The biggest game of the Buffalo Sabres’ season is about to begin. After a disheartening 4-0 home loss on Friday, the injury-plagued Sabres are in Raleigh with the series tied 2-2, needing to win two of the next three to reach the Stanley Cup finals. That means they’ll need to win at least one more game on the road, since tonight’s game and Game 7 (if necessary) are on the Hurricanes’ home ice. Tonight would be an excellent time to notch that needed road win. Lose, and they’ll trail a series for the first time all postseason long, and will head back to Buffalo with their backs against the wall.

There has been much talk about the Sabres’ injury problems on the defensive end. Three starters have been injured during the playoffs. After Henrik Tallinder went down in Game 3, Mark on Bfloblog wrote: “The Sabres have been able to overcome injuries all season but this injury might be too much to overcome. Tallinder has been one of the league’s top defensemen during the playoffs. It is hard to imagine any team advancing to the Stanley Cup Finals without three of their six starting defensemen.”

On the other hand, defense isn’t everything. After the 4-0 disaster in Game 4, Bfloblog’s Kevin wrote: “Did anyone notice that the Sabres were shut out last night? I don’t mean to oversimplify things here, but generally speaking you need to score at least one goal to win a hockey game. … So while having three AHL defensemen out there certainly contributed to the Sabres loss last night, I find it difficult to say it was as big a factor as many would like to make it out to be.”

Clearly, the Sabres’ offense and defense will need to better tonight. One piece of good news: Teppo Numminen, one of the three injured defensive starters, is returning to the ice. [UPDATE: Or not.] Hopefully that’ll help, and hopefully the forwards will remember that when you have a power play, shooting the puck is generally a good thing. Rarely do you score goals by passing the puck around for 90 seconds.

Anyway, the game is about to begin. GO SABRES!!!

UPDATE: You know you’re at a hockey game in North Carolina when there’s a guy in the front row are wearing not a Hurricanes shirt, but a Tar Heels shirt. Heh.

UPDATE 2: Live play-by-play here.