Overreactions, Edition 51: Sabres beat Leafs. Sky also blue.

I told you the Sabres would cover the spread. You degenerates should’ve listened and put some money down.

For the third time in three tries this season, the Buffalo Sabres met the Toronto Maple Leafs and walked away with two points. The Sabres breezed past the Leafs by a score of 6-2.

Getting a pair of goals from the emerging Drew Stafford, the outcome was never in doubt.

“I’ve said it before that if we want to get into the playoffs we have to make sure that we deserve to go in and do the right things to get the wins,” Vanek said. “I think in Pittsburgh we kind of just sat back and let them take the game to us.”

It was a very encouraging performance for Sabres fans, seeing the team dominate and walk away with a win.

Then again, it was the Leafs.

Some thoughts on Saturday night’s game:

• Looking at the scoresheet, the names of the goal scorers are the ones you’d expect to see: Jason Pominville, Drew Stafford, Paul Gaustad, Tim Connolly and Thomas Vanek. If the team expects to make the playoffs, the guys who are supposed to score gotta be the ones getting the job done.
• Carolina defeated Atlanta in overtime, putting the Hurricanes into 8th place in the East. The Sabres are still 5 points back, which no matter what the results of either game, was the closest they could get to the last playoff on Saturday. Only downside is they don’t hold as many games in hand on Carolina as they do Atlanta, with Buffalo only having two on the ‘Canes.
• Here’s the guide to defending Mike Grier on a breakaway. First, catch him (not hard). Second, get in his way. Third, go after the puck when he turns into the corner and tries sending a drop pass to someone.
• Mike Weber will have to mess up big time to get himself out of the lineup. The guy has been exactly what the Sabres need on the blueline. Looks like a budding Rhett Warrener.
• The Sabres must be the only team in the league to pay someone an NHL salary to open the bench door. That’s you, Patrick.
• Ryan Miller made his 28th start in a row. The next game I could see the Sabres not putting him in net is one of the back-to-back games on February 15th (@ MTL) & 16th (vs TOR). Call up Enroth to face the Leafs?
• If the Sabres are going to try icing the best team they can come April, guys like Paul Byron, Nathan Gerbe, and Cody McCormick better be ahead of Rob Niedermayer on the depth chart.
• At what point to Leafs fans quit coming to HSBC Arena because their team never wins there? Gotta happen eventually, right?

That’s all for now. Cool stuff coming on Monday. In the meantime, go James Starks!