Saturday Night is alright

AP Photo by Marcio Jose Sanchez

It looks like Saturday is a good night for the Buffalo Sabres who beat the Carolina Hurricanes 8-1 last Saturday and beat the San Jose Sharks 7-1 last night.  It's the games during the week that are cause for alarm.  The Sabres pulled their best Jeckyl and Hyde act this week with a 4-1 loss in Anaheim and an embarrassing 8-2 loss in Los Angeles.

It was good to see the Sabres rebound and bounce back from those two losses with a convincing win against the Pacific Division leaders the San Jose Sharks but it is tough to forget the other games on the Left Coast.  Apparently the Sharks didn't get the memo that if you hit the Sabres they fold.  In all honestly the Sabres did play a much better game but it came against a team who played one night earlier while they sat and watched.  The Sharks made numerous mistakes and the Sabres capitalized and stole two points from a pretty good Western Conference team.

The West Coast trip started on Wednesday night in Anaheim in a game that the Ducks physically destroyed the Sabres.  Buffalo struck first when Jason Pominville and Jochen Hecht went in on a 2-on-0 break and Hecht beat Giguere.  Thomas Vanek didn't get as luck later in the period when he decided to shoot the puck into the corner instead of an open net and things went downhill from there.  The Ducks dominated the second and third period and beat the Sabres into submission.  It has been a long time since I seen a team that frustrated but they were more concerned about the Ducks style of play than they were on playing hockey.  In all fairness this game was a game that resembled the old NHL and the Sabres didn't respond well at all.

The Sabres carried their frustration into Los Angeles and were beaten early and often.  Jocelyn Thibault forgot how to play goalie for one period, I was going to say for a game but Lindy had seen enough after one period and quite frankly so had I.  It will be interesting to see when Lindy will be brave enough to play Thibault again.  I don't think it would be a stretch to say the Sabres season has been full of ups and downs and Thursday night in Los Angeles they hit rock bottom.  

It is an important week for the Sabres who are back in action tomorrow against the Boston Bruins and they play the Islanders Wednesday, the Capitals Friday and the Blackhawks on Saturday.  There are some winnable games in the horizon for the Sabres and they need all the points they can get.