Darcy And Lindy Safe…For Now
On the 26th, Jeremy White tweeted a report from Paul Hamilton that probably raised the hackles of a few change-minded fans:

Paul Hamilton: #Sabres source tells him even if they lost every game…Lindy and Darcy will not be fired during this season.—
Jeremy White (@JeremyWGR) January 26, 2012

While I am also of the opinion that both Lindy Ruff and Darcy Regier need not be in their respective positions with the Buffalo Sabres any more, I also feel like replacing them now would be more trouble than it’s worth. Any candidates for general manager would likely require asking the permission from their teams to talk them, while it’s always easier to find a new coach in the offseason. I’m more concerned with the Sabres going into 2012-2013 with the same coach and GM than I am them finishing 2011-2012 with that pair.

Pearl Jam Meets Hockey Heaven
If you’re familiar with Nick Mendola’s work, you know he’s a master of the Buffalo sports parody song. Perhaps you’ve heard “Hey There, Trent Edwards”? Well, he’s got a new ditty out that’s a play on a Pearl Jam classic you may just want to hear. Presenting “Centerman” by Nick Mendola and mixed by “Pumice T” Mendola. The whole thing is damn genius.

Someone Fix The Broadcast Team
The last Sabres game, the broadcast team of Kevin Sylvester and Danny Gare had Brian Duff as their guest for the night. It was a not a good night for the team. Both Sylvester and Gare are incredibly unprofessional with their excited shrieking and disappointed moans, while Duff tried his best to bring his A-game with anecdotes a-plenty. The problem? His style (often categorized as boring) is such a contrast from Sylvester and Gare that the broadcast was a disjointed mess. If Sylvester and Gare are the future of this team’s broadcasts, it’ll be near-unlistenable. I’ve been advocating bringing in Dan Dunleavy as Rick Jeanneret’s replacement since the summer. Whatever they do, they need to get Gare out of there.

To Podcast Or Not To Podcast
I’ve been toying with the idea of running a podcast recently. With the additions to the writing staff, there’s a lot we could talk about and I think it’d be some pretty good product. What do you guys think? Leave me your thoughts in the comments.

On a related note, I’m going to compile all the best Sabres podcasts for your convenience in a future post.

Goal 1 – Jordan Leopold from Nathan Gerbe and Matt Ellis (Buffalo 1 – 0)

Starting out the Devils are looking pretty bad coming out of the zone.  3 players on one side of the ice.  If Buffalo has some sense of urgency in this rush, it could’ve been a passes in the neutral zone allowing New Jersey to recover by the time they reach the blue line.  Leopold makes a smart play by passing it to Gerbe.  This allows him and Ellis to crash the net while Gerbe can decide to shoot and hope for a rebound, attempt a pass to one of the streaking players to the net, or shoot it high and wide in what seems to be the story of the season.  He decides to shoot at a terrible angle and distance.  Kurtis Foster from the Devils gets a piece of it with his stick, sending the puck even more off trajectory.   If you watch Adam Henrique (#14 on the Devils), he seems to be tracking the puck along the glass and vacates his back check to pick it up on the half wall.  Not sure what he was looking at because it definitely wasn’t the puck.  Leopold, heading hard to the net, scores the goal by a bad bounce off the glass behind Brodeur.

Goal 2 – Patrik Elias from Zach Parise and Kurtis Foster (Tied 1 – 1)

Hurray!  What I’ve been saying the Sabres need to do on the PK actually takes place.  Stafford and Pominville are more towards the point covering the point shot.  That is until Elias fakes Stafford out of his shorts.  Ugh, he bought it.  Leopold would’ve been fine.  Despite Stafford’s minor check up, they are in good position.  Miller can clearly see the shot.  The shot is rifled into Myers’ junk, enough to put anyone down for a good 5 minutes with or without protection.  Parise makes a beautiful pass to Elias who puts it past Miller.  Other than Stafford not buying the Elias deke, not much went wrong here.  It was just the combination of Myers’ life flashing before his eyes and New Jersey making a nice play.

There are a couple things about this that jump out at me.  The first is Lindy Ruff’s words; “emotionally unstable.”  Given what just happened this past summer with Rick Rypien, Wade Belak, and Derek Boogaard, those are about the most frightening words you can hear in reference to a hockey player.  I certainly hope someone is keeping close tabs on Hecht with those players in mind.  The second is perhaps even more eye-opening.  This all seems to have come out of the blue.  No one (as far as I know) has been able to pinpoint a moment when it happened, which suggests to me that it probably didn’t take much.  How easy is the next one going to come?  And if Hecht is nauseous and emotionally unstable now, what next?

Hecht has been my second favorite player behind Vanek for some time now. I love watching him play hockey. But I’d love it more if he put his family first and called it a career. I think it’s the smart thing to do.

Photo Credit: Andy Marlin, Getty Images

The Sabres won a road game for the first time in 50 days (too lazy to do research, crediting Jason Griswold with that stat) when Nathan Gerbe beat Martin Brodeur in the shootout. That contest’s conclusion marked the beginning of the Sabres’ inclusion in the All-Star break. They’ll play next in Montreal to close up the month of January. In the meantime, behold a smattering of thoughts on the team and organization!

Hecht’s Concussion
The announcement that Jochen Hecht suffered his third concussion of the last 12 months just prior to game time caught the entire fanbase off guard. But it wasn’t until Lindy Ruff spoke about the German’s injury post-game that people began to genuinely worry. The words “emotionally unstable” have fans on edge about his mental health and safety going into a UFA summer following this season. Alex will have more thoughts on this tomorrow morning in a short Vulgar Opinions post.

Luke Adam’s Shrinking Ice Time
Fans are pulling their hair out over Luke Adam getting bumped further and further down the line chart, but The Scizz from Dear God, Why Us? Sports has a theory of his own worth considering:

Luke Adam was beyond winded every single time he finished a shift. I’m wondering if his cut in minutes has anything to do with conditioning. He started the year on the top line and has seen his minutes dwindle down, so maybe the young guy is having a hard time adjusting to the full-time NHL schedule.

Split MSG Broadcast Malarkey
Even before Time Warner Cable’s deal to carry MSG expired, fans could usually agree that their treatment of the Sabres was the weakest aspect of the organization. These games in the New York metropolitan area have been the worst, as the Sabres don’t have a crew on hand whatsoever to produce a pre-game show, intermission report, or post-game show. Ted Black has talked about the broadcast seemingly every time he’s been in front of reporters or on the radio, but I’ll let Mike Harrington handle this NYC metro area debacle with brevity:

#Sabres road game 3 of 6 with stupid NYC pregame/intermission announcers. Ted Black said this will end next year. Amen.—
Mike Harrington (@BNHarrington) January 25, 2012

Watching The Scoreboard vs #FailForNail
There’s a debate growing between fans on the Twitter over whether the team should battle back or tank for picks, and it’s pretty hard to argue in favor of or against either when thinking about the team’s future. On one hand, team’s like the Penguins and Blackhawks sucked for a long time and are now stacked. On the other hand, Alexander Daigle lurks around every tank for picks corner. Also, you always want the team to do as well as possible for experience and that rare chance they catch fire at the right time. The Sabres are only 11 points out of the playoffs, but are also already in lottery range and 13 points from the basement. 33 games remain on their schedule.

Amerks Visiting Buffalo In 2013?
One of the topics at the second blogger summit focused on the Americans playing a game in Buffalo next season, and vice versa. While Ted Black handily shot down the Sabres visiting Rochester, he seemed interested in the Amerks playing here. I was reminded of this when Keith Wozniak from Let’s Go Amerks! tweeted something in regards to the topic in relation to the Hershey Bears playing in DC:

The Bears will be playing in DC.. Bflo doesn't deserve an #Amerks reg season game, they didn't support their AHL affiliate the last time.—
Keith Wozniak (@LetsGoAmerks) January 25, 2012

This referred to the very poor showing at the Portland Pirates’ second visit to Buffalo (ironically, against the Amerks). Only a few thousand people showed up and those who did weren’t very electric. This was in stark contrast to the team’s first visit to Buffalo (against the River Rats – now the Checkers). Over 11,000 people showed up, many buzzing about hometown boy Tim Kennedy’s return to the city. The game was a circus, with piles of penalty minutes handed out (Nathan Gerbe got ejected after, in order, kicking a River Rat and then starting a fight with their bench) but featured Kennedy scoring and the crowd going bonkers in response. I can only imagine that a rejuvenated Sabres/Amerks union would bring in more than 11,000 fans, many of whom would likely be traveling Rochester fans.

What’s This Elmira Rumor About, Anyway?
Seemingly born on the loved-or-hated HF Boards, there’s this rumor that Terry Pegula is buying First Arena in Elmira, NY and either also buying the incumbent Jackals or moving another team in after buying it, too. I’m filing this rumor under unfounded, but I do really like the idea. It would give the Sabres total organizational control over three levels of hockey (NHL, AHL, and then ECHL, too) and cohesive developmental control over the prospects. I would like it to be true, but can’t help but regard it as total B.S.

Side note: Craig Rivet is having a great season with Elmira, which sits first in the Eastern Conference and third overall. The Artvoice’s hockey dept. visited Elmira in November and wrote a story about Rivet’s journey from captain of an NHL team to veteran mentor on an ECHL squad. Gee, that jersey design looks familiar…

Some Updates Would Be Nice
The Sabres have a number of projects that sit in the shadows as updates are slow to surface, if at all. How is the smartphone app coming along? Where in the process are the Sabres and Canisius College in building a shared rink? What is Ted Black planning for the old Ira G. Ross space (His few comments on the matter have been coy)? Perhaps we’ll get some information on them all soon. Fingers crossed.

Coming up on Black & Blue & Gold this week will be Alex’s aforementioned VO about Hecht, his latest power rankings, Dave’s video analysis of the goals from the Devils game, Stephanie’s recap from the Amerks game in Toronto, and maybe I’ll do some actual writing.

When we started this whole shebang, the Sabres were ranked first in their conference and the Blues were ranked 14th.  Now the Sabres are an injury riddled dumpster fire and the Blues are challenging for not only the division, but the conference lead itself.  There is something to be said for “not panicking” and trusting that the pieces you have in place are good ones going through a bad stretch.  There is also something to be said for saying, “hey, we’ve got a lot of talent here…I think we should be better than this, let’s make changes.”  And yes, I do think the Sabres are way more talented than their record indicates (though still missing pieces to be a true contender).  But let’s move away from that, shall we?

I think, aside from the Bruins and the Crosby-healthy Penguins (not buying it NYR) that there is no one in the East that is really significantly better than anyone else.  The logjam in points, the (yet again) atrocious South(l)east, and the fact that you can talk yourself into most anyone having a hot week or two and sliding into a playoff spot seem to bear this out, (along with my awesome power rankings).  And the West really isn’t that different, it’s just that the logjam has been shifted down to 7th-12th place.  I guess this is what you get in the expansion-happy, parity-driven, salary cap era.  Enjoy.

That’s why standards get written.  At some point you have to say there’s X amount of Arsenic or Mercury or PCBs or whatever in this particular compound, but only 4X amount is where it starts to get really bad for us.  (I had a class called Human Exposure Analysis which I fondly called “everything you touch is killing you slowly,” because the number of harmful and/or carcinogenic materials in things we touch daily is staggering.)  You draw a line in the sand somewhere.

Which brings me to concussions; if the NHL’s detection ability and concussion protocols are getting to the point where we find that these things are vastly more common than we could have ever guessed…we have a problem.  You can’t have the superstars of a majority of NHL teams seeing pressbox time because of these hits to the head.  The NFL saw this a few years ago, in the 2007-2008 season I believe, where something like 60-70% of the starting quarterbacks in the league (the most marketable players and the players that make the sport watchable) missed time due to injury.

There are two ways you can approach this.  The first is attempting to eliminate the dangerous play that causes these injuries at the risk of eliminating some unidentifiable amount of physical play along with it.  (In my opinion the NFL has done a pretty good job at this.)  The second is that at some point you admit that playing this sport carries a certain amount of risk and you create a benchmark where that risk is too high and players aren’t allowed to play.

Unfortunately I am forced to admit that my title is not rhetorical; I’m seriously asking.  This is a big problem, and we might not even be seeing the worst of it.  What the hell do we do?  (Granted it doesn’t help that the NHL has been completely inept at best in eliminating reckless play.)  Do we go one step further with headshot rules?  Do we call for better equipment, do we widen the ice?  Do we tell players, “hey you’re at the risk of having the cognitive abilities of a mental patient when you retire, and if you’re okay with playing, that’s your business and you go right ahead?”  (God I hope not because these guys are going to play until they can literally pick pieces of themselves up off the ice.  The Steve Youngs and the Troy Aikmans that can look into the future and make good decisions are rare.  For every one of them, there are twenty Marc Savards that are ready to drop the gloves the day they return from a concussion and can’t see past the fist that’s about to hit them in the face and turn them from a human being into a bipedal Golden Retriever.)

Something needs to happen, because what’s in place right now isn’t good enough.

A full house for round two

I feel like the Amerks are singing the fans that song lately. Anyhow … yesterday afternoon, an unexpected tweet came across my feed: Derek Whitmore (@dwhitmore21) boldly stated:

Game against OKC tonight at the BCA before we head to Grand Rapids. #packthehouse tonight #Amerks fans we will be much better tonight.—
Derek Whitmore (@dwhitmore21) January 20, 2012

My initial reaction was “Oh, man. Derek. You’re going to regret that …” I’m alright with admitting that I was wrong, however. Hey! There’s a first time for everything!

The Amerks team that came out against the Barons last night, for the second straight night, was a completely different Amerks team. Of course, you might not know that, if all you looked at was the box score. The Amerks fell again to the Barons, this time with a 4-2 tally, but the Amerks looked so much cleaner. I mean, some nights you’re on and some nights you’re off and tonight the Amerks looked so much closer to “on” than whoever those imposters were two nights ago. I think the biggest difference was that last night’s game wasn’t one in which the Amerks sat back and let themselves be walked all over. Not wasting much time, Igor Gongalsky dropped the mitts with Taylor Chorney 55 seconds into the game. Gongalsky, who is on a 25 game PTO from Gwinett, was brought to Rochester to be a physical presence and it was felt. Was it delayed retribution for the Rankin hit from December? I don’t know, but Gongalsky made light work of Chorney.

The Barons opened up scoring at 6:19 in the first, and Rochester was left to play catch up the rest of the game. For a team that was constantly behind in score, however, the Amerks were right in the game, up until the final seconds of play. The first period was certainly not one of their finest, but shots on goal remained about even throughout the game and the physical aspect that was missing a couple of nights ago seemed to come back. The Amerks came alive in the third period, and may have forced the game at least to a tie if they had played that way all night. I don’t know what’s worse – watching them only play decent in the second half of the game or watching them throw a second period down the toilet, as they’ve been known to. Either way, the “semi-decent” play of on Thursday was replaced by half-way decent play last night, and that means we’re getting somewhere.

Unsurprisingly (I know, I’m psychic), Drew MacIntyre started in net. He played some solid goalie, but he just lacks the pizzazz and Hasek-ness that Leggio brings. Maybe I’m partial to Leggio for some reason (it’s his hair), but I enjoy watching him play more than DrewMac. Mac was the goalie for the job against the Barons that game, though, and Leggio will likely benefit from a few nights off. The d-men were SO much better, although the openings left by Finley and Morrisson continue to be felt. Schiestel was back in the line up, which was helpful. Morrisson serves the last game of his suspension tonight.

Game notes … After Kassian’s temper tantrum that was thrown in front of the guys at WGR, he did step up his game just the tiiiiiiiniest bit. He notched himself an assist, and he brought a bit of that physical game that we’re all expecting of him, but it still wasn’t enough for me. He looked out of place on the ice nearly the entire night, like a little kid thrown into a man’s game. I don’t know if he’s trapped in his own head or if he’s having some bad nights, but something’s gotta give for this kid. He also managed to land himself a 10-minute misconduct, likely due to some words exchanged with the Barons bench. … Jon Parker was a healthy scratch to make room for Riley Boychuck, who was scratched Thursday. It didn’t seem that Boychuk was on the ice as much Friday as Parker was Thursday, but don’t quote me on that (TOI is not listed in the AHL box score) … Mike Ryan continues to be scratched, although word on the webs yesterday was that he continues to participate in regular team practices. Maybe one day he (and his eyebrows) can play in an actual game.

The Amerks jumped on a bus immediately following last night’s game and will spend their next four games, leading into the All-Star break, on the road. They play the Grand Rapids Griffins tonight and Wednesday nights, the Syracuse Crunch on Friday the 27th, and the Toronto Marlies on the 28th. My family and I will be venturing into the Great White North (and my favorite city ever) to watch the Amerks take on the Marlies in TO, shop at Lobloaw’s in the old Maple Leaf Gardens, and eat dinner at Gretzky’s, so I’ll have a “home away from home” post following that game.

Goal 1 – Andrew Ladd from Ron Hainsey and Kyle Wellwood (Jets 1 – 0)

First of all, I’m not quite sure what Gragnani was doing or even trying to do.  He accomplished letting Ladd walk in to the slot and get a clear look at Miller, with a few swipes of his stick.  Missing on all of them.  Miller makes the save, and the Sabres are already collapsed.  All five are below the hash marks.  Why is Adam so low and why is Ellis chasing the puck into the corner?  Adam should be up at the top of the circle, Ellis near the face off dot and Weber with the puck pursuit.  We then see why when you pause it at the 9 second mark.  Hello, Hainsey and Enstrom are all alone at the point.  Do what you want with the puck here boys.  Pass it over to Enstrom for the one timer, or just let one rip while the 4 of the Sabres watch near the top of circles.  Just a hunch, but I think Hainsey chose to let ‘er rip.  It does go off of Ladd, who was credited with the goal.  Now I ask this simple question on this disaster:  In a matter of 7 seconds, Gragnani who was in front (pause at 6 seconds) vacates it, and Weber is left all alone with Ladd in front?  You can see Weber pick up Ladd from the corner at the 7 second mark.  So Gragnani felt everything was okay and and ends up near the top of the faceoff circle.  Goats on this goal (in order of “BAHHH” level) are: Gragnani, Adam, and Ellis. Wow.  After doing Chicago’s review yesterday, this has been the worst goal so far.  Just a defensive zone nightmare.

Goal 2 – Drew Stafford from Nathan Gerbe (Tied 1 – 1)

Aha!  Looks like we’re not the only team to get caught down low.  Hainsey gets caught, leading to the 2 on 1 with the Gerbster and Stafford.  Important fact here:  Do you see Roy sprinting up the middle?  He’s not trying to join the rush, he’s going to do the most important play in this sequence.  He’s going to keep the 2 on 1 just that, a 2 on 1.  As Roy gets to the blue line, he turns into Bryan Little effectively cutting him off from getting back into the play.  He does a good job, and at exactly the correct time.  Pausing it at 5 seconds, the pass goes from Gerbe to Stafford and Little would’ve had the perfect opportunity to break up that pass if it wasn’t for Roy creating a little havoc. Not only that, but Roy goes to the far post ready for a rebound if one was given.  Gerbe’s pass is a little off so Stafford doesn’t have the opportunity for a one timer.  However, he has time to receive the pass and then shoot because of the space between him and Gerbe.  Pavelec has to go from outside the crease to the post, which is probably the most difficult move a goalie has to make. He has to move laterally to cover the pass, and depth-wise to cover the post.

Goal 3 – Tobias Enstrom from Bryan Little and Blake Wheeler (Jets 2 – 1)

WGR and Paul Hamilton will tell you this is Derek Roy’s fault to “sell himself” and block the point shot.  And I’m going to tell you the same thing. The Jets quickly set up a pseudo umbrella after the first shot.  Pseudo because there’s no one in front from the Jets.  If you pause it at 8 seconds, you see that Kaleta and Roy are equal with each other horizontally.  Evander Kane is at the top of the near circle.  Bryan Little has a ton of options here.  Hold on to the puck and slow it down, cross ice pass to Kane, pass it back to Wheeler in the corner and work it down low, or pass it to Enstrom who is already wound up ready for the one timer before the puck even leaves Little’s stick.  Roy’s lack of coming out to challenge the top of umbrella is what makes the goal here.  Roy is staring at Little as if he’s a hot chick in a mini-skirt.  Hello?  Derek?  You are to cover two men here Kane and Enstrom and not stare down the puck carrier.  Little makes the pass to Enstrom and Roy turns with the puck, facing Enstrom.   Roy doesn’t sell himself…you want to know why?  He didn’t have the chance to!  As soon as that puck is moving up the half wall to the point, the forwards are to get up to cover the point as soon as possible.  Don’t watch the puck, just get there.  Fast.  You see your defenseman winding up for a one timer because you are a step behind, you get your ass down to the ice to block the shot.  Roy does neither.  Effectively screens Miller and does his best audition for the scarecrow in the Wizard of Oz.  I’m sure Sekera knew what happened as it seemed he stared down Roy with daggers.

Goal 4 – Tim Stapleton from Nik Antropov and Andrew Ladd (Jets 3 – 1)

At the start, we are in good position.  Until Myers over commits to Ladd.  Tsk tsk, Tyler.  Myers needs to release coverage on Ladd and let Pominville deal with it once Ladd gets to the hash marks.  Myers then needs to cover the man heading to the net, Antropov.  You let Ladd skate around all he wants on the half wall and while we cover the passing lanes.  Myers thinks otherwise.  He lets the pass go through to Antropov, and Antropov passes to Stapleton.  Sekera is in front with Stapleton.  He could’ve turned around and just taken Stapleton out.  I’m pretty sure Sekera is taller than Stapleton who is Gerbe size.  Antropov has a look on him as if that was too easy.  Yes Nik, it was.

Goal 5 – Nik Antropov from Kyle Wellwood and Johnny Oduya (Jets 4 – 1)

First thing I’m going to point out is Thomas Vanek  He completely skates out of the zone (7 seconds onward) and is no where to be found for the rest of the clip.  Where’d he go?  To Oz of course! (Going with the Wizard of Oz theme here…)  It’s not as if we had puck possession and its time for the break out.  Keep this in mind for later, Vanek plays left wing.  Antropov, the eventual goal scorer stands in front of the net, by himself, playing a game of Monopoly with Miller.  Gragnani is no mans land when the pass goes from Wellwood to Antropov.  Gragnani needs to get himself between the goal and the opponent.  This is a simple defense tactic here.  Instead, he tries to bat down the puck with his stick. Yeah, that’ll work.  The player I feel for most here is Hecht.  He sees this all happen, and has an “Oh @(#&!” moment when Antropov walks out in front of Miller, untouched.  Yeah, Gragnani thats two goals our of the four where you could’ve at least made the Jets make plays to get goals.  There’s no other way to explain it than lazy defense. Batting at the puck with your stick trying to steal passes instead of covering a man who is 6 foot 6 and who is a ghost to Gragnani.

The Amerks played host to the OKC Barons tonight, in the first of back-to-back games against the Barons. Rochester, ever a pleasant hostess, was cordial, polite, and … wait, they showed up for the game? Well, either way, I was there and I have some thoughts on this mess.

The Amerks faced off against the Barons twice previously, in OKC’s barn, and took both games – one in OT and one in a shootout. There were a lot of high hopes and raised expectations going into tonight’s game and, like many WNY hockey teams right now, our hopes and expectations were dashed. This is actually a spot that Amerks’ fans are not familiar with finding ourselves. Sure, we’ve watched our Amerks lose on home ice, but they’ve been IN THE GAME. Tonight was a completely different beast.

The Amerks came out, guns blazing, and actually looked promising. They scored their first goal at 7:53 of the first, when Szczechura (no, really. It’s pronounced sh-HURR-uh, not like the desert) scored on a pretty pass from Jacob Lagace. That was the last time this game looked promising. David Leggio was far from the rock star goaltender he was last weekend and the D was slow, sad, and super-depleted. 5 of Rochester’s top 7 d-men were not in the game tonight, with Brennan, Finley, and McNabb in Buffalo, Schiestel off due to a death in the family, and Morrisson serving the first of a 3-game suspension. Shockingly, the two ECHL PTO call-ups were not the worst looking guys on the ice tonight. Although both Maury Edwards and Brock Matheson were -2 on the night, but had hustle and played a semi-decent game.

Therein lies the rub, however. A semi-decent game isn’t what we need at this stage. This OKC team is good. Guys, they’re not one of the top teams in the AHL for no reason. To have taken two points tonight from these guys would’ve been HUGE for Rochester. Right now, a semi-decent game from two call ups and a phenomenal game from our regulars should be what we’re looking at. Unfortunately, and I say this with the utmost positivity, I don’t know that this weekend will get much better for Rochester, as they face the Barons again tomorrow, then bus nearly 9 hours to Grand Rapids to face the Griffins. Friday is a new day, and fresh ice, so we can only wait and see what happens.

Game notes … Zack Kassian continues to play like a man who thinks he’s better than the AHL. I don’t know what’s gotten into him, but he needs to get over himself and play some hockey. My 83 year-old Grandma plays a better two-way game right now … I wouldn’t be shocked to see Drew MacIntyre get the start tomorrow night. Ron Rolston has been riding David Leggio’s hot hand for a bit now, and he may benefit from the break … I’m a little surprised that there was not retaliation/retribution for an incident that occurred the last time these two teams met. Evan Rankin got taken out on a nasty hit that has left him out due to a concussion. Much like the Lucic-Miller incident, there was no fighting back from this Amerks team, that night or tonight. Nothing like letting someone (I’m looking at you, Taylor Chorney) get away with a cheap shot … Speaking of concussions, tonight was supposed to be the much-anticipated return of Michael Ryan (and his eyebrows), who’s been out with concussion symptoms since October. However, he was scratched from the lineup.

Something needs to happen with this club. Problem is, the Sabres are operating from a place of extreme weakness within the league right now. The only silver lining in the storm cloud right now is the mercury we’re all about to be poisoned by.

Fire/trade/demote all the things.