The Buffalo Sabres are in a serious situation now; they have fallen to eleventh place in the Eastern Conference as of this afternoon’s 5-2 loss against the Atlanta Thrashers. This means the blue and gold would be out of the playoffs if they started today — which they don’t, since we haven’t even reached to the All-Star break yet. However, it’s going to be awfully hard for the Sabres to get out of this slump and get into the playoffs with about half the season left.
Meanwhile, both the Flyers and the Rangers are now sitting in the last two playoff spots. The Sabres — who were the top team in the league during last year’s regular season and lost one their co-captains each to those two teams since then — are possibly on their way out. As a fan, this is depressing, so I have to wonder if this is, as many say, because of the loss of Briere and Drury? Or, is it a self-fulfilling prophecy coming true because everyone has talked about it so much? Hard to say.
One thing I can say: the Sabres gave up a lot of their offensive firepower in the off season, didn’t get any in return, and are in their six game losing streak largely because they can’t score goals. This, even when the opposing goaltender has a blinding snowstorm driving at him and seventy thousand fans cheering for their home team.
On a somewhat lighter note, the comments on the Game Thirty-Eight Open Thread: Sabres at Thrashers post at BfloBlog.com are amusing. For example, “I think someone mentioned that Roy has a pulled purse arm muscle,” referring to Derek Roy’s injury, and, “That game stunk worse than the guy’s foot in the smoking commercial,” for which you’d just need to see certain public-service announcements that air on MSG during the games.