Tyler and Tyler take on the world

Starting today is the World Juniors in Ottawa Canada. Playing for the hometown favorites are both of the Sabres first round picks from this draft, Tyler Myers and Tyler Ennis. Both of them play in the WHL, but this may be their first real chance to play together, and hopefully will be sign of things to come for when they move up to the Sabres organization.

Myers (who is ridiculously tall) and Ennis (who is relatively short) are both be playing for team Canada. As in most international hockey tournaments the Canadians are favoured to win.

The Buffalo Sabres play the Washington Capitals tonight in their first game since the Christmas break.

Merry Christmas

"...and I heard him exclaim as he pulled out of sight, Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good night!"

Again Buffalo losses in OT

Buffalo lost their second straight game in overtime in a 4-3 loss to the Pittsburgh Penguins. It was a rather slow game, which was odd, but the Sabres took an early 2-0 lead. While the Penguins tied it up, Buffalo took a 3-2 lead into the third.

However in the third period Buffalo took it first penalty of the game and immediatly gave up a goal. This ended their incredible streak of four on five play at 74 minutes and 48 seconds, and lost them the game. Buffalo did moderatly well on their own powerplay with a go ahead goal from MacArthur, but had many more chances then Pittsburgh.

In overtime the Sabres looked completely overwhelmed and at no time had control of the game. Crosby quickly scored to finish the game off. His stick may have been a bit high, but given how Buffalo was playing at that point, it was bound to happen anyhow.

Despite ending the game with eight shots, Vanek failed to score and ended the game minus three. Kotalik did much better, and besides his breakaway goal, also earned an assist. Malkin did not earn a goal in this game, but contributed with three assists. The best player in the game however was Alex Goligoski who had two goal and one assist for Pittsburgh.

The Buffalo Sabres are now done until Christmas. Their next game is on Boxing day against the Washington Capitals.

Official Three Stars

Alex Goligoski

Clarke MacArthur

Ales Koalik

My Three Stars

Alex Goligoski (two goals, one assist)

Ales Kotalik (one goal, one assist, plus two)

Sidney Crosby (game winner in overtime)

Killing off the penalties

It is almost as if taking a penalty is not a problem for the Sabres anymore. Buffalo has become so good at penalty killing that it almost isn't even an oppertuity for the other team any more. The only real concern for Buffalo shorthanded is that they don't take a second penalty and go down two players. Even in five on three situations Buffalo has been impressive, notably killing of a full two minutes of five on three to win a close game against Pittsuburgh a little over a week ago. Yet when you look at the actual stats the Sabres are doing even better then they seem to be.

The last time Buffalo allowed a five on four goal against was before Thanksgiving. If they can kill off their penalties tonight then they will have spanned the entire holiday season without allowing a five on four goal. The last time Buffalo gave up a five on four goal was 14 games ago when the Islanders' Mark Streit scored an empty netter with two seconds left in the game.

Going into tonights game Buffalo has not allowed a goal against in their last 74 minutes and six seconds of five on four play. Nor is this even a new trend as Buffalo was the second last team in the league to give up a powerplay goal of any kind to start the season. Also this streak has involved games against some very good powerplays teams in Pittsuburgh and Montreal.

Perhaps that is how the Sabres can win this year. The ability to not give up that one more goal is certainly a factor in the close games. Tonight the penalty kill will have a rough time as they have to go up against the combination of Crosby and Malkin. Still if they can hold out, it greatly increases Buffalo oppertunity to win.

An Overtime Loss to Montreal

The Buffalo Sabres played well for most of the game, but ended up losing 4-3 late into overtime. Buffalo scored a powerplay goal, and did ok killing off their own penalties but were scored on during both a five on three and a four on three opportunity by the Canadians.

Despite the loss Miller looked good for the second straight game in a row. Afinogenov was called up to take the place of the seriously injured Kaleta. Max spent most of his ice time with Peters and Ellis and didn't really have much of a chance to make a real difference in the game.

Buffalo was without Patrick Kaleta who is out with what appears to be a serious injury. In his place Afinogenov played, but was with the fourth line and had little help and little ice time.

As far as losses go this one was not as bad as it could have been, as at least the team earned a point for a tie. Of course last year the Sabres startd a ten game losing streak around this time last year, and the few ties in that didn't end up doing the team any good.

Buffalo once again has a quick turnaround as they play their third game in four days against Pittsburgh on Monday night.

Official Three Stars

Sergei Kostitsyn

Steve Begin

Ryan Miller

My Three Stars

Sergei Kostitsyn (two goals)

Alex Kovalev (one goal, one assist, eight shots)

Teppo Numminen (two assists, plus two)

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)

A loss to the Devils

The Sabres lost their game to the New Jersey Devils on Wednesday night. A loss that came with little explanation beyond not having Gerbe or Rivet ready to play. Still while decent, the Devils are not one of the league's top teams and Buffalo has no excuse for allowing five goals against.

The Sabres did ok for the most part in this game, but made a few too many big mistakes. Buffalo was also unable to capitalize on any of their powerplay chances.

Official Three Stars

David Clarkson

Patrik Elias

Patrick Kaleta

My Three Stars

David Clarkson (one goal, one assist)

Jamie Langenbrunner (two assists, four shots)

Drew Stafford (one goal, plus one in the loss)

Gerbe out as Kaleta returns

Little Sabre Nathan Gerbe is out for about two weeks with an upper body injury. He played very well during his time up in the NHL, and will be missed. It should be interesting to see if he is sent to the AHL once he gets healthy or if he stays up. Most likely there will be some other factors involved in that decision.

Patrick Kaleta on the other hand is returning from injury and will be back playing with the Sabres again in their next game on Wednesday night against the New Jersey Devils again.

The Blackhawks had an interesting game last night in a win over the Edmonton Oilers. Chicago won the game 9-2 in which the Blackhawks had 8 different players score and 15 of their 18 skaters had a point. In the beginning of the third period Ducan Keith scored a shorthanded goal to bring Chicago's lead to 8-1, at which point there was really little point to even playing the rest of the game.

Rivet out for a while

Defenseman Craig Rivet, the Sabres Captain will be out for a minimum of two weeks. This is to deal with a shoulder injury that has been bothering him. While he has been playing injured for a few games he has decided that he is better off sitting out until he can be fully healed.

This is probably the right decision. The fact that he was playing injured has been noticeable the past few games, and while he still did well, you could tell that he was not at 100%. Hopefully he can come back soon and be better than ever.

The downside of course is that the Sabres will have to play a number of games without him. Buffalo has done significantly better when they have Rivet in the lineup, so there is a chance that they may struggle a bit for the next few games.

A Big win over New Jersey

The Sabres got a big win over the New Jersey Devils Saturday night, as they won the game 4-2. Thomas Vanek scored two goals, including the 10,000 goal in franchise history.

Stafford also scored, the shot was very similar to the wide open net he had missed just the night before. This was set up when Nathan Gerbe shot on net, and the puck rebounded right to Stafford. This resulted in Gerbe's first point of his still short NHL career.

The game was also significant for being a comeback. Buffalo was down 2-1 midway through the game, but were able to score three straight to take a commanding lead.

The Devils goals came from Elias and Holik.

Official Three Stars

Thomas Vanek

Derek Roy

Patrik Elias

My Three Stars

Thomas Vanek (two goals, four shots)

Derek Roy (one goal, one assist)

Bobby Holik (one goal, six wins one loss on faceoffs)

A Disappointing Loss

The Sabres were the better team in this game, and should have found a way to win. Instead they repeatedly failed to hit the back of the net and ended up losing to the Toronto Maple Leafs 2-1.

The Sabres controlled most of the game, but missed many good chances. Stafford had a wide open net that he was unable to hit, Afinogenov had two great opportunities that he put straight into the goalie's pads, and Vanek was unable to even get the puck on net half of the time. Buffalo's lone goal came from Lydman who scored for the first time all season.

Pominville had six shots on net, and Gerbe, Roy, and Stafford all ended up as plus one on the night. Still they need more offense if they wanted to win. Both of Toronto's goals came on very nice shots, but given the chances that Buffalo had they have nobody to blame for this loss but themselves.

Official Three Stars

Vesa Toskala

Mikhail Grabovski

Lee Stempniak

My Three Stars

Lee Stempniak (one assist, plus two)

Toni Lydman (one goal, plus one in the loss)

Jeremy Williams (one goal, three shots)

Buffalo beats Tampa Bay again

While the Sabres just played Tampa Bay last week, they earned yet another win against the Lightning with a 4-2 win. As was seen last time, these teams do not appear to like each other as four fighting majors were given out to four different players in this game.

Buffalo excelled in the non-even strength areas of this game. They scored two of their goals on the powerplay. The Sabres were also able to kill off all of Tampa Bay's opportunities, and even scored an empty net shorthanded goal.

Vanek was on fire again this game, scoring two goals to bring his season total up to a lead leading 22 after 28 games. This puts him on pace for an impressive 64 goals on the year.

Official Three Stars

Thomas Vanek

Ryan Miller

Jason Pominville

My Three Stars

Thomas Vanek (two goals)

Jason Pominville (one goal, two assists)

Jochen Hecht (one assist, three shots, plus two)

Sabres play their best game of the year

Buffalo put on a very good display as they beat the Penguins 4-3 in Pittsburgh. The Penguins got a good amount of help from the refs and took an early 3-1 lead, but Buffalo was able to power back to win the game.

Buffalo's powerplay was mostly ineffective, but their penalty kill was phenomenal. They were down fairly often in this game, and the penguins were given 3:45 of five on three ice time. Still the Sabres only allowed one goal against during this time, and killed off all of Pittsburgh's four on three opportunities.

Buffalo then benefited from some sloppy goaltending to come back as Vanek won the game in the third period.

Gerbe played well in his second straight NHL game, but once again did not earn a point. He was however plus one, and has still not allowed any goals against while he was on the ice.

Official Three Stars

Derek Roy

Ruslan Fedotenko

Thomas Vanek

My Three Stars

Derek Roy (one goal, plus one, five shots, 69% on faceoffs)

Ruslan Fedotenko (two goals, plus two)

Evgeni Malkin (two assists, plus two, eight shots)

Sabres outscore Tampa Bay

The Buffalo Sabres have finally won a game after holding onto a 4-3 victory over the Tampa Bay Lightning. This was a high scoring game, and despite the many penalties, every goal was scored during five on five play.

Stafford scored the first goal of the game, off of an assist from Gaustad. St Louis tied it up just a few minutes later. The same thing happened in the second period, with Buffalo twice scoring, and Tampa Bay both times quickly making it up.

In the third period Derek Roy scored, and the Sabres were able to prevent the Lightning from coming back this time.

This was an aggressive game with three fights in it. I was unaware of any hostility between these teams, but there appeared to be some in this game. The final fight of the night was the most unlikely between Jochen Hecht and Vincent Lecavalier. This is the first time that either of them got into a fight this season, and only Hecht's third fight in his career.

This was Nathan Gerbe's first NHL game, and he looked good throughout. While he had no points on the night he was on the ice for the Sabres first goal, and their game winner in the third, while not being on the ice for any goals against. The one penalty that was called against him, was a bad call, so his game was largely mistake free. He showed aggression and tied Stafford for the most shots on net for any of the Sabres in this game. He also won the single faceoff that he took in this game.

Buffalo next plays on Monday against the Penguins.

Official Three Stars

Derek Roy

Drew Stafford

Martin St Louis

My Three Stars

Drew Stafford (one goal, two assists, plus three, four shots)

Derek Roy (one goal, one assist, plus two)

Martin St Louis (one goal, one assist, plus three)

Gerbe debuts

Nathan Gerbe will finally be playing in his first NHL game when the Sabres play against Tampa Bay tonight.

After being drafted in the fifth round in 2005, he played for three years at Boston College, a team that did very well during his tenure there including winning the NCAA championship last spring.

He is a small player, but very talented and can generate offense all by himself. Hopefully he is the spark that the Sabres need to get their game back on track. While he obviously can't do everything by himself, he should be able to help the team alot simply by being there. To make room for him on the roster Mark Mancari was sent back down to the Portland Pirates.

A lack of effort results in the lack of a win

The Sabres lost once again on Thursday night to the Florida Panthers. Buffalo was only able to score with the two man advantage, despite actually putting together a decent first period. Still when Gregory Campbell got the Panthers first goal midway through the second the whole team seemed to give up, which immediately lead to another Florida goal.

Lydman who almost had to sit out due to injury played hard in this game and so did Gaustad and Kotalik, but the Sabres need to put in an all around effort by everyone. Until that happens the Sabres are going to keep getting more of the same. Buffalo isn't actually a bad team, but unless they are willing to try a little harder nothing is going to come of it.

Craig Anderson had a good game in goal for Florida. After doing very little for most of his NHL career he is 6-1-3 this season for a rather weak Florida team. He had 45 saves in this game and only allowed a goal against when his team was down two players. He should be getting alot more starts for Florida in the near future.

Official Three Stars

Greg Campbell

Craig Anderson

Michael Frolik

My Three Stars

Craig Anderson (45 saves, 1GA)

Greg Campbell (one goal, one assist, plus two)

Ales Kotalik (one goal, six shots)

Kane versus Toews

The competition between Kane and Toews appears to be heating up in Chicago, as both are competing for a spot in the all star game.

Toews has also released a video of his own.

Buffalo plays against Florida tonight, who is one of the few teams doing worse then the Sabres. Hopefully they can turn this into a win.

The Situation in Dallas

The Dallas Stars have really been a wreck of a team so far this season. Dallas is dead last in the Western Conference with a 9-11-4 record. Things got even more interesting when Sean Avery was suspended this week for an inappropriate comment that he made to the media.

The Stars won their game without Avery, so perhaps he is a large part of the problem. Team management has since talked about how they intend to hold him accountable, and about how his actions are unacceptable to their organization. They should have thought about that before they signed him. They knew what they were getting, and now they are suddenly paying for their mistake. Avery signed for a four year deal, so the Stars are stuck with him for awhile.

The thing is the team doesn't even want him around anymore. One of the biggest critics that Avery has in his own locker room is goalie Marty Turco. Turco describes Avery's comments as "ignorant", and this isn't the first time that the goalie has condemned his teammates behavior. The Stars need to realize that Turco's contract is up in 18 months, and there is no reason to believe that he would elect to continue playing on a team with Avery who will still have two years left at that point. Perhaps Turco's problem this season is that he honestly does not care about the success of his team.

The Stars lack of leadership is what is killing them this season. The loss Stu Barnes is what is killing this team. Mike Modano is still there, but given how the team is doing you have to wonder why. About Avery Modano said that "out of what we expect out of each other" and that "It's gonna be dealt with". Still the team is a mess, and Avery will continue going on doing whatever he wants.

Even if the team released Avery it looks as if the Star's current season is already a loss. The bigger issue is that in the coming seasons it only looks as if things are going to get worse for Dallas in the coming seasons.

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)

Not keeping up with Montreal

The Sabres lost 3-2 to the Montreal Canadians. However, unlike other losses this season, this one didn't feel so bad, as the team was in it the whole game, and actually played well. As such losing a close game to a very good team is not that huge of a problem.

Vanek played very well, scoring both of Buffalo's goals in this game. Buffalo also did very well on the penalty kill, not allowing Montreal to score on any of their chances, including a full two minutes of five on three play. Lydman earned seven blocked shots for the second game in a row.

Still the Canadians capitalized on the few mistakes that Buffalo did make, and ended up winning the game. Tallinder and Numminen messed up royally in allowing Montreal's first goal. Then in giving up the game winner, Buffalo showed an inability to play four on four, and was solidly outplayed even before giving up the goal.

Montreal was going after Kaleta throughout this game for some reason. Peters sat out for the second straight game.

Official Three Stars

Andrei Kostitsyn

Thomas Vanek

Steve Begin

My Three Stars

Thomas Vanek (two goals)

Andrei Kostitsyn (one goal, one assist, plus two)

Maxim LaPierre (one assist, plus two, 58% on faceoffs)

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)

Finally a win (with thanks to Derek Roy)

The Sabres change to the slugless jerseys has appeared to work, as the team finally wins a game. Furthermore this 3-2 win came against the best team in the East after Buffalo failed to beat two of the conferences weaker teams.

Tallinder and Afinogenov both returned to the lineup for this game as Paetsch and a sick Paille both sat out. Both played well, including Tallinder who never should have really been out anyhow. Mancari, the newest Sabres, didn't have quite as good of a game without being on a line with Gaustad, but won for the first time since he got called up.

Roy played an excellent game, scoring the first two goals almost all by himself. The other Sabre goal was scored by Jochen Hecht shorthanded, and turned out to be the game winner.

The game had alot of hits with Kaleta named the third star after getting an astounding 8 hits, but still had less then Boston's Milan Lucic who had nine in the game.

Hopefully this game is not the exception, as Buffalo has two more games against good opponents in Pittsburgh and Montreal this weekend.

Official Three Stars

Derek Roy

Jason Pominville

Patrick Kaleta

My Three Stars

Derek Roy (two goals, plus two)

Matt Hunwick (one goal, plus one)

Jochen Hecht (shorthanded goal)

The new (old) look

The Sabres will be wearing their classic jerseys for the first time since the Ice Bowl in their game against the Bruins today. The team will be wearing the alternate jerseys for 16 regular season games this season including one on the road (in Toronto). Hopefully this is enough of a change up that the team actually starts playing well.

The Sabres desperately need something to change as they have now lost five straight games, and are no longer even in playoff position. Buffalo has gone a poor 3-6-1 in their last ten games, while tonight's opponent the Boston Bruins have posted an impressive 9-0-1 in their last ten. No word yet on who the Sabres will be playing in this game, but personally I like the idea of dressing seven defensemen.

Bringing up some more talent from the Portland Pirates would still be nice as at least we know they would try. Mancari so far has scored in half of his games, and has more shots on goal then anyone else on the Sabres since he got here. Looking at the AHL points leaders and there are only two rookies within the top twenty. It is time to give Gerbe and Kennedy a shot. Remember how helpful Pominville was when he came up midseason three years ago? That could happen again.

Lee Stempniak now in Toronto

West Seneca native Lee Stempniak has been traded from the St. Louis Blues to the Toronto Maple Leafs. Toronto gave up Carlo Colaiacovo and Alex Steen in the trade.

As a result Stempniak will now play against the Sabres far more often. Buffalo already played against him once this season when Buffalo beat the Blues. In the game Lee Stempniak did play well, earning himself a goal and an assist.

He played well for the Blues, even scoring an overtime game wining goal in his final game with the Blues. He is expected to receive a starting role for the Leafs, playing on the top line and the powerplay, and should see his stats improve as a result.

Also assuming that he doesn't get injured Stempniak will be in the unique position of playing versus the Sabres for seven games this season.

Yet another loss

The combination of Gaustad and Mancari was the only threat that the Sabres had in this entire game. The two did combine for Buffalo's first goal, and Mancari's first in the NHL, but without any help from the rest of the team it was not enough.

Lalime played ok in net, maybe should have had the first goal, but had no chance on the rest. Still Lalime has now slipped to a record of 1-3-1 against what are some of the weaker teams in the league. Roy scored a goal in the third, but was also directly responsible for leaving his guy wide open on the previous goal for the Islanders.

Buffalo needs to do their best to find a way to get Gerbe, Kennedy, and Darche on the team as soon as possible, because the current group of players no longer shows any interest in winning hockey games any more.

Official Three Stars

Joey MacDonald

Mark Mancari

Mark Streit

My Three Stars

Andy Hilbert (one goal, one assist, four shots)

Mark Mancari (one goal, seven shots)

Craig Rivet (one assist)

Shutout by Philadelphia

The Buffalo Sabres played better in this game, but once again were unable to win. However, while they finally turned their game around defensively they were unable to score at all. Statistically they looked good outshooting the Flyers 40-25, but most of these were low quality shots, or an absolute inability to score with the two man advantage.

Buffalo had two longish five on three opportunities, but were unable to score one both of them. Had they turned both of these chances into goals then they at least would have made it to overtime. At least the Sabres generated chances and had a good penalty kill.

The two goals that did not go into an empty net both were the result of careless mistakes by the defense. On the first goal both Numminen and Rivet should have gotten back and had Hartnell covered. The second goal was the result of a failed clearing attempt and Roy and Stafford refusing to play any defense.

Lindy Ruff mixed up the lines a lot for this game, putting Paetsch in on defense for Tallinder, and benching Afinogenov. Also by putting Kotalik on IR the team was able to bring up Mark Mancari from the AHL. Why Afinogenov was sat out instead of Peters, Roy and Stafford is beyond me. Why Roy keeps getting ice time is beyond me. That should instead go to players that are having a good season like Mair, Kaleta, and MacArthur.

Mancari played very well in his first NHL game of the season, and drew a large number of penalties and was tied for the highest number of shots in the game. Buffalo had a solid second line whenever Mancari and Gaustad were on the ice together.

Buffalo has another chance to stage their comeback tonight against the struggling Islanders.

Official Three Stars

Marty Biron

Jeff Carter

Mark Mancari

My Three Stars

Marty Biron (shutout, 40 saves)

Mark Mancari (five shots, three drawn penalties, no goals against)

Jeff Carter (two goals, plus two)

Shadows of last year

Technically the Sabres are off to an ok start. While they have good a pitiful 3-6-1 in their last ten games they are technically still in position to make the playoffs. In fact they are doing better then they were at this point last season. Now 18 games into the season the team is 9-6-3 with 21 points last year at this time they were 7-10-1 for only 15 points. Given how close the team was last season that difference should be enough to make the playoffs.

Still Buffalo has to do better then to win only half of their games. Too much they are appearing to be facing the same issues that they faced last year. These prolonged losing streaks are a problem, and really are not resulting in long winning streaks to counteract them. Too many games are also slipping by because the team is not putting forth the effort that it needs to. Even with a capable backup in place Miller has been sloppy at times, and while he isn't expected to win every game for the team, he has to avoid causing the team to lose.

Buffalo has two (relatively) weak opponents this weekend which starts a stretch of four home games. If ever there was a time to turn things around it would be now.

No effort in third straight game

I understand that Boston has a decent team this year, and that not every game can be won, but after three straight bad losses, something is just fundementally wrong with this team. After losing to the Bruins 7-4 the team has now allowed 18 goals against in their past three games for an average of six goals against per game. There is no way to win like that. In fact Buffalo has lost five of their last six games, allowing an average of 4.7 goals against per game.

When you score four goals in the first period you should not lose, especially if you have a two goal lead. Even as Boston caught up, Buffalo should have been able to continue to take advantage of the Bruin's mistakes, but instead they just gave up. As soon as Boston was up 5-4 most of the Sabres stopped skating hard despite there still being half of a game left to play.

Mair and Peters both hurt the team by taking some bad penalties. Over the last weekend they were two of our best guys, but now they are even hurting us. The refs really were trying to hurt the team as they called a number of rediculous trips that never should have been penalties. Also there was the diving call on Gaustad. Paul Gaustad does not take dives. He simply does not. If it was Roy I'd give it the benefit of the doubt, but to call that a dive on Gaustad is just insane.

Miller looked really bad this game, and finished the first period with a .571 save percentage. Lalime on the other hand looked good, alowing nothing past him in over 18 minutes of play. He should have gotten in the game much sooner, as some of the goals that Miller had allowed against in this game were really bad, and completly his fault.

The Hecht, Pominville Vanek line actually played well in this game and finished with a combined for three goals, four assists, and a plus two rating. Rivet also had a good game plus two with an assist for a team that was all around bad. One line can not carry a team though, and the others need to play hard as well.

Chara had a good game for Boston, putting in two powerplay goals from the blueline. The Sabres should know better than to let his blasts get through. Marc Savard also had a good game getting four assists, including both of Chara's goals and getting himself a goal as well.

Official Three Stars

Marc Savard

Zdeno Chara

David Krejci

My Three Stars

Chuck Kobasew (two goals, plus three)

Thomas Vanek (two goals, one assist)

Marc Savard (one goal, three assists)

Updates from Portland

The Portland Pirates are leading the AHL with an impressive 11-1-1 record. The team is being lead by Mark Mancari who has 11 goals and 13 assists in just 13 games. The Pirates are undefeated within the month of November, and Mancari has at least one goal in every game so far this month.

The rest of the team isn't doing bad either. Nathan Gerbe has 12 goals and 7 assists. Tim Kennedy has four goals and 15 assists. Mathieu Darche has six goals and six assists with almost all of his points coming within the past six games.

Whenever the Sabres need to recall a player from Portland, they will get someone with plenty of talent who can contribute to the team. They will not be bringing up Matt Ellis again, who after two games in Portland, has zero points and a negative two plus minus rating for a team that won both of it's games.

The Sabres may need to bring up a player soon, as Kotalik is out with a Hamstring issue, and Tim Connolly is also injured once again. Connolly's injury has been described as a "body musculosketal injury", which more or less confirms what we have always known in that he is all around broken and about to completely fall apart at a seconds notice. He is also being listed as week-to-week which indicates that they don't expect his general soreness/concussion/bruised chest/broken vertebra/stretched ligiment/sore groin to get better anytime soon.

Mair and Peters, Buffalo's plus minus leaders

Over the past two games the Buffalo Sabres have played very poorly, getting outscored 11-3. Over these two games only two players avoided going negative in their plus/minus rating, and they are Adam Mair and Andrew Peters.

Peters only has a combined 10:41 of ice time over the two games, and they contributes somewhat to this statistic, but it doesn't change the fact that he is still doing better then the rest of the team. Perhaps the fact that he doesn't have such offensive expectations helps, but he also has four shots on net over the past two games, the same number of shots that the minus five rated Derek Roy has. Over the past two games at least Peters has been one of Buffalo's best players.

Patrick Kaleta also has a neutral rating against the Penguins, but only had six minutes of even strength ice time, and did not play the night before.

Adam Mair is the lone player to be in the positive over the past two games. He is only plus one with slightly less ice time then most players on the team, but that is the best that the Sabres can offer. He earned the assist for the one goal he was on the ice for, and wasn't on the ice for any goals against, not even any powerplay goals.

Last season the big disappointment that Vanek had was not the fact that his goal scoring slipped a little, but rather his plus minus dropped over 50 points from being the league leader to being in the negative. Vanek (and the whole team), now have to get back to playing two way hockey.