Sabres at Devils, 4-2

Posted 10:08 PM ET | Comments 2

The numbers:

1. Special teams: The Sabres went 2 for 2 on the PP and gave no PP opportunities to the Devils. Unbelievable!

2. Faceoffs: Devils 35, Sabres 21. Zubrus won 88% (15-2) for the Devils while Hecht was 25% (4-12) and Gaustad was 28% (5-13) on the draw. The only Sabre abve 50% was Derek Roy (8-5).

3. Shots: Sabres 34, Devils 22. Buffalo really laid it on them in the 2nd period with 18 shots against NJ's 9. Paille, Vanek, Stafford, and Sekera led the team with 4 shots each.

4. Ice times
Afinogenov 5:34 (!!!)
Peters 0:55 (lol)
Numminen 16:09

Lydman and Tallinder led the team with 24 minutes each.

Notes:

Scoring on the rush! Yay!!!

Gerbe also picks up his first NHL point, assisting on Drew Stafford's PP goal. The Roy-Gerbe-Stafford line keeps on keeping on, with a combined 4 points tonight. Shifting Vanek with Hecht and Pominville seems to have woken them up a bit, but I'd still like to see Vanek pick up some assists and seeing Hecht and Pominville net some goals for themselves. The Sabres offence will officially wake up from its slumber once those two start scoring.

Kotalik is also getting plenty of shots on goal night after night but he's shooting below 10% with 7 goals on the year.

Current underrated player: Jaro Spacek. He's been putting up points quietly in the background, picking up another assist tonight bringing his total to 14. (He's also got one goal.) He's playing a steady 20+ minutes per game, helping out the still-developing Sekera.

Special teams = awesome. Not only did they not ever have to go on the PK, they scored on both PP chances. That's incredible. What better way to wake up the offence.

Hard-earned win from the Sabres. The lesson learned here is that goaltending just has to be good enough if the Sabres can get points on the board. Neither Lalime nor Miller necessarily have to be superstars if the offence can score; they just have to make the saves as needed.

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