is it time for the first "fresh start" of the season?

"what the *&%!$%$#!!!???"

an exasperated lindy ruff shows his frustration...his wrath in this case is directed at the officials, but the source, more than likely, is his players and their lackluster performance on an early season homestand...

0-3-1 is pathetic...it would be one thing if it was the product of a poor team playing the elites of the national hockey league, it's quite another when a defending division champ refuses to put for an effort commiserate with their talent...

a hallmark of the post-chris drury/daniel briere buffalo sabres is lack of compete, inconsistency as a team, floating stars, as well as displaying a sense of urgency and/or desperation only when it's too late...the end result, 1-3-1 to start their 40th anniversary season...

it's nothing new...blah, blah, blah, "we've got to put forth a better effort," blah, blah, blah, "we need to bury our chances," blah, blah, blah, "it's not good enough," blah, blah, blah, "it's unacceptable"...all of these are terms nearly every sabres player has used throughout the last few years...

blah, is what the sabres faithful saw for the first four home games of the 2010/11 season...

lindy ruff's solution?..."The guys that are going to put the work in are going to play," he said..."I told the guys after the second period, guys were going to play who were going to compete the guys who were playing the best were going to play. I didn't care who it was"...that's why tim connolly saw all of two minutes in the third period last night...that's why thomas vanek has seen his ass plastered to the bench more than once over the past three seasons...ya can't have your "superstars" floating...

as for tonight's game vs. chicago?..."We might play three lines," ruff said, "we might play 2 1/2 lines. They know that. The gig's up now. You can sit on the end of the bench."

yeah, it could happen...but it could be another case of blah, blah, blah...we've heard it before from the coach, and he's done it to an extent, but ruff's hardly an extremist in situations like this...what does it lead to?...bouts of inconsistency where invariably and inevitably we'll here these two words come from the mouth of the sabres head coach:  "fresh start"