When you sleepwalk through a home game, and your best players aren't your best

The Sabres embarrassed themselves in front of a sellout crowd last night at HSBC on a night that saw them put forth one of their effort of the season.

As expected, Lindy Ruff called out his team, naming players like Hecht and Roy in particular, and on this night, the team called themselves out as well. The question remains though, will their resolve to improve follow them onto the ice, or will it remain just talk, spoken just to satisfy the media and the fans.

Some thoughts on the game itself:

-Derek Roy began the first shift of the game as if he wanted to really make a statement, but then he promptly took a penalty in the offensive zone and then disappeared for the rest of the night. He ended up a -2 with only 2 SOG.

-Ryan Miller is still having problems giving up juicy rebounds, but he also made some big saves last night, including one on a breakaway by Alex Ovechkin.

-Jochen Hecht probably epitomized the soft play of the Sabres last night losing too many battles, including one in the offensive zone behind the net, where he went halfheartedly for a loose puck.

-Paul Gaustad, who along with Adam Mair and Matt Ellis were pretty much the only Sabres who gave a solid effort, sensed that his team needed a spark, so he threw the body around and laid out some pretty good hits. It took Gaustad to set up the team's first goal too, delivering a perfect saucer pass to Mair, who made a nifty move in close, and then roofed a backhand to beat Jose Theodore. The Sabres only other goal was a garbage time goal on the power play with under a minute to play.

Ruff threatened to sit some of his top forwards, namely Hecht and Roy, making sure to add that his threat was not just talk.

The full house at HSBC certainly let the Sabres know that they were less than pleased. They rained boos on the team and mixed in a few Bronx Cheers. Frankly I can't blame them, as these loyal fans deserve better.