"After one of the quietest runs of Tim Connolly's career has come his biggest ruckus. All of a sudden, he's on path for a career year.

Now that one of the greatest scoring streaks in Buffalo Sabres history has come to an end, the real question is if Connolly can keep his momentum going.

Connolly is the Sabres' leading scorer, by 12 points over Jason Pominville and Derek Roy. He's scored at least a point in 17 of the last 18 games and his 16-game run that ended Wednesday versus New Jersey is third-longest in franchise annals.

"I didn't really think about it too much as it was happening," Connolly said. "The team was winning, we were playing well and that's all that really mattered. If it had kept going, maybe I would have been different and I would have [thought about it more]. To be honest with you, I was just going out and playing."

That's probably a bit understated. During the streak, Connolly had a noticeable swagger on the ice, both in his passing and his stickhandling.

Early in the first period Monday in Vancouver, Connolly broke into the Canucks' zone and nearly pulled off a between-the-legs maneuver with the puck to get in alone on Roberto Luongo. Even though the move failed, it wowed the Vancouver television announcers when a replay was shown.

"You can get confidence going whenever you're scoring," Connolly said. "A lot of the game is built around confidence. When things are going great for you, your confidence is extremely high. When they're not, you can lose that and you've got to just try to get it back as quickly as possible."

Connolly spent much of November and December trying to find it. In the 13 games prior to his big streak, Connolly had just two assists. In the 25 games prior, he had only two goals — and both of them came Nov. 27 in Philadelphia."