NowDoYouBelieve

Yep. If the blame falls on Ruff for the team's failures, it would by hypocritical to not give him credit for its successes. Not the case with everybody obviously, but I've noticed an annoying tendency by some on this board to be extremely critical of a player (or coach) when the going is rough, and then when that player turns it around, the person will just say "Yeah, but let's see them do it tomorrow." Then, when that player hits another (inevitable) slide, they go right back to hating. Shouldn't the level of vitriol for failure MATCH, not EXCEED, the level of excitement for success. I've noticed this the most with Connolly. He's a streaky player. For some reason, this gets obfuscated into "he's lazy, he never tries". I remember a GREAT stretch he had last year...something like a 17 game point streak. The MOMENT he went a couple games without scoring a point, it was "yep, same old Connolly."

Just curious, because I live in Ithaca and never attend the games anymore...what specific "style of play" issues do you think the fans are reacting to so poorly? Was the crowd just spoiled by the Briere/Drury years? In my opinion, the Sabres certainly aren't the most exciting team in the league, but they aren't the most boring either.

Let's get EXCITED for this one! -11 out of our last 14 points -6 out of 8 points against Capitals, Canucks, Capitals, Kings...gotta be impressed by that -Miller looks to be finding his stride -Just scored 2 PP goals against the league's best penalty kill I don't know about you guys, but I'm smelling another win! Steven Stamkos? I say nuts to him.

Ok, I'm gonna say it. If we take two points from the Caps today, I'll consider the team to be playoff material once again. The horrible start, power play and penalty kill issues...all those get erased for me if we win tonight because bad teams don't take 6 out of 6 points against Capitals, Canucks, Capitals. That said, a loss won't necessarily convince me we're a bad team, but a flat effort will seriously disappoint me.

The Bad: We can't seem to close out teams in regulation like last season. The GOOD: 9 out of our 10 last points. 4 out of 4 points against two serious Stanley Cup contenders. Vanek didn't score tonight, but he played his best game of the season. By a lot.

Myeeerrrrsssss!

5 consecutive overtime games. That has to be at least approaching the record, right?

I've gotta believe we've got the worst combined special teams percentages in the league.

Crap. Ever since our series against Boston last season, we can't hold a goddamn lead.

By the way, Montador is up to +14 on the season with that goal. PLUS-14! How is that possible on a team that's underachieved so badly to start the season.

I sincerely hope he's not. Roy, Vanek, Ennis are beginning to look like our first true "number one line" since 2007.

Objective #1: Win Objective #2: Do it in regulation, so I can stop pulling my hair out. :D

Yes. Nobody is immune. Myers has been even more disappointing than Connolly and that's a pretty big accomplishment this season.

I too wish we were playing Calgary next. Unfortunately for us, it's Vancouver. Great win tonight. The team is still struggling in a lot of elements, but they are also showing the necessary grit to put notches in the W column.

Gotta admit, the one point is more than I was expecting. That doesn't mean I'm going to be satisfied if it's only the one point, however.

Please, for the love of god, win this game...

I agree that Miller shouldn't be playing if he's unhealthy. But if he is healthy, it's not as if Enroth was lighting the world on fire. Made a few key saves, sure, and prevented games from getting out of hand, but he did allow 9 goals during that 3-game stretch you mentioned.

And unfortunately, it's exactly the reason we'll lose this game. The Sabres' good periods involve us scrapping for pucks, getting a bunch of pucks on goal and exiting with a 1-0 lead or tied 1-1 for the period. Washington, on the other hand, will go up 3-0 on you before you have a chance to get home and turn on the tv. Their explosiveness combined with our penalty kill issues spells bad news for me. Hopefully I'm dead wrong.

On the one hand, we have to win at home at some point right? On the other hand, I seriously doubt we'll kick that monkey off our back against the league's best offense, unless Miller shakes off the rust quickly and has a superstar performance. 4-2 Capitals.

Kovalchuk may be a Top 5 scorer, but not even close to a Top 10 player. Case in point, his negative 81 career plus/minus.

I'll tell you one thing, Roy has played like a champion this season, despite the team's record. Is this the team's first winning streak?

Roy!

c'mon, Jhonas...

Ok, Thomas redeemed himself there!

Goddammit, Thomas.