Morning skate - Ducks/Sabs 12/05/07
We are at the Honda Center in Anaheim this morning, where the Buffalo Sabres are getting ready for their first appearance on the west coast since 2003.
The local media out here is making much of the face off between brothers Drew Miller of the Anaheim Ducks, and Sabres goalie Ryan Miller, who is expected to get the start in net tonight for Buffalo. Both players have expressed their close bond as brothers, and both admit it will be weird facing each other at this level.
On the Anaheim side of the ledger, another Duck with close ties to Buffalo, Todd Marchant, was a healthy scratch the other night against Edmonton, a rare occurrence for Marchant. He might be watching tonight’s game from the pressbox as well, as he is apparently deep in Coach Randy Carlyle’s doghouse, Carlyle suggesting the Marchant needs to show a higher level of “tenacity”.
The Buffalo Sabres did not take to the ice this morning for a practice, after arriving on Monday they had a full practice at the arena yesterday and had the day off in preparation for tonight’s game.
Buffalo has had a lot of success against Anaheim here at “The Pond”, as it used to be called, posting a 7-2 record here in California since the beginnings of this franchise. The last time these two teams met here in ’03, Buffalo won the game 5-2.
USRT notes… last time WE were here was in January of 2000 for our “official” visit, and the Sabres were the opponents that night. It was all Buffalo on that occasion as well, shutting out the Mighty Ducks 5-0, and Miro Satan scoring a garbage goal with a second left on the clock to cap off a great night for the Sabres.
No silly banners hanging in the rafters on our last visit, but this time the three championship banners from 2007, including the most important one, for the Stanley Cup, all hang proudly.
The fact that an east coast team is playing here is something of a curiosity, but apparently Buffalo is not exactly a big draw. They are offering 4 packs for tonight’s game in the upper deck, which includes 4 hot dogs, 4 pops and a program for only $66. Good deal!
Face off is at 7PM PT/10PM ET. We are assuming that unlike in Buffalo, media wi-fi is universally available here, and if so we will be live-blogging throughout the game.
