FanHouse Craig Rivet

As Adam Gretz mentioned, Wednesday's Buffalo-Florida game featured a melee at the end. After Maxim Afinogenov capped a four-goal third for the Sabres with an empty-netter, Panther Nathan Horton took exception. Perhaps Horton thought Afingenov should have done the Penguin thing and missed the net. The ensuing scuffle broke out into a full-fledged fight between Craig Rivet of the Sabres and Florida's Keith Ballard. Here's a better look at all that transpired, featuring the awesomeness of Rick Jeanneret.

In his years of broadcasting, I'm sure Rick Jeanneret has gotten a few goal calls wrong. After all, when you put the kind of energy into a game that he does, you're bound to get a little excited for the big goals. When there's a mass of bodies between the shooter and the net, it's often impossible to tell if someone tipped the puck on the way by or not. Friday night, Jeanneret got one wrong. The Sabres scored with four seconds to play to tie the score against San Jose, before going on to win the game in a shootout. Everyone, Jeanneret included, went crazy, and no one cares that Jeanneret credited Jason Pominville's goal to Craig Rivet. This was a fantastic game, one of the more entertaining of the season, and listening to a legend like Jeanneret call it only make it more enjoyable. As he said while the replays showed Pominville tipping the puck, "I don't think anybody in the building cares who scored it".

The Buffalo Sabres announced today that recent call-up RW Nathan Gerbe would be out at least two weeks with the ubiquitous-through-shadow, "Upper Boddy Injury." Gerbe was a target of abuse all night against the Devils last Saturday and took one particularly nasty sandwich between Jamie Langenbrunner and, I believe if memory serves, David Clarkson. The Sabres aren't talking but a reaction shot of him after the hit on the bench leads me to believe the injury is shoulder-related.

Speaking of shoulders, Captain Craig Rivet (D) gave out an update on his injured shoulder yesterday. It was injured way back at the beginning of the month vs. Montreal. Rivet, ever the tough guy, played three games with it but was a game-time scratch on Friday vs. the Lightning.

"It's something that I tried to play with," Rivet said of the injury. "Obviously it was really limiting what I can do on the ice and really affecting my game... the pain issue, you can get through those things but when it makes things that much more difficult for you on the ice you have to take a step back and try to rehabilitate it... see if we can strengthen it up."

According to yesterday's interview with Lindy Ruff, post-practice, Rivet will be evaluated in two week intervals until he's ready to return to the lineup. Shoulder injuries are rough in that he can still skate adn keep his conditioning up, but he can't do any strength work and if this stretches on for any length of time may hamper him late in the season when you'd have to think the Sabres will need his brand of rough and ready play as the games get meaner and tighter.

On the healing front, uber pest Patrick Kaleta will replace Gerbe in the lineup for tomorow's game against the Devils. The Kaleta Missile Crisis has been out for 7 games with a neck injury sustained after a week of pounding by a number of teams for his antics on the ice. We'll see if this first serious injury changes his approach to the game.

I'm not holding my breath.

Ta,

I'm not one to go ga-ga over a good hockey fight like my colleague Eric McErlain but yesterday's brawl between the Sabres and the Islanders was a good one, and not just because of the complete righteous smack-job put on by the new captain in Buffalo, Craig Rivet (though that was kinda cool *grin*). No, this, unlike the lame PIM-fest which ended the Phoenix-Anaheim game [though I really felt for the poor linesman who got taken head-first into the boards] on Sunday was filled with a bunch of punches which landed and an object lesson of just how bad this current group on Long Island is.

Note the score, 4-0, they tried to start something after giving up two quick ones and couldn't even manage to land a decent punch during the brawl they started. Bad at hockey plus bad at fighting equals the end of dignity for my favorite team in a former life.

The NHL should put their fans and the rest of us out of the misery of remembering those great Al Arbour led teams and fold this franchise before anymore damage is done. Then again, Mike MIlbury pretty much did that in the 90's.

On second thought... bring on the beatdowns.

Ta,

Welcome to the NHL FanHouse 2008-09 season preview. While other sites are previewing "30 teams in 30 days," we decided to take advantage of the extra time off before the start of the season to bring you all 30 previews over the next three weeks. We're counting down in reverse order of finish from last season in each conference every weekday from now until October 3. Look for an Eastern Conference preview every morning and a Western Conference preview every afternoon. Click here to read them all.

Who's In: Patrick Lalime, G (FA-CHI), Craig Rivet, D (Trade-SJS), Teppo Numminen, D (Return from Heart Surgery)

Who's Out: Joceyln Thibault, G (FA), Dmitri Kalinin, D (FA, NYR), Steve Bernier, RW (Trade, VAN)

What's Changed: Not a whole lot, frankly, unless one considers the number of players the supposedly stingy Sabres have under long-term contract now. That, coupled with the lack of tragedy during training camp (*fingers crossed*) should help lighten the mood in the room just a bit. But, honestly, that's just the way this organization wants it (especially in comparison to last year's off-season). With 20 of the 30 people who suited up for the Sabres in 07-08 having been drafted by the team, this is the textbook example of a team that promotes from within.

Recently extended GM Darth Regier believes in building via the draft and come what may that's going to be how he does it. I'm sure nothing has made Regier happier than resolving the dual-affiliation with Rochester which has been hampering their ability to develop prospects properly. During this summer they finalized changing their AHL affiliation to Portland and retained the same staff that helped feed Anaheim a Stanley Cup.

After perusing my long-time internet mate Kris Baker's (known to one and all as "Bakes") excellent SabresProspects.com, I got to thinking about the present and future of the Sabres blueline, especially given the real possibility of the Return of the Numminen (cue the John Williams bombast!). As Bakes put it here:

... the financially responsible Regier would be wise to wait until training camp to further evaluate his defensive corps and really find out if Teppo is needed.

The "wait" isn't all about the dollars. It's about icing your best team. If Andrej Sekera has advanced himself into Buffalo's top-6 ahead of current #7 Nathan Paetsch, it would seem that a Numminen signing would automatically send 21-year old rearguard Mike Weber to Portland (AHL) to start.

Weber and Sekera really grew up a lot after the trade deadline last season, logging very solid minutes (16+) and posting almost gaudy plus/minuses given the Sabres inability to keep the puck out of their own net (242GA --22nd overall). He's exactly the kind of defense man we Sabres fans have been salivating for since Jay McKee left. But, with Craig Rivet in the fold that need has lessened, if only marginally. The obvious choice if Teppo is signed is to send Weber to Portland until he's needed.

But, as Bakes suggests, is this the right move? With development-coach extraordinaire, Randy Cunneyworth moving up to the NHL (Signed as asst. coach in Hotlanta this weekend), would Weber be best served germinating further in the AHL as opposed to learning by Rivet and Numinnen's example and experience, not to mention Asst. Coach James Patrick? I'm honestly not sure. It almost seems to me that Regier should bring Teppo back as much to be a tutor for his 3 up and comers as he would as a player.

The San Jose Sharks were my pre-season pick to win the Stanley Cup. With excellent goaltending, quality coaching, the magic of Joe Thornton, and a roster full of speedy, determined workhorses, I figured the time was ripe for the Sharks to take a bit out of Western Conference.

That being said, I am both quite amazed and not surprised by how well the Sharks have done this season. Yes, I expected the Sharks to do well, but when I look at the kind of individual stats the players have put up, I can't believe these guys win so many games.

Patrick Marleau appears like he is trying to play his way off of the team, the team has just two 20-goal scorers, and their top offensive defenseman is Craig Rivet(!).

How do these guys do it?