Im kinda conflicted about this evening, given that the Buffaslugs became my second favorite team in the NHL last night.
Ahh, sweet Oiler suffering.
Anyways, Buffalo comes in fat and sassy having won 7 of their last 10. The vicious curb-stomping from last night pushed their GD up to +10 on the season, moving them ahead of the Flames in that regard (+8). Course, that might be a little deceiving since the Sabres managed to quintuple the ol' GD in one fell swoop.
Actually, the Flames and Sabres share a lot of similarities. Both teams score and get scored on a lot. Both have the same record in the last 10 games. Both are top 5 on the PK (3rd and 4th) and both have decent, if not spectacular, power plays (10th and 13th).
The contrasts are more subtle, but still apparent. Buffalo's scorers tend to get out-shot at ES, unlike the Flames. As such, the Sabres are the inferior club at 5on5 so far (-8 vs +1), despite playing in front of the superior goaltender. The thing that brings the two club's GD closer together is actually SH goals against: the Sabres have surrendered 0 (!) so far. The Flames? 9 (yuck).
Good news is, this is the second of a back-to-back for Buffalo and I think they used up a month worth of bounces last night. If Calgary can get through the first 10 minutes of rust (and manage not to give up 2 SHG) I think they can take this one. Also, neither Roy nor Regehr were suspended for the various shenanigans they pulled versus the BJ's (intimating the league implicitly supports cross-checking to the head and throat slash gestures). Yay!
Prediction - Flames 5, Sabres 3. Iginla, Langkow, Bertuzzi, Giordano and Lombardi for Calgary. Connolly, Roy and Gaustad for Buffalo.
PS - I'll be liveblogging the action over at thescore.com tonight. Join me via this link, or go over to thescore.com and click on "liveblog" when the time comes around. This is my first go for a third party, so any support would be appreciated.
