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                                                       Sabres’ rookie goaltender Jhonas Enroth

The Buffalo Sabres needed to secure a total of 3 points in their final 3 regular season games to secure a spot in the Stanley Cup playoffs, regardless of what the other contending teams did, and they put themselves on the brink of clinching that spot with a big   4-2 win over the Tampa Bay Lightning on Tuesday night. Rookie goaltender Jhonas Enroth, filling in while Ryan Miller recovers from an “upper body injury”, posted another huge win, and Thomas Vanek netted a hat trick to supply Buffalo with some offense. The Sabres jumped out to a 3-1 lead, then gave up a goal in the opening moments of the third period. Fans had to be having flashbacks to the recent meltdown against Nashville (see the last blog post I wrote about the Sabres), but to their credit, the home town boys kept their composure, played a “playoff” style of game for the rest of the period and locked down the win with an empty-net goal by Vanek in the game’s final minute. Best case scenario for Buffalo now would be to wrap up their home season on Friday, in a game being billed as “Fan Appreciation Night”, by beating the struggling Phildelphia Flyers with Enroth in net, then having the luxury of using Saturday’s season finale at Columbus to play Miller and make sure he’s healthy and ready for the postseason. I’m still not convinced that the Sabres have what it takes to face down a tougher team in the playoffs and win a seven game series with their current roster, but coach Lindy Ruff has orchestrated playoff surprises with less-talented rosters in the past, so who knows?

Crushing, disheartening, devastating – choose your adjective to describe the Buffalo Sabres’ loss to Nashville on Sunday – they all fit. The Sabres have played some maddening games the last couple of seasons, and have given their fans fits, but Sunday’s meltdown may have been the worst. The club is in a battle for the Eastern Conference’s final playoff spot and needs every point it can get, yet somehow they managed to blow a 3-1 lead with a little less than 3 minutes left in regulation, then lose within the first 30 seconds of overtime. The Predators, like Buffalo, are striving for the last playoff position, in the Western Conference, but they had no business winning this game. The Sabres completely choked, giving a 2-goal lead away with terrible turnovers. Their supposed world-class goaltender, Ryan Miller, couldn’t make the big save when they really needed it either. Miller may be one of the bright young faces the NHL is trying to market, but that doesn’t make him a great player. He is average at best most nights, and regularly loses to supposed “lesser” goalies in head to head matches. On the other hand, Coach Lindy Ruff has said he plans to spell Miller in back-to-back games, and young Jhonas Enroth has played great in his opportunities. So Ruff starts Miller in this game, not only a back-to-back game but an afternoon game following a night game. Was Miller spent by the end of Sunday’s contest? And does Ruff share the blame for panicking and not sticking to his plan?

The Sabres  are still sitting in a pretty good position to secure a playoff spot, controlling their own destiny, but after going 30-0 when leading after 2 periods last season, the club has followed a disappointing pattern. They blew leads in 2 playoff games last year, costing them the series with Boston, and lead the NHL this season in blowing two-goal leads. That’s a sign of a team that lacks mental toughness, and if they happen to sneak into the postseason this year, any likely top-seeded opponent, like the Philadelphia Flyers for instance, will eat them alive in a playoff series much the same way the Bruins did last year. They know that mounting any kind of a forceful forecheck will result in the Sabres wilting and coughing up the puck with regularity, and I don’t get the feeling that any top-seeded team has any fear of being “stoned” in a playoff series by Miller, the way they might have with Dominik Hasek in the past, since Miller has never really shown the ability to do that. He has had his good moments, but in my opinion possesses the same trait as the rest of his teammates – a lack of mental toughness necessary to sustain the effort needed to close out a playoff series. I hope they prove me wrong, but I doubt if they will. The good news is that new owner Terry Pegula will likely not any waste time weeding out the dead weight on the roster after the season ends, and will spare no expense to upgrade the team next year.

The Buffalo Sabres are hunting for critical points in the standings on a nightly basis these days, and their 4-3 overtime win over Boston last night was as huge a win as they’ve had all year. The winning goal was scored by Brad Boyes, the team’s only trade deadline acquisition. It was Boyes’ 3rd goal since joining the Sabres, set up by some good hustle from Nathan Gerbe. This game started out as expected, with the Bruins flying high on home ice. They took a 1-0 lead in the first period, then stretched it to 2-0 early in the second period. Buffalo, as has been the case for most of their current long road trip, didn’t wilt under the heat. Tyler Ennis got the team on the board on the next shift after Boston’s 2nd goal, scoring as the Bruins’ PA announcer was still announcing the Bruins’ goal. The Sabres tied the score near the end of the period, with Thomas Vanek scoring on the power play. After Boston got the lead back  early in the final period, Buffalo tied it with another power play goal, from Tim Connolly, setting up Boyes’ OT heroics. Boyes has been a great addition to the Sabres’ lineup so far, and besides scoring the game winner he also assisted on Connolly’s goal. The two were junior teammates with the Erie Otters, and hopefully will continue to show some chemistry into the playoffs. Ennis also had an assist to go along with his goal. One key to the win was the Sabres’ ability to match Boston’s physical intensity, something they didn’t do much of in last year’s playoff matchup with the Bruins. Cody McCormick picked up 2 fighting majors, Paul Gaustad also had one and Mike Grier and Chris Butler got roughing penalties in scrums while sticking up for their teammates. With the win, the Sabres moved up into the seventh spot in the Eastern Conference standings. They close out the long trip in Toronto on Saturday night. Hopefully they can add 2 more points to their total for the year.

The Buffalo Sabres, as maddening as they can be at times, continue pushing toward grabbing one of the eight spots in the Eastern Conference that will qualify them for the Stanley Cup playoffs. They made a positive move in acquiring Brad Boyes from St. Louis at the trade deadline, and Boyes paid immediate dividends by scoring a goal in the team’s important 3-2 win over the Rangers on Tuesday. Newly acquired players scoring in their first game with a new team is a common occurence in the NHL. Remember Steve Bernier with the Sabres a couple years ago? He scored twice in his first game, then did nothing after that. Sabres’ GM Darcy Regier doesn’t have a very good track record with trade deadline acquisitions. Last year it was Raffi Torres, historically a great playoff contributor, who never quite found a role with the team. Other players he got at the deadline are Bernier, Chris Gratton, Jeff Jillson and  Bob Corkum. It appears that Regier has survived an expected management “purge”  now that new owner Terry Pegula has taken over the team. There was speculation that his reputation of sitting on his hands and not being aggressive in trying to improve the roster wouldn’t be a good fit with Pegula, who clearly wants to make his new toy a championship contender ASAP. My feeling is that Regier deserves a chance to succeed without being handcuffed by financial constraints like he was under previous owners. The trade for Boyes, although not a particularly major move, should send a positive message to the locker room – that the new owner really wants to give those players an honest chance to win. This franchise’s recent history is riddled with examples of weakening the roster for financial, penny-pinching reasons, and the trade for Boyes and his $4 million salary has to boost player morale. The flip side of Regier’s tenure as GM is notable to mention also. As bad as the trade to get Gratton was, Regier turned around and dealt the underachieving forward to Phoenix for a young Daniel Briere.  He made an unpopular deal when he traded fan favorite Matt Barnaby for Stu Barnes, but Barnes turned out to be a major leader on the “no goal” Stanley Cup Finals team. He stole Joe Juneau from Washington for Alexei Tezikov (who?) and got Rhett Warriner from Florida for Mike Wilson. He has shown a knack for finding diamonds in the rough – the problem is he hasn’t been aggressive in keeping those players when their financial worth increases, and most likely that lack of aggression has had more to do with ownership vetoing than bad decisions by Regier. Likewise, coach Lindy Ruff deserves the chance to  find out how well he can coach a team that is allowed to grow into a championship contender without having the heart cut out of it. That has happened twice in Ruff’s time here, initially when the team balked at paying captain and team leader Mike Peca, trading him to the Islanders for Tim Connolly, who has been the anti-Peca leadership-wise in his time here. The team then allowed its’ 2 best players – Briere and Chris Drury (another captain) to walk in free agency – again forcing Ruff to make do with a weakened roster. It’s really unclear whether this season’s Sabre team can make a playoff run, or even make the playoffs, but the future looks bright with the new ownership in place. The attitude change in the locker room should be huge, and hopefully Ruff can coach them into one of those 8 spots, then do what he gained a reputation for in his tenure here – steer them on a long, unexpected playoff run.

After a rough start to the 2010/11 season, especially on home ice, the Buffalo Sabres seem to have finally righted the ship and are headed in the right direction. The team recorded back-to-back shutout wins over Columbus and Ottawa and even though neither team scored a goal in the Ottawa game for 65 minutes and it took a shootout to decide the winner, the Sabres are starting to find a balance between a tight defensive system and some timely scoring. Tuesday night’s overtime loss in Boston was a bit discouraging in that the Sabres lost a 2-1 lead in the game, then gave up the winner in OT. Even though they secured a point in the standings, the game was similar to the way Buffalo lost to the Bruins in last year’s playoffs. At least the effort was there, but as defending division champs the Sabres have to be concerned that other teams are progressing past them. Boston clearly has an edge on them now, having beaten Buffalo twice now, including a convincing 5-2 win on the Sabres’ home ice. The Sabres dominated Montreal last year but are 0-3 against the Canadiens this season. Buffalo management pretty much stood pat with the roster going into the season, other than swapping out a couple of defensemen. Buffalo is going to have to hope young players like Tyler Ennis, Mike Weber and Luke Adam develop quickly and reinforce the lineup as the season goes on, since veterans like Jason Pominville, Tim Connolly and Derek Roy have proven to be followers come crunch time, rather than leaders. Thomas Vanek takes a lot of flak for not playing like a superstar despite a big contract, but Vanek, in my opinion, does his job and is the closest thing the team has to a leader on the ice. The Sabres have a tough stretch of games coming up, including matches with the powerhouse San Jose Sharks and Pittsburgh Penguins, and a return match with Boston. Also upcoming, later in the month, are a two game Florida road trip and a swing to the West coast. The Sabres are going to have to stay focused every night, since every point garnered will probably be critical later in the season when the push for playoff spots get serious.

For the second straight time in HSBC Arena last night, the Buffalo Sabres gave their home fans something to cheer about. After Thomas Vanek’s highlight reel goal in overtime beat the Washington Capitals in the previous game, Tyler Myers swiped the puck and beat the goaltender with a quick shot to beat Vancouver, 4-3 on Monday. After an 0-6-1 start on home ice, Buffalo is finally starting to get their bearings at the Arena, and also overall. They’ve had to do it the hard way, as they’ve gone to overtime and/or shootouts in their last five starts. In those games they’ve collected 9 out of a possible 10 points in the standings, losing only to Martin Biron and the Rangers in OT. When a team is struggling to find its’ way, usually getting back on track doesn’t come easy, they have to battle their way out of it, and to their credit, the Sabres have. Myers, who was either totally lost or too busy reading his press clippings from last year early on, has turned his game completely around and become a force, both offensively and defensively, on this current streak. The team had to fight through the loss of goalie Ryan Miller to injury, but they not only did, they turned it into a positive, as Jhonas Enroth, after a shaky start, proved that he can be a viable option in goal if Miller needs rest later in the season. He’s already been sent back to Portland to continue getting playing time, but Enroth may get the call over Patrick Lalime later in the year when needed. One of the best things about the victory over Vancouver last night was that even after blowing a 2-goal lead in the third period, the Sabres didn’t fold, as they did in the playoffs against Boston last year under similar circumstances. They stormed out of the gate in the OT period and dominated play, and were rewarded with Myers’ winning goal. Vanek’s game has been great during this streak, and there’s no doubt this team needs him to be a factor if they are going to continue to climb in the standings. Derek Roy, whose scoring line for the playoffs last year was zeros across the board, seems determined to be a leader on the team this year. He has been the one consistent point producer for the team since the season began. The defense corps had its’ share of lapses early on, but the new players added on the blue line  are getting more comfortable with each other and improving also. Jordan Leopold in particular looks like a great addition. He’s solid defensively and active on the offensive end, and should really help the team’s power play as the season plays out. The Sabres may have dug themselves into too deep of a hole to repeat last season’s division title but fans shouldn’t see that as a disappointment. The goal should be to make sure they qualify for the playoffs, and develop a team with the toughness and confidence to make a run in those playoffs. Part of that development is pulling together as a team to win close games, and the Sabres are beginning to do that.

We’re into November now and the Buffalo Sabres still haven’t won a game on home ice. Not only are they winless at HSBC Arena, they have saved some of their most putrid performances for the home fans. All of that would have to change on Wednesday night. The team was getting its’ first chance to avenge the stunning first round playoff loss to Boston so the team would surely be motivated and focused, right? The fans would see them flying out of the gate and swarming all over the ice to re-establish themselves in their own rink against a division rival, right? With Ryan Miller injured and  Jhonas Enroth starting in goal, the team would certainly rally around the young kid and play hard to make his job easier, right? Have you had enough sarcasm yet?

The Sabres did none of the above. Instead, they played like they’ve been playing all year at home, flat and lazy, giving up 3 first period goals, 2 of them shorthanded, in a 5-2 loss. Enroth wasn’t very good and was pulled early for Patrick Lalime, but when a team gives up 2 goals when they have the man advantage, it’s not the goalie’s fault. It makes you wonder if Lindy Ruff is losing this team. They seem to have forgotten how much work they put into last year’s successful division-winning regular season. If you look up “rest on your laurels” in the encyclopedia, it should have a Sabres’ team picture next to it. The head coach eventually has to take responsibility when his team continually underachieves. Actually, if you look at it objectively, even though the Sabres won the division last year, Boston and Montreal surpassed them in the playoffs, Ottawa has always had their number, and Toronto is vastly improved, so it’s a real possibility that Buffalo is the worst team in the division this year. They are certainly playing like it.

In most sports, teams tend to take on the personality of their coach. In hockey, teams usually follow the lead of the team captain. When Michael Peca and Chris Drury were here, the Sabres were known as “the hardest working team in hockey”. Now their captain is Craig Rivet, who was recently benched for poor play, so it seems the team is following their captain’s example. In reality, the Sabres can’t be this bad, and the expectation should be that they will eventually right the ship and start climbing in the standings. If not, Ruff may be in serious trouble. Who knows, maybe the Sabres are doing it right this year, getting the kinks out early and hopefully peaking at playoff time when it really counts.

The Buffalo Sabres, coming off a relatively successful season in 2009-10, are set to open the new campaign on Friday night in Ottawa. Here is a position-by-position look at the team, including the front office and coach:

Front Office

General manager Darcy Regier is often a target of disgruntled fans for his perceived habit of sitting on his hands and not making any moves to improve the team. The team’s new policy of scouting players using video rather than sending scouts to personally look at them, along with their decision not to pay Tim Kennedy’s arbitration awarded salary, add more ammunition to Regier’s reputation of running a cheap operation. Ultimately, that “cheap” title belongs hanging on owner Tom Golisano rather than Regier, but there is no doubt that it rankles some fans that the Sabres seem obsessed with selling merchandise (see the new jerseys below), while never re-investing any of that money in the product on the ice. Still, it’s great that the team has moved beyond the old “mad cow disease  goathead” and “Buffaslug” logos and returned completely to the classy crossed swords logo of the past. Back to the product on the ice – Regier deserves credit for drafting players like Tyler Myers, Tyler Ennis and Nathan Gerbe, but also gets the blame for the failed trade for Raffi Torres last year at the trading deadline. Torres always had a reputation for coming up big in the playoffs, but he was a bad fit for this team.

The Sabres’ new 40th anniversary jerseys are reminiscent of the old AHL Buffalo Bisons’ “bottlecap” jerseys from the 1960s.

Coach 

Lindy Ruff  is by far the longest tenured head coach in the NHL, and his track record under dire circumstances, coaching an overachieving group to heights they weren’t expected to reach, is impressive. Since he took over for the popular Ted Nolan, he has been stripped of important leadership, first by the trade of captain Mike Peca and then again by the allowed defection of another captain, Chris Drury, and sparkplug Daniel Briere,  and both times brought the team back to respectability. His postseason record is impressive also, which is why last year’s sudden elimination by Boston in the opening round of the playoffs was a surprise. Ruff has said when discussing the prospects for this year’s team, winning the Stanley Cup should be the topic since that is his expectation for the team. That’s one of the reasons why I like Ruff – he sets the goals high and doesn’t accept excuses. That being said, this season the expectations on Ruff should be higher than usual. He has had a long leash so far in his career here, as many other coaches around the league who have won Stanley Cups have been fired while Ruff remains. If the Sabres don’t repeat as division champs this season it won’t be considered a negative, if the team uses the season to qualify for the playoffs in any of the 8 available spots, but by season’s end has a team more ready to compete and advance deep into the always gritty Stanley Cup playoffs.

Goaltender

Ryan Miller is clearly the face of this franchise, and one of the faces being hyped most overall by the NHL in attempting to sell their product. Miller is the reason the Sabres are highly regarded as a team, since the rest of their roster lacks any real luster. My opinion on Miller is that he is a technically sound netminder who makes few mistakes.  This season, however, he needs to be more than just a sound technician. He needs to raise his game to match the hype and truly become the league’s top goalie. If you’re really the best, you can’t give up the overtime goal to Sidney Crosby in the Olympics and you can’t be outplayed by Tuukka Rask in a playoff series. Miller is a tough competitor and hopefully he will take his game to the next level this year. Patrick Lalime is a good enough backup goalie to spell Miller at times during the season.  The Sabres operate following the principle that a team can win with an average roster and outstanding goaltending, but consider this fact – Montreal made a long playoff run, and Chicago won the Cup, riding the play of hot goaltenders. The Canadiens then traded the goalie, and the Black Hawks declined to re-sign theirs, so obviously the philosophy of these teams is different, and arguably more successful.

Goaltender Ryan Miller

Forwards

There isn’t one player who carries the load offensively for this team, so once again the Sabres have to rely on balanced scoring among their 3 or 4 lines. The roster of forwards includes players who are sound defensively, play a pretty good all-around game and each chip in with a goal here and there when needed. Thomas Vanek is their biggest goal-scoring threat, and in my opinion has earned the contract he got a few years ago. Tim Connolly, on the other hand, is another story. He has offensive skills but has underachieved his entire career here, and disappeared in the playoffs last year. Derek Roy and Jason Pominville are similar type players. On most teams they would be great role players, but on this team more is expected of them than that. In last year’s playoffs, neither of them delivered either. There’s plenty of physical presence among the forwards with Pat Kaleta, Paul Gaustad, Cody McCormick and Mike Grier. The expectation is that the young players who showed promise at the end of the year and in the playoffs – Tyler Ennis and Nathan Gerbe – will become big offensive contributors this season. Free agent Rob Niedermayer is an interesting addition. He is one of those players whose team wins wherever he goes. He’s been a journeyman player, but his teams have been to the Cup finals on 3 different occasions, and he won the Cup with Anaheim when he was teamed there with brother Scott. One thing that was overlooked in last year’s disappointing loss in the playoffs was the absense of Jochen Hecht due to an injury. He’s an important player on this team and will prove that as this season unfolds. One player who needs to step it up this year to save his pro career is Drew Stafford. The bottom line is that the Sabres are counting on a lot of that – potential growing into production – among their forward lines. We’ll see how well Ruff does in bringing out that potential.

Tyler Ennis

Defense

The Sabres did a pretty big overhaul of their defensive unit in the offseason, obviously looking to add more size and toughness. Gone are veterans Toni Lydman and Henrik Tallinder, both of whom were steady, if not spectacular, players on a team that has always stressed protecting the defensive zone above all else. Replacing them are Shaone Morrisonn, a free agent signing from Washington, and Jordan Leopold, who moves over from Pittsburgh. Morrisonn is a physical, stay-at-home defenseman who is solid in his own end, while Leopold is more of an offensive defenseman who should help spark a power play that was non-existent in last year’s playoffs. The jewel of this unit, obviously, is 2009-10 Rookie of the Year Tyler Myers. He played almost exclusively with Tallinder last season and will have to adjust to a new partner, but it’s expected Myers’ game will continue to progress and he should grow into one of the top defensemen in the NHL. Captain Craig Rivet and Steve Montador also will play regular roles, and the team needs to sort out which players among the remaining defensemen – Chris Butler, Andrej Sekera and Mike Weber – are going to step up and earn their way into the lineup on a regular basis.

Shaone Morrisonn

Once again, the Buffalo Sabres management sends a loud and clear signal to the players in their locker room – if you try hard and put yourself in a position to earn a raise, we will find a way, even if we have to be creative, to go the cheap route and not have to pay you what you’re worth. The case of Tim Kennedy’s arbitration hearing is classic Sabres management style. Put the almighty dollar ahead of everything else including winning, and then talk about how they’re determined to build a Stanley Cup champion team here. The problem is, whoever it is that actually runs this dysfunctional franchise, whether it’s GM Darcy Regier, Larry Quinn or absentee owner Tom Golisano, knows how to talk the talk but never walks the walk. So now the loyal Buffalo fans get cheated out of watching an up-and-coming homegrown local kid, whose dream it is to play for this team. Instead they get to watch the other local kid, the other Tim – Tim Connolly – float through another season collecting a huge paycheck for doing next to nothing. The difference is Regier acquired Connolly as the centerpiece player in the trade that sent captain Mike Peca out of town, so he has to continue to justify this terrible trade by not only keeping Connolly on the roster but giving him contract extensions that put him up near the top of the team’s payroll, even though he is invisible on the ice at crunch time. Lindy Ruff is going to have his hands full this season attempting to repeat the mild success the team had last year. There is no way that the handling of Kennedy’s situation is not going to negatively affect the team’s locker room. I personally hope he signs with a team within the Northeast Division so he can haunt the Sabres management multiple times during the season. Of course, the players will continue to spew the company line that they understand it’s a business and sometimes tough decisions are made, etc. so that the fans might continue to believe the lie that the Sabres are actually doing everything within their power to win a Cup. Regier has actually been quoted as saying that he plans on carrying a 22 man roster this season instead of the allowable 23 players. It is very depressing when your local pro sports team is being run by a dull, stodgy CPA instead of an actual general manager. So Sabres fans, get ready to see an ad campaign for the upcoming season featuring lots of pictures of Ryan Miller and Tyler Myers. Yes, Regier, for the first time in 10 years actually hit on a first round draft pick with Myers, so I’m sure all the ads trying to sell tickets will be saturated with images of him. Then keep your fingers crossed that Miller will begin to live up to the hype and start to earn his huge salary by finally being a difference-maker for his team, the way Dominik Hasek was.  While you’re watching Connolly, Derek Roy, Jason Pominville and the other supposed veteran “leaders” on this team go through the motions again, remember the effort that Kennedy played with while he was here, despite being one of the team’s smallest players. Then again, if the Sabres kept a high-energy player like Kennedy around they wouldn’t be built in the image of their GM – dull and lifeless.