What a difference a year makes
Sunday, November 25, 2007

Posted by HockeyReporter

By: Noah Borer

After a long off-season and lengthy training camp for most teams, the NHL season is underway, for some most teams the season is almost 25% complete.

Due to many off-season acquisitions from certain teams it looks as though it’s a very different year for two teams.

Buffalo Sabres

For this storied franchise, it looks as though they are having a difficult time getting back on track after an incredibly difficult off-season. While both Daniel Briere and Chris Drury left the team due to contract issues. Many would think that after losing your captain and close to half your offensive point-getters that it would be near impossible for the Sabres to be a playoff contender.

Those people are right.

The Buffalo Sabres have been struggling ever since their first game they won against the Islanders 6-4 to the Islander, everything has been downhill since there.

Being last in the Northeast division is a huge change for them, as this time last year they were atop the NHL in almost every category.

Guys like Thomas Vanek and Maxim Afiniganov flew under the radar last year because they weren’t put on the spotlight because of the guys like Briere and Drury. This year, it is much different. Both Vanek and Afiniganov are in the radar and are in the spotlight to shine. If those two guys can step up, and the Sabres get some secondary scoring from guys like Daniel Paille and Ales Kotalik then the Sabres have a chance to get back in the swing of things in the Eastern Conference.


Philadelphia Flyers

Much as the Buffalo Sabres have had a slow start this season it has been almost the complete opposite for the 2006-2007 worst team of the league – Philadelphia Flyers. The Flyers made some off-season acquisitions that would further help the team in the long-run. Not one move made by general manager Paul Holmgren looks to be faulty at this point in time. The first move that helped the Flyers was to remove to add goaltender Martin Biron in order to relieve some of the pressure from Antero Nittymaki. The next best thing was to bring in NHL veteran and one of the leading point-getters in the NHL – Daniel Briere.

To bring in new head coach John Stevens was the best thing that Holmgren could have done. Bringing in John Stevens allows players like Mike Knuble, Mike Richards, and Jeff Carter to let loose a little bit and stop playing with both hands grasped tightly to their stick.

Right now the Flyers are 5th in the Eastern Conference and if the team keeps playing like a team then they will continue to have enormous success throughout the season.