3MI ROADTRIP: Columbus in 2010 Edition

Fellow Sabres fans, fear not.

3rd Man In is treading where many of you will not this Saturday.

Both Mike, our newest blogger, and myself, the one known simply as “e”, are making the trek to Columbus to see the Sabres game tonight at Nationwide Arena.

We’re riding on a bus full of Sabres fans from western New York, headed to Ohio’s capital. The plan is to pregame at the Frog Bear & Wild Boar Bar across from the Arena, so if you’re gonna be there, feel free to say hello and buy us a round.

Obviously, this prohibits us from being at a computer to live blog, but I will be twittering the whole ride there. And back. Pending I survive the game, of course.

If you’re not following us already, you can get updates at twitter.com/3rdmanin. I assure you it’ll be an entertaining read. And, you know, follow us.

Go Sabres!

Kovalchuk trade puts Sabres behind the pack

Yes, I see, they’re still in 3rd place. I can read.

But last night’s blockbuster deal sending Ilya Kovalchuk to New Jersey isn’t going to put the Sabres any higher on the list of Cup contenders in the East.

The Sabres have been struggling of late. Just 3-5-2 in their last ten, and 2-2 since they returned from their recent trip out west. Ryan Miller has been good, but not great. Thomas Vanek has been hitting the scoresheet, but Derek Roy hasn’t. The defense has not been very good, with the third pairing being anything but set-in-stone.

Ok, it seems like the Sabres are kind of a mess. Right now, anyways. That comfortable division lead is now a single point, thanks to Ottawa deciding not to lose any game they play.

It’s just hard to call the Sabres contenders in the East at this point. With New Jersey, who I considered the weakest of the top five because of their offense, picking up a superstar for the stretch run, it’s now hard to argue that Buffalo is ahead of anyone right now.

Washington has won 12 in a row, and is going to run away with the Southeast. Ottawa has won ten in a row, and they play Toronto tomorrow, which should turn that into 11. And Pittsburgh, the defending champions, are right on the Devils’ back for the Atlantic lead.

What acquisition could the Sabres make to jump ahead of any of those teams? I don’t know. There isn’t much on the market right now with so many teams still in the playoff race. Before the Devils swung the deal last night, I figured it’d only take a couple of bottom six forwards to solidify the lineup. I mean, you don’t expect to win with Matt Ellis or Adam Mair in the lineup, do you?

Now it seems like it might not even be worth it if the prices are too steep. The Sabres are well-stocked in young talent, but there’s hardly a surplus. Giving up prospects or high picks for a futile run might do more harm on the franchise than good.

It’s just a tough decision to make with the team’s recent performance. When they were streaking after Christmas, they were playing as good as anyone in the league. Where did that team go? Are they going to make it back to the ice before April? If they don’t, I don’t have too much hope for more than a couple rounds of postseason hockey.

If the Sabres don’t win the division, it would be hard to say they’ll make it out of the first round. It’d be a likely matchup against either New Jersey or Pittsburgh in the 4/5 series. Even if they do, it’d be an uphill battle winning any other series against a top seed. That top 3 seed is huge. The Eastern Conference has a huge dropoff after the top five teams. Division winners should have an easy run to the second round. But whoever is in that 4/5 matchup is gonna have a dogfight.

Would they survive a dogfight? Maybe.

Maybe it’d be a good idea to just let this season play out and run at it next year.

So… know of any huge games tonight?

So the Sens are in town.

Needless to say, this one has to be at the top of the NHL docket tonight. The Sens are streaking and they’re coming to HSBC Arena to try to continue their inexplicable mastery of the Sabres.

Buffalo hasn’t been playing their best of late, and tonight they’ll be without Patrick Kaleta, who is out with a bruised foot suffered Monday in Pittsburgh, and Steve Montador, who’ll be in the press box due to being shitty for the last two weeks. Can Andrej Sekera spark a victory? Maybe.

Things in play tonight:

• Ottawa is on a 9 game winning streak. Since a 6-1 loss in Atlanta on January 12, the Sens have picked up 2 points in each game, including wins over Pittsburgh, Chicago and New Jersey.
• Sabres are riding a 12 game unbeaten streak at HSBC Arena, going 9-0-3 since December 7.
• The Senators have owned the Sabres, winning all three meetings to date this season. The Sabres collected a single point, in a shootout loss in Buffalo. The Sabres were 1-4-1 against the Sens last season.
• Chris Neil is a douche.

The most important aspect of tonight’s game is the implications on the Northeast Division race. The Sabres, once comfortably ahead of Ottawa and the other slob teams in the division (Not just Toronto… I’m looking at you, Boston), now only hold a mere five point edge on the Senators, with two games in hand.

Do the math. An Ottawa win and they’re only 3 points back with about 25 games to go. A Buffalo win not only breaks the Sens’ stranglehold on the Sabres’ psyche, but adds a valuable buffer and takes away two potential points from Ottawa.

If there’s any game to step up and win, tonight is the perfect candidate. Especially because the Sens are a bunch of dicks.

Toronto shakes up their roster

What an interesting Sunday it was for a pair of NHL teams who were both heading in the wrong direction. Well, the Maple Leafs have been heading in the wrong direction for five years now.

A deal which sent Calgary Flames defensemen Dion Phaneuf to the Toronto Maple Leafs was agreed upon late Saturday night and was completed on Sunday morning and it sent shockwaves throughout the hockey world.

There had been rumblings of Phaneuf being on the trade block for a few weeks now, and Sunday morning the hammer fell. Phaneuf was traded from the Flames to the Maple Leafs along with winger Fredrik Sjostrom and prospect Keith Aulie. Heading to Calgary are forwards Matt Stajan, Niklas Hagman, Jamal Mayers and defensemen Ian White.

For Toronto, I believe this trade will absolutely help them in the long run. Not only did unload guys that weren’t going to be part of the future going forward, but they also got a legitimate #1 defensemen,  rather than draft picks and prospect who may never pan out. Phaneuf brings the physical edge that Brian Burke loves so much, and he also brings plenty of offense to table (10 goals this season). Along with the likes of Mike Komisarek, Francois Beauchemin, and Luke Schenn the Leafs have relatively solid top 4 on defense capable of playing against an opposing teams top line on a nightly basis. I left out Tomas Kaberle because it appears he’s going to be odd man out going forward.

The Flames were a team that, before pounding the Oilers on Saturday night, were winless in nine straight games and were clearly in need of a roster shakeup, and boy, did they deliver. After trading for Jay Bouwmeester in the summer, it was believed by many that the Flames were set up for a Stanley Cup push this season. Well after a nice streak in November, the Flames had become a mess in January and saw themselves slipping out of a tight playoff race. They obviously needed to wake up the players in the room and I assume they did by trading away arguably their best defensemen.

Despite dealing Phaneuf, the Flames are still pretty solid on the blueline, with the likes of Bouwmeester, Robyn Regehr and now Ian White. They also get some nice, but not glamorous additions at forward in Matt Stajan and Niklas Hagman. The deal should put them in good shape to break out of this current slump and make a decent run at the playoffs.

The Leafs weren’t done wheeling and dealing either. Not long after they acquired Phaneuf, they filled a rather big hole in goal. Burke went to his former team and acquired former Conn Smythe winner and Stanley Cup champ J-S Giguere from the Ducks in exchange for goalie Vesa Toskala and forward Jason Blake.

Toronto hasn’t had a good goalie since Curtis Joseph (his first tour of with the Leafs, not the last one) and Giguere, despite losing his starting job to Jonas Hiller, is still capable of being a starting goalie, something the lowly Leafs have desperately needed. Giguere has another year left on his deal, so it also enables the Leafs to evaluate youngster Jonas Gustavsson to see where his game is and make a decision on Giguere after that.

For the Ducks, they unload Giguere’s big contract (they extended Hiller a few days ago) and add a decent, but overpaid, forward in Blake, who could help with a push for the playoffs. I doubt Toskala will be a key to the Ducks future and will likely hit the open market in July.

The deals don’t make the Leafs better today, but they’ve added and few pieces to the puzzle for the future and they’re probably not done dealing this season.

Don’t count out Team USA in Vancouver

The Winter Olympics are just a few short weeks away. It’s now time to dream about Team USA winning a gold medal.

Imagine how satisfying it would be to beat those annoying Canadians at their own game, on their own soil, twice in less than two months.

Now, from an outsider’s perspective, it would seem as if the Americans are a long shot to even medal at the upcoming games in Vancouver. Under the guidance of general manager Brian Burke and head coach Ron Wilson, who put together a new younger roster, I feel there’s plenty of reason to believe there’s chance for a medal, and yes, even gold.

So, the Americans don’t have a star-studded lineup like the Canadians, Swedes or Russians, but they do have plenty of guys with skill and that work hard to give it all on every shift of every game. It’s not to say guys like Mike Modano, Keith Tkachuk and Doug Weight didn’t care, but it was time to get younger and add some new faces on the squad.

We’ll start with the goalies. Ryan Miller appears to be the guy for the Americans, with Boston’s Tim Thomas, last year’s Vezina trophy winner, and LA’s Jonathon Quick as his backups. As Sabres fans, we all know what Ryan Miller is capable of. When he’s on his game, he’s nearly impossible to beat with a clean shot. In a tournament like this, if he can get hot, he could carry the team by himself. Thomas has struggled this year compared to last year, but he’s also proven capable of getting hot and carrying a team as well. Quick is a young up-and-coming goalie from the Los Angeles Kings who isn’t likely to see much game action.

On defense, the US will have a nice combination of puck moving players that can skate and some nasty, clear-the-crease type guys. However, one of USA’s top defenders, Paul Martin of the New Jersey Devils, is hurt and may not be able to play. Brian Rafalski, Ryan Suter, and Erik Johnson are guys that can skate the puck out of trouble and bring a little something to the score sheet. Amherst-native Brooks Orpik, Jack Johnson and Mike Komisarek bring the nastiness and will be making sure nobody is in the blue paint of Ryan Miller.

At forward, the Americans are built much like the Burke-led Anaheim Ducks, who won  the Stanley Cup in 2007, and that’s with skill, grit and heart.  The skill comes in the form of guys like Zach Parise of the Devils, Buffalo-native Patrick Kane, Phil Kessel, Paul Stastny, Bobby Ryan and Joe Pavelski. After that comes the guys that will go in and do the “dirty work” as Brian Burke would say. Leading the way will be captain Jamie Langenbrunner, Chris Drury, Ryan Callahan, Ryan Malone, Ryan Kesler, Dustin Brown and David Backes, who since being named to Team USA has fought three members of team Canada.

Again, as I said earlier, they don’t have a Crosby, Nash, Ovechkin, Kovalchuk, or even a Zetterberg, like the favorites in the tournament, but that doesn’t mean they have no chance. They come equipped with a good goalie, a group of forwards that can score, forecheck hard, and do the little things that are needed to win. The defense is wiling to skate and lead the rush and battle in front of the net to make sure there’s no loose puck around the net.

Give this team a chance, because you and the rest of the hockey world may be very surprised.

Taking a look around the Northeast

As January winds to a close, we’re hitting the homestretch of the 2009-2010 campaign. The Sabres, despite struggling over the past few games, continue to hold down the top spot in the Northeast division. But that comfortable lead Lindy Ruff’s squad had opened up around the new year is slowly disappearing.

The Sabres, collecting just 6 of 14 points on a recent seven-game road trip, now sit at 67 points, just five ahead of second place Ottawa.

Ottawa has been streaking of late, in the good way (for them at least), winning their last seven. Elevated by the returns of Daniel Alfredsson and Jason Spezza, they’ve been playing lights out, including shutting out the New Jersey Devils on Tuesday night. This seven game streak followed a five game losing streak, where the Sens had dropped games to powerhouses Carolina and Atlanta. The Senators are an enigma, and when you consider that the Sabres haven’t beaten them in their three meetings so far, you wonder if Ottawa’s gonna let Buffalo walk away with the division title.

The teams meet next Wednesday at HSBC Arena, and pending the results of the next few games, it is entirely possible an Ottawa win could put them in the top spot in the division. The Sabres are looking at the Devils, Bruins and a visit to the Penguins before that meeting, while the Senators visit Pittsburgh and host Montreal, with a couple days to rest up for the trip to Buffalo. It’s obvious that there’s gonna be a foot race to April.

Will it just be Buffalo and Ottawa? Most likely.

As bad as the Sabres have been, they have the second best “last 10″ record of the group. Only 4-3-3 in the last 10, it’s enough to pull away from Montreal (4-4-2), Boston (2-7-1) and Toronto (2-7-1). The Habs and Bruins are gonna be fighting for playoff spots.

Montreal has been plagued by inconsistent play from pretty much everyone on the roster. They can’t figure out which goalie to play, their scorers are inconsistent, they’re a bit of a mess. But that said, they can be dangerous if they get hot.

Boston, meanwhile, is dropping like a rock. For a while it looked like Boston was the true threat to the Sabres’ place in the driver’s seat, but that’s long gone. They’re the lowest scoring team in the league, and if it weren’t for stellar seasons from Tim Thomas and Tuukka Rask, they’d be nowhere near a playoff spot.

And Toronto? They’re irrelevant, which is not a shock to anyone outside the province of Ontario.

Right now, it looks like it’s up to the Sabres to turn things around. Ottawa has won seven in a row, but they’re still five points behind Buffalo, with the Sabres having three games in hand. It’s extremely important to win a few here now and keep a buffer heading into the Olympic break.

Once everyone returns from Vancouver, it’s gonna be madness. Each team has five weeks from today to see who they are and then try to pick apart the carcasses of the teams in the basement to gear up for a run. Who’s ready to make a move?

Darcy, bring us the Ray Whitney.

With the NHL trade deadline now just weeks away, rather than months, it’s now time to take a look at possible playoff rentals for the Sabres as they inch closer to playoffs.

The player that will be the most coveted player behind Ilya Kovalchuk has to be Ray Whitney of the Carolina Hurricanes. Whitney is still in my nightmares from the playoff series with Carolina in the spring of 2006.

The Sabres, despite being a top the Northeast, could still use a little more punch on offense. Also adding veteran leadership never hurts either. With Ray Whitney that’s exactly what you’ll get.

Through 49 games with Carolina, Whitney has tallied 16 goals and 23 assists, good for the team lead in points. Those 16 goals would be good for tops on the Sabres, despite the team’s success this year.

Yes, I know it’d suck to see such an offensive power like Adam Mair get taken out of the lineup, but Whitney would also help the Sabres power play which has also had it’s problems this season.

Offense isn’t the only aspect Whitney brings to the table either. He’s a player that’s been around the block at few times. Whitney would add veteran leadership in the locker room and plenty of playoff experience (83 games), including a Cup ring from the ‘05-’06 ‘Canes.

So, what would it take to get Whitney? Well, the Hurricanes probably aren’t looking for current high priced players so they’ll most likely want draft picks and or prospects in return. The Sabres don’t have much cap room, so they’d need to deal a roster player or two in order to free up the space to get Whitney. If the Sabres cleared the cap room in order to get Whitney, they could then possibly ship a first rounder, or a later pick and prospect like Mike Weber or Nathan Gerbe to the ‘Canes.

If the Sabres are serious about winning the Stanley Cup this season Ray Whitney should be a top or near the top of Darcy Regier’s trade deadline wish list.

What can Adam Mair do for you? Likely nothing.

It’s a good time to be a Sabres fan.

I mean, come on, they’re sitting comfortably in 1st place in the Northeast Division. As the games come and go, the team gets closer to securing a top three seed in the postseason and a new banner for the HSBC Arena rafters. They’ve been playing pretty much lights out since Christmas, posting a 8-2-4 record in the 14 games after the holiday.

But there’s one thing that has been bothering me. And it’s been a disturbing trend.

That trend is the continual appearance of Adam Mair’s name in the Sabres’ lineup.

They’ve been winning a good amount of games lately, save the last three, so I’m sure you’re wondering what the problem is. Adam Mair is a heart and soul guy, you’ll say. He works hard, you tell me. Well, I’m telling you, Adam Mair has no business being in the lineup on a winning team with a healthy roster.

Quick trivia question: Who is the only player on the Sabres roster who has not scored a goal this season?

(I’ll give you a hint. He sucks.)

Personally, I don’t see what positive qualities Mair brings to the team. I see an untalented player who fights the puck when it’s on his stick. Mair seems to disorient whoever he is on the ice with, missing assignments or just failing to accomplish them, leading to lapses in executing Ruff’s game plan.

This has been incredibly evident in the last two or three games. He’s been taking lazy penalties, including a slashing call against San Jose and holding the stick against the Kings. His inability to recognize what he’s supposed to do was blatantly obvious on the first Sharks goal the other night. Mair, skating in no man’s land, failed to keep the puck in the zone, leaving Steve Montador back by himself to recover the puck.

Montador, as we know, coughed it up, but it was an unmarked Joe Pavelski who skated in alone to put the puck past Miller. Trailing Pavelski was, naturally, Lindy’s favorite slob, unable to have any positive impact on the play.

While it would be easy for me to recall individual plays where Mair failed to contribute, you can look at the season on the whole and see where the problem lies.

Mair’s statistics: 37 GP. 0 goals, 5 assists. -1. 36 PIM.

He is simply not contributing. Of all the players who have played at least 10 games for the Sabres this season, Mair has been on the ice for the fewest Sabres goals, only 10. Whatever offensive flair his linemates have, Mair does a great job suppressing it.

Mair’s lack of contributions offensively isn’t a surprise though. The team is really good. Buffalo can almost coast to a division title. And Adam tends to have a history of not doing much for good teams. The Sabres have made the playoffs just twice since Mair was acquired from Los Angeles in 2002.

Here are his stats from the two times he has been on playoff teams:
2005-06: 40 GP. 2 goals, 5 assists. -2. 47 PIM. 7:59 TOI/game.
2006-07: 82 GP. 2 goals, 9 assists. -1. 128 PIM. 7:33 TOI/game.

He was a minor contributor on both teams. I’ll contend that his presence in 82 games in the ‘06-’07 season is due to the absence of Tim Connolly for pretty much the whole season, as Mair was pretty much the 11th or 12th forward for most of that year.

Compare that to his career years where he actually had some offensive output, which are, coincidentally, years the Sabres missed the playoffs:
2002-03: 79 GP. 6 goals, 11 assists. -4. 146 PIM. 10:36/TOI game.
2003-04: 81 GP. 6 goals, 14 assists. -3. 146 PIM. 9:38/TOI game.
2007-08: 72 GP. 5 goals, 12 assists. -2. 66 PIM. 8:51/TOI game.
2008-09: 75 GP. 8 goals, 11 assists. +4. 95 PIM. 10:34/TOI game.

Notice a bit of a trend? If the team uses Mair too much… they suck! A winning team can’t rely on a player such as Adam Mair.

I have no personal problem with the guy. He seems like a good team guy who’s liked by his teammates. But you could say the same for Andrew Peters. Good people don’t necessarily make good hockey players.

It’s incredibly frustrating to watch Mair be easily the worst player on the ice many nights. Especially when Matt Ellis, whose play has been solid all year, sitting in the press box. Especially when guys like Nate Gerbe and Tyler Ennis are tearing it up in Portland waiting for a chance to crack the lineup. Having Mair play with guys like Tim Kennedy and Patrick Kaleta is just stifling their ability to do what they do best, bring energy. Mair doesn’t bring anything other than problems.

The stats only back up the argument. The Buffalo Sabres, who on the season have a .670 winning percentage, are 21-10-6 (.617) with Adam Mair in the lineup. 9-3-1 (.731) without Mair. Not hard to figure out… the team is better when Mair is not in uniform.

I wish the coaching staff would be able to figure that out themselves.

You’ve been missing the fun!

Yeah, so the blog posts are scarce. That should change. Soon.

But if you haven’t been following 3MI on twitter, then you’re obviously having issues.

- – - – >  http://www.twitter.com/3rdManIn < – - – -

Follow 3MI. It’s all the insight and hysterics of this blog, without me actually having to make the effort to put more than 140 characters together.

Which game are you watching today?

Today is January 3rd, a microcosm of Buffalo sports as it currently stands.

Sports fans in the 716 area code have a lot to think about today, as the 5-10 Bills play their final game of the season at 1 in Orchard Park, while the 2nd place Sabres are in Montreal to take on the Habs at 3.

Usually, a Bills game day draws all the attention, but today is a bit different. The Bills host the 14-1 Colts, who have absolutely nothing riding on this game whatsoever. All the Bills are playing for is a draft pick. Concluding a decade of accomplishing nothing, as detailed by TBN today, on a sub-freezing day in Western New York, the Bills are a mess.

The Sabres? Not so much. While their play has been unstellar of late, despite pulling out miraculous wins in the last two games, they’ve been winning. 6-2-2 in their last 10, the Sabres face Montreal, who would be their first round opponent if the season ended today. Wait… playoffs? They’d make the playoffs!?!

It’s the divide between the teams. The Sabres, after missing the playoffs two seasons in a row, are a virtual lock to at least make the postseason, and are in good position to win the division. The Bills, on the other hand, have been headed in the opposite direction for years.