Buffalo Boy's Blog

I watched last night and came away shrugging my shoulders. Overall, how can you complain about the effort of the Buffalo Sabres last night? They fought hard but it wasn't enough. It was a tired hockey team and you could see their legs going from under them through the second and third period when they were getting trapped in their own zone.

There were several times it looked like Toronto was on the power play even though it was even strength, it was because Buffalo forwards were taking shifts that were way too long at time. If you are a tired hockey team 30-40 second shifts max. Im sure Lindy Ruff was going mad over that last night. Ill bet Mike Grier as much as I defend him, got stuck out there on at least 4 shifts last night for well over a minute....thats too long for him to be on the ice. A) hes not fast anymore, B) when hes fatigued, hes down right slow. Forget about experience, when you are tired and slow, thats a bad combination.

Tonight this team is in trouble. They are coming into the third game in four nights on short rest, losing an hour last night for the time change and a two hour bus ride back to Buffalo (assuming it was a bus ride, they probably flew but you get the point). Hopefully Gaustad is ready to go tonight because they lost 90% of their face offs last night and it was noticeable. Gaustad is the only guy at center who is capable of winning draws. Tim Connolly is useless and when they started letting Cody McCormick try faceoffs you knew they were in trouble. Winning faceoffs would be a big help for a tired team.

After beating the Bruins the other night they afforded themselves the chance to lose one of the two games this weekend. Last night was the one to win considering the hectic schedule, now they are in a bit of a corner. Lose tonight and you lose the grip on 7th probably and put yourself back into must win territory for Tuesday. Win tonight and you can get back a little cushion.

Anyone who wasn't thrilled with Miller last night probably has a gripe on maybe one of the four goals, The other three were defensive lapses and screens he had no chance on. Enroth is in tonight and hes a hot back up when he gets the start so hopefully Enroth will provide a little magic tonight and Gaustad can help them on facefoffs.

One thing is for sure, good effort isn't good enough, its got to be desparate and thats exactly what the Leafs were last night.