Sabres heating up

by Steve

Who would have thought just 3 games ago I'd be saying the Sabres are starting to come on, but they are starting to come on. Despite a stretch last week where the Sabres only scored 3 goals in 3 games and lost embarrassingly to the Blackhawks, the Sabres are now 7-2 in their last 9 games. True they're still teetering on the edge, as far as the playoffs go, they're 2 points out of 9th place and still 6 points out of 6th.

Much of the Sabres solid play the past two weeks can be directly attributed to one time punching bag Ryan :Millsie" Millers. He is 7-1 in his last 8 starts and has given up two goals or less in six of those games. Dude is finally bringing his play inline with his compensation.

Another spark plug for a team that has struggled to put the rubber in the cage is the playoff of oft injured weakling Tim "tin can" Connolly. True he only has 3 goals since returning to action Jan 9th but the dude is a force out there. He makes the other team account for him at all times, and is (barring an unforeseen injury) really starting to get his hockey legs back which could mean bad things for opposing defenses.

And not to over state one game, but the shootout thriller in Dallas last Thursday may be the one game everyone looks back at when this team is getting ready for the playoffs come April. They were down three nil in the second of two road games back to back. They got crushed by Soupy, Kane and co. and were looking primed to mail it in. They fought back and eventually won the game in a shootout that went 5 shooters deep.

Other than some injuries on the blue line the only other real concern at this point is the play of Vanek and Pominville. They have 1 goal combined in their last six games and haven't really done much. Pominville is in a much worse slump than Tom but neither is contributing lately.


Oh and as an aside it looks like three upcoming west coast games won't be televised locally. PHO EDM and CAL won't be on MSG. sssssssssshiat