zack kassian, the sabres' chris neil

or maybe the sabres' daniel carcillo or sean avery...

not doubt the kid brings a tough, gritty package to the table for the blue and gold, but he's starting to come off as a mental midget in the vein of the aforementioned...

yesterday on wgr, host mike schoopsie was just gaga over kassian--an unadulterated, johnson-throbbing man-crush...

i say whoa...the kids got issues, whether or not they can be resolved is a different story...

lets start with this cheapshot that warranted a 20-game suspension from the ohl last january:



youthful over-zealousness?...yeah, absolutely...could he refine his game while still retaining the edge?...on the ice he could, as he helped harness his aggressiveness while the spits won the memorial cup, but the mental midget came out last may as he was arrested and charged with assaulting a man in a peterborough, ontario bar at 1:50am...

ok, sure, most of us have been in that situation, and because we're not "celebrities," not much happened except for the scrapes, bumps and bruises incurred on both sides...but for kassian, it furthered his reputation as hot-headed and easily provoked into aggression...in addition, it also meant customs troubles at the border, “If an individual has an assault charge on their record, they’d be found inadmissible into the United States,” said Chief Ron Smith of U.S. Customs and Border Protection. “There are ways to mitigate that, primarily through the Department of State which issues visas.“But under normal circumstances, initially, the individual would be inadmissible in the United States for the assault charge.”

that's why the sabres couldn't/wouldn't sign him to his first pro contract...they were forced to wait until the issue was resolved with kassian doing community service as a prelude to the charge being dropped, which it was in october...shortly afteward, he was signed by the sabres...

all of this meant that kassian would need to spend another year in juniors, and he's been doing well, especially on the offensive side of the game...he still remains one tough s.o.b. for the spits, but he hadn't done anything too stupid...until...this at the world juniors playing for team canada in front of a raucous canadian crowd at hsbc arena in buffalo, the team who drafted him:



he lines the unsuspecting czech up and unloads on him catching a shoulder and a chin and whiplashing the guy into a neck brace...was it clean?...borderline...but for a guy with his reputation (see above,) is it any wonder why the iihf added an extra game?...

before anyone blurts out, "it's hockey! ya pantywaist," try and recall what you were thinking when chris neil nailed chris drury in the very same fashion:



pretty similar, eh?

the sale of sabres to pegula moving along

wgrz is reporting that an announcement on the sale will come after the world juniors

what's craig patrick doing these days?

at this very moment?... i'm not sure, but i do know that he attended the news conference announcing terry pegula's $88m donation to penn state university for a division one hockey program back in september...

what does that mean?...pure speculation on my part, but maybe he'll be in the running for a senior executive of hockey operations position with the sabres...if terry pegula does, in fact, buy the team from tom golisano...

two years ago (2008,) as the toronto maple leafs were searching for a gm, patrick was quoted as saying, “I’ve been trying to get back in since I left [in 2006],” Patrick told THN.com, a day after his 62nd birthday. “But with only 30 teams, it’s tough to get the job you want. But there’s always opportunities, and I’m sure something will come up.”


it wouldn't be too far-fetched to believe that pegula is smart enough to surround himself with quality people who know more about a certain area than he does...pretty sure that's how he wound up near the top-100 richest americans with a net worth in the $3-4 billion range...

as speculated in a previous blog, what will terry pegula do as owner of the buffalo sabres?, a new owner usually is already surrounded by his inner circle and present buffalo sabres managing partner, larry quinn, is probably not a part of pegula's circle, although quinn has met the man...and i highly doubt that quinn's body of work, outside of marketing, would make him a "keeper" for the new owner...

how important is a senior executive in charge of hockey operations?...just ask the detroit red wings...jimmy devellano helped guide detroit out of the "dead wings" era to an era-transcending, model franchise (which all began with drafting steve yzerman, 4th overall, one pick before buffalo, in 1983)...or ask the chicago blackhawks...with scotty bowman as a senior advisor of hockey operations, the hawks won their first stanley cup in 40 years...

craig patrick is a hockey man with a hockey lineage dating back to the early 1900's and  two stanley cups in his resume' as gm, but has been on the outside looking in since his release from the penguins in 2006...

after a modest playing career with more than a few nhl teams including the california golden seals (pictured) and the kansas city scouts, patrick, who is the grandson of lester patrick, patriarch of the "royal" patrick hockey family, retired as a player in 1979...

the following year he was pegged as assistant general manager and assistant coach under herb brooks for the 1980 lake placid "miracle on ice" usa olympic hockey team...

his front office pro career began in ny with the rangers in 1980 as the youngest gm in ranger history...in dec. 1989 patrick became the pittsburgh penguins gm where he spent 17 years with the organization resulting in two stanley cups (1991 and 1992) as well as a slew of playoff appearances throughout the 90's...

as the decade came to a close, so began the unravelling of the team under patrick...health issues with mario lemieux, financial problems created by ownership and a series of questionable trades and inconsistent drafting took the pens to the bottom of the standings and eventually patrick was replaced by ray shero...but not before being recognized with a spot in the hockey hall of fame in 2001 in the builders category....

craig patrick has the lineage, the experience and the hockey smarts that pegula could put to good use as his right hand man...he also has pennsylvania connections, especially with the penguins where pegula has been a season ticket holder and went on a golf outing with members of the penguins a week before his penn state presser..."Maybe someday in these hills of Pennsylvania, we're going to find a [Sidney] Crosby," pegula said, "Hopefully, he'll play hockey for Penn State and I think that's awesome."

pennsylvania connections...from september 18, 2010 pittsburgh post-gazette:

Mr. Pegula credited two men from Pittsburgh with arranging the donation to Penn State: Cliff Benson, who retired this year as a partner with Deloitte & Touche, and Joe Battista, a Penn Hills High School graduate and a former player and coach for Penn State's club hockey team. He is director for major gifts in PSU's Smeal College of Business.
"Without those two guys, this thing would have never gotten done," Mr. Pegula said.

plus, did i mention patrick's ties to penn state hockey?...

mike weber vs. george parros, plus

when i was a kid, i had this plastic train radio...when the games were not on tv, which was fairly often, i'd listen to rick jeannerete call the game, and many times i'd fall asleep listening...

those who did the radio play-by-play did a fantastic job of bringing the action into your home, calling it so that you were there...they were your eyes and the cool part about it was that you used your imagination to fill in...it was exciting...

a throwback last night as versus ruled the airwaves with their nj vs. wash game as tv was blacked out for all games below the u.s.-canadian border...anaheim visited buffalo in a radio-only broadcast...as nostalgic as i can be, i still prefer tv if i can't make it to the game...if i can't get tv, there are a few websites that stream the game, much to the dismay of the nhl...

for those who could not see the game, we're left with the highlights...

here's mike weber taking on nhl-heavyweight george parros...a daunting task to say the least and weber acquits himself well:




the sabres potted five goals vs. a road-weary ducks team with nathan gerbe and craig rivet netting their first of the season, drew stafford snagging one and tyler ennis doing some great work on his two goals, especially the second one where he roofs a wrister short-side with very little room...also, cody mccormick takes on the ducks ryan getzlaf to open the second period with the sabres up 3-0...good stuff here at nhl.com: 

of note...weber, mccormick and paul gaustad all got into fights last night...this is the second time this month that a western conference team came to buffalo throwing their weight around and both times the sabres responded admirably...columbus came at buffalo in the sabres first game of december with patrick kaleta pounded derek dorsett for being an idiot...

patrick kaleta got nailed by a cheapshot from the ducks jason blake...nate gerbe displays his spunk and character by immediately jumping on blake:

ryan miller is engaged to noreen dewulf

(clap, clap, clap)

one of maxims top-100 for 2007

bravo ryan...

congrats to the happy couple



connolly, broken nose, out at least one week

tim connolly is out again, done in by a hard hit from the lightning's nate thompson...nothing really illegal, but the finishing hip by thompson into connolly was something that the on-ice sabres shoulda been pissed at...

jordan leopld had a bird's eye view of the play and did absolutely nothing to stick up for his fallen teammate...and it's not surprising, that's who jordan leopold is...

another puck-mover from gm darcy regier...kinda reminiscent of the departed hank tallinder and how he would stick up for his teammates...pretend like he didn't see it

connolly would come back during the game, though:

reconstructive surgery lies ahead

knit-one, purl-two nominee #2

a look at some really crabby, whiny, sourpuss content from major media sources in the buffalo area concerning the bills and the sabres



***nominee #2--paul hamilton, wgr december 19, 2010***

http://www.wgr550.com/HAMILTON--Too-bad-it-s-no-longer-like-Marino-vs-Ke/8810659



the set-up:  the buffalo bills just finished beating longtime rival, the miami dolphins on the road and knock them out of the playoffs...wgr has been talking about the issue of rivalries in sports lately, as well as focusing on the "lost" bills/dolphins rivalry and what leagues should do to increase rivalries amongst teams...hamilton always thought that the bills should have moved to the afc north with pittsburgh, cleveland and cincinnati, replacing baltimore...fine...and he, like most in the buffalo media lately, also have been debating the merits of ryan fitzpatrick at qb as well and how the team should move forward this coming draft...with each win, the bills move farther down the draft order:

The Bills went out and played a pretty decent game and are leaving South Florida with a win. Hey Bills fans, isn't it a great thing to pretty much put an end to your arch rival's playoff chance? What's that, who cares? I'm right with you.

I'm sitting here with absolutely nothing to write because this game really didn't have much. It's really a shame when things were realigned that Ralph Wilson was so far out of touch he had no idea Miami was no longer a rival. He maintained he didn't want to lose the rivalry. That rivalry walked out the door with Jim Kelly and Dan Marino. Ralph Wilson hasn't had a visionary thought since he became an AFL owner. That was 1960. It's too bad he couldn't see flipping with Baltimore would’ve been the very best thing for the organization with Pittsburgh and Cleveland coming here every season.

I sat here this afternoon yawning and trying to figure out how this big rivalry ended. I think the Bills have been irrelevant for so long, nobody cared. There were many empty seats in Miami. Rivals sell out stadiums.

What did we learn today? Arthur Moats is still good, David Nelson should be playing more than Donald Jones. The kids all did well today including Buffalo's own Naaman Roosevelt. He caught his first two NFL balls and one was for a big first down. I think it's a no brainer now, trade Lee Evans in the off season if he can bring you a good return.


What else did we learn? We already know Ryan Fitzpatrick is average putting up less than 20 points for the 7th time in 8 games. He threw some great balls, but again when they needed him the most, he missed his receiver two plays in a row and they had to punt. Good thing Carpenter missed four field goals. Fred
Jackson only averaged 2.4 yards per carry while C.J. Spiller was 1.8. We already knew it would be hard to run the football.

Good job by Arthur Moats putting some heat on Chad Henne. George Wilson had a huge interception.

I noticed Terrence McGee has played very little CB the past two weeks, but has been great on special teams. He's the best kick returner they have by far so let him do that to.

paul hamilton is spot-on with his bills/sabres insights on many occasions...this article, although having many good points, comes off as crotchety with the author taking a, "see, i told you so" approach...the faux-boredom and condescending apathy he infuses belittles the accomplishments of many outside the reach of his praise, belittles the accomplishments of the team as well as it's coaching staff...what's worse than an armchair quarterback?...an armchair gm...and the only thing worse than an armchair gm is an armchair owner...hamilton nails two out of three here...and he coulda nailed three if any of drew bledsoe, greg williams, jp losman, mike mularkey, trent edwards or dick jauron were at the helm