Sabres' Boschman: "Don't Forget About Me..."

 

The addition of Michel Goulet and Steve Thomas for the 1993 season in Buffalo has been nothing short of franchise altering. Both 1st year Sabre forwards have been absolutely on fire all year and have been fighting for the Art Ross scoring trophy the entire time. Despite Goulet missing a ton of games to injury he currently sits just a single point back of Toronto's Glenn Anderson for top scorer in the league. While Goulet sits alone at 115 points, there are a couple of Sabres that are making late pushes to close the gap for the top scorer in the franchise. While we mentioned Thomas before sitting at 104 points, a late season surprise has emerged.

 

Laurie Boschman has been doing all of the heavy lifting in Buffalo for more than a decade and an NFHL executive in another prominent market has gone as far as calling him the "most under-rated player in the league over the last decade." The major criticism in Buffalo was that Boschman was not surrounded with enough top end talent throughout his career to not only help raise the standard of the overall team, but help him with his individual production. Then, this season that top end talent was finally brought in, and Boschman was sent down to the 2nd line, while watching the "best line in hockey" of Goulet, Thomas and Savard be formed right in front of his eyes. Now with just a few games remaining in the regular season, Boschman has made it his purpose to show us all that he's still the man in Buffalo.

 

"I love the fact that we have brought in some absolute studs over the last year or so," Boschman explained. "Seeing Goulet and Stumpy [Thomas] come in this year, and having McClelland come back to Buffalo at the end of last season has made us so much more dangerous offensively and has really given me the freedom to produce so much more now that I'm not the only guy to focus on every night."

 

Boschman has surpassed his career high in points already at this point as he stands at 106 points, good for 3rd overall in league scoring behind Goulet and Anderson. He has done this while playing on the 2nd line and 2nd powerplay unit for most of the year. In terms of points, the top 2 Centers in the league are Goulet and Boschman respectively.

 

With a pair of games against the Calgary Flames and one more against the Montreal Canadiens to close out the season, the Sabres forwards have a chance to overtake the Colorado Rockies for top team goals scored. A couple of days ago the Sabres trailed by 10 goals. As of today before tonight's games, the Sabres are just 3 goals back! A lot to keep an eye on in the final few games of the season.

 

-Buffalo, NY