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Sabres Central

Sabres DOA in Ottawa

By Rick Anderson
May 16, 2007

This is a bigger shock that the October Surprise snowstorm that left the Buffalo area in the dark for over a week and wrecked havoc on trees and homes. The high-powered Buffalo Sabres have had a week-long blackout of their own and it doesn’t look like the lights will come on anytime soon.

The Sabres found yet another way to lose to the Ottawa Senators Monday night. Only one man showed up, Ryan Miller, and he had to face the entire barrage of the Senator arsenal alone.

Miller was the one-man Sabres team and almost kept the Senators off the boards. Once again, it was an unlucky bounce that foiled Miller. This time a shot went off the boards and it got past him, and as it went into the crease, Daniel Alfredsson tapped the gift goal into the net. That proved to be the only score of the night as the Senators won 1-0 and took a commanding 3-0 lead in the series.

The Sabres will have a lot of big questions to answer in the offseason. There will be a lot of finger pointing by the fans and media for this total collapse against the Senators. This was supposed to be a close series, possibly going 7 games. The Sabres didn't show any desperation, drive, or desire in this series. They laid down and simply gave up against the Senators. The Sabres were DOA before they even arrived in Ottawa. Their heart stopped beating before their series with the Senators even began.

The Sabres and Senators have traded places. Last year, it were the Senators that choked and lost in 5 games to Buffalo. Now, this year, the Sabres know how the choking attack feels. They are on the verge of being swept. Yes, the same President's Trophy winners are now an embarrassment to hockey and will lose in 4 straight games to the Senators.

There could be another sweep after the season is mercifully put to rest for the Sabres. There could be a clean sweep of personnel in the organization after such a dismal playoff performance against the Senators. Players like Chris Drury, Daniel Briere and maybe even Thomas Vanek could be gone come next October. And it doesn't stop there. Lindy Ruff must answer for his failure to make the proper adjustments to counter the Ottawa attack. And he must find someone to make his special teams special again.

Sabres MIA

The fans and the media are mystified as to why the Sabres have laid down and curled into a fetal position during this series with the Ottawa Senators. One would think that the Sabres would at least get up enough desire, desperation and pride to come out with their best in the Conference Finals. Instead, they are sucking their thumbs and hiding from the outside world.

The strangest thing of all is that the playoffs is what the Sabres were pointing too all year. They had lost in the conference finals last season because of a rash of injuries to their defense had decimated them. They worked hard to get home ice advantage throughout the playoffs, winning the Presidents’ Trophy. All their players had come back from injury, so they had a full squad.

Figuring their hunger and experience would help them get deep into the playoffs again, it was shocking to see no life in the Sabres, even in the first two rounds. The team seemed to be going through the motions, were on automatic pilot most of every game. Their talent finally did allow the Sabres to beat the Islanders and Rangers in their first two series, but a team cannot coast against the Senators. They will rip you apart, and that’s exactly what they’ve done.

"I don’t know how you explain it," said a mystified Daniel Briere. "I don’t know what you can do to change that. Obviously, we’re down to one game now, and I’m hoping that everybody’s going to lay it all on the line. I can’t control how everybody else is feeling about whether we have a chance or not, but I certainly do think we can play better and get back in this series."

If it weren’t for the heroics of Ryan Miller in Game 3, the Senators would have won by at least 9-0. Buffalo only had 15 shots on goal in that game, and are now 0 for 18 on the powerplay in the series. Both the Rangers and Islanders would put forth a much better effort if they were facing the Sens rather than the Sluggish Sabres.

Now the question is whether the Sabres will roll over and play dead again tonight to prevent a very embarrassing sweep at the hands of the Senators?

Co-Captain Chris Drury obviously isn’t going to go down without a fight. That’s just his nature to claw and scape until the end.

"I think the way we're looking at it, there's two choices," reflected Drury. "Curl up and cry about it and go home or we can fight like dogs and hopefully we show up and fight like crazy."

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