The Sabres didn’t sign human aircraft carrier, John Scott for his boyish good looks and his choir boy manners. The 6’8”, 265 pound scrapper allows his teammates to play their style of game while not having to worry about the shenanigans that happen on the ice in hotly contested games against bitter divisional rivals like Boston. Darcy Regier targeted Steve Ott at the end of last season because he felt that his team needed a human wrecking ball in his lineup for games such as tonight’s game in Boston. Regier has added a couple of heavy doses of team toughness by acquiring Scott and Ott. As they’ve proven against Toronto, the Sabres are going to be tougher to play against in games against Eastern rivals. Nearly fifteen months ago, Milan Lucic destroyed Ryan Miller on the punk play to end all punk plays. That hit and the ensuing battles that resulted from the hit, helped to add hundreds of gallons of jet fuel to an inferno-like bitter rivary that dates back to the early ‘70s when Jim Schoenfeld violently threw Wayne Cashman threw the zamboni doors at The Aud and then proceeded to fight the Bruins on the concrete runway.
After today’s skate, Bruins head coach Claude Julien said that he’s not worried about the Sabres and their newfound team toughness.
“I have no problem with anything. It’s (Buffalo Sabres) choice to build a team any way they want,” said Julien. “Speculation is speculation as far as I’m concerned, and that’s all it is until something happens. We’ve played our style of game forever and we don’t plan on changing that. There’s nothing, as far as I’m concerned, to be worried about.”
Lindy Ruff was asked about the infusion of Scott and Ott to the rivalry ,and, about the potential for an Adams Division donnybrook to break out tonight.
"It was just overall team toughness, make us a grittier team," said Ruff.
"It had nothing to do with the Bruins."
"You try to win the puck battles and the territorial battles. We have to win a game. Not coming out of here with points is not being successful. In a short season we need points. We've answered the physical challenge. We've been there for each other from day one in this. We play a gritty style, a hitting style. We have to win games."
Updated 12:40pm:
Lindy Ruff said today that Kaleta will be out of the lineup for an extended period of time. Thanks to the prison shank of a hit administered at the hands of Mike Brown.
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CSN Boston tweeing that Sabres bad ass John Scott has said that he'll fight Shawn Thornton tonight if he comes calling.
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Updated Noon EDT:
Mike Harrington of the Buffalo News reports from the Sabres skate that Alex Suzer will replace TJ Brennan tonight.
Mike Weber will stay in the lineup in place of the dinged Robyn Regehr.
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The Bruins have already skated today.
After their skate, Bruins coach Claude Julien announced that he is scratching Chris Bourque in lieu of AHL dancing bear, Lane MacDermid.
Borque is 5'8 180 dripping wet.
MacDermid is 6'3 and 205, and has 73 PIMs in AHL Providence this season.
Julien adding a hammer to his already physically impressive lineup. One expects a few punch in the face contects tonight.
Ruff is expected to play Nathan Gerbe in pat Kaleta's place.
Why not get Nick Tarnasky on a puddle jumper from Rochester to Boston NOW???
At first blush, the cynics may say that the Sabres have very little chance, if any at all of skating out of Boston with two points. I prefer to see the water bottle as half full, not half empty.
Personally, I like Buffalo’s chances to win tonight. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying that they’ll have their way with the Bruins. The B’s is hungry and will look to pounce on the Sabres. They can’t hit what they can’t catch. When flying up and down the ice in north-south fashion, not many teams in the NHL can skate with the Sabres. They’ll have to keep their feet moving at all times, in all three zones. Claude Julien’s team is healthy, and it is clicking on all cylinders right now. Their transition game is working well right now. They are feasting on opponent’s turnovers and taking them the other way for goals. It won’t be an easy task to achieve. Lindy Ruff knows it. The players know it. Four game winless streaks inside a 48 game abbreviated season are unacceptable. Losing skids must be corrected on the fly and without the of real, honest-to-goodness practice sessions. The Sabres don’t get the benefit of three days off in between games. They have to watch video at the hotel and work out their kinks away from the rinks.
When I look back on the two Carolina losses, and the disappointing endings in Washington, and at home to Toronto, I’m not seeing a ton of epic fails by the Sabres. I’m seeing a blown D-zone face-off at the worst possible time here, one soft goal there, one defenseman losing coverage on his man in OT there, and one forward not back checking on a goal there. I’m seeing guys fail inside Lindy’s “system”. I’m not seeing Lindy’s system fail. Most of these gaffes can be chalked up to the fact that when the lockout ended, the one week obligatory training camp was like not nearly enough time to get NHLers properly amped up for the rigors of a game every other night, for 97-98 nights. Physical fatigue causes mental breakdowns on the ice. I see the Sabres as a team who if they smooth out one or two rough spots per game, they’ll be fine.
The Buffalo D corps have the most cleaning up to do. They can’t leave their man alone in scoring areas against the Bruins like they have with other opponents this season. Miller admitted making “stupid” mistakes on two goals against Toronto. The forwards have to finish all checks, be swift on the back check, and they have to get pucks to Rask’s blue ice early and often.
Nobody said it was going to be easy.
The Sabres have to make a bold statement by leaving this mini four game winless streak in Boston, where they haven’t won since 3/10/11. Buffalo is winless in four straight games for the first time since February 11 to February 17, 2012. Ruff’s team hasn’t gone five consecutive games without a win since losing five straight road games from January 14 to January 21, 2012.
The Sabres are 6-2-2 in their last 10 games vs. the Bruins; 4-4-2 on the road.
Ignore the win-loss record for a moment, and you’ll see that both teams are very similar to one another right now.
Bruins are off to their best start in franchise history since the 1970-71 vintage of the Bruins began started their season with an impressive 5-0-1 record.
The Sabres started strong with back to back wins over Philly and Toronto, however, have struggled to go for the jugular vein in the recent 0-3-1 losing streak.
The Sabres started the season with a 2-0 record, however, they enter tonight’s tilt in Boston with an 0-3-1 in their past four games.
Tuukka Rask has been dominant between the pipes with a .932 save percentage and 1.74 GAA.
Ryan Miller’s stats place him in th eNHL’s top ten goalie category. He has a 2-2-1 record with a .925 save% and a 2.38 GAA.
The Lucic-Krejci-Horton line have been humming along nicely. The unit has scored 6 goals and has added 9 assists in Boston’s first 6 games this season.
Not to be ignored, The Vanek-Pominville-Hodgson power trio have scored 10 goals and has added 12 assists thus far.
The Bruins decided to keep their star 19-year-old rookie D, Dougie Hamilton, for the season. While the Sabres have wisely chosen to keep centre Mikhail Grigorenko in Buffalo for the rest of the season.
Oh. I forgot to mention. The Bruins like to fight. The 2013 edition of the Buffalo Sabres love to chuck the knuckles, too. Big John Scott, Steve Ott, Mike Weber, Marcus Foligno, Drew Stafford and a few more Sabres will gladly answer the bell tonight.
Thanks, hockey-fights.com
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Look for Nathan Gerbe to take Pat Kaleta’s spot in tonight’s lineup. Kaleta didn’t make the trip.
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