Kovalchuk won’t be arriving in a Blue & Gold sweater anytime soon. Aside from the outrageous asking price for a sure bet rental, I’d like to thank some old friends of ours for putting the Sabres out of contention far before Ilya became available: Maxim Afinogenov and Slava Kozlov.
“I’ve know Max for a long time,” Kozlov said. “He had a tough time last year in Buffalo. It’s a good thing that he is with this team now. I gave him advice when I left Buffalo that he shouldn’t stay there.”
And these quotes from last Fall, after Max finally signed with the Thrashers, with Kovalchuk blasting the Sabres handling of Max’s final seasons in Buffalo.
“Every day he’s smiling. That’s the most important thing because in Buffalo you can’t smile. If you smile, you sit on the bench.”
Does that sound like a guy willing to don the Decussated Blades? Does that sound like a guy that would be willing to sign a multi-year extension? Exactly.
If you’re looking for a dance partner; look towards Edmonton, Carolina, Dallas, Columbus, or Toronto. Not Atlanta.
In a word; no. Not this year; probably not next year either. The Maple Leafs are in full-on firesale mode; moving 3 pending UFA’s to Calgary, 1 to Anaheim, shedding 2 expensive contracts, all the while taking on an overrated, yet still promising blueliner, and a number 1 goalie they desperately need.
But if we’ve learned anything about the nature of rebuilding in the NHL over the past decade, is that teams that struggle so mightily can’t just right the ship with a couple moves and free agent signings. Take for example the models of rebuilding, the Penguins and Capitals. Look at where these guys have chosen, and who they’ve chosen, during their ascension to the elite in the league.
Year
Pick
Capitals
Pick
Penguins
2003
18th
Eric Fehr
1st
M-A Fleury
2004
1st
Alex Ovechkin
2nd
Evgeni Malkin
2004
27th
Jeff Schultz
2004
29th
Mike Green
2005
14th
Sasha Pokuluk
1st
Sidney Crosby
2005
27th
Joe Finley
2006
4th
Nicklas Backstrom
2nd
Jordan Staal
Of that list, only 2 have yet to make an impact in the NHL (Pokulak – ECHL, Finley played 4 years at North Dakota, this is his first professional season), while the rest are littered with Art Ross’s, Rocket Richard’s, Selke and Norris nominees, you get the picture. Now how is this relevant to the Leafs?
Well these teams built their powerhouses through the draft, the Leafs, they need draft picks. In a move that landed them a sniper (but where’s the playmaking center?) in Phil Kessel, the Leafs moved their 1st and 2nd this year, and their 1st next season.
In giving away 3 major picks, Brian Burke has essentially retarded their rebuild in Toronto. Now that’s not to say they don’t have prospects in the bank; Kadri, Bozak, Hanson, etc. But with so much money now tied into the blueline (look for Finger to be sent to the Marlies, getting that contract off the books), that’ll be $25.25 million, tied up into 5 guys on your blueline.
That leaves the current top line for your Toronto Maple Leafs as Alex Ponikarovsky and Phil Kessel centered by…Tyler Bozak? This isn’t over for the Leafs, far from it, as Poni, Grabovski, Kaberle, and others are still being rumored to be traded. But for Leafs fans sake, I hope that they can get a 1st for Kaberle, otherwise, it’s going to be a long couple of years.
Now the addition of Giguere could be a different story, with a Conn Smythe under his belt, but a bad attitude that comes with it, how will this new dynamic of Gustavsson and Giggy come to play out? We all saw how Giguere was upset with splitting time with Hiller out in Anaheim, how is he going to react splitting with The Monster?
Time will tell, and the dynamic of this team is certainly going to change once again before the Olympic break? Perhaps this post was a tad too soon, but as Brian Burke said, they are still open for business.
Look out and keep your heads up Sabre Nation; Dion Phaneuf is a Maple Leaf. Broken by Darren Dreger, here’s your blockbuster deal.
To Calgary: Nik Hagman, Matt Stajan, Jamal Mayers, Ian White
To Toronto: Dion Phaneuf, Fredrik Sjostrom, Keith Aulie
Once I wake up a little bit, or maybe tomorrow, we’ll have some analysis as to what this means, for the East, for the Northeast, for the Sabres, and trade deadlineoptions.
Lindy Ruff has notoriously tinkered with his lines, but it’s usually among the forward corps, not the blueliners. But after the over-documented (hell I broke down video, that’s over-documenting) poor play by Steve Montador, Chris Butler, and Toni Lydman; Nathan Paetsch and Andrej Sekera finally broke back into the lineup for the first time since 2009.
Earlier in the season, especially during the Sabres winning streak, Lindy was reluctant to change the lineup and break up a successful run. It took Pat Kaleta, what, a half dozen games before he was able to crack the lineup again? Will that occur again on the blueline? How’s this going to shake out?
Well, first off, we know at least one of them is potential trade bait. Most people hoped that would be Tallinder at the start of the season; but the Sky Scraper pairing of Henrik and Tyler Myers has been a defensive revelation. So that leaves UFA’s to be Toni Lydman and Nathan Paetsch as trade pieces during the upcoming trade deadline frenzy.
Truth be told, I am entirely for moving Lydman, since Sekera has played well when called upon, and at just 23 years of age, is still coming into his own as a defensemen. Yes, even though Myers proves you can be dominant at 19, we all know he’s the outlier.
But as I pointed out in a prior post; if the Sabres are going to add a piece, one would assume it would be a true PP point man; perhaps a M-A Bergeron from Montreal, Joe Corvo from Carolina, Mathieu Schnieder from Vancouver, or *gasp* Sheldon Souray from Edmonton. But that’s a whole other topic.
Right now the Sabres have 8 defensemen on the roster, 6 spots of ice time, and 4 of ‘em that are interchangeable. In the playoffs, that’s a great kind of problem to have, the 8 blueliners, not the 4 playing shitty. Mike Harrington offered his take.
With veteran players usually, Ruff’s tendency is one or two games at most and then the player gets back in. It’s how he’s dealt with Drew Stafford in the past and how he dealt with Henrik Tallinder last year when he was struggling.
And he’s right, that’s usually how Lindy rolls. But we all know that this team is different than last season’s, so we’ll certainly find out. I wish I could offer some intelligent insight into what the lineup is going to look like tonight; but I can’t, how bout we just hope for a win, and some solid defensive play against an offensively retarded team.
Lebrun says it right; don’t get your hopes up. This is the Sabres we’re talking about. ESPN’s Pierre Lebrun, as he always does, fielded some questions, including this one on the state of the Sabres…
bflo2balt:…We Sabres fans do expect a lot from our team, but I think that the anger regarding this road trip is misplaced. I still think they are one or two pieces away from becoming a complete team, perhaps a veteran scorer (Ray Whitney or Sykora come to mind) and a solid back-up goalie (MARTY! MARTY!), with no offense to Patty Lalime, who has showed some brilliance this year. What do you think of that assessment?
Lebrun’s take?
I spoke with Sabres GM Darcy Regier on Monday, passed on the many urgings from Sabres fans/readers for him to pick up more offense at the trade deadline, and he said he and Sabres coach Lindy Ruff may have helped fuel this desire from their fans by criticizing the production of their top-six forward group at times.
“We think that there’s more to get from our top-six forwards,” Regier told me from Vancouver, where the Sabres played Monday night. “Right now, Tim Connolly’s line with Jochen Hecht and Jason Pominville has actually been very good. The other line with Drew Stafford, Derek Roy and Thomas Vanek has been more inconsistent, although I see that line competing harder than it has and getting more chances. …
“It’s about getting more from the six guys we have. Roy and Vanek are two prime examples of that. They are two guys who have offensively struggled. It’s more a focus of getting them back on track than it is looking on the outside and finding somebody you’ll bring in and solve it for you; and who knows what you have to give up to acquire that, as well.”
In other words, Sabres fans, don’t get your hopes up for trade deadline day.
A bland; but accurate assessment. It’s not forward depth that we need. We’ve got all the pieces in place, PK specialists, Faceoff specialists, PP snipers, a playmaking center, you name it, you can name a Sabre.
What you can’t name is a true powerplay quarterback. Myers has done an admirable job, Butler is just OK, Rivet isn’t who he used to be. If the Sabres are going to target somebody, I sure hope that’s on the top of Darcy’s list.
Something has to change after a 2-3-2 road trip no? That change has to come on the blueline. For a team that has given up, on the season, less than 2.30 goals a game, the Sabres defensive prowess during the trip to the Left Coast left much to be desired.
That goal per game stat has risen to 2.35 a game, after the Sabres allowed 21 goals over the past 7 (3.00 GAA). In the first 3 games of the trip, they allowed just 5 goals, over the last 4, after covering a couple thousand miles, they allowed 16. That is completely unacceptable for a so called “elite” team.
There’s no doubt they can play with those teams, the Sabres carried play for extended periods of time, hell they were skating circles around the Sharks for a while. There’s no doubt this team can play with the big boys from the West, but there’s been one glaring issue that separates them from us (aside from superstars eh?), that’s decision making.
The number one culprit lately? Steve Montador. He was directly responsible for 3 goals against San Jose. His decision making over the past few weeks has consistently failed to impress. Pinching deep without any help on the backside; passes through traffic, giveaways; you name it. Let’s take last night’s breakaway goal scored by Henrik Sedin as an example, where some stupid decision making by Montador and MacArthur cost the Sabres big time.
The play starts with the puck deep behind Luongo, the puck getting flushed out to his right by Pat Kaleta, directly to a pinching Steve Montador. Know that Kaleta, the RW, is behind the net, so by pinching below the red line, Montador has effectively left his man alone at the point. That would be Sedin.
It seems at first Clarke MacArthur, is heading back to cover Sedin (out of picture). But Montador, instead of cycling back deep behind the net to Kaleta, he throws it to the front where Derek Roy was slashing toward, surrounded by 3 Canuck sweaters. When the puck goes towards the net, MacArthur leaves his man and turns towards crashing the crease.
The puck caroms through the crease, across to Luongo’s right, to the backchecking Alex Burrows. Montador realizes his error and starts racing back, head down, even though Sedin was already. At the right point, Toni Lydman moved forward to play the body, but Burrows had already gotten off the lead pass onto the blade of Sedin, who anticipates the poke check, and sets a new career high in goals.
I’m not sure what the most depressing part of this play is; all the poor decisions made on the ice, or the fact I can write 500 words about a play that doesn’t even equate to 5 seconds of video.
That play’s breakdown, and the consequential breakaway goal, started with Montador’s inability to make the simple play. First, he decided to pinch; which has been the Sabres defensive corps M.O. all season, and successfully kept the puck in the Canuck zone. Everything here is fine, now he has his 2nd choice; cycle back deep behind the net to Kaleta and Roy, or throw it towards the net at a bad angle. Granted, the Sabres tallied their first of the night by crashing the crease, so it was a respectable thought.
At this point, MacArthur cannot assume in a cover by Luongo, and shouldn’t have been crashing the crease without assurance that a) the puck was going to be covered or b) Montador had recovered back to his man. When neither of those things occurred, Sedin broke, and with the puck caroming onto the blade of Burrows, it was an easy choice, and the only choice, for Lydman to make. He could have turned and fell back when the play began to break up (but at this point Sedin was already at the red line, and he wouldn’t have caught him anyway) so instead he pinched as well, trying to take the body, and hopefully disrupt the pass enough to get somebody back or draw the offsides. It obviously didn’t work.
Now see this isn’t the obvious foul ups like we saw against the Ducks or Sharks, but it’s making the small decisions correctly, that helps guys stand out. Montador and MacArthur made poor offensive zone judgements, and it cost them a goal.
There’s a reason you saw Mair, Kennedy, and the rest of the grinders getting loads of ice time last night, they weren’t pressing, they weren’t trying to make the extra pass, but they were working their ass off each and every shift; making the simple play, the right play; which means a heckuva lot on the back end of a big trip.
Here’s to a big rebound game against the Devils tomorrow, because they certainly need to.
After coming into the trip playing some of their best hockey of the year, claiming the top spot in the East, and then somewhere around mile 4,351 of the 7 game roadie, things have fallen a bit apart. Sitting here this morning, digesting the tough loss to the Sharks, at this point, can we not consider this trip a success with a win tonight in Vancouver?
When you look at how the rest of the East has fared against the West, we’re still holding our own. Hell, we’ve [minimally] added to our lead, registering 18 points (8-2-2) against the West, while the Pens and Caps both come in with 15 points (7-6-1, 7-4-1, respectively).
The only game I felt the Sabres were really beaten was the first 20 minutes in Anaheim. After Kaleta’s check on Carter, that ice was tilted, but too little, too late. Against LA the Sabres carried play for chunks of time, same as Saturday’s tilt with the Sharks. A few misplays, which will happen on the 6th game of a Western roadtrip, cost that game. They know it, and they’re ready to show the Sedins the business.
So good readers, would you be happy with a 3-2-2 trip? Pissed with 2-3-2? Ok with 2-2-3? Let it rip.
Depending on who you ask; this was either too little, or if you’re Windsor Spitfire head coach (former Sabre) Bob Boughner, it was too much. The Sabres 1st rounder will sit out until March 7th, and will make his return with just 4 games left in the regular season. You’d have to assume Spitfire leadership is none to0 pleased with that decision.
Especially Bob Boughner. In fact, Boughner is quoted as “It’s a shock.” Really Bob? It’s a shock when a guy is disciplined for 20 games after leaving a guy face down on the ice with a concussion and needed staples to close his wounds? This doesn’t look suspension worthy to you?
That’s what I thought. An interesting note; reading the article in the Ottawa Citizen, OHL Commissioner David Branch gave a clear, concise, reasonable explanation as to why Kassian received his 20 game suspension. If only NHL leadership could be so up front.
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I go by Vance around here, a lifelong Sabres fan, started his blogging career at BanginPanger, but jumped at the opportunity to write about the Sabres. Feel free to email me at DoubleEdgedSabres@Gmail.com, follow along on Twitter and Facebook, and check out the official Youtube Page.
Kovalchuk won’t be arriving in a Blue & Gold sweater anytime soon. Aside from the outrageous asking price for a sure bet rental, I’d like to thank some old friends of ours for putting the Sabres out of contention far before Ilya became available: Maxim Afinogenov and Slava Kozlov.
Earlier in the season, especially during the Sabres winning streak, Lindy was reluctant to change the lineup and break up a successful run. It took Pat Kaleta, what, a half dozen games before he was able to crack the lineup again? Will that occur again on the blueline? How’s this going to shake out?
