Silva: Each NFL team enters the offseason with a series of pressing needs. Sometimes a team can address them all, sometimes they ignore them all. But if a team's smart, they'll listen to us. These are the most crucial aspects for NFC teams.
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Getty Images“They’re good. They have a tremendous amount of speed,” he said. “We made a few turnovers, and everybody knows they capitalize on mistakes.
“Emotionally, we were not as well as I thought we’d be. We didn’t compete as hard as I thought we should. We played OK, but OK wasn’t enough.”
The Islanders (3-4-2) hadn’t played since Saturday’s overtime victory over Carolina, the team that eliminated the Sabres from the playoffs last season en route to the Stanley Cup title.
Kotalik provided the only offense Buffalo would need with a power-play goal in the opening period.
Jaroslav Spacek and Afinogenov worked a two-man game on the right side of the Islanders zone. Spacek then slid a crossing pass to Kotalik, who ripped a shot from above the left circle past Rick DiPietro that smacked the back of the net and caromed back out at 6:09 — 47 seconds into Buffalo’s 5-on-3 power play.
The only downside for the Sabres was they converted only one of seven power plays. Buffalo came in with the league’s seventh-best man-advantage unit.
“At the end, we gutted it out,” Drury said, “which is a good sign.”
New York outshot Buffalo 11-6 in the second period, but each Islanders scoring chance was thwarted by Miller, who improved to 4-0 on the road this season.
Buffalo doubled its advantage with a trademark burst of speed. Sabres defenseman Toni Lydman banked the puck off the boards past New York’s Brendan Witt, who dropped his head and turned to chase it.
He was no match for the quick Afinogenov, who tracked down the puck, cut in alone on DiPietro, and made a forehand-to-backhand move to get the goalie out of position. DiPietro did the splits and made a desperation reach with his stick, but couldn’t stop Afinogenov from scoring his sixth goal at 4:12.
Pominville then finished off a 3-on-2 rush by steering in Daniel Briere’s pass 3:27 into the final period.
That clinched Buffalo’s latest win and ended any hope the Islanders had of continuing their streak-busting history.
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New York snapped Vancouver’s team-record, 10-game winning streak in December 2002, and ended Toronto’s 16-game point streak the following year on Long Island.
“What we’re doing now is carrying momentum,” Miller said. “I think it will serve us well in the future, but right now we just need the points.”
Notes: Afinogenov, the NHL’s No. 1 star last week, has 15 points: 5 goals, 10 assists in the past six games. ... DiPietro, who earned a victory Saturday after missing four games with a groin injury, fell to 1-4. ... New York, which held a 29-27 shots advantage, was 0-for-3 on the power play. ... Nolan was the NHL coach of the year in his second and final season with Buffalo.
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Wesseling: Each NFL team enters the offseason with a series of pressing needs. Sometimes a team can address them all, sometimes they ignore them all. But if a team's smart, they'll listen to us. These are the most crucial aspects for AFC teams.
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Silva: Each NFL team enters the offseason with a series of pressing needs. Sometimes a team can address them all, sometimes they ignore them all. But if a team's smart, they'll listen to us. These are the most crucial aspects for NFC teams.
