Buffalo Sabres

Sabres vs Senators? Is it a must-win?

No, it is not.

I can stop there, I answered the question. But, this wouldn’t be much of a blog without a longer answer.

For those not paying attention, the Sabres, who three weeks ago had a very large cushion in the division. (8 points over Boston, and 12 over Ottawa) have seen a semi-slide on there part (4-4-2 in their last ten) and a super-hot streak from Ottawa (9 wins in a row) really tighten up the race for the division. Ottawa now sits just 5 points back in the Division, though the Sabres have two games in hand. Meanwhile, Boston has collapsed, making this Division a two-horse race.

On top of that, the Sabres tend to play poorly against Ottawa, and have never beaten them consistently since the lockout, the exception being the 2006 playoff series that they took in 5 games. So far this year, they are 0-2-1 against Ottawa, and that was much earlier in the season when Ottawa was playing poorly.

So, though this is not a must-win, it is probably the most important game the Sabres have played this season to date. A regulation loss here puts Ottawa 3 points back, while the Sabres win puts them up by 7. Since Ottawa has six more games before the Olympic break, and the Sabres have five, the Sabres winning this game would likely keep them in the division lead going into the Olympics while still having 3 games in hand.

Really though, I am not going to be that worried about a loss, as long as the effort and play are there tonight. I really don’t think that Ottawa has suddenly “figured it out”, they are simply riding a hot streak and a hot goalie. I would rather see them get hot in January than in April.

And, if you have to come into a game against a club that has won 9 in a row, this is how you want it. Ottawa has had almost 4 days off since they played Saturday afternoon…a huge break at this point in the season. While they will certainly be aware of the importance of this game, the recent hot-streak and domination of the Sabres could still result in a “easy win” mindset. In addition, winning streaks have to end eventually. This team has the longest winning streak in Sens history, and they are definitely NOT the best Sens team in history.

How do the Sabres win? The Sabres need to come out hard, play solid defense, and get the Senators back on their heels early. They should come to play and play hard. They frequently do not battle hard in the corners against the Senators, or at least not hard enough to control the play.

Since it’s in the division, I wanted to mention the Leafs trade for Paneuf and Giguere. I think these were excellent trades for the leafs. Yes, they gave up some decent hockey players, but got a quality defenseman in return, and especially a true #1 goaltender. Yes, he hasn’t had a very good year playing in the back-up role, but Giguere is only 32 and his save percentage over the last two years in 0.920. He is a huge upgrade in goal over Toskala and the “Monster”. I think that trade alone made the Leafs a whole lot better. Maybe Toronto can even win a game against the Sabres this season. (Currently at 5-0 against the Leafs.)