The Great Wrong Buffalo: As I mentioned yesterday, it can be tough for certain teams to draw free agents. Add Buffalo to the list of teams that players avoid, as Bucky Gleason pointed out yesterday. Buffalo is close to Canada, which should make it...... , posted on July 08, 2008 more

Boyle: 'Even Though I'm Not a Stay-at-Home Defenseman, I Kind of Want to Stay at Home. In Tampa...': More and more, it sounds like the Lightning really are about to trade Dan Boyle. Erik Eriendsson is the latest to say he thinks the Lightning will try to move Boyle, assuming Boyle waives his no-trade clause. Eriendsson reminds us...... , posted on July 03, 2008 more

Theodore: "It's Not Personal. It's Just Business": Adrian Dater weighs in on goalie Jose Theodore opting to hit the open market rather than re-signing with the Avs. Dater says the Avs deserve a little bit of a hometown discount for saving Theodore's career. While I understand that,...... , posted on June 27, 2008 more

Don't Forget the Losers: I love the time between playoff rounds because it lets me catch up a little bit. Not so much on the playoff teams, but on the teams that were bounced out of the playoffs. Or in the case of the...... , posted on May 06, 2008 more

The Early Golfers: I think it's kind of funny that Olli Jokinen is always on the block, yet Florida never trades him when they have the chance. It's just so weird. The playoffs just started and already there are rumors he'll be traded...... , posted on April 09, 2008 more

Emery Untradeable?: Oh wow. This is pretty interesting. The Senators can buy out goalie Ray Emery next season at just one third of his remaining salary. Apparently, that widely cited CBA fact that buyouts cost a team two-thirds of the money remaining...... , posted on March 19, 2008 more

Let's Not Go to the Video Tape: So what is Chad Kilger's end-game exactly? He's been suspended by the Panthers for not showing up from Toronto. I'm kind of curious why Florida even wants him to show up. I thought they'd just pretend they weren't expecting him....... , posted on March 06, 2008 more

Bad Deal: Not to beat a dead horse, as I'm kind of fond of doing, but could Buffalo have less of an idea of how to retain talent? Bucky Gleason has a nice, brief summary of the Brian Campbell debacle. Also, Minnesota...... , posted on February 28, 2008 more

The Big Picture: I love how GMs very rarely see the big picture. They'll take a small edge today and give up something bigger for the future. I'm actually not even talking about the NHL. Look at what happened when the Nets tried...... , posted on February 18, 2008 more

Campbell: 'I Love Talking About My Contract!': I don't get the whole Brian Campbell/Sabres contract thing. Now he's saying he expects to be a Sabre next season. This is after he said negotiations with the Sabres had ended. While it now seems some contract talk has been...... , posted on February 13, 2008 more

Buffa-Lucky: Florida Panther Richard Zednick, slashed in the neck by teammate Olli Jokinen Sunday night, is stable and expected to recover. Zednick is expected to be out the rest of the season. Doctors said luck was the only reason Zednick didn't...... , posted on February 12, 2008 more

Who's the Seamstress?: Kind of a mixed bag of stuff: Jerry Sullivan had a nice column exonerating Buffalo coach Lindy Ruff for the Sabres' troubles. Sullivan points out the coach doesn't have much input in terms of a GM refusing to sign key...... , posted on January 25, 2008 more

Sabres: 'What? It Takes Us Like Six Years to Sign Guys. Is That Such a Big Deal?': Crazy stuff in Buffalo. Other than their inability to win. The NHL is investigating accusations Daniel Briere started negotiating with the Flyers before he was officially a free agent. So far, the NHL has nothing indicating anything below-board went down....... , posted on January 22, 2008 more

Hockey Flakes: Yesterday's outdoor game was actually pretty good. The hockey wasn't horribly impressive, what with the wind and the snow. While the final score was a 2-1 Pittsburgh win in a shootout, it could have just as easily been a 10-9...... , posted on January 02, 2008 more

NHL: 'Don't Push!': Happy New Year, everyone! Almost... Larry Brooks had a long rant about the complaints against New York Ranger Colton Orr's open ice hit on Carolina's Matt Cullen last week. Brooks wants everyone to relax, saying checking is a part of...... , posted on December 31, 2007 more

No Captain Kapanen: So Jason Smith, aka not Sami Kapanen, is the new captain of the Flyers (login info.). Obviously, I wasn't consulted on this. I guess it's better than Buffalo's Captain of the Month Club. The C comes with a nice mustard,...... , posted on October 03, 2007 more

Hello Hockey Pucks!: I'm a big Don Rickles fan (and not just because of this fan site, but perhaps because we're both Queens, NY products). One of the thing about Rickles is that if he zings/berates you, it's a badge of honor. I...... , posted on August 20, 2007 more

Edmonton: 'We'll Pay You $10 Million a Year Mr. Derek Boogaard': OK. First, I'm going to apologize. I have to dip into ESPN Insider content, just because E.J. Hradek's had some nice stuff yesterday. Like when he asked what exactly is wrong with Edmonton GM Kevin Lowe and his massive offer...... , posted on July 09, 2007 more

Life in B-Town: The only consolation in Buffalo? The fact that Canada was wrong about Danny Alfredsson all of these years. It's not a huge consolation but it's something....... , posted on May 21, 2007 more

Adopt-A-Grandpa: This is pretty interesting. ESPN.com did a an article on Chris Chelios (blah blah million years old blah blah chili). Detroit coach Mike Babcock has a neat quote, though: Who led Vancouver in the playoffs in scoring? Trevor Linden did....... , posted on May 16, 2007 more

Nothing Less Than Perfect: This weekend, the Times had a nice look at the Buffalo Sabres and their owner, billionaire Tom Golisano. Golisano said something very interesting: We can remain profitable as long as we play decent hockey...If the team were to evolve into...... , posted on May 14, 2007 more

Kick the Puck: It's interesting how many people are complaining about the officiating of Sunday's Sabres-Rangers game. Even Jim Kelley thought it was pretty bad, and he's pure Buffalonian. Well actually, not everyone disagrees with the officiating. Scott Burnside thinks the officiating was...... , posted on May 01, 2007 more

Over For Overtime?: Wow. Larry Brooks is good. His Sunday column was all about how the NHL Competition Committee is considering changing the playoff overtime format. Acknowledging playoff overtimes don't always highlight the greatest hockey, they're thinking about something like one five-on-five twenty...... , posted on April 30, 2007 more

The Hall Terminal: I know I briefly touched on playoff ratings being down, but I'm not convinced hockey is done with. I had class last night, with my phone set to get scores from the end of each period of Rangers-Thrashers (thanks 4info.net!),...... , posted on April 19, 2007 more

Goalie Crazy!: Goalie Rick DiPietro sure looked sharp leading the Islanders over Buffalo in game two this weekend, but Greg Logan, who covers the Isles for Newsday, noticed some small things that could indicate DiPietro isn't at 100%: Two small moments caught...... , posted on April 16, 2007 more

The Life of Smythy: Wow. Edmonton trading Ryan Smyth turned out to be more controversial than I thought. USA Today? Not a big fan of the move. Mike Heika from the Dallas Morning News? Not a big fan of Smyth: "Bottom line: Smyth has...... , posted on March 02, 2007 more

You Get What You Pay For: A lot of people have been writing about how bad arbitration is for the NHL. Tim Panaccio is the latest, saying arbitration doesn't give players their value relative to their team's cap space, but instead gives their value across the...... , posted on October 17, 2006 more

Devils Under Cap: You really have to hand it to Devils GM Lou Lamoriello. He was way over the cap, everyone knew he was over the cap, the season was minutes aways, and he had a bunch of unsigned players. I really thought...... , posted on October 04, 2006 more

Buffalo Slugs: I know the blogosphere is aflutter with discussion about the Buffalo Sabres' new logo, but for my money, you're not going to get a better dissection than Uni Watch's. Because Paul Lukas knows uniforms. He is to uniforms what Colonel...... , posted on September 19, 2006 more

Big E in Big D?: Wow. So Eric Lindros is about to become a Dallas Star (login info.). You know. Unless he doesn't. He told the Dallas Morning News he wasn't interested in money so much as he was interested in opportunity. In Dallas, he'd...... , posted on July 17, 2006 more

Garden Party or Garden Distraction?: There are a lot of great reasons for the Rangers to sign Brendan Shanahan to a one-year deal (login info.). It's not an insane amount of time or money. Shanahan is a big forward who's not afraid to get physical....... , posted on July 10, 2006 more

Shero a Penguin: OK. Quick update. Ray Shero won't be the next Bruins' GM. He's going to Pittsburgh. Apparently Shero wanted a dysfunctional franchise on the east coast. But he didn't care which one. The Bruins are now looking at Ottawa's Peter Chiarelli....... , posted on May 26, 2006 more

Puck Sells Out: Truthfully, I'm totally fried from game-hopping through all of last night's big Eastern conference games. So instead, I'll point out that I'm selling a printer on Amazon. Brand new. Never opened. Oh. And the Buffalo Sabres haven't given up a...... , posted on April 19, 2006 more

Hand in Glove: The only team worse than the Buffalo Sabres in the past ten games? The St. Louis Blues. What's going on with Buffalo? How do you go down to the Leafs, 7-0? I haven't watched a lot of the Sabres this...... , posted on April 03, 2006 more

Trade Is Over: Geez. I find the trade deadline so draining. The big shocks: Florida hanging on to Olli Jokinen and Chris Gratton, while not dealing goalie Roberto Luongo. So apparently they really want to keep together this core that has produced 24...... , posted on March 10, 2006 more

Make Trade Fair: Tim Panaccio's solution to this whole 'What should the NHL do about the Olympics' debate? It's pretty smart, actually. He says to move hockey to the summer Olympics (login info.). Just like basketball. I don't know how the whole ice...... , posted on March 06, 2006 more

Buffalo Saves Goalies: Up in Buffalo, Bucky Gleason says the Sabres should trade goalie Martin Biron while he's still red-hot, the theory being that injured Ryan Miller is the Sabres long-term goalie, so Biron is just a kick-ass fill-in. GM Darcy Regier says...... , posted on December 19, 2005 more

The Number One Club: I never really thought about this, but Joe Thornton from the Bruins says he can kind of relate to the whole Sidney Crosby phenomenon. Thornton, you'll recall, came to Boston with crazy-high expectations of him. Pat Burns, his coach, negated...... , posted on October 11, 2005 more

Buffalo Blues: Tim Graham had a great story in the Sunday Buffalo News. He writes the rumor around the league is that players don't want to play in Buffalo. Graham runs the list of players who have left Buffalo angry and it's...... , posted on August 23, 2005 more

Buffalo Still Tired of Satan: The Sabres say they're ether going to trade away Miroslav Satan or just let him go because his contract is too big. I honestly can't remember a time when Buffalo wasn't rumored to be dumping Satan. I don't think they'll...... , posted on July 28, 2005 more

Fans: 'Shut Up and Play Yer Game': This is pretty interesting. Bob Dicesare of the Buffalo News did a straw poll of Buffalo hockey fans at an AHL game. None of the fans sided with the union in the lockout. Obviously, this wasn't a scientific poll, but...... , posted on December 29, 2004 more

Buffalo Never Gives Up. Never.: Could Buffalo be any more serious about making the playoffs? I just got finished watching them destroy the Blue Jackets 6-0. Despite all the Buffalo scoring, the game wasn't a cakewalk. Buffalo took the body every chance they could for...... , posted on March 30, 2004 more

Buffalo Goes For It; Don't Save Your Goalies: Geez. The trade deadline always blows my mind. So busy! I never know where to look. And this year's deadline was especially manic. The big shock for me? Buffalo grabbing Mike Grier and Jeff Jillson. It's funny. Yesterday I was...... , posted on March 10, 2004 more

Satan Splitting?: After all of last season's rumors that Miroslav Satan was out Buffalo's door and after Satan's struggles at the beginning of this season and after Satan's regaining his strong form, the trade rumors are back. Satan, long rumored to be...... , posted on March 05, 2004 more

Sabre Strike: Geez! What's with the Sabres? Suddenly, they're hot as hell. Nobody seems to know what's caused their once horrible offense to pop into overdrive. Crazy overdrive. They scored eight goals against the Kings Friday, six against Toronto Saturday and seven...... , posted on February 17, 2004 more

Snow Follows Sabres: Just a couple of weird things since I'm a bit pressed for time today. *How crazy is this? The Buffalo Sabres go down to North Carolina and run into snow. Did they have to leave Buffalo for that? *In semi-personal...... , posted on January 27, 2004 more

A Hatful of Hat Tricks for Buffalo: Happy New Year! New Year's Eve is a good day for the Buffalo Sabres. Back in 1992, Sabres Alexander Mogilny and Yuri Khmylev both scored hat tricks against the Rangers. Eleven years later, Miroslav Satan and Maxim Afinogenov repeated the...... , posted on January 02, 2004 more

Sabres Fall on Their Sword; CuJo Floors It: OK. OK. I realize I may have talked up Buffalo goalie Ryan Miller a few days ago. He really is a good goalie. You know. Even though he gave up seven goals to the Wings Wednesday — including five in...... , posted on December 12, 2003 more

PuckUpdate Heart Ryan Miller: Buffalo is finally upgrading their goaltending, recalling Ryan Miller from the AHL. Miller had a rough time of it when he was playing for the Sabres at the start of this season. But it really wasn't representative of his play....... , posted on December 09, 2003 more

Drury a Daddy. Almost.: An early congratulations to Buffalo Sabre Chris Drury, whose wife is due to have a baby any second. Sadly, the Sabres are on the road, so Drury is probably hoping the baby is just a little late. The Sabres are...... , posted on December 02, 2003 more

Rochester Heart Gionta: If upstate New York can only agree on one thing, it's that they love them some Brian Gionta. He plays for the Devils. And the Devils were playing the Sabres in Rochester, where Gionta was born. Rochester is erupting like...... , posted on November 13, 2003 more

Sabres Looking Sharp: I know Buffalo dropped their first two games, also failing to score in either game. But watching them tie Dallas yesterday I have to say: Buffalo looks pretty tight. Sure Buffalo could have won, having led Dallas by as much...... , posted on October 14, 2003 more

Satan Signs: To no one's surprise, the Sabres finally came to terms with Miroslav Satan. They gave him $10 million for two years. Not too shabby considering he represents himself and was still in Slovakia last week. But really. What choice did...... , posted on September 30, 2003 more

Sabres Feeling Better: Some nice news out of Buffalo. Tom Golisano, the new owner of the Sabres, is actually doing a pretty good job with the team so far. According to the Buffalo News, suite and season ticket sales are both up from...... , posted on September 23, 2003 more

Contract Contact: Ahhh. What would the NHL preseason be without nasty contract issues? Honestly, I sometimes wake up in a cold sweat in the middle of the night, having had a succession of nightmares where there are no contract conflicts, leaving me...... , posted on September 11, 2003 more

Goalie Coach for Sabres: Speaking of the Sabres, they hired a full-time goalie coach — Jim Corsi. He's got his work cut out for him, working with goalie Marty Biron. Not to sound mean, but maybe he should just concentrate on backup goalie Ryan...... , posted on September 11, 2003 more

Chris Drury, Buffalo Soldier: Chris Drury never really clicked in Calgary. Luckily, he's on the move, traded to the Sabres in a three-team, five-player deal. It's fantastic seeing a talented player join the once-proud Sabres franchise rather than being sent away. The Sabres' new...... , posted on July 07, 2003 more

What's the Hurry?: Welcome to News That Could Have Waited Until After the Stanley Cup Finals. I'm your host, Steven Ovadia. Let's get to it, shall we? *Patrick Roy is retiring. Not much of a shock. But couldn't this have waited until after...... , posted on May 28, 2003 more

Which Rangers?: I love the Rangers. Their inconsistency makes them like three or four different teams in one. They have so many personalities, they're almost a league unto themselves. Saturday, against Boston, the hard-working, grinding Rangers showed up and they beat Boston...... , posted on March 31, 2003 more

The Bad News Sabres: As if Buffalo didn't have enough problems, two of their players might have been exposed to severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS). According to reports, a relative of defenseman Brian Campbell might have SARS, and Campbell and defenseman Rhett Warrener visited...... , posted on March 31, 2003 more

Stay: You said that I was naive and I thought that I was strong I thought, "hey, I can leave, I can leave." Oh, but now I know that I was wrong, 'cause I missed you Yeah, I miss you —Lisa...... , posted on March 13, 2003 more

NHL Business Report: And now to Todd with today's NHL business report. Thanks, Mary. New York billionaire Tom Golisano has reached what parties are calling a "conceptual agreement" to buy the Buffalo Sabres. Of course, a conceptual agreement probably isn't worth the paper...... , posted on February 28, 2003 more

Buffalo Sheds; Colorado Thrives: Buffalo continues to shed salary while trying very hard to look like they're not trying to shed salary. They traded winger Vaclav Varada and a fifth round draft pick to Ottawa for 18-year-old center Jakub Klepis. Varada, a lifetime Sabre,...... , posted on February 26, 2003 more

Buffalo: 'Don't Worry! We'll Dump Talent Later': Everyone is interested in Buffalo's Miroslav Satan, Alexei Zhitnik, and Chris Gratton. Buffalo can't deal them, though, because whoever ends up buying the team will probably want some good players. But the Buffalo News is saying that maybe the Sabres...... , posted on February 25, 2003 more

No One Will Buy the Sabers: Bad news in Buffalo. Mark Hamister missed the deadline to buy the bankrupt Buffalo Sabres. He agreed to buy the team in November for $33 million cash, but couldn't get the government funding he needed to close the deal. Local...... , posted on February 04, 2003 more

Wallflowers: Alexei Kovalev has been getting a lot of ink, lately. It's like Ross and Rachel on FRIENDS. Will he or won't he leave Pittsburgh? The latest word is that he wants to stay, but he wants to get paid what...... , posted on February 03, 2003 more

SabreTending: Before Ottawa got through with them, Buffalo had quite a little shut-out streak going. What makes a goalie like Martin Biron go as hot as he did over the 221 minutes, 58 seconds he kept pucks out of Sabre net?...... , posted on January 27, 2003 more

Dress Like Dom: I'm not going to even to pretend to understand the whole thing with Dom Hasek having a clothing line. I know he has one, but I'm not sure what they look like or what his involvement is. I like to...... , posted on January 21, 2003 more

The Great (Cash) Wiped Buffalo: Speaking of broke teams, the Sabres owe players money. Buffalo is expected to pay the players if for no other reason then it would be hard to sign new players if the old ones weren't being paid. It's pretty messed...... , posted on January 15, 2003 more

Ryan Miller: Remember Him: Who is the goalie of the future? Maybe it's my New York bias, but I always hear the Isles' Rick DiPietro and the Rangers' Dan Blackburn's names mentioned. But maybe the goalie of the future is a little north of...... , posted on January 06, 2003 more

Buffalo Soldiers: First Buffalo blanked the Ducks. Then they killed the Rangers. Then they dropped the Caps. Go ahead and read that again. Buffalo has put together a three-game winning streak. Obviously this is a temporary situation since at its heart, the...... , posted on December 10, 2002 more

Buffalo Loves the Ducks: Have you ever met a Might Ducks fan? I know I haven't, but I bet there are a ton in Buffalo. After all, the Ducks let Buffalo beat them 4-0. I didn't see this game, but I can imagine the...... , posted on December 06, 2002 more

Buffalo Goal Won't You Come Out Tonight: So the crazy goalie experiments are over in Buffalo. No more demoting and promoting goalies. The Sabres have decided to try and fix goalie Martin Biron. The Sabres have also canceled their latest season-ticket promotion: "Buy Season Tickets, Play in...... , posted on November 27, 2002 more

Sabres Find an Owner: It looks like Mark Hamister is the new owner of the Buffalo Sabres. And that's about the only good thing you can say about the Sabres right now. Hamister, who owns some minor league football teams, really has his work...... , posted on November 21, 2002 more

Behold the Power of Satan: The Flyers now have a notch in the loss column. Blame Satan. Miroslav Satan that is. Satan is Flyer Kryptonite, riding them for six goals in four games last season. Luckily for Philly, no one was in the HSBC Arena....... , posted on October 23, 2002 more

Huh?: What's the deal with Buffalo? They had 11 goals in their first two games. If they had kept that pace up, they would have finished the season with 451 goals. Here is how Buffalo was doing it: " Entering Saturday...... , posted on October 14, 2002 more

Are You My Daddy?: In Buffalo, they want to know if anyone is really going to buy the Sabres. It's a good question. A lot of people have expressed an interest, but only one group has submitted an official bid. According to NHL Commissioner...... , posted on October 04, 2002 more