Shutdown Pair

Tag: Hockey

  • Congratulations to the Blackhawks!

    Congratulations are in order to you 2009-2010 Stanley Cup Champion Chicago Blackhawks!  The OT winner was a Buffalo connection, with former Sabre Brian Campbell assisting on Buffalo native Patrick Kane’s goal, which slipped underneath Leighton somehow.  It was a great series, pretty darn good playoffs all around, save for the Sabres’ first round exit.  Now the retooling can begin in earnest.  Next season can’t begin soon enough.

  • Kassian, Tallinder, Lydman and You

    John Vogl over at the Buffalo News has a wide ranging interview up with Darcy Regier, that’s a great readif you haven’t gotten there already.  The biggest update is on Zack Kassian, where Darcy is temporarily putting contract negotiations on hold.  I don’t think this is that huge, as it sounds like Zack was getting the business from some drunk assholes, and gave it back to them.  He shouldn’t have done it, not at all, but it happens.  He needs to learn from it, and hopefully this delay in signing will remind him that he needs to be more responsible, as shenanigans like that could affect his livelihood.

    Darcy also mentioned that he’s had talks with the agents for Henrik Tallinder and Toni Lydman, and expects them to continue next week.  Doesn’t necessarily mean either one comes back, but he’s putting the work in.

    For other work Regier is putting in, he also apparently has talked to ‘all’ the other GMs, including Brian Burke, but wouldn’t comment about getting Kaberle.  I imagine some (maybe most) of those conversations have been of the “hey, do you want anybody we have?  No?  Okay, see you at the draft” variety.  Could be wrong, though.

    And finally, I just want to thank everyone that’s been reading and commenting.  It’s well beyond what I was expecting, you guys are the best.

  • Well-deserved Honors for Miller

    First off, USA Hockey is going to give Ryan Miller their Bob Johnson Award for excellence in international competition.  Here’s the scoop from the Buffalo News:

    Miller was named the top goaltender and most valuable player of February’s Games in Vancouver. He posted a tournament-best .946 save percentage in six games, and his 1.35 goals-against average was the lowest in U.S. Olympic history.

    The award, named after the legendary coach, will be presented during USA Hockey’s annual congress to be held Thursday through June 13 in Colorado Springs, Colo.

    Miller is also a finalist for the Mark Messier NHL Leadership Award, up against Sidney Crosby and Shane Doan.  When you throw in his Silver Medal, and Vezina trophy candidacy (should’ve had Hart nom too), Ryan might just need to expand the trophy case.

  • Something for Nothing?

    Bit of a warning:  I plan to ramble a bit here, as I may end up convincing myself I’m wrong.  It’s a work in progress.

    One of the recurring themes you hear when talking about guys in their walk years (especially on bad teams, or small market teams that ‘can’t afford them’) is that the GMs have to get something back for them.  The Sabres recently had that with Brian Campbell, and most likely will hear about Tim Connolly in regards to this for this season regardless of what he does.

    But the salary cap changes this, to my mind.  You always ‘get something back’ for a UFA, cap space.  When (if?) Timmy is not re-signed at the end of this season, you are getting back $4.5M in cap space, a tidy sum.  I’m not arguing that $4.5M in cap space is better than $4.5M and a 2nd round pick, but it IS something.  And it IS better than $2m in cap space and someone on the level of Drew Stafford or Clarke MacArthur (or Raffi Torres).  This makes sense to me, but I *am* sleep deprived, so feel free to poke some holes.

  • Sabres Special Teams

    As promised, a rambling exploration of the Sabres’ performance in special teams situations.

    PP:  Ranked 17th, 17.6%.  The Sabres scored 55 total goals in man advantage situations (49 5 on 4, 3 at 5 on 3, 3 at 4 on 3).  It’s interesting to note that at home, they were quite good (21.2%, 34G), but horrific on the road (13.7%, wow).

    It was no secret throughout the year that the power play was struggling, which carried over into their dismal performance in the playoffs.  When you consider that Vanek (10 PPG) and Hecht (3 PPG) missed most or all of the Boston series, it was that much worse.  At various points, they had issues getting pucks in deep and getting established positions, which is why the elusive ‘puck moving/power play quarterback type defenseman’ was a deadline target, and probably remains one this offseason.  On the positive side, Tyler Myers was a solid addition on the power play, with his willingness to shoot early and often helping things quite a bit.  Several of his goals were just ‘screw it, I’m shooting’ plays that found their way through.

    PK:  Ranked 2nd, 86.6%.  For the record, Buffalo took 333 minors (less than 20 other teams), 28 majors, 6 misconducts, 3 game misconducts.  There were 8 bench minors.  They were tops in the league at home, killing 89.8% there, while clicking along at 84% on the road (still a solid 6th place).  Total allowed power play goals was 38, one more than Boston, the best team in that regard.

    Night and day difference, eh?  Tyler Myers and Henrik Tallinder lead from the rear here, average just over 3 minutes of short-handed time per game, with Jochen Hecht (that name again) and Mike Grier taking charge from a forward perspective.  I have no complaints here, the team was great at keeping opponents around the edges and clearing the puck, for the most part.

  • Ryan Miller on Stanley Cup Finals Game One Broadcast

    As noted by Steve Lepore over at Puck the Media, Ryan Miller will be a guest analyst on NBC’s coverage of Game One of the Stanley Cup finals tomorrow night.  Miller will be alongside Pierre McGuire and Mike Milbury. As Sabres fans know, Ryan is a deep thinker and a student of the game, so we should be in for a treat (especially compared to Mike “hit ’em with your shoe” Milbury).  And hey, smart move by NBC, leveraging one of their Olympic stars.  Might’ve been a tiny bit more effective if the Sabres had, you know, been on NBC after the Olympics.  Stick tap to DaveDavisHockey on twitter for leading me to this story.

  • Sabres Even Strength Scoring and Defense

    I will be breaking down the Sabres’ scoring and defense from the 2009-2010 season, starting with their even strength performance.  All stats come from NHL.com.  On the year, Buffalo had 159 Goals For (GF) 5 on 5, 7 GF 4 on 4, for a total of 166. On the flip side, they ceded 145 Goals Against (GA) 5 on 5, 8 GA 4 on 4, for a total of 153.  They had no scoring for or against 3 on 3, which is pretty rare anyway.  The Sabres were 7th at 5 on 5 scoring, and 11th as far as 5 on 5 goals given up.

    These are solid numbers, especially in the context of the Eastern Conference, where only two teams were better in overall scoring.  Buffalo had a balanced scoring attack overall, with 12 players in double digits.  Thomas Vanek led the way with 28, 18 of which were at even strength.  Jochen Hecht actually tied with Vanek as far as goals at even strength, though, with 18.  Both missed some time, it go to show how much Hecht and Vanek were missed in the Boston series.

    Barring a trade or other move, Clarke MacArthur is the only one of those 12 who is gone (traded to Atlanta), so there shouldn’t be a huge dropoff next year.  What Buffalo needs, though, is a consistent centerman for Vanek to get his production back up to the 40 goal plateau.  Lindy shuffled things a lot last season, trying to get Vanek going.  We’ll see what happens July 1.

  • Can Myers Be Our Pronger Or Lidstrom?

    Steve Simmons has a column over at the Toronto Sun regarding Chris Pronger and what he brings to a team when he joins, and the wreckage left in his wake when he leaves.  GM Ken Holland of the Red Wings has this to say:

    “He does things that other players can’t do, haven’t done, don’t know how to do. And he just does them easily,” said Ken Holland, general manager of the Detroit Red Wings, who admitted to being “pretty damn happy” when the Ducks traded Pronger to the Eastern Conference.

    Kukla’s has a a bit more of Ken’s comments, which is where Lidstrom is reference:

    If you wonder why we’ve worried about Lidstrom leaving, it’s because look what happens when Pronger leaves teams.  They don’t recover. It’s pretty apparent what he does for teams and he’s even more appreciated when he’s not there because you come to appreciate all he does. Look at Edmonton. They had one great year. That wasn’t an accident. Look what’s happened to them since.

    Indeed.  Anyway, that brought me back to thinking of Tyler Myers.  His meteoric rise to the top of the defensive depth charts is not completely unexpected for those that saw his final year of Juniors.  That leaves us wondering just where his ceiling is.  Here are the relevant stats for the two mentioned guys and Myers in their rookie seasons:

    • Tyler Myers (Buffalo Sabres, 19yrs old) – 82GP,  11G 37A, +13, 32 PIM
    • Chris Pronger (Hartford Whalers, 19yrs old) – 81GP, 5G 25A, -3, 113 PIM
    • Nicklas Lidstrom (Detroid Red Wings, 21yrs old) – 80GP, 11G 49A, +36, 22 PIM

    You can see that Myers (as of now) fits in right between the two.  Pronger has a physical game right now that Myers can’t match, though his offseason goals to gain wait and strength would go a long way at putting him in that territory.  As for the much smaller Lidstrom, the offensive numbers are in line, with the +/- as the main outlier, thanks to the better goal-scoring of the Red Wings that year, compared to Buffalo this year (+64 goal differential).

    This second year is going to be huge for Myers.  Possibly a different defense partner, higher expectations, and adjustments from the rest of the NHL.  His offseason work will determine whether or not he becomes Chris Pronger/Zdeno Chara, or Andrej Sekera.

  • Tallinder, Sabres Talking

    This news comes to us from Nick Mendola, now over at WECK:

    Henrik Tallinder’s agent has spoken with the Buffalo Sabres about the Swedish defenseman’s upcoming unrestricted free agency, and they plan to speak again in the coming weeks before the start of free agency

    As we discussed previously, many (including me) believed Buffalo would at least attempt to bring one of the Tallinder/Lydman set back.  It remains to be seen if anything comes of this, or if Toni gets a call from Darcy too.  I’m betting he will;  I think Darcy remembers what happened the last time he had two guys at the same position hitting free agency.

  • Stanley Cup Finals – Blackhawks and Flyers

    Well, the NHL has a matchup favorable to them, even if it doesn’t include Ovechkin or Crosby.  Two huge TV markets, lots of Canadian-born players for HNIC viewers, no Sun Belt towns (or Detroit) who won’t sell out their building right away and embarrass them.  Like I mentioned at the old place, both teams have some Buffalo connections, giving you someone to root for or against, however you like.  I think the Blackhawks have the advantage here, Nieme is solid, good scoring, and they have guys that can goad the Flyers into taking penalties.