Sabres management, players and alumni plan ride across the border together to reconnect with the team’s fans in Canada.
The Sabres estimate about 10 percent of their season ticket-holders live in Southern Ontario, but visits to The True North have dwindled through the years. The Sabres haven’t held training camp in St. Catharines, Ont., since 2003, and increased border-crossing regulations can make short visits difficult.
“Engaging Southern Ontario, the Niagara Frontier is really, really important to us for the future of the Buffalo Sabres,” team President Ted Black said today by telephone. “In years past we went there to try and sell tickets. Here, we just want to sell ourselves on enlisting new fans and connecting with the fans that maybe haven’t seen us over there physically for a while.”
Black will join forward Ville Leino, team Hall of Famer Danny Gare, retired defenseman Jay McKee, broadcaster Harry Neale and others for several stops in Fort Erie and St. Catharines on Thursday and Friday.
The tour starts at 8 a.m. Thursday with the group serving coffee at the Tim Horton’s location at 1167 Garrison Road in Fort Erie. There will also be visits to two schools and meetings with the Greater Fort Erie Chamber of Commerce and St. Catharines business association today. On Friday, the Sabres will stop at Brock University, a hospital in St. Catharines and conduct an on-ice clinic in the Garden City.
In other news:
*Sabres mini-packs went on sale today despite the uncertainty of any games being played. Fans can create a ticket package of five to 40 games and receive a 10 percent discount off box office prices. Other benefits include no service charge and the ability to buy playoff tickets before they go on sale to the general public. Mini-packs can be purchased at Sabres.com.
*The Sabres are installing new seats in the retractable seating sections between 109 and 113. They also plan to remodel the Sabres Store this month.
---John Vogl
There's uncertainty as to when the NHL season will start, but one thing that's 100 percent sure is a healthy Cory Schneider will be in the crease for the Vancouver Canucks when it does. Roberto Luongo knows that better than anyone, which is why the Canucks' backup goalie said today the Florida Panthers would be a better team for him.
"[Florida] makes sense for myself, for my career and my family,'' Luongo told the South Florida Sun Sentinel. "That being said, there's obvious other options as well. This is a preferred location for obvious reasons, but I'm not shutting the door on other possibilities if it comes up.''
The Canucks' former franchise goalie, who is 33, has 10 years left on his contract with a salary cap hit of $5.33 million.
"Obviously, I want to start. That's a given,'' Luongo, who played for the Panthers from 2000 to 2006 and has an offseason home in Florida, told the Sun Sentinel. "You're dealt different situations in life. You've got to handle them the right way. I don't know what's going to happen this year. The only thing I could do is work hard and have a positive atittude. At the end of the day, I'm sure everything is going to work out.''
Elsewhere around the NHL:
*Sabres forward Steve Ott recently had a chat with the NHL Players' Association and detailed his love of boating. He also praised his new organization.
"You look at the young talent they have in Buffalo and you have plenty of reason to be very optimistic," Ott said on NHLPA.com. "You get a real sense, from top to bottom, that they are serious about winning."
*The Colorado Avalanche made a historic announcement today, naming 19-year-old forward Gabriel Landeskog the youngest captain ever in the NHL.
---John Vogl
I told you earlier this month I didn't expect any hockey to be played in October.
That's looking more and more likely after talks between the NHL and Players Association were recessed today after 90 minutes with the parties stalled and no new talks planned.
The players are moving for a four-year deal with Gary Bettman & Co. looking for a longer one and pointing out the NBA signed a 10-year agreement last year. In addition, the players' share of the revenue would drop in the first three years and then bounce back to the 57 percent they currently have in year four. Bettman said that's unacceptable and even used the word "stonewalling" to discuss the players' tactics.
Still hard to see the league's side of this one. The players took a 24 percent rollback in 2004. The owners are the ones who can't get out of their own way handing out huge contracts. There's far more revenue now in this sport than there used to be.
"Someone needs to say something new," Bettman said.
Uh-oh. Maybe the Commish should take some of his own advice.
We already heard rumors of players (notably Evgeni Malkin going to the KHL) who are starting to line up deals in Europe in case there's a lockout. Let's see if that starts to grow.
---Mike Harrington
(www.twitter.com/bnharrington)
Assuming a lockout is over by then, old friend Derek Roy is on target for a mid-November return/debut with the Dallas Stars after having shoulder surgery July 2, he told the team's Web site in a story published late Thursday night.
“It’s getting better. Every day I try to get more motion in it and more strength in it,” Roy said. “I’m just doing the little things to get it going. It’s going to take time, but if you take it one day at a time, it’s a little better.”
Roy is not skating with teammates doing pre-training camp workouts (for a camp, of course, that may not happen anytime soon). He hopes to be skating in late September. The Sabres, remember, expressed surprise at development camp to learn the Stars' medical team opted for surgery with Roy.
"They figured a 100 percent Derek Roy would help the team more than playing at 75 percent, getting hurt, coming back and doing that all season," Roy said. "We made the decision on surgery and right now for us, and we are going to move forward. I could have played with it, but I wouldn’t have been 100 percent."
Mike Heika of the Dallas Morning News also takes this look at Roy, pointing out he's the one Stars player who would clearly benefit from a lockout from the standpoint of potentially not missing games.
---Mike Harrington
(www.twitter.com/bnharrington)
Not much for Darcy Regier to say last week when I talked to him for Sunday's story. The Sabres GM is simply moving forward doing his normal work until he's told otherwise. But there's certainly the feeling no one believes there's going to be much hockey any time soon.
So at least it's fun to think about what might be when we finally get a season started. The Hockey News has gone day-by-day through each spot in the conferences and finished today by naming Pittsburgh its No. 1 choice in the East and St. Louis No. 1 in the West.
The full rankings are here, with the Sabres tabbed 7th in the East and set for a first-round matchup with Boston. Florida, New Jersey and Phoenix are picked to go from playoffs teams to outside looking in.
Meanwhile, the NHL Network's popular "HD Classics" telecast has several old Sabres games on this week.
---Game 7 of the 2006 Eastern Conference final in Carolina was shown on the network this afternoon (sorry for no notice, just noticed), but it will be repeated Thursday at noon. Maybe watch the first 40 minutes, when the Sabres still held a 2-1 lead.
---Game 5 of the 2007 ECF against Ottawa will air Thursday at 4 a.m. and Friday night/Saturday morning at 2 a.m. DVR masochists or Daniel Alfredsson fans, get ready.
---The No Goal Game (Game Six of the '99 finals against Dallas) will air in its five-hour entirety Friday afternoon at 3:30. I watched this a couple times last summer and it was interesting to see how the ESPN telecast handled the Brett Hull controversy.
It was much how it felt in the building that night: A goal was scored, the Cup was awarded, the pictures were taken and only then did anyone realize there was an issue. I noticed it on a concourse television replay walking out of the building about the time ESPN started talking about it and then noting the Sabres had refused to open their locker room to reporters. What a fiasco.
(Of course, if James Patrick had just scored in the second overtime rather than hitting the crossbar ... )
---Mike Harrington
(www.twitter.com/bnharrington)
The Sabres are supposed to open the season Oct. 13 against Pittsburgh in First Niagara Center, although the chances of that seem to be shrinking by the day. But we know there definitely will be hockey that weekend, as the Rochester Americans have just announced their schedule and their opener will be Oct. 12 in Blue Cross Arena against Syracuse.
Buffalo-area folks needing a hockey fix have a great chance to get one up the Thruway as the Amerks' 38-game home slate includes 21 Fridays, three Saturdays and three Sundays.
Games played Tuesday through Saturday will all start at 7:05 p.m., while games played on Sundays and Mondays will see times of 1:05, 3:05 or 5:05.
Rochester is in the North Division along with Hamilton, Lake Erie, Toronto and Abbotsford and will play 36 games in its division. The Amerks will also play against Syracuse 10 times (five home, five road), Binghamton eight times (four home, four road), Adirondack four times (two home, two road), Albany four times (two home, two road), and twice each (one home, one road) versus Grand Rapids, Hershey, Houston, Oklahoma City, San Antonio, Texas and Wilkes-Barre/Scranton.
A highlight of the road schedule is a Feb. 22 game against Hamilton at the Bell Centre in Montreal, home of the Bulldogs' parent, the Canadiens.
Click here for the full schedule in pdf form.
Amerks season tickets and packages are available on Amerks.com or by calling 1-855-GO-AMERKS.
---Mike Harrington
(www.twitter.com/bnharrington)
Things continue to be quiet in Sabreland but the preseason chatter is already starting to build, even though no one really knows what's going to happen with the CBA.
(Big news of the day in the NHL so far: Carolina signs former Calder Trophy winner Jeff Skinner to a six-year, $34.35 million extension. And memo to the Sabres: The terms of the deal were announced by the team).
NHL.com is running its 30 teams in 30 days feature -- the Sabres were on the docket over the weekend -- and the Hockey News is doing its predictions place by place each day (they have not hit the Sabres' spot in the East yet).
The Sabres figure to be an intriguing team to watch among the non-playoff clubs from last year and I appeared this morning on NHL Home Ice on Sirius/XM with Jamie Shalley and Terry Mercury. They were certainly interested, like everyone here, with what the Sabres are going to do at center and with all these defensemen.
Hear the interview below:
Mike Harrington on NHL Home Ice
---Mike Harrington
(www.twitter.com/bnharrington)