Props/Knocks of Sabres/Stars

Props:

• Wow, there are a lot here. Jochen Hecht on that last second save. Ryan Miller for the saves from the rest of the game. This Sabres team just put forth an effort for the whole game which is something that we really need for the rest of the season. Derek Roy is a beast with the puck since coming back from his injury. This team decided that it needed a win and they got it.
• Paul Hamilton looks really good behind the desk with Mike Robitaille tonight. If he wasn't hired by WGR, I really think that he should take over the job from Kevin Sylvester when it looks the Sylvester is going to take RJ's job. Speaking of Sylvester, he did another good job on the play-by-play and with some grooming I think he can become a good play-by-play announcer. He obviously has some large shoes to fill, but I think that he could create his own niche in the role.

Knocks:

• Brian Campbell. He played well for most of the night but got beat bad by Barnes on the only Dallas goal. He looked like he just gave up on that play after he realized that he was beat and just watched that goal go in. Other than that, I think that the defense played really well tonight and it showed since they only scored twice and actually pulled out the win, which is something that we do not see all that often from this team.
• Jason Pominville. If he scores on that open net, this game is over and we don't have to rely on Hecht making the save of the game. Thats my only beef.

Since this is the last game before the all-star break, lets take a look at what is ahead for this Sabres team to be able to make the playoffs. The conference looks like this:

8. Islanders 54
9. Rangers 54
10. Capitals 51
11. Atlanta 50
12. Florida 49
13. Buffalo 48
14. Toronto 48
15. Tampa 46

The rest of the schedule looks like this: Maple Leafs (5 times); Bruins (4 times); Canadiens, Lightning, Senators, and Rangers (3 times); Penguins, Panthers, Flyers, and Hurricanes (2 times); Thrashers, Devils, Predators, Red Wings, and Capitals (1 time). Also, there are 18 games at home and 16 on the road.

While we play the Rangers and Panthers a couple more times and have games in hand on everyone in head of us, we really have to rely more on the teams in head of us losing rather than taking matter into our own hands. That is never a good thing. This team is 6 points out of the hunt, they really could make a run for it. They need to play like they did tonight for the rest of the break. Now that we can take a break from hockey, we can focus on the goal at heart.