It is good to be alive.
It is good to be a Sabres fan.
Maybe I sound like a front runner, but everything that went down yesterday was a lot of fun and really made me come around to what the Sabres are doing. Oh, right…I’m a Sabres fan and when they make good news, I tend to enjoy myself. I kind of forgot that feeling for the last 3 years. Going through the Sabres purposely losing wasn’t my cup of tea when it came to enjoying the team. I grew detached, but I totally knew that if a day like this came, I’d be back. And here I am.
I don’t want to say yesterday was worth the pain we went through because we just started the rebuilding process and obviously you have to play some games, but it was pretty damn close to it. That’s what hope does for you. It makes it exciting. I am ready to throw down the 160 bucks for Center Ice come October. The last time I was this excited about the Sabres that didn’t have to do with firing Darcy Regier was probably during the 2011 offseason (The first one under Pegula). Seriously, its been such a shitty 3 years to be a Sabres fan. Yesterday reminded me of being in love with someone in high school, forgetting about them when you moved on to college, and then having all the feelings come back at your high school reunion. I haven’t said this in awhile, but I can’t wait for hockey season and the next chapter in Buffalo Sabres history.
Lehner and Legwand coming to Buffalo
When this trade came down, Buffalo twitter didn’t seem to be happy with the deal. I was listening to Hockey Hotline (Thoughts and prayers) and even they were kind of questioning the move. When you get those shills questioning Sabres deals and not acting like Sabres trades are equivalent to trading for water in a Mad Max wasteland world, you know you got 2nd guessing. From what I read and gathered, Lehner was an overhyped prospect whose abilities couldn’t translate yet to the NHL. Obviously it is still very early in his career and maybe he’ll get it eventually. A 1st round pick does seem like a lot to give up especially when you look back at what Corey Schneider cost 2 years ago, but this is what happens when you have a GM trade for a guy he helped draft and was apart of their development. You see them differently than any other GM because you are vested in them.
He obviously sees something with Lehner and that’s why he overpaid. Plus, he’s getting someone who can play right away as whoever they’d pick at 21 probably wouldn’t see the Sabres light of day until 2017 at least. I think a lot of the angst has to do with it being a goalie. I think if Lehner was a forward who had the prospect hype machine behind him, it would have been treated as a better trade cause forwards are more valuable than goalies. There’s a lot of talk these days that you can find a goalie anywhere and they are kind of a dime a dozen. I agree with that to a certain extent…but that’s more based on if you have a loaded team like Chicago, it doesn’t matter who the goalie is. However, I still think if you find a really good goaltender, it can be a difference maker for your squad. If Lehner finally reaches expectations, then this will be a steal.
As for Legwand? Well, it seems like he was a cap dump and he’ll be on the 3rd or 4th line. At least he was a top 3 pick so he can bestow his hype knowledge onto Eichel/Reinart.
ROR Deal
Even dating back to last season, I heard the Sabres really had a thing for Ryan O’Reilly. This was going to happen eventually. Does his contract demands (8 million a year) scare some? Sure. He’s only had 2 really good seasons. However, salaries are always going to go up and every year the salary market is going to make us shit our pants. Eventually, people are going to get paid. Plus, we were like 30-million under the cap heading into this weekend. This was part of the reason why tanking was good because you were saving cap space. We can only hope that whatever deal O’Reilly gets, he lives close to it. Hopefully he’ll be a 60-70 point scorer the rest of his career. The Sabres get a guy who can play wing/center and he’s just scratching the surface for his career when you look at his age. Plus, by adding a guy who can play center, you don’t have to force Reinhart to play here next year and just start him in Rochester. The other guy in the deal, Jamie McGinn, can chip in with 15-20 goals and he’s the type who will go to the net which if you read how Bylsma loves to use dump and chase methods with his offense, the guy seems like he’d be a fit.
As for what we gave up…
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IUGbwaQdjOQ]I wanted guys who can play today and not in 2 years. Maybe Zad/Grigo/Compher become legit NHLers, but they are unknowns at this point and haven’t done dick when given the opportunity to play in the NHL. A trade like this shows that the Sabres have bigger aspirations than finishing at the bottom 5 in the NHL next year. I feel a little bad for Grigo because there was just so much illogical hype to him that he didn’t have a chance (See: Sully’s piece on him looking like #66 in his first practice and Jeremy White promoting him like he was Ivan Drago with JW in the role of Bridgette Nielson). He shouldn’t have started here and the constant coaching carousel didn’t do him any favors. From the looks of it, Murray isn’t attached to Darcy’s kids in any form. Anyways, Godspeed to the kiddies. I’m sure there will be new prospects down the road for some Sabres fans to salivate about while playing on a team named after something you’d find in a forest or playing beyond The Wall.
JACK!!!
Oh, right. The generation guy. Well, we all knew this was coming since the end of last season. As I wrote the other day, he’s going to be under the most pressure of any new Buffalo athlete coming to town. If it works out and he lives up to that hype…Man, Buffalo will finally have that star player that the other 29 teams are envious of. The guy who you want to come down to development camp to see. No offense to Drury/Briere, but we haven’t had that since LaFontaine. I don’t know what the legit expectations should be for him for next year (I’d probably say 15-20 goals would be a goal of mine for a him during his rookie season), but the ride is going to be fun…and hopefully worth what we went through. Let’s get ready for some “Kane back to Eichel to Ennis back to Eichel..he shoots…and he scores!”
Final word:
It sometimes takes going through hell to get to heaven. That’s all I’ve been telling myself since the Sabres decided to suck on purpose two seasons ago. We are finally out of hell and hopefully on our way to hockey heaven. The Sabres have like 8 guys as it stands who can get you 20+ goals if all the stars are aligned (Kane-Eichel-Ennis-Moulson-O’Reilly-McGinn-Hodgson-Zeemgus). Obviously Hodgson seems to be the question mark and could be bought out, but let’s just say he comes back. That’s a nice top 8 right there. Plus, as I alluded to earlier, you don’t have to rush Reinhart or play him as #1 guy. You can take your time. We’ve come a long way from what that shitty final roster looked like from 2 months ago, let alone when the birth of “suffering” came. And to think we still have Free agency just around the corner. Its going to be a fun upcoming week
To quote Bill Murray in Ghostbusters..
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VGBB929PFKc]
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