Buffalo Sabres Three Stars VS The New Jersey Devils
By Mark Huss
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Mandatory Credit: Charles LeClaire-USA TODAY Sports
This game was…………….uneventful for the Buffalo Sabres, to say the least. The team played well enough to stay in the game up until the overtime period – goaltending was a major reason why though. In my opinion the Sabres players all played fairly well, one player in particular stood out though – I am pretty sure I don’t even need to say his name, we all know who it is.
I know you opened this article expecting to see my Three Stars Of The Game, well, I am going to switch it up a little bit tonight.
I am going to give three star ratings to the team – breaking it down by Defense, Forwards, and Goaltending. The star ratings will be the opposite of the format of the actual three stars system.
- 1 Star = Garbage
- 2 Stars = Mediocre/Average
- 3 Stars = Spectacular!
Defense = 2 Stars
The game had its back and forth moments, each team had momentum at certain points in the game, but I would have to say that New Jersey had more of those moments then the Sabres. The defense, for the most part, did fairly well holding off the Devils when they were pushing strong. The Sabres killed off two penalties, and specifically did a great job on the kill during the one penalty during the third period.
The overtime goal was a moment where the Devils capitalized, the Sabres defense could have shutdown Bernier – they weren’t outnumbered. I am sure it could easily be argued that the defense played like garbage, and that Enroth kept them in the game – for some reason though, I think they played decently.
Best Players
Christian Ehrhoff – 1 Shot, 1 Hit, 2 Block Shots, 1 Takeaway
Mike Weber – 1 Shot, 4 Hits, 2 Blocked Shots
Forwards = 1 Star
This rating may be a little harsh, but hear my out. The Sabres had a total of 15 shots on goal – more shots would have created more opportunity (DUH!). The forwards were sloppy moving the puck into the offensive zone, and once they were in there, they didn’t work hard enough to create quality chances – it has been the story all season, nothing is working offensively. The forecheck was barely existent, I only noticed a few players working really hard on the forecheck and trying to create turnovers. With that being said, there also wasn’t much play behind the net – no puck cycling, no wearing down the Devils defense.
Marcus Foligno (82)
Mandatory Credit: Kim Klement-USA TODAY Sports
Best Players
Marcus Foligno – 1 Hit, 1 Blocked Shot, 1 Awesome Fight!
Matt Moulson/Cody Hodgson/Drew Stafford – 5 Shots, 3 Hits – Best Line
Goaltending = 3 Stars
Easily the highlight of the night for the Sabres. Jhonas Enroth certainly stole the show, and easily outplayed the opposite netminder – Cory Schneider. Enroth faced almost double the shots as Schneider – stopping 23 of 24 shots (.958 save percentage). He was the reason that the Sabres made it to overtime, and weren’t down 2 or 3 goals by the end of the game. Don’t get me wrong, the defense helped out at times, but there were also moments where Enroth was left out to dry by the defense and he made spectacular saves to bail them out – story of the season!
Feel free to share your three stars of the game below, or use my format and rate each category with the three star rating system created.