Buffalo Sabres General Manager Darcy Regier today announced that defenseman Tyler Myers suffered a broken bone in his leg during Thursday’s game against the Montreal Canadiens and will miss the remainder of the 2012-13 season.
Myers logged 25:37 of ice time in 27 shifts during Thursday's 5-1 loss to Montreal, his third-highest total of the season. Over his last seven games Myers had averaged more than 25 minutes per game.
In 39 games this season, the 23-year-old Myers recorded three goals and five assists, along with 32 penalty minutes.
Rochester D and C puck maven, Kevin Oklibzija notes that Buffalo is in emergency recall mode right now:
@sabresbuzz No limit to emergency recalls. They're now in an emergency situation for recall on defense.
Tyler Myers has a broken leg. His season is over, per the Buffalo Sabres.
With seven games remaining in the regular season and their playoff hopes dangling from the precipice of Niagara Falls, the Sabres will have to win games without Myers in their lineup.
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Not surprisingly, Tyler Myers is missing from today's Sabres practice at First Niagara Center.
Blame PK Subban's point rocket for Myers' discomfort today.
Here's the evidence:
Myers was seen walking gingerly with an ice bag taped to each shin/ankle after the game.
If Myers can't play on Saturday vs. Philly, Rolston can call-up Alex Biega from Rochester to take his place. Brayden McNabb would normally be the first recall, however, he's out long term with a knee ailment right now. The Sabres have one recall left.
They may opt to insert John Scott on D. He is a natural D man.
More on his situation to come when Rolston speaks after prax......
Ryan Miller wasn't the reason why the Sabres were humiliated by the Montreal Canadiens. It wasn't his fault that Ron Rolston pulled his starter and replaced him with bullpen goalie Jhonas Enroth. Miller allowed four goals on 28 shots and Rolston reeled Miller into the bench as a shock therapy treatment for the forwards and D to take note of.
Yesterday morning, Ron Rolston said that Jhonas Enroth would be getting a start this weekend with three games in four nights against Montreal, Philly,and Tampa.
Will Rolston give Enroth the net against Philly on Saturday vs. Philly?
I think he should.
With the playoff facade fading quickly, why not give Enroth a start or two in the next seven games. Jhonas has earned the right to start a game this weekend.
To take the goaltending point one step further, should the Sabres reward Rochester Amerks starter David Leggio a start in Buffalo right now? Hasn't the Williamsville native earned the opportunity to start his first NHL game?
In 59 starts this season, Leggio is 36-22-1 with four shutouts. He's got a 2.56 GAA and a .923 save %.
Leggio has been his team's best player this season and he deserve a pat on the back. The kid's days may be numbered in the Sabres organization now that Matt Hackett has arrived on the scene in Rochester. Haclett is a bonafide, proven starting goalie and he has a tremendously bright NHL future. He may well be Buffalo's next starting goalie after Miller's contract expires in July 2014.
Leggio's future in Buffalo may be cloudy at best right now. Why not give the kid a start in his hometown while he still can play here? It would be a Buffalo kid's dream come true.
Since Leopold and Regehr were sent packing last week, Tyler Myers has been asked to step up and to be a leader of the oft times erratic Sabres D. He's been good. Not great. Less turnovers, and better decisions with the puck.
Ron Rolston is counting on Myers to lead. Its time that he start to exert himself as a member of the leadership group on the ever evolving organizational flowchart. Myers is being paid a king's ransom to be a difference maker and a key contributor for the Sabres.
Its high time he stepped his game up.
Myers has seen dramatic increases in his ice time. He skated 22:46 on Winnipeg. He skated 25:37 TOI against Montreal.
With more ice comes more accountability.
Tyler Myers was -4 on his past two games.
He was -3 in Winnipeg, and just a wee bit better against the Habs.
Myers spoke candidly after the Montreal Massacre. He said that that game was the worst performance by a Sabres team since he started playing in Buffalo. Looking at and listening to Myers after the game in the losing locker room, one caught the distinct vibe of resignation. There are still seven games left in the regular season and the Sabres have not been declared DOA yet. There still is a glimmer of hope that they can run the table to earn a playoff spot. Slim shot, buy it still exists. So why the hush tones and long faces?
Thanks, sabres.com
Myers is right. He team has played two back-to-back pathetic games. They've been outscored 9-2 in the last eight period of play. Miller's seeing far too many shots while the Sabres D have been charitable with the puck, serving up ugly turnover after disgusting turnover.
There were catastrophic break downs by Buffalo D men on every Montreal goal scored on Thursday night. Myers was soft on the back check on the Bourque goal.
Weber was out muscled and out hustled by Ryder on the Galchenyuk PPG.
Sekera and Pysyk watched passively as Gallagher walked out from behind the net to score the wraparound on Miller.
Myers did his best by blocking both Subban bombs, however the weakside D Ehrhoff failed to pressure Markov with the same determination. Puck kissed off Flynn's twig and into Miller's net.
Myers blinked first and failed to skate full blast towards Subban to take away his shot lane.
D zone disasters occur in a regular basis for Buffalo. No wonder they can't get out of their own end. No attention to detail. No adherence to the game plan.
The Habs had serious incentive and had a lot to play for on Thursday night as a win in Buffalo insured them of a playoff berth. The Sabres (38 points) had a helluva lot more to play for in that a win over Montreal would have moved them two points closer to the eighth seed Rangers and Winnipeg who have 44 points right now.
Looking in the mirror after a weak performance like Thursday night's is going to be a difficult chore.
You think the Sabres soap opera is the best one on TV right now?
You may want to take a minute to check out Ilya Bryzgalov's act in Philly.
Earlier this week, Bryz was accused by some of his teammates (to the media) of committing one of the mortal sins of all professional sports: falling asleep in a video review session.
The story intensified on Thursday and the Universe was nine to happy about the accusation. So mush so that he told the media how to do their jobs.
The Flyers bring their traveling circus to Buffalo for a Saturday afternoon matinee.
Who saw this coming? The Sabres and Flyers at the bottom of the Eastern conference standings in April.
The Flyers lost to the Senators while the Sabres were losing to the Canadiens on Thursday night.
Should be a doozy of a game on Saturday afternoon.
One team approached the game like it had to win the game in order to clinch a playoff berth. The other team showed up to play a scrimmage.
Care to hazard a guess at which approach the Sabres took?
There was nothing socially redeeming about this game if you are a Sabres fan,
The home team was out-scored, out-shot, out-worked, out-coached, and out-classed.
Backs against the wall, the majority of Sabres players rolled over and played dead to at the feet of the Canadiens.
“We didn’t have enough effort,” a dejected interim head coach Ron Rolston said.
“We didn’t have enough players going. We had too many passengers.
Too many passenger, for the second game in a row.
Miller, Ott, Kaleta, and one or two other kids showed ip and played a passionate game. The rest simply gave a half-hearted effort when their teammates needed better than their best.
The Canadiens landed 42 shots on Miller and Enroth. The Sabres could only muster 15 shots on Montreal's backup tender, Peter Budaj.
This was Buffalo's second consecutive putrid performance. They haven't been eliminated from the playoffs yet. They are still mathematically alive. Then why the walking dead routine against the Habs?
Ryan Miller said that his teammates didn't come close to executing the game plan that was created to contain the high-flying Canadiens.
" We got our butts kicked", a dejected Miller said.
Cody Hodgson is one of the young guys who is being counted on to play a bigger role on this struggling team. After the Montreal blood-letting, CoHo was baffled:
“That was an embarrassing loss. They played a lot better than we did and we, collectively as a group, didn’t match it.”
The Sabres lacked focus, smarts, effort, and discipline. The Sabres gave the Candiens eight power play opportunities. Playoff teams don't become unglued as easily as the Sabres have been lately.
On the Sabres’ work ethic: “That was an embarrassing loss. They played a lot better than we did and we, collectively as a group, didn’t match it.”
The Sabres starting goalie was extricated from the wreckage after 40 minutes, not because of his poor play, but instead because the forwards and D left him to fend for himself. Miller faced 28 shots before heading to the bench.
Steve Ott told me afterwards: "Our effort was terrible".
Take a good look at Ott's face. He gave it up for his teammates. To bad most of them didnt do the rest for him. Thanks sabres.com.
After his press scrum, Ott was untying his skates when a reporter asked him if his team has thrown in the proverbial towel.
"Seriously? Write this down: NO!!! Write it. My answer is NO! I'm a f***** pride guy, and you ask me that question?!!"
If the passengers played as hard and passionately as Ott, Kaleta, and Miller do/did, the Sabres would be punching their ticket to be a participant in the playoffs. Instead they are a a spectator.
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