Still Some Work Left To Do, Like Work Itself

by: M. Patton

BMore - I did not watch the game last night, but it appears that I didn't have to watch to know that the Sabres got outworked from start to finish. The box score alone provides some pretty incriminating evidence that the Sabres did not show up to play a game that could have sunk the playoff hopes of a long time cross-border rival. Instead of building off one of the best periods of hockey the Sabres played all year, they started slow and couldn't put together another comeback like Friday night's.

The shots on goal number says it all. The Buffalo players and Lindy Ruff were the firsts to admit last night that 20 shots on goal for an entire game will not get the job done on the road against a team that will be playing every remaining game as if it is their last. In the first period, while on another four minute power play, the Sabres couldn't get a shot on goal which seemed to set the tone for the entire game. Just like Friday, the Leafs put everything they had into the first two periods, ran out of gas in the third, but had done enough damage that the Sabres couldn't take anything out of the third other than the moral victory of out shooting Toronto by one lonesome shot.

As an optimist, I always feel their is always something positive to take away from a game that is otherwise an all around failure. This game's positive outcome would definitely have to be Ryan Miller's post-game comments. In the Buffalo News this morning, Miller respectfully challenged the rest of his team to play like a team that is tied for first in the league. Miller, who kept the Sabres in many games this year, was essentially acting like a starting pitcher asking for some run support. Other players and Ruff must not have disagreed, since they all commented on the topic with the same sentiment. The positive thing about it was not only team's recognition that there is still much work to do before the playoffs start, but also how the guy who leads the team out onto the ice every night didn't refrain from asking for a little bit more from the guys he leads. Although Drury and Briere wear the "C's" on their jerseys, the goalie plays a crucial leadership role on the team as the chief communicator out on the ice and it was good to see Miller assert some that leadership after a loss like last night's.

The Sabres are still in good shape to wrap up the division and the conference, but it is not a certainty as long as Ottawa and New Jersey win games. This will be a good test for the Sabres knowing that they still need to perform night in and night out all the way up to the playoffs. This will force the Sabres to keep working on the things that are still not clicking and will hopefully allow the Sabres to develop good habits leading into game one of the first round of the playoffs. If the players follow their goaltender's lead and accept his challenge, as I feel they will, we should see some good hockey from the Sabres in the final seven games. Let's just hope Miller's message rang loud and clear in the dressing room last night.