Last season was an exciting one for Buffalo fans as the Sabres ended their two year playoff hiatus by winning the Northeast Division and eventually winning the Stanley Cup flopping in the first round to the sixth seeded Boston Bruins. This was due in large part to Ryan Miller and the best season of his career. To many Buffalo fans, Miller has always been that "really good" goalie that had trouble crossing over into the great category. Not only did he affirm himself as a top three goaltender in the NHL, he almost helped lead Team USA to a stunning gold medal victory in the Olympics. The big question this season will be whether or not he builds on that success or slips a little now that greatness will be expected of him.

Key Additions: Rob Niedermayer (F), Jordan Leopold (D), Shaone Morrisonn (D)

Key Losses: Toni Lydman (D), Henrik Tallinder (D), Tim Kennedy (F), Adam Mair (F)

As usual, it wasn't an exciting offseason for Buffalo (unless you count the death of the slug). On the surface, it would appear that losing Lydman and Tallinder will hurt the blue line quite a bit. But as you'll remember, I've never been overly impressed with either player. Last offseason I was hoping they would both get traded and the Sabres would get something in return for them. Naturally this didn't happen, but the Sabres essentially traded in these two guys for Leopold and Morrisonn during the summer. Are they an upgrade? Well, let's take a look.

Use those numbers and draw whatever conclusion you would like. But I have two last things to consider when evaluating these players. Toni Lydman is 32 years old and Henrik Tallinder is 31. Jordan Leopold is 30 years old and Shaone Morrisonn is 27. Also, Tallinder and Lydman were signed by their new teams for a total of $6,675,000 against the cap. Leopold and Morrisonn will count for a combined $5,075,000 against the cap. Sounds to me like a pretty solid deal.

But enough with the defensemen, let's talk about the forwards.

The only notable addition via free agency is Rob Niedermayer. He won't light up the score sheet for sure, but he provides some good veteran depth and leadership. I don't think it's a coincidence at all that the Sabres matured last season when Mike Grier came back for his second stint with the team. I think the Niedermayer signing is a similar one in that aspect. It's also worth noting that Niedermayer is now the only player on the Sabres current roster with his name on the Stanley Cup. That has to count for something, right?

Leaving the team is Adam Mair and Tim Kennedy. Mair was on the outside looking in when last season started and struggled for the bulk of the season. To his credit though, when the playoffs started, Mair was very noticeable on the ice. Unfortunately for him, Cody McCormick was called up during the playoffs and seemed to play just as well. With that, McCormick looks like he'll be a permanent Sabre this season and Mair was sent packing. I have nothing against Adam Mair and wouldn't have minded it if he came back, but I do like this move. McCormick is younger, might have a little more scoring in him and will definitely drop the gloves when necessary. We've already seen that much so far in the preseason.

Kennedy was the hometown boy that impressed many last season. He definitely had his rough spots during the season and was horrid at taking faceoffs, but overall it would've been worthwhile to bring him back. Kennedy was a RFA and there was little doubt that he'd be back this season. The Sabres offered him a little over $800,000 and a two way contract to remain with the team. Kennedy balked at that offer, mostly the two way part, because he didn't want to be held accountable for his play. If he were to slip up like he did last season, the Sabres would now have the option to send him down to Portland. So Kennedy took the team to arbitration and was rewarded with a $1 million/1 year deal. Because the amount was under a certain limit, the Sabres had no choice but to accept the offer. So the Sabres promptly bought out his contract and sent him packing. Recently, Kennedy has been waived by the Rangers. This means he'll either be playing in the AHL or be unemployed. One has to think that maybe he should've just shut up and taken the Sabres initial offer.

One of the biggest reasons that Kennedy was expendable to the Sabres was the emergence of Tyler Ennis and possibly Nathan Gerbe. Gerbe has had plenty of opportunities to impress the Sabres during numerous call-ups and could never really accomplish much. I'm absolutely in that crowd as I was just about sick of hearing about Gerbe and his "potential". To his credit though, Gerbe got increased playing time during the playoffs and started to impress me. If he can bring that type of game every night, he surely deserves a roster spot.

Ennis got his call-up later than Gerbe or Kennedy, but blew both out of the water when his style of play. In 10 regular season games, Ennis contributed nine points. Similarly, in six playoff games, Ennis chipped in four points. Granted it's a small amount of games, but Ennis has shown the ability to be a near point per game player and I'm all for that. Last time the Sabres thought they had one on the roster they signed him to a 2 year/4.5 million dollar deal.

It's no secret that by the end of last season, I was about as down as you could be on the "core" of the Sabres. But this is where selective memory comes into play. I've all summer to calm down and relax about them. I'm taking a homeristic view into the season that they have another season under their belts and will be more experience and ready to contribute. Just as a disclaimer though, this goes for about the first 10 games of the season. If it becomes more of the same (I'm sure it will) from Pominville, Connolly and the gang; I'll be all for trading them and getting fresh faces in Buffalo. I can only take so much ineptitude and I get the bulk of that from the Bills already.

Looking at the Northeast Division, Boston is really the only team I see as a legit threat to take the title away from Buffalo. Ottawa is getting older and signing Sergei Gonchar didn't exactly address that particular issue. I'm still not enamored by their goaltending situation, though I never really have been. Montreal will be a solid team, but I'm pretty sure trading Halak and keeping Carey Price was the textbook definition of a wrong move. Price has already been booed mercilessly after allowing four goals in the preseason opener. I see that ending well. The Leafs will be improved with J.S. Giguere in net, but well, they're still the Leafs.

And because of the reasons listed above (barring some major injury), I fully expect the Sabres to make a trip to the playoffs again. Realistically I see them as a 4-6 seed, but winning the division is definitely in play.