Bills provide a diversion

Reprinted with permission from hockeybuzz.com


The Buffalo Sabres could not have asked for better timing. While they were icing a team featuring a group of skaters with a grand total of 65 goals this season, not to mention having a goalie with a .875 save percentage between the pipes, for the last couple of days Buffalo Bills were making headline on a national level.

Media outlets were devoting mega-minutes to the trade of Philadelphia Eagles running back LeSean McCoy for Bills' linebacker Kiko Alonso, calling it a "blockbuster," a term is normally reserved for a multi-piece deal that involves star/superstar quality players. Like when the Bills traded for Cornelius Bennett in 1987 or even recently when Sabres GM Tim Murray pulled off the Tyler Myers/Evander Kane blockbuster less than one month ago.


Perhaps it was a termed "blockbuster" because of the talent involved in the two-player swap, or because it came at this point late in the NFL calendar year (the new year, along with free agency and the ability to finalize the trade, begins next week), or the fact that it pretty much came out of nowhere. Regardless of how it's referred to, for the Sabres', it was great timing, as was the announcement yesterday that the Bills acquired journeyman quarterback Matt Cassel from the Minnesota Vikings.

Moves like that grabbed all the attention the past couple of days providing a clear-cut diversion from the tough predicament the Sabres coaching staff and players are in right now. After moving four players off of an already thin roster, the Sabres headed into the final 19 games of the regular season with a lineup that feature four AHL centers playing NHL minutes. The group of five AHL forwards have combined to score as many goals as Cody Hodgson's four.

Ya gotta hand it to head coach Ted Nolan, though. He's facing the near-term undaunted with blindfold off and a cigarette in his mouth. During his weekly radio appearance on WGR550, he was asked how he would get offense out of the team. His reply, "You pray, maybe?"

Nolan did get back to his "coach-speak" by quickly adding that there will be opportunities within games and that the best way to score, "without a natural goal-scorer" is the old, "throw pucks at the ne." Capitulation and coach-speak is about all he had left.

For posterity's sake, this was the lineup for Tuesday's 3-0 loss at Tampa Bay, with only the number of NHL games played this season and the number of goals for each player, beginning with the "top-line" of forwards:

C, Phil Varone--10 games played, 2 goals
LW, Matt Moulson--61, 9
RW, Tyler Ennis--62, 15
C, Johann Larsson--21, 1
LW, Marcus Foligno--39, 6
RW, Brian Gionta--51, 7
C, Tim Schaller--7, 1
LW, Cody Hodgson--60, 4
RW, Nick Deslauriers--64, 5
C, Zac Dalpe--4, 0
LW, Matt Ellis--21, 0
RW, Jerry D'Amigo--1, 0


On defense:

Zach Bogosian--50, 3 (9, 0 with the Sabres)
Nikita Zadorov--44, 3
Rasmus Ristolainen--61, 4
Mike Weber--51, 1
Andrej Meszaros--44, 3
Andre Benoit--44, 1

It's not a knock on any of these players to say that this is a pretty bad NHL lineup. Nor should one believe that Nolan was disrespecting them in any way, shape or form when he mentioned praying for offense. Nolan seemed to get caught up in a little gallows humor when it came to the line up he was given.

Nothing against GM Murray either. Like he said at the post trade deadline presser, the franchise is in the midst of a rebuild, and in a very succinct and compelling overview of what has transpired over the course of the last two-three years, he replied to a the question of how he made his team better on Monday by stating, "Our time is the future."

Will the Sabres win another game this season with that lineup? Yeah, they will. And I hope that some of the players take advantage of the opportunity afforded them. Will they be tough to watch? Yeah.

But for those who find it difficult to follow the Sabres, a welcome diversion is in the offing as beginning March 7th, NFL clubs can start talking to free agents and on March 10th NFL free agency begins. Although the Bills don't have a first round pick in the draft this year, you can still find a draft guide and study what might be available in the second round.

Or you can follow the Sabres boxscore.