Welcome to 10th Place

Since we could not get any help last night from either the Thrashers or the Predators, we are sitting in 10th place looking up at both the Capitals and the Flyers. It happens though when you aren't playing for 3 days. That changes tonight with the final non-divisional matchup of the season against the Lightning. The Lightning are essentially playing the role of spoiler for the rest of the season, sitting dead last in the conference and just playing for the Stamkos pick.

Since I have not written here for a while, I figured that I would mention the most important news that has come across the wire being that Teppo came back the arena yesterday to skate for the first time in probably three months. He says that he is ready to come back, and quoted as saying "I'm back." The question is if he will be ready to play at all for the rest of the season. He has skated around but probably would not be in game shape anywhere near to end of the season. While having him back would help ease the pain of the infirmary ward that the defenseman have seemed to found, he cant be all that effective to play.

The Sabres will keep the same lineup for tonight's game. Basically, if it ain't broke, don't fix it. That is the philosophy that coach Ruff is taking but has also said that he has no problem benching someone to replace them with Timmy. Hopefully this rest will give Timmy some strength back in his hip because the last couple of games he has looked awful sore and just not game ready. On the side of the Lightning, the only real news is whether RW Andre Roy will be back for the Lightning after essentially blowing his top during a Flyers game on March 6th. After losing a fight against Riley Cote, Roy lost his cool when the Flyers were repeatedly showing the fight over again on the Jumbotron and he motioned over to the Flyers bench with a throat-slashing motion and whatnot. The Lightning gave him a week suspension to decide whether he would be back on the team for the rest of the season. The week is up and it looks that the decision will be more of a game time decision.

Game time is at 7:oo on MSG.

Thank the Penguins

The Sabres ended up winning again last night in dominant fashion against the Leafs, 6-2. We can thank the Penguins for their 7-1 win against the Flyers today. The Sabres came out again with the attitude that they showed against the Hurricanes. This attitude is what is needed for the last 10 games for us to catch the Flyers and possibly the Bruins. The Bruins are playing right now against the Caps, tied 1-1.

Derek Roy has become a beast again and so has Daniel Paille after his benching. Paille had a goal in the game and Roy had an assist. The big winners in the night were Pominville and Hecht. Each had 1 goal and 2 assists on the game. This team needs everyone they can to step up with the missing defensemen.

Even though I have waffled a couple of times, I do think that this team can make the playoffs at the expense of the Bruins. The Bruins have been struggling as of late and with the absence of Chara could be faltering down the stretch. We have two games left against the Bruins and could make up the three point difference pretty easily.

The Hurricanes Hate Buffalo

In their first matchup, John Grahame got run out of Buffalo after giving up 8 goals in the teams 8-1 loss. Last night, Cam Ward got run out of the game giving up 4 goals in the first 8 minutes. The Sabres looked like the team that wanted the game, eventually winning 7-1. Adam Mair became the star of the game with the Gordie Howe hat trick, with two goals, assist, and fight. The team basically came out with an attitude and that attitude basically gave them the win. They frustrated the Hurricanes enough that they drew 65 minutes of penalties in the third period alone.

Going on to tonights game, that attitude needs to continue. The Bruins and Flyers are playing right now, with the Bruins up 1-0 in the first intermission. We are 2 points behind the Flyers and 3 points behind the Bruins with 2 games against the Bruins. We need to keep winning to continue to close that gap with only 10 games left on the docket. The Sabres are running into a suddenly hot Leafs that are only 5 games out of the playoff hunt. Good news is that Sundin will be out of the game tonight, but the Sabres need to keep up their intensity and pull out this game.

Oh Boy

I picked the wrong time to start the Sabres blog. Yeesh. This game, season, and hopes of everything are basically over. Granted we could catch the Bruins, but with the effort that this team is portraying, they couldnt beat my mom's floor hockey team. Basically, I want the next Bandits to come again.

Speaking of the Bandits, Ken Montour earned both overall and defensive player of the week honors with the 49 saves he had in the 11-7 win against the Swarm. Steenhuis also earned transition player of the week honors again this week as well.

The Sky is Falling, The Sky is Falling

Here is the wrapup of what I missed over the last couple of days.

- The Sabres keep failing to clinch the points they need to get the ball rolling. This team has a hard path in front of them with a handful of division games at the end of the season and the most of the top 8 in the conference. They essentially stole a point against the Hurricanes, who we see again on Friday, and dropped the ball only getting a point against the Rangers. 2 points gained out of 4 is not going to get you in the playoffs. There is a bright spot though. The Boston Bruins are falling and falling fast. They have lost Zdeno Chara for the last couple of games and from what I have heard out for a while too. We are 5 points behind them now, and they are getting a butt whooping against the Senators. We also have to play them twice too. I dont see the Flyers falling and I definately do not see the Rangers falling. If we are going to make the playoffs, its going to be at the expense of the Bruins.

- That being said, the path just got harder with the announcement of both Kalinin and Spacek being out for at least of couple of weeks. Basically means that we will see the services of Andrej Sekera for the rest of the season. Gratefully, it looks that Tallinder will be back against the Penguins which will mean that we only have to callup one defenseman from the Amerks instead of two. This does not bode well for the Sabres to make the push. Essentially, we are going to play two Amerks and a player that did not get a lot of experience in 2006. Oh boy.

- The Bandits played another solid game on Saturday in the defensive end this time. They beat the Swarm 11-7 putting them in the second spot in the Eastern Conference. With this week off and only one game per week for the rest of the season and 4 of the last 5 games at home with the road game in Rochester, this team looks poised to make a run. It looks that Bucktooth with be coming back for the Toronto Rock game on the 22nd possibly which will add just another scoring threat. This team is only a game behind the Wings while they have 2 games in hand. It will make for a good stretch run.

New Feature

Quick little blurb that I want to add here since I didnt want to take away from the Amerks post. There is a new feature to the blog. Its my "shared items" from my Google Reader. I do try and read a lot of stuff on the Sabres, Bandits and NHL and NLL in general. Anything that I feel is readable and that others will enjoy, I'll put there. For now I'll use that in place of a blogroll too. I promise, I'll do one of those eventually as well.

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.