Feb

8

The easy answer to tonight? A hockey game requires much more than 40 minutes of work condensed into about 5 minutes. Spacek scored with about 4 seconds remaining in the first period: Exciting and a good way to break a scoreless tie. It seemed like deja vu in the second period, when Vanek scored at 19:22. Perhaps this was an exercise to work on those last minute goals that Buffalo was notorious for last year? Not quite the positive team-building experience it might have been! Sure enough, the Boston Bruins scored their own pair of goals in the third period. To be honest, I was very impressed with how the Sabres began the game. The physical play was there, the offense was able to figure out how to get to Auld, and our own defense looked decent. It seemed to be the formula for a win, yet the team fell apart during the third period. There is no better way to describe what happened than to say that they lost their way and all the energy built up during the first two periods.

 Oh my. Any game that goes into overtime gets me worried, simply because they often result in shootouts. Minus the miraculous shootout win on Wednesday, one-on-one attempts seem to spell disaster. The one thing I should mention, however, is how good Ryan Miller is, and always has been. He has wavered here and there, but this team would be muddling about at the very bottom of the league without him. Fortunately, one point is much better than nothing. Did anyone realistically expect much more from a shootout?! Nope, sorry.

Where will the Sabres end up this year? No one really knows. However, the Sabres will next play on Sunday, February 10th, against the Florida Panthers (25-26-5). This is a team also hovering around the same area in the Eastern Conference. This game is quite important in the standings, for many reasons. Buffalo also needs a good win: They have their signature confidence every now and then, but nothing will give them that extra boost more than a notch in the win column. Go Sabres!


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