EASY OPPOSITION, BUT WE SHOULD WIN

Our opposition for the night is weak, injured and tired from a tough game last night. So it should be an easy win right? Well we've all heard this song before, most recently the loss to TO a couple of Saturdays ago. So what should be the expectation for tonight? Will we really take advantage of a weak team and notch a solid win? Will the fire the coaching staff is lighting under some players work and kick start a stalling offense? Or will we take the Sabres too lightly, get ahead of our selves, start focusing on tomorrow's game and drop the ball on this easy two point opportunity?

I believe that the formula being implemented on the first line will work. I foresee Higgins and Koivu picking up some overdue points tonight. The second line will punish the overzealous Sabres defence with their speed and capitalise on several odd man rushes. The energy line will hit and hurt the relatively smaller Sabres team and tire them out.

The question mark remains with the checking line. The logic of putting a scorer on the checking line not only fails to shed light on how it's supposed to improve Ryder's play, but it could turn our brick wall of a checking line into Jell-O. Between Ryder and Kostopoulos, it doesn't take a genius to figure out the latter will have a much easier time settling into his new temporary role. However this is not to say Ryder will not succeed. The odds are not in his favour, but prior to the beginning of the season neither was this team for being one of the more dominant teams in the East. The coach believes enough in Ryder to keep him on the ice and not the press box. Therefore Ryder's fate remains in his own hands. This should hopefully, and in theory provide the motivation he requires to get going again. Here is how I can rationalise this situation:

Since Ryder will be on third line, he will be matched up against lesser players, which means he would have better chances at taking shots from better positions, and this in turn will help him score and gain his confidence back. In theory it makes sense, but I wouldn't hold my breath on that one.

The Sabres might capitalise on the third line, but we will score our fair share. Some solid goaltending from Huet should ensure this game ends up with a win for the good guys, and then we can start worrying about tomorrow's game.