For the third game in a row at home, a team came to Buffalo and trapped the Sabres to death. It was downright ugly as the Sabres seem to be clueless on how to get through that kind of defensive system. And for the third game in a row, their powerplay unit came out firing blanks while allowing the opposition to score a shorthanded goal.

The score was closer in this game than the night before when the Wild beat the Sabres 5-1, as the Devils won 3-2 and came to within a point of the first place Sabres in the Eastern Conference. However, it was that shorthanded goal, scored in the second period by Brian Rafalski that stuck the pin into the Sabres and their fans bubble. The sound of the air escaping from that bubble was deafening for miles around.

Now the Sabres have to lick their wounds and go on a 4-game road trip. After losing to Colorado, Minnesota and New Jersey, the Sabres must find their offensive game again before they sink lower in the standings. On top of that, Ryan Miller, who has the goalie job to himself after the Sabres traded Marty Biron, has not performed well in those 3 games. Ty Conklin was supposed to start one of the two games this weekend, but Sabres coach Lindy Ruff decided to nix that plan and go with Miller in both. He may be regretting that decision now.

"To lose three in a row is disappointing and it does bother you, but we're the team that has to pick it up," said Ruff after the loss to the Devils. "We've been a good road team, now we have to go on the road and do some damage."

The first two games in the Sabres 3 game homestand further emphasized that the Sabres are not ready for the postseason if it started tomorrow.

Against the Colorado Avalanche, the Sabres lost another 3-2 game, but the style of intimidation that has frustrated the Sabres gave the Sabres fans panic attacks.

The Sabres were stymied by the trap the entire game by the Avs. In the final period, down 3-2, they didn't get one shot on goal for the entire last half of the period! Any team studying the tapes of this game will see the Avs line up 4 or all 5 players on the red or Avs blue lines and prevent any penetration into their zone.

It was a trip back to the pre-lockout days, with clutching, grabbing, muggings and most of all, the dreaded trap. It is back folks and you can thank Colin Campbell for allowing this type of cancer to creep back into our game.

When the NHL rolled out the "new and improved" NHL last year, they proclaimed to the world that the game would not ever return to the boring style of clutching & grabbing, to the boring trap games. The NHL is back in the dark ages and Colin Campbell is probably the happiest man in the league because of it!! He is a prehistoric dinosaur himself and if Bobby Clarke had been given a half year extra with the Flyers, their style of play would be completely embraced by the NHL again.

With the Colorado Avalanche employing the style more akin to the Devils than to the old wild open Western style of play, the Sabres were caught by surprise and were not able to generate anything Wednesday night. They were completely kept out of the Avs zone for most of the night. Down by 3-2 in the third period, the Sabres mustered a measly 4 shots on goal in the first 10 minutes. After that, the couldn’t even get into the Avs zone. The Sabres registered ZERO shots on goal when it mattered the most! This was a pathetic effort by a team that leads the league in scoring, yet the main reason for the loss goes to Colin Campbell and his Nethanderal style of hockey.

It has been said that the Minnesota Wild are one of the better trapping teams out west. That seems to suit their name and the region they are from, trapping animals in the wild.

The Wild trapped the Sabres in shutting down their high powered offense for the second consecutive home game, beating the stuffing out of the Sabres 5-1. The way it was going for most of the game, the Sabres were fortunate to get any pucks past Josh Harding. Josh Who??? The 22 year old backup looked like Martin Brodeur against the Sabres. The fact that the Sabres have a history of making backups look like all-stars is besides the point.

"It’s tough against those teams to come back,"commented Jochen Hecht. "They line up four guys back. Once they get the lead, they just pack it in and live off turnovers."

When the Sabres were able to get through the brick wall the Wild set up and into the Minnesota zone, Harding was there to make the stops.

Meanwhile, on the other end, Ryan Miller looked like a third grader who just learned how to skate. He was horrible in the net. Dominic Moore made it look easy flipping two pucks high over Miller's shoulder for the first two Wild goals. Miller also had his back used as a billiard shot that got in from behind the net.

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