My thoughts on game 1 between Buffalo and Ottawa:
I noticed a lot of one-hand-on-the-stick lunges for pucks by the Sabres during Thursday’s game. To me that typically signifies your last ditch effort for the puck because your skates aren’t moving and the other guy is going to get there first. I remember back in youth hockey when at the end of practice you’re given a chance to scrimmage. Usually by then you’re tired from doing drills and it only takes a few hard strides for you to feel the burn. Scrimmage becomes a very poor display of any defense, lots of turnovers, and oh yeah, the one-hand-on-the-stick lunge.
I was listening to local sports radio here and heard tones of the Sabres powerplay not being a big factor so far in the playoffs as the scoring percentage is dismal and they’ve managed to get this far. Far enough – But if you’re getting outplayed and your given powerplay advantages throughout the game, you HAVE to capitalize. It is the only chance you have to stay in it when you decide that you don’t feel like skating. I saw it pretty simple the other night. The Sabres went for high risk, high reward passes and got burned instead of conceding to the low risk, low reward passes or dump-ins which would require them to out-skate, out-hit, and out-muscle the Sens.