Here we are

It’s been way too long since I last posted but even if I had kept up with this blog more over the past two months, I doubt I could have kept up with everything that’s happened to the Buffalo Sabres. Ironically enough, the team whose first half of the season was marked by predictability and mediocrity has whizzed through the last two months of the season as one of the league’s best teams. Moreover, they’ve dominated in games where no one expected it and found ways to come back in games where they’d normally be out of the game before the second period intermission. It’s been surprises all the way.

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.

Week in Review

The Buffalo Sabres may be about to gain a new owner but if their first two games after the All-Star Break are any indication, they’ve still got many of the same issues as before to work on. Holding on after grabbing an early lead, minimizing turnovers, getting offensive production from their star players instead of just hoping that the third and fourth-liners get lucky…all of these were issues for the Sabres on Friday night after the Blue and Gold wasted early goals by Mike Grier and Paul Gaustad and let the Pittsburgh Penguins go off for three goals in the second period for a 3-2 win.

Week in Review

This was not a good week to be a Buffalo Sabres fan. Not the worst week, not all that different from most weeks this season and there were even a couple good moments here and there but the sum was decidedly less than its parts and the parts weren’t all that great to begin with.

Week in Review, January 9

Happy Drew Year indeed

Well, there’s still no ownership news to report with the Buffalo Sabres, although employees of Tom Golisano’s company, Paychex, are no longer being allowed use of the owner’s box so I suppose that’s proof that things are moving forward for the Sabres. They certainly are on the ice; the past week has to have been the best and most competitive week for the Sabres in at least a month.

Week in Review

I never like to admit this but with the 2010-2011 season almost half over, I think it’s time: this is not going to be a dominant season for the Buffalo Sabres. They’re probably not winning the Northeast Division, they’re probably not going to host a first round playoff series, if they make the playoffs at all, it will only be as one of the lower seeds and they’ll need every bit of the luck Philadelphia had last year to advance into the second round and beyond. I say this not because I think they’re a particularly bad team, they’re just not good enough right now to catch up to Montreal and Boston and that’s been made pretty clear in the past week or so.