Sabres-Bruins Game 2

What a start for the Sabres in Game 2 with a tremendous first period....then Thomas Vanek gets chopped down like a Douglas-fir during Christmas season.  That was the exact moment this game completely turned upside down.  Without Vanek, momentum was lost and our powerplay suffered even more than it normally does.  We sure could have used him in front on the PP instead of Gaustad at times and I remember one specific PP where I said to myself "Vanek would have buried that rebound."

The game 2 SHGMIT goes to... Matt Ellis.  Ellis roughly played 12 and a half minutes of ice time (while the avg. ice time for a Sabre was around 17 minutes, not including Vanek who was limited to 4 minutes) registering 3 shots, scoring a goal and finishing a +1.  Ellis made the score 2-0 in the first period on a sweet little backhand just inside the post.  Rask failed to cut down the angle properly and Ellis slipped it right by him.

Tyler Ennis gets the runner up for the SHGMIT yesterday afternoon playing 15 minutes  He assisted on Pominville's go ahead goal at the time.  While I loved his play at times, especially when he took a run at Chara in the corner, he and his linemates combined for a -7.  Honorable mentions include Kaleta, Mair, Torres, and Grier.

I also decided to create the SHGLIT (Should Have Gotten Less Ice Time) for game 2.  Without a doubt the award goes to..Tim Connolly. Connolly played around 18 minutes and has looked anything from comfortable out there in the first two games of the series.  His costly giveaway to Zdeno Chara in the third period led to Chara's quick wrister for the GWG.  Connolly was a -2 for the game.  Connolly wasn't all useless in game two.  He flattened Lucic to the ice in the first ten seconds of the game and also caught Chara off balanced knocking him over and into the post, which was awesome. Big goon fall hard.

Lets rebound from this game and steal back our home ice advantage tomorrow night.  Say an extra prayer for the good health of 26.  We are gonna need him.