Senators 2 Sabres 0: Sabres Win Streak Stopped in Ottawa

Why do the Sabres always look like an AHL team when playing the Ottawa Senators? I wish I could tell you the Ottawa Senators played a great game tonight and the Sabres should hold their heads high in defeat. I wish I could, but I won't lie to you.

Sure the Senators outplayed the Sabres in every facet of the game but that is easy to do when only one team shows up to play. The Sabres looked tired and uninterested tonight. Not even seeing their teammate Patrick Kaleta get his head smashed into the boards provided a spark. They followed that hit by failing on the power play and taking a penalty of their own.

I should say one team (Ottawa Senators) and Ryan Miller  showed up to play tonight. Ryan Miller was his usual magnificent self tonight, in fact he might have been better than magnificent tonight. If not for the play of Ryan Miller, and a couple of goal posts by the Senators, the final score might have been six or seven to nothing.

Miller kept the Sens off the board for most of the first period but eventually a shot from the point found it's way through traffic and into the Sabres net. Nobody would admit it at the time but you got the feeling that one goal might be enough the way the Sabres were playing. It turns out it was but Mike Fischer scored an insurance goal anyway. The Fischer goal came in the final two minutes of the game and assured the Sabres of another loss in Ottawa.

I am not a professional athlete and therefore I have trouble relating to the players, but I can't figure out how a team that is on a four game winning streak could look so bad?

I might have the answer to my question. The Buffalo News added a post game note that seven players had food poisoning last night.

Sabres coach Lindy Ruff said the following after the 2-0 loss to Ottawa: "I knew last night when we got the call at midnight and you’ve got seven guys with food poisoning you don’t have much chance of winning. I’m not going to make an excuse, but we had guys this morning that couldn’t come to the pregame, couldn’t come to the pregame meeting, and it showed. There were guys who typically skate a lot better who couldn’t skate. End of story."

Game Notes

• The Sabres were led to just 22 shots on goal in their lackluster effort on Wednesday night. They average over 30 shots a game.
• Patrick Kaleta did not return to the game after being hit into the glass by Jarkko Ruutu in the second period. Ruutu received a five minute major but Kaleta might be out of the lineup for quite some time. Keep in mind that Kaleta has a history of head injuries and this was a clear cut head shot. This should be a guaranteed suspension for Ruutu, who has a history of being a dirty player.
• The only positive to take away from this game was the play of Ryan Miller. Miller played like himself while the rest of the team took the night off.
• Thomas Vanek had been playing some o his best hockey but looked awful tonight against the Sens. He was slow to the puck and didn't battle hard enough to earn his position.
• Lindy Ruff was obviously not happy with the play of Drew Stafford tonight and who could blame him? Stafford played only eight shifts over the final two periods and lost ice time to Mike Grier and Tim Kennedy.
• Derek Roy was equally as bad tonight. His best passes were actually giveaways to the other team.