NHL: Sabres, Flyers Looking To Get Back On Track

The Buffalo Sabres and the Philadelphia Flyers are two teams who set the bar high; now they’re struggling to live up to their own lofty expectations.

Both teams opened their wallets in the offseason. The Flyers thought they were addressing a long-standing problem in net when they shelled out $51 million over nine years for Ilya Bryzgalov, aka Mr. Shutout (the Vezina Trophy finalist had seven blanks with Phoenix the year before, with a 2.48 goals-against average and 36 wins). They traded away both captain Mike Richards and rising star Jeff Carter to make room in the budget for the Russian goalie. This season, he’s been erratic between the pipes and enigmatic away from the rink.

In upstate New York, new Sabres owner Terry Pegula gave the thumbs up to sign veteran defenseman Christian Ehrhoff to a 10-year, $40-million deal and young forward Ville Leino to a six-year, $27 million contract. They even managed to convince blueliner Robyn Regehr to waive his no-trade clause to lure him away from the Calgary Flames.

It’s gone wrong for both teams, more so for the Sabres. They’re in the Atlantic Division basement and tied with the Tampa Bay Lightning for seecond-last in the conference at 54 points. Ehrhoff, Regehr and Leino have all spent time on the disabled list. Leino, signed for his offense, has produced a paltry 4 goals and 15 points in 45 games so far. Despite this, Leino will be playing on the top line against his former team on Thursday, presumably night in hope of sparking his dormant stick.

They’ll need something; the Sabres have not been able to beat Philly in their last five meetings. Another ominous statistic: with 2.4 goals per game, Buffalo ranks 26th in scoring. The sentiment is running against the Sabres, too: the NHL betting line shows the Flyers as the favorites in this matchup.

On the surface, it looks like Philadelphia is doing fine. After a strong start to the season, they are second in the Atlantic Division right now (tied with Pittsburgh at 69 points, but with a game in hand) and fourth in the Eastern Conference. Scratch the surface, though, and the situation starts to look more dire.

One tiny point separates where they are right now (fourth) from the spot the Ottawa Senators currently occupy (seventh). Meanwhile, New Jersey is on a 6-2-2 roll in their last 10 games and the Penguins are also flying high, with a 6-3-1 record in the same stretch. The Flyers are a woeful 3-4-3, and backup netminder Sergei Bobrovsky has not helped much while Bryzgalov has been sidelined with the flu for the past three games; Breezy is scheduled to start against the Sabres on Thursday.

This game will likely be a strong indicator of which team is more likely to go farther toward fulfilling their initial promise … and which one needs to go back to the drawing board.