Sabres Lose Ehroff in yet Another Loss

The nightmare of a season continued Friday night for the Buffalo Sabres. If you thought things couldn’t get any worse, well think again. A 3-1 loss gave the Sabres their fifth consecutive on the road. The road used to be something the Sabres excelled on early in the year going 8-3 in their first 11 road games. Now the Sabres are just starting to show one trend and one trend only, losing hockey games.

In the most recent loss Friday night 3-1 to the Washington Capitals, the Sabres lost key defenseman Christian Ehrhoff in what Lindy Ruff describes is a "lower body injury." Ruff says he expects Ehrhoff to play again this year but there is no definitive timetable for his return and the rumors are "weeks." Ehrhoff was hurt toward the end of the first period of the game.

The game started off and right away it didn’t go the Sabres way. An early penalty on Mike Weber for a hit-from-behind gave the Caps a power play. On the power play Alexander Ovechkin gave the Capitals a 1-0 lead on a fluke goal off of Christian Ehrhoff.

The Sabres might be under performing but they have had everything going against them as well. The Sabres had a total of 1 shot on goal through the first 13 minutes.

To start the second period another Capitals goal accrued to give them a 2-0 lead on a pretty goal by Nick Backstrom. The Sabres started to play better after the goal and managed to finally bury a goal as Jochen Hecht put in his 4^th of the year. That would be all on the board for the Sabres the rest of the night.

Ovechkin sealed the deal with a little over 5 minutes left in the third and the Sabres looked defeated at the buzzer. The team looked helpless. They are giving their all on many occasions and are coming up empty handed.

The New Year is upon us. As rough as it has been in the first half, I think it is safe to say we are at rock bottom Sabre Nation. It can only get better from here on out, or so it seems.

Other News: Derek Roy was finally benched toward the end of the game. Tyler Myers is still not ready to go and may not be ready until after the new year. Ruff said that he is not progressing as fast as they would have liked. T.J. Brennan has been called up from Rochester to take Ehrhoff's spot. Myers, Corey Tropp, Tyler Ennis, and Nathan Gerbe were the only participants in Saturday morning's open skate. Ennis and Gerbe are close to returning and we may see Gerbe tonight.

Recap by: Joey Pezzino