New England Sports Fan Blog

Team Fragile snapped out of its funk Saturday night. The Sabres caught a good San Jose team on a bad night, easing into the Olympic break with an easy 3-1 victory at HSBC Arena. Now we have to wait 16 days to find out if this was a genuine revival or a moment’s pause in an inevitable collapse.

There’s a little more fuel in Lindy Ruff’s “hope tank” after the first win in seven games. But one win doesn’t change the fact that the Sabres came unraveled over the past month and blew a 13-point division lead. They were a reeling crew, lacking in confidence, leadership and physical presence on the ice.

Ryan Miller, their goalie and most valuable player, accused them of playing like “fragile little kids” after the loss in Carolina on Thursday. Those weren’t hasty words uttered in a lapse of anger and frustration. Miller said he has been angry with his team’s play for “months,” and it finally boiled over.

There is a certain fragility about the Sabres. It has been that way for awhile, ever since the 2005-06 team began to break apart. There’s something missing at the heart of this team, an essential quality that lifts a hockey team through the difficult moments — within a game or a long NHL season.

Click here to read the full article – By Jerry Sullivan of Buffalo News

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Being an NHL captain includes perks and privileges. Unwarranted ice time is not among them.

That was part of the message the captain of the Buffalo Sabres delivered Wednesday.

Craig Rivet was obviously still stunned and stinging from being benched for most of Tuesday’s 3-2 loss to Boston. He nonetheless accepted his punishment. The captain said he hasn’t been good enough, which is why he skated just 8:58 of the 65-minute shootout setback.

“You need to earn your ice,” Rivet said. “Right now I don’t think I’m playing up to my capabilities. I need to be better. I need to be better to help this team. It was an eye-opener [Tuesday] night. I pretty much got sat for most of the game. If I have the opportunity, I’m going to be better next game.”

Rivet will get his opportunity Thursday night when the Sabres visit the Carolina Hurricanes. Coach Lindy Ruff adamantly said his captain will skate when the team tries to end a five-game winless skid.

“He’s not coming out of the lineup,” Ruff said after practice in HSBC Arena.

The situation could be construed as a tricky one for the coach. He relinquished his Sabres captaincy and subsequently was traded to the New York Rangers after being scratched for a game during the 1988-89 season. Though he now admits the seat was justified, it was unforgivable at the time.

Rivet’s benching, therefore, was an in-game option rather than a multigame proposition.

Click here to read the full article – By Buffalo News

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The Buffalo Sabres had one huge change to their roster Monday. For the first time all season, they didn’t have a teenager in the lineup.

No, rookie Tyler Myers wasn’t scratched against the Pittsburgh Penguins. But the defenseman celebrated his 20th birthday in Mellon Arena, elevating him from the rank of teenage sensation.

“That’s good,” coach Lindy Ruff said. “We don’t have any young players left.”

Myers’ teammates serenaded him with a few “Happy birthday, Tyler” catcalls in the dressing room after the morning skate. None, however, wrapped a gift for the big guy.

“No presents,” Myers said. “I treated myself to a brownie last night, but no presents.”

Well, except for the opportunity to be in the lineup against the defending Stanley Cup champions.

“I don’t think I’ve had any special hockey moments on my birthday, but I’m sure I’m always going to remember this one,” Myers said. “It does feel strange a little bit to not be a teenager anymore.”

Click here to read the full article – By Buffalo News

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Beating the top-ranked team in the country last week didn’t give Connecticut much momentum to build on.

One game after upsetting Texas to reclaim a spot in the rankings, the Huskies fell to Providence 81-66 on Wednesday night when Jamine Peterson had 23 points and 14 rebounds.

Peterson scored eight of the Friars’ 14 straight points as they completed their comeback from a 10-point, first-half deficit.

“We just took our foot off the gas. We thought that we had the game won already,” said UConn forward Gavin Edwards, who scored 17 points. “Everybody was just resting on their laurels from the Texas game, and as a result, nobody really came out to play, and we got beat.”

The second-half collapse was all-too familiar to Providence (12-8, 4-4 Big East), which led South Florida by 12 with 2:05 left on Saturday night before losing in overtime. But this time the Friars were on the other end, and the crowd at the Dunkin’ Donuts Center celebrated by storming the court even as the final seconds ticked off the clock.

Click here to read the full article – By Associated Press of ESPN.com

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New England Patriots wide receiver Wes Welker scheduled surgery for next week to repair the knee he blew out in the final regular-season game against the Houston Texans.

A league source told The Boston Globe that Welker will undergo the procedure next Tuesday at Massachusetts General Hospital.

Welker tore both the medial collateral ligament and anterior cruciate ligament in his left knee making a cut after catching a pass. The MCL did not need surgery, so he let that heal before having a procedure on the ACL.

“We’re just taking our time right now,” Welker told Jim Traber during a radio interview in Oklahoma City, Welker’s hometown, last week. “That’s one thing — we’ve got a little bit of time right now to wait on that to heal and just kind of get ready and make sure that we exhaust all the options and find out the best one for myself to give me the best chance to get back out there on the field.”

Click here to read the full article – By of ESPN.com

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The Buffalo Bills have hired former Dallas Cowboys and Georgia Tech coach Chan Gailey as their new coach, a team source told ESPN NFL Insider Adam Schefter.

The team announced it would hold a news conference at its facility in Orchard Park, N.Y. at 2 p.m. ET.

The Bills are said to be impressed with how Gailey has brought teams to the playoffs with quarterbacks such as Mike Tomczak, Kordell Stewart and Jay Fiedler. In fact, Bill Cowher — whom the Bills had been courting to replace the fired Dick Jauron — highly recommended Gailey to the Bills.

Cowher planned to make Gailey his assistant head coach/offensive coordinator if he came back. Gailey has coached in four Super Bowls and has had his teams go to the playoffs in 11 of his 15 NFL seasons.

Click here to read the full article – By of ESPN.com

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Down by six points to Seton Hall almost midway through the second half, Syracuse coach Jim Boeheim called a timeout and reminded his team that they were playing a Big East Conference game, and it was time to get physical.

The message from the boss was heard loud and clear.

Wesley Johnson had 20 points and a career-best 19 rebounds and the Orange came out of that timeout to run off 15 straight points in an 80-73 victory Tuesday night.

Johnson said Boeheim read the team the riot act during the timeout.

“I told them that we had to get tough. We weren’t tough and we hadn’t had a tough game all year, at least not physical like this, you know, Big East tough,” Boeheim said. “It had to become more of a physical game and we weren’t being physical. But after the timeout, we made a few good defensive plays and that got us going.

Click here to read the full article – By Associated Press of ESPN.com

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Randy Moss stared at the scoreboard after his third touchdown catch and saw a fan wearing a Randy Moss mask on the screen.

The real Randy — the one who played hard Sunday — stood on the sideline with a huge grin as he made his parting-of-the-defense motion, sweeping his arms from his chest to his sides.

“That was very entertaining,” Moss said after the New England Patriots clinched the AFC East title with a 35-7 win over the Jacksonville Jaguars. “I had a lot of my teammates wanting me to mess with the guy. So he put a little humor into it and I enjoyed it.”

After his last home game, a 20-10 win over Carolina, several Panthers questioned his effort. So did Patriots fans the following week. But on Sunday they chanted his name, “Randy, Randy, Randy.”

And Moss, who has sold the mask on his Web site , appreciated it.


Click here to read the full article – By Associated Press of ESPN.com

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There will be nights not too far down the road when Brian Burke and Ron Wilson will roundly celebrate efforts like this from Ryan Miller.

Last night though, they would have been more inclined to curse the Buffalo Sabres goaltender.

Miller showed why he may be the masked man to help take Team U.S.A. from long shot to contender at the Vancouver Olympics with a brilliant shutdown second period at the Air Canada Centre that helped his team to an easy 3-0 win against the Leafs.

“I hope he plays like that in February,” Wilson said referring to the nights he will have Miller on his side. “He made all the difference in the first two periods. We should have had the lead at some point.”

Click here to read the full article – By Toronto Sun

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Lindy the Line Tinkerer was at it again Saturday night. And you can look for the coach’s shiny new combinations to take the ice again tonight when the Buffalo Sabres meet the Toronto Maple Leafs in Air Canada Centre.

With his offense doing nothing in the first period against the woeful Carolina Hurricanes, Lindy Ruff dropped Thomas Vanek off the first line to the third line on the wing with Mike Grier and Tim Kennedy. Jochen Hecht took Vanek’s place with Derek Roy and Jason Pominville.

The second period was all Ryan Miller as the Sabres remained scoreless. The third period was all offense.

Roy, Hecht, Grier, Clarke MacArthur and Vanek scored and 10 players had points as the Sabres erupted for all of their goals in a 5-1 win.

“I liked the fact that Kennedy and Grier were real good down low in the first period and felt the Roy line really struggled in the first period,” Ruff said after Saturday’s game. “So I just flipped wingers on a hunch and those guys did a good job. I thought Kennedy was really good down low and Thomas and Michael were doing a good job finding holes.”

Ruff is no stranger to line shifts from game to game and even period to period. But chemistry is a delicate thing and you don’t often see such quick results. He kept his No. 2 line intact, with Tim Connolly centering MacArthur and Drew Stafford after Connolly had four points Friday in Philadelphia.

Click here to read the full article – By Buffalo News

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Buffalo Sabres Sports Memorabilia
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Thomas Vanek Autographs and Memorabilia

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