Sabres Week In Review: Week of 10/17 - 10/23

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At this pace, the Sabres need to play all 82 games on the road this season. This team has a Jekyll and Hyde complex about them when it comes to playing at home versus on the road. The Sabres are 0-4-1 at home and 3-1 on the road. Thankfully for this team and the psyche of the fans, the Sabres play all this week on the road. 

Last Week's Schedule

Date	Opponent	Score
10/20	@ Atlanta	4-1 Buffalo
10/22	vs. Ottawa	4-2 Ottawa
10/23	@ New Jersey	6-1 Buffalo

Week At A Glance

Record - 3-5-1

Place in Division - 4th with 7 points, 1 point behind Boston

Place in Conference - Tied for 9th with 7 points, 1 point behind Boston and Carolina.

Total Goals For - 24

Total Goals Against - 24

Wednesday

 

The Buffalo Sabres spent three days off working on their game and came out against the Atlanta Thrashers firing on all cylinders. After losing their past four games by one goal, the Sabres took a 3-0 lead into the third period and eventually won the game 4-1. Both Tyler Myers and Thomas Vanek scored their first goals of the season and overall the team looked impressive.

 

Friday

After scoring their second win of the season, the Sabres head back home with a little confidence. Unfortunately, that confidence turned into terrible play. Daniel Alfredsson played his role of Sabre killer with his hat trick on the night. The third goal, an empty netter, was also Alfredsson's 1,000th career point. Tim Connolly scored the only two goals for the Sabres in the 4-2 loss.

Saturday

The Sabres headed into Newark looking to avenge their 1-0 loss from a week ago. They faced a Devils team that was devoid of both Martin Brodeur and Ilya Kovalchuk. In replacement of Brodeur, the Sabres faced a notorious Sabre killer in Johan Hedberg and teed off on him to the tune of four goals on fifteen shots. Brodeur came on in relief and allowed another two goals. Thomas Vanek scored two goals to bring his season total up to three.

Player of the Week

Thomas Vanek has broken out of his scoring slump this week with three goals, two in the Devils win on Saturday. With the first goal out of the way, we can only hope that Vanek will start griping the stick less tight and start capitalizing on his chances more often.

Next Week's Schedule

Date	Opponent
10/26	@ Philadelphia
10/29	@ Atlanta
10/30	@ Dallas

The Sabres have a blessing in terms of not having to face the home crowd for a week. The Sabres face two teams that have had some good starts in Philadelphia and Dallas and a team that they already faced and beat a week ago in Atlanta. The Sabres should come out of the week with a .500 record and anything less should start a panic if it hasn't already among the organization.