Ottawa??? ********** Ottawa!??!?! You Gotta Be Kidding Me!

[noocllez]

This is some sick joke...

How the hell do we keep choking on our Home Ice against Crap Emery and one of the Worst Teams in the League right now???


THEY GOT BLOWN OUT 7-0 THE GAME BEFORE THIS AND THEN WE DROP TO OUR KNEES ON OUR OWN ICE AND HAND THEM THE 3RD WIN THIS YEARS AGAINST US.

THAT WAS ****ING PATHETIC...

[bduff54]

ottawa is weird, they are very inconsistent.

[noocllez]

i know. but we really need to get our shit together.

it would be one thing if ottawa was "consistent" and was playing well most of the time. but they were just blown out of the water and we were defending our home ice + supposedly getting revenge for 2 of our only 5 regulation losses on the year...

im not knocking ottawa, but the sabres definitely need to check their shit and figure out whats happening right now...


[ps. ottawa seems pretty damn consistent against us this year... 3-1 now.]

[Denverbillsfan]

What about Florida? They are a worse team than Ottawa and you would think they are the best team in the leage when they play Buffalo.

[bduff54]

guys they are bound to lose some games, they are not invincible. they are still a very good team. Every team goes through a bit of a slump. the leafs lost seven in a row and everybody was saying they have to trade sundin and tucker, now they have won 3 in a row and beat the rangers 9-2 lastnight. Ofcourse the fans want tucker signed and sundin to retire a leaf. it's just something that happens in a season.

[Carl J. Ironsides]

Ottawa can still stack its key skill guys up with anyone. Alfie, Spezza and Heatley are all extremely dangerous. Frankly, I'm surprised they're out of the playoff picture right now. I expected a drop-off, but not this much.

[CrazzyLegs10]

What about Florida? They are a worse team than Ottawa and you would think they are the best team in the leage when they play Buffalo.

Agreed, OTT/FLA were awful in their last 5 games then they play the Sabres and looked like gold

[Scary Good]

Ottawa is not a bad team, wtf are you so concerned about? We can't go 75-5.

[noocllez]

im concerned with how quickly our team energy and drive has dropped off.

its not like theyve been loosing hard fought games...

they have been getting HAMMERED.

[Denverbillsfan]

I am concerned because even though they have won a lot of games it has been by the skin of their teeth. Way too many ot games and barely hanging on to the one goal games too.

They are a very stressful team to watch.

[noocllez]

yeah. when they are in their "zone" they play like a team i've never seen before. but when they are slumpin'... man... are they out of it.

they're just lacking intensity and that hunger for the puck. its a bit understandable tho. they are in the middle of a very long season and are still doing very well.

but, for shits-sake, lets put together a solid 60 minutes already...

they played great against two solid teams in Montreal and New Jersey. I was very shocked when I saw how collected they seemed during those games. [considering how awful they looked against Wash, TB and FL]

they seem to show up when its a big game. but thats not good come playoff time when your a #1 seed and the #8 doesnt seem like as big of a game. thats how we made it to the conference finals last year. we beat unexpecting teams. teams that thought they could just take it easy and be out in 6 games...

i hope we can find our equilibrium and play a nice stretch of steady, evenly played games...

[unklechucky]

im concerned with how quickly our team energy and drive has dropped off.

its not like theyve been loosing hard fought games...

they have been getting HAMMERED.

What games are you watching? Teams learned during the 1st part of the season what style we were playing and how well we were using it. Teams now have an idea that playing defensive hockey against us might help. We need to fight out the close ones, the goal total may be down, but we are definately not getting hammered.

[noocllez]

What games are you watching? Teams learned during the 1st part of the season what style we were playing and how well we were using it. Teams now have an idea that playing defensive hockey against us might help. We need to fight out the close ones, the goal total may be down, but we are definately not getting hammered.

by HAMMERED, i mean the following:

- Turning the puck over at will in our own zone.
- Not being able to backpass or foward pass past our own blue line.
- Not being able to dump the puck in and chase.
- Not being able to sustain ANY type of pressure what so ever on the PP.
- Not being able to take a shot on goal.
- Running around with our heads cut off when the opposition is attacking.
- etc.

[NCBillsBacker]

some teams just know how to play us and some don't, NO team is gonna win EVERY game.

[unklechucky]

by HAMMERED, i mean the following:

- Turning the puck over at will in our own zone.
- Not being able to backpass or foward pass past our own blue line.
- Not being able to dump the puck in and chase.
- Not being able to sustain ANY type of pressure what so ever on the PP.
- Not being able to take a shot on goal.
- Running around with our heads cut off when the opposition is attacking.
- etc.

read my post again........other teams are basically playing "the trap"against us, lining up 4 sometimes 5 players in the neutral zone.

[SHINEdown30]

I havn't seen a game this season in which we were getting hammered. Hammered is what Philly got against us in their 1st game. So far we havn't lost a game by more than 3 goals.......thats pretty damn good. Also we havn't lost back-to-back games! We can't win all of them, you must realize this.

[comfort80]

we played better against ottawa and lost, than we did against florida and won, how does that happen. i thought saturdays game was a good game, although we lost.

[unklechucky]

You cannot expect to win or dominate every game, all you can ask for is consistent effort night in and night out. If we do that we should be more than fine.

[noocllez]

we are not seeing a consistent effort.

we are seeing brilliant efforts, followed by lackluster efforts.

i like the first part... ; )

[CrazzyLegs10]

we played better against ottawa and lost, than we did against florida and won, how does that happen. i thought saturdays game was a good game, although we lost.

yeah, but our guys have to score, Hecht/Drury missed wide open nets, they score, much different game, and our PP, its not that its bad, they take forever to shoot and then they do and the PP is over, OTT set up real fast and had 5 shots on goal or attempts in the first 30 secs, buff waits 1 min to even attempt a shot, its hurting us

[unklechucky]

Look....they've lost only 6 times.....the effort must be there. They are a good team, but your standards are unreasonable.

[comfort80]

i think they pass too much and waste the PP, with the talent on this team, a "5 on 3" PP should result with at least one goal. don't get me wrong, i give them an "A" for effort on Saturday, but an "F" on follow through. this is my argument about such a young team- consistency and focus are not there every game. i was just happy to be able to go to a game, it didnt matter as much that they didnt win- i got to be there (and got trampled by sabretooth)

[GUHoya98]

OTT loses big before us because they get amped to play against the team that toasted them in the 2nd round last year...same as we do when we play CAR this year. No big surprise they get up to play us and suffer letdowns both before and after our games.

They still have talent - even though their inconsistency might just cost them a playoff berth.

[GOBILLSGO!!!]

i think they pass too much and waste the PP, with the talent on this team, a "5 on 3" PP should result with at least one goal. don't get me wrong, i give them an "A" for effort on Saturday, but an "F" on follow through. this is my argument about such a young team- consistency and focus are not there every game. i was just happy to be able to go to a game, it didnt matter as much that they didnt win- i got to be there (and got trampled by sabretooth)

DING!!! They pass too much, and their pass attempts are the real cute, no look ones, or they'll fling it through the middle when NOBODY is even close to cross it to...this begs me to question, are you even LOOKING at who is there before you pass?

The players also have a nasty habit of dumping it way too early even if the defense is giving us the blue line. They need to get selfish and start taking the puck with authority across the blue and firing some quality shots on net begging for a rebound, if nothing is there, then you pass to an open wing etc. Not the phantom guy crossing across the middle.

Teams are also now taking it to us and disrupting our style. The guys haven't been able to adapt as quickly as we'd desire but, eek, they'll come out flying for 10mins, then all of a sudden fall flat.