Tuesday, November 23, 2010

injuries up the middle baffle lindy ruff

two portland pirates got the call yesterday as the injury bug is starting to make it look like training camp all over again...center luke adam and free agent lw colin stuart will get the call as the pittsburgh penguins pay a visit to hsbc arena tomorrow night...

tim connolly and rob niedermayer, the sabres #2 and #3 centers, respectively, will both be out of the lineup with niedermayer undergoing a knee scope that will keep him out at least two to three weeks...compounding the problem is the sabres lack of depth down the middle...

during lindy ruff's weekly appearance on wgr's howard simon show, the coach was somewhat baffled as to how to approach a question as to who his #2 center is...after stammering for words, the coach stated that paul gaustad is the #2 center...the "yikes-moment" prompted him to quickly shift to a call-up, though, "if you're looking to the offensive side of it, we've called luke adam up."...then he shifts to something that "we've done this in the past and it worked real well for us,"--moving jochen hecht to the center slot....

jochen hecht's worst full-season in the nhl can be directly attributed to his playing in the top-six as a center during the 2008/9 season...it was awful to watch...no surprise that when he was switched back to lw for the 2009/10 season he promptly put up typical hechtian numbers--21 goals, 21 assists and he lead the team with a plus-14 rating...

ok, fine...out of necessity, hecht moves to center along with adam and they join derek roy and paul gaustad down the middle...since gaustad was not mentioned for a top-nine slot, where to put adam and hecht had ruff talking in circles, "with connolly out we would probably have adam slide into the two-spot," he said..."we would...have jochen hecht move into the middle and he would really be our #2, and we're pretty comfortable with luke [adam] being our #3 for us."

is it any wonder why the coach was searching desperately for words when you have roy, hecht, adam and gaustad going up against the pens on wednesday?...sidney crosby and evgeni malkin anchor the middle for pittsburgh with mark lesetsu and craig adams on the bottom-six...were it not for an injury to "third-line" center jordan staal, it could get really ugly for the sabres tomorrow night...

what this situation really exposes is the lack of forward depth in the sabres system, specifically at center...a brief look at the sabres drafting this past decade reveals a blatant disregard for the center slot and ineptitude in the players chosen...since 2001 when the sabres drafted jiri novotny (#22,) derek roy (#32,) and chris thorburn (#50) with their first three picks, this is what they've done for the center position:

2002--maxim schevjev, 6th round--never sniffed the nhl
2003--no centers taken
2004--no centers taken
2005--marek zagrapan, 1st round--couldn't crack the big club, plays in the khl
       --nathan gerbe, 5th round--presently playing wing in a bottom-six role
2006--felix schutz, 4th round--playing in europe after leaving portland this season
       --benjamin breault, 7th round, no longer with the organization
2007--paul byron, 6th round--diminutive center plying his trade with portland
2008--tyler ennis, 1st round--presently on the sabres top line as lw
       --luke adam, 2nd round, just got the call for the third time this season

no wonder ruff's talking in circles...sheeesh...

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