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That game was pretty painful last night if you were a Sabres fan. It seemed to start out OK. After the Bruins initial fired-up start in the first five minute, it settled down to a decent back and forth between the two teams. While I gave the Bruins a slight edge overall in the period, I thought it was a decent road period by the Sabres. 
The second period is where it all went to hell. The Bruins far outworked the Sabres in that period, for the third time this series. One thing that stuck me out of this period, the Bruins

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I had a hard time sitting down to do this analysis, because I don’t really know how i feel about this game. The Sabres came out in the first period and played a very solid period of hockey. Stymeing the Bruins and winning both the scoring chance battle and the scoring battle, leaving the first up 2-0. The low-point was Vanek being hurt when he was pulled down by Boychuk on a two-on-one. The Sabres can ill-afford to lose their best offensive weapon for very long. (It seems unlikely he’ll play in game 2.)
When they came out in the second

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I have to start by saying I love playoff hockey! A 2-1 game in the regular season is usually a boring affair, but this 2-1 game was quite exciting and enjoyable, though possibly that has more to do with the outcome than the score.  The Sabres beat the Bruins in what was unsurprisingly a low-scoring affair. The first period started out with a bit of a feeling out between the two teams, and you could tell they were trying to get there skates under them. The Sabres came out pretty strong in the period, and Thomas Vanek continued his strong

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First off, I watched the end of the Rangers vs Flyers game yesterday. While I would have loved Philly to lose this game…the way the Rangers played it at the end, I was rooting for them to lose by the end. They essentially shut down their offense for most of the game, and particularly the overtime, probably thinking that a Shoot Out favored them. They got their wish, and they lost. Ha-ha! Are Rangers fans in an uproar over the fact Marion Gaborik spent the shoot-out on the bench?  They probably should be.
The Sabres – Devils game was a bit

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OK, that was a bit of a stretch of a pun…but you get my point. I could care less about last nights game. Yes, had Buffalo won, they would appear to be in the 2nd slot. But, this was the first game after they solidly clinched the division, and the fact that they played Lalime in goal tells me they were not really determined to get the 2nd seed, but were more thinking about getting healthy for the playoffs, which is totally the right thing to do.
Meanwhile, the Bruins started the night only 1 point out of ninth place. This

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There was a sigh of relief heard sound Western New York last night. The Sabres trounced the NY Rangers 5-2.  There was a bit of sloppy play early, which allowed the Rangers to go up 1-0, but after 5 minutes, the Sabres really took control of the game, with the help of more great play from Ryan Miller. In particular, a crazy stop he made on a 4-1 against Marion Gaborik where he swatted the puck away with his stick.

Photo by Bill Wippert / NHL

 But I have to devote some more lines of praise to Tyler Ennis. The kid is

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Good ‘ole Marty Biron. Even though he’s been gone for three years, he’s still helping out his old team, backstopping the Islanders to a 4-1 win over the Ottawa Senators Saturday afternoon. This left the Sabres needing a single win to clinch the division. But, they didn’t have the fire to win that the Canadiens had last night – and the Habs handled them pretty easily in Montreal, shutting them out 3-0. I didn’t watch much of the game, but what I saw wasn’t impressive.
The good news…the Sabres still sit at 96 points. They have four games left to play.

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So, with the Northeast Division virtually locked down – my good friends over at sportsclubstats.com indicate the Sabres sit at 99.5 % chance of clinching the division – I thought I would devote some time looking at potential opponents for the Sabres in the first round, and which would be the best match-up. Whether the Sabres end up with the third (most likely) or second (less likely) seed in the division, there is a good chance they will end up playing one of four teams: Ottawa, Montreal, Philadelphia, or Boston. While there is still an outside chance that Atlanta or

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