It is ironic to me that Sunday morning The Buffalo News ran a column by Bucky Gleason praising the run the Sabres have went on since January 1 as they have turned their playoff fortunes around. After a mind-boggling OTL to the Nashville Predators Jerry Sullivan is up to his usual tricks.
I read Sullivan’s column, he isn’t all that far off base. The Sabres were bad in the important moments of the game today. Sequences like that make you question if this roster is capable of making a playoff run. I have wondered that for the entire season. Last year I thought 5-7 would be a fitting seed for a Sabres team that was robbed of the postseason in 08-09 by Ryan Miller’s high ankle sprain (Scott Gomez is a d-bag). But, Miller channeled Dominik Hasek last year and helped to vault this team to a division title. Being overworked helped lead to a first round defeat at the hands of the Bruins.
This season the Sabres have fallen into the pace that I have pegged them for in the last few seasons. A finish that could put them anywhere from fifth place to tenth, depending on the point spread.
My problem is that Jerry Sullivan, who seems to only show up to Sabres games when it is convenient for him (being award-winning and all) always makes sure to shoot down the entire organization, if possible. Today he only targeted the players and he wasn’t off base. They played solid trap hockey for 18 minutes before Andrej Sekera reverted to his Eurotrash form and helped give the Preds some life. In no time at all Miller got beat with a questionable deflected bouncer that tied it up. When the dust settled the Sabres had gifted away one point.It was a classic example of a team assuming a finish and not driving to complete the task that they had so easily in hand.
I will say it again, Sullivan makes good points in his piece. This roster is simply not built to win in the playoffs. They probably aren’t well suited to make a run for the postseason when trailing by so many points. There are too many soft players and not enough guys who will punch you in the mouth and kick you while you’re down to win The Cup on this team. When management brings in those types of guys, losses like today won’t happen.
I want to try to stay on point here. The fact of the matter is that Sullivan attempts to demolish whatever faith is left in the people following this team. Maybe he is depressed because he works in a city that doesn’t really care about basketball and could give a rats ass about MLB. Still, rather than writing a critical, yet subjective column. He aimed to bring everyone to his miserable level. I guess you get that way when you’re overweight and root for Mizzou.
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