Buffalo Sabres, AHL All Stars, NHL Trades
Good morning, Buffalo Sabres fans! The Buffalo Sabres are officially on their All-Star Break, but NHL action continues until Wednesday evening.
Meanwhile, the American Hockey League is preparing for its own All-Star Weekend, coming up on January 25 and 26 in Utica. Fan voting for the starters for the game ends at noon Monday, so we should know soon if Rochester Americans forward Philip Varone will be a starter for the game or not.
In other Rochester Americans news, the Amerks pulled off an incredible 8-7 shootout win over the Oklahoma City Barons on Sunday.
Rochester goals came from Matt Tassone, Tim Schaller, Dan Catenacci, Johan Larsson, William Carrier, Zac Dalpe and Joel Armia. Dalpe had the lone goal in the shootout to give the Amerks the win. Andrey Makarov had 41 saves.
Heading back to the NHL this morning, Bleacher Report has a slideshow of the top 10 worst NHL trades in the last decade.
No Buffalo Sabres deals are included in the list. Among those included are the trade of Joe Thornton from Boston to San Jose, the Flyers’ swap of Patrick Sharp to Chicago, and Jeff Carter‘s trade from Philadelphia to Columbus.
If you had to make a Sabres-only list of the worst trades of the last decade…. what would you pick?
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From USA Today, a look at some of the NHL teams that have made coaching changes recently… and how those coaching changes aren’t exactly bringing the reform that the teams had hoped.
Included in the list are Ottawa, Toronto, New Jersey and Edmonton — none of whom are doing better so far under their new coaching regimes.
This brings up the interesting point of what would happen if the Buffalo Sabres were to let Ted Nolan go. The everlasting question is this: how much of a team’s performance lies with the coach? How much lies with the players? Sure, changing the coaching regime is an easy way to shake things up in a struggling organization, but in the end, it can only do so much, if the players simply aren’t performing up to par.
Finally this morning, a bit of news that relates to Terry Pegula’s family’s other major sports franchise – the Buffalo Bills.
A New York State study released this weekend produced four possible options for a new Bills stadium. The study includes three downtown sites and one Orchard Park site.
One of the downtown sites would put the new stadium in the Cobblestone district, essentially right next to First Niagara Center and the Buffalo Sabres. This would take away some of the surface parking lots around the arena, which could be an issue for fans attending Buffalo Sabres games. Sure, there’s the new HARBORcenter parking garage, but these surface lots surrounding FNC are still used for many events, and eliminating them would undoubtedly affect fans parking for Sabres games.
Many of the concepts for the new stadium downtown circles around the idea of creating an “arena district,” with First Niagara Center and a new Buffalo Bills stadium within walking distance of each other — plus the Buffalo Bisons’ home, HARBORcenter and Canalside all nearby. Either way, the Buffalo Bills still have eight more years of their lease at Ralph Wilson Stadium, so these ideas are a bit far off, but it’s important to start thinking about it.