Pominville pops Panthers in OT

Despite a solid night in net from former Albany River Rats netminder Scott Clemmensen, the Florida Panthers were edged by the Buffalo Sabres and Jason Pominville, 2-1 in overtime.  It was a tight, hard fought, down to the wire contest between both clubs.

Buffalo hopped on the board first, when late in the first Derek Roy was able to skate in and slip one past Clemmensen.  Roy’s seventh tally of the year, gave the Sabres a 1-0 edge. Yet Florida would respond with a marker of their own late in the second.  On the power-play, Jason Garrison from the circle, blasted his ninth of the season past Ryan Miller, knotting it up at 1-1.

After nothing was resolved in the third, the contest proceeded to OT. During the extra session, Paul Szczechura found a streaking Pominville up ice and the uncontested Pominville ripped one past Clemmensen for the winning tally.  Pominville’s tenth of the campaign helped the Sabres to an impressive win over the Southeast Division leading Panthers.

Additionally, Clemmensen stopped 18-of-20, while Miller turned away 22-of-23 between the pipes. With the victory Buffalo improves to 15-11-2 (32 points).  In defeat, Florida picks up a point and moves into a tie point-wise with the Philadelphia Flyers atop the Eastern Conference at 16-8-5 (37 points).

- Mike Gwizdala

A Brief History of Recent Hits in the NHL

As you've all probably heard by now, Chicago Blackhawks defenseman Niklas Hjalmarsson was given a two-game suspension for Monday's hit on the Buffalo Sabres' Jason Pominville, which probably sounds about right, all things considered. It clearly constituted "a check delivered on a player who is not aware of the impending hit, therefore unable to protect or defend himself, and contact is made on the back part of the body," as per the NHL's rule 43.1.

However, it's interesting to note how this specific hit stacks up against other notable ones from the past few years and to take note of the league's consistency on handing down punishments or lack thereof. For example, in a 2006 incident, Washington Capitals superstar Alexander Ovechkin similarly hit then-Sabre Daniel Briere from behind as well, and no suspension was served, although he apparently did get a boarding call on the play. It's clear that he invoked the much-forgotten-about and unwritten "bankable star" clause in the rulebook that no one ever really cites. Curious, that.

And then there's Ottawa Senator Chris Neil and his hit on then-Sabre Chris Drury in 2007, which also didn't result in a suspension. There's less of a mystery here, though, as this hit took place before the well-documented Matt Cooke hit on Marc Savard, which led to the formulation of the "Illegal Check to the Head" section of the rulebook (I just love the fact that "check to the head" has to be qualified by the word illegal, don't you?). As such, Neil got off scot-free, while Drury got a concussion, with the NHL brass still three years away from first getting a clue that Don Cherry's Rock'Em Sock'Em Hockey video series does not constitute good masturbation source material.

There are several key takeaways from the case study, with the most notable one being that if you're a Buffalo Sabre, you had better keep your head up at all times, because goons seem to be attracted to that bright-yellow-buffalo emblem like moths to a flame. Beyond that, there is the undeniable deep-seeded issue that a lack of respect between players in the NHL is endemic. I mean, just looking at Ovechkin's latest commercial below, I gotta say it must be hard for even his teammates to look at him the same way.

All things being equal, none of those hits compare to then-Philadelphia Flyer Steve Downie on Dean McAmmond from the 2007 pre-season. Downie was given a 20-game suspension, the fifth-longest in NHL history, if memory (wikipedia) serves me correctly, which is sad because Downie had never played a regular-season NHL game at that stage of his career and he was only trying to make a name for himself. As a result, it's easy to believe that one huge reason the suspension was so large was due to his laying out a more-esteemed player in the league. If it was the other way around, if McAmmond had hit Downie, I would guess that the suspension, if there would have been one at all, wouldn't have been for nearly as long... then again, I can't even imagine any NHL player hitting a rookie in that fashion, which is probably more telling than any video, but, that being said, here you go:

Now Starring for the Buffalo Sabres... Tyler Ennis?!

"Dude, where's my comb?"

Apparently, a half-decent first 10 games in the NHL buys you instant cred. At least that seems to be the case for Tyler Ennis of the Buffalo Sabres, who, no offense to him, looks more like he belongs in juvie as a 15-year-old crack addict guilty of trying – and failing – to rip off a convenience store rather than on an actual professional hockey team.

Ennis, obviously, isn’t 15. Considering he was drafted 26th overall by the Sabres in 2008, and players have to be 18 to be drafted, he’s 20. However, if ignorant fantasy-hockey poolies had to guess he likely would be going on 28 and entering the prime of his career following his nine-point performance in 10 games last season.

I have personally been a part of several fantasy drafts in the past few days and Ennis has been drafted relatively high in each of them, ahead of players like Stephen Weiss, Alex Kovalev, Jason Arnott, David Perron, Steve Sullivan, Sam Gagner, Mike Fisher, Chris Stewart, James Neal, Andy McDonald, hell, even Tyler Seguin. As such two things are abundantly clear:

1) The world is going to hell in a hand basket and Ennis is one of the Horsemen of the Apocalypse, probably famine, judging by his skeletal appearance, but that could be the crack, though.

2) I’m in all likelihood going to do alright in all of my pools.

Now, admittedly Weiss may not pan out with the Florida Panthers because he may or may not have a lucid David Booth to play with (I like Booth, but, when it comes to pools, past concussions are a serious cause for concern), and Kovalev is always a risk-reward kind of guy. Meanwhile, Arnott will be playing in the offensive wasteland that is New Jersey, with the Devils only possibly due for an increase in output now that they have Ilya Kovalchuk. And Perron has yet to find his full stride as a top-six forward.

In addition, Sullivan is likely to get injured sometime before Christmas as sure as death and taxes are a certainty. The only thing that remains to be seen is for how long. But, then again, Marian Gaborik is also due for a groin pull, or some other type of injury that sounds like it could originate in a bath house, following a completely healthy 2009-2010. Now look me in the eye and tell me that you would choose Ennis ahead of Gaborik. If you’re able to, you’re either a very good liar or are blessed with some weird kind of medical condition that prevents you from blinking regularly.

At the end of the day, choosing Ennis over any of those players can certainly be justified if one tries hard enough, but who would the guilty parties be trying to convince? Their competition that Ennis is destined for 60 points so that they can trade him before the season starts and he turns out to be just as much of a dud as teammate Drew Stafford? Or themselves because they’re closet Sabres fans that have to draft every Sabre possible the same way Hab-happy Montreal Canadiens loyalists choose to believe P.K. Subban will win both the Calder and Norris Memorial Trophies this year? Maybe both sets of fans should go shopping in the next few days to get a head start on getting their grocery bags before the playoffs, which both teams are likely to miss.

Logic dictates that the only way Ennis starts the season as a top-six forward is if he starts the season on a team short on depth. Seeing as scouting reports reveal just that, it’s clear the Sabres will encounter much the same problem they did last year, with a twist: there’s no guarantee that they will have the above-average goaltending necessary to come to the rescue of their utterly average team.

Ryan Miller may have won the Vezina Trophy last year, but the Boston Bruins’ Tim Thomas won it the year before, and that only got him the best seat in the house riding the pine as Tuukka Rask’s back-up. And while Martin Brodeur won it in each of the two previous years, the Calgary Flames’ Miikka Kiprusoff won it the year before, and I would refer you then to our post which reveals just how quickly a decent team can turn bad. Shameless self-promotion or not, it doesn’t change the fact that the Sabres can go from Northeast Division champions to playoff-bubble chumps just like that.

Up front, while Tim Connolly is injury-prone, Thomas Vanek continues to cripple the team with his huge $7-million salary-cap hit and ever-decreasing return on investment. And Jason Pominville and Derek Roy continue to baffle fans with their inconsistency. Roy, especially, can be a superstar one game and worse than invisible the next.

Meanwhile, if your best defenseman is a 20-year-old not named Drew Doughty, you’re in for problems. Tyler Myers will be a stalwart on the blue line for many years, but he’s still some time away from making that potential of his a reality. Forcing him into a starring role on what by most accounts will be a mediocre team is not going to lead to success for him or the team. Kind of like Ennis.