No Need To Vanek in Buffalo

Chad Klassen
Love of Sports Correspondent

After the devastating loss of both Daniel Briere and Chris Drury via free agency two offseasons ago, the Buffalo Sabres took a major step back as a franchise that snatched the Presidents’ Trophy as the top team in the NHL in the 2006-07 campaign.

Not surprisingly, they bounced between the playoff ledger all season last year minus those two offensive weapons, eventually settling for ninth and missing the postseason.

However, two seasons removed from their franchise-record 53-win season, the Sabres have flown out of the gates with an impressive 4-0-1 record — just over a week into the 2008-09 campaign — and are keeping pace with division-favorite Montreal (5-0-1) with goal scoring and goaltending from their high-priced guys, Thomas Vanek and Ryan Miller.

Buffalo faithful can largely thank the play of both for the quick start. However, Vanek’s particularly soared in the first week and leads the league in goals with seven.

Last week alone, he scored six and added a couple assists to help the Sabres post four quick wins early in the season. He has nine points in the team’s first five contests and is tied for fourth in NHL scoring.

Vanek’s near hat-trick effort against the previously undefeated Rangers last week was simply amazing — with one of his two markers coming shorthanded facing a lethally talented New York power play.

The NHL honored the 24-year-old Austrian native as the First Star of the Week for his dazzling performances.

The young rising star looks like he’s developing into the true No. 1 center Buffalo inked to a seven-year, $50-million deal in the summer of 2007 after matching Edmonton’s offer sheet to the fifth overall pick in 2003.

Last season, Vanek struggled by his standards to reproduce the 84-point season (43 goals) he had in 2006-07 when the Sabres advanced to their second straight Eastern Conference Final.

Consequently, he was criticized in the Buffalo area for his lack of scoring, according to the $10 million he was raking in, and the team’s ultimate failure to make the playoffs.

To be fair to Vanek, he was left without the talents of Briere and Drury, one of whom he would often played alongside. These were two guys who took off some of the scoring pressure and aided the youngster’s breakout sophomore year, and he couldn’t solely contribute offensively.

First-line replacements Derek Roy and Maxim Afinogenov were a nice fit on Buffalo’s top offensive line, but the Sabres just didn’t have the necessary depth to compete every night.

However, now that Vanek seems to have returned to his top form, the Sabres have seemingly followed suit as a team, rising back to the top of the East.

Now, only a week into the NHL season — and time will truly tell if Buffalo can remain competitive with barely two legitimate scoring lines — Vanek’s playing really well and deserves props for the sick moves he’s putting on the ice, averaging over a goal per game with seven snipes through five games in Western New York.