Sabres drop fifth straight

The Sabres lost their fifth straight game of the season in a 5-3 loss to the Ottawa Senators. The Sabres are now 1-3 on the season against Ottawa, and desperately need to turn their season around.

The Senators got out to a sizable lead as they looked to be the better team in the first. Following the third Ottawa goal, Ruff pulled Miller despite the fact that he was playing relatively well, and couldn't really be blamed for any of the goals against him. However the magical goalie change had the intended effect, and the Sabres got a goal within the next minute, and then came back to tie the game midway through the third. However the Sabres then gave up two soft goals to Heatley and Alfredson.

Stafford was back after being out for a few games and really played hard. I get the feeling that he was rather disappointed about having to have sat out of the Ice Bowl and was looking to make up for it. He took the place of Afinogenov who sat out of the game with a groin injury.

Lindy Ruff moved around the lines for this game, and the player that seemed to benefit the most from this was Ryan, whose greatest asset is his speed. He was able to use it to his advantage much better on a line with Stafford and Gaustad than he was on the fourth line.

Official Three Stars

Dany Heatley

Thomas Vanek

Andrej Meszaros

My Three Stars

Andrej Meszaros (first two points of the game)

Daniel Alfredson (two points, plus two)

Drew Stafford (only Sabres plus one)