Sabres face a real test — Senators
The Buffalo Sabres are feeling good about themselves. They should. They followed a convincing victory in Toronto with possibly their best win of the season. They went into Boston and dropped a team on a 10-game winning streak, a team that had won 14 straight at home.
Now, as the Sabres return to HSBC Arena, they are convinced they can beat anyone, provided they compete like they did during Saturday’s 4-2 victory over the Bruins.
“That was a statement game for us,” Sabres coach Lindy Ruff said Monday. “That game meant a lot to me. I wanted to see the way certain players played in that game. What I saw was a lot of good things. I saw a group that played for each other in a lot of situations.
“I’m more concerned with the way we play than who we’re playing. If we play a certain style or compete at a certain level, we’re going to be fine.”
That all sounds good. The Sabres, when playing well, certainly have shown they can compete with anyone. Well, almost anyone.
The team visiting the arena tonight is the Ottawa Senators. The standings say they are not good. The Senators are last in the Northeast Division at 13-18-6. They are 12th in the 15-team Eastern Conference with 32 points. They are 1-8-1 in their last 10 road games.
And you know what? It doesn’t matter. Despite the Senators’ unenviable numbers, this is another statement game for the Sabres.
Ottawa has owned Buffalo for the past four years. Since 2005-06, the Senators boast a 16-5-4 advantage in the regular season. That includes a 5-2 victory in the only meeting this year, back in October when the Senators were reeling and the Sabres, though road weary, were rolling.
“Ottawa, for whatever reason, has had our number the last couple of years,” Sabres forward Adam Mair said. “They seem to match up against us and play us well. We’ve got to be on our toes and ready to compete, play hard and be smart. I think we need to approach the game very similar to the way we did against Boston, and everyone needs to be going hard, competing.
“I think if we get the same type of effort, we should have good rewards.”
There are reasons for the folks heading downtown to be apprehensive. First, the Senators still have Daniel Alfredsson, Dany Heatley and Jason Spezza. In a combined 132 career games against the Sabres, they have accumulated 149 points. They struck for seven in October’s blowout.
“We’ve never played the game that we want to play against them,” Sabres right wing Ales Kotalik said. “It seems always the same guys are beating us, and we’ve got to finally be able to handle them.”
Another reason for skepticism among Blue and Gold backers is they have been let down a lot. The Sabres have won only 10 of their 21 home games. They are 1-1-1 in the last three, and even in the victory (via shootout) the Sabres blew a two-goal lead in the final 94 seconds. The last game was the 4-2 debacle against Washington.
That was the catalyst to change. The Sabres held numerous meetings after that game, and they’ve got their two-game winning streak to show for it.
“A lot of that drive is the players in the room have made their mind up that enough’s enough,” Ruff said. “Push each other, push each other a little bit harder. That lies on their shoulders, and you’ve got to give them credit for that.”
They made one statement against Boston. Winning at home, against Ottawa, would be a similar one.
“There’s no reason we shouldn’t be able to maintain the same competitive level and same battle than what we had the last couple games,” Kotalik said. “We just have to bring it home and bring it up in front of our fans.”
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