Buffalo Sabres

Sabres and Amerks to reunite?

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It seems the Buffalo Sabres’ short relationship with the Portland Pirates may not last much longer.

Sources have said Sabres owner, Terry Pegula is close to buying the Rochester Americans.

This is an interesting development considering the Pirates have had moderate success since the Sabres took over, while the Amerks have floundered under their affiliation with the Florida Panthers. By purchasing the Amerks, Pegula would basically be paving the way to reunite the two franchises.

I have to say his would be an ideal situation for the Sabres. Their prospects would be 90 minutes down the road (again) and it allows the team to strengthen regional fans anywhere east of Batavia. Not to mention it would allow the Sabres to have full control over their farm system, a useful tool in player development.

Based on he timing and info provided I have to think this is very real. If that is the case we may be witnessing the beginning of Terry Pegula putting the puzzles pieces together in his master plan for the Sabres.

Goose and Grags at the Worlds, Aces back to Portland

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Since the Buffalo Sabres’ departure from the 2011 Stanley Cup Playoffs their players have dispersed to various locations. The “Black Aces” like Jhonas Enroth and Mark Mancari have been sent back to Portland to help with their playoff run. Meanwhile, Marc-Andre Gragnani and Paul Gaustad accepted invitations to represent their countries in the IIHF World Championships.

Gaustad recently joined Team USA for yesterday’s 4-2 win over Norway. Gaustad logged two penalty minutes and was given an ‘A’. It should be interesting to see if Gaustad’s time with the US will help him gain some additional experience against the best in the world and in clutch situations. Having another player with big-game experience will be huge moving forward. Continue reading →

Sabres series recap, what to remember

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As I just wrote, there are plenty of things to forget about this series. However there are plenty of things to stroll into the offseason happy about. Not all of them are silver lining, grass is greener reasons either.

– The kids are alright. Tyler Ennis came to the party a little late, but he was still dynamic with the puck on his stick late in the series. Chris Butler may be my only exclusion from this list because it seemed like he ran out of energy as the series wore on, he had quite a few bad turnovers. However, Mike Weber and Marc Andre Gragnani made some strides and Tyler Myers showed his nasty side. Big time. Last, but not least, Nathan Gerbe asserted himself as an NHL forward. He had a terrific second half of the season and continued to show his strengths in this series. I think it is safe to say he and Paul Gaustad are a pretty great match on the third line moving forward. Continue reading →

Sabres series recap, what to forget

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There are a whole bunch of things that the Buffalo Sabres didn’t do well in their seven-game loss to the Philadelphia Flyers. In fact, the bad may outnumber the good. No matter though, I won’t rehash every hand-wrenching moment. Just the ones that can be fixed.

Ask yourself why he is so open in front of the net.

– Defensive zone coverage. That is a broad point and I intend it to be. The Sabres simply didn’t do very well handling the Flyers’ forecheck and clearing their zone. They also lost contain far too often and let too many dangerous forwards free too many times. In both 1-0 victories this happened. It may have been limited, but it happened. In the four losses it happened way too much. The most glaring times were when the Sabres were giving up two and three-goal leads. Continue reading →

He said it: The people who didn’t want Briere are gone

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Want to talk about a press conference bombshell? Danny Briere saying that the people who didn’t want him there are now gone was a bombshell, a big one.

"The people who didn't want me there are gone now."

Now there is more than one person who left during the ownership change, so I wouldn’t dare point a finger at anyone in particular. But how ridiculous is it to hear a player who scored six goals in this series say something like that? Continue reading →

Where game seven can go

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This is a hell of a lot farther than anyone expected the Sabres to go. So many have used the phrase, “playing with house money.” I agree with those people.

Now the Sabres have run the defending Eastern Conference Champions to the edge of elimination. The Sabres haven’t looked pretty doing it and they lost a golden opportunity to get this into the barn at home in game six. No matter, they have one more shot. They have an extra shot to achieve a bit of greatness. Continue reading →

Double minors – Game six

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Game six seemed to be the culmination of everything that the Sabres have been doing poorly in the series with the Flyers.

Since game one Buffalo has been weak along the boards and has been unable to clear their zone with ease. Aside from a few bright spots the defense has been beyond spotty. Lastly, just like in the regular season, the Sabres have not played well with a lead and haven’t been able to finish off the Flyers when they had their foot over their throat. Continue reading →

Does Richards face additional discipline?

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As I have settled down from the game six loss I have decided that breaking up my thoughts may be better than one long, rant-riddled diatribe on what made my blood boil this afternoon.

First topic is Mike Richards. I know that the war of words started between he and Lindy Ruff. I didn’t necessarily see eye-to-eye with either party on their opinions, so I kind of just ignored it. After all, I had been viewing this series as house money either way.

To be fair to the “level-headed” Philly fans, Richards did not deserve a major for his elbow to Pat Kaleta. It should have been a two-minute penalty. However, I think that he might need to sit a game for his hit on Tim Connolly.

Reason being, it is the type of play that the NHL is trying to eliminate. Sorry for the canned reasoning but I couldn’t look at it differently. It was a nasty hit and the shot from the corner shows Richards’ hand up pretty high on Connolly’s back. By my math, having his hands high on Connolly, driving his head into the boards (from behind) and the injury that resulted from the hit makes this a rather cut and dry case.

Of course it seems that the most obvious offenses are the ones the NHL seems to overlook. Also overlooked are big-name players like Richards. Those two factors might work against the Sabres in this situation. If he isn’t suspended it won’t be the end of the world. I don’t think losing Richards would adversely affect the way the Flyers play the Sabres, and vice-versa.

If Richards plays a major role in a Philadelphia victory in-game seven, you may have a case for missing the mark on a suspension.

Here is some good news

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CSNPhilly posted this nugget a little while ago.

So, Jeff Carter screwed up his knee in that collision with Tyler Myers. Too bad for him considering it was a freak play. It could easily have gone the other way and the Sabres could be without Myers.

This punches a small hole in the Flyers’ depth at forward. However they still have a bunch of talented scorers, shouldn’t affect the way Buffalo plays them moving forward.

As for Pronger, I say oh well. They have played without him for four games and there hasn’t been that big of a drop off. Buffalo hasn’t been very good at getting to the net or exploiting the Flyers’ defense. Ultimately this is sort of a moot point. Had the Flyers been struggling to defend Buffalo, maybe this is a big issue moving forward.

The Sabres still need to posses the puck longer and clear the zone better to get out of this series alive. Tonight will tell a lot. Both teams are angry, Buffalo has a bit of momentum and the Flyers are playing in their barn. It is a toss up for the advantage in the series.

Double Minors – Game 4

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Series squared. Ryan Miller took over from Thomas Vanek for the night and put the Sabres on his back. That was some Olympic MVP goaltending from Miller tonight.

Between robbing Danny Briere blind and making numerous big saves, it is safe to say that Miller earned his first star status. He didn’t have too much time off this evening as Buffalo was fairly weak along the boards and in clearing the zone all night. Lindy Ruff made a good point that the two posts the Sabres hit in the first period could have buried Philly. Unfortunately the hockey gods left it up to Miller. Continue reading →