Ahhhh...You have to love NHL hockey. With the cold wind and the clock change not until later tonight, it did not quite feel like early summer playoff hockey, but it was close enough. Bring together a recent rival, a Canes team that is playing very well right now and the former Sabre player fan club meeting in the parking lot and it was about as good of a hockey atmosphere as you can get before the series of 7s start. (Don't get me wrong, I love the all-time great jerseys like Hasek or LaFontaine, but I'm not sure I saw a single jersey with a current Sabre name on it.) But enough about the non-game stuff.

For me there were 2 stories that decided the outcome of the game:

1) Buffalo penalty kill and Miller. Buffalo's penalty kill was very aggressive and tight on the puck without gambling too much for outnumbered chances or passes through the box. More production from the Canes powerplay makes this a 5-3 Canes win in regulation. Despite allowing 4 goals, Miller was incredible. On both the Staal open-netter in the 2nd and the Samsonov shot in OT, Miller seemed to come from 5-6 feet away to take away a sure goal.

Without the penalty kill and Miller, this game ends much earlier at 5-3 or 6-3 Canes, but the penalty kill and Miller were good for an all-important road point in the playoff chase.

2) Skate-skate-skate. Except for the lull in the 3rd period, the Canes carried the game with their skates throughout much of the game. Their skating led directly to many of the Buffalo penalties and kept the majority of the pressure in front of Ryan Miller.

Like many a Canes/Sabres game in recent past, the team that skated better ultimately picked up 2 points.

A few other notes:

1) Did he lose all night? Staal is becoming a beast on the boards. Did he lose a single battle for a lose puck on the boards the entire night? If he did, it was only a handful of times. His nearly 30 minutes of ice time did not seem to slow him either.

2) Bayda on the 1st goal. Bayda was a man possessed on the Aucoin goal skating through a check to win the puck initially and then skating through another harder bang only to carry the puck to the front of the net before Aucoin banged it in.

3) Shaky in net. In between some good saves, Ward was shaky. The 1st goal that seemed to give Buffalo life at 2-1 was obviously a bad 'oops' handling the puck and in trying to be aggressive he overplayed things multiple times including the Stafford goal where he went too far out with players behind him.

4) The best? For as good as Staal, Samsonov, Cullen and really everyone have been, has Scott Walker been the best Canes forward of late? He continues to generate scoring chances by the bunches on a nightly basis, helps (with his line) set the tone physically for the entire team and has put up his own goals too. If you make some kind of stat sheet adjustment for the fact that he sees only limited powerplay time, I think you could make a case that he has been the team's best forward over the past 4-5 weeks of great hockey.

5) +2 more. In winning, the Canes gained 2 more points on 2nd place Washington. The Canes are suddenly up a whopping 7 points. Even with 2 games in hand, Washington is starting to fall behind.

6) Tightening up. One of my biggest complaints about this team a few months back was its inability to grind out a 2-1 or 3-2 win on a night when things did not come easy. October was marked by the Canes just being better than whoever they were playing such that most wins came easy. November through January were marked by 06-07 maddening inconsistency in which the team would look like a good team in an impressive 5-1 win 1 night and then show up completely flat the next. There was no middle ground where they ground out a decent win on a decent, not great, night. They were good or bad and nothing else. So fastforward to this week. On Thursday and again on Saturday, the Canes played likely playoff teams and while they played pretty good games, they were unable to run away for an easy win. But via work ethic, avoiding bad breakdowns and balanced play both at forward and on the blueline, they were able to convert both into 1-goal wins. Along the way, the Canes have found a penalty kill that had been missing throughout the season.

7) Rest and stay ready. The one advantage of playing more games than most teams until now is that the Canes can get some breaks including 3 days off before the next game. In addition, with the current roster doing just fine, there is no need to rush someone like Whitney back.

Hmmm...improving special teams...balanced scoring contributions from all 3 lines...winning via hard work...Sounds like a recipe for good hockey in late April and later.

Go Canes!

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