Thomas Vanek joined fellow teammates Christian Ehrhoff Andrej Sekera, and Tyler Ennis today in choosing to wait out this lockout overseas. Vanek will play in his hometown of Graz, Austria for the 99ers and could appear in the lineup as early as Friday. Vanek’s contract, much like Christian Ehrhoff’s, has stipulations. As of now, his contract runs through November 4th when the European leagues break for the national teams. There is also an opt-out clause so Vanek could return immediately to Buffalo should the lockout end.

While Vanek may not be the star attraction in Sabreland anymore, he’s nothing short of Alex Ovechkin to the people in Graz. The website for the Graz 99ers crashed when news of Vanek’s signing broke due to the excessive interest and excitement over Vanek returning to his home country to play. Tickets to see the hometown boy have also become a hot commodity, with people from all over Austria falling over eachother to get their hands on them.

Below is what Chris Schleifer of the Osterreich, a large Austrian newspaper, had to say about the new breaking of Vanek’s return to his hometown:

“This is just huge. The 99ers’ Web site has already crashed. Hockey fans from all over Austria are already buying tickets for the next games, no matter what teams they’re fans of. They want to see Thomas play live. All of the media outlets have the story as their No. 1 story. The Austria Press Agency sent it out in blue, which means ‘urgent.’ There are no words to describe it.”

It sounds like it’ll be all eyes on Van, much like it is here. The major difference being most of the fans over there will welcome him home with open arms. Here, many people undervalue Vanek and don’t appreciate his raw talent (whoch I believe is sometimes stifled due to line juggling and excessive defense…). As with Ennis, Ehrhoff and Sekera, I’m sure we are all wishing him well, but would prefer him and all players to be here playing instead of 10 time zones away. Stay tuned for more updates.

The Buffalo Sabres announced last night that they have agreed to terms on an entry level contract with 2011 first round draft selection Joel Armia. In a completely shocking turn of events, the terms of the contract were not released, but it was a 3 year deal. If anyone had to guess, it would probably be somewhere in between Tyler Myers’ and Tyler Ennis’ entry level contracts money wise, since they were the 12th and 26th selections in 2008. Armia was selected 16th overall in 2011.

It’s also important to note that Armia was the first player the Sabres selected since 2006 that was not either Canadian or American. In the 2006 draft 3 North American skaters and 3 European skaters were selected: Dennis Persson (Sweden), Jhonas Enroth (Sweden), Felix Schultz (Germany) and Mike Weber (United States), Alex Biega (Canada), Benjamin Breault (Canada). After that draft the Sabres stuck strictly to North American skaters, until Armia.

He has completed his second season with Porin Ässät of the Finnish Elite League, scoring 18 goals and 20 assists. In 102 games, Armia has amassed 36 goals and 31 assists. In those two seasons, Armia was the youngest member of the team. He has also represented Finland at the international level playing the the IIHF U20 World Junior Championships for the last two years. In 7 games at the 2012 tournament he scored 5 goals and added two assists.

In the words of a very famous rabbit, thats all folks. The push for the playoffs came to an end for the Buffalo Sabres last night in Philadelphia after a 2-1 loss to the Flyers. If the Panthers had managed to come back and beat the Capitals last night, there would be very different conversations floating around right now.

It was heartbreaking, to say the least. The Sabres took an early lead on Ville Leino‘s 8th goal of the year, yep thats right people I said EIGHT… Either way, Leino scored late in the second period and it looked like the Sabres were going to pull off another miracle. This team is normally very strong when carrying a lead into the third, but this time they just couldn’t hold on.

Marc-Andre Bourdon tied it up on a booming shot from the blue line that found its way through a screen and past Ryan Miller. That was just around the 6 minute mark of the third period, meaning that should have been plenty of time to pull together and get something done, considering this game meant EVERYTHING for the season to continue. The Flyers responded with physical play that left the Sabres scrambling. Matt Read iced the game with his 24th of the year with 4 minutes remaining in the period.

» Continue reading “Buffalo Sabres Eliminated From Playoff Contention”

Well at least something good happened in the universe currently being occupied by the Buffalo Sabres. Marcus Foligno, who was only recently recalled from Rochester, was named the NHL’s rookie of the month for March. A solid effort by the rookie forward, combined with impressive play from his linemates Drew Stafford and Tyler Ennis, landed him on top of an impressive pack.

Foligno accumulated 12 points (5G 7A) in 11 games from March 10th against the Ottawa Senators through March 31st against the Toronto Maple Leafs…which was a disappointing loss, to the Maple Leafs… Either way, at least we have a rookie to be proud of, since any hopes of making the playoffs are dwindling by the day, unless the Caps play the Lightning, because then Super Stammer saves the day. Anywhooooo… congrats Marcus!!

Well, for the Buffalo Sabres, its not over yet. After another dominating win against the Washington Capitals last night, that hope is growing into something real. Two months ago, this team was in the middle of a franchise record road losing streak and was sitting in the basement of the Eastern Conference and now they managed to turn a ten point gap into the eighth and final playoff spot. At least thats where they sit today.

Currently the Sabres are on a 5 game win streak after posting dominating wins against Tampa Bay, Montreal, the New York Rangers, Minnesota and Washington. Through this current streak, the Sabres have outscored their opponents 22-6, thanks in large part to the line of Drew Stafford-Tyler Ennis-Marcus Foligno and the stellar play of Ryan Miller.

» Continue reading “Buffalo Sabres Seize 8th Place From Caps”

Now this is what the Buffalo Sabres were expecting when they rewarded Drew Stafford with his contract extension. His two goals last night continued to prove that all he needed was the right line mate’s to awaken him from his slumber for most of the season. In his last 6 games, he has 12 points and has had separate 3 point games. Stafford has been a streaky player through out his career and tends to score in bunches, but many get the sense that this time seems to be a little different.

His line mates, Tyler Ennis and recent call-up Marcus Foligno, have certainly helped bring out what many believe is the “real” Drew Stafford. Foligno has played in 8 total NHL games, his first coming back in December against the Senators. While his name didn’t appear on the scoresheet that night, many were excited to see what the youngest Foligno had to offer. In his next appearance, which was 7 games ago, he would score his first goal. After that he was promoted to the line with Ennis and Stafford and the rest in pretty much history. Foligno has accumulated 10 points in 7 games, including 5 goals.

» Continue reading “Will The Real Drew Stafford Please Stand Up?”

It took 9 games, but Cody Hodgson has finally arrived. He scored his first point as a Buffalo Sabre on Monday night against Tampa Bay by picking up the primary assist on Jason Pominville's power play goal late in the first period. He followed that up by adding a secondary assist on Corey Tropp's third goal of the season in the second period. After that game, the CoHo haters quieted down a bit, but after tonight there is really nothing left for them to complain about.

Hodgson scored what would become the game winning goal 6:15 into the first period. The ovation Hodgson received when his name was announced was glorious to say the least. He’s worked hard and is finally starting to feel comfortable with his new teammates, which is becoming more and more obvious as we watch his puck handling. He is starting to figure out where players are going to be and his passing has become much stronger as games have progressed. just to add icing to the cake (and to silence the rest of the haters out there), he scored again .

» Continue reading “Welcome to the CoHo Show”

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it
was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness. . . .

A rather fitting quote of this game. It was the best of times, see Tyler Ennis’ game. It was the worst of times, see Montreal’s game tying goal with 3 seconds left in the game. It was he age of wisdom, see Derek Roy’s pass to Tyler Myers to win the game in overtime. It was the age of foolishness, see Ville Leino’s giveaway in the first that led to the first Habs goal.

The entire game, the last ten minutes or so being the exception, was completely dominated by the Sabres. It became very evident almost immediately that the Canadiens were a little tired, as Buffalo skated all over them. Somehow, the Habs came out of the first period with a 1-0 lead, despite the tilted shot totals (14 – 6 in favor of Buffalo). Erik Cole opened the scoring after an untimely giveaway by Ville Leino off the wall. Desharnais picked up the loose puck and dumped it back to Cole who slapped it over Miller’s shoulder.

» Continue reading “A Tale Of Two Tyler’s”

Well the awesomeness in Pegulaville just keeps on coming.  They Sabres made a splash on the first day of free agency by signing forward Ville Leino to a 6 year contract worth $27 million.  Another awesome deal, at least in my mind. Leino is still young and should have no problem adjusting to Lindy’s system and he would look mighty nice centering a line with Jason Pominville and Tyler Ennis/Drew Stafford/Thomas Vanek.  He’s big and is not afraid to play in front of the net, which is something this team has lacked outside of the services of Paul Gaustad and Vanek.  I’m looking forward to seeing how Lindy works him into the fold and cna’t wait to see that beautiful shot next season.

To keep up with some of the grit, the Sabres also re-signed forward Cody McCormick to a multi-year deal.  I love McCormick, seriously though he’s one of my favorites, and couldn’t be more excited to have him back.  The combo of McCormick, Gaustad and Kaleta makes for quite the thundering third line, with McCormick leading the way with 16 fighting majors last season.

On a side note, Tim Connolly is GONE!!!!! I don’t even care that he signed with the Maple Leafs, thats how excited the city of Buffalo is to be done with his injury riddled self.  The contract is of course absurd, I mean really, would you pay a middle of the road (at best) center, who is hurt more than he is healthy $4.75 million A YEAR… Thats $750,000 more than he was making in Buffalo.  Either way, enjoy him Toronto, that is if you ever get to see him play.

Stay tuned, because there is no way this team is finished yet. There are still 4 RFA’s (Enroth, Gragnani, Weber and Sejkera) to sign and the team has about $1.3 million left until they hit the cap ceiling.  Something’s gotta give, now its just a waiting game to see what that something is.

According to Sabres.com the Buffalo Sabres signed a purchase agreement with the Rochester Americans of the American Hockey League (the transaction was unanimously approved by the AHL Board of Governors). The team also announced that with this purchase, their agreement with the Portland Pirates has ended.  This means that the Sabres will reunite with their old farm club and have their prospects closer to Buffalo.  For fans, this is awesome news, it means we can make the hour trek to Blue Cross Arena to check out the baby Sabres without paying a small fortune (woot!).

Now comes the decision of who will coach the baby Sabres? Kevin Dineen coached the Pirates from 2005 (when they were affiliated with the Ducks) to the end of last season, he was recently named the new coach of the Florida Panthers.  He coached prospects such as Mike Weber, Tyler Ennis, Nathan Gerbe, Luke Adam and Marc-Andre Gragnani.  Under his leadership Gerbe, Ennis and Adam have all won AHL Rookie of the Year and Gragnani won Defenseman of the Year this season.  Many suspect ex-Sabres Associate Coach Brian McCutcheon to be named coach (he coached the Amerks for 3 season before joining the Sabres).

Stay tuned for more!