Sabres Apologist: Dude, we scored 19 goals in our last 5 games!
Sabres Antagonist: Dude, we beat down some bad hockey teams!
Somewhere in the middle of that conversation lies the real Buffalo Sabres. I am leaning towards they had a nice string of offensive games, but they were against teams that aren’t even in the top eight in the East. But that’s the thing I am battling with, it’s way too early to asses which teams are real contenders in the NHL. So instead of looking at the competition, lets look at the Sabres themselves. Has the team really grown within the last year? Ryan Miller sure as hell has. Henrik Tallinder has rebounded nicely, and Mike Grier has been better than advertised. After that, It’s kind of the same ole.
I have been beating the drum how the Sabres biggest problem going forward is scoring. I just don’t feel comfortable having our top line being one of Lindy Ruff’s juggling acts of Vanek-Roy and whoever. How far can a hockey team go with a bunch of guys who can score between 15-25 goals a year? There just isn’t anyone in the offensive zone that makes the opposition scared.
The good thing about the Sabres is you know what you get with them on the other end of the ice, which isn’t much if your the opposition. I said it before, the Sabres remind me of the Buffalo teams from the late 90’s. Those teams were known for having streaky scoring, good defense, and elite goaltending. Miller is destroying the competition. He is the single biggest reason the Sabres are in the top five of the conference. To think his numbers are comparable to Dominik Hasek, whose best numbers came when the clutching and grabbing was an every game occurrences, makes Miller’s numbers more remarkable.
This may sound like a cop-out, but we just aren’t going to know who the real Sabres are until at least February. We are also not going to know how serious the Sabres are at winning a cup until March. Trade deadline time. Till then, you can act as if the Sabres are beating teams they would’ve lost to last year or that their scoring barrage was about beating lonely teams.
At this point, I’m just going to wait and see. Or until they meet the Penguins.
Add The Sports Daily to your Google News Feed!
