Best Price: $49.95Buffalo Sabres
The Buffalo Sabres have to be feeling good about their performance halfway into their 14-day road trip. Even after a heartbreaking loss in Anaheim, in which they came back from a 4-0 deficit to tie the game and make it close. The Sabres are 2-1-1 on their first four games of the trip. They hold a commanding lead over the Ottawa Senators in the Northeast division of the Eastern Conference with a record of 30-12-6 and a total of 66 points. The Sabres narrowly missed the playoffs the last two seasons, but with a 10-point lead atop the Northeast Division, they are in excellent position to end that drought.
Their success can be attributed to players such as Jason Pominville, Tim Connolly, and Ryan Miller. Jason Pominville, whose consistency and endurance was seen as he played in his 300th game in a row. Pominville reached the mark Thursday night when he took the ice against the Los Angeles Kings in the Staples Center. He has dressed for every game the Sabres have played since April 8, 2006, a stretch of 3½ seasons.
As for Connolly, he has been red hot lately, extending his point streak to 13 games. During that 13 game stretch, Connolly has 6 goals and 15 assists for 21 points, and is a 15. Not only has Connolly hit a career benchmark with a 13-game point streak, Tuesday night also marked 48 games on the season for the center, tying the most he’s ever played in a single season.
Ryan Miller, has won 27 games and has a save percentage of .936, has been incredible this season. Miller is on the U.S. Olympic Team and is headed for Vancouver, Canada for the Winter Olympics. They have been especially sharp lately, going 7-0-3 since Christmas and 17-4-4 since Thanksgiving with Miller leading the way. The likely starter for the United States at the Vancouver Olympics ranks second in the NHL with a career-best 2.01 goals-against average.
Some credit for the success of the Sabres has to go to their General Manager, Darcy Regier, who is in his 13th year as GM of the Sabres. Under his leadership, the Sabres have become one of the most competitive and exciting young teams in professional hockey today. Regier and head coach Lindy Ruff are currently the longest GM/Coach combination in pro sports. Together they have had more success than any pair in Sabres franchise history.
t’s unusual for GM’s, team presidents, and owners to get a lot of positive attention when things go well. It’s the nature of the sports talk universe. Players get the credit for winning and management gets the blame for losing. Carefully and methodically, Regier has put together a pretty darned good hockey team that is battling for the Eastern Conference lead and has folks wondering how far into May or June this season could last.
Sabres fans are hoping for a Stanley Cup appearance, as the last year that the team reached the Stanley Cup Finals was in 1999. This year the team is in good position to be a force to be reckoned with in the post-season.
