Sabres/Senators Preview

The home stretch, this is what weeds out the contenders and the posers. This game should determine which one of these the Sabres are going to be. They face a Senator team that has faltered down the stretch, fired their coach, and still have two goaltenders that can not seem to find their game. The Sabres are in the 10th spot, 1 point behind the Washington Capitals, 3 points behind the Boston Bruins in the eight spot and 4 points behind the Philadelphia Flyers. All of these teams play with the Capitals facing the Hurricanes, the Bruins against the Leafs, and the Flyers against the Rangers. This and every game from now til the end of the season are must win games. Having the game in Buffalo will help this team who have struggled against the Senators this season, going 2-4, shootout and overtime losses just counted as losses. With 2 games left against the Sens, this team needs to capitalize on the struggles of the Senators.

Good news for the Sabres is that Nathan Paestch seems to have recovered and will be back in the lineup tonight, with Mike Funk being sent back down to Rochester. Ryan Miller will most likely start this game, being no shock since he has started the last umpteen games.

For the Senators, both Martin Gerber and Ray Emery have struggled. Gerber allowed 3 goals on 14 shots last night against the Canadiens and then Emery allowed 4 goals on 23 shots in a 7-5 loss. The Senators have dropped out of the top spot in the conference and the division, overtaken by Montreal. Martin Gerber will get the start in goal being that he has been the better goaltender against the Sabres.

Tonight's game starts at 7pm on MSG

Sabres/Sens Preview

After what was a somber win on Sunday against the Panthers, the Sabres look ahead now to the revamped Senators. The Senators made a four player trade with the Carolina Hurricanes which sent Patrick Eaves and Joe Corvo to the Hurricanes while Mike Commodore and Cory Stillman went to the Sens. Both Stillman and Commodore will start for the Sens tonight. On the Sabres side, the saga that is known as Brian Campbell continues. Campbell reiterated again in today's Buffalo News that he still wants to be a Sabre and that he doesn't want the Sabres to move him before the deadline.

"Buffalo is where I believe I'll be at the end of the year. I feel strongly about it but I do know it's out of my control. I'm focused on the Sabres and that's it. Any time deadline day comes around for any player, you never know. For me, I hope that never is the case that I get traded."

For me, this is a just a bunch of rhetoric to keep the Sabres fans on his side. Really, Campbell is still looking for more money that this team can afford to be able to keep its core group. While talking heads at other media outlets have suggested that Campbell's departure would ultimately lead to a Miller departure, the only way I see that happening is if Miller wanted out on his own. Regier would hopefully not be as handcuffed in monetary terms to let the franchise go. If he does, then there are major issues within the front office that need to be addressed.

Onto the actual game at hand. The Sens have won the last two including beating the Canadians after getting beat a week ago. They are also starting to get healthy with the top three all healthy again with the return of Daniel Alfredsson. The Sabres are still fighting for that last playoff spot with the Bruins, being one point behind. Both teams are playing tonight, so for the first time in a long time the Sabres could end up with the 8th spot. Right now, the injury front for the Sabres still includes Maxim Afinogenov, Drew Stafford, and possibly Ales Kotalik. Kotalik did not play on Sunday due to the flu and word at this time has not come out to whether he will be playing tonight. Game time tonight is 7:30 pm.

Sabres Lose Eighth in a Row

The Sabres just cannot seem to catch a break during this 8 game losing streak, going 0-4-4, with tonight's loss to Ottawa. Granted most Sabres fans were chalking this up to a loss, but the Sabres did come back from 2 down in the third to tie the game up. Here are some thoughts:

Way too many penalties. 6 powerplays for the Senators are too many. This team is dangerous. Thankfully, the Senators weren't able to capitalize on them. Although the shorthanded goal was a hard pill to swallow.

Good overall effort though. This team, while having some bad moments, did play with more effort than we have seen in the last couple of games. Just this time the shootout does them in again.

From here it doesnt get much better with the Devils traveling to Buffalo on Saturday. The same Devils team that we have seen twice in the last two weeks and have scored a grand total of 2 goals against. Oh boy.