Buffalo Sabres 2010 Preview & Predictions

Buffalo Sabres 2010 Season Preview, Predictions Picks & Odds

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BUFFALO SABRES

2009-10 record: 45-27-10
Shootout Record: 4-6
Division Finish: 1st, Northeast
Conference Finish: 3rd, Eastern
Goals For: 235
Goals Against: 207

Buffalo Sabres 2010 Preview

No one disputes the Northeast Division champion Sabres have the all-important goaltending to take them back to the playoffs.

What they must do while Ryan Miller is still in his prime is make that a longer run through June.

In the five years that Miller has won at least 30 regular-season games, the Sabres have won a total of four series, none in the past three years.

The Sabres will start the new season with a Calder Trophy winner, having made the right decision to hold Tyler Myers back in 2008-09 to become a WHL all-star in Kelowna and then let him loose. The 6′ 8″ defenseman became the first Sabre since goalie Tom Barrasso to win the award. He’s the Sabres’ answer to big defensemen in the division such as Zdeno Chara of Boston and Hal Gill of the Canadiens.

There remains some fine-tuning to do with this roster, as the first-round loss to the Bruins showed. Buffalo led most of the series and captured two of three games on home ice. The unexpected contributions of Myers, Tyler Ennis, Nathan Gerbe and Tim Kennedy in the series were overshadowed by the loss to injury of high scoring Thomas Vanek early in the proceedings (he made it back for one game), on top of being without slick Jochen Hecht the entire way.

Myers and Kennedy were in the top 10 of team scoring, while Ennis, Kennedy and Gerbe did likewise in the Boston series. Ruff retains three 20-goal men in Derek Roy, Jason Pominville and Vanek. Pominville stood up and took the criticism lobbed at the team but said it should be put in perspective.

If the rangy Myers represented the bold side of the Sabres with some offensive talent tossed in, the fiery 5’9″ Ennis made for an interesting, if odd-sized bookend.

Another WHL product, Ennis caused a lot of grief for taller competition. And the Sabres have local flavor with Western New Yorkers Kennedy and rugged winger Patrick Kaleta.

2010 Buffalo Sabres Offense:

Vanek was once more prevented from playing a full 82 games and finished behind team leader Roy in points. He had a torrid pace going at the end of the regular season into Game 1 of the playoffs, then damaged an ankle on a scoring rush. But 172 goals in 389 regular-season games is still a great return for the Sabres’ big investment in the Austrian. Roy recorded his fourth straight season of 20-plus goals and split 12 game winners with Vanek, but was completely blanked in the Boston series. Ditto for Connolly, though he led the team with 48 assists in the regular season and played more games (73) than any year since missing all of 2003-04 with injury. Pominville was a plus-13, placing him second only to Hecht among all Buffalo forwards. He now has 24 points in 40 playoff matches.

2010 Buffalo Sabres Defense:

With Miller, Myers and the presence of veteran Craig Rivet a good foundation’ the Sabres will have to make up for the loss of free agents Toni Lydman and Henrik Tallinder, both long-serving members of the squad. Buffalo generally keeps its own end clean and had the fourth-lowest goals-against in the League last season at 207. Myers not only learned a difficult position requiring a cool head in his own zone, he was third in rookie scoring behind Matt Duchene of Colorado and John Tavares of the Islanders, while first in assists with 37. Rivet completed his second year as captain, while 30-year-old Steve Mantador arrived as a free agent and added some bite to the blueline. Andrej Sekera was the sixth defenseman in the playoffs but could get a higher profile this year. The Sabres signed Jordan Leopold in the off-season.

2010 Buffalo Sabres Goaltending:

Ruff tried to manage Miller’s minutes responsibly last season, knowing he was going to have a long year with Team USA in the Olympics. True to form, the Michigan native was 5-0 in the preliminary round and kept the Americans in the gold-medal hunt to the very end. He reads the play just like a forward does. Miller was second to Tuukka Rask of Boston in goals-against average (1.97 to 2.22) and save percentage (.931 to .929), but the rookie Bruin played 24 fewer games. For the present, Miller’s understudy is Patrick Lalime, who picked up four wins last season to bring him to 200 in his career.

Buffalo Sabres 2010 Special Teams

Until being burned for an average of a goal a game in the playoffs, Buffalo took great pride in its conference-leading penalty killing unit. Almost 90% true at home, the Sabres also were on good behavior as the fourth least penalized team in the League. Credit Miller and Myers and players such as Kaleta who had a couple of short-handed goals. Despite Vanek and Roy hitting in double figures in power-play goals, Buffalo labored at 17th in the League and was 0-for-19 against the Bruins.

Buffalo Sabres 2010 Season Predictions

There is no reason to think the defending division champs don’t have the requisite goaltending and firepower to get 85-plus points for the seventh consecutive season. But Buffalo has not repeated a first-place finish since the early 1980s and the gap between have and have-not’s in the Northeast is due to shrink.

We predict that the Buffalo Sabres will finish 1st in the NHL Northeast.

Buffalo Sabres Betting

Buffalo Sabres Stanley Cup Odds: +3000
Buffalo Sabres Eastern Conference Odds: +1400

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