Miller time

Sorry I haven’t posted a Sabres thought since the end of game 2. I’ve been busy at work and my parents are visiting from Buffalo. Sorry, but unless Bloguin wants to pay my enormous rent for my beach front property on Howard Beach, they are going to have to deal with it 😛

Anyways, because the family is in town, I was unable to watch the first two periods of game 4. Honestly, all I really needed to see was the 3rd period to be blown away. Miller was unfricken believable! Yes, without question, he not only stole the game, but Buffalo’s heart. The “Ryan Miller” chant was awesome. Finally, a more creative cheer than  “Lets go Buffalo” and “Boooooooucher.”  Anyways, it was awesome, and you could tell that the fans were in the palms of Miller’s hands. It was as if Hulk Hogan was walking out during Wrestlemania III and the fans would cheer him for whatever move he made. Hell, it didn’t matter if Miller played the puck, drank Gatorade, shaved his Rico stache or slammed Andre The Giant, because he would have still gotten a standing ovation. It was Miller’s world and we were just paying rent. 

Sure, I’ve been very tough on Miller this year, as I think he’s been way too inconsistent and was a far cry from his Olympic form. However, last night, he shut a lot of people up. He was the story of game 2. His save on Briere was incredible and such a big F-U to him…and to us! Alright, it wasn’t really that dramatic towards the fans, but his comments after the game about how he didn’t give an expletive about what the fans thought were pretty funny. Actually, what is funnier is that you normally don’t get an athlete who tells the fan base that he doesn’t give a “expletive” about what they think, only for it to be met with high praise by those same fans. “Yeaaaaaaaaaaaah! Miller told me that he doesn’t give a expletive what we think! Hooray! Maybe he can tell me to F-off in public!! Yeah!!”

Of course, shutting out the Flyers for the 2nd time in the series can constitute for your star goalie to tell the fan base to get bent.

Anyways, it was great for Miller to shut the critics up. Without him, the series would probably be over or at least we’d be down 3-1. After Miller, it’s been a couple of unsung heroes on the 3rd and 4th lines, and that’s about it. This resembles how things went last year, when Miller carried the team to a division title. Before the series, I had mentioned to Heather B. on the Sabres podcast that maybe Miller’s playoff performance from last year, which was good, but not exactly great, was affected by him being so focused on the Olympics. Maybe, he kind of had too many goals to focus on last year.

Now, before you send me 30 messages about how well Miller played against Boston last year, there’s no way you could compare the two performances. Sorry, but it’s a lot harder to shut down the greatest players in the world than Miro Satan. Plus, everyone in the USA and in the hockey world, were more focused on Miller’s impact for Team USA than his impact on the Sabres. And frankly, that was probably Miller’s biggest goal. Bottom line: I think Miller having time to focus (Due to injury) and not having the Olympics on the brain, has helped him in the playoffs.

So, give a hand to Miller. Yes, I doubted him, but he has proven me wrong. Honestly, I kind of knew he had it in him. Hell, I always go back to last year and how he saved the season. No, it wasn’t because of Hank, Toni or Tim Connolly’s epic 17 goal season, it was all on #30. I just hadn’t seen it enough for this year. Now, he’s shown it and he’s the least of my worries. Top six, anyone?

Other thoughts….

-Tim Connolly and the power play truly suck complete ass-

-I love how Lindy called the Flyers a bunch of whiners. Frankly, he’s totally right. As he put it, when the Sabres had like 30 penalties in the first 3 games, they didn’t complain about the refs. And, be aware, even if the refs didn’t suck, coaches will always pull the refs suck out of their hat for a playoff series. It has been done 100s of times. Hell, Ruff did it last year after the Sabres lost game 4 in OT against the Bruins. Well, for this year, Lindy didn’t go that route. I wonder if it had to do with him liking how the series is really hard hitting, and he didn’t want to change the way the games were being played. By complaining about the refs, 8/10 times, it will make them call more penalties and take the physicality out of the game. Wait, our power play has sucked, maybe that’s why Ruff didn’t call the refs out (Kidding..kind of). Anyways, this just gives us reason #234 to hate the Flyers for this series-

-I swear, if you look at the photos on TBN website for game 4, every photo seems to be of guys hitting or pushing each other around. This series has become old time hockey-

-Well, if there is one prediction I got right, I wrote that both teams would split their home games. Now, if my crystal ball isn’t on the fritz, I predicted the Sabres would win game 5 and take the series in Buffalo. I hope I am right-

Go Sabres!

(BTW, Matthew Stewart will be running a live blog for tomorrow night’s game, so be sure to check it out)