Sabres hit a new low

Things are at an all time bad for Buffalo this season, because nothing can really get worse than being shutout by the Islanders. If there was an easy win to come out of this stretch this game was it, and the Sabres absolutely blew the opportunity.

Seriously, has anyone even heard of Yann Danis before? Let alone that he had the Islanders playing in front of him with one player out of the game suspended, another out to be traded, and the rest of them Islanders. Yet that seemed to be enough to stop Buffalo completely.

Coming into this game the Sabres have struggled to score in front of Lalime, but at least they had not yet been shutout in any of those.

Lalime actually played well, saving 32 of 34 shots, and putting Buffalo in a position to win the game. At the very least three points against the third worst defense in the league shouldn't be too much to ask for.

The only hope is that Vanek should be ready to go play for the next Sabres game on Wednesday night. However he will have to do so all by himself. For this being the last game before the trade deadline, every player has given themselves great reason to get sent away.

Official Three Stars

Sean Bergenheim

Yann Danis

Jack Hillen

My Three Stars

Yann Danis (shutout, 31 saves)

Sean Bergenheim (two goals, plus two, six shots)

Jack Hillen (one assist, plus two, four shots)

Beating up on the Leafs

The Sabres team has had wild swings between success and failure recently, and solidly destroyed the Toronto Maple Leafs 5-0 Wednesday night. Thomas Vanek lead the way with a natural hat-trick while Tim Connolly scored his fifth goal in the past five games, and Drew Stafford scored another to continue his recent success.

Ryan Miller, who did not play last game against the Ducks, got his second straight shutout, after facing only 16 shots. Toronto has rookie Justin Pogge in net, but the loss was more of a result of the poor showing by those in front of him.

Buffalo has been short on defensemen for some time now. They got some help with the return of Numminen in this game, but Rivet still looks as if he is playing hurt, and did limp off to the dressing room at one point last game, before returning and playing for around 18 minutes in the game. At a few times Buffalo used five offensive players on the powerplay, and this was probably so that they could give their depleted defense as much rest as possible.

Still over the past six games Buffalo has dominated in this 5-0 win over Toronto, a 2-0 win over Phoenix and a 10-2 win over Edmonton, but then struggled in losses to Tampa Bay, Calgary, and Anaheim. It's hard to tell if all of these injuries on defense are actually hurting the team or not.

In an odd occurrence I agree with the three stars selection for this game. Buffalo next play the Canadians at home on Friday.

Official Three Stars

Thomas Vanek

Ryan Miller

Drew Stafford

My Three Stars

Thomas Vanek (three goals, one assist, six shots)

Ryan Miller (shutout, 16 saves)

Drew Stafford (one goal, one assist, plus three)

Slow and Steady wins the game

Buffalo earned a boring but solid 2-0 win over the Phoenix Coyotes Saturday night. The Sabres were in control for most of the night, but were unable to really pull away at any point.

Kaleta returned to the line up for this game after being gone for some time, while Adam Mair once again sat out with a minor injury. Injuries are still a serious concern on the defense, with things getting worse and Spacek not playing past the first period. We are honestly running out of defensemen and would be greatly benefited from getting one or two back. Pominville may be on defense for next game.

Tim Connolly scored again in this game, making this his third straight game with a goal. He has played real well as of late. The other goal came from Paille, who hasn't been as reliable in the past month, but who hopefully gets things going again.

Official Three Stars

Ryan Miller

Derek Roy

Tim Connolly

My Three Stars

Ryan Miller (shutout, 28 saves)

Tim Connolly (one goal, four shots)

Daniel Paille (one goal)

As Easy Win over Los Angeles

The Sabres got what may have been their easiest win of the year in a 5-0 victory over the Los Angeles Kings. The Sabres scored goal after goal on the luckiest and most random bounces. Meanwhile the Kings were shutout by good play from both the defense, and Ryan Miller.

Matt Ellis and Chris Butler were brought up from Portland for this game, and both played well. Afinogenov and Paetsch were sat out to make room for them, while Gaustad is out short term with an injury. This was Butler's first NHL game, and got an assist when the rebound from one of his shots bounced right to Adam Mair.

Bringing up Ellis was an odd choice as Kennedy or Mancari could have been called up instead. Still Ellis played well, and scored his first goal of the season.

The Sabres are back on the road as they play against Montreal Saturday night.

Official Three Stars

Ryan Miller

Derek Roy

Adam Mair

My Three Stars

Ryan Miller (shutout, 40 saves)

Derek Roy (one goal, two assists)

Chris Butler (one assist, plus two in NHL debut)

Falling apart again (this time in Nashville)

The Sabres have once again lost their touch and have returned to playing subpar hockey. They lost 2-0 to the Nashville Predators. It was a very boring game through the first two periods as neither team had any good chances, and neither team had any speed.

In the third period the predators scored twice, first by Jason Arnott and then by former Sabre JP Dumont. Buffalo really turned things on for the final five minutes of the game, but it was two late by that point and they were shutout by Pekka Rinne.

Despite nobody ever hearing of Rinne, who only appeared in three NHL games before this season and had zero starts last year, he played very well. So far he is 4-0 on the season, picking up his first shutout in this game over the Sabres.

Buffalo mixed up their lines a bit for this game, as Kotalik returned to the lineup. Rivet and Kaleta were both out with injuries, while Mancari and Peters played ahead of Afinogenov. Connolly was placed on injured reserve to get the team under it's roster limit.

Official Three Stars

JP Dumont

Pekka Rinne

Jason Arnott

My Three Stars

Pekka Rinne (shutout, 30 saves)

JP Dumont (one goal, one assist, plus two)

Jason Arnott (one assist, plus two)

Sabres turn things around against Washington

After two really bad losses, the Sabre came out firing in their last game to win 5-0 over the Washington Capitals.

Thomas Vanek scored his first goal of the game just 72 seconds in.After receiving the pass on the blueline on a partial breakaway, he single handedly danced around Mike Green who is one of the better defensemen in the league. In the second period Vanek scored another goal on a backhand with only three seconds remaining. These two goals bring Vanek back up to his goal per game pace, as he leads the league with eleven goals in eleven games.

Buffalo outplayed the Capitals all around in this game, and got a very pretty goal midway through the third from Paille and Kaleta. The Capitals were without Ovechkin, but given how the game went it would not have made a difference.

Tim Connolly was back from the dead, and posted 19 minutes of injury free ice time, and also earned an assist. Peters sat out to make room for him on the roster.

Miller earned a shutout for the first time this season, even as the Sabres got slightly outshot in this game. Buffalo also looked very poor on the powerplay only converting one of their many chances.

Official Three Stars

Ryan Miller

Thomas Vanek

Jason Pominville

My Three Stars

Thomas Vanek (two goals, plus two)

Ryan Miller (shutout, 29 saves)

Jason Pominville (one goal, one assist)

Sabres continue to beat on the Southeast

The Buffalo Sabres continued their winning with their third straight victory in a 1-0 victory over the Florida Panthers. Ryan Miller earned the shutout in net for the Sabres, and despite the game's low score, it was a high paced back and forth type of game.

After a scoreless first period, Thomas Vanek scored early in the second with the man advantage for the game's only goal. The Sabres powerplay and penalty kill looked rather decent in this game, and eventually did determine the outcome. The Sabres powerplay scored on one of it's three chances, and that included one in the final minutes of the game when Buffalo was just more worried about holding the lead. Then the Sabres only had to go shorthanded twice, and killed off both of those opportunities for the Panthers.

The downside to the game is that Drew Stafford got injured, and looks to be out for some time. Hopefully Connolly can get better quick enough to take his place. The Sabres next game is on Friday against Atlanta, which the team against which Miller got his first shutout of the year, and the Sabres last beat 10-1. That said Buffalo lost it's other matchup against this team, and can not afford any mistakes, especially in games that they are supposed to win.

Official Three Stars

Ryan Miller

Tomas Vokoun

Thomas Vanek

My Three Stars

Ryan Miller (allowed zero goals to get by him)

Thomas Vanek (games only goal, nine shots on net)

Jochen Hecht (lead the team in ice time, had five shots, and 62% of faceoffs)