Honk if you love justice!

In Defense Of Thomas Vanek

Jan 9, 2008 NHL

Just a warning, I may ramble a bit so bear with me. I was inspired to write this after listening to WGR lament that no one roots for TV.

As anyone who follows the Sabres knows right now, the team is struggling. They’ve lost 7 straight (with 3 loser points mixed in thanks to the shootout) and have been anemic offensively. The name that passes our lips first when talking about all this, though, is Thomas Vanek. We hate his contract, we hate it when he misses the net, we hate him in the shootout, it goes on and on. His production is down, his confidence is down, and there is no obvious end in sight. It sucks, and I feel for him moreso than any other of the struggling Sabres.

Yes, Virginia, there ARE other Sabres that are struggling. Quite a few, in fact. Vanek will always be mentioned first, last and repeatedly thanks to the ridiculous offer sheet from Kevin Lowe. There is nothing Vanek can do about that though. It should be obvious that Thomas is trying to do his best, but I don’t think it matters to most. There are several reasons why:

1. Buffalo is a ‘blue-collar’ town - Hear me out on this…I think it dates back to the first season after the lockout. People fell in love with the Sabres, with the come from behind wins, with scoring from every player, a different hero every night. That went away last season though, with the emergence of the ‘Drury/Briere’ phenomenon. The team concept was swallowed up in ‘OMG these guys are awesome and our team wins because they are on the ice at the end of games and in OT!!!!111one!1!’. Fans looked for the next Drury or Briere once they left, and expect it to be Vanek thanks to the massive coinage.
2. The Pressure - Tying in to the last bit above, I feel TV is earnestly trying to do right by the team that showed some confidence in him by signing the papers and not taking the impressive list of draft picks from Edmonton. As a result, he’s squeezing the stick pretty hard. Every missed shot or defensive lapse is magnifed 100 times, and every sweet pass or goal scored is ‘what he is paid to do’.
3. He’s not that fast - Once in a while you come across folks who think Vanek is lazy, and I think part of that is the fact that he is not as fast as many of his teammates. Probably hurts him on breakaways and odd-man rushes, as defensemen can sometimes catch up to him and harry him.

There’s more, but you get the idea. It bugs me a little bit more every time I hear a lot about Vanek and not so much about Tallinder, Lydman, Paetsch, Ryan, Connolly and Afinogenov. I do believe things will improve for Thomas, although it may not be this year. It might require Buffalo to bring in another lead dog to share the spotlight, but my gut tells me the kid will be all right and that in a year or two this will all be forgotten.

Some stats for Vanek: 12 goals, including 4 PP goals. 13 assists. +1. 2 game winning goals.

Tags: B-Lo Sports, Hockey, NHL, sabres, Thomas Vanek