The Buffalo Sabres: Lucic Breaks the Sabres

The Buffalo Sabres: Lucic Breaks the Sabres

when we last left our friends the sabes they were in a bit of a transition Danny Brier and Chris Drury had both left for big money in big markets 2008 saw the Sabers finish 10th in the East a far cry from their president’s Trophy winning 2007 Derek Roy Jason pville and Thomas vanx stepped up but it wasn’t enough shockingly it was the Rock Solid Ryan Miller who really struggled posting his Worst season since becoming a starter it looks bad for Miller in a vacuum but the goalie started 74 games and came off the bench in relief twice he was ground to a pulp by season’s end from Leap Day on Miller had an 877 save percentage and went 77 and three backup Joselyn TBO took one start during that stretch but I assume he was really cheering Miller on in the rest of the games the down year and reality of the salary cap cost them star defenseman Brian Campbell a level of player you can’t really [Applause] replace Brian Campbell with a but the Sabres did trade for Craig R in the offseason to take at least Campbell’s slot on the blue line r was also named the new captain of the Sabers replacing the five Captain system Lindy Ruff had in place for 2008 the Sabers crapped forward in 2009 finishing in heartbreaking ninth as as opposed to 10th but Ryan Miller returned to form now with a lighter workload thanks to Michael telk Fist and Patrick leim the casualty of 2009 was maxino who evaporated got placed in Lindy Ruff jail then left in free agency bring it back with a pin again off and over the line he goes to the net took a shot scored in 2010 Ryan Miller went nuclear the best goalie in the world starting with his 936 save percentage October he was spectacular for the United States in the Olympics posting a 946 save percentage and going undefeated until the gold medal game with Superstar play for Miller the sabes made the playoffs easily winning their division and securing home ice in a matchup against the Bruins this was a subre 500 Bruins team so the sabes were a clear favorite and they won game one the same way they won throughout the season a quick goal from Thomas vanck and Ryan Miller slamming the door going to the net but Miller is there to make the save and he got shoved into the net it all came unglued when in game two Johnny Boychuk chopped vanic on the knee and knocked him out for the game which the Bruins narrowly won the bees won games three and four with vanic on the sideline and though the Sabres won game five without him vanck returned for his Squad to be eliminated in game six it was a hard- fought series and these teams as divisional Rivals didn’t have much love lost for each other going forward hey 2011 the Sabres are back again still a strong team Miller isn’t the best goalie in the world but he’s still very good and crucial to this team’s success the Sabres even survived losing DK Roy to a torn quad and March into the playoffs this time without home I the Sabres battled the high-powered Flyers offense in round one the series alternated between the way the Sabres wanted to play and the way the Flyers wanted to play one nothing Sabers in game one 54 flyers in game two 42 flyers in game three one- nothing Sabers again in game four the Sabers offense made a statement in game five with three first period goals and though the Flyers battled back to force overtime Tyler Andis put Philly on the ropes with an OT winner shooting one tonight by Leon they score on the rebound game six had a similar Sabers Surge and flyers comeback with the overtime winner is a man who was nearly the focus of this video scaming there will be a seventh game this time it was Derek Roy returning to watch his team be eliminated as the Flyers handily took game seven okay the Sabers thought let’s try this one more time but the twist is now we have vly Leno how about that the Sabers roared out of the gate in 1112 they won their home opener against the Ducks thanks to a gamewinner by new friend Lena but that was just one game of their terrific 10 and5 start to the season the crazy part was Miller hadn’t even been that good he went five and five with a 9913 save percentage a Touch Above League average but rookie Jonas and Roth had been tremendous five starts five wins and just eight goals against maybe Miller who was now 31 could start 55 to 60 games as opposed to 65 to 70 it was Miller who got the start against the defending Cup champion Boston Bruins who were having a bit of a slow start to the year at 7- seven vanx scored his 11th of the season to open up the scoring then the puck gets out Beyond Miller way out Luchi barrels into Miller and here we go la [Applause] okay so who was on the ice for the Sabres and would any of them be able to stand up to luch at 63 240 lb Thomas vanck one career fight according to hockeyfights.com vanck is bigger than you’d think it’s 6’2 and over 200 lb but he is no fighter he fought Brendan wit against his will trying to stand up for yoken Hesh by pushing wit and got beaten up that’s Brendon looks like with left coming bombs everybody Tangled Up van is Andre seura two career fights seura is not very big and is probably even less of a combatant than vanic his career high in penalty minutes was just 34 and his fights came against the even smaller Vladimir sabatka and Jared bow who jumped him in a preseason game seura is a no Jason pville one career fight the Sab newly named captain is the smallest man on the ice for Buffalo at 51110 and like vanck before him his only fight was involuntary after being grabbed by Matt Cook he didn’t even throw a punch and has been a perennial lady bang candidate since entering the league pville is a n Tyler Meyers zero career fights Myers is gigantic at 68 and had fought plenty in juniors at this point the 21-year-old former Calder winner was yet to fight in the NHL he would fight a occasionally throughout the rest of his career but would he want to start his amateur boxing career against Luchi Myers is a maybe finally Paul gsad 36 career fights gsad is the obvious obvious guy to answer the Bell here he’s taller than Luchi and only a bit lighter and has plenty of experience not just fighting but fighting genuine heavyweights Adam McQuade Kevin westgarth Mike rup these are big guys that goad went up against and lost every time but at least he showed up goad is a yes but when Luchi ran Miller over who were the three Sabers closest to him vanic seura and pominville vanic went at Lich but got shoved away like he was a child seura reached like he was trying to grab lich’s Jersey but got jabbed in the chest couldn’t reach the Bruin because his arms were too short then gave up pville having seen the other two two guys engaged Luchi peeled off and locked with Cree but he was clearly trying to get to Miller and see if he was okay he’s the only guy on the ice really thinking about the falling goalie here came Tyler Myers as slowly as possible Into The Fray so by the time he latched on to luch the officials were already between them then there was goad who was coming the farthest distance trying desperately to get to luch but he couldn’t just go over Miller and so he got intercepted by Nathan Horton or he chose to grab Horton because it was too late SL he didn’t want to get into luch either way Horton kept gos out at Bay and luch smirked to the Penalty Box past Miller’s indignation the camera cut to Patrick ketta the sab’s true tough guy after the scrum of his legs slung over the boards ready to hit the ice Horton shoved him but that was about it now as you may remember when Chris Neil blew up Chris Drury with a dirty hint Lindy Ruff and his Sabers started an allout war with the Senators actively running after players to fight them even Marty Bron fought well okay the Sabres weren’t going to have that style of response here because they have a power play and Miller seems to be okay still but Lindy wasn’t going to take this line down yet there was Lich on his next shift parked in front of Miller and nobody cared except Miller of course later in that same period vly Leno tied up Tyler Sean and the Bruin barreled into Miller at at the very least the Optics were not great for either player loo found himself in a prison of sorts aside from the Bruins scoring three goals nothing happened in the second no response from the Savers enroth replaced the clearly not 100% Miller for the third and got lit up some more Paul Gad spoke sternly to Lich I’m not sure if that did much Luchi didn’t really play much in the third but Pat Keta did hit Sean Thorton woo no response in defense of Miller it was time for discourse Miller was obviously Furious about the H not going to really get into that I just stuck around because I just want to say a piece of [ __ ] I think luch giv 50 lbs on me and runs me like that it’s unbelievable gos dad was disappointed in himself you were clearly blunt last night about your role in the luch situation you said you were embarrassed Lindy said you were on the ice was he particularly upset with you that you didn’t take more of an action do you think um I was pretty bled about how I felt about myself uh it wasn’t directed towards other teammates it was more myself I thought um in a reaction of that type um I thought I I hoped I could have done more there luch had a hearing with Brandon Shanahan the NHL’s VP and the man in charge of player discipline Miller had whiplash in a concussion no suspension or fine came for luch but according to B GM Peter Shelli in an ESPN article following the hearing my guess is that if you see it again there will be a suspension in the same piece Bruins coach Claud Julian maintained that he didn’t believe the hit was intentional I know for a fact that if milon had intended on hitting Miller he would have never G up he added we all know how hard he hits and that speaks for itself though disappointed that there wasn’t any supplemental discipline the Sabers namely pville and Miller insisted insisted that the team wasn’t lingering on the hit both had thoughtful quotes in the ESPN article with Miller saying he knew that his team had his back and didn’t want them to stoop to lich’s level and pville saying they dealt with it as players and as a team the game after the hit a Sabers win against the canadi ANS there was Eric Cole barreling over enroth once again the response was muted but Cole wasn’t the pugilist Lich was so it’s reasonable to consider this an accident though a strangely timed one also in that Hales game Tyler Myers was a healthy scratch now I have no evidence for this it’s just pure conjecture but reading between the lines on pville statement I think Myers was benched for his lack of individual response to the Luchi chit normally if you’re going to scratch a guy you’d lower his ice time a bit first but that wasn’t the case for Myers listen Myers wasn’t playing well at the time and it could have just been rough trying to reset a young player but I don’t think Meers coasting toward Lich helped his case externally there was a lot of criticism leveled toward the Sabers with the dialogue being that they were soft you surprised no else would have tell you uh a little bit yeah now I’ve done a few of these videos now and a trend is teams furiously and hopelessly chasing revenge and often costing themselves the sabes in contrast were just going to move on their Captain wasn’t a fighter but he was a leader that they respected Buffalo wasn’t just going to mindlessly chase Revenge they talked about it as a team it was done the Sabres treaded water with enroth and net and they met the Bruins again just over a week later the Sabers as the home team had the last change so the First Time Lich hit the ice goad was out there the two fought goad clearly lost but that was it this whole issue was dealt with later in the game Brad marshand ran the diminutive wondered Nathan gerby and bang There was goad there was Robin rir fighting ziden oara Drew Stafford even dared to bump Tim Thomas the Sabers didn’t win the game but they proved a point they weren’t a vicious team like the Bruins but they were willing to stand up for themselves when it came down to it then the Savers burst into flames after that loss to Boston Buffalo went 76 and four over their next 27 games and Roth’s magic ran out he accounted for just one of those seven wins but the problem was the returning Miller was worse 889 save percentage during that stretch in the sewer in fact on Miller’s first night back from injury he got blown up again this time by Jordan tutu oh no Miller’s right on tutu finally the response was different with every saber including Miller leaping onto the pile to pound on the as salent it it was one of the Sab few wins during their trip down the drain so it seemed for a second like the ship was wred what a move z c more importantly the response from the league was different 2 two got a major and was thrown out of the game then earned a two- game suspension for his hit yeah and what happened in the game is a joke it’s a joke all it does is just prove the fact right that uh when I said it was Open Season it appears it is Open Season you get a guy that comes off a concussion you got Jordan 2u Lich was to be the last player to get away with such a blatant goalie hit the 2u suspension may have been a breath of fresh air off the ice for Buffalo but it did nothing to help them on it the Sabres did catch fire for just a minute long enough to crush the Bruins and this time Patrick Keta got beaten up hooray remember guys this was supposed to be over after their short winning streak the Sabres returned to the dumpster sold at the deadline namely they sold off Paul goad now was this some culture-based decision dating back to goad’s cardinal sin of losing a fight to a bigger guy than him no goad was an expiring free agent and Nashville gave Buffalo a first round pick for him goad had seven goals the man’s career high was 12 you take the first for him in a fourth and drive away Tire screeching Nashville GM David po saw that career Faceoff percentage in the mid-50s and couldn’t help himself I wonder what that fourth round pick turned into oh come on AC wide open oh what a save on Kan SOS what a stop the Sabers after the trade deadline were actually quite good mostly thanks to Miller being a 930 goalie again though they still missed the playoffs they were somewhat revitalized by a youth player swap that brought in Cody Hodson for Zack C and swap some depth dmen the Sabers truthfully had a lot of good young guys the tyers of contrasting size andison Myers Hodson Luke Adam looked good Marcus Felino Braden McNab the problem was the veteran depth on this team was truly horrible overpaid or sometimes both this team was cruising for a rebuild but with some good moves in the 2012 off season they could maybe stretch it for another year then they traded Derrick Roy for Steven Scot and an AHL defenseman in Adam party then they signed John Scott not the good moves that one would hope for it was clear that management wasn’t over the Lich incident despite the players being ready to move on maybe management saw that as a problem the sabes predictably marched into the seller the next season never to return now there’s a school of thought that Milan luich ended the Savers you ruined that you ruined their entire season that year ruined it ruined try to recover they got I because of it what are you talking but the team was already set to break down by the time Miller got run over they had hhof signed they had loo signed they had given vanic his fortune Drew Stafford had his big contract like I said they’d have needed All the Right Moves In the offseason for this team to be competitive for one more season Lich didn’t make Tyler develop in Reverse nor did he have anything to do with the Jack eikel Saga did Lich ruin their franchise no not really but for many Sabers fans he’s emblematic of everything that did the squandering of Miller the Mindless pursuit of toughness and even the garbage depth Milan Lich was the embodiment of the pain of being a Sabers fan over the last decade he didn’t break the team but he might as well have everyone in the city sees him as a big tough solid player I respected him for how hard he played that was gutless gutless piece of [ __ ]

Ryan Miller gets run over and the Sabres burst into flames

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Special thanks to r/sabres who I surveyed to select the players