Neal, but that’s about it. This Flyers team has like 10 guys I want to have assassinated. Their goons are unlikable and so are their star players. Everyone stinks!

-Give it up to Thomas Vanek. He has totally showed up for this series and now has 4 goals in his last 5 playoff games. He’s driving to the net and getting dirty, which is something that you need to do in the playoffs. BTW, my series MVP, Drew Stafford, needs to fricken show-up. You want 5 or 4-million for next year? The line of Stafford-Boyes-Ennis hasn’t done a whole lot this series.-

-Holy crap! Where the hell have these versions of #20 and #25 been all this year?? Mike Grier is killing everyone in sight and has been such a key in the Sabres penalty killing. I’ve been so floored by his play. As I’ve said all year, there’s such a difference between regular and playoff hockey, and Grier gets that. Even Niedermayer is holding his own. Just give it up to the vets for their efforts- 

-I still miss Derek Roy for this series. It would be so nice to be able to kill off the Boyes at center experiment-

-In case you were wondering, the last time the Flyers beat us in the playoffs was 2000, when Brian Boucher was their starting goalie.-

Overall, I feel really good coming back home with a split. If you ask me, we still haven’t played our best hockey yet and you could probably say that about the Flyers as well. This is going to be a long series and thank goodness for Pronger being hurt. BTW, I think the Arena is going to be rocking for these two games. You can tell by the TV Ratings (50% better in Buffalo than last year against the Bruins) that the fans are ready for this one. Please, lets make some SERIOUS noise there. Of course, with Party in the Plaza returning, you know more fans are going to be loaded before the game. As always, beer will always be the life of the party.