The Two-Line Pass

We’re now something like five days out from the start of the NHL season, which means I have to kick these season previews into overdrive because I’m a lazy idiot. This is mainly for two reasons: 1) I am lazy and there’s no way I’ll do one of these every day, and 2) These started early enough that if I just stop doing them entirely you’ll have forgotten by October anyway. Oh and I guess also to show off my near-infinite knowledge of the National Hockey League. I’ll be previewing the teams in reverse order of finish in the 2007-08 season. Please note, though, that this is the opinion of one man, however smart and handsome he may be.

Buffalo Sabres, you’re on the clock.

I think this is probably the hardest team to get a read on in the NHL.

On the one hand, you’ve got loads and loads of talent. On the other, well, talent doesn’t always get you where it does on paper. Case in point, LAST year’s Buffalo Sabres, who despite losing just Chris Drury (meh), Dainus Zubrus (meh) and Dany Briere (actually damaging), saw their goal total drop from 298 in 2006-07 to 251 last season.

More after the jump.

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This is pretty cool

For those Sabres fans yearning to relive the glory days of the Buffalo Memorial Auditorium, which shut down in 1996, it turns out all you need is a crowbar and the cover of night.

Last fall, three guys had the bright idea to break into the Aud and take a bunch of pictures, and what they found was pretty awesome. Nearly everything was intact, from board advertisements with old corporate logos (who remembers the Tostitos Cowboy?) to hand-done boards showing the team scoring race through 63 games. Steve Nichol had 14 goals and 32 points in 55 that year.

Want to know how long it’s been since 1996? A large beer was $4.25! You can still get your tickets to that Hartford game on April 4, too.

Go ahead and click through all the pictures. They’re really awesome.

Ask 'em where the money at. (photoshop cred: Loser from Sports Argument Stadium)

Not one day after we wondered why Darcy Regier has been sitting around playing Sudoku all summer, he makes a move few people expected.

Goaltender Ryan Miller, who many thought destined to wear the Winged Wheel in his native Michigan, has re-upped with Buffalo for another five years at $6.25 million per.

“I wanted to commit to Buffalo based on who we have there and I feel like our team has accomplished a lot in the last three years,” Miller said. “Last year, I just count that year as a hiccup. We’re going to learn and be motivated.”

Pretty steep for a goalie of Miller’s quality, but worth the investment for Buffalo (they weren’t going to spend it on actual unrestricted free agents) and it keeps a well-liked, marketable netminder in town for a few more years.

In an interview on Buffalo’s sports talk station, Miller said the two big factors in his decision to re-sign were Paul Gaustad getting his contract extended, and “going up to Wegman’s,” a popular supermarket chain in the Buffalo area.

HOW I MAKE ACQUISITION?

What exactly does Darcy Regier get paid to do in the offseason?

Since the free agency period began, Regier has acquired two (2) players, Craig Rivet and Patrick Lalime. That’s it.

He has also lost six despite having 11 million in cap space coming into the offseason. When your biggest RFA re-signing is Daniel Paille, you’re in serious trouble.

Meanwhile, the rest of the Northeast is beefed up. Ottawa’s made a few good moves (still hoping for that Khabibulin trade to put them over the top!), Boston signed a 30-goal guy in Mike Ryder and gets Patrice Bergeron back, Montreal will get better as its young players age, and Toronto.. okay, fine.

But Sabres fans seem HAPPY about this.

Management did a decent job this year by acquiring the needed personnel for the gaps in the roster for the upcoming season. Some will argue that the team should have made a bigger splash in the free agent market, but with the inflated prices for mediocre players, I believe that the Sabres management team was smart in the moves that were made.

…

With these improvements, I believe that we can be a true cup contender this season. If our coaching staff takes the right measures in improving the chemistry of our lineup, the Sabres will be a force to be reckoned with.

You’re deluding yourself. Craig Rivet doesn’t make this a Cup contender, and Buffalo still isn’t a particularly tough team for anyone to play against. One thing the Leafs have done effectively is put together a mediocre team that will make opponents earn every win. When Toni Lydman’s your toughest player and the team gives away the puck as often as it does (737 times last year and only 389 takeaways for a -348 turnover differential), it’s difficult to have high hopes of, y’know, winning games.

Gotta wonder what’s going on up there. If this is a situation like that movie Castaway, Buffalo fans might want to get the Navy on this before Regier starts talking to a hockey puck with a face on it.