Buffalo Sabres Vs. Detroit Red Wings

There wasn’t much more the Buffalo Sabres could have done in the regular season. They won the division title. They won the conference title. They won the Presidents’ Trophy. All great accomplishments…that mean nothing now. It’s a new season and this powerful team that was strong at pretty much anything will attempt to win their 2nd title in 4 years. The offence is deep and potent, with the always powerful trio of Kovalchuk-Staal-Carter leading the way. Add in some strong support guys like Steen, Langenbrunner, Callahan, Belanger, Gaustad and others and it’s a heck of a forward group that is 4 lines deep and extremely well balanced. Factor in the league’s best defence, with 4 defenceman who picked up at least 40 points, elite shutdown defenceman such as Staal and Volchenkov and an elite veteran goalie in Martin Brodeur and the Sabres are a formidable foe from top to bottom.

3 KEY FACTORS:

• Handling the pressure. Everyone expects them to win and dominate. Will the pressure be too much to handle?
• The Red Wings power play is strong, so the Sabres penalty killing unit will have to be strong.
• Containing the Detroit offence, which was strong all year long. The Sabres will have to play a strong defensive game.

It has been quite a ride in the motor city this season. The Red Wings, thanks to several big off-season trades, were thought to be a shoe-in to make the playoffs. However, things did not pan out and by January, the team was selling off certain pieces, such as stud defenceman Chris Pronger and aging star winger Daniel Alfredsson, although they did snag snipping star Daniel Sedin later on. For whatever reason, the movement seemed to be the turning point as the team started to play far better hockey and it eventually won a battle for 8th place with the Blues. This is a potent team, Datsyuk-Semin-Sedin is a terrific trio and the forward group is very deep. The problems are on defence, the Red Wings were bottom 5 in terms of goals against average. That can be explained by a young defence, with Tyler Myers leading the way, as well as shaky play by veteran goalie Tim Thomas.

3 KEY FACTORS:

• The Sabres are just as potent by the Red Wings, so Detroit’s defensive play will have to drastically improve in order for them to compete in this series.
• Striking a blow early. The Red Wings enter the series as huge underdogs, if they can win a game early on, it will put lots of pressure on the Sabres.
• Tim Thomas. Simply put, without a strong series by the veteran, there is no way the Red Wings can beat the Sabres.

Prediction:  The Red Wings are potent enough up front to give the Sabres a scare…but the Sabres have been here before and they have little to no weaknesses…Sabres in 6.