Aaron Portzline of the Columbus Dispatch posted an blog yesterday dealing with the Colin Kaepernick situation. Kaepernick's refusal to stand during the national anthem before his San Fancisco 49'ers took on the Green Bay Packers has turned into a hot-button issue with far-ranging opinions covering the entire scope of the conversation but has yet to make it's way into the NHL as it has in other major sports.
The NBA had the same thing happen when the Denver Nuggets' Mahmoud Abdul-Rauf (previously known as Chris Jackson) refused to stand during the national anthem because his new-found Muslim beliefs clashes with what he said was oppression by the government. Abdul-Rauf was suspended by the NBA for one game and he was forced him stand while the NBA allowed him to look down, eyes closed during the national anthem.
NBC Sports reminded us yesterday that Major League Baseball had a similar situation in 2004 with the Toronto Blue Jays' Carlos Delgado when he "drew the ire and respect of many fans for refusing to participate in the ceremonial singing of 'God Bless America' during games, in part because of his opposition to the Iraq War."
Nothing like that has happened yet in the NHL even with a city like Buffalo that plays both the American and Canadian national anthems before each of their home games.
Wednesday, August 31, 2016
On the 2nd annual Prospects Challenge, Cody Franson and Jack Eichel
With Labor Day weekend close at hand bid adieu to a rather uneventful summer of 2016 and gear up for the beginning of hockey season. The National Hockey League is staging their World Cup of Hockey slated for September 17th to October 1st as two divisions comprised of four teams each will battle it out for "world" supremacy in the game of hockey.
While the biggest and brightest stars will be on display at the WCOH, including a North American team featuring Connor McDavid, Jack Eichel and Auston Matthews anchoring a 23-and-under squad, various prospect tournaments will be taking place to highlight younger talent not quite at the WCOH-level. Among them is the Traverse City Tournament celebrating its 17th year, a tournament in Coral Springs, Florida and the 2nd annual Buffalo Sabres Prospect Challenge.
The Sabres attended Traverse City from 2011, the off season after Terry Pegula bought the team until 2014. They won the tournament in 2011 and after the NHL lockout scrapped the 2012 tourney, the Sabres found themselves back in the finals dropping the championship game to the host Detroit Red Wings. The 2014 tournament was a disaster for the Sabres featuring this quote from former Buffalo d-man Nikita Zadorov, "Maybe it wasn't our tournament." after the team finished 0-3-1, were outscored a combined 17-6 and scored more than one goal only one time.
While the biggest and brightest stars will be on display at the WCOH, including a North American team featuring Connor McDavid, Jack Eichel and Auston Matthews anchoring a 23-and-under squad, various prospect tournaments will be taking place to highlight younger talent not quite at the WCOH-level. Among them is the Traverse City Tournament celebrating its 17th year, a tournament in Coral Springs, Florida and the 2nd annual Buffalo Sabres Prospect Challenge.
The Sabres attended Traverse City from 2011, the off season after Terry Pegula bought the team until 2014. They won the tournament in 2011 and after the NHL lockout scrapped the 2012 tourney, the Sabres found themselves back in the finals dropping the championship game to the host Detroit Red Wings. The 2014 tournament was a disaster for the Sabres featuring this quote from former Buffalo d-man Nikita Zadorov, "Maybe it wasn't our tournament." after the team finished 0-3-1, were outscored a combined 17-6 and scored more than one goal only one time.
Tuesday, August 30, 2016
On Robin Lehner, Tyler Ennis and Gustav Possler
Buffalo Sabres goalie Robin Lehner opted out of the inaugural World Cup of Hockey this season by telling Team Sweden that he won't be joining them for the tournament that begins less than three weeks from today.
An official statement from Sabres GM Tim Murray reads like this:
With an extremely slow summer for news outside the world of Jimmy Vesey, various media outlets jumped on the story from various angles with some going as far as to imply that Lehner had an injury. CBSSports.com's Fantasy Hockey page, citing a Renaud Lavoie report, began it's piece by saying "Lehner is dealing with an undisclosed injury" while stating in the next paragraph that their not sure whether it's "a new injury or one related to the high-ankle sprain" Lehner dealt with all last season.
In it's lead paragraph for the piece, the Associated Press said that "Sweden replaced him on its World Cup of Hockey,"
And the Ottawa Sun's Ken Warren injected some NY Post-style sensationalism calling Lehner's career "never-ending soap opera" as he proceeded to state that "the slow recovery is troublesome for the Sabres," while having Murray "trying to put out any fires" concerning Lehner before prodding his audience to "Stay tuned. Life with Lehner is never boring."
An official statement from Sabres GM Tim Murray reads like this:
"As Robin continues to progress during the offseason in his rehab from last season's ankle injury, he felt that it was best to withdraw from Team Sweden for the upcoming World Cup. Robin felt it was important to continue his rehab in Buffalo to prepare for training camp. He has been working out both on and off the ice and we look forward to seeing him on the ice with our team next month."
Sunday, August 28, 2016
What Dave Bolland to Arizona means for Buffalo
Arizona Coyotes GM and analytics guru John Chayka has made some pretty bold moves this summer as he continues to add to the stockpile of prospects he inherited when he was promoted at the end of last season. Chayka took the reigns from the released Don Maloney with a young roster, deep pool of prospects and a boat-load of cap-space, a combination that allowed him add even more to his already burgeoning prospect pool.
On the first day of the 2016 NHL Draft Chayka made a trade with the Detroit Red Wings to take on Pavel Datsyuk's $7.5M cap-hit. No actual salary was involved in the deal but the Wings were still on the hook for the hit after Datsyuk decided to head back to Mother Russia. Chayka was able to move up from the 20th overall pick to the 16th overall pick to select defenseman Jakob Chychrun by simply having enough cap-space to absorb the hit. Of note, Arizona also gave up a second-rounder in the deal.
Yesterday Chayka was at it again as he agreed to take on an injured Dave Bolland and the remaining three years of his bloated contract. The Florida Panthers were saddled with a $16.5M cap-hit over the next three years and have a number of youngins coming off of their entry-level contracts during that time. They finally found a taker in the 'Yotes, but it came at a hefty price. In the trade the 'Cats added in 2015 11th-overall pick Lawson Crouse in to make it work. In return Florida received a 2017 third round pick and a conditional 2018 second-rounder.
On the first day of the 2016 NHL Draft Chayka made a trade with the Detroit Red Wings to take on Pavel Datsyuk's $7.5M cap-hit. No actual salary was involved in the deal but the Wings were still on the hook for the hit after Datsyuk decided to head back to Mother Russia. Chayka was able to move up from the 20th overall pick to the 16th overall pick to select defenseman Jakob Chychrun by simply having enough cap-space to absorb the hit. Of note, Arizona also gave up a second-rounder in the deal.
Yesterday Chayka was at it again as he agreed to take on an injured Dave Bolland and the remaining three years of his bloated contract. The Florida Panthers were saddled with a $16.5M cap-hit over the next three years and have a number of youngins coming off of their entry-level contracts during that time. They finally found a taker in the 'Yotes, but it came at a hefty price. In the trade the 'Cats added in 2015 11th-overall pick Lawson Crouse in to make it work. In return Florida received a 2017 third round pick and a conditional 2018 second-rounder.
Friday, August 26, 2016
Sabres take variable pricing a step further with dynamic pricing
The Buffalo Sabres announced a "new dynamic ticket pricing model for all Sabres home games in 2016-17." This new model will "adjust ticket prices to better reflect demand throughout the seasons," according to the press release.
Variable pricing is nothing new to the Sabres and it's fan-base as the team initiated the concept in the NHL back in 2004.
The Sabres were having problems filling seats because of a team in transition that had missed the playoffs the prior three seasons. Then team president Larry Quinn was faced with an attendance problem. "The team had 6,800 full-season ticket holders last year and another 1,400 'season ticket equivalents' or fans who bought partial season ticket packages," according to a Buffalo Business First article from July 12, 2004, with the team losing "about $8.5 million," according to Dan DiPofi, chief operating officer.
Variable pricing is nothing new to the Sabres and it's fan-base as the team initiated the concept in the NHL back in 2004.
The Sabres were having problems filling seats because of a team in transition that had missed the playoffs the prior three seasons. Then team president Larry Quinn was faced with an attendance problem. "The team had 6,800 full-season ticket holders last year and another 1,400 'season ticket equivalents' or fans who bought partial season ticket packages," according to a Buffalo Business First article from July 12, 2004, with the team losing "about $8.5 million," according to Dan DiPofi, chief operating officer.
Thursday, August 25, 2016
Vesey picking Rangers is a bummer, but c'est la vie
Frank Sinatra is known singing, New York, New York. He's also known for the title track to an album called "That's Life." Such is the juxtaposition of Jimmy Vesey's decision to sign with the the NY Rangers as the highly coveted free agent started "spreading the news" about "leaving today" to "be a part of it" in New York City. For the Buffalo Sabres and their fans, we flip to the other side of the coin with Sinatra singing, "that's life" while fully knowing that despite another miss, the Sabres will take the approach that "each time I find myself layin' flat on my face, I just pick myself up and get back in the race."
Let's get this out of the way right now, it sucks not being able to land Vesey. The Sabres offered the highly sought after Hobey Baker winner the opportunity to be apart of their future but it seems as if the allure of the NY Rangers and a chance to live in the Big Apple was too much for Vesey to pass up. "One of the things I definitely liked about New York was the top-notch lifestyle that the city offers,” Vesey was quoted as saying at his conference call last night.
Let's get this out of the way right now, it sucks not being able to land Vesey. The Sabres offered the highly sought after Hobey Baker winner the opportunity to be apart of their future but it seems as if the allure of the NY Rangers and a chance to live in the Big Apple was too much for Vesey to pass up. "One of the things I definitely liked about New York was the top-notch lifestyle that the city offers,” Vesey was quoted as saying at his conference call last night.
Tuesday, August 23, 2016
Lookin' for that top-six left-winger.
Buffalo Sabres GM Tim Murray has done a lot of work putting together a lineup to his liking. He's come a long way since this lineup to open the 2014-15 campaign:
Matt Moulson, Tyler Ennis, Drew Stafford
Cody Hodgson, Sam Reinhart, Brian Gionta
Marcus Foligno, Zemgus Girgensons, Chris Stewart
Nicolas Deslauriers, Cody McCormick, Torrey Mitchell
Josh Gorges, Tyler Myers
Andre Benoit, Andrej Meszaros
Mike Weber, Rasmus Ristolainen
Jhonas Enroth
In the Press Box--Brian Flynn, Tyson Strachan, Nikita Zadorov
That said, despite fortifying his roster with young-vets like Ryan O'Reilly, Evander Kane, Zach Bogosian and as of July, Kyle Okposo, he still has some holes to fill.
In June Murray took a calculated risk sending third-rounder to the Nashville Predators for the rights to Hobey Baker-winner, Jimmy Vesey. Although the Sabres gave it their best shot, Vesey (in a curious move considering what other teams had to offer) opted for the NY Rangers. The 6'3" 195 lb. Vesey would have had the opportunity to land in a top-six/top-nine role in Buffalo despite not having any pro experience.
With him out of the equation, there is a top-six slot on the left side that needs to be filled. How will Murray do it?
Let's take a look at the contenders.
Matt Moulson, Tyler Ennis, Drew Stafford
Cody Hodgson, Sam Reinhart, Brian Gionta
Marcus Foligno, Zemgus Girgensons, Chris Stewart
Nicolas Deslauriers, Cody McCormick, Torrey Mitchell
Josh Gorges, Tyler Myers
Andre Benoit, Andrej Meszaros
Mike Weber, Rasmus Ristolainen
Jhonas Enroth
In the Press Box--Brian Flynn, Tyson Strachan, Nikita Zadorov
That said, despite fortifying his roster with young-vets like Ryan O'Reilly, Evander Kane, Zach Bogosian and as of July, Kyle Okposo, he still has some holes to fill.
In June Murray took a calculated risk sending third-rounder to the Nashville Predators for the rights to Hobey Baker-winner, Jimmy Vesey. Although the Sabres gave it their best shot, Vesey (in a curious move considering what other teams had to offer) opted for the NY Rangers. The 6'3" 195 lb. Vesey would have had the opportunity to land in a top-six/top-nine role in Buffalo despite not having any pro experience.
With him out of the equation, there is a top-six slot on the left side that needs to be filled. How will Murray do it?
Let's take a look at the contenders.
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