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Sabres look to stop being terrible at home

Buffalo Sabres

The Sabres are off to a good start thanks to playing great on the road going 5-1-0 (two games in Europe) but at home, they’ve been anything but good. The Sabres are 1-3-0 on home ice in the First Niagara Center and as they’ve got four of their next five on home ice including tonight’s tilt with Philly, now would be a good time to get things right on home ice.

As Bill Hoppe of the Niagara Gazette points out, the Sabres started last season out awful at home as well before flipping the switch and becoming a beastly home team. As Hoppe hears from coach Lindy Ruff, getting too cute and fancy for the home fans might be part of the problem.

“We’re making plays that we didn’t make in the first three or four games, we’re trying plays,” Sabres coach Lindy Ruff said. “I think that comes with success that you think, ‘Ahh, we’re pretty good, maybe we can be a little bit better, maybe we can try a little bit of this, a little bit of that.’ And a little bit of that turns into something in your own goal.”

The Sabres have plenty of talent as it is, trying to do too much in a defensively intense league like the NHL will get you killed. Doing it against a team like the Flyers tonight will get you run out of the building. We’re guessing that Ruff will be taking everyone to journalism school to teach them a lesson if they don’t figure things out. The old K.I.S.S. (Keep It Simple, Stupid) method will get a work out.

Letting down the rabid fans in Buffalo will only take you so far, just ask every Bills quarterback since Jim Kelly.