WNY and Buffalo NY Hockey Coverage
November Edition
Chris Stewart has two goals in the last three games. ©2014, Dan Hickling, Olean Times Herald
BUFFALO – Forget about last place. How far can the surging Sabres climb up the NHL standings?
The once-hapless club has quickly morphed from an also-ran destined to become one of the NHL’s worst teams ever into a formidable outfit, winning five of the last six games.
Following a weekend sweep of the Montreal Canadiens, the Sabres are enjoying perhaps their best stretch in years entering tonight’s game against the Tampa Bay Lightning inside the ... Read the full article
Tyler Ennis watches his first-period goal Friday. ©2014, Dan Hickling, Olean Times Herald
BUFFALO – One Sabres goal was scintillating, the kind destined to become a highlight-reel staple. The other goal was, well, pure luck, a rare bounce off the glass.
“That’s the way hockey goes,” winger Tyler Ennis, whose slick goal opened the scoring, said Friday following the Sabres’ 2-1 win against the Montreal Canadiens. “It doesn’t matter how it goes in, as long as we get the win we’re happy.”
The Sabres were a happy ... Read the full article
Tyler Ennis enjoyed playing for Pat Quinn. ©2014, Dan Hickling, Olean Times Herald
BUFFALO – Three Sabres – winger Tyler Ennis, center Cody Hodgson and defenseman Tyler Myers – played for former NHL coach and executive Pat Quinn, an iconic figure who died Sunday at 71 following a long illness.
Quinn coached the players to a gold medal with Team Canada at the 2009 world junior championship in Ottawa.
“He was awesome for us,” Ennis this afternoon inside the First Niagara Center.
Canada hasn’t won gold since, something ... Read the full article
Snow has been falling around Buffalo constantly. ©2014, Margaret Hickling, Olean Times Herald
BUFFALO – It was business as usual early Thursday inside the First Niagara Center. Following a day off, the Sabres practiced in anticipation of playing the New York Rangers tonight. Only snowed-in winger Patrick Kaleta, who’s stuck in Hamburg, was missing. Coach Ted Nolan discussed his lineup.
But miles away, Winter Storm Knife was battering Buffalo’s Southtowns again, pouring more snow on an area already devastated by one of the biggest storms in this ... Read the full article
Snow has been falling around Buffalo for days. ©2014, Dan Hickling, Olean Times Herald
BUFFALO – With Winter Storm Knife still decimating much of the area surrounding Buffalo, the NHL announced this afternoon it has postponed Friday’s Sabres-New York Rangers game at the First Niagara Center.
The NHL used the phrase “continuing weather-related difficulties” in the press release.
A makeup date will be announced later.
After taking Wednesday off, the Sabres practiced again today. They operated like the game would be played as scheduled.
Update: According to Sabres spokesman ... Read the full article
Brian Gionta had three points Tuesday. ©2014, Dan Hickling, Olean Times Herald
BUFFALO – Outside the First Niagara Center, temperatures dipped into the low 20s and winds gusted up to 30 mph Tuesday. It was bone-chilling cold.
But there was very little snow on the ground downtown. The area immediately around the arena remained navigable all day. So did Buffalo’s Northtowns.
Just miles away, however, an early-season storm was annihilating the Southtowns.
Five feet fell in some areas. There was chaos everywhere. No one could budge.
Still, ... Read the full article
Matt Moulson (26) and Zemgus Girgensons (28) are part of the Sabres’ first line. ©2014, Dan Hickling, Olean Times Herald
BUFFALO – Finally, more than a month into the season, the Sabres’ feeble offense has busted loose, scoring nine goals in the last two outings, including a season-high six in Saturday’s annihilation of Toronto.
About time, right?
The NHL’s weakest attack scored 19 goals in the first 17 games, so the last two contests have accounted for 32 percent of the Sabres’ offense this season.
Incredible.
The Sabres are scoring at a shocking 120-goal pace. ... Read the full article
Brian Flynn steals the puck from Toronto goalie James Reimer on Saturday. ©2014, Dan Hickling, Olean Times Herald
BUFFALO – For one night at least, the First Niagara Center felt like the old days. A raucous capacity crowd of 19,070 fans roared from start to finish Saturday. The Sabres buzzed up and down the ice all night against the hated Toronto Maple Leafs, scoring goals and creating chance after chance.
The Sabres’ rollicking 6-2 win, just their second regulation triumph this season and first at home, was wildly entertaining, high-octane hockey.
Up in ... Read the full article
Tyler Ennis had a goal and three points Sunday. ©2014, Dan Hickling, Olean Times Herald
BUFFALO – Tyler Ennis still remembers every little detail of Nov. 14, 2009, the day the slick Sabres winger made his NHL debut.
When Portland Pirates coach Kevin Dineen told Ennis the Sabres could recall him for a game in Philadelphia that night, the youngster left the rink – “It was like a 30-minute drive,” he said – and went home.
He needed to eat, so he “picked up a quick Subway sandwich.”
Ennis then ... Read the full article
Tyler Ennis played one season in Portland. ©2014, Dan Hickling, Olean Times Herald
BUFFALO – Tyler Ennis still remembers every little detail of Nov. 14, 2009, the day the slick Sabres winger made his NHL debut.
When Portland Pirates coach Kevin Dineen told Ennis the Sabres could recall him for a game in Philadelphia that night, the youngster left the rink – “It was like a 30-minute drive,” he said – and went home.
He needed to eat, so he “picked up a quick Subway sandwich.”
Ennis then ... Read the full article