Bad Week for Buffalo

Well this past week has been terrible for Buffalo Sports. Last Saturday night the Sabres lost in a shoot out to the Colorado Avalanche. The Sabres also suffered their first and second loss in regulation in consecutive games to rival Ottawa Senators and the Tampa Bay Lightening. They gave up 5 goals in each of these games and only scored 2. Sandwiched between these losses, on Sunday the Bills loss their first division game of the season to the Miami Dolphins.

Starting with the Sabres the shoot out loss is to be expected at times. The more shoot outs your in the more film on your shooters and goal tenders. They still got a point out of it and played a good game.

In the game against Ottawa it was a joint effort loss. Even the refs chipped in with a few unbelievably bad calls. You have to be used to that when you play Canadian teams but come on, some of those calls were a joke. A few examples would be the unsportsmanlike conduct call on Maxim Afinogenov. I can only guess that this was called because he couldn't freeze in motion or he hit the ice to hard when he got tackled by the Senator player, who didn't get a penalty. You could also look at the laughable tripping call on Mike Weber. This one I couldn't begin to understand because it was a clean body check. Just because a star player ends up laying on the ice doesn't mean the other guy did something wrong. Regardless of bad calls the Sabres didn't deserve to win the game. They didn't play good in any area of the game. The Defense seemed confused at times and the Offense couldn't sustain any pressure in the Ottawa Zone. The power play struggled as did the penalty kill.

Moving on to last nights defeat. Their were a lot of mistakes in the game by all the players but one seemed to be especially off his game. Despite 2 spectacular saves, Ryan Miller let in 2-3 very soft goals. Being that the Sabres will play another 70+ games I am really not worried. As long as the last 2 performances become the exception not the expected the Sabres will be fine.

Now for the Bills. The fact that they lost wasn't as bad as the way they did. Trent Edwards finally had a let-down game and it was bad. Buffalo had 4 turnovers and a safety. They also squandered a 2nd half lead. The game was not pretty. The worst part about all of this is that it was to a divisional opponent. Buffalo lost its first place status to the Patriots. Buffalo faces 2 more divisional opponents in the next 2 weeks and need both wins. Divisional games are worth much more then other games. Not only are division records used as tie breakers but in a very competitive league where anyone can make the playoffs you don't want to leave your playoff hopes up to a wild card spot. You want to win your division and have at least 1 home game in the playoffs. The only way you can do this is by winning the important divisional games. It is time for the Bills to get back on track this week and stay undefeated at home against the New York Jets.


Worth Mentioning: Sabres forward Paul "The Goose" Gaustad returned to the line up Thursday night. This was his first appearance of the year due to injury. It was awesome to see him out there and he played a very aggressive game. The more games he plays the more dangerous he will get. If he stays healthy and works his way back into one of the top lines watch for him to go on a point streak in about 5 games or so.