Jhonas Enroth is probably a name no one in Buffalo has heard before, much less the rest of the NHL. His official page on the Sabres website doesn’t even have a bio for the 2006 second-round pick. However, in the absence of superstar goalie Ryan Miller, Enroth has stepped up and kept the Sabres ranked in the top five in their conference.
Enroth gave up five goals in the past two games subbing for Miller, but he came back strong Friday night, stopping 34 shots in a 1-0 win over the struggling Carolina Hurricanes. “After a game when you play like that, you just want to get out there again. I’m happy I got the start right after that game,” said Enroth, who has a 1.95 GAA in the 10 games he’s played in this season.
Jason Pominville was the only Sabre to get one of the team’s 19 shots past Hurricane goalie Brian Boucher, who was playing for an injured Cam Ward. Pominville extended his six-game points streak with the goal, and Buffalo has won seven straight road games.
They currently sit in second place in the Eastern Conference with 24 points, behind Philadelphia by one point. Carolina is scraping the bottom of the Southeast division, having lost seven of its last eight games.
The Sabres have a two-game home stand next, hosting Phoenix on Saturday night, followed by the Boston Bruins on Wednesday.
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Milan Lucic was not suspended after meeting today with head disciplinarian Brendan Shanahan to discuss the power forward’s in-game collision with Buffalo Sabres all-star net minder Ryan Miller.
Here is a full description of why Shanahan decided not to suspend Lucic, courtesy of NHL.com
Shanahan held a hearing with Lucic via conference call because he had specific questions he wanted to ask before making a determination on potential supplemental discipline.
“I had the hearing because I did make an initial assessment of the play as I do with all plays, but I did have some questions for Milan and I wanted to hear directly from him,” Shanahan told NHL.com. “They were regarding his intent; at what point did he know there was going to be a collision; and whether or not he felt he had the time to avoid the collision. I was satisfied with his answers.”
Shanahan said the minor penalty for charging was the proper call in this case because it follows Rule 42.1, which reads “a goalkeeper is not fair game just because he is outside the goal crease area.”
“The minor penalty called on the ice was the correct call,” Shanahan said. “And, while it’s unfortunate that Miller was hurt I saw nothing egregious about this hit that would elevate it to supplemental discipline.”
Lucic was called for charging when he skated into Miller during the game. Miller would later leave the game and was later diagnosed with a concussion.
This is now the second time a goaltender has been run into and a suspension has not been issued. James Reimer of the Toronto Maple Leafs continues to be sidelined with an undisclosed injury after being bumped by Brian Gionta.
I understand that goalies are not supposed to leave the crease, but in both instances Lucic and Gionta made contact with the goaltender and injured them.
Here is a sample of what Twitter had to say:
@MattBarnabyESPNMatthew Barnaby @phelpsbj as per@TSNBobMcKenzie no further discipline for lucic. Right call by me via Twitter for iPhone Favorite Retweet
@DamoSpinDamien CoxIf we weren’t sure after Gionta/Reimer, now confirmed by Lucic/Miller; open season on NHL goalies. Gotta get scoring up somehow, right?
@HunterCrowtherHunter CrowtherI’m glad the #NHL didn’t suspend Lucic. Now we get to see if the #Sabres have any guts on November 23rd when they face the
@NYP_BrooksieLarry BrooksLack of suspension for Gionta most puzzling decision of season. Intent to take out Reimer obvious. Resulting injury obvious. Bizarre.
@dstaplesDavid StaplesHard to imagine why not. Intent to injury. RT @TSNBobMcKenzie: No suspension for Lucic. Here’s a story detailing why ..nhl.com/ice/news.htm?i…
What do you think? Should Lucic have been suspended? Are goalies going to be run into more as a result of this ruling?
Leave your comments in the section below to get the conversation started.
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During the Buffalo Sabres first summer of free agency under the new ownership regime of Terry Pegula, the Buffalo Sabres attempted to bolster their defense by signing rugged blue liner Robyn Regehr, and offensive weapon Christian Ehrhoff.
No one to this point in the season could have imagined how anemic the defense in front of all world goalie Ryan Miller could have been to this point. Constant giveaways, poor line changes, mental breakdowns and lack of physical play has made this team go from looking like world beaters on paper, to a team that may struggle to stay in the top eight in the east.
Tyler Myers now in his second year removed from winning the Calder trophy as the NHL rookie of the year, and signing a giant multi-year extension this summer has been a leader of the collapse of the defensive unit. Now Myers is sitting at just four points in sixteen game and a +/- of -3 is far from what the Buffalo Sabres expected from Myers this season.
At best Myers has looked lost, and lacked focus while playing in his own end. His lazy style of play has not done his team any favors to this point.
Christian Ehrhoff the teams biggest signing this off season has complied 10 points but a +/- rating of -4. Again certainly not what the Sabres were expecting from a player with the highest NHL salary for this season at 10 million dollars. Ehrhoff must regain the form he had playing in Vancouver as a very responsible, yet offensive blue liner.
Ehrhoff has shown in the past, he while being very responsible on defense, can provide an incredible offensive threat on the blue line. His lack of quality decision making has boggled many fans minds to this point this season.
The glaring issue here is that these two defense men are the only blue liners on the Sabres starting roster that are a minus player. Andrej Sekera, Robyn Regehr, Marc Andre Gragnani and Jordan Leopold are on the positive side of this stat.
If Buffalo is to stay competitive in the east Ehrhoff, and Myers may need to do a little soul searching, and remember what attributes they have that has made them an asset to teams up till this season.
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Every team went into the summer with the intention of making their roster better by signing free agents. Some franchises were able to target and acquire players from their wish list. However, they should have been more careful about what they wished for.
What originally looked like a great addition has turned to be a less-than-desired pickup for some teams in the NHL.
Here are Tomas Kaberle and the most regrettable signings of the offseason.
