Free-For-All Friday - Sabres are Red Hot!

** NOT ORIGINAL CONTENT - Written by NHL.com's Matt Mankiewich **

MAPLE LEAFS (1-7-2) at SABRES (7-1-1)

Season series -- First meeting this year, but the Sabres hold a five-game winning streak over their Northeast Division rivals, two at home and three at the Air Canada Centre. The last win for the Leafs was on Dec. 12, 2008, a 2-1 victory in Buffalo.

Big Story -- No question it's Buffalo's perfect three-game road trip, capped off with a solid 4-1 effort over the Devils at the Rock Wednesday night. The Sabres allowed two goals or fewer in each game on the trip.

Website Wednesday - Sabres.NHL.TV

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Believe it or not one of the four major North American sports just started their season, but you wouldn't know it because ESPN doesn't cover sports they don't have the rights to air. The NHL just began it's 92nd season in Stockholm, Sweden and Helsinki, Finland. For the third year in a row the NHL choose to begin its season in Europe attempting to market the league to an international audience, much like the NFL has done with Mexico. The marquee event for this season will the Winter Classic to be held at Fenway Park on New Years Day 2010 with the Boston Bruins hosting the Philadelphia Flyers. This will be the third season that the NHL plays an outdoor game at an alternate sport's stadium.

Buffalo Says Goodbye to the Aud

The Buffalo Sabres old home, the Memorial Auditorium, is being demolished to make way for bigger and better things in downtown Buffalo. One of the most notorious games in NHL history occured in the Aud. The "Fog Game" as it is known was a result of an unusually humid May day in Buffalo during the 1975 Stanley Cup Finals versus the Philadelphia Flyers. Here is a video from Sabres TV talking about Aud memories and a short clip showing footage from the "Fog Game".

Sabres Win One for Flight 3407

Late in the evening Thursday night outside of Buffalo as small commuter plane crashed into the small community of Clarence Center, NY. All 44 passengers and the four crew members perished in the crash. Here are some Buffalo Sabres speaking out about the crash, as some of them even heard it in the own homes. Several of the Buffalo Sabres live in Clarence Center and were not that far from where the crash occurred.

Buffalo were leading early against visitors San Jose Sharks. Early in the first period the Sabres were up 3-0, then let that lead slip in the second as they finished the second period at 4-3. Then with six minutes left in the third the Sharks seize the day on Buffalo and go ahead for the first time in the game 5-4. Then with three seconds left in the third period Buffalo's Jason Pominville puts the puck in the back of the net to force the OOOOVVVVEEERRRTIME! Needless to say the Buffalo boys pulled one out for the community, for Buffalo, and for the victims of Flight 3407.

Lindy Ruff's Post Game Interview

NHL Voices - Rick Jeanneret

For my first entry of the day I bring you the NHL Network's series Voices featuring Rick Jeanneret in the Sabres broadcast booth for the last 36 seasons. Please forgive the quality of video, its the audio of RJ that is priceless in the end. If you haven't seen this special yet I highly suggest you do. Here is Part 1 of this episode, the other files should line up afterwards.

Did Someone Say Buffalo Hockey?

SABRES ON THE WARPATH!

Sabres Drop Gloves

During our six game road trip out West the Buffalo Sabres have been playing amazingly physical hockey. The entire Eastern Conference is not known for their grit, while the Western Conference is known just for that. This is the culmination of playing scrappy hockey with the Chicago Blackhawks, Dallas Stars, Edmonton Oilers, Calgary Flames, the Phoenix Coyotes and finally the Anaheim Ducks all on the road. The Sabres have been effectively on the road since January 10th. They came home for a game against the Hurricanes on 17th right before the All-Star break. But essentially the entire month of January was played against Western Conference teams on the road, as we even started off the month of February there as well. Here are the fights from last night's game versus the Ducks.


Craig Rivet versus Corey Perry in the 2nd Period.


Craig Rivets drops them again verus Steve Montador.


Andrews Peters versus George Parros "The Pirate".

Sabres Stun Stars

Rick Jeanneret's Top 10 Calls

First of Eight Battles

Today the Buffalo Sabres welcome, well maybe not welcome, the Toronto Maple Leafs to the HSBC Arena. The 2-2-0 Sabres take on the 2-3-1 Leafs with Miller and Toskala in net respectively. It's time to break out the Canadian jokes and Cap on a Canuck.

An American, a Scot and a Canuck were in a terrible car accident. They were all brought to the same emergency room, but all three of them died before they arrived. Just as they were about to put the toe tag on the American, he stirred and opened his eyes. Astonished, the doctors and nurses present asked him what happened.

"Well," said the American, "I remember the crash, and then there was a beautiful light, and then the Canadian and the Scot and I were standing at the gates of heaven. St. Peter approached us and said that we were all too young to die, and that for a donation of $100, we could return to the earth."

He continued, " So of course, I pulled out my wallet and gave him the $100, and the next thing I knew I was back here."

"That's amazing!" said one of the doctors, "But what happened to the other two?"

"Last I saw them," replied the American, "the Scot was haggling over the price and the Canadian was waiting for the government to pay for his."

LEAFS SUCK! LETS GO BUFF-A-LO!

Sabres Rally 6-0 Past Thrashers

Finally the Buffalo Sabres arrived to participate in the NHL regular season. After a home-and-home sweep by the Islanders, the Sabres were desperately hurting for a win. As Mike Robitaille stated in the pregame coverage Buffalo had to keep their goals against average down. And the Sabres did just that marking a 6-0 shutout of the returning Southeast Division Champions the Atlanta Thrashers.

The boys from B-Lo were looking to match the feat of the Carolina Hurricanes the day before in having a different player score for each of their goals. Ales Kotalik started off the scoring in the 1st period followed by Tim Connolly and Brian Campbell all scored on the power play. Then Jason Pominville started off a two tally 2nd period with a short handed goal on a two on one breakaway. Derek Roy scored again with three seconds remaining in the 2nd period to put the Sabres up 5-0. Looking forward to his first full season in a Sabres jersey is Danny Paille who capped the night off with a goal in the closing seconds of the game. Ryan Miller posts the 5th shutout of his career and his first for the 07-08 NHL season.

The Blue and Gold looked backed to form in their defeat of what many consider to be one of the better teams in the NHL. Let's hope that the Sabres can keep up their winning ways. As of this point their looking from the bottom up in the Northeast Division of the Eastern Confernce.

LETS GO BUFF-A-LO!