Last night the Boston Bruins defeated the Buffalo Sabres 4-3 to win their best of seven series four games to two. Today we take a look back at the Sabres season, How they got there, what went wrong & where they go from here.
How they got there:
Led by United States Olympic Silver Medalist Ryan Miller in goal, The Sabres finished 45-27-10 on the season giving them 100 points, the Northeast Division title & the number three seed in the Eastern Conference.
Rookie defenseman Tyler Myers emerged as one of the top defenseman for the Sabres and is a nominee for the Calder Trophy. Forward Thomas Vanek led the Sabres in scoring with 28 goals.
What went wrong:
Thomas Vanek was injured in Game 2 with a lower body injury & none of the other Sabres forward were able to step up and replace the scoring void he left. The Bruins forwards had scoring problems going into the series but with Vanek's injury the Sabres no longer had the edge at forward.
Miller played well in goal but Bruins goaltender Tukka Rask was just as good in net and Boston's core of defenseman is better than Buffalo's.
The Sabres had a costly too many men on the ice penalty in the 2nd overtime of Game 4 which led to the game winning goal by Bruins forward Miroslav Satan giving the Bruins all the momentum in the series.
Add up all these factors and it's no surprise that the Sabres lost in six games.
Where do they go from here:
When the NHL returned from the lockout the Sabres had the deepest team in the league, being able to role out all four lines throughout the games & forcing teams to make adjustments.
Some of that depth has been lost the last couple seasons because of free agency and Buffalo has yet to fill the void at the forward position. Vanek is their best forward but Jason Pomenville, Derek Roy need to be more consistent & Tim Connolly needs to stay healthy.
The Sabres are set in goal with Miller and it looks like Myers is going to be a shutdown defenseman. Simply put, the Sabres will go as far as their scoring will take them.
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