Bandits/Knighthawks Review

The Bandits pooched this game against the Knighthawks losing 11-6 at the BCA. Looking at the scoresheet, it looked like the team well just lost it. The quote from Darris kind of confirms that as well.

“I keep telling my guys that you can’t play just 10 minutes with hard energy and expect to get a ‘W’ out of it. I’m figuring out that I have a team that does what they want. When they want to play they’re a great team and when they don’t want to play they’re an average team. There’s pretty much nothing I can say to make them be a great team.”

The Bandits took 75 PIM in the game, 51 of them coming in the 4th quarter. This team just lost its composure during a time where the Eastern Conference has become a logjam of massive proportions. Ken Montour took the game mainly, being replaced by Thompson at some point. Montour had 39 saves on 50 shots, which is on par with his performances this season. The major problem with this game was the absolute lack of offense. 44 shots, 0-3 on the power play and a total of six goals in the game is the recipe for certain loss. Leading scorers like Accursi and Steenhuis were completely held off the scoreboard, while the teams leading scorer in the game was McCready and Tavares. Basically, this game has to be blamed on the lack of judging an opponent that is fighting for their playoff lives. This loss puts the Bandits in third place in the Conference, 1 game behind the Wings and a game and a half behind the Swarm. The last two games of the season are at home against the bottom dwellers of the conferences. This Saturday is against the Shamrox which are winners of four straight and on the 26th are the Lumberjax.

Notes about things

The Sabres kept their heads above the water with the shootout win last night against the Senators. While I only caught the last couple of minutes of the game, it was good to see a sense of urgency and not what I saw against the Senators on Tuesday. All this is moot though, because the high-flying Canadiens are coming to town tonight. The Canadiens lead the division by four points over the Senators and are playing very well, which was evident the last time they came to town. If the Sabres want to keep themselves alive in the last 5 games, they obviously need to come away with two points tonight.

The Amerks and Knighthawks have found a new majority owner in Curt Styres. Styres bought out owners Randell Latona and Walter Turek to become the new majority owner. Donner still stays on board with the team running day-to-day operations. This puts to rest all the rumors floating about on the Sabres possibly owning the team. Where the team will move to is unknown at this point and there are no rumors floating yet.

The Sabres' Future with the Amerks

It seems like an odd title but there are some rumblings about a renewed interest with the Sabres and Amerks. It starts with the Knighthawks owing $27,000 in back taxes to the state. The Knighthawks are part of the deal with the Amerks. The next deal comes with the Rhinos and the city of Rochester seizing PAETEC Park due to the default of the loans on the stadium. This leads us to probably the most hated man in Rochester sports right now, Steve Donner. Donner has a 40% ownership in the Amerks and also has an ownership in the Rhinos. Because NBT bank wants its money from the Rhinos, they have sued the three major owners in the Rhinos, including Donner. This has a huge implication towards the Amerks and the Knighthawks which again Donner is majority owner of. There has been speculation that Tommy G., the same person who came in and swooped the Sabres out of bankruptcy, may come in a swoop up the Amerks and Knighthawks.

Isnt it interesting that the Sabres have yet to announce anything toward their next affiliation. It was announced in November that the Sabres were officially done with Donner and the Amerks and they were going to move on. Speculation at that time was the team was going to affiliate with the Portland Pirates, who are currently the farm team of the Anaheim Ducks. The Ducks were not happy with the Pirates because of the distance that their callups had to travel to get to the main team. They were reportedly looking for something closer. That was November, this is now. Nothing has been said about the affiliation since then.

Do I see Golisano picking up the Amerks and running them alongside the Sabres. I'm not sure. I do know one thing though, if he does do that the Knighthawks would have to be a seperate entity in the deal. There would need to be a new owner in the K-hawks due to a conflict of interest with the Bandits. Golisano is a local Rochester boy but I dont think that he has ever expressed interest in running that team due to the financial mess that the Amerks are now. There is another wrinkle in this story that came out today. It was assumed that the Florida Panthers, current joint affiliator with the Sabres, would take over the affiliation full time and what not. But this article in the Democrat and Chronicle suggests otherwise. The Panthers are having concerns with the same issues that the Sabres were having with Rochester, including the late payment of affiliation fees.

Most of this is speculation I know, I'm not claiming otherwise. But there is one thing I know. This is a friggin mess.

Bandits/Knighthawks Preview

The defending champions Rochester Knighthawks face the Bandits this weekend in a home and home series starting in Buffalo. A couple of questions face this 2008 squad, the largest of them being is Mike Thompson ready to handle the starting duties. Steve Dietrich was traded to the Calgary Roughnecks this offseason which leaves Thompson as the starter. While Thompson looked good in his replacement games for Dietrich last season, is the wear and tear of the season going to take a toll on his game.

Sean Greenhalgh was brought to this team in a three team blockbuster trade that saw Dietrich and Couling go to Calgary and Crosbie go to Philadelphia . He is being seen as the the fresh young face to bring more offense to this already potent team. But, that is going to have to wait because he is out for the season with a torn MCL. So the other question to this team is who is going to step up and provide some offense for this team besides the two major scorers in Tavares and Steenhuis. Guys like Kyle Laverty and Roger Vise are going to need to provide offense. Also injured for the Bandits is Brett Bucktooth who went for surgery this week for torn cartilage in his hip. He should be sidelined for at least 6 weeks.

These teams are two high-powered offenses that always bring a traveling crew to the other's arena. Each team should take one, most likely happening on home turf.