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What's up with the Buffalo Sabres?
Do you mean up, as in up in the standings? Ha, ha. A little joke there. But seriously, the Sabres are emerging as one of the surprise teams in the Eastern Conference. After being a dominant team in the first two postlockout seasons, the Sabres seemed to lose their identity as well as key personnel like Jay McKee, Mike Grier, J.P. Dumont, Martin Biron, Brian Campbell and, of course, Chris Drury and Daniel Briere.
Well, that identity seems to be returning. The Sabres are on a 6-2-0 roll and have moved into seventh place in the Eastern Conference standings after being a bubble team for most of the first half of the season. Five of those six wins have come against conference competition, while both losses were to West teams (Chicago and Detroit). Most impressive has been the emergence of Derek Roy as the team's on-ice leader, stepping into the vacuum created by the departure of the aforementioned veteran players. Roy leads the team with 42 points and six game-winning goals (second-most in the NHL).
But there are interesting days ahead for Buffalo GM Darcy Regier, who found out this past weekend that veteran defenseman Teppo Numminen is gone, perhaps for the remainder of the season, with a fractured facial bone. After missing the playoffs last season, watch for Regier to try to shore up the blue line before the March 4 trade deadline.
Do you mean up, as in up in the standings? Ha, ha. A little joke there. But seriously, the Sabres are emerging as one of the surprise teams in the Eastern Conference. After being a dominant team in the first two postlockout seasons, the Sabres seemed to lose their identity as well as key personnel like Jay McKee, Mike Grier, J.P. Dumont, Martin Biron, Brian Campbell and, of course, Chris Drury and Daniel Briere.
Well, that identity seems to be returning. The Sabres are on a 6-2-0 roll and have moved into seventh place in the Eastern Conference standings after being a bubble team for most of the first half of the season. Five of those six wins have come against conference competition, while both losses were to West teams (Chicago and Detroit). Most impressive has been the emergence of Derek Roy as the team's on-ice leader, stepping into the vacuum created by the departure of the aforementioned veteran players. Roy leads the team with 42 points and six game-winning goals (second-most in the NHL).
But there are interesting days ahead for Buffalo GM Darcy Regier, who found out this past weekend that veteran defenseman Teppo Numminen is gone, perhaps for the remainder of the season, with a fractured facial bone. After missing the playoffs last season, watch for Regier to try to shore up the blue line before the March 4 trade deadline.
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