R-E-S-P-E-C-T

The intention of my blog was never to rant about recreational issues. Issues like sports and things going on in my personal life. It was started because I wanted talk about things that really mattered. It’s apparent in my first few posts, but eventually, I realized that to talk about those things, you really need to research the issues and I just couldn’t find the time to do that. In addition, my interests shifted slightly, so here I am talking about me. And sports.

The NHL playoffs are about halfway through and heading into the third round. Only one second round series is left to be decided and because three of the four series’ ended in five games or less, the media and bloggers have been rehashing numerous issues about the teams that lost those series.

Of course, I’m a huge homer and I’m rooting for my beloved Sabres to continue on their marvelous playoff run. However, in reading what people have to say about their second round win against the very talented Ottawa Senators, most people are faulting the Sens problems and barely giving credit to Buffalo’s accomplishments (if any!). Maybe everybody has forgotten that the Sabres were only 3 points behind the Senators at the end of the regular season. Maybe they forgot that the Sabres won 52 games this year. Maybe they forgot the Sabres had the fifth best record in the entire league. Maybe they weren’t watching the same series where the Sabres out coached and out hustled the Senators. I don’t know what the problem is, but I’m just asking for a little bit of credit to the Buffalo Sabres for playing within a system and successfully beating the favorite to win it all this year.

All that being said, I know the Senators were not the same team they were during most of the regular season. They had injury issues, most notably to Dominik Hasek. Yes, Ray Emery let in some soft goals and he was shaky at times, but I think he also played the best he could at times. He saved them in Game 4 (the only game the Senators won). They had their two best defensemen battling issues as well. Zdeno Chara was not the same dominant player he was for ¾ of the regular season. Wade Redden just lost his mother a couple weeks ago and was still likely feeling her loss. Many of the star players on the Senators did not “show up” to play (Heatley (cough), Alfredsson (cough, cough)).

Or maybe, just maybe, the Sabres found a separate weakness and exploited that. Maybe the forward line of Chris Drury, Mike Grier and Derek Roy, as well as the defensive pairing of Toni Lydman and Henrik Tallinder had a job to do, which was to shut down Heatley, Alfredsson & Spezza and they did that. Maybe Ryan Miller had to show how much of a big-time goalie he is now and will be for the future and he did that. Maybe the Sabres needed scoring from everyone on their roster instead of relying on four or five players, like the Senators must and they did that. Maybe the Sabres are greater as a whole team (hence the word TEAM!) than they are as individual parts, like the Senators are.

Maybe the Sabres had that one intangible thing that most teams would give their backup goalie for – confidence. They knew if they executed their game plan, they would beat the Senators. They didn’t question themselves, they believed they would win this series from the start. Ottawa may have had confidence before game one, but losing five different leads, two of which were in the last 1:37 of the third period and then to lose 18 seconds into overtime, the confidence left the Senators locker room and firmly planted itself in the Buffalo Sabres room for good. It was like a three-year old throwing a temper tantrum, screaming, “No way am I going back to them!” It was firmly entrenched in the Sabres minds and they forced it onto the Senators for the rest of the series.

Instead of laying the loss at the Senators feet because of their faults, how about showing a little R-E-S-P-E-C-T for the Sabres and their accomplishments.