Ryan Miller continues to dazzle, stopping all 34 shots he faced and picking up his sixth career shutout last night against Montreal. 
Miller had to be sharp early for Buffalo before Cody Hodgson officially tossed the monkey from his back, picking up two goals in the victory. Miller stopped 15 shots in the first, including an early breakaway by David Desharnais and 12 more in the third that included a terrific right pad reaction stop. It was a key performance in a key game for Miller.
Buffalo temporarily ties Washington for eighth in the East but still trail due to games played and the ROW tiebreaker. Both teams need to face each other and the Sabres are still in need of taking every point available over the next two weeks.
Team scoring will remain the key to the rest of the playoff run. While the Ennis, Foligno, Stafford (Regulators) have fueled the last few wins, tonight’s win was keyed by Hodgson, Vanek and Tropp’s line. What this may indicate is that the Sabres’ depth scoring is beginning to round out. Getting scoring from more than one line (a season-long issue) has helped push the Sabres close to the playoffs and will get them in if it continues.
- Travis Turnbull only played six minutes but picked up three hits and won three faceoffs. He didn’t have enough ice time to truly make an impact, but if Pat Kaleta broke his hand/thumb/wrist I would expect to see Turnbull play a bit more over the next few games.
- Alex Sulzer is going to make reinserting Mike Weber difficult. He is playing such a steady game that there is little reason to plug Weber back in. Granted, I didn’t hate what Weber had done since his rough night against Colorado, he just hasn’t been as good as Sulzer.
- Hey, Ville Leino had another assist. He also missed a yawning net yet again. I’m okay with that, he has been almost worth the money since January. I love that Ruff is skating him on a line with top six talent, it is exactly where he needs to play.
- Mike Gilbert had a very interesting comment regarding the First Niagara Center. If I may paraphrase, he basically said it is a much better building than it is being described. He used the two buildings in Florida as a barometer. I still think FNC can be a lot better in terms of volume and there is still ground to gain on some of the best buildings, but it is good to know that there is progress being made.
- The Sabres only had nine hits on the night. Not sure if that is completely inaccurate or not, but I would have to think they probably made contact with more than nine bodies for the game. Who knows, just spitballing.
- Everyone can finally leave Cody Hodgson alone. He had a pair of assists on Monday, one fluky goal and one beautiful play last night. Hodgson played some great hockey once he arrived from Vancouver and probably faltered due to the travel, extra ice time and lack of practice. Hodgson has managed to settle in (including the latter portion of that slump) and now suddenly looks like the superstar most fans thought he was supposed to be right away.
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