Remembering Afinogenov

Maxim Afinogenov has played for the Buffalo Sabres for 9 seasons, but will not be returning for next year. Well there is little demand for him to come back for another season, he played well during his time here and will be remembered fondly.

His jersey was always among one of the best selling on the team (and often in the league). He is a very good skater and stick handler, but never was quite able to finish and often wasted some very good opportunities that he created. But at the very least he was an exciting player to watch.

Now as a free agent it is surprising that nobody has signed him yet. While he has been a bit off the past two seasons, and would be expected to take a bit of a pay cut, there is no reason that Afinogenov should not be playing in the NHL again next year.

While his disagreements with Coach Lindy Ruff is reason enough for Buffalo not to take him back for one more year, he would be a very good third line player for some other team in the league. Perhaps Afinogenov has been offered more money to play in the KHL in his native Russia, and wants NHL teams to match that offer, which is not likely to happen.

For more on Afinogenov and his departure from the Buffalo Sabres see Top Shelf and The Willful Caboose.

With the exception of Drew Stafford who is still unsigned as a restricted free agent, the Sabres roster is pretty much set for next season, which is now only a month away.

Back to winning

The Sabres continue to hang on by a thread with a 5-4 overtime victory over the Washington Capitals. Given the free five on threes that the Capitals were given, Buffalo clearly deserved to win this game, and finally did in overtime.

Alexander Ovechkin and Alexander Semin combined for 18 shots on goal, but Washington did not have the goaltending to back it up. Meanwhile Pominville finally had a decent game going plus two in the game, getting an assist, and the game winner in OT. MacArthur got a lucky goal, and Rivet and Afinogenov both put in good performances as well. Lydman and Spacek were the only two Sabres to play poorly in this game.

Official Three Stars

Alex Ovechkin

Jaroslav Spacek

Sergei Federov

My Three Stars

Maxim Afinogenov (one goal, plus two, four shots)

Tim Connolly (three assists, plus three)

Alex Ovechkin (one goal, two assists, nine shots)

The Sabres actually win

After a few long weeks of losses, the Sabres actually came out and won a game against a team that they are chasing in the standings. Furthermore they did so coming back from a 3-1 deficit, and got goals from MacArthur, Afinogenov, and Pominville.

Jason Pominville has been a bit of a disappointment all season long but finally got things together in the third period for this game, getting a goal and two assists. Buffalo has needed him and MacArthur to pick up their games this season, and they both came through against the Panthers. Now Jochen Hecht just needs to get on board.

Max Afinogenov has been doing the same routine lately, where he makes dumb mistakes early on, and then plays full out for the rest of the game in an attempt to make up for them. If he can play like that without the early mistakes he may even be worth keeping for next season. Afinogenov was eventually rewarded for his work with an empty net goal.

Buffalo is still in trouble playoff wise unless they win out, but this game at least proves that they can play if they want to.

Official Three Stars

Jason Pominville

Brett McLean

Patrick Kaleta

My Three Stars

Jason Pominville (one goal, two assists, five shots)

Tim Connolly (one goal, one assist, plus three)

Brett McLean (one goal, one assist, plus two)

Missing a Point

The Buffalo Sabres played one of three periods well against the Atlanta Thrashers to get one point in a shootout loss. After the refs called a lopsided first period, Buffalo came back to control the second period and take a 3-1 lead. However Buffalo then gave up a shorthanded goal, and then allowed a last second goal to tie the game up after being unable to clear the zone for a full minute.

Pominville was all around bad in this game. He was hardly ever moving his feet, and passed it right to the other team to allow the game tying goal. Afinogenov on the contrary actually had a really good game. After taking a dumb penalty due to laziness in the beginning of the game, he was flying through the rest of the night, and finished plus two with a goal. Paille who also scored a goal, had a real good game, and was defensively responsible throughout the night.

Lalime played ok. None of the goal were real bad, and he had no help in the shootout. With four shots, Buffalo was unable to score a single time. Having Kotalik would have helped, as would at least seeing Stafford try the backhand himself. Still credit Kari Lehtonen for saving all of the shots, and for keeping the outshot Thrashers in this game.

Official Three Stars

Kari Lehtonen

Maxim Afinogenov

Derek Roy

My Three Stars

Daniel Paille (one goal, plus two)

Maxim Afinogenov (one goal, plus two, three shots)

Derek Roy (one goal, one assist, five shots)

A post trade deadline win

On this side of the trade deadline the Sabres are looking like a much better team. Buffalo didn't change all that much through trades, but looked really good in this game. While the Sabres have struggled to score in front of Lalime this season they got five goals Wednesday night against Montreal.

Lalime for his part also did really good especially in the first period when he saved all 18 shots taken on him. He came within a minute of earning the shutout before allowing a single goal against with a little over a minute to go. A trick Miller has pulled many times before.

Newcomer Tellqvist was the backup goalie for this game. Former Maple Leaf Dominic Moore was unable to get to the arena in time to play.

Afinogenov who is surprising still a Sabre played in the game for the first time in months. He was actually pretty good registering and assist, and two shots on net. Vanek was also back and played with a lower cage in addition to his visor.

Paul Gaustad and Derek Roy both had two goal games for Buffalo, each of them getting one goal on the powerplay. Gaustad's second goal then came shorthanded and was a real nice play. Spacek had the other real nice play in this game dancing around the defender, before blasting his shot into the net. He also had the primary assist on Roy's first goal.

Buffalo did really good on special teams in this game, scoring on two of four powerplays. Then on the penalty kill the Sabres killed off all six of Montreal's chances and even score a shorthanded goal.

Official Three Stars

Patrick Lalime

Paul Gaustad

Derek Roy

My Three Stars

Patrick Lalime (shutout, 38 saves)

Paul Gaustad (two goals, plus one, three shots)

Derek Roy (two goals, plus one, three shots)

The Afinogenov question

With the trade deadline quickly approaching the Sabres have one player that stands ahead of the rest as one likely to go, and that is Maxim Afinogenov.

Unlike Kotalik, Connolly, and Tallinder there is obviously no interest in bringing back Afinogenov next season, and it doesn't look all that likely that he will play again this season either.

While technically still on the injured reserve list, the whole world knows that he is ready to go, but is more convenient to keep on the sidelines, now that he is behind Andrew Peters and half of the Portland Pirates on the depth chart.

So while the reasons that Buffalo wants to get rid of him are obvious, there is little interest that other teams are likely to have in him.

Any teams not making the playoffs will want nothing to do with Afinogenov as he will be a free agent this summer, and will only give them questionable quality in return. Teams towards the top of their conference also have no interest in Afinogenov as they would not want to break up their roster for a player of questionable talent.

That only leaves the teams in the middle, and despite how things appear I think it is more than likely that one of them will be interested in Max Afinogenov. For one, he can be had at a very cheap price. The Sabres have shown no interest in him, and will probably put him on waivers to the AHL if he can't be traded this weak, as a result Buffalo would be happy to get anything in return for him, so he could be had for very little, and a low round draft pick would be seen as a good trade for Buffalo.

The teams that will want Max will be those on the edge of making the playoffs, and realizing that they need to change something to turn things around. Montreal and the Rangers are two such teams that while currently in a playoff spot, are in freefall, and are desperate to change something to turn things around. The Canadians are unlikely to take a risk with Afinogenov, but the Rangers would be interested in him. New York has been struggling as of late, and needs to shake up the lineup in one way or another, Afinogenov does have the potential to be decent in the right system, and the Rangers have one where teamwork is already not a main priority. Furthermore Max is both cheaper and more reliable then the Rangers other option in Sean Avery.

Another team in the East who may be interested are the Ottawa Senators who appear to still think that they can make a run at the playoffs this season. Basic math indicates that they are out, but their GM is an idiot and who has indicated that the Senators look to be buyers at the trade deadline this year.

Out west the market for Afinogenov looks smaller as border teams such as the Ducks, Predators and Wild are all unlikely to be willing to take the risk. The most interested team in the west would probably be the Columbus Blue Jackets who may be looking for some extra fire power as they try to hold on and make the playoffs for the first time in the franchise's history.

Gaustad and Stafford both score two

Following their five game loosing streak the Sabres have won two straight games against some of the toughest teams in the East. Players such as Afinogenov and Stafford who have struggled lately both played well in this game helping Buffalo reverse its fortunes. Max Afinogenov played his best game of the year, giving Stafford an easy tip in for the Buffalo's first goal of the game. He created a number of other opportunities and ended the game with three shots, no giveaways and one takeaway.

Stafford who also has been struggling lately had a great game, with two goals and an assist. These were goals numbers three and four on the year for Stafford, but the primary assist that he contributed was more impressive as he set up the Goose for a powerplay goal.

After starting the season injured Gaustad scored his first two goals of the season in this game, including the game winner late in the third. Gaustad spent most of the night on the top line with Hecht and Pominville, but was back with Mancari for his powerplay goal.

Buffalo did some things that they haven't done lately, mainly coming back in the third period to win the game. They never really gave up at any point in the game despite a bad turnover by Spacek that resulted in a goal by Crosby, and a goal by MacArthur midway through the third that didn't count.

Besides not counting MacArthur's goal, the refs were really bad throughout this game, with many boarding calls against Buffalo on what should have been legal hits, while some blatant trips by the Penguins were not called.

Still this managed not to hurt the Sabres too badly as Pittsburgh's powerplay turned out to be horrible. Crosby did get two goals off of assists by Malkin in this game, but both came at even strength. Buffalo was able to kill off all eight of their penalties including a lengthy five on three. This was lead by Toni Lydman who blocked an impressive seven shots in this game.

The Sabres finally sat out Peters for this game. Paetsch sat out this game for the defense, but may come back as it was very clear the Rivet was playing injured. The Sabres once again have to play a very good team on Saturday, when they travel to Montreal to play the Canadians. Too bad they don't plan on continuing to wear the classic jerseys.

Official Three Stars

Paul Gaustad

Drew Stafford

Sidney Crosby

My Three Stars

Drew Stafford (two goals, one assist, five shots)

Paul Gaustad (two goals)

Toni Lydman (seven blocked shots, six hits)

No comeback against Ottawa

The Sabres failed in their comeback against Ottawa losing the game 5-2 for their first regulation loss of the season.

Buffalo outplayed the Senators for most of the first period, but both Alex Auld and Patrick Lalime did a good job of keeping the pucks out of their nets. Ottawa eventually scored one on a powerplay with less then two minutes to go in the period.

In the second period the Sabres began to fall apart allowing Heatley to score a powerplay goal, just 19 seconds in. Ottawa also got two goals from Spezza in the second as well. Buffalo went down 5-0 early in the third, before finally scoring on the powerplay when MacArthur tipped in a nice shot by Afinogenov. Teppo Numminen then scored another goal in the game's final minute to make the score 5-2.

Despite the lopsided score Buffalo didn't actually play too poorly in this game. While their powerplay didn't score until late, they had been generating chances all along. Also the refs didn't help much calling a number of penalties against the Sabres without any real good reason at all, especially a very poor one on Afinogenov just before the end of the first.

Patrick Lalime looked very shaky in net after letting in the second goal. He had played very well in the first period, but was giving up too many rebounds for the rest of the game, and should have covered some of the ones that did end up going in. Hopefully this is just a bit of a fluke game for him and not the beginning of a downward spiral.

Mike Weber looked good in his first game with Buffalo this season and had three blocked shots. Afinogenov meanwhile still hasn't scored a goal this year, but did have the assist on both of the goals that Buffalo did score.

Official Three Stars

Jason Spezza

Dany Heatley

Antoine Vermette

My Three Stars

Alex Auld (25 saves)

Jason Spezza (two goals)

Dany Heatley (one goal, one assist, plus two)

Questions for the comming season

The Sabres play their first pre-season game of the year tonight, but still face alot of questions coming into this season. The answers to these questions will determine if Buffalo can win this year or not.

Can Vanek play defense? - two years ago Vanek lead the league with a plus 47 rating. Last year, despite only a slight drop in goal scoring he was minus five. He needs to go back to playing two ways if the Sabres are going to have a chance this year.

Can Connolly stay healthy? - Tim Connolly has only played in 50 games the past two seasons combined. He is a good player, but is off the ice far too often to be considered the cornerstone of this team.

Will Peters use up a roster spot? - Even when he is on the roster Peters only rarely gets more than five minutes of playing time a game. Given Buffalo's depth on offense that is a spot that would be better filled by Kaleta or Gerbe.

Is Sekera for real? - Andrej Sekera has been penciled in as a top six defenseman this season off of only 37 games played last season. In a similar position Paetsch disappointed last year. Granted Mike Weber may be capable of taking this spot as well.

Will Max show up big in his contract year? - there has been some talk about trading Afinogenov this off season, but just three seasons ago he lead the team in points. Last year was a disappointment for him, but does the possibility of him turning his game around still exist?

Can Lalime get enough starts to give Miller some rest? - It was clear that the team did not trust their backup goalie last season, forcing them to play Miller every game. Given how he did last year in Chicago Lalime should be trusted to take a few games.

The 2009-2010 roster

While it is way too early to talk about the season that comes after the next one, there is also no hockey news to talk about in the middle of August. Assuming that Michael Ryan isn't going to be with Buffalo this coming season, the Sabres 2008-2009 roster is pretty well set. The year after the Sabres will not have contracts with twelve of their players, however things are not as bad as that statistic makes them sound.

Maxim Afinogenov
Afinogenov lead the team in points just three seasons ago, but seems to have lost his place in Buffalo. While a good player, he no longer appears to fit the Buffalo system and will probably not be resigned. The Sabres will most likely continue to try and trade him throughout this season.

Tim Connolly
Another player who looked real good the first year out of the lockout. However he has been unable to stay healthy so it is unlikely that he will be offered a large contract. If he stays with Buffalo or not is really dependent upon if any other team is willing to take a risk to sign him to a large deal.

Ales Kotalik
A good player who's resigning should be more important to alot more Buffalo fans. While it would not be the end of the world if he doesn't come back, he has been a solid player, and would be likely to sign a multi-year deal for around $4 million a year. Expect this deal to happen shortly before the start of free agency next summer if it does.

Jason Pominville
This is the contract that has been getting all of the attention, however he will still be a restricted free agent, so the Sabres have their options open. I feel that his shot at being captain is dependent on him signing a long term deal before the season starts. Because Pominville has some constraints on him as a restricted free agent, I expect that this deal will happen, but not until half way through November or so. Worst case scenario is that we go to arbitration, or that another team signs him for alot and we have the option of matching or taking a number of high draft picks.

Drew Stafford
Stafford is also a restricted free agent, but his value is highly dependent upon how he does in the coming season. Last year was a bit of a disappointment for Stafford and if that happens again it is likely to be reflected in the offer that he gets from Buffalo. Regardless of the amount odds are he will be resigned next summer.

Andrew Peters
Will be a restricted free agent. We could resign him for practically nothing, but lets hope we don't and let Kaleta or Gerbe move up into this roster spot.

Patrick Kaleta
Kaleta's contract will be up, but as a low paid restricted free agent who is unheard of outside of the Buffalo area, there is almost no chance of him signing elsewhere. Expect him to get a raise next summer dependent on how many games he plays with Buffalo.

Jaroslav Spacek
After one bad season and one decent season in Buffalo Spacek is a real question. I expect that the Sabres will have a small amount of interest in keeping him, but that it is likely that he will sign elsewhere next summer. Well I think he could be resigned for a somewhat reasonable amount I expect that Sekera and Weber will be ready to fill in for him by then.

Teppo Numminen
Currently only on a one year contract, Teppo's future is really dependent on this coming season. There is always the possibility of retirement, and I think this is mostly going to be based on how healthy he can stay. If he does want to come back, expect another one year deal.

Andrej Sekera
As a restricted free agent who is likely to play less then 40 games in the NHL this season, there should be no problem resigning him next summer.

Mike Funk
As a restricted free agent who will probably not get a single NHL appearance this season he is likely to be resigned. However being behind Sekera, Weber, and Myers I'm not sure that it really matters.

Pens move on and Afinogenov wins the worlds

The Pittsburgh Penguins moved on to the NHL finals with a decisive 6-0 victory over the Flyers. The win only proved what everyone already knew in that game four was just an exception. I feel a bit bad for former Sabre Biron, but in all honesty nobody was going to be able to stop the Penguins from winning the East this season.

Current Sabre Maxim Afinogenov's Russian team beat Derek Roy's Canadians for the world championships. The Canadians had been favored to win the tournament from the beginning, but Russia was known to have a solid program as well helped out heavily by the Capitals' Ovechkin, Semin and Fedorov. The Americans had been eliminated after losing to Finland earlier in the elimination round.

The Stanly Cup finals take place whenever either Dallas or Detroit decides to win their round. The Sabres foremost concern needs to be getting Gaustad under a long term contract.

Hanging on through the shootout

The Sabres made it through one more game, and are still mathematically in this. With the teams shootout win over Toronto, the Sabres could still finish as high as seventh.

The Maple Leafs were a team that Buffalo was supposed to beat, and while they did, it was ugly. Miller played very poorly and let in two easy goals. On the games second goal, he was a good five feet out of position, and couldn't make the save despite the puck directly hitting his glove. Lets put Gaustad in net, at least we know that he would try.

Still with good play from Roy and Sekera and a very lucky goal by Bernier the Sabre managed to tie the game in regulation, and move onto a shootout. Bernier has been very quiet since his debut, but managed to stuff the puck across the line on a very broken play that had to be reviewed. Sekera continued to impress as Vanek's game tying goal was a deflection of the defensemen's shot.

The shootout went a full six rounds, but Buffalo looked pretty good. Kotalik finally went back to the move that worked so well for him last season, and scored. If he had been doing that all year, we might not have needed this win so badly. Although he didn't score Pominville had a pretty good shot, as did Vanek (for a change). Roy got robbed on his shot, and Afinogenov's was a very pretty goal. On the other side of the ice to his credit Miller played pretty well. After letting in the first shot, he stayed back a bit more, and saved the next five straight.

The Sabres next must win game is Thursday at Montreal, but they need some help Wednesday night from the Devils and the Penguins first. The Capitals won last night, which really doesn't help either.

Official Three Stars

Derek Roy

Anton Stralman

Ryan Miller

My Three Stars

Maxim Afinogenov (one assist, plus shootout goal)

Tomas Kaberle (one goal, plus two in the loss)

Derek Roy (one goal, 60% on faceoffs)

An actual good shootout

The Buffalo Sabres won their third shootout of the season, to get a 4-3 win over Ottawa. Had the Sabres performed in more shootouts like this, they wouldn't be out of the playoffs.

Most of the players who did poorly last game came through in game two, including Afinogenov, and Hecht who both scored goals. Max was looking good in this game and really turned it on. His goal was a tremendous effort, and he worked hard all game long. In fact all three of Buffalo's goal scores lead the team in shots, and all had five or more, including Paul Gaustad who had the Sabres final goal and six shots on the night.

The Sabres took a number of dumb penalties including twice getting called for too many men. Fortunately they managed to kill all of them off. The Sabres powerplay looked ok in this game as well, and was where Hecht picked up his goal.

It was a very physical game, and the refs let things get out of hand. Neil got away with a number of cheap shots throughout the night, and didn't get anything called on him unless Mair got sent to the penalty box as well. Kaleta was physical as always, and Kotalik and Gaustad lead the team in hits with four and five. The goose got his goal off of some very physical play that found him alone with the puck.

Come shootout the Sabres did very well. First they didn't allow Vanek to take a shot (although Kotalik is apparently no longer any good). Second Miller was responsible and came very very close to saving all three of the shots against him. Pominville has shown his skill on the shootout recently, and had a shot that was impossible to save. Roy more or less got lucky, but that was all the Sabres needed, besides the Senators had gotten lucky on most of their goals in the game anyhow.

How exactly did Gerber get into the three stars? He got bailed out by the post far more than his glove, and let in a weak goal to Roy in the shootout. The Sabres have a quick turnaround and play the Canadians Friday night.

Official Three Stars

Mike Fisher

Derek Roy

Martin Gerber

My Three Stars

Paul Gaustad (one goal, lead both teams in hits and shots)

Mike Fisher (two goals, plus two in the loss)

Derek Roy (two assists, shootout goal)

Max is back

The Buffalo Sabres beat the Philadelphia Flyers 5-2 and Maxim Afinogenov showed up for this game and played great. Afinogenov set himself up for a breakaway that resulted in a nice goal, set up Derek Roy for a breakaway that resulted in a goal, and then managed to squeeze a shot through for another goal that Biron looked to have pretty well covered.

At one point the Sabres were looking as if they were going to blow their lead like they did the last time they played the Flyers, but instead came away with three goals early in the third period to take the win.

While neither team scored (or even looked good) with the man advantage the game saw a high amount of four on four play, and three goals scored in those situations (two for Buffalo). On Roy's goal the Flyers have claimed the Sabres had five on the ice but I'm not quite buying that, and think they probably should have thought about covering Roy anyhow.

The game saw a few line changes as Sekera was brought up for Kalinin and Peters for Paille. I still think Paille should be playing ahead of Peters, but perhaps they felt bad benching Peters for two games after he finally scores a goal, or else assumed there would be some more fights against Flyers. Speaking of fights, with a bit of a brawl behind Buffalo's net Marty Biron drifted out to center ice to consider taking part. As much as I like Biron, I don't want to see him fighting against the Sabres. Against other teams I'm all for it, but he is supposed to like Buffalo.

The big news though is that Tallinder got himself injured. This could be really bad. He (along with the also injured Hecht) is key to the Sabres game, and their best defenceman. While I wasn't worried playing the Capitals before, that was based on the idea that Tallinder and Lydman could double shift to shut down Ovechkin and the rest of the Sabres could outplay the rest of the Capitals. Suddenly this next game isn't looking so good. Also suddenly the absence of Brian Campbell is starting to hurt. Fortunetly Sekera looked good last game.

Back to Campbell, he had an awesome spin-o-rama goal for San Jose the other night. I've never seen him score off of that before, but then again the goalie probably should have had that. Of course that's Montreal's fault for trading away Huet.

A few more thoughts on the game. Vanek was the only Sabre to have a minus plus/minus, but didn't play to poorly. Kaleta had zero hits, but probably didn't deserve the ten minute game misconduct he got, and finished the game with only 3 min of ice time. Peters ended with even less ice time and no fights to show for it. Bernier looked good, picking up two assists while picking up two shots and two hits as well. He also looked good in the corners as a Gaustad like scraper.

Official Three Stars

Maxim Afinogenov

Jason Pominville

Steve Bernier

My Three Stars

Maxim Afinogenov (two goals, one assist, plus three)

Jason Pominville (two goals)

Henrik Tallinder (two assists, possibly should have had credit for Pominville's first goal, and in only 7 min of ice time)

Injury Update

The Buffalo Sabres have had some large injury problems lately, but are looking to get healthier. Neither Miller nor Stafford are hurt as badly as once thought, and Afinogenov should finally be returning.

After Ryan Miller was unable to play the third period in Buffalo's overtime loss to the Thrashers things were not looking good. The Sabres absolutely need Miller if they want to make the playoffs. The good news is that Miller shouldn't even be missing a game, and is expected to start against the Bruins on Tuesday. Miller has played great in the last few games, getting a shutout in four of the last five periods that he has played.

Stafford's ankle injury isn't as bad as it looked, and while he won't be immediately returning to the line up, he shouldn't be out that long. Maxim Afinogenov hasn't been in a game in a long time, but should finally be ready to get going once again come Tuesday.

The addition of Afinogenov to the line up puts Buffalo in violation of the leagues roster rules, and would require the Sabres to either send Kaleta back to Rochester or to place Connolly on injured reserve. Connolly is no longer expected to have to sit out the entire season, but it is still expected to be a while until his hip problem is expected to be resolved enough to allow him to continue to play.

Still no word on who the Sabres captain of the month is, although my money would still be on Pominville.

Sabres outlast the Islanders

The Buffalo Sabres beat the New York Islanders 2-1 in a very close game. Derek Roy and Max Afinogenov scored for the Sabres while Brendan Witt scored for the for the Islanders.

Buffalo goalie Ryan Miller had an excellent game stopping 42 of 43 shots. He really carried the win for his team as the Sabres only managed 17 shots on the goal on the other side.

The Sabres came into the game healthier than ever, but loss both Derek Roy and Tim Connolly to injury by the time the game was over. No word yet on how serious the injuries are. If they are unable to play expect Ryan and MacArthur to take their place...

Hecht played well as ever, and actually had a goal discredited for kicking it into the net... next two games are against Marty Biron and the Fliers on Friday and Saturday...

Official Three Stars

Ryan Miller

Max Afinogenov

Brandon Witt

My Three Stars

Ryan Miller (97.7 save percentage)

Max Afinogenov (game winning goal)

Derek Roy (great game before getting hurt)

Roy and Connolly lead the Sabres to Victory

Late in the first period Derek Roy picked up a puck and scored an easy shorthanded goal, which is always a good way to guarantee yourself the win. Buffalo would eventually win the game 5-3, showing that they can consistantly beat the worst teams in the league.

Connolly took a puck to the face in the second, but came back to get the game winner on a rebound in the third period. The Sabres play at home on Saturday night against Patrick Kane and the Chicago Blackhawks...

Official Three Stars

Tim Connolly

Max Afinogenov

Nicklas Backstrom

My Three Stars

Derek Roy (short handed goal)

Jason Pominville (plus two, two points)

Max Afinogenov (another goal)

Eight is (more than) enough

The Buffalo Sabres embarrassed the Carolina Hurricanes, beating them 8-1 in a game that wasn't even close. Buffalo ran away with this one, only allowing a late power play goal with less than two minutes left in the game.

Kotalik had two goals in the game including the first one at just 1:32 into the first. The Sabres have now scored the first goal of the game in seven straight games after failing to do so the 13 games preceding that.

Mair got a goal in his first game back since the fifth of November. It was a nice goal right of the faceoff where he was feed the puck from Gaustad to pick up the easy goal.

Practically everyone on the Sabres had a good game. Afinogenov played great and was on the ice for half of the Sabres goals for the night. Max had an awesome shot go in, as did many other of the Sabres in this blow out win.

Miller played well, but seems completely unable to get a shutout. No matter how well he plays he has a tendency to blow his shutout bids on easy shots late in the third. Miller has played much better for a few seasons now then his shutout count would seem to indicate.

Official Three Stars

Maxim Afinogenov

Ales Kotalik

Ryan Miller

My Three Stars

Derek Roy (plus three points, one goal, and one assist)

Maxim Afinogenov (on ice for four goals including one of his own)

Jaroslav Spacek (plus three, three points)

Ales Kotalik (two goals, this was a four star game)

Sabres win on the powerplay

The Buffalo Sabres scored on two of their three powerplay chances to beat Montreal 4-2. The first goal came on a powerplay goal by Derek Roy, from Afinogenov and Pominville, who all had suffered on the powerplay previously. The game winning goal came from Vanek who had also been doing poorly on with the man advantage. Pominville again got the assist, along with Paetsch. Buffalo's even strength goal came from Tim Connolly who has been playing great for the team since returning from injury earlier this week.

Official Three Stars

Ryan Miller

Daniel Paille

Tomas Plekanec

My Three Stars

Jason Pominville (two assists on the powerplay)

Tim Connolly (Buffalo's only even strength goal)

Maxim Afinogenov (on ice for three of Buffalo's goals, none for Montreal)

Tim Connolly where are you?

The Sabres desperately need Tim Connolly back on the power play. Timmy is the fifth most productive player in the NHL on the powerplay this season, while no other Sabres make the leagues top 20. Fortunately it looks as if Connolly might be ready to go tonight against Ottawa.

And while Buffalo had no one else in the top 20, the team was all over the bottom twenty. Vanek, Afinogenov, Pominville, and Roy all ended up in the bottom twenty in the league. Ex-Sabre Zubrus also was at the bottom of the list.

I'm thinking the ideal set up for powerplays would be Connolly, MacArthur, and Stafford up front, with Campbell and Paetsch on the blue line...