Buffalo Sabres Month in Review: March

by David Oleksy on Apr 1, 2010 9:00 AM EDT in Month in Review

The month of March began with plenty of skepticism regarding the Buffalo Sabres and their ability of winning the Northeast Division. February was by far the worst month of the season for the Sabres and March began where February left off. The Sabres struggled in games against the Pens and Caps coming off the Olympic break but they have turned things around in a big way in recent weeks.

The Sabres are now comfortably ahead in the Northeast Division and they currently sit in second place in the Eastern Conference. The best sign for the team is getting production from their top players. All season we wondered where the high priced players were and they have responded in recent weeks.

March Goal Scoring

	5-on-5	5-on-4	5-on-3	4-on-4	4-on-3	3-on-3	3-on-4	3-on-5	4-on-5	EN	PS
Goals For	32	9	0	3	0	0	0	0	0	1	0
Goals Against	27	0	0	0	0	0	1	0	7	2	0

	Home	Away
Games	8	8
Goals For	28	26
Goals Against	20	18
PP Goals	6	4
PP Goals Against	3	5
SH Goals	0	1
SH Goals Against	0	0

Individual Stats

#	Player	Pos	GP	G	A	PTS	+/-	PIM	PPG	SHG	Corsi	Corsi/Game	Corsi +/- Last Month
4	Steve Montador	D	15	1	3	4	4	9	0	0	46	3.07	44
5	Toni Lydman	D	16	2	5	7	8	4	0	0	7	0.44	25
9	Derek Roy	C	16	6	13	19	7	8	2	1	33	2.06	24
10	Henrik Tallinder	D	16	1	4	5	8	4	0	0	24	1.50	33
13	Tim Kennedy	C	16	4	3	7	2	2	0	0	-15	-0.94	9
17	Raffi Torres	LW	8	0	5	5	-2	0	0	0	9	1.13	-
19	Tim Connolly	C	13	3	7	10	0	8	0	0	5	0.38	2
21	Drew Stafford	RW	10	0	2	2	3	2	0	0	3	0.30	-6
22	Adam Mair	C	16	4	2	6	2	24	0	0	-21	-1.31	-25
25	Mike Grier	RW	16	1	3	4	-1	2	0	0	-9	-0.56	-10
26	Thomas Vanek	LW	14	5	4	9	3	10	1	0	10	0.71	-6
28	Paul Gaustad	C	11	3	2	5	0	11	0	0	7	0.64	-11
29	Jason Pominville	RW	16	8	8	16	6	8	2	0	33	2.06	40
34	Chris Butler	D	7	0	2	2	-1	2	0	0	7	1.00	-37
36	Patrick Kaleta	RW	13	2	2	4	-1	14	0	0	-41	-3.15	-41
37	Matt Ellis	LW	15	1	4	5	-2	0	0	0	11	0.73	4
41	Clarke MacArthur	LW	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0.00	4
42	Nathan Gerbe	LW	2	1	0	1	1	0	1	0	11	5.50	11
44	Andrej Sekera	D	12	0	1	1	0	0	0	0	-21	-1.75	-30
52	Craig Rivet	D	16	0	3	3	-3	25	0	0	10	0.63	5
55	Jochen Hecht	LW	16	7	5	12	9	2	2	0	54	3.38	57
57	Tyler Myers	D	16	3	11	14	11	8	0	0	39	2.44	52
63	Tyler Ennis	C	3	1	2	3	1	0	0	0	18	6.00	18

#	Player	Pos	GP	W	L	OTL	MIN	GA	GAA	SH	SV	SV%	SO
31	Ryan Miller	G	13	9	2	1	729	29	2.38	368	339	0.921	0
40	Patrick Lalime	G	4	1	3	0	231	8	2.07	105	97	0.924	0

The Positives

The overall performance of the team is at an all time high and that is in large part because their best players have been their best players. All season we wondered when Derek Roy, Thomas Vanek and Jason Pominville would start contributing offensively and they have done that in the month of March.

In addition to the play of the key guys we can not discount the impact of Jochen Hecht (7 goals in the month), Tyler Myers (14 points in the month) and Adam Mair (4 goals in March). Myers has been a key component of the team since October but March may have been his best month of the entire season. So much for him suffering from fatigue in his first NHL season.

Jochen Hecht was a key player for the Sabres in past years but after a disappointing year he didn't have high expectations this season. He has been one of the most consistent players in 2010. He had seven goals last month and hit the 20 goal mark for only the second time in his long NHL career.

The Negatives

It's difficult to find too many negatives with the way the team has been playing but the slow starts are an obvious concern. They have fallen behind in the early going too often and come playoff time it might not be as easy to come back from a one or to goal deficit.

It may not be a reflection of the teams on ice performance recently but the recent injuries are an obvious negative. Other players have stepped up in recent games but Tim Connolly, Thomas Vanek and Patrick Kaleta will all be counted on in the playoffs if the Sabres hope to advance deep into the spring.

Player of the Month

Jason Pominville

#29 / Right Wing / Buffalo Sabres

Height: 6-0

Weight: 186

Born: Nov 30, 1982

Monthly Stats: 16GP 8G-8A-16PTS

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Comments

Awesome month. Keep it up boys!

"Its always Miller Time
Whens it gonna be Sabres-Offense Time?"
- by Jsz on Mar 3, 2010 6:25 PM PST

by bflo on Apr 1, 2010 9:12 AM EDT reply actions

Another Positive

The play of the young guns. Them coming up and showing how they can contribute to this team is some gooood stuff.

We knew they all had talent, but this is a pleasant suprise.

Anyone see when pommer was getting interviewed during the postgame, Kennedy was behind him wearing a Sabres shirt that said “Get Some”. Looked like it had a stanley cup on it with the old logo…..anyone know where i can find it?? Get some has been my saying for years

Get Some

by higs59569 on Apr 1, 2010 11:00 AM EDT reply actions

Player of the Month

Dead On, he has been spectacular this past month, and i only hope it carries into the playoffs, with a solid goalie, solid defense, and all four lines contributing to goals, there is no reason we cannot be a threat heading into the playoffs, theres a reason were in 2nd place right? So why arent we talked about as a threat heading into the playoffs, i wanna hear our name with Pittsburgh and Washington.

by manic hispanic on Apr 1, 2010 12:03 PM EDT reply actions

Has Stafford been the biggest dissapointment this year?

I’d say in terms of expectations and results he has to be. TK looks better on the Vanek/Roy line. Hecht/Timmy C/Pommers line is solid. And the 3rd and 4th line id rather see Kaleta, Greir, Torres, Mair, Ellis, Ennis battle it out instead of Drew. What are your thoughts?

"What wins the majority of the time is blocking, tackling, throwin', catchin' and kickin" - Chan Gailey

by dragonwag0n on Apr 1, 2010 12:37 PM EDT via mobile reply actions