It was a brutal weekend for the Sabres, dropping games to the Islanders and Devils in brutal fashion. We take a look at what’s gone wrong over the first three games and what the Sabres can do to right the ship.
Author: Chris Ostrander
The Instigator Podcast Interview – Featuring Greg Balloch of In Goal Mag
It’s been three games and there are plenty of questions about Buffalo’s goaltenders. So I reached out to Greg Balloch of In Goal Magazine to talk about Robin Lehner’s shootout struggles and more. Greg gives incredible insight to the strong and weak points of Lehner’s game, where he sees Lehner taking the Sabres and even offers up some thoughts on Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen. Greg also went deep into effective and ineffective goaltending statistics, providing a better way to look at goaltenders at the NHL level.
Sabres Feature Sharp Masks for 2017-18
The Sabres are back and with a new hockey season comes new hope, new expectations and, most importantly, new goalie equipment.
Every goalie in the Sabres system has a new-ish look for the season and while this lineup certainly isn’t the most impressive collection of masks and gear the team has ever seen, there are still a few solid set ups throughout the pipeline.
None is better than Robin Lehner’s phenomenal Brian’s OPT1K set. Known for unparalleled customization, Brian’s and Lehner cooked up a terrific blend of stock and custom team-logo graphics. I’m not always a fan of the fully custom team logo sets Brian’s creates, but the Sabre on each piece of Lehner’s set is understated enough that you have to look hard to find it.
Chad Johnson is really the only other worthwhile set up to speak of. He is sporting a clean Ventus set that is a little less colorful than the Ventus gear Lehner wore last season. The Ventus graphics are attractive and work nicely with the Sabres colors.
Other than the two goalies with the big club, Buffalo’s other netminders all sport very basic blue and white sets which won’t clash with the Amerks uniforms but don’t stand out much either. Where there is plenty of variety is in the mask department. Continue reading
Here We Go Now
Looking back, last year was something of a false start for the Sabres. Jack Eichel’s injury dampened the first half of the season and Tim Murray wasn’t willing or able to move enough pieces to shore up the blueline.
What was originally thought of as a coming out party became a regression and a practice in further patience with the rebuilding process.
This season feels different.
Maybe it’s the shine of a new coach and general manager combo. Phil Housley is pushing an uptempo style of play and Jason Botterill hasn’t been shy about reshaping the roster – especially on the blueline. But what has really stoked excitement for the start of the season was locking up Jack Eichel for eight more years.
Getting Eichel’s contract done will erase every take about potential distractions and his desire to play in Boston. More importantly, it ensures that Eichel’s prime years will be spent in the Nickel City.
Maybe it’s the Buffalo inferiority complex at play, but sometimes it seems like Eichel isn’t appreciated as the talisman that he is for this franchise. Not so much from a national perspective, but locally. Nevermind the process that it took to get him, but simply his impact on the ice; his ability to drive play even with two wet paper bags as linemates is something Sabres fans haven’t seen since Gilbert Perreault played. Yet, sometimes I feel like fans see him as just another piece of the puzzle and not the cornerstone that he is.
Eichel is an electrifying talent. He’s played little more than a season-and-a-half and his highlight reel is already astounding. He’s everything we’ve hoped the Sabres would find while also being the antitheses of what’s defined this team for so long. He’s the most exciting player to don a Sabres sweater in a decade (two decades? Three?) and should things go as expected, he may just go down as the most exciting player in franchise history.
The desire for gritty, hard-working, blue-collar players has grown to mythical proportions with the Buffalo fan base. Our greatest stars have almost always occupied the crease and despite being blessed by the greatest player to ever play the position, the Sabres never had the skaters to fully compliment the limitless talent Dominik Hasek offered.
In a way, it’s refreshing just to know that the Sabres aren’t simply building from the net out. This team is going to be led from the front and it’s going to be done by a dynamic talent well worth the trouble it took to get him. The pieces around him continue to fall into place and it truly feels like the Sabres are ready to stop the suffering and start winning.
Here we go.
The Instigator Podcast 6.9 – 2017-18 Buffalo Sabres Season Preview
We are back again to offer up some more detailed thoughts on where we see the Sabres finishing this season. Along the way we celebrate Jack Eichel’s new contract and all that means for the future of the franchise.
The Instigator Podcast 6.8 – 2017-18 NHL Season Preview
We’re back for another season preview, laying out how we see the league shaping up for the 2017-18 season. We have a couple of playoff teams missing out and a couple of new playoff squads compared to last year in our final predictions.
The Basement Brigade Watch Party 2.0
We had such a good time hanging out at the end of last season, we decided we needed to do another Sabres Twitter Watch Party.
We’ll be heading back to Riverworks to take in the Sabres trip to Brooklyn to face the Islanders on October 7. This time we aren’t just going to drink some beer and watch hockey. We’re hoping to work in a community tie-in with these events, as they’re something we’d like to make a fairly regular thing. So those who will be attending will have the option to donate to the Alix Rice Peace Park Foundation when they arrive. Donations will not be required and can be of any denomination you feel comfortable with. Whatever we raise will go to support the foundation, which is what’s most important.
To help distract from our bad takes, we’ll have some pretty cool Sabres swag we’ll be giving away during the game through trivia or basic giveaways. We’ll probably make that part up as we go, to be honest.
We have a Facebook page set up for the event if you wish to tell us you plan on attending or not. Either way, we hope you can make it down for the game and that these watch parties can continue to grow into something bigger and better.
The Instigator Podcast 6.7 – Who Wins One of the Final Spots on the Sabres Roster?
There are only a few spots available on the Buffalo roster for the coming season but the Sabres have upwards of 15 players battling for five, maybe six positions. It’s a battle that includes a combination of free agent signings from the summer and prospects who appear ready for the jump. Chris and Tyler debate the outlook for the blueline and bottom six forwards and who we see as the most likely to make the opening night roster.
The Instigator Podcast 6.6 – Back to Hockey
Training camp opens this week and the Sabres prospects were back playing competitive hockey. In addition to discussing the Prospects Challenge, we touch on the coming changes to game presentation, the addition of giveaways and offer up some reaction to the Winter Classic logos that were released last week.
The NBA Model Should Lead the NHL towards more Jersey Choices
There are more than a few areas in which the NHL could stand to follow the NBA’s lead. Marketing their stars, targeting growing and untapped markets, and simply being forward thinking in the presentation of the game.
It’s unlikely that the NHL will ever surpass the NBA in terms of popularity and revenue, but taking basketball’s lead in an attempt to grow hockey’s footprint – and ultimately the league’s revenue – is a method which could pay dividends for the NHL. The only remaining hurdle seems to be the NHL’s inability to get out of their own way.
More often than not it appears that the NHL is more than happy to stay in their lane and keep their head down when it comes to presenting the sport. It’s not that the product is bad, per se, but that the league doesn’t seem to be willing to explore new opportunities or look at things in a different manner.
The tweet above regarding the new NBA uniform policy is a great example, albeit a small one, of the NBA opening up to new ideas. The root of this new development is to create a new revenue stream across the entire league by giving all 30 teams a fourth uniform to wear as they see fit. But it’s being done in a manner that is very fan-centric which adds a great deal of appeal. Continue reading
Two in the Box 
