At Least It Wasn't A Shutout

By: M. Patton

Baltimore, MD - One of the very few positive things to take from the 5-1 beating the Sabres took tonight was that it didn't become the season's first shutout. If it wasn't for Mike Ryan's aggressive fore check followed by his nifty backhand that finally beat Josh Harding late in the third period, this would have become another first that the Sabres did not want to achieve. Another positive thing was that Ty Conklin got his first action a Sabre and played a decent game. Granted, he only played half of a period, but given the situation, he did not look shaky or nerved.

Everything else about the game was awful. Aside from a decent second period where Buffalo put up 14 shots and Ryan Miller stuffed Marian Gaborik on a penalty shot, the Sabres couldn't get anything going. Shots could not find the net and when they did, Harding was not giving up dangerous rebounds. The Sabres could not capitalize on any good scoring chances while Minnesota was able to take advantage of almost every good chance of theirs. Passes were not crisp, quality shots were far and few between and there were way too many defensive breakdowns that lead to odd-man rushes.

Credit must be given to the Wild for playing with the desperation of a team that is trying to hold on the eighth spot. They skated hard and played a solid defensive game allowing no odd-man rushes and shutting down Buffalo's speed game, not to mention, Josh Harding, a third-string backup, made 35 saves on the league's strongest offensive super-power.

The one thing that bothered me about the lineup of this game was starting Ryan Miller. It didn't make much sense to play Miller, who made some great saves to keep the score from becoming ridiculous, since the Sabres will need a solid game from Miller to beat New Jersey tomorrow night. Two of the four goals were pretty fluky while the other two were great shots that would have been tough for most elite goalies to save. He did stop Gaborik on a penalty shot to keep Buffalo alive in the second period and keep the score 2-0 going into the third. It would not have been such a bad loss had it happened on Conklin's watch since the expectations from him are much lower than from Miller.

Any loss is a bad loss, but the Sabres do need to worry about Miller's confidence going into the home stretch into the playoffs. Buffalo needs to move on from Wednesday's and tonight's game quick because the very team that is breathing down their necks comes into HSBC Arena tomorrow night. I have no doubt the Sabres will bounce back, but one can only hope that it will be sooner rather than later.

Lastly, didn't we trade Marty Biron to trade for a 50 point scoring forward? If so, when does he start playing?