The 4th game of the home stand promises to be another doozy.
Two goalies who have never faced each other’s teams. That means preparation and game film better have been done and watched carefully. The Buffaslugs are wounded right now, despite the 10 – 1 shellacking they gave an unsuspecting Atlanta team. They quickly returned to their slump in the very next game against a quixotic Leafs team and their road trip is pretty much off to a craptastic start.
Now don’t let that 10 game losing slide fool you. These boys have some pretty good firepower. Campbell and Pomminville are no joke. Add into the mix the formerly very hot Thomas Vanek and this is a recipe that needs very careful handling (think unstable TNT with Roy as the fuse). In the game against the Thrashed: “Reunited with wingers Drew Stafford and Thomas Vanek, Roy sparked the Sabres to life. His line accounted for 13 points (7+5) and a combined plus-10 rating.” just ouch!
http://sabres.nhl.com/team/app/?service=page&page=NewsPage&articleid=350511
They play very similar style to ours. Hard work, speed and no superstars. I have always been secretly fond of the streaky Kotalik (he gives his all every game) but I have no illusions that he could suddnely find his game and take it to us. These Buffalonians have hung in tight against power houses like Ottawa and New Jersey. Ryan Miller may seem to be struggling right now but there is every expectation that he will find the will to survive this road trip starting with Coyote fodder.
Bryz! will most likely be back in net and with Rhino back in action the lines will stabilize a bit. I liked seeing the Big Kids line back together, which puts Kapi back with Rhino and York and that also works fine for me. I am not quite sure where the recently called up BillT will fit. Hopefully between 2 mates who can yell “HEADS UP!” before the boy gets plowed again. I also hope Bill has been workin on his forechecking skills, otherwise he’ll find himself short on minutes and back in San Antonio faster than I care to speculate on. But the kid can find the back of the net and that may be all we need to tide us over until Vbrat gets healthy again.
We won’t be running 7 Dmen for the next 12 or so days as Jonesy has been sent to SA for conditioning stint (Matty hasn’t been getting much ice time since Yandle moved in on his shift) the prolonged look-see at Yandle has told me a couple of things… the kid still gets nervous when pressed and often stutters when making decisions under pressure and he has hella offensive instincts though… he’s a keeper for sure and is really close to snagging a permanent spot.
As always we better start hard and fast, I don’t think this Sabres team holds up well under pressure. The odds are in our favor all the way across the board. But we better beware the old saying ‘on any given day’ lest we find ourselves on the short end of the score again.