Now do you believe?

Thomas Vanek simply walking into Mordor

A funny thing has happened to the Buffalo Sabres since Terry Pegula purchased them from Tom Golisano towards the end of February: slowly but surely, they’ve actually managed to morph into contenders.  They’re probably no one’s idea of the next Eastern Conference Champions, not with 76 points and tied with the slumping New York Rangers for seventh in the conference. But the position the Sabres are currently finding themselves in was certainly all but unthinkable to a lot of people just two months ago. And not all of the team’s sudden revival is a direct result of their new owner.

If you want to see where Pegula Power has and hasn’t boosted the Sabres’ season this spring, the best example is probably found in their roster and who they’ve added to it. To be honest, they haven’t really added too many players. Sure, there’ve been plenty of call-ups from Portland this year, notably backup goalie Jonas Enroth, who’s succeeded where Ty Conklin, Jocelyn Thibault, Mikael Tellqvist and Patrick Lalime failed in giving Ryan Miller a complementary backup netminder Lindy Ruff can trust. But other than Portland, very few Sabres players have joined the team whether by trade, the waiver wire or even out of free agency.

In other words, Darcy Regier hasn’t really been that much more busy in the weeks leading up to, through and after the trade deadline than usual. Where Pegula has made a difference is that instead of being forced to waste the team’s one big trade on a role player like Dominic Moore or Steve Bernier, Regier was able this year to use Pegula’s money to trade for Brad Boyes, who’s actually a talented goal scorer. Granted, Boyes can be streaky himself and his point production had dropped off in recent years but part of that can be attributed to St Louis’ lack of offensive weapons and so Boyes has been able to rediscover his scoring touch in Buffalo, with five goals since becoming a Sabre so far.

Outside of Boyes, it’s mainly already established players leading the charge for Buffalo. Thomas Vanek has continued to play excellently, Drew Stafford has had the biggest breakthrough season for a Sabres player since Vanek himself two years ago and Paul Gaustad has managed to supplement his faceoff prowess with some actual goal scoring.Hey, even Rob Niedermayer’s scored a couple goals lately.

As for the team’s younger players, Tyler Myers has recovered from a so-so first half and the pressure that comes with trying to “top” his extraordinary rookie year, Andrej Sekera, Mike Weber and Chris Butler have all also shown promise on defense and Tyler Ennis and Nathan Gerbe have developed real knacks for slipping through impossibly narrow amounts of traffic to get just the right shot. All of this has made Ryan Miller’s job much easier.

Even when the Sabres lose these days, they don’t seem to do it as bad as they used to. Both of the Sabres’ regulation losses since Pegula took over, recorded against Pittsburgh and Toronto, actually started with the Sabres scoring the first goal and ended with the winning team only ahead by two goals at most.

During their current run, the Sabres have

• come from behind (Philadelphia and Boston)
• scored first and pulled out the win (Ottawa and Minnesota)
• at least earned a point against other contenders for the last few playoff spots (Atlanta, Carolina, the New York Rangers)
• won on the road (most of their recent road trip)
• won at home (Ottawa)
• beaten the best team in the East (Philadelphia)
• beaten the worst team in the East (Ottawa)
• won in regulation
• won in overtime (Minnesota, Boston)

This season is far from over but I think it’s safe to say that Buffalo deserves at least as much postseason attention as most pundits wouldn’t think twice of giving the Rangers, Carolina, Toronto and New Jersey. Here’s to Sunday’s 6-4 win over Ottawa, here’s to the prospect of many more wins, here’s to Terry Pegula and most of all, here’s to the memory of Rick Martin.

NHL Games of the week

Rather than focus on the brutal hit by Zdeno Chara of Boston on Max Pacioretty of Montreal, a hit which probably deserved more punishment than it got but certainly not an entire police investigation, or the Phoenix relocation crisis, which hasn’t really changed in the past week, here are the games for this week worth watching around the league.

Monday-all of them. Seriously, Tampa Bay vs Toronto pits a team trying to chase down Washington for the Southeast against a team desperate to get into the postseason at all, San Jose and Chicago are two of the best teams in the West right now and Vancouver and Minnesota are division rivals at opposite ends of the top nine teams in the West right now. You literally can’t go wrong here.

Tuesday-Washington vs Montreal or Phoenix vs Calgary-in the East, a rematch of last year’s seven game upset of Presidents Trophy-winning Washington by lowly Montreal. In the West, Calgary’s a surprise playoff contender this year and even all the insanity surrounding its lack of a permanent owner hasn’t stopped Phoenix from climbing as high as the No. 4 seed in the conference.

Wednesday-Toronto vs Carolina-a battle between two teams trying to catch Buffalo in the standings and make the playoffs. Toronto winning here might not be that bad for the Sabres, though the fan in me hopes they take care of business against Carolina the night before anyhow.

Thursday-Chicago vs Dallas-this game could play a major role in deciding who gets the No. 4 seed in the West and home advantage in the first round. Though given how crowded and competitive the West is, the game could just as easily determine who gets the Nos. 7 and 8 seeds.

Friday-Montreal vs. the New York Rangers-no true duds tonight but of the teams playing on Friday, these two are closest together in the standings and the closer together teams are in the standings come March, the better your chances of an exciting game.

Saturday-Anaheim vs Los Angeles-regional rivals, both battling for playoff spots…face it, this game will be way more competitive than any Lakers-Clippers game has been in the past five years and way more competitive than any non-World Series Angels-Dodgers game will ever be.

Sunday-Chicago-Phoenix-one week before the game, these two teams are only one point apart. Don’t look for that to change much during the week.

Next Monday-Pittsburgh-Detroit or Calgary-Los Angeles-only two games but they’re both worth watching.