Author: Chris Ostrander

Strong return for Vanek trade despite surprising timing

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Darcy Regier may not do well constructing teams or awarding contracts, but he’s often proven to be adept on the trade market. He did well in selling off a major piece yesterday when he sent Thomas Vanek to the New York Islanders.

Getting a first and a second round pick along with Matt Moulson is a damn fine return of a single player whose been widely rumored to be heading to Minnesota once free agency opens this summer. In fact, I’d say that the return for Vanek surpasses that of what Regier got for Pominville at last year’s trade deadline.

Regier also likely extended his lease on the General Manager position for at least a few more months. There’s a good chance that the fan discontent and media chatter has helped to turn up the heat on Regier’s tenure. Pulling an impressive trade for his team’s best player – particularly for a pair of impressive draft picks – will most certainly give him a stay of execution.

Trading Vanek was beyond inevitable as the Sabres’ dreadful start likely sealed his decision to depart Buffalo. He said as much in his first session with the New York media indicating that the type of rebuild the Sabres have embarked upon is far from an ideal situation for the pending free agent.

 

Hopefully there aren’t many Sabres fans who read too far into Vanek’s comments from earlier today as disdain for the team or area but simply as the desire to get out of a bad situation professionally. Continue reading →

Between the Pipes: Weekend update

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It was quite an eventful weekend for the Sabres with a back-to-back set punctuated with the trade of Thomas Vanek on Sunday evening. In an attempt to continue my focus on the Sabres crease, I’ll hold off on any sort of recap of the two games this weekend and simply review the goaltenders.

Jhonas Enroth – 44 saves, 3-1 win

Enroth was easily the first star of the weekend for the Sabres as he single-handedly earned them their first regulation win of the season. He made a number of dazzling saves amongst the 45 shots he faced in the one-goal effort earning him an easy nod as the game’s first star.

What he did well

When Enroth is at his best he is playing big and getting hit with the puck. He’s much more of a blocking goaltender than one who reacts to each shot and truly “makes saves”. What makes Enroth so effective in his style is that he’s able to play big despite being somewhat undersized as a goaltender in today’s NHL.

On Friday he was on. It was the type of performance that has most Sabres fans at a certain level of acceptance with Ryan Miller’s potential departure. Enroth was very active in the crease and he was turning aside a number of difficult back-door plays. He took a handful of goals off the Panthers’ sticks which is as much as you can ask of a goalie getting peppered with 45 pucks. Continue reading →

Between the Pipes: Ugly game underscores uglier hit

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Things got ugly on Wednesday night at First Niagara Center. On top of another ugly loss, the Sabres chief goon, John Scott did his best to draw more unwanted attention to the raging inferno at One Seymour H Knox III Plaza.

Scott’s hit was dirty, awful, embarrassing, the list goes on. Basically what any sane person had to say on the matter will suffice. Hopefully the NHL sits him down for a dozen or more and does the league and the Sabres a favor. He doesn’t help this team in any discernible way on the ice – yeah, I’m sure he’s a great locker room guy – and for a roster of young, developing players, that’s not the type of guy you need.

I’d give him 15, personally

As for the rest of the game, it was a pretty bad loss in a growing trend of lopsided decisions. While almost every game this year has been lopsided in one way or the other, the results this past week have been slowly getting worse. The Avalanche and Bruins both hit the four-goal plateau and it appears that surrendering a mountain of shots on goal won’t be the only trend the Sabres follow for the foreseeable future.

At some point I plan on focusing on specific goalie-related topics in addition to the game breakdown, but each loss manages to highlight some new deficiency that probably shouldn’t go unmentioned.

Wednesday was the flawed roster and it’s damning effects on this young season.

Most of the fans in Buffalo knew this was coming. It was to be a rebuild, the Sabres were shifting to a youth movement and building through their prospect cupboard and the draft. Yet it doesn’t feel right. It doesn’t feel remotely close to right. Continue reading →

Flying Bison’s move would have been a steal for Canalside

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For as much good is done at Canalside, it always feels like they’re missing out on the big score. Yet another piece of development news broke today regarding a project that should have been tailor made for Canalside.

As Jim Fink reports in Business First, Flying Bison is exploring a move to a new property in Larkinville in an effort to expand their burgeoning business. According to the report, Flying Bison is eyeing a 12,500 square foot building on Seneca Street for their new home. Here’s more from Fink:

Flying Bison plans on moving by March 2014 from its original home on Ontario Street to the new site. Since its 2000 inception, Flying Bison has leased its Ontario Street site and the building’s owner, DiVal Safety Equipment now needs the building for its own expansion needs.

Herzog said Flying Bison had pinpointed a pair of Michigan Avenue buildings, but those deals could not be completed.

The new building will allow Flying Bison to increase its output and also develop an indoor beer garden/tasting room as part of the tours that regularly take place at the brewery.

Sure 12,500 square feet is big. But would a brewery have not been a killer attraction for Canalside? Think of having Flying Bison’s new brewery (and restaurant?) situated on the Northwest corner of the Aud Block overlooking the recreated canals and facing towards the river, Arena and the rest of Canalside. Instead we continue to wait on the faux historically aligned canals to be completed let alone see any sort of significant construction towards attracting additional tenants to the district. Note: One Canalside and HARBORcenter are both tremendous projects that show how vitally important private interest and investment in the area will be. Continuing to miss out on these types of opportunities is the issue at hand. Continue reading →

Extra Points: Fred and Mario take over

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With their win on Sunday the Bills simultaneously stayed alive in the race for a playoff spot while remaining firmly entrenched in the AFC East race.

Due to New England and Miami’s records entering the week and the victory by the Jets, the Bills didn’t experience any sort of change based on their placement in the standings. That leaves a number of teams to hurdle if the Bills expect to qualify for the playoffs.

Sunday was all about Fred Jackson and Mario Williams. The pair drove the Bills to victory, just about single-handedly. Continue reading →

Basement Brigade presents Black & Red Night on October 28

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As you may have heard, Lindy Ruff is coming back to Buffalo on Monday. His return is expected to be accompanied by a tribute from the team, which is nice.

Eric, from 3rd Man In, has come up with a little event to coincide with Ruff’s return on Monday. Eric, along with many additional members of the Basement Brigade will be calling for fans to break out their red and black Sabres gear as a way to honor the team’s former uniforms on a night when their former coach – who coached plenty of teams in those colors – returns to Buffalo.

Head over to 3rd Man In to get more of the specific details, but it is really quite simple. Pull out your old red and black gear from the late 90s and early 00s and wear it to Monday’s game. You may not have liked the red and black jerseys, but no one liked the Slug jerseys and plenty of lemmings went out and bought them, didn’t they? This is a cool little idea that isn’t a protest, complaint or anything else but a way to honor what may just be the most successful era in team history.

In the event you didn’t hit the link to Eric’s site the first two times, here it is again: Basement Brigade presents Black & Red Night on October 28

Update: The site and Twitter account with go with the red and black theme as well for the week. Here’s a sample of what I’m getting at.

redblack2

Between the Pipes: Canucks blank Sabres

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The Sabres mailed in yet another listless effort on home ice, allowing 28 shots through two periods and watching the Canucks skate away with a 3-0 win.

A pair of storylines have dominated the Sabres season thus far and they have been the stellar play of both Ryan Miller and Jhonas Enroth to go along with flat efforts from the ranks of the Sabres skaters. Thursday was yet another prime example of both. While Miller weathered the storm, the Sabres struggled to generate zone time.

Chris Higgins’ one-timer off Cody McCormick’s feed – yes you read that properly – was all that was going to be needed by Vancouver. Brad Richardson scored on a shorthanded deflection and Ryan Stanton scored his first career goal in the third.

That was the long and the short of it as the Canucks were operating on serious cruise control in the third and that’s likely the only reason they didn’t break 40 shots. A 28-14 edge in shots through two periods was a continuation of what has occurred in each and every game so far in this young season.

Miller chose not to speak to the media after the game and I can’t blame him. He’s been hung out each game, has been phenomenal in each performance and has a 1-5-0 record to show for it. Even if he was playing at an average level, no goaltender deserves that type of treatment. There are few players in the league, let alone the Sabres roster, who are more passionate and outspoken than Miller. I can only imagine his comments would have created some sort of firestorm with the media and fans alike. Besides, he stood tall all game, it was about time he was granted a reprieve.

Ryan Miller

What he did well

This will read quite similar to Tuesday’s round up as Miller was phenomenal for the entire game. He saw a game’s worth of pucks in the first 40 minutes and held his team within striking distance all night. You hear a lot about his inability to steal games for his team, if he was playing behind goal support I’m fully confident he would have stolen a whole lot more than he’s given credit for.

Where he struggled

Miller was deep in the net on Vancouver’s first goal. He was forced to make a quick adjustment on the original turnover and likely wasn’t expecting the one timer to come once the puck reached Cody McCormick. Still, he was on the goal line and didn’t have much of a shot at a save.

Save of the game

Miller had a number of dandies but the breakaway stop in the second period was indeed the best. It was a strong move on top of the paint and a well timed poke. He got some help from Ristolainen on the way through, but it was a nice stop.

Roberto Luongo

What he did well

Lu tweets with the best of them, I can tell you that much. As for the game, Luongo was able to kick back and relax for three periods as the Sabres barely tested him for most of the contest. Still, he controlled his space and earned his shutout.

Where he struggled

He looked out to lunch on his turnover behind the net in the third, but when you get a shutout you typically don’t have many shortcomings.

Save of the game

There were a few net-front battles that I really was impressed with throughout the night. Luongo covers the bottom of the net well, especially when he gets his butterfly wide.

Notes:

  • Once again Mikhail Grigorenko played a miniscule role for the Sabres. While it’s obvious that he still needs to mature in many facets of his game, the roles he’s been given are far from what you’d expect for a highly touted prospect the organization hopes to develop as a cornerstone of the franchise. Or at least that’s what you’d expect.
  • Support in the defensive zone from their forwards may be the biggest issue for the Sabres currently. While there has been some inconsistencies from the blueliners but support from the forwards has been abysmal at times. The Stanton goal is a great example as Brian Flynn was sucked all the way down to the crease along with Johan Larsson and the defensemen. That needs to be improved.
  • Some of the biggest issues that seem to be coming up – power play, defensive coverage etc. – certainly seems like it may be tied to coaching, not just talent, no? Something to think about.
  • The Miller and Vanek trade rumors are going to keep rolling along. They’re going to command plenty of attention up until the deadline, I hope you’re ready.

 

Between the Pipes: Miller, Sabres outlast Isles for first victory

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This probably doesn’t seem too familiar to some out there in Sabres nation. Winning has been something relatively absent from the psyche of Sabres fans for a while and was amplified by the team’s o’fer start to the year.

However an offensive – can I say explosion? – explosion from the Sabres pulled their contest with the Islanders to overtime where Ryan Miller eventually shut the door on two of the three New York shooters on the way to his first victory of the year. Thomas Vanek and Tyler Ennis scored for the Sabres in the skills competition.

The shootout victory came after yet another shooting gallery effort from the Sabres skaters as they were outshot by the Isles 44-34 on the night and giving Miller another 40-save effort. Miller, who has seen over 40 biscuits in three of his five games, ranks first in shots against and saves in the entire league. As unbelievable as that may be, he has indeed seen the most shots in this young season.

Luckily for the Sabres he has been up to the challenge. I opined earlier this year that if there’s ever a time to want Ryan Miller on a roster it is during an Olympic year. He was a man possessed after his snub in 2006 and saw his name etched on the Vezina after standing on his head in 2009-10. I’m not ready to guarantee an Olympic roster spot or a Vezina season, but I’m fully confident that he will be maintaining this top form for most of the season.

Where there is going to be a disconnect is in the win and loss column. Only 1-4-0, Miller’s record is far from sterling despite his sublime stat line and plenty of shortsighted fans will point to negative decisions as evidence to how overrated, average, overpaid, soft, etc. Miller is. Despite the exact opposite to be true. Continue reading →

Sabres should go back to red and black for Hasek

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Earlier this week the Anaheim Ducks went back to the start of their franchise and busted out Mighty Ducks retro jerseys for their game against Ottawa on Sunday.

The jerseys were worn as part of Anaheim’s 20-year anniversary celebration and the practice was widely embraced as a great idea by fans, players and media members alike. The Ducks went all out with the event, as well. In addition to the uniforms, they also went retro with the scoreboard, intros and TV graphics for the night.

Seeing all this got me thinking, why can’t the Sabres do something similar? I’m not saying a direct ripoff of the Ducks idea, but something out of the same playbook.

Considering the Sabres current home and road uniforms are practically identical to their original jerseys, going back to the original design for a night wouldn’t yield a drastically different look for the team on the ice. Because of that, the only true option for a throwback-type night would be to rewind to the red and black era. And what better night to turn the clock back to red and black than when the Sabres finally retire Dominik Hasek’s number?

Ted Black has already come out and said the Sabres will be retiring Hasek’s number in the very near future. I also believe there was some insinuation that Hasek may also end up with a statue out in the plaza. Obviously the Sabres have pretty big plans for the greatest goaltender in franchise history.

For my money, there’d be no other way to go than a statue and jersey retirement on the same night. His performance and legacy is right there with the French Connection and combining the two events would make for a very cool special night for Hasek and the fans. Taking it one step further by decking the team out in the red and black uniforms that were worn during Hasek’s prime would make it that much cooler. Continue reading →

Extra Point: Bills show fight in OT loss

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It’s amazing what one year can do, isn’t it?

A year ago, when the Bengals went up 24-10 most fans would’ve know what was coming. An inevitable loss due to any number of contributing factors that likely included poor quarterback play, vanilla defense or even uninspired play calling.

Fast forward to a new regime, new quarterback(s) and a new outlook and Sunday’s 27-24 loss stings in a different way than the losses from previous seasons.

Don’t mistake this as a celebration of silver linings in a game that dropped the Bills to 2-4. There are plenty of shortcomings the Bills are enduring and they came out in Sunday’s loss. However, the Bills are playing an exciting, entertaining brand of football that is looking likely to become a trend in coming seasons. Continue reading →