Quick Hits: Islanders vs. Sabres
For the first time ever, the Buffalo Sabres traveled to Brooklyn to take on the New York Islanders.
Weird, eh?
After a much-needed move from arguably one of the worst venues in the National Hockey League, the Islanders now call a basketball-first arena their home.
As you may have seen tonight, it is not very conducive to playing a hockey game.
Seats that can only see 3/4 of the, other seats that are angled the wrong direction, oh and a scoreboard that isn’t aligned with center ice because it is basketball-first. Stupid arenas make me mad. Good on you, Islanders. You managed to screw this up. A good round of applause for y’all.
Onto what is important here, the hockey stick puck.
The game on the ice played to the terribleness of the arena for a few periods.
Period 1 almost bored me to death. I almost became a skeleton.
New York/Brooklyn/Long Island/Insert Your City Here Islanders took a 1-0 a few minutes after midway through the second period. Calvin de Haan was the guy who did the thing and he was credited with the goal, his first of the season.
It would take the Sabres 6:20 into the third period before they would finally make some noise and get on the not-centered scoreboard (I know how to hold grudges, I guess).
Ex-Islander (suck it brooklyn) Matt Moulson put home his 4th goal of the season, thanks to some heads up passing from forward Zemgus Girgensons. Wait around, and we’ll talk more about fancy passing in the next segment.
A little over 7 minutes later, the Sabres would take the lead for the first time, and for good.
David Legwand skated into the offensive zone on a 2-on-2, with Sam Reinhart on the other side of the ice.
Fortunately for the Sabres, the Islanders defenders either did not pay attention to Reinhart or they just figured Legwand was going to shoot. As soon as Legwand passed to Reinhart and the puck was on Reinhart’s stick, the Islanders defense seemed puzzled.
Reinhart’s 2nd goal of the year put Buffalo up 2-1, and that would prove to be the game-winning goal.
With this 2-1 victory, the Buffalo Sabres move to 5-7-0 on the season (10 points).
Time for quick hits! While you read this, I’m going to take a nap:
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- Pretty passing is fun.
Is this what it feels like to watch hockey where most of the players know what they’re doing?
On both of tonight’s Sabres goals, pretty passing was the key component to a goal happening.
Girgensons’ suicide pass to Moulson at the last second resulted in Moulson barreling into the boards, but also resulted in a Matt Moulson goal. Good pass.
David Legwand’s 2-on-2 pass to Sam Reinhart, who the Islanders did not block, was a very nice pass in its own right.
Legwand put the puck exactly where Reinhart needed it, and Reinhart finished up the job with a good goal past Islanders’ goaltender Thomas Greiss.
- Second overall picks rule.
It is fun to be a jackass, like myself, and beat the “TOP PICKS DON’T MATTER” drum, mostly because I am a troll and I hate you all.
Kidding..at least I think.
Being an asshole or not, it is hard to deny how neat it is to have a 2014 second overall pick have his goal primarily assisted by the 1998 second overall pick.
Maybe I’m just a hockey nerd who likes things like that? Maybe I was just really bored driving home from Buffalo and got excited about something so lame?
Either way, top picks in fact do matter so I am crushing my own narrative and proving that I am in fact a trolling idiot.
- Mike Weber, healthy scratch.
*me looking at tonight’s line rushes*
You had me there for a minute, Bylsma.
Hockey people tell me that Weber might not go when Bogosian returns, but we know this much..either way, Mike Weber won’t be playing a ton.
And yes, I know this man has a family and a job and it isn’t nice to always rip on him. But have you realized that Mike Weber is not good at the stick puck and our job as bloggers/twitterers/podcasters is to rip on these people?
We are all witnesses (of Mike Weber’s inability to play adequate hockey).
- Somebody’s closer.
Linus Ullmark was in net tonight for the Buffalo Sabres, following his first National Hockey League victory against the Philadelphia Flyers a few short days ago.
This move was not surprising, based off how Ullmark played against Philadelphia. This move may actually be a sign of things to come.
In a polluted goaltending pond of fringe prospects, Ullmark has found a way to swim to the top and stick out.
Ullmark was impressive again tonight against the Islanders, stopping 29 of 30 shots.
It is clear to many: if Linus Ullmark continues to play well, he will continue to start games for the Buffalo Sabres.
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