Thomas Vanek, Ryan Miller Pick Up Their Game: Sabres Rout Capitals

In a game that meant as much to Buffalo as Alex Ovechkin matters to his teammates on the Washington Capitals, the Sabres soared past the atrocious defense that the Capitals had to throw at them.

As Ovechkin sat out another game to take care of his ailing grandfather, the Sabres scored three quick ones in the first period to go on to beat the Caps by a score of 5-0.

It was Ryan Miller's first shutout of the season, and the eighth of his career, as the Sabres goaltender seemed to relieve himself of the game he had on Thursday against the Tampa Bay Lightning.  Miller stopped all 29 shots that he faced.

Ruff must have lit a fire under this team's butt on Friday at practice.  Criticized for their need to be more productive on this team, both Derek Roy and Jason Pominville had goals tonight.  Also in the goals column were Daniel Paille and Thomas Vanek.  Vanek leads the league in goals with 11.

And with that, the Sabres can breath a sigh of relief.  They broke their losing streak heading out of October.  In the month of November, they can consider themselves undefeated.  They're 1-0.

Andrej Sekera also had two assists tonight, marking his first multi-point game of his career. 

Hopefully, now, the Sabres finally realize that they must play the full 60 minutes in order to completely win hockey games.  This is the first time all year the Sabres have seemed to own play for a full hockey game rather than just a part of one of the periods, particularly the third.  It was the first period where this team found their game tonight, and they never lost it either. 

Helping the Sabres tonight, finally, was center Tim Connolly, who assisted on Derek Roy's goal on the power play.  Connolly's presence on special teams units is unmatched by anybody on the Sabres squad, except for Thomas Vanek, who has a knack for scoring on the PP unit. 

All-in-all, if this is the Sabres finding themselves again after a three game slump, then I like where this season is heading.  This year's team will build on their winning streaks, unlike last year's team.  Something that's never really been mentioned that I'd really like to point out is the Sabres' ability to win. 

If there's anything that Danny Briere and Chris Drury left within the Buffalo Sabres is their ability to win games, even when it's at its bleakest point.  Thomas Vanek and all the young guns who will be carrying this team for the next five years have learned this from those two players, especially Chris Drury, who seems to win everywhere he goes. 

Yes.  The Sabres have once again learned how to win games.  Not only that, they've learned to finish them as well.