The Opening Salvo

Ok, I have decided that I hate the Sabres more this year. If they can miss this chance to win the Cup then they will likely lose more important pieces of the puzzle over the summer and become the Eastern Conference's answer to the Nashville Predators. I still hate the senators but the enemy of my enemy is my friend and all that. For 7 games or less. And then I'll be Earl Sleek's new best friend.

Matt and Tom L at Sabre Rattling have a preview of the series and a response to an article up respectively in what constitutes the Eastern Conference Finals' Battle of Lexington and Concord.

Here are some highlights:

It seems every post-season the same thing gets said. They’re more committed to team defense than in the past. More committed than under Jacques Martin? Murray was brought in to open up the Sens, not close them down. More schizoid behaviour
from an immature bunch of pretenders.

Pot. Kettle. Black.

Can Fisher, Comrie, Vermette and Kelly do it this time? Bottom line, one injury to any of those three guys and Ottawa is sweep material.

Dismissing an entire team. Interesting.

If Ray has to think about where the shot it coming from, the Sens are in trouble. He’s outplayed 2 AHL goalies (Sorry Marty, but man most of those goals were brutality incarnate) on one-line teams. Woo.

He didn't have trouble in the regular season and that's when the Sabres were actually playing near their potential. Meanwhile, Miller's been outplayed by two goalies and their one-line teams.

The Sabres haven’t played their best game in a while and when we do with half a squad of Amerks and a short bench, we make the Sens look positively chicken-s#$t.

There's that talk of magic switches again. That might work against flawed teams like the Islanders and Rangers but it won't be easy against the most complete senators team in my lifetime.

Forner Sens teams were so yellow that they might as well have donned the Preds 3rd jerseys.

Interesting considering that the Leafs and sens racked up 8 wins against the Sabres this year in hard-hitting games that saw their defense throw the puck away like a grenade.

If we’re talking about Spezza and Heatley back-checking on occasion as the team’s newly-found committment to defense then just state that, but past the first line, this is a team of muckers and checkers that if they wore Islanders sweaters the press would be talking a Buffalo sweep.

Hmmm, or maybe they are talking about Phillips and Volchenkov shutting down the top line of the Pens and Devils or their complete denial of second chances or their complete domination at 5 on 5. And comparing them to the Islanders will not look good when the Sabres are golfing in two weeks.

I despise the Ottawa Senators in a way that I no longer despise the Rangers, because they’ll never understand why it is that they suck. It’s a franchise that is the quintessence of immaturity. With all of the personnel changes why couldn’t the Sens land just one guy who’s actually won something?

Did I miss all of the Stanley Cup winners that the Sabres added? Drury is nice but who else on their team has won anything in the NHL? Plus, Gerber has a nice ring ;) The

Sens have Alfie as their captain. We have Drury. Who would you pick?

I'd take either so far in these playoffe. It's basically a wash but I would go with the guy that's never been a diver (ps all Sabres are divers and Roy is their leader).

So, have at it ladies and gents. Remember Tom's request:

p.s. No more politeness from here on out. This is the Conference Finals vs. Ottawa. I want pics of choking babies and ‘your momma’s so ugly’ jokes. Let it all hang out people (but keep the profanity to a minimum, please).

As a reminder to visitors, we try to keep it respectful as possible while intimating that the other side of the argument is insane. This isn't Habsblog. Spelling, Grammar, coherence, and a minimum of caps lock/exclamation points are all valued. As a guideline I would suggest respectful arrogance and everyone will get along fine :)