If you’re too young to remember Kevin Maguire, I feel sorry for you.  He was a beast and he simply loved to fight.

Snuggerud may have played a brief three seasons here in Buffalo, but he was a fan favorite as a defensive stopper along the lines of Don Luce.  His first season of 1989-90 saw him score 14 goals and add six assists, and there were high hopes for him.  After that, however, he got stuck in a third-or-fourth line right winger who was on the first-team penalty kill.  And honestly, those guys are easy to come buy.

Snuggs was traded to San Jose late in the 1991-92 season for Wayne Presley, who was basically the same player with a little more longevity.

Incidentally, not a lot of greats have rolled through town wearing No. 18…

Some brief thoughts since I again find myself rushed for time.

- Obviously, something has to be done soon about Toni Lydman.  He’s healthy, and gives the Sabres eight defensemen when he returns.  The couple problems that arise are (1) who gets moved to make room for him and (2) who sits on defense?  Mair seems to be the obvious choice to the first question, but that leaves Buffalo with no spare forwards with the exception of swingman Nathan Paetsch.  Plus, if you send Mair down you are really carrying eight defensemen, which is a stretch.  The second question is basically asking who becomes your seventh defenseman.  Sekera?  Playing time is the only thing that helps a kid his age, and don’t tell me Buffalo wouldn’t love to see his puck-moving skills develop.  Butler’s safe, Rivet is safe, Myers is safe.  Tallinder leads the Sabres in the flawed plus-minus stat and has been Myers partner whenever they have both been healthy, and Montador has been a pleasant surprise.  Tough, tough spot.

- Stafford is back tonight, not that anyone would have minded seeing Tyler Ennis again.  I think Ryan made an excellent point when he wondered if Gerbe wasn’t hurt, would Ennis have received the callup anyway?  Hard to say, and I have yet to hear much positive about Gerbe this year, but it should have him looking over his shoulder.

- The Sabres record this year when trailing after one period?  1-4-0.  When tied or winning after one period?  11-0-1.  Don’t want to read too much into that but the former record is a little damning.

- Panthers are 5-2-1 in their last eight, so let’s not get too cocky tonight.  7:00 start, but no Doug Allen for the National Anthem.

But the Dick Jauron firing came a year too late for most Bills fans.  Now the Bills will have to promote Perry Fewell or Bobby April as a “placeholder” while the rebuilding process starts yet again.

I think April  survive the “interim head coach” thing because everyone will know he’s a placeholder, and he is respected on the team and around the league.

According to ESPN, however, the choice will be Fewell.  That same article (linked above) says that Jauron was “blindsided” by the move.  I guess that’s all we need to know.

Maybe it was the ususal Friday night energy of the crowd, but the Sabres were physical against a very phsical team, and showed that they can inded play that style when they wish.

But can they do it two nights in a row?  Philly has owned them of late, and they should want this game far more than last night’s.

As for Mike Foligno, I really wanted to dislike him when he came over from Detroit in a large trade, the keystone of which was Danny Gare.  But you couldn’t dislike him.  Not with his hard (and crooked)-nosed attitude, his scoring ability, his willingness to brawl, and, of course, his patented post-goal jump.

And here is is puching out known douchebag Terry O’Reilly.

I’ve put enough words up about LaFontaine in the past, but let me just say that with the possible exception of 2005-06 there was never a more enjoyable year for me, as a fan, than the 1992-93 season.

LaFontaine had an incredible 148 points that year as he scored 53 goals and had 95 assists, most of which went to Alexander Mogilny (he of 76 goals that season).  You know how when you’re watching hockey from a Canadian city on TV, and the home team gets the puck and starts a rush up ice, and the volume of the crowd rises noticeably?  Well, that’s what it was like in Buffalo every time LaFontaine or Mogilny were on the ice that year.  The only thing to which I can compare it is to when Gil Perreault used to get the puck in his own end and start up ice.  Back in the 70’s the crowd in the Aud would come to their feet, and the noise would ratchet up because everyone knew something special could happen.  That was 1992-93 as well.

While in Buffalo his work with Children’s Hospital and Roswell Park was legendary, and his support of charities has continued long after his career ended.

I don’t collect memorabilia from individual players because, well, I’ve seen what phonies most of them turn out to be.  But I am proud to have an a game-used stick autographed by Pat LaFontaine.

The combination of his skill on the ice and his giving off of it makes him, to me, the finest player to ever don a Sabres jersey.

Here’s to you, Pat.

But a real gambler soldiers on, and is not deterred by fluky losses.  Especially when one is significantly up for the year.

To this week’s picks!

New Orleans (-14) over St. Louis*  Teasing this down to four points is almost too good to be true.

Baltimore (-10.5) over Cleveland*  Hey, it worked earlier in the year, right?  I admit I am a little uncomfortable with this one because (a) Baltimore has been a disappointment of late and (b) karma.  And by karma, I mean Baltimore should get their brains beat in by Cleveland at least once every year because of Art Modell.

Denver (-3.5) over Washington*  I am a true believer in how bad the ‘Skins are.

As an option, I offer up Miami* (-10) over Tampa Bay.  There’s no way they lose at home to Tampa, right?  Right?

And as usual, stay away from the Bills.

Calgary has an 11-4-1 record and stand 5th in the West with games in hand over everyone ahead of them.  They’re playing great hockey, so I expected some player stats to jump off the page at me when I was looking at the roster.

Sure, they have Iginla and Phaneuf, Langkow and Rene Bourque.  But after that nobody is putting up great numbers.  Until I got to the goaltender section and saw that Mikka Kiprusoff is playing great hockey with a 10-3-1 record and a .917 save percentage.  Add in seven solid NHL defensemen and you get a sense of just what sort of defensive game tonight could turn into.

Back in Buffalo, it looks like the NHL will make me look the fool (like I need the help) by not even fining Clarke MacArthur.  So The Little General will be in the lineup tonight, although it appears Mike Grier will not.  Based on what was seen at practice yesterday Pat Kaleta may move up to the third line while Mair will play on the fourth line with Goose and Ellis.

- All that being said, Pat Quinn is still a douche for saying this:  “Watching it on tape, (MacArthur) knew exactly what he was doing.”  Guess it’s tough to see straight through your vodka-stained tears, eh Pat?  Have another martini, you fat pig.

- That aside, I thought the Sabres played a disinterested game last night, and I sure didn’t want to see that after the two losses over the weekend.  I remain unconvinced.

- If Mike Grier is out for any amount of time I guess keeping Adam Mair in Buffalo was the right call.

- Derek Roy?  Still my least-favorite Sabre.

- I know it’s fun to call the Sabres “cheap” despite the fact they are again spending close to the cap, but the team valuations from Forbes show what a difference small changes in payroll can have on a team’s profitability.  If Buffalo had spent like Carolina or Edmonton last year, they would have made money.  That being said, if they had made the playoffs the loss would likely have been cut by millions.

When Zubaz, Dixon Ward, Lou Franceschetti, and Randy Wood are the big names you know you have issues.

So I kicked it back to all-the-way old school and went with Gerry Meehan, an original Sabre.

Meehan may have only played four seasons in Buffalo but he was on the ice for their first game and served as team captain from 1971-1974.  He was traded to Vancouver along with Mike Robitaille just prior to the 1974-75 season.

His biggest role in Buffalo was as General Manager from 1986-1993.  He was the Sabres representative who flew to Russia to aid Alexander Mogilny’s defection in 1989, and he was also the guy who pulled the trigger and traded Pierre Turgeon for the classiest player to ever don a Sabres uniform, Pat LaFontaine.

Meehan took a lot of grief from the fans back in the day, but I remember him as a kind and generous man whom I new personally and always treated me very well.  That being said, it was under Meehan that the Sabres went five straight years without getting past the first round of the playoffs.  It wasn’t until his final season as GM that we were treated to the “Mayday” goal and the subsequent second-round sweep at the hands of the Canadiens.

Still, Gerry Meehan is a big part of the history of our Buffalo Sabres.  Here’s to you, No. 15.

**************

As for tonight, it’s always fun to see the West Coast teams in our barn.  Dustin Penner is making former Oilers GM and chief assclown Kevin Lowe look a little less stupid for signing him to a five-year, $21.25 million offer sheet by actually putting up numbers in his third season.  And now that Pat Quinn is coaching the Oil there are even more reasons to dislike their organization.

7:00 start from HSBC.

I have to admit to being a bit surprised he made it through, but then again most teams have their fourth-line-guy-who-tries-really-hard-and-makes-750K-per-year-and-likes-to-fight.  So, he’s off to Portland.

On thing that waiving Mair accomplished that I failed to consider yesterday was giving the Sabres some flexibility in case of injury.  With Mair on the roster an injury to someone on the top-two lines may have led to a lot of line-juggling, with Mair moving to the fourth line, Gaustad moving to the third, and someone else (perhaps Kennedy) moving up.  Or, you could stick Mair on the top line (bad idea).

Now, you just call up Gerbe (or whomever – likely Gerbe) and plug him in where he would be able to best utilize his skills, which would be on one of the top forward lines.  And you don’t have to risk losing anyone to waivers because Gerbe doesn’t need to clear.

A minor point, to be sure, but one worth noting.

And don’t worry, Mair fans (and I consider myself to be one).  We can always check him out on Thursday night when Portland is at the Arena.