A 31 game Review

I thought a little review was in order of the season, its 31 games in, almost half way, and its time to look at trends, who has done what, and what is left to expect.

Team Standings

Currently the Sabres stand 10th in the East, 1 point behind Pittsburgh for 8th. And only 6 points behind Boston for 4th. They have a hot 2 weeks, they are rocketing up that conference standings list. The first three spots I think are unrealistic, especially with Ottawa having the season they are having, so forget the division. Being in the spot from 4 to 6 I think would work well for the Sabres. They have the Goaltender who can shut it down. The defense when healthy can keep shots and chances low. And enough offense to get it done.

Point Leaders

Derek Roy is currently leading the team in Goals and Points. With 12 and 28. Everyone thought Derek would be having a good year, but not the team leader in goals and points. But several other players aren't far behind. Jason Pominville has 25 points, Tim Connolly also has 25 points but has done it in 5 fewer games and everybody's favorite whipping boy Tom Vanek has 21 points. But who has taken the most shots on the year? Not the guys mentioned above, its Jochen Hecht, who I think is the real captain of this team, with 91 shots on the year. He is second in goals with 11, so he does have a good chance of breaking 20 this year.

Suprises

Um, tough to put many people on the Surprises list so far this year, because we have just high expectations this year. But the improvement of Sekera through the year, could qualify as one. Similar to Paetsch last year, shaky, but quietly improving to provide steady time. But with several healthy defensemen coming back, his time is pretty much up for now. Brian Campbell's offense. We know he can be the offensive type, but he is currently 8th in scoring for defensemen, and probably the only Sabre to make the All Star team this year.

Disappointments

Well we could list many players here, but we'll start with Tom Vanek, after last year and the huge contract we expected the world. What we'll get is probably 35 goals and 75 points. When you look at it, is pretty good, but not worth the money is getting. Stupid Kevin Lowe. You kinda want to put Ryan Miller in this category, until you look at his career stats and you go, hey they are better then average, so he's having a good year, nevermind Ryan. But Thibault, really isn't the best backup. Since the LA debacle, I can see Lindy Ruff hesitant to put him in. I don't know but they could have signed a better backup at a the same rate. But other then a trade or pray Alex Auld gets released when Fernandez and Thomas get healthy, the Sabres are stuck. I'm gonna throw Drew Stafford in the disappointment category. I really don't see a lot what I thought of him out there. He's invisible most nights for me. He does have 14 points, and a +3 so hes not a liability. But I expected him to have more points then Jaro Spacek. He'll warm up I bet.

Future outlook

The Sabres have come together in the past month or so. I don't see them struggling in the coming months. They're game is coming together, and they are feeling the heat. They will slowly creep up the standings and in late January I expect them to be 6th in the conference. They have balanced scoring with 13 players with double digits in points, 14 if Kalinin wasn't hurt. Ryan Miller seems to be a workhorse, playing in 28 of 31 games. They won't be pretty outings, but they do know how to win, and they are just figuring out how to do it on a consistent basis.