Yesterday it was shocking to announce that the Toronto Maple Leafs hired former longtime New Jersey Devils General Manager Lou Lamoriello as their new GM. Lamoriello had been the GM of the Devils since 1987, before stepping down this past May but remained team president before leaving to go to the Leafs.
Lamoriello is a hall of fame GM for building the Devils into a Cup contender for most of his 28 years on the job. They missed the playoffs only six times since he's been there (although four times have occurred in his last five seasons there) and have won the Stanley Cup three times while losing twice more in 2001 and 2012.
Lamoriello is a living legend if you will and his time in New Jersey should be celebrated minus the fact if you are like myself, you hated the Devils and their stupid Neutral Zone Trap which helped really ruin the game of hockey. Nevertheless, the Leafs are doing something teams especially a big market like Toronto tend to do and that's reach for the past.
Of course Buffalo teams were really good at that but thankfully under the Pegula ownership, both Bills and Sabres are no longer doing that (http://buffalosportsbeat.blogspot.com/2015/06/im-glad-sabres-no-longer-reaching-in.html). I am mush more happy we have a young more progressive GM in Tim Murray then the old guard who has great ideas from about 20-25 years ago but does not have a clue in this day in age.
Now Lamoriello is not a part of the Leafs organization ever, but his past success is still reaching for past success with another team I might add. It is said that he drafted current Leafs President Brendan Shanahan so they have a good relationship. He was successful with the Devils in the past, the key word is WAS. Lamoriello was very successful, maybe most successful GM prior to the 2004-05 lockout with all three of his Cups in his first 17 years as GM. Post 04-05 Lockout was not as successful. While the Devils won four division titles in the first five years post 04-05 lockout (ironically same amount of division titles in his first 17 years), the Devils failed to make it out of the second round each year with three times losing in the first round.
The last five years of his tenure saw the Devils miss the playoffs four times with one notable exception being that they made it all the way to the Cup Finals in 2012, where they lost to the Los Angeles Kings. One of the biggest reasons for the decline was that Martin Brodeur was not the elite goalie (while still pretty good) as he was before the lockout. His numbers steadily declined as his save percentage kept going down each year and his playoff numbers and performances (minus the 2012 run to the finals) were bad, really bad as he was a shell of his former self.
Other reasons include Lamoriello's ability to be penny pinching, which worked for some time when they had really great talent on the blue line along with a hall of fame goalie in his prime. All that starts to catch up as they lost talented players such as Brian Gionta, Scott Gomez, and Zach Parise as he let them walk and trading away other key veterans (such as Jamie Langenbrunner) or letting them walk in free agency.
Losing Parise was especially tough as he failed to get a deal done before he became an unrestricted free agent after the 2011-12 run to the finals. Actually, Parise was an unrestricted free agent in 2011, but signed a one-year deal to remain after he missed most of the season with a knee injury, but Lamoriello failed to lock him up long term and he's been doing great in Minnesota while New Jersey struggles to be competitive.
He did trade for Ilya Kovalcyuk in 2010 and managed to sign him to a 15-year, $100 million deal that saw him fight with the NHL which was eventually solved, but not without the NHL fining them and taking away a first round pick for circumventing the salary cap originally. Kovalchuk's deal hurt the Devils' cap space as in 2010-11, that along with injures forced them to dress as few as 15 players at one point in a game and management came under intense scrutiny for that.
Kovalchuk was very productive in New Jersey and I don't blame Lamoriello one bit for signing him because they were terrible offensively minus Parise during these years. Kovalchuk suddenly "retired" from the NHL in 2013 and went back to Russia to play in the KHL. That hurt the Devils even more. Kovalchuk might have cost them a chance at re-signing Parise or maybe they thought they would lose him, whatever.
I can't blame Lamoriello for these moves, maybe should have done a better job with Parise so he made some moves out of desperation. He's signed old, past-their-prime players such as Shanahan, Brian Rolston, Bobby Holik, Petr Sykora, and Henrik Tallinder during his final decade there. To help make up for the loss of both Parise and Kovalchuk in 2013, Lamoriello decided to trade a top-10 pick for goalie Cory Schneider.
Schneider is very good and has been very good for New Jersey. But they thought they can get back to the old glory days of finding an elite goalie to make up for a loss of offense, which does not happen in this day of age. You don't need a big time, big money goalie you need elite forwards. Schneider is in a seven-year deal with a $6 million a year cap hit. That's a recipe for disaster. I like Schneider a lot, he's one of my favorite goalies, but he's in no man's land with no elite players in front of him which won't lead to a ton of success.
That's just Lamoriello reaching for the past of defense and elite goaltending, which is not that game anymore. Lamoriello gets credit and rightfully so for winning, but he gets too much credit like many who are successful for a long period of time for developing a "culture of winning" and "building a winner." If you know me you know that I think that whole culture of winning is a crock. Well it's not but only if you get great players and win. Then and only then do you build a culture of winning. It's not something you go into a locker room or front office and just say you're going to do it and make up some phony things that lead to building a winning culture.
Perfect example a few years ago, the Kansas City Chiefs hired Scott Pioli from the New England Patriots to run their team. He was from a winning culture known as "the Patriot way." He tried to establish that same culture in Kansas City by doing such small and petty BS things like make sure trash is picked up by placing a candy bar wrapper and see if anyone cleans it up and throw a fit if no one does. If you think I am kidding, go Google it. How did that work out? He and his cronies were fired in less than four years with one of the worst teams in the NFL. What about that winning culture? It turned out they couldn't bring Tom Brady with them.
So how did Lamoriello build a winning culture? It wasn't because he placed trash and made sure people picked it up or cleaned the bathrooms. It was because he found great players, especially in the draft. He obviously hit on Brodeur and Patrik Elias in late first and second rounds, drafting Shanahan 2nd overall, and even signing or trading for star players that were drafted at the top of the draft for other teams like Scott Stevens and Scott Niedermayer.
Some of Lou's bizarre tactics such as firing coaches just before the regular season and even appointing himself as head coach, signing cheap veterans, and letting players go worked because they kept come of their best players and just fit the pieces around them. He kept the great players like Brodeur, Stevens, Niedermayer, and Elias while letting other replaceable players go. It's as simple as that.
Great players build a winning culture and the GMs, scouts, and coaches get ridiculous amounts of credit for star players. Chicago was terrible for a long, long time maybe because the culture in the locker room or bathroom or wherever was awful. People must not have been picking up their candy bar wrappers and now maybe finally someone has taken the initiative to clean up the mess. That or they were so bad and got a lot of great players like Patrick Kane and Jonathan Toews at the top of the draft but believe whatever you want. The reason I laugh and take shots at takes like these is because it's total nonsense and BS.
Speaking of being terrible and finishing at the top of the draft for great players, the Devils really should have done that last season. Last season, they really should have went after McEichel by bottoming out. Instead, they finished with the sixth-worst record in the NHL and were 24 points behind the Sabres for 30th, yet finished 21 points out of the playoffs. That's even worse than the Flyers did (http://buffalosportsbeat.blogspot.com/2015/07/flyers-are-in-terrible-cap-situation.html) as both organizations are going nowhere fast.
People hate bottoming out but that's what you have to do if you want to get great players to contend and win the Stanley Cup, unless you're lucky and can get a big time free agent, but those days are no more. I for one am glad the Sabres decided to take the bottoming out role and getting Jack Eichel instead of middling it for years and years to come.
I am no way saying that Lamoriello doesn't deserve the credit for what he's done overall. However, it should be noted the last 5-10 years did not go too well and I don't expect him to come in a build a winner in Toronto. I like the way Toronto is doing their rebuild and if they want to be successful, hopefully they don't go the role of Lamoriello and how he build the Devils in recent years. He was successful, but I'm glad the Sabres are not reaching for the past in their organization or off other successful organizations.
Showing posts with label Toronto Maple Leafs. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Toronto Maple Leafs. Show all posts
Friday, July 24, 2015
Wednesday, July 1, 2015
Eichel officially signs with Us!! He's not going back to BU so Stop Worrying About him not Coming Back Here!! Other big time signings and trades today
Well any worries about Jack Eichel not signing with the Sabres and going back to BU are officially done. Today, he signed his 3-year entry level contract and hopefully three years from now, we will have him signed to a really long-term deal. July 1st for Sabres fans usually meant disappointment and heartbreak. Eight years ago today, Chris Drury and Daniel Briere left via free agency after winning the President's Trophy. July 1st also seen the Sabres be snubbed by high profile free agents Brad Richards, Zach Parise, Ryan Suter, and Shane Doan after Terry Pegula bought the team and wanted to spend top dollar. It also meant we got Ville Leino as well.
July 1st now means the official signing and berth of the Jack Eichel era in Buffalo, NY. We'll never have to think of that ever again. We are still waiting for the announcement of the extension of Ryan O'Reilly for seven to eight years for around $7-8 million a year. To help further keep him here, his brother Cal O'Reilly signed earlier for a two-year, one-way deal which means if he plays in the NHL or AHL he's still getting the same salary.
Some former Sabres were involved in trades or signings. Cody Hodgson, waived and bought out one day ago, was signed by Nashville to a one-year deal, not 12 years. I thought Arizona and Darcy Regier would sign him. Goalies Jhonas Enroth signed with the Los Angeles Kings while Michal Neuvirth signed with the Philadelphia Flyes and Anders Lindback with Arizona. So it means currently the Sabres are going with Robin Lehner and Chad Johnson as their goalies so far as they did not bring back any of their former goalies. Drew Stafford signed a two-year deal worth around $4.35 million a season yesterday to remain in Winnipeg.
Speaking of not bringing back any former Sabres, Andrej Sekera signed with Edmonton for six years which is a great move for the Oilers. I liked Sekera and wished he came back here but he moved on. He was very good in Carolina and was used very well unlike his time here with Lindy Ruff. Vancouver did not win the Hodgson trade either as they traded Zack Kassian, who was a disappointment, to Montreal for Brandon Prust and a fifth round pick.
The biggest move of the day was the Pittsburgh Penguins trading for Phil Kessel. The Penguins didn't give up much to get Kessel out of Toronto. Kessel is a very productive scorer (a point a game player) who doesn't always play hard or try hard (as evidenced by last season) and doesn't play great defense. Maybe getting him out of a horrible situation in Toronto and playing with Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin will help him. Hopefully Crosby can keep him in line but he's the type of player they need badly. I think it's a great move for Pittsburgh unless they continue to go belly-up in the playoffs and he doesn't perform.
The St. Louis Blues are trying to move on from their core that's failed them in the playoffs the last few years. Defenseman Kevin Shattenkirk is reportedly on the trade market and I would love for the Sabres to get him. The Blues let star forward Vladimir Tarasenko hit restricted free agency but they said they'll match any offer and rightfully so. They can't let him go and need to build around him. Dallas reportedly signed him to an offer sheet for 6 years, $45 million. I bet they'll match it and eventually part ways with players like David Backes and TJ Oshie.
The Chicago Blackhawks made a big move yesterday trading restricted free agent Brandon Saad to the Columbus Blue Jackets. It was a shock because many thought the Blackhawks would have kept him as there were talks of them negotiating a long term deal. They dealt his rights to the Blue Jackets for Artem Anisimov and Marko Dano. GM Stan Bowman was worried that with the Hawks' cap trouble that teams would load up on an offer sheet for Saad.
One defenseman the Sabres would have liked, Paul Martin, signed a four-year deal with the San Jose Sharks. They also traded for and signed goalie Martin Jones. They did not resign Antii Niemi, who signed with Dallas. The Sharks sent a 2016 First Round pick and prospect Sean Kuraly to the Bruins for Jones as the Sharks immediately signed him to a 3-year deal.
Barrett Jackman's 13-year career with the Blues came to an end when he signed with Nashville. Detroit surprisingly signed Mike Green to a three-year deal while also signing Brad Richards to a one-year deal. Richards won a Cup with Chicago after signing a one-year deal one year after being bought out by the New York Rangers.
The buyouts from a day ago were very interesting. The Kings terminated Mike Richards' gigantic contract after he was stopped at the border with possession of Oxycontin. Others bought out not named Cody Hodgson were Alexander Semin and former Sabre Brad Boyes. I have no interest in any of them. I liked Semin a couple years ago when he signed with Carolina for one year and was very good. He was given a ridiculous longterm contract and never lived up close to it. And to think Jim Rutherford was fired from Carolina but hired in Pittsburgh. Go figure.
This was a very interesting first day of free agency with so much going on. More deals will be made in the coming days hopefully for Buffalo as well to get a defenseman and sign O'Reilly.
July 1st now means the official signing and berth of the Jack Eichel era in Buffalo, NY. We'll never have to think of that ever again. We are still waiting for the announcement of the extension of Ryan O'Reilly for seven to eight years for around $7-8 million a year. To help further keep him here, his brother Cal O'Reilly signed earlier for a two-year, one-way deal which means if he plays in the NHL or AHL he's still getting the same salary.
Some former Sabres were involved in trades or signings. Cody Hodgson, waived and bought out one day ago, was signed by Nashville to a one-year deal, not 12 years. I thought Arizona and Darcy Regier would sign him. Goalies Jhonas Enroth signed with the Los Angeles Kings while Michal Neuvirth signed with the Philadelphia Flyes and Anders Lindback with Arizona. So it means currently the Sabres are going with Robin Lehner and Chad Johnson as their goalies so far as they did not bring back any of their former goalies. Drew Stafford signed a two-year deal worth around $4.35 million a season yesterday to remain in Winnipeg.
Speaking of not bringing back any former Sabres, Andrej Sekera signed with Edmonton for six years which is a great move for the Oilers. I liked Sekera and wished he came back here but he moved on. He was very good in Carolina and was used very well unlike his time here with Lindy Ruff. Vancouver did not win the Hodgson trade either as they traded Zack Kassian, who was a disappointment, to Montreal for Brandon Prust and a fifth round pick.
The biggest move of the day was the Pittsburgh Penguins trading for Phil Kessel. The Penguins didn't give up much to get Kessel out of Toronto. Kessel is a very productive scorer (a point a game player) who doesn't always play hard or try hard (as evidenced by last season) and doesn't play great defense. Maybe getting him out of a horrible situation in Toronto and playing with Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin will help him. Hopefully Crosby can keep him in line but he's the type of player they need badly. I think it's a great move for Pittsburgh unless they continue to go belly-up in the playoffs and he doesn't perform.
The St. Louis Blues are trying to move on from their core that's failed them in the playoffs the last few years. Defenseman Kevin Shattenkirk is reportedly on the trade market and I would love for the Sabres to get him. The Blues let star forward Vladimir Tarasenko hit restricted free agency but they said they'll match any offer and rightfully so. They can't let him go and need to build around him. Dallas reportedly signed him to an offer sheet for 6 years, $45 million. I bet they'll match it and eventually part ways with players like David Backes and TJ Oshie.
The Chicago Blackhawks made a big move yesterday trading restricted free agent Brandon Saad to the Columbus Blue Jackets. It was a shock because many thought the Blackhawks would have kept him as there were talks of them negotiating a long term deal. They dealt his rights to the Blue Jackets for Artem Anisimov and Marko Dano. GM Stan Bowman was worried that with the Hawks' cap trouble that teams would load up on an offer sheet for Saad.
One defenseman the Sabres would have liked, Paul Martin, signed a four-year deal with the San Jose Sharks. They also traded for and signed goalie Martin Jones. They did not resign Antii Niemi, who signed with Dallas. The Sharks sent a 2016 First Round pick and prospect Sean Kuraly to the Bruins for Jones as the Sharks immediately signed him to a 3-year deal.
Barrett Jackman's 13-year career with the Blues came to an end when he signed with Nashville. Detroit surprisingly signed Mike Green to a three-year deal while also signing Brad Richards to a one-year deal. Richards won a Cup with Chicago after signing a one-year deal one year after being bought out by the New York Rangers.
The buyouts from a day ago were very interesting. The Kings terminated Mike Richards' gigantic contract after he was stopped at the border with possession of Oxycontin. Others bought out not named Cody Hodgson were Alexander Semin and former Sabre Brad Boyes. I have no interest in any of them. I liked Semin a couple years ago when he signed with Carolina for one year and was very good. He was given a ridiculous longterm contract and never lived up close to it. And to think Jim Rutherford was fired from Carolina but hired in Pittsburgh. Go figure.
This was a very interesting first day of free agency with so much going on. More deals will be made in the coming days hopefully for Buffalo as well to get a defenseman and sign O'Reilly.
Tuesday, June 30, 2015
Former Sabre Phil Housley along with Nicklas Lidstrom, Sergei Federov and Chris Pronger Headline 2015 Hockey Hall of Fame Class; Lindros, Andreychuk, and Roenick Not in
Former Buffalo Sabres defenseman Phil Housley was announced that he will inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame class of 2015. Headlining that class are fellow defensemen Nicklas Lidstrom and Chris Pronger along with center Sergei Federov. Four-time U.S. Olympian Angela Ruggeiro became the fourth woman to be elected into the hall and is joined by Carolina Hurricanes owner Peter Karmanos Jr. and executive Bill Hay.
Housley finally got into the Hockey Hall of Fame 12 years after he retired from the NHL after a stellar 21-year career. Housley was an offensive defenseman if there ever was one. His 1,232 points are the most ever by a U.S.-born defenseman and are the second most points by a U.S. born player behind only Mike Modano. He also played the third most games (1,495) by an American-born player behind only Modano and Chris Chelios. Housley also played the most games by a player who never won the Stanley Cup as he was in the Cup finals with the Washington Captials, where they were swept by the Detroit Red Wings and fellow Hall of Fame inductees Lidstrom and Federov.
Housley was drafted by the Buffalo Sabres with the 6th overall pick in the 1982 NHL Draft. He played right away as an 18-year-old right out of high school and scored 19 goals and 66 points and was the runner-up for the Calder Trophy in 1983 as the league's rookie of the year. His second year, Housley had 31 goals and 77 points in 75 games. He had a stellar eight-year career in Buffalo with 178 goals, 380 assists, and 558 points in 608 games.
He was traded in 1990 along with a first round pick (which turned out to be fellow American great Keith Tkachuk) to the Winnipeg Jets for Dale Hawerchuk and their first round pick which would be Brad May. Hawerchuk had a great career in Buffalo. Housley was spectacular in three seasons in Winnipeg scoring 64 goals, 195 assists, and 259 points in 232 games. His last season in Winnipeg (1992-93) was his best ever with 79 assists and 97 points. He also helped rookie Teemu Selanne score 76 goals that season as well.
Housley would be traded to St. Louis and bounce around with Calgary, New Jersey, Washington, Chicago, and ending his career with one game in Toronto. While he was still productive, he failed to live up to his high-scoring ways in Buffalo and Winnipeg. Housley played for the United States in 10 international events as well. He was inducted into the United States Hockey Hall of Fame in 2004 and the Buffalo Sabres Hall of Fame in 2007. Housley coached Team USA to the gold medal in the 2013 World Junior championships and is currently an assistant head coach for the Nashville Predators.
Nicklas Lidstrom and Sergei Federov were successful teammates when they were drafted together in 1989 and were teammates on the Red Wings from 1991-2003. Both led Detroit to three Stanley Cups in 1996-97, 1997-98, and 2001-02 and three President's Trophies as the Red Wings were the best team in the NHL in the 1990s and 2000s. Federov left Detroit in 2003 to play for Anaheim and then played for the Columbus Blue Jackets and Washington Capitals before heading to the KHL in 2009. Lidstrom stayed in Detroit until he retired in 2012, where he led the Wings to another Cup in 2008 and three more President's Trophies and was the captain for his last six seasons with the team following the retirement of long-time captain Steve Yzerman.
Federov quietly defected to Detroit from Russia in 1990. He was considered one of the best players in the world in the 1990s and early 2000s and considered to be one of the best playoff performers in NHL history. His best individual season came in 1993-94 when he scored 56 goals and 120 points in 82 games to win both the Hart Trophy (league MVP) and the first of his two Selke Trophies (best defensive forward). He won a second Selke in 1996 and was one of the best two-way centers in the league during his prime, breaking a stereotype that Russian and European players are soft and won't play defense. He'd even play as a defenseman at times for Scotty Bowman in Detroit.
Federov played in three Olympics for Team Russia as well. He scored 483 goals and 1,179 points in his 1,248 game career. He's the all-time leading scorer in both goals and points for a Russian player in NHL history. He also had 176 in 183 career playoff games. In 2009, he became the oldest player to score a game-winning Game 7 goal when he led Washington to a first round series victory over the New York Rangers. He currently is the general manager for CSKA Moscow in the KHL.
Lidstrom is considered to be one of the greatest defensemen ever to play in the NHL. He scored 1,142 points in 1,564 games during his 20-year career, all with the Wings. In addition to winning the Cup four times, Lidstrom won seven Norris Trophies as the league's best defenseman, joining Doug Harvey and Bobby Orr (who won eight) to win as many as seven. Lidstrom was a finalist for the Norris Trophy 12 of his last 14 seasons and won it seven of his last ten seasons. He also won the Conn Smythe Trophy as Stanley Cup MVP in 2002, becoming the first European player to win playoff MVP and became the first European captain to win a Stanley Cup in 2008.
Lidstrom appeared in 263 Stanley Cup Playoff games, second most all-time only to former teammate Chris Chelios' 266. Lidstrom shares a record with Larry Robinson for playing in 20 consecutive playoff appearances. Lidstrom was incredibly durable as he was usually among the leaders in ice time per game and never missed more than 12 games in a single season (which occurred in his final season). Lidstrom led Team Sweden to the gold medal in 2006 Olympics when he scored the game-winning goal in the gold medal game, giving him a Stanley Cup, a gold medal in the World Championships, and a gold medal in the Olympics.
Chris Pronger saw his Hall of Fame career come to an abrupt end in 2011 when he suffered post-concussion syndrome and an eye injury due to three separate incidents shortly after being named captain of the Philadelphia Flyers. Pronger currently works for the NHL in their department of player safety and is in the hall despite being under contract with the Arizona Coyotes. He was traded to the Coyotes last week by the Philadelphia Flyers, who were unloading his contract. The Coyotes took on his salary to help them get to the cap floor.
Pronger was drafted second overall in the 1993 NHL Draft by the Hartford Whalers, before playing for the St. Louis Blues, Edmonton Oilers, Anahiem Ducks, and Flyers from 1993-2011. He was also the captain of both the Blues and Ducks in addition to being captain of the Flyers. Pronger is one of the most fierce and physically imposing defensemen of his era. He also added some offense to his physical game with 698 points in 1,167 career games.
Pronger won the Cup in 2007 with the Ducks and helped lead the Oilers in 2006 and the Flyers in 2010 to the Cup Finals, where they lost. He has been in the playoffs in every year except his first two in Hartford. His best years where in St. Louis, where he was a five-time All-Star and helped lead them to the President's Trophy in 1999-2000. That same season he also won the Norris Trophy and became the first defenseman to win the Hart Trophy since Bobby Orr in 1972. No defenseman has won it since.
Current Carolina Hurricanes owner Peter Karmanos Jr. made it to the Hockey Hall of Fame. His contributions are that he created the Detroit Compuware youth hockey program in the 1970s, which produced 235 Division I hockey players and 14 NHL first-round picks. He owned several OHL franchises before he purchased the Hartford Whalers in 1994. He moved them to Raleigh, North Carolina a few years later and they became the Carolina Hurricanes (boo!!).
Housley finally got into the Hockey Hall of Fame 12 years after he retired from the NHL after a stellar 21-year career. Housley was an offensive defenseman if there ever was one. His 1,232 points are the most ever by a U.S.-born defenseman and are the second most points by a U.S. born player behind only Mike Modano. He also played the third most games (1,495) by an American-born player behind only Modano and Chris Chelios. Housley also played the most games by a player who never won the Stanley Cup as he was in the Cup finals with the Washington Captials, where they were swept by the Detroit Red Wings and fellow Hall of Fame inductees Lidstrom and Federov.
Housley was drafted by the Buffalo Sabres with the 6th overall pick in the 1982 NHL Draft. He played right away as an 18-year-old right out of high school and scored 19 goals and 66 points and was the runner-up for the Calder Trophy in 1983 as the league's rookie of the year. His second year, Housley had 31 goals and 77 points in 75 games. He had a stellar eight-year career in Buffalo with 178 goals, 380 assists, and 558 points in 608 games.
He was traded in 1990 along with a first round pick (which turned out to be fellow American great Keith Tkachuk) to the Winnipeg Jets for Dale Hawerchuk and their first round pick which would be Brad May. Hawerchuk had a great career in Buffalo. Housley was spectacular in three seasons in Winnipeg scoring 64 goals, 195 assists, and 259 points in 232 games. His last season in Winnipeg (1992-93) was his best ever with 79 assists and 97 points. He also helped rookie Teemu Selanne score 76 goals that season as well.
Housley would be traded to St. Louis and bounce around with Calgary, New Jersey, Washington, Chicago, and ending his career with one game in Toronto. While he was still productive, he failed to live up to his high-scoring ways in Buffalo and Winnipeg. Housley played for the United States in 10 international events as well. He was inducted into the United States Hockey Hall of Fame in 2004 and the Buffalo Sabres Hall of Fame in 2007. Housley coached Team USA to the gold medal in the 2013 World Junior championships and is currently an assistant head coach for the Nashville Predators.
Nicklas Lidstrom and Sergei Federov were successful teammates when they were drafted together in 1989 and were teammates on the Red Wings from 1991-2003. Both led Detroit to three Stanley Cups in 1996-97, 1997-98, and 2001-02 and three President's Trophies as the Red Wings were the best team in the NHL in the 1990s and 2000s. Federov left Detroit in 2003 to play for Anaheim and then played for the Columbus Blue Jackets and Washington Capitals before heading to the KHL in 2009. Lidstrom stayed in Detroit until he retired in 2012, where he led the Wings to another Cup in 2008 and three more President's Trophies and was the captain for his last six seasons with the team following the retirement of long-time captain Steve Yzerman.
Federov quietly defected to Detroit from Russia in 1990. He was considered one of the best players in the world in the 1990s and early 2000s and considered to be one of the best playoff performers in NHL history. His best individual season came in 1993-94 when he scored 56 goals and 120 points in 82 games to win both the Hart Trophy (league MVP) and the first of his two Selke Trophies (best defensive forward). He won a second Selke in 1996 and was one of the best two-way centers in the league during his prime, breaking a stereotype that Russian and European players are soft and won't play defense. He'd even play as a defenseman at times for Scotty Bowman in Detroit.
Federov played in three Olympics for Team Russia as well. He scored 483 goals and 1,179 points in his 1,248 game career. He's the all-time leading scorer in both goals and points for a Russian player in NHL history. He also had 176 in 183 career playoff games. In 2009, he became the oldest player to score a game-winning Game 7 goal when he led Washington to a first round series victory over the New York Rangers. He currently is the general manager for CSKA Moscow in the KHL.
Lidstrom is considered to be one of the greatest defensemen ever to play in the NHL. He scored 1,142 points in 1,564 games during his 20-year career, all with the Wings. In addition to winning the Cup four times, Lidstrom won seven Norris Trophies as the league's best defenseman, joining Doug Harvey and Bobby Orr (who won eight) to win as many as seven. Lidstrom was a finalist for the Norris Trophy 12 of his last 14 seasons and won it seven of his last ten seasons. He also won the Conn Smythe Trophy as Stanley Cup MVP in 2002, becoming the first European player to win playoff MVP and became the first European captain to win a Stanley Cup in 2008.
Lidstrom appeared in 263 Stanley Cup Playoff games, second most all-time only to former teammate Chris Chelios' 266. Lidstrom shares a record with Larry Robinson for playing in 20 consecutive playoff appearances. Lidstrom was incredibly durable as he was usually among the leaders in ice time per game and never missed more than 12 games in a single season (which occurred in his final season). Lidstrom led Team Sweden to the gold medal in 2006 Olympics when he scored the game-winning goal in the gold medal game, giving him a Stanley Cup, a gold medal in the World Championships, and a gold medal in the Olympics.
Chris Pronger saw his Hall of Fame career come to an abrupt end in 2011 when he suffered post-concussion syndrome and an eye injury due to three separate incidents shortly after being named captain of the Philadelphia Flyers. Pronger currently works for the NHL in their department of player safety and is in the hall despite being under contract with the Arizona Coyotes. He was traded to the Coyotes last week by the Philadelphia Flyers, who were unloading his contract. The Coyotes took on his salary to help them get to the cap floor.
Pronger was drafted second overall in the 1993 NHL Draft by the Hartford Whalers, before playing for the St. Louis Blues, Edmonton Oilers, Anahiem Ducks, and Flyers from 1993-2011. He was also the captain of both the Blues and Ducks in addition to being captain of the Flyers. Pronger is one of the most fierce and physically imposing defensemen of his era. He also added some offense to his physical game with 698 points in 1,167 career games.
Pronger won the Cup in 2007 with the Ducks and helped lead the Oilers in 2006 and the Flyers in 2010 to the Cup Finals, where they lost. He has been in the playoffs in every year except his first two in Hartford. His best years where in St. Louis, where he was a five-time All-Star and helped lead them to the President's Trophy in 1999-2000. That same season he also won the Norris Trophy and became the first defenseman to win the Hart Trophy since Bobby Orr in 1972. No defenseman has won it since.
Current Carolina Hurricanes owner Peter Karmanos Jr. made it to the Hockey Hall of Fame. His contributions are that he created the Detroit Compuware youth hockey program in the 1970s, which produced 235 Division I hockey players and 14 NHL first-round picks. He owned several OHL franchises before he purchased the Hartford Whalers in 1994. He moved them to Raleigh, North Carolina a few years later and they became the Carolina Hurricanes (boo!!).
Karmanos interestingly has some involvement with some of the fellow Hall of Famers in this class. He signed Federov to an offer sheet in 1998 worth $38 million after Federov was holding out in a bitter contract dispute with the Red Wings, who decided to match the offer sheet, bringing Federov back to Detroit. His Hurricanes lost in the Stanley Cup Finals in 2002 to both Federov and Lidstrom. He did however beat Pronger's Oilers in 2006 to win the Stanley Cup (which I vomitted in my mouth at that). He did trade Pronger to St. Louis in 1995 when he owned the Whalers.
Bill Hay was the first NCAA graduate to play in the NHL, where he played for the Chicago Blackhawks for eight seasons, winning a Stanley Cup in 1961. Hay was the President and CEO of the Calgary Flames before becoming the Chair of the Hockey Hall of Fame. Angela Ruggeiro won a gold and two silver medals in the Olympics as well as four world championships in her 13-year career. She also became the first woman non-goalie to play in a professional hockey regular season game when she played for the Tulsa Oilers of the Continental Hockey League on January 28, 2005.
Those missing were Eric Lindros, Dave Andreychuk, and Jeremy Roenick as only six can be voted on one ballot each year which I think is ridiculous. There should be 10 if there are 10 guys eligible just like if there are only one or two eligible that's how many should be in. I never agreed with someone is not a first ballot hall of famer but can make it several years later. If your a hall of famer, you're a hall of famer enough said and you should go in whenever you are eligible.
Lindros missed the hall of fame for the fifth year in a row, which is getting ridiculous. How is he not a hall of famer? His 1.138 points per game rank 19th all time. He was the 1995 Hart Trophy winner and is one of a few Hart Trophy winners who are not active to not be in the Hockey Hall of Fame. I know because of injuries (concussions) keeping him out of many games and not winning the Stanley Cup have kept him from being in the Hall of Fame. But the guy made a huge impact and was one of the best players in the 1990s and early 2000s. Watching him play and his presence on the ice makes you think hall of famer. He was also one of the best junior players of all time, which is why many thought he'd be the next Wayne Gretzky. Just because he wasn't Gretzky doesn't mean he's not an elite player.
Our old buddy Andreychuk should be in as he scored the most power play goals in NHL history and his 640 goals were the most of anyone who's not active who is not in the Hall of Fame. He had a stellar 11-year career with the Sabres and was spectacular with the Toronto Maple Leafs. Andreychuk also finally won a Stanley Cup with the Tampa Bay Lightning in 2003-04. Roenick scored 513 goals and is up there with Phil Housley and Mike Modano as one of the best U.S. born players in NHL history.
Those missing were Eric Lindros, Dave Andreychuk, and Jeremy Roenick as only six can be voted on one ballot each year which I think is ridiculous. There should be 10 if there are 10 guys eligible just like if there are only one or two eligible that's how many should be in. I never agreed with someone is not a first ballot hall of famer but can make it several years later. If your a hall of famer, you're a hall of famer enough said and you should go in whenever you are eligible.
Lindros missed the hall of fame for the fifth year in a row, which is getting ridiculous. How is he not a hall of famer? His 1.138 points per game rank 19th all time. He was the 1995 Hart Trophy winner and is one of a few Hart Trophy winners who are not active to not be in the Hockey Hall of Fame. I know because of injuries (concussions) keeping him out of many games and not winning the Stanley Cup have kept him from being in the Hall of Fame. But the guy made a huge impact and was one of the best players in the 1990s and early 2000s. Watching him play and his presence on the ice makes you think hall of famer. He was also one of the best junior players of all time, which is why many thought he'd be the next Wayne Gretzky. Just because he wasn't Gretzky doesn't mean he's not an elite player.
Our old buddy Andreychuk should be in as he scored the most power play goals in NHL history and his 640 goals were the most of anyone who's not active who is not in the Hall of Fame. He had a stellar 11-year career with the Sabres and was spectacular with the Toronto Maple Leafs. Andreychuk also finally won a Stanley Cup with the Tampa Bay Lightning in 2003-04. Roenick scored 513 goals and is up there with Phil Housley and Mike Modano as one of the best U.S. born players in NHL history.
Saturday, June 27, 2015
I'm Glad the Sabres No Longer Reaching in the Past Like Other Teams; They are a Completely Different Team than Last Season; a Complete 180
One thing I took real notice when I was watching the draft last night were the amount of teams that weren't very good that had former players from that franchise that were running their team as either a GM, President, head coach, or some sort of front office position. Three teams that really took notice to me were the Boston Bruins, Philadelphia Flyers, and Colorado Avalanche.
The Bruins might be the worst position by trading Dougie Hamilton for a mid 1st round pick and parting ways with their number one defenseman. They brought in former players Cam Neely and Don Sweeney recently to be the President and General Manager respectively. So far they've done a horrible job and picked up where the last regimes left off.
In the last decade, the Bruins have traded Joe Thornton, Phil Kessel, Tyler Seguin, and now Hamilton. They also traded Ray Bourque 15 years ago but that was more to help Bourque get a Cup per his request so that doesn't count. Just because they won a Cup and been to another finals doesn't mean they've done things very well lately.
The moves they made remind of moves the Flyers used to make by getting rid of Jeff Carter and Mike Richards because "they partied" plus needed to free up cap space to give goalie Ilyz Bryzgalov a lucrative contract which blew up in their face. This wasn't the lone move that's made the Flyers a joke to the point where they're way too far away from being championship contenders but way too far away from the top picks of the draft to get elite players such as McDavid and Eichel and keeping them in the worst possible spot, "Hockey Purgatory."
They did get some decent pieces in the Carter and Richards trades that brought them in Wayne Simmonds, Jakub Voracek, Brayden Schenn, and a first round pick that became Sean Couturier. Simmonds and especially Voracek have been great. Claude Giroux has also been very good as well. However, the Flyers lack secondary scoring outside their top players along with a terrible defense corps and lackluster goaltending.
Other moves that blew up in their face were giving up on former second overall pick James Van Riemsdyk, trading him to the Leafs for failed defenseman Luke Schenn, also giving up on future Vezina Trophy winner Sergei Bobrovsky after signing Bryzgalov, trading Scott Hartnell, and signing a past his prime Vincent LeCavalier. Despite those awful moves by Paul Holmgren, Holmgren, a former Flyers player, was promoted to team President and replaced by yet another former Flyer player, Ron Hextall as GM.
They recently fired former Flyer player Craig Berube and replaced him with the successful University of North Dakota head coach, a move I like that's different. This is the same franchise that kept Bobby Clarke as GM forever after he played for them and was their captain when they won two Stanley Cups in the 1970s. Clarke of course is still in the organization in the front office after making a lot of bonehead moves as a GM. This is a team, like the Bruins, who have to keep their former players in the organization and parade them out to the fans despite their failures.
In recent years, the Colorado Avalanche have hired former Stanley Cup winners goalie Patrick Roy as both head coach and vice president of hockey operations and former captain Joe Sakic as GM. Can they add Peter Forsberg and Adam Foote to the team as well? Maybe even Claude Lemieux? Their first year they went from the second-worst record to winning the division and a 100-point season in 2013-14 season. They lost in the first round as many analytics experts thought they were lucky and called for them to lose to the Minnesota Wild in the first round.
They called for a serious regression this season even though Roy and Sakic laughed at that. They "played the game" and knew more than "analytics nerds" know. They had the second-worst Corsi for (only behind the Sabres) this past season and missed the playoffs and finished with the 10th worst record this season. Once again, the analytics and advanced stats crowd called a regression much like they did a couple years ago with the Toronto Maple Leafs.
The problem is that in any sport, not just hockey, bringing in players or coaches or whatever from the past glory days is usually a problem. Very teams had success when bringing in past glory because players don't usually make great coaches or GMs or front office personnel. Players with that same franchise usually don't bring a fresh perspective to a struggling team and try to relive the glory days. They also try to sell the past to fans which almost always never works out. You need a fresh perspective and a fresh set of eyes from outside the organization to tell what's really wrong with the organization.
Recently, the Edmonton Oilers had problems with former players Kevin Lowe and Craig MacTavish being the President and GM and even head coach and running that team into the ground. They were a joke for a long time as for some reason, the organization could not let go of the past. Now they seem to have done a better job at bringing in GM and head coach from outside the organization.
New Jersey has had Lou Lamoriello as GM forever and had success but recently, they've struggled as Lamoriello has failed to adapt to the newer NHL. Last year, they fired Peter DeBoar as head coach and brought in, get this, former Devil Scott Stevens along with another former Hall of Fame player Adam Oates (who failed as a head coach with his former team Washington how about that) to be the head coach.
If bringing in former franchise players are a problem, bringing in former longtime failure coaches and GMs to be coaches and GMs because they're buddy-buddy with other coaches and GMs to bring more stench of failure. New Jersey brought in former failed Pittsburgh GM Ray Shero as their new GM. Way to keep up with the times and evolve and grow. That's why the Devils aren't going anywhere for a long time. It's like when the Penguins replaced Shero last year with another former failure GM Jim Rutherford, who was fired by Carolina after he did a miserable job.
The Bills and Sabres used to have these problems for years, bringing in former players and coaches back to the team or bringing in failed coaches and GMs and scouts, etc. That is until now as both Bills and Sabres, thanks to Terry and Kim Pegula, have brought in fresh brand new ideas with people from outside the organization to bring in a fresh pair of eyes and perspective to build a winner. These are organizations both known for losing and to build a winner, you need to go away from the stench of failure that breeds among both teams.
I love the direction both the Bills and especially Sabres are heading into. It's great to see how the Sabres are almost nothing like the team a year ago. They're adding Jack Eichel, Evander Kane, and Ryan O'Reilly to the mix. This is a complete 180 from last year's mess.
The Bruins might be the worst position by trading Dougie Hamilton for a mid 1st round pick and parting ways with their number one defenseman. They brought in former players Cam Neely and Don Sweeney recently to be the President and General Manager respectively. So far they've done a horrible job and picked up where the last regimes left off.
In the last decade, the Bruins have traded Joe Thornton, Phil Kessel, Tyler Seguin, and now Hamilton. They also traded Ray Bourque 15 years ago but that was more to help Bourque get a Cup per his request so that doesn't count. Just because they won a Cup and been to another finals doesn't mean they've done things very well lately.
The moves they made remind of moves the Flyers used to make by getting rid of Jeff Carter and Mike Richards because "they partied" plus needed to free up cap space to give goalie Ilyz Bryzgalov a lucrative contract which blew up in their face. This wasn't the lone move that's made the Flyers a joke to the point where they're way too far away from being championship contenders but way too far away from the top picks of the draft to get elite players such as McDavid and Eichel and keeping them in the worst possible spot, "Hockey Purgatory."
They did get some decent pieces in the Carter and Richards trades that brought them in Wayne Simmonds, Jakub Voracek, Brayden Schenn, and a first round pick that became Sean Couturier. Simmonds and especially Voracek have been great. Claude Giroux has also been very good as well. However, the Flyers lack secondary scoring outside their top players along with a terrible defense corps and lackluster goaltending.
Other moves that blew up in their face were giving up on former second overall pick James Van Riemsdyk, trading him to the Leafs for failed defenseman Luke Schenn, also giving up on future Vezina Trophy winner Sergei Bobrovsky after signing Bryzgalov, trading Scott Hartnell, and signing a past his prime Vincent LeCavalier. Despite those awful moves by Paul Holmgren, Holmgren, a former Flyers player, was promoted to team President and replaced by yet another former Flyer player, Ron Hextall as GM.
They recently fired former Flyer player Craig Berube and replaced him with the successful University of North Dakota head coach, a move I like that's different. This is the same franchise that kept Bobby Clarke as GM forever after he played for them and was their captain when they won two Stanley Cups in the 1970s. Clarke of course is still in the organization in the front office after making a lot of bonehead moves as a GM. This is a team, like the Bruins, who have to keep their former players in the organization and parade them out to the fans despite their failures.
In recent years, the Colorado Avalanche have hired former Stanley Cup winners goalie Patrick Roy as both head coach and vice president of hockey operations and former captain Joe Sakic as GM. Can they add Peter Forsberg and Adam Foote to the team as well? Maybe even Claude Lemieux? Their first year they went from the second-worst record to winning the division and a 100-point season in 2013-14 season. They lost in the first round as many analytics experts thought they were lucky and called for them to lose to the Minnesota Wild in the first round.
They called for a serious regression this season even though Roy and Sakic laughed at that. They "played the game" and knew more than "analytics nerds" know. They had the second-worst Corsi for (only behind the Sabres) this past season and missed the playoffs and finished with the 10th worst record this season. Once again, the analytics and advanced stats crowd called a regression much like they did a couple years ago with the Toronto Maple Leafs.
The problem is that in any sport, not just hockey, bringing in players or coaches or whatever from the past glory days is usually a problem. Very teams had success when bringing in past glory because players don't usually make great coaches or GMs or front office personnel. Players with that same franchise usually don't bring a fresh perspective to a struggling team and try to relive the glory days. They also try to sell the past to fans which almost always never works out. You need a fresh perspective and a fresh set of eyes from outside the organization to tell what's really wrong with the organization.
Recently, the Edmonton Oilers had problems with former players Kevin Lowe and Craig MacTavish being the President and GM and even head coach and running that team into the ground. They were a joke for a long time as for some reason, the organization could not let go of the past. Now they seem to have done a better job at bringing in GM and head coach from outside the organization.
New Jersey has had Lou Lamoriello as GM forever and had success but recently, they've struggled as Lamoriello has failed to adapt to the newer NHL. Last year, they fired Peter DeBoar as head coach and brought in, get this, former Devil Scott Stevens along with another former Hall of Fame player Adam Oates (who failed as a head coach with his former team Washington how about that) to be the head coach.
If bringing in former franchise players are a problem, bringing in former longtime failure coaches and GMs to be coaches and GMs because they're buddy-buddy with other coaches and GMs to bring more stench of failure. New Jersey brought in former failed Pittsburgh GM Ray Shero as their new GM. Way to keep up with the times and evolve and grow. That's why the Devils aren't going anywhere for a long time. It's like when the Penguins replaced Shero last year with another former failure GM Jim Rutherford, who was fired by Carolina after he did a miserable job.
The Bills and Sabres used to have these problems for years, bringing in former players and coaches back to the team or bringing in failed coaches and GMs and scouts, etc. That is until now as both Bills and Sabres, thanks to Terry and Kim Pegula, have brought in fresh brand new ideas with people from outside the organization to bring in a fresh pair of eyes and perspective to build a winner. These are organizations both known for losing and to build a winner, you need to go away from the stench of failure that breeds among both teams.
I love the direction both the Bills and especially Sabres are heading into. It's great to see how the Sabres are almost nothing like the team a year ago. They're adding Jack Eichel, Evander Kane, and Ryan O'Reilly to the mix. This is a complete 180 from last year's mess.
Friday, June 26, 2015
Sabres Officially Draft Jack Eichel and Acquire O'Reiily on Busy and Exciting Draft Day
The future of the Buffalo Sabres starts tonight with the drafting of Jack Eichel (assuming he signs with us and doesn't go back to college which I believe he won't). He's our franchise player and it will be awesome to have a forward/ No. 1 center be our franchise elite player. It's been way too long since what LaFontaine or maybe even Perrault? Sure even Briere and Drury were very good for the short time they were here but this is an 18-year-old kid who will be here for a good 15 years or so helping leading this team to the promised land. Who doesn't love it when Tim Murray doesn't do the BS of thanking everyone just goes "Buffalo selects Jack Eichel" like he did last year with Sam Reinhart?
Eichel is considered to be one of the best prospects in the last what 15-20 years? Since then Eichel has been considered the number one pick in every draft in that time except the Alex Ovechkin, Sidney Crosby, and of course the Connor McDavid years. Ovechkin and Crosby helped turn their teams around from miserable failures to success and McDavid should do the same with Edmonton. I've heard Eichel compared to fellow American Mike Modano (1988 #1 overall pick) and current stars Steven Stamkos and Jeff Carter.
As of that wasn't enough, they traded for a goalie early in the day (http://buffalosportsbeat.blogspot.com/2015/06/sabres-acquire-goalie-robin-lehner-and.html) and right after selecting Eichel, the Sabres announced they traded for Ryan O'Reilly. They traded Nikita Zadorov, Mikhail Grigorenko, JT Compher, and the 31st pick in this year's draft for O'Reilly and forward Jamie McGinn. O'Reilly gives them a legitimate number two center behind Eichel and gives the Sabres one of the best center depth in the NHL with Zemgus Girgensons and Sam Reinhart also on the roster.
Now O'Reilly has one year left on his deal that carries a $6 million cap hit which the Avalanche matched an offer sheet signed two years ago by the Calgary Flames and that basically ruined the relationship between the Avs and O'Reilly. We have to sign O'Reilly and it appears he wants a deal in the $8 million range which might be steep but also kind of worth it given his offensive production and amazing two-way, possession game. He's the complete opposite of Cody Hodgson as a two-way player. Murray said they are preparing to offer him a big contract or else why did they trade so much for him?
Murray got a lot of flack for making this deal especially trading Zadorov. Zadorov can be a very good defenseman and showed flashes of brilliance last season. But he also really struggled at times and got benched and suspended and had an attitude of entitlement. That doesn't mean he should be gone yet he became expendable to make a big trade. Like I wrote the other day (http://buffalosportsbeat.blogspot.com/2015/06/i-would-trade-reinhart-for-oreilly-i.html), you have to be prepared to trade someone you might not want or be comfortable trading to improve your team and Zadorov (and maybe some who still had hope for Grigorenko) were the ones to go. Rasmus Ristolainen and Eichel are the only "untouchables" on this roster. We can fill another spot in free agency and one guy I'm very interested in is former Sabre Andrej Seker, who is a UFA. We don't have a guy on the defense for the power play and he's always been good at that and point producing even though a lot of people didn't like him here. I liked Sekera.
No surprise obviously McDavid went first overall with the Oilers. Arizona was not able to trade it's third overall pick (http://buffalosportsbeat.blogspot.com/2015/06/coyotes-looking-to-trade-pick-3-bruins.html) and instead took McDavid's Erie Otters' teammate Dylan Strome. Had the Sabres not picked in the top-2 for McDavid or Eichel, Strome would have been my top pick at number three. Toronto and Mike Babcock select center Mitch Marner, who finished a close second behind Strome for the OHL scoring title this past season which McDavid would have easily won had he not gotten hurt for six weeks of the season.
Carolina took Boston College defenseman Noah Hanifan and Carolina looks to get better on the blue line and they're a team I could see on the rise. Hanifan would make an excellent addition and partner for fellow defenseman Justin Faulk, who had a breakout season and franchise record-breaking season for most points by a defenseman. If they keep both Staals and maybe Jeff Skinner or get a great trade for him (http://buffalosportsbeat.blogspot.com/2015/06/jeff-skinner-might-be-available-id-go.html) they'll be on the rise no doubt. They're penalty kill (which dramatically) and possession numbers are both very great as first year head coach Bill Peters has done a great job and they finished the second half of the season really strong. They get a good goalie, they're a playoff team.
The team who hosted the draft, the Florida Panthers, took Lawson Crouse 11th overall. Crouse was talked as a possible top-5 pick as he was 5th in the final NHL Central Scouting rankings because of his size and scoring ability plus his play in the World Juniors this past season for Team Canada. He did not score a lot in juniors which is a red flag in my opinion as he was nowhere even close to the scoring leaders, but he did jump up significantly this past season from the season before as he went from 27 to 51 points. However, he still ranked 63rd in the OHL scoring race. 63rd!!! He just averaged under a point a game in a league where the best scorers averaged 2 points a game (or in McDavid's case close to 3 points a game). He has high bust potential but could be the next Milan Lucic or Todd Bertuzzi if it pans out, maybe even better. We shall see.
Ottawa took young American center prospect Colin White, who is considered one of the better prospects in this deep draft, 21st overall with the Sabres pick. White is considered to play for Boston College this upcoming season but who knows. The one and only goalie taken in the first round one pick after as the Washington Capitals took Ilya Samsonov 22nd overall as he was expected to go late in round one and if the Sabres still had pick 21, they'd probably take him.
One last thing is that the Boston Bruins continue to make mind numbing decision after decision. It didn't matter that Peter Chiarelli was fired for making mind numbing trades like Phil Kessel for two first round picks what turned out to be Tyler Seguin and Dougie Hamilton then trading Seguin for garbage and put them in the place they're currently in. I didn't even mention Joe Thornton going for practically nothing before Chiarelli was GM but they get credit because they won the Cup. Yes they did get lucky trading Kessel, who even though he produces points, he doesn't always show up and puts in terrible efforts night in night out and is awful defensively. Seguin and Hamilton should have taken your team to the Cup for many years to come. I don't know what's in the water in Boston but whoever the GM is, makes dumb decisions enough said.
Reports were they were interested in trading top defenseman Dougie Hamilton to the Coyotes for the third pick in the draft to take Hanifan but instead, they trade him to Calgary for the 15th overall pick?!?! Huh? Don Sweeney is doing a great job let me tell you (smh). They also traded Milan Lucic to Los Angeles for the 13th overall pick and restricted free agent goalie Martin Jones combine the two picks with their own, they had the 13th, 14th, and 15th overall picks in the draft. Many thought they'd trade all 3 or 2 of the 3 along with either Jones or Tukka Rask to move up but did not.
Trading Lucic no big deal as he's on the decline. But trading Hamilton a #1 defenseman for many years to come for basically nothing is just pathetic and I will enjoy them being a bottom feeder for quite some time. They fired Chiarelli and should fired Sweeney as well along with President Cam Neely. They want to be a physical and tough team and I say fine, we'll just circle around you like we did 10 years ago after the lockout. I love how teams bring in former players to run their teams into the ground. I'll write more about that in the coming days.
Buffalo is a team on the rise and I for one can't wait for this season to start. Next year's draft will be held here in Buffalo even though more than likely next year's draft won't be as important as they should be on the way towards winning. Let's go Buffalo!!
Eichel is considered to be one of the best prospects in the last what 15-20 years? Since then Eichel has been considered the number one pick in every draft in that time except the Alex Ovechkin, Sidney Crosby, and of course the Connor McDavid years. Ovechkin and Crosby helped turn their teams around from miserable failures to success and McDavid should do the same with Edmonton. I've heard Eichel compared to fellow American Mike Modano (1988 #1 overall pick) and current stars Steven Stamkos and Jeff Carter.
As of that wasn't enough, they traded for a goalie early in the day (http://buffalosportsbeat.blogspot.com/2015/06/sabres-acquire-goalie-robin-lehner-and.html) and right after selecting Eichel, the Sabres announced they traded for Ryan O'Reilly. They traded Nikita Zadorov, Mikhail Grigorenko, JT Compher, and the 31st pick in this year's draft for O'Reilly and forward Jamie McGinn. O'Reilly gives them a legitimate number two center behind Eichel and gives the Sabres one of the best center depth in the NHL with Zemgus Girgensons and Sam Reinhart also on the roster.
Now O'Reilly has one year left on his deal that carries a $6 million cap hit which the Avalanche matched an offer sheet signed two years ago by the Calgary Flames and that basically ruined the relationship between the Avs and O'Reilly. We have to sign O'Reilly and it appears he wants a deal in the $8 million range which might be steep but also kind of worth it given his offensive production and amazing two-way, possession game. He's the complete opposite of Cody Hodgson as a two-way player. Murray said they are preparing to offer him a big contract or else why did they trade so much for him?
Murray got a lot of flack for making this deal especially trading Zadorov. Zadorov can be a very good defenseman and showed flashes of brilliance last season. But he also really struggled at times and got benched and suspended and had an attitude of entitlement. That doesn't mean he should be gone yet he became expendable to make a big trade. Like I wrote the other day (http://buffalosportsbeat.blogspot.com/2015/06/i-would-trade-reinhart-for-oreilly-i.html), you have to be prepared to trade someone you might not want or be comfortable trading to improve your team and Zadorov (and maybe some who still had hope for Grigorenko) were the ones to go. Rasmus Ristolainen and Eichel are the only "untouchables" on this roster. We can fill another spot in free agency and one guy I'm very interested in is former Sabre Andrej Seker, who is a UFA. We don't have a guy on the defense for the power play and he's always been good at that and point producing even though a lot of people didn't like him here. I liked Sekera.
No surprise obviously McDavid went first overall with the Oilers. Arizona was not able to trade it's third overall pick (http://buffalosportsbeat.blogspot.com/2015/06/coyotes-looking-to-trade-pick-3-bruins.html) and instead took McDavid's Erie Otters' teammate Dylan Strome. Had the Sabres not picked in the top-2 for McDavid or Eichel, Strome would have been my top pick at number three. Toronto and Mike Babcock select center Mitch Marner, who finished a close second behind Strome for the OHL scoring title this past season which McDavid would have easily won had he not gotten hurt for six weeks of the season.
Carolina took Boston College defenseman Noah Hanifan and Carolina looks to get better on the blue line and they're a team I could see on the rise. Hanifan would make an excellent addition and partner for fellow defenseman Justin Faulk, who had a breakout season and franchise record-breaking season for most points by a defenseman. If they keep both Staals and maybe Jeff Skinner or get a great trade for him (http://buffalosportsbeat.blogspot.com/2015/06/jeff-skinner-might-be-available-id-go.html) they'll be on the rise no doubt. They're penalty kill (which dramatically) and possession numbers are both very great as first year head coach Bill Peters has done a great job and they finished the second half of the season really strong. They get a good goalie, they're a playoff team.
The team who hosted the draft, the Florida Panthers, took Lawson Crouse 11th overall. Crouse was talked as a possible top-5 pick as he was 5th in the final NHL Central Scouting rankings because of his size and scoring ability plus his play in the World Juniors this past season for Team Canada. He did not score a lot in juniors which is a red flag in my opinion as he was nowhere even close to the scoring leaders, but he did jump up significantly this past season from the season before as he went from 27 to 51 points. However, he still ranked 63rd in the OHL scoring race. 63rd!!! He just averaged under a point a game in a league where the best scorers averaged 2 points a game (or in McDavid's case close to 3 points a game). He has high bust potential but could be the next Milan Lucic or Todd Bertuzzi if it pans out, maybe even better. We shall see.
Ottawa took young American center prospect Colin White, who is considered one of the better prospects in this deep draft, 21st overall with the Sabres pick. White is considered to play for Boston College this upcoming season but who knows. The one and only goalie taken in the first round one pick after as the Washington Capitals took Ilya Samsonov 22nd overall as he was expected to go late in round one and if the Sabres still had pick 21, they'd probably take him.
One last thing is that the Boston Bruins continue to make mind numbing decision after decision. It didn't matter that Peter Chiarelli was fired for making mind numbing trades like Phil Kessel for two first round picks what turned out to be Tyler Seguin and Dougie Hamilton then trading Seguin for garbage and put them in the place they're currently in. I didn't even mention Joe Thornton going for practically nothing before Chiarelli was GM but they get credit because they won the Cup. Yes they did get lucky trading Kessel, who even though he produces points, he doesn't always show up and puts in terrible efforts night in night out and is awful defensively. Seguin and Hamilton should have taken your team to the Cup for many years to come. I don't know what's in the water in Boston but whoever the GM is, makes dumb decisions enough said.
Reports were they were interested in trading top defenseman Dougie Hamilton to the Coyotes for the third pick in the draft to take Hanifan but instead, they trade him to Calgary for the 15th overall pick?!?! Huh? Don Sweeney is doing a great job let me tell you (smh). They also traded Milan Lucic to Los Angeles for the 13th overall pick and restricted free agent goalie Martin Jones combine the two picks with their own, they had the 13th, 14th, and 15th overall picks in the draft. Many thought they'd trade all 3 or 2 of the 3 along with either Jones or Tukka Rask to move up but did not.
Trading Lucic no big deal as he's on the decline. But trading Hamilton a #1 defenseman for many years to come for basically nothing is just pathetic and I will enjoy them being a bottom feeder for quite some time. They fired Chiarelli and should fired Sweeney as well along with President Cam Neely. They want to be a physical and tough team and I say fine, we'll just circle around you like we did 10 years ago after the lockout. I love how teams bring in former players to run their teams into the ground. I'll write more about that in the coming days.
Buffalo is a team on the rise and I for one can't wait for this season to start. Next year's draft will be held here in Buffalo even though more than likely next year's draft won't be as important as they should be on the way towards winning. Let's go Buffalo!!
Thursday, May 28, 2015
Dan Bylsma New Head Coach of the Buffalo Sabres!!! Yea he's Got Only One Cup Who Cares!? He has More than the Sabres and As Many as Babcock
It's been over a week since Mike Babcock spurned the Buffalo Sabres to take the Toronto Maple Leafs job. But it's no worry as the Sabres have officially hired Dan Bylsma as their next head coach. This continues to show that the Sabres are on the up-and-up considering they will be drafting Jack Eichel next month.
They finished second in the race for the best head coach but they also finished first in the race for the second best head coach available and it's not like it's a slam dunk that Babcock is that much better. He chose Toronto fine I get that. Good luck with that. But Dan Bylsma will be here to work with Eichel and the best group of prospects in the NHL. Bylsma works with USA Hockey and he'll have what should be the best player America has to offer in another couple of more years. I love the USA Hockey connection. It's not the reason I want him here because I think he's a good coach but the USA connection just makes it all the more sweeter.
People only think Bylsma won because he had Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin. He's never had less than 101 points in an entire 82-game season. He had 72 points in the 48-game lockout-shortened season which projects to 123 points over a full 82-game schedule. Even when Bylsma first took over in Pittsburgh, he coached only 25 games but went an impressive 18-4-3 and 40 points and that projects to a whopping 131 over 82 games. Bylsma never finished lower than second in the division and the Penguins were never lower than 4th in the Eastern Conference.
As for Bylsma only won because he had Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin, he had two 100-point seasons despite Crosby missing a total of 101 games over two seasons between 2010-11 to 2011-12 because of concussions and other injuries. The 2010-11 season saw Crosby and Malkin missing the entire second half of the season (and playoffs) due to injuries and their other top center Jordan Staal was out for the first half of the season. The result, the Penguins had 106 points without their two best players. Travis Yost of TSN broke down how good Bylsma and the Penguins were in scoring and puck possession without Crosby and Malkin (http://www.tsn.ca/bylsma-can-stand-on-his-track-record-1.293813).
Thanks to GM Ray Shero, Bylsma wasn't able to build on his Stanley Cup success as he didn't really get a lot more better pieces in addition to Crosby and Malkin. The bottom six forwards were one of the worst in the league. The defense, outside of Kris Letang (who I'm a huge fan of), have been brutal. They're prospects were lousy and Shero traded a lot of draft picks and prospects to trade for rent-a-players at the trade deadline because they were contending for the cup and those players usually left in free agency, leaving the pens with not much to work with.
To be fair, the Penguins would be drafting at the bottom of round 1 because of their regular season success and generally weren't in very good position to draft a star. In 2008, the Pens did not even have a draft pick until the 4th round because of all the deadline deals to try and win the Cup. But a GM's job is still get good decent players and find them anywhere in the draft. Even the draft picks and prospects they've picked have been brutal. Shero's best forward since his first draft of Jordan Staal was none other than Beau Bennett (look up his numbers I dare you). Shero never gave Bylsma a good goalie whatsoever (more on the goaltending point later). Even his signings and re-signings (Brooks Orpik) have been failures.
Cap casualties include both Staal and James Neal. Bylsma has gotten the most out of Neal (who had 40 goals, 81 points one year) and Neal has not matched his production outside of his time playing for Bylsma. He never had less than 21 goals and was a point a game player in each of his full seasons under Bylsma, even though he is a total douche and dirty rotten scummy player. He scored goals, but his overall point totals never came close to when he played in Pittsburgh (although I think Crosby and Malkin had a lot to do with that).
Chris Kunitz has had his best years under Bylsma and struggled this year under Mike Johnston. The Penguins struggled as a whole this year under Johnston, barely making the playoffs on the last day of the season. Heck, Bylsma even got offensive production (including 19 goals one year) out of the scum of the earth Matt Cooke (Neal is close to Cooke for scum of the earth as well).
The goaltending has been a nightmare for the Pens and Bylsma. Marc-Andre Fleury was brutal, absolutely abysmal since they won the Cup in 2009 and he wasn't even great then as his save % was only .908 (which is Dominik Hasek numbers compared to other years) but he played well at times and made big saves, including the finals. Since Bylsma's first year, Fleury's save % in the playoffs were: .891, .899, .834 (a 5-year-old could do better than that), .883, and .915 (which isn't even that good). Fleury never had a save % of at least .920 in any of Bylsma's regular seasons as head coach.
I don't care what coach you are or have the greatest player of this generation, no one can win in the playoffs with those dreadful goaltending performances. I know many think that Bylsma should have pulled Fleury many times but there are two problems with that thinking. 1.) Crosby apparently was close with Fleury and demanded that Fleury play so Bylsma probably did not want to tick off the star player. 2.) For several years, the backup to Fleury was Brent Johnson, who was awful as his .904 career save % indicates. He was .901 in three years in Pittsburgh, including .883 his last year there. No matter how awful Fleury was, Johnson was a lot worse if you can believe that. Bylsma had no other choice.
Shero did not provide adequate goaltending at all for the Penguins. Finally they brought in Tomas Vokoun in 2013 and they replaced Fleury with Vokoun after Fleury was awful in the first round against the New York Islanders. Vokoun then led the Penguins to the Eastern Conference Finals, where they were swept by the Boston Bruins. Vokoun eventually retired due to blood clots and the job was given back to Fleury, who signed an extension this past year. It's great when teams and people don't learn from their mistakes. Give the Sabres anything better than Fleury and they're a good team.
Bylsma has as many Cups as Mike Babcock and his win% in both regular season and playoffs are nearly identical. Babcock has only one Stanley Cup and he's coached at least three Hall of Famers. I know many think the Penguins underachieved in the playoffs under Bylsma with Crosby and Malkin and their fantastic regular season records. I agree with that to an extent as they did lose to lower seeds in the first or second rounds. But a lot of great teams and coaches lose early to a lower seed every now and then.
Babcock was eliminated in the first round in his first season in Detroit in the 2005-06 playoffs. They won the President's Trophy with the best record in the league and were eliminated by the 8th seeded Edmonton Oilers in the first round and yet you never hear of anyone saying he or his team underachieved. No one ever mentions that. Babcock went to the finals three times to just one by Byslma, but he's also coached at least five years longer in the NHL as well.
The Pens did lose in the first or second round four times to lower-seeded teams, but three of those were the fifth seed so they weren't so much worse than the Penguins. The only really bad lose was in 2010 when they lost to the 8th-seeded Montreal Canadiens in seven games. They blew a 3-1 series lead to the Tampa Bay Lightning in the first round in 2011. They lost in six games to the Philadelphia Flyers in 2012 in a series where the Pens looked awful taking a ton of dumb and dirty penalties and Fleury played the worst I ever saw a goalie play (and that even included Iyla Bryzgalov on the other side) with his .834 save %.
As for losing to lower seeds, when you don't win the Cup, which only one team can, you lose in the playoffs. And when you are a top seed and you lose in the playoffs, you generally lose to a lower-seeded team that's how it works. When you are a top seed and have 100 point seasons and have two of the best players in the league, expectations are really high. I commend the Penguins for having high aspirations and goals of winning championships and anything else isn't acceptable.
However, I do like realistic goals and when you're goalie plays like he shouldn't even be in a pee wee league you won't win much. It's hard to win the Cup and win in the playoffs. It's really hard. It's hard just to win a playoff series where you need to win four times where luck and bounces can go for or against you. Also, you can run into a hot goalie that can beat you anytime. I'm not making excuses for Bylsma at all, I am just stating the facts.
Then in 2014, the Pens blew a 3-1 series lead to the New York Rangers in the second round as the Rangers went to the finals and lost to Los Angeles. I get the underachieving point and even their first round wins over the Islanders and Columbus Blue Jackets in 2013 and 2014 looked bad. They should have lost to either team if their respective goaltending wasn't awful. Like I said however, only two teams won two Cups since 2002 as it's hard to win the Cup and even harder in this salary cap era where parity rules.
Bruce Boudreau was fired in Washington for nearly the same thing as Bylsma, but Boudreau did not even get out of the second round while losing game 7 each year on home ice in either the first or second round to a lower seeded team. He had talented players and won the division every year in Washington and were a top-3 seed every year but could not for whatever reason win in the playoffs. It was similar in Pittsburgh with a weak defense and goalie and a weaker bottom-six forward group. A good team hired him as Anaheim quickly picked him up after he was fired after they fired a goof in Randy Carlyle. Boudreau has won the division every year he's been in Anaheim and they are one game away from going to the finals.
See, really good coaches get fired and Boudreau is very good. I am a fan of him and his unorthodox methods and personality. Bylsma is a complete 180 from Boudreau but still very good in his own right. Joel Quenneville and Alain Vigneault, the other two coaches in the conference finals, were both fired twice each by their teams before having success with the Blackhawks and Rangers. Good to great coaches get fired and land on their feet in better organizations. Lindy Ruff was even fired here after 16 years and seems to be in a better situation in Dallas.
I like how Bylsma wants his team to carry the puck out of his own end as quick as possible as that's the game nowadays. He's very good with analytics and puck possession. Dan Bylsma's hiring is just another reason to get excited about the Buffalo Sabres in 2015-16 and beyond of course there's some Eichel-guy playing here next year to get your hopes up a little bit. Take the Bills hiring Rex Ryan in addition to Bylsma and things are looking great for our Buffalo sports teams. Once again, we must thank Terry and Kim Pegula for all things being possible.
They finished second in the race for the best head coach but they also finished first in the race for the second best head coach available and it's not like it's a slam dunk that Babcock is that much better. He chose Toronto fine I get that. Good luck with that. But Dan Bylsma will be here to work with Eichel and the best group of prospects in the NHL. Bylsma works with USA Hockey and he'll have what should be the best player America has to offer in another couple of more years. I love the USA Hockey connection. It's not the reason I want him here because I think he's a good coach but the USA connection just makes it all the more sweeter.
People only think Bylsma won because he had Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin. He's never had less than 101 points in an entire 82-game season. He had 72 points in the 48-game lockout-shortened season which projects to 123 points over a full 82-game schedule. Even when Bylsma first took over in Pittsburgh, he coached only 25 games but went an impressive 18-4-3 and 40 points and that projects to a whopping 131 over 82 games. Bylsma never finished lower than second in the division and the Penguins were never lower than 4th in the Eastern Conference.
As for Bylsma only won because he had Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin, he had two 100-point seasons despite Crosby missing a total of 101 games over two seasons between 2010-11 to 2011-12 because of concussions and other injuries. The 2010-11 season saw Crosby and Malkin missing the entire second half of the season (and playoffs) due to injuries and their other top center Jordan Staal was out for the first half of the season. The result, the Penguins had 106 points without their two best players. Travis Yost of TSN broke down how good Bylsma and the Penguins were in scoring and puck possession without Crosby and Malkin (http://www.tsn.ca/bylsma-can-stand-on-his-track-record-1.293813).
Thanks to GM Ray Shero, Bylsma wasn't able to build on his Stanley Cup success as he didn't really get a lot more better pieces in addition to Crosby and Malkin. The bottom six forwards were one of the worst in the league. The defense, outside of Kris Letang (who I'm a huge fan of), have been brutal. They're prospects were lousy and Shero traded a lot of draft picks and prospects to trade for rent-a-players at the trade deadline because they were contending for the cup and those players usually left in free agency, leaving the pens with not much to work with.
To be fair, the Penguins would be drafting at the bottom of round 1 because of their regular season success and generally weren't in very good position to draft a star. In 2008, the Pens did not even have a draft pick until the 4th round because of all the deadline deals to try and win the Cup. But a GM's job is still get good decent players and find them anywhere in the draft. Even the draft picks and prospects they've picked have been brutal. Shero's best forward since his first draft of Jordan Staal was none other than Beau Bennett (look up his numbers I dare you). Shero never gave Bylsma a good goalie whatsoever (more on the goaltending point later). Even his signings and re-signings (Brooks Orpik) have been failures.
Cap casualties include both Staal and James Neal. Bylsma has gotten the most out of Neal (who had 40 goals, 81 points one year) and Neal has not matched his production outside of his time playing for Bylsma. He never had less than 21 goals and was a point a game player in each of his full seasons under Bylsma, even though he is a total douche and dirty rotten scummy player. He scored goals, but his overall point totals never came close to when he played in Pittsburgh (although I think Crosby and Malkin had a lot to do with that).
Chris Kunitz has had his best years under Bylsma and struggled this year under Mike Johnston. The Penguins struggled as a whole this year under Johnston, barely making the playoffs on the last day of the season. Heck, Bylsma even got offensive production (including 19 goals one year) out of the scum of the earth Matt Cooke (Neal is close to Cooke for scum of the earth as well).
The goaltending has been a nightmare for the Pens and Bylsma. Marc-Andre Fleury was brutal, absolutely abysmal since they won the Cup in 2009 and he wasn't even great then as his save % was only .908 (which is Dominik Hasek numbers compared to other years) but he played well at times and made big saves, including the finals. Since Bylsma's first year, Fleury's save % in the playoffs were: .891, .899, .834 (a 5-year-old could do better than that), .883, and .915 (which isn't even that good). Fleury never had a save % of at least .920 in any of Bylsma's regular seasons as head coach.
I don't care what coach you are or have the greatest player of this generation, no one can win in the playoffs with those dreadful goaltending performances. I know many think that Bylsma should have pulled Fleury many times but there are two problems with that thinking. 1.) Crosby apparently was close with Fleury and demanded that Fleury play so Bylsma probably did not want to tick off the star player. 2.) For several years, the backup to Fleury was Brent Johnson, who was awful as his .904 career save % indicates. He was .901 in three years in Pittsburgh, including .883 his last year there. No matter how awful Fleury was, Johnson was a lot worse if you can believe that. Bylsma had no other choice.
Shero did not provide adequate goaltending at all for the Penguins. Finally they brought in Tomas Vokoun in 2013 and they replaced Fleury with Vokoun after Fleury was awful in the first round against the New York Islanders. Vokoun then led the Penguins to the Eastern Conference Finals, where they were swept by the Boston Bruins. Vokoun eventually retired due to blood clots and the job was given back to Fleury, who signed an extension this past year. It's great when teams and people don't learn from their mistakes. Give the Sabres anything better than Fleury and they're a good team.
Bylsma has as many Cups as Mike Babcock and his win% in both regular season and playoffs are nearly identical. Babcock has only one Stanley Cup and he's coached at least three Hall of Famers. I know many think the Penguins underachieved in the playoffs under Bylsma with Crosby and Malkin and their fantastic regular season records. I agree with that to an extent as they did lose to lower seeds in the first or second rounds. But a lot of great teams and coaches lose early to a lower seed every now and then.
Babcock was eliminated in the first round in his first season in Detroit in the 2005-06 playoffs. They won the President's Trophy with the best record in the league and were eliminated by the 8th seeded Edmonton Oilers in the first round and yet you never hear of anyone saying he or his team underachieved. No one ever mentions that. Babcock went to the finals three times to just one by Byslma, but he's also coached at least five years longer in the NHL as well.
The Pens did lose in the first or second round four times to lower-seeded teams, but three of those were the fifth seed so they weren't so much worse than the Penguins. The only really bad lose was in 2010 when they lost to the 8th-seeded Montreal Canadiens in seven games. They blew a 3-1 series lead to the Tampa Bay Lightning in the first round in 2011. They lost in six games to the Philadelphia Flyers in 2012 in a series where the Pens looked awful taking a ton of dumb and dirty penalties and Fleury played the worst I ever saw a goalie play (and that even included Iyla Bryzgalov on the other side) with his .834 save %.
As for losing to lower seeds, when you don't win the Cup, which only one team can, you lose in the playoffs. And when you are a top seed and you lose in the playoffs, you generally lose to a lower-seeded team that's how it works. When you are a top seed and have 100 point seasons and have two of the best players in the league, expectations are really high. I commend the Penguins for having high aspirations and goals of winning championships and anything else isn't acceptable.
However, I do like realistic goals and when you're goalie plays like he shouldn't even be in a pee wee league you won't win much. It's hard to win the Cup and win in the playoffs. It's really hard. It's hard just to win a playoff series where you need to win four times where luck and bounces can go for or against you. Also, you can run into a hot goalie that can beat you anytime. I'm not making excuses for Bylsma at all, I am just stating the facts.
Then in 2014, the Pens blew a 3-1 series lead to the New York Rangers in the second round as the Rangers went to the finals and lost to Los Angeles. I get the underachieving point and even their first round wins over the Islanders and Columbus Blue Jackets in 2013 and 2014 looked bad. They should have lost to either team if their respective goaltending wasn't awful. Like I said however, only two teams won two Cups since 2002 as it's hard to win the Cup and even harder in this salary cap era where parity rules.
Bruce Boudreau was fired in Washington for nearly the same thing as Bylsma, but Boudreau did not even get out of the second round while losing game 7 each year on home ice in either the first or second round to a lower seeded team. He had talented players and won the division every year in Washington and were a top-3 seed every year but could not for whatever reason win in the playoffs. It was similar in Pittsburgh with a weak defense and goalie and a weaker bottom-six forward group. A good team hired him as Anaheim quickly picked him up after he was fired after they fired a goof in Randy Carlyle. Boudreau has won the division every year he's been in Anaheim and they are one game away from going to the finals.
See, really good coaches get fired and Boudreau is very good. I am a fan of him and his unorthodox methods and personality. Bylsma is a complete 180 from Boudreau but still very good in his own right. Joel Quenneville and Alain Vigneault, the other two coaches in the conference finals, were both fired twice each by their teams before having success with the Blackhawks and Rangers. Good to great coaches get fired and land on their feet in better organizations. Lindy Ruff was even fired here after 16 years and seems to be in a better situation in Dallas.
I like how Bylsma wants his team to carry the puck out of his own end as quick as possible as that's the game nowadays. He's very good with analytics and puck possession. Dan Bylsma's hiring is just another reason to get excited about the Buffalo Sabres in 2015-16 and beyond of course there's some Eichel-guy playing here next year to get your hopes up a little bit. Take the Bills hiring Rex Ryan in addition to Bylsma and things are looking great for our Buffalo sports teams. Once again, we must thank Terry and Kim Pegula for all things being possible.
Buffalo Sabres Met with Dan Bylsma Last Night and Are Meeting With Him Again Shortly
It appears that the Buffalo Sabres are about to hire former Pittsburgh Penguins head coach Dan Bylsma as their head coach. The Sabres met with him last night and are in the process of meeting with him again. We are waiting for him to officially be hired by the Sabres. What's the hold up? The hold up is this stupid, idiotic rule that the NHL has in place which shows how the NHL is a dumb league sometimes, more like a lot of the time.
That rule is that the Sabres (or any team) would have to give up a 3rd round pick if they want to hire him. The stupid thing is that Bylsma was fired last year by the Penguins so he should be able to sign with anyone. Who has to negotiate with the team that fired a head coach? You don't need to give up compensation to sign an unrestricted free agent. This rule was designed to protect teams from allowing their AHL head coaches or top notch assistant coaches to up and leave for nothing. That I like a lot.
But there's this stupid loophole to allow a team to receive compensation despite having a head coach being fired. That's just stupid and again, the NHL looks like a joke. As long as Gary Bettman is in charge, these stupid things will continue to happen. He's a joke of a commissioner and he makes this a joke of a sports league. As for Pittsburgh, why not get your compensation you are entitled to? The Sabres are reportedly working with Pittsburgh negotiating terms of compensation.
I have zero problem with this hiring. Yeah I wanted Mike Babcock, but he wanted to go to Toronto and in this case, there is no shame in finishing a close second in the race for the best head coach. But Bylsma is no consolation prize in my opinion. If Babcock is the best, then Bylsma is a very close second. It's like trying to get Connor McDavid, but Jack Eichel is a very close second. The Sabres job is much more appealing and attractive now that we will have Eichel. Even without Eichel, the Sabres have the best group of prospects in the NHL. But Eichel makes it that much sweeter. Evander Kane makes it more appealing as well.
For those who constantly criticize or whine about how Bylsma only won one Stanley Cup with stars Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin and how usually the Penguins underachieved in the playoffs losing in the 1st or 2nd round depsite having 100 point seasons, I will set the record straight. He did not have much else besides Crosby and Malkin. There were times where Crosby and/or Malkin were hurt and missed a bunch of a season. Regardless, Bylsma never had less than 101 points in an entire 82-game season and never finished lower than second in the division. In the lockout-shortened 48-game season, Bylsma still had 72 points which turns out to be a whopping 123 over an 82-game season.
Besides not getting anyone else besides Crosby and Malkin (Kris Letang is a very good defenseman and James Neal and Jordan Staal were also good) as well as having a very poor pool of prospects (which the Sabres don't have), the goaltending has been abysmal. Marc-Andre Fleury has had sub-.900 save percentages almost every playoff season under Byslma except one: the year they won the Cup in 09. I don't care who you are, you can't win in the playoffs with goalies with save percentages in the .800s. These are faults of the GM Ray Shero more than Bylsma. Bylsma won despite all this.
How come Babcock is considered the best coach in hockey while he only won one cup with at least 3 future hall of famers while Bylsma gets blasted for winning only one Cup with two future hall of famers? Babcock's regular season win % is .627 which is very good. Meanwhile, Bylsma's reg. season win % is an astounding .668. Babcock's postseason win % is .569 while Bylsma's is .551. So there's really not that much of a difference between the two except Babcock has been to two more Stanley Cup finals. By the way, Bylsma beat Babcock to win the Cup.
Did I mention Bylsma won the Cup his first year in the NHL? Because that's pretty important. In fact, he took over from Michel Therrien with 25 games left after the players tuned out Therrien one year after losing in the finals. Bylsma led the Pens to 40 points in those last 25 games and led them to winning the Cup. As for Bylsma winning only that one Cup, two things. 1.) how many Cups do the Sabres have (for now)? 2.) Only two teams since 2002 have won multiple Stanley Cups (Chicago and Los Angeles).
Point being, it's so hard to win the Stanley Cup and the days of winning 4-5 Cups in a decade or so are over with the salary cap era in place. Outside of Joel Quenneville and Darryl Sutter, no other coaches in the NHL right now (not even Babcock) have won more than one Stanley Cup. Quenneville and Sutter were fired at least once in their coaching careers as well so the whole Bylsma was fired thing is a joke.
The other things I love about this hire are that Bylsma coached the U.S. Olympic Hockey team and is a great puck possession coach who understands the way the game is played now. His teams were always very good in puck possession and Corsi for. He states that it's better for a player to carry the puck in through the neutral zone and into the opponent's end of the ice vs. dump and chase. I love that so much and it seems like he's not afraid to adapt to the current style of hockey of puck possession and advanced stats.
I believe it's a matter of time before Dan Bylsma will be the head coach of the Buffalo Sabres and I don't even feel like it's a consolation prize over Babcock.
That rule is that the Sabres (or any team) would have to give up a 3rd round pick if they want to hire him. The stupid thing is that Bylsma was fired last year by the Penguins so he should be able to sign with anyone. Who has to negotiate with the team that fired a head coach? You don't need to give up compensation to sign an unrestricted free agent. This rule was designed to protect teams from allowing their AHL head coaches or top notch assistant coaches to up and leave for nothing. That I like a lot.
But there's this stupid loophole to allow a team to receive compensation despite having a head coach being fired. That's just stupid and again, the NHL looks like a joke. As long as Gary Bettman is in charge, these stupid things will continue to happen. He's a joke of a commissioner and he makes this a joke of a sports league. As for Pittsburgh, why not get your compensation you are entitled to? The Sabres are reportedly working with Pittsburgh negotiating terms of compensation.
I have zero problem with this hiring. Yeah I wanted Mike Babcock, but he wanted to go to Toronto and in this case, there is no shame in finishing a close second in the race for the best head coach. But Bylsma is no consolation prize in my opinion. If Babcock is the best, then Bylsma is a very close second. It's like trying to get Connor McDavid, but Jack Eichel is a very close second. The Sabres job is much more appealing and attractive now that we will have Eichel. Even without Eichel, the Sabres have the best group of prospects in the NHL. But Eichel makes it that much sweeter. Evander Kane makes it more appealing as well.
For those who constantly criticize or whine about how Bylsma only won one Stanley Cup with stars Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin and how usually the Penguins underachieved in the playoffs losing in the 1st or 2nd round depsite having 100 point seasons, I will set the record straight. He did not have much else besides Crosby and Malkin. There were times where Crosby and/or Malkin were hurt and missed a bunch of a season. Regardless, Bylsma never had less than 101 points in an entire 82-game season and never finished lower than second in the division. In the lockout-shortened 48-game season, Bylsma still had 72 points which turns out to be a whopping 123 over an 82-game season.
Besides not getting anyone else besides Crosby and Malkin (Kris Letang is a very good defenseman and James Neal and Jordan Staal were also good) as well as having a very poor pool of prospects (which the Sabres don't have), the goaltending has been abysmal. Marc-Andre Fleury has had sub-.900 save percentages almost every playoff season under Byslma except one: the year they won the Cup in 09. I don't care who you are, you can't win in the playoffs with goalies with save percentages in the .800s. These are faults of the GM Ray Shero more than Bylsma. Bylsma won despite all this.
How come Babcock is considered the best coach in hockey while he only won one cup with at least 3 future hall of famers while Bylsma gets blasted for winning only one Cup with two future hall of famers? Babcock's regular season win % is .627 which is very good. Meanwhile, Bylsma's reg. season win % is an astounding .668. Babcock's postseason win % is .569 while Bylsma's is .551. So there's really not that much of a difference between the two except Babcock has been to two more Stanley Cup finals. By the way, Bylsma beat Babcock to win the Cup.
Did I mention Bylsma won the Cup his first year in the NHL? Because that's pretty important. In fact, he took over from Michel Therrien with 25 games left after the players tuned out Therrien one year after losing in the finals. Bylsma led the Pens to 40 points in those last 25 games and led them to winning the Cup. As for Bylsma winning only that one Cup, two things. 1.) how many Cups do the Sabres have (for now)? 2.) Only two teams since 2002 have won multiple Stanley Cups (Chicago and Los Angeles).
Point being, it's so hard to win the Stanley Cup and the days of winning 4-5 Cups in a decade or so are over with the salary cap era in place. Outside of Joel Quenneville and Darryl Sutter, no other coaches in the NHL right now (not even Babcock) have won more than one Stanley Cup. Quenneville and Sutter were fired at least once in their coaching careers as well so the whole Bylsma was fired thing is a joke.
The other things I love about this hire are that Bylsma coached the U.S. Olympic Hockey team and is a great puck possession coach who understands the way the game is played now. His teams were always very good in puck possession and Corsi for. He states that it's better for a player to carry the puck in through the neutral zone and into the opponent's end of the ice vs. dump and chase. I love that so much and it seems like he's not afraid to adapt to the current style of hockey of puck possession and advanced stats.
I believe it's a matter of time before Dan Bylsma will be the head coach of the Buffalo Sabres and I don't even feel like it's a consolation prize over Babcock.
Wednesday, April 4, 2012
Sabres-Leafs Post Game Reactions
What a game last night as the Sabres overcame a 3-0 1st period deficit to defeat the Toronto Maple Leafs 6-5 in overtime to keep their playoff hopes alive. There were so many emotions running through my head like "these guys are bums," "they are ready to go golfing," "way to not show up," to "holy cow they are going to win" and "they are going to make the playoffs." Yea it was a very bi-polar game, but those are the most exciting games when you are disappointed and then you are super excited because you won. It's only good when you pull out a win. I was thinking "I did not want to be eliminated from the playoffs by the Maple Leafs and Ben Scrivens because they are terrible." I figured once the Sabres tied it up, they were going to win and I think they will make the playoffs.
The star of the game was without a doubt Marcus Foligno. He was all over the ice hitting players, finishing his checks, and even getting into a fight. He and fellow rookie Brayden McNabb were the only Sabres doing anything in the 1st period of a must-win game. The veterans were doing nothing while these two youngsters were setting the tone. Foligno's play of the game, which was the play of the game, came when they were trailing 5-4 with less than two minutes to go. He and Mike Komisarek were jawing at each other on the faceoff which led to Komisarek taking him down and punching him while Foligno was done and Foligno just took the punishment while there was a gigantic scrum in front of the net for the loose puck. Every Sabres on the ice minus Foligno and Miller were in front of the net poking and prodding until Jordan Leopold banged it home to tie the game up. Credit to the officials who were able to see the puck still in play. Generally those plays are blown dead once they lose control of where the puck is. Leaf fans were probably pissed and so would we if it happened to us, but it was the right call. Foligno created that goal by getting in Komisarek's head with the jawing and the play behind the net which led to Komisarek losing his control and focus and eventually the game. There's never been a time I can remember when someone who didn't score a goal, had more to do with it than the person who scored like what happened last night.
Foligno's hitting and physical play has been awesome, but his physical play creates chances and goals and he scores goals. Hopefully he can our Milan Lucic or even his father Mike, who was one of the most popular Sabres ever with his scoring and physical play. If Marcus keeps this up, he will join the ranks of his father in terms of popularity in Sabres history. The not being physical or tough enough point is a bit overrated because when the Sabres win because of their offense, no body mentions physical play. When they lose, it's easy to say "they're not physical or tough enough and they lack effort." I know, I'm guilty of that to at times, I'm calling myself out here. But reality sets in and I know the truth, they are a scoring team that can be physical, but they are trying to score first and foremost. Their record this season when they score 3 or more goals is 31-6-4. Of course last night, the more they scored, the more physical it seemed they were. When our team is scoring and winning, it makes everything look better. They look like they are trying harder and are more physical. They are more fun to watch when they are winning and scoring. Conversely, when they lose and not scoring, it makes them look like they are not physical and not trying. They also look dull and boring. Since being called up no March 10, the Sabres have been 8-2-2 in 12 games with Foligno in the lineup. He's scored 6 goals and 13 points and is a +9 with a shooting percentage of a whopping 30.0. Foligno is also averaging over 15 1/2 minutes of ice time a game. There's no doubt his physical play and scoring have brought such a needed spark to this team. He is what we wanted Zack Kassian to be, a big physical forward who hits, finishes off his checks, fights, and most importantly scores.
Ryan Miller continues to struggle without Tyler Myers or Christian Ehrhoff in the lineup in front of him. He obviously trusts them because they don't get out of position much and have the talent to break up plays before they even start. Most of the other defensemen on this team like Weber and Sekera can't do the things like Myers or Ehrhoff and have to sit back. Miller has to gamble more and overcompensate without them in the lineup and it leads to many more opportunities for the other team to score. Miller is really cool, calm, and collective with Myers and Ehrhoff in the lineup. Myers and Ehrhoff bring the goals allowed by over one full goal per game when they are in the lineup. Miller struggles too, but the other defense, although Regehr and Jordan Leopold do a pretty good job most of the time, is not as good without those two in the lineup. I need Miller to be better without them in the lineup as Ehrhoff will be out for the rest of the regular season and Myers may or may not be back this week. This is the 3rd straight game Miller and the Sabres allowed 4 or more goals a game. I need Miller to be better, but I also need Myers and Ehrhoff to be healthy and hope they can be healthy next year and beyond. One of the many reasons the Sabres as well as Miller turned their season around in the middle of the season was because Myers and Ehrhoff and Myers were back and healthy and playing well. They really control the game on both sides of the ice. We really need one or two more of those guys on this team.
Alex Sulzer had a great game as well as a big mistake that nearly cost them the game. He was beat by former Sabre Clarke MacArthur in the front of the net to make the score 4-2 as he was on the ice for three of the Leafs' 5 goals. But Sulzer more than made up for it by scoring a beautiful goal thru both former Sabre Tim Connolly and Ben Scrivens to make it 3-2. He also set up Tyler Ennis for the Sabres' first goal after being down 3-0. Sulzer did not stop there as he once again picked up a loose puck in front of the net to score his 2nd of the game to make it 5-4. Sulzer came over from Vancouver in the Cody Hodgson deal and it figured he'd be just another body. But he has played much better than expected. He's scored 3 goals and 8 points as well as averaging nearly 20 minutes in ice time and has played better than expected defense.
Now how about the man who scored the game-winner? The unlikely hero of the game: Derek Roy. Roy scored a power play goal to cut the lead to 4-3 in the 3rd. Then after the Sabres tied it and sent it to overtime, Leafs captain Dion Phaneuf was called for a delay of game penalty for clearing the puck over the glass. Roy slipped a loose puck past Scrivens for an improbably 6-5 overtime win to keep their playoff hopes alive. Roy became the unsung hero as many, including myself, dogged him throughout the game especially in the 1st period. Roy has been having his worst season since he was a rookie. His 43 points and 0.55 points per game is his lowest in a full season. He had 35 points last season in 43 fewer games. His -9 and 9.8 shooting % are the worst of his career. Many fans, even myself, wanted him traded at the trade deadline and even this off season. Roy was apparently on the trading block last off season, but either no one wanted him or the deal was not good enough. Roy has definitely been the poster child for the team's lack of success by many of the fans, especially since Connolly left. Last season, the Sabres were 10 points out of a playoff spot going into the 1st of the year and had one of the best records in the league after he was done for the year with a hip injury. Before last night's game, Roy had been pointless in five consecutive games and seven of the previous games. It's been truly a disappointing year but he made up some of it with his performance last night and if they get in, then we can thank Roy. And then trade him LOL.
Last night's game was a microcosm of the season so far. There was great expectations going into the game just like going into the season. Then they go down 3-0, which resembles the way they played from mid-November when Miller was hit by Lucic to late-January when they were in last place in the Eastern Conference. We mostly gave up on them, I know I did. Last night I thought it was over. Then they come back to make it 4-3 and make a run like they did from Jan. 24 to last weekend as they played so much better. Then Toronto scored a goal in which the skater went right through the defense to make it 5-3. That was symbolic of how the Sabres were this past weekend against Pittsburgh and Toronto. Then the Sabres rally to tie it to keep their hopes alive in both the game and playoffs. Sabres win it in overtime to overcome a 3-0 and 5-3 deficit. If this trend continues, then the overtime goal symbolizes the Sabres in the playoffs.
Sabres need to win their last two games against Philadelphia and Boston. They also need either Florida to win tomorrow night against Washington in either regulation or even overtime or shootout, this allows the Sabres to control their own destiny by winning out. The Caps cannot gain more than 3 points or else they're in. Or the Sabres need Florida to not get a single point over the final two games. Of course the Sabres need to win out for this to be a reality. If either one of those scenarios happen, the Sabres are in the playoffs. I will be glued to my TV tomorrow watching the Sabres and keep a close eye on the Washington-Florida game. Here we go again!! Go Sabres!!
The star of the game was without a doubt Marcus Foligno. He was all over the ice hitting players, finishing his checks, and even getting into a fight. He and fellow rookie Brayden McNabb were the only Sabres doing anything in the 1st period of a must-win game. The veterans were doing nothing while these two youngsters were setting the tone. Foligno's play of the game, which was the play of the game, came when they were trailing 5-4 with less than two minutes to go. He and Mike Komisarek were jawing at each other on the faceoff which led to Komisarek taking him down and punching him while Foligno was done and Foligno just took the punishment while there was a gigantic scrum in front of the net for the loose puck. Every Sabres on the ice minus Foligno and Miller were in front of the net poking and prodding until Jordan Leopold banged it home to tie the game up. Credit to the officials who were able to see the puck still in play. Generally those plays are blown dead once they lose control of where the puck is. Leaf fans were probably pissed and so would we if it happened to us, but it was the right call. Foligno created that goal by getting in Komisarek's head with the jawing and the play behind the net which led to Komisarek losing his control and focus and eventually the game. There's never been a time I can remember when someone who didn't score a goal, had more to do with it than the person who scored like what happened last night.
Foligno's hitting and physical play has been awesome, but his physical play creates chances and goals and he scores goals. Hopefully he can our Milan Lucic or even his father Mike, who was one of the most popular Sabres ever with his scoring and physical play. If Marcus keeps this up, he will join the ranks of his father in terms of popularity in Sabres history. The not being physical or tough enough point is a bit overrated because when the Sabres win because of their offense, no body mentions physical play. When they lose, it's easy to say "they're not physical or tough enough and they lack effort." I know, I'm guilty of that to at times, I'm calling myself out here. But reality sets in and I know the truth, they are a scoring team that can be physical, but they are trying to score first and foremost. Their record this season when they score 3 or more goals is 31-6-4. Of course last night, the more they scored, the more physical it seemed they were. When our team is scoring and winning, it makes everything look better. They look like they are trying harder and are more physical. They are more fun to watch when they are winning and scoring. Conversely, when they lose and not scoring, it makes them look like they are not physical and not trying. They also look dull and boring. Since being called up no March 10, the Sabres have been 8-2-2 in 12 games with Foligno in the lineup. He's scored 6 goals and 13 points and is a +9 with a shooting percentage of a whopping 30.0. Foligno is also averaging over 15 1/2 minutes of ice time a game. There's no doubt his physical play and scoring have brought such a needed spark to this team. He is what we wanted Zack Kassian to be, a big physical forward who hits, finishes off his checks, fights, and most importantly scores.
Ryan Miller continues to struggle without Tyler Myers or Christian Ehrhoff in the lineup in front of him. He obviously trusts them because they don't get out of position much and have the talent to break up plays before they even start. Most of the other defensemen on this team like Weber and Sekera can't do the things like Myers or Ehrhoff and have to sit back. Miller has to gamble more and overcompensate without them in the lineup and it leads to many more opportunities for the other team to score. Miller is really cool, calm, and collective with Myers and Ehrhoff in the lineup. Myers and Ehrhoff bring the goals allowed by over one full goal per game when they are in the lineup. Miller struggles too, but the other defense, although Regehr and Jordan Leopold do a pretty good job most of the time, is not as good without those two in the lineup. I need Miller to be better without them in the lineup as Ehrhoff will be out for the rest of the regular season and Myers may or may not be back this week. This is the 3rd straight game Miller and the Sabres allowed 4 or more goals a game. I need Miller to be better, but I also need Myers and Ehrhoff to be healthy and hope they can be healthy next year and beyond. One of the many reasons the Sabres as well as Miller turned their season around in the middle of the season was because Myers and Ehrhoff and Myers were back and healthy and playing well. They really control the game on both sides of the ice. We really need one or two more of those guys on this team.
Alex Sulzer had a great game as well as a big mistake that nearly cost them the game. He was beat by former Sabre Clarke MacArthur in the front of the net to make the score 4-2 as he was on the ice for three of the Leafs' 5 goals. But Sulzer more than made up for it by scoring a beautiful goal thru both former Sabre Tim Connolly and Ben Scrivens to make it 3-2. He also set up Tyler Ennis for the Sabres' first goal after being down 3-0. Sulzer did not stop there as he once again picked up a loose puck in front of the net to score his 2nd of the game to make it 5-4. Sulzer came over from Vancouver in the Cody Hodgson deal and it figured he'd be just another body. But he has played much better than expected. He's scored 3 goals and 8 points as well as averaging nearly 20 minutes in ice time and has played better than expected defense.
Now how about the man who scored the game-winner? The unlikely hero of the game: Derek Roy. Roy scored a power play goal to cut the lead to 4-3 in the 3rd. Then after the Sabres tied it and sent it to overtime, Leafs captain Dion Phaneuf was called for a delay of game penalty for clearing the puck over the glass. Roy slipped a loose puck past Scrivens for an improbably 6-5 overtime win to keep their playoff hopes alive. Roy became the unsung hero as many, including myself, dogged him throughout the game especially in the 1st period. Roy has been having his worst season since he was a rookie. His 43 points and 0.55 points per game is his lowest in a full season. He had 35 points last season in 43 fewer games. His -9 and 9.8 shooting % are the worst of his career. Many fans, even myself, wanted him traded at the trade deadline and even this off season. Roy was apparently on the trading block last off season, but either no one wanted him or the deal was not good enough. Roy has definitely been the poster child for the team's lack of success by many of the fans, especially since Connolly left. Last season, the Sabres were 10 points out of a playoff spot going into the 1st of the year and had one of the best records in the league after he was done for the year with a hip injury. Before last night's game, Roy had been pointless in five consecutive games and seven of the previous games. It's been truly a disappointing year but he made up some of it with his performance last night and if they get in, then we can thank Roy. And then trade him LOL.
Last night's game was a microcosm of the season so far. There was great expectations going into the game just like going into the season. Then they go down 3-0, which resembles the way they played from mid-November when Miller was hit by Lucic to late-January when they were in last place in the Eastern Conference. We mostly gave up on them, I know I did. Last night I thought it was over. Then they come back to make it 4-3 and make a run like they did from Jan. 24 to last weekend as they played so much better. Then Toronto scored a goal in which the skater went right through the defense to make it 5-3. That was symbolic of how the Sabres were this past weekend against Pittsburgh and Toronto. Then the Sabres rally to tie it to keep their hopes alive in both the game and playoffs. Sabres win it in overtime to overcome a 3-0 and 5-3 deficit. If this trend continues, then the overtime goal symbolizes the Sabres in the playoffs.
Sabres need to win their last two games against Philadelphia and Boston. They also need either Florida to win tomorrow night against Washington in either regulation or even overtime or shootout, this allows the Sabres to control their own destiny by winning out. The Caps cannot gain more than 3 points or else they're in. Or the Sabres need Florida to not get a single point over the final two games. Of course the Sabres need to win out for this to be a reality. If either one of those scenarios happen, the Sabres are in the playoffs. I will be glued to my TV tomorrow watching the Sabres and keep a close eye on the Washington-Florida game. Here we go again!! Go Sabres!!
Monday, April 2, 2012
Stick A Fork In Them, They Are Done?
The Buffalo Sabres were on such a high going into Friday night's game against the Pittsburgh Penguins especially after trashing the Washington Capitals, the team they are chasing, on the road 5-1 to pull ahead of the Caps by two points with five games. I thought they were in good shape and looked like they would make the playoffs. I also thought the Caps were going to crash because it looked like they quit in that game. Of course the one downfall from that game was the injury to Christian Ehrhoff. But the high of winning that game was greater than Ehrhoff's injury. Of course I was concerned because Ehrhoff was injured during the season and along with Tyler Myers' injury, Ryan Miller struggled in goal and the Sabres struggled overall. Then coincidentally, both Myers and Ehrhoff were healthy and Miller has been on a tear since January 24, going 19-3-5 heading into Friday night's game. As a result, the Sabres have gone from the bottom of the Eastern Conference to in a playoff spot going into Friday night's game against the Penguins.
I must admit, I felt good Friday even though they had Crosby, Malkin, and Staal but the Penguins lost three of four games going into that game and the Sabres also beat the Penguins two out of three games during the season. Plus it was home for Fan Appreciation Night, plus Fleury was not in goal and Brent Johnson was, whom the Sabres have ripped apart throughout his career including 3 goals in a 6-2 win over the Pens earlier this year. But there was a little concern just because of Malkin and Crosby but again, the Sabres shut out Ovechkin last Tuesday. Malkin and Crosby don't quit like Ovechkin either. So we had our work cut out for us. Malkin got a goal and so did Crosby in the 1st. Malkin's was a good goal and Miller should have made the save, but obviously Crosby should not been left alone. Crosby had a goal and three assists and Malkin got his 48th goal of the season and an assist, further adding to his league-leading point total. James Neal, who's having a fantastic year, netted his 38th goal of the season. Miller was not great allowing 4 goals but was not awful and the blame should not be on him. Not having Ehrhoff and later losing Myers did not help. But the Sabres lost 5-3 in regulation and earning no points. 3 goals scored was not enough. I felt they had plenty of chances on Brent Johnson and should have cashed in on it. They were tied for 8th after Friday night with the Caps after they beat Boston in a shootout Thursday night and were technically out of the playoffs because the Caps own the tie-breaker because of more regulation and overtime wins. I was not too mad about that loss because they were outplayed by Crosby and Malkin and that's what great players tend to do.
Then came Saturday night when the Sabres traveled to the Air Canada Centre in Toronto to take on the struggling Leafs. The loss to Pittsburgh hurt but it's understandable. A loss to Toronto is just unacceptable. The Leafs have completely fallen apart after their good start as they won just five games since February 6th, got their coach fired, and were on an 11-game losing streak at home going into Sat. night's contest, which included a 7-1 beat down courtesy of the Philadelphia Flyers. In that game, Leafs fans were chanting for the Toronto Blue Jays, the same Blue Jays team that hasn't made the playoffs since 1993 and are probably going to finish in 4th place out of 5 teams in the AL East. There was no way the Sabres could lose to the Leafs, was there? The tone was set early in the game when Joey Crabb (I know, who?) got a breakaway after a horrible turnover by Andrej Sekera and beat Miller on a shorthanded goal for a 1-0 lead. It was a tough save to make, but Miller needed to make it especially when the playoffs are on the line. Then down 2-1, John-Michael Liles scored a goal with a second left in the 2nd period to make it 3-1 when everyone crashed the net. The back breaker was when Matt Frattin scored on a 3-on-2 to make it 4-2 as the Leafs held on to beat the Sabres 4-3. It was such a horrible game. The Sabres were never ahead and scored 3 goals on rookie goalie Ben Scrivens (again, who?). To make matters worse, the Caps won Saturday night to take a two-point lead over the Sabres in the playoffs. Offense wasn't the problem for the Sabres as they scored 3 goals in each of the two games. Before this weekend, the Sabres were 30-4-4 when they scored 3 or more goals in a game. But the Sabres couldn't put their chances in the net enough against Toronto and their rookie no-name goalie. Unfortunately, Miller wasn't outplayed but obviously did not steal a game they needed him to. Scoring three or more goals for Miller is usually enough as he will put the game away.
Not this weekend though as he gave up 4 in each game. During his 19-3-5 run, he gave up 4 goals twice. Miller had no help as bad turnovers and poor play in front of him led to chances and goals. Miller obviously missed Ehrhoff and Myers and when both men had been out of the lineup this year, the Sabres struggled as did Miller. With them in the lineup, Miller and the team are worlds better. The Sabres are 30-21-4 with Myers in the lineup and 8-10-6 without him. They are 36-22-8 with Ehrhoff and 2-9-2 without him. So they make a huge impact. Miller had a GAA over 3.00 without them and its under 2.00 with them. So no big surprise there. Injuries matter. But I thought they could still beat a reeling Leafs team without those guys. This was a Leafs team that couldn't win at home and had their fans turn on them. So Myers and Ehrhoff are very valuable no shock there. They are more valuable to Miller. But why can't Miller win or steal a game without one or the other or both? Pittsburgh was a lot to ask for but not against Toronto. I like Miller and I think he's great. But I question his overall value as it appears he doesn't do well without his top-two defensmen in front of him. I don't want him to be traded, all I know is that with great talent in front, he or Enroth or whoever can be great. If not, then they struggle. I question the overall importance of goal tending or giving a guy $6-7 million if he can't win without everyone who matters in the lineup. Obviously I understand you cannot win without your best players in the lineup on a consistent basis. If you put Enroth or whoever in net with Myers and Ehrhoff in front of him, then he could be about as successful as Miller for a fraction of the price. That's for another discussion another day. Of course all I really want is for Myers and Ehrhoff to stay healthy.
Bottom line: the Sabres are two points behind the Caps with three games left and have to finish ahead of the Caps and cannot tie because the Caps own the tie-breaker. If the Caps collect four points in the final three games, the Sabres will be eliminated even if they win their final three games.I guess if Florida loses out they can get knocked out of the playoffs. It can be done, but it doesn't look good at this point. The Caps play the Lightning tonight so go Lightning (I'll be wearing my Steve Stamkos "shir-sey"). If the Caps win tonight and the Sabres lose in regulation tomorrow against the Leafs at home, then the Sabres will be officially eliminated from the playoffs.
I must admit, I felt good Friday even though they had Crosby, Malkin, and Staal but the Penguins lost three of four games going into that game and the Sabres also beat the Penguins two out of three games during the season. Plus it was home for Fan Appreciation Night, plus Fleury was not in goal and Brent Johnson was, whom the Sabres have ripped apart throughout his career including 3 goals in a 6-2 win over the Pens earlier this year. But there was a little concern just because of Malkin and Crosby but again, the Sabres shut out Ovechkin last Tuesday. Malkin and Crosby don't quit like Ovechkin either. So we had our work cut out for us. Malkin got a goal and so did Crosby in the 1st. Malkin's was a good goal and Miller should have made the save, but obviously Crosby should not been left alone. Crosby had a goal and three assists and Malkin got his 48th goal of the season and an assist, further adding to his league-leading point total. James Neal, who's having a fantastic year, netted his 38th goal of the season. Miller was not great allowing 4 goals but was not awful and the blame should not be on him. Not having Ehrhoff and later losing Myers did not help. But the Sabres lost 5-3 in regulation and earning no points. 3 goals scored was not enough. I felt they had plenty of chances on Brent Johnson and should have cashed in on it. They were tied for 8th after Friday night with the Caps after they beat Boston in a shootout Thursday night and were technically out of the playoffs because the Caps own the tie-breaker because of more regulation and overtime wins. I was not too mad about that loss because they were outplayed by Crosby and Malkin and that's what great players tend to do.
Then came Saturday night when the Sabres traveled to the Air Canada Centre in Toronto to take on the struggling Leafs. The loss to Pittsburgh hurt but it's understandable. A loss to Toronto is just unacceptable. The Leafs have completely fallen apart after their good start as they won just five games since February 6th, got their coach fired, and were on an 11-game losing streak at home going into Sat. night's contest, which included a 7-1 beat down courtesy of the Philadelphia Flyers. In that game, Leafs fans were chanting for the Toronto Blue Jays, the same Blue Jays team that hasn't made the playoffs since 1993 and are probably going to finish in 4th place out of 5 teams in the AL East. There was no way the Sabres could lose to the Leafs, was there? The tone was set early in the game when Joey Crabb (I know, who?) got a breakaway after a horrible turnover by Andrej Sekera and beat Miller on a shorthanded goal for a 1-0 lead. It was a tough save to make, but Miller needed to make it especially when the playoffs are on the line. Then down 2-1, John-Michael Liles scored a goal with a second left in the 2nd period to make it 3-1 when everyone crashed the net. The back breaker was when Matt Frattin scored on a 3-on-2 to make it 4-2 as the Leafs held on to beat the Sabres 4-3. It was such a horrible game. The Sabres were never ahead and scored 3 goals on rookie goalie Ben Scrivens (again, who?). To make matters worse, the Caps won Saturday night to take a two-point lead over the Sabres in the playoffs. Offense wasn't the problem for the Sabres as they scored 3 goals in each of the two games. Before this weekend, the Sabres were 30-4-4 when they scored 3 or more goals in a game. But the Sabres couldn't put their chances in the net enough against Toronto and their rookie no-name goalie. Unfortunately, Miller wasn't outplayed but obviously did not steal a game they needed him to. Scoring three or more goals for Miller is usually enough as he will put the game away.
Not this weekend though as he gave up 4 in each game. During his 19-3-5 run, he gave up 4 goals twice. Miller had no help as bad turnovers and poor play in front of him led to chances and goals. Miller obviously missed Ehrhoff and Myers and when both men had been out of the lineup this year, the Sabres struggled as did Miller. With them in the lineup, Miller and the team are worlds better. The Sabres are 30-21-4 with Myers in the lineup and 8-10-6 without him. They are 36-22-8 with Ehrhoff and 2-9-2 without him. So they make a huge impact. Miller had a GAA over 3.00 without them and its under 2.00 with them. So no big surprise there. Injuries matter. But I thought they could still beat a reeling Leafs team without those guys. This was a Leafs team that couldn't win at home and had their fans turn on them. So Myers and Ehrhoff are very valuable no shock there. They are more valuable to Miller. But why can't Miller win or steal a game without one or the other or both? Pittsburgh was a lot to ask for but not against Toronto. I like Miller and I think he's great. But I question his overall value as it appears he doesn't do well without his top-two defensmen in front of him. I don't want him to be traded, all I know is that with great talent in front, he or Enroth or whoever can be great. If not, then they struggle. I question the overall importance of goal tending or giving a guy $6-7 million if he can't win without everyone who matters in the lineup. Obviously I understand you cannot win without your best players in the lineup on a consistent basis. If you put Enroth or whoever in net with Myers and Ehrhoff in front of him, then he could be about as successful as Miller for a fraction of the price. That's for another discussion another day. Of course all I really want is for Myers and Ehrhoff to stay healthy.
Bottom line: the Sabres are two points behind the Caps with three games left and have to finish ahead of the Caps and cannot tie because the Caps own the tie-breaker. If the Caps collect four points in the final three games, the Sabres will be eliminated even if they win their final three games.I guess if Florida loses out they can get knocked out of the playoffs. It can be done, but it doesn't look good at this point. The Caps play the Lightning tonight so go Lightning (I'll be wearing my Steve Stamkos "shir-sey"). If the Caps win tonight and the Sabres lose in regulation tomorrow against the Leafs at home, then the Sabres will be officially eliminated from the playoffs.
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