NHL
Sabres shoved into new roles
by MATT KRUEGER Reporter

Buffalo Sabres center Jochen Hecht prepares to unload on Boston Bruins defenseman Andrew Ference during a first-period fight in this past Saturday's game at HSBC Arena. Photo by Patrick McPartland

With all of the injuries the Sabres have suffered lately, you're left to wonder if the team made a deal with the devil for last year's Eastern Conference finals appearance and is now feeling the aftereffects. Maybe Lucifer is cashing in his policy with each broken bone and torn tendon.

Whatever the reason, be it bad luck, or whatever the opposite of divine intervention is, the Sabres are in trouble.

The emptiness left by Tim Connolly, Maxim Afinogenov, Paul Gaustad, Ales Kotalik, Jaroslav Spacek and Jiri Novotny, opens the door for other Eastern Conference teams to close the gap the Sabres have built for themselves. That is, of course, unless everyone else on the roster pulls a little more weight and the call-ups from Rochester, like Nathan Paetsch, Daniel Paille, Drew Stafford and Clarke MacArthur, can make a quick transition from AHL to NHL.

Stafford (power-play goal) and MacArthur played well in Saturday's 4-3, shootout loss to Boston Saturday, while Paetsch and Paille continued the strong play they began when being called up earlier.

"It's tough," coach Lindy Ruff said after Saturday's game, in which Kotalik went down with a knee injury. "I thought both of the young guys handled the game fine. We battled hard to get back in it. I like that part. We came back from two goals down, and we had some opportunities to win it. We battled hard to kill off those late penalties and put us into a situation to try to win the game. But you're looking at six guys that are out of the lineup. That's a sizeable amount."

Connolly hasn't been as big a concern as the others, since he has barely played in the past two seasons. The Sabres were hoping to get him back in March, but a leg injury has postponed his return from concussion problems.

Afinogenov was on pace to set a new career high in points this year and has been one of the key components in the offense. Afinogenov, Derek Roy and Thomas Vanek have proven to be one of the top lines in the league and have boosted the Sabres to the highest goal total in the league.

Kotalik has been a shootout thriller for the Sabres, using his patented backhand wrist shot to score five goals on shootouts in seven tries. In fact, the Sabres could have used him Saturday. Had he been healthy, Kotalik would have joined Daniel Briere and Vanek in the shootout, instead of Stafford.

"If he doesn't come back, that's another guy that's a big part of the team," winger Jason Pominville said. "And somebody else will have to step in and do a good job."

"He's been good in the shootouts. He seems to have his pattern move that he does. Obviously, we would have liked to have it (Saturday)."

Losing Novotny also hurts the offense, while Spacek leaves a hole on the defense.

With Gaustad out for the season, the Sabres are in dire need of some more physical play along the boards. That absence of someone to bang against opposing defenders and dig out the puck means the others on the team are going to have to be more physical and be willing to throw around their weight. And some of them already have.

Just take a look at Jochen Hecht. The German winger hasn't gotten into a fight since a preseason scrap with Tampa's Andre Deveaux in September 2005, but he was more than willing to throw down with Boston's Andrew Ference Saturday after getting slashed in front of the net. And that was when the Sabres were on the power play.

"I got speared in front of the net, so that kind of got me going a little bit, got me a little (angry)," Hecht said. "He said let's go, so I dropped the gloves."

"We stick up for one another and we've got some guys who can scrap and are tough. If somebody gets in trouble, there's another guy there to help him out. Now with Goose out, some other guys have to step up and step into his role a little bit. That's going to happen once in a while."

The message that fight sent to the other players that some of the more goal-oriented offensemen might have to get down and dirty came through loud and clear on the bench.

"You think somebody must have done something to him," Pominville said. "He doesn't fight for no reason. He's a tough guy though. He stayed in there and did well and kind of got the other guys going."

As the Sabres prepare for the rest of the season and look to hold onto their top position in the Eastern Conference with an even younger team than the one that started the year, they all know how much more it is going to take.

"We have to be physical as a team," Pominville said. "I think overall we did a pretty good job at that. It's a team effort and guys are stepping in. Clarke and Drew came in and did a great job. Hopefully, we can keep those guys and keep it going."

e-mail: mkrueger@beenews.com