The Sabres are at again, with a nice Florida trip before the All Star Break, and man anyone in Buffalo could use some warm weather right now. Unfortunately its a business trip and a important one. They could use the 4 points from the next two points, to secure their position at 7 and maybe moving up. But with a rough trip coming out of the break, winning both games would be nice.
But the Panthers aren't a pushover. It will be a tough game, since both teams need it, and with a break looming don't need to conserve energy (so one would think) The Panthers stand 9th in the conference, 2 points behind the Sabres. They give up as many goals as they score (same as Buffalo) and are 5-3-2 in their last 10. The Sabres are 7-3, two points right there.
They would what I call balanced scoring. With 10 guys with 20 points or more. (The Sabres have 7) No one is above 30 points. (The Sabres have 3) David Booth is the leading goal and point scorer with 18 goals and 29 points. Stephen Weiss has 28, Bouwmeester with 26 points and Nathan Horton with 25. Cory Stillman has 22 points in 28 games.
Other potential offensive weapons are Radek Dvorak, Bryan McCabe, Gregory Campbell, and Richard Zednick.
But what makes the Panthers competitive is their goaltending.
It almost looks like a two goalie system. Thomas Vokoun has 918 sv% and a 2.70 GAA. Lots of saves with a lot of shots, over 30 a game. Craig Anderson has a .930 sv% with a 2.47 GAA. If these guys aren't sharp, they don't have the real big time scoring to overcome it.
The Panthers are always tough at home, and with a Break coming up, the nice weather, it may spell L-A-Z-Y for the boys in Blue and gold. But they may come out hard and actually buy into what Lindy is selling them. Of course theres Nathan Paetsch tonight. If he's smart he'll play well to make Butler expendable when the corp is healthy again. If not, its pressbox city for young Nathan.
Anyway only two more before the All Star break, enjoy.
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