Kotalik too?!?!!? How can we beat streaking Philly?

You've got to be kidding. Six regulars...in six games. Kotalik, right, suffered a knee injury after colliding with newly acquired Boston blueliner Andrew Ference. Kotalik joins the populated injury list and has the company of Jaroslav Spacek, Maxim Afinogenov, Paul Gaustad, Jiri Novotny, and Tim Connolly. Kotalik is expected to miss four to six weeks, meaning if all goes well, Afinogenov, Kotalik, Spacek, and Novotny should return in about a month, just about the same time.

Gaustad, of course, is lost for the entire remainder of the season and playoffs. Connolly is hopeful to be back as soon as the last few games of the regular season, but with his almost constant setbacks, that would be a miracle. The good news is that Buffalo really only needs to get about thirty points to really put themselves in a good spot for the playoffs. With an opportunity to gain as many as forty-six, it seems like a reasonable feat. Buffalo can finish with as few as seven wins and four or five overtime losses and still make the playoffs, as well.

That's not Buffalo's style, however. They will drive, grind, crawl, and limp their way through the remaining 23 games clawing and scraping for two points each game. Hopefully, Briere, Drury, Pominville, Roy, Vanek, and Hecht can pick up their scoring and make up for the injuries. Defensively, the Sabres are in good shape, because Paetsch is more than adequate in replacing Spacek.

The next six games are huge though. Philly, Ottawa, Ottawa, Toronto, Montreal, and Toronto again. Philly is 5-2-3 in their last 10, which is very impressive. Ottawa is 4-2 against Buffalo this season, and Ray Emery, Ottawa's goaltender, will be back from his suspension for both games. Toronto is Buffalo's rival, and always plays hard, and finally, Montreal plays Buffalo to one goal games and beat Buffalo in overtime once this year already.

If Buffalo makes it out of this stretch with at least seven points, look for them to start causing serious damage in mid-March.

Buffalo Loses In Eight Round as Tenkrat Beats Miller

Petr Tenkrat of the Boston Bruins hasn't been involved in a shootout all season. Boston Coach Dave Lewis sent Tenkrat in as the sixteenth shooter of the shootout, and Tekrat didn't fail. Sabres goalie Ryan Miller made the initial save, but the puck hit his lower arm and continued with some momentum toward the net. Miller didn't know where the puck was and it followed him as he slid backwards into the net.

Buffalo was down 3-1 in the second before Marc Savard took a penalty. Buffalo was threatening on the powerplay, but Tim Thomas and the Boston penalty killers looked like they would keep Buffalo from scoring. A big break for Buffalo was that Petr Tenrat took a penalty fifty four seconds later giving Buffalo a five on three. Alternate Captain Savard ran his mouth off when the dorr was opened for Tenkrat, and immediately was handed another penalty, two minutes for unsportsmanlike conduct.

With a two minute five on three, Buffalo looked sloppy. Finally, Chris Drury got sick of screwing around, threw the puck on net, and cut Boston's lead in half. With a long powerplay still going, Buffalo kept up the successful work and just threw the puck on net, hoping to capitalize on second and third chances. Briere was set up perfectly in front of the net, but stalled with the puck, and instead of just slamming it home, he tried to be fancy, and it appeared goalie Thomas made an incredible save. Play continued until the end of the second, (52.7 seconds) but then the shot was reviewed.

The goal was held up, but there was still time left on the clock. It took almost twenty minutes to get the Bruins back on the ice, and I am still wondering why they weren't assessed a penalty. But anyways, the period finished with Buffalo tying the game up 3-3.

The third period was relatively classic Sabres hockey until the last ninety seconds. Buffalo gave up two penalties and had to kill a five on three for thirty-eight seconds and a powerplay for the first minute and a half of overtime. They did that, almost scoring shorthanded, and put together an excellent last three minutes of overtime. Unfortunately, Boston blocked all of Buffalo's shots.

Boston went on to win on a dribbler in the eighth round of the shootout. Ryan Miller is the NHL's best shootout goaltender, with a record of 9-3, but two of the losses have come to Boston now. Buffalo is now 5-0-2 against Boston this year, and the two will meet again on April 5.

Buffalo Sabres vs. Philadelphia Flyers

Philadelphia, with a league low forty points (16-34-8 = 40) have had two streaks of nine or more losses this season. Philly has had a team that would have been better than great in the old NHL rules, and managed to play well last year. This year, however, with all the teams used to the new rules, the Flyers have been getting run over because of their lack of speed and passing. However, the last ten games, as aforementioned, they have played very well, and star Simon Gagne, right, has been playing excellent hockey as well (8 goals, 5 assists last 10 games).

The Flyers would love to play the part of spoiler after Buffalo utterly destroyed them in the first round of the 2006 Stanley Cup Playoffs last year. With Buffalo's injuries, Philadelphia is bloodthirsty and they are mroe than willing to prove that they can knock off the team leading the NHL in points, and they are a team to be feared in the closing months of the NHL regular season.

Buffalo has four rookies on the roster who will play their hearts out for 65 minutes in Clarke MacArthur, Mike Ryan (called up from Rochester for Ales Kotalik yesterday), Nathan Paetsch, and Drew Stafford. Look for all four of these to have similar games to the Boston game. They all played well and didn't make any costly mistakes, which is more than can be expected, but all that Buffalo needs in this critical time.

The game is on national TV, on Versus, and should be a good one. It should be a dogfight from beginning to end. Look for Thomas Vanek to have a good game - in two games vs. Philly this year, the sophomore has five points (2+3). Both Buffalo goaltenders (unsure of who will start, though it looks like Miller will get one or two more starts before he gets a rest) have enjoyed success against Philly in their careers.

Buffalo prevails 4-2 and gets ready for the next two weeks of a scary schedule without six of their players.