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Oh what a relief it is. Plus other notes. |
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N-ole' for you, Les Habitants. And thanks for doing your little part in allowing the Buffalo Sabres a reprieve from a franchise low-point.
For posterity's sake, the Sabres were on a 14-game losing streak, obliterating the previous losing streak of eight games set in the 2002-03 season as they hit Bell Centre Ice in Montreal. On the road they'd lost 10 in a row before the win last night and were winless in 14 road games (0-13-1.) Their last road victory occurred on November 29, 2014 when they beat the Canadiens 4-3 in a shootout.
One final note on that bout with futility, the 3-2 win in Montreal was their first regulation win since a 4-3 victory over the Calgary Flames at the First Niagara Center on December 11, 2014. A span of 21 games.
Like the Flames game, as well as nearly every game this season, including a 10-3 run which had them four points out of a playoff spot at one point, Buffalo was outshot by Montreal by a 34-18 margin. And as is par for the course the Sabres were outshot in the third period by a wide margin, 15-3. But, just like the game versus Calgary, were able to come out with the win.
Goalie Jhonas Enroth was the game's first star and was all smiles afterwards. When he was asked how it felt not to be talking about another loss he said rather emphatically, "It's great, especially when we didn't get the NHL record of 17 (losses) in a row. We'd heard about it and definitely didn't want to get that.
"Like I said yesterday," he continued, "everybody in here believed we could beat this team. We've beaten them twice before this year so it was great to have that belief in our minds."
The third star of the game was former Montreal Canadiens captain, Brian Gionta.
Gionta was named captain of the Sabres after signing a three-year contract in the off season. He spent five years with Montreal, four as captain, before the Canadiens decided they were going in a different direction.
Last night Gionta scored the eventual game-winner after he intercepted an errant pass, circled behind the Montreal net and scored when his pass to Matt Moulson in the crease was deflected into the net by defenseman Nathan Beaulieu. It came with 41 seconds left in the period and put the Sabres up by a 3-1 margin.
It was his first point versus his former team, but more importantly a huge weight was lifted off of the team. "It's a lot," he said of the losing streak weighing down on them. "We've got a lot of proud guys in this room. Guys that have been on good teams. It's one of those things that no one wants to be a part of and it's nice that we were able to get that one behind us."
Was it any more special that they got the gorilla off of their back with a win against his former team? "It's big," said Gionta matter-of-factly. "For some reason we've played well against them this year, [but] at this point it was more about getting a win and getting on the right track."
Another former Canadien, defenseman Josh Gorges, has never been a part of anything like this before in his career. He accepted a trade to the Sabres in the off season after the Canadiens felt that he no longer was a part of their plans.
For Gorges, like Gionta and anyone in Sabreland, a win is a win no matter who it's against. But this one had to feel good.
Gorges played over 25 minutes in the Sabres' 2-1 SO loss versus Montreal on November 6, 2014. He missed the other two games, both victories later that month so he'd yet to taste victory over his former team.
"Any time you play your former team, you want to do well," said Gorges postgame, "you want to get a win. With everything that's been going on with this team over the last couple of weeks, this one feels good."
Two much-maligned Sabres' players were integral in getting Buffalo off to a good start last night--Cody Hodgson and Drew Stafford.
Hodgson uncharacteristically laid the body on Montreal defenseman PK Subban and separated him from the puck in the corner to the left of goalie Carey Price. From there he centered it to Stafford in the crease. Stafford was stopped on his first shot but managed to whack his second shot through Price for his eighth goal of the season.
After the game Stafford put things in perspective.
“No words can describe what we’ve been going through,” he said. “To have to answer game after game for about a month and a half, ‘What’s going wrong?’ and this and that.
“To just get that two points finally and in regulation against one of the top teams, especially when the ice was tilted for pretty much the whole third period – I mean let’s be honest, we were hemmed in our own zone. Jhonas absolutely stood on his head and bailed us out like we need him to. Also, the puck went in the net for us finally.”
It was the end of a very long dry spell for the Sabres, but onward to the next game.
Tomorrow night the Sabres come home to start a five-game homestand with a visit from the St. Louis Blues. The Blues sit third in the league with 70 points, two behind the league-leading Nashville Predators and Anaheim Ducks.
St. Louis is third in goals/game (3.12,) sixth in goals against (2.38) and have the second-best powerplay in the league (24.3%.)
Oh, and they've also won six in a row and are 9-0-1 in their last ten.
For now, though, the Sabres get to savor a long sought after victory that came against a rival. “You’ll enjoy it tonight, but you don’t really have time to enjoy it because we’re right back at it in a couple days,” Gorges said last night. “That’s the thing about this game, whether you win or lose, you move on to the next day and you get ready for the next challenge.”
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Speaking of Hodgson, Sabres GM Tim Murray is in a bit of a quandary with the former 10th-overall pick in the 2008 draft who's having an atrocious season.
As of yesterday's game Hodgson has two goals and six assists in 49 games this season. This is after coming off of last season when he lead the team in points (44) and assists (24) while finishing second with 20 goals.
The precipitous drop in production has fans and media in a frenzy as they want to see him and the remaining four-plus years of his contract gone.
Hodgson was the focal point of a 2012 trade deadline deal with Vancouver that brought him to Buffalo in exchange for Zack Kassian. In 20 games that season for Buffalo he had three goals and eight assists. During the lockout-shortened 2012-13 season he had 15 goals and 19 assists in 48 games and had Sabreland claiming a clear-cut victory in the trade.
On the heels of two relatively successful seasons with the club, former GM Darcy Regier re-signed Hodgson to a six-year, $25.5m contract. The pros and cons of the long-term deal were many and were being hashed out and beaten to death from the moment the deal was inked on September 11, 2013. That's simply the way things work in Sabreland.
With the way he approaches the off season which includes annual workouts with Gary Robert while adding skating lessons from Sabres skating instructor Dawn Braid, Hodgson looked to improve upon his previous production and did so with his numbers last year on a last place team.
But this season the bottom has fallen out and other than defenseman Tyler Myers, Hodgson is the whipping boy of choice most nights.
The decision Murray will need to make is whether or not Hodgson can get back to being a 40-50 point player on this team. Hodgson has been in head coach Ted Nolan's doghouse for most of the season which includes being a healthy scratch the game before last. Being in the doghouse means no powerplay time earned, which is something that was important to Hodgson last year as nine of his 20 goals came on the powerplay as did 10 of his 24 assists.
Hodgson has never been, nor ever will be the type of player that can carry the team on his back. But you can't discount his skill. In the lockout-shortened 2012-13 season he only had three of his 15 goals on the powerplay, only two of his 19 assists with the man advantage and finished second on the team in scoring to Thomas Vanek. He was fourth amongst forwards in time on ice per game that season, sixth last season.
So the question for Murray as he and Nolan lay the foundation for the future of the Buffalo Sabres is, will Cody Hodgson be a part of it?
At this point in time, probably no based upon what he's done this season. Or as some would put it "Hell friggen NOOOOOO!!!"
Personally, it's hard to hold a single player like Hodgson to the fire and say that he's just awful and should be dumped. Same goes with Gorges and his minus-28 plus/minus which is tied for dead last in the entire league. Same goes with Moulson and his eight goals on the season or Gionta with his five. Is Enroth and his 3.38 goals against average that bad? Or is it a product of the entire team faltering.
Whatever they do with Hodgson is no skin off of my back but I won't use this season as the ruler with which to measure him. I began by looking at this season as a throw away season, and nothing has changed.
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Best wishes for a speedy and full recovery for Kyle Okposo of the NY Islanders.
Despite my selfish wishes for the Isles to fail and miss the playoffs, never would I wish for it to come at the expense of a sight-threatening injury like Okposo's detached retina or any other career-threatening injury.
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