The Sabres sent Adam Pardy to the minors at the start of the year after designating him as their ninth-best defenseman. He'll be in the top four Saturday when Buffalo hosts Philadelphia.
Only two of the six players who started on opening day are still available to play, Christian Ehrhoff and Andrej Sekera. Myers and Alexander Sulzer are out with injuries, and the team traded Jordan Leopold and Robyn Regehr. Mike Weber, a season-opening scratch, remains, while T.J. Brennan, who also started the season in the press box, was dealt to Florida for a fifth-round pick.
The Sabres' talent level, which has dropped significantly through trades recently, is going down again. The team announced today that defenseman Tyler Myers will miss the rest of the season with a broken bone in his leg.
Myers played a team-high 25:37 during the 5-1 loss to Montreal, including a final shift with 2:41 to go. He was particularly critical of the team following the game but didn't show signs of the ailment.
It's not yet known how Myers suffered the injury. He blocked a team-high four shots, including a close-range blast during a five-on-three power play for Montreal. He also blocked a shot by P.K. Subban with 2:56 to play during his final shift.
Myers has struggled for much of this season after reporting to the team out of shape. He has three goals, eight points and a minus-8 rating in 39 games. Nonetheless, he was second on the team in ice time per game at 21:18, and the Sabres will need to replace his minutes.
The Sabres' farm team in Rochester has been thin on defense, with the Amerks recently signing blue-liners Michael Wilson and Fredonia native Nick Bailen to pro and amateur tryout contracts, respectively. Top prospect Brayden McNabb is out for the year with an injury.
Alex Biega, a fifth-round pick by Buffalo in 2006, leads active Amerks defensemen with 22 points, including 18 assists, in 66 games.
Steve Ott, who's had a lot to say lately (as Bucky Gleason writes), made more noise with his tongue -- but not in the typical way. Ott attempted to lick former Dallas teammate Jeff Halpern during a faceoff. Here's the video.
The Buffalo Sabres’ path to the playoffs is filled with signs that read “Rough Road Ahead.”
It might soon read “Do Not Enter.”
The Sabres enter tonight’s home game against Montreal in 11th place in the Eastern Conference. More important than their standing is how far back of a playoff spot they have fallen.
The seventh-place New York Islanders and eighth-place Rangers both have 44 points. The Sabres are six back with 38. Each team has eight games remaining.
The Isles and Rangers are on pace for 53 points. For the Sabres to match that, they need to go 7-0-1 down the stretch.
“Anything can happen,” left wing Thomas Vanek said today First Niagara Center. “So many teams probably thought they were out of it, then they won three games in a row. Until the end, you have a chance.”
Another loss or two would all but end Buffalo’s chances.
“There’s a lot of points up for grabs here,” left wing Steve Ott said. “It’s going to be a tough task.”
Montreal is fourth in the Eastern Conference but has the third-most points with 55. The Habs are only one point behind Northeast Division-leading Boston. Buffalo is 4-0-1 in its last five home games against Montreal and 8-1-1 in the last 10 overall.
Ryan Miller will start in goal tonight. Interim coach Ron Rolston said Jhonas Enroth will start one of the Sabres’ next two games, either Saturday against Philadelphia or Sunday against Tampa Bay.
John Scott will be scratched for the Sabres.
“Everyone in that locker room still believes we’re a playoff team,” Rolston said.
Ted Black has been in Buffalo for more than two years, which is more than enough time for the Sabres' president to understand the area's sports fans.
"Fans here deserve a winner more than any city I have ever driven through, read about in a book, than I can possibly imagine," Black said today during a nearly two-hour lunch meeting. "Fans here are among the best and most passionate in any sport. They deserve a winner. We’re going to do everything in our power to give them a winner."
Montreal and goaltender Peter Budaj have agreed to a two-year contract extension worth a reported $1.4 million per year. The Sabres host the Canadiens on Thursday, and the Habs announced that Budaj will start in place of No. 1 netminder Carey Price.
Budaj is 6-1-1 this season with a 2.28 goals-against average and .917 save percentage. The 30-year-old is 3-1 in his career against Buffalo with a 2.37 GAA and .922 save percentage.
The Sabres took today off following their late-night flight from Winnipeg.
WINNIPEG, Manitoba -- Hard to believe the Sabres are 2-9-2 against the Southeast Division this year but that's a fact. They have six out of 26 points against these teams -- six out of 26!! Think that might make a difference?
The Sabres still have life but four points out with eight games left. Probably need to win at least six of those eight and maybe seven. And better do a lot of it in regulation. Optimists go ahead. For a team that hasn't won more than three in a row in nearly 13 months, the odds aren't in their favor.
Click the files below for a quick tour around the locker room:
WINNIPEG, Manitoba -- The door to the Buffalo Sabres' dressing room opened early this afternoon at MTS Centre and the media swarmed Steve Ott. The horde that covers the Jets had already seen stories on TSN and other North American outlets linking our post from earlier today on Ott's explosive interview with WGR and there were other questions to be asked.
When most of the inquisitors were gone, I stayed and asked Ott for a few more thoughts. The biggest one he offered came when I asked him how worried he was about the fan booing saga becoming a factor in free agents or other players being willing to come to Buffalo.
"The reason why I care so much is because I have desire to be a Buffalo Sabre for a long time," Ott said. "I don't want to go anywhere. I've made that quite clear I want to be here for a long time. If I'm a UFA guy or trying to attract players, there's nothing better than coming into a building knowing, "Wow, this is a fun place to play.' And that's obviously concerning in the aspect of UFAs and trying
to attract the right players into the Buffalo Sabres."
WINNIPEG, Manitoba -- The Sabres aren't even on the ice yet for their pregame skate at MTS Centre (starts at 12:30 Buffalo time) and forward Steve Ott has set Twitter ablaze with his weekly interview today on WGR Radio.
Ott, remember, made unsolicited comments to reporters Sunday night about the boos and mock cheers from First Niagara Center fans during the shootout win over New Jersey. Asked about them again today by WGR host Howard Simon, Ott didn't hold back.
"I think it's completely ridiculous, to be honest with you," Ott said. "We go into other buildings, we've won a lot of games and teams should have the same amount of frustration, sold-out buildings and it's funny becaue they're continuing to cheer on their team. They stand behind their team. They respect the work ethic and everything else.
"It's disheartening when we did get hemmed in our zone and they're basically mocking us when you get up past the blueline and you finally get it in their zone after I guess you could say that minute and a half shift when they didn't have a scoring opportunity. I guess you can say it was more the mocking of my teammates and everything else that probably pissed a lot of guys off, including myself."
"You're a fan of the Buffalo Sabres and hopefully you come to cheer us on and motivate us to be good. We've got a lot of young players on this team and they definitely don't deserve to be booed. They deserve to have that excitement and energy. It's definitely not their fault for the last six years of frustration that's gone on."
Pressed on the issue by Simon and reminded the fans have many years of frustration built up, Ott didn't back down.
"I don't care how frustrated anybody is," he said. "Negativity breeds negativity and if you want to see a bad product on the ice, continue to boo. What do you expect? You're obviously going to get a negative result. It would be nice to have the positive atmosphere and maybe that will transition into a heck of a hockey game or maybe even a scoring chance or opportunity. It definitely is very uplifting when the crowd is on your side."
The portion of the interview about the fans went on for about five minutes before Ott backtracked some.
"I'm not bagging on our fans at all because we do have a lot of fantastic fans," he said. "It's just disheartening when it's those 0-0 games or 1-1 games and you're looking for some positive energy in our crowd. It's something you go in other buildings fighting for a playoff spot with a young team and I guess you say we're dying for that extra energy from our crowd."
You can click below to hear the entire interview. The part about the fans doesn't start until 5 1/2 minutes into the discussion.
WINNIPEG, Manitoba -- The Sabres have won three in a row and took the day off from the ice today to make the long charter trip to the True North for Tuesday's game against the Jets. Your intrepid beat reporter made the drive to Toronto for the direct flight (thank you, Uncle WestJet) to The Peg as well.
(When I arrived, it was 21 degrees. The temperature is not slated to get out of the 30s the entire time I am here. Yes, I have already covered Opening Day for the Blue Jays and Bisons so I'm living a bit of a bizarro existence. The scene above was what I see off to one side of my hotel parking lot. There's about an inch covering everywhere but that's still weird to see in April.
(I suppose I shouldn't gripe. When I was here nearly 15 months ago, the wind-chills were around minus-30 and there were bulletins on TV that it was cold. In Winnipeg.)
Here's how I sum up Sunday's odd shootout win over the Devils: Some stretches of brutal play, some nifty passing on both goals, some terrific physical play at times, great goaltending and a survival test.
I didn't like all the postgame chatter about the fans. Steve Ott has talked about it a couple times this year. Same for Ron Rolston. They haven't been here nearly long enough to have a valid opinion on the subject in my mind.
What I liked was this team's physical play. Ott had 10 hits -- 10! -- and Mike Weber had eight to go along with seven blocks. Patrick Kaleta had seven hits. John Scott had three in a seaosn-high 9:11 of play and his mid-ice hit on David Clarkson in the second period helped stem the Devils' momentum.
Really like Ryan Miller lately too. He's 3-1 in his last four games with a 1.73 GAA and save percentage of .945.
A trip around the locker room before I head to the Toronto airport for the trip to Winnipeg.
Same setup: Maple Leafs-Red Wings at The Big House on the University of Michigan campus with a concurrent schedule of NHL Alumni, college and high school games on a rink at Comerica Park in Detroit, home of the Tigers. The league said today it expects to have enough alumni available that it will play two alumni games on New Year's Eve.
A world record crowd for an ice hockey game could attend the main event, potentially surpassing the 104,173 that saw the Michigan-Michigan State game at Michigan Stadium in 2010. The league also announced that HBO will again do the award-winning "24/7" series on the Leafs and Wings. And remember, BOTH teams will be in the Sabres' division next season.
And the game will be a marketing dream as well. Check out the jerseys at the top of this post. Plain awesome. Think a few of them might sell?
A mostly quiet morning in First Niagara Center in advance of tonight's Sabres-Devils game (Reminder: It's been moved to 7:30 and will be televised on NBC Sports Network). The Sabres skated for about 30 minutes while only a few Devils stopped by since they played last night against Toronto in the Prudential Center.
Ryan Miller will be in goal tonight against Martin Brodeur. Thomas Vanek is out again and did not take the morning skate but interim coach Ron Rolston said that was a scheduled day off and Vanek will return to practice Monday.
This will be the sixth straight game Vanek has missed with what the team is calling an upper-body muscle strain. Rolston said he continues to target Tuesday's game in Winnipeg as Vanek's return date. We'll see.
The Sabres have won two straight and are 5-2-2 in their last nine games but start the day 12th in the Eastern Conference with 36 points, sixth back of the eighth-place Islanders but with a game in hand. According to Sportsclubstats.com's calculations, they need to earn 16 of the 20 points they have left on the table to just have a roughly 50-50 shot at the postseason.
Ron Rolston can’t wait for players to get moving. Marcus Foligno learned that Friday.
Rolston sat the Sabres' winger for most of the third period against Ottawa. During practice today, the coach took Foligno off the second power-play unit and replaced him with Brian Flynn.
“He just wasn’t moving his feet as much as he should be,” Rolston said. “Right now we have 12 forwards and six defensemen that are healthy, so we can’t afford guys that aren’t playing the way we have to play.
“He’ll bounce back and he’ll have a good game tomorrow, but everyone has to be playing their best hockey right now.”
The Sabres are aware most people are counting them out. They still have faith in each other.
Buffalo has won two straight heading into Sunday's home game against New Jersey, and the players are eager to finish this season strong.
"It’s a big game for this group just to keep the momentum going," forward Nathan Gerbe said today after practice in First Niagara Center. "In the past in the season, we would lose this game. Now we’ve got to win it.
John Vogl has been covering the Sabres since 2002-03, an era that has included playoff runs, last-place finishes and three ownership changes. The award-winning writer is the Buffalo chapter chairman for the Professional Hockey Writers’ Association.
Mike Harrington, a Canisius College graduate who began his career as a News reporter in 1987, is in his sixth season covering the Buffalo Sabres. He is a member of the Professional Hockey Writers Association and can vouch that exposed flesh freezes instantly when walking in downtown Winnipeg in January.
