From the Pressbox

Trading Huet for something was a good idea. I'm a believer and am down hook, line and sinker. But Montreal is a younger team with little play-off experience and loads of signing considerations. Do they have a realistic chance of winning the cup this year.... maybe not. Considering the future, they obviously had no intention of signing one older goalie with two younger goalies in the pipe and a bunch of solid role-players to sign.

thanks elliote for exposing the problem in buffalo. this team has gone from the top to mediocrity and no optimism in sight. no one has held golisano responsible until now. players, gm's, the union, etc. now all look at buffalo as a joke. i can see why.

I think Elliotte is right on in his assessment of the situation with the Buffalo Sabres. I saw his interview with Tom Golisano on Saturday's pre-game show; when Elliotte asked TG if the Sabres were for sale, his eyes darted around the room briefly before he soft-pedalled his way around the question. Let's just say that it is easier to move/sell a team that's done poorly than one that just went to the conference finals. Look for Tom to shop the team to interests in Hamilton.
To Arthur on his comment about Sabres ticket prices being low. Buffalo is about as economically depressed city as there is that still has major league sports teams. Plus, Buffalo has always been a very value-conscious city and a tough audience. Hiking ticket prices for an underacheiving team will keep fans away, negating the desired effect. (Not to mention the fact that it is insane that tickets to an individual game can run $200+ for a single seat. I still have ticket stubs from Sabres games in the 70's-the price? $5.00.)

One trade I still don't understand was why the Ducks picked up Marc-Andre Bergeron. Does Bergeron strike anyone as being a Brian Burke type of player? He's small (tiny by Ducks' standards), poor defensively, inconsistent and strictly offensive. And why do the Ducks need more D? They already had the best D in the league and hardly need another offensive defenseman on a team that already has Pronger, Schneider, Niedermayer and Beauchemin. Maybe Burke figured he'd upgrade the 2nd PP unit. If anybody needed a powerplay quarterback it's the Thrashers - who really blew it trading Coburn away. Waddell should be fired for that trade alone.

Even before Bernier showed us what he was made of against Nashville I think a majority of the fans in Buffalo were on board with the trade. Campbell, even though he claimed otherwise, made it pretty clear he wasn't going to hang around after the season. All the crying and whining about how much he likes the city wasn't enough to overcome the greed he showed. He wants to be set for the future, he claims. Well, I don't know about you, but I would be perfectly happy with receiving 17M dollars for working the next 3 years. And if that's not enough to support a single guy in Buffalo, then there's a deeper problem.
As for bringing in a big, first round draft pick forward, hey, what's it gonna hurt. At least we got something out of the deal instead of NOTHING, like we did with Briere and Drury. He's got good hands, he's got size, and he's not afraid to hit. We had Zubrus for a few months last year, and he was good too - you couldn't knock him off the puck in the corner. The Sabres need that. I think they've found it. It's a good move, I thought it was a good move before, and I think so even more now!

Go Sabres!!!

Regier and company simply LUCKED OUT with the "New NHL". We picked up guys like Poms, Roysie, Briere, Connolly before the lockout. With the new rules it opened the game up more for offensive breakouts. If rules never changed, we would have been the bottom feeders of the league. Regier deserves no credit for the team he built but he and the higher ups deserve ALL THE BLAME for descimating a superb team that should have remained intact. I would have taken 4 1st rounders any day rather than handcuffing the organization with such a big contract for Vanek.

I just want one championship before I die, please?

If McCabe is getting $ 6.15 mill per year ,
paying Campbell $6.5 mill is cheap....
Campbell will make San Jose a much improved team and awesome city and close to the beach and
great golf courses and superb quality of living.

Did you watch last nights game?
Ha Ha nice article.. That was the most physical game I have seen Buffalo play. 2 goals 1 assist for Bernier. Bottom line Regier saw his team get beat physically in the playoffs and he knew they had to get tougher.

With regards to Buffalo, neitehr Briere or Campbell are worth what they have been/will be paid. Both are one-dimensional players who are replaceable. Drury is a bigger problem to replace and he is the one who should not have gotten away.

As far as the scouting department, I could not agree more. But my question is whether the right person to blame in Buffalo is Tom "I know nothing about hockey, but am buying the team out of a sense of civic duty" Golisano (the owner), or Larry Quinn (the obsessive, controlling limited partner). This appears starkly to be yet another example of harebrained idea by Quinn (like the xtra large net and the Buffalo Slug logo) that reeks of excessive egotism and is doomed to cripple the franchise.

To Mark Downling and the CBC who agreed to post his message: Ottawa may have a smaller market than the TO megacity, but Sens fans are just as loyal and passionate about their team as the Leafs nation is of theirs. The tens of thousands who turned out at Ottawa City Hall and on Red Mile during the playoffs last year proves it. Many Ottawans grew up as Habs and Leafs fans, and some have remained so now, and they make themselves seen at heard at Sens games. I respect and appreciate their right and desire to do so, and enjoy the friendly rivalry. But the Leafs fans at the game in Ottawa the other night doesn't diminsh the army of fans, including thousands upon thousands of kids, who worship the ground their Sens heroes walk on. Somehow, it's once again ok to bash the Senators on the CBC for no good reason. Please grow up and get over yourselves.

I like what Murray has done. We lost Chris Neil so he brings in Lapointe. We made our big trade 2 weeks ago for Stillman and Commodore so we didn't make any headlines yesterday.

Mark Dowling: Not sure why you are picking on Ottawa, the Leafs have a lot worse problems than the Senators do. All that game proved is that the Leafs at their best can beat the Senators at their worst.
There's Senators fans aplenty in Ottawa. They just left the game early disgusted with their team's performance, something Toronto fans are all too familiar with.
Unlike you, we've had the benefit of hearing all the honking horns and excitement of the entire city after a home victory in a Stanley Cup Final. I've never seen Ottawa so excited as it was last June. We didn't win the cup, but we've been a lot closer to it than your team ever has in 40 YEARS.

I did like the moves the Blackhawks did/didn't do and the same for the kings. I didnt like what Anaheim did do.
For starters the blackhawks out right won the Ladd trade Ruuto cost to much and wasnt producing enough, it was a good dump. The hawks didnt sell away their gains from last years free agency and have one more year to trade habby. (There are more buyers at the end of the season. . . Kings?)

The kings dump stuart, yes they got nothing in return (ok very little) but it gives them room and helps them in the long run. The kings are in last place not for lack of skill on offence or lack of depth on the blue line... they need solid goaltending and Berner is still pretty far off the starting mark.

Anaheim picked up Abuin this move makes no sense it gives a chance to bring some more depth into there lineup. One thing the ducks should avoid is a battle of LA. They should trade to hurt the kings if they can everytime, not help them.

If Buffalo has among the lowest average ticket prices in the league, there is an obvious solution to their alleged budget problems.

Carey Price may not win the cup for the Montreal Canadiens this year. Guaranteed though he will be the # 1 for many years to come and keep Montreal competitive for a long time. Not Mortgaging the future for Hossa was simply brilliant GMing on Gaineys part. As well I am on the side of Sabres Fans and in fact would much rather see Bernier in a Canadiens uniform than a Sabres. Good For Them!

The sidebars says Elliot is the host of the CFL on CBC. Please don't rub it in - as I understand it, there is no more CFL on CBC. TSN is carrying every single CFL game this year, aren't they?

Glad to hear from Buffalo fans who reject the disastrous "Tampa Bay" model of a few ridiculously high-priced players with too little money left over to build a real team. Brad Richards' greed helped ruin the team, so good to see him go. ALSO glad that Mats Sundin dared to express the opinion that some commentators seem not even to understand: that the rental-player phenomenon is craziness. Ray Bourque's celebration with Colorado that year? Nothing, nothing what it would have been if he had been with the team even a few months longer.

It was time for Brian Campbell to go. His salary demands were out-of-line with his contributions. Of course, this is not to say that he was not a big-time contributor, but over-paying for Campbell in a long-term deal does not seem to be the best way to build a team. Perhaps it will hurt them in the short-term (and they can certainly use the revenue from some playoff games), but they were most likely going no-where this year anyways.
-- Not a Furious Fan!

ThePens remain the biggest losers if they don't win this year. Ottawa is still good and this hiccup will end eventually and they may not be number one when it does, but they will come around. Glad the Habs held the line because this is about two or three years ahead of where anyone would have expected if they had been asked prior to the season. Gainey is brilliant and realizes that his present vets are not the ones capable of bringing them to the promised land...the young guys can and have shown it. This way you move out some age and watch the TEAM develope together...to do that you must shed some salary and Huet was ripe at this time.

Not too concerned about the West, but Detroit is still the class of that field until notice is served by the others. Getting back some of their guys from injury will greatly outweigh what was available yesterday.

Judging by the cheers for the Toronto goals the other night, I doubt there are enough real Senators fans to make a campfire, let alone burn down the city of Ottawa.

6 Million a year for 3 years isnt LOW BALL...

We are not Furious, we are Happy. Campbell to all of us was not worth even 5 Million a year let alone 6.5 a season... This team got what we needed in Bernier a power forward with scoring ability. You guys can bash our team but our track record in trades and draft days is great. BTW how is Briere and his -24 is it? doing? how bout Drury and his 18 goals? Sorry but the prices they get are far to much for what they are worth.

Terrible piece of editorialism at it's worst. I think this article shows terrible insight to the team and the fans of Buffalo.

To the contrary, many of us in Buffalo were ready to wave b-bye to 51. Not because we could not afford him, but because he is not worth the 6.5 to 7 million he will fetch. You may want to sit down with D. Roy, T. Vanek and J. Hecht and ask them if Mr. Galisano is cheap.

-- NOT Furious in Buffalo