Published by hockeybuzz.com, 5-10-2017
The Buffalo Sabres and NY Rangers in the 10th Anniversary NHL Winter Classic is awesome. Although it would have been even better if the Classic came back to Buffalo as the whole idea for it emanated from former Sabres president Larry Quinn, having it in the Big Apple makes for a prime-time show even if it's at Citi Field and not at Yankee Stadium, who hosted a Stadium Series game back in 2014.
Scheduling the Sabres to play in the 10th Anniversary of the NHL's preeminent outdoor event at this point in time seems to be more of an obligatory nod to Buffalo's hand in the creation of the event then a pick based upon showcasing the sport using two premier teams. The Sabres didn't exactly have the greatest of seasons in 2016-17, finishing 26th in the league, and are presently without a general manager and head coach. Buffalo has marketable players in Jack Eichel and Ryan O'Reilly, but their supporting consists of hits and misses so far.
Meanwhile the Rangers are coming off of yet another post season of disappointment as they were just ousted by the Ottawa Senators last night on home ice. Despite the loss and the fact that they're aging from the blueline back, the Rangers are always in it and there's no reason to believe they won't be back in the mix next season.
However, it's on come January 1, 2018. For Sabres fans willing to take the jaunt, those with season tickets will have the option to buy tickets for the game as it's considered a home game by the NHL schedule-makers. Why it's a home game is certainly questionable as the "home" team will be travelling close to 400 miles while the "away" team could walk to City Field, but who are we to question the wisdom of the NHL. Right?
*****
Two other second round playoff matches will end this evening as the NHL has a Game-7 doubleheader on tap. The first one, has the Pittsburgh Penguins in Washington DC to take on the Capitals while the Edmonton Oilers will be in Anaheim to take on the Ducks in the night-cap.
And for the Sabres, this could/should mean the official end to their GM search.
Penguins associate GM Jason Botterill has long been rumored as the choice but the announcement has been delayed due to Pittsburgh being in the midst of a second-round playoff match. Botterill has been credited with helping put together two Stanley Cup winners in Pittsburgh while pulling off a high-wire act on the NHL's salary cap.
With the amount of work to be done, it would behoove the Sabres to get their new GM in as quick as possible. Botterill, if hired, has the upcoming expansion draft to prepare for, followed by the NHL Entry Draft and in less that eight weeks the start of free agency. He'll have 20 free agent contracts to decide upon as well as decisions on entry-level contract for previous draft picks. In addition, three principal players will be heading into the final years of their contract. Eichel and fellow second-overall pick Sam Reinhart will be finishing up their entry-level deals while Evander Kane will be in the final year of a six-year deal he signed back in 2012 with the Winnipeg Jets. All three were top-five producers in one category or another for Buffalo last season. Plus No. 1 goalie Robin Lehner is a restricted free agent as well.
And there's this little thing about bringing in a head coach as well.
Welcome to the world of running your own team.
Botterill may end up bringing in Rick Tocchet as the Buffalo's coach, which would lighten the load a little bit. He'll still need to do interviews with other head coaching candidates and there are some young hot commodities on the market but Botterill knows Tocchet from having worked with him in Pittsburgh for nearly three years.
Whether the Sabres go in the direction of the Buffalo Bills, who now have two former Carolina Panthers as GM and head coach, remains to be seen, but Botterill, or whomever ends up being GM for the Sabres will have a pretty hectic schedule this off-season.
*****
We know Rick Tocchet was a helluva player who could both score and wreak havoc. We also know that he's respected as an assistant coach. We also know that having a checkered past, has never stopped any pro team from bringing in the person they want. Tocchet seems like a no-nonsense guy with plenty of knowledge and experience who should get the respect of his players, at least at the start.
But can he coach?
On the other side of the spectrum we have two potential first time head coaches in Phil Housley and Jim Montgomery who certainly know how to coach, at least at the lower levels, as they've won championships. Housley lead the Team USA to the gold in the 2013 World Junior Championships while Montgomery's Denver Pioneer's won the 2017 NCAA National Championship. Both have proven to have extensive knowledge and solid experience on the coaching side of the equation.
But will either get enough respect from players to allow their coaching acumen to shine through?
That's the conundrum the Sabres are in right now. With the tumult the team just went through in 2016-17 the incoming coach will not only be putting his stamp on the X's and O's aspect of the team, he'll also be juggling a diverse set of ego's that clashed in Buffalo last season. Knowing how to handle everything from alpha-male Eichel, to a reserved Reinhart and all points in between is nothing to be taken lightly. Players aren't stupid. They can smell a phony or incompetent from a mile away.
I like the idea of Tocchet in that I believe he'll get the full respect of the locker room, which may be the most important aspect of the job right now, but his stint in Tampa as their head coach was meh, at best.
Montgomery had his Denver Pioneers playing fast, aggressive hockey that overwhelmed their opponents. His style would fit perfectly in today's NHL.
I also really like what Housley has done as an assistant in Nashville with his mobile Predators. With his Hall of Fame career as a player and how he's worked his way up the ranks, I am of the opinion that he should be the front-runner for the Buffalo head coaching job.
But first things first, an announcement tomorrow as to who the new Sabres general manager will be.
Thursday, May 11, 2017
Wednesday, May 10, 2017
Why do I get the feeling Pens/Caps is going 7 games?
From this Buffalo
Perhaps it's the NHL not wanting, as Sabres beat writer Paul Hamilton said this morning on WGR550, to detract from a marquis matchup like Pittsburgh/Washington. Or maybe, from a fatalistic Buffalo sports' fan standpoint, the NHL just likes sticking it to Buffalo whenever they get the chance, especially in this rebuild/tank, Sabres-era. Although rather unlikely, there's been plenty of talk that the league was none too thrilled with how the team conducted itself during the Sabres consecutive last place finishes (especially with their former GM) and I wouldn't put it past them to make life difficult in less overt ways, like scheduling, or even making them wait on a potential GM who will have a ton on his plate once he's announced.
Whatever the reason, if Botterill is in fact the future GM in Buffalo, the Sabres will need to wait until the end of the Pittsburgh/Washington series and I get the feeling that this one might br headed for a seventh game.
The Penguins are at home for Game-6 with a 3-2 series lead and look to have Washington's number, but you never know. Someone or something might light a stick under Alexander Ovechkin's butt to get him playing a full 60 minutes and maybe, just maybe, the poor performances Caps goalie Brayden Holtby has had may have gotten turned around in Saturday's come-from-behind win for Washington. Add in the fact that it would drive the Pegulas and those of us in Sabreland a little batty while having to wait two more days for the official word on Botterill and the long odds of Washington winning in Pittsburgh tonight may have be a little less.
Which leads me to this, if this series goes to seven games and if Lemieux and the NHL are screwing around with Buffalo, I'm looking for a little poetic justice with the Pens in losing a series they should have won and losing a very talented front office person like Botterill in the process. It won't make up for lousy season the Sabres just had nor the string of bad breaks and/or bad luck the franchise has had ever since winning the rights to draft Gilbert Perreault, but at least maybe we can say goodbye to the last three years and begin again with a new GM and eyes firmly focused upon the future.
Based upon everything we've been hearing from the media and various
insiders, it's a foregone conclusion that Pittsburgh Penguins associate general manager Jason Botterill
has the job. Although no
official announcement has (or can?) been made a this time, all indications—from insider tweets to the
fact that Botterill was the only GM candidate to have a second interview with the
Sabres—we’re pretty sure he’s the man owners Terry and Kim Pegula want.
So why the hold up?
You got me.
Word on the street is that Penguins owner Mario Lemieux and
the NHL want to wait for Pittsburgh Pittsburgh
Perhaps it's the NHL not wanting, as Sabres beat writer Paul Hamilton said this morning on WGR550, to detract from a marquis matchup like Pittsburgh/Washington. Or maybe, from a fatalistic Buffalo sports' fan standpoint, the NHL just likes sticking it to Buffalo whenever they get the chance, especially in this rebuild/tank, Sabres-era. Although rather unlikely, there's been plenty of talk that the league was none too thrilled with how the team conducted itself during the Sabres consecutive last place finishes (especially with their former GM) and I wouldn't put it past them to make life difficult in less overt ways, like scheduling, or even making them wait on a potential GM who will have a ton on his plate once he's announced.
Whatever the reason, if Botterill is in fact the future GM in Buffalo, the Sabres will need to wait until the end of the Pittsburgh/Washington series and I get the feeling that this one might br headed for a seventh game.
The Penguins are at home for Game-6 with a 3-2 series lead and look to have Washington's number, but you never know. Someone or something might light a stick under Alexander Ovechkin's butt to get him playing a full 60 minutes and maybe, just maybe, the poor performances Caps goalie Brayden Holtby has had may have gotten turned around in Saturday's come-from-behind win for Washington. Add in the fact that it would drive the Pegulas and those of us in Sabreland a little batty while having to wait two more days for the official word on Botterill and the long odds of Washington winning in Pittsburgh tonight may have be a little less.
Monday, May 8, 2017
On Rick Tocchet
Published by hockeybuzz.com, 5-7-2017
"Discipline, structure and communication" were key words uttered more than once at Terry Pegula's press conference on the firing of his GM and coach a couple of weeks back. Pegula also added in "character" as another of his Sabres pillars of the Sabres moving forward. Such was the mandate from the owner of an NHL team that ended the 2016-17 season in disarray.
As the GM search drama continues with Pegula's Sabres, word on the street is that the Buffalo may be hiring two people from the Pittsburgh Penguins organization--AGM Jason Botterill and present assistant coach, Rick Tocchet.
Much has been said about Botterill as Buffalo's potential new GM but Tocchet is a new entry into the coaching search.
Tocchet certainly has the resume as an NHL player. He scored 952 points in 1144 NHL games, had 109 points (48+61) in 1992-93, played with and against some of the greats of that era and was on the Penguins 1992 Stanley Cup winning team. He also had 2972 penalty minutes ranking him 10th all-time, and it should be noted that his .832 points/game ranked him tops of any player in the top-20 on that list.
A former sixth-round pick of the Philadelphia Flyers (1983) Tocchet was a tough customer on the ice who could score as well and he carried on in the tradition of Flyers greats by winning the Bobby Clarke Trophy (1990.) According to HockeyFights.com, Tocchet was in 171 career fights including 15 in the post season and according to his Wiki page Tocchet is the NHL's leader in Gordie Howe hat tricks which is a goal, an assist and a fight in one game. Tocchet had 18, one ahead of Brendan Shanahan, who is now the President of the Toronto Maple Leafs and Brian Sutter.
Tocchet was a helluva player who had a rough time coaching his first go-round. He took over for Barry Melrose as head coach of the Tampa Bay Lightning in November, 2008 and was on the bench the following season before getting canned by new Lightning owner Jeffery Vinik in 2010. He had a record of 53-69-26, which may have been the result of him being a newbie coach trying to get his footing. Whether his firing was because of his record and/or because the new owner the wanted to bring in his own guy, he did leave a good impression upon his players after his short stint in Tampa.
From an April 12, 2010 Tampa Bay Times piece on his firing, author Damian Cristodero said "Tocchet, with a hands-on approach, gets credit for helping center Steven Stamkos to grow to his potential and for setting volatile right wing Steve Downie on the right course." In the case of Stamkos, Melrose, who's tenure in Tampa lasted all of 16 games, got into a feud with ownership saying that the 2008 first-overall pick wasn't ready for the NHL while owner Len Barrie was said to have been meddling while trying to get his franchise player into favorable positions on the ice. Stamkos went from 46 points in that tumultuous rookie season to 95 points the next season under Tocchet including 51 goals which tied Sidney Crosby for the league lead that year.
Downie was more noted for his abrasive style of play than anything else up until Tocchet became head coach. According to Cristodero, Downie had a "breakout year" under Tocchet's stewardship with 22 goals and was a team-best plus-14.
Lingering in the background, however, were criminal charges against Tocchet in 2006 for being a part of a "huge gambling ring" in New Jersey, according to a Pittsburgh Post-Gazette article. That story "became even bigger when authorities said that Janet Jones, the wife of hockey great Wayne Gretzky, and several current NHL players placed bets with the ring."
According to his Wiki page, Tocchet "pleaded guilty to conspiracy and promoting gambling" on May 25, 2007 and on August 7 he was sentenced to two years probation "in exchange for his plea." An investigation by the NHL found that the betting did not involve the league and on February 6, 2008 the NHL announced that Tocchet was "reinstated, and would serve as assistant coach the next day, exactly two years after taking a leave of absence."
It's been nearly a decade since that incident and with "character" being one of Pegula's apparent four pillars to build his team with, we're not sure if that would disqualify Tocchet, but would make for an interesting angle were Tocchet to be hired. At least when it comes to the "character" mandate handed down by Pegula.
However, from a hockey perspective, with Tocchet's style of play during a long, successful career, and with his apparent ability to reach players as diverse as Stamkos and Downie while head coach, he may be a good candidate to guide Buffalo through this difficult phase. Tocchet should be well respected in the Sabres dressing room and that might be the most important aspect of his hire at this juncture, should be he the guy. As an example, Jack Eichel and Evander Kane are two talents that seemingly need a coach like that to unflinchingly look them in the eye, and with a wealth of experience in hockey and in life backing his words, tell them straight up how he sees it.
Whether Tocchet can actually coach or not is the big question but getting the players respect is a huge hurdle that could go a long way towards winning more. It would seem as if he could have the discipline and structure aspects of Pegula's edict covered and perhaps through his checkered past Tocchet will be able to reach those who those who's character might be in question. Which is a good thing for a disjointed team like the Sabres who have a lot of talent that's just waiting to break out.
"Discipline, structure and communication" were key words uttered more than once at Terry Pegula's press conference on the firing of his GM and coach a couple of weeks back. Pegula also added in "character" as another of his Sabres pillars of the Sabres moving forward. Such was the mandate from the owner of an NHL team that ended the 2016-17 season in disarray.
As the GM search drama continues with Pegula's Sabres, word on the street is that the Buffalo may be hiring two people from the Pittsburgh Penguins organization--AGM Jason Botterill and present assistant coach, Rick Tocchet.
Much has been said about Botterill as Buffalo's potential new GM but Tocchet is a new entry into the coaching search.
Tocchet certainly has the resume as an NHL player. He scored 952 points in 1144 NHL games, had 109 points (48+61) in 1992-93, played with and against some of the greats of that era and was on the Penguins 1992 Stanley Cup winning team. He also had 2972 penalty minutes ranking him 10th all-time, and it should be noted that his .832 points/game ranked him tops of any player in the top-20 on that list.
A former sixth-round pick of the Philadelphia Flyers (1983) Tocchet was a tough customer on the ice who could score as well and he carried on in the tradition of Flyers greats by winning the Bobby Clarke Trophy (1990.) According to HockeyFights.com, Tocchet was in 171 career fights including 15 in the post season and according to his Wiki page Tocchet is the NHL's leader in Gordie Howe hat tricks which is a goal, an assist and a fight in one game. Tocchet had 18, one ahead of Brendan Shanahan, who is now the President of the Toronto Maple Leafs and Brian Sutter.
Tocchet was a helluva player who had a rough time coaching his first go-round. He took over for Barry Melrose as head coach of the Tampa Bay Lightning in November, 2008 and was on the bench the following season before getting canned by new Lightning owner Jeffery Vinik in 2010. He had a record of 53-69-26, which may have been the result of him being a newbie coach trying to get his footing. Whether his firing was because of his record and/or because the new owner the wanted to bring in his own guy, he did leave a good impression upon his players after his short stint in Tampa.
From an April 12, 2010 Tampa Bay Times piece on his firing, author Damian Cristodero said "Tocchet, with a hands-on approach, gets credit for helping center Steven Stamkos to grow to his potential and for setting volatile right wing Steve Downie on the right course." In the case of Stamkos, Melrose, who's tenure in Tampa lasted all of 16 games, got into a feud with ownership saying that the 2008 first-overall pick wasn't ready for the NHL while owner Len Barrie was said to have been meddling while trying to get his franchise player into favorable positions on the ice. Stamkos went from 46 points in that tumultuous rookie season to 95 points the next season under Tocchet including 51 goals which tied Sidney Crosby for the league lead that year.
Downie was more noted for his abrasive style of play than anything else up until Tocchet became head coach. According to Cristodero, Downie had a "breakout year" under Tocchet's stewardship with 22 goals and was a team-best plus-14.
Lingering in the background, however, were criminal charges against Tocchet in 2006 for being a part of a "huge gambling ring" in New Jersey, according to a Pittsburgh Post-Gazette article. That story "became even bigger when authorities said that Janet Jones, the wife of hockey great Wayne Gretzky, and several current NHL players placed bets with the ring."
According to his Wiki page, Tocchet "pleaded guilty to conspiracy and promoting gambling" on May 25, 2007 and on August 7 he was sentenced to two years probation "in exchange for his plea." An investigation by the NHL found that the betting did not involve the league and on February 6, 2008 the NHL announced that Tocchet was "reinstated, and would serve as assistant coach the next day, exactly two years after taking a leave of absence."
It's been nearly a decade since that incident and with "character" being one of Pegula's apparent four pillars to build his team with, we're not sure if that would disqualify Tocchet, but would make for an interesting angle were Tocchet to be hired. At least when it comes to the "character" mandate handed down by Pegula.
However, from a hockey perspective, with Tocchet's style of play during a long, successful career, and with his apparent ability to reach players as diverse as Stamkos and Downie while head coach, he may be a good candidate to guide Buffalo through this difficult phase. Tocchet should be well respected in the Sabres dressing room and that might be the most important aspect of his hire at this juncture, should be he the guy. As an example, Jack Eichel and Evander Kane are two talents that seemingly need a coach like that to unflinchingly look them in the eye, and with a wealth of experience in hockey and in life backing his words, tell them straight up how he sees it.
Whether Tocchet can actually coach or not is the big question but getting the players respect is a huge hurdle that could go a long way towards winning more. It would seem as if he could have the discipline and structure aspects of Pegula's edict covered and perhaps through his checkered past Tocchet will be able to reach those who those who's character might be in question. Which is a good thing for a disjointed team like the Sabres who have a lot of talent that's just waiting to break out.
Sunday, May 7, 2017
Broadcaster Don Stevens talks of Amerks, Sabres management, and prospects
Published by hockeybuzz.com, 5-5-2017
The Rochester Americans still felt the effects of the 2013-15 Buffalo Sabres talent purge as much of the talent and depth they expected to have last October was soon whisked away to Buffalo when Sabres' players succumbed to injury.
Such is the existence of an AHL team, when something happens to the big club, they reach down to the affiliate to fill their needs.
It was a rough year for the Sabres and one of the nails in the coffin of their 2016-17 season was lack of depth and/or a failure by management to bolster the roster with an outside transaction while stricken with a rash of injuries. Buffalo was rocked by injuries to key players up-front while at the same time injuries to the defense-corps were either depleting the lineup or inhibiting defensemen from doing their job properly. There was a point in time back in November when the Sabres started six players either scheduled to start the season in Rochester or had been recent call-ups from the Amerks, for three consecutive games bookended by another handful of games where five of those players started for the Sabres.
"Rochester West," was how long-time Amerks broadcaster Don Stevens described it. The Voice of the Rochester Americans chatted with me a couple weeks ago acknowledging that the job of the AHL club was as an NHL feeder and developer of talent but lamented the lack of depth in Rochester.
Stevens and I were in the midst of an interview on April 20 the day it was announced that the Sabres had just fired their GM and head coach. Looking from an Amerks perspective, Stevens saw it a s positive move in the right direction for the franchise. "They weren't building properly from this stage (the AHL) up," he told me, "or even below this stage (in the ECHL with the Elmira Jackals.) We need to have depth in the organization below this stage.
"You could see what happened when we'd lose a player or two players all of a sudden we'd go in the tank."
Such was the handiwork of former GM Tim Murray and what both I and Stevens couldn't understand is why the Sabres didn't bring in any outside help when they really needed it. The Sabres were running with around 45 of the allowable 50 pro contracts all season long and it was a head scratcher as to why those slots weren't used bolster depth. Stevens said at one point "nearly half the roster was first-year players or players on amateur tryout contracts." He said "one game they counted eight players on ATO's" and it's something that stuck in his craw.
Without delving into specifics Stevens said "there are certain reasons why [the firings] was a good move for the organization" and that the contract thing, along with the lack of depth, were parts of it.
All's not gloom and doom in the Saberland, however. There was continuity from Buffalo to Rochester on the ice as the players called up from Rochester fit seamlessly into the Sabres style of play. Many looked as if they belonged even if they couldn't maintain that higher level of play and contribute, beyond a handful of games. However, they did show why they were drafted and that they could at least hold their own at the NHL-level.
Here's some of those players who look to be the future of the Sabres and what Stevens had to say about them:
G, Linus Ullmark--The second-year pro was thrown into the fire early in the 2015-16 season when Sabres' starting goalie Robin Lehner went down in the first game of the season. This past season he was the undisputed No. 1 goalie for Rochester. His stat-line isn't great, but neither was the team in front of him as he faced a league-high 1,678 shots against. "He was just fantastic," said Stevens of Ullmark. "He kept us in 75-80% of the games while being drastically outshout all season long. He was just outstanding. He was hung out to dry many nights and he'd just keep us in the games."
Ullmark, said Stevens, "had a tremendous attitude this year. Win or lose he was cheerful, very supportive, friendly and worked well with the guys. They loved him and voted him the team MVP."
RW, Alex Nylander--At 18 yrs. old, Nylander was the youngest player in the AHL who Stevens said needs to grow physically. "He's not terribly short and he's not small," said Stevens, "but physically he's got to get stronger and bigger. I think he lacks confidence and part of it is because he's still somewhat of a boy playing against men."
When Nylander came up for a short end-of-season stint with Buffalo I told Stevens he looked like a waif compared to those he was playing against but that eventually he started to figure out how to maneuver himself around the NHL'ers without getting killed. "That's what I'm talking about," replied Stevens, "confidence. He's so worried about not getting killed, sometimes he's not doing the things he needs to do and stays away from the physical contact." Stevens said Nylander has the skills saying "he looks like he'll be a good one," but that bulking up is the first step on the way to more confidence which will bring out his skills.
D, Brady Austin--It was the second time Stevens used the word confidence when talking specifically about a player. When Austin came up to the Sabres late in the season it looked like a token call-up based upon the numbers he put up in Rochester. But he turned some heads while in Buffalo.
Austin skates extremely well for a stay-at-home d-man clocking in a 6'3" and 227 lbs. "He's not so flashy in that he makes himself standout," said Stevens, "he just plays the game solid, is there game-in, game-out. The thing is he has the ability to do the flash. You'll see him on occasion take a rush and you're sitting there with your mouth open and you can't believe he just did that. He has that ability but I don't think he has the confidence yet."
RW, Nick Baptiste and Justin Bailey--Baptiste, a second-year pro has the size (6'1", 206 lbs) and the speed to have an impact at the NHL-level and has developed well through 121 games at the AHL-level. Last season he made great strides scoring 25 goals in 59 games for the Amerks, which Stevens acknowledged but he also pointed out that both he and fellow RW Justin Bailey, who's also fast and skilled and has an NHL frame, are having certain problems in one area.
Both are very fast skaters but on occasion their skill can't keep up with their skating. "They overskate their game," said Stevens, "and they have a little bit of trouble with puck control and puck movement. They both were getting better at it, but they still need to work on that."
D, Casey Nelson--Sometimes you just can't mince words. Nelson was terrible for Buffalo in his first eight games with the club this season and it took him a while to regain his footing in Rochester. But he finished strong to the point where Stevens thought Nelson should have been acknowledged as the most improved player on the Amerks. "The last four or five weeks of the season he came on strong," said Stevens. "I think he needs another year here. He's not all that big and he's got to gain some strength, but he looks like he could be a good prospect."
LW, Evan Rodrigues--Rodrigues, like Nelson, is an undrafted college free agent signed by Buffalo. He struggled in his first pro season, made an impression in two games played for the Sabres and was back at it this past season in Rochester. Although the numbers weren't there early in the season, Rodrigues, according to Stevens, "played very well. He finished strong his first season and picked up right where he left off this year. He got the call to Buffalo and played even better.
"Overall," continued Stevens, "I think he had an outstanding year and certainly has made a case for him to win a full-time job [in Buffalo.]"
One thing about Stevens is that he's a firm believer in having players play in the AHL for their proper development. There are exceptions like the Jack Eichel's of the hockey world, but most of the others stand to benefit from playing at the lower levels where there's more room to make mistakes and the spotlight is much dimmer. Stevens said that about all the prospects including defenseman Brendan Guhle, who looks to be in a strong position to be a part of the defense-corps for the Sabres.
Stevens will have another group of Amerks players to watch next season as change is sure to come, at least from a player standpoint, but he is hoping that Amerks players like Cole Schneider, who's already voiced his readiness to come back, Tim Kennedy and Justin Vaive will return as cornerstones for next year's team. He also mentioned that he'd like to see head coach Dan Lambert return saying, "I'd love to see him back. I thought he and his coaches did an excellent job with what they put up with." But it's the AHL, and you're at the mercy of the parent club and things rarely work out the way you planned them.
The Rochester Americans still felt the effects of the 2013-15 Buffalo Sabres talent purge as much of the talent and depth they expected to have last October was soon whisked away to Buffalo when Sabres' players succumbed to injury.
Such is the existence of an AHL team, when something happens to the big club, they reach down to the affiliate to fill their needs.
It was a rough year for the Sabres and one of the nails in the coffin of their 2016-17 season was lack of depth and/or a failure by management to bolster the roster with an outside transaction while stricken with a rash of injuries. Buffalo was rocked by injuries to key players up-front while at the same time injuries to the defense-corps were either depleting the lineup or inhibiting defensemen from doing their job properly. There was a point in time back in November when the Sabres started six players either scheduled to start the season in Rochester or had been recent call-ups from the Amerks, for three consecutive games bookended by another handful of games where five of those players started for the Sabres.
"Rochester West," was how long-time Amerks broadcaster Don Stevens described it. The Voice of the Rochester Americans chatted with me a couple weeks ago acknowledging that the job of the AHL club was as an NHL feeder and developer of talent but lamented the lack of depth in Rochester.
Stevens and I were in the midst of an interview on April 20 the day it was announced that the Sabres had just fired their GM and head coach. Looking from an Amerks perspective, Stevens saw it a s positive move in the right direction for the franchise. "They weren't building properly from this stage (the AHL) up," he told me, "or even below this stage (in the ECHL with the Elmira Jackals.) We need to have depth in the organization below this stage.
"You could see what happened when we'd lose a player or two players all of a sudden we'd go in the tank."
Such was the handiwork of former GM Tim Murray and what both I and Stevens couldn't understand is why the Sabres didn't bring in any outside help when they really needed it. The Sabres were running with around 45 of the allowable 50 pro contracts all season long and it was a head scratcher as to why those slots weren't used bolster depth. Stevens said at one point "nearly half the roster was first-year players or players on amateur tryout contracts." He said "one game they counted eight players on ATO's" and it's something that stuck in his craw.
Without delving into specifics Stevens said "there are certain reasons why [the firings] was a good move for the organization" and that the contract thing, along with the lack of depth, were parts of it.
All's not gloom and doom in the Saberland, however. There was continuity from Buffalo to Rochester on the ice as the players called up from Rochester fit seamlessly into the Sabres style of play. Many looked as if they belonged even if they couldn't maintain that higher level of play and contribute, beyond a handful of games. However, they did show why they were drafted and that they could at least hold their own at the NHL-level.
Here's some of those players who look to be the future of the Sabres and what Stevens had to say about them:
G, Linus Ullmark--The second-year pro was thrown into the fire early in the 2015-16 season when Sabres' starting goalie Robin Lehner went down in the first game of the season. This past season he was the undisputed No. 1 goalie for Rochester. His stat-line isn't great, but neither was the team in front of him as he faced a league-high 1,678 shots against. "He was just fantastic," said Stevens of Ullmark. "He kept us in 75-80% of the games while being drastically outshout all season long. He was just outstanding. He was hung out to dry many nights and he'd just keep us in the games."
Ullmark, said Stevens, "had a tremendous attitude this year. Win or lose he was cheerful, very supportive, friendly and worked well with the guys. They loved him and voted him the team MVP."
RW, Alex Nylander--At 18 yrs. old, Nylander was the youngest player in the AHL who Stevens said needs to grow physically. "He's not terribly short and he's not small," said Stevens, "but physically he's got to get stronger and bigger. I think he lacks confidence and part of it is because he's still somewhat of a boy playing against men."
When Nylander came up for a short end-of-season stint with Buffalo I told Stevens he looked like a waif compared to those he was playing against but that eventually he started to figure out how to maneuver himself around the NHL'ers without getting killed. "That's what I'm talking about," replied Stevens, "confidence. He's so worried about not getting killed, sometimes he's not doing the things he needs to do and stays away from the physical contact." Stevens said Nylander has the skills saying "he looks like he'll be a good one," but that bulking up is the first step on the way to more confidence which will bring out his skills.
D, Brady Austin--It was the second time Stevens used the word confidence when talking specifically about a player. When Austin came up to the Sabres late in the season it looked like a token call-up based upon the numbers he put up in Rochester. But he turned some heads while in Buffalo.
Austin skates extremely well for a stay-at-home d-man clocking in a 6'3" and 227 lbs. "He's not so flashy in that he makes himself standout," said Stevens, "he just plays the game solid, is there game-in, game-out. The thing is he has the ability to do the flash. You'll see him on occasion take a rush and you're sitting there with your mouth open and you can't believe he just did that. He has that ability but I don't think he has the confidence yet."
RW, Nick Baptiste and Justin Bailey--Baptiste, a second-year pro has the size (6'1", 206 lbs) and the speed to have an impact at the NHL-level and has developed well through 121 games at the AHL-level. Last season he made great strides scoring 25 goals in 59 games for the Amerks, which Stevens acknowledged but he also pointed out that both he and fellow RW Justin Bailey, who's also fast and skilled and has an NHL frame, are having certain problems in one area.
Both are very fast skaters but on occasion their skill can't keep up with their skating. "They overskate their game," said Stevens, "and they have a little bit of trouble with puck control and puck movement. They both were getting better at it, but they still need to work on that."
D, Casey Nelson--Sometimes you just can't mince words. Nelson was terrible for Buffalo in his first eight games with the club this season and it took him a while to regain his footing in Rochester. But he finished strong to the point where Stevens thought Nelson should have been acknowledged as the most improved player on the Amerks. "The last four or five weeks of the season he came on strong," said Stevens. "I think he needs another year here. He's not all that big and he's got to gain some strength, but he looks like he could be a good prospect."
LW, Evan Rodrigues--Rodrigues, like Nelson, is an undrafted college free agent signed by Buffalo. He struggled in his first pro season, made an impression in two games played for the Sabres and was back at it this past season in Rochester. Although the numbers weren't there early in the season, Rodrigues, according to Stevens, "played very well. He finished strong his first season and picked up right where he left off this year. He got the call to Buffalo and played even better.
"Overall," continued Stevens, "I think he had an outstanding year and certainly has made a case for him to win a full-time job [in Buffalo.]"
One thing about Stevens is that he's a firm believer in having players play in the AHL for their proper development. There are exceptions like the Jack Eichel's of the hockey world, but most of the others stand to benefit from playing at the lower levels where there's more room to make mistakes and the spotlight is much dimmer. Stevens said that about all the prospects including defenseman Brendan Guhle, who looks to be in a strong position to be a part of the defense-corps for the Sabres.
Stevens will have another group of Amerks players to watch next season as change is sure to come, at least from a player standpoint, but he is hoping that Amerks players like Cole Schneider, who's already voiced his readiness to come back, Tim Kennedy and Justin Vaive will return as cornerstones for next year's team. He also mentioned that he'd like to see head coach Dan Lambert return saying, "I'd love to see him back. I thought he and his coaches did an excellent job with what they put up with." But it's the AHL, and you're at the mercy of the parent club and things rarely work out the way you planned them.
Friday, May 5, 2017
On Sabres GM front-runner, Jason Botterill
Published by hockeybuzz, 5-4-2017
Perhaps the Buffalo Sabres and the Pegulas were due for a little luck and perhaps that luck, timed well with their present general managers opening, lead them to the path they're seemingly on now.
At the end of the Sabres 2016-17 season the laundry list of negatives emanating from KeyBank Center included GM Tim Murray, who'd done some good things and done some bad, but from media reports didn't have enough answers for owners Terry and Kim Pegula to move forward with. So on April 20th the Pegulas fired him along with his coach which created a GM opening for the Sabres.
The Pegulas, with Terry unabashedly stating he'd be involved the GM search unlike before, reportedly have interviewed at least seven candidates for the vacant GM position, none of them with experience as an NHL general manager. It was a curious move considering Terry Pegula had just fired a first-time NHL GM and at that presser mentioned that "experience" would be a part of the equation.
According to a source, of the candidates interviewed, the Pegulas were enamored with three--Jason Botterill and Bill Guerin, both with the Pittsburgh Penguins and Craig Conroy from the Calgary Flames. But only one so far has reportedly come back for a second interview--Botterill--and with the Pegulas beginning to head another search, this time for their open GM position with the Buffalo Bills, all roads seem to lead to Botterill as the front-runner to becoming the Sabres eighth general manager.
Amongst first-time GM's, Botterill definitely has the resume. He's a former first round pick (1994) who played until concussion issues lead to his retirement in 2005 at the age of 28. He started his post-playing career with the team that drafted him, the Dallas Stars, received his MBA in economics from the University of Michigan in 2007 and was hired as director of hockey administration by the Penguins after graduating that year. The Pens promoted him to assistant general manager less than two years later and on June 6, 2014 he was named associate GM with the club, a position he's held since.
While rising through the ranks Botterill was credited with having a strong hand in helping build GM Ray Shero's 2009 Stanley Cup-winning team and was also right-hand man for GM Jim Rutherford when the Pens won again in 2016. In addition to personnel successes, which includes bringing present Pens bench-boss Mike Sullivan into the organization, Botterill knows the in's and out's of the CBA and is considered a salary-cap guru who's mastery of the cap has allowed Pittsburgh to remain perennial Cup-contenders while annually dancing on the edges it.
It's no wonder that after the Penguins won the Cup in 2016 that Botterill was amongst the candidates being considered for the GM position of the expansion Las Vegas Golden Knights. The Knights, however, went with experience and hired George McPhee a long-time hockey man whose roots in the NHL date back to 1983 as a player with the NY Rangers.
One team's loss could end up being another's gain as Buffalo may have gotten lucky when the Knights passed on a first-timer like Botterill and went with the experience of McPhee.
Simple fact is, no one knows how things will pan out for a first-time GM. We just witnessed that with Murray. But if that's the determined route a franchise is taking, hiring one that's been with two Cup-winning teams in Pittsburgh who've also remained Cup-contenders while he made key decisions, makes for a pretty strong resume.
When the Edmonton Oilers were searching for a GM back in 2012, Botterill's name was already being mentioned and Jonathan Willis of the Edmonton Journal gave us a nice outline of the Edmonton native's GM plusses and minuses. Within his short synopsis Willis noted that in addition to Botterill's known qualities as an assistant GM in Pittsburgh, "he’s also in charge of knowing the entire league – where teams are coming from, their respective salary cap situations, their internal pressures and weaknesses," as cited by a piece from Mike Colligan of The Hockey Writers.
Colligan called it "The Botterill Factor" in a 2011 multi-part series called, Penguins Blueprint, and after a quick introduction he began with the quandary facing Pittsburgh as they headed towards the 2011 trade deadline. "Botterill and Shero face a near-impossible task," wrote Colligan at the time. "In just ten days they’ll attempt to overhaul an offensive group they spent most of the season simply preparing to tweak. Almost a dozen players are missing from the Penguins lineup due to injuries and suspensions, most notably irreplaceable stars Evgeni Malkin and Sidney Crosby."
The Penguins ended up trading for Dallas Stars forward James Neal with Shero leaning on Botterill's leg-work before pulling the trigger. “A big part of my job," Botterill told Colligan, "is giving Ray an understanding about what’s going on in the league. If he’s talking to Team X, he needs to know where they are with the [salary] cap. He needs to know if they have a player coming back from long-term injury so they’ll be looking to move a defenseman. Just making sure when he goes into these conversations with other GM’s he has a clear understanding of what their thought processes are and what their salary cap situation is.”
Cap-management and preparedness are big ones for the Sabres and so is creating a winning environment, which Botterill knows about from Pittsburgh. But the Sabres also need a GM to attract and develop talent. A new GM in Buffalo will need guide the development of the prospect pool which will (hopefully) have waves of prospects coming through the system via the 2013-16 drafts.
Time and again we've seen the Penguins bring up young players that leave us in Sabreland asking, "Where's our Connor Sheary (undrafted FA, 2014) or Jake Guentzel (2013, third round) or Bryan Rust (2010, third round)?" All of those fit right in and are having big-time success at the NHL level but were developed in Wilkes-Barre/Scranton, home of the Penguins' AHL team which Botterill oversaw.
Although scouting is not his forte, Botterill directed the scouts to find players to fit the system the Penguins played. “There’s certain traits that we’ve talked a lot about and tried to emphasize with our scouts,” Botterill told Colligan in another part of his the Blueprint Series. “We look for good hockey sense. The ability to skate well. We play a system that’s fairly up-tempo, so the players need the ability to keep up with that pace of play."
But it's not limited to that. “Then we’re also looking for intangibles," he continued. "We want to see a certain compete level, on and off the ice. Are they going to get bigger and stronger? Also, our mandate here is we have to win Stanley Cups so we ask ‘Do these players have a track record at all? Have they played and been successful in big games?”
At 40 years old, Botterill knows the game well but isn't a dinosaur clinging to by-gone ways of the NHL past which is good news for those on both sides of the battle between analytics and the eye-test. He learned to use both criteria when evaluating players. "What Ray [Shero] has developed here is he wants his scouts involved with stats, but we also want input from the scouts on ‘what are your eyes seeing, what is your projection on this player?’" said Botterill, "and that’s how we go about trying to evaluate a player.
"I’m going to look deeply into the stats and try to figure out any trends that he has or how his stats compare to other players out on the market, but I’m also going to rely heavily on my coaching staff and how they see his development as a player, and also the scouts on what they see from his development standpoint and who else is out there.”
It's not hard to see why Botterill is the leading candidate for Buffalo's open GM position. He knows the game from having played it, he had the foresight to plan for life after hockey and earned an MBA which lead him to the front office and he was a big part of helping build the Penguins' Cup teams. He's well-versed in the CBA, has a grasp of players and what makes them tick and has been a part of an organization in Pittsburgh that's always close to the cap-ceiling so he knows the numbers game. He uses new tools like analytics but also relies heavily on the eye-test.
Botterill also has a championship tradition. In addition to the Pittsburgh's two Stanley Cups with him in the front office, as a player he was on three consecutive Team Canada World Junior Championship gold medal teams (1994-96) and was also a part of the Michigan Wolverine 1996 NCAA National Championship team.
He seems to be about as well-rounded a candidate as one could find.
As with Murray and a long list of other first-time GM's, no one knows for sure how it might work out in Buffalo with him in charge. It's a whole different world when you're the man. Not only is there a learning curve involved but in Buffalo's case, there's a ton of work to be done in a very short period of time. Botterill, or any other GM signing on with the Sabres, will need to use every bit of experience and every resource in his tool box just to get this team on solid footing for the upcoming season.
It's part of the reason many thought that the Sabres would look towards a GM with vast experience. Such doesn't seem to be the case and if the Pegula's wish to go the first-time GM route, Botterill seems to fit what they and the team might be looking for.
Much thanks to Mike Colligan for some outstanding work which helped immensely in putting this together. And thanks to Jonathan Willis who's short piece lead to the discovery of Colligan.
Perhaps the Buffalo Sabres and the Pegulas were due for a little luck and perhaps that luck, timed well with their present general managers opening, lead them to the path they're seemingly on now.
At the end of the Sabres 2016-17 season the laundry list of negatives emanating from KeyBank Center included GM Tim Murray, who'd done some good things and done some bad, but from media reports didn't have enough answers for owners Terry and Kim Pegula to move forward with. So on April 20th the Pegulas fired him along with his coach which created a GM opening for the Sabres.
The Pegulas, with Terry unabashedly stating he'd be involved the GM search unlike before, reportedly have interviewed at least seven candidates for the vacant GM position, none of them with experience as an NHL general manager. It was a curious move considering Terry Pegula had just fired a first-time NHL GM and at that presser mentioned that "experience" would be a part of the equation.
According to a source, of the candidates interviewed, the Pegulas were enamored with three--Jason Botterill and Bill Guerin, both with the Pittsburgh Penguins and Craig Conroy from the Calgary Flames. But only one so far has reportedly come back for a second interview--Botterill--and with the Pegulas beginning to head another search, this time for their open GM position with the Buffalo Bills, all roads seem to lead to Botterill as the front-runner to becoming the Sabres eighth general manager.
Amongst first-time GM's, Botterill definitely has the resume. He's a former first round pick (1994) who played until concussion issues lead to his retirement in 2005 at the age of 28. He started his post-playing career with the team that drafted him, the Dallas Stars, received his MBA in economics from the University of Michigan in 2007 and was hired as director of hockey administration by the Penguins after graduating that year. The Pens promoted him to assistant general manager less than two years later and on June 6, 2014 he was named associate GM with the club, a position he's held since.
While rising through the ranks Botterill was credited with having a strong hand in helping build GM Ray Shero's 2009 Stanley Cup-winning team and was also right-hand man for GM Jim Rutherford when the Pens won again in 2016. In addition to personnel successes, which includes bringing present Pens bench-boss Mike Sullivan into the organization, Botterill knows the in's and out's of the CBA and is considered a salary-cap guru who's mastery of the cap has allowed Pittsburgh to remain perennial Cup-contenders while annually dancing on the edges it.
It's no wonder that after the Penguins won the Cup in 2016 that Botterill was amongst the candidates being considered for the GM position of the expansion Las Vegas Golden Knights. The Knights, however, went with experience and hired George McPhee a long-time hockey man whose roots in the NHL date back to 1983 as a player with the NY Rangers.
One team's loss could end up being another's gain as Buffalo may have gotten lucky when the Knights passed on a first-timer like Botterill and went with the experience of McPhee.
Simple fact is, no one knows how things will pan out for a first-time GM. We just witnessed that with Murray. But if that's the determined route a franchise is taking, hiring one that's been with two Cup-winning teams in Pittsburgh who've also remained Cup-contenders while he made key decisions, makes for a pretty strong resume.
When the Edmonton Oilers were searching for a GM back in 2012, Botterill's name was already being mentioned and Jonathan Willis of the Edmonton Journal gave us a nice outline of the Edmonton native's GM plusses and minuses. Within his short synopsis Willis noted that in addition to Botterill's known qualities as an assistant GM in Pittsburgh, "he’s also in charge of knowing the entire league – where teams are coming from, their respective salary cap situations, their internal pressures and weaknesses," as cited by a piece from Mike Colligan of The Hockey Writers.
Colligan called it "The Botterill Factor" in a 2011 multi-part series called, Penguins Blueprint, and after a quick introduction he began with the quandary facing Pittsburgh as they headed towards the 2011 trade deadline. "Botterill and Shero face a near-impossible task," wrote Colligan at the time. "In just ten days they’ll attempt to overhaul an offensive group they spent most of the season simply preparing to tweak. Almost a dozen players are missing from the Penguins lineup due to injuries and suspensions, most notably irreplaceable stars Evgeni Malkin and Sidney Crosby."
The Penguins ended up trading for Dallas Stars forward James Neal with Shero leaning on Botterill's leg-work before pulling the trigger. “A big part of my job," Botterill told Colligan, "is giving Ray an understanding about what’s going on in the league. If he’s talking to Team X, he needs to know where they are with the [salary] cap. He needs to know if they have a player coming back from long-term injury so they’ll be looking to move a defenseman. Just making sure when he goes into these conversations with other GM’s he has a clear understanding of what their thought processes are and what their salary cap situation is.”
Cap-management and preparedness are big ones for the Sabres and so is creating a winning environment, which Botterill knows about from Pittsburgh. But the Sabres also need a GM to attract and develop talent. A new GM in Buffalo will need guide the development of the prospect pool which will (hopefully) have waves of prospects coming through the system via the 2013-16 drafts.
Time and again we've seen the Penguins bring up young players that leave us in Sabreland asking, "Where's our Connor Sheary (undrafted FA, 2014) or Jake Guentzel (2013, third round) or Bryan Rust (2010, third round)?" All of those fit right in and are having big-time success at the NHL level but were developed in Wilkes-Barre/Scranton, home of the Penguins' AHL team which Botterill oversaw.
Although scouting is not his forte, Botterill directed the scouts to find players to fit the system the Penguins played. “There’s certain traits that we’ve talked a lot about and tried to emphasize with our scouts,” Botterill told Colligan in another part of his the Blueprint Series. “We look for good hockey sense. The ability to skate well. We play a system that’s fairly up-tempo, so the players need the ability to keep up with that pace of play."
But it's not limited to that. “Then we’re also looking for intangibles," he continued. "We want to see a certain compete level, on and off the ice. Are they going to get bigger and stronger? Also, our mandate here is we have to win Stanley Cups so we ask ‘Do these players have a track record at all? Have they played and been successful in big games?”
At 40 years old, Botterill knows the game well but isn't a dinosaur clinging to by-gone ways of the NHL past which is good news for those on both sides of the battle between analytics and the eye-test. He learned to use both criteria when evaluating players. "What Ray [Shero] has developed here is he wants his scouts involved with stats, but we also want input from the scouts on ‘what are your eyes seeing, what is your projection on this player?’" said Botterill, "and that’s how we go about trying to evaluate a player.
"I’m going to look deeply into the stats and try to figure out any trends that he has or how his stats compare to other players out on the market, but I’m also going to rely heavily on my coaching staff and how they see his development as a player, and also the scouts on what they see from his development standpoint and who else is out there.”
It's not hard to see why Botterill is the leading candidate for Buffalo's open GM position. He knows the game from having played it, he had the foresight to plan for life after hockey and earned an MBA which lead him to the front office and he was a big part of helping build the Penguins' Cup teams. He's well-versed in the CBA, has a grasp of players and what makes them tick and has been a part of an organization in Pittsburgh that's always close to the cap-ceiling so he knows the numbers game. He uses new tools like analytics but also relies heavily on the eye-test.
Botterill also has a championship tradition. In addition to the Pittsburgh's two Stanley Cups with him in the front office, as a player he was on three consecutive Team Canada World Junior Championship gold medal teams (1994-96) and was also a part of the Michigan Wolverine 1996 NCAA National Championship team.
He seems to be about as well-rounded a candidate as one could find.
As with Murray and a long list of other first-time GM's, no one knows for sure how it might work out in Buffalo with him in charge. It's a whole different world when you're the man. Not only is there a learning curve involved but in Buffalo's case, there's a ton of work to be done in a very short period of time. Botterill, or any other GM signing on with the Sabres, will need to use every bit of experience and every resource in his tool box just to get this team on solid footing for the upcoming season.
It's part of the reason many thought that the Sabres would look towards a GM with vast experience. Such doesn't seem to be the case and if the Pegula's wish to go the first-time GM route, Botterill seems to fit what they and the team might be looking for.
Much thanks to Mike Colligan for some outstanding work which helped immensely in putting this together. And thanks to Jonathan Willis who's short piece lead to the discovery of Colligan.
Thursday, May 4, 2017
Keeping up with the Pegulas. Plus other Sabres stuff
Published by hockeybuzz.com, 5-3-2017
Although they'll never keep up with the Kardashians as a (silly) reality show and social media dynasty, the Pegula's, Terry and Kim have their own dynasty centered around land development, sports, and music that's growing bigger by the day. Recently Pegula Sports and Entertainment just announced ventures with Labatt USA and Uber, however the areas of interest for us Buffalo sports fans is the ongoing saga with their two major sports frachises--the NHL's Buffalo Sabres and the NFL's Buffalo Bills--both of which are ships without a captain at this time.
After two very disappointing seasons from both the Sabres and the Bills, the Pegulas ended up firing both of their GM's within a matter of a week-and-a-half. One, hockey GM Tim Murray, was a surprise firing not long after the Sabres season ended while Bills GM Doug Whaley was fired 10 days later after the completion of he three-day NFL Draft. Oh to have a camera rolling as Terry and Kim, along with other insiders like PSE President Russ Brandon, discussed the futures of those two and the franchises in general.
Regardless of the lack of reality show appeal, the reality for the Pegulas centers around getting their franchises out of the dregs. And there's a ton of work to do.
What's been going on with the Pegula's and their sports teams?
--The Sabres are getting closer to finding their general manager and although there's not been an official count of who they've interviewed so far, piecing things together via twitter and media reports has the total at six or more. But the big development is the Sabres reportedly bringing in Pittsburgh Penguins AGM Jason Botterill for a second interview. From what I've been told, the Pegulas were very impressed with him, fellow Penguins front office-man Bill Guerin and Calgary Flames AGM Craig Conroy during their respective interviews.
--As for the Bills GM search, things are just getting started. The Pegulas, in conjunction with head coach Sean McDermott, are said to be very interested in Carolina Panthers AGM Brandon Beane, whom McDermott worked with while in Carolina, and it's also been reported that Houston Texans director of player personnel, Brian Gaine is slated for an interview tomorrow.
--Be it known that contrary to popular belief, Sabres franchise center Jack Eichel is not involved in the search for either GM. He's busy in Germany and France playing for Team USA in the IIHF Ice Hockey World Championships. Eichel was on the top line with wingers Anders Lee (NYI) and Johnny Gadreau (CGY) for USA as they had a tune-up game. Eichel scored with his a wicked-wrister 1:24 into the game. The real bullets fly beginning on Friday.
--Fellow Sabres Ryan O'Reilly is on Team Canada in the tournament. O'Reilly was playing right wing on the top line which is becoming the norm for him in international play.
--We all know the story of Evander Kane getting into some trouble last June while Buffalo was hosting the NHL Entry Draft. Kane and his attorney made a plea agreement with Buffalo City Court Judge Barbara Johnson-Lee who last fall, according to the Buffalo News, ordered an adjournment in contemplation of dismissal of the charges. Kane kept his nose clean and charges were dismissed. Now the big question. With one year left on his contract and a reported strong disliking of him by Kim Pegula (and presumably, Terry as well) where does the talented winger end up? Many (like myself) would like to see him extended at a reasonable rate and term while others can't wait for him to be moved.
--Speaking of things being moved, TBN's Mike Harrington wants the Sabres to move the eighth-overall pick in the NHL Draft. The reasoning, "Winning next year has to be an immediate priority and improving the blueline is paramount." Harrington wants the new GM to package the first-rounder to a "defense-rich" team to land an "NHL-level" defenseman. By NHL-level, I'm assuming he means at least a top-four.
--Harrington has a solid foundation for his beliefs, but perhaps it's a tad early to go for the immediacy of NHL-level help on the blueline. The Sabres have the eighth pick which should land them one of the top three defensemen in the draft. Although there aren't any marquis names in this draft, ala McDavid/Eichel, Matthews/Laine, it's a draft where an incubation period is to be expected for most prospects. Word from the draft pundits is that there are some talented d-men in the draft that are pretty much equal but have different traits. I get the idea that patience sux for those of us in Sabreland, but perhaps we should let the new GM get a draft under his belt and get a feel for what he has before moving a first-rounder.
--UMASS commit Cale Makar, Tri-City (WHL) defenseman Juuso Valimaki and Swedish Super Elit d-man Timothy Liljegren are generally seen atop the group of d-prospects and dependent upon what those in front of the Sabres do, any or all could be there when the Sabres pick at No. 8.
--On Sunday Terry Pegula announced that not only did he fire his football GM, but also the entire Bills scouting department. With that in mind and the NHL Draft fast approaching, Sabres fans are worried about the team heading into this draft without a GM and a scouting department that might be on edge. The Buffalo News put fears to rest with an article saying that a massive overhaul of the scouting department isn't in the cards in Buffalo. As for the GM not being on board yet with the draft less than two months away, the scouting department has their lists and should be gathering soon to compare notes. And we should also not forget that Kevin Devine is still on board. Devine, a former Sabres AGM and Head Amateur Scout, has run drafts before so there shouldn't be that much to worry about in that department.
--Finally, amidst the positives coming out of PSE in the form of the Labatt and UBER joint ventures, the NHL announced that their Draft Combine will remain in Buffalo for 2019. The combine moved from Toronto to Buffalo in 2015 with the Sabres putting on quite the show downtown. HARBORCENTER with it's spaciousness and proximity to KeyBank Center plus two Marriotts right on the doorstep, makes an ideal setting for the combine, NHL reps, the media and attendees.
Although they'll never keep up with the Kardashians as a (silly) reality show and social media dynasty, the Pegula's, Terry and Kim have their own dynasty centered around land development, sports, and music that's growing bigger by the day. Recently Pegula Sports and Entertainment just announced ventures with Labatt USA and Uber, however the areas of interest for us Buffalo sports fans is the ongoing saga with their two major sports frachises--the NHL's Buffalo Sabres and the NFL's Buffalo Bills--both of which are ships without a captain at this time.
After two very disappointing seasons from both the Sabres and the Bills, the Pegulas ended up firing both of their GM's within a matter of a week-and-a-half. One, hockey GM Tim Murray, was a surprise firing not long after the Sabres season ended while Bills GM Doug Whaley was fired 10 days later after the completion of he three-day NFL Draft. Oh to have a camera rolling as Terry and Kim, along with other insiders like PSE President Russ Brandon, discussed the futures of those two and the franchises in general.
Regardless of the lack of reality show appeal, the reality for the Pegulas centers around getting their franchises out of the dregs. And there's a ton of work to do.
What's been going on with the Pegula's and their sports teams?
--The Sabres are getting closer to finding their general manager and although there's not been an official count of who they've interviewed so far, piecing things together via twitter and media reports has the total at six or more. But the big development is the Sabres reportedly bringing in Pittsburgh Penguins AGM Jason Botterill for a second interview. From what I've been told, the Pegulas were very impressed with him, fellow Penguins front office-man Bill Guerin and Calgary Flames AGM Craig Conroy during their respective interviews.
--As for the Bills GM search, things are just getting started. The Pegulas, in conjunction with head coach Sean McDermott, are said to be very interested in Carolina Panthers AGM Brandon Beane, whom McDermott worked with while in Carolina, and it's also been reported that Houston Texans director of player personnel, Brian Gaine is slated for an interview tomorrow.
--Be it known that contrary to popular belief, Sabres franchise center Jack Eichel is not involved in the search for either GM. He's busy in Germany and France playing for Team USA in the IIHF Ice Hockey World Championships. Eichel was on the top line with wingers Anders Lee (NYI) and Johnny Gadreau (CGY) for USA as they had a tune-up game. Eichel scored with his a wicked-wrister 1:24 into the game. The real bullets fly beginning on Friday.
--Fellow Sabres Ryan O'Reilly is on Team Canada in the tournament. O'Reilly was playing right wing on the top line which is becoming the norm for him in international play.
--We all know the story of Evander Kane getting into some trouble last June while Buffalo was hosting the NHL Entry Draft. Kane and his attorney made a plea agreement with Buffalo City Court Judge Barbara Johnson-Lee who last fall, according to the Buffalo News, ordered an adjournment in contemplation of dismissal of the charges. Kane kept his nose clean and charges were dismissed. Now the big question. With one year left on his contract and a reported strong disliking of him by Kim Pegula (and presumably, Terry as well) where does the talented winger end up? Many (like myself) would like to see him extended at a reasonable rate and term while others can't wait for him to be moved.
--Speaking of things being moved, TBN's Mike Harrington wants the Sabres to move the eighth-overall pick in the NHL Draft. The reasoning, "Winning next year has to be an immediate priority and improving the blueline is paramount." Harrington wants the new GM to package the first-rounder to a "defense-rich" team to land an "NHL-level" defenseman. By NHL-level, I'm assuming he means at least a top-four.
--Harrington has a solid foundation for his beliefs, but perhaps it's a tad early to go for the immediacy of NHL-level help on the blueline. The Sabres have the eighth pick which should land them one of the top three defensemen in the draft. Although there aren't any marquis names in this draft, ala McDavid/Eichel, Matthews/Laine, it's a draft where an incubation period is to be expected for most prospects. Word from the draft pundits is that there are some talented d-men in the draft that are pretty much equal but have different traits. I get the idea that patience sux for those of us in Sabreland, but perhaps we should let the new GM get a draft under his belt and get a feel for what he has before moving a first-rounder.
--UMASS commit Cale Makar, Tri-City (WHL) defenseman Juuso Valimaki and Swedish Super Elit d-man Timothy Liljegren are generally seen atop the group of d-prospects and dependent upon what those in front of the Sabres do, any or all could be there when the Sabres pick at No. 8.
--On Sunday Terry Pegula announced that not only did he fire his football GM, but also the entire Bills scouting department. With that in mind and the NHL Draft fast approaching, Sabres fans are worried about the team heading into this draft without a GM and a scouting department that might be on edge. The Buffalo News put fears to rest with an article saying that a massive overhaul of the scouting department isn't in the cards in Buffalo. As for the GM not being on board yet with the draft less than two months away, the scouting department has their lists and should be gathering soon to compare notes. And we should also not forget that Kevin Devine is still on board. Devine, a former Sabres AGM and Head Amateur Scout, has run drafts before so there shouldn't be that much to worry about in that department.
--Finally, amidst the positives coming out of PSE in the form of the Labatt and UBER joint ventures, the NHL announced that their Draft Combine will remain in Buffalo for 2019. The combine moved from Toronto to Buffalo in 2015 with the Sabres putting on quite the show downtown. HARBORCENTER with it's spaciousness and proximity to KeyBank Center plus two Marriotts right on the doorstep, makes an ideal setting for the combine, NHL reps, the media and attendees.
Wednesday, May 3, 2017
Of self preservation and lunch money
Published by hockeybuzz.com 5-2-2017
When I was a kid, I was the youngest in our group of neighborhood kids who were constantly outside playing sports (or doing other things) until the street lights came on and we had to come home. Being the youngest was never advantageous as it meant that I was smaller than the others I played with and against and it also meant that I was a couple of years behind on the learning curve of whatever sport we were playing.
Learning on the fly was not really fun for me. At times mistakes were made and were usually met with harsh words or something thrown at you. But you learned, and you learned how to play hard. This was the era of Pete Rose and say what you will about him, he played every game as if it was for the championship of the world (see Rose/Ray Fosse in 1970 All-Star Game.) That's how he and all of our sports hero played and that's how we were taught to play by the older kids in our group.
The only thing worse than making mistakes was slacking. Sure, not being able to cover a man or getting faked was one thing, but to not hustle? The punishment was swift and harsh--a hard smack to the head or literal kick in the ass were some of the lighter punishments doled out by the older ones. It was a time, at least in our neighborhood, were you learned not only how to play the game, but how to play it properly and when I got into organized sports, I may have had trouble with a more talented player, but I wasn't going to be outworked.
It's a different world these days in many neighborhoods. There are pockets all over the country where kids still grow up playing that way, but the participation trophy seems to be the norm. There was no such thing back then and even if it were the around, it would be nothing more than an indication that the kids proudly taking home that type of trophy were those whose lunch money was ready to be taken.
Buffalo has two major professional sports teams that are owned by one family and they just so happen to be the two toughest sports to play. Football and hockey are all about contact and separating your opponent from the ball or puck and it takes a good amount of intestinal fortitude, in addition to skill, to win. As a player it's a tough way to make a living although with the way salaries have been going up, it's a helluva good living if you can get there and have a career.
There are a lot of teams and a lot of rosters spots and a whole lot of money to be made by athletes. The first hurdle is getting on the roster and making it through the first contract healthy and on the upswing so that the next contract is even bigger. If things work out and progress continues, there's a big, lengthy contract with plenty of guaranteed money on the other end.
With that much money waiting for a player, and with so many jobs available to those whose teams have no hope of winning a championship or in some instances even making the playoffs, for some players (maybe many of them,) self-preservation is more important than winning.
Buffalo hockey fans are familiar with what it's like to watch a group of players waltz through a season (or six.) Former GM Darcy Regier's "Core," a group of very talented and very well paid players, looked marvelous when it was easy but who wilted at the least sign of pressure. That's what defined the Sabres as a team from 2007-12.
Prior to that, Buffalo had made it to the Eastern Conference Finals two consecutive seasons with "The Core" in it's infancy and with Chris Drury and Daniel Briere as co-captains. Both were the driving forces of that team and left at the start of free agency July 1, 2007.
Drury, who is now an assistant general manager for the NY Rangers saw the players on the team he'd soon be leaving for what the were and mentioned it in his last post-game interview as a Sabre. After losing to the Ottawa Senators in the 2007 playoffs he took questions with bruises from a puck hitting his face while in the crease trying to prevent a goal against. The former Calder Trophy winner and a member of the 2001 Colorado Avalanche Stanley Cup winning team discouragingly stated that this Sabres team didn't know what it took to win.
Since that Eastern Conference Finals loss, the Sabres have made the playoffs twice in the last 10 years never making it past the first round with six of those seasons coming under the stewardship of owner Terry Pegula.
Throughout those "Core" years the local media reported a "country-club atmosphere" with the Sabres as they did just enough to make it interesting but never had the intestinal fortitude to get the job done it when it mattered most. Unfortunately for the Sabres, throughout this past season beat writers and media members were reporting a similar feel. In the end Pegula's hockey team finished with a very disappointing 78 points and he ended up firing his GM and his head coach.
Same went for Pegula's other professional team, the Buffalo Bills, as it got to a certain point in a game or season where it looked as if players were hitting cruise control. Whatever the case--whether it was laziness, lack of motivation or preserving oneself--Buffalo finished with a 7-9 record and the head coach was fired with one game remaining in the season.
Personally, I don't get it when a player can't go all-in all the time. It doesn't compute. Things might be different had I been born into a different neighborhood and/or a different era and had an eight-figure salary staring me in the face, but I was always taught to play hard and good things would follow. There are plenty of players in all sports who play the game the right way, however there aren't nearly enough to put each team into competitive overdrive and it puts a premium on finding as many internally motivated players as possible.
There-in lies the problem for Terry and Kim Pegula and their GM-less franchises.
I believe they want to win. However, the Pegulas are stubborn and have insisted upon doing things their way which, much to the consternation of the Buffalo sports community, includes trying to build a winning culture without the proper hierarchy in the operations department. In a matter of just over four months they fired both of their coaches and general managers and the first thing they did was put their football operations in the hands of a first-time NFL head coach. The Pegulas followed that up by hiring a public relations firm to help them deal with the fallout and as of right now their hockey department has an assistant GM at the top of the food chain.
Perhaps even more disconcerting is that the search for a hockey GM is focused upon first-time general managers without any mention of a hockey czar to oversee the hockey department. This is after they just canned another first-time GM whose free-wheeling without a operations president helped lead to his firing. It could also be assumed that their football coach, who has broad and unusual powers for a first-time head coach, will be helping to select the GM.
No doubt some of the candidates they've been interviewing for the Sabres GM position have earned the opportunity through success and quality work as well as a lengthy tenure in their present AGM positions and they may prove to be the answer. But both the Sabres and the Bills are held in very low regard right now amongst the professional communities to which they belong and doing things like the aforementioned make them look like amateurs.
I've said before that the Pegulas are on a lengthy learning curve and right now I believe they're still in way over their heads. That's why it's implausible to me that they still haven't hired qualified people to head their sports operations departments. In their six years of hockey ownership and two years at the helm of the Bills they've been flimflammed and taken by an array of snake-oil salesmen and con-artists, all of whom had self-preservation on their minds and it's kept both franchises spinning their wheels.
Maybe Bills head coach Sean McDermott is the answer and/or maybe the as yet to be named first-time GM of the Sabres will be the answer. Then again, we won't know if they're in the self-preservation business either until a couple of years down the road. If they can find the right personnel, than they could very well make it. If not, than they got themselves a pretty good ride courtesy of the Pegulas, which is something that's been happening for quite a few years under their ownership.
The GM's for both teams have a lot of work to do and that includes identifying and keeping players whose ultimate motivation lies outside of self-preservation. They need to find football players and hockey players and they also need to find coaches who can coach. Lest we forget, not only are players looking to extend their careers and reap the financial benefits, there are many coaches and front office personnel who are looking out for No.1 too. Regier was a master at keeping his job as GM despite only two years of success since 1999 when he was GM of a team built almost exclusively by his predecessor.
One thing I'll say about former Bills GM Doug Whaley and former Sabres GM Tim Murray, both were trying to build their teams with football and hockey players, respectively. However, with both being first-time GM's they got trapped in one the pitfalls of team-building, mainly giving too much in return for the players they wanted. They were honest GM's who just didn't have the wherewithal to jump that first hurdle and they didn't have anyone above them to help them along.
Terry Pegula got his stated wish, to be more involved in the hiring of his GM's and coaches. But I'm not sure he has what it takes to wade through all the professional B.S. that's thrown around his professional sports teams.
But if that's the way he wants it, he's the owner and he can do whatever he wants. I'm just a kid from a blue collar neighborhood who never played organized sports past high school. But I will say one thing, I never got my lunch money taken.
When I was a kid, I was the youngest in our group of neighborhood kids who were constantly outside playing sports (or doing other things) until the street lights came on and we had to come home. Being the youngest was never advantageous as it meant that I was smaller than the others I played with and against and it also meant that I was a couple of years behind on the learning curve of whatever sport we were playing.
Learning on the fly was not really fun for me. At times mistakes were made and were usually met with harsh words or something thrown at you. But you learned, and you learned how to play hard. This was the era of Pete Rose and say what you will about him, he played every game as if it was for the championship of the world (see Rose/Ray Fosse in 1970 All-Star Game.) That's how he and all of our sports hero played and that's how we were taught to play by the older kids in our group.
The only thing worse than making mistakes was slacking. Sure, not being able to cover a man or getting faked was one thing, but to not hustle? The punishment was swift and harsh--a hard smack to the head or literal kick in the ass were some of the lighter punishments doled out by the older ones. It was a time, at least in our neighborhood, were you learned not only how to play the game, but how to play it properly and when I got into organized sports, I may have had trouble with a more talented player, but I wasn't going to be outworked.
It's a different world these days in many neighborhoods. There are pockets all over the country where kids still grow up playing that way, but the participation trophy seems to be the norm. There was no such thing back then and even if it were the around, it would be nothing more than an indication that the kids proudly taking home that type of trophy were those whose lunch money was ready to be taken.
Buffalo has two major professional sports teams that are owned by one family and they just so happen to be the two toughest sports to play. Football and hockey are all about contact and separating your opponent from the ball or puck and it takes a good amount of intestinal fortitude, in addition to skill, to win. As a player it's a tough way to make a living although with the way salaries have been going up, it's a helluva good living if you can get there and have a career.
There are a lot of teams and a lot of rosters spots and a whole lot of money to be made by athletes. The first hurdle is getting on the roster and making it through the first contract healthy and on the upswing so that the next contract is even bigger. If things work out and progress continues, there's a big, lengthy contract with plenty of guaranteed money on the other end.
With that much money waiting for a player, and with so many jobs available to those whose teams have no hope of winning a championship or in some instances even making the playoffs, for some players (maybe many of them,) self-preservation is more important than winning.
Buffalo hockey fans are familiar with what it's like to watch a group of players waltz through a season (or six.) Former GM Darcy Regier's "Core," a group of very talented and very well paid players, looked marvelous when it was easy but who wilted at the least sign of pressure. That's what defined the Sabres as a team from 2007-12.
Prior to that, Buffalo had made it to the Eastern Conference Finals two consecutive seasons with "The Core" in it's infancy and with Chris Drury and Daniel Briere as co-captains. Both were the driving forces of that team and left at the start of free agency July 1, 2007.
Drury, who is now an assistant general manager for the NY Rangers saw the players on the team he'd soon be leaving for what the were and mentioned it in his last post-game interview as a Sabre. After losing to the Ottawa Senators in the 2007 playoffs he took questions with bruises from a puck hitting his face while in the crease trying to prevent a goal against. The former Calder Trophy winner and a member of the 2001 Colorado Avalanche Stanley Cup winning team discouragingly stated that this Sabres team didn't know what it took to win.
Since that Eastern Conference Finals loss, the Sabres have made the playoffs twice in the last 10 years never making it past the first round with six of those seasons coming under the stewardship of owner Terry Pegula.
Throughout those "Core" years the local media reported a "country-club atmosphere" with the Sabres as they did just enough to make it interesting but never had the intestinal fortitude to get the job done it when it mattered most. Unfortunately for the Sabres, throughout this past season beat writers and media members were reporting a similar feel. In the end Pegula's hockey team finished with a very disappointing 78 points and he ended up firing his GM and his head coach.
Same went for Pegula's other professional team, the Buffalo Bills, as it got to a certain point in a game or season where it looked as if players were hitting cruise control. Whatever the case--whether it was laziness, lack of motivation or preserving oneself--Buffalo finished with a 7-9 record and the head coach was fired with one game remaining in the season.
Personally, I don't get it when a player can't go all-in all the time. It doesn't compute. Things might be different had I been born into a different neighborhood and/or a different era and had an eight-figure salary staring me in the face, but I was always taught to play hard and good things would follow. There are plenty of players in all sports who play the game the right way, however there aren't nearly enough to put each team into competitive overdrive and it puts a premium on finding as many internally motivated players as possible.
There-in lies the problem for Terry and Kim Pegula and their GM-less franchises.
I believe they want to win. However, the Pegulas are stubborn and have insisted upon doing things their way which, much to the consternation of the Buffalo sports community, includes trying to build a winning culture without the proper hierarchy in the operations department. In a matter of just over four months they fired both of their coaches and general managers and the first thing they did was put their football operations in the hands of a first-time NFL head coach. The Pegulas followed that up by hiring a public relations firm to help them deal with the fallout and as of right now their hockey department has an assistant GM at the top of the food chain.
Perhaps even more disconcerting is that the search for a hockey GM is focused upon first-time general managers without any mention of a hockey czar to oversee the hockey department. This is after they just canned another first-time GM whose free-wheeling without a operations president helped lead to his firing. It could also be assumed that their football coach, who has broad and unusual powers for a first-time head coach, will be helping to select the GM.
No doubt some of the candidates they've been interviewing for the Sabres GM position have earned the opportunity through success and quality work as well as a lengthy tenure in their present AGM positions and they may prove to be the answer. But both the Sabres and the Bills are held in very low regard right now amongst the professional communities to which they belong and doing things like the aforementioned make them look like amateurs.
I've said before that the Pegulas are on a lengthy learning curve and right now I believe they're still in way over their heads. That's why it's implausible to me that they still haven't hired qualified people to head their sports operations departments. In their six years of hockey ownership and two years at the helm of the Bills they've been flimflammed and taken by an array of snake-oil salesmen and con-artists, all of whom had self-preservation on their minds and it's kept both franchises spinning their wheels.
Maybe Bills head coach Sean McDermott is the answer and/or maybe the as yet to be named first-time GM of the Sabres will be the answer. Then again, we won't know if they're in the self-preservation business either until a couple of years down the road. If they can find the right personnel, than they could very well make it. If not, than they got themselves a pretty good ride courtesy of the Pegulas, which is something that's been happening for quite a few years under their ownership.
The GM's for both teams have a lot of work to do and that includes identifying and keeping players whose ultimate motivation lies outside of self-preservation. They need to find football players and hockey players and they also need to find coaches who can coach. Lest we forget, not only are players looking to extend their careers and reap the financial benefits, there are many coaches and front office personnel who are looking out for No.1 too. Regier was a master at keeping his job as GM despite only two years of success since 1999 when he was GM of a team built almost exclusively by his predecessor.
One thing I'll say about former Bills GM Doug Whaley and former Sabres GM Tim Murray, both were trying to build their teams with football and hockey players, respectively. However, with both being first-time GM's they got trapped in one the pitfalls of team-building, mainly giving too much in return for the players they wanted. They were honest GM's who just didn't have the wherewithal to jump that first hurdle and they didn't have anyone above them to help them along.
Terry Pegula got his stated wish, to be more involved in the hiring of his GM's and coaches. But I'm not sure he has what it takes to wade through all the professional B.S. that's thrown around his professional sports teams.
But if that's the way he wants it, he's the owner and he can do whatever he wants. I'm just a kid from a blue collar neighborhood who never played organized sports past high school. But I will say one thing, I never got my lunch money taken.
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