The next few posts are going to briefly breakdown how I currently feel about the sports teams that I follow religiously. Those teams include the Buffalo Sabres, Buffalo Bills, University of Michigan Football and last but certainly not least, the University of Michigan Men's Lacrosse team.
We'll start off with the team that's obviously number 1 in my heart, the Buffalo Sabres. Ever since the end of the 2000-2001 season in which the Sabres sent arguably one of the best goaltenders in league history, Dominik Hasek to the much hated Red Wings for a bust in Slava Kozlov (the Sabres later traded him to Atlanta after less than 1 injury-riddled unproductive season) the team has not been quite the same. The ultimate measure of a team's success on a year to year basis is if the team can finish in the top 8 in their conference and the Sabres have only been able to do that twice in the last seven years. After coming out of the 2004-05 lockout, the Sabres looked determined to return to the glory years of the late 1990's and made two straight appearances in the Eastern Conference finals (Side Note: Barring injuries to their top 4 defenseman in Game 7 of the 2006 Eastern Conference finals, the Sabres would've gone on to easily win the Stanley Cup versus the Oilers) including winning the President's trophy in 2006-07. Unfortunately after a highly scrutinized off-season in which the Sabres failed to sign either of their co-captains in Chris Drury and Daniel Briere, the Sabres have spent the past two springs on the outside looking in.
As for the current roster, many have questioned the Sabres grit, toughness, leadership, maturity and physical play. I agree with those question marks but feel that the Sabres are only a piece or two away from making a deep run in the playoffs the next few seasons. They have a core group of relative young talented forwards locked up for the next few seasons. Jason Pominville (26), Tim Connolly (27), Derek Roy (25) and Thomas Vanek (25) have all proven they can produce but needed these past two years to mature into a leadership role that hopefully they can fill in the upcoming season. The biggest question mark and the key to the team making it deep in the playoffs are on defense. Are the Sabres going to resign Jaro Spacek after an impressive 45 points this past year? I would love to get stud blue liner like Jay Bouwmeester or Dion Phaneuf but I just don't see the Sabres spending the money to get that type of play, plus I don't think they have the cap room, unless they unload some talent. In goal, I think the Sabres should be fine for the next five years as they locked up 28 year-old Ryan Miller to a five-year extension through the 2013-14 season. I'm fairly certain that had Miller not been injured for a month during the critical playoff run in March this past season, the Sabres would be in the on the ice instead of the golf course.
Shortly after this past season ended there was a column in the Buffalo News that called for the head of Sabres head coach Lindy Ruff and General Manager Darcy Regier. I know both men on a personal level, more Lindy than Darcy and I've see how much knowledge and talent they have first hand during my summer spent as an intern with the Sabres, but after reading that article even I felt that that Sabres needed a change at the top. You look at some of the coaching changes that happened during the year (Carolina, Pittsburgh, NY Rangers) and what a difference it made in the second half of the season for these teams. I had to ask myself, has Lindy's style gone stale? Apparently B. Thomas Golisano and managing partner Larry Quinn felt that both Lindy and Darcy deserved another year after publicly stating that both will be retained through next year. After taking a week to digest the news I am confident that this tandem can put the right pieces together to make a serious run in the next two years. If the Sabres don't make the playoffs next year, I think the both are gone.
Needless to say the first week in October can't come soon enough.
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