Author: Chris Ostrander

Sabres eyeing Traverse City final

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A pair of 6-3 wins have the Buffalo Sabres prospects in line for a berth in the championship game at the Traverse City Prospect Tournament. UPDATE: The Sabres tweeted that they have secured a berth in the championship game. They will play the Rangers at 7 p.m. on Wednesday.

Nick Crawford leads the Sabres prospects with two goals and an assist in Traverse City.

Buffalo sits 2-0 after wins over Minnesota and Columbus this weekend. The Rangers also went 2-0 over the weekend and it appears both teams are set for a final showdown. Barring a blowout loss by either side, there should be nothing that eliminates them after round robin play.

Although both games bore the same score, there were few similarities beyond that. Buffalo had to come back after giving up two early goals against Minnesota. Meanwhile, the Sabres held control for much of their win over Columbus. Kevin Snow has two great write ups of both wins on the Sabres website, accompanied by video highlights. In addition, Phil from Black & Blue & Gold also has video highlights posted. I will defer to them on in-depth game coverage.

The Sabres final round robin game is against Detroit tomorrow afternoon and the Championship game will be played at 7 p.m. on Sunday. The game will be televised on MSG. The Rangers sent a crew to cover all of their games at the tournament, they have also been rebroadcast on NHL Network. Continue reading →

Deskchair Quarterback – Bills vs. Chiefs

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There isn’t too much to say about the Buffalo Bills’ 41-7 win over the Kansas City Chiefs. The Bills dominated every facet of the game on their way to the most convincing Bills win since the 2003 opener.

Ryan Fitzpatrick was efficient under center and made some serious throws on his way to a four touchdown performance. Just think, he is 26 touchdowns away from Jerry Sullivan strolling down Hertel in his underwear.

Scott Chandler looked like Pete Metzelaars while hauling in a pair of TDs. For the first time it looks as if the Bills have a valuable target at TE since Jay Riemersma left for Pittsburgh. The receiving corps didn’t miss Lee Evans as David Nelson proved to be an excellent slot compliment to Steve Johnson. Nelson’s size creates mismatch problems all over the field, I see him continuing to grow and sharing a similar skillset to Aaron Hernandez in New England. Continue reading →

Buffalo Sabres season preview: The Blueline

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This is part two of a series previewing the Buffalo Sabres 2011-12 season. Part two focuses on the defense. Read part one here.

A handful of factors aided Ryan Miller in his Vezina winning season. Tyler Myers’ emergence as a force and his chemistry with Henrik Tallinder created a true lockdown pairing. In addition, Toni Lydman and Steve Montador offered a sound veteran presence to the bottom four that included Chris Butler, Craig Rivet and Andrej Sekera. Add Miller’s exceptional play over the course of the season and it is fairly obvious why he and the Sabres were so successful.

The 2010-11 season was a down season for the Sabres blueline as a whole. The departure of Tallinder and Lydman were filled by Jordan Leopold, Shaone Morrisonn and Mike Weber. An overall average season was capped with the departure of Butler (trade), Montador (trade/UFA) and Rivet (waived). Due, in part, to Terry Pegula’s deep pockets, the Sabres blueline underwent a major overhaul as they enter the 2011-12 season. Continue reading →

ESPN dropped the ball

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Yesterday was a tough day for the hockey world. There have been countless hours and words devoted to the Yaroslavl Lokomotiv tragedy. One thing that really bothered me yesterday was the lack of coverage that ESPN seemed to be giving to this matter.

Of course, I couldn’t watch SportsCenter, but numerous tweets said that the top story on the sports news show was Peyton Manning being ruled out for Sunday’s game. ESPN considered that breaking news. Funny, I knew he wasn’t playing in this game two weeks ago. Add to that the fact that their website hadn’t been updated with the story. It was buried on the sidebar on the NHL page, but nowhere to be found on the homepage.

Thrashing the Blues has a great breakdown of ESPN’s coverage.

The wake of an international tragedy like this is no time to start pointing fingers and telling people they are jerks. But, it is difficult to ignore the disregard ESPN showed to this story. I think it is an embarrassment that ESPN wasn’t able to lead SportsCenter and their website with this story. They are the “worldwide leader in sports” after all. Ironically, they had no trouble digging up cell phone video of the UConn basketball fight in China.

I lost most respect for ESPN a long time ago. I don’t expect their hockey coverage to be very good because they have no vested interest in the sport. But showing blatant disregard for a tragedy that has struck the global sports community is pretty pathetic.

Buffalo Sabres season preview: Between the pipes

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This is part one of a series previewing the Buffalo Sabres 2011-12 season. Part one focuses on the goaltenders.

Through the highs and lows in the Sabres history there seems to always been one constant. Sound goaltending has always been something the Sabres have boasted. As they enter the year with Ryan Miller as their starter they once again have no issues between the pipes.

However, unlike the past four seasons, the Sabres have a sound insurance policy as a back-up goaltender. Jhonas Enroth, whose play down the stretch helped secure the Sabres’ playoff position, will serve as Miller’s primary back-up for the entire season. Enroth will provide added stability to a position that was already the strength of the team. Continue reading →

Lokomotiv Yaroslavl tragedy adds to hockey’s heartbreak

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In a summer that has been filled with heartbreak for the hockey world, another tragedy struck the tight-knit community today in Russia.
The plane carrying the KHL club Lokomotiv Yaroslavl crashed shortly after takeoff and claimed the lives of 43 of the 45 people on board. Statements released by the team indicated that the entire roster, plus members from the youth team. As IIHF President Rene Fasel explained, “Today is the darkest day in the history of our sport.”
Among those on-board are ex-NHLers, Pavol Demitra, Karel Rachunek, Ruslan Salei, Karlis Skrastins and Josef Vasicek. In addition, goaltender Stefan Liv, head coach Brad McCrimmon and assistants Alexander Karpotsev and Igor Korolev also have ties to the NHL. Of course, each and every life that was lost in this horrific accident is mourned equally, the fact that names so familiar to so many fans are involved makes the issue hit very close to home. Continue reading →

Winnipeg Jets unveil new uniforms

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The Winnipeg Jets alleged logos and uniforms have been a fun topic of conversation this summer. After a surprise logo unveiling earlier in the summer, the Jets showed off their new jerseys today.

A close-up of the terrible vertical arm striping on the new Jets uniforms.

Overall the jerseys are pretty underwhelming. They don’t stink, which is a good thing. But they aren’t show stoppers. The blue home uniform looks good. The sleeve and waist stripes aren’t ridiculous and the color scheme works well. Aside from the main logo, the home uniform works.

As for the away jersey, it is awful. The sleeve stripes aren’t all that terrible. The light blue looks good. However that stupid vertical navy blue arm band is horrendous. There is no trim on it, so it is just floating out in space, part of it fills in between the horizontal stripes and it has no counterpart on the home uniforms. To top it off, it makes the horizontal stripes, which on their own would look good, look like something you see on a crossing guard.

i was really hoping the Jets organization would stay away from mistakes like this, especially those awful third jerseys. For the most part they did. They chose a cool color scheme with a very cool secondary logo and a fairly unique wordmark, depending on your taste. The boring logo doesn’t help much, but coupled with that idiotic vertical stripe, I can only hope the NHL goes to white jerseys at home so I don’t have to witness these in person.

On the bright side there is an opportunity for a baby (aviator) blue third jersey with that awesome secondary logo. Also, the numbers and letters are pretty unique, so that is a small victory.

Again, they’re not the worst things in the world. Just not worth all the waiting and fan fare. I think I may have taken the counterfeits over this model.

A look at the numbering and lettering on the new Jets uniforms.

Hangartner, Corner headline Bills cuts

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Geoff Hangartner, Reggie Corner and Naaman Roosevelt headlined the cuts made by the Billstoday in order to reach the 53-man roster limit.

Jon Corto was one of the surprising cuts made by the Bills today.

Here are the 27 players who have been cut: QB Levi Brown, FB Jehuu Caulcrick, WR Naaman Roosevelt, WR Kamar Aiken, TE Mike Caussin, OT Ed Wang, OT Jason Watkins, C Michael Switzer, DE Lionel Dotson, DE T.J. Langley, NT Michael Jasper, OLB Antonio Coleman, OLB Jammie Kirlew, ILB Brandon Hicks, CB Doyle Miller, S Sidney Glover, S Josh Nesbitt, LS Danny Aiken, WR Buster Davis, WR Felton Huggins, TE Shawn Nelson, OT Cordaro Howard, OG Mansfield Wrotto, C Geoff Hangartner, CB Reggie Corner, S Jon Corto.

Hangartner, Corner, Roosevelt and Jon Corto are probably the most surprising names that appear on this list. Ed Wang and Antonio Coleman and Mansfield Wrotto are also cuts from last year’s roster.

Of the players that made the team who are surprises, Colin Brown, Ruvell Martin and Robert Eddins. Now, Eddins was strong throughout camp and the preseason, but I thought he would be a practice squad player before making the active roster, particularly over Antonio Coleman. As for Brown, this may be the biggest surprise simply because he didn’t do much during his audition, perhaps that is a good thing for a lineman. Continue reading →

Bills roster projection: the final 53

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I have been scribbling, replacing and crossing out names on my depth chart throughout the preseason. After watching the preseason games and seeing the coverage that is available, I have a good idea who the Bills will keep this season.

I went with an even 25/25/3 split to make things easy. Surely Chan Gailey will have some variations in mind as he chisels away cuts. By going with 25 on each side of the ball I allowed myself to be somewhat conservative with my choices. Reason being, there aren’t many guys you want to take a chance on. Continue reading →

Deskchair Quarterback – Bills vs. Lions

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I can officially proclaim that the NFL Preseason is the biggest racket going. The Bills, and NFL, go of and charge full price for two home games so fans can watch players they never heard of perform poorly in hopes of making an NFL roster.

I understand that this is out of the Bills’ control. However it is embarrassing that these games aren’t priced at $10 a ticket. It isn’t fair to chars such steep prices and the poor turnout last night showed that.

As for the game. There isn’t too much to write about. The starting offense didn’t do much, but it didn’t look like they were trying either. Shawne Merriman looks like his old self, just pray he stays healthy.

This game was all about the reserves. Players on the bubble needed to prove their worth and many did. Antonio Coleman was active and likely saved his bacon despite another strong showing from Robert Eddins. Eddins is destined for the practice squad and a potential call up depending on injuries.

Continue reading →