Sabres Throttle Thrashers
By Tim Redinger
It usually happens once a year. The Buffalo Sabres always run the score up on an unwilling opponent en route to a score that ways heavily in favor for the boys in blue and gold. It just so happened that it happened to the Atlanta Thrashers, tonight – not ending their playoff hopes but pushing them closer to extinction.
Despite a rocky second period, the Buffalo Sabres skated to an 8-2 victory tonight, and it helped Ryan Miller attain the thirty victory point for the sixth season in a row, and as Harry put it at the end of the game, puts him in some pretty elite company.
The Sabres tonight showed exactly how dangerous they can be in a game where they put as close to a 60 minute effort together. Surprisingly though, as close as Atlanta is to the playoff picture, they did not bring the intensity necessary to win games this late in the season.
The Sabres play an evening game tomorrow at home against the Nashville Predators, who are also fighting for their respective playoff lives. They currently lead the Detroit Red Wings 2-1, with the Sabres being well rested before tonights game, here’s to hoping that the Detroit Red Wings can bring this game to a tie and take it to an extended shootout, delaying the time that the Predators can fly into Buffalo. Given that Buffalo does not have to travel at all, they can be relatively still rested for the back to back game. A situation that has been less than favorable for them this season.
The Sabres have not had the chance to net that many goals since giving a good old fashion thumping to the Edmonton Oilers last January, a 10-2 contest. I would anticipate that Jhonas Enroth would get the start tomorrow against the Preds – as the Buffalo Sabres should be getting Ryan Miller on a playoff schedule where he would be playing every other day. Despite being cramped into the bottom of the conference standings with several teams vying for the two or three playoff spots, with games in hand on most teams it is not imperative that the Buffalo Sabres burn Ryan Miller out in the final stretch of the season.
Its also nice to see that they let Jhonas Enroth upgrade his goalie pads to the Blue and Gold model, despite the fact that having the red, white, and black pads paid a tad bit of tribute to the middle years of the organization.
While the Philadelphia Flyers seem a daunting foe for the playoffs (as it appears that is who we are going to end up playing) the Sabres have a relatively good history against the Flyers in the playoffs, and have been able to skate with the Flyers late this season.
Many fans in Buffalo have the next Carolina game marked on their calender for good reason, and again I reiterate that I hope that it is a meaningless game as far as the playoffs are concerned – but I do have a small wager going with our writer over at Cardiac Cane. If the ‘Canes are victorious I will be posting pictures of myself with my hair dyed red (I am a natural blonde so there is a very good chance that this comes out pink instead of red, but I am a man of my word). If the Sabres are able to weather the storm and pick up two points in that contest, our Canes writer will be forced into parading into several Carolina bars wearing blue and gold gear. Either way, the pictures will be posted/linked here, so stay tuned for that game.