Author: Chris Ostrander

Double Minors: Sabres prospects claim Traverse City championship

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Count it as the first championship in the Pegula era. The Buffalo Sabres prospects claimed the 2011 Traverse City NHL Prospect Tournament championship in their first appearance in the event with a 5-2 victory over the New York Rangers prospects. Be sure to check out Sabres.com for Kevin Snow’s coverage and video highlights.

Buffalo sent a squad with numerous veterans, including the reigning AHL Rookie of the Year, and their dominance showed. The Sabres never trailed in the contest and asserted their victory with three third period goals. Nathan Lieuwen provided another strong performance as he ran his tournament record to 2-0 with five goals against.

The gamesheets are all kinds of incorrect on the Pointstreak website, so I can’t give a full statistical analysis. For example, Zack Kassian was credited with the final Sabres goal which was clearly scored by Marcus Foligno. Still, Kassian finished with four points which ties him with Luke Adam, Nick Crawford, Jonathon Parker and Phil Varone. If my math is correct, Marcus Foligno led the Sabres with five points (3+2).

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Proud to Puck launches today

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Along with providing Bandits, Bills and Sabres content here at 2ITB, along with other random musings, I will be contributing as the Sabres writer for Proud to Puck. It is a new NHL news website that will offer coverage of the entire league. I’ll often re-post content here from P2P and vice-versa.

I am joining a great group of writers and it will be a fun season providing content for this new site. Be sure to check it out on a daily basis.

Buffalo Sabres season preview: Wingin’ it

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Thomas Vanek is a prime candidate to be the Sabres' next captain.

This is part four in a series previewing the Buffalo Sabres 2011-12 season. Part four focuses on the wingers. Read the previous three entries here.

Darcy Regier has a knack for acquiring wingers. It probably has a lot to do with the league-wide overabundance at the position. Still, the Sabres have a stockpile of talented wingers entering training camp this week.

There are eight openings available and at least ten players vying for a spot on the opening night roster. Based on the salary figures – the Sabres are still $3.5 million over the cap – the projected depth chart is fairly easy to lay out. There are a handful of players who a prime trade candidates, but without anything more than vague rumors it is unfair to speculate who will be part of the organization in a few weeks.

Although the top four wingers are likely locks, the remaining four positions are up for grabs, so to speak. Due to contract structure, intangibles and production; Tyler Ennis, Jason Pominville, Drew Stafford and Thomas Vanek are all likely to be safe from a trade or demotion to Rochester.

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Buffalo Sabres season preview: Blueline blue chips

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This is part three of a series previewing the Buffalo Sabres 2011-12 season. Part three focuses on the defensemen who will play for the Sabres’ farm club. Read part one and two here.

An AHL All-Star selection, Drew Schiestel will be the first off the farm for Buffalo this year.

Due to a number of roster moves by Darcy Regier in the offseason, a handful of the Sabres’ prospects will remain stuck in the minors for another season. If Tom Golisano still owned the Sabres it would be likely that Chris Butler and Marc-Andre Gragnani would be fighting for playing time with players like Drew Schiestel or T.J. Brennan. Both defensemen are close to making the jump to the NHL soon.

As luck would have it, Terry Pegula instituted a new mandate of spending and the Sabres brought in two new veterans to man the blue line. So, Schiestel and Brennan will need to wait another year to make it with the big club. Continue reading →

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 →