the pegula-era kicks off tonight and here's where the sabres stand in the east

the 7th thru 11th place teams in the eastern conference as of now:

• ny rangers--68 points
• carolina--65
• buffalo--60
• atlanta--60
• toronto--59

the 7th thru 11th place teams in the eastern conference (on february 1, 2011):

• montreal--59 points
• atlanta--57
• carolina--56
• buffalo--51
• florida--49

buffalo closes the gap on the eighth seed in the east...although they are five points behind carolina for the final playoff berth, they have three games in-hand on the hurricanes..

the sabres are eight points behind the 7th place rangers with four games in hand...

atlanta continues to plummet and falls to 10th place

toronto climbs over florida for the 11th spot...

a look at games remaining this month broken down into games vs. division leaders, playoff teams and non-playoff teams:

ny rangers (2games):

• division leader (1)--tampa
• playoff (1)--washington
• non-playoff--none

carolina (2):

• division leader--none
• playoff (2)--pittsburgh, montreal
• non-playoff--none

buffalo (3):

• division leader (1)--detroit
• playoff--none
• non-playoff (2)--atlanta, ottawa

atlanta (3):

• division leaders--none
• playoff--none
• non-playoff (3)--buffalo, florida, toronto

toronto (3):

• division leaders--none
• playoff (2)montreal, pittsburgh
• non-playoff (1)--atlanta

all-in-all, the sabres recent three-game losing streak and 1-3-1 stretch brought down them to 4-4-1 on the month and they remain outside of the top-eight...the hope was that they could use this home-stand (six games to end the month) to get into the top-eight, but inconsistency and some really poor play have made this stretch miserable to watch...

terry pegula is officially the sabres head-honcho, and one would have to think that the game against atlanta tonight is an audition for some of the players...the trade deadline is looming and pegula has a mind-set that he "wants to keep, not only statistically good players, but winners and gritty players"...

this edict will be difficult for some as the sabres have been known to fold under pressure...

the ideal scenario for the team would have been to get themselves two-four points inside the top-eight before the kick off march with a seven-game road-trip...it looks unlikely as they'll probably (hopefully?) remain on the cusp...

for now, sabres fans can only hope that they break out of their funk tonight vs. atlanta and go on a bit of a streak before they hit the road...

i guess we'll see just what the dawning of the pegula-era really means to the team itself and to players on an individual basis