Time to Respond

I for one will be keeping a close eye on the Sabres forwards tonight, specifically Jochen Hecht and Derek Roy. After Lindy Ruff called them all out, those two by name, it'll be interesting to see how they respond.

The Buffalo News reports that Hecht won't watch from the press box tonight, because Adam Mair will sit out due to a minor injury. Hecht has been practicing with the fourth line, which can't sit too well with him, but tonight is his chance to show that he doesn't belong there. Is he willing to put forth a solid effort after his mistake laden performance against Washington on Tuesday night? We'll find out shortly.

Tonight's game in Toronto, a team which has been much better than most gave them credit for, will show how the Sabres respond to an urgent situation. There were strong words after Tuesday's debacle from both Coach Ruff and the players themselves. Let's see if the team can practice what they preached.

On another note, after watching the Winter Classic in Chicago today, it made me realize all the more how special last year's edition was. At the risk of showing some Buffalo bias, it just seemed that last year's was much more of an event, one marked by a strong show of support by the Buffalo faithful. There was much fanfare for today's game in Chicago too, but perhaps because it wasn't the first one, it just didn't come off as important an event as last year's at Ralph Wilson Stadium.