The Senators have certainly been the best team thus far in the new and improved NHL this season. They came out roaring and haven’t cooled off too much since. The Sens have outscored the Sabres 21-5 in their three contests. In the first matchup, the Senators and Dominik Hasek shutout Buffalo 5-0.

Saturday night when the Sabres take the ice against the Senators, they hope to prove that they are one of the top teams in the league. It will be no easy task as the Senators have not only dominated the series with Buffalo so far, but have humiliated the Toronto Maple Leafs even more with blowouts. If the Sabres beat the Senators, then they will have finally broken the Sens hex on them.

Sabres coach Lindy Ruff feels his troops are up for the big test.

"I think every guy in that room believes we can beat them," Ruff said. "The way we're playing there's a lot of confidence in that room to move up. In our case, it's, ‘Let's go after the division.' What better opportunity than going head-to-head with the team that's sitting just above you."

The Sabres split their 6 game road trip between the two coasts, the east and the west coasts. It appears the Sabres are much more comfortable closer to home in the East.

The Sabres started out their road trip on the down side, beating Edmonton and then losing to Calgary and Vancouver. However, they salvaged the trip by winning their last three games against the Rangers, Leafs and Thrashers.

After losing two consecutive 4-1 games to Calgary and Vancouver, the Sabres flew back home and had a few days off before traveling to New York to face the Rangers. The Sabres squeaked out a 2-1 win over the Blueshirts, but it was a costly victory.

Just when the Sabres were getting one of their top forwards back, they lost another one, probably their best player since Daniel Briere was injured. Darius Kasparaitis delivered the blow that knocked out Tim Connolly for 8 weeks with a serious knee injury. In the books, the hip check was clean. Kasparaitis saw Connolly skating towards the boards and went low, hitting Connolly in the hip and sent him flying head over heels. Connolly landed hard on the ice and didn't get up.
Connolly has a deep knee sprain and will be out from between 6-8 weeks. Just what the Sabres need, another forward on the shelf. JP Dumont returned to the lineup after missing action since November after having an operation on a sports hernia.

According to most experts, the hit was clean, according to most experts. But Darius Kasparaitis is really resembling a hit man these days. He took out Marshall of the Devils the last game the Rangers played. With Scott Stevens retired, Kasparaitis now becomes the top goon in the NHL.

Kasparaitis has a history for being a goon and the NHL has to deal with players who, although they stay within the rules, deliberately try to injure another player. The NHL got rid of its biggest assassin on ice when Scott Stevens retired, but there are still quite a few skating assassins left who know just how to deliver the knockout punch and get away with it. Darcy Tucker did that a few years ago in the playoffs against the Islanders when he proclaimed he was going to take out Michael Peca and did just that with a similar low check of Peca, putting him out of action for half a year.

"When I see a 240-pound guy diving around like a squirt after taking one of our guys' knees out? I don't feel too good. I kind of feel embarrassed for him, actually," Chris Drury said after the game.

The NHL has improved with calling most of the infractions, but they have to add a new rule dealing with these dirty assassins who can get away with murder on the ice. I’d say that if a player deliberately injures another player, he should get a suspension as long as that player is out. They could hire an actual judge to review controversial hits such as the cheap shot that Kasparaitis delivered on Connolly.

"I would be supportive of taking those hits out of the game," Sabres GM Darcy Regier said. "That isn't even a hip check. You're catching him with your rear end, and it's low enough, especially with someone like Kasparaitis, it's low enough to be in the knee area."

"He's a heartless, gutless player," Mike Grier added. "He has no respect for anyone else in the league. He cheap-shots guys and then won't stand up for himself. He tells me he wants to fight and then skates away and takes a dive when I barely even touch him.

"Probably the dirtiest player in the league. No one likes him. We got a game against these guys again (on March 27), we'll see what happens. It's disgusting what he did to Timmy. He hurts guys with no shame. It doesn't faze him one bit. He could have hit him just as easily with his shoulder as he did with his hip."

Ruff added his own words to the barbs thrown in Kasparaitis’ direction.

"He went low on him," Ruff described. "If you're going to go low, show a little bit of guts. And if you're challenged by another guy, don't hit the deck again. That's two guys I've seen him "accidentally' hurt in the last two nights. He hurt Marshall. It's amazing how he can "accidentally' do it all the time. For us to lose a player like that because he wants to go low and cut his knees out, that's a joke."

Connolly, who has really come into his own this year and has made a couple of highlight-type goals, will be on the shelf for at least 6 weeks.

After the Rangers game, people were wondering if the Sabres would be ready to face the Leafs two days later with all the venting they did about the hit by Kasparaitis. They traveled to nearby Toronto on a charter bus. They arrived in an angry mood. After a day and a half of spewing rage towards Kaspiritis, the Sabres found some time to turn their attention to the Toronto Maple Leafs and it resulted in a 8-4 win over their rival just a couple hours away.

The game at the Air Canada Centre, it was "Pond Hockey" as the two teams slouched around and 12 goals were scored. The Sabres pulled ahead 4-1 and Eddie Belfour was pulled. Then the Leafs took it to the Sabres, thanks to several powerplays and got back 4-3.

Sabres then took a two goal lead again, only to have the Leafs pull within one again. But that was it for the Leafs as the Sabres soared to a 8-4 victory.

The Sabres were without Daniel Briere, Tim Connolly, Adam Mair and Taylor Pyatt. Connolly was injured in the last game with a sprained knee and they were still incensed about how Kaspar the Unfriendly Coward deliberately injured their star forward. On top of that, the Sabres were without defenseman Teppo Numminen who had a with a pulled hamstring.

The Leafs also have had their share of injured with Bryan McCabe, Eric Lindros, Darcy Tucker, and defenseman Carlo Colaiacovo all out of the lineup.

The Sabres concluded their 6 game road trip in Atlanta and once again dominated play with an impressive final two periods to come from behind and beat the Atlanta Thrashers 5-2. Ryan Miller has been playing superlative hockey since coming back from his broken thumb and Ruff is riding him hard.

Miller is all about competition and proving that he's the No. 1 goalie. Whether it's for the Sabres starting goalie slot or tending goal for Team USA, Miller is definitely No. 1. Every time he has faced one of the three goalies that were selected ahead of him by Thrashers and Team USA GM Don Waddell, he has won the showdown. Miller, in fact, has gone out and shown up Waddell's Thrashers each time he's played them.

Miller was spectacular against the Thrashers, even in the first period when he was called on to make some super saves. In the last two periods, Miller stopped 12 shots in each and helped the Sabres beat the Thrashers.

"The biggest thing about this team is guys don't want to let other guys down," said Miller. "That's the way it's got to be. It was a good team effort. We settled down after the third period."

Trailing 2-1 after one, the Sabres poured it on with goals by Thomas Vanek, Jason Pominville, Paul Gaustad and J.P. Dumont.

Ryan Miller made another statement to Thrashers GM Don Waddell who bypassed him in selecting the three Team USA goalies. Miller is by far the best goalie that could represent the Americans in the Olympics, but Waddell is sticking to his guns and denying Miller a chance to represent his country.

The Sabres had little time to rest after the Atlanta game. Coming in on Thursday were the powerful Philadelphia Flyers, to be followed on Saturday by the juggernaut Senators.

Against the Flyers, Miller was facing the starting goalie for Team USA. He definitely took this opportunity to make another huge statement.

Miller is playing with a chip on his shoulder these days. Taking a page out of Thurman Thomas' book, Miller is kicking up his game a couple notches because of being overlooked for the Olympic competition. Miller is now 4-0 against the three goalies who "beat him out" for the USA hockey team. Thursday night, Miller stopped 21 shots (all 13 in the second) and beat his counterpart, Robert Esche as the Sabres beat the Flyers 4-2.

Miller did make one mistake in the third period, trying to clear the puck and it resulted in a Flyers goal making it a game again. However, the Sabres and Miller held on and now have their biggest test of the year coming up Saturday against the Ottawa Senators.

Miller has yet to have a shutout this season. That doesn't mean that he isn't hot. In fact, Miller is probably the hottest goalie right now in the NHL. Once again he stared down one of the three goalies picked over him for the Team USA Olympic roster. Miller is 4-0 against those goalies and he is continuing to prove that the Olympic committee dropped the ball when they passed him over.

The sellout crowd of 18,690 made their sentiments known about who should be the Team USA goalie when they started chanting "USA, USA, USA" after some great Miller stops.

"It was a real neat feeling," declared Jay McKee, the Sabres veteran defenseman who is aCanadian. "I can just imagine how it felt for Ryan. It almost gave you chills.

"He's played great. He's been a huge part of what we've accomplished here. I felt real good for Ryan to hear the fans do that. I'm real proud of our fans for coming up with that and rallying behind what he's doing in the net."

Miller was humble about the fans saluting him with the chant.

"It feels good for the fans to show their support," Miller acknowledged. "But I think they were trying to get Eschey, too. You know, playing both sides. It was flattering, but I'm still supporting our boys when we go over there."

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