Some Fans Don’t Use Their Heads
By Jake Breunig
Ok, so I just read an article on WGR550.com about the goaltender depth in the Sabres Organization. And I continued on to read some of the comments written by fans. They began to really get me heated. Some fans simply do not know what they are talking about or just write about a guy simply cause they think they’re terrible after a poor year.
Some of the comments I read, mostly about Miller and Enroth were as follows:
“Trade enroth,as he has some value and potential, and let leggio back up miller. After he fully recovered from his concussion miller was doing great until the final week or so of the season. Lindy just wore him out like usual byplaying him every game. Leggio can play 20 games for the sabres next year to keep miller fresh for the playoffs. “
“…well i dont think so we need to make a splash this offseason Trade, sign and Release(lieno) pple SOON! “
“Since 2006-2007 he’s had one great season! In that season he lost to Rask in the playoffs. His career has been one of failures and excuse making. His career average and SV% is a joke. On most other teams he’d be a backup. He will be what 32? making 6.5 million? He’s the number one problem with this organization, he’s treated like some God and he’s average at best. “
Now I can get as heated or pissed off about a player as much as the next fan, but come on people, use some logic. Don’t just assume things because you don’t like the guy.
Starting with the first comment: I agree that Enroth has some value and potential as a goalie and could be easily traded. He is making $675,000 and is restricted. Despite his size, he is very capable and agile as a goalie. He was drafted in the 2nd round but to many is considered unproven and greatly under-sized and most teams will give up maybe a 4th round pick(3rd at best) to attempt to develop him. David Leggio is even more unproven. Leggio went undrafted out of college and played in the ECHL and Finland before being signed as a free agent to play for Portland. In his first season in Portland he went 22-12-0 in 36 games. Leggio was expected to sit behind newly signed Drew MacIntyre in Rochester, but when Drew was called up during Miller’s injury, Leggio won the starting job and in 54 games, had a record of 28-24-2 before being swept by the Toronto Marlies in the first round of the playoffs. Leggio’s track record is no where near Enroth’s. Enroth, in Portland, was 74-58-9 in 147 games. So my question to this fan is, if Enroth has more potential than Leggio, and better skill than Leggio, and more experience than Leggio, why do you want to get rid of him? If you don’t believe Enroth can play 20 games in this league to let Miller rest, what makes you think Leggio can?
Next: this is unrelated to the goalies but “COMON MAN.” Release Leino??????????? REALLY?? Do you know nothing about how the league works? This is NOT the NFL where guys can be cut from a team without any financial repercussions. When you release a player in the NHL, you are required to buy out his contract, which means that you owe him the money he was guaranteed to earn in the contract he signed. Therefore, according to Capgeek.com, “Ville Leino is 28 years old on the buyout date of June 15, 2012, setting the buyout ratio at 2/3 and the total buyout cost at $14,000,000 spread over 10 years. This equals a negative buyout cap hit against the Sabres. Next time, please think before you type.
Third and Final: I hate when people rag on Ryan Miller, claiming that he has never had a great season aside from his Vezina winning season. Now I’m not always the biggest Miller fan but seriously, look at what the man has done. Let’s compare Ryan to who Sabre’s fans believe is the greatest goaltender to play for the Blue and Gold: Dominik Hasek. Hasek played nine seasons for Buffalo and Miller just finished his tenth under Sabre’s contract. Hasek played 491 games with a record of 234-170 with 70 ties and 16 OTL’s. Miller happened to actually pass Hasek on the all time wins list for the franshise with a record of 252-147 with 1 tie and 50 OTL’s. Miller does not have a terrible save percentage on his career at .915. If you compare his career SV% to that of other #1 goalies in the league, only 10 other goalies have a higher save percentage, only including players who have more that 100 games played, therefore Mike Smith and Brian Elliot have not been included. Also, Miller even has an average higher SV% than all time goalie great Patrick Roy, .918 in Colorado and a .907 in Montreal. How can you claim that Miller has not been good since his Vezina season. He has won over 30 games in each of his seasons in the league, and has been a strong player between the pipes, often being the reason this team reaches the playoffs. Final point: Who the hell treats him like a God???? I’m pretty sure 90% of fans this season were calling for his head. From October 7th – November 23rd everyone was begging for Enroth and calling Miller weak, soft, and not the same Miller. So yeah, no one thought he was a God, and many even thought he was the reason for our poor play, some even blamed his wife and his marriage for the poor play.
Sorry for the Lewis Black type rant, people just annoy me sometimes when they don’t use logic. What do you think about these comments and what do you think about my rebuttal to these comments?