wednesday march 7th 2007
Vengeance Still Rules NHL
Dave Staba
The lockout that wiped out the 2004-05 season changed the National Hockey League’s financial structure and the rule changes passed during the stoppage altered the way the game is played.
But the sport’s code of conduct, especially the lust for vengeance, hasn’t changed all that much since one of its ugliest moments ever took place three years ago Thursday.
On March 8, 2004, with Colorado on its way to a 9-2 win during the third period, then-Vancouver winger Todd Bertuzzi, eager to avenge a legal hit on linemate Markus Nasland three weeks earlier, tried to goad Colorado’s Steve Moore into a fight.
Instead, Moore followed the play up ice. Bertuzzi grabbed him with his left hand and sucker-punched him with a right.
Bertuzzi landed on top of Moore, slamming his head to the ice. Moore endured three fractured vertebrae in his neck, a concussion, ligament and nerve damage and facial cuts.
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tuesday march 6th 2007
Whither Willis?
Dave Staba
The market for Willis McGahee got significantly weaker Monday, when Denver – thought to be one of the most ardent suitors for the malcontent Buffalo running back, signed a guy named Travis Henry.
Yes, that would be the same Travis Henry who lost his starting job to McGahee during the 2004 season.
McGahee, it was believed by former Bills czar Tom Donahoe and coach Mike Mularkey, among others, would provide a breakaway threat that Henry – who reliably ground out yardage in short bursts, but not the highlight-film jaunts that McGahee produced before suffering a devastating knee injury during his final college game – could not.
While McGahee has demonstrated a superstar's sense of self, he's only occasionally come close to justifying a truly remarkable ego.
…
friday march 2nd 2007
See you around, Nate. You, too, London.
Dave Staba
It’s no National Hockey League trading deadline or anything, but the first day of the National Football League’s free-agency period – today – ranks right behind draft weekend on the offseason calendar.
Buffalo cornerback Nate Clements and linebacker London Fletcher-Baker could be ex-Bills by the time you read this. Len Pasquarelli of ESPN.com put Clements at the top of his list of available free agents and Fletcher-Baker at No. 7, second at his position only to Adalius Thomas of Baltimore.
Washington, where Gregg Williams is still the very highly paid defensive coordinator despite a disastrous season, is reportedly eager to overpay the 31-year-old Fletcher-Baker. Williams, you might recall, was Buffalo’s head coach when the linebacker -- then kn…
Dave Staba
In 1980, officials from the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation told the creators of SCTV that they wanted two minutes' worth of specifically Canadian content included in each episode of the seminal comedy series.
Rick Moranis and Dave Thomas, at the time barely known writers and performers who would each go on to much bigger, but not necessarily better, things responded with a recurring segment called "Kanadian Korner," soon to be retitled "The Great White North."
Portraying brothers Bob and Doug McKenzie, the two wallowed in just about every stereotype connected to their home and native land, including the ever-present two-four on the table in front of them.
Evidently, a similar…
wednesday february 28th 2007
Notes From a Blowout
Dave Staba
Since the Buffalo Sabres so thoroughly rolled the Toronto Maple Leafs a few hours after Tuesday’s trade deadline, there was plenty of time to wonder about a couple of things.
First, does it even matter who wears the uniforms these days?
Here were the Sabres, already missing a half-dozen regulars and with the reinforcements, in the person of newly acquired Dainius Zubrus, still en route from Washington.
Then Daniel Briere came down with the flu, leaving them without either of their co-captains, since Chris Drury still hasn’t taken the ice since that slightly controversial check by Ottawa’s Chris Neil last Thursday.
And yet, on the road against a Maple Leafs team battling for a playoff spot, the shorthanded Sabres -- or at least a collection of recent call-ups wearing the team's duds -- shelled their hosts. The legendary Clarke MacArthur, playing his seventh game in the N…
tuesday february 27th 2007
Goodbye Marty, Hello Dainius
Dave Staba
What’s not to like? (As long as Ryan Miller stays healthy, of course).
Darcy Regier made four deals on the National Hockey League’s final day of trading for the 2006-07 season which, added up, mean:
THE SABRES GIVE: Goalie Martin Biron, forward Jiri Novotny and first-, fourth- and fifth-round draft picks.
THE SABRES GET: Forward Dainius Zubrus, goalie Ty Conklin, defensemen Timo Helbling and Mikko Lehtonen and a second-round pick.
So, in dealing with multiple trading partners, Buffalo’s general manager parlayed a backup goalie who becomes an unrestricted this summer, a rookie fourth-line center who is at the moment sidelined with a chronic ankle injury that’s plagued him since mid-January and three lottery tickets (two of them of the barely-worth-it scratch-off variety) into a power forward who can score, a backup goalie who costs 25 …
Dave Staba
Today is the National Hockey League’s trade deadline and you have several options for keeping track of what Buffalo Sabres general manager Darcy Regier does, or doesn’t do, before 3 p.m. Eastern.
You can flip on one of the local television stations or ESPN when you get home from work and see what happened after the fact.
Or you can obsessively track every baseless rumor and poorly sourced report, perhaps even offering your own vision of what Regier should obviously do if he’s not:
A) A coward; B) An idiot; or C) An ingeniously placed component in the shadowy multi-sport conspiracy against Buffalo, its teams and its fans.
There’s plenty of conjecture floating around that Regier absolutely has to do something, anything, particularly given the body-bag nature of recent weeks.
Just about any scenario involves trading away backup goalie Martin Biron, either directly for a…
thursday february 22nd 2007
Hurt, But Winning
Dave Staba
No big surprises in the Buffalo Sabres’ position in the weekly power rankings – some of the international punditry kept them at No. 1, despite the surreal series of injuries they’ve suffered during an otherwise brilliant homestand.
Buffalo enters tonight’s game against Ottawa, the last before leaving home for the first time in more than two weeks, with a chance to capture 11 of a possible 12 points during the six-game stretch at HSBC Arena.
Cnnsi.com’s Scott Wraight kept Buffalo at No. 1, while noting the freakish bad fortune, as did espn.com.
Another cnnsi.com writer, Brian Cazeneuve,
wednesday february 21st 2007
Mesi Ready For Prime Time?
Dave Staba
After an absence of nearly three years, Joe Mesi returns to the realm of feature-length, nationally televised boxing Thursday night when he fights journeyman George Linberger at the Mountaineer Race Track and Gaming Resort in Chester, W. Va.
The 10-round bout, Mesi’s first since March 13, 2004 -- when he won a narrow decision over Vassiliy Jirov at Mandalay Bay Resort in Las Vegas, but suffered brain bleeds that led to a two-year medical suspension – will be shown on the Versus Network, known mainly in the Buffalo area as the home of National Hockey League telecasts.
Mesi’s return has rekindled debate over the sport’s safety. To date, officials in states like New York and Nevada, where he was suspended until a judge ordered the ban lifted in late 2005, have indicated that they won’t grant him a new license, due to his previous injuries.
Mesi’s doctors argue that th…
tuesday february 20th 2007
Just survive, Baby.
Dave Staba
And don't forget Tim Connolly (though, given how long it's been since the highly skilled playmaker skated during an actual game, you'd be forgiven for doing so).
The Buffalo Sabres' injury list, scarcely worth considering for most of the 2006-07 season, reached the point of absurdity when Kotalik haltingly left the ice during Saturday's 4-3 shootout loss to Boston.
Afinogenov is out for at least six weeks with a broken left wrist.
A severed tendon in Gaustad's ankle wi…
