Archive for August, 2011

The days are getting colder and the nights longer which can only mean one thing. Football is right around the corner and behind that is what we’ve all been waiting for…Sabres hockey. Since Terry Pegula took over, there have been changes to the arena, coaching staff, and players that other teams can marvel at. Now with the start of the season just over a month away I thought that maybe we should all get to know the Sabres a little bit better. Coaches and players. What better way to count down the days to Sabres hockey then with a daily post [...]

It’s coming. You can feel it in the 58 degree nights. You can see it when the sun sets earlier and earlier. My favorite time of year, Fall. Don’t get me wrong. Summer has it’s uses. But hot, muggy weather and boring sports ain’t on the list. Give me a 60 degree day, the living room windows just cracked, football on Sunday afternoons, my wife’s roast baking in the oven and, of course…hockey.

                       We Want More!     For hockey-starved and hockey-thirsty fans, the summer months can drag along at a slugs pace. While Sabres fans anxiously await the final de-slugging of First Niagara Center, where do we turn for our hockey entertainment? During the season, the NHL Network becomes a lifeline for our hockey news. So, why do they abandon us in the excruciatingly boring off season? There certainly could be other programming to broadcast instead of random playoff games, and the network could undoubtedly boost their off season ratings with even some slight creativity. Here are a few ideas:

It seems only fitting.  We have entered a new era of Buffalo Sabres hockey, new owner, new players, the inside of the arena is getting a facelift.  And now, the outside of the arena will be getting some minor changes.  With the firesale going on at HSBC – the latest thing the bank has shed in the Buffalo region is it’s association with the Arena. 

    With September finally approaching, and hockey season around the corner, many scribes are fine tuning their keyboards and getting ready for some serious hockey talk. The Buffalo Sabres, for the first time in a helluva long time, are front and center when it comes to banter around the NHL.

The Rochester Americans have released their schedule for the 2011-2012 season. Below are the dates.

“Maestro”. That’s what they used to call him. A magician with the puck. Slick, deft, gifted. Supreme vision and sick passing skills. Versatile, and a team player. Compared to Detroit’s Pavel Datsyuk? Wait, what?!? Ville Leino is the newest member of the Buffalo Sabres. The team who’s back he broke last April with a game 6 overtime goal, to send his team, the Philadelphia Flyers, back home for game 7 with such momentum that they dispatched the Sabres in embarrassing fashion.  All the Sabres had to do was score one goal. On to round two then. Who was watching Leino [...]

The National Hockey League released it’s national television schedule today and, unless you turn down your TV, and turn up your radio, it looks like we’ll be hearing even less of RJ and Harry than we expected to on Buffalo Sabres’ broadcasts.

When Buffalo Sabres number one center Derek Roy went down with a season-ending torn quad tendon two days before Christmas, 2010, many started looking ahead to “next season”. The Sabres were sitting well out of a playoff spot, with a 14-17-4 record, and Roy was one of the very few bright spots on a team playing just plain bad hockey. The Sabres were off to a terrible start, playing uninspired and making costly errors, and the injury might have well been the nail in the coffin. Well, like the Italian Stallion in Rocky V, Thomas Vanek “didn’t hear no bell”.

Since the free agent hype is over, there has been a long lull in excitement about the Buffalo Sabres’ upcoming season. Yet, there are still days that when I think about this season and I’m giddy as a school girl. There are a lot of people that I’m excited to watch, but there are a few that stick out: Nathan Gerbe: Gerbe started off the season slowly and his skill was often called into question. Many said, “he’s too small”, but the little spitfire decided to shut up the critics when he truly started producing. Gerbe was tagged as a [...]