With the loss, the Sabres close out one of their best regular seasons ever. On Saturday, they won the Presidents Cup by beating the Washington Capitals 2-0. It was Ryan Miller’s second shutout of the season. The Sabres ended the season with their most wins ever with 53.

The Sabres will face the New York Islanders on either Wednesday or Thursday night at 7 pm

This game could have been dubbed the battle of the backups in Philly. It was Marty Biron’s first game against his former teammates. Biron was steady in goal, making 27 saves as opposed to Ty Conklin’s 29 saves. One of the goals that Conklin allowed was one he’d like back as it came off the faceoff and a shot hit his chest and went into the goal. Biron now is 1-0 against the team that drafted him and can enjoy his off season knowing that he prevented the Sabres from getting the most points in their history.

Biron was his usual jubilant self after the win.

"They kept saying little comments that only me would know what they're talking about," said Biron. "It brought a few smiles to my face during the game. It keep me loose. It was fun."

The Sabres once again had trouble with their special teams. They failed to score on their two powerplays and allowed a Philly goal in the third period when shorthanded. In all, the Sabres just wanted to get out of the game without any injuries and played one of their flattest games of the season against the NHL’s worst team.

"You don't want a key injury in a game like this that means absolutely nothing to you," Sabres coach Lindy Ruff explained. "It was two teams that didn't throw a lot of hits. As a players, you don't want to get hurt on your exit game. It was pretty mildly contested on both sides."

The Sabres could be expected to lower their intensity against a team that went in the opposite direction of the Sabres this year. The team Buffalo beat in the first round last spring, had the worst record in 40 years in ending last overall. Meanwhile, the Sabres have gotten all their injured players back except for Paul Gaustad, who thinks he may be able to come back by the second or third round if the Sabres make it that far.

Thomas Vanek scored his 43rd goal of the season and Jason Pominville recorded his 34th of the season in a losing cause.

"Expectations were high at the start of the season and we wanted to be the best team," reflected Pominville. "To be able to maintain this level all season has been something that we're happy about. Everybody's healthy now and we're right where we want to be. Hopefully we can keep it going."

The Sabres won the home ice advantage throughout the playoffs and the President's Trophy by beating the Washington Capitals 2-0 Saturday afternoon. It was Ryan Miller's second shutout of the season. The first one came at the beginning of the season.

The two long term injured Sabres, Tim Connolly and Maxim Afinogenov, made major contributions to the Sabres win. Afinogenov made one of his classic moves that drives defensemen crazy, deking out the D-man and going in alone on Oalie the Goalie. His shot was stopped, but there was a huge rebound that Derek Roy hopped on and tapped it into the net. This was only Maxim's second game since coming back from a broken hand.

Connolly, playing his first game since last May when Peter Schaefer gave him a KO hit to the head that knocked him out the entire playoffs and 80 games this season, scored his first goal of the season. Connolly, trying to set up Daniel Paille in front of the net, had his pass go off a Capital's stick and into the net. 

     HOME           SEASON'S RESULTS      SABRE TALK MESSAGE BOARD      NEWSROOM      99 PLAYOFFS    
THE PLAYERS      STATISTICS      SCHEDULE      PROSPECTS      LIVE GAME RADIO      HISTORY      TEAM INFO     
PHOTO GALLERY     MULTIMEDIA      SABRES POLL      TROPHY CASE      LINKS      THE STAFF      E-MAIL SABRESWORD

Copyright © 2007 Sabres Central, all rights reserved