Dr K

My wife and I had a good time at the Sabres-Hurricanes game despite the loss. The Sabres looked like they could play with the Canes through much of the game. We had good seats at the end of the ice where they scored goals on their first two shots. But as the game went on the Canes applied relentless pressure and their forechecking caused the Sabres to make mistakes. They were overpowered in the third period. There were a lot of Sabres fans in the arena and I had some good conversations with some of them, including a guy from Herkimer near Utica who was a Sabres fan but, god forbid, admitted to being a Patriots fan. I hated to see the Sabres lose, but I still came away thinking they are on the way up.

Last time I saw the Sabres play the Canes here, a couple of years ago, the Sabres got crushed. My wife and I will be at tonight's game. It will be a real test of how far the Sabres have come.

Oh, they acknowledged that the Sabres had been playing well, and they gave them lots of praise during the game--they openly pointed out how well the Sabres were choking off the Preds offense, and the individual play of Skinner, Thompson, et. al. I actually was pretty impressed with how they were fair to the Sabres.

I confess to being a sporadic Sabres fan over the years. The Bills were more my team. But down here in Raleigh I saw in person both the first and the last games of the Sabres-Hurricanes series in 2006; the Sabres ahead going into that last period but the Canes winning to go on to the SC. For the most part I checked out on the Sabres over the last ten years, so I missed the misery of those who stuck with them game after game, season after season. I got interested again this season, after the split from Eichel. For some reason I got curious about what they might be without him. It was hard to watch them lose two out of every three games October through January. They were, objectively, a bad team. There were so many injuries and the goaltending was a mess. But for stretches they showed signs of life, and I liked what Granato had to say about what he was trying to accomplish with the young players. And then when Tuch was able to play I thought he was a breath of fresh air. March was very gratifying. They have turned a corner, and the spirit of the team, and the energy they bring, most of the time anyway, to playing, the way they pick themselves up after a loss and redouble their efforts--it's all very engaging. The developing talent and team play, and the prospects of more good young players in the near future. I'm on board again. That game last night was terrific. I watched the ESPN streaming with the Predators announcing team, and it was fun to listen to them rather surprised that the Sabres were outplaying the Preds. It was fun! We could all use more of that.

Actually, I think he was referring to the Pens' power play, which scored twice on Wednesday while the Sabres kept them more or less bottled up 5-on-5.