ryan miller:
Posted by John Monahan on December 2, 2011 at 9:49 am
Well it wouldn’t be a week without some Ryan Miller trade speculation. Earlier this week there was some smoke, even if there might not be a fire, with some nuggets going around the Web that Bobby Ryan of the Anaheim Ducks is being held as trade bait.
That was tied to Miller supposedly saying he’d be willing to be traded. Then some Ducks scouts were at the most recent Sabres game versus the Islanders. Rumors swirled connecting him with his LA-based actress wife Noureen DeWulf and that he might be looking to pull a Gretzky and head to Cali. (Hey, at least then his attitude would match his city! I’m just sayin’. And you can get away with saying anything if you add “I’m just saying” after it.)
Here's the happy couple. She starred in the hit movie, "The 41-Year-Old Virgin Who Knocked Up Sarah Marshall and Felt Superbad About It", but I'm sure you knew that.
Well, first of all, Phil at Black & Blue & Gold says there’s nothing to get excited about with the Ducks scouts. Apparently, it’s pretty routine for scouts to check out other teams and it was mostly likely coincidence.
Pierre LeBrun at ESPN has since contacted Ryan Miller who cleared things up. He texted Pierre:
“I am proud of being a Sabre for all we have accomplished, and I am excited about the new chapter Terry and Kim Pegula have inspired. I am working hard to get healthy and build my game back to where I want it so I can start to contribute to an effort to build a championship team.”
At least Miller is texting the right things, even if he doesn’t say similar things in post-game interviews.
Miller’s $6,250,000 salary and cap hit would be a huge problem in moving him, even if the Sabres wanted to. The offseason market for goalies wasn’t even that great so perhaps the demand just isn’t there.
On top of that, Bruce Boudreau got hired by the Ducks as their new coach. This might kill the rumored strategy that the Ducks had before hiring him of shopping guys around. Or it might strengthen those rumors. This makes my head hurt and is why it’s probably fruitless to speculate on this sort of thing.
But hey, we’re fans, that’s what we do, right? And I’m just playing devil’s advocate here, but the Sabres have a young guy in Enroth who’s been very solid with Miller out. Jhonas Enroth and Drew McIntyre could do just as well as Miller has this year. Miller could now be labeled “injury-prone” or at least have ongoing concussion symptoms. He didn’t even look at top form most of this year. If we can move him now we can get close to full value for him. That and he’s kind of a jerk in interviews and doesn’t fit the attitude of the city.
Now, I really don’t feel that way, at least mostly. A tiny sliver of me believes that we would be ok without Miller. For the most part though I think we need him and it would be absolutely ludicrous to trade him at this point.
Good thing it looks like there’s nothing at all to these trade rumors. Right?
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Posted by John Monahan on November 5, 2011 at 11:21 pm
This wasn’t a complete game by either team, but for stretches it was one of the most entertaining of the year for the Sabres. Derek Roy’s shootout goal gave the Sabres the 3-2 victory.
Now just some quick hits of thoughts about the game.
Gerbe doing his honey badger thing and creating the play that led to a goal. TENACIOUS G!
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I’d heard earlier in the day that Miller was getting the start, then about 15 minutes before game time Enroth got the nod. Not sure if this was planned or Ruff was just going with the hot hand here.
A group of about 15 or 20 Sabres fans in Buffalo hats with horns were at the game. Think they just showed up randomly like that? Also, how cool would it be if we had thousands of fans at FN Center with those things? You can get your own here.
Eric Karlsson has a gorgeous mullet that Patrick Kane should be jealous of. Not sure which is better, his mullet or the Zubaz that Gerbe and McCormick were sporting during their trip to the hospital that showed during intermission.
Speaking of sweet hair, Sens’ coach Paul MacLean has a monster walrus ‘stache. And does remind one of Zoidberg. As @brianbund’s wife pointed out, Lindy Ruff’s mustache is nowhere near as noticable. Two different men with two very different staches. I want to see an NHL coach mustache competition.
I am much more leery about breakaway / 1 on 1 situations with Enroth than with Miller. With Miller in net I have no worries for that, but more worry lately on the easy goals. Enroth stops the easy ones but isn’t as skilled with 1 on 1′s.
Maybe it was just me, but it didn’t seem like there was a lot of Sens apparel in the arena. As @ScottyMCSS said, there was a guy in the front row wearing a Billabong shirt. Are you a fan of either team? If so, why not show it? If you like another team that’s not playing, wear stuff from that team. Show your loyalty, dammit!
Early on, we still looked horrible at giving away shorthanded chances. Meh.
Rick Jeanneret is an amazing personality with a unique voice and we love him – but I really had no problem with Kevin Sylvester as play-by-play guy and Danny Gare as color.
I did sort of miss Rob Ray’s interjections. Sometimes he’s thought of as a goonish athlete and RJ has even ripped on him, but he often provides nuggets that make you think. He’s not polished at communications, but that endears him to me. Kind of like a puppy behind the glass. He’s really cute and makes you smile sometimes.
Gragnani may not be nearly as NHL-ready as we’d thought after last year’s playoffs. A good reminder to really think about the sample size we had to go on.
Gerbe is so awesome that I think he’s got the most hockey talent per cubic inch. That goal he created was all about his tenacity. I saw @JoeBuffaloWins call him Taz and I loved it. Add that to the growing nickname list for Gerbs.
Man, Regehr can HIT. Nice to see him smash a couple of guys with perfect timing. How come he didn’t get the Carubba Collision? I thought his were more devastating, but the one they chose had two guys performing a double smack and looked better on the surface. #RegehrSmash
Derek Roy is looking great and perhaps close to back to 100%. He stole the puck away several times and controlled it for quite a while with some slick moves.
The Leino/Roy/Stafford line is looking good, with Leino creating some nice chances.
Win or lose, the shootout is THE most exciting part of a hockey game. However it still seems a little unfair to me that it can decide who gets a point. It takes away the team aspect. If we win, I’m ok with it but if we lose, I’m bitching. I’m guess I’m ok with it so long as it never makes it into playoff hockey.
This game is going to do very little to douse the flames of the Miller versus Enroth controversy by some of the Sabres faithful. Me, I think Enroth is fine … for a BACKUP. He’s still nowhere close to Millsie. That much was evident on breakaways and during the shootout, although Enroth *did* get better as the shootout went on.
That’s it and that’s all. (The whistles go whoo-whoo.) Any thoughts as to this format? Something we should continue? Did it make you chuckle, chortle or interested at all? Please comment below and let us know whether it should be continued.
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Posted by Scott Michalak on October 21, 2011 at 7:58 am
The Sabres have yet to win a home game.
Well, that’s not technically true. One of their games in Europe was marked as a “home game” on the NHL schedule, but that’s ridiculous. If it ain’t your building, it ain’t your building. Those were away games for all teams involved.
"Cool Hand Luke" Adam has been a nice surprise for the Sabres so far - but you'd be hard pressed to sense any kind of surprise from him.
In any event, the Sabres are 5-1-0 in the infancy of the 2011-12 NHL regular season, their only loss coming at home, against the hated Carolina Hurricanes. The Buffalo News’ headline of that game read “Hurricanes Spoil Sabres’ Homecoming.” Fair enough, but consider the fact that the boys in Blue and Gold allowed two short handed goals in that game, and they really spoiled it for themselves.
So far, the best way to beat the Sabres, actually the only way, is to have them beat themselves.
Here’s some early season portents of success for the march towards the playoffs:
- The Sabres have 10 points out of a possible 12.
- They lead the NE Division – Toronto is one point behind (having played only one road game), Boston and Ottawa trail by 4 and 6 points respectively (and both have played seven games). Montreal is in the basement, with an épouvantable 1-4-1 record.
- Hey – since Pegula took over, the Sabres are 21-5-4 in the regular season. Talk about a smart investor buying in at the right time.
- Or is it that the players are the ones buying in? In 10 games, Thomas Vanek has 10 points (6 goals, 4 assists). He’s not known for fast starts – could this be one of his best seasons? Jason Pominville has 9 points (2 goals, 7 assists) – and as Sabres PR staffer Ian Ott pointed out last night, Pommers has 19 points (6+13) in his last 23 games, dating back to 3/25/11. To top that, he added that Vanek “hasn’t gone two games without a point in those last 23 games.”
- More from Ott: “Vanek is now 5th in Sabres history with 36 GWG, two behind Andreychuk for 4th. His 210 goals are one shy of Mogilny for 10th. That’s Miller’s 23rd career shutout. Second in Sabres history to Dominik Hasek (55). Miller’s now nine wins from tying Hasek’s total (234).” Any complaints about Vanek and Miller right now are laughable.
- Let’s not forget rookie “Cool Hand Luke,” who has put in 6 points (3+3) in six games between Vanek and Pommers.
- Buffalo trails only two teams in points in the NHL standings, let alone the Eastern Conference standings. The two ahead of them, Washington and Pittsburgh, are at the 12 point mark (though it’s taken the Pens 9 games to get there).
- The Sabres goals for/goals against ratio is tops in the NHL at 20GF/10GA. Take away those two dreadful shorthanded goals against in the Carolina game, and we’re looking at a ratio of 20/8. (Washington is 23/13, Pittsburgh 26/21.)
Remember, the Sabres are doing all of this on the road. As Harry Neale said just before puck drop last night, coaches “find about a lot about their team on the road.” So far, Lindy Ruff is learning some very good things about his boys.
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Posted by Scott Michalak on May 20, 2011 at 9:19 am
Someday they'll award our efforts in making these ridiculous things.
Until said captioned efforts do go rewarded, we’ll make our own summer trophies. Get your voter registration cards ready, sports fans.
Today launches the inaugural Summer Awards Ball here at Buffalo Sabres Nation – and you’re all invited. So, get into your “Tux and Pucks’” best and prepare to think hard: it’ll be up to all of you to decide who gets these things.
Winners will receive a beautifully preserved sample of Sabres’ Blue and Red cotton candy (now retired)! That’s right – the old colors, before Terry Pegula and Ted Black opened up the “Sabres Suggestion Box” and made so many millions of improvements to the overall Sabres experience that they actually changed the color of the cotton candy from blue and red to blue and yellow.
Gotta’ love those guys.
It may have congealed, a little.
Without further ado, our first award up for your egregious contemplation and debate is “The Sully.” This award goes to the member/player in the Sabres organization most enthusiastically loathed by a certain member of the Buffalo News (who just may just bear a name somewhat similar to the actual namesake of this award - the other destroyer in Buffalo - which is docked at the waterfront). I know, right? It’s just a total coincidence.
Here are your nominees for this year’s Sully (in no particular order):
- Tim Connolly. Connolly may have never have lived up to his contract extension, but there are no worries as to if he ever knew about it.
- Terry Pegula. It didn’t take long for Pegula to get raked over the coals in this one newspaper town – during an on air rant at WGR55, our certain news writer spoke so vehemently about the new ownership’s decisions that Schopp and the Bulldog were actually rendered speechless for ten seconds. (Click on the 2/28 “Part 1″ feed – the 12:13 mark starts off the tirade that leads to the dead silence at 13:02.)
- Ryan Miller. Nothing like cornering an angry netminder in the locker room after a tough night – after he walks away from you. Nope, there is no escape from the wrath of the “Sabres’ Critic,” not even for the team’s all-world goaltender. Heck, there’s always time for name-calling and f-bomb dropping, even if it takes place in front of a bunch of little kids touring the facilities – it’s about staying objective, folks!
Those are your Sullied Heroes, up for your vote. Think, debate, comment, and click!
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Thanks for participating!
Go Sabres.
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Posted by Scott Michalak on May 14, 2011 at 3:58 pm
The HSBC can be a pretty quiet place sometimes.
Sure, a lot of the quieter sections of the arena were made that way by some rather dull personalities and uninspired play on the ice, and the fan base did get jacked up for the stretch to the playoffs and for Round One.
But on regular season nights, the crowd needs to be loud. Maybe we need a “Sam’s Army.”
The official logo.
From Ryan Miller, after the Sabres clinched the playoffs in the last game of the regular season:
“We can feel it, we can tell on the ice that we need the crowd behind us, even when we’re not playing our best we appreciate some support. You can’t always go into the locker room feeling boos, we need some help, we need some support, we need everybody in this city behind us to do this the right way, that’s just how it goes.”
“You go into these other buildings and it’s energy for the other team, going into Philly we’re going to have to be a close bunch because they’re going to be charged up there and it’s the same here I think we need that energy, we need to feed off it, even the smallest plays.”
“I think that’s the difference this year – I think people are ready to start buzzing and last year they were waiting for something to happen, we kind of backed our way in so there is a little bit of a difference there. I think that’s what people around here are waiting for, they don’t want to be let down and we’re going to need their help to do it the right way so, come along for the ride!”
Miller got his wish – well, sort of – naturally, fans are going to be three-arena-beers-in-crazy during the playoffs. It’s the part where he notes how fans were sorta waiting around for something good to happen before they decided to start making some noise.
Lots of folks say, “Well, if they stink I am gonna’ boo them. I bought tickets. When they play well I cheer. So what?” Well, because that sounds an awful lot like bandwagoning, that’s what.
"All aboard for the playoffs!"
I am not doubting the passion of Sabres fans – who are of the most ardent, passionate, and hockey-savvy fans in the world. But turning that passion into a little noise sure would be a nice change.
Sometimes it’s hard to be that guy who starts the “Let’s go, Buffalo!” chant in the stands when the boys on the ice are faltering. Maybe, because of that, we need our own hockey version of soccer’s “Sam’s Army.”
I know, I know – I know what you are thinking: “What is soccer?” “What is Sam’s Army?” Their mission statement:
“Our mission is clear; SAM’S ARMY® wants enthusiastic soccer fans who will PARTICIPATE at games! We want people who will STAND and SING for the DURATION of the game, show their colors, bring original flags, give our team the home field advantage, and ENERGIZE the rest of the crowd! We want to make these events as fun as possible for everyone! If you feel up to this challenge, then SAM’S ARMY® is for you! The goal of SAM’S ARMY® is to make soccer games a more enjoyable experience for everyone. We will not tolerate hooligan, racist, or violent behavior.”
Sounds good to me. Where do I sign up?
Well, I can’t – right now it’s just an idea, but one that I hope catches on.
I say we call it “Stanley’s Army.”
Who’s with me?
Go Sabres.
*Tip-o-the-sunglasses to reader Derek Fettes for alerting me to “Sam’s Army.” Derek: you’ve been promoted to corporal. Congratulations!
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