With the regular season officially over and fans of the Buffalo Sabres completely focused on the Eastern Conference quarterfinal series against the Philadelphia Flyers, we thought it would be fun to take a look back as the Sabres regular season individually— statistically speaking.

Thomas Vanek finished the season with 41 assists, tying a career-high. While his 32 goals were only his third best in six NHL seasons, his 73 points was the second-most of his career, behind only the 84 points he accumulated in 2006-07. His 28 points this season on the power play was the most of his career, topping the 26 he had with the man advantage in 2008-09.

Drew Stafford’s 31 goals were easiest the most of his five-year career. His previous high was 20, set in 2008-09.  He also finished the season with a career-best plus 13 rating, the first time he’s been in double digits.  His .173 shooting percentage was 12th best in the NHL and his 0.5 goals per game was tied for fifth-best in the league among players with at least 29 goals.

Three Sabres skaters played at least one game and didn’t register a point this season; Matt Ellis (14 games), Colin Stuart (3) and Mark Parrish (2).

Tyler Ennis finished fourth among all NHL rookies in points (49), seventh in goals (20) and fifth in assists (29).

Jochen Hecht finished the regular season with just 12 goals in 67 games.  The last time he scored fewer was when he netted 10 in 2002-03, his first season with the Sabres.

Cody McCormick finished the season with eight goals, doubling his career-high of four in 2005-06 with Colorado.  However, he went scoreless over his last 22 games.  McCormick also led the team with 142 penalty minutes.

Nathan Gerbe finished his first full season in Buffalo with 16 goals.  Nine of those 16 goals came after March 4.

Tyler Myers completed his sophomore season with 10 goals and 37 points after netting 11 and racking up 48 points en route to winner the Calder Trophy as a rookie last year.  He was second on the team with 22:07 of ice time per contest.

Rob Niedermayer finished with just five goals, the fewest he’s had in a full season since scoring four way back in 1994-95.  To his credit, he scored all five goals in March after going the first 53 games without netting any.

Steve Montador set a career-best with a plus 16 rating this season. It was the best on the Sabres team. He also led the team with 138 blocked shots.

Paul Gaustad finished with 12 goals for third straight year and finished the season winning 59.8% of face offs, tops on the team.  The only other Sabre to play more than three games and finish with a face off percentage of 50% was Mark Mancari.

Three players led the Sabres in overtime goals this season with two; Vanek, Myers and Stafford.  Four other players had one (Jason Pominville, Brad Boyes, Marc-Andre Gragnani and Shaone Morrisonn.)

Brad Boyes ended up with five goals and nine assists for 14 points in his 21 games with the Sabres after coming over for St. Louis in a trade in early March.

Despite playing just 35 games, Derek Roy finished tied for seventh on the team with 35 points.

Youngster Mike Weber led the Sabres with 158 credited hits.  In his first full season with the club, Weber finished with four goals and 13 assists and carried a plus 13 rating.

Jason Pominville finished with 22 goals, his fifth straight season of scoring at least 20.  His 52 total points however, were his lowest since having just 30 in 2005-06.

The reason we’re noting regular season statistics and not season ending numbers is because of the play of Jhonas Enroth.  His compiled a 9-2-2 record in net and is a major reason the Sabres made the playoffs.  He finished with a 2.73 goals against average and .910 save percentage even though the majority of his starts came with little, if any notice.

Statistically speaking, at least by his standards, Ryan Miller had a poor season.  He finished with a 2.59 goals against average, his highest in three years and his .916 save percentage was also his lowest in three years.  He did tie a career-high with five shutouts.

Despite missing 11 games (and more to come in the playoffs), Jordan Leopold set a career-high for goals in a season with 13.  It was the first time he ever hit double digits in goals, with his previous high being nine with Calgary in 2003-04.  His 35 total points was also a career high, though his minus 11 rating was the worst since putting up a minus 15 in his rookie season (2002-03).

(Sabres photo by Michael Thomas)

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