I’m back

Sorry it’s been so long, everyone. Needless to say, a lot has changed for the Buffalo Sabres and the NHL since my last post. Tim Connolly finally left the Sabres and now plays for division rival Toronto. Backup goalie Patrick Lalime retired. New owner Terry Pegula used his money to trade for Calgary defenseman Robyn Regehr and sign Vancouver defenseman Christian Ehrhoff and Philadelphia Flyers winger-turned-center Ville Leino.

Not only that but all three offseason additions were signed for the type of big money longterm deals that the Sabres had been so unwilling to give to the likes of Daniel Briere, Chris Drury and Brian Campbell.

As for the NHL, it has a new person in charge of discipline, former Detroit Red Wings and New Jersey Devils great Brendan Shanahan and recently saw its first franchise relocation since 1997. Out with the Atlanta Thrashers, in with the Winnipeg Jets so expect at least some changes in conference structure next season. Also, the NBA’s locked out, something the NHL may benefit from in terms of attracting fans.

Finally, this past summer saw the deaths of Derek Boogaard, Rick Rypien and Wade Belak, three players known for their toughness but who also turned out to have serious issues with depression. Discouraging stuff, to say the least and that was even before all but one of the layers, coaches and personnel from the Russian team Locomotiv Yaroslavl and the flight crew carrying them to their KHL season opener in Belarus died in a horrific plane crash. The victims included such NHL alums as Pavol Demitra, Karlis Skrastins, Ruslan Salei and Josef Vasicek but even if none of the victims had ever played a game in North America, the sheer devastation of the crash would still be tragic.

It’s now been over a week since the Sabres actually started their season in Finland against the Anaheim Ducks and the results actually look promising. Ryan Miller and Thomas Vanek dominated the 4-1 win over the Ducks in Helsinki, no small feat since the Ducks were a playoff team last year and haven’t lost many of their key players.

The Sabres’ 4-2 win over the Los Angeles Kings in Berlin the following day was a little more close, thanks to two goals by the Kings’ high-scoring center, Anze Kopitar but the Blue and Gold were able to hold on, in large part because of two early goals by rookie phenom Luke Adam. Adam seems to have really developed a rapport with Vanek, with the Sabres’ star left wing providing assists on all three of the goals Adam has scored this season so keep an eye on him.

Of course the Sabres weren’t going to go 82-0 and the first loss happened last Friday in Buffalo’s true home opener. 2006 nemesis Carolina triumphed 4-3 at what’s now called the First Niagara Center, with reigning Calder Trophy winner Jeff Skinner scoring the game winning goal minutes after Drew Stafford had seemingly sent the game to overtime with his tying goal.

To their credit, the Sabres rebounded the following night with a 3-2 win over Pittsburgh featuring a stellar performance from Jonas Enroth. I don’t think Enroth’s likely to supplant Miller as starting goalie but it is nice to know that Lindy Ruff no longer feels like he has to play his star goalie on back to back nights. Whatever you think of Miller’s talents, wearing out a goalie by having him play all but a couple games rarely ends well, unless that goalie is named Martin Brodeur and the year is 2003.

Moving on to the rest of the month, the Sabres finally play their first division game on Tuesday in Montreal, making for a potentially interesting goalie duel between the Canadiens’ Carey Price and Miller. That’s followed by a road game on Thursday at another team that upgraded in the offseason, Florida, and a game at Tampa Bay on Saturday. The Lightning have only won one game so far but they do have a lot of talent.

A week from Tuesday, the Sabres finally return home to face the currently winless Columbus Blue Jackets, two days before it’s their turn to host Florida. Happy watching.

I think this says it all

Here’s a post I did for the Ithacan’s sports blog, “The Extra Point” that pretty much sums up my feelings on the end of the Buffalo Sabres’ season. Sorry for the lack of frequent posts this year and go Sabres!

Here we are

It’s been way too long since I last posted but even if I had kept up with this blog more over the past two months, I doubt I could have kept up with everything that’s happened to the Buffalo Sabres. Ironically enough, the team whose first half of the season was marked by predictability and mediocrity has whizzed through the last two months of the season as one of the league’s best teams. Moreover, they’ve dominated in games where no one expected it and found ways to come back in games where they’d normally be out of the game before the second period intermission. It’s been surprises all the way.

Now do you believe?

Thomas Vanek simply walking into Mordor

A funny thing has happened to the Buffalo Sabres since Terry Pegula purchased them from Tom Golisano towards the end of February: slowly but surely, they’ve actually managed to morph into contenders.  They’re probably no one’s idea of the next Eastern Conference Champions, not with 76 points and tied with the slumping New York Rangers for seventh in the conference. But the position the Sabres are currently finding themselves in was certainly all but unthinkable to a lot of people just two months ago. And not all of the team’s sudden revival is a direct result of their new owner.

We interrupt our scheduled programming…

…To announce that all-time Buffalo Sabres great Rick Martin is dead at the age of 59, according to the Buffalo News. He was apparently driving in the suburb of Clarence when he suffered a fatal heart attack. I was going to do a post about the Sabres’ recent good fortune in the standings and I’ll get around to it after this post, though maybe not before today’s game against the Ottawa Senators. But Martin was such an important figure in Sabres history that he deserves to have his own post.

Where to begin?

For the shortest month of the year, an awful lot’s happened this February while I’ve been mostly away working on academic projects. First, the Sabres stunk. Then they didn’t. Then they did.

Week in Review

The Buffalo Sabres may be about to gain a new owner but if their first two games after the All-Star Break are any indication, they’ve still got many of the same issues as before to work on. Holding on after grabbing an early lead, minimizing turnovers, getting offensive production from their star players instead of just hoping that the third and fourth-liners get lucky…all of these were issues for the Sabres on Friday night after the Blue and Gold wasted early goals by Mike Grier and Paul Gaustad and let the Pittsburgh Penguins go off for three goals in the second period for a 3-2 win.

I don’t usually cross-promote this way but….

I am now a co-blogger for “The Extra Point” over at The Ithacan and I think the post I wrote today sums up my feelings about Tom Golisano and Larry Quinn selling the Buffalo Sabres to Terrence Pegula fairly well. Check it out here.

NHL weeks in review/All Star Game

It’s been an interesting 10 days or so for the NHL. Key injuries, teams suspending players, tight playoff races…if there ever was a “boring” part of the regular season this year, it’s pretty much over at this point.

Weeks in Review

It figures that the 10 days I just took off from this blog to go back to school and get settled in would be the two busiest and headline filled weeks of the month for the NHL and the Buffalo Sabres. Let’s review what’s been going on recently, shall we? First, a look at the Buffalo Sabres.