STILL BUILDING MOMENTUM

OK so we lost and there were a few bogus calls (offside on their second goal, a questionable call against Komi, no call at the end of the game on Afinogenof which led to the 4th goal, etc…). However we didn’t need to be in that situation to begin with, and tonight will remind the pesky bananas that we’re at a higher level than them.

The reason why they got the lead was simple: Horrible coaching decisions. Dandenault said it right out during the pre-game interview. When he was asked about how well they played when they pressured the Isles Defensemen, chased and work the puck behind the net, and got their own Defensemen involved in the attack, and questioned on what the team strategy was for tonight, his response made me cringe in my seat: “Well, it was a fun game in NY, but the coaches talked with us and showed some tape, and we’ll have to do the exact opposite of what we did in NY. We have to fall back and try to shut them down” I immediately knew I had a loosing bet on that game.

The saving grace in this story however is that after a period of letting the Sabres perform Baryshnikov’s interpretation of the Nut-Cracker in our zone, the coaches decided to open up the play, and IMPOSE OUR OWN GAME. End result, we tied the game, and we would have won it had it not been for the McGooesque call on Komi. (Note that our PK was atrocious last night, and should have came up big during that PK…too many weaknesses)

So end result, I hope and believe that this was a learning lesson to Carbo and the stooges, because if we ever, ever, EVER enter a game with this fall back strategy which is yet to win us a comfortable and deserved game, I will have to pull a Frank-The-Tank and run through the snow naked to cool off.

I would expect us to come out and impose our game from the start, this game and the next, and the next, and the next, etc…However the most important thing is to just play our game and come out with the win tonight, because we don’t want to drop two in a row. That’s when ugly things begin to happen.