The adjustments Anaheim made halfway through the first...

[Acoustic-Fury]

...hit anything wearing blue and interfering (jump in front of and/or clutch and grab) at their blue line.

Our dump and chase was eradicated by this practice. Our speed was reduced significantly.

Panic mode set in, and our forwards started getting too cute with the puck (skating it in themselves, ill timed drop passes, forcing passes...etc)...I haven't seen the Sabres look that out of sync in a long time.


Sure there were three fights but I didn't see any Ducks lying in a pool of their own feces at the feet of Miller.

This is the style of play the Sabres are going to see in the playoffs and I'm glad they are seeing it now.

Make your adjustments and learn from it.

[GOBILLSGO!!!]

Didn't help that we filled our skates with cement. They really were simply pathetic.

[jlpubarch]

...hit anything wearing blue and interfering (jump in front of and/or clutch and grab) at their blue line.

I thought they were going to call this...

I can't even remember how many times our guy entering the zone got absolutely interfered with at the blue line...

Like not even a question...they were intentionally skating in front of our guys to prevent them access into the zone = penalty.

[Dontdieman]

yeah that was bullshit Roy got the worst of it.

The ducks where getting away with murder

[pigpen65]

It's always irritating seeing the Sabres offense trying the same thing over and over and over and failing. The Ducks were lining up at the blueline, it took two periods before the Sabs figured out they were not going to be able to carry the puck in.

[Acoustic-Fury]

It's always irritating seeing the Sabres offense trying the same thing over and over and over and failing. The Ducks were lining up at the blueline, it took two periods before the Sabs figured out they were not going to be able to carry the puck in.

Yes and exactly Pigpen...Anaheim made their adjustment...why didn't we?

That's why I hope they learn from this loss and we never see the amount of time wasted again.

[billsfan69]

The sabres simply weren't skating last night. Also the fact that the NHL has allowed clutching and grabbing back into the game is another issue. Honestly I'm amazed it took over two years for this to happen. And this isn't whining about last night. I have Center Ice and watch a lot of other games and the same thing is happening all over. If the NHL wants more scoring either tell the refs to call the penalties they are supposed to be calling or find somebody who will. We don't need gimmicks like larger nets. We need enforcement of rules on the book.

[foster]

I wrote in another post that this had the Rangers - Sabres series all over it.

The Sabres had their way in the first - then when the Ducks realized that the refs weren't going to call the hold/hook/interference they changed their game to take advantage of the situation and it neutralized the Sabres speed.

The Sabres need to learn how to fight through this type of game/situation. I agree with Acoustic that this is what we'll see in the playoffs and we're better off learning how to deal with it now.

[atomheart]

There were three separate instances in the first period where Pronger completely changed his skating path to interfere with our guy. One of them he even stuck his arm out to block the fore checker from his partner... It's absolutely pathetic. With that being said, the Sabres didn'te exactly light the world on fire last night. Once they realized this was going on they pretty much quit working...