Rigamarole - A Foot In The Crease - Episode 2.37

www.afootinthecrease.com

At the beginning of this season, the Buffalo Sabres were the team topping the lists of many people when it came to choosing a probable Stanley Cup winner and rightly so. Throughout the regular season, the Sabres did not disappoint ranking up 113 points and securing the Presidents Trophy. With an explosive offense, a talented young netminder in Ryan Miller and a virtually unchanged team from the one that went on a surprising run to the seventh game of the conference finals a year ago, the Sabres seemed to be the odds on Cup favourite heading into the postseason.

After disposing of the Islanders in five games, something seemed to change with the Sabres. They took a two game lead over the Rangers but allowed them to even their second round series. Winning game 5 and 6 of that series by only one goal, a couple bounces the other way and the Sabres may never have got to the third round. Against Ottawa, the Sabres never seemed to get rolling. Ottawa was better than Buffalo in their series but not as much as most people from Ottawa are apt to think. Buffalo didn’t finish first overall by accident. They did so with tremendous contributions from Drury, Briere, Pomenville and Afinogenov, guys who were largely invisible in the Ottawa series. Ryan Miller was really the only constant for this Sabres team in the playoffs.

A lot will change for Buffalo this off-season. Their two best players, Drury and Briere, could both leave through unrestricted free agency. Regardless of how their roster is made up next year, the Sabres will certainly have some demons to slay. No doubt, people will start to think of them as a dominant team during the season that can’t produce in the playoffs. My, that sounds very Ottawa-like. The bad news for Buffalo fans is that it took the Senators seven years to overcome the demons of their own. But hey, all that was just rigamarole.