THN Yearbook: Sabres 11th in the East
Quite an exciting day to get the mail and get my copy of the annual yearbook from The Hockey News. I totally recommend it for anybody (full disclosure: I'm not on their payroll but our intrepid John Vogl is their Buffalo correspondent and does his usual outstanding job).
Be sure to check out their conference predictions on Page 64. They pick Detroit to win the Stanley Cup again. No biggie. But the game's premier publication has the Sabres 11th -- yes, 11th -- in the East. At this point in the summer, I'm still on the fence about the Sabres as a playoff team but I doubt they're going to get worse either.
Ryan Miller, Toni Lydman and Henrik Tallinder all have to be better than they were last year, don't they? Craig Rivet will help and so will small doses of Teppo Numminen. Roy-Vanek-Pominville strike me as three pretty darn good forwards. And the young players (think Sekera, Weber, Gerbe) show some promise.
Here's the mag's predictions. It's still August, nearly two months before the puck drops in HSBC Arena on Oct. 10, but what do you think about these?
---Mike Harrington
THN's East THN's West
1. Montreal 1. Detroit
2. Pittsburgh 2. San Jose
3. Washington 3. Minnesota
4. Philadelphia 4. Dallas
5. Ottawa 5. Anaheim
6. Rangers 6. Edmonton
7. New Jersey 7. Chicago
8. Carolina 8. Calgary
9. Tampa Bay 9. Nashville
10. Boston 10. Phoenix
11. Buffalo 11. Vancouver
12. Florida 12. Columbus
13. Atlanta 13. Los Angeles
14. Toronto 14. Colorado
15. Islanders 15. St. Louis
