NHL Saturday

[coreyschucky]

NHL YTD: 3-3 (-3.25 units)


10* New York Islanders/Buffalo Sabres Over 5.5 (-150)

Watching the game I noticed a few things that I think the books will clearly underestimate early on.

1. New York Islanders have a very solid offensive core. 6 goals a night won't happen from them but when you look at there team they have a bunch of players on 1 year deals with alot to prove. Guerin, Comrie, Fedotenko have been nothing short of brilliant since paired together. They looked excellent last night. The Isles showed there offensive depth with the likes of Vasicek, Satan & Hunter. This team offensively has just one weakness and thats Andy Hilbert. If the Isles can find someone to replace him on the 2nd line possibly Jeff Tammbelini the 2nd line could be just as deadly as the first line.
2. New York Islanders defense is very, very slow. Maybe I'll give them a slight break cause most of these guys are teaming up for the first time but they didn't look good defensively at all. Buffalo is one of the fastest teams in the NHL and it clearly showed last night. The Isles defense turned the puck over numerous times to lead to 3-2 breaks for Buffalo. Fortunately DiPietro was in net to keep the Isles in the game. The Isles D will bounce back but I do think it'll take them awhile to have some serious chemistry. As an Isles fan I do hope they sign Berard soon and get him in there.
3. Buffalo Sabres will still be a pretty good team offensively w/o the likes of Drury and Briere. The Sabres have a ton of talent still and are exceptionally fast up front which will certainly help them out. They pass and cycle well and probably could have had a few more goals if it weren't for DiPietro.
4. Buffalo Sabres defensively will struggle against fast passing teams. This is a scary note. All 6 goals the Isles scored last night were on one-timers. When the Isles moved the puck well against the Sabre defense they had no issues and created alot of oppurtunities for themselves. Sabres defensively are better then this but that is a scary number.
5. New York Islanders might actually have a PP this season. Yes we're still waiting for Berard to be signed to QB the PP but in the meantime the Isles opened the season converting 3 of 4 PP oppurtunities, They did a good job moving the puck and cycling. Guerin in front of the net certainly helped as well

All of that said I don't think they'll produce 10 goals again like last night but these two teams will put up 7 or 8 goals tonight. Both of these teams can score and both have shown weaknesses in defense. Lots of new faces on both sides but you already see some cohesion offensively while defensively it'll take time. I was going to bet on my Isles last night but chose to just enjoy the game instead. Tonight I see an oppurtunity and I'm going to try and take it.


Good Luck to All!!!!