Author: Chris Ostrander

Floating ideas on a future site for the Bills stadium

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There’s been a whole lot of talk about where the Bills will reside once their newest lease expires in 10 years (or seven depending on what course of action they take).

While the current renovations will serve as little more than a soggy band-aid for the aging stadium, the lease is designed to provide the time necessary to get a new stadium designed, approved and built in Western New York. Of course seven to ten years probably isn’t long enough around these parts.

Although a shiny new stadium built on the Outer Harbor is probably the first choice for many new stadium advocates, I think that it’s more likely that Bass Pro will build a floating supercenter to support the new signature Peace Bridge span before a football stadium gets constructed on the Outer Harbor. Too many opponents with plans for parks, public access and other causes which simply don’t align with a billion dollar project such as that.

Bear in mind that a number of stadiums have been built in the past 10-20 years for relatively acceptable costs and there’s no reason to think that the new Bills stadium (open or with a roof) couldn’t be completed without eclipsing the billion dollar plateau.

Instead, I think there are a few more feasible locations throughout the city that would not only appease those who staunchly disagree with placing the stadium on the water but also the parties who hope to see the stadium built in the city limits. I’ll go in order of most ridiculous and unrealistic and work my way down to the plan I like best  (forgive the sloppy photo work). Continue reading →

Extra Points: Aerial attack ousts Bills in Big Easy

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Drew Brees and New Orleans’ air attack did the Bills in on Sunday as the five touchdowns tossed by Brees accounted for all the scoring from the Saints on Sunday.

Buffalo held a lead for some time during the contest after a Stevie Johnson touchdown and Dan Carpenter field goal but Jimmy Graham scored a pair of touchdowns in the second and third quarters with a 69-yard bomb to Kenny Stills helping to recapture the lead for New Orleans.

Graham’s first score would be all the Saints needed, but his second score was followed by another late bomb to Stills that rolled up the final 14 points for New Orleans. It was a dominating performance by Brees who took control of the game while being sacked four times by the Bills. Continue reading →

Flow Chart: How to determine if your team should honor a former player

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The Sabres made up for their lack of response during Jason Pominville’s return by running a nice tribute to Lindy Ruff on Monday night.

Ruff’s return has been circled on the calendar since the schedule came out this summer and showing some sort of respect for the longtime coach was likely an easy decision for the Sabres. But it isn’t something that has been the norm for other former Sabres making their return to the city they once called home.

There haven’t been many players who have come back to town worthy of any sort of acknowledgement from the club in the past few years. Maybe only Marty Biron would register for most of the fans. It goes to show how few and far between these opportunities are. By extension, the rarity also makes it that much more important to get it right.

Eric from 3rd Man In has a good take on Pomnville’s return, the non-response from the Sabres and why it should be easy enough for them to take a little time to honor these former players when they come back. Since Thomas Vanek and Ryan Miller will be making their way back to First Niagara Center sometime in the next 12-18 months, I’ve cooked up a flow chart to help decide if former Sabres deserve a quick moment when they come back to the First Niagara Center ice.

As you can tell, the blue and gold lines are there to highlight final answers.
As you can tell, the blue and gold lines are there to highlight final answers.

The one thing this doesn’t take into account is the rental player or plugger who may be on a championship squad but never leave a lasting impression. But those types of guys shouldn’t be difficult to weed out. This is designed as; A) a joke; and B) a way to determine if tenured members of the team deserve to be acknowledged.

Pominville and Thomas Vanek are great examples in this case as they both played significant roles through their tenure and grew to be fan favorites prior to departure. They both fall into the category of guys who deserve to be honored and hopefully the Sabres follow suit when Vanek returns for the season’s final game.

Ed Note: This can apply to any team, simply switch out Sabres with your team of preference.

Between the Pipes: Moulson shines in Ruff’s return

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Matt Moulson must be some kind of magician. Because with a flick of his wrist he made a legion of fans forget about Thomas Vanek hours after they were bitching about his departure.

At least that’s the narrative I’m going with.

Moulson’s Sabres debut was a strong one. He scored a pair of goals – one beauty and one in a “dirty area” – and helped energize Buffalo’s new top line alongside Cody Hodgson and Tyler Ennis in a 4-3 loss to the Stars.

Moulson’s debut was likely overshadowed by the return of Lindy Ruff and another tick in the loss column as the #SuckForSam sweepstakes continue. Perhaps Moulson’s start helped to draw some attention away from Ruff’s return considering last night’s loss was one of the few, shall we say, competitive contests the Sabres have played all year.

The issues were still there as Buffalo’s in-zone coverage continues to resemble some sort of union of mini-mite group puck chasing and a glitchy version of Lemmings for Windows 95. Never was it more evident than on Vernon Fiddler’s opening tally in which Mikhail Girgorenko and Drew Stafford were left spectating as the Dallas forward crashed the crease to stake the Stars to a 1-0 lead.

While the Alex Goligoski goal was simply a well-placed snipe. Both Tyler Seguin and Jamie Benn potted goals off of atrocious Sabres turnovers that managed to create two odd-man opportunities below the faceoff dots. To give up not one, but two situations such as that is something that shouldn’t occur in the NHL. Continue reading →

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