UNIONDALE — The Buffalo Sabres took off from Long Island Sunday morning for a week of

sun and hopefully fun, with the capper being a quick jaunt to Vancouver two weeks before the

Winter Olympics open there.

It's the kind of trip virtually every NHL team rues when it maps out its season and that's

especially true this year, as the Western Conference clubs are dominating their counterparts

from the East.

The Sabres are the lone exception.

Buffalo enters tonight's game against the Phoenix Coyotes in Jobing.com Arena with a 7-0-1

record against the West — the only team in the league without a regulation loss to a

club in the other conference.

The Sabres' 15 points against the West are tied with Pittsburgh for the most by an Eastern

club and the Penguins are just 7-6-1. Every other Eastern team has at least four regulation losses against the West except Florida, which has three.

New Jersey and Washington, the two teams Buffalo is battling for first in the East, are a

combined 9-9-2 against the West. Philadelphia (3-5-1) and the Canadian combo of Toronto and

Montreal (both 3-8-1) have the lowest point total at seven.

The numbers demand an explanation but the Sabres don't really have one. They're just

content to go with the flow.

"It's another one of those questions like "Why have we been so bad against the odd team,' "

said coach Lindy Ruff. "Those are tough questions to answer. We just played a really good game

in Nashville, a great game against Detroit. For whatever reason, we've played some really good

hockey games. I don't have the answer for that. But I like going out West when we're playing

good against the West."

"We have a speedy team but they have speedy guys out there too," said defenseman Henrik

Tallinder. "Really, I have no clue but I'm not complaining. It's great."

Tallinder did then develop a theory. He said it seems the Sabres find more open ice against

Western teams who aren't as familiar with their personnel and are forced to sit back and react

to the Buffalo attack while they figure out what the Sabres are doing.

"When you don't see a team as much, you just don't know every play in their book,"

Tallinder said. "Against Colorado [the Jan. 9 shootout loss that saw Buffalo have a 15-4 edge

in shots in the third period], we were in attack mode at the end and you felt like, "Now we're

going to go.' They didn't know what was going to happen.

"It's fun to play against a different team you don't see that often. They don't really know

what you're going to do all the time. When you play Montreal, Toronto, those types of teams,

it's the same. They know you and you know them."

Another element is the way the Sabres seem to play better from the opening faceoff against

top teams. The West could have several 100-point clubs this year and it's imperative a

60-minute game is played for success.

The Sabres did not do that in either of the first two games on this trip but still pulled

out an overtime win in Atlanta and rallied for a point on a shootout loss Saturday in the

Nassau Coliseum against the New York Islanders.

"There's a lot of good teams over there, and we've been able to rise to the occasion

against good teams," said winger Mike Grier, who played the last two years in San Jose.

"That's how it's gone a lot this year. We seem to be more prepared and ready for the start of

the game and we've been able to do that a lot against the West teams."

The Sabres struggled against the West the last two years and it was yet another element

that kept them out of the playoffs. In 2007-08, their record was just 4-6 and they dropped

four games to non-playoff clubs. Last year, as the schedule expanded, they were 9-8-1 but just

1-5 against the Central Division. This year, they're 4-0 against the Central.

Buffalo's wins this year are over Phoenix, Nashville, Detroit, Edmonton, Calgary, Chicago

and St. Louis. Phoenix, Detroit and San Jose (which visits HSBC Arena Feb. 13 in the final

game before the Olympic break) are the three clubs the Sabres meet twice this year.

Chicago is 9-1-1 against the East, with its lone loss Dec. 15 in Buffalo. Calgary is 6-1-1,

with the shootout loss coming in HSBC Arena on Nov. 13. Nashville is 6-2-1, including a 1-0

loss at home to the Sabres. Detroit is 6-4-2, Phoenix 6-4-1, including its 2-1 loss Oct. 8 in

HSBC Arena.

Colorado is the only team the Sabres didn't get two points from and the Avalanche are

10-4-1 against the East.

Here's the record against the East for the Sabres' foes on this trip after tonight: Anaheim

5-5-1, Los Angeles 8-3-0, San Jose 9-2-1, Vancouver 8-1-0.

There's 10 points up for grabs on the trip over the next eight days. Ruff's stated goal was

nine or 10 out of 14. So far, the Sabres have managed to be ahead of that clip.

"I look at any point on the road as a good point," Ruff said. "I thought we had the

opportunities to finish the deal [in New York] and even in the shootout we had a couple

opportunities and didn't. That's a frustrating part but right now we've got three out of four

[points] and we've got to continue that."

Westward Ho

Eastern Conference teams' records against the West this season:

Team GPW-L-OPts

Buffalo 87-0-115

Pittsburgh 147-6-115

Boston 146-6-214

N.Y. Rangers 136-6-113

Atlanta 106-4-012

Florida 105-3-212

Tampa Bay 134-5-412

Washington 105-4-111

N.Y. Islanders 105-5-010

Ottawa 94-4-19

New Jersey 104-5-19

Carolina 144-9-19

Philadelphia 93-5-17

Montreal 123-8-17

Toronto 123-8-17