Weekend Recap

The games of Friday and Saturday night were a mixed bag for me. On one hand, the Sabres are looking pretty bad. On the other hand, the Flyers are playing like champions.

Let's start with the Sabres so I can get this over with.

Friday night they faced the Atlanta Thrashers. Atlanta is a decent team, but not a team that should really give the Sabres a hard time (at least in my mind). They don't have any superstars. Sure, Dustin Byfuglien is a good player, but I don't think he's that dangerous. But regardless of all that, the Sabres still managed to lose. They played well in the first period, and then dropped off the radar. Atlanta tied it up in the second, and then each team scored in the third. The Sabres lost in overtime when Byfuglien scored the final goal on Ryan Miller.

Saturday night the Sabres played against the Dallas Stars. This game was absolutely boring to watch. The Sabres didn't score any goals, and looked sluggish. Patrick Lalime was in goal for the Sabres. Lindy Ruff made some sort of excuse about the team being tired as their reason for losing. Whatever Lindy, maybe your coaching is tired. Craig Rivet, the Sabres captain, was a healthy scratch for the second game in a row because Lindy is trying send the team a message. Here's a message for you Lindy - learn how to motivate your team. Be a coach.

Now on to something a little more upbeat:


On Friday, the Flyers continued the battle of Pennsylvania when they beat the Penguins with a final score of 3-2. The rivalry between these teams is epic. The fight between Mike Richards and Matt Cooke was quickly followed by a fight between Jody Shelley and Deryk Engelland. I love it when these teams play each other because of how physical the game gets. This game was great to watch. Claude Giroux is really starting to heat up - he scored a shorthanded goal in the first period and a power play goal in the third. Daniel Carcillo scored in the second period. Letang and Kennedy were the goal scorers for Pittsburgh. Rookie goalie Sergei Bobrovsky made 26 saves in the game - not too shabby.

Saturday night's game against the Islanders was a scoring spree for the Flyers. Timonen and Nodl each scored, while Carter and Pronger each scored two goals. In the midst of the scoring, there were plenty of punching, shoving, and high sticking. There were 120 penalty minutes racked up during the game. Danny Briere was especially fiesty during the game. Briere was the first player to get rough after Trent Hunter hit Andrej Meszaros into the boards. Hunter received a five minute major and a game misconduct for the hit. Briere stayed fiesty all the way to the end, when he crosschecked Nielson. A scuffle erupted and lured Islanders goalie Rick DiPietro out of his net for the second time in the game. DiPietro left his net after Hunter's hit on Meszaros. The Islanders were clearly frustrated with how the game was going for them. Bobrovsky played another excellent game with 30 saves. The only goal for the Islanders came from a penalty shot after a weak call by the officials. The Flyers seem to have found their stride. Now that's a team I can root for, especially with Daniel Carcillo tearing it up:


This week the Sabres face the Bruins (Weds), Canadiens (Fri) and Leafs (Sat). The Flyers play the Hurricanes (Mon), Rangers (Thurs) and Islanders (Sat).