Brad Boyes, Brad Boyes, whatcha gonna do?

Forgive me.  I've been dying to make that a post title for a long time. I'm a sucker for bad puns.

Anyway, I have a confession to make: I'm really rooting for Brad Boyes this season.  Why?  Because I don't want him to become another Tim Connolly.  It seems that the majority of Sabres fans adopted Boyes as the team whipping boy the minute Connolly was carried to Toronto on a stretcher hobbled out the door, and I think it's a bit unfair to Boyes.  Almost immediately after arriving last year, Boyes was forced into playing center - a position he clearly wasn't comfortable playing - and struggled as a result.

Although all three top lines seemed to show good chemistry in the season opener, I noticed it most with the Ennis-Leino-Boyes line.  Playing with two guys that like to hang on to the puck and create chances could do wonders for freeing up Boyes to get into good scoring areas off the wing.

Can't we wait to see how Boyes will click with Leino and Ennis, combined with a return to his natural position and a full offseason to learn the system, before we dismiss him as an eventual trade deadline salary dump?