Holding onto win over the Blues

The Sabres beat the St Louis Blues 4-3, but this game should not have ended up nearly as close. Buffalo went up 3-0 early in the first period, and kept on dominating the play throughout the game. However they were unable to score many more. Vanek had some many opportunities on breakaways, but was unable to find the back of the net on any of them. Kotalik also had a large number of chances, and was unable to capitalize on any of them.

Tim Connolly looked good in this game, scoring the second goal, and getting the primary assist on the third. Connolly did appear to get injured after taking a hit to the head. The game winning goal was scored by Henrik Tallinder, who picked up his first goal of the season. The game's first goal went to Adam Mair, who had a fabulous shot that the goalie really had no chance on.

Peters played in this game, but only saw 1:26 of ice time, all within the first half of the game and used it to get into two fights. Peters actually did decent in his fights, but did not contribute anything to the actual hockey portion of the game. Kaleta and Stafford sat out this game instead. Paille who sat out last game was also back, and had a good night earning an assist and a team leading plus two. Teppo Numminen lead the Sabres in ice time, which given his age comes as a bit of a surprise.

Statistically the best players in the game were all for St. Louis. David Perron lead all players in points with three off of a goal and two assists. He was also a plus three, as was Patrik Berglund who earned a goal and an assist. West Seneca native Lee Stempinak also played well earning a goal and an assist in the loss.

The game had very few penalties besides the fighting majors, and saw very little time that was not even strength. Neither team scored on any of their few powerplays.

Official Three Stars

Henrik Tallinder

David Perron

Daniel Paille

My Three Stars

David Perron (one goal, two assists, plus three)

Tim Connolly (one goal, one assist)

Patrik Berglund (one goal, one assist, plus two)

Faces on the St. Louis Blues and removing the slug

Buffalo faces the St. Louis Blues tonight in a rare game against the Western conference. The Blues have not been too good this year starting with a 5-7-1 record. Still the team has a number of players to watch including Paul Kariya and Andy McDonald, as well as rookie of the year contender TJ Oshie, former Sabre Jay McKee, and the Buffalo born Lee Stempniak.

Still hopefully the Sabres are able to use this as a rebound game, to set up what should be two more easy wins this weekend. No indication on who will be scratched for the very healthy Sabres, but there are rumors that Peters might be in the lineup for unknown reasons.

More evidence that the Sabres will no longer have slugs on their jerseys in the near future. After putting the old logo on the ice, introducing a classic third jersey, and using the old logo for the World Juniors announcement this shouldn't be too much of a surprise. Still Larry Quinn has recently announced that "the team is talking about returning to the traditional jerseys and logo permanently". Given the current pacing I would be astounded if this process takes any longer than the next offseason.