NYI 4 BUF 2

FREE FALLIN'

Face it, this Buffalo team is in a free fall. Nothing is going right. Defense is still making mistakes, and our "high powered" offense is about as high powered as a rusty air gun. Time to panic is now. Time to make a move is now or else this will get worse with little chance that it will get better.

Tonight's game was another showing similar to beginning of every Bad News Bears movie. Passes not crisp, sloppy transition play, and the inability to finish lead to this laugher. That's right I said it.

Now is the time for the front office to prove to the dwindling fan base that someone actually cares about the makeup of this team, because obviously this lineup is not working.

Next loss: Wednesday against I don't even know who. Can't wait.

PHI 3 BUF 0

THAT'S FOUR...

Marty Biron gets the last laugh as he blanks the Sabres 3-nill. Despite what Lindy Ruff called a good effort, the Sabres fail to even muster up one goal.

There were plenty of opportunities as Buffalo peppered 40 shots on Biron, but could not seem to find the broad side of the barn as all great scoring opportunities were met either by missed layups of the dinging sound of the post.

Drew Stafford continued his streak of offensive futility as he missed two layups, including one with an almost wide open net. The power play was shutout on two five on three opportunities of over one minute each.

Miller played OK, as he stopped 22 of 24 shots, giving up one goal on a breakaway. But, it appeared that he may have been napping on the second goal.

In all, you cannot in good faith blame Miller when the offense gets goose-egged. Posts, missed layups and wasted five on threes are the culprit here as the defensive effort was solid and Miller was good enough to at least get into OT.

Isles are in town tomorrow night and hopefully the bleeding gets stopped but I'm not holding my breath.

Flying In Briere-less

CAN'T BE BOOED TONIGHT

The Broad Street Bullies will be without one of there French Canadian wonders as former Sabres captain Danny Briere will not play tonight due to a nagging groin injury. Although still a big game for both struggling clubs, the Sabres faithful nonetheless must be a little disappointed as they will not be able to shower Briere with boos every time he touches the puck tonight (a la Satan, Chara, and Drury).

But Briere aside, tonight is an important game for Buffalo as they try to stop the bleeding caused by the current losing streak which stands now at 8 games. Tonight is the first of a four game home stand in which the Sabres probably want at least 6 points in order to consider it a successful step back towards where they should be in the standings. Poor goaltending behind even worse defensive play has brought them back to reality after a 6-0-1 start.

Ryan Miller has looked ordinary while stalwarts like Henrik Tallinder and Craig Rivet have looked downright horrific.

The bright side is that Thomas Vanek continues to find the back of the net while Derek Roy looks like he may be ready to emerge from his early season slump.

Also worth mentioning is that Lindy Ruff seems to be a little bit impatient in scratching both Tallinder and Max Afinogenov from tonight's lineup, which is in stark contrast with last year's "stay the course" philosophy which found the Sabres on the outside looking in after the season ended.

Gametime: 7:30 --- hopefully Harry Neale will not aggravate me tonight as he has been doing lately with his obvious and half witted comments that must make Jimmy Lorentz cringe (and hopefully want to come back).