Sabres hire new coach!
… for Portland.
From WGR:
Kevin Dineen will be named Portland’s coach Tuesday. Dineen has coached the Pirates for Anaheim for three seasons.
Dineen was AHL coach of the year in his first season. He had a franchise best 53-19-5-3 record during the regular season, 114 points, an AHL record 27 road wins, a regular season Eastern Conference title and their first ever Atlantic Division championship. Dineen lost in the Conference Finals to Hershey.
The Portland Press Herald has the story up as well:
Dineen will be introduced as the Pirates’ head coach at 2 p.m. today in the Captain’s Club at the Cumberland County Civic Center.
“I’ll be there (at the press conference),” Dineen said Monday night. “I’m excited about this opportunity.”
His appointment as Portland’s coach ends a summer of speculation.
Dineen coached the Pirates for the last three seasons while the NHL’s Anaheim Ducks were Portland’s parent club. But in June, the Ducks left Portland and the Pirates entered into an affiliation with the Buffalo Sabres. And Dineen appeared to be heading elsewhere.
…
In Dineen’s three years as head coach, the Pirates were 135-76-13-16. Twice under Dineen, the Pirates came within one win of advancing to the AHL’s Calder Cup finals.
Regardless of his actual coaching abilities, of which I have zero knowledge, I just like the idea of retaining the guy that’s been there the past three years. For one thing it shows to both Dineen and to the fans in Portland that the Sabres place a lot of value in what he has accomplished there. His presence will provide at least one familiar face for the fans amidst a slew of new players.
On top of that, for ex-Amerks like Zagrapan, Hunter and Mancari I imagine it’s going to be a big change going out there. Instead of playing against teams like Hamilton, Syracuse and Toronto 15 times a year, they’ll now be facing the likes of Manchester, Hartford and Providence. The travel will be different (mainly easier), the routine will be different, and the style of play will be different. The fact that Dineen has three year’s experience in this role should help these guys acclimate to the move. Given all that, I think it’s a wise move.
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Dineen should be a good fit for the Pirates. Now that the Sabres signed some veteran players and a good coach, the Pirates should be in good shape to get players ready for the Sabres. Has anyone heard anything about Pominville or whether the Sabres will make any other moves on defense?
If Bucky likes the hiring then it has to be good right? Right? I can’t handle it when he agrees with management. I can’t tell if it’s real or sarcasm.
http://buffalonews.typepad.com/sabres/2008/08/sabres-hiring-d.html
Great choice to go with Dineen. He has won for three straight years there, and a change in coaching might help the aformentioned trio of Zagrapan, Hunter and Mancari a little kickstart, not that I think Cunneyworth did anything wrong.
Also, is it my memory off, or was Dineen an absolute Sabre killer when he played against us, or am I thinking about someone else? Maybe it was Verbeek. Or both.
Manchester is about a 75 minute drive from here – I guess I’ll be getting to see Sabre prospects this year – cool
Looking forward to Pirates v BEARS down here in Chocolate Town, USA.
Pete – I got to see the Amerks play at the Bears, it was the year after “the rumble” in the aud. It was giant cookie night, I was surprised nobody threw their cookie at John Van Boxmeer, the crowd was all over him.
I do recall Donald Audette and Jody Gage each scored hat tricks also that Rob Ray got seriously lumped up by Tim Tookie. Giant cookie night was cool!
That, of course, was at the old HersheyPark Arena.
They don’t play there anymore.
BTW, that’s the same place that Wilt Chamberlain scored his 100 point game.
And you say Rob Ray got lumped up by Tookie??
Ya gotta be kidding.
Tooks is a great guy, and one of the best ever on the Bears.
But he’s definitely no brawler. Tooks is still around, helping out with youth hockey.
Ray egged the Bears into about 5 or 6 stupid penalties in the first two periods – he’d start something and turtle. In the 3rd Tookie had had enough, he grabbed Ray B/4 he could curl up and smacked the hell out of his face, Rob’s face was pretty bloodied.
Ray lost that battle but won the war – it was on some of those bad penalties that Audette and Gage lit up the Bears.
I got to see the Pirates play the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre Penguins in May when they were in the Caulder Cup semi-finals.
Pete, I also got to see the Bears beat the Pens in April in the only game they won of the series at Giant Arena.
I’m bummed that the Pirates don’t play the Amerks this year in Rochester. (Having watched the prospects from the Sabres and the Florida Panthers the past few years, the Pirates would probably win that game.) Mancari, Hunter, Zagarpan, etc. will see different teams this year — lots of good teams in that division. When the Hershey Bears came to play the Amerks, you knew those games wouldn’t be boring.
#9 Sharpie – Are the drunken Baby Pens still running naked through the streets of Wilkes Barre??
/PA talk
AHL sked is due out “in early August” acc to Web site.
I read somewhere it’s due out tomorrow, maybe at the Portland Press site…
I live 15 miles south of Portland. You could say that I’m excited.
Schedule to be released Thursday
08/06/2008 10:15 AM – The American Hockey League will be releasing its 2008-09 regular-season schedule on Thursday, August 7, at 3:00 p.m. ET. The schedule will be available for viewing and download on the official Web site of the American Hockey League, theahl.com. The AHL’s 73rd season will begin on Wednesday, October 8, and continue until the crowning of a champion in June
Damn, Portland’s only making one appearance in Hershey.
Sunday, February 8: @ 5 p.m.
if I read Portland Pirates’ schedule correctly, they will be playing the Albany River Rats on Tues. Feb. 10th in Buffalo.(it’s considered a home game for the Pirates) so you may get to see the future Sabres in Buffalo.
Posted: Friday, 08 August 2008 2:16PM
Numminen Signs With Sabres
Greg Bauch Reporting
greg@wgr550.com
WGR 550 has learned that the Sabres have signed veteran defenseman Teppo Numminen to a contract today. Numminen missed all but one game last season with a heart ailment. The 40-year old underwent successful heart surgery in September of 2007. Terms of the deal were not given.
Numminen has been with the Sabres since the 2005-06 campaign. He has 620 career points in 1315 games played.
The official announcement is expected to come later today.
The Sabres have also signed Tyler Bouck to a new deal. Bouck was the captain for the Portland Pirates last season. He recorded 11 goals and 18 assists in 79 games last year in the AHL.
Keep it locked to WGR 550 for the latest.
$1.1 million for Teppo.
On the upper edges of what I would have liked, but I can’t really complain.
Good for Teppo ~ and for the Sabs
We’re lucky he didn’t pack it in to play in one of the Euro leagues.