Talking Baby Sabres

So I went to prospect camp today. I'm not going to pretend to know enough to tell you who looked good and who didn't - it's hard to tell from some of those drills - but I did take a close look at Tyler Myers and I'm going to admit something that probably won't be very popular. I'm just not sure about bringing him up to the NHL level next season.

He looked really good. He can definitely skate, his positioning seemed sound (although I think we can agree that games are not like drills), and for someone still growing, he seems to have a good handle on his body. There's absolutely zero awkwardness about him. But he's very young. And he's very skinny. I watched a few of his games during the Memorial Cup and while it was clear that he was a stand-out, it was also clear that juniors is very, very different from the NHL. The NHL will be much faster and much more powerful. In street clothes, Myers is a bean pole even after putting on weight. I really question whether he's going to be ready to stand up to grown men with plenty of NHL experience.

I know Bucky Gleason has said many times that he doesn't see any reason not to play Myers up next season because hey, lots of teenagers have been successful in the NHL and then he reels off a list of people. First of all, I think any time a list starts with the name "Sidney Crosby" we have to stop and take into consideration that that's probably a pretty special group of players. Second of all, for every teenager that has come in and immediately been successful, there's a bunch of players who were brought up too young and who really struggled both with the NHL game and with the expectations heaped upon them. Some of them eventually straightened themselves out, but some of them had serious setbacks. Myers certainly isn't going to come in with Crosby level expectations, but he's not going to fly under the radar either, especially not in Buffalo. On one hand, fans are talking about being able to live with his mistakes, on the other hand they're talking about him being the next Zdeno Chara. Not even Zdeno Chara was Zdeno Chara until he was much older and physically mature than Myers is. Conventional wisdom has always been that defensemen mature more slowly than forwards.

Please remember he's just a baby giant.

If the Sabres start Andrej Sekera, Mike Weber and Chris Butler next season is Myers' inexperience going to make much difference to the on-ice product? Probably not. Even without him the defensive corp is going to be very young. But I'm not sure "How will it affect the team?" is as important a question as "How will it affect Myers?" How will he handle it if players are flying past him or pushing him around? How will he adapt to the opposition playing at a much higher skill level than his competition this past season? If he struggles, how will he deal with fans complaining - as you know they will - that he's not as good as they were led to believe? I think the Sabres have always had the right idea when it comes to bringing prospects along slowly, giving them time to grow up physically and mentally and emotionally. I know with the salary cap and the lower free agency age, that has to change some - you really have to take advantage of players while they're on their entry level contracts - and I know the Sabres are in a unique spot with Myers because he can't start in Portland which is what they would probably do with him if they could. I'm just not sure it's as simple as "Oh, what the hell, the team's gonna suck anyway."

Don't get me wrong. I like what I've seen of Myers. I love that he's said very directly that his goal is to make the Sabres and he doesn't see any reason why he can't. I hope he does make an immediate impact and I hope he does have the mental strength and maturity to know that struggling is just part of being a young defensemen in the NHL. But I do worry about him and I do worry that we're asking too much of him too soon.

On a totally different note, Kate and I have been arguing good-naturedly (mostly) about Chris Butler - or "Butts" as she's taken to calling him - for a number of months now. Unbeknownst to the other, we both started really taking a liking to him and she has repeatedly insisted that I can't like him, I have to like someone else. She's been very against him becoming next in line as my favorite player. (Hank will, of course, be number one as long as he's in Buffalo but I can count. If you add Weber and Myers to Tallinder, Lydman, Rivet, Sekera, Butler, Paetsch and Montador you end up with more d-men than you have spots. Someone's gotta go and a girl needs to be prepared for such things.) I assured her that no final decision had been made because I had really liked Weber on his call-up at the end of the 2007-2008 season and needed to see more of him.

Kate and I met up at prospect camp today and about halfway through, I turned to her and said, "I have to admit, I'm pretty drawn to Mike Weber." That beeyotch She didn't even attempt to hide her delight. But at any rate, it's true. There's just something about that kid that I really like and he looked very determined and sure of himself, as he should at this point.

After prospect camp, I went to the Bisons game. As I was making my way to the parking lot at the end of the night, I noticed a big tour bus outside the stadium. Didn't really look that closely at it, just figured it was a youth group or something. My phone buzzed so I looked down at it, continuing to walk, and I, of course, bumped into someone. I said, "Oh, excuse me," and looked up and it was... Mike Weber! That focused my brain and I realized all the baby Sabres were getting on the big bus. Mike nodded and said, "No problem." But I think it's a sign that I made the right choice. It's like Kate said (again, gleefully), he pretty much chose ME. How can I refuse?

"Please pick me, please pick me, please pick me, Heather B."

Is It October Yet?

A week or so ago Mark's mom asked us if we'd be interested in taking her to prospect camp this weekend. We reluctantly agreed. I mean, do we seem like the kind of people who would be interested in a bunch of kids playing hockey in the middle of the summer? (That's a joke for those who don't recognize them.) Unfortunately she bailed on us so we ended up going by ourselves again, not that we had to drag ourselves there. As Mark said, "For someone who was complaining that you hated hockey and needed a break from it, you're spending an awful lot of your summer at hockey-related events." Hmmmm... Might be some truth in that especially since I already have plans to go back to camp on Monday with some friends.


The prospects broke up into two teams and scrimmaged so they only used one rink instead of both of them. I know a lot of people feel like the best way to watch hockey is from above so you can really see plays developing. I agree with that generally speaking and when we go to games we always sit way up (although that's partly because we're broke and cheap), but when we can get to stuff like this, I like to sit up close and see things from a different perspective. So we sat in the third row. I'm not going to pretend like I really know enough to judge these kids' performances - I can barely stand on ice skates so to me everyone out there looked amazingly talented - but here are some non-expert opinions.

Andrej Sekera and Mike Weber both looked really good. It's weird to call them the veterans at 22 and 20 but they did a lot of talking with the other prospects and just looked a touch more self-assured than some of the younger, less experienced guys. They were on different teams during the scrimmage so we didn't really get a look at them together, but I don't really see why either of them won't make the team out of training camp unless Darcy Regier brings in a veteran defenseman and/or Nathan Paetsch plays out of his head. I get why Paetsch is being referred to as the incumbent, but to me he's the one who really has to earn his spot going in. I've never been super high on him though so I could be biased.

Weber continues to be a pretty firm next-in-line as Heather's Favorite Sabre. I just really like the way he plays and handles himself. I'm in no rush to get rid of Henrik Tallinder - no worries, Hank! - I'm merely doing a little scouting. At one point Weber made an absolutely beautiful stick poke against his opponent and it made my defense-loving heart go all pitter-patter. Okay, I totally missed it because I was futzing around with my camera. But Mark assured me that it was exactly the kind of play that I would've loved. I also noticed that he's started referring to Mike as "your boy" which is probably a sign. We only do that with a few select players.

My boy takes the ice.

Nathan Gerbe is very small. No, it's true. He is very reminiscent of Derek Roy however in that he doesn't seem the least bit bothered by his size on the ice. Granted, they weren't really hitting each other during the scrimmage but they were playing hard and he wasn't the least bit afraid to stick his nose in there against players much bigger than him (i.e. everyone). The other thing I really liked about him is that he wasn't hesitant to put the puck on the net and go from there. After getting used to watching the Sabres refuse to shoot unless they have the perfect opening, it was a refreshing change. Gerbe's team killed the other team in the scrimmage and he roofed one absolutely beautifully placed shot over the opposite shoulder of the goalie. He's definitely very skilled and I wouldn't be the least bit surprised to see him on the big team sooner rather than later.

Look at his tiny little legs. He looks like a kid in his first hockey uniform.

I didn't get a really good picture of Tyler Myers - those little brats wouldn't stand still long enough, the nerve - but I'm happy to report that he really is very tall. He definitely seems thin for his height but I know he's talked about how getting stronger is one of his goals. It's clear why everyone talks about his skating as a strength though. I know tall guys - especially tall guys who are still very young and new to their bodies - are often kind of awkward and unsure and that wasn't the case with Myers at all. He looked very strong on his skates, very smooth, almost graceful. I can definitely see why the Sabres were so high on him. Sadly, the BFG does not wear a visor.

Darcy Regier and Lindy Ruff were there, of course, watching from above. (Dad in front of us to his small son as Lindy entered the building and walked across the ice: Look! It's Lindy Ruff! Small son: Lindy Ruff?! What's HE doing here?!) Both Darcy and Lindy seemed to be in a very good mood. Every time I looked up they were grinning at each other and laughing about something. I'm sure someone in the crowd was grumbling about Darcy being so happy when he should be out signing free agents and re-upping contracts but I enjoyed seeing them both looking so mellow. I know they are very good friends in real-life and it certainly appeared that they were enjoying each other's company. There was one point where Darcy was on the phone ("Darcy's on the phone!") so I'm sure the Sabres will be announcing the acquisition of Nicklas Lidstrom any day now.

Darcy's on the phone!

I'm just posting this picture of Darcy because it never fails to crack me up.

This one too.

Jhonas Enroth did play in the scrimmage and while I meant to keep an eye on him, I didn't really. Sorry. Goalies aren't my thing. He wandered out of the net a few times but unlike a certain other goalie we all know, he mostly handled himself well. Otherwise, sure he looked great.

Some guy I don't recognize chats up Enroth. (I think.)

After practice a handful of players came over to the corner of the rink and signed autographs and took pictures with the kids in the crowd which I thought was really sweet. Some of the kids were so clearly excited that it was pretty cute to watch. Their faces just completely lit-up every time someone new turned to walk in their direction instead of going the other way. The players seemed to really be enjoying it too. Must be nice to be able to make someone else that happy. I'm sure getting stopped by fans all the time gets old eventually so it was cool to see the younger players embracing it while it's fresh and new.

Mike Weber signed for quite a while. He'd start to walk away but came back immediately every time someone called his name.

Tim Kennedy looks to be 22 going on 12. Dude is rocking a serious baby face. Mark usually rolls his eyes at me when I comment on how young someone looks but this time he was the one who actually said, "Holy crap, look at him!" He didn't look that much older than some of the kids he was posing for pictures with. He looked good on the ice though.

So young.

I have no idea who this kid is. I did kind of half-heartedly flip through some photos but I couldn't make a match. He was my favorite though. He walked over with a pretty hearty, "Hey, guys!" and really talked to every single kid he signed something for, calling the kids "buddy." He was super cute with them. If anyone knows who he is, please share.

I have no idea who this is but I like him already.

The spot where the kids were standing was not in the path of where the players departed the ice so players had to walk out of their way to come over. Originally everyone was at the top of a little staircase but as things started clearing out the kids started inching down the stairs and eventually onto the floor beside the rink. One little guy was totally cracking up all the adults in the area. He kept screaming, "Hey! Hey! We're over here!" you know, in case the players couldn't figure out where the sound of the screaming kids was coming from exactly. This kid was the most aggressive about moving out toward the players and eventually he was standing about halfway between the stairs where the kids were and the stairs where the players were exiting. When one player started walking toward the exit this kid started jumping up and down, literally waving his hands back and forth over his head, yelling, "Over here! Hey, you! Over here! Please come over here!" The player hesitated for a second before finally heading toward the kids. This little guy started cheering triumphantly and as he handed the player whatever it was he had to be signed he said, loud enough that those of us in the stands could hear, "Hey, who ARE you anyway?!" It was hysterical. The player in question - Dylan Hunter according to the man standing in front of me which I'll just go with because I couldn't see his face very clearly through his pulled-down baseball cap - took it in stride though. And Mark refrained from yelling, "Your dad was an asshole!" so that was nice too.

All in all, a very entertaining day. Mark was complaining that it made him excited for the season to start and then he remembered it wasn't even July yet but it was a nice little sip of real Sabres hockey. It still amazes me that I can just walk into a building, totally free of charge, and plop myself down a few feet from professional athletes, not just here but during training camp and game day skates as well. I can't tell you how many bloggers in other NHL cities have said to me, "You can go to morning skates? You just walk right in?!" It's pretty cool.