Sabres Win Again, Sekera Continues Streak

Andrej Sekera celebrates after a goal in the second period.
(AP Photo/Matt Slocum)

The Sabres have now secured 12 of a possible 14 points in games since Pegula has taken over the team.  Looks like I have plenty to talk about after taking the weekend off for a trip to the Big Apple.  While I was away, the Sabres tucked two more impressive wins under their belts.  I managed to follow the majority of each game but TV issues at an establishment I won't mention led me to miss a few goals in Saturday's game.  Thankfully there are highlights to watch online.  The first win this weekend came in the house of the East-leading Philadelphia Flyers as the Sabres came back from an early deficit to keep Philly's losing streak running.  The next came the following day as the Sabres traveled to Minnesota to earn two more points in overtime via Drew Stafford's nifty winner.  The team looked outstanding in both wins as a few specific players have noticeably picked up their play as of late.

In his blog post Friday afternoon, WGR 550's Howard Simon said "Sekera has looked like a different player, showing aggressiveness on offense while still playing smart and making good decisions with his puck handling and passing."  I would easily have to agree with him when he says Andrej Sekera is improving.  Sekera now has five consecutive games in which he has scored two points tallying two goals and eight assists over the span.  All coming after he failed to appear on the score sheet for his previous 19 games and didn't have a multi-point game all season long.  You can see in his play that Andrej is finally feeling like he did when he was named the OHL’s outstanding defenseman for the 2005-2006 season.  I no longer feel the need to cringe every time he touches the puck like I mentioned in my last post.  I take it back Andrej please forgive me!  Sekera has come a long way and hopefully he can continue to break out like Campbell did for us during the Sabres' 2005-2006 campaign.  Rob Niedermayer finally found the back of the net Sunday after being held without a goal for the first 53 games of the season.  I think even Rob surprised himself with that one.

Buffalo has now successfully moved into the 8th spot on the Eastern Conference.  They are 5-0-2 in their last seven and 3-0-1 on the current road trip which still has three games and approximately 2,103 miles left to travel.  Playoff odds are up 4.4 to a season-high 70.7%.  Things are really looking up for this team as they seem to have developed a healthy rhythm.  With 17 games remaining, we still possess three games in hand on the Rangers, who we trail by two points, and one game on the Hurricanes who we lead by a point.  The road trip continues tomorrow with a 7:00pm EST puck-drop in Pittsburgh.