Let the off season begin, plus Stanley Cup notes

Published by hockeybuzz.com, 6-12-2017


With the Stanley Cup finished and Buffalo GM Jason Botterill back from Pittsburgh after celebrating with the Penguins team he helped build, time is short. Botterill has a lot on major issues on his docket that will need to be addressed including:

**Hiring a head coach for the Sabres--Buffalo was waiting for the end of the Cup to be able to interview Pittsburgh assistants Rick Tocchet and Jacques Martin as well as Nashville assistant coach Phil Housley who's considered the front-runner to be the Sabres next head coach. That decision should be in by the end of the week.

**Expansion Draft--Teams must submit their protected list for the expansion draft by Saturday at 5 p.m.
Buffalo isn't in a pressing situation like Minnesota where they're bound to lose a key player, but Botterill can use it to rid himself of an undesirable contract. Word on the street is that deals are in place already with the expansion Las Vegas Golden Knights and their GM George McPhee has stated that he already had a conversation with Buffalo and that there would be another on. Most feel that McPhee, and the rest of the NHL was waiting for the end of the Cup Finals before getting the ball rolling.

**NHL Entry Draft--The Golden Knights roster will be announced on Wednesday June 21 at the NHL awards ceremony and two days later the show heads to Chicago, IL for the draft June 23, 24. Botterill spent much of his first week in Buffalo getting to know his scouting staff and going over notes in preparation for the NHL Draft.

**July 1 NHL Free Agency begins--It's hard to believe it's less than three weeks away. Although the NHL's salary cap has taken away much of the luster, it's still an opportunity to land a piece to the puzzle without giving up anything to get it. Botterill has stated that revamping the Sabres defense is a top priority and there are names on the UFA list that might be of interest. How much room Botterill has to work with will probably depend upon what happens with the expansion draft.

Those are just the biggies for Botterill and Co. The buyout period begins this week and runs until June 30. The Sabres may be interested in that with names like Matt Moulson and Josh Gorges being mentioned. The period for team-elected salary arbitration begins this week with the Sabres having seven arbitration-eligible players. Botterill also needs to find a GM and coach for the Rochester Americans.



*****

The Pittsburgh Penguins have won the Stanley Cup for the fifth time in franchise history and is the first back-to-back Cup champion since the Detroit Red Wings did so in 1997-98. The Pens are also one of only three non-Original Six teams to win back-to-back Cups joining the 1974-75 Flyers and the Edmonton Oilers of the 80's.

Pens captain Sidney Crosby solidified himself as one of the greatest players to play the game as he lead Pittsburgh to their third Stanley Cup with him on board. Crosby received his second Conn Smythe Trophy in a row as playoff MVP joining the Flyers Bernie Parent ('74-75) and Penguins owner Mario Lemieux ('91-92) as the only players to do so since they began awarding the Trophy in 1965.

Crosby's stat-line of accomplishments is pretty damn impressive: 

3-Stanley Cups
2-Conn Smythe Trophies
2-Hart Trophies (League MVP)
2-Olympic Gold medals
1-World Cup
1-World Cup MVP

There's a general consensus that the four greatest NHL players of all time are Gordie Howe, Bobby Orr, Wayne Gretzky and Lemieux and Crosby is approaching that status. Penguins GM Jim Rutherford put him in the top two or three while riding the adrenaline rush of winning the Cup but putting him alongside Maurice "Rocket" Richard in that No. 5-6 conversation is certainly worthy.

And to think, the Penguins tanked for a top-four all-time great in Lemieux and another just outside in Crosby. It brought the city five Stanley Cups, but no one seems to care.

Just sayin'


*****

Analytics geeks have to be puzzled as to how a team like the Pens who had middle of the road advanced stats and were outshot an NHL playoff record 17 times in 25 games, won the Cup. Pittsburgh was also without their top defenseman, Kris Letang as well. The Nashville Predators dominated most of the Finals but couldn't come out on top.

Why?

A couple of reasons. First off the Penguins have two of the top 101 players in the NHL in Crosby and Evgeni Malkin. Crosby showed his dominance by taking over the game when necessary scoring eight goals and adding 19 assists while Malkin lead playoff scoring with 10 goals and 18 assists. Both those players make those around them better and were the driving force behind their third Stanley Cup together (Malkin won the Conn Smythe in 2009.)

The Penguins also got some stout goaltending, first by former first-overall pick and Cup Champion Marc-Andre Fleury with closing duties done by rookie goalie Matt Murray. Sure they had some dud games which lead to a fifth-best goals-against average of 2.28 but when it mattered most. MAF blanked the Washington Capitals in Game-7 in the second round while Murray pitched a shutout in the final two Stanley Cup games not allowing Nashville to score a goal over the final 126:52.

Not surprisingly, through all the static of stats permeating the entire season, what it came down to is the best player in the game and great, timely goaltending lead Pittsburgh to another Cup win.


*****

Pierre LeBrun had a good tweet last night noting that the Penguins are the first team with back-to-back wins in the salary cap era, which began with the '05-06 season. "Unreal accomplishment in the parity filled NHL of today."

Unreal accomplishment, no doubt in any league, but parity doesn't seem to include teams built with high draft picks.

The Penguins and the Chicago Blackhawks have won six of the last nine Stanley Cups and both teams had multiple top picks during bottoming-out periods. As mentioned, Pittsburgh tanked for Crosby selected first -overall and boasts Fleury (1st-overall) Malkin (2nd.) The Hawks have Patrick Kane (1st) and Jonathan Toews (3rd) with the qualifier that Kane was selected after Chicago jumped from fifth-overall to the top pick via the lottery.

The Los Angeles Kings won two Cups during that same period and with a lineup that had second-overall pick Drew Doughty anchoring their blueline.

Only the 2011 Boston Bruins were able to win the Cup in the past nine years without a home-grown top-overall pick playing a major role for their run.

The moral of the story?

Building through the draft is a good thing but having top picks seems like the best way to rise above parity.

Of scheduling, Eichel, injuries, the Panthers/analytics and Eric Wood

Published by hockeybuzz.com, 12-20-2016


Sabres bench boss Dan Bylsma was on WGR550 this morning mentioning what a good stretch of scheduling the team just had. "It feels a lot different," he told host Jeremy White. "This 10 days we're not playing in [rapid fire] succession."

Beginning November 1 they had a stretch of seven games in 12 nights, had their first two off-days in a row then followed up with six games in 10 nights.From thence it was three days off followed by five games in eight nights and on to the 10-day stretch he referred to where they had stretches of two, three and two days off with only one game between.

The final run to the Christmas break began last week where they played a back-to-back, had two days off and are now in Florida for a game against the Panthers tonight before finishing with a back-to-back Thursday and Friday.

Bylsma made no excuses using the schedule, nor did he make any excuses using injuries. "This is the NHL," he told White. "You have injuries, you have a lot of injuries, you get healthy and hopefully you can keep that health going forward."

Of course the big injury for Buffalo was that of Jack Eichel who missed the first 21 games of the season with a high ankle sprain suffered on the eve of the regular season. Eichel returned to the ice and put together two adrenaline-filled performances at Ottawa and at home vs. the NY Rangers, both wins for the Sabres, but started feeling the effects of the long layoff, according to Bylsma.

"His first two games back were pretty remarkable," the coach told White. "Then in games 3, 4, and 5 he started feeling [it]. He started to get some bumps and bruises in other areas and felt that ankle against Washington and was feeling pretty banged up. As he got acquainted to a higher level of work, playing more games, I think he started to feel a lot better, like he had that extra gear."

When Eichel is healthy, that extra gear is like switching on the nitrous tanks and it's good to see that he's rounded into game-shape.

Long-term injuries will do that. It's not just the recovery period off the ice and the body healing, it's also about getting up to speed and conditioning the body to take on the physical punishment. As we look back on the first quarter of this season we see a team that has had numerous long-term injuries to key players. Along with Eichel there was Evander Kane, Zach Bogosian and Dmitry Kulikov, three more top-half players who were sidelined for extended lengths. However, beginning in Carolina on Saturday, all the Sabres players are back on the ice save for Tyler Ennis whom we barely even know as he has yet to play this season after appearing in only 23 games last year.

Bylsma pointed to this final stretch of six games as an area of focus for the club. Buffalo is 2-0-1 in the first half while the second half begins tonight at Florida against the Panthers and they're looking to get on a roll.


***

The Florida Panthers are a bit of a mess right now as ownership did some strange things in the off season.

After accumulating 103 points and winning the division last season, the team went through a philosophical change that has them struggling this season with a 14-13-5 record. The Panthers are only two points ahead of the Sabres having played two more games.

Analytics was at the crux of the decision to trade away defensemen Eric Gudbranson and Kulikov in the off season and it eventually lead to the firing of head coach Gerald Gallant last month. The mastermind behind the 'Cats rise to the top of the Atlantic Division was Dale Tallon. He, like Gallant, is a hockey guy and the players that were traded were hockey players. But in the world of analytics, there's no room at the inn for a mindset like that so they all were removed from the equation in some way. Tallon is still in the organization but was kicked up to an upper management role that took him away from hockey decisions.

Regardless of Tallon's place now, which is said to be back making hockey decisions, Pandora's box has been opened.

Florida joined the Arizona Coyotes and Toronto Maple Leafs in openly and overtly riding the analytics wave. All three have highly-touted "analytics gurus" in management positions--Tom Rowe is Florida's GM and interim head coach, John Chayka is GM in Arizona and Kyls Dubas is AGM for the Leafs.

These are the three teams to follow in the battle between new and old school and they're off to a rough start at this juncture. The Panthers' 33 points is best amongst the trio of teams, Toronto is next best at 31 while the Yotes have 27 points and presently sit 29th in the league.

The Sabres shutout Florida earlier this season 3-0 and tonight represents the second of four meetings between the Atlantic Division foes. Last year the Panthers went 3-1-0 vs. Buffalo outscoring them by a combined 17-10.


***

Injured Buffalo Bills center Eric Wood is a great interview and is the longest tenured player on the team right now. As rumors fly that head coach Rex Ryan will get the axe come season's end (or sooner,) Wood is none too pleased with that possibility. After already playing for four different coaches since being taken by Buffalo in the first round of the 2009 NFL Draft, Wood is backing his head coach.

“I’m a Rex guy. I like Rex a lot. I like him as a coach. I think he’s a great leader,” Wood said, via the Associated Press. “I know it doesn’t feel like it all the time, but we’re so freaking close.”

Wood is a pretty astute guy who's certainly in touch with One Buffalo the blanket thrown by Terry and Kim Pegula, owners of both the Sabres and the Bills and he used a hockey, the Sabres and tanking to make a point. “This isn’t like hockey where you scrap your franchise for a guy that you know is coming like a [Jack] Eichel or [Connor]McDavid,” Wood said, referring to the No. 2 overall pick in Buffalo's Eichel and the top overall pick in 2015 in Edmonton's McDavid. “This is football. You can get a No. 1 draft pick, and the best guy on the board is a tackle that year, and a tackle doesn't change your franchise."

I'm all for continuity as well but who knows what ownership will do, but those comments by Wood make me like him even more. He's a football player through and through.


***

Bylsma looks to be sticking with his lineup changes with a projected lineup, according to Sabres.com of:

Marcus Foligno-Ryan O'Reilly-Sam Reinhart
Matt Moulson-Jack Eichel-Kyle Okposo
Evander Kane-Johan Larsson-Brian Gionta
Zemgus Girgensons-Derek Grant-William Carrier

Jake McCabe-Rasmus Ristolainen
Dmitry Kulikov-Zach Bogosian
Josh Gorges-Cody Franson

Robin Lehner gets the start in net.

Sabres coach Ted Nolan throws some cold water on analytics

Reprinted with permission from hockeybuzz.com


Ted Nolan reminds me of my father.

As a student in college my father and I would often get into philosophical battles over current events and politics. I'd throw a salvo his way replete with "scholarly" theoretic and he'd counter with a simple, down-to-earth retort that would smack me down.

Although I never gave up, oft-times his life experience would trump my book knowledge.

I'm not sure who asked Nolan about analytics, but the Sabres' old-school bench boss was probably the last one to ask about that subject. Corsi and Fenwick might as well be a millennial-generation comedy team in Nolan's eyes.

Nolan kept it simple when broached with the subject, “If you have a Crosby on your team, they’re going to have a little bit more zone time. If you have a Kopitar on your team, they’re going to have a little bit more zone time," he said yesterday. "You look at all the teams that make the playoffs, they make it for a reason, they’re better teams. What we want to do is become a better team and you do that you get better players and it hasn’t changed since the 50’s and 60’s, you get better players, you have a better chance of winning.”