Author: Chris Ostrander

It’s time for the Sabres to run an equipment sale

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If you mosey on down to the Sabres Store at any point during the regular season you’re bound to find a decent selection of game used sticks. Sometimes you can even find brand new sticks that haven’t been cut down, let alone taped up. The sticks cost about $100 the last time I checked, which happens to be a sweet price for a piece of pro stock equipment. Factor in that these sticks retail for over $250 in most cases and the deal really can’t be beat.

Unfortunately this is about as far as the Sabres are willing to go when it comes to selling their overstocked equipment. In the early weeks of the summer the selection is a bit deeper – with socks, gloves and pants available for purchase – but usually that stock runs dry quite quickly.

That brings me to my main point. Why is it that the Sabres don’t run an equipment sale each year? Continue reading →

Looking back at the Draft: 2005

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This is part two of my series of re-drafting the first round of the NHL Draft between 2004 and 2009.

One thing I noticed as I was working on this project was how quickly the bottom of the round thins out. I never had much trouble lining up candidates who had been selected in the second round and beyond, but filling the holes left by the first round misses led the bottom of each first round to be tricky to round out. Luckily there were a healthy number of mid-round picks to choose from in 2005 as the draft itself was very deep.

This draft, particularly at the bottom, became more of a need-based selection process as opposed to simply listing the best players. However, having a happy medium of re-ranking and actually selecting players for need was my goal going into this.

Continue reading →

Pick your Sabres starting lineup

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I saw a similar graphic with a list of some of hockey’s greatest names earlier today. The instructions were the same; you had $20 to pick the starting six players you would want based on the dollar amounts next to each name. So I thought it would be fun to do this with the Sabres. Go ahead and leave your picks in the comments or on Twitter after you pick your group. top6

Looking back at the Draft: 2004

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This will be the first in a series of posts that revisits the first round of the NHL Draft. I did something similar with previous Sabres drafts for Buffalo Wins last year and NHL Network Radio on SiriusXM has been doing something along these lines the last few weeks.

I wanted to look back on the first round of recent drafts and to figure out which players worked out, who turned out to be a sleeper and who wound up as a bust. So I took each draft between 2004 and 2009 and re-selected the first round based on the players from the entire draft.

I evaluated and drafted by following a handful of guidelines. The overall goal was to identify where some prospects would be picked if the draft could be reconducted today. I attempted to strike a balance of simply reordering the top 30 players from each draft and making some selections based on who would best aid certain teams.

I didn’t consider each and every team’s draft strategy since I can’t speak to the draft strategy of each team in any particular draft. However, if there was a player that would address a very specific need, goaltenders being the best example, that was taken into consideration. I also looked at each draft independent of those in the preceding or following years. A player’s original draft selection didn’t factor into their new position in this practice.

The first draft I chose to reevaluate was 2004. This draft was headlined by Alex Ovechkin and Evgeni Malkin. As you’ll notice, I will list the team’s new pick first followed by the pick they made originally with a brief explanation for most, if not all of the choices. I will also list where the new pick was originally selected.

Continue reading →

Whaley thought of his offense first with draft picks

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Doug Whaley made sure that he put his stamp on the Buffalo Bills with this year’s draft. He made both pragmatic and radical moves over the weekend in what appears to be a clear attempt to end the Bills’ decade-and-a-half playoff drought.

With Sammy Watkins as the obvious crown jewel of the class (as any first round pick would be), Whaley committed to improving Buffalo’s offense with his selections that included three offensive linemen. The trade to get Watkins is a clear risk for a team with as many holes to plug as the Bills do. Whaley deserves credit for ensuring that he kept his 2014 selections intact while sacrificing his first round pick in 2015.

My feelings on trading up wavered on nearly a week-to-week basis as the draft slowly approached. Making a drastic move to secure a cornerstone talent like Jadeveon Clowney would have been interesting and quite entertaining. However the assets required to make a pick like that outweighed the benefits in many cases. Managing to only give up an additional mid-round selection along with the requisite first round pick was a coup for Whaley. Even if you have concerns over giving up that pick, Whaley still did well in maintaining the rest of his assets along the way.

The lone concern I had in giving up a first round pick in 2015 is that the Bills could be on the outside looking in if a quarterback is needed. This is a worst case scenario situation, of course, but should management or the coaching staff realize that EJ Manuel isn’t capable of carrying the team – or if Manuel’s knees don’t cooperate again – the Bills may be searching for a signal caller next year. With Marcus Mariota and Jameis Winston expected to be the most sought after signal callers in 2015, the Bills would be left out of the party. Now, a number of factors would need to come together for the Bills to be in that situation, but it certainly could be a possibility come next May. Continue reading →

Isles take another step towards keeping 2014 pick with Halak trade

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The move that sent Jaroslav Halak to the Capitals was one that ensured Tim Murray ensured that he had a goaltender who would be with the organization past this summer’s free agency period. Little did many know that Halak would wind up becoming a contributing factor in which first round pick the Sabres receive from the Islanders.

Halak was swapped by the Capitals for a fourth round pick yesterday in a move that gives the Islanders two full months to negotiate with Halak ahead of free agency. This is a move geared towards improving the Islanders now. Their lack of goaltending last year kept the Islanders from competing for a playoff position and ultimately pushed them towards the top of the draft. While this isn’t a final piece of a Cup run puzzle it’s certainly a move that indicates that Snow won’t be taking the scenic route towards reshaping the roster.

That route likely includes using their 2014 first round pick.

There’s still the possibility that Halak chooses to test the market despite the Islanders efforts to get in him ahead of time – remember, the Islanders failed to get Christian Ehrhoff under contract after trading a fourth round pick for his rights in 2014. Should that be the case Snow would be stuck pursuing a contingency plan in net. Either way, it’s obvious that he wants to make immediate improvements to his roster which tells me they aren’t necessarily in the tanking business for 2014-15. Continue reading →

Where will Miles Austin end up?

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This is a guest post from Jason Troxell

Depending on who you ask, March 11 arrived as a bummer for some Dallas Cowboy fans. On that day, it was reported that longtime wide receiver Miles Austin will be cut post-June 1, which is when he’ll enter a very crowded free agent pool. Or will he?unnamed

The latest news out of the swirling tide of NFL rumors is that Austin will indeed leave Dallas in his rearview. On the Cowboys’ official website, two writers answered a slew of questions surrounding the team. And of course, leading the way was one about whether or not Austin will return to the Lone Star State. If we’re to believe what these guys are saying, it’s not looking good:

“That’s always a possibility, but I’d be surprised to see that happen. I think more so than the money, the Cowboys were ready to move on to a new player at the position. It wouldn’t hurt to have him, but his hamstrings got to the point where he seemed like a ticking time bomb before the next injury. He’s one of the best receivers remaining in free agency, but it’s hard to count on that.”

It’s a fair point. Continue reading →

How 2ITB voted in the 2014 PHBA Awards

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A few weeks back I was contacted by PumperNicholl from The Royal Half about participating in the first annual Professional Hockey Bloggers Association awards voting. They put together 65 blogs (65!) to vote on the seven big awards.

Each blog was given one entry to select up to five players for each award. Here’s how the voting played out:

Hart Trophy: Sidney Crosby

Norris Trophy: Duncan Keith

Vezina Trophy: Tuukka Rask

Selke Trophy: Patrice Bergeron

Calder Trophy: Nathan MacKinnon

Lady Byng: Ryan O’Reilly

Jack Adams: Patrick Roy

I strongly urge you to head over to The Royal Half and look at the full voting results. The guys at TRH deserve a ton of credit for getting so many blogs together to vote and managing to find 65 bloggers who were able to get all the positions correct.

Here’s how I voted for each of the awards: Continue reading →

Spitballing the Sabres: Creating a Sabres Fantasy Camp

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In the past you’ve read posts on this site titled as pipe dreams. They were a string of ideas I had envisioned for various parts of the city that featured a wide range of ideas which varied in terms of feasibility.

I hope that this post serves as a starting point for a number of different ideas that I’m pitching for the Sabres. In fact, I’ve ran some similar posts in recent weeks and months. So it’s not as if this is a foreign concept to this space.

So I kept brushing him back.

Perhaps one of these ideas will strike a chord with a member of the Sabres front office (unlikely) or even just drum up conversation amongst the fan base that could gain momentum down the road. I enjoy coming up with various ideas and floating them for conversation. Especially when it’s something that could benefit the city or, in this case the Sabres.

The Sabres currently hold an annual event called the Corporate Challenge that is a three-on-three tournament that features alumni headlining teams sponsored by local businesses. The cost per team is $3500 and the players receive a jersey along with a number of other amenities that accompany the tournament. This includes food and drink throughout the day and at the culmination of the event. It’s a terrific even and I’d like to see the Sabres build on the success and momentum of the Corporate Challenge by instituting a fantasy camp. Continue reading →

Proposing a change to the NHL series format

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There’s no question that the NHL Playoffs are the greatest part of every season. An easy argument could be made that the postseason tournament is the best amongst the four major sports. The series format, structure and seeding are nearly perfect with the change back to the divisional format this season.

While there isn’t a thing I’d change about the playoffs in their current form, I’ve wondered recently about an adjustment to the series structure. The idea shuffles the order in which the games are played to not only add value to home ice advantage, but to give the higher seed an extra opportunity to clinch a series on home ice.

The NHL model, as it stands now follows a 2-2-1-1-1 format with the home team hosting games one, two, five and seven. It is far superior to the NBA’s awful, horrible, no good 2-3-2 order that sees the higher seed forced to the road for three straight games. The system that I’m proposing would see the lower seed host the first two games while giving the higher seed four of the final five games. Continue reading →