In what has recently become a nearly annual blunder bowl for the NFL, the Bills and the Browns managed to put up some points on Thursday night in their primetime showdown.
A game that I joking referred to as the Mistake by The Lake Bowl has been exactly that for the last few meetings. In fact, three of the last five meetings between the two teams (entering Thursday) saw fewer than 20 points scored in the game. That includes the game played in a blinding snowstorm in 2007 and the windswept pillow fight in 2009, two games won by the Browns with a combined 14 points scored.
Thursday night, however was anything but a snoozer. The Bills leapt to an early lead, injured the Browns starting quarterback and had snatched momentum from the home squad. However, a pair of big punt returns, a strong return effort from Brandon Weeden and an injury to EJ Manuel turned the tables on the Bills quickly. Continue reading →
This shouldn’t matter. At all. But because it’s Buffalo things have to be difficult.
The Sabres finally got around to naming their captains today and by choosing two , you know, instead of one, they managed to piss off plenty of people.
From an organization who unveiled the worst looking jersey this side of Gorton’s Fish Products in a painstaking slow process, it’s just another reason for annoyed fans to pile one. I personally don’t have that much of a problem with the decision to name Thomas Vanek and Steve Ott co-captains.
No word on if there is a third jersey captain who gets to wear one of these bad boys.
Yeah, it’s dumb to have two captains. I get it, I sat through the monthly captain rotation that Lindy Ruff instituted and I also watched as Chris Drury and Daniel Briere led the Sabres to the President’s Trophy sharing the “C”.
Ultimately this is pretty much a non-decision as Ron Rolston picking the two of the best candidates he had to wear a letter for this distinction. Why he couldn’t just choose one doesn’t make much sense, but it wasn’t a bad decision to pick the pair of Ott and Vanek. They both carry enough merit to be considered strong candidates to be named captain and were actually probably the two frontrunners along with Christian Ehrhoff.
Look at it this way, Rolston – and the organization as a whole – not only rewarded Ott for his contributions on the ice but in the locker room. He’s become a fan favorite, brings the ever popular blue collar attitude to the room and deserved recognition for that. His style of play isn’t necessarily that of a player you’d want as your captain, so perhaps that factored into the decision to keep him from wearing the “C” full time.
Vanek, on the other hand, is Buffalo’s best player. He’s one of the longest tenured players on the team, is probably the easiest choice when it comes to choosing a player to wear a letter (contract status not withstanding) and giving him a share of the captaincy could be an olive branch of sorts from management indicating they want him around.
Vanek stated that wearing the “C” doesn’t necessarily make him want to stay, but it is an indication that the team does indeed want him around. Even if it’s something that doesn’t cause him to sign tomorrow, showing him that level of respect is a step in the right direction. And if the team manages to open some eyes this season, perhaps he can be convinced to stay.
Or maybe they just want to artificially increase his trade value.
Eric and I are back for season three of The Instigator Podcast. We wrap up the Sabres Blogger Summit that was held last night, chat about the roster for the upcoming season and play plus/minus with the candidates to wear the Sabres’ “C”.
Something interesting happened to the Sabres in the past week. A run of injuries suffered at the tail end of the preseason created some unique roster opportunities for a handful of Sabres prospects.
Obviously the last thing any team wants is to suffer injuries. Particularly injuries to players who have been touted as key pieces to the future success of the franchise. Yet, the injuries to Joel Armia, Marcus Foligno and Nikita Zadorov aren’t going to cause the Sabres as much stress as you may originally believe.
All three players are bound to be shifted to injured reserve in order for the Sabres to meet the NHL’s roster requirements this afternoon. While it will prevent them from getting immediate ice time, they’ll have the opportunity to stay in Buffalo while they recover. Specifically for Armia and Zadorov it means spending more time with the team, working out here and just absorbing more time with the big club as they heal up. Particularly for Zadorov, that is a great benefit.
Zadorov’s injury should provide him some additional time in Buffalo before heading back to London.
Considering it appeared as if Zadorov was destined to be returned to London, he will now get approximately two more weeks to spend with the Sabres strength and conditioning staff and I’d gather he’ll probably have the chance to get on the ice a few times as well. While it wasn’t a guarantee, I do believe that the Sabres wanted to give Zadorov a nine-game tryout prior to his injury. Assuming that was indeed the case, his nine-game cameo might just come after he’s fully recovered. Comparing the two timelines is easy enough; two weeks plus nine games > nine games. Continue reading →
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 →
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 →
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 →
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 →
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.
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.
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.
Two in the Box 