Roy leads Sabres top line

I guess someone at the Buffalo News has been doing their homework because they wrote today about the play of the top line as being the reason of the Sabres recent success.  The top line of Vanek-Roy- and most of the time Stafford has been outstanding as of late.  Derek Roy has quietly had a good season since the beginning but it was overshadowed by the play of the rest of the team and how much they were struggling.

A quick glance at the Sabres season stats will give you evidence of how well this line has been playing.  Sure Derek Roy leads the team with goals(12) and points(28) and Thomas Vanek is now third on the team with 10 goals but the most telling stat is the plus/minus.  I agree that the plus/minus can be deceiving at times but just a couple of weeks ago the entire team was in the minus.  If you look now Derek Roy leads the team with a plus nine and Thomas Vanek is not far behind with a plus five.

There were people who were questioning whether or not the Sabres made the right move by signing these guys to long term expensive contracts and I hope their recent play will quiet the criticism of management regarding these two.  The Sabres did the right thing when they signed both players as they are the two best players on the team and will only get better throughout the years.  I'm sure the Sabres didn't want to pay Vanek the amount they did but they were backed into a corner by their own stubbornness and had to pay the price for it.

Before the season started I did a post rebutting a story written in the Palm Beach Post regarding Derek Roy.  We are not even half way through the season so it's early to judge but I would say that so far Derek Roy has proven to be a better signing than Nathan Horton.  I'm not sure what your take is but I would take Derek Roy over Nathan Horton any day...how about you?