About Saturday Night

by Ryan



FACT: Clarke MacArthur has the same amount of goals (10) as Jason Pominville.

FACT: The Sabres gave up two goals in the final 1:34 of play.

FACT: The Sabres got two points.

Which fact is most important to you? That third one should be most important. That's the one that really matters, I suppose. Still, it really feels like there isn't much positive to take out of the Islanders game because of how long it went on. When Clarke MacArthur wrists it home it should be over. A 3-1 game on home ice is money, right?



All of a sudden you're in overtime wondering what the hell happened. It should have been over at least four times, but that's how the Sabres have been playing this season. Rich and I kept saying "This is one of those games that slips away," and sure enough it's tied up with two seconds left.

Maybe it's not a major sign of weakness to give up a two goal lead that quickly, but this was the freaking Islanders. They looked terrible all night and scored once on a Miller brain fart. Where did that suddenly firepower come from? Chris Campoli and Mike Comrie, with five goals between them before Saturday night. (Speaking of that... Mike Comrie is making four freaking million dollars this year to score three goals? He's the Canadian Maxim Afinogenov. Jesus.) Not exactly a murderer's row that did the job on Saturday.



Thank God for the fact that Joey MacDonald was in net for the Isles, who looked completely lost in the shootout. I think he was the only person in the building who didn't know Kotalik was going backhand, and Stafford barely put the deke on him before it was in. Getting past the overtime period pretty much locked up that second point, but it should have never gotten to that point in the first place.

I want someone to invent a stat that calculates how many points a team gives away per year. It isn't an exact science, but it's safe to say the Sabres are already in the double digits in this hypothetical stat category. We aren't chasing the Islanders these days, but you aren't supposed to leave the door open for teams below you, either.

A good team takes care of New York with ease. The Sabres were about six minutes away from doing just that. The question remains, are the Sabres just a few minutes away from being a "good" team, or is something more truly necessary? It's an honest question, one they may not know themselves and may take the entire season to answer.