Sabres Smackdown!!!

Ok, yet another post today about the Sabres. Actually this is about that jackazz Emery from Ottawa.

Good news, Buffalo sports fans. Just in time for the next big series, there’s a fresh target for your collective loathing. So long, Sean Avery. Nice job not scoring a point. Hello, Ray Emery.
“I’m not a big fan of Buffalo,” Emery said early this week. “There’s not a lot to do on days off.”
Ottawa’s goalie couldn’t have done a better job of firing up the locals if he’d called a press conference and brought along our old pal, Willis McGahee, for moral support.
Why stop there, Ray? Why not insult our women while you’re at it? Or suggest they move the franchise to Toronto?
Emery said he was rooting for the Rangers to beat the Sabres, presumably because the night life is so shabby in our cultural backwater. OK, so Emery is out of luck if he’s looking to see Les Miserables or take in the Metropolitan Opera. Maybe Lindy Ruff, who has been almost eloquent in his affection for Buffalo this time of year, could offer him some suggestions.
“He’ll find things to do,” Ruff said with a laugh. “Rent a Hummer truck, go for a ride. Drive around a little bit.”
Good one, Lindy. Emery was involved in a three-car accident in his Hummer on the way to the airport last Friday for Game Five of the New Jersey series (no one was injured). It seems he was rushing to the airport after oversleeping. Emery missed the team flight. Maybe he was exhausted from a big night in that simmering cultural hotbed, Ottawa.
Actually, I suspect Emery wanted to avoid the Sabres for more fundamental reasons. He would rather have taken his chances against the mediocre Rangers’ offense than a Sabres team that lit him up like Times Square on New Year’s Eve in last year’s playoffs.
While he’s groping for things to do on the off days here, Emery ought to watch some tape of last year’s series against the Sabres, when he was about as comfortable as Alberto Gonzales testifying before the Senate Judiciary Committee.
Emery might not care to recollect, but in five games against Buffalo, he had a save percentage of .864. The Sabres upset the Senators for one reason: Because Ryan Miller soundly outplayed Emery in a series where the underdog Sabres were outshot by 10 shots a game.
Granted, Emery has been a different goalie this season. He has been less skittish in his net, less likely to get caught out of position. But he is still an average goalie. He is no Henrik Lundqvist. Believe me, after struggling to solve Lundqvist for half a series, the Sabres will be happy to take their chances with Emery.
“I think we can take advantage of him,” said Ales Kotalik. “I think Ryan is a better goalie than him. We’ve been facing better goalies than he is. We will see. He’s got a big, big body. But we know he can give up some pretty easy goals. So hopefully, he didn’t forget last year’s playoffs and he’s going to give up some this year, too.”
You have to think the memory of last year’s playoff meltdown is still up there in Emery’s head. He has been solid in this year’s playoffs. But all the Senators have really done is beat a bunch of talented but raw teen-agers (Pittsburgh) and a team that had to fire its coach with a week left in the season, then had its own goalie, Martin Brodeur, fall apart in the second round (New Jersey).
Emery is up against it now. The only thing he’s proved to Buffalo fans is that he can beat up Martin Biron. So if you need someone to rush onto Chippewa Street at 4 a.m. and punch out a bunch of drunken thugs, Emery is your man. Knocking this Sabres team out of the playoffs, well, that’s a different matter.
You don’t like our clubs, Ray? Two weeks from now, you might have some other clubs on your mind. Golf clubs.