Author: Chris Ostrander

Extra Point: Turnovers help Bills close out defending Super Bowl Champs

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Feel free to insert your own cliché on ugly wins when thinking back on the Bills’ win over the Ravens yesterday. The Bills got the thing to the garage but with the effectiveness of a drunk guy wearing an eye patch.

The offensive shortcomings of the second half that allowed the Ravens start to sneak back into the game amplified a lot of the worry of most Bills fans while also erasing an impressive first half from their collective memories.

Buffalo’s defense rebounded well after allowing over 500 yards of offense to the Jets last week and virtually eliminated Baltimore’s running attack while managing to survive with a patchwork secondary that helped contribute to a five-interception day.

Aaron Williams led the way with a pair of interceptions and an overly impressive day that only saw him beaten badly once on a deep ball to Torrey Smith. While it was yet another bad day for Justin Rogers, the contributions of Williams, Kiko Alonso (2 INTs) and a pass rush that recorded four sacks and 12 hits on Joe Flacco bridged the gap for the struggling corner.

The Bills front seven was stout for the entire game. Marcell Dareus had one of, if not the very best performance of his professional career while the others on the line each brought valuable contributions themselves.

Manny Lawson, in addition to adding his first sack of the season, was stepping to the slot receiver at times to provide coverage. Mario Williams was pushing the pocket at times – and Flacco rolled away from him quite a bit during the afternoon – added a very important red zone sack of Flacco that aided in holding the Ravens to a field goal.

Offensively the Bills did all their talking in the first half. EJ Manuel was efficient and hit on a big play to Robert Woods to help stake the Bills to their second lead of the game. Manuel sputtered in the second half, losing some composure but managing the game well enough for the Bills to get the W. Continue reading →

Sabres can fast track youngsters this season

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Perhaps this season won’t be about winning the Cup for the Sabres, but that might not be all bad. If suffering is indeed what Sabres fans are in for, at least the crop of fresh faces on the roster will provide a compelling narrative to follow for the season.

In the weeks between the draft and training camp, the Sabres voiced their support of Rasmus Ristolainen as an NHL-ready prospect and confirmed that Mikhail Grigorenko would play the season in Buffalo. Additionally, players like Zemgus Girgensons, Johan Larsson and Mark Pysyk began showing that they’d also be vying for a spot on the roster that takes the ice in Detroit on October 2.

With only six days left until the regular season opens, the roster is beginning to take shape with only a few spots left to confirm. How many fresh faces will be on the opening night roster is one aspect that hasn’t been determined at this point.

Buffalo still has nine defensemen in camp with newly signed, junior-eligble Nikita Zadorov amongst the group. Zadorov has received rave reviews throughout the summer and the preseason and has probably earned himself his nine-game tryout before being sent back to London. However, the already crowded blueline corps has little wiggle room to find a spot for Zadorov, even if it is for nine games.

It would be great if the Sabres could find a way to get Zadorov into the line-up for those first nine games, they certainly don’t need to have Alexander Sulzer on the roster to open the season and could use his spot to insert Zadorov to start. It isn’t inconceivable to think that either Sulzer or Jamie McBain will be heading to Rochester regardless of what the Sabres plan on doing with Zadorov simply because I don’t see many minutes available for those two at this point. Continue reading →

Conspiracy theory: Could the Sabres be running the world’s greatest jersey con?

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In an odd twist of rhetoric, many Sabres fans have been muttering a similar phrase the past couple of days. “It’s too bad to be true. Right?”

The Sabres new third jersey has only managed to scrape together a few dozen fans as backlash for the new jersey has been beyond negative to this point. Fans, bloggers and mainstream media members (local and nationally) have panned the uniform’s busy design leaving little support in their wake. Although social media was hardly what it is today when the Slug jerseys were unveiled, it seems as if this new creation has received more backlash than the previous number one contender for the worst jersey in Sabres history.

However, what if this was all part of a massive, well-orchestrated charade? What happens at training camp when the jerseys are to be officially unveiled and the lights go out and suddenly Ted Black’s entrance music comes on? Would the team President pulling the curtain on a different, better looking third jersey not be the greatest troll job in the history of hockey?

Naturally the chances of such greatness occurring are somewhere between slim and a new Peace Bridge, but I can’t say it wouldn’t be all that surprising. Let’s consider the facts: Continue reading →

Trade may be the only remaining solution for Bills and Byrd

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The saga surrounding Jairus Byrd went from a frustrating, stagnant stalemate to a quickly decaying cycle of bad faith that is pointing towards divorce.

When Andy Levitre left for a hefty contract in Tennessee, it was generally assumed that the money saved by not signing Levitre would be allocated towards Byrd’s new long-term deal. However the summer dragged on without any progress made and Byrd eventually sat out all of training camp due to the impasse.

Now there are rumors circulating that Byrd and his agent are attempting to work out a trade for the Pro Bowl safety as it appears his relationship with the Bills organization has become severely damaged. Both sides can take credit for fouling up the entire situation as the Bills likely stood pat on their salary offer which was obviously well below what Byrd and his representation have demanded. Continue reading →

Sabres miss the mark with jersey, unveiling

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For a team with such a widely celebrated crest and color scheme, the Buffalo Sabres manage to do an incredible job finding ways to disappoint when it comes to uniform design.

Today officially marked a new chapter in Sabres uniform history when Steve Ott joined forces with the Sabres social media team to help “leak” the new third jersey via Twitter. To say that the reaction was poor would be an understatement. Whether via Twitter, news posts or Facebook comment – the album link had over 500 in two hours at the time this was written – the reaction by the vast majority of those who had seen the uniform was incredibly negative.

Count me amongst those who dislike the new threads. Continue reading →

#SupportSally

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You may have seen some posts, Tweets and other correspondence floating around the Buffalo sports blog-o-sphere today regarding #SupportSally.

#SupportSally is a movement that has been taken up by The Scizz and all the other guys at The Deeg in support of their friend, and Buffalo ex-pat, Matt Kabel and his daughter Sally.

Sally is Matt’s 10-month old daughter and was recently diagnosed with leukemia. She has her own website and I’d highly recommend reading through the site to learn a little bit more about this courageous young lady. I’d also urge you to read more about the relationship that Matt and Scizz have developed as Bills fans in NYC.

You can also chip in to support the cause with the #SupportSally t-shirt that is being sold by Store716. All proceeds from the sales of the shirt are going directly to Sally’s fight and Store716 is handling all shipping as well. This is a tremendous cause and I hope to see plenty of #SupportSally shirts at Bills games and around Western New York.

Click here to make your donation to #SupportSally and order your t-shirt.

Washington rout the start of an ugly 48-hour period for the Bills

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It has been a hellacious 48 hours at One Bills Drive. After a definitive drubbing at the hands of Washington on Saturday, the Bills scrambled to reinforce their quarterback depth before losing their top cornerback for what could be eight weeks.

Stephon Gilmore is expected to miss at least 5-6 weeks and upwards of eight after it was reported that he suffered a wrist fracture on Saturday evening and is expected to be on the shelf for some time. Given that Buffalo only trimmed their roster to 76 on Monday, it could possibly leave the door open for Gilmore to be tabbed with the IR-designated to return status to start the year. Continue reading →

Projecting the 53-man roster

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With the deadline to trim the roster to 75 looming (the Bills already dropped to 76), the remaining roster moves will come quickly once this week’s preseason game has passed.

The primary focus of this year’s camp has centered around the quarterback competition as EJ Manuel attempts to earn the role of starter as a rookie. However, both Manuel and Kevin Kolb are all but guaranteed to be in uniform and on the opening day roster when the Bills open against the Pats.

Positions like receiver, defensive line, corner and linebacker will be far different as the Bills 53-man roster shakes out and I’m hopeful that my projected 53-man roster is close to that of Doug Marrone’s. Continue reading →

Q&A with BASE Hockey on the best sticks money can buy

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I’ve had the chance to correspond with a handful of hockey personalities this summer. People tapped into the industry working for companies like CCM and Warrior. I also had a very unique opportunity to do a Q&A with Ron Kunisaki, one of the founders of BASE Hockey.

If you haven’t heard of BASE, don’t worry. They’re a stick manufacturer who doesn’t bother trying to run with the bigger name companies in terms of marketing or endorsements. Instead, they put their money where their mouth is. Ask anyone who has used their products – there are way more guys out there than you’d think – you won’t hear a bad thing about them. Check out the Q&A below and then check out BASE Hockey.ca to see their entire product line.

Q: Mind giving a little more history about BASE? Just talking a bit about how you got started, the products you produce and your general mission?

Ron Kunisaki: The inspiration for BASE Hockey was borne out of a conversation between Cliff Ronning, Al Iafrate , Holmes Ghassemi and myself in early 2010. As veterans of the hockey stick business and the NHL, we recognized the need to bring to amateurs the shooting evaluation and stick customization offered to NHLers. Cliff is almost autistic with his trained eye, memory and stick spec expertise. Al understands shooting mechanics better than anyone. Combine these unique talents with their NHL career and experience as NHL Pro Reps, and you can understand why their career paths merged into BASE.

We developed proprietary software, hardware and protocol using high speed video to analyze a player’s shot and identify a player’s optimal flex, curve and lie. We then built our own stick factory in Tijuana, Mexico and our first Fitting Center in Vancouver. Simply put, we built from scratch the ability to deliver to amateurs the high-end  analysis and custom sticks provided to NHLers.

With the design team, manufacturing plant and retail fitting center built in 2010, BASE began providing  custom stick fittings, instruction and custom sticks in 2011. In addition to improving your game, all of our sticks are sold factory-direct to customers to keep pricing low. Continue reading →

Sabres load up for another Traverse City run

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You can’t say the Sabres haven’t won anything. They enter this year’s Traverse City Prospect Tournament as the defending champions after their triumph in 2011.

Buffalo’s title defense was delayed after last season’s lockout and they may benefit from the delay as they are prepared to ice a scary talented roster for the 2013 tourney. Mikhail Grigorenko will lead Buffalo’s other top prospects including; Joel Armia, Zemgus Girgensons, Johan Larsson, Rasmus Ristolainen, Nikita Zadorov and others in search of another tournament championship.

Mark Pysyk is one of the “vets” on Buffalo’s Traverse City roster.

Sending stacked rosters isn’t necessarily something that only the Sabres participate in. Each team manages to send a combination of pro ready prospects, new draft picks and players who have seen pro ice time to the tourney. It just so happens that Buffalo makes sure to construct a roster of their best prospects.

In 2011 the top line of Luke Adam, Marcus Foligno and Zack Kassian bullied their way through the rest of the tournament and claimed the first championship the franchise has ever seen.* Considering that Armia, Girgensons, Grigorenko and Larsson are amongst those participating, I think the Sabres are betting on bringing back another championship.

In addition to Girgensons, Grigorenko and Larsson – all who played professionally last year – Buffalo has a pair of NHL defensemen (Chad Ruhwedel and Mark Pysyk) to skate along with another NHL-ready player in Ristolainen. Continue reading →