A couple of former Buffalo fan favorites are back in a familiar spot; the Eastern Conference Finals.

Daniel Briere and Marty Biron, now both donning the Orange and Black of the Philadelphia Flyers, have played key roles in getting the Flyers within a step of the Stanley Cup Finals.

Briere is the Flyers leading post-season scorer, tallying 8 goals and 6 assists in 12 games played with a +1 rating. This after a down year where Briere scored 72 points (31 goals, 41 assists), and was an abysmal -17. Compare that to his last season in Buffalo when he tallied a career-best 95 points on 32 goals and 63 assists with a +22 rating. Don’t get me wrong, 72 points is a very good offensive year, but what stood out was the poor +/- rating.

Briere, however, has turned up his game in the playoffs. He has all but matched his post-season production during the Sabres 06-07 playoff run (15 points on 3 goals and 12 assists) but has played in 4 fewer games this post-season. His points per game average during the Sabres back to back Conference Finals run was exactly 1; 34 points in 34 games played.

Perhaps the change of scenery did Briere good. He has come alive in the playoffs for the Flyers this time around, and appears hungry to get his hands on Lord Stanleys Chalice.

The ever talkative Marty Biron has also played a key role in propelling the Flyers into the Conference Finals. He had a solid regular season, going 30-20-9 with a 2.59 GAA and a .918 Save Percentage. For anyone that is interested, both the GAA and Save Percentage were better marks than Ryan Miller got this year (2.59 v. 2.64, and .918 v. .906). Marty has solid post-season numbers in his first ever NHL post-season action. He holds an 8-4 record with a 2.72 GAA and a .914 Save Percentage. His last playoff action was in 1998-1999 with the Rochester Americans of the AHL, where he went 12-8 with a 2.15 GAA and a .934 Save Percentage while leading the Amerks to the Calder Cup Finals before losing in 5 games to the Providence Bruins.

I am glad to see these two finding success this year. As hard as it is for me, I have to throw my support behind the Flyers, because seeing Marty and Danny get their hands on the cup would be nice.

Stay tuned, as I recap the Sabres season and figure out what they should focus on at the upcoming NHL Entry Draft. It will be a busy summer for the Sabres, and I look forward to bringing it to you here at Dispatches from the Aud.

Unfortunately, I will be stepping down as the writer for the Bills and Sabres pages here at MVN.com. It’s been a lot of fun writing and interacting with you readers over the past few years, but it’s time for me to move on. I’ve officially graduated from Northeastern University and have accepted a full-time position with Messenger Post Newspapers.

I really appreciate those of you who have taken the time to read my thoughts on the Bills and Sabres over the years. I will continue to be a Bills and Sabres fan of course, but I just won’t be writing about them for now.

Thanks again,
Dan Goldman

The Lady Byng Memorial Trophy, established during the 1924-1925 season, is awarded anually to the player in the league “adjudged to have exhibited the best type of sportsmanship and gentlemanly conduct combined with a high standard of playing ability.”

Only one Sabres has won the award; Gilbert Perrault, during the 1972-1973 season.

The two other finalists are Pavel Datsyuk, who has won the last 2 years, and Martin St. Louis.  The NHL awards ceremony is June 12th.

As I sat at home watching the NHL Playoffs this weekend, I began to wonder how the Sabres managed to not even qualify after winning the President’s Trophy the year before?

That’s going from 113 points (53-22-7) to 90 points (39-31-12), a difference of 23 points. So, what happened?

First of all, some of the Eastern Conference’s basement dwellers really improved. The three worst teams in the East last year, Boston (76 points), Washington (70) and Philadelphia (56) all made the playoffs this year with 94, 94 and 95 points respectively. The Canadiens also improved greatly in 2007-2008.

Then there are the players Buffalo lost. Most notably, the Sabres lost their co-captains, Daniel Briere and Chris Drury. You can make fun of Briere for his minus-22 rating, but he did finish second on the Flyers with 72 points (31 goals, 41 assists). He currently is the top scorer for Philly in the playoffs with five goals, four assists and a plus-5 rating.

Drury didn’t score as many points as he did the last two years in Buffalo, with 25 goals and 33 assists and he managed to finish in the negative with a minus-3. Captain clutch did lead the Rangers in shorthanded ice time during the regular season and has already scored a game-winner in the postseason.

You can see some of that difference in the goals scored stats. In 2006-2007, Buffalo led the league with 298 goals. Despite losing the two stars, the team still managed to finish fourth with 251. However, those 47 goals could have been the difference in the playoff run. In 2006-2007, the Sabres ranked 13th in goals allowed with 238, but dropped to 22nd this season, allowing 233.

You could point to the Brian Campbell trade. In the final 20 games, Soupy scored 3 goals and dished out 16 assists for San Jose. In those games, the Sharks went 16-0-1 before dropping their final two. Meanwhile, Buffalo faced a desperate situation on the blue line due to injuries.

The last big reason I have is the difference in backup goaltending. Jocelyn Thibault just wasn’t very good for Buffalo. He went 3-4-2 with a 3.31 GAA and .869 save percentage. Meanwhile, Ty Conklin, who the Sabres could’ve retained, went 18-8-5 with a 2.51 GAA and .923 save percentage for Pittsburgh. Thibault’s incompetence required Ryan Miller to play in a career high 76 games, where he clearly wore down late in the season.

That’s my explanation for the fall from the top. Over the off-season, Justin and I will evaluate all the Sabres and discuss what should be done in free agency.

Butler, 21, comes from the University of Denver after three seasons. He was part of Buffalo’s training camp last year and was selected by the team in the fourth round of the 2005 draft.

Last season he had 3 goals and 14 assists, 110 blocked shots and a plus-10 rating. In his 115 game college career, Butler scored 20 goals and dished out 46 assists.

Defenseman certainly have a tendency to move up quickly in the Buffalo system. Butler will certainly have an opportunity.

Dmitri Kalinin, Tepo Numminen and Nolan Pratt are all unrestricted defensemen and Brian Campbell already left via trade.

That leaves Buffalo with Henrik Tallinder, Toni Lydman, Nathan Paetsch, Jaroslav Spacek, Mike Weber, Andrej Sekera, Mike Card and Michael Funk.

According to the Buffalo News, Regier plans to continue talks with prospect Tim Kennedy, a Michigan State forward and hopes to begin negotiations with Nathan Gerbe.

Michigan’s Kevin Porter took the award while Gerbe racked up three goals and an assist in a 6-1 victory over Notre Dame.

I don’t see why Gerbe would stick around at BC next year. He’ll be back with the Sabres for training camp and the preseason. It’s just a question if he’ll start in the AHL or a junior league.

Congratulations to Gerbe and Boston College.

Regularly, the player that kills Northeastern is Nathan Gerbe so I automatically disliked him. But after learning that the Sabres owned Gerbe’s rights, after selecting him in the 2005 NHL entry draft, I changed my opinion of the star. Upon inquiring about Gerbe from my friend Jeff, a BC student, he responded, “Gerbe is a man-boy-beast.”

“Man-boy-beast” sums him up pretty well. Last night, the Boston College junior showed blazing speed, scoring a hat trick against North Dakota in the NCAA Frozen Four. It has just been an incredible year for Gerbe, who leads the Eagles with 33 goals and 31 assists. He’s earned MVP honors at the Hockey East Tournament and is a finalist for the Hobey Baker Award, the Heisman Trophy of college hockey.

What’s even more amazing is that he’s only 20-years-old. When I see Gerbe, I think of Derek Roy and Daniel Briere. At 5-5, Gerbe is tiny by NHL standards, but with his sensational skating ability, he doesn’t have a problem turning on the lamp. In three seasons, Gerbe has tallied 64 goals and 58 assists. Eight of those goals have come playing a man down.

I know Buffalo fans are still upset that the Sabres aren’t in the playoffs right now, so if you want to get your spirits up watch Gerbe. Boston College faces Notre Dame in the NCAA Hockey Championship Saturday at 7 p.m.

For now, take a look at this move:

Buffalo’s playoff hopes officially died Thursday night as the Montreal Canadiens defeated the Sabres at the Bell Centre by a final count of 3-1.  Brian Smolinski scored 2 goals, and Carey Price was sensational in net for the Habs, who moved closer to securing the top spot in the conference with the win.

The game was scoreless until midway through the first when Chris Higgins beat Ryan Miller with a powerplay goal.  Brian Smolinski would stun the Sabres but 30 seconds later, extending the lead to 2-0.  The score would remain the same until late in the 2nd period, when Smolinski would strike again for his second goal of the game, pushing the lead to 3-0.

Ales Kotalik got the Sabres on the board midway through the third on the powerplay.  Kotalik used his patented bomb slapshot to beat Price and cut the lead to 2, but it turned out to be too little too late.  Price stood tall as the Sabres threw an extra attacker on the ice and peppered him with shots.

The chances were slim the Sabres would make the playoffs, but it still hurts.  Buffalo becomes only the third team since 1967 to lead the league in points one year, and fail to qualify for the playoffs in the following season.  Squandered chances are what plagued this team throughout the year; they were 4-9 in shootouts, after being stellar in that department the last 2 seasons.  If Buffalo had won 4 more shootouts (and therefore earned 4 more points) they would have been comfortably in the 7 seed right now.  Buffalo was also attrocious on home ice, with a record of 20-15-6.  This after having one of the best home records in hockey the last 2 seasons.

Maybe this team needed a season like this to re-learn how to play as a team.  Maybe the pain f missing out this year will drive them harder next year.  We shall wait and see.

My Three Stars:

1) Brian Smolinski, C MON (2 Goals): Paced the attack for the Habs

2) Carey Price, G MON (27 saves on 28 shots): A stellar job of shutting down a hungry offense

3) Derek Roy, C BUF (1 Assist): Roy’s assist stretches his point streak to a career best 11 games

Sabres Next Game:

The Sabres close out the season at TD BankNorth Garden in Boston Saturday night.  Gametime is set for 7PM.

Meanwhile, at the Mellon Arena, Evgeni Malkin broke a 2-2 tie with a powerplay goal with 5:27 left in the 2nd period, and Sidney Crosby put the game out of reach with a powerplay goal late as the Penguins downed the Flyers by a final score of 4-2.

So what does this mean for us Sabres fans?  First and foremost, we must still win our remaining games, starting with tomorrows contest at the Bell Centre against the Habs.  Boston cannot earn another point in either of their remaining 2 games.  If Buffalo wins out and Boston stays at 92, Buffalo owns the tie-breaker by way of goal differential.  Another point will give them 93, and put them out of reach for Buffalo to catch.  Philadelphia can still earn a single point in their remaining 2 games to give them 92 and Buffalo would still be safe by way of head-to-head records.

The quest for the playoffs continues tomorrow in Montreal.  Win and stay alive.  Lose, and locker clean-out is Monday.  Let’s keep it rolling.

However, the Sabres beat the odds, thanks to a Thomas Vanek power-play goal with under five minutes to play in regulation and Maxim Afinogenov’s shootout goal to clinch the win, 4-3.

It didn’t take long for the Leafs to get going. Darcy Tucker put a rebound by Ryan Miller 31 seconds into the game, as the Sabres goalie found himself out of position from stopping the initial shot.

Steve Bernier got two nice scoring opportunities in the first period, but backup netminder Andrew Raycroft stopped him both times. Raycroft stifled Buffalo earlier in the year earning a shutout victory and he was strong again Tuesday, recording 38 saves in regulation.

Toronto’s second goal came in the final minute of the first period while skating with a man advantage. Tomas Kaberle executed a textbook wraparound to catch Miller way out of position again, giving the Leafs a 2-0 lead.

Lindy Ruff juggled his lines during intermission, realigning the Derek Roy, Vanek, Afinogenov line that was so successful last year. Results came in the second period. Afinogenov led the rush and put a strong shot on Raycroft. Roy needed to dive to get to the rebound, but he managed to get it into the open net 4:22 into the second period.

Buffalo continued to pound Raycroft with shots, but couldn’t tie things in the middle period.

The Sabres eventually tied the game on a crazy play in front of the net. Nathan Paetsch put a wrist shot on net from the point and the puck sat loose in the crease. Adam Mair and Bernier both crashed the net causing the puck to cross the goal line. The original call was goal and the replay upheld that.

The Maple Leafs reclaimed the lead a few minutes later on a fine play by Alexei Ponikarovsky. He led the rush into the zone, hit the breaks and passed to the trailer Alexander Steen for a nice goal.

Two minutes after Toronto regained the lead, Buffalo answered. Thomas Vanek poked home a rebound off an Andrej Sekera point shot on the power play to send the game into overtime.

Miller needed to make a huge save in overtime to get the game to shootout, but he saved the season by turning aside a one-timer.

In the first round of the shootout, both Ales Kotalik and Tomas Kaberle scored goals. On the Kaberle goal, Miller got caught out to far and couldn’t recover. But, after that came a drought. Jiri Tlusty, Drew Stafford and Vanek all struck goal posts, causing Sabres fans’ hearts to skip beats.

After four rounds of no answers, Afinogenov used a brilliant deke to fool Raycroft to steal the game.

As Justin outlined in the last post, Buffalo needs to win out, while either Philadelphia or Boston can gain no more than a point. The Sabres travel to Montreal on Thursday and to Boston on Saturday in the finale.

I’m just unsure of Miller’s durability at this point. He didn’t look as strong as he has this season. It has been a long time since he’s had time off.

My Three Stars

1. Maxim Afinogenov, 1 assist and key shootout goal
2. Steve Bernier, solid play all night long with one goal
3. Andrew Raycroft, 38 saves in the losing effort