When I was writing a few weeks back about the Pirates and Nate McClouth, I realized something that's probably pretty obvious to anyone who's been reading Top Shelf for a while but that I've never really stated outright. I'm fascinated by general managers.
If the Sabres were to call me tomorrow and say, "Heather B., as a reward for being the greatest blogger ever, we're going to let you shadow the person of your choice for three days," it wouldn't even be a contest, I'd follow Darcy Regier in a heartbeat. Not just because I like him - I do - but because I find his job really interesting. A few years ago, the Sabres did an intermission piece about trade deadline day and there was a very short scene of Darcy, Lindy Ruff, and a few other people in a room with a white board behind them. Any delicate information was blurred out and the conversation we saw had been carefully culled of any direct references to specific offers or players but I was still fascinated. I could watch footage like that forever. Regardless of what you think of Regier, you have to admit that his job is not an easy one. I don't think fans or journalists appreciate that enough. I think a lot of times even when people say, "I realize it's not easy..." they're just paying lip service to the idea because the thought is almost always completed with, "I could do it better" whether directly stated or implied.
GMs have so many decisions to make. Is your team good enough to go all in this season or do they need a little more time to grow? Do you make a really long commitment to this player or do you attempt to keep things more short-term? Do you chase the big money free agent or do you earmark that money for players already in your organization? Do you sign one big name or two or three smaller names? Do you go with high-flying offense or steady, fundamental defense? Do you trade one of your more productive players while his value is still high or do you hold on to him and say a prayer that he plays at his current level for a few more years? Do you draft the alleged can't-miss prospect or do you take a chance and go after the high risk-high reward project? I love how two GMs can look at the same issue, come up with two totally different takes, and respond in completely opposite ways.
The aspect I find most interesting - and most difficult - is that none of the above decisions can be made in a bubble. Almost every single choice a GM makes has long-term ramifications for a team. If you throw a lot of money at the hyped free agent of the year and he doesn't work out, you might not have the money or cap space to fix your roster later. If you give one player a huge contract, the younger players coming up for renewal behind him are going to expect the same. How is the contract you offer right now going to affect your cap space for the next four years? Heck, what's the cap going to do for the next four years? Go up? Or come down? Those decisions are even harder in smaller markets like Buffa where a team isn't going to be able to buyout a player without still feeling a crunch.
And none of this is even taking into consideration the personal aspect. GMs are part of creating an environment that players are comfortable in and want to play in. If a player is drafted by the organization and comes up through the system and plays with them for a while, the player develops ties to the organization and the fan base. They want there to be that player or two who become the face of the franchise, the fan favorite. But then after going to the trouble of helping that develop, a GM has to be able to put emotions aside and think of players as assets, nothing more, nothing less. That would be incredibly hard.
I know GMs have a whole team of people who help them with decisions - coaching staffs, cap specialists, scouting teams (or if you're TBN, that guy in Darcy's basement watching grainy footage on a 13 inch black-and-white TV). But ultimately the final decision comes down to the GM. And even if it doesn't - even if there's an owner or a money man in the way - the blame for any screw-ups comes down on the GM. Unless you win a Stanley Cup - and yeah, that's REALLY easy to do - no one's happy with you. Being a GM sucks, yo.
What's my point? I don't know, really. I've just been thinking about this more lately with the draft and free agency coming up. I have my problems with the Sabres roster as is and I hope to see some changes, some small, some big. But I also have some sympathy for how easy it is for us to talk about making those changes and how hard it is to actually make those changes, how many different factors go into a trade or a contract negotiation. I'm not making excuses. I do like Darcy but I'm going to be disappointed if the Sabres start next season with pretty much the same roster. I just think it's a difficult and interesting process and I think we sometimes forget just how complicated it all is.
For the record, if the Sabres called and said I could shadow anyone I wanted, my top three choices would be as follows:
1. GM - See above.
2. Head of scouting - Where and how do they find players? How much do they watch the kid in person, how much do they watch him on video? What are they looking for? What pushes one prospect over another on draft day especially in the later rounds? Are they really watching video on a 13 inch TV?
3. Equipment manager - I'm fascinated by hockey equipment, how much of it there is and how a group manages to get it all packed up and on a bus in 0.6 seconds.
Didn't really get a chance to listen to Darcy's press conference today but I heard bits and pieces of info about it. I'm going to assume he's just keeping that Derek Roy trade under super secret wrap until draft day.
Showing posts with label darcy regier. Show all posts
Showing posts with label darcy regier. Show all posts
Monday, June 22, 2009
Wednesday, March 4, 2009
Happy Day! (Edited)
Happy Henrik Tallinder Is Still a Sabre (For Now) So Heather B. Doesn't Have to Change the Banner on Her Blog (Yet) Day, everybody!
:::throws dimpled confetti:::
Hank's happy for me too.
Well, clearly the Sabres are as relieved as I am that Hank wasn't traded. Take that load of stress off their shoulders and look what happens. Easy wins. I suspect the "Hank is still a Sabre" bump will carry them all the way now.
Okay, seriously... let's discuss some things.
Obviously the big move today was re-signing Tim Connolly. I'm not completely sold on this move - I was perfectly fine with letting him walk at the end of the season - and when I got the text with details my initial reaction was horror. That's... a lot of money for a guy who hasn't played much in the last few years. Even in retrospect I'm okay with the first contract. I think the Sabres had to take a chance on Connolly. He was too dominant in that postseason to not hope he'd put the concussion troubles behind him. But to take that chance again? That seemed excessive.
But you know... I might have come around a little bit at least. Darcy Regier made the point in his press conference that there aren't a lot of short-term contracts in the league any more and he's right about that. Two years is really not that much of a commitment. If it doesn't work out, it's not something that's going to bury the team for the next 5-7 years the way some of the contracts signed by other teams over the last couple of years are going to. And there's no doubt Connolly is super talented. If he does stay reasonably healthy, 4.5 is going to be a bargain. I've seen other people make this point around the internet but where are you going to find another point per game player for that price? You're not going to. It's pretty hard to wrap your brain around the idea of someone who hasn't played that much getting a raise but you know, pro sports don't work the same way as the real world. They never have and they never will. Guys are always getting paid for potential and always getting more than they should. Tim Connolly is hardly a first.
I was going to link to Bucky Gleason's "Sabres likely to trade Connolly" story here but boy, TBN dismantled it. The latter half of the column is untouched but the headline has changed and the section about the Sabres trading Connolly has been replaced with news of the extension. Eager to make us forget that Bucky was wrong, I guess. Normally I wouldn't care. It's trade deadline day. Everyone's wrong about something, usually wrong far more often than right. I do delight a little in Bucky being wrong however because he's so friggin' pompous and self-righteous about everything. I can't wait to read his story tomorrow in which I'm sure he'll mention once again that if he were in charge, the Sabres would've made a trade with Chicago for that d-man he's been obsessing over. I was going to point out that one of the criticisms he makes of Connolly is that he only has 8 assists in the last 9 games which is, by my count, still almost a point per game and about what you'd want from a playmaking center. But hey, what do I know? I'm not a columnist.
I was also disappointed in Jerry Sullivan's blog about Connolly's re-signing. I have no problem with him being down on the signing - like I said, I can definitely see why people think it's crazy - but I think he misfires by accusing Regier of re-signing Connolly in an effort to justify the original contract. That's pretty contradictory of everything we've seen of Regier over the years, I feel. If you want to accuse him of getting overly attached to players sometimes, well, guilty as charged. But I really don't think there's anything more here than him liking Connolly and believing that he's a special talent.
I also don't get Sully's fixation on Connolly's game being all finesse like that's a bad thing. Yeah, the Sabres definitely need some grit and toughness but you have to have skill too. A team full of Paul Gaustads would be hard-working and likable but also (sorry, Goose) not particularly good at hockey. I'd also hesitate a little to call Connolly soft. No, he doesn't fly around the ice smashing players into the boards but he doesn't shy away from contact and he doesn't hesitate to jump into little scrums. That's one thing I've always had to give him credit for. For a guy who's had so much trouble with injuries the last few years, he's not gun shy at all. He doesn't play like a guy afraid to get hurt. So injury prone? Certainly. Soft? Eh. I don't know.
So over the course of the day I've gone from horror and slight disgust to extremely cautious, hesitating hope. It's definitely a high risk, high reward signing.
More on other trade related things tomorrow.
:::throws dimpled confetti:::
Hank's happy for me too.Well, clearly the Sabres are as relieved as I am that Hank wasn't traded. Take that load of stress off their shoulders and look what happens. Easy wins. I suspect the "Hank is still a Sabre" bump will carry them all the way now.
Okay, seriously... let's discuss some things.
Obviously the big move today was re-signing Tim Connolly. I'm not completely sold on this move - I was perfectly fine with letting him walk at the end of the season - and when I got the text with details my initial reaction was horror. That's... a lot of money for a guy who hasn't played much in the last few years. Even in retrospect I'm okay with the first contract. I think the Sabres had to take a chance on Connolly. He was too dominant in that postseason to not hope he'd put the concussion troubles behind him. But to take that chance again? That seemed excessive.
But you know... I might have come around a little bit at least. Darcy Regier made the point in his press conference that there aren't a lot of short-term contracts in the league any more and he's right about that. Two years is really not that much of a commitment. If it doesn't work out, it's not something that's going to bury the team for the next 5-7 years the way some of the contracts signed by other teams over the last couple of years are going to. And there's no doubt Connolly is super talented. If he does stay reasonably healthy, 4.5 is going to be a bargain. I've seen other people make this point around the internet but where are you going to find another point per game player for that price? You're not going to. It's pretty hard to wrap your brain around the idea of someone who hasn't played that much getting a raise but you know, pro sports don't work the same way as the real world. They never have and they never will. Guys are always getting paid for potential and always getting more than they should. Tim Connolly is hardly a first.
I was going to link to Bucky Gleason's "Sabres likely to trade Connolly" story here but boy, TBN dismantled it. The latter half of the column is untouched but the headline has changed and the section about the Sabres trading Connolly has been replaced with news of the extension. Eager to make us forget that Bucky was wrong, I guess. Normally I wouldn't care. It's trade deadline day. Everyone's wrong about something, usually wrong far more often than right. I do delight a little in Bucky being wrong however because he's so friggin' pompous and self-righteous about everything. I can't wait to read his story tomorrow in which I'm sure he'll mention once again that if he were in charge, the Sabres would've made a trade with Chicago for that d-man he's been obsessing over. I was going to point out that one of the criticisms he makes of Connolly is that he only has 8 assists in the last 9 games which is, by my count, still almost a point per game and about what you'd want from a playmaking center. But hey, what do I know? I'm not a columnist.
I was also disappointed in Jerry Sullivan's blog about Connolly's re-signing. I have no problem with him being down on the signing - like I said, I can definitely see why people think it's crazy - but I think he misfires by accusing Regier of re-signing Connolly in an effort to justify the original contract. That's pretty contradictory of everything we've seen of Regier over the years, I feel. If you want to accuse him of getting overly attached to players sometimes, well, guilty as charged. But I really don't think there's anything more here than him liking Connolly and believing that he's a special talent.
I also don't get Sully's fixation on Connolly's game being all finesse like that's a bad thing. Yeah, the Sabres definitely need some grit and toughness but you have to have skill too. A team full of Paul Gaustads would be hard-working and likable but also (sorry, Goose) not particularly good at hockey. I'd also hesitate a little to call Connolly soft. No, he doesn't fly around the ice smashing players into the boards but he doesn't shy away from contact and he doesn't hesitate to jump into little scrums. That's one thing I've always had to give him credit for. For a guy who's had so much trouble with injuries the last few years, he's not gun shy at all. He doesn't play like a guy afraid to get hurt. So injury prone? Certainly. Soft? Eh. I don't know.
So over the course of the day I've gone from horror and slight disgust to extremely cautious, hesitating hope. It's definitely a high risk, high reward signing.
More on other trade related things tomorrow.
Sunday, September 21, 2008
Puck Drop 2008: A Novella
I admit it, there were times this summer when I felt like this day was never, ever going to come. Doesn't it feel like it's been years since the Sabres played their last game? It does to me. When I finally stepped into HSBC Arena Saturday morning, I felt like I'd just entered the pearly gates. Ahhhhh...
Noticeable right away was the brand new Winter Classic mural in the pavilion. I'm not gonna lie, I could do without the pictures of the fans mixed in. I get that it was a huge community thing blah blah blah but I really liked the huge player photos, the fu manchu Tim Connolly excepted.
Click on the image for a closer look.
Luckily for me - and them - there was a huge Henrik Tallinder photo in almost exactly the same place there was one before.
You can click here too.
We didn't lollygag too long before making our way to the ice. It was still fairly early but people were starting to stream in and I wanted to sit up close. For games I'm definitely a believer in sitting far enough back that you can see the whole ice but for stuff like this I think it's fun to sit as close as possible and see the ice and the players in a way we don't usually get to see them.
Ooh! Ooh! Hank is on the ice! Ladies and gentlemen, Henrik Tallinder is on the ice!
The stripes on those practice jerseys absolutely glow when photographed, making everyone look like they're in a science fiction movie.
Unfortunately, when Hank was playing defense, this is what I saw through the entire first period:
Down in front!
This girl, in her spunky little glasses and her hand-lettered jersey was cute for about five minutes. And then she was just really, really annoying. I can understand leaping up when something exciting happens or standing through a real game but come on, please sit down. Those pictures are not going to come out anyway. And you know, for a girl who had Stafford on her back she spent an awful lot of time cheering for Max. We also had a somewhat rowdy Roy-Z contingent("ROOOOOOOY-ZEEEEEEEE! ROY-Z YOU ARE AMAAAAAZING!") and a comedy troupe of college-age boys - you know the ones who act like they know everything while every word coming out of their mouth proves they know very little - behind us. But hey, it's not hockey unless there's one fan around you you kind of want to punch in the head!
And still... HOCKEY!
Look! Hockey!
Usually Mark and I end up pulling for different teams in scrimmages but today his guy - Drew Stafford - and my guy - hello, are you new here? - were both wearing blue. And lo and behold, they won 7-4. The numbers on the roster handed out didn't match what the players were wearing, making them pretty much useless, but I do know Mark Mancari had two goals, one beautifully placed slap shot and one very nice tip-in, while Drew Stafford also had a pretty good-looking goal. Alas, Hank did not score any goals but he also did not get hurt so we'll call it a wash.
Speaking of not getting hurt, not only were the rumors of Tim Connolly's death greatly exaggerated, he made it through the first practice of the season in one piece! Let's give him a round of applause!
We were sitting right next to the Sabres TV set-up so we ended up seeing all kinds of cool people up close and personal.
Kevin Sylvester and Rick Jeanneret! (And Harry Neale.) They're pretty cute in their little matching jackets, aren't they?
Jaroslav Spacek! (Jaro, Toni Lydman and Teppo Numminen didn't participate in the scrimmage. There may have been others missing but they were the ones I noticed. Toni and Teppo did practice after the scrimmage. I didn't notice if Jaro did or not.)
Enter hilarious Czech inflected gibberish here.
And your General Manager, Darcy John Regier!
Darcy! Wheeee!
After I took this picture I stood there for a few seconds, trying to see if I could hear what they were talking about. As I walked back toward Mark I clapped and squealed "Darcy!" (Mark: "You're an odd one all right.") That led to this conversation with the guy at the end of the row we were standing next to:
"Oh, don't tell me you were just clapping for DARCY REGIER?!"
"I sure was," I said defiantly. "I love Darcy Regier!"
"I hate that guy! He lets all the good players go and keeps all the shitty guys. I can't wait till we get rid of him."
Many responses went through my head - Who brought those good players here in the first place? Exactly which player signed this off-season is the shitty one? How easy do you think his job is? Do you enjoy being a sheep-like idiot? among some more unprintable thoughts - but I just walked away. I had a feeling the two of us were not going to have a friendly, logical discussion about Darcy Regier's tenure in Buffalo. (And yes, I'm probably as biased in Darcy's favor as that guy was against him, I know.) It did make me wish I had some Top Shelf business cards though. I could've handed that guy a card, told him to look up the web address and instructed him to read all the posts labeled Darcy Regier.
I'm not super familiar with Maria Genero - I never, never watch the news - so I'm trying not to pass judgement on her before she really gets a chance to do her thing. I'm very excited about increased web content because I really, really love what the San Jose Sharks do with Shark Byte and it sounds kind of like that's what the Sabres are going for with the web features/magazine show. I love seeing the guys in more casual, fun situations. But holy moses, the bejeweled slug shirt she was wearing today was one of the ugliest things I've ever seen. I don't know how it translated on video but up close and in person it was terrible. I guess you can take it with a grain of salt though because that shirt is pretty much the opposite of anything I would ever, ever wear.
Looking at this photo, the sheer awfulness of that shirt doesn't really translate. Trust me, it was bad.
After scrimmage was the big jersey reveal. It should have been a little anti-climactic since Sabres Edge had a leaked photo of the jersey a few days ago but it was still pretty exciting. The lights were dimmed, a neat little video was shown, the dry ice was released and the players were individually introduced by RJ. The usuals got huge cheers along with Teppo Numminen who I think got the loudest ovation for good reason. Craig Rivet and Patrick Lalime also got warm welcomes. Mike Weber, Andrej Sekera, Clarke MacArthur and Patrick Kaleta were included in the introductions with the established starters.
Overall I'd say the jerseys looked really sharp in person and on the players. I liked the colors a lot more than I thought I would and the logo, of course, is awesome. The blue in the jersey still doesn't quite match the blue of the breezers though which is a tad annoying and I really, really hate that silver piping and unfortunately I hate it in person even more than in the photo. The stylized piping looks stupid with the classic striping and it's a touch too busy to have both. For now it would keep me from buying a third jersey but when the time comes to replace my current vintage, I'd have no problem picking one up. Anyway, the team did a lap around the ice so we could all get a good look before heading to center ice for a stick salute.
Click for a closer look. No C on Pommers. We were on the look-out for that.
The whole morning had Mark feeling VERY excited!
Look alive, man!
After that it was on to the autograph sessions. Mark and I had a pretty laid-back attitude toward autographs. Neither of us is really a collector and neither of us was super eager to have a long conversation with our favorite player but we did think it would kinda cool to get our jerseys signed if we could.
There were tables spread out around the 100 and 200 sections, two to three players to a table. Each table had its own line and each line was capped at 500. When you got in line you were given a ticket by a security guy and once the tickets were gone that line was closed. Here's the tricky part: No one knew which players were going to be at what table until the players showed up so you had to decide if you wanted to stand in a line and see who was signing there or walk around until a certain player showed and then get in his line. Obviously the risk there is the line being full by the time you realize who is where.
The way it was supposed to work as explained by the guard who gave us the ticket for the line we finally decided to stand in was that when the player showed up if you decided to get out of line, you gave your ticket back to the guard so someone else could use it. For example, if a Ryan Miller fan discovers she's in line for Henrik Tallinder but really wants to find Ryan, she gives the ticket back to the guard so there's a ticket for the Henrik Tallinder fan who's discovered she's in line for Andrew Peters. It all makes a very convoluted kind of sense, I guess.
The way it actually worked was like this: People just kept the tickets they had, went in search of the player they really wanted and once they found him, went back to the previous line. The guard pretty clearly told us that once you had a ticket you had to stay in line. If you left that line, you wouldn't be let back in whether you had a ticket or not. But anyone carrying a ticket was let back in line, no questions asked which is understandable. If I'm an arena security guard I'm certainly not going to get into a pissing match about someone wanting to get in line when they have a ticket. So the problem was, lines were running out of tickets even when there weren't a lot of people in line. When we finally found Hank, his line was not super long and there was still a lot of time left until 2:00 but there were no tickets left so the line had been closed. I'd be curious to know how many people took a ticket and jumped in line but then took off with said ticket in their hand when they realized they were waiting for Hank and not Jason Pominville or Derek Roy. I think the tickets are a fine idea. I certainly understand the need to cut off lines at a certain point and that's an easy, clear cut way to decide who gets in a line and who doesn't. But I don't understand why they can't just tell us what player is going to be at what table. If it takes 15 seconds to hand out 500 tickets at Ryan Miller's table so what? Tell everyone after that the line's closed and move on. At least people know who they are and aren't getting. That was the biggest complaint I heard from other fans. The lady in front of me in Hank's line said she'd gladly spend the whole time in Maxim Afinogenov's line even if meant only getting him but she couldn't find him and she was afraid if she kept looking she'd end up missing everyone.
Anyway, to make a long story even longer (another sign that hockey season is finally upon us: really long-ass posts from Heather B.), the lines in the 100 section were already absurd by the time Mark and I made our way up from the ice so we decided to head straight for the 200s. There's less room up there so we thought maybe they'd put some of the lower profile players up there. We found Drew Stafford pretty quickly and Mark jumped in line while I made my way around the rest of the level, trying to see if Hank was up there. I had to circle a few times because while some players had already started signing, some hadn't shown up yet so there were still empty tables. Mark had his jersey signed and was ready to move on and half the players still hadn't showed.
A little slow with the camera so I missed Mark with Staffy. Here he is pretending to care about Clarke MacArthur and Philip Gogulla.
Somewhere in the course of that half hour or so my nonchalance had morphed into borderline obsessive determination. I don't know if seeing other players up close made me realize it might be really neat to see Hank like that or if I got caught up in the crazed crowd or if I was jealous that Mark got his jersey signed but I was turning insane. I was running around the 200s, making sure Hank wasn't up there before I headed down to the 100s, looking everywhere but in front of me, thinking only, "HANK! HANK! HANK!" I suddenly ran into someone, half stepping on his foot and hitting him with my messenger bag. I glanced up, mumbled an apology and walked a few more steps before my brain registered, "Hey, that was Derek Roy." I don't know if there are many females in Buffalo who can say they ran over Derek to get to Hank but I'm one of the proud few. And if it comes out soon that Roy-Z is out with a broken toe, it's on me. Sorry.
Once it was clear Hank wasn't in the 200s, we rushed to the 100s. Okay, I rushed. Mark poked along behind me. And finally, finally! There he was!
Hank!
I jumped in the line, excited that, as I said before, it wasn't really that long. The security guard wandered over to ask if I had a ticket which I didn't because they were all gone. He announced that anyone who didn't have a ticket had to leave the line. So I did. At first. And then I decided hey, eff that. I've been running around this place like crazy and unlike some of the people in the line I actually WANTED Hank's autograph. So I got back in line. The guard made his announcement a few more times, looking at me every time, but I guess he decided to leave me alone because he never really kicked me out of line. He did close the line right behind me though.
That blue is my jersey which I had taken off for autograph purposes (I had a t-shirt on so get your mind out of the gutter) and that's the end of the line right behind me.
I was hoping that they wouldn't get to me, the very last person in line, and declare that I couldn't have an autograph because I didn't have a ticket and if it did happen I was prepared to wave my Tallinder jersey around and appeal directly to Hank since he seems like a pretty nice guy. Just in case however, I managed to snag a ticket from someone who was bailing because they'd heard that Max had finally showed up at his line and there were still tickets left.
(As an aside, I think every third person was looking for Max. My mind, it was boggled. I knew he was popular but I guess I didn't realize he was still that popular. Every line I waited at for a few minutes contained a herd of people who were hoping and praying they were in Max's line. And not just kids although there was a lot of them too. Craziness.)
So now I could relax a little, plan what I was going to say when I finally came face-to-face with the guy whose picture is at the top of my blog, and stand back and observe a little. I was pretty delighted to see that Hank really is as pleasant and friendly as he always appears to be in interviews. I don't think being nice to people for a couple of hours is too much to ask of a person but we've all been to those autograph sessions where it's clear, especially toward the end, that players are going through the motions: take jersey/picture from fan, sign, say "no problem," reach for the next item. Not Henrik Tallinder. He looked up and made eye contact with everyone, he had a huge grin on his face the whole time, he made different comments to everyone, posed for as many pictures as people wanted, occasionally suggesting they check and make sure they got their picture and he went out of his way to fuss over any kids that came through the line. I think it was exactly the kind of experience that a small kid will remember years later as a really nice moment and I think that's lovely. I'm a grown-up so I've long come to accept that sometimes pro athletes aren't people I'd necessarily like and sometimes you just have to put personality aside and appreciate a guy's skill on the field of play... but I still want to like players, especially my favorites, so I was really happy to come away really liking Hank. But I'm jumping ahead of things. (I know, you were probably quite thrilled with that development at this point :P)
So it was finally my turn. Locked in on my target, I walked right by Drew Schiestel (sorry, Drew!) and spread my jersey out on the table in front of Hank. Being a less popular player he'd been signing a lot of other people's jerseys along with the little photos and slugs they were giving out. Our conversation went a little something like this:
Heather: HI!
Hank: (sees jersey, smile gets a little bigger) Ah, that's the number I like to see!
Heather: (after much thought about what to say, I say the first thing that pops into my head) YOU'RE MY FAVORITE! (I'd like to think I said that in a very calm, composed way but I fear there might have been a hint of a squeal in my voice. No idea what happened.)
Hank: And that's what I like to hear! Thank you.
I asked him if I could get a photo and he said, "Sure, you just have to come back here," so I shoved the security guy to the side. Hank was very, very tall - more on that in a second - and I was a little worried that Mark wasn't going to get us both in the picture. He's not super comfortable with a camera and he had already expressed concern about messing it up. Fortunately, Mark said aloud, "Wow, I can barely get both of you in. You're a tall guy!" at which point Hank leaned down a little closer to me. And the picture you saw yesterday was the happy result. Oh, heck. Here it is again in case you missed it.
:::happy sigh:::
Okay. Would any gentlemen reading this please skip to the next paragraph? I need to talk to the ladies. Personal stuff. You wouldn't want to hear it. Might be embarrassing for you. Really. Move along, move along... Are they gone? Okay, let me tell you this, ladies. Henrik Tallinder? Is beautiful even with that awful buzz cut. You know how in cartoons, sometimes the good-looking guy smiles and you get the little "ping!" sound effect with the twinkly glint and the sparkle in the eye? Well, Hank is the real-life equivalent of that. He's just so very sparkly. Noticeably blue eyes, big dimples, extremely charming. And when he stood up for the picture, holy cow, I thought he was going to go on forever. He's very lean which probably accentuates his height but man. Man! And you know what else? His hand was THIS CLOSE to being on my butt. Seriously. I'm pretty sure only the presence of my husband held him back. So, so, so pretty. Once again, Top Shelf business cards would've come in handy. I totally could've slipped one into the pocket of his hoodie.
Anyway, gentlemen, as I was telling the ladies, I really laid out my expectations for this season to Hank. I insisted on fewer turnovers and stronger play on the puck. "You're 6'3"," I said. "Now, I know you're a slim guy but really, there's no reason for you to get pushed around like that out there." He nodded in total agreement and thanked me for the help. It was a good talk. I'm confident he'll have a great 2008-2009.
One more note about Hank. I love him (in case I've been too subtle in the rest of this post) but he has the WORST signature in the world.
I know it's probably terrible signing your name over and over and over and I should talk because even in the best of circumstances my signature is H--th-- B followed by a squiggle way too short to actually be my last name. But Hank, come on now. He wrote HT 10 and then that little squiggle at the end. I don't know if that's supposed to be the rest of Tallinder or what. Mark interpreted as a little hockey stick which it does sort of resemble. Upon closer inspection I'm pretty sure it's Swedish for "Top Shelf is the best blog on the internet and I love Heather B."
And that was pretty much all she wrote for Puck Drop '08. We walked back to ice level to watch the end of practice but we were pretty wiped by that point, not to mention starving so we headed out after a few minutes.
The day had two more hockey surprise for us. One came with the announcement that Darcy had been renewed for two more years. I know of one guy in Buffalo who wasn't very happy when he heard that (ha ha!) but I love it. The second came when we fetched the mail.
We were beginning to quietly freak about not getting our tickets yet since it seemed everyone else in the blogosphere had received theirs. Turns out they were just sent to our old address - even though we changed our address with the Sabres - and caught up in mail forwarding.
Oh, hockey, sweet hockey. It's so good to see you again.
Noticeable right away was the brand new Winter Classic mural in the pavilion. I'm not gonna lie, I could do without the pictures of the fans mixed in. I get that it was a huge community thing blah blah blah but I really liked the huge player photos, the fu manchu Tim Connolly excepted.
Click on the image for a closer look.Luckily for me - and them - there was a huge Henrik Tallinder photo in almost exactly the same place there was one before.
You can click here too.We didn't lollygag too long before making our way to the ice. It was still fairly early but people were starting to stream in and I wanted to sit up close. For games I'm definitely a believer in sitting far enough back that you can see the whole ice but for stuff like this I think it's fun to sit as close as possible and see the ice and the players in a way we don't usually get to see them.
Ooh! Ooh! Hank is on the ice! Ladies and gentlemen, Henrik Tallinder is on the ice!
The stripes on those practice jerseys absolutely glow when photographed, making everyone look like they're in a science fiction movie.Unfortunately, when Hank was playing defense, this is what I saw through the entire first period:
Down in front!This girl, in her spunky little glasses and her hand-lettered jersey was cute for about five minutes. And then she was just really, really annoying. I can understand leaping up when something exciting happens or standing through a real game but come on, please sit down. Those pictures are not going to come out anyway. And you know, for a girl who had Stafford on her back she spent an awful lot of time cheering for Max. We also had a somewhat rowdy Roy-Z contingent("ROOOOOOOY-ZEEEEEEEE! ROY-Z YOU ARE AMAAAAAZING!") and a comedy troupe of college-age boys - you know the ones who act like they know everything while every word coming out of their mouth proves they know very little - behind us. But hey, it's not hockey unless there's one fan around you you kind of want to punch in the head!
And still... HOCKEY!
Look! Hockey!Usually Mark and I end up pulling for different teams in scrimmages but today his guy - Drew Stafford - and my guy - hello, are you new here? - were both wearing blue. And lo and behold, they won 7-4. The numbers on the roster handed out didn't match what the players were wearing, making them pretty much useless, but I do know Mark Mancari had two goals, one beautifully placed slap shot and one very nice tip-in, while Drew Stafford also had a pretty good-looking goal. Alas, Hank did not score any goals but he also did not get hurt so we'll call it a wash.
Speaking of not getting hurt, not only were the rumors of Tim Connolly's death greatly exaggerated, he made it through the first practice of the season in one piece! Let's give him a round of applause!
We were sitting right next to the Sabres TV set-up so we ended up seeing all kinds of cool people up close and personal.
Kevin Sylvester and Rick Jeanneret! (And Harry Neale.) They're pretty cute in their little matching jackets, aren't they?
Jaroslav Spacek! (Jaro, Toni Lydman and Teppo Numminen didn't participate in the scrimmage. There may have been others missing but they were the ones I noticed. Toni and Teppo did practice after the scrimmage. I didn't notice if Jaro did or not.)
Enter hilarious Czech inflected gibberish here.And your General Manager, Darcy John Regier!
Darcy! Wheeee!After I took this picture I stood there for a few seconds, trying to see if I could hear what they were talking about. As I walked back toward Mark I clapped and squealed "Darcy!" (Mark: "You're an odd one all right.") That led to this conversation with the guy at the end of the row we were standing next to:
"Oh, don't tell me you were just clapping for DARCY REGIER?!"
"I sure was," I said defiantly. "I love Darcy Regier!"
"I hate that guy! He lets all the good players go and keeps all the shitty guys. I can't wait till we get rid of him."
Many responses went through my head - Who brought those good players here in the first place? Exactly which player signed this off-season is the shitty one? How easy do you think his job is? Do you enjoy being a sheep-like idiot? among some more unprintable thoughts - but I just walked away. I had a feeling the two of us were not going to have a friendly, logical discussion about Darcy Regier's tenure in Buffalo. (And yes, I'm probably as biased in Darcy's favor as that guy was against him, I know.) It did make me wish I had some Top Shelf business cards though. I could've handed that guy a card, told him to look up the web address and instructed him to read all the posts labeled Darcy Regier.
I'm not super familiar with Maria Genero - I never, never watch the news - so I'm trying not to pass judgement on her before she really gets a chance to do her thing. I'm very excited about increased web content because I really, really love what the San Jose Sharks do with Shark Byte and it sounds kind of like that's what the Sabres are going for with the web features/magazine show. I love seeing the guys in more casual, fun situations. But holy moses, the bejeweled slug shirt she was wearing today was one of the ugliest things I've ever seen. I don't know how it translated on video but up close and in person it was terrible. I guess you can take it with a grain of salt though because that shirt is pretty much the opposite of anything I would ever, ever wear.
Looking at this photo, the sheer awfulness of that shirt doesn't really translate. Trust me, it was bad.After scrimmage was the big jersey reveal. It should have been a little anti-climactic since Sabres Edge had a leaked photo of the jersey a few days ago but it was still pretty exciting. The lights were dimmed, a neat little video was shown, the dry ice was released and the players were individually introduced by RJ. The usuals got huge cheers along with Teppo Numminen who I think got the loudest ovation for good reason. Craig Rivet and Patrick Lalime also got warm welcomes. Mike Weber, Andrej Sekera, Clarke MacArthur and Patrick Kaleta were included in the introductions with the established starters.
Overall I'd say the jerseys looked really sharp in person and on the players. I liked the colors a lot more than I thought I would and the logo, of course, is awesome. The blue in the jersey still doesn't quite match the blue of the breezers though which is a tad annoying and I really, really hate that silver piping and unfortunately I hate it in person even more than in the photo. The stylized piping looks stupid with the classic striping and it's a touch too busy to have both. For now it would keep me from buying a third jersey but when the time comes to replace my current vintage, I'd have no problem picking one up. Anyway, the team did a lap around the ice so we could all get a good look before heading to center ice for a stick salute.
Click for a closer look. No C on Pommers. We were on the look-out for that.The whole morning had Mark feeling VERY excited!
Look alive, man!After that it was on to the autograph sessions. Mark and I had a pretty laid-back attitude toward autographs. Neither of us is really a collector and neither of us was super eager to have a long conversation with our favorite player but we did think it would kinda cool to get our jerseys signed if we could.
There were tables spread out around the 100 and 200 sections, two to three players to a table. Each table had its own line and each line was capped at 500. When you got in line you were given a ticket by a security guy and once the tickets were gone that line was closed. Here's the tricky part: No one knew which players were going to be at what table until the players showed up so you had to decide if you wanted to stand in a line and see who was signing there or walk around until a certain player showed and then get in his line. Obviously the risk there is the line being full by the time you realize who is where.
The way it was supposed to work as explained by the guard who gave us the ticket for the line we finally decided to stand in was that when the player showed up if you decided to get out of line, you gave your ticket back to the guard so someone else could use it. For example, if a Ryan Miller fan discovers she's in line for Henrik Tallinder but really wants to find Ryan, she gives the ticket back to the guard so there's a ticket for the Henrik Tallinder fan who's discovered she's in line for Andrew Peters. It all makes a very convoluted kind of sense, I guess.
The way it actually worked was like this: People just kept the tickets they had, went in search of the player they really wanted and once they found him, went back to the previous line. The guard pretty clearly told us that once you had a ticket you had to stay in line. If you left that line, you wouldn't be let back in whether you had a ticket or not. But anyone carrying a ticket was let back in line, no questions asked which is understandable. If I'm an arena security guard I'm certainly not going to get into a pissing match about someone wanting to get in line when they have a ticket. So the problem was, lines were running out of tickets even when there weren't a lot of people in line. When we finally found Hank, his line was not super long and there was still a lot of time left until 2:00 but there were no tickets left so the line had been closed. I'd be curious to know how many people took a ticket and jumped in line but then took off with said ticket in their hand when they realized they were waiting for Hank and not Jason Pominville or Derek Roy. I think the tickets are a fine idea. I certainly understand the need to cut off lines at a certain point and that's an easy, clear cut way to decide who gets in a line and who doesn't. But I don't understand why they can't just tell us what player is going to be at what table. If it takes 15 seconds to hand out 500 tickets at Ryan Miller's table so what? Tell everyone after that the line's closed and move on. At least people know who they are and aren't getting. That was the biggest complaint I heard from other fans. The lady in front of me in Hank's line said she'd gladly spend the whole time in Maxim Afinogenov's line even if meant only getting him but she couldn't find him and she was afraid if she kept looking she'd end up missing everyone.
Anyway, to make a long story even longer (another sign that hockey season is finally upon us: really long-ass posts from Heather B.), the lines in the 100 section were already absurd by the time Mark and I made our way up from the ice so we decided to head straight for the 200s. There's less room up there so we thought maybe they'd put some of the lower profile players up there. We found Drew Stafford pretty quickly and Mark jumped in line while I made my way around the rest of the level, trying to see if Hank was up there. I had to circle a few times because while some players had already started signing, some hadn't shown up yet so there were still empty tables. Mark had his jersey signed and was ready to move on and half the players still hadn't showed.
A little slow with the camera so I missed Mark with Staffy. Here he is pretending to care about Clarke MacArthur and Philip Gogulla.Somewhere in the course of that half hour or so my nonchalance had morphed into borderline obsessive determination. I don't know if seeing other players up close made me realize it might be really neat to see Hank like that or if I got caught up in the crazed crowd or if I was jealous that Mark got his jersey signed but I was turning insane. I was running around the 200s, making sure Hank wasn't up there before I headed down to the 100s, looking everywhere but in front of me, thinking only, "HANK! HANK! HANK!" I suddenly ran into someone, half stepping on his foot and hitting him with my messenger bag. I glanced up, mumbled an apology and walked a few more steps before my brain registered, "Hey, that was Derek Roy." I don't know if there are many females in Buffalo who can say they ran over Derek to get to Hank but I'm one of the proud few. And if it comes out soon that Roy-Z is out with a broken toe, it's on me. Sorry.
Once it was clear Hank wasn't in the 200s, we rushed to the 100s. Okay, I rushed. Mark poked along behind me. And finally, finally! There he was!
Hank!I jumped in the line, excited that, as I said before, it wasn't really that long. The security guard wandered over to ask if I had a ticket which I didn't because they were all gone. He announced that anyone who didn't have a ticket had to leave the line. So I did. At first. And then I decided hey, eff that. I've been running around this place like crazy and unlike some of the people in the line I actually WANTED Hank's autograph. So I got back in line. The guard made his announcement a few more times, looking at me every time, but I guess he decided to leave me alone because he never really kicked me out of line. He did close the line right behind me though.
That blue is my jersey which I had taken off for autograph purposes (I had a t-shirt on so get your mind out of the gutter) and that's the end of the line right behind me.I was hoping that they wouldn't get to me, the very last person in line, and declare that I couldn't have an autograph because I didn't have a ticket and if it did happen I was prepared to wave my Tallinder jersey around and appeal directly to Hank since he seems like a pretty nice guy. Just in case however, I managed to snag a ticket from someone who was bailing because they'd heard that Max had finally showed up at his line and there were still tickets left.
(As an aside, I think every third person was looking for Max. My mind, it was boggled. I knew he was popular but I guess I didn't realize he was still that popular. Every line I waited at for a few minutes contained a herd of people who were hoping and praying they were in Max's line. And not just kids although there was a lot of them too. Craziness.)
So now I could relax a little, plan what I was going to say when I finally came face-to-face with the guy whose picture is at the top of my blog, and stand back and observe a little. I was pretty delighted to see that Hank really is as pleasant and friendly as he always appears to be in interviews. I don't think being nice to people for a couple of hours is too much to ask of a person but we've all been to those autograph sessions where it's clear, especially toward the end, that players are going through the motions: take jersey/picture from fan, sign, say "no problem," reach for the next item. Not Henrik Tallinder. He looked up and made eye contact with everyone, he had a huge grin on his face the whole time, he made different comments to everyone, posed for as many pictures as people wanted, occasionally suggesting they check and make sure they got their picture and he went out of his way to fuss over any kids that came through the line. I think it was exactly the kind of experience that a small kid will remember years later as a really nice moment and I think that's lovely. I'm a grown-up so I've long come to accept that sometimes pro athletes aren't people I'd necessarily like and sometimes you just have to put personality aside and appreciate a guy's skill on the field of play... but I still want to like players, especially my favorites, so I was really happy to come away really liking Hank. But I'm jumping ahead of things. (I know, you were probably quite thrilled with that development at this point :P)
So it was finally my turn. Locked in on my target, I walked right by Drew Schiestel (sorry, Drew!) and spread my jersey out on the table in front of Hank. Being a less popular player he'd been signing a lot of other people's jerseys along with the little photos and slugs they were giving out. Our conversation went a little something like this:
Heather: HI!
Hank: (sees jersey, smile gets a little bigger) Ah, that's the number I like to see!
Heather: (after much thought about what to say, I say the first thing that pops into my head) YOU'RE MY FAVORITE! (I'd like to think I said that in a very calm, composed way but I fear there might have been a hint of a squeal in my voice. No idea what happened.)
Hank: And that's what I like to hear! Thank you.
I asked him if I could get a photo and he said, "Sure, you just have to come back here," so I shoved the security guy to the side. Hank was very, very tall - more on that in a second - and I was a little worried that Mark wasn't going to get us both in the picture. He's not super comfortable with a camera and he had already expressed concern about messing it up. Fortunately, Mark said aloud, "Wow, I can barely get both of you in. You're a tall guy!" at which point Hank leaned down a little closer to me. And the picture you saw yesterday was the happy result. Oh, heck. Here it is again in case you missed it.
:::happy sigh:::Okay. Would any gentlemen reading this please skip to the next paragraph? I need to talk to the ladies. Personal stuff. You wouldn't want to hear it. Might be embarrassing for you. Really. Move along, move along... Are they gone? Okay, let me tell you this, ladies. Henrik Tallinder? Is beautiful even with that awful buzz cut. You know how in cartoons, sometimes the good-looking guy smiles and you get the little "ping!" sound effect with the twinkly glint and the sparkle in the eye? Well, Hank is the real-life equivalent of that. He's just so very sparkly. Noticeably blue eyes, big dimples, extremely charming. And when he stood up for the picture, holy cow, I thought he was going to go on forever. He's very lean which probably accentuates his height but man. Man! And you know what else? His hand was THIS CLOSE to being on my butt. Seriously. I'm pretty sure only the presence of my husband held him back. So, so, so pretty. Once again, Top Shelf business cards would've come in handy. I totally could've slipped one into the pocket of his hoodie.
Anyway, gentlemen, as I was telling the ladies, I really laid out my expectations for this season to Hank. I insisted on fewer turnovers and stronger play on the puck. "You're 6'3"," I said. "Now, I know you're a slim guy but really, there's no reason for you to get pushed around like that out there." He nodded in total agreement and thanked me for the help. It was a good talk. I'm confident he'll have a great 2008-2009.
One more note about Hank. I love him (in case I've been too subtle in the rest of this post) but he has the WORST signature in the world.
I know it's probably terrible signing your name over and over and over and I should talk because even in the best of circumstances my signature is H--th-- B followed by a squiggle way too short to actually be my last name. But Hank, come on now. He wrote HT 10 and then that little squiggle at the end. I don't know if that's supposed to be the rest of Tallinder or what. Mark interpreted as a little hockey stick which it does sort of resemble. Upon closer inspection I'm pretty sure it's Swedish for "Top Shelf is the best blog on the internet and I love Heather B."
And that was pretty much all she wrote for Puck Drop '08. We walked back to ice level to watch the end of practice but we were pretty wiped by that point, not to mention starving so we headed out after a few minutes.
The day had two more hockey surprise for us. One came with the announcement that Darcy had been renewed for two more years. I know of one guy in Buffalo who wasn't very happy when he heard that (ha ha!) but I love it. The second came when we fetched the mail.
We were beginning to quietly freak about not getting our tickets yet since it seemed everyone else in the blogosphere had received theirs. Turns out they were just sent to our old address - even though we changed our address with the Sabres - and caught up in mail forwarding.
Oh, hockey, sweet hockey. It's so good to see you again.
Wednesday, July 2, 2008
More About Uncle Darcy
(Someone emailed me to ask about the title of the previous post. Occasionally I get sucked into the comment threads on Sabres Edge - you might come across a remark or two from me on the last few posts if you look really hard - and for a while every time I made some kind of pro-management comment, I was accused of being related to Darcy Regier. I think I've been his daughter, his granddaughter, and his niece. Uncle Darcy and me, we're like this. Okay, "we're like this" doesn't quite work when you can't see my fingers, but trust me, they are crossed.)
So first let me say my piece about Brooks Orpik. I will not argue that 3.75 a year seems like a perfectly fine deal considering the market. If he had signed that deal with Toronto or San Jose or Tampa, I might be a little upset. Yeah, the prices are steep these days but eventually you have to bite the bullet and spend something. But the fact that he signed that deal with the Penguins really makes me feel that it's a hometown discount. For all the talk about Orpik being a local kid, the only team he really should have any loyalty to is Pittsburgh. They drafted him, they brought him up to the NHL. He knows their management, their coaches, and their players. People can piss and moan about Darcy Regier not matching 3.75 or bumping it up to 4 but I don't think it matters. Even if Regier - or any GM not named Ray Shero - matched, Orpik doesn't take it. If he went somewhere else, it was going to be for more money. I doubt those rumors of 5 million were completely fabricated. Is this my opinion based on an assumption? Well, yeah, sure it is. Do I know at what price Regier bowed out of the Orpik sweepstakes? No. Being related to Darcy only goes so far. But the point is, neither do you. Sometimes players just don't want to go certain places. Signing a player is not as simple as handing the player the biggest offer and saying, "Training camp starts in September," and that's what I find the most annoying about all the griping about the Sabres - or any - front office. If putting together a Stanley Cup winning team was easy, everyone would be doing it.
Here's the thing. If you tell me I can have a GM who's overly deliberate and cautious OR I can have a GM who acts without thinking and makes the splashy play, well, I'm taking the cautious guy. He'll probably make mistakes too, but I think his mistakes are going to be less dramatic and more easily fixed.
I think in the past two years, the Sabres have made two large mistakes. One, they weren't able to keep Chris Drury or Daniel Briere. (Note the "or." I think keeping both of them would've meant sacrificing one of the younger kids somewhere along the way.) Two, they didn't replace Jay McKee's more physical presence in the defensive corp. But you know what? Even with those two mistakes - again, pretty big ones - the Sabres are a pretty good team. They finished the season with 90 points. They only missed the playoffs by 4 points. They missed the fourth seed by 8 points. And that was with inconsistent play from the goaltender (who was bad even before the end of the season when he was gassed) and the top defensive pairing. Better play from the three of them alone probably means a spot in the playoffs. The Sabres are young - younger than the much regaled Blackhawks and Caps - and a very large portion of their offensive output came from players under 25, most of whom are either locked up or are being talked with this off-season so that should hold for the next few years. Despite three big losses and a slowness to fix those losses, the Sabres are still a team that just needs some tweaking. In my opinion.
I'll take that over the Rangers just as an example. After free-spending last off-season, they now have $33 million wrapped up in five players (one very good goalie, two good but not great offensive defensemen, and two second line centers neither of whom make a habit of scoring a lot of goals) for four years. Outside of Henrik Lundqvist I wouldn't say that's necessarily a great group to be building around and it doesn't leave a lot of flexibility for other moves particularly in mid-season. I don't know. We'll see but I like what we have better.
And we could always be the Maple Leafs who have blown so much money and handed out so many no-trade clauses that they're buying out people left and right and begging players to agree to be traded. Not only are they re-building from the ground up, they're still looking for a plot of land to build on.
And hey, the season? It doesn't start tomorrow. There's still plenty of time to swing a trade and do some tinkering with the line-up.
But what do I know? I'm just a lazy, easy to please fan who enjoys mediocrity, is related to the GM, and probably works in the Sabres PR department.
So first let me say my piece about Brooks Orpik. I will not argue that 3.75 a year seems like a perfectly fine deal considering the market. If he had signed that deal with Toronto or San Jose or Tampa, I might be a little upset. Yeah, the prices are steep these days but eventually you have to bite the bullet and spend something. But the fact that he signed that deal with the Penguins really makes me feel that it's a hometown discount. For all the talk about Orpik being a local kid, the only team he really should have any loyalty to is Pittsburgh. They drafted him, they brought him up to the NHL. He knows their management, their coaches, and their players. People can piss and moan about Darcy Regier not matching 3.75 or bumping it up to 4 but I don't think it matters. Even if Regier - or any GM not named Ray Shero - matched, Orpik doesn't take it. If he went somewhere else, it was going to be for more money. I doubt those rumors of 5 million were completely fabricated. Is this my opinion based on an assumption? Well, yeah, sure it is. Do I know at what price Regier bowed out of the Orpik sweepstakes? No. Being related to Darcy only goes so far. But the point is, neither do you. Sometimes players just don't want to go certain places. Signing a player is not as simple as handing the player the biggest offer and saying, "Training camp starts in September," and that's what I find the most annoying about all the griping about the Sabres - or any - front office. If putting together a Stanley Cup winning team was easy, everyone would be doing it.
Here's the thing. If you tell me I can have a GM who's overly deliberate and cautious OR I can have a GM who acts without thinking and makes the splashy play, well, I'm taking the cautious guy. He'll probably make mistakes too, but I think his mistakes are going to be less dramatic and more easily fixed.
I think in the past two years, the Sabres have made two large mistakes. One, they weren't able to keep Chris Drury or Daniel Briere. (Note the "or." I think keeping both of them would've meant sacrificing one of the younger kids somewhere along the way.) Two, they didn't replace Jay McKee's more physical presence in the defensive corp. But you know what? Even with those two mistakes - again, pretty big ones - the Sabres are a pretty good team. They finished the season with 90 points. They only missed the playoffs by 4 points. They missed the fourth seed by 8 points. And that was with inconsistent play from the goaltender (who was bad even before the end of the season when he was gassed) and the top defensive pairing. Better play from the three of them alone probably means a spot in the playoffs. The Sabres are young - younger than the much regaled Blackhawks and Caps - and a very large portion of their offensive output came from players under 25, most of whom are either locked up or are being talked with this off-season so that should hold for the next few years. Despite three big losses and a slowness to fix those losses, the Sabres are still a team that just needs some tweaking. In my opinion.
I'll take that over the Rangers just as an example. After free-spending last off-season, they now have $33 million wrapped up in five players (one very good goalie, two good but not great offensive defensemen, and two second line centers neither of whom make a habit of scoring a lot of goals) for four years. Outside of Henrik Lundqvist I wouldn't say that's necessarily a great group to be building around and it doesn't leave a lot of flexibility for other moves particularly in mid-season. I don't know. We'll see but I like what we have better.
And we could always be the Maple Leafs who have blown so much money and handed out so many no-trade clauses that they're buying out people left and right and begging players to agree to be traded. Not only are they re-building from the ground up, they're still looking for a plot of land to build on.
And hey, the season? It doesn't start tomorrow. There's still plenty of time to swing a trade and do some tinkering with the line-up.
But what do I know? I'm just a lazy, easy to please fan who enjoys mediocrity, is related to the GM, and probably works in the Sabres PR department.
Tuesday, July 1, 2008
I Like Darcy Regier (But No, I Am Not Related To Him)
Buffalo, I love you but you're crazy. You know that, right? Darcy Regier all but told you that most of what the Sabres did this year would probably be done via trade, he told you that they had a certain number of dollars they were willing to spend and they wouldn't go over it, he told you he thought it was a fairly weak UFA market this season, and he told you they had two very specific needs to fill. And even after all that - and even after they filled one of those needs - you still freaked out when the Sabres hadn't signed a big name by the end of the night.
Listen, I get it. Every hockey fan wants to wake up on UFA day and unwrap the shiny new toy. You know, that really cool toy that has the bright, running lights and the realistic sound effects, the one that everyone is grabbing for and only one or two lucky people get. But we all know what happens. You play with the toy for a few months and then the batteries start to run down. A speaker busts and the sound gets really tinny. The lights still run but only every other one blinks because the bulbs, on closer inspection, are really cheap. One of the plastic arms breaks off, making the toy kind of useless and ugly and you suddenly realize, "Wait a second! This toy doesn't play enough defense or kill enough penalties for the price I paid for it!" And then you're stuck. You can't sell the thing on eBay because no one wants it and you can't talk one of your buddies into making a trade, not even for the cheap action figure that doesn't bend at the knees and elbows. You have to either buy some other toys to pile around it and hope they hide it - although good luck because unfortunately you spent a huge chunk of your toy budget on that P.O.S. - or you just have to toss the friggin' thing in the garbage. And really, who wants that?
Here's what some other teams did today.
Toronto gave their fans the Finger (sorry, sorry) and signed a 28-year-old who's played in 94 NHL games to 3.5 million for 4 years.
The Rangers paid 6.5 million for a defenseman who didn't do well under pressure and was such a disappointment in the last two seasons that his team was desperate to get rid of him.
Tampa Bay signed, by my unofficial count, 18 forwards. They also signed Olaf Kolzig, which would be fine if they weren't already talking about shopping Mike Smith, their other (younger, potentially very good) goaltender. They've evidently decided their defense is in fine shape which is... not what my assessment would be.
The Capitals went from Cristobal Huet to Jose Theodore in net which seems like a serious downgrade to me especially for the money involved. Oh, sure Theodore has played well for at least one stretch in the past few years. Not sure that's really what a young, up-and-coming team needs.
The Chicago Blackhawks decided Brian Campbell should be paid almost as much as Nicklas Lidstrom. Granted, I think he actually will fit in with the players they have pretty well - okay, that's what I hear, I haven't watched Chicago recently and wouldn't know anyone who plays defense for them if Brent Seabrook hadn't been on my fantasy team last year - and I can see him being one of those rare guys who plays better once his contract is settled than while he's trying to earn said contract but seven million dollars? For EIGHT YEARS? Brian Campbell's not a baby anymore. He'll be 37 when that contract is done. The Blackhawks also have major cap issues though they do admittedly have some time to address those.
My point? Most of this is crazy. And this isn't even including the alleged 10 million per offer made to Mats Sundin, the alleged 9 million per offer made to Marion Hossa, and whatever ridiculous contract The Shift is going to earn Brooks Orpik. Seriously, what was the last huge UFA signing that really made a difference the following year? This is madness.
For all the crap, Darcy Regier takes from Buffalo, I like him and would take him over most of the yahoo GMs out there.
I like that he's too smart to get into bidding wars with other GMs or smart enough to bow out of them at the right time.
I like that he's put some thought into what he wants to spend where and then sticks to it.
I like that he's more likely to go out and find someone like Toni Lydman or Teppo Numminen or Nolan Pratt who isn't a huge, flashy name but who fills a need and does it for a much more reasonable price.
I like that he's not afraid to ignore the UFA market and focus on trades. You do remember how Chris Drury and Danny Briere got to Buffalo, right?
I like that when it comes to big money and years, he seems to be focusing more on players who are already in Buffalo and already an important part of the team. (Yeah, yeah, Drury and Briere. Moving on!)
I like that while everyone is freaking out about UFAs, he's slowly pulling together a good core of players. Right now we have Thomas Vanek, Derek Roy, Jochen Hecht, and Paul Gaustad for four years or more with Ryan Miller and Jason Pominville hopefully soon to follow. Maybe it's just me but that doesn't seem like too bad a group.
I like that he seems to realize that signing a load of expensive UFAs isn't the only way - or even a good way - to build a winning team. I like that he realizes the problems that do exist don't have to all be fixed TODAY RIGHT THIS VERY SECOND OH MY GOD PLEASE HURRY UP!
I like that when we're all watching paint dry in three years because there's another lockout, my GM won't have had anything to do with it.
Buffalo, take a chill pill, okay? Believe it or not, you're in pretty good hands.
And I like his kickin' mustache.
Listen, I get it. Every hockey fan wants to wake up on UFA day and unwrap the shiny new toy. You know, that really cool toy that has the bright, running lights and the realistic sound effects, the one that everyone is grabbing for and only one or two lucky people get. But we all know what happens. You play with the toy for a few months and then the batteries start to run down. A speaker busts and the sound gets really tinny. The lights still run but only every other one blinks because the bulbs, on closer inspection, are really cheap. One of the plastic arms breaks off, making the toy kind of useless and ugly and you suddenly realize, "Wait a second! This toy doesn't play enough defense or kill enough penalties for the price I paid for it!" And then you're stuck. You can't sell the thing on eBay because no one wants it and you can't talk one of your buddies into making a trade, not even for the cheap action figure that doesn't bend at the knees and elbows. You have to either buy some other toys to pile around it and hope they hide it - although good luck because unfortunately you spent a huge chunk of your toy budget on that P.O.S. - or you just have to toss the friggin' thing in the garbage. And really, who wants that?
Here's what some other teams did today.
Toronto gave their fans the Finger (sorry, sorry) and signed a 28-year-old who's played in 94 NHL games to 3.5 million for 4 years.
The Rangers paid 6.5 million for a defenseman who didn't do well under pressure and was such a disappointment in the last two seasons that his team was desperate to get rid of him.
Tampa Bay signed, by my unofficial count, 18 forwards. They also signed Olaf Kolzig, which would be fine if they weren't already talking about shopping Mike Smith, their other (younger, potentially very good) goaltender. They've evidently decided their defense is in fine shape which is... not what my assessment would be.
The Capitals went from Cristobal Huet to Jose Theodore in net which seems like a serious downgrade to me especially for the money involved. Oh, sure Theodore has played well for at least one stretch in the past few years. Not sure that's really what a young, up-and-coming team needs.
The Chicago Blackhawks decided Brian Campbell should be paid almost as much as Nicklas Lidstrom. Granted, I think he actually will fit in with the players they have pretty well - okay, that's what I hear, I haven't watched Chicago recently and wouldn't know anyone who plays defense for them if Brent Seabrook hadn't been on my fantasy team last year - and I can see him being one of those rare guys who plays better once his contract is settled than while he's trying to earn said contract but seven million dollars? For EIGHT YEARS? Brian Campbell's not a baby anymore. He'll be 37 when that contract is done. The Blackhawks also have major cap issues though they do admittedly have some time to address those.
My point? Most of this is crazy. And this isn't even including the alleged 10 million per offer made to Mats Sundin, the alleged 9 million per offer made to Marion Hossa, and whatever ridiculous contract The Shift is going to earn Brooks Orpik. Seriously, what was the last huge UFA signing that really made a difference the following year? This is madness.
For all the crap, Darcy Regier takes from Buffalo, I like him and would take him over most of the yahoo GMs out there.
I like that he's too smart to get into bidding wars with other GMs or smart enough to bow out of them at the right time.
I like that he's put some thought into what he wants to spend where and then sticks to it.
I like that he's more likely to go out and find someone like Toni Lydman or Teppo Numminen or Nolan Pratt who isn't a huge, flashy name but who fills a need and does it for a much more reasonable price.
I like that he's not afraid to ignore the UFA market and focus on trades. You do remember how Chris Drury and Danny Briere got to Buffalo, right?
I like that when it comes to big money and years, he seems to be focusing more on players who are already in Buffalo and already an important part of the team. (Yeah, yeah, Drury and Briere. Moving on!)
I like that while everyone is freaking out about UFAs, he's slowly pulling together a good core of players. Right now we have Thomas Vanek, Derek Roy, Jochen Hecht, and Paul Gaustad for four years or more with Ryan Miller and Jason Pominville hopefully soon to follow. Maybe it's just me but that doesn't seem like too bad a group.
I like that he seems to realize that signing a load of expensive UFAs isn't the only way - or even a good way - to build a winning team. I like that he realizes the problems that do exist don't have to all be fixed TODAY RIGHT THIS VERY SECOND OH MY GOD PLEASE HURRY UP!
I like that when we're all watching paint dry in three years because there's another lockout, my GM won't have had anything to do with it.
Buffalo, take a chill pill, okay? Believe it or not, you're in pretty good hands.
And I like his kickin' mustache. Tuesday, May 13, 2008
The Conference Finals Stink
If there's one thing I've learned about blogging in the last year it's that you just never know. Sometimes I put a lot of thought and time into a post that I think is going to get a response and it doesn't get much reaction at all. And then sometimes I throw something up that I think is kind of goofy and sure to be ignored and people end up really liking it. The previous Henrik Tallinder post got more page views than anything I've written here (I'm sure partly because of the links on Mirtle and Deadspin) and that really surprised me because it was such a silly post with no real point. I think maybe loving a particular player is just something that every hockey fan can understand and relate to. Or you all enjoyed pointing and laughing at me. One of those. Whatever your motivations, thanks for all the great responses.
- Can we move on with this whole hockey thing? Now that all the teams I didn't want to win are either out (Rangers, Sharks) or just about out (Flyers) I can't work up any passion or interest in the playoffs. I think the Red Wings are going to beat the Pens pretty easily so let's pass out that big shiny trophy and call it a season. I'm sure I'll regret saying this in seven or eight weeks but I'm ready for free agency. I need something Sabres related to blog about stat even if it is chaos. (Again, I'll regret even thinking this before too long.)
- CBC was really banging the "Philly has lost TWO defensemen!" drum hard tonight. Wah wah wah! Injuries are never an excuse, everyone has to deal with them, that's hockey etc. That's what people told me when I complained back in 2006 atleast. Two more d-men to go before I feel the slightest bit of sympathy, Philly.
- Beautiful diving defensive play by Sergei Gonchar on Mike Richards in tonight's game. I know some fans would prefer to see a goal scorer like Richards score there but I'll take the sparkling defensive play every day of the week. Love it, love it, love it.
- I also love that Evgeni Malkin sucks on his necklace during the anthems and some stoppages in play. I don't wear a ton of jewelry but when I do wear a chain of some kind, I do the same thing. I also chew on the inside seam of the collars of my t-shirts. I'm doing it right now actually. Geno and I are kindred spirits.
- There's been some discussion around the Buffalo blogosphere about the goal that went in the side of the net against Philly back in 2000. I was still in Birmingham at the time (though planning the move) so I missed it completely. I've seen the goal but what I really want to see is the video of Darcy Regier flipping out in the replay booth because I can't even imagine that scene. He's always such an even keeled fella in public as far as I've seen.
- Quick poll. You can email or comment if you like. I'm just wondering how many of you are seeing the background photos overlap the text. And is it all of them or just the bottom two?
- Blogger has decided that Top Shelf is a spam blog. This means that before I do anything - post, comment, change the layout, edit something - I have to prove I'm a real person by filling in one of those little word verification boxes. I remember now why I turned that feature off for commenters. I hate those stupid little boxes. I never ever ever get one right on the first try and sometimes have to do them three times or four. Is there a reason that they can't be actual words instead of gibberish? Do they really need to be all smushed together and swoopy? Must each letter be various sizes and thicknesses? Am I the only one who has problems with these? Hopefully Blogger clears me soon because it's really annoying.
(I've already failed once and the one I'm looking at right now is completely unreadable. I'm not even trying it.)
- Seriously, is the season over yet?
ETA: Mark mentioned that he saw Darcy's flip out in a You Tube video a couple of weeks ago and lo and behold, here it is. You can watch the whole clip - Mike Robitaille absolutely marvels over how smart the lady callers are - but if you just want to see Darcy it's at the 5:47 mark. Dude, he's UP ON A CHAIR and POINTING. It's pretty awesome.
- Can we move on with this whole hockey thing? Now that all the teams I didn't want to win are either out (Rangers, Sharks) or just about out (Flyers) I can't work up any passion or interest in the playoffs. I think the Red Wings are going to beat the Pens pretty easily so let's pass out that big shiny trophy and call it a season. I'm sure I'll regret saying this in seven or eight weeks but I'm ready for free agency. I need something Sabres related to blog about stat even if it is chaos. (Again, I'll regret even thinking this before too long.)
- CBC was really banging the "Philly has lost TWO defensemen!" drum hard tonight. Wah wah wah! Injuries are never an excuse, everyone has to deal with them, that's hockey etc. That's what people told me when I complained back in 2006 atleast. Two more d-men to go before I feel the slightest bit of sympathy, Philly.
- Beautiful diving defensive play by Sergei Gonchar on Mike Richards in tonight's game. I know some fans would prefer to see a goal scorer like Richards score there but I'll take the sparkling defensive play every day of the week. Love it, love it, love it.
- I also love that Evgeni Malkin sucks on his necklace during the anthems and some stoppages in play. I don't wear a ton of jewelry but when I do wear a chain of some kind, I do the same thing. I also chew on the inside seam of the collars of my t-shirts. I'm doing it right now actually. Geno and I are kindred spirits.
- There's been some discussion around the Buffalo blogosphere about the goal that went in the side of the net against Philly back in 2000. I was still in Birmingham at the time (though planning the move) so I missed it completely. I've seen the goal but what I really want to see is the video of Darcy Regier flipping out in the replay booth because I can't even imagine that scene. He's always such an even keeled fella in public as far as I've seen.
- Quick poll. You can email or comment if you like. I'm just wondering how many of you are seeing the background photos overlap the text. And is it all of them or just the bottom two?
- Blogger has decided that Top Shelf is a spam blog. This means that before I do anything - post, comment, change the layout, edit something - I have to prove I'm a real person by filling in one of those little word verification boxes. I remember now why I turned that feature off for commenters. I hate those stupid little boxes. I never ever ever get one right on the first try and sometimes have to do them three times or four. Is there a reason that they can't be actual words instead of gibberish? Do they really need to be all smushed together and swoopy? Must each letter be various sizes and thicknesses? Am I the only one who has problems with these? Hopefully Blogger clears me soon because it's really annoying.
(I've already failed once and the one I'm looking at right now is completely unreadable. I'm not even trying it.)
- Seriously, is the season over yet?
ETA: Mark mentioned that he saw Darcy's flip out in a You Tube video a couple of weeks ago and lo and behold, here it is. You can watch the whole clip - Mike Robitaille absolutely marvels over how smart the lady callers are - but if you just want to see Darcy it's at the 5:47 mark. Dude, he's UP ON A CHAIR and POINTING. It's pretty awesome.
Thursday, April 10, 2008
Let's Have a Presser!
Thoughts on the press conference and interview Larry Quinn, Darcy Regier, and Lindy Ruff did today:
- I do appreciate management admitting they made some mistakes and mishandled some situations. Now can we move on and give them a chance to act differently in the future? Mistakes were made, mistakes were admitted, no amount of complaining is going to change the things that already happened. Moving along, moving along.
- I liked Darcy Regier's comments that teams have to be careful with long-term contracts. He's absolutely right that you can't give everyone six and seven years especially when you're handing them out when players are so young. I think Thomas Vanek has been consistent enough that he'll probably be a valuable player for six more years but if he doesn't pan out he wouldn't be the first player to get off to a promising start and then peter out. When you've got a bunch of guys tied up for years and some of them don't work out the way you were hoping, you're stuck. Long-term contracts should be saved for special players. I think there will probably always be disagreements about who those guys are - I'm glad they traded Brian Campbell instead of giving him one of those deals, others are insistent that he should have been earmarked for one - but I really don't see how you can disagree with a more cautious approach at least on this issue. I may be in the minority but I'd rather have a GM who occasionally lets the wrong guy go but leaves some flexibility to recover from the mistake than a GM who throws huge money and terms at everyone and ties the organization up for years because those guys were busts and can't be moved.
- Larry Quinn went a little hard on the reminders that Tom Golisano saved the Sabres. Yes, he bought the team when it was close to ending up elsewhere. Yes, he spent a lot of money on losing seasons before the lockout. We get it. Overall though I do think Quinn was a touch less assy than he usually is.
- I do think management was pretty agreeable to some of the criticisms of the current team especially a lack of leadership and overuse of Ryan Miller. I think those are things pretty much everyone can agree on so I was glad to hear them just admit it rather than trying to wiggle out of it or spin it.
- Lindy Ruff's criticism of Henrik Tallinder and Toni Lydman hurt my heart but he's right. They were very inconsistent this year. There were a lot of stretches where either both of them were playing poorly or one of them was playing poorly enough that it was bringing down the other. In a season where a lot of the players were looking at different roles and big changes, the Sabres really needed Tallinder and Lydman, who were in the same role as last year, to be steady especially at the beginning of the season. Instead they were as shaky as everyone else. There was a point in February where Hank was, by some standards (pretty good ones, I think), the best defensive d-man in the league. By the end of the year he'd tumbled to 20th. I don't think it's coincidence that when Tallinder and Lydman were playing their best hockey, the team was succeeding and when they were struggling, the team was losing. (I would also put Ryan Miller in with Five and Dime. He was as shaky as they were - even before the stretch run when he was obviously running on fumes - and slightly better defense or slightly better goaltending during the ten game losing streak means the Sabres are probably still playing.) (Also, I still love you, Hank. Get in terrific shape this summer, okay?)
- I don't really understand the criticism of the Sabres offering Campbell a three year deal. If they didn't want to give him a lot of money long-term but they were interested in him coming back, what does it hurt to see if he'll take more money for shorter years? What if it had come out later that Campbell would've taken a shorter contract but the Sabres didn't offer it? The front office would've been lambasted. And Darcy is right about San Jose. I was talking to a Sharks fan about that not long ago. The Sharks have not made it a habit to hand out long-term contracts even to their stars. I suppose they could start this season but it is a little much to accuse the Sabres of insulting Campbell with a three year deal for a lot of money when they're hardly the only franchise that's being careful. (Please note that I'm not saying the reporter who asked about Campbell's contract offer was implying that - although maybe he was, I don't know. That was more a response to complaints I've heard from others.)
- Maybe you could argue that the Sabres haven't done a good job of setting the market for their own players (although Derek Roy at four million a year is a good start) but how in the world can you suggest that they're partly to blame for escalating salaries across the league? Because they have one outrageous contract on the books? As long as the Sabres are under the current management and the New York Rangers, Philadelphia Flyers, and Kevin Lowe are in the league, I think that's a pretty dumb suggestion. (That had to be Bucky.)
- I can't always tell everyone's voices apart but I think I really like John Vogl at press conferences. He always asks questions I want to know the answers to but he manages to do it without sounding accusatory or biased. He's always very even-keeled. that might just be John's personality and I know sometimes reporters have to be more aggressive to get a real answer out of someone like Larry Quinn but I appreciate that his initial approach is more professional than um... other's.
- I'll accept youth as an excuse this year. The team is young, they went through a lot of change, and they had their first year of regular season struggle. Next year I don't know if I'll buy that excuse from these guys though. This was your year to be stubborn and stupid, boys. Let's fix all that next season.
- On Schopp and the Bulldog, Darcy talked some about the scouting department which I thought was pretty interesting if you didn't hear it. Since we've been given the impression that the scouting department has been reduced to a nine-year-old watching grainy black-and-white video on one of those televisions people have on the counters in their kitchens, it was nice to get more detail. I'm shocked that things might have been exaggerated a little bit.
- Also shocking? Darcy Regier evidently isn't interested in telling us what the Sabres are planning on offering Ryan Miller.
Press conference
Schopp and the Bulldog Part 1
Schopp and the Bulldog Part 2
- I do appreciate management admitting they made some mistakes and mishandled some situations. Now can we move on and give them a chance to act differently in the future? Mistakes were made, mistakes were admitted, no amount of complaining is going to change the things that already happened. Moving along, moving along.
- I liked Darcy Regier's comments that teams have to be careful with long-term contracts. He's absolutely right that you can't give everyone six and seven years especially when you're handing them out when players are so young. I think Thomas Vanek has been consistent enough that he'll probably be a valuable player for six more years but if he doesn't pan out he wouldn't be the first player to get off to a promising start and then peter out. When you've got a bunch of guys tied up for years and some of them don't work out the way you were hoping, you're stuck. Long-term contracts should be saved for special players. I think there will probably always be disagreements about who those guys are - I'm glad they traded Brian Campbell instead of giving him one of those deals, others are insistent that he should have been earmarked for one - but I really don't see how you can disagree with a more cautious approach at least on this issue. I may be in the minority but I'd rather have a GM who occasionally lets the wrong guy go but leaves some flexibility to recover from the mistake than a GM who throws huge money and terms at everyone and ties the organization up for years because those guys were busts and can't be moved.
- Larry Quinn went a little hard on the reminders that Tom Golisano saved the Sabres. Yes, he bought the team when it was close to ending up elsewhere. Yes, he spent a lot of money on losing seasons before the lockout. We get it. Overall though I do think Quinn was a touch less assy than he usually is.
- I do think management was pretty agreeable to some of the criticisms of the current team especially a lack of leadership and overuse of Ryan Miller. I think those are things pretty much everyone can agree on so I was glad to hear them just admit it rather than trying to wiggle out of it or spin it.
- Lindy Ruff's criticism of Henrik Tallinder and Toni Lydman hurt my heart but he's right. They were very inconsistent this year. There were a lot of stretches where either both of them were playing poorly or one of them was playing poorly enough that it was bringing down the other. In a season where a lot of the players were looking at different roles and big changes, the Sabres really needed Tallinder and Lydman, who were in the same role as last year, to be steady especially at the beginning of the season. Instead they were as shaky as everyone else. There was a point in February where Hank was, by some standards (pretty good ones, I think), the best defensive d-man in the league. By the end of the year he'd tumbled to 20th. I don't think it's coincidence that when Tallinder and Lydman were playing their best hockey, the team was succeeding and when they were struggling, the team was losing. (I would also put Ryan Miller in with Five and Dime. He was as shaky as they were - even before the stretch run when he was obviously running on fumes - and slightly better defense or slightly better goaltending during the ten game losing streak means the Sabres are probably still playing.) (Also, I still love you, Hank. Get in terrific shape this summer, okay?)
- I don't really understand the criticism of the Sabres offering Campbell a three year deal. If they didn't want to give him a lot of money long-term but they were interested in him coming back, what does it hurt to see if he'll take more money for shorter years? What if it had come out later that Campbell would've taken a shorter contract but the Sabres didn't offer it? The front office would've been lambasted. And Darcy is right about San Jose. I was talking to a Sharks fan about that not long ago. The Sharks have not made it a habit to hand out long-term contracts even to their stars. I suppose they could start this season but it is a little much to accuse the Sabres of insulting Campbell with a three year deal for a lot of money when they're hardly the only franchise that's being careful. (Please note that I'm not saying the reporter who asked about Campbell's contract offer was implying that - although maybe he was, I don't know. That was more a response to complaints I've heard from others.)
- Maybe you could argue that the Sabres haven't done a good job of setting the market for their own players (although Derek Roy at four million a year is a good start) but how in the world can you suggest that they're partly to blame for escalating salaries across the league? Because they have one outrageous contract on the books? As long as the Sabres are under the current management and the New York Rangers, Philadelphia Flyers, and Kevin Lowe are in the league, I think that's a pretty dumb suggestion. (That had to be Bucky.)
- I can't always tell everyone's voices apart but I think I really like John Vogl at press conferences. He always asks questions I want to know the answers to but he manages to do it without sounding accusatory or biased. He's always very even-keeled. that might just be John's personality and I know sometimes reporters have to be more aggressive to get a real answer out of someone like Larry Quinn but I appreciate that his initial approach is more professional than um... other's.
- I'll accept youth as an excuse this year. The team is young, they went through a lot of change, and they had their first year of regular season struggle. Next year I don't know if I'll buy that excuse from these guys though. This was your year to be stubborn and stupid, boys. Let's fix all that next season.
- On Schopp and the Bulldog, Darcy talked some about the scouting department which I thought was pretty interesting if you didn't hear it. Since we've been given the impression that the scouting department has been reduced to a nine-year-old watching grainy black-and-white video on one of those televisions people have on the counters in their kitchens, it was nice to get more detail. I'm shocked that things might have been exaggerated a little bit.
- Also shocking? Darcy Regier evidently isn't interested in telling us what the Sabres are planning on offering Ryan Miller.
Press conference
Schopp and the Bulldog Part 1
Schopp and the Bulldog Part 2
Tuesday, February 26, 2008
One Last Spin-O-Rama
Brian Campbell and a seventh round pick for Steve Bernier and a first round pick.
The hockey talk first: A lot of people seem to be a little disappointed but while it's not a great trade, I don't think it's a terrible one either. There are a few factors you have to keep in mind. One, I think GMs maybe finally learned a lesson after so many of last year's rentals were a bust and came into this season willing to give up less for them. (Yes, of course they learn a lesson right as it would have benefited Buffalo.) Two, a huge part of the league is still in the playoff hunt so while teams want to pick up pieces, they don't want to give up a lot of roster players for them. And three, everyone knew Buffalo needed to move Campbell or risk losing him from nothing.
Those things considered, I think we did okay. We got a kid who, while inconsistent up to this point, is definitely talented, has size, uses his size, and is still young and cheap. He has a nice accent, I love the way he pronounces "Pominville," and people call him "Big Bear." What's not to like? And while San Jose's first round pick is not likely to be high, I think the first round is supposed to be fairly deep this year (I might be making that up) and Rochester is getting fairly thin so any pick is a good pick, especially a first rounder.
Now that the madness is over - I'm ignoring all the "WAY TO GO DARCY YOU SUCK AND NO ONE SHOULD BE CHEERING FOR THIS TEAM EVER AGAIN" crazies - I find myself feeling both happy and sad. Happy because now that I know the Sabres aren't going to give Soupy a ridiculous contract I suddenly remember all the things I really liked about him. It's been a rough year for me and ol' Soup so I am glad about that. Sad because well... it's sad.
I don't think there's really a bad guy here. For me this is very much like the Jay McKee situation. There was such a large difference in money and/or terms between what the Sabres were offering and what others will offer that it's tough to blame Campbell for going. But what other teams will offer is so out-of-whack for what Campbell's really worth, that it's tough to blame the Sabres for not matching. If you put Campbell on an island all by himself I don't think he's worth that kind of money. If you look at him as part of a puzzle that involves a lot of different pieces and contracts, it's even more questionable.
But I'm sad because I think everyone on both sides was sincere. I think Soupy did love his time here and loved the fans and loves his teammates and respects Darcy and Lindy. I think Darcy (and Lindy) do like Soupy and do feel invested in his career and are proud of how much he's grown as a player since he was drafted. I think if they could've waved a magic wand and come to an agreement that made both sides happy, they would have and I think they're all genuinely sad that it doesn't work that way.
So here, in honor of Brian Campbell, is a portion of a post I wrote about him last summer (6/17/07) back when things weren't all crazy and riled up. Some of the sentiment has changed - you might want to strike that last line - but when I wrote it, I absolutely meant it. And I mean a lot of it still.
Why I Love Hockey #5 - Brian Campbell
I'll admit I was first drawn to Brian Campbell for a ridiculous reason - he's a red-head. But over the past few years I've found more defensible reasons to love Brian Campbell although most of them still don't really have much to do with hockey. Don't get me wrong - I do enjoy watching him play. He's quick and creative and there are times I actually mistake him for Maxim Afinogenov of all people before realizing what I thought was a 61 is actually a 51. It's been fun watching him really begin to put things together over the past couple of seaons, just as fans in Buffalo - and probably more than a few people within the organization - were beginning to think he was never going to stick at the NHL level.
But that's all secondary. I really just like Brian Campbell the person. In a league full of humble, down-to-earth guys, Brian still manages to stick out as particularly down-to-earth. I love watching him interviewed because he's very laid-back and really funny. And not funny in the desperate, trying-too-hard, overly prepared kind of way that many pro athletes are - just easily and naturally funny. I love watching him play because he looks like he's having so much fun. I adore Chris Drury and I hope he stays in Buffalo but he's so somber all the time. While it's a little unfair because I know that's just Drury's personality, he often looks like he's working in a coal mine instead of getting paid millions of dollars to play a game. Atleast once a game there's a shot of Brian on the ice or the bench with a huge "I can't believe I'm getting PAID for this" grin on his face. A fantasic, ear-to-ear, face splitting grin. I was thrilled when he made the All-Star game because there was no doubt in my mind that a) he really never did think that he'd be an All-Star starter unlike some guys who say that but don't mean it and b) he would have a blast. Miller, Vanek, Tallinder, and Lydman are on my "Cannot be traded because they're too important" list. Brian is on my "Cannot be traded because I'd miss him too darn much" list.
Soupy sounds his barbaric yawp.
Soupy, I'll kinda miss you, you know? Back when I was first trying to understand hockey, you were one of the things I loved most about it and for that I'll always owe you one.
The hockey talk first: A lot of people seem to be a little disappointed but while it's not a great trade, I don't think it's a terrible one either. There are a few factors you have to keep in mind. One, I think GMs maybe finally learned a lesson after so many of last year's rentals were a bust and came into this season willing to give up less for them. (Yes, of course they learn a lesson right as it would have benefited Buffalo.) Two, a huge part of the league is still in the playoff hunt so while teams want to pick up pieces, they don't want to give up a lot of roster players for them. And three, everyone knew Buffalo needed to move Campbell or risk losing him from nothing.
Those things considered, I think we did okay. We got a kid who, while inconsistent up to this point, is definitely talented, has size, uses his size, and is still young and cheap. He has a nice accent, I love the way he pronounces "Pominville," and people call him "Big Bear." What's not to like? And while San Jose's first round pick is not likely to be high, I think the first round is supposed to be fairly deep this year (I might be making that up) and Rochester is getting fairly thin so any pick is a good pick, especially a first rounder.
Now that the madness is over - I'm ignoring all the "WAY TO GO DARCY YOU SUCK AND NO ONE SHOULD BE CHEERING FOR THIS TEAM EVER AGAIN" crazies - I find myself feeling both happy and sad. Happy because now that I know the Sabres aren't going to give Soupy a ridiculous contract I suddenly remember all the things I really liked about him. It's been a rough year for me and ol' Soup so I am glad about that. Sad because well... it's sad.
I don't think there's really a bad guy here. For me this is very much like the Jay McKee situation. There was such a large difference in money and/or terms between what the Sabres were offering and what others will offer that it's tough to blame Campbell for going. But what other teams will offer is so out-of-whack for what Campbell's really worth, that it's tough to blame the Sabres for not matching. If you put Campbell on an island all by himself I don't think he's worth that kind of money. If you look at him as part of a puzzle that involves a lot of different pieces and contracts, it's even more questionable.
But I'm sad because I think everyone on both sides was sincere. I think Soupy did love his time here and loved the fans and loves his teammates and respects Darcy and Lindy. I think Darcy (and Lindy) do like Soupy and do feel invested in his career and are proud of how much he's grown as a player since he was drafted. I think if they could've waved a magic wand and come to an agreement that made both sides happy, they would have and I think they're all genuinely sad that it doesn't work that way.
So here, in honor of Brian Campbell, is a portion of a post I wrote about him last summer (6/17/07) back when things weren't all crazy and riled up. Some of the sentiment has changed - you might want to strike that last line - but when I wrote it, I absolutely meant it. And I mean a lot of it still.
Why I Love Hockey #5 - Brian Campbell
I'll admit I was first drawn to Brian Campbell for a ridiculous reason - he's a red-head. But over the past few years I've found more defensible reasons to love Brian Campbell although most of them still don't really have much to do with hockey. Don't get me wrong - I do enjoy watching him play. He's quick and creative and there are times I actually mistake him for Maxim Afinogenov of all people before realizing what I thought was a 61 is actually a 51. It's been fun watching him really begin to put things together over the past couple of seaons, just as fans in Buffalo - and probably more than a few people within the organization - were beginning to think he was never going to stick at the NHL level.
But that's all secondary. I really just like Brian Campbell the person. In a league full of humble, down-to-earth guys, Brian still manages to stick out as particularly down-to-earth. I love watching him interviewed because he's very laid-back and really funny. And not funny in the desperate, trying-too-hard, overly prepared kind of way that many pro athletes are - just easily and naturally funny. I love watching him play because he looks like he's having so much fun. I adore Chris Drury and I hope he stays in Buffalo but he's so somber all the time. While it's a little unfair because I know that's just Drury's personality, he often looks like he's working in a coal mine instead of getting paid millions of dollars to play a game. Atleast once a game there's a shot of Brian on the ice or the bench with a huge "I can't believe I'm getting PAID for this" grin on his face. A fantasic, ear-to-ear, face splitting grin. I was thrilled when he made the All-Star game because there was no doubt in my mind that a) he really never did think that he'd be an All-Star starter unlike some guys who say that but don't mean it and b) he would have a blast. Miller, Vanek, Tallinder, and Lydman are on my "Cannot be traded because they're too important" list. Brian is on my "Cannot be traded because I'd miss him too darn much" list.
Soupy, I'll kinda miss you, you know? Back when I was first trying to understand hockey, you were one of the things I loved most about it and for that I'll always owe you one.
Wednesday, February 20, 2008
I Hate Trade Deadline Day
Remember how I said yesterday that I wasn't going to talk about Brian Campbell again until after the trade deadline? Forget that ever happened, okay?
I need trade deadline day to be over and I need it to be over now. It's totally messing with my head! I first saw the Brian Campbell quote, "It’s not easy, and I can’t sit here and say I’m having fun with it. I wish it wasn’t me, to be honest with you," in the Buffalo News yesterday and I'll admit, when I read that I totally rolled my eyes and grumbled about him being a baby. Seriously, this is life as an in-demand free agent. If you don't want to be part of trade rumors, sign a contract. If you're intent on holding out for more money, then deal with it and all the ramifications like an adult.
But then I actually saw the interview on the local news and you guys... it made me so sad. It partly made me sad because to me it seems so obvious that if he's really that unhappy about the prospect of being traded or leaving Buffalo, there's a simple solution - sacrifice some of the money you want for the opportunity to stay in an organization and city that you know you love with teammates who you're already attached to. You're still going to be pretty fairly paid and you're still going to be extremely wealthy. Seriously, I do not understand why more athletes aren't more willing to do this. I can't wrap my brain around it.
But it also made me sad because I like Brian Campbell. I know I've mentioned this in passing in a couple of posts about him but I also know it was a half-hearted throwaway at best, something to temper the angry rantings about his contract demands. But watching him, lip all trembly, looking down at the ground, I remembered that yes, I really, really do like him. I don't like everything about how he's handled this season but when I first started watching hockey, he was one of the guys I attached to the quickest and it was because he was totally a heart-on-his-sleeve kind of guy. I loved that you could tell exactly how he was feeling - happy, excited, bummed, frustrated. As recently as the beginning of this season I listed him as my third favorite Sabre. Third! This year I was annoyed when he made the All-Star team because I knew certain people were never going to quit crowing about how that made him the awesomemest but last year? I was freaking thrilled for him. I sat at my computer and voted for him over and over and over during entire movies or TV shows. I loved how openly tickled he was to be there and how genuinely humbled he seemed that fans (and his mom) had voted him in.
Listen, I still don't think he's worth a penny over 5.5 million a year - and honestly I think that's a bit of an overpayment - and I have no desire to see the Sabres sink that kind of money into him long-term. I don't like a lot of things about how he's handled this season and I think he's lost some of his fun, happy shininess, but I did realize that if and when Brian Campbell leaves Buffalo... I'll be sad. He's been a Sabre as long as I've been a Sabres fan and I'll be really sad to see him in another jersey.
So I was already dealing with that this morning when Mark emailed me a rumor he'd read about the Sabres wanting to shake up the defense by trading Campbell, Dmitri Kalinin, and Henrik Tallinder. I made a list of all the reasons this rumor is ridiculous:
1. It was posted on a message board by a guy who claims to have sources in Tampa. Could he be for real? Sure. Could he be full of it? Absolutely.
2. Henrik Tallinder is currently the best defensive d-man on the team and one of the best bargains. He has an extremely reasonable contract with two years left on it. For an organization that is often caught up in the financial aspect of things, his contract is a gem.
3. Hank, Tri, and Soupy are all former Sabres draft picks and Darcy has often shown some attachment to players he drafted and raised. Is he really going to trade all the homegrown talent and keep all the guys who came in from somewhere else?
4. Rarely have I heard rumors about a Sabres trade that then actually takes place. Darcy Regier holds his cards close to his chest. Paul Hamilton was saying this on WGR yesterday and even went as far as to say that if a deal gets out, Darcy will pull back on it because he doesn't want any rumors out about it.
So as you can see, there are many, many reasons to completely ignore this rumor. I mean, it's totally ridiculous, right? Right? It is, right?
Geez, being a fan is so hard sometimes.
I need trade deadline day to be over and I need it to be over now. It's totally messing with my head! I first saw the Brian Campbell quote, "It’s not easy, and I can’t sit here and say I’m having fun with it. I wish it wasn’t me, to be honest with you," in the Buffalo News yesterday and I'll admit, when I read that I totally rolled my eyes and grumbled about him being a baby. Seriously, this is life as an in-demand free agent. If you don't want to be part of trade rumors, sign a contract. If you're intent on holding out for more money, then deal with it and all the ramifications like an adult.
But then I actually saw the interview on the local news and you guys... it made me so sad. It partly made me sad because to me it seems so obvious that if he's really that unhappy about the prospect of being traded or leaving Buffalo, there's a simple solution - sacrifice some of the money you want for the opportunity to stay in an organization and city that you know you love with teammates who you're already attached to. You're still going to be pretty fairly paid and you're still going to be extremely wealthy. Seriously, I do not understand why more athletes aren't more willing to do this. I can't wrap my brain around it.
But it also made me sad because I like Brian Campbell. I know I've mentioned this in passing in a couple of posts about him but I also know it was a half-hearted throwaway at best, something to temper the angry rantings about his contract demands. But watching him, lip all trembly, looking down at the ground, I remembered that yes, I really, really do like him. I don't like everything about how he's handled this season but when I first started watching hockey, he was one of the guys I attached to the quickest and it was because he was totally a heart-on-his-sleeve kind of guy. I loved that you could tell exactly how he was feeling - happy, excited, bummed, frustrated. As recently as the beginning of this season I listed him as my third favorite Sabre. Third! This year I was annoyed when he made the All-Star team because I knew certain people were never going to quit crowing about how that made him the awesomemest but last year? I was freaking thrilled for him. I sat at my computer and voted for him over and over and over during entire movies or TV shows. I loved how openly tickled he was to be there and how genuinely humbled he seemed that fans (and his mom) had voted him in.
Listen, I still don't think he's worth a penny over 5.5 million a year - and honestly I think that's a bit of an overpayment - and I have no desire to see the Sabres sink that kind of money into him long-term. I don't like a lot of things about how he's handled this season and I think he's lost some of his fun, happy shininess, but I did realize that if and when Brian Campbell leaves Buffalo... I'll be sad. He's been a Sabre as long as I've been a Sabres fan and I'll be really sad to see him in another jersey.
So I was already dealing with that this morning when Mark emailed me a rumor he'd read about the Sabres wanting to shake up the defense by trading Campbell, Dmitri Kalinin, and Henrik Tallinder. I made a list of all the reasons this rumor is ridiculous:
1. It was posted on a message board by a guy who claims to have sources in Tampa. Could he be for real? Sure. Could he be full of it? Absolutely.
2. Henrik Tallinder is currently the best defensive d-man on the team and one of the best bargains. He has an extremely reasonable contract with two years left on it. For an organization that is often caught up in the financial aspect of things, his contract is a gem.
3. Hank, Tri, and Soupy are all former Sabres draft picks and Darcy has often shown some attachment to players he drafted and raised. Is he really going to trade all the homegrown talent and keep all the guys who came in from somewhere else?
4. Rarely have I heard rumors about a Sabres trade that then actually takes place. Darcy Regier holds his cards close to his chest. Paul Hamilton was saying this on WGR yesterday and even went as far as to say that if a deal gets out, Darcy will pull back on it because he doesn't want any rumors out about it.
So as you can see, there are many, many reasons to completely ignore this rumor. I mean, it's totally ridiculous, right? Right? It is, right?
Geez, being a fan is so hard sometimes.
Tuesday, January 15, 2008
Odds and Ends
Odds and ends ahoy!
As much as I love Darcy Regier, I really hate his tendency to respond to building hysteria by calling press gatherings where he gives some variance on "EVERYTHING IS UNDER CONTROL! PLEASE REMAIN CALM!" They don't work. It just feeds into the panic. It's like poking a sleepy but awakening bear with a really pointy stick. I suppose I can understand responding to the masses, but I don't know, I think he'd be better off just leaving it alone. Pick up the phone when the newspaper calls and leave it at that especially since, last I saw, Brian Campbell is still here. I understand fans getting nervous, but geez, nothing has even happened yet. (Note: I actually do NOT understand getting nervous because Brian Campbell is not Chris Drury or Daniel Briere.)
More than a few people have pointed out to me that, regardless of how I feel about Brian Campbell, the market is the market and the Sabres can't expect to pay an offensive defensman less than everyone else is. To them I say... you're right! Ha! Wasn't expecting that, were you? I'll admit that part of my problem on this issue is an overall frustration with how quickly the GM's and owners have let the market spiral out of control post-lockout. Brian Campbell shouldn't be within spitting distance of making what Nicklas Lidstrom makes and he might be when all is said and done. I'm amazed that a group of people with so much knowledge can - time after time - shoot themselves in the collective foot. I give Darcy a lot of credit in this area. He may be cautious, sometimes overly so, but atleast he's attempting to use his brain. Too often I think that puts him in the minority.
For the record, however, I'm not changing my tune on Soupy. Six million plus is too much of the team's cap to sink into a player like him. So there! I am not, however, looking forward to the sure-to-come city-wide freak-out if Soupy moves on.
Quick injury update. I had my first post-op appointment a week or so ago. The doctor said everything looks okay - which was mildly amusing because my foot looked pretty disgusting - but I still can't put any weight on it until the next appointment which is at the beginning of February and that's only if everything still looks good. The staples were taken out and I got a shiny new plaster cast (white - I was so disappointed that I didn't get to choose a color) and I'm getting a little better on the crutches but it's still pretty darn boring sitting around all day which is why I've posted something almost every single day. Apologies in advance if you get tired of me. This isn't my personal x-ray but this is the surgery I had done and pretty much what mine looks like:
Pretty snazzy, eh?
And finally, a few days ago I wondered about Paul Hamilton generally being the only person who speaks in the media scrums after Sabres games. Mike Harrington of the Buffalo News happened to see that and he emailed and elaborated on it a little more. A few of you commented when I mentioned it so I thought you might like to read what Mike had to say because it's pretty interesting. (This is fully with Mike's permission, just in case you're wondering.) I cut out a few sections just so it wasn't quite as long so if it seems to flows funny, that's all on me.
He is very knowledgeable (played in college at Iowa State FYI) and well-respected in the media. When you see a gaggle of microphones around a guy after the game, Paul is usually the only REPORTER there. The local TVs, in what I think is just a ridiculous decision, often do NOT send a reporter into the locker room after a game and just have a cameraman so that guy isn't a journalist and for the most part couldn't ask a question if his life depended on it.
Furthermore, the print guys very rarely go to the same guy Hamilton and the cameras go to. I don't mind Paul using one of my questions but when a station just sends a camera, they're sponging off me and I don't like that. So if Paul goes to say Pommer, the cameras tend to follow and I'll go to maybe Kotalik. Then switch off, etc. So you'll almost NEVER see or hear us on those interviews.
On the road, it might be a little different cuz there's usually no one in the locker room except Paul, me or John Vogl and maybe a local AP guy. You might hear us once in a while there.
At the end of an interview, you'll hear Paul say, "That's Jason Pominville on the postgame show, back up to you." But that's not the end of the interview. Paul is off to the next guy but after that, the player usually talks for another few minutes to us ink-stained print wretches.
Something else to consider: Paul is a rights-holder collecting comments for a live postgame show on the station that broadcasts the game. Professional courtesy dictates you try not to step over his questions too much, especially since his stuff has to get to air within 10 minutes or so. You let him get the first 2-3 questions before you jump in if you're with the same player.
And on the road, Paul is in a major time jam. He flies home on the team charter (because he's on the flagship station). We do not. He has to be on the plane within an hour after the final horn so he has to email his MP3s to the station for air. You gotta let him get done and go.
So as you can see, there are a lot more dynamics to the situation than just people letting Paul ask all the questions.
I had no idea Paul Hamilton played in college. That's totally awesome. Also, I'm really surprised that the TV stations don't send reporters into the dressing room if for no other reason than to build some kind of relationship with the players. Crazy.
(Thanks, Mike! Tell Bucky I said hi!)
As much as I love Darcy Regier, I really hate his tendency to respond to building hysteria by calling press gatherings where he gives some variance on "EVERYTHING IS UNDER CONTROL! PLEASE REMAIN CALM!" They don't work. It just feeds into the panic. It's like poking a sleepy but awakening bear with a really pointy stick. I suppose I can understand responding to the masses, but I don't know, I think he'd be better off just leaving it alone. Pick up the phone when the newspaper calls and leave it at that especially since, last I saw, Brian Campbell is still here. I understand fans getting nervous, but geez, nothing has even happened yet. (Note: I actually do NOT understand getting nervous because Brian Campbell is not Chris Drury or Daniel Briere.)
More than a few people have pointed out to me that, regardless of how I feel about Brian Campbell, the market is the market and the Sabres can't expect to pay an offensive defensman less than everyone else is. To them I say... you're right! Ha! Wasn't expecting that, were you? I'll admit that part of my problem on this issue is an overall frustration with how quickly the GM's and owners have let the market spiral out of control post-lockout. Brian Campbell shouldn't be within spitting distance of making what Nicklas Lidstrom makes and he might be when all is said and done. I'm amazed that a group of people with so much knowledge can - time after time - shoot themselves in the collective foot. I give Darcy a lot of credit in this area. He may be cautious, sometimes overly so, but atleast he's attempting to use his brain. Too often I think that puts him in the minority.
For the record, however, I'm not changing my tune on Soupy. Six million plus is too much of the team's cap to sink into a player like him. So there! I am not, however, looking forward to the sure-to-come city-wide freak-out if Soupy moves on.
Quick injury update. I had my first post-op appointment a week or so ago. The doctor said everything looks okay - which was mildly amusing because my foot looked pretty disgusting - but I still can't put any weight on it until the next appointment which is at the beginning of February and that's only if everything still looks good. The staples were taken out and I got a shiny new plaster cast (white - I was so disappointed that I didn't get to choose a color) and I'm getting a little better on the crutches but it's still pretty darn boring sitting around all day which is why I've posted something almost every single day. Apologies in advance if you get tired of me. This isn't my personal x-ray but this is the surgery I had done and pretty much what mine looks like:
Pretty snazzy, eh?
And finally, a few days ago I wondered about Paul Hamilton generally being the only person who speaks in the media scrums after Sabres games. Mike Harrington of the Buffalo News happened to see that and he emailed and elaborated on it a little more. A few of you commented when I mentioned it so I thought you might like to read what Mike had to say because it's pretty interesting. (This is fully with Mike's permission, just in case you're wondering.) I cut out a few sections just so it wasn't quite as long so if it seems to flows funny, that's all on me.
He is very knowledgeable (played in college at Iowa State FYI) and well-respected in the media. When you see a gaggle of microphones around a guy after the game, Paul is usually the only REPORTER there. The local TVs, in what I think is just a ridiculous decision, often do NOT send a reporter into the locker room after a game and just have a cameraman so that guy isn't a journalist and for the most part couldn't ask a question if his life depended on it.
Furthermore, the print guys very rarely go to the same guy Hamilton and the cameras go to. I don't mind Paul using one of my questions but when a station just sends a camera, they're sponging off me and I don't like that. So if Paul goes to say Pommer, the cameras tend to follow and I'll go to maybe Kotalik. Then switch off, etc. So you'll almost NEVER see or hear us on those interviews.
On the road, it might be a little different cuz there's usually no one in the locker room except Paul, me or John Vogl and maybe a local AP guy. You might hear us once in a while there.
At the end of an interview, you'll hear Paul say, "That's Jason Pominville on the postgame show, back up to you." But that's not the end of the interview. Paul is off to the next guy but after that, the player usually talks for another few minutes to us ink-stained print wretches.
Something else to consider: Paul is a rights-holder collecting comments for a live postgame show on the station that broadcasts the game. Professional courtesy dictates you try not to step over his questions too much, especially since his stuff has to get to air within 10 minutes or so. You let him get the first 2-3 questions before you jump in if you're with the same player.
And on the road, Paul is in a major time jam. He flies home on the team charter (because he's on the flagship station). We do not. He has to be on the plane within an hour after the final horn so he has to email his MP3s to the station for air. You gotta let him get done and go.
So as you can see, there are a lot more dynamics to the situation than just people letting Paul ask all the questions.
I had no idea Paul Hamilton played in college. That's totally awesome. Also, I'm really surprised that the TV stations don't send reporters into the dressing room if for no other reason than to build some kind of relationship with the players. Crazy.
(Thanks, Mike! Tell Bucky I said hi!)
Sunday, January 6, 2008
They're Eating Ice-Cream in Hell Today
I was slowly awaking late this morning - okay, it might have been after noon - when Mark sat down on the end of the bed. "Psssst," he said, "You awake?" I thought I was until I heard what he said next. "You should read Bucky Gleason today. He said nice things about Darcy Regier." Surely I was still dreaming! My brain couldn't compute this! Had hell frozen over? Were pigs flying outside my bedroom window? How to explain his miraculous turn of events? Mark hasn't made a habit of lying to me but surely he was yanking my chain!
But no, he was was right. Bucky Gleason said nice things about Darcy Regier. Don't get me wrong, Bucky does manage to pass the blame along to someone else (Tom Golisano), but in the process he says Darcy is intelligent, professional, liked and respected around the league, and a good guy who more often than not, makes the right call when it comes to players. Well-done, Bucky. I'm proud of you!
One smallish criticism:
Bucky does, once again, harp on the Brian Campbell situation. He says that Campbell's agent made a pitch for 5 million for 5 years before the season that was rejected and still never touches the idea that maybe the Sabres just don't see that as a good deal. I understand what he's saying about Campbell's value on the open market. I have no doubt that if it gets to that point someone will offer him between 6 and 7 million dollars but I also know that team is going to be overpaying for what they'll get. Even 5 makes me nervous because while Soupy is very good at certain aspects of the game - carrying the puck, getting involved in the offense - he's not a good defensive player. He's not a terrible defensive player (usually) but he's not a good one and I don't know, I think that should come into play since he is a defenseman. Bucky also continues to ignore the fact that there's a salary cap in play here. If the Sabres give Campbell between 5 and 6 million, they have a lot of money wrapped up in three players (Vanek, Roy, and Campbell) and that's before Ryan Miller - who does deserve a big, fat deal - is re-signed. Again, you don't have to agree that Campbell is the one who should be tossed over to make room for everyone else, but maybe we could atleast address all the issues surrounding a large contract.
But all that said, it was nice to see something a little different from Bucky.
Also - and this isn't directed at Bucky so much as a general statment - I think it's time we started blaming the players atleast a little bit for how this season is going. I'm not going to argue that there aren't pieces missing or pieces that don't fit, but this team still has plenty of talent. They may not be a clear Cup contender but they should be in the playoff easy and they should be able to make some noise once they get there. Instead they're just floundering and a lot of nights it's because of a lack of effort over sixty minutes. If this team was busting its ass and still losing, maybe I could get more behind the idea of blaming management for putting together an over matched team but right now, I think the players deserve more blame. Darcy and Lindy can't make Thomas Vanek shoot the puck, Brian Campbell clear the crease, or Derek Roy hang on to the puck. They can't make guys crash the net or hustle after rebounds. The Bills were hardly a Super Bowl caliber team this season but they played hard, almost always leaving it all on the field, and that made them fun (if occasionally frustrating) to watch. Get it together, Sabres. Quit talking about what you need to do and do it. You're exhausting me.
But no, he was was right. Bucky Gleason said nice things about Darcy Regier. Don't get me wrong, Bucky does manage to pass the blame along to someone else (Tom Golisano), but in the process he says Darcy is intelligent, professional, liked and respected around the league, and a good guy who more often than not, makes the right call when it comes to players. Well-done, Bucky. I'm proud of you!
One smallish criticism:
Bucky does, once again, harp on the Brian Campbell situation. He says that Campbell's agent made a pitch for 5 million for 5 years before the season that was rejected and still never touches the idea that maybe the Sabres just don't see that as a good deal. I understand what he's saying about Campbell's value on the open market. I have no doubt that if it gets to that point someone will offer him between 6 and 7 million dollars but I also know that team is going to be overpaying for what they'll get. Even 5 makes me nervous because while Soupy is very good at certain aspects of the game - carrying the puck, getting involved in the offense - he's not a good defensive player. He's not a terrible defensive player (usually) but he's not a good one and I don't know, I think that should come into play since he is a defenseman. Bucky also continues to ignore the fact that there's a salary cap in play here. If the Sabres give Campbell between 5 and 6 million, they have a lot of money wrapped up in three players (Vanek, Roy, and Campbell) and that's before Ryan Miller - who does deserve a big, fat deal - is re-signed. Again, you don't have to agree that Campbell is the one who should be tossed over to make room for everyone else, but maybe we could atleast address all the issues surrounding a large contract.
But all that said, it was nice to see something a little different from Bucky.
Also - and this isn't directed at Bucky so much as a general statment - I think it's time we started blaming the players atleast a little bit for how this season is going. I'm not going to argue that there aren't pieces missing or pieces that don't fit, but this team still has plenty of talent. They may not be a clear Cup contender but they should be in the playoff easy and they should be able to make some noise once they get there. Instead they're just floundering and a lot of nights it's because of a lack of effort over sixty minutes. If this team was busting its ass and still losing, maybe I could get more behind the idea of blaming management for putting together an over matched team but right now, I think the players deserve more blame. Darcy and Lindy can't make Thomas Vanek shoot the puck, Brian Campbell clear the crease, or Derek Roy hang on to the puck. They can't make guys crash the net or hustle after rebounds. The Bills were hardly a Super Bowl caliber team this season but they played hard, almost always leaving it all on the field, and that made them fun (if occasionally frustrating) to watch. Get it together, Sabres. Quit talking about what you need to do and do it. You're exhausting me.
Thursday, October 4, 2007
Dear Bucci...
Most hockey fans are familiar with the work of ESPN's John Buccigross. I have kind of a love-hate relationship with Bucci. On one hand, I love how enthusiastic he is about hockey and it's go to know that there are atleast two people at ESPN who think it counts as a sport. His casual, goofy style can be endearing. On the other hand, his casual, goofy style can easily veer into over-indulgent. I don't care what bands he's listening to. I don't care what he would name people's babies. (Seriously, people, do you not have favorite hockey players of your own who you can name your child after?). I really don't care about his book (coming soon to bookstores near you!). All of that stuff would be bearable if it didn't often completely overwhelm the actual hockey content which is why I'm reading him in the first place. But Bucci's weekly column is a regular part of my routine and he is often right about various things so it was with great interest that I read his season preview of the Buffalo Sabres. My immediate reaction was something along the lines of "What the hell?"
If you want to read the whole thing you can find it at ESPN.com (I'd post a link but I can't pull up the article at the moment for some reason). Bucci slams management for not re-signing Chris Drury and Daniel Briere and says the team may still have a sturdy undercarriage but won't be able to survive without its spine. But this was the section that really bugged me and quite frankly, kind of shocked me:
The Bruins and Blackhawks appear to be reconstructing from the rubble of ineptitude with new people throughout the organization. The Sabres are (for now) stuck with GM Darcy Regier and owner Tom Golisano and their vision of mediocrity. The Sabres are still a good team with a very good goalie, but the magic is gone.
Now I will admit that I'm a bit of a Darcy apologist and probably defend him even when he might not really deserve defending but this is so far over-the-top that it almost reaches Bucky Gleason levels. That, my friends, is not a good place to be. I was so bothered by this that I had to email Bucci. A couple people I've mentioned this to have said they'd like to read what I sent so I'm sharing it here. It's a pretty good final summary of how I'm feeling about the team and what I'm hoping to see this season. Plus it's already written so I don't have to think of anything new to say. Oh, something else I should clarify so there's no confusion. With his preview of each team, Bucci includes lyrics from a song. For us he chose Pete Yorn's The Man which is why I reference it in my letter.
Dear John,
"The Bruins and Blackhawks appear to be reconstructing from the rubble of ineptitude with new people throughout the organization. The Sabres are (for now) stuck with GM Darcy Regier and owner Tom Golisano and their vision of mediocrity. The Sabres are still a good team with a very good goalie, but the magic is gone."
All I can say is, what the heck?
Did Regier and Golisano make some mistakes with Briere and Drury? Probably. But they did attempt to sign Briere last summer - he took them to arbitration and he was rewarded a then ridiculous 5 million dollars. And they were allegedly willing to match Drury's offer from the Rangers and he, for whatever reason, wasn't interested. It's easy to say that the Sabres should've re-signed both guys but it's not as easy as handing them contracts and asking them to sign on the dotted line. In your Philly preview you say that Briere isn't worth the money he was paid and say his production will probably drop over the next few years but the Sabres should've held on to him? For all the (well deserved) praise heaped on both players, Buffalo didn't win a Cup while they were here. Chris and Danny crapped out in the playoffs this past year as much as any of the other players not named Ryan Miller did (I know you love Chris but he got smoked in the face-off circle during the Ottawa series among other things).
Darcy Regier has been in Buffalo for ten years. His reign of mediocrity includes more conference finals appearances than every other team but one in that period. It includes the revival of a bankrupt franchise and a pretty downtrodden fan base. It includes the development of a farm system that was so rich that a serious string of injuries last season barely affected the team's regular season performance. Before the salary cap, Regier had to deal with a small market budget and GMs who were constantly blowing up the market with their bloated contracts and somehow, some way, he usually managed to put a competitive team on the ice. Have they won a Stanley Cup during his tenure? No, obviously not. But you know, only one team wins it every year. It's not that easy to do. Regier has regularly iced teams that have had a chance, and as a fan that's all you can really ask for. I know a lot of fan bases - including Chicago and Boston - who would happily take the mediocrity we've been saddled with during the Regier years.
Listen, I'm not going to argue that losing Briere and Drury isn't going to have an affect on the team this season. It certainly is and as a fan I'll miss watching them and I wish them well in their new locations. But the Sabres are still a very good team. We have two lines who can score like crazy cakes (Vanek-Roy-Afinogenov and
Kotalik-Connolly-Pominville) and a third line that will chip in its share (Gaustad-Hecht-Stafford). We have a great top defensive pairing in Tallinder and Lydman and a number of mobile, puck-moving defensemen. And we have a rapidly maturing Ryan Miller who was the one bright spot of the postseason last year. He kept the team in every single game, including a few they had no right to be in. Maybe most importantly, most of the above players are Buffalo draftees (Regier again) who have grown up and developed together as players and people. From all appearances, they like and care for each other and I think it's a mistake to underestimate the importance of that. I don't think it's incompetence or arrogance to let two guys who are being vastly overpaid walk out of town and show some faith in the undercarriage, especially when the undercarriage is skilled and still maturing. The Sabres most effective line last season is still here. Their best defensive pairing is still here. A vastly gifted playmaker who was on the shelf all last year is still here. Their very good young goalie is still here. The fact that these players haven't had to carry the show, doesn't mean they can't and won't. I'm thinking a little less "The Man" and a lot more "The Kids are Alright."
So yeah... I'm calling it now: The Sabres will finish second in the division (behind Ottawa), fourth in the conference, and will be hitting their groove in March around the time the Rangers implode.
Despite the above, I am glad to see you and hockey back. (But you're still wrong.)
Thanks,
Heather Bermingham
www.topshelfcookies.blogspot.com
www.hlog.blogspot.com
I did get a response. "Thanks for reading Heather! Enjoy the season! John." Clearly he knew my argument was air-tight and beyond debate. I'm disappointed. Bucky would've written back to tell me why exactly I was wrong.
So yeah... I'm optimistic. I know it's not going to be the same team it was last year but I'm really not convinced it's going to be a bad team. In fact, it could be a pretty darn good team. If nothing else, I fully expect to see the kids play their hearts out. They all seem tired of talking about Drury and Briere and they should have a huge chip on their shoulders about the way their contributions over the last couple of seasons are being disregarded. Derek, Max, and Van should be furious that people are acting like their line was unimportant last year. Hank and Toni should be annoyed that Drury evidently killed off all the penalties and shut down the opposition's best players. Pommers should be upset that Briere supposedly made him the hockey player he was. Ryan should be really pissed that Chris and Danny are being considered the difference makers. The entire team should be worked up about the way people are acting like Chris and Danny are the only ones who experienced the ups and downs of the last two seasons, like no one else remembers how great it felt to win and how heart-breaking it was to lose. I'm ready to see what the kids are going to do and I'm really glad I only have to wait... 17 and a half more hours!
If you want to read the whole thing you can find it at ESPN.com (I'd post a link but I can't pull up the article at the moment for some reason). Bucci slams management for not re-signing Chris Drury and Daniel Briere and says the team may still have a sturdy undercarriage but won't be able to survive without its spine. But this was the section that really bugged me and quite frankly, kind of shocked me:
The Bruins and Blackhawks appear to be reconstructing from the rubble of ineptitude with new people throughout the organization. The Sabres are (for now) stuck with GM Darcy Regier and owner Tom Golisano and their vision of mediocrity. The Sabres are still a good team with a very good goalie, but the magic is gone.
Now I will admit that I'm a bit of a Darcy apologist and probably defend him even when he might not really deserve defending but this is so far over-the-top that it almost reaches Bucky Gleason levels. That, my friends, is not a good place to be. I was so bothered by this that I had to email Bucci. A couple people I've mentioned this to have said they'd like to read what I sent so I'm sharing it here. It's a pretty good final summary of how I'm feeling about the team and what I'm hoping to see this season. Plus it's already written so I don't have to think of anything new to say. Oh, something else I should clarify so there's no confusion. With his preview of each team, Bucci includes lyrics from a song. For us he chose Pete Yorn's The Man which is why I reference it in my letter.
Dear John,
"The Bruins and Blackhawks appear to be reconstructing from the rubble of ineptitude with new people throughout the organization. The Sabres are (for now) stuck with GM Darcy Regier and owner Tom Golisano and their vision of mediocrity. The Sabres are still a good team with a very good goalie, but the magic is gone."
All I can say is, what the heck?
Did Regier and Golisano make some mistakes with Briere and Drury? Probably. But they did attempt to sign Briere last summer - he took them to arbitration and he was rewarded a then ridiculous 5 million dollars. And they were allegedly willing to match Drury's offer from the Rangers and he, for whatever reason, wasn't interested. It's easy to say that the Sabres should've re-signed both guys but it's not as easy as handing them contracts and asking them to sign on the dotted line. In your Philly preview you say that Briere isn't worth the money he was paid and say his production will probably drop over the next few years but the Sabres should've held on to him? For all the (well deserved) praise heaped on both players, Buffalo didn't win a Cup while they were here. Chris and Danny crapped out in the playoffs this past year as much as any of the other players not named Ryan Miller did (I know you love Chris but he got smoked in the face-off circle during the Ottawa series among other things).
Darcy Regier has been in Buffalo for ten years. His reign of mediocrity includes more conference finals appearances than every other team but one in that period. It includes the revival of a bankrupt franchise and a pretty downtrodden fan base. It includes the development of a farm system that was so rich that a serious string of injuries last season barely affected the team's regular season performance. Before the salary cap, Regier had to deal with a small market budget and GMs who were constantly blowing up the market with their bloated contracts and somehow, some way, he usually managed to put a competitive team on the ice. Have they won a Stanley Cup during his tenure? No, obviously not. But you know, only one team wins it every year. It's not that easy to do. Regier has regularly iced teams that have had a chance, and as a fan that's all you can really ask for. I know a lot of fan bases - including Chicago and Boston - who would happily take the mediocrity we've been saddled with during the Regier years.
Listen, I'm not going to argue that losing Briere and Drury isn't going to have an affect on the team this season. It certainly is and as a fan I'll miss watching them and I wish them well in their new locations. But the Sabres are still a very good team. We have two lines who can score like crazy cakes (Vanek-Roy-Afinogenov and
Kotalik-Connolly-Pominville) and a third line that will chip in its share (Gaustad-Hecht-Stafford). We have a great top defensive pairing in Tallinder and Lydman and a number of mobile, puck-moving defensemen. And we have a rapidly maturing Ryan Miller who was the one bright spot of the postseason last year. He kept the team in every single game, including a few they had no right to be in. Maybe most importantly, most of the above players are Buffalo draftees (Regier again) who have grown up and developed together as players and people. From all appearances, they like and care for each other and I think it's a mistake to underestimate the importance of that. I don't think it's incompetence or arrogance to let two guys who are being vastly overpaid walk out of town and show some faith in the undercarriage, especially when the undercarriage is skilled and still maturing. The Sabres most effective line last season is still here. Their best defensive pairing is still here. A vastly gifted playmaker who was on the shelf all last year is still here. Their very good young goalie is still here. The fact that these players haven't had to carry the show, doesn't mean they can't and won't. I'm thinking a little less "The Man" and a lot more "The Kids are Alright."
So yeah... I'm calling it now: The Sabres will finish second in the division (behind Ottawa), fourth in the conference, and will be hitting their groove in March around the time the Rangers implode.
Despite the above, I am glad to see you and hockey back. (But you're still wrong.)
Thanks,
Heather Bermingham
www.topshelfcookies.blogspot.com
www.hlog.blogspot.com
I did get a response. "Thanks for reading Heather! Enjoy the season! John." Clearly he knew my argument was air-tight and beyond debate. I'm disappointed. Bucky would've written back to tell me why exactly I was wrong.
So yeah... I'm optimistic. I know it's not going to be the same team it was last year but I'm really not convinced it's going to be a bad team. In fact, it could be a pretty darn good team. If nothing else, I fully expect to see the kids play their hearts out. They all seem tired of talking about Drury and Briere and they should have a huge chip on their shoulders about the way their contributions over the last couple of seasons are being disregarded. Derek, Max, and Van should be furious that people are acting like their line was unimportant last year. Hank and Toni should be annoyed that Drury evidently killed off all the penalties and shut down the opposition's best players. Pommers should be upset that Briere supposedly made him the hockey player he was. Ryan should be really pissed that Chris and Danny are being considered the difference makers. The entire team should be worked up about the way people are acting like Chris and Danny are the only ones who experienced the ups and downs of the last two seasons, like no one else remembers how great it felt to win and how heart-breaking it was to lose. I'm ready to see what the kids are going to do and I'm really glad I only have to wait... 17 and a half more hours!
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