It came down to the final weekend of the regular season, but the Amerks made the AHL playoffs thanks to a big 5-1 win at home on Friday night over the Syracuse Crunch and then a 2-1 win in Cleveland against the Lake Erie Monsters on Saturday.
Sure, a freak combination of results across three different games on Sunday could have seen the Amerks on the outside looking in. But, that didn't happen.
So now the Amerks get to face the Toronto Marlies in a five game first round series. The series will start on Thursday night in Toronto. Game 2 is Saturday in Toronto with Game 3 a week from tonight in Rochester.
It will be interesting to see how many fans come out after a big crowd of over 10,000 fans came out for the final home game of the regular season. I'm guessing that Monday's crowd will be less than 5,000 fans.
It will be interesting to see who lifts their play in the postseason. Marcus Foligno was a monster on Friday and Luke Adam had a clutch goal on Saturday. The Amerks have been riding David Leggio in goal and he played well both nights.
Toronto is a tough match up. But, I believe!
All's quiet on the Sabres front
Now comes the calm before the storm. The most important month of the NHL year is a week or two before the draft (mid-June) through the first couple of weeks of Free Agency (mid-July).
Between now and then, the Sabres will likely not be making a whole lot of news as they prepare to build their team for the 2012-13 campaign.
What throws a huge monkey wrench into things is the fact that the current CBA expires after this season. The trickier part is that it doesn't expire when the Stanley Cup is handed out or even after the draft.
It doesn't expire until September 15th.
It will make Free Agency really interesting. Will teams spend without any care for what could happen with the salary cap in the new CBA expecting a roll back if things change drastically?
Will teams be conservative until they get an indication of what will happen with the CBA?
It's going to be very interesting to watch. And it may be a reason why fans that want the Sabres blown up aren't going to get what they want in that regard this off season.
I'm still sticking with the idea that Regier & Ruff will remain in charge of the Sabres until after the 2013-14 season when Vanek, Pominville, and Miller are all UFAs. That just appears to be the perfect time to blow things up as it is the end of the 3 year window to win a Cup and it would be a time where a new GM could let big salaries walk and remake the roster the way he would like.
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