Gameday - Senators at Sabres
Jan 6, 2009 NHL
They are starting to get healthy. By all accounts, Craig Rivet should be back in the lineup for the Sabres tonight as they try and make it a 3 game win streak. Tim Connolly is scheduled for a weekend appearance. Chris Butler may still be up as Teppo Numminen was sick yesterday. I have no problem with them giving him a few nights off anyway. Maxim Afinogenov is out for ’a while’ thanks to a groin injury inflicted upon him by Zdeno Chara.
The Senators are on a marathon road trip, with a dismal 1-4-1 record so far. The only secondary scoring they are getting beyond the big three is from defensemen, and the one who has the most points there is injured. The main reason to watch tonight, though, is to see if Chris Neil and Adam Mair get their war on again. You know all it’s going to take is Neil or Mair coming to the faceoff circle with a smirk on their face to start it. I’m clearing the calendar for this one.
edit: According to Mike Harrington at the Buffalo News, both Teppo and Toni Lydman are battling the flu, with only the former practicing. Ruff did not rule out dressing 7 defensemen tonight instead of filling Max’s spot with Andrew Peters.
Tags: buffalo, butler, chara, connolly, Hockey, lydman, mair, Maxim Afinogenov, neil, NHL, numminen, ottawa, peters, rivet, sabres, senators
Soup to Nuts: Campbell Calls Off Negotiations
Jan 15, 2008 NHL
You can guarantee every Sabres blogger is going to bust out the soup puns. I apologize in advance.
Brian Campbell told the media that he will not be negotiating a contract extension for the rest of this season. He says that he wants to concentrate on hockey and it’s not fair to the team or him to continue at this time and possibly cause a distraction. He will be heading to his second All-Star game.
Let’s do some comparisons. Campbell is currently 8th in the league in scoring (with Zdeno Chara). Chara has a cap hit of 7.5 million per year, by the way, though he is more of a physical presence than Soupy. Others of note: Rob Blake (6mil but is 37), Wade Redden (6.5mil) and Kimmo Timonen (6.33mil). You can assume that some team that wants to make a splash in free agency (Washington has been thrown out there) will make Brian an offer in that range.
Looking ahead to 08/09, the Sabres have Paetsch, Lydman and Tallinder locked up for that year and the next, and Spacek will be in his final year. Kalinin, Campbell, Numminen and Pratt are all UFAs. Weber and Sekera are both in Rochester, and could get a shot at a roster spot. If Campbell goes, I can’t imagine them not keeping Kalinin. I’m not saying anything on Teppo until we know if he will A: ever be healthy again and B: want to come back to this team.
Outside the defense corps, Ryan Miller will be the next big deal to be done. Mike Ryan is the only forward that will be a UFA, MacArthur, Gaustad and Paille will be RFAs. I really have no problem at this time with the Sabres signing any of those guys to a longer term deal, although if losing Ryan means more time for MacArthur, I’d do that in a heartbeat.
So that’s next year. I’m not sure what arbitration will look like, but after getting burned by that a few times, I’m sure the Sabres management will avoid that as much as possible…right?
Tags: B-Lo Sports, brian campbell, campbell, chara, Hockey, kalinin, lydman, macarthur, NHL, numminen, paetsch, pratt, redden, Rob Blake, ryan, Ryan Miller, sabres, sekera, signing, Spacek, tallinder, timonen, weber
NHL All-Star Starting Lineups Announced
Jan 8, 2008 NHL
The starters for the NHL All-Star game (in Atlanta this year) have been announced. The East, to no one’s surprise, is headlined by Sidney Crosby, Vincent Lecavalier and Daniel Alfredsson. The blue line has the Wookiee Chara and Andrei Markov, with the usual suspect in Goal, Martin Brodeur.
Your Western Conference starters are one Vancouver goalie shy of being a Detroit/Calgary sweep. Jarome Iginla, Pavel Datsyuk and Henrik Zetterberg start up front, Dion Phaneuf and Niklas Lidstrom are your D-men, with Roberto Luongo between the pipes.
The game itself is January 27th at 6pm, but leading up on Friday and Saturday there is a youth hockey tournament to showcase how the sport is trying to grow in the South. The skills competition and YoungStars game takes place on Saturday night.
Tags: all-star, all-star game, allstar, atlanta, brodeur, chara, crosby, Daniel Alfredsson, datsyuk, Hockey, iginla, lecavalier, lidstrom, luongo, markov, NHL, phaneuf, zetterberg
Buffalo Sabres Rip Bruins in OT 2-1
Nov 8, 2007 NHL
A very well played game by the Sabres results in an overtime win over the Boston Bruins, 2-1. Buffalo again gave up the first goal of the game, to Savard (seems like that guy always scores against Buffalo), beyond that, Ryan Miller was fantastic. Buffalo answered in the second period on the Power Play, with Ales Kotalik snapping a one-timer past Tim Thomas on a great feed from Maxim Afinogenov. It was the third shot on the PP for ‘lik, who was firing away from the top of the circle where he is deadly. By the way, I’d like to recognize Thomas Vanek on that play as well, he jumped right in front of Boston goalie Tim Thomas for the screen.
It would stay a duel of the goalies until the end of overtime. After a near miss where Toni Lydman deflected a shot just wide, Drew Stafford backhanded the puck right to rookie Clarke MacArthur who one-timed it past Tim Thomas for the game winner. Clarke made a strong case to stay with the big show in the preseason, and was leading the AHL in scoring before this call up. It may be difficult to send him back down if he plays as well as he did tonight.
I’d like to recognize Weber and Sekera for their contributions tonight, as both played quite well. Sekera (skating mostly with Brian Campbell) had 23 minutes of ice time and is definitely looking more comfortable. I think Sabres fans will be much more comfortable with him out there after the past few games. I’d also like to thank Zdeno Chara, for being his normal Wookiee self, taking penalties and getting knocked over by smaller players (which is to say, all other players). Thanks, dude.
All in all, I think it was a good game for Buffalo. It reminds me a lot of the 05-06 season rather than last year, not a goalfest but somehow finding a way to win anyway.
Tags: B-Lo Sports, boston, bruins, campbell, chara, clarke, Drew Stafford, Hockey, kotalik, macarthur, NHL, Ryan Miller, sabres, Thomas Vanek
