Sam Savarino and Roger Trettel are very smart men. They have created very successful real estate companies and have taken the reigns in helping to develop what is left of the Cobblestone District.
One if their neighbors, Daryl Carr (owner of Cobblestone) has been trying to demolish a set of buildings on the corner of Illinois and South Park for some time. What will replace them is up for debate, but it seems like parking lot is where the spinning wheel of ‘progress’ may land. Continue reading
The NCAA’s two power conferences are represented in the 2011 Frozen Four as North Dakota and Minnesota-Duluth will be representing the WCHA against Michigan and Notre Dame from the CCHA.
North Dakota has crazy depth and will face an incredible test against Michigan as the Sioux haven’t had many hiccups in the second half of the season. Minnesota-Duluth has taken a Cinderella-type run past Union and top-seed Yale. Notre Dame’s goaltending makes them a scary team for anyone to face.
With all but four teams still playing, now is the time of the season when college free agents become attractive to NHL teams. Just today Niagara forward and Hobey Baker candidate, Paul Zanette, was signed by Montreal to an AHL contract. One of the biggest names on the table, Paul Thompson (UNH) was picked up by the Penguins. I wouldn’t be surprised if he gets a few games with the big club at the tail end of the year, they’re in dire need of forward depth. Continue reading
The Terry Pegula era has been greeted with unbridled enthusiasm. I don’t blame anyone for it either. He, and Ted Black, have said all the right things and have made all the right moves thus far. They have added numerous facets to the in-arena and home viewing experience.
Many of the improvements have come from the Sabres Suggestion Box. One suggestion that has been addressed by one (or more) fans is to do something with the red wall that lines the 100 level at HSBC Arena. This is something that has crossed my mind before and cropped back up when the suggestion box debuted.
My idea is to add some art to the wall. I first thought of this when I caught a game at Air Canada Centre. The ACC has put a mural of old pictures around their wall. The pictures are made up of old pictures of fans from Maple Leaf Gardens. This adds a very cool aspect to the in-arena experience there. That is where the genesis of my idea was born. Continue reading
This is one of those weekends that you could bill as the biggest of the season, until the next set of back-to-back games rolls along. So I will refrain from dubbing tonight’s game against Florida and tomorrow’s against New Jersey as the two most important games of the year.
However, the Sabres are in a position of power and can tighten their grip on a playoff spot if they take at least three of four this weekend. In actuality they could split the weekend and maintain the same lead they have on Carolina going in to tonight. There are so many different ways this can play out you can nail down one option and say “this is how it has to be.” Continue reading
I’m in the process of completing a Photoshop project that will show my grand plan for the red wall that currently adorns the 100 level. Part of my plan is to include, what I think should be, the Sabres new catchphrase or slogan Hockey Heaven.
I guess I’m not the only one who has jumped all over Ted Black’s awesome tag line. This video was put together by the people running the Hockey Heaven Facebook page.
I am all aboard for Buffalo officially becoming known as Hockey Heaven. Let Detroit be Hockeytown and completely forget “the City of Hockey” that has no flow. Hockey Heaven is where it’s at, and Buffalo is Hockey Heaven.
The Buffalo News broke a story this afternoon saying that HSBC will be given 90 more days to make a decision regarding their occupancy of Buffalo’s tallest office building.
Right now there are three options; remain in the HSBC Tower, purchase the ‘Webster Block’ in anticipation of a new build and (the scariest option) move the employees out of the city. If you ask me this is a no brainer, build a shiny new office building across from the arena and HSBC Atrium building. For those thinking a lawsuit would be necessary because a new building wouldn’t fit in with the historic Canalside development, climb out from under your rocks and tell me if the World Trade Center on Baltimore’s waterfront is causing any problems.
A new build would saturate the downtown office market with class A office space in the existing tower. Correct me if I’m wrong but didn’t the owner of the tower claim a move would lower the cost class A space and allow for numerous companies to improve their current set up? To me that sounds like a perfect storm. Two massive office buildings in the city center filled with employees. Hmmm…how can obstructionists find fault with that, I wonder?
To me a new building smack near the water does a few things. I already listed the benefits to the downtown office community, but tell me the Buffalo skyline couldn’t use a little boost from another tower. Not to mention adding some density to a neighborhood that is little more than windswept parking lots. Lastly, this sort of build would boost the potential of the Canalside neighborhood. The 2000 (estimate) employees that will be going lunch or dinner year-round during the week, weekend happy hours and a 30 second stroll to the arena for events certainly screams for some sort of bar/restaurant presence. Where better to build than Canalside. Yet another solution to the $64 million question.
C’mon HSBC make the decision we all know you want to make.
20 years ago Ron Tugnutt made 70 saves against the Boston Bruins. I can speak for Derek Plante when I say I’m glad he wasted most of them that night. But to be serious, what a game by Tugnutt that night.
I know dumber shows my prowess of the English language, but bear with me on this one. I had a long rambling post half written before I left work but all of my writing disappeared. So I get to start from scratch.
A while back I had a very productive conversation with a writer whose opinion I value greatly. Especially in the matter of development. We discussed a whole matter of topics ranging from the Outer Harbor to the Larkin District. However, the meat and potatoes of that conversation dealt with Canalside. The person’s name is Andrew Kulyk and he recently wrote a fantastic column regarding this topic for WNYMedia.net. Some of what is to follow will be quite similar to what Andrew wrote, mainly because we share a very similar opinion.
First I should thank Andrew for writing the column to give my brain a kick in the ass to write this post. I have been mulling over it for some time and I am now finally putting pen to paper….or fingers to keyboard in this case. Continue reading
It is ironic to me that Sunday morning The Buffalo News ran a column by Bucky Gleason praising the run the Sabres have went on since January 1 as they have turned their playoff fortunes around. After a mind-boggling OTL to the Nashville Predators Jerry Sullivan is up to his usual tricks.
I read Sullivan’s column, he isn’t all that far off base. The Sabres were bad in the important moments of the game today. Sequences like that make you question if this roster is capable of making a playoff run. I have wondered that for the entire season. Last year I thought 5-7 would be a fitting seed for a Sabres team that was robbed of the postseason in 08-09 by Ryan Miller’s high ankle sprain (Scott Gomez is a d-bag). But, Miller channeled Dominik Hasek last year and helped to vault this team to a division title. Being overworked helped lead to a first round defeat at the hands of the Bruins.
This season the Sabres have fallen into the pace that I have pegged them for in the last few seasons. A finish that could put them anywhere from fifth place to tenth, depending on the point spread.
My problem is that Jerry Sullivan, who seems to only show up to Sabres games when it is convenient for him (being award-winning and all) always makes sure to shoot down the entire organization, if possible. Today he only targeted the players and he wasn’t off base. They played solid trap hockey for 18 minutes before Andrej Sekera reverted to his Eurotrash form and helped give the Preds some life. In no time at all Miller got beat with a questionable deflected bouncer that tied it up. When the dust settled the Sabres had gifted away one point.It was a classic example of a team assuming a finish and not driving to complete the task that they had so easily in hand.
I will say it again, Sullivan makes good points in his piece. This roster is simply not built to win in the playoffs. They probably aren’t well suited to make a run for the postseason when trailing by so many points. There are too many soft players and not enough guys who will punch you in the mouth and kick you while you’re down to win The Cup on this team. When management brings in those types of guys, losses like today won’t happen.
I want to try to stay on point here. The fact of the matter is that Sullivan attempts to demolish whatever faith is left in the people following this team. Maybe he is depressed because he works in a city that doesn’t really care about basketball and could give a rats ass about MLB. Still, rather than writing a critical, yet subjective column. He aimed to bring everyone to his miserable level. I guess you get that way when you’re overweight and root for Mizzou.
The Sabres introduced a new goal song last night – well, it was supposed to debut against the Canes – and they got to test it out eight times. The song is “Swords of A Thousand Men” by Tenpole Tudor. It is a perfect goal song, just ignore the strange video.
The only thing I noticed about the song last night is that it didn’t fit well with what the Sabres have been doing after goals lately. They currently try and squeeze RJ’s goal call in with the song before the ensuing faceoff. It is just a little too much. They should take a page out of the Blackhawks book and start the song just after the horn goes off. Using Jeanneret is a cool touch but a goal song that will get the entire arena signing is much more effective.
Two in the Box 