Buffalo Rising Online

Apr 12th 2007, 1:47pm By Dave Staba

It took some serious searching to find him, but there is at least one hockey observer who thinks the New York Islanders, who compiled the worst record among the 16 teams that qualified for the National Hockey League playoffs, will upset the Buffalo Sabres, who had the best, in the first-round series that starts tonight.

Or so says Anthony Affrunti of the New York Post:

The Isles have nothing to lose, and they showed they can perform miracles and have to come out firing. Can they perform better with pressure or without? Buffalo was on a tear this season, but now the pressure is on them. Call me crazy, I'll take the Isles in seven.

Translation: I can’t stand the idea of being like everyone else on the planet and picking the Sabres, even though I really think they’ll win in five or six games.

Affrunti’s non-conformist stance should comfort perpetually worried Sabres fans, who don’t believe the otherwise unanimous praise their team is getting, both locally and internationally, can possibly represent even mediocre karma.

All five members of the Sports Illustrated hockey panel predicted Buffalo to win the Eastern Conference title. Michael Farber’s bracket breakdown was typically dismissive of the Islanders’ hopes:

Ted Nolan's return to Buffalo is a nice story, but the miracle of Wade Dubielewicz - a.k.a Yoda - crashes to a halt.

Scott Wraight sticks to his preseason prediction of a Buffalo-Anaheim Stanley Cup Final, but makes an ominous observation in his final power rankings for the regular season:

With that in mind, there is one thing working against the Sabres: Only six Presidents' Trophy winners have gone on to win the Cup in the 20 years since the league began giving out the award.

Apparently, he had decided that bit of trivia was meaningless by the time he finalized his playoff predictions.

ESPN.com bumped Buffalo from No. 4 to No. 1 in its final power rankings, smacking the Islanders’ heretofore unknown goalie in the process:

We won't hold the regular-season finale against the Presidents' Trophy winners, who finished out the week 3-1 and are getting healthy at the right time. Poor, poor Dubie.

ESPN also has columns previewing the brackets in the Eastern Conference and the Western Conference, sort of. The premise seems to be that one or the other is more capable of producing a Cup victor. It seems most people would more interested in which team wins than in the superiority of one geographically based organizational structure over another, but the debate underscores how wide-open this tournament is every year.

FOX Sports didn’t present season-ending power rankings, but does have a breakdown of all the first-round series, which started Wednesday night.

TSN’s mathematical equations, which kept Buffalo behind Ottawa for a lengthy run at the end of the season, vaulted Buffalo to the top on the final pre-postseason list

As for the playoffs, Canada’s Sports Leader, perhaps not wanting to offend anyone with presumptuous predictions, sticks to a straight-ahead preview with as much statistical breakdown (such as how many power-play minutes each skater averages) and roster analysis as you could want, or more. The look at the Sabres-Islanders series lavishes praise on Buffalo, while hinting at a potentially exploitable flaw:

Brian Campbell leads a reliable Buffalo defence that doesn't put a lot of points on the board, but excels in two other important elements - skating and puck control. Teppo Numminen, Henrik Tallinder, Dmitri Kalinin and Jaroslav Spacek all carry these traits well, but lack overall toughness.

If you really want to get overconfident, check out the playoff preview by Wes Goldstein of Sportsline, (who also kept Buffalo on top in his final power rankings of the regular season):

I'm still convinced the Sabres would have won it all last season had four of their top six defensemen not missed their final playoff game. The Sabres are healthy now, they have a deep and balanced offense, a quick and mobile offense and one of the league's best goalies in Ryan Miller. Most important they have speed to burn and they use it better than any team in the league.

So there’s plenty to feel good about. At least until about 10:30 tonight.

(Photo by Mark Dellas for Traffic East.)