If the Ottawa Senators are going to get back to the top of the Eastern Conference (or near it), they will have to dethrone our next previewed team and the defending Northeast Division champions, the Buffalo Sabres. Coming off a 100 point regular season, but a first-round exit courtesy of the Boston Bruins, the major question is whether they can repeat their triple-digit point total?
The Sabres are one of a very select few that can say that their goaltender is the guy that runs the ship, stirs the drink and any other cliché with being “the man”. Ryan Miller had another outstanding season for the Sabres as he won 41 times in 68 starts and picked up a 2.22 GAA with a save percentage of 930. How the Sabres go depends on how he goes, but based on past numbers, he should go pretty well.
So, the Sabres are set with the reigning Vezina trophy winner in goal for about 80-85% of the games, but how much harder will he have to work with a defence corps that won’t be as good on paper as it was a year ago? Where the Sabres really got hurt was in free agency over the off-season as they lost their top two defensemen early in July.
Gone are Toni Lydman to Anaheim and Henrik Tallinder to New Jersey, but they were replaced by Jordan Leopold and Shaone Morissonn. With the defence shakier than a year ago, the Sabres will really be counting on second-year man Tyler Myers to build off of his Calder-winning campaign and avoid the dreaded sophomore jinx.
But overshadowed by Miller and Myers is a talented group of forwards that have the ability to create complete havoc for any team in the NHL on a nightly basis. The problem for this franchise is that they have never been in a position where all the talented forwards were able to find the consistency at the same time.
Derek Roy led the team in points with 69 last year. We’ve seen worse totals lead their respective teams, but the problem is that Roy is capable of much more. Same for someone like Jason Pominville who had 62 points a year ago or Thomas Vanek, who only had 53 points last season when he has a career-high of 84 a few years ago. Just imagine what this team could have done if these three guys could have played with their "A" games every single night.
Two players to watch out for in camp are Tim Connolly and Tyler Ennis. Connolly was pretty much left for dead after having major problems with concussions for two years prior to last season, but he came back with a vengeance last year by scoring 65 points in 73 games, good for second on the team. The bigger question is not whether he can repeat the feat, but whether he can stay healthy long enough to repeat? Ennis had a great end to the season last year putting up 13 points in 16 games in his first NHL stint. What can he offer in a full season with the big club?