Its a battle of unbeatens! Kinda, its a battle of teams who haven't lost in regulation or overtime, but in the Shootout, the Sabres have a loss. Back in the day that would be called a tie. And it would be a actual meeting of unbeatens. So if we look back in time, yes these teams wouldn't have a loss. But anyway. Its a important matchup to see where the Sabres stand against a good team in the Western Conference. To be honest I have zero clue about the Wild. But the left looking logo, makes the picture great. It looks like the Buffalo Ghost will take on the Wolf? in a fight.
The Sabres are banged up losing Craig Rivet for a couple weeks, to a knee surgery, which goes in the better now then later file, adds to the mounting injury woes for the Sabres. Which so far haven't hampered them too much. But eventually it will catch up to them. And the Rivet injury could be the tipping point. Nathan Paetsch was adequate 2 years ago, but last year was very shaky, which led to Sekera and Weber seeing lots of ice time and showing they have what it takes to play in the NHL. And there is no doubt Paetsch plays like last year, Mike Weber will be in against Colorado. But enough of the Blue and Gold, lets get WILD!!!!
The Wild are leading the Northwest Division with 8 points, being 4-0-0, outscoring their opponents 15 to 7. which is similar to the Sabres 22 to 10 goal differential. Many think because of Lemaire the Wild, are defense first, lock down, boring. But I don't think thats the case. I think they are team first, and thats why a guy like Gaborik is complaining. He wants to be the man, when the course of strategy says, its the name on the front, not on the back. Thats why when you look at the roster you go, who? The leading scorer is Saku's little brother, Mikko Koivu, who has 9 points (8 assists) And the leading goal scorer is Antti miettinen with 5. Andrew Brunette has 5 points and Kim Johnnson has 4 points. Really its a bunch of guys playing hockey and playing the system. Its exactly what Lindy Ruff wants for the Sabres, but I think the Sabres have more offensive talent. The real lynchpin on the Wild is Nik Backstrom who is having a solid start to the season. With a 1.71 Gaa and a .942 sv %. He is the only goaltender who has played so far for the Wild.
This should be an interesting game I think. The Wild haven't played since Saturday, where they had a 3 game Southeast trip, against the Mighty Thrashers, Panthers and Lightning. So they could be nice and rested up, but also the Gaborik stuff might be a distraction. Its all over the blogs and with a team like the Sabres coming in, trying to have a nice little North/western trip. They probably want to play better then they did against Atlanta and Boston. So I would look for a strong opening for the Sabres tonight. Its really one of those games I have zero clue how it could go. The Wild could come out rested and run all over the Sabres, or the Sabres take it a over rested team.
I guess we'll see tonight. Hey maybe a Peters Boogard Fight tonight!!!! That would go well.
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