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Another night and another one-goal loss by the Buffalo Sabres.
Once again, the Sabres played well enough to win in Calgary and yet they come out of the game empty handed.
The Sabres have now lost three games in a row, all on the road, after earning at least a point in four straight games (3-0-1).
Losses in Calgary, Edmonton and Vancouver are going to leave a mark on the Sabres. They squandered the opportunity to earn points against three struggling west coast teams. However, they will return home with empty pockets.
Johnny Gaudreau scored the game-winner with 4:50 remaining in the third period, and Jonas Hiller made 27 saves to power the Calgary Flames to a 4-3 win against the Buffalo Sabres on Thursday night.
In the end, it wasn't what the Flames did to win the game, It was a matter of how many D zone coverage mistakes would sabotage the Sabres and their chances to win the game.
The Buffalo D and forwards were passive in their defense of Chad Johnson's slot area.
The Flames took advantage of the huge swatches of open ice that were made available in the Buffalo zone. The Flames made the Sabres pay for their soft D-zone coverage,
Sean Monahan scored two goals, and Markus Granlund scored late in the second period for Calgary (12-14-2), which has won four straight games and eight in a row at home.
The lone bright spot for Buffalo was the superior play of defenseman Rasmus Ristolainen who scored a hat trick for the Sabres (11-15-3).
Ristolainen (21 yrs + 45 days) is the youngest NHL defensemen to score a hat trick. The young Finn scored goals number 5,6, and 7 on the season to go along with his 14 assists. Ristoaline now has 21 points in 29 games played. He accumulated 20 points last season in 78 games played.
It's too bad that Ristolainen's historical night was undermined and ruined by terrible D-zone play by Johnson and the Sabres forwards and D.
Ristolainen becomes the first Sabres defenseman to score a hat trick since Phil Housley (1987-88).
According to Elias Sports Bureau, Ristolainen is the first Sabre to score 3 goals in a period since Thomas Vanek (3/19/08) and the first D-man since Al MacInnis (10/12/1998).
I've been saying for weeks that I feel strongly that the Sabres need to upgrade their goaltending.
Chad Johnson and Linus Ullmark have played well in the eight weeks since Robin Lehner first suffered a high ankle sprain on October 8.
I see much fatigue in the play of both Johnson and Ullmark right now.
Lehner is not expected to return to the lineup for a few more weeks. He may not return until late January and he will need time to play himself back into hockey shape.
More on the Buffalo goalie crisis later.
The NHL trade deadline is two months away.
The NHL GMs met in Toronto in November.
At those meetings, the GMs discussed possible trade opportunities among themselves. They also lamented about being hamstrung by the miniscule amount of salary cap space that is available in the NHL right now. Many teams are at or near the cap ceiling which means that if a trade would be executed it would have to be a dollar out, dollar in type trade. Thus, the deafening silence in the NHL trade market.
U.S. Thanksgiving has come and gone. All teams have played between 25-29 games and their GMs now know what their pluses and weaknesses are. The majority, if not all NHL GMs have been playing the cell phone game with their peers. The groundwork for trades has been laid.
The NHL Board of Governors met in California earlier this week.
NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman said next year's salary cap may increase $3 million. Bettman said the range is a "very, very, very rough projection" and will be based on several factors, including the diving Canadian dollar. The 2015-16 NHL salary cap is set at $71.4 million this season, with a floor of $52.8 million. In the 2015-16 model, the upper limit would be $74.4 million and the the floor would then be $55 million.
The NHL holiday roster freeze goes into effect on December 19 through December 27. Per NHL CBA rules, no trades, waiver moves or loans will be allowed in the moratorium window.
Sixteen different NHL teams have #3 million or less in available salary cap space right now.
Some big name players will continue to be the object of trade rumors between now and the trade deadline.
Anze Kopitar, David Backes, Dustin Byfuglien, Andrew Ladd, Eric Staal, Milan Lucic, Cam Ward, Radim Vrbata, Torey Krug, Sam Gagner, and others are all pending UFAs.
All are on the tops of the minds of NHL GMs.
However, no NHL pending UFA is creating more of a hockey buzz right now than Steven Stamkos. On Wednesday, Stamkos "liked" a tweet of a video linking him to his hometown Toronto Maple Leafs should he become a UFA in July.
On Thursday Stamkos unliked the tweet and was grilled by media about his slip of the thumb.
“People are going to talk about stuff. I’m not too worried about that,” Stamkos told reporters in Tampa. “I guess when you are in the spotlight — and lots of people have done things accidentally — it probably doesn’t look great. But I’m telling you guys, it was an accident and hopefully this is the last time I have to answer questions about Twitter.”
Stamkos is in the prime of his career at age 25. He is a Markham native and doesn't have a contract extension inked between he and the Lightning right now.
Negotiations between Steve Yzerman and Stamkos have been done on the down low. Yzerman has been radio silent on the Stamkos matters since last summer. Seemingly the ,ore people ask him about Stamkos the quieter Yzerman clams up.
It doesn't help Tampa's cause right now that head coach Jon Cooper has insisted on moving Stamkos from his preferred center position to right wing. Stamkos insists that he is an NHL center yet his head coach disagrees with him. Why is Cooper shaking his money maker? Because he can. Cooper has 100% of the support of Yzerman on playing Stamkos at right wing. Earlier this week, Cooper signed a new long term contract. He now has job security and the total support of his GM and owner. Cooper proved during the 2015 Stanley Cup Finals that he is brand loyal to the youngsters that he coached to a Calder Cup championship in AHL Norfolk. Cooper is an avid supporter of Nikita Kucherov, Ondrej Palat, and Tyler Johnson. You'll recall that Johnson and not Stamkos who was the focal point of the Bolts' Stanley Cup run last spring.
Cooper's take on Stamkos' contract or lack thereof:
"What happens in (the media’s) position, that’s your job when you follow a team every day for nine months," Cooper said. "There are going to be stories to write about every month, and naturally this is a story to write about. But when we are working on our 5-on-3 (power play), it’s not (Tyler Johnson) turning to Stammer and saying, ‘What’s up with your contract; let’s talk about that right now.’ That never goes on.
"Whatever happens outside and in the media, that’s for you guys to assume or speculate. But with our team and inside our locker room, it has no affect".
Cooper may have a new contract but Stamkos has the hammer and the leverage in all negotiations. Money may not be the thing holding up a contract extension with Tampa. Maybe Stamkos is telling the Bolts at he won'r re-sign with them unless he is going to be playing center ice for them for the next 8-9 seasons.
Maybe Stamkos liked the Toronto-related tweet on purpose.
You better believe that Leafs chiefs Shanahan, Lamoriello and Babcock will play Stamkos at center and not on right wing in Toronto.
Source: Tampa Tribune
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My take on Stamkos:
I honestly believe that he will test free agency next summer.
If he were going to re-sign with the Bolts he would have done so already.
Is he bound for Toronto if he busts out of Tampa?
Not necessarily.
It makes for great headlines to line Stamkos with Toronto, however, Buffalo, Boston, Calgary, Los Angeles, Vancouver, Anaheim and a few other teams would take a healthy run at Stamkos.
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