DANIEL:
The Ducks did something no other Western Conference team has done this year: beat the Buffalo Sabres in regulation. It wasn't pretty, but the Ducks picked up another two points and ran their home winning streak to a fairly impressive 8 games. They are also only 4 points out of the 8th seed in the Western Conference. Patrick Lalime was victimized tonight, allowing 4 goals in the first 10:30 of game time. I'm just saying, my pizza hadn't even shown up yet. Ryan Getzlaf started the scoring less than a minute into the game, and then Evgeny Artyukhin kept pouring it on by scoring on a breakaway and then feeding Mike Brown in the crease. Bobby Ryan added a power play goal, and then Anaheim fans got to see some wonderful work by Ryan Miller.
Jonas Hiller was up to the challenge tonight and was much better than the four goals he gave up tonight. He turned aside 41 shots. It seems the only thing left to do is see if there's a trading partner out there who wants to acquire Jean-Sebastien Giguere. Hiller made plenty of great saves and was at times a victim of a Ducks defense that has had trouble all year. This was a good victory for the Ducks, the 35-40 minutes of it they actually played. Still, as the saying goes: a win is a win. The Ducks are breathing a little life into their playoffs hopes. Nothing left to do but see if all this success at home can carry over to the long road trip the Ducks embark on this Thursday.