Game-day...finally: BUF/TBL at 2 p.m. ET on NBCSN

Published byhockeybuzz.com, 11-8-2019

Can anyone in Sabreland remember Buffalo's last game? Sure you can go to the scoreboard and see that the NY Islanders defeated the Sabres 1-0 and you might remember that the Islanders scored early before playing lockdown, 90's trap-hockey to secure the win. 

Buffalo hasn't played a game since that Saturday night loss at KeyBank Center and that's OK. The National Hockey League tabbed them to play in their Global Series over in Stockholm, Sweden against the Tampa Bay Lightning which is an honor, especially for six Sabres players who made the trip and are returning to their homeland as a part of an NHL team. Hats off to Sweden-natives:

D, Rasmus Dahlin

F, Marcus Johansson

F, Victor Olofsson

F, Johan Larsson

G, Linus Ullmark

D, Lawrence Pilut

An eye on the Amerks with Don Stevens

Published by hockeybuzz.com, 11-7-2019

A dozen games into their 2019-20 season, the Rochester Americans are doing well. They're tied for third in the division right now with a 7-3-1-1 record with those 16 points placing them tied for fourth in the conference. Rochester is also fifth in the AHL with a .667 points percentage. 

But it hasn't been easy road to get there.

The Amerks started out the season with their head coach up in Buffalo serving as a Sabres assistant. Chris Taylor got the call to Buffalo after Sabres assistant coach Don Granato was hospitalized with a severe case of pneumonia, which his brother Tony described as a "scary" situation. Don Granato was hospitalized for an extended length and Taylor was picked to take his spot behind the bench while his assistant, long-time hockey-man Gord Dineen, became the interim bench boss in Rochester.

According to long-time Amerks broadcaster Don Stevens, whom I chatted with yesterday, things look as if they'll be returning to normal as Granato's "getting better" and they expect him back soon. 

Checking in on the Sabres prospect pool with Kris Baker of sabresprospects.com, Part II

Published by hockeybuzz.com, 11-5-2019


This is the second of a two part series looking at the Sabres prospect pool with Kris Baker of sabresprospects.com. Part I can be found by clicking here. 



As laid out in the previous blog, what Buffalo Sabres general manager Jason Botterill has been able to do on the blueline for his team the last three years has been pretty impressive and that's without landing a franchise-type defenseman in Rasmus Dahlin with the first overall pick in the 2018 NHL Draft. Botterill fortified and modernized his D-corps through some savvy trades while he and his scouting staff focused on the blueline at the draft using eight of their 18 picks on defensemen.

That's the good part of the prospect pool. The not so good part comes into play when we take a look at the forwards and goalie situation.

There's a two-fold reason for the not so good part when it comes to the forwards in the system. Botterill inherited a pool bereft of forward talent because a.) they were still recovering from the scorched-earth rebuild of his predecessor and b.) the Sabres top prospects were picked high in the draft and quickly made their way into the NHL lineup. Second-overall picks Sam Reinhart and Jack Eichel were playing for the Sabres as teenagers, while 2017 eighth-overall pick, Casey Mittelstadt also started out his rookie season as a teenager. Which is fine as those top picks are expected to be on a fast-track to the NHL.

Checking in on the prospect pool with Kris Baker of sabresprospects.com, Part I

Published by hockeybuzz.com, 11-4-2019

This is the first of a two-part series looking at the Sabres prospect pool as of today with Kris Baker of sabresprospects.com.

After chatting about the Sabres prospect pool with Kris Baker of sabresprospects.com, one is left with the sense that the organization has come a long way in the last three years but that there is also still plenty of work to do.

Right now there's a symmetrical dividing line between the Tim Murray regime and that of present general manager Jason Botterill as each was in charge of three NHL Drafts. The difference between Murray's picks from 4-6 years ago and Botterill's from the last three years can't be fully compared as not enough time has elapsed for the players selected to reach their ultimate hockey potential, but what we do know is that Botterill took over as general manager with a thin prospect pool and that he pretty much had to rebuild a rebuild.

"It took some time to reset some things when Botterill came in," said Baker via a phone interview yesterday. "The previous regime didn't really draft and develop all that well. Murray's group had a couple of guys out of [those drafts] but you're not really gonna screw up when you're picking at the top of the draft with players like [Sam] Reinhart and [Jack] Eichel. They go through the prospect ranks fairly quickly. When that happens you don't have a lot of depth behind them."

Sabres five-game recap

Published by hockeybuzz.com, 11-3-2019


You don’t need a lot of analytics to figure out that the Sabres hot start has cooled to the point where it looks like they’re struggling. Something as simple as their record is a good place to start. Buffalo began the season going 4-0-1 then went 4-1-0 which included a three-game California road trip. However this last stretch of five games hasn't been too kind to the Sabres as they could only manage a 1-3-1 record.

Quality of competition might be a big factor as the first five teams they face had a combined 44% win percentage through their first five games, the second grouping was at 42.5% through their first 10 games while the last grouping of teams Buffalo has played clocks in at a 56.7 win-percentage, and that includes the top team in the NHL, the Washington Capitals and the second best team in the Metropolitan Division, the NY Islanders, who are a combined 20-5-3 on the season.

Buffalo Sabres 2019-20 Team Stats--October

Published by hockeybuzz.com, 11-1-2019


It should be an interesting night at the rink in Washington DC tonight when the Sabres face off against the Washington Capitals. Fans in the nation's capital are celebrating their first World Series Championship since 1924 as the Washington Nationals finished off a heavily favored Houston Astros team in seven games, winning all four on the road. The 2019 Nats championship comes on the heels of a 2018 Stanley Cup win by the Capitals, their first-ever Cup win.

Party vibes will be swirling all around the Sabres as they take on the Caps and hopefully Washington captain Alex Ovechkin has been showing his baseball counterparts just what celebrating is all about. Ovechkin and his team mates embarked on a legendary post-championship party that began in Las Vegas, where they defeated the Golden Knights in five games, with the party stretching from days into weeks. The captain was quoted as saying, "Get some beers, get some whatever and start celebrating."

That they did.

Buffalo Sabres 2019-20 Individual Stats Leaders--October

Published by hockeybuzz.com, 10-30-2019


With three days between games, the Sabres are getting some time in the gym and on the practice rink as they get ready to start a new month with a back-to-back this weekend. Buffalo just concluded a stretch where they opened the season playing 13 games in 26 nights, which included a California road trip of three games in four nights, and they came out pretty well with a 9-2-2 record.

New head coach Ralph Krueger has his team playing an on-your-toes, up-tempo, 200' game and because of their early-season success he's been able to keep his lines and pairings intact. That continuity has led to some nice chemistry, most notably up-front with Marcus Johansson centering Jeff Skinner and the d-pairing of Marco Scandella and Henri Jokiharju.