Die By The Blade

Buffalo Sabres Weekend Links: Devils Advance, Rangers Out

2012-05-26T16:25:52Z

Happy Memorial Day weekend, folks. There will be only one big link post this weekend, so we stuffed it with enough links to get you through 3 days. Now go outside and grill something!

- The Dominator wants to come back to the NHL?! At this rate, Buffalo will be able to retire his jersey sometime during the 2025-26 season. [The Buffalo News, BSN]

- A great article by Joe on how to improve the Sabres social media. [Buffalo Wins]

- A season wrap-up at the goaltenders, through spreadsheets. [The Hosers]

- Mark Pysyk's Edmonton Oil Kings bowed out of the Memorial Cup yesterday. Next stop for Pysyk: the Amerks. [Sabres Prospects]

- A look at AHL free agent Drew McIntyre. [Sabre Noise]

NHL Playoff News:

- The Devils defeated the Rangers in OT to advance to the Cup Finals. [NHL.com]

- Last night was another in a long line of recent playoff disappointments for the Rangers. [ESPN]

Ed Note: Yeah, this isn't chock full o' links for a three day weekend, but real life will be in the way for a few hours. More links to come later today.

Buffalo Sabres Daily Links: After A Long Hiatus, Hockey Is Back

2012-05-25T10:09:52Z

Happy Friday, folks. Here are your Buffalo Sabres news and notes, collected in time for you to watch the sunrise.

- Brad Riter offers a blueprint for replacing Lindy Ruff. [Trending Buffalo]

- A season in review for TJ Brennan. [Sabres.com]

- And one for Mike Weber. [Sabre Noise]

NHL Playoff News:

- 28 years after Messier's Game Six guarantee, the Rangers are playing it quiet this time. [NHL.com]

- Why Hockey Fans Should Root For Devils Vs. Kings. [SB Nation]

- What's up with all the postseason headshots? [The Hosers]

- Wayne Gretzky is impressed by these Kings. [ESPN]

- Pierre McGuire Needs To Use Less Discretion While 'Inside The Glass.' [SB Nation]

- BEARD WATCH! [Puck Daddy]

Around the NHL:

- A Dallas Stars rumor roundup. [THN]

- Calder Trophy picks. [SB Nation]

- The 10 most annoying hockey fans. [THW]

The Curious Tenure of Ryan Miller

2012-05-24T14:00:57Z

Ryan Miller rest on his knees, his head sunken into his shoulders. Exhausted men in autumn red and white and black celebrated just a few feet in front of him. It was the best Ryan Miller had ever been -- indeed, he was the best goaltender at that time in the entire world -- and an underdog Team USA rode his strong play to the Gold Medal Game of the 2010 Olympics.

This was the Ryan Miller we knew, the one with whom we finally fell in love and on which we cast our Stanley Cup hopes. He was the one who fought back tears as he accepted his Silver Medal; the Ryan Miller who seemed to finally be coming into his own as one of the permanent, elite goaltenders in the game. But it hasn't always been that way, and as we now creep closer to ten seasons in which Miller has played at least one NHL game for the Buffalo Sabres, questions abound as to what is next for the Sabres netminder.

A Long Foreground Somewhere

"I greet you at the beginning of a great career, which yet must have had a long foreground somewhere, for such a start. I rubbed my eyes a little, to see if this sunbeam were no illusion; but the solid sense of the book is a sober certainty. It has the best merits, namely, of fortifying and encouraging…" - Walt Whitman

Ryan Miller sniffled, kept himself from crying. He wiped his brow, rubbed his eyes with his index finger and thumb. His face was red and tired. It was not so much the reaction of an exhausted young man, but an exasperated one. One without answers.

It was a cool December night in 2003 and, after having spent two months working on his game in Rochester, Miller turned in his second consecutive dud performance with the Buffalo Sabres. The first had come in October in which he'd allowed 6 goals on 24 shots to the Islanders. The second -- the one that set doubt in Miller's mind that he was ever going to make it -- was a 7-2 drubbing at the hands of the powerhouse Detroit Red Wings. He made only 16 saves on the night. He told reporters, in so many words, he didn't know if he'd ever make it back.

No one seemed to disagree.

It was an unusual feeling for a kid of Miller's pedigree. A well-regarded, well-rounded, often-viewed-as-intelligent net minder who spent his formative years honing his craft at Michigan State, Ryan Miller was looked upon and felt like he was put together out of spare Ken Dryden parts at some goalie factory. Still, everything wasn't set in stone. Miller had competition in both Martin Biron and Mika Noronen; two goaltenders who were considered to have high ceilings in their own right.

When Ryan Miller finally earned the full-time starting job in the early goings of 2005-06, it hadn't quite yet seemed like he'd fully regained his confidence as an NHL goaltender, but he was getting there. It was always meant to be that way, it felt: Miller in net, a solid team in front of him.

Moreover: Miller had the benefit in those first few full seasons after the lockout of a team that scored goals for him, and so many of his mistakes went unnoticed.

"They kind of just leave him back there." Ted Nolan said in an 2007 interview, after the Sabres had defeated his New York Islanders in the first round of the Stanley Cup playoffs.

And that they did. The Sabres healthy transition game and powerful offensive presence allowed them to put Ryan Miller on an island where he was free to learn how to be an NHL Goaltender and free to screw up once in a while without it turning into a blowout. It took a while, but he'd finally got back his swagger, and everyone was on board. He was smart, well spoken, in most ways (at the time) uncontroversial and, best of all, American. There were product endorsements, and while the Sabres plowed through captain after captain in the year following the 2007 July dismemberment, a great portion of the Sabres community recognized Miller as one of the team's most vital leaders.

As the Sabres entered 2008-09, the second season after losing Drury and Briere, Ryan Miller was the indisputable face of the franchise. So went Miller, so went the organization.

Turn Around

Yankees General Manager Brian Cashman once had an interesting anecdote about how Gene "Stick" Michael would handle scouts who didn't like how a player who put up good numbers looked. "If you don't like what you see, turn around." he'd say.

The idea was simple: that regardless of how a player looked when they played, the outcome was all that mattered. Putting up numbers and putting up wins. This is essentially the life story of Dominik Hasek.

A quirky, double-jointed Czech goaltender who often resembled a sea otter more than he did a human being when playing goal, Dominik Hasek had a similar meteoric rise within the Sabres organization as Ryan Miller. And few saw it coming, exactly because he didn't look like a goalie who was going to amount to much. He did it all with less offensive help and far less pedigree, but the general details are roughly the same. After taking the job from Grant Fuhr, Hasek became the face of the franchise and one of the most beloved figures in Sabres history -- for a time.

It wasn't always a walk in the park. Hasek made plenty of mistakes; let in soft goals. At times it seemed as though he'd have a brief but egregious mental lapse that made no sense whatsoever. He'd occasionally go for a stroll around the neighborhood -- you know -- somewhere in the general vicinity of his net, but not exactly in it, and the outcome could sometimes be disastrous. But we forgave him because the Sabres were becoming a whole lot of fun to watch and because he was making the type of prolific saves that seemed to defy physics. He also was putting up stats that greatly overshadowed his shortcomings. Hasek was in 93-94 so good, so fast, that it never occurred to us that he might not be that good always. But in 95-96 his GAA ballooned to almost 3, he played 59 games but won only 22, and people panicked a little.

In other words, Hasek, like Miller, had his own maturation process -- albeit in a different way -- but he was good enough that we believed in him, and so we forgave his mistakes.

Ryan Miller, in his first three years as the Sabres starter, was not one of the best goaltenders in hockey. He was above average, sure, but he had some shortcomings. Some of them were glaring.

Nevertheless, as Miller and the Sabres entered 2008-09, he was the defacto go-to guy on the team. It had nothing and everything to do with what the Sabres fan based learned from their time with Hasek. Miller wasn't as good as Hasek; hadn't earned the spotlight by making prolific saves himself and then becoming, suddenly, unbeatable. But what he *had* done for Buffalo was helped accomplish things that Sabres fans had never seen before, just like Hasek. He'd helped the team win a President's Trophy, helped them capture the team high in single-season wins, helped them to two Eastern Conference Finals and then was perhaps the most competent looking player in the disastrous 2007-2008 campaign while the forwards tried to find their identity.

Like Hasek, we ended up there kind of out of necessity. Because he was pretty good pretty fast, with the potential to be really good and there wasn't exactly a lot else to look forward to. It was the most sure way to enjoy the hockey, and to having hope about the next season. Mogilny wasn't walking through that door. Briere wasn't walking through that door.

So what did Miller give us in 2008-09 and 2009-10? The two best seasons of his career. An injury shortened campaign in 2008-09 left doubts about the team, but not about Miller. The excuse of the year was unanimous: had Miller been healthy during the stretch run, the team would have made it in. A year later, they not only made it in, they finished 3rd in the conference.

It was the year that Ryan Miller accepted his Vezina trophy and the year that he finished a Silver Medalist in the Winter Olympics. Ryan Miller had blossomed from potential to results, and everything seemed to have come full circle.

At that point, the question was no longer whether or not Ryan Miller was this team's franchise goaltender, but whether or not the Sabres would put the team around him he needed to win a cup.

Little did he know, little did we know, that the most tumultuous, controversial years of Miller's tenure were right ahead.

Next Week: Part Two, The Curious Tenure of Ryan Miller

Matthew Stewart is a freelance writer living in Austin, Texas. You can reach him on Twitter: @matthew1stewart

Buffalo Sabres Daily Links: Devils Go Up On Rangers

2012-05-24T10:00:30Z

Here are your daily dose of Buffalo Sabres links for Thursday, May 24.

- The fourth advanced stats article on WGR focuses on Luke Adam. [WGR]

- What to do with the second of the Sabres two second round picks. [Sabre Noise]

- It's that time of year. Time for mock drafts, I Mean! [The Ruff Writers]

- Does the World Championship need an overhaul? [Two In The Box]

NHL Playoff News:

- The Devils downed the Rangers to take a 3-2 series lead. [NHL.com]

- Drew Doughty, Conn Smythe winner? [ESPN]

- A postmortem rumor roundup on the Coyotes. [THN]

Around the NHL:

- The Canucks have kept Alain Vigneault as their head coach, signing him to a two year extension. [TSN]

- A post on Sydney Crosby and...comics? [The Hockey Writers]

- SB Nation's writers pick the Lady Byng winner. [SB Nation]

Buffalo Sabres Daily Links: Ennis Wins Play Of The Year, Kings Advance To Cup Finals

2012-05-23T10:03:30Z

Good morning Sabres fans - here's your daily dose of Buffalo Sabres news and notes to start your day off right.

- What's the off-season plan for the Sabres? [TSN]

- Another Scouting Session with Kris Baker, this time focusing on Mikhail Grigorenko. [WGR]

- Tyler Ennis has won the Sabres annual Play Of The Year vote - next stop, TSN! [Sabres.com]

NHL Playoff News:

- The Los Angeles Kings will represent the Western Conference in the Stanley Cup Finals after defeating Phoenix in OT last night. [NHL.com]

- One of the year's most entertaining playoff games produced a Stanley Cup finalist, an irate loser and a controversial ending. [ESPN]

- Coyotes’ Mike Smith believes Dustin Brown should be ‘done forever’ for Rozsival hit; slams Game 5 officiating [Puck Daddy]

- Kings deliver tickets to Rainn Wilson, a.k.a. Dwight Schrute, in Jell-O. If you're a fan of The Office, this is nothing short of phenomenal. [CBS Sports]

Die By The Blade Podcast Episode 13

2012-05-22T21:58:12Z

Dave Oleksy and myself present another episode of the Die By The Blade podcast where we discuss the Stanley Cup Playoffs, the impending CBA negotiations, and more hockey things. You can listen here:

Or download the podcast here. If you have missed our previous episodes, follow along with our RSS feed.

2011-2012 Buffalo Sabres Report Cards: Ville Leino

2012-05-22T11:00:43Z

With the 2011-12 Buffalo Sabres ending in disappointment and after a few weeks for us to gather our thoughts, it's time for us to issue our report cards on the season. Over the next few weeks, we'll grade every player that wore a Buffalo Sabres uniform in 2011 and 2012, from Luke Adam to Mike Weber.

	GP	G	A	P	+/-	PIM	PPG	SHG	GWG	GTG	SOG	PCT
2011 - Ville Leino	71	8	17	25	-2	16	1	0	1		78	10.3

Introduction: Ville Leino was a massive bust. That argument cannot be denied and it's not what this article will be about. The argument around Leino, I believe, is just how big a bust was he - can he improve on last season or is he simply a sunk cost at this point?

Leino was acquired via free agency - at a hefty price - to be the Sabres newest center. Then, the team discovered that he was a terrible center, and he subsequently bounced around on various lines all year, never really getting comfortable with his line mates, and finished the year as one of the team's most universally despised players (Brad Boyes says hi.) Let's dive in a bit more deeply to Leino's disappointing season after the break.

Key Stat: Leino's 78 shots this season rank him fifteenth on the team, and would rank him fifth among Sabres defensemen! He had a decent 10.3% shot percentage, but his low shot total is partly to blame for his scoring so few goals this season. Lindy Ruff commented that Leino needs to use his shot more often, and for a "scoring" forward earning his salary, 78 shots simply won't cut it.

Thumbs Up: Leino's strength is puck possession, and he has great hands, but his unorthodox twist-along-the-boards style often leaves either himself or his teammates out of position. He's an OK hitter and shot blocker, ranking right in the middle for both stats. Ville was pretty disciplined, only taking eight minor penalties all season, and performed just about the same on the road as he did at home. Had more takeaways than giveaways. He's only here for 5 more years - just kidding. (Ed note: only kinda)

Thumbs Down: Leino's faceoff percentage was a dismal 41.3 percent - a center, he is not. Despite receiving over a minute of power play time per game, he finished the season with one measly point. He's not a consistently physical player, and doesn't play the PK. We discussed his lack of shooting above, and to top it off he's not very speedy, nor does he have great moves - he did not score on his only shootout attempt. The icing on the cake is that Leino did not rank higher than 246th in the NHL in any statistical category listed before the break, aside from shorthanded goals, of which he had 0. When I type "Ville Leino" into our photo finder, the first 10 pages that come up are all of him in a Flyers uniform.

Voting On a scale of one to ten, one being the lowest and ten being the highest, grade Ville Leino on his season according to the expectations you had for him. If he met them, give him a five or a six. If he eclipsed them, aim for a seven or beyond. If he failed to meet them, give him a lower number relating to how poorly he missed the target.

Buffalo Sabres Daily Links: Sabres Retain Alexander Sulzer

2012-05-22T10:00:15Z

We've got your Buffalo Sabres news and notes right here, including reactions on the resigning of Alexander Sulzer, and thoughts on Jason Pominville's first season as captain.

- Hey, the Sabres re-signed Alex Sulzer. It's a good move at the right price - turns out Darcy does have discretion after all! [Sabres.com, SB Nation]

- Reactions to the Sulzer signing. [Buffalo Wins, Two In The Box, Sabre Noise]

- Darcy Regier updated John Vogl on his offseason plans, including the fact that he's still looking for a center. [Sabres Edge]

- How was Jason Pominville's first season as captain? [WGR]

- Sabres/Amerks center Paul Szczechura has signed with Prague of the KHL. The Sabres can still retain his AHL/NHL right by giving him a give him a qualifying offer. [Sabres Hockey Central]

NHL Playoff News:

- The Devils evened their series with the Rangers thanks to a 4-1 win. [NHL.com]

- Mike Rupp shoves Brodeur, sparks Game 4 chaos as Devils, Rangers coaches squabble. [Puck Daddy]

- The Rangers did not defend at their usual high level last night. [TSN]

- Dave Tippett is helping Phoenix believe in themselves. [ESPN]

- That Shane Doan guy has some leadership, huh? [USA Today]

- A cool time lapse video from the Staples Center, which hosted playoff games for the Kings, Lakers, and Clippers last weekend. [SB Nation]

Around the NHL:

- More on Russia's gold medal from the IIHF World Championships. [From Russia With Glove]

- Why Zach Parise is worth spending money on. [Backhand Shelf]

- It was a busy day in Carolina, as they signed three players. [SB Nation]

Die By The Blade

Buffalo Sabres Weekend Links: Devils Advance, Rangers Out

Buffalo Sabres Daily Links: After A Long Hiatus, Hockey Is Back

The Curious Tenure of Ryan Miller

Buffalo Sabres Daily Links: Devils Go Up On Rangers

Buffalo Sabres Daily Links: Ennis Wins Play Of The Year, Kings Advance To Cup Finals

Die By The Blade Podcast Episode 13

2011-2012 Buffalo Sabres Report Cards: Ville Leino

On a scale of 1-10, with 1 being the lowest and 10 being the highest, how would you rate Ville Leino for his 2011-12 season?

Buffalo Sabres Daily Links: Sabres Retain Alexander Sulzer