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.

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!