Patrick Roy's Son Charged with Assault

In the fight that was played across Canada last year, the Quebec Remparts goalie Jonathan Roy pummeled opposing Chicoumati Saguenees goalie Bobby Nadeau. Now he is going to pay the price for it.

Today Roy was charged with one count of assault in Saguenay according to the Associated Press. This makes complete sense when you look at the video because there was no sense of fight in Nadeau and Roy just did this because he could. This isn't what makes hockey fights great, it is what cheapens them. Roy was punished by the league and now is going to be rightfully punished by the law.

If you haven't seen the video, here it is

Blazers send Laverty to the Knighthawks

The Boston Blazers sent Kyle Laverty to the Rochester Knighthawks for defender Jack Reid. Laverty acquired by the Blazers from the Bandits through the dispersal draft will now head to the Thruway rivals in Rochester.

In return for Laverty, the Blazers picked up Jack Reid. Reid last year playing for the Knighthawks had 4 assists in 10 games last season and has played in a total of 16 games in two seasons. This looks definitely like a forced trade by the Blazers who probably had to send Laverty back close to the Western New York area. The Blazers give up experience in Laverty for an All-American in Reid.

The Sabres can tap into the Toronto Market Too

The Sabres announced their pricing tiers for this year with a new addition. The Platinum tier includes four games this year where the prices range from $78-223. Those four games are the three Leafs games and one Canadiens game. Basically, the Sabres have priced these tickets out of the fan bases price range. Who did they price them for though?

The Canadians.

With the strength of the Canadian dollar at this point and the fact that most Canadians come down for the games against the Leafs and Canadiens, it makes sense that to maximize the potential of the Canadian dollar is to charge the most for the games against the Canadian teams.

It made sense for the Bills to tap into the Toronto market because of the strength of the Canadian dollar and the purchasing power that the Canadians have over the fans in the States. This same philosophy makes sense for the Sabres as well. As long as the Canadians are going to cross the border and check out those games, why not try and get more money out of them anyways. The only people it hurts is the individual ticket buyer because the season ticket holder pays the Value price for all 41 games.

Zhitnik to try and make the Dynamo

Fanhouse reported on Friday that ex-Sabre Alexei Zhitnik has signed a tryout contract with the Moscow Dynamo. After being bought out by the Atlanta Thrashers a few weeks ago, Zhitnik decided that heading home was probably the best option. Given his play in the last few years, it was probably his only option.

Zhitnik's time with the Sabres was the longest and most productive years in his career. Playing in 712 games for the Sabres from 1995-2005, Zhitnik scored 67 goals and had 289 points.

Cunneyworth Leaving the Amerks for Thrashers

The Atlanta Thrashers announced yesterday that they hired Randy Cunneyworth as assistant coach to new head coach John Anderson. Cunneyworth as mentioned here was in negotiations with the Panthers to stay in Rochester with the Amerks. This should come as no shock to Buffalo fans that Cunney was leaving the organization. Who is shocks is the Panthers who now have to find a head coach for the Amerks

Regier told the Buffalo News today that he is looking outside of the organization to hire for the head coaching position of the Pirates. He gave no clue though as to who the candidates were.

Blazers Take Laverty in Expansion Draft

The Boston Blaxers took Kyle Laverty as the Bandits choice in the expansion draft yesterday. Laverty had 9 points last season (2-7) with the Bandits playing in all 16 games and had 2 assists in the playoffs. Laverty was one of 12 players picked by the Blazers yesterday. This will be a loss to the Bandits who have a good group of defenders in Chris White, Billy Dee Smith, and Clay Hill. The Bandits do have last year's rookie Kyle Schmelze who played in 8 games last year and registered 5 points (2-3) to replace Laverty and that seems to be the likely replacement

The Blazers took 12 players total, one from each of the other teams in the league. Besides these players, the Blazers also have Dan Dawson and Peter Veltman from the Sting Dispersal Draft. The other players were:

1. Mike Poulin - G Toronto
2. Mitch Belisle - D New York
3. Matt Lyons - F Rochester
4. Kyle Laverty - D Buffalo
5. John Gallant - D Colorado
6. Jake Bergey - F Philadelphia
7. Devan Wray - D Calgary
8. Kyle Ross - D Minnesota
9. Tom Johnson - F San Jose
10. Matt Holman - F Chicago
11. Michael Kilby - D Portland
12. Cam Bergman - G Edmonton

It seems that the Blazers wanted to establish their defense through the expansion draft and then build their offense through the Entry Draft. For now, Dan Dawson is going to be the centerpiece of the offense, though it seems that Dawson is still going to hold out to be traded most likely out west. The Blazers are definitely in the building stages and will most likely not contend for anything this season but it will be interesting to see where this team goes from here.

Ryan Miller Press Conference

The Sabres held a press conference today to "announce" the extension of Miller and to answer questions from the press essentially. During those questions, Miller came out with this quote:

"I chose Buffalo. It is a bit of a buy-in. I buy into what they're about," he said. "That's winning hockey games based on caring about the players and individuals. I have a great relationship with everyone in this organization. It made a lot of sense to stay here. I have great friends and teammates. I trust my coaches, I trust my management and that's not a situation you can always step into, especially with free agency."

This quote signifies everything that the Sabres have been working towards in the last few years and everything that signifies this team. Ryan Miller is the face of the Sabres. He will be until kingdom come or until he decides to hang up the skates. It is a refreshing thought that a player actually wants to stay in Buffalo and play with the group of players that are here. This makes the most sense because most of these guys have groomed their play in Rochester together and have grown together in Buffalo. So it makes sense that they would want to play together and win a Cup together.

Most people in Buffalo didn't see this though, including myself. We thought that the team could grow and be as big as they were in 2005 and 2006 with the inclusion of Briere and Drury. We were obviously wrong. With the core group of players now: Vanek, Miller, Pominville, Gaustad, and Paille, these guys are going to react from comments and other play better than they probably would have with Briere and Drury as the captains. It would not shock me if Pominville was the permanent captain of the team heading into training camp and the rotational captain finally ending.

This team will play better than the team that we saw last year. They will be a playoff team because they have grown and learned together enough to know how each other plays and can adjust to the play of each other. The grooming in Rochester and the grooming here have prepared this group to play to their potential.