Written on Monday, May 19th, 2008 at 3:46pm by Kevin | No Comments

Around the Internets

A couple-three things caught my eye recently. Since I am about three days behind in my blogging, you have probably already seen them, but that won’t stop me from airing my views.

Vinnie Iyer (I have no idea who that is) from the Sporting News says Marshawn Lynch is a good bet to make his first Pro Bowl. Looking around the AFC, I’d say he has a pretty good shot. You had LT as the rightful starter last season, and there’s no reason to believe the fans won’t vote him right back in next year. Behind him, Joseph Addai and Willie Parker were also chosen. LT and Parker both opted out of the game, and were replaced by Fred Taylor and Willis McGahee.

Iyer notes in his piece that Rashard Mendenhall, the Steelers first-round pick and No. 23 overall, will take some touches away from Parker. Parker ended up second in the AFC in rushing last season with 1,316 yards, but only scored two touchdowns. Addai was ninth in rushing (two behind Lynch) but had 12 TD’s. Both are still realistic shots at the Pro Bowl, but the backup situation in Pittsburgh and the Colts style do give Lynch some openings.

Every year people predict Fred Taylor’s demise, but there he was last season, fifth in rushing yards while averaging a whopping 5.4 yards per carry. Even with the continued impressive play of Maurice Jones-Drew, Taylor just won’t allow the coaches to take him off the field. Still, he’s 32, in his 12th season, and has a great backup behind him. Something may well give this year.

Obviously, I haven’t thought much of McGahee of late. And the Ravens are due to get worse, not better. Two backs to keep an eye on could be Ronnie Brown (Miami) and Jamal Lewis (Cleveland). Brown averaged 86 yards per game before he was lost to an -injury, and Lewis was third in the league in rushing yards. That’s about eight backs competing for three spots, and with the Bills line and style of play, there’s no reason Lynch can’t fill one of hose spots.

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The Roost pointed me to this Scott Cullen piece on the offseason needs for the Sabres. It’s so rare to have a “national” hockey guy speak intelligently about the Sabres, so I was quite pleased to read it. And I agree – all that depth at forward should translate into some type of deal, likely for a defenseman.

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Like I said before, it’s rare to find a “national” level guy talk intelligently about the Sabres. That’s why it hurt to read this from Spector, a guy who absolutely knows his hockey, today when discussing the “Brian Campbell dissing/not dissing Buffalo management by calling them cheap” story:

He might not have said it but it’s obvious that’s why he, Briere, Drury, Dumont, McKee and Grier are no longer Sabres.

For Pete’s sake, let’s take them in order. Yes, maybe, no, yes, no. The Sabres were over the salary cap when they let Dumont go! Over. The. Fucking. Cap. You can’t call the organization cheap when they release a player whose arbitration reward put them over the salary cap. Yes, they didn’t want to give Briere they money he wanted. Yes, they didn’t want to give McKee the money he wanted (that didn’t turn out too badly). But Drury and Grier signed with other teams for the same money the Sabres offered them. Could they have offered more? Yes, they could have, and in Drury’s case they likely should have.

I get why writers try to lump every Sabres move into one category in order to illustrate a simple pattern, but each case truly needs to be looked at individually. Regardless, Spector is still one of my favorite reads, especially when it comes to free agent and trade speculation.

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John Buccigross penned a column with the theme of what you think of when you think of each NHL team. His thoughts on the Sabres:

Buffalo Sabres: Chris Drury, Daniel Briere, fans, bad management. Rick Jeanneret (“La-La-La-La-LaFontaine!” “May Day!”), Dominik Hasek, The French Connection line, The Aud.

Was this written by a man who has watched hockey for more than five years? Sheesh, it sounds like it was written by a bandwagon puck-bunny who hopped on board during the Carolina series. Yeah, yeah. I understand he was just going off the top of his head. Still, it got me thinking, especially since I just read that Jon Weisman, the author of Dodger Thoughts is writing a book entitled “100 Things Dodger Fans Should Know and Do Before They Die”. First, if we can just dispense with a couple things from Bucci, then move on to the larger picture.

Let’s start at the top, with Chris Drury and Danny Briere.

It would be foolish to deny that Chris Drury and Danny Briere had a major impact on the past three years of hockey in Buffalo, NY, even if for one of those years neither of them was on the team. But – come on! Here’s the stats:

Drury – 3 seasons, 234 games, 104 goals, 189 assists, 293 pts., -2 rating.

(EDIT: Drury actual stats – 234 games, 85 goals, 104 assists, 189 points, -2 rating). See comment No. 1 below.

Briere – 3+ seasons, 225 games, 92 goals, 138 assists, 230 pts., +14 rating.

Decent enough numbers for three seasons, but they were here for only three seasons (3-1/6 for Briere). Go ahead, take a look over here. Drury is 107 goals behind Alex Mogilny in goals scored by a Sabre, and with just 132 more, Briere would have caught Miro Satan. There are individual moments for both of them that would qualify in my top-20 (double OT winner for Briere against Philly, Drury’s buzzer-beater to tie game five against the Rangers would be two of them), but neither of them as individuals would likely be in the top-20 (I’ll have to think about that).

I’m much more likely to remember Craig Ramsay’s constant presence in my youth over his 14 years of service as a Sabre than Chris Drury’s three years when I reflect back on Buffalo hockey with my kids.

So while I get Bucci’s point that those are what he thinks of right now, it’s not who I think of when I think of a Buffalo Sabre.

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On to the larger picture, I’m really curious what everyone would come up with for their top things every Sabres fan should do or know. Here’s a couple of mine in no particular order:

- Road trip to Montreal.
- Dave Hannan’s four-OT winner in Game Six against the Devils in 1994 (along with Hasek’s 70-save shutout)
- The Fog game, complete with Lorentz killing the bat.
- The Aud
- Last game in the Aud (Hartford) and LaFontaine pushing that last puck over the goal-line
- Seymour, Nordy, Swados, Forman, Rich and the rest of the locals who started the Sabres
- The dominance of Dominik Hasek
- The sheer bitch that was Dominik Hasek (see Ott/Buff 1997)
- “The Hardest Working Team in Hockey”, complete with the hardhats for the fans.
- The grace of Gil Perreault
- Phil Housley allowing that crappy goal by Brian Skrudland of Montreal in OT of game three in 1990 that cemented his getting traded out.
- Plante’s OT winner in game 7.
- The voice of John Gurtler (not a good thing)
- The voice of Ted Darling (a very good thing). Legend is he once called a game from his living room when he couldn’t get to Montreal to be there live because of a storm. Listen to 2:00 of him here.
- MayDay
- Brad Park’s OT winner for Boston in game seven in 1983.
- Pizza and Rip
- Punch Imlach’s hat
- Barrasso’s rookie year
- 359 straight sellouts (10/72-11/80)
- 1981, the year they traded Schony, Gare and Derek Smith to Detroit. I never thought I would recover.
- Matt Barnaby turtling. Or, for more pleasant thoughts, his Mother’s Day hat-trick.
- Jeanneret
- Beating the Russians in ‘76
- Popping empty cups in the corridors of the Aud to hear the echo
- The thrill of going into the Aud Club when you were a kid
- Peeing next to Don Cherry. The media had to use the heads in the oranges like the rest of us

I’m going to stop there and leave the rest to you guys before I hog them all.

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No Comments

  1. Meg says:
    May 19, 2008 at 4:06 pm

    You’re actually being very generous to Drury there–he had 85 goals, 104 assists, and 189 pts in 234 games as a Sabre. I don’t mean to pick nits; I just saw the numbers and knew they couldn’t be right because at no point in his career has he been a point a game player. Not that it changes your point of course. :)

  2. Kevin says:
    May 19, 2008 at 4:39 pm

    I’m embarrassed to admit how I ended up with those numbers…

    I added up the assists and made those the goals, added up the points for assists, then added the two together to get his points.

    Obviously, my fact checker is off today.

    Thanks for the catch, Meg!

  3. John Bigenwald says:
    May 19, 2008 at 5:03 pm

    - Dave Hannan’s four-OT winner in Game Six against the Devils in 1994 (along with Hasek’s 70-save shutout)

    My brother and I were in a sports bar in suburban Chicago. They make last call with the game in OT #4. We didn’t care who won at that point, we just wanted to see the end. The lights go up, our waitress is threatening to turn off the TV when Hannan scores — we go wild and everyone else in the place looks at us like we were drunk (I guess a real possibility after 6 hours in a bar)

    How about:
    ** Gare scoring 19 seconds into his first game
    ** Rick Martin getting a hat trick for 50, 51 & 52
    ** Gary Desjardains getting a puck in the eye
    ** Don Luce getting dumped into the boards
    ** The entire team wearing helmets on his return
    ** Jim Lorentz — the bat killer

    that should continue the discussion…

  4. RobQ says:
    May 19, 2008 at 5:19 pm

    “Thank You, Sabres!” chant in ‘73 playoffs – their first appearance – upon being eliminated by the Habs (who would win the Cup).

    First game after Tim Horton’s death (the next night, I believe). Schoeny literally breaking down on the blue line.

    14 goals v. the Caps in ‘75 (or ‘76?)

    Jiri Dudacek

    Mogilny’s 92-93 season. surreal.

  5. Chris says:
    May 19, 2008 at 5:22 pm

    Stu Barnes ripping one off the crossbar and in the net to take a 3-2 series lead over the Pens in 2001…

    …Geoff Sanderson scoring the game winner in game 1 in the Eastern Conference Semis in Toronto in 1999 while being dragged down from behind and flipping the puck up and in…

    …the day we traded Alexander Mogilny to Vancouver in summer of 1995 for Michael Peca, Mike Wilson and the pick to take Martin Biron (or Jay McKee)…and Don Cherry astutely saying that even though it looked bad for Buffalo, “that Peca kid is going to surprise some people…”

  6. Ryan says:
    May 19, 2008 at 5:38 pm

    I’m among the youngest of readers here, and even I either remember or would mention over half of the things listed above over Drury and Briere. Of course, when you are stuck on the late night Sportscenter you must get used to an “instant history” mind set. Everyone playing right now, this very instant, is the Greatest Of All Time. No excuses, otherwise people wouldn’t watch.

    Also, I’d go with Miro’s imaginary phone call as memorable, whether good or bad…

  7. Porky says:
    May 19, 2008 at 7:41 pm

    Every Sabres fan should be able to picture:
    The Sabres winning the coin toss to get the first pick in the 1970 expansion draft (Gil Perreault)
    Malarchuk’s gruesome neck injury
    Zednik’s gruesome neck injury
    Schoenfeld & Wayne Cashman fighting & crashing thru the Zamboni entrance of the old Aud
    Gretzky scoring 3 goals to beat Buffalo and break Esposito’s record for goals in a season
    Perreault going end-to-end
    Rob Ray losing his shirt

    I could go on and on…

  8. thesportsroadtrip2 says:
    May 19, 2008 at 7:51 pm

    Derek Plante’s Game 7 OT winner at home in ‘97.(And the far-less-than-enthuastic-look of GM John Muckler.)

    Hammering the Leafs to go the Cup Finals in ‘99, they can bring as many obnoxious, boorish, annoying fans as they want into Buffalo. But we’ll always, ALWAYS have that on them.

  9. Tom in CP says:
    May 19, 2008 at 9:58 pm

    Re #7, the 5th point (Gretzky’s goals to surpass Espo) – All I remember about that game is the Bert had the hat trick (oh yeah, and that guy from Edmonton scored also).

  10. Anne M says:
    May 19, 2008 at 10:09 pm

    Great list. I’ll always remember:
    *Stu Barnes crying when he got traded.
    *The day it was finally, finally true that Tom Golisano had finished the deal to buy the team.
    *Hasek getting smoked in his first (hm, possibly second) HSBC appearance as a Red Wing and riding the bike in the dressing room for most of the game.

    Buccigross is such a moron–he’s so blinded by self-admiration (I’m so cool! I like cool-guy music! I have cool-guy hair! I use horrible puns and analogies! I must be cool!) that I doubt he can even see what he writes.

  11. Heather B. says:
    May 19, 2008 at 11:20 pm

    At this point I don’t know how anyone thinks of the Sabres without thinking of Lindy Ruff, like him or not.

  12. brian s. says:
    May 19, 2008 at 11:35 pm

    Re #8, Toronto point – Game 3 when Rob Ray scored the 3rd goal (eventual game winner) to put them up 3 games to 0.

    Also the honking, and general atmosphere outside of the arena, of “Let’s Go Buff-a-Lo” after playoff victories; sitting on the steps in the blue section of the Aud because my dad would only scalp 2 tickets and carry my younger sister in; Tux and Pucks; and, more recently, Pomminville’s short-handed OT goal against Ottawa.

    *I know it was already mentioned, but Hannan’s goal is my all-time favorite Sabres memory – my dad fell asleep on the couch before the fourth OT and when I woke him up in celebration he was upset at me for not telling him that the period had started.

  13. Kevin says:
    May 19, 2008 at 11:56 pm

    Heather, who doesn’t like Lindy?

  14. Heather B. says:
    May 20, 2008 at 12:13 am

    Kevin, beats me. Just covering my bases :-D

  15. Kevin says:
    May 20, 2008 at 12:24 am

    @5 – And I still remember Harry Neale saying Mike Wilson “will be a dandy”

  16. trevor says:
    May 20, 2008 at 9:33 am

    Kevin, right on regarding sabres history. Mike Ramsey meant more to the sabres than drury or briere did.

  17. trevor says:
    May 20, 2008 at 10:03 am

    - @10: or, me crying when stu barnes got traded;

    - ripping two everygreen shrubs out of the front lawn of my apartment building in ‘98 when juneau scored in OT of the ECF;

    - winning in OT to take game one against dallas in ‘99 but still knowing we couldn’t hang for a series;

    - getting my sabres sword logo tattoo before the start of the ‘99 finals even though i knew it would jinx them;

    - actually having to draw it for the tattoo guy;

    - ken linseman (i think) butt-ending mike ramsey and knocking out his front teeth;

    - buffalo on the verge of eliminating pittsburgh in ‘01 when i was in the salt lake city airport, only to get to my hotel room to watch the sportscenter highlight of lemieux tying the game late and winning in OT;

    - fucking kasparaitis scoring to eliminate buffalo the next game;

    - watching curtis brown’s shortie at an applebee’s in warner robins, GA to send game 5 of the same series to OT.

    Those were the days. Drury and Briere are mere footnotes.

  18. dave in Rocha says:
    May 20, 2008 at 10:30 am

    Bucci’s a tool.

    Spector isn’t bad with trade rumours (he has a good head on his shoulders, knowing which proposals are asinine), but I’ve never liked his personal take on teams. It seems like he just echoes whatever everyone is saying.

  19. trevor says:
    May 20, 2008 at 10:34 am

    To pick up on Cullen’s piece, I think trading for a guy like Boumeester would be a great move, but if we dump enough dead weight we can make a free agency play for Orpik or Commodore.

    I still think Darcy should tender an offer sheet to Jeff Carter and go get Alex Auld. But other than that, I agree there is a ton of opportunity with our forward depth.

    No need to abandon Stafford or Paille just yet, especially since they’re still relatively cheap, but I can see TC, Kotalik, and Max all getting moved – and I think Paetsch is going to be the odd man out at D, much as I like him. No way you trade Connolly without at least picking up a guy like Carter to replace him, though.

    I’m not sure Gerbe can jump right in a play in the NHL, especially on a team that has no reason not to lead the conference next year. Or to put it another way, he shouldn’t have to play if Darcy makes the right moves and goes after it next season. I liked the idea someone else had about bringing in Brian Rolston.

    I don’t know about anyone else, but I’m ready to see a minor overhaul. We can coast along with a really good team of prospects and not win a cup, or use them now to go for it the next two years.

  20. ToonTom says:
    May 20, 2008 at 11:05 am

    The call aside, May Day has to be one of my most memorable moments. My bro, a Bruins fan, gave me one of those fake cartoon shirts that year – it said Buffalo Fables. To spite him I wore it for every game of the series until Game 4 when it was too rank to put on again. When the Sabs went down 5-2, I grabbed it out of the hamper and put it on. The rest is history and I always feel I contributed in my own, little superstitious way.

    And getting to see Gilbert Perreault play twice (one in Edmonton, the other in Winnipeg) would be another.

  21. lulu says:
    May 20, 2008 at 11:14 am

    King Kong Korab
    Porky Palmer
    Mike Ramsay and Craig Ramsay
    Big Donny Luce and his super nice wife
    Sabres Super Carnivals
    Jeanerette
    October Storm game
    Pommer short handed vs. Ottawa

  22. Mighty Larry says:
    May 20, 2008 at 11:58 am

    -How ’bout the Lindy Ruff-Billy Smith episode?

    -Hating Dale Hunter.

    -Larry Playfair – a guy who could play and fight (good bouts against O’Reilly and Nilan, etc)

    -Bill Hajt – most underrated player ever

    -And a personal moment for me – playing street hockey with Craig Ramsay, who lived at the end of my block in Amherst.

  23. Brian says:
    May 20, 2008 at 1:38 pm

    My personal list of things I think about when I think about the Sabres:

    - The signature sound of The Aud/HSBC goal horn.

    - Rob Ray beating the tar out of a Nordiques fan who ran out onto the ice in Quebec City.

    - The deafening loudness of The Aud with the crowd right on top of the ice.

    - Climbing up the steep Aud steps with my father to sit for my first game against the Minnesota North Stars. We sat next to Brian Bellows’ uncle.

    - The crossed swords logo.

    - Mogilny defecting to play for the Sabres.

    - Watching the 05-06 team and falling in love with them. Getting teary eyed (I was drunk, OK?) after losing to Carolina, while lamenting that it was truly, seriously ‘our year’.

    - Ooh aahhh Sabres on the warpath!!

    - Patty LaLa scoring the final ceremonial goal at The Aud.

    - Hasek stopping everything with his unconventional style.

    - The puck coming off Plante’s stick and trickling past Ron Tugnutt.

    - Malarchuck, Andreychuck, Hawerchuck.

    - The Ottawa ‘Drury hit fight game’. I’ve never been more proud to be a Sabres fan than I was after that game.

    - Gilbert Perreault’s hair flowing in the breeze as he skated.

  24. twoeightnine says:
    May 20, 2008 at 3:15 pm

    http://youtube.com/watch?v=q52hfTtyzHs

  25. Brian says:
    May 20, 2008 at 4:13 pm

    Goosebumps, dude.

    I’m as choked up as Lorentz.

    I ask you, is there any better sound than that split second when the goal horn perfectly coincides with the crowd erupting?

  26. Kevin says:
    May 20, 2008 at 4:33 pm

    Two things always bothered me about that night (although it was about as emotional as any night in Buffalo).

    - Mike Wilson was one of the players who got to take a final lap and Gil Perreault was not (stupid spat with management).

    - In hindsight, that logo meant so much to us as fans, and to have the Rigases rip it away and bury it, and then to have Golisano and Quinn have the chance to revive it and fuck it up, still bothers me to this day.

  27. Brian says:
    May 21, 2008 at 9:05 am

    Agreed. What was ever wrong with (in my opinion) one of the most classy logos in professional sports? The simplicity and symbolism of that crest is perfect.

    You could make the arguement that the franchise was in a state of transition with new ownership and a new arena -so why not change the logo and colors too? I disagree with that line of thought, but understand the logic behind it.

    Golisano and THE LQ had the opportunity to do something special – simply by listening to the fans – and they chose to go their own way. I’m not going to lose any sleep over a crest on a uniform. But, think of how great those home white uniforms looked at the Winter Classic. Think of all of the memories and passion that something as simple as a crest on a uniform can evoke. This team has such a great history and for those of us who grew up during the time when the team proudly wore that crest, it, more than anything, symbolizes the Sabres.