Sabres Wounds Finally Healed |
| Buffalo, NY: The Buffalo Sabres had been
dealing with injuries to major contributors all season,
but after 38 games they still sat atop the Eastern
Conference with a 25-11-2 record. Then, disaster
struck. The injury bug that had been nagging the
Sabres all year suddenly and inexplicably got worse.
In the next 22 games, the Sabres would lose Pavel Bure,
Pierre Turgeon, Tony Amonte, Stu Barnes, Dave Andreychuk,
Vladimir Malakhov and Karl Dykhuis for at least 3 games
each, mostly 6-10 games each. Andy Delmore was
already out with a broken neck. So, that left the
Sabres with a horribly disjointed lineup during a very
important part of the season. 4 of their top 9 forwards
all out at the same time, along with 3 of their defensive
top 4 also out. Combined, the aforementioned
players have missed 100 man-games this season. When
both Amonte and Bure were out, the Sabres were forced to
us Vladimir Orszagh as their first line right wing, with
Turner Stevenson on line 2. Alexei Tezikov, Jason
Holland and Nick Schultz were all in the defensive top 6.
The only top 9 forwards not to miss games during the
stretch were Orzsagh, Ilja Kovalchuk, Ron Francis and
Cliff Ronning. Of course, the Sabres win percentage
plummeted and they fell out of first place in the East.
In those 22 games, Buffalo went 7-14-1 (that’s
right, the Sabres lost more times in the last 22 games
then they did in the first 38), leaving them at 32-25-3.
Amazingly, they sit just 2 points out of the Eastern
Conference’s second spot, and 9 behind the New York
Rangers, the pretenders to the Eastern Conference thrown.
More importantly, the Sabres somehow maintained a lead in
their own division, staying 3 points ahead of the Ottawa
Senators and 4 points ahead of the Montreal Canadiens.
With the return of Pavel Bure today and a rest day
tomorrow, the Sabres will play with their first
injury-free lineup since about 40 games ago. “It’s
been a tough season, and this last stretch was especially
tough,” said coach Paul Maurice, “But now that
everyone is healthy we expect to pick up right where we
left off. Don’t be surprised if we catch the
Rangers and take first place back. Do you really
think if we wouldn’t have lost all those guys, that
the Rags would have caught us? If you do, your name
must be Bo Siemsen!” The players also seemed very excited. “To finally have everyone healthy again is awesome, it seems like it’s been so long since we had a healthy lineup take the ice. I think you’re going to see our squad come out and play with some real energy. We’re going to finish the season hot and go into the playoffs ready to fight,” said center Stu Barnes. Ron Francis had this to say, “It’s going to be tough to catch the Rangers, no doubt about it, especially after they picked up Alexei Kovalev, Rod Brind’amour and Brian Leetch. They are definitely a team to be reckoned with, but I think everyone needs to remember that we are the defending champions of the Eastern Conference and now, we’re back in full throttle. Plus, who knows, maybe they’ll start losing players like we did. Stephen Webb is already out!” The Sabres have also just completed what is probably the toughest part of their schedule for the season, so that was probably actually the best time for them to have that many injuries. “Hey, if we’re going to have that many injuries, it may as well be during a tough part of the schedule. Plus it’s better that it was in the middle of the season, because now there’s still plenty of time to play catch-up,” said GM Conor Williams. So, now the Sabres have 22 games to make up 9 points on the Rangers. It’s not very likely, but it is definitely a possibility. With everyone 100% healthy, the Sabres should at least return to second place in the East, while the Rags keep their rightful place warm (until the playoffs, of course). |