Barry Melose Comments

On an ESPN video with Barry Melose, who I don't always agree with, and EJ Hradek, they covered the Northeastern Conference very well. http://sports.espn.go.com/broadband/video/videopage?videoId=3068159&categoryId=2459791
They praise Buffalo after their slow start. They are dead on the money when they call Buffalo the most exciting team in hockey. Right now Buffalo has 12 forwards who can all skate and right now Campbell and Spacek are playing exceptional. I think Buffalo will continue to do well even without Drury and Briere. Miller has played good enough in net to win 2 of his starts, and I think he will turn it up once Buffalo plays the better teams like Ottawa and New York.

The other important point they mention is defined in the bottom headline, "Maple Leafs a Mess." I don't know if I would define their struggles to that extent, but Melrose, usually a Leaf homer seems to think so. They are slow and they are not good defensively. This was on display Monday night at the Arena. They might be this years Philadelphia Flyers, who knows. There were a lot of loose pucks and open Sabres in the slot on Monday. Other than Hecht's goal, Raycroft played well. The Leafs lost a very winnable game by playing sloppy defense, even sloppier than the Sabres. They are in trouble and will most likely be getting out the clubs early again.