Buffalo Boy's Blog

The Sabres had a chance to really put it in high gear and show what they have out west this week. So far, they have fallen flat on their collective faces. Anaheim was the probably the toughest of the first two games and the lost that one in embarassing fashion 4-1.

Last night, they doubled the embarassment by falling to the Kings 8-2 against a Kings team that is very beatable. Yes the Kings have good players but they were starting a rookie goalie making his first start. Is this how far the Sabres have fallen that teams are playing their back up rookie goalies on home ice against them?

The effort continues to be inconsistent and whether he likes it or not, the blame should fall squarely on the shoulders of Thomas Vanek. I don't care that hes only 23-24 years old. He got the big money, I didn't see him offer to turn it aside. He and his agent gladly accepted it and now hes showing that under the pressure of this contract and this teams lackluster efforts that he is clearly not worth the contract he got.

The other guy Im seriously starting to question is Darcy Reiger for not making the right moves to keep this team in working order. He knew that by losing Drury he was going to lose that spark that this team is desparately seeking right now and he failed to get a deal done.

I will admit, I was one of the ones saying, "lets wait and see they have talent", but like Herb Brooks said in Miracle On Ice, "You don't have enough talent to get by on talent alone....". That is starting to show with this team. They are missing the grit players to go with that talent that the skill players have. The flashy, playmakers are nice but they need some haymakers in there as well. Maybe they need Herb Brooks to fire them up a little.