Buffalo : Playoff Contender Or Not?
Posted 1:01 AM ET | Comments 13
BUFFALO:CONTENDER OR NOT?
July 7th, 12:44 AM:
Last season, the Buffalo Sabres, made it to the Eastern Conference final, they faced there newest rival the Ottawa Senators. Will it happen again? By the looks of things..No. The Buffalo Sabres so far in this free agency have basically acquired no one, while losing there two best players IMO, Daniel Briere and Chris Drury.
Daniel Briere, who played 81 games last season while racking up 95 points, signed with the Philadelphia Flyers for an eight-year, $52 million contract, was "Buffalo's Best Player."
Daniel Briere
Chris Drury, who played 77 games and racked up 69 points, signed a five-year deal with the New Your Rangers worth $35.25 million. He was the heart and soul in the Sabres, and will be phenomenal with the Rangers. Gomez, Also signed with the Rangers, signed a seven-year, $51.5 million contract with the Rangers.
Chris Drury
In latest news, the Edmonton Oilers have tried to pursue Thomas Vanek, but the Buffalo Sabres have finally moved and matched that offer. Edmonton was willing to give up there next FOUR FIRST ROUND PICKS, Just to try to negotiate with Vanek, but thats how RFA works.
Thomas Vanek
Now back to the original question, Is Buffalo a playoff contender? We'll just have to sit back and wait for a roller coaster of a season.
http://sabres.nhl.com/
http://www.newyorkrangers.com/
http://flyers.nhl.com
This is Chris Mini, Keep reading my blog
July 7th, 12:44 AM:
Last season, the Buffalo Sabres, made it to the Eastern Conference final, they faced there newest rival the Ottawa Senators. Will it happen again? By the looks of things..No. The Buffalo Sabres so far in this free agency have basically acquired no one, while losing there two best players IMO, Daniel Briere and Chris Drury.
Daniel Briere, who played 81 games last season while racking up 95 points, signed with the Philadelphia Flyers for an eight-year, $52 million contract, was "Buffalo's Best Player."
Daniel Briere
Chris Drury, who played 77 games and racked up 69 points, signed a five-year deal with the New Your Rangers worth $35.25 million. He was the heart and soul in the Sabres, and will be phenomenal with the Rangers. Gomez, Also signed with the Rangers, signed a seven-year, $51.5 million contract with the Rangers.
Chris Drury
In latest news, the Edmonton Oilers have tried to pursue Thomas Vanek, but the Buffalo Sabres have finally moved and matched that offer. Edmonton was willing to give up there next FOUR FIRST ROUND PICKS, Just to try to negotiate with Vanek, but thats how RFA works.
Thomas Vanek
Now back to the original question, Is Buffalo a playoff contender? We'll just have to sit back and wait for a roller coaster of a season.
http://sabres.nhl.com/
http://www.newyorkrangers.com/
http://flyers.nhl.com
This is Chris Mini, Keep reading my blog
Buffalo will be a contender and also I believe stronger in the playoffs this next season . they will bring in more hunger from the younger kids and then watch out lindy will have em all fire up
They can be all fired up as much as they want, this season i cannot see Buffalo doing much.
As long as Miller plays well, they'll still make the playoffs. But Ottawa or NYR would beat them fairly easily in a series (at this point).
Briere was the best player? He didnt lead the team in goals and just because he had a bunch of assists on the leagues highest scoring team doesnt make him a superstar. Remember he was allstar MVP, he had 1 goal and 3-4 asst. in that game. He won MVP because of points, I cant even think of one play he made in that game. Point totals dont make a player great. Dont get me wrong 48 is a very good player but when he is the star of the show in Philly and he doesnt have 3 or 4 other 30-40 goal scorers around him is totals will suffer and he will be a free agent bust, that contract will look UGLY. Drurys leadership will be missed, no doubt about it. But hopefully a healthy Connolley and a full season from Stafford will help ease the pain of that loss. Buffalo will be a playoff team, proabably a 4-6 seed and they wont have all the pressure of being the presidents trophy winners on them. They'll do just fine next year, look at what Ottawa did in 06 and what happened when they lost Havelat, Hasek and Chara in 07. Everyone thought they'd suck Youre better off going into the playoffs under the radar not with the #1 seed target on your back.
Thats full of hope, And Gagne was a 30-40 goal scorer, and with Knuble there, and having pretty good defense and an awesome goalie, i dont see a bust in the future.
And notice the quotes?
Simon Gagne scored 41 goals last year and 47 the year before. Mike Knuble scored 24 last year (in 64 games) and 32 the year before. Briere will be playing with better linemates in Philly than he had in Buffalo. But thanks for playing.
An awesome goalie? Sorry I love Marty but he couldnt ever win the starting job here. He nothing more than a good back up.
of course theyre contenders!! theyre gonna be ahead of the flyers this year in the standings. so u got briere, wow looked how he stepped up so well in this years playoffs (and no one bring in the stats because he didnt step up). no the flyers fans are starting to get cocky as usual
Buffalo fans, Stop whining. Jeesh.
Hard to believe. You make one fairly well thought out assessment of Buffalo and seemingly every Sabre fan starts pointing fingers and doin' the pee pee dance.
The first comment in this blog is hilarious. The sabres will be stronger in the playoffs without briere and drury? Im pretty sure drury was Mr. Clutch int he playoffs for you this year. Better off without your two best players...???
Denial is not a river in Egypt. Buffalo fans keep throwing out names like Connolly, Roy and Stafford as replacements for Drury and Briere. What they don't realize is there are things that veteran guys do on the ice, on the bench, in the locker, during practice that you just can't replace. Connolly, Roy and Stafford may (and I say may giving them the benefit of the doubt) be able to replace or come close to replacing the goal scoring and assists. But its the other stuff that those guys bring to the table that can't be replaced. Then you're asking a guys like Vanek who did extremely well playing on the third line to become "the guy" and play on the first line. Its a bit different when you have 2 other lines that command the other teams attention like Buffalo did with Drury and Briere. It another thing when you are now on the line commanding attention. It will be interesting to see how well Vanek and Roy do as the focal point of other teams defensive schemes. I think Buffalo will make the playoffs, but as a 6-8 seed. And their playoff run will be a short, say 1 round.