Harsh Reality Sabre Fans; He's Just not that Good

There comes a time where past achievements just do not cut it anymore. There comes a time where fan's have to stop making excuses for players' poor play. There comes a time where someone just isn't good enough. The time to keep making excuses for Ryan Miller is over.

I'll admit Ryan Miller played well during the 09-10 campaign and during the Olympics. Yes, he is talented, but not as talented as most think. This year, Ryan Miller is 30th in the league in goals against average (2.78) and 25th in save percentage (.909). These numbers are not what most of you expect from a goalie who started for team USA and won the Venza trophy just less than a year ago. These numbers are what you expect from a rookie, or a washed up veteran.

For those who say the reason for Millers' struggles are because of the rest of his team, lets explore that thought. The only people that were lost over the off season were Henrik Tallinder, Tony Lydman, Adam Mair, and Clarke MacArthur, and if I'm not mistaken, most Buffalo fans were complaining about how weak MacArthur was and how bad Adam Mair was and how Tallinder needed to go and how Lydman always gave the puck away. So if that's the case, then wouldn't dumping those players make your team better?

The fact that Ryan Miller played well during the Olympics and almost won a gold medal, or that he played well last year and almost won a playoff series just doesn't cut it. Ryan Miller is the king of almost. There's an argument I've made about him for years now and that I am sticking by now more than ever. Miller cannot win your team a game but he can lose it for you, and if last night's embarrassing loss to the Islanders doesn't prove that, then I don't know what does. Attached below is an article and audio clip from last night's post-game press conference. What you hear from Ryan Miller is what you would expect from a 16 year old pee-wee goalie, not of a grown man that is supposed the be the "face of your franchise." The way he acted, and how he made excuses for 6 out of the 7 goals is an act of a coward. Your team scores six goals and you still cant win it for them. Its not only shameful, its a disgrace. I can only give this guy so much slack. If the team scores 4 goals, he has to let in three or take it to overtime. If they are up 2-0, he will make sure to let in a goal within the last two minutes, just to make it interesting. In order for the Sabres to win a game, they have to score at least two or three goals because Miller is incapable of going into shutdown mode and completely dominating the opponent. That's what Dominik Hasek could do. If the Sabres scored only a single goal, he would make sure not a single puck crossed the goal line. He would grind out wins for those teams and that's why they were successful. In no way shape or form am I comparing Ryan Miller to the greatest goalie in the history of the sport, but you the fans definitely are, and have been for years, and it's time to stop.

http://www.weck1230.com/2011/02/ryan-miller-vs-mostly-john-vogl/

Eastern Conference
EASTERN		GP	W	L	OTL	PTS	HOME	ROAD	GF	GA	DIFF	L10	STRK
1	Philadelphia	55	36	14	5	77	19-8-2	17-6-3	182	139	+43	7-3-0	Lost 1
2	Tampa Bay	56	34	17	5	73	19-6-2	15-11-3	172	172	0	8-2-0	Won 1
3	Boston	56	31	18	7	69	15-11-3	16-7-4	172	135	+37	5-5-0	Lost 2
4	Pittsburgh	58	35	19	4	74	20-10-1	15-9-3	173	141	+32	6-4-0	Lost 2
5	Washington	56	29	17	10	68	17-7-7	12-10-3	151	140	+11	4-3-3	Lost 2
6	Montreal	57	31	20	6	68	19-7-5	12-13-1	151	143	+8	5-3-2	Won 1
7	NY Rangers	58	30	24	4	64	13-12-3	17-12-1	162	144	+18	3-6-1	Won 1
8	Carolina	57	27	22	8	62	14-9-2	13-13-6	168	175	-7	4-4-2	Won 1
	Atlanta	58	25	23	10	60	13-12-5	12-11-5	167	188	-21	2-5-3	Lost 1
	Buffalo	54	26	22	6	58	12-12-2	14-10-4	161	162	-1	7-2-1	Lost 1
	Florida	55	24	24	7	55	12-9-6	12-15-1	146	148	-2	3-4-3	Won 1
	Toronto	56	23	27	6	52	13-11-5	10-16-1	144	174	-30	4-5-1	Lost 2
	New Jersey	56	22	30	4	48	12-13-3	10-17-1	120	158	-38	8-1-1	Won 4
	NY Islanders	56	20	29	7	47	10-13-4	10-16-3	151	186	-35	5-5-0	Won 3
	Ottawa	56	18	30	8	44	9-15-4	9-15-4	126	186	-60	1-7-2	Won 1

Second Half Surge Pushes Duke Past UNC

On Wednesday night, the Duke Blue Devils (22-2, 9-1) went into the locker room at halftime down 14?... At home? The Tar Heels of North Carolina (17-6, 7-2) came out firing in the first half as they scored 43 points against a pesky Duke defense. The home crowd at Cameron Indoor was far from happy as they were watching their long time rival just run up and down their floor.

Duke did not take long to kick it into gear in the second half as during the first eight minutes they had outscored UNC 16-6 and shrunk the lead to four. Not long after that, UNC pushed their edge back up to ten and a third loss might be looming for the Blue Devils... and the Nolan Smith happened.

Nolan Smith was outstanding in this one and he showed why he is one of the best point guards in the ACC if not the country in the second half. Smith had a career high 34 points, 22 of which came in the second half. Seth Curry was also big in this one for Duke as he had 22 points off the bench. Kyle Singler definitely didn't have his best game as he had only 10 points on a horrific 3 of 17 shooting. He did however hit two clutch free throws at the end of the game which put the game to two possessions only to be capped off by a Nolan Smith Dunk with 17 seconds remaining.

"It wasn't an X-and-O adjustment. ... They were too excited," Coach Mike Krzyzewski said. "''Nuts' is the word. 'What are you guys doing?' It's not like, 'You know, you guys aren't playing hard.' They're playing hard. ... When you go like that, you're not coordinated, and it was more to get a coordinated effort on the offensive and defensive ends."

For the Tar Heels, Tyler Zeller lead the team with 24 points and a career high 13 rebounds. This team looked destined to finally knock off Duke, something they haven't done in over two years. It would have been even more impressive to do it on Coach K Court. "To say it's extremely disappointing would be an understatement," North Carolina coach Roy Williams said.

Atlantic Coast Conference Standings

TEAM	CONF W-L	TOTAL W-L
#5 Duke	9-1	22-2
#21 North Carolina	7-2	17-6
Florida State	6-3	16-7
Clemson	6-4	17-7
Virginia Tech	5-4	15-7
Maryland	5-4	16-8
Boston College	5-5	15-9
Miami (FL)	4-6	15-9
Virginia	3-6	12-11
Georgia Tech	3-6	10-12
North Carolina State	2-7	12-11
Wake Forest	1-8	8-16

LeBron Comes up Big in Miami Come from Behind Win

A little over a week after posting a 51 point outburst against the Orlando Magic, LeBron James came out firing again and put up 41 to steal a victory against the Indiana Pacers.

The Pacers dominated most of the game and lead by as many as 14 points, until LeBron did what he did best and that was take over the fourth quarter. James ended the night with 41 points, 13 rebounds, 8 assists, 3 steals, and a block. "The best player in the world played at his best in his own building," said Pacers interim coach Frank Vogel, who fell to 4-1 since taking over on the Indiana sideline. "It's tough to beat."

The rest of the heat didn't have their best game, but they did just enough to squeak by Indiana. Dwayne Wade had just 17 and Mario Chalmers had 16. Chris Bosh added 19 points along with 7 rebounds. "You don't have to be awesome every night," Wade said. "You have to find a way to help your ball club win and we were able to do that."

James, the two time reigning league MVP showed why he should be considered for the award again even if the team he is playing on is better. "We would have been up by 40 if it wasn't for him," Pacers guard Danny Granger said. "He was unconscious." Granger had 19 points for the Pacers. Indiana was lead by Roy Hibbert who notched a double double with 20 points and 10 rebounds.

"I'll tell you what, he's playing MVP-like basketball on both ends of the court," Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said. "He had a motor tonight that did not fatigue. It was amazing."

The Heat extend their winning streak to seven with this win and have four games left before the all star break, all on the road. They will start those games Friday night in Detroit. The Pacers fall to 21-28 and will play host to Charlotte Tonight.

Woodson Show's Cutler How it's Done

If Jay Cutler, his coaches, and his teammates were upset with the comments that were made about him "quitting" on his team, maybe he should taken a look at how Charles Woodson acted this weekend in Super Bowl XLV.

In the second quarter of the Super Bowl, Packers star safety Charles Woodson went down with an apparent shoulder injury. He was taken to the locker room only to return in a a Green Bay Packers sweatsuit and sling around his left arm. Woodson suffered a broken collarbone when he dove to break up a potential touchdown pass.

As most of you remember, Jay Cutler was hurt in the NFC Championship game against the Packers in the second quarter. It was later revealed he had a grade two sprain of the MCL (torn). No one is questioning Cutler's toughness anymore after finding out the seriousness of his injury but they questioning his character. As Woodson came out of the locker room at halftime, his emotion never let up. "Our head captain goes down, emotional in the locker room," said wide receiver Greg Jennings. When the Packers stopped the Steelers on a 3rd down late in the third quarter, Woodson, up on the sideline like he had been the whole second half cheering his team on, let out a gasp and raised his right hand only immediately to begin to grab his left shoulder and grimace in pain. Ya know what Cutler was doing in Chicago... moping on the sideline, not even involved in the game. Charles Woodson is a leader and did what he had to do to keep his teams' spirits up.

It's very simple, there's a reason Jay Cutler is being talked about like this. He has put it on himself. Charles Woodson is a leader... Jay Cutler just simply isn't.

Syracuse gets Much Needed Win

Jim Boeheim has never lost five consecutive games in his illustrious Hall of Fame Career. On Wednesday night, he entered unfamiliar territory.

Syracuse came into Connecticut on a four game losing streak and desperate for a win. After starting 18-0, the Cuse' hadn't won in 18 days. They did play well enough to snap that streak and beat (7) UConn 66-58. Rick Jackson lead the way for the Orange racking up 13 points and 13 rebounds to drop the Huskies to 17-4 (5-4).

The Orange have dropped from number three to 17 in a matter of two weeks in the polls. The saying "must win games" really came into play this time. Kris Joseph and Brandon Triche were also in double figures with 11 and 16 points. Freshman stud C.J. Fair had 6 points and 4 rebounds and another freshman Baye Moussa Keita had 4 points to go along with a more important 11 rebounds and 6 steals.

Leading player of the year candidate Kemba Walker definitely didn't bring his best effort to the floor last night as he had is lowest scoring output of the season with 8 points on 3-14 shooting. Freshman Jeremy Lamb kept Connecticut in the game as he had 22 points.

"This was a game we had to find a way to win," Boeheim said. "We made the plays we had to. We played well but we also played well at Marquette. That's the league. You have to do that every night. This league is very, very difficult." This is not an understatement from Coach Boeheim. The Big East is just a mess right now, and I mean mess in the best way possible. All but three teams in the conference have winning records and eleven teams have legitimate resumes to show the NCAA selection committee.

"We did a lot of dumb things," UConn Coach Jim Calhoun said. "It was a lack of mental effort more than physical effort." Kemba Walker, the nation's leading scorer at 24.2 points per knew he didn't have his best. "I was just off. I just can't make a shot. It happens. It happens to the best players in the world. I just have to get through it. "Tonight, I definitely didn't get any good shots. They did a great job taking away my opportunities."

There is no doubt Syracuse needed this win but it seems like every night, all the Big East teams need a win.

Next 5 Games

SYR

CONN

02/05 @USF 2:00pm 02/09 GTWN 7:00pm 02/12 @LOU 12:00pm 02/14 WVU 7:00pm 02/19 RUTG 4:00pm Big East Conference Standings TEAM CONF W-L TOTAL W-L #4 Pittsburgh 8-1 20-2 #12 Villanova 6-3 18-4 #13 Louisville 6-3 17-5 #8 Notre Dame 6-3 17-4 West Virginia 6-3 15-6 #17 Syracuse 6-4 19-4 #14 Georgetown 6-4 17-5 Cincinnati 5-4 18-4 #7 Connecticut 5-4 17-4 St. John's 5-5 13-8 Marquette 5-5 14-9 Seton Hall 4-7 10-13 Rutgers 3-7 12-10 Providence 3-7 14-9 South Florida 2-8 8-15 DePaul 0-8 6-14

02/05 @HALL 7:00pm 02/10 @SJU 7:00pm 02/13 PROV 7:00pm 02/16 GTWN 7:00pm 02/18 @LOU 9:00pm

Yanks Continue to add Arms

They didn't get Cliff Lee. They didnt get Zach Greinke. They watched Carl Crawford and Adrian Gonzalez go to the division rival Boston Red Sox. They couldnt even get Carl Pavano back. But the Yankees still have been active this offseason, just the way no one would have expected.

They have a very quiet off-season but have added some names that everyone will recognize. As most of these guys' arent the players they were in their primes, there is still something left in the tank that the Yankees see.

Early in the off season they signed catcher Russell Martin to a one year deal worth four million dollars. Martin is a two-time All-Star and a Gold Glove and Silver Slugger winner (2007).

After that they went and signed an array of pitchers. They first signed Mark Prior. Prior pitched for the Chicago Cubs from 2002-2006. He was very good and known for his effortless delivery. He has suffered a number of shoulder injuries and has pitched very little over the past four plus years. The contract is a very small risk one. It is a one year minor league deal. During his time in Chicago, Prior went 42-29 with a 3.51 ERA and 1.23 WHIP. They also signed an ex-all-star, Bartolo Colon. Colon was also signed to a one year minor league contract. In his career he is 153-103 with a 4.10 ERA and 1.34 WHIP.

They did however sign a young pitcher to a major league contract. Maybe the biggest relief pitcher on the market this off season will be in pinstripes. The Yankees landed Rafael Soriano. Brian Cashman, Yankees GM publicly commented on the situation, "There's no dispute what this player brings to the Yankee Franchise and how it elevates our ability. The dispute was obviously regarding the efficient way to spend remaining dollars... this move was not my recommendation." Last year with the Rays, Soriano was named the American League Relief man of the year, racking up 45 saves with a 1.73 ERA and 0.80 WHIP.

The Yankees' last signing came this week as they signed free agent and ex all-star Freddy Garcia to a minor league contract. Garcia throughout his career has played for the Seattle Mariners, Detroit Tigers, Phildelphia Phillies, and Chicago White Sox. He won a World Series in 2005 with Chicago. In his career he is 133-87 with a 4.13 ERA and 1.30 WHIP.

It will be interesting to see if the Yankees are done this offseason or if they will continue to sign different guys. With the Rays signing Johnny Damon and Manny Ramirez yesterday, it gives New York even more of a reason not to finish just yet.

NFL Draft Prospect: A.J. Green

Prospect: A.J. Green

Position: Wide Receiver

School: Georgia

Class: Junior
Height: 6-4
Weight: 205

Strengths: A.J. Green is the best wide receiver in this years' class by far. Green is 6'4" so he has good size at the wide receiver position. To go along with that size, he has great athleticism as he has shown throughout his time at Georgia. He can go up and get most any ball from any cornerback. He has good hands and great quickness and agility off the line. He also has played in a pro style offense at Georgia so he is off to a head start.

Weaknesses: Green is 6'4" but he definitely needs to bulk up a little. He only weighs 205 pounds and expert scouts predict he will have to put on at least another ten pounds. The toughest part of that will be keeping his quickness. He shouldn't have a problem with that though as he has extreme athleticism. His route running ability could also be a little better. He can work on being a little quicker in and out of cuts in the routes.

Overall Analysis: It's a tough call to take a wide receiver early in the first round and pay him such high money. Some have him going as early as one or two overall or as late as 10 or 11. I believe he will go right around the middle of those numbers at pick number four or six. His athleticism to go along with his offensive knowledge is proof he can succeed right away in the NFL.

Possible Destinations: Cincinnati Bengals/ Cleveland Browns

Probable Pick: Top 10 pick