New Jersey Devils 3 at Buffalo Sabres 4 (SO) - March 2, 2013

OK, I've been yammering on and on about boycotting the NHL but absolutely nobody listened to me. Not even myself. When I checked the new schedule after the lockout ended, I saw that Buffalo had a home game on March 2nd, the date I would be flying from New York back to Toronto. The First Niagara Center was one of three NHL rinks where I had yet to see a regular season game, so I had a dilemma. Should I simply forgo the NHL this year, or try to find a way to get to Buffalo and cross another arena off the list. I chose the latter option and my regular roadtrip friend Sharpy agreed to pick me up in Toronto and drive me to Buffalo. Meanwhile, Andrew of the Ultimate Sports Road Trip would sell us his season tickets as he would be out of the country on a European sports adventure.

I began the day in Manhattan, took a taxi to Newark Airport, flew to Toronto where Sharpy met me and we drove to downtown Buffalo, location of the First Niagara Center, where the Sabres hosted New Jersey (who coincidentally call Newark home).

First Niagara Center



We arrived in Buffalo just after 1 pm and drove around to look for free parking, which we located about a five minute walk west of the arena near Marine Drive. Fortunately, gates open two hours early so we were able to enter the arena to get out of the freezing weather. There are several entrances into the first floor atrium, a spacious area (below) where the ticket windows and Greater Buffalo Sports Hall of Fame are located. This is a detailed display with memorabilia from all those inducted, including Don Majkowski, the Packers QB prior to Brett Favre.



The seating bowl doesn't open until one hour before the game, so we were able to tour the main concourse and see some of the history on display such as the Blue Zone which has a good history of the Sabres (below).



We stopped by the Pour Man's Aud Club and grabbed some lunch as the Beef on Weck ($9) there is the recommended dish. It comes with a bag of chips and some pickles, so you get all your food groups. We also found a charity stand that was offering very large and very good chocolate bars for just $1, so that was desert. After our completely healthy meal, we walked around the concourse, which is quite spacious at first (below) but fills up quickly as 19,070 fans make their way inside.



We didn't do much else as we had met a friend of Andrew's and were chatting with her for most of the pre-game. So when the players came out for the warm-up, we headed to our seats and got ready for the battle at hand.

The Game

Martin Brodeur was hurt for the Devils so Johan Hedberg got the start against Ryan Miller. The Sabres had recently fired long-time head coach Lindy Ruff and were on a 2-game win streak as they tried to salvage their season. The first period was a snooze as the Devils played a typical road game, limiting the Sabres to six shots.

Things got going in the second when the Sabres scored shorthanded as Cody Hodgson won the puck on a forecheck and fed a wide-open Jason Pominville, who slapped it in from the slot. Just two minutes later, the Devils' Mark Fayne shot from the point and the puck bounced off Ryan Carter and then Steve Bernier before finding its way behind Miller (perplexed below) and the 1-1 tie.



The third period saw New Jersey open the scoring on a shorthanded marker by Adam Henrique, but Buffalo responded two minutes later when Hodgson (#19 below) again found an open Pominville streaking down the right wing. His shot was partially blocked by Hedberg, but still made it into the back of the net and we were tied again.



Near the midway point, Jochen Hecht took a shot that bounced off the side of the net. Hecht continued around the back of the cage and took a pass from Mikhail Grigorenko and fired from the other side, sending the puck in off a diving Hedberg. Yet again though, the lead was less than two minutes old when the other team tied it, this time Andrei Loktionov doing the honours to cap a great three-way passing play with Stefan Matteau (son of Devils slayer Stephane) and Ilya Kovalchuk.

The remaining 8 minutes decided nothing and neither did overtime, where Buffalo had the only two shots. This took us to the shootout. Pominville went first for Buffalo and beat Hedberg to the glove side. Kovalchuk missed for New Jersey, and when Tyler Ennis scored five-hole for the Sabres, it was up to Adam Henrique to keep the Devils alive. His backhand shot was gloved by Miller and the Sabres had their third win in a row.



After that horrid first period, both teams played well the rest of the way. Each club had one shorthanded goal, one fluky deflection, and one goal as a result of a nice passing play. Miller was just a bit better than Hedberg and earned the second star as a result. A good game to mark  my only NHL visit this season.

Notes

Even though there was no Canadian team playing, O Canada was sung. Great touch!

The Sabres logo is one of the best. I don't know why they changed it back in the mid 90s, but I'm glad they brought it back.



Both Ennis and Henrique were penalized for roughing at the end of overtime but were still allowed to shoot in the shootout. I think that if you are in the box at the end of OT, you should not be allowed to shoot. Are you listening NHL GMs?

Next Up

I'm going to visit Brampton today for an OHL game, one of the last to be held there. The team moves to North Bay next season and a CHL franchise will move in. This will be the last game of the trip, so there will be one final recap tomorrow and a trip summary after that. Check back for those posts in a couple of days.

Best,

Sean
 

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Empire State of Roadtrip

While watching the World Junior Hockey Championship in Buffalo, I saw an advertisement for the WWE Raw show that will take place there on February 28th. I quickly checked the Sabres and Bandits schedules but they weren't conducive to a 3-day sports weekend. Not that I'd be able to attend but I thought my friend Sharpy might be interested. Alas, no go.

When I got back to Japan though, I had a look at neighboring teams in Rochester and Syracuse. It turned out that a simple 4-day road trip was possible once you included those cities. That got me to thinking: how about looking at all the teams in New York? Turns out that there's more than a few sports teams in the Empire State, so once I got checking for possible events, I realized that you could spend nearly 3 weeks on the road watching sports only in New York.

You know of the 3 NHL teams and the Knicks in the NBA, but there's also 5 AHL squads, the ECHL's Elmira Jackals, 2 NLL teams (indoor lacrosse for the uninitiated), 3 franchises in the Federal Hockey League, the Rochester RazorSharks of the Premier Basketball League and a number of college basketball teams of which I considered just 3. All tolled, that's 19 franchises plus the WWE.

So I tried to make a road trip with the usual simple rules: at least one event per day and no home team is seen more than once. Amazingly, you can see each team mentioned above exactly once and finish off in Buffalo for Raw. Here's the schedule:

Feb  9  Abbotsford at Rochester (AHL) 7:05
Feb 10  Connecticut at St. Johns (NCAA Basketball) 7:00
Feb 11  Rome at 1000 Islands (FHL) 7:05
Feb 12  Minnesota at Rochester (NLL) 7:35
Feb 13  NY Islanders at Buffalo (NHL) 3:00
Feb 14  West Virginia at Syracuse (NCAA Basketball) 7:00
Feb 15  Ohio at Buffalo (NCAA Basketball) 7:00
Feb 16  Atlanta at New York (NBA) 7:30
Feb 17  Los Angeles at NY Rangers (NHL) 7:00
Feb 18  Connecticut at Adirondack (AHL) 7:30
Feb 19  Philadelphia at Buffalo (NLL) 7:30
Feb 20  Adirondack at Albany (AHL) 4:00
Feb 21  Florida at NY Islanders (NHL) 1:00
Feb 22  Charlotte at Syracuse (AHL) 7:00
Feb 23  Wilkes Barre/Scranton at Binghamton (AHL) 7:05
Feb 24  Cape Cod at New York (FHL) 7:05
Feb 25  Wheeling at Elmira (ECHL) 7:35
Feb 26  Dayton at Rochester (PBL) 1:05
Feb 27  Cape Cod at Rome (FHL) 2:05
Feb 28  WWE Raw at Buffalo 8:15

There you have it. Now I'll be the first to admit that there's a lot of driving and you would be criss-crossing the state several times (and going through New Jersey and Pennsylvania a lot too). There's only one occasion where back-to-back games are in the same city, which means a lot of checking into and out of hotels. But if you love sports and you love New York, this can't be beat.

I found out about the FHL through Our Sports Central. The FHL is a small league with 7 teams, including a new team in Akwesasne, Ontario. It seems to lie beneath the ECHL, so it's highly unlikely you'll see future NHL'ers here, but it looks like a decent league with a good internet presence. The New York team plays in Brooklyn so check them out when you get a chance.

The PBL is only 3 years old but already has fallen from 13 teams to just 7, so I'm not sure how much longer it will be around.

Best,

Sean

Update (Feb 9th): The FHL should change their name to the F%*ked-Up Hockey League. They are shortening their schedule, so a couple of games later on the roadtrip wouldn't happen. I know, this is just a possible roadtrip and I'm not even going, but it's the principle; road trippers need schedule certainty!

Thanks to Gary and his friend Dom for the info on this.

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Buffalo Sabres 2 at Atlanta Thrashers 1 (OT) - January 14, 2010

After over 20 hours on the road, I had finally arrived at my destination: Philips Arena in downtown Atlanta, home of the NHL's Atlanta Thrashers and the NBA's Atlanta Hawks. Tonight had the Thrashers hosting the Buffalo Sabres in a 7:00 start.

I got to the game about 30 minutes before face off so didn't have much time to tour the facility, but I did like that it was directly above the MARTA station. The main entrance is actually above the lower concourse which gives a unique view on the place. All 30 NHL and NBA teams are represented by banners hanging along the spacious concourse.

The Thrashers have a special on Thursdays where you can get a seat in the 3rd deck at the goal line for only $15. I got a seat in the first row in section 314, which is where I like to sit. It's a great deal, but the problem is that you have to endure the Thrashers' hideous 3rd jerseys. I mean, this is the best you can do? I know the 3rd jerseys were introduced to suck fans into spending more money on souvenirs, but Atlanta's attempt is so clearly cynical - suffice to say that I saw no fans wearing this gawdawful design. Doubtless a new 3rd jersey will be released in the near future to yet again try to separate fans from their hard-earned dollars.

After entering the arena, I went down to watch the Sabres warming up. All fans are allowed into the lower bowl during warmups, which is something that all rinks should do. It's a great chance for young fans to get close to their idols, and a couple of Sabres were happy to throw pucks over the glass to little kids waiting expectantly.

Tyler Myers, the 6'8? rookie defenseman who is in the running for the Calder, looks like the real deal. He's the NHL's 2nd tallest player and a key reason why the Sabres are near the top of the league this season.

Ryan Miller was typically solid, even in practice. As the starting goalie for the US Olympic team, Miller is my biggest fear next month in Vancouver. He leads the league in GAA and save percentage and seems to be technically almost impossible to beat.

Kudos to Buffalo fans who were out in force. The same cannot be said about the Thrashers faithful. I'd say the building was half-full at best (announced attendance was 11,313) and really wonder why the NHL persists in maintaining these franchises which are not succeeding. The club zone and upper end zones were practically empty. Even the $15 sections were mostly empty. When wandering around the second-level concourse, most of the concession stands were closed. It's really a bit depressing.

I don't want to recap the game, you can read about it here. The winning goal was quite nice though, with Tim Connolly doing a great misdirect on the pass to Derek Roy who one-timed a slapshot past Ondrej Pavalec. Here are some pictures from the game:

Tim Kennedy watches the puck sail by Pavalec

Toni Lydman winds up from the point - this shot went wide but ended up on Patrick Kaleta's stick, and he potted the game's first goal

Pavalec dives to smother the puck in overtime

The Sabres celebrate the win

The final score

After watching this game, it's obvious that the Sabres are a solid defensive club that gives up few scoring chances. Miller was excellent, but it seemed to me that Atlanta couldn't generate much in terms of consistent pressure. Only the Devils have given up fewer goals than the Sabres, and they are backstopped by Canadian goalie Martin Brodeur. We'll see what happens in the Olympics as these two may not have the defensive support they are used to.

The game itself featured 16 penalties as both refs called it tight. Subsequently, there wasn't much flow. Each team went 1/7 on the power play (Roy's OT marker was scored with the man advantage). Overall, this was not a bad game, but not as exciting or feverish as some of the contests I've watched on Center Ice over the past two months.

Having said that, I think there is no better feeling than a long journey that ends with a sporting event. I always try to see something the day I arrive, as it helps cure the jet lag. It is amazing to me that on Thursday morning I can watch the Canucks in Minnesota while sitting at home in Japan, and then on Thursday night, see a live NHL game in Atlanta. Twenty hours on the road may sound like a lot, but when you think about it, it's not much to get halfway around the world.

Great Promotion

A final note on the promotion held between the second and third period. Known as the Steak, Rack and Roll race and sponsored by Applebee's, it features 3 contestants dressed up as a sirloin steak, a rack of ribs, and a chicken fajita roll or something like that. In each game-day program there's a card that indicates that if steak wins, you get a free steak with the purchase of another entree at any Atlanta-area Applebee's.

The contestants then have to run two laps around the rink jumping over obstacles and avoiding a strategically-placed sumo wrestler and the Thrashers mascot. What was fun about this was that they were encouraged to run into and generally pummel each other while racing around the ice. There were more hits in this promotion than in the entire hockey game! It is certainly a good laugh to see a sirloin steak take a run at a chicken fajita roll and drive him into the boards. The contestants must be well padded because I was sure there would be injuries, but it was all in good fun. And of course, steak won so free steak for everybody! Except you have to go to Applebee's.

I was too enthralled to remember to take pictures, but I'm going to another game next week and will remedy the situation then.

Next Up

Tonight the Phoenix Suns are in town to take on the Hawks. The game is on ESPN and the start time has been moved to 8:00. It should be a great game as both teams are well-above .500 and play exciting basketball. As usual, check back for more on that game.

Best,

Sean

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