Buffalo Sabres, NHL in Vegas, Defense Pairings
Good morning, Buffalo Sabres fans!
Looking at the Buffalo Sabres’ recent record, the team has been playing somewhat better than they were previously. Sure, they haven’t won every game recently, but even the losses in the last few days have been close games that the team could have, maybe even should have, won.
Take last night’s 2-1 loss to the Ottawa Senators, for instance. The Sabres outshot the Sens by a margin of 36-26, but a solid performance by Ottawa netminder Robin Lehner and a late goal by Milan Michalek meant the Sabres came out on the losing side of things.
Or how about the 3-2 loss to the New York Islanders? The Buffalo Sabres only registered 10 shots in that game, but they still managed to rally back from a 3-0 deficit.
Taking all of that into account, and looking at the team on a wider angle — can NHL teams quickly rebound from a terrible record? [SportingCharts.com]
Moving from Buffalo to Las Vegas now, as the potential NHL market there kicked off its official season ticket drive on Tuesday afternoon. [Review Journal]
Fans were asked to make a deposit between $150 and $900 for potential season tickets for an NHL team in Las Vegas. The hope was that at least 10,000 people would sign up in helps of drawing a team to Las Vegas, though no NHL team would play there until 2016-2017.
In other news this morning, from Sportsnet comes a list of the best NHL defensive pairings of all-time.
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Among those on the list are Shea Weber and Ryan Suter, Chris Pronger and Scott Niedermayer, and historically, Bobby Orr and Dallas Smith.
Who would you select? How about current defensive pairings in the NHL? I’d be biased, but I’d probably say Duncan Keith and Brent Seabrook of the Chicago Blackhawks. The two play very well together and have been paired for years. They’ve got chemistry and history, have won two Stanley Cups together and overall – it just works.
From NHL.com, the buyers and sellers who are outside the playoff bubble in the NHL – including the Buffalo Sabres.
NHL Live’s EJ Hradek and Steve Mears evaluated each team and whether they’d be buyers or sellers heading into this year’s March deadline. For instance, they pegged the Toronto Maple Leafs as sellers, likely to move a lot of pieces, including defensemen, out.
Also from Sportsnet this morning, the 2015 Order of Hockey in Canada has been announced.
Pat Quinn, Jim Gregory and Serge Savard are this year’s selections.
Finally in NHL news this morning, a new concussion lawsuit has been filed against the league, with 29 plaintiffs including Manny Legace and Butch Goring. [ESPN]
In other hockey news, over 1200 potential name ideas has been submitted for the Ontario Hockey League’s new team in Flint, Michigan.
The online submission for ideas closes on Wednesday at 11:59 p.m., while paper submissions will continue to be accepted through Friday.
To enter your ideas, go to OHL4Flint.com.
To see a partial list of names already submitted, check out this article from MI NBC News.com.