Home Sweet Home

The good about tonight's 5-2 victory over the Capitals:

- A victory at home after 3 losses in our building, one of them so ugly it brought the boo birds out. (I'm personally not a fan of booing your own team under any circumstances but to each his own, I guess.) We have a great chance of having home ice advantage throughout the entire playoffs so it'd be nice to play well there, you know?

- Two power play goals! Our power play has been very Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde this season - mostly Mr. Hyde - so it was nice to see some improvement. We were more or less keeping the puck in the zone, moving it around a little bit better, and actually putting some shots on goal. (Also on my list of things I hate are fans who yell, "SHOOOOOOOOOT!" through the entire power play but seriously guys, SHOOOOOOOOOOT!) Washington wasn't pressuring the PP units as much as some of the last few opponents have been so that probably helped but still... I think part of the problem has been a lack of confidence - guys are definitely gripping their sticks a little - so maybe a 50% night will ease some of the panic. Special teams in general were very solid tonight with the penalty kill shutting down the Caps powerplay.

- Drew Stafford getting two goals and playing like a man possessed. He had started to come down to earth some the last few games so it was nice to see his energy back up. I'm going to have to agree with Rick Jeanneret on this one: "He may never darken the doors of Rochester again." If any of the Rochester boys have earned the right to stay up and in the line-up, it's Stafford. His second goal was a beauty. We have to do something about the "Dreeeeeeew" chant though. That's Drury's thing. Stafford needs his own thing.

Side note: I love when a guy on the team with the lead has two goals and his teammates spend the last few minutes of the game making ridiculously stupid passes to him in an effort to get him a hat-trick. I can't think of a situation in any other professional sport where teammates go out of their way to give someone else on the team a little glory. Just one of the little things that makes hockey special.

- Le petit Briere scored his 30th goal tonight, making him the Sabres' fourth 30 goal scorer, Chris Drury (35), Thomas Vanek (35), and Jason Pominville (31) being the other three. If Maxim Afinogenov hadn't missed so much time with his hand injury, he would've been a lock for 30 as well. That means we have a 30 goal scorer on three different lines. Not too shabby.