Sabres Sens Preview

Well the Sens roll into town at the end of a 7 game road trip, due to the Junior Championships being played there. They have only won 1 game on the trip. With back to back losses on the weekend. Including a rough one to the rival Leafs. There is plenty of talk of whats wrong, what else will happen. It seems the Sens are always at the bottom when they come into Buffalo. It happened earlier in the year, and then they waxed the Sabres. Some may go here we go again. But I don't believe that. The captain is back tonight and I don't think he'll let the Sabres come out flat tonight. They are tired of getting booed at home. (Maybe a reason they seem better on the road) So I expect a fast start. If certain guys don't play, they aren't going to be out there. Its a simple way of getting rid of lazy play. After Saturday, more Matt Ellis please.

The Sens

The problem with the Sens is that they are a 1 line team. And that one line isn't producing as much as they should. Then their second line scoring is atrocious. They overspent on the top 3, limiting what they could do with signing and retaining players. Plus the defense has slowly depleted over the years. Chara, Redden, Preissing, Corvo, Meszaros and Commodore just to name a couple. Now they are younger and with the elder statesman Chris Phillips back there, who is a suprising -21 on the year. But is a +1 against Buffalo this year.

Heatley has 16 goals and 35 points (leads team in both) Alfie has 11 goals and 34 points on the year. And the Jason "hit you with his Purse" Spezza has 30 points on the year. Kuba and Picard are the next two highest scoring defensemen on the team. Which I assume mainly come from Power play participation. (too lazy to look) But after that Mike Fisher is the next leading scorer with 12 points. Chris Kelly only has 9 points. And a bunch of others 12 and under. Really for the high scoring team I always assume of the Senators, they aren't anymore. If you bottle the top 3. There isn't much to worry about after that. Players like Fisher and Kelly were guys who would always get you when you were lazy. But it seems the heart and soul of the Senators has disappeared. Along with the smirk.

But the Sens always have the Sabres number. They see those jerseys and have horrible flashbacks and just seem scared of the Big 3. Hopefully they can break out of this mental block. Because the Sabres seriously need to keep winning. Especially with this on the horizon.

1/9 vs Rangers
1/10 @ Detroit
1/14 @Chicago
1/15 @Dallas
1/17 vs Carolina
1/19 @ Florida
1/21 @ Tampa
1/27 @Edmonton
1/28 @Calgary
1/31 @Phoenix
2/2 @ Anaheim

Thats a nasty stretch coming up. A Midwest road trip. Back home, then a Florida trip. All Star Break. Then back at it with a West Canada Swing then a Southwest Swing. They better like home now, because they ain't seeing it much over the next month.

Woah wait. The Edmonton, Calgary Phoenix or Anaheim games aren't on local tv? Or are they just going to stream the home team feed? Talk about cost cutting. I don't think I heard about this before. Thats 4 straight games. Sure they are all late, and the ratings are probably bad. But I loved the West Coast Sabre games. They were special. Come on MSG. Spend some dough. I guess you'll have to listen to the radio for the last 4 of the road trip.

Anyway tonight will be on tv. So lets hope the Sabres come out hard and want to win again. It will just be nice to see Rivet back.