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NHL

2009 Sabres Development Camp

The Sabres have announced this year’s Development camp, again held at Dwyer Arena, over at Niagara U.  Here are the details:

The Buffalo Sabres announced today they will be holding a summer development camp from July 6-10 at Dwyer Arena on the campus of Niagara University in Lewiston, N.Y.

There will be on-ice sessions open to the public from Tuesday through Thursday from 3 p.m. – 6 p.m. each day, and on Friday from 11 a.m. – 2 p.m.

The full roster is here, with notable attendees including draft picks Zack Kassian, Marcus Foligno and Connor Knapp, Tyler Myers, Tyler Ennis, Tim Kennedy, Nathan Gerbe, Jhonas Enroth and many more.  My son wants to see Sabre guys, but doesn’t like going when it’s cold, so this could be a good opportunity.

NHL

Free Agency Day One

James Mirtle has a great roundup of what happened on day one, so go read that if you need a refresher.  46 players were signed for more than $400 million.  Deals that stand out to me:

  • Marian Hossa signs a 12 year deal, worth 62.8 million dollars total, to go to Chicago.
  • The Sedin twins signed twin deals to stay in Vancouver, 5 years, $30.5 million each.
  • Jaroslav Spacek signed on with Montreal for 3 years, $11.5 million.  Actually Montreal was busy, nabbing Hal Gill, Brian Gionta, and Mike Cammalleri as well.
  • Obviously Buffalo did not bring back Jaro, but they did sign Steve Montador.
  • The Rangers managed to deal Scott Gomez’s huge contract, but then followed it up by signing Gaborik to 5 years, $7.5 million per.  Good luck with that.

One other helpful chart at From the Rink is the top 100 FAs, with the contracts getting filled in as they sign.  Good for figuring out who your GM is not going to sign. ;)

NHL

Your Newest Sabre: Steve Montador

Steve Montador was just signed to a 2 year, 3.1 million dollar deal according to Sabres.com.  He started out with the Calgary Flames, getting limited ice time until he was traded to the Florida Panthers back in 2005.  His play improved with the increase in ice time, with 12 goals and 32 assists the past 2 seasons, split between the Panthers, Ducks and Bruins.  He was a +17 last year, and has a few fights to his credit, though not often a winner of those bouts, including this one versus Craig Rivet:

YouTube Preview Image

Skip ahead to about 1:46 for the big shot.  Barring some defensemen moving out, I can’t imagine Darcy signing anyone else, including Spacek.  This is still an awful lot of guys on the blueline.  Still, a solid guy at a reasonable price.  A Darcy move, exactly.

NHL

Free Agent Madness Semi-Liveblog

7:56:15 AM: I’ll be posting my random free agency thoughts and news as it comes to me. When I can. Or feel like it.

7:56:33 AM: Story so far: Scott Gomez to the Habs for Chris Higgins and a top Prospect. Heatly says no to the Oil for now, J-Bo signs with the Flames

8:47:20 AM: Going throught the list of guys already signed…Colorado already resigned one of their existing goalies? they watched ‘em play, right?

9:28:11 AM: Sabres Left Wingers: Vanek, MacArthur (RFA), Mair, Hecht, Paille. Hecht and Mair can play Center if needed. Tim Kennedy in Portland.

9:32:08 AM: Sabres Centers: Connolly, Roy, Gaustad. Gerbe in Portland.

9:33:14 AM: Sabres Right Wingers: Pominville, Stafford (RFA), Kaleta (RFA). Mancari in Portland. Maybe the biggest need?

9:34:36 AM: Sabres D: Rivet, Lydman, Tallinder, Paetsch, Bulter, Sekera (RFA), Weber, Gragnani. Myers in the wings.

9:35:59 AM: Sabres Goalies: Miller, Lalime, Enroth on deck. And i misspelled Butler. Go me.

10:35:29 AM: From this day last year, I posted to welcome Patrick Lalime, and to lament Orpik not coming here. That may be more than I get to do this yr

11:34:19 AM: RT @wyshynski: $6.1 mil per season. RT @DarrenDreger Sedins have agreed to 5 year extension and will stay with the Canucks.

11:43:44 AM: Good riddance: RT @patty_in_dallas: NHL Network says Heatley’s taking the deal.

11:59:40 AM: Buckle UP

12:31:12 PM: RT @Sean_Leahy: TSN: Ohlund signs 7 years, $3.75 avg/year

12:51:38 PM: Dvorak back with the Panthers

1:12:17 PM: Money NOT confirmed as per DP RT @TheFourthPeriod: Kovalev gets 2-year, $8.8M deal… Habs also extend offers to Hossa, Gaborik and Havlat.

1:16:05 PM: Ugh. Darcy may want to keep Peters then. RT @mirtle: Here’s a head shaker: RT @Sean_Leahy: TSN: #Leafs sign Colton Orr 4 years, $1 mill /per

1:28:17 PM: RT @mirtle: RT @Forechecker: EJ Hradek reports that Andy Greene has re-signed with the Devils…

1:44:26 PM: Great weather, low tax RT @wyshynski: Wait, someone *staying* in FLA? How novel. RT @FlaPanthers signed David Booth to a 6-yr contract…

1:57:17 PM: Damien Cox sez Kubina to Thrashers, Sportsnet reports Craig ‘the ogler’ Anderson to Colorado.

1:58:25 PM: Placing over/under on games missed for injury at 25 RT @mirtle: New blog entry: Hossa signs with Blackhawks http://sbnation.com/e/697503

2:16:17 PM: Conkblock to the Blues, breaking with Winter Classic tradition.

2:27:03 PM: Hey, a move!!!! RT @Sean_Leahy: Sportsnet: Steve Montador to #Sabres. 2 years, $3.1 mill

2:28:13 PM: Heading out – see you all later!

NHL

Free Agency and the Sabres

Okay, so free agency begins tomorrow, and the Sabres are poised to…watch, as usual.  Buffalo almost never moves on day 1, and Darcy has stated he’s more likely to work some trades as he doesn’t like the free agent pricing.  I don’t honestly blame him – how many of these big day 1 signings have made a huge difference? – but it takes some of the fun out of it.  Mirtle has his three big board posts highlighting the free agent forwards, defensemen and goalies.  We’ll ignore the goalies, as I don’t the Miller/Lalime tandem changing, with Enroth still waiting in the wings.

Looking at the other two lists, I’m not seeing a lot that would make me jump out of my seat.  I’d be happy with Pahlsson, or maybe Mikael Samuelsson from Detroit…John Madden is an idea, if you go defensive-minded.  But really, after the big names the Sabres will never sign, the Forwards list is a bunch of guys like what they already have.  How many guys are better than Kotalik, who’s an option, just as an example?

On defense, much depends on whether or not Darcy finds a trade partner to take Tallinder or Lydman or whoever off his hands, if he even really wants to do that.  The team has a lot of defenders right now:

Rivet – Butler
Tallinder – Lydman
Paetsch/Weber – Sekera(RFA)

Add to that Tyler Myers, who will do his best play his way in during the ~10 games he’s here before he’d have to go back to Kelowna.  That’s a lot of bodies at the very least, and you’d have to think 1 or 2 of them would need to go for them to bring somebody in.  And again, other than the big/too expensive names out there, who’s better than just bringing back Jaro?  Scuderi?  So basically, we’re left hoping Darcy can fleece someone in a deal.

NHL

Rounding Out the Draft

The Sabres stayed with big, tough kids for the rest of the draft, as evidenced by all the Youtube clips Chris over at the Roost found.  Here are the rest of the picks:

3 (66) Brayden McNabb D Kootenay Ice
4 (104) Marcus Foligno LW Sudbury Wolves
5 (134) Mark Adams D Malden Catholic High School
6 (164) Connor Knapp G Miami University
7 (194) Maxime Legault RW Shawingan Cataractes

McNabb is another big defenseman, Foligno is also a tough kid, and they even drafted a 6′5″ goalie.  None of these guys will probably be able to help this year or next, but long term, it does give the Sabres some more size in the pipeline.  Interesting that they again did not draft any Euro players.  It’s been a few years now, seems too long to be a coincidence.

NHL

Getting to Know Zack Kassian

The Sabres took RW Zack Kassian with their first round pick in the NHL Entry Draft last night (13th overall)…so who is he?  Well, he’s 6′3″, 205 pounds, and played for the Peterborough Petes the past two seasons.  According to his profile at Hockey’s Future, he gained a bit of notoriety for hitting John Tavares in a ‘Top Prospects’ game that left that other Tavares with a shoulder injury.  By the way, good on the TSN crew for mentioning Johnny Tavares but couldn’t they have tossed out the team name, too?

Kassian had 63 points in 61 games last year for the Petes, chipping in 136 penalty minutes also.  But honestly, you are going to know all that from all the other profiles…so let’s critique his ‘favorites’ from NHL.com:

NHL Team: Toronto Maple Leafs
NHL Player: Todd Bertuzzi
Shootout move: Shot (glove side high)
Video game: NHL ‘09
Movie: Step Brothers
TV Show: Man Hunter
Cartoon: Bugs Bunny
Website: dropyourgloves.com
Book: Hockey tough
Pump up song: “Thunderstruck” by ACDC
Restaurant: Applebee’s
Activity away from the rink: Xbox 360
Breakfast food: Steak and eggs
Superhero: Superman

Hopefully, that first one is subject to change now that he’s been drafted by a rival…right??  And he’s not winning any friends by naming Bert as his favorite player, either.  Can’t say anything about the shootout move until we see it in action.  An NHL game for fave video game is the easy answer.  Dropyourgloves.com is at least a nice choice to see.  Any positive feelings garnered from that are lost when he names Applebee’s as his favorite restaurant.  Tell me, my Canadian friends, how bad is food up there that anyone would have that as their favorite eatery?  Steak and eggs is a solid breakfast, but Superman seems like another easy cop0ut choice.

In all seriousness, though, as long as he (eventually) punches a Flyer in the face and eliminates the Leafs from the playoffs a time or two, all of that would be forgiven.  Let’s see what happens on Day Two.  Time to make some moves.

Life

Camping Adventures: Lost Tires, Rainstorms and Lots of Children, Part 2

So, when we left off, there was a decision to make.  We had only made it maybe 40 miles or so from home, and the weekend was more than half over.  But Thomas desperately wanted to see his cousins, so off we went.  Things still weren’t any better, as the rains turned into a downpour, and for a good stretch of I-79S traffic was moving along at about 30 mph.  We do make it, though, and get the kids to bed (the cousins were already down for the count).

He was pushing this for some ladies.  Good job, buddy.

He was pushing this for some ladies. Good job, buddy.

We actually managed to sleep fairly well, though Thomas got scared and asked me to come up on the top bunk with him in the middle of the night.  *hugs*  Jen got up and made breakfast (carting around all that food and trying to keep it cold finally paid off!) and then Thomas, Ethan and Noah went crazy at the very muddy playground.  You can see just how muddy in the picture.  :)  After that, it was pretty much lunch time and then time for us to pack up.  We got our cabin cleaned out, and then Thomas got to do his jobs to help with Papa’s trailer.

We decided for the trip back that Jen and the kids would ride with her parents, and I would drive the poor Subaru home.  Mostly uneventful, though every odd noise or bump in the road made me nervous.  At least for that portion of the trip, the rain had finished and I could cruise with the windows open (AC doesn’t work on that car).

Well there you have it.  At the rate these attempts at camping are increasing in suckitude, next time out I should have pictures of punching a bear in the face.

Life

Camping Adventures: Lost Tires, Rainstorms and Lots of Children, Part 1

If you’re a longtime reader of mine (either here or in the forums, for those select few), you probably already know that I don’t like camping.  I am not  what you call an outdoorsy guy…if you’ve seen the episode of Monk where he exclaims “There’s NATURE on me!”, I’m not too far off from that.  My wife and her whole family love to go camping though, so the Father’s Day festivities include going to Bear Run Campground Friday to Sunday.  Jen’s parents packed their pop-up trailer, and her brother and his family packed their tent and all headed out on Friday.  As usual, we (and Jen’s parents) were leaving later than we wanted but were making good time on the 90 heading west.

That changed in a hurry, when the driver’s side front tire FLEW OFF.  There was a loud WHUMP as the car pitched forward and left (my wife driving by the way) and the entire wheel went bouncing down the interstate.  We were in the left lane, and my wife managed to get the car safely off the road in the median.  This is just a few miles past Silver Creek for those scoring at home.  There’s dead silence for a few seconds, until my son starts to cry.  Mattie was just upset that she got woke up.  We grabbed them both out of the car and went and stood by the guard rail, then I ran down the way and snagged the wheel.  Somehow, all 5 lugnuts came off.  Studs not broken, just came off.  Two different State Troopers stopped to make sure we are OK, and call a tow truck.  That takes quite a while, but we do end up with a crew cab flatbed where Mattie’s seat can fit.  We’re really having fun now.

We are left at a Midas shop in Fredonia.  It’s closed by then (OF COURSE), so we leave there (on foot) and walk down the street in the rain to the closest hotel.  We get a room, drop off the suitcase and stuff we were able to lug there, and look into getting dinner.  There’s a Bob Evans the next plaza over, so off we go.  Still raining.  We eat, and Jen gets the kids in bed back at the hotel.  While that is going on, I walk back to the car and get the bag of food that we were taking down as well as some extra diapers and wipes for Mattie.  I manage to get into dry clothes before collapsing into bed.

The next morning, we destroy the continental breakfast, and I head over to Midas to let them know what we need looked at.  I am assured they will check it out ’soon’ and I hoof it back.  Oh, and mixed in is one failed attempt to rent a car at the one rental place in Fredonia, since I don’t have a real credit card and don’t happen to carry utility bills with me when I travel.  During all that, Jen is working the phones and reaches the manager of the place that just put four new tires on our vehicle (and supposedly re-tourqed ‘em less than 2 weeks ago), and he says to take the car from Midas and to another place (owned by the same corporation as the offending tire place).  So that means I walk back over there, meet a tow truck, take it down the street, and get them working on fixing it well enough so we can drive.  Great.

During this time, we have to check out of the hotel.  I walk back to the hotel, get the bags that are there, and oh yeah, it’s raining HARD.  I cut through a Home Depot, and I must’ve been a sight, rain dripping off my eyebrows and ears.  The hotel folk let us stay late, which was nice, and the owner had given my wife and kids a ride to the shop once, too.  This was the Comfort Inn, by the way.  Jen takes the kids across the street to Wal-Mart to kill the rest of the time, and I read every magazine this other shop has.  By early Saturday evening, the car is ‘fixed’ enough to drive, and we are off.

Part 2 will cover the actual trip to and Camping Adventure.  Yay.

NHL

Congratulations Penguins

I’ve tried to get in here to make this post a few times now, but life keeps getting in the way.  Specifically the part where people are in from out of town, the brakes try their darnedest to fail on your van, and oh yeah, you burn your hands on a pot on the stove.  But my congratulations go to the Penguins, who took the Stanley Cup from the defending champs, the Detroit Red Wings.  So does Marian Hossa try to sign with Pittsburgh again or what?

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