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FeedWhich Sabres team will show up Thursday?
On one hand, you've got the eternal optimist Sabres fan, already planning the Stanley Cup parade at Niagara Square. On the other, there's Mr. Pessimist, prepared for a four-game sweep in the Eastern Conference quarterfinal and, firmly clenching his what-went-wrong notebook caddle prod, ready to banish Darcy Regier and Lindy Ruff to the South Pole.
You know both types. Some of us have both within their circle of family and friends, whether they grew up with the French Connection and crossed swords, the Hasek-led goatheads or the present-day banana slugs. The rest of us are caught in the murky, muddled middle. We've seen spirited runs to the Cup Finals and crushing first-round disappointments, so we can't make up our minds what will happen in this first-round matchup with the Boston Bruins. Count me among that demographic, since indecision may or may not be my biggest problem.
Can't blame me, can you? I mean, what are we to make of this version of the Sabres? We've seen them, from October to April, be maddeningly fragile and satisfyingly strong; frustratingly low-scoring and gratifyingly high-octane. The only consistently good thing has been Ryan Miller, on whose stellar play the team has fallen back on in times of trouble. And yet absent is the sparkling-clear optimism that accompanied the spring of 2006. Then again, the dead-in-the-water feeling we had in April 2000 isn't in the air, either.
So the tormenting question lingers, then. Which team will show up Thursday night? The cohesive group that went on convincing tears in parts of November, December and January to begin its push to the Northeast Division crown? The bums who couldn't even stay on the ice with the Blue Jackets during its February swoon? No one really knows, but one thing's clear: this group shouldn't think it can just leave it all to Miller. The group's core of Thomas Vanek, Derek Roy, Jason Pominville and Tim Connolly have to find the net and rattle a pretty darn good Tukka Rask. If the top four forwards don't quickly find the consistency they lacked all season, it's going to be a short spring.
Bruins fans, meanwhile, are right there with us. What happened to the dynamo that zipped to the top of the conference last season? Even though they watched their team scratch, claw, kick and paw just to secure a playoff spot, they wouldn't be out of their bean-fed skulls to think that, riding an upstart goalie who led the NHL in goals-against average, they could be on the verge of a postseason run. Kind of like the '99 Sabres.
What gives me the stones to take Buffalo in this series is Ruff. Say what you want about the guy, but there are few bench bosses as good as Ruff at preparing a team to succeed in the spring. The Sabres haven't always made the playoffs during his fourteen seasons at the helm, but they've usually taken care of business in the first round when they have.
Ruff's challenge is not only to get that top four firing pucks into the net, and keeping this middling defensive group focused and mentally tough, but also to get one of the team's unsung or underachieving players (Drew Stafford, Jochen Hecht and Patrick Kaleta, your ears should be burning) to vastly overachieve, a la Dixon Ward or Matthew Barnaby during the '98 and '99 playoff pushes.
Waking the power play from its season-long slumber might help, too, not to mention getting the lucky bounces that any team other than the '77 Canadiens and '85 Oilers must have for playoff success.
So we'll all watch, not knowing what to expect come Thursday, Saturday and so forth. Messrs. Pessimist and Optimist don't know either, they just want you to think they do. Joe Pessimist will remind me of the disappointing losses to Boston '88 and '89; the starry eyed optimist will interrupt to talk about Buffalo's domination of the Bs in '99 during that Cup run. I'll be sitting between them ordering the pitchers and wings, trying to make peace.
The only thing we'll agree on? After two straight depressing playoff-less springs, it'll be nice to see the Sabres back in the playoff fold.
