Tough Road Ahead For Sabres

Clay mentioned it yesterday that he got a Tweet that said the odds for the Buffalo Sabres to win the Stanley Cup stand at 38 to 1.  Just last month the odds were 200 to 1.  I looked into it and there are all kinds of places where you can place a bet on almost anything and some places have those odds as high as 15 to 1.  Almost all of them have the Pittsburgh Penguins with the best odds of winning the whole thing at about 4 to 1.

For the Sabres all of this assumes they make it to the Stanley Cup playoffs.  At this point they're in the driver's seat.  They control their own destiny because they hold down the 8th and final playoff spot in the Eastern Conference with five games left to play, but they're five tough games beginning Friday night with.......the Pittsburgh Penguins - the team that's favored to win the Cup this year.

The Sabres enter the game on a five-game winning streak.  Ryan Miller is red-hot.  He's been in goal and been a key to winning the last five games.  And finally this team is coming together - offensively they're scoring timely goals, defensively they're playing smart.  The forwards and the D are working together as a unit.  Their penalty kill has been terrific.  A couple of areas they need to improve is on faceoffs and on the power play.

Entering their final 10 games coach Lindy Ruff said his team might have to win all 10 to make the playoffs.  They're half-way to his goal and with the Washington Capitals just two points back in the standings the Sabres just might have to win all five of their remaining games.  If they continue to play as well as they have there's a chance they could even catch and pass Ottawa for 7th place in the conference.  The Senators are just two points up on the Sabres.

But Friday night the Sabres host Pittsburgh, then it's a home and home with Toronto.  Saturday night in Toronto and back home to host the Leafs on Tuesday.  The final two games are on the road - Thursday in Philadelphia and in Boston on Saturday.