This afternoon it was reported that the Buffalo Sabres had recalled forward Nathan Gerbe from Portland of the AHL, in the process sending Mark Mancari back to their affiliate. Since starting the season 8-1-1 the Sabres have fallen to .500 going 3-10-2 since then and have fallen off of the playoff map in the Eastern Conference. Injuries, struggling youngsters and anti-clutch goaltending have contributed to the slide. Gerbe is the Sabres best offensive prospect and a player that few surrounding the team feel should spend much time in the minors. I'm sure it was the hope of GM Darth Regier and the coaching staff to keep him in Portland for as long as possible, if not the entire season, so he can grow into the professional game what they feel is a proper pace.
The problem, of course, is that this team needs to make the playoffs and with too many people not named Thomas Vanek not showing up on the score sheet with any regularity the Sabres have become an easy team to defend. Stop Vanek, regardless of linemates, and you have an even up chance of winning the hockey game. Throw in a dash of over-confidence from a hot start, breakdowns in execution, and teams hounding the Sabres defense on the fore-check to disrupt their quick transition game and the situation gets ugly in a big, fat hurry.
Last night the Buffalo Sabres defeated the New York Rangers to advance to 3-0-0 on the new season, ending the Rangers bid for their best start in that franchise's history. But, the big story of the night was not the emergence of a Devils-like commitment to defense by both teams and the singularly boring hockey it produced, but rather that this game marked the 400th career win of Head Coach Lindy Ruff. We can all read the news wire about where that places him in the grand scheme of things (23rd all time in wins). What makes the story, of course, is that he's done it all with one team, the one where he played most of his professional career. While 125 other guys (after today's action) have been hired, fired, scapegoated or only retired, Ruff has made it work in Buffalo as part of a management group that stands as a model for stability even if the ownership hasn't been.
This is a guy so well loved by the fans in Buffalo that when he was fined by the league for the brawl vs. Ottawa after the side-swipe Chris Neil put on Chris Drury in 2007 that the local businesses raised the funds to cover it. Ruff, of course, didn't accept it, but rather had the money donated to charity.
For me, Ruff is the face of this franchise, not Ryan Miller, Thomas Vanek or Jason Pominville. When Ruff speaks, I listen, and listen carefully. I may talk about the things that Regier does in terms of personnel more, mostly because it's easier, but what Ruff does with those players to convince them to play at the level they do is what's most impressive to me. I'm consistently awed by how badly ex-Sabres play when they leave Buffalo, and I keep wondering when the other GM's are going to realize just how much they're being duped and stop buying up our UFA's or trading us their unpolished diamonds.
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.
Half of the longest tenured GM/Coach tandem in the NHL is set to keep his share of that title as the Sabres announced today, along with the unveiling of the 3rd jerseys, that Darth Regier has had his contract extended by 2 seasons, keeping him in the role he's had since 1997 through 2011. According to Managing Partner/Co-Owner Larry Quinn this extension was agreed to back in April, but was finalized only recently.
It's no secret that I'm a big fan of Regier and his ability to steer this franchise through an ever changing landscape of the NHL and the macro-economy. If you listen to the press conference announcing this extension, it was dominated by majority owner Tom Golisano and his return to New York State politics with his P.A.C. 'Responsible New York.' His comments about the operating environment in Buffalo reveals to me just how much of a challenge he believes it is. Given that Golisano took a lot of heat publicly about his passivity towards past contract negotiations his appearance at this presser, I think, was a necessity.
While Regier and Quinn stood out front to take the brunt of the outrage from last summer's happenings, Golisano remained silent and that silence infuriated a lot of people. It is the nature of things, regardless of whether you think it's fair or not.
This afternoon WGR out of Buffalo reported that the Sabres had signed RW sniper Jason Pominville to a 5 year extension, less than a day before the deadline imposed by Pominville himself on negotiations earlier this week. The 26 year old former 2nd round pick signed a 5 year, $26.5 million contract, in four of which he would ahve been an Unrestricted Free Agent. Given that he's been putting up nearly a point per game making a little over $1million per season, he might have been the best deal in the league.
His interview from this afternoon with Schopp and the Bulldog is here.
Again, as with the recent signings of Ryan Miller, Paul Gaustad and Daniel Paille, GM Darth Regier has stuck to his plan of locking up the talent that this team has grown from within, especially that core of guys who were so succesful together when they played at Rochester of the AHL.
While getting re-acquainted with my favorite hockey blogs of yore in a vain attempt to catch up on the great work being done out there in the time I was away from the world I came across this recent post from D-Lee at RedBlackHockey about the rumors floating around Minnesota's Marian Gaborik. For you 'Canes fans in the audience give it a perusal. But in that post he linked to something even more ridiculous, an obvious fan article at BleacherReport trying to make the case for how the Sabres would be trading a premier player like Gaborik for spare parts like Maxim Afinogenov and Tim Connolly/Ales Kotalik. All protests to his making this stuff up out of thin air aside, Andrew Mason makes the following Eklund-esque pitch:
The Sabres, on the other hand, have plenty of cap space. They currently have nine million dollars free as of today which is a good chunk of change. They can easily sign Gaborik to a long-term deal for whatever he wants-especially if they trade Max plus either Kotalik or Connolly, which would free up an extra $5.23-6.23 million.
No way does Darth Regier trade $6 million in salary to add $7.5 million, which is what Gaborik's payout will be this year (No, this was not a front-loaded contract, as it should have been). And, while the Sabres may have a bit of cap space to work with this season they are, as of the Numminen signing, $2 million over their much-maligned personal cap of $50 million. Regier will try to get value for Max and if none is available he'll hope for a great contract season and bid him a fond farewell at the end of it.
Trading for Gaborik doesn't address the lack of center depth on this team, which wouldn't be an issue if Tim(may!) Connolly wasn't one hit away from mopping floors at a hospital... on the graveyard shift. Further stretching the feasibility of this idea is the need to extend of home-grown RW sniper Jason Pominville, who is going to cost them a pretty penny (north of $4 million for 5-6 years if they're lucky). Regier is going to be loyal to the kids he's helped groom from within. There's no way he pushes Pominville out the door to take on Gaborik, unless the Wild are paying part of the salary, which is not allowed under this CBA.
Lastly, I just don't see Regier trading one guy who can't perform in the playoffs for another at twice the price. So, in my mind this one gets a big E5 and a double helping of Mediterranean Sea Salt.
In trying to fill the nigh-legendary shoes of the recently departed Randy Cunneyworth (I can't describe how hard my wife still laughs over the man's name... she's sometimes easily amused) for that hockey hotbed of Atlanta, the Buffalo Sabres today went with the next best thing in terms of organizational continuity in signing coach Kevin Dineen to continue in the role he performed while the club was affiliated with the Anaheim Ducks.
Dineen's been the coach since the start of the 2005-06 season overseeing the development of Ryan Getzlaf, Corey Perry and Dustin Penner, to name a couple of notables. This past season he led the Pirates to a 45-26-5-3 record and the Eastern Conference Finals of the Calder Cup Tournament losing in 7 games to Wilkes-Barre/Scranton. Overall, under his guidance Dineen led the Pirates to a very impressive 135-76-13-15 record with 2 ECF appearances. But, regardless of what else he ever does, Kevin Dineen will always be remembered as the guy what scored the last goal in Hartford Whalers history, before Pete Karmanos broke the collective hearts of the guys at ESPN.
One of the reasons that the Sabres did not renew their relationship with Rochester was due to disagreement with the management as to who should pay for veteran talent, which led to the ridiculous dual-affiliation with the Florida Panthers. Darth Regier has commented on many occasions that this sub-optimal situation has been detrimental to the development of many of their prospects. Now that the situation has been rectified with both affiliation and coach, the team moved quickly to fill in the Pirates roster with older AHL Veterans, having signed Matthieu Darche 2 weeks ago and today signing wingers Colton Fretter and Colin Murphy.
As with everything Sabres, the guys at HFBoards have an "All Things Portland Pirates" Thread going, including current roster and potential line combos (Hola! Chain and Co.).
It's been a just under a year since the first day of training camp for last season, where it was discovered that Sabres defenseman Teppo Numminen could no longer wait to have his heart condition (valve replacement) corrected. That, in itself, was shocking enough, but to compound matters was the subsequent 'suspension' of Numminen by the Sabres later that same day.
For a management that had already had heaped upon it the scorn of an entire league for their (mis)handling of their high-profile Free Agents, this seemed the final straw in their credibility and respectability. How could they be so heartless (all puns intended, of course) as to suspend and refuse to pay a man who was going through such a thing? It seemed no one had anything nice to say about the situation, and, predictably GM Darth Regier was anything but verbose about their decision, knowing full well that no matter what he said the political fall-out was pre-cast.
Last week on WGR, Regier made it known that negotiations were in progress with Numminen about his returning to the club. Now, the Sith Lord of Western New York doesn't talk about these things unless it's a near certainty, and with today's article in the Buffalo News, it seems even more likely that Teppo will be back wearing a Slug and I'll still be able to refer to him as the Last of the Marx Brothers.
"We've had discussions with the Sabres and we've certainly made progress but there's nothing done yet," Baizley said Tuesday by phone from his Winnipeg office. "We've heard from other teams and we're plugging along at it but 'Tep' likes it very much up there and Buffalo is his first choice, no question."
And now it's time for Tom to gloat just a little bit.
Having locked up their goaltender, Ryan Miller, for the next 6 seasons, the embattled management of the Buffalo Sabres and aforementioned goalie sat down to try and put to rest the past 15 turbulent months. You can listen to the entire thing here at WGR550.com. From Larry Quinn's remarks about Miller leaving significant "money on the table," to GM "Darth" Regier's reiteration that he had a plan all along, this presser was designed to build upon the contract signing and give an entire city their Sally Field moment: "He likes us! He really, really, likes us!"
And, given Miller's comments about both the teammates and coaches that he's grown up with and his relationship with the people of Buffalo that sentiment seemed, to me, absolutely genuine. By all accounts, this was a simple, straight-forward contract negotiation. Miller himself put to rest any of the rumors that he was interested in leaving Buffalo for Detroit, or anywhere else for that matter. Kevin at bfloblog continues his worthwhile crusade against The Buffalo News and their lack of quality coverage:
It's one thing for blog commenters to speculate on the Detroit thing, but one local writer was particularly high on the Miller-to-Detroit theory. Jerry Sullivan speculated on WGR that it would take "Vanek money" to "convince" Miller to stay. Aren't these guys the ones interacting with the players? Aren't they the ones who are in the know? How come we never heard even a whisper about Miller's deal possibly getting done?
Because the Sabres are terrible communicators and the local media is hostile.
Every day from Monday to Saturday, The Ice Sheet will take a look at the biggest stories in the league that happened on the ice and elsewhere the night before.
It's not often that the average hockey fan from a small prairie town gets a chance to make millions and shoot pucks on a NHL Ice Surface.
Well, Darwin Head of Prince Albert, Saskatchewan had that very chance during last night's Avs/Canucks tilt. Standing at center ice, with a stadium full of spectators and the legendary Bobby Orr watching, Head buried enough biscuits to win himself a cool seven figures.
Head scored 15 goals – the exact number needed – in 24 seconds into an open net from the far blue line at General Motors Place to win $1 million in a one-time payout.
"This is just unreal. I can't wait to have a huge party and celebrate with my family and friends back home in Prince Albert," said Head. "And it feels so great that my wife and I will be able to look after our kids' futures with this money."
I think Mr. Head could probably buy the entire town of Prince Albert and have enough change left over for a 2-4 of Molson Canadian.
This afternoon it was reported that the Buffalo Sabres had recalled forward Nathan Gerbe from Portland of the AHL, in the process sending Mark Mancari back to their affiliate. Since starting the season 8-1-1 the Sabres have fallen to .500 going 3-10-2 since then and have fallen off of the playoff map in the Eastern Conference. Injuries, struggling youngsters and anti-clutch goaltending have contributed to the slide. Gerbe is the Sabres best offensive prospect and a player that few surrounding the team feel should spend much time in the minors. I'm sure it was the hope of GM Darth Regier and the coaching staff to keep him in Portland for as long as possible, if not the entire season, so he can grow into the professional game what they feel is a proper pace. 
Last night the Buffalo Sabres defeated the New York Rangers to advance to 3-0-0 on the new season, ending the Rangers bid for their best start in that franchise's history. But, the big story of the night was not the emergence of a Devils-like commitment to defense by both teams and the singularly boring hockey it produced, but rather that this game marked the 400th career win of Head Coach Lindy Ruff. We can 
Half of the longest tenured GM/Coach tandem in the NHL is set to keep his share of that title as the Sabres announced today, along with the unveiling of the 3rd jerseys, that 
While getting re-acquainted with my favorite hockey blogs of yore in a vain attempt to catch up on the great work being done out there in the time I was away from the world I came across 
In trying to fill the nigh-legendary shoes of the recently departed Randy Cunneyworth (I can't describe how hard my wife still laughs over the man's name... she's sometimes easily amused) for that hockey hotbed of Atlanta, the Buffalo Sabres today went with the next best thing in terms of organizational continuity 
It's been a just under a year since the first day of training camp for last season, where it was discovered that Sabres defenseman Teppo Numminen could no longer wait to have his heart condition (valve replacement) corrected. That, in itself, was shocking enough, but to compound matters was the subsequent 'suspension' of Numminen by the Sabres later that same day.
Every day from Monday to Saturday, 
