=== 2003-04 Buffalo Sabres Preview ===

By Matt Canamucio, NHL Editor

(My Sportsbook) - The Buffalo Sabres have been to purgatory. Now it's time to start the trek upward.

At least that's how the new men in charge see things.

Rochester billionaire Tom Golisano bought the team on the heels of the whole Adelphia communications debacle and the ensuing bankruptcy, and one of the first moves in his regime was the retaining of both general manager Darcy Regier and head coach Lindy Ruff. At the press conference announcing the move, managing partner Larry Quinn set the bar.

"I found people are willing to change, are really enthusiastic and want to win, and I think that's the most important ingredient we're looking for," Quinn said. "We've got to choose the best decision to give the team the best opportunity to win and we've given them some very strong goals. They've got to make the playoffs this year and we told them we want to win a Stanley Cup within three to four years."

Winning a Stanley Cup is a long way from finishing fifth from the bottom in the overall standings with 72 points.

However, with new leadership at the top and, most importantly, new money available to make the necessary additions, such a jump in a few years isn't necessarily impossible.

Regier began the process this summer by pulling off what amounted to a three- team trade -- with Calgary and Colorado -- back in July. Forwards Chris Drury and Steve Begin were obtained in exchange for defensemen Rhett Warrener and Keith Ballard.

Drury, a winner since before he was a teenager, has scored at least 20 goals in each of his five seasons and should be a terrific addition to a blossoming forward corps. Warrener's absence will be compensated by the presence of the one- dimensional Andy Delmore, who was acquired from Nashville after finishing tied for the league lead among defensemen with 18 goals.

AT THE HELM - Ruff enters his seventh season behind the Sabres' bench and has the benefit of a new three-year contract in his pocket. When he had decent personnel to work with -- and Dominik Hasek in his crease -- Ruff was successful, and led the team to a Stanley Cup Finals berth in 1999.

Right now you can toss out the last two seasons by saying Ruff was merely a victim of circumstance, but a third straight year out of the playoffs won't cut it. If that's the case, he might learn that a three-year contract doesn't always equal job security.

ON THE ATTACK - To call the Sabres' offense inept would be accurate. Ruff's troops managed a meager 190 goals (25th in the NHL) last season, and resident sniper Miroslav Satan and rookie sensation Ales Kotalik were the only players to eclipse 20 scores.

Nonetheless, there is some potential elsewhere on the roster, it's just a matter of whether or not it can be realized. The folks in Buffalo are especially bullish on 25-year-old Daniel Briere, who will likely be the No. 2 center behind Drury. Briere, obtained from Phoenix in the Chris Gratton deal in March, scored 24 goals last season, seven of which came in the 14 games he played following the trade.

Drury, meanwhile, has himself a new four-year contract, but it remains to be seen if the former Little League hero can translate some of his big-game playoff prowess into the regular season. The 21 goals per-season he has averaged in five years needs to be improved a little bit, but the Sabres would especially like to see his assist totals climb back to where they were early in his career with the Avalanche -- at least in the 40s. Playing with a dynamic talent like Satan might help.

Briere and Drury are part of a plethora of centers Buffalo has that played significant time in the NHL last season. The other two spots will be made of some combination featuring Curtis Brown (15g, 16a), Tim Connolly (12g, 13a), Adam Mair (6g, 11a) and Begin (3g, 1a). Both Brown and Connolly, the latter of whom was a key component of the 2001 Michael Peca trade, hope to put disappointing seasons behind them.

Aside from the 25-year-old Kotalik, the wings are also filled with average players like Jochen Hecht (10g, 16a), J.P. Dumont (14g, 21a) and power forward Taylor Pyatt (14g, 14a). There was a chance that University of Minnesota standout Thomas Vanek, the fifth overall pick in June, would join the Sabres this season, but instead he will develop another year with the two-time defending NCAA champion Golden Gophers.

Delmore's acquisition should help a bit on the attack, as the Sabres didn't have a blueliner with more than eight goals. And the fact that Delmore scored 14 of his markers with the man-advantage lends hope that he could help boost a power-play unit that converted only 14.4 percent of the time in 02-03.

ON DEFENSE - On the other hand, the one-dimensional Delmore may prove to be a liability for a defense that helped the Sabres finish sixth in the Eastern Conference in goals-against (219). He joins a corps anchored by Alexei Zhitnik, who was rumored to be on the trading block last spring due to his high salary, not the fact that he logs 26+ productive minutes per-night.

Veteran stay-at-home man Jay McKee, 6-4, 212-pounds, and the up-and-coming Dmitri Kalinin round out the top half of the rotation. Kalinin, along with sophomore Henrik Tallinder and Brian Campbell provide an injection of youth in the group.

Ruff's lack of offensive firepower has forced him to take a defense-first approach, and that means he also relies heavily on his forwards. Brown, despite his offensive struggles last season, remains a very solid checking centerman and is usually charged with hampering the opponent's top line.

IN THE CREASE - Two heads are better than one, but three is too much. The Sabres still have three young goaltenders in the fold, and it remains uncertain which direction they'll go.

Martin Biron was the immediate heir to Hasek's spot between the pipes, and his tenure has been anywhere from mediocre-to-average. Last season he was so inconsistent that the club called up NCAA shutout king Ryan Miller from the AHL, and the rookie showed his worth with some solid outings during a short stint. The third piece of the puzzle is Mika Noronen, whose own inconsistency contributed to the need to call up Miller.

Having three promising names in camp has its advantages, but you'd like to see one player stand head and shoulders above the others when the season starts.

X-FACTOR - This team simply needs firepower. The last 30-goal scorer for the Sabres -- other than Satan -- was Pat Lafontaine, who accomplished the feat with 40 back in 1995-96. Drury must make a significant impact and prove he is something more than a complementary part (as he was in Colorado), and players like Kotalik and Briere need to build on last year.

WHEN ALL IS SAID AND DONE - Can the Sabres make the jump to the playoffs? Absolutely, considering that the Eastern Conference remains the weaker of the NHL circuits and there is a high level of parity when you get past the top five teams in the conference.