Hey guys!

I forgot to tell you! SABRES NATION has moved to a bigger, better site!

The same writing, the same pictures!

Just a better community I'm involved in-

So I'm proud (and a bit sad) to announce sabresnation.blogspot.com is dead...

because http://www.sabresnation.com/blog/ is now the official blogging site of Pat Green!

So change your bookmarks- the site will be going through some more upgrades, soon, too!

The NO GOAL Returns For The Third Time!

2-0 Rangers.

But wait! Ten minutes left!

If we start playing now, we'll win!

Ales Kotalik, right, took a beautiful feed and chipped it by Henrik Lundqvist to cut the Ranger lead in half. Buffalo fans started sweating, remembering the numerous third period comebacks, especially against Toronto in early March.

Buffalo seemed to have a switch flipped and played with real determination and heart for the remaining time. The Rangers' trap defense foiled them more times than not in the neutral zone, but the Sabres never let the Rangers really control the puck. They constantly brought the puck in and tested Lundqvist, who seemed to be a wall.

And after all that, the Rangers iced the puck at about 90 seconds. Lindy Ruff decided to use his timeout at that point, and from there on, Ryan Miller was on the bench.

The Sabres kept the puck in the Offensive zone and placed extreme pressure for the last of the game.

With an empty net, Sean Avery dumps the puck down towards it, only to have Brian Cambell touch up from icing, bringing the puck back to the right of Lundqvist.

Chris Drury won his second draw there only to have the puck stolen by Brad Isbister. The puck was thrown down the ice again, with Cambell touching up for icing again. These plays were big mistakes for the Rangers because of the new rules. In the new NHL, lines can not be changed by the offending team on an icing. Drury wins his third consecutive faceoff in the same spot and drops it back. The Rangers tip it outside the blue line.

Campbell tosses the puck in and chases like a madman, as Lundqvist is coming out of the net to play it. Daniel Briere is coming hard through the opposite slot to pinch the puck in. Lundqvist makes a Ty Conklin (click here to see what I'm talking about - sorry about the video, it's the only one I could find) and leaves the puck there under pressure.

The Sabres dumped the puck in and Lundqvist stepped out to play it. No way! Daniel Briere takes the puck away, turns, and shoots the puck at an empty net!

Continue to find out what happened.

The ten minute men showed up once again tonight, taking the roster spots of what has been the hardest working team in the NHL for the better part of a decade.

The Sabres found themselves in a two goal hole with less than twelve minutes left in the game. The Rangers had outplayed the Sabres the whole game, and pretty badly.

The Rangers came out with the typical home storm, and the Sabres weathered it well. Unfortunately, they never adequately countered, often being shut down in the neutral zone. The biggest culprit of the night was leaving the puck behind and not making the accurate passes that are so necessary on bad ice.

It's no secret that the Garden has bad ice. There are, I believe, five floors below the ice at MSG, and the heat rising through the ice keeps it softer than it really should be.

If you are wondering why it matters if the ice is soft, I'll quickly give you an overview. The soft ice makes it hard for players to dig in and get a good push off to change directions, speed up for breaks, and stop. You will see lots of players lose edges and look sluggish on this ice. Also, puck handling is hindered, because the softer ice is, the more it acts like a spring, sending the puck end over end and bouncing all over.

I will not use the ice as an excuse, and neither will any player on the Sabres. Chris Drury, in his Sunday postgame said "the ice is not an excuse. Both teams had to deal with it." and that is that. I will say that the Rangers have played on it 41 times this season, and surely are more adept at dealing with it than the Sabres are, who haven't played on it in nearly six months.

But nothing excuses the fact that the highest-powered team in the NHL, the Buffalo Sabres, have scored only two goals in the past eight periods. That's less than a goal a game, after averaging over three goals a game during the season.

Disastrous.

Continued from above:

Briere stuffs the puck in the net. Somehow, Lundqvist got there and smothered the puck before it found the back of the net. But wait, the play goes under review.

It's too early to find a video or screenshots of the replay on the internet yet. But I will explain that the puck was on the red line by less than one quarter of an inch and then continued it's momentum under Lundqvist's skate...but disappeared before there was any definitive white ice between the red line and the outline of the puck.

Common sense says it was in, but camera angles do not show any frame where you can see the entire puck behind the line.

I hate to say it, but Toronto made the correct call. As a Sabres fan, I of course wanted that puck to go in, but as an NHL enthusiast, I had to say it wasn't a goal, though I prayed it was. We all know that puck crossed the line, but no one can prove it with any evidence.

Tomorrow, my pregame analysis for game 6 on Friday, at HSBC arena.

Sabres Head to Game 4 After Dropping Double Overtime Thriller

The Sabres split the last two games with the Rangers after playing two completely different styles of hockey. The dominating 5-2 game win in game one was a masterful performance all around, from the beginning to end, with only one small hiccough.

That was a last minute goal scored by Brendan Shanahan on a one time rocket from the top of the faceoff circle. The defense played masterfully, keeping Jaromir Jagr and his linemates to zero points. Henrik Tallinder and Toni Lydman, both right, really stepped their game up for Jagr, who's always a huge threat to any team he's playing.

The Sabres hit pretty well that game and the defense picked their opportunites to jump in offensively very well. This led to very few quality shots from the Rangers, even though their shot total was over 30.

Game two was a similar, yet different gameplan. Offensively, the Sabres released the pressure on point shots, but really put a hurting on the Rangers with BIG hits throughout the game, highlighted by Ales Kotalik, Danius Zubrus, and Adam Mair, the Sabres' biggest bruising tandem.

For the first two periods, Buffalo had placed such a demand on taking the body of the Rangers that they had only accumulated nine shots on goal and found themselves in a 2-1 hole at the start of the third.

After the faceoff win by Drury, the Sabres moved the puck in the offensive zone for about 10 seconds of pressure. On the outlet, Marek Malik made a terrible pass that ended up beign a giveaway to Toni Lydman who ripped a shot on Henrik Lundqvist and Chris Drury redirected it over the keeper's shoulder to tie the game.

The third was ALL Buffalo, no matter who watched the game. Ryan Miller stood on his head for a couple saves, but the Sabres put over seven real quality shots on goal of their nine.

The biggest hits were Danius Zubrus' (right) though. Zubrus in his second best hit of the night undercut Jaromir Jagr with his hip and sent him flying. Click here to view it.

My favorite hit of the night was Zubrus' best. In the neutral zone, Zubrus made a bad pass to Chris Drury. Sean Avery, the pesty antagonist was coming on the ice over a line change and as soon as he touched the puck, Zubrus sent him flying.

I almost think Zubrus saw that Avery was getting on the ice and made that pass on purpose, it was that perfect of a play...and Zubrus was already following his pass.

Game three was the first game the Sabres have played at Madison Square Garden in over five months. The Sabres were slowed by the ice, which was horrid. Unfortunately, so was the officiating, highlighted with a no-goal call on the Rangers that would have seen them up 2-0.

Ultimately, the game was Ryan Miller vs. Henrik Lundqvist. Sloppy play highlighted both teams and scoring was thwarted by bouncing pucks, making this game a heartstopper.

The Rangers finally beat Miller on Mikael Rosival's shot from the point, with less than five minutes left in double overtime.

The Sabres are up 2-1 in the series and play the Rangers Tuesday night at MSG.