Sabres look to continue point surge at HSBC

By: Ryan Luce

After starting the regular season 3-7-2, the Buffalo Sabres are looking for their second straight win at home tonight against the Vancouver Canucks. The Sabres finally won their first game at home, after a thrilling 3-2 OT win against Washington Saturday night. Thomas Vanek scored the game-winning goal just one minute into overtime, his second that night.

In the past week, the Sabres have gained 7 of 8 possible points, improving their record to 6-9-3 (1-6-1 at home).

Hopefully Vanek can continue another hot streak, along with Jordan Leopold, who had 3 assists versus Washington. Though the Sabres are at full strength with Ryan Miller back in goal, the lack of veteran leadership remains a concern for the Sabres this season. Over the past two seasons the offense has somewhat filled in the gaps left from both Chris Drury & Danny Briere in 2007. However, the productivity of Buffalo's lines still needs some tweaking.

The Sabres defense seems to be in a paralleling state after losing Brian Campbell, Toni Lydman & Henrik Tallinder over the past two seasons, and serving Tyler Myers as the only justification, who seemed to be at his best when under the wing of Lydman in 2009.

For the rest of the season (now 18 games deep) it is fair to say that the Sabres are once more in the middle of a building process. But how soon will the jigsaw take to be put in place? Regardless of offensive or defensive productivity, the key is how well the Sabres collectively mesh. The Sabres are currently 24th in the league in GAA, a staggering contrast to last year, where they ended up 4th in the league overall. Don't put it past the Sabres to go on a run somewhere down the road, there certainly is talent in Buffalo, but the Sabres need a new approach to how they play their game if they are to remain in the playoff hunt till March. sources (espn.com)