One 'skate' to drop amid the obfuscation from Balsillie and Bettman

There is more than one way to thin-slice what someone says in a court filing. As soon as the word of what Gary Bettman said in court filings hit the newswires yesterday, one knee-jerk reaction was, "Here we go. Head-fake 'em with the talk about Winnipeg and the idiots go for it." Bettman didn't necessarily say he wanted the Phoenix Coyotes to move to Winnipeg; he just hates the idea less than them moving to Southern Ontario, since it would mean giving in to Jim Balsillie.

Now that the throat has been cleared of snarky phlegm, there is a historical precedent people should think about amid the legal hockey tape holding together the remnants of the Coyotes franchise. If applied, it could represent a win-win for both Emperor Gary and BlackBerry boy. Balsillie would get a hockey team. Bettman would have so much hand that it would be coming out of his gloves!

The precedent involves a U.S. city which just lost a major pro sports team — Seattle — and a team located in Southern Ontario.

Of course, this is just one ass-talker's personal theory, not to be taken literally. It derives from:

• A desire to see a second NHL team in Southern Ontario, although its catchment area is very vague;
• Animus/grudging admiration for Gary Bettman;
• A knowledge of the legal pinholes Jim Balsillie must pass through to enter the kingdom of hoser heaven, owning a NHL team.

As some of you know, the Seattle Mariners baseball team "were created as a result of a lawsuit." (Wikipedia.) The city had a team, the Seattle Pilots, which existed for only one season, 1969, before they were bought and relocated to Milwaukee. All three levels of government sued the American League for breach of contract and eventually, the league set things right by offering them an expansion franchise to begin play in 1977.

The Toronto Blue Jays also came into being during that round of expansion, since a baseball league requires an even number of teams. For those who don't remember or find this as dry as a great-uncle's funeral, shortly before that time Labatt's had almost succeeded in purchasing the San Francisco Giants and moving them to Toronto. An 11th-hour effort by business and political leaders in San Fran, including late Mayor George Moscone, kept the Giants from moving.

The thought of three levels of government, the city of Hamilton, the province of Ontario and the government of Canada, suing the NHL might be a little far-fetched, even if Prime Minister Stephen Harper is a professed hockey nut who's not above being litigious. We're probably too docile to take that step.

All three levels of government certainly have self-interest. The city council wants to revitalize the rapidly deteriorating downtown core in the Hammer. Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty's Liberal government, as others have already noted, would like to take back some once solidly-red ridings in the 905 area code that have gone NDP in the biggest union town in Canada. Attaching a hockey team to any big federal-provincial infrastructure project, such as the expanded light-rail system Southern Ontario is begging for, would make it an easier sell. (As an aside, you do realize that by 2025, you're going to be nostalgic for the days when gas for your car was only $1.30 a litre?)

There is a scenario which could come into play as this winds it way through the court system. The NHL, as baseball did, could turn around and offer Balsillie an expansion team. It would be a face-save and a sop to Canadian patriotism, plus it is probably inevitable that the NHL will have to put a second team in the Toronto area, since it is one of the 10 largest metropolitan areas in North America and the largest where hockey is a major sport (where it ranks in size is debatable, see the comments from Jason Cormier). Two of the larger three, New York and L.A., have more than one hockey team. Chicago also has a thriving AHL franchise.

It would allow both to get what they want. Balsillie gets a team, albeit an expansion outfit instead of the Coyotes, who are presently a good young team that's close to being a contender. He gets time to build an arena that is more accessible to fans in the Kitchener-Waterloo region and in Toronto. This addresses any concern about a team playing out of Copps Coliseum siphoning off ticket buyers from the Buffalo Sabres, who always seem to have one skate on the banana peel which is Western New York's economy:

"The Sabres are always in a very precarious financial position, given Buffalo's shrinking size and awful economy. The Sabres (company name Niagara Frontier Hockey, L.P.) depend on the roughly 15 percent of their business that comes from the Niagara Peninsula, all the way up the Golden Horseshoe to Hamilton. Never mind that after almost 40 years most of the Canadians who attend Sabres games do not root for Buffalo; the main thing is that they’re helping to fill the HSBC Arena."
— Jeff Z. Klein, The New York Times

Meantime, Bettman and deputy commissioner Bill Daly will still have "hand," to borrow George Costanza's term, in the relationship. It reduces the possibility of Bettman having to present the Stanley Cup to one of Balsillie's employees in the near future.

Bettman, et al., certainly want to expand the NHL from 30 to 32 teams, even during a recession.

The Hollywood producer, Jerry Bruckheimer, a noted "celebrity puckhead," (From The Rink) is apparently interested in owning a team in Las Vegas (David Shoalts, globesports.com). Please also keep in mind that another fish Bettman would like to fry is to provide a tenant for the Sprint Center in Kansas City, which is operated by L.A. Kings owner Phillip Anschutz's company.

It could become a three-minus-one: The NHL adds Kansas City, Las Vegas and thethe Golden Horseshoe Hammerheads, while subtracting Phoenix. It could also be four-minus-two, if the Sabres' situation in Western New York becomes untenable if the local economy continues to crater; relocation to a more western city such as Winnipeg or Seattle could be on the table. (Klein, a Sabres fan, makes a good point that people should stand up to defend "a true hockey city" such as Buffalo, but he lays on a little thick by pointing out that many hockey people make their home there. They moved to avoid paying Canadian taxes.)

No one knows how an Arizona bankruptcy court might mind. The best we get before Tuesday is an educated guess. However, people should at least be open to the scenario where Balsillie gets his team through expansion, although this would be a few years down the road, so try not take it too literally.

A 32-team NHL with four divisions even works out in terms of scheduling. Each team plays six games vs. each divisional foe (42 games), three vs. inter-divisional opponents (24 games) and one against each inter-conference team (16 games) to make up an 82-game schedule. For argument's sake, here are possible alignments that try to maintain existing rivalries:

• Adams Division: Boston, Buffalo, Florida, Tampa Bay, Montreal, Ottawa, Toronto, Hamilton
  
  
• Patrick Division: Atlanta, Carolina, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, New Jersey, N.Y. Islanders, N.Y. Rangers, Washington
  
  
• Norris Division: Chicago, Columbus, Dallas, Detroit, Minnesota, Nashville, St. Louis, Kansas City
  
  
• Smythe Division: Anaheim, Calgary, Colorado, Edmonton, Los Angeles, San Jose, Vancouver, Las Vegas
  

Obviously, the NHL would probably copy the NFL and divvy up 32 teams into eight divisions of four. But the fantasy has gone this far ...

Anyway, this is not a prediction on how it might shake out, but an acknowledgement of a possible compromise. Balsillie is not going to give up. Bettman, like one of those Southern expansion teams playing the neutral zone trap back in the '90s, could just be trying to prolong the inevitable.

It's better to look at this way than to jump to conclusions about what a paid liar like Bettman says in a court filing. Sure, he might prefer the Phoenix Coyotes to move to Winnipeg instead of Southern Ontario. Taken another way, that could be on par with a man saying he'd rather be kicked in the rear end than in the groin.

SCARY NIGHT IN BUFFALO

The Florida Panthers' Richard Zednik getting his throat cut was so gruesome that the producers of the Buffalo-area broadcast elected not to show replays. It was so gruesome that seasoned pro broadcasters Rick Jeanneret and Harry Neale were having trouble saying explicitly what had happened.

However, it wasn't so gruesome (as Kukla's Korner noted) that any of the players were asked to give their opinion on whether to play the final 10 minutes of the game after everyone had the living daylights scared out of them by the sight of all that blood. It might be a minor point, but next time, get the captains involved -- Florida's Olli Jokinen, for one, thought they should have called the game.

(UPDATE: Mirtle also believes the game should have been called -- and has linked to a fansite that has pictures showing the blood. The kicker is that no one who's grown up on action movies and video games would feel at all queasy about seeing pictures of an 80-foot trail of blood on the ice.)

Related:
The Game Must Go On -- But At What Price? (Kukla's Korner)

HARD GETTING AMPED UP OVER THIS...

Here's that energy drink TV spot with goalies Ryan Miller and Jean-Sébastien Aubin that debuted during the so-called Winter Classic.

Fittingly, almost as a reminder that there's little that can be done to spice up the NHL regular season, the outcome was a 2-1 final decided in a shootout. There wasn't a lot to see in between Sidney Crosby's great play to set up the Penguins only real goal and his shootout winner nearly three hours later, but oh well, it's not like the game is supposed to be enjoyed.

All in all, it was moderately exciting when you put it up against the backdrop of numbing boredom that is the first six months of the NHL regular season. Imagine if they had played this on Feb. 1, with only a month left in the regular season and real stakes.

Telling indicator of the glacial-like pace of change in the NHL: Did anyone think, with all that room, of maybe doing a one-game experiment with a wider or longer ice surface? With all the snow build-up, swift skaters could have used an extra 15 or 20 feet.

(Deadspin's take is up; the Vancouver Province has a good one. Isn't there an irony that an energy drink rolled out a commercial that looked professional sponsored an outdoor game involving a NHL team that the ex-Cheetah maven expressed interest in buying?)

HEY, RAYCROFT SHOULD HAVE HAD IT!

Bryan McCabe scores the overtime winner into his own net last night in Buffalo. Hey, it's not like the Leafs were going to win in the shootout. It was a mercy killing and we should be hailing McCabe as a hero. (Via Mirtle.)

(Damien Cox has a good take: How is booing McCabe supposed to help him play better?)

The Facebook group count so far: Run McCabe and Kubina out of Toronto, Bench Bryan McCabe Because He Is Useless and I Hate Bryan McCabe. Those are just the ones whose names can be conveyed here.

GARY BETTMAN'S HAVING A FABULOUS SUMMER

"Under this CBA the rich get richer AND get to pick off the better players. The less rich will have to raise ticket prices in some markets just to get to the floor and in other markets just to be able to pay for arbitration awards that will be rising because of the new contracts being handed out to players who are jumping to teams with more cash on hand.

"Imagine hiking ticket prices after you've just seen your best player bolt for a bigger market and you've got nothing in return." -- Jim Kelley, Sportsnet.ca

What we said a while back:

"With co-captains Daniel Briere and Chris Drury headed for free agency, this will be Buffalo's best chance for a while to win the Cup -- and for their owners to gouge the fans with higher ticket prices next year. This is the time for the flowering and deflowering of Western New York." -- April 11, 2007

It totally sucks. Hey, so long as Gary Bettman's buddies in New York and Philadelphia are happy, who gives a fat rat's patoot, eh? Briere and Scott Gomez are nice players, but contracts such as theirs are part of why the NHL shut down for an entire season.

One Sabres-loving friend has, "Seriously thinking about never watching the NHL again," as his MSN Messenger name right now. Really, what happened to the Sabres -- with GM Darcy Regier being somewhat complicit -- is as big a travesty as the Predators debacle.

ALLARD: ALFIE AND THE PIZZA LINE DELIVER IN THE SENS' FINEST HOUR

Jean-Pierre Allard of Smarting Senators weighs in following the Senators' 3-2 overtime win over the Sabres which sent Ottawa to the Stanley Cup final.

The Sens are in the Cup Finals! The Sens are in the Cup Finals! The Sens are in the Cup Finals! The Sens are in the Cup Finals! The Sens are in the Cup Finals!

OK, so it wasn't quite like a hysterical Russ Hodges after Bobby Thomson hit the Shot Heard
'Round The World at the Polo Grounds in October 1951. But you get my drift.

It was sudden and it marked the Sabres' death in five stunning games.

When head delivery boy Daniel Alfredsson skated in the Buffalo zone at 9:32 of the first overtime period this afternoon with 3 Sabres near him, no one in the Ottawa-Gatineau area thought this seemingly innnocent play would end with the ninth goal of this post-season and the biggest one of his 11-year career. His shot caught everyone by surprise, especially Ryan Miller in the Buffalo net, who probably would like that one back after playing suberbly to keep Buffalo in the game. To be fair, Alfie's wrister was sneaky fast and well-aimed in the far corner to Miller's left.

It also came at a time in the extra period when Ottawa looked to have lost a bit of steam, after Jason Spezza forced Miller to make an incredible stick save three minutes into the period.
For most of the first two periods, the Senators looked more like they were playing not to lose rather than playing to win, until the other two members of the Pizza Line, Dany Heatley first and then Spezza delivered goals 3:40 apart late in the second to put their team up 2-1 after two periods.

Alfredsson was instrumental on both goals, creating just enough interference to allow "Heater" to fire away a screened shot while he set up his big centre with one of the best dekes I've ever seen when on a 2-on-1, he faked a shot and made a cross-ice pass that Spezza only had to shoot into a nearly total open net. Simply breathtaking.

The Sabres, fighting for their season throughout the entire third period, finally evened things up on a power play with a little over 9 minutes left, courtesy of Maxim Afinogenov who buried the equalizer into an open net, after Daniel Briere's shot hit the post and rebounded his way.
So the Senators will be going to the Stanley Cup finals for the very first time in their 15-year history and can thank their big line for that. As the Delivery Boys go, so goes the Senators this happy spring. It's not rocket science.

For also the first time since third-year man Alfredsson, sophomore Wade Redden and rookie Chris Phillips were members of that young 1997-98 team that upset the Devils in the first round before running into the impossibly hot Capitals goalie Olaf Kolzig in the second round, Ottawa's best players have also been the best players on the ice for an entire playoff run. And I see absolutely no reasons for this trend to stop anytime soon, whether the opposition is the Red Wings or the Ducks.

Congratulations to all of the Senators, as well as coach Bryan Murray and GM John Muckler. I have to be perfectly honest here and admit that I never thought the current edition had enough size and grit to go as far as they have, in the process never shying away from criticizing the M&M team, and some of the players too.

Boy, oh boy,was I some wrong or what?

(N. Sager adds: Meantime, we understand the unique nature of Sabre-fan pain. Scott Norwood, O.J.'s fall from grace, "No Goal!", having no defencemen left for Game 7 vs. Carolina last season... it's just too painful.)

PLAYOFFS? PLAYOFFS?! DAY 36

What you might have missed while avoiding paying the paperboy his "two dollars!"

Sabres 3 Senators 2 (Ottawa leads East final 3-1): Obviously, the organizing principle of the universe was not going let Senators fans have it both ways -- a trip to the finals and the entire May long weekend free from fretting over their Beloved Team.

Mike Comrie hit the crossbar in the first period when the Sabres were scrambling just to get back to the dressing room with a 1-0 lead. If Antoine Vermette gets the puck over Ryan Miller's left pad on a short-handed chance when it was one-goal game early in the second, the Sens might have fed off that and come back to win the game and close out the series. Instead, Miller made the stop, Dean McAmmond got a high-sticking penalty to put Buffalo on a 5-on-3, and miracle of miracles, the Sabres actually potted a power-play goal.

So please, Senators fans, don't stew and sweat during the two-day layover before Game 5 on Saturday afternoon (thanks a lot, NBC) in Western New York. Take a load off, don't clog up The Team 1200 phone lines fretting about a possible collapse. Buffalo might win Saturday and really wreak havoc with everyone's May 2-4 weekend, but the Sens have come too far to blow it now. Tonight was just an evenout, just an evenout.

PLAYOFFS? PLAYOFFS?! DAY 24

Sabres 2, Rangers 1 in overtime (Buffalo leads series 3-2): Multiply the dementia in Western New York (and at good friend Darryl G. Smart's house) by 10. The Sabres leaked oil for most of the night, flirted with disaster when the Rangers scored with 3:07 left, but Chris Drury tied it off a scramble in the final seconds before Maxim Afinogenov netted the overtime winner one game after being a healthy scratch.

Buffalo coach Lindy Ruff looks really prescient for pressboxing Afinogenov for Game 4.

PLAYOFFS? PLAYOFFS?! DAY 17: CANUCKS COWBOY UP TO TIE SERIES

Canucks 2 Ducks 1 in double OT (Western semi tied 1-1): When the pace started to lag about halfway through the first overtime, it begged the question of whether the game-winner might come from among the forwards who had not played a lot. Apparently, blind squirrels do find an acorn: Canucks winger Jeff (Cowboy) Cowan, who'd played only 12 1/2 minutes across the first four periods, won it for Vancouver on a bad-angle shot from inches in front of the goal line 7:49 into the second OT. The most important part of the play was that he had enough jump to beat his check at centre ice and dump the puck into a corner, where Trevor Linden retrieved it and poked it to Cowan, whose shot apparently surprised J.S. Giguere.

The Canucks' injury woes are getting a lot of attention. Anaheim should come under scrutiny since its fourth-line forwards Ryan Shannon, George Parros and Scott Thornton barely left the bench. It's a whole other thing to have a full roster, but not use it.

Blogging god James Mirtle, as you would expect from a Canucks supporter who lives in Ontario, hung in for the duration, and no doubt he is a very happy man right about now.

Sabres 3 Rangers 2 (Buffalo leads the Eastern semi 2-0): The knock on the noggin TSN's Pierre McGuire took in Game 1 might have fubarred his circuits. Witness:

• He called Buffalo's Chris Drury "Captain Fantastic" after he scored the tying goal. OK, that's not the least bit weird, but shouldn't that be Co-Captain Fantastic? What is Daniel Briere then? Lieutenant Wonderful?
• After the Sabres took the lead, he observed, "You know that movie Sleepless in Seattle where the lady says, 'I'll have whatever she's having?' I wonder what Lindy Ruff is having right now." It seems that he was referring to a line from When Harry Met Sally.
• Along with Captain Fantastic and Meg Ryan film references, there was Gord Miller screaming, "Lindy Ruff is hot! Lindy Ruff is hot" when the Sabres coach became irate over an apparent missed offsides call in the final seconds. At that point, a lot of red-blooded males started to feel just slightly uncomfortable.

That's all for now. Send your thoughts to neatesager@yahoo.ca.

PLAYOFFS? PLAYOFFS?! DAY 15

A lot of people would want to believe we see a preview of the finals tonight -- Anaheim and Buffalo won big.

Ducks 5 Canucks 1 (Anaheim leads 1-0): To employers in Strathroy, Ont., hometown hero Andy McDonald (AKA Kingston's forgotten NHLer) might not be the most popular guy today since he kept the folks back home up late to wait and see if he would record a playoff hat trick, which he did with a mere 52 ticks left after scoring twice in the first period. The momentum from Monday's Game 7 win over the Stars fueled the Canucks to play with energy, passion, drive -- all the Pierre McGuire buzzwords -- for about nine minutes. Vancouver is better than this. By the way, did you see CBC's Kelly Hrudey wonder if Vancouver's Alex Burrows had intentionally high-sticked Teemu Selanne on a play behind the net? It actually seemed fairly innocent, but that might since we're so used to seeing sticks carried at shoulder height.

Sabres 5 Rangers 2 (Buffalo leads 1-0): Yes, after hearing Dave Hodge's acidic commentary on TSN about people who take the favourite to win in six wins not having the wontons to make a five- or seven-game call, we feel like total squares -- especially since Buffalo had so little trouble once Thomas Vanek tipped in the first goal. Given the way this game went, eschewing the traditional bet between politicians might be the smartest move of New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg's political career. Granted, that's not saying a whole lot.

That's all for now. Send your thoughts to neatesager@yahoo.ca.

HOCKEY LAST NIGHT: CALL FOR SAFER GEAR AFTER SENS-SABRES BRAWL

Lost in the shuffle of the Sabres-Senators donnybrook last night was that Buffalo co-captain's Chris Drury injury -- his face collided with Chris Neil's shoulder pad, opening up a huge cut -- could have been mitigated with safer equipment.

Obviously, the brawl that ensued between the division rivals is the bigger, more eye-catching news, especially for the attention span deprived who are assumed to make up Sportsnet Connected's target audience, so that's the big story. You had Sens goalie Ray Emery going Sugar Ray Robinson on on a pair of Sabres and getting thrown out of the game and Bryan Murray getting spittin' mad at Sabres coach Lindy Ruff for putting out the straight-from-Slap Shot trio of Andrew Peters, Adam Mair and Patrick Kaleta (100-plus penalty minutes) against the Dany Heatley-Jason Spezza line. It was good fun and no one minded much, since it's the latter half of February and by this point, all the games are starting to run together and you're desperate for anything that make make the post-game quotes a little bit more lively. As a sidebar, the Sabres won 6-5 in, wait for it, a shootout.

Drury got a severe cut from a clean check because the shoulder pads Neil was wearing aren't meant to reduce the impact of a blow should spark some conversation on the need to develop safer, more lightweight gear for NHL players, especially as they keep getting stronger and faster. It bears repeating: Padded wetsuits, anyone?

Eight of 12 games last night went to overtime -- including seven of the eight which ended before 11 Eastern. Does anyone actually try to win a game in 60 minutes any more? Incidentally, Globesports.com's Eric Duhatschek is saying pitch the shootout and play 10 minutes of 4-of-4 and call it a tie if no one scores. Eighty to 90 percent of the time, someone would score. Anyone who's actually seen the rare NFL game which ends in a tie,which hasn't happened since 2002, knows there's no shame in a game ending deadlocked if both teams did try to win. The NHL is the opposite: The shootout mandates someone has to win, even on the many nights when no one seems interested in doing so.

NHL Scoreboard

HOMETOWN BREAKDOWN

Our Kingston Frontenacs' quest to overachieve and finish higher than sixth in the Ontario Hockey League's Eastern Conference continued in earnest -- they got by the Peterborough Petes 3-2 on Chris Stewart's game-winner in the front end of a home-and-home series.

That's all for now. Send your thoughts to neatesager@yahoo.ca.

HOCKEY LAST NIGHT

Add the Canadiens' Guillaume Latendresse to the list of players who've expressed remorse after hurting another player with a body check.

Latendresse was ejected from a pre-season game against Tampa Bay after boarding Rob DiMaio, who hasn't played since. There's a thread on this at Sportsnet.ca which does mention the equipment the players wear. (Padded wetsuits, anyone?)

Guys are getting scared about the physical havoc they can wreak on other players. Remember the look on Raffi Torres' face after his big hit on Detroit's Jason Williams last week? (Williams, by the way, hasn't played since.)

It really helps make the argument that something has to be done to strike a balance between hard-hitting hockey and a game that's still reasonably safe to play.

This discussion usually gets sidetracked by old-fart hockey types (and a lot of young farts who think old) who miss the point and say no one willOf course, you always get the old-school hockey types who make comments like "this isn't ballat" (sic) and "suck it up," or say few people will miss a journeyman player such as Rob DiMaio (or Steve Moore). They're missing the point, or trying to keep it from being made.

Ottawa 4 Buffalo 2: The Sens finally scored a road win over a good team, gaining confidence after big 5-on-3 penalty kill early on. The patient is out of the coma, finally. With New Jersey and Buffalo back-to-back later this week, let's hold off on giving the Sens a clean bill of health.

Canadiens 3 Lightning 1: Sheldon Souray scores twice on the power play and the

Flyers 7 Ducks 4: Water finds its own level eventually. The Ducks are coming back to the pack and Philly's coming up to it... J.S. Giguere was pulled after giving up five goals on 11 shots.

Hurricanes 2 Rangers 1: Jaromir Jagr gets career goal No. 599 in a losing effort.

Bruins 3 Capitals 2 (shootout): Tim Thomas stones all three Caps shooters in the shootout in front of a packed house -- 10,878 -- at the Verizon Center. That's fewer fans than the Laval Rouge et Or will get out for their CIS national semi-final game on Saturday.

Sharks 4 Avs 3: Jonathan Cheechoo may be out for a while after injuring his left leg.

Islanders 3 Stars 0: Please tell us Rick DiPietro doesn't have a bonus clause for shutouts on top of that ridiculous contract.

Back with more later. Send your thoughts to neatesager@yahoo.ca.

STAY CLASSY, KOOKY SABRES FANS

Great night to be one of the quote, unquote small-town kooks that belong to the burgeoning Buffalo Sabres Nation; the boys in blue and gold are unbeaten in six starts after whipping the Philadelphia Flyers 9-1 last night.

Look good, play good: the Sabres broke out the old school sweaters with the white buffalo crest -- the Buffaslug was limited to a helmet decal -- and scored six goals in the second period. Maxim Afinogenov picked up five points and slahomed through the Flyers defence for one highlight-reel goal as if they were just set decoration. Which they pretty much were on this night.

Flyers goalie Robert Esche was left in for all nine goals, which had James Mirtle counting on some post-game fireworks, and not the Fourth of July kind for the team from the birthplace of democracy.

The Sabres are threatening the NHL record for most consecutive wins to start the season. Don't get too excited, though, Buffalo fans: The record of 10 straight wins was first set by the '93-94 Maple Leafs, and you can probably guess how that Toronto hockey season ended.

By the way, there's a book Flyers coach Ken Hitchcock should check out: It's called What Color Is Your Parachute? It's the "job hunter's bible," hint-hint.

OTHER HOCKEY STUFF

• Say hello to Sammy Spirit: Microbano revealed the other day that the Saginaw Spirit have a mascot to complement Steagle Colbeagle The Eagle, the Colbert Report-themed mini-mascot of mid-Michigan's Ontario Hockey League franchise.
  
  Sammy Spirit is the mascot, while Steagle is the mini-mascot. Question: are they, like the U.S. president and vice-president, forbidden to travel together? And what if Steagle shoots a hunting buddy in the face?
• It has to start somewhere ... it has to start sometime. The Kingston Frontenacs try to break their four-game losing streak Friday against the 67's, one of this blog's "local" junior hockey teams. The Fronts have time to turn this Love Boat around, but Memorial Cup plans might have to wait... the London Knights are tearing up the Ontario league and the Vancouver Giants are doing about the same out West.

That's all for now. Send your thoughts to neatesager@yahoo.ca.

HOCKEY'S HERE: BUFFALO SABRES

It's time to air out your gear, sharpen your skates and tape your stick -- it's hockey season. Sure, your team flat-out ached last season, but there's hope, unless you're an Islanders fan. In that spirit, Out of Left Field is here with early looks at all 30 NHL teams. Presenting: The Buffalo Sabres.

Last season: 110 points, 2nd in Northeast Division; lost to Carolina in Eastern final
Coach: Lindy Ruff (9th season)
Young gun: Derek Roy
Store this name away: Marek Zagrapan (169 points across his final two junior seasons)
Hey, get a load of the new guys: Jaroslav (Sissy) Spacek
Blogs (including but not limited to): Sabre Rattling, Fix the Logo
Pop culture moment: In Bruce Almighty, Jim Carrey uses his God-like powers to help the Sabres win the Stanley Cup -- and maybe seven people outside of Western New York/Southern Ontario got the joke

Sabres fans, and people from Buffalo in general, have swallowed a lot of you-know-what through the years -- Dominik Hasek getting Ted Nolan fired in 1997, Brett Hull's "No Goal!" in '99, the Bills losing four Super Bowls, the fact a sitcom starring Christina Applegate was set there... and on, and on. The double whammy coming sadistically close to the Stanley Cup final last season only to run out of able-bodied defencemen in Game 7 against Carolina and then having the Buffaslug foisted on them, well, that may have pushed some Sabres fans over the edge, not that they needed a big push. (They are the small-town kooks of the hockey world, after all.)

It's the easy way out to say Buffalo missed their best chance to win the Cup last season, and that they'll regress this season. Jay McKee will probably be missed more than most people realize, since he was their only defenceman who relied on size over finesse. Then again, that might not be a big liability in today's NHL -- having six d-men who are all quick laterally and can make the first pass to start a rush is supposed to be the new standard. At least there's one blue-and-white-wearing team in the Northeast that understands this concept. Gee, who might the other be?

The Sabres are balanced up front, and if Ryan Miller can avoid the sophomore jinx, they're set in goal. It adds up to the same as last year -- somewhere around fifth or sixth in the East, and being a team no one wants to face in the playoffs.

Also in Northeast Division: Boston Bruins, Montreal Canadiens, Ottawa Senators, Toronto Maple Leafs
Related:
Let's Woe, Buffalo: Understanding Sabre-Fan Pain (June 2)

Back with more later. Send your thoughts to neatesager@yahoo.ca

BUFFALO'S BRUTAL SWEATER: SOON THIS WILL ALL BLOW OVER

No offence to the new NHL, but yours truly preferred its half-assed indifference to the fans pre-lockout to its half-assed attempt to cater to the fans post-lockout.

To which Gary Bettman, et al., would probably moan, "Oh, but we're using our whole ass."

Case in point: If there was anyone in command at the NHL who had an ounce of appreciation for hockey's history and for what the fans want, there's no way in hell the proposed new Buffalo Sabres sweater James Mirtle has posted would have ever seen the light of the day.

Sabres supporters, who are some of the most loyal (and idiosyncratic, it must be said) in all of sports, have already christened the proposed new crest the "Buffaslug." there's a petition that already has thousands of signatures demanding that the Sabres come up with something better. If a picture of the new sweater is worth 1,000 words, about 600 of them would be synonyms for eyesore, aesthetic nightmare, and fugly. Some might say it's the putrid thing to hit western New York state since they were still burying toxic waste in the Love Canal.

The Sabres organization tried to right a wrong by dumping the much-loathed black and red and reverting to the blue and gold it wore from 1970 until 1996.

However, it stopped halfway and offered up this putrid sweater and crest. Then it tried to soft-sell it by deciding the team would wear a third sweater with the traditional design for 15 games next year. Or as Fix The Logo puts it:

"15 games. That is all that those in the Buffalo Sabres front office believe our team's history, tradition, and namesake are worth."

However, let's not get hasty. As my friend Neil Acharya and I noted when we talking today, there's a good chance this will all come out in the wash. Our reasoning was the traditional Buffalo unis are going to be worn for 15 games in '06-07, then there's a chance they will be such a hit that the Sabres might see the light -- wear the more traditional uniform all the time.

Until then, Sabres fans may have to bide their time and wait it out until the people in charge clue in and do what's right.

Hopefully it only takes a year. This is the NHL. It only took what, 60 years, to take out the red line?

By the way, artist John Slabyk has a much better idea for what Buffalo should hit the ice in next season.

(Major thanks to James Mirtle and all the Sabres fans who were first to this.)

That's all for now. Send your thoughts to neatesager@yahoo.ca.

NO PITY PARTIES FOR THE SABRES

James Mirtle is calling BS on the knee-jerk reactions to the likely possibility that the Buffalo Sabres will deal co-captain Daniel Brière rather than may him the $5 million US salary that he was awarded in arbitration.

Namely, he wonders why that salary "is considered too hefty for the Sabres when only a few weeks back, GM Darcy Regier dumped a $10-million contract in Jaroslav Spacek's lap. There's $3.33-million right there that could have went to Brière's deal."

In other words, the Sabres may have put too many eggs in one basket -- Mirtle points out the club already has a surfeit of offensive defencemen. That's exactly what the new salary structure was intended to do -- make teams spend their money wisely. Spend money on all areas of the team -- scorers, grinders, defencemen, goaltending.

Maybe it means teams will have a lack of continuity similar to what's plaguing the NBA and NFL, but that will take at least a few more years to become apparent.

By the way, does anyone wonder if the Sabres may fall back in the standings next season? The club is losing Brière, and it hasn't found a stay-at-home defenceman to replace 10-year veteran Jay McKee, who signed with St. Louis. They may miss McKee much more than many people realize.

OTHER BUSINESS

• This is no surprise to anyone who's been to Rogers Centre this season, but Baseball Musings notes it shares the distinction of being the least-likely park in the majors to see a shutout game. There have only been two -- one by A.J. Burnett and the other by Baltimore's Daniel Cabrera, who's now pitching for the Ottawa Lynx. (Yes, I recalled that from memory.)
  
  What is surprising is that Coors Field is the second-most likely park to see a shutout -- Canada's own Jeff Francis made it nine with his 129-pitch complete-game effort last night.
• Visit ArmchairGM -- and not just because my writing is archived there. Also check out what Greg Hughes is up to these days.
• Note to readers: Yours truly has an article in next month's edition of Quill & Quire. It should be on newstands around the second or third week of August.

That's all for now. Send your thoughts to neatesager@yahoo.ca.

LET'S WOE, BUFFALO: UNDERSTANDING SABRE-FAN PAIN

Sabres fans are the small-town kooks of the NHL world.

Cheering for the blue and gold -- 10 years after, true Sabres fans, as my friend Darryl G. Smart has told me, still don't fully accept the team's switch to black and red -- means one of two things: Either you're an American who's embraced a foreign game is the greatest of all, or that you grew up in southern Ontario and were made of strong enough stuff to resist succumbing to incurable Leafs fever. In other words, you don't run with the traffic, and that makes you a little crazy, and special, as far as sportsfans go.

It seemed almost inevitable the injuries on defence would hand the Eastern final to Carolina. However, the Sabres had the lead with 20 minutes to play in Game 7 before the Hurricanes restored the natural order and won 4-2 last night to advance to the Stanley Cup final.

(Early prediction on the final: Scott Burnside of ESPN.com is taking Carolina in 6. It says here that with Dwayne Roloson cementing his Conn Smythe credentials by stealing the Oilers a win or two, it will take seven games for the Hurricanes. But that's for another time.)

Sabre-fan pain, as I've come to realize this spring, is a lot different from Leaf-fan pain. It's not simply because Buffalo fans have actually seen their team play in the Stanley Cup final in the past 35 years. Leaf-fan pain is a Paradise Lost kind of feeling. There's more to it than that.

Sabre-fan pain is a little like being from a small town. It means being ambivalent -- at best -- about your surroundings, but always getting your back up when others poke fun at your background. It makes it hard to trust your triumphs, since deep-down, you know who you are, and you're not sure if your time will ever come.

You don't feel you have that status that embodied by city folk and the insufferable nouveau riche who believe they've got everything coming to them. Sabres fans can go on and on about how their team is the most underrated in the NHL (which it is), or how they would they were the best team before the injuries hit, or how it always gets overlooked thanks to the double whammy of its small-market status and the Toronto-centric media.

Ultimately, it's like trying to argue for your hick town: In the end, you know it sounds like you're trying to convince yourself instead of convincing the city slicker with his painted-on smirk.

Just to complete the analogy, Oilers fans, after a long hiatus, once again are the city folk. Carolina, as a team that is making its second trip to the Stanley Cup final since being dropped in the middle of NASCAR country a decade ago, qualify as the nouveau riche.

So please, have a little empathy for any Sabres fans you meet today. The odds of such an encounter are pretty good, since the state of the local economy in western New York has forced them to spread out all over the place.

Should any start into a rant of, "First the no-goal in '99, now this," referring to Brian Campbell's delay-of-game penalty that led to Rod Brind'Amour's series-winning goal with 8:38 to play, stop him right there. It is a stupid rule, and yes, it should be changed. (Yours truly noted this after the Oilers had to kill off a late penalty in their clinching game against Anaheim.)

However, going in with only two able-bodied regulars on D is high on the list of things a team can't do if it hopes to win a big playoff game. By that point, Carolina scoring the game-winner seemed to be just a matter of when.

Even when it was Buffalo led 2-1 after two periods and a fever built -- however fleeting -- for a Sabres upset, I looked over at colleague in the newsroom and said: "4-2 Carolina," anticipating the Hurricanes popping in the tying and go-ahead goals, followed by a clinching empty-netter.

Had to call the way I saw it.

It didn't quite happen that way -- Ryan Miller was still in the net when Justin Williams swooped in to flip in a rebound for an insurance goal with 52 seconds left. No matter. The script played out as expected, with the Sabres' push as the final minutes melted away having a certain noble, doomed quality that I'm sure the hyperbolists in the press box will have great fun with over the next 24-hour news cycle.

Of course, the Sabres fan knows whatever's written or said is just a vapour. Make, no mistake, it was a effort that fully deserves to be set off with 10-dollar adjectives. In the end, though, that's all it was. When you're still playing hockey on the first of June, there is no try.

OTHER BUSINESS

• A quick note on the staph infection that kept Buffalo's Jay McKee out of Game 7. James Mirtle noted this is quite common in the NHL, "what with open wounds coming in contact with bacteria-encrusted equipment." It's a long-running joke that nothing smells quite like a hockey dressing room, but in his autobiography released a couple years ago, Phil Esposito (or his ghost-writer) spoke about the "NHL rash" that expedited his decision to retire. Here's hoping that McKee doesn't suffer any long-lasting effects, and that someone eventually figures out a better way to dry equipment so players' health isn't unnecessarily put in jeopardy.
• With Mariano Rivera idled, the Detroit Tigers rallied for two runs in the ninth last night off Kyle Farnsworth and avoided being swept by the Yankees. Sorry, Detroit. Best record in the majors or not, you still have to eat at the kids' table.
• Apparently Chris Berman doesn't believe the rules of media access apply to him. (Via Deadspin.)

MCKEE OUT, SABRES DOOMED

Stuff that distracted you from getting your hockey gear together as you waited for Lindy Ruff to call and ask, "Can you play defence tonight?"

• Bad news, Buffalo fans: Jay McKee is out with a staph infection in his ankle. The absence of Amherstview's favourite son leaves the Sabres with two able-bodied regular D-men for Game 7, Brian Campbell and Toni Lydman. It's a rotten shame, since Buffalo fans are so desperate for a winner. If Buffalo can pull this off, Ruff is a genius. Disclaimer: Lindy Ruff is probably not a genius.'
• Whither Shea Hillenbrand? The Toronto Star's Geoff Baker weighs in on what the Jays should do about moving either of their extra hitters -- Hillenbrand and Eric Hinske -- to obtain pitching help. Baker likens it to the Shannon Stewart situation in 2003: "One thing the Jays don’t want to risk doing here is upsetting the chemistry of an offence that can’t do anything wrong."
• Here I thought I was nuts for writing in Alex Rios on 100 All-Star ballots: this guy has dedicated his life to getting Vernon Wells elected as to start in the All-Star Game. It says here this is some publicity stunt cooked up by the Blue Jays, but no matter.
• Scott Carefoot was first to suggest that Raptors GM Bryan Colangelo should shop around Charlie Villanueva and look to trade down from the No. 1 spot in the NBA draft. Now ESPN.com's Chad Ford has written about the possibility the Raptors are shopping the top pick and Charlie V. (It's Insider content, so be prepared to pay for it.)
• Another Deadspin gem: You can rule out the Colorado Rockies trading for Adam Stern or Shawn Green any time soon, since apparently only God-squadders need apply. From yesterday's USA Today: Rockies CEO Charlie Montfort "says that after years of partying, including 18 months' probation for driving while impaired, he became a Christian three years ago. It influenced how he wanted to run the club, he says." As Deadspin commenter Chamomiles Davis put it: "Nothing is more annoying than someone who becomes a born-again Christian because they can't handle their booze."
  
  So, if the Rockies' faith is inspiring their success, does that mean the Kansas City Royals are a bunch of Satanists?
• This was pointed out on The Jim Rome Show about an hour ago: The National Spelling Bee will be broadcast in high-def. The Indy 500 wasn't.
• Go Monarchs! Old Dominion is reviving football. There goes my plan to market a sweatshirt: "Old Dominion Football: Unbeaten Since 1940."
  
  Hey, if Old Dominion can have a football team, can the University of Toronto get one too?

SABRES PUSH SUMMER BACK; JAYS HAVE BOSTON'S NUMBER

The Buffalo Sabres managed, thanks to Daniel Brière, to pull out what had seemed a Category Five Stomach Punch game for a city and region that has seen its share through the years, winning 2-1 in overtime last night to send the NHL's Eastern Conference final to a Game 7 on Thursday.

Yes, on June 1, in Raleigh, N.C., one team will be going on to the Stanley Cup final and the other will be starting their summer.

Not that last night was lacking in drama. The Sabres, with key players hurt, others getting by on pills and needles and their hard-done-by fans showing up almost expecting to be heartbroken once again, nursed that 1-0 lead much like a grad student making a pint of beer last an entire evening. Then Bret Hedican put one in with less than five minutes left in the third, and the Sabres had to hold off a Carolina surge late in regulation before winning in overtime.

Alas, it is summer, even if it doesn't officially arrive until June 21. It was above 90 Fahrenheit in Ottawa today. Yours truly is in a minority among Canadian sports fans -- prizing baseball, football and basketball equally alongside hockey -- but even with an Eastern final that's seen the last two games go to overtime, it's been a real strain on the ol' attention span to keep up with this one. I'll level with you: The hockey game had a hard time competing with Jays-Red Sox on Sportsnet and a good paperback novel.

The reality is, though, is that with what all the Oiler hoopla, Buffalo-Carolina has taken on the quality of being the "other" series. If there's blame for this, it's the NHL's fault, for persisting in playing its most important games when even dedicated hockey fans are ready to start their off-season.

That's one of the biggest hypocrisies of Gary Bettman's "new NHL." There was a great opportunity during the lockout for everyone to say they were watering down their product by playing an unnecessarily long 82-game regular season. It should have been lopped by about 10 games or so. On top of that, the teams don't need to use all of September to have training camp. That's for the days when players knew nothing about off-season training and didn't have time for it, since they were so underpaid that they had to spend their summers driving a beer truck back home in Sudbury.

If Tier II Junior A teams can have two weeks of camp, a few exhibition games and start their regular season around Sept. 15, then better-skilled, better-trained NHLers certainly can. With a shorter camp and 72- or 74-game regular season, the playoffs could start in late March, before baseball and the NBA post-season get going, and the Stanley Cup could be awarded in May.

There would be no concern about humid spring days turning the ice into porridge. There would still be a lot of wear and tear on the players, but not as much. It would be more of a test of skill.

So as far Game 7 is concerned, the big off-day question will be how Carolina contains the fallout from the circumstances of Buffalo's winning goal. The Sabres looked like they ran a little interference to create some open space for Brière, which incensed Carolina's bench. Think back to Game 6 of the 2004 Lightning-Flames final and Tampa's OT winner, where Jassen Cullimore interfered with a Calgary player, helping the Lightning time get a shot on net and put in the rebound.

That deflated the Flames, who lost Game 7 two nights later.

The other big question is whether Carolina coach Peter Laviolette will contemplate another goalie switch after having Cam Ward fumble Brière's shot into the net for the winner. Ward played well enough to win, but have you to wonder if that winner might cause doubt to seep through the ranks. Then again, after Martin Gerber was shaky in Game 5, can you really justify putting him back in goal?

Whichever goalie plays for Carolina on Thursday, and whoever wins the series, Edmonton's going to be feeling extra-confident it has the advantage in goaltending. None of the three goalies in this series are at Dwayne Roloson's level.

So what's Carolina's chances in Game 7? They're at home, the Sabres are missing four regulars -- Tim Connolly, Henrik Tallinder, Dmitri Kalinin and Teppo Numminen. Numminen played last night, but logged barely four minutes of ice-time before he had to call it a night.

The Sabres' situation isn't quite like the scene and Dumb and Dumber where Jim Carrey's character is told by the woman he's infatuated with that the chances of them ending up together are "about a million to one" and replies, "So you're tellin' me there's a chance."

There is a chance for the Sabres on Thursday, but it's about 70/30 that Carolina wins.

OTHER BUSINESS

• Yes, about those Blue Jays: Vernon Wells hit three homers last night -- though none so titanic as some of the foul balls launched by Big Papi and Man Ram -- in the Jays' 8-5 win over the Red Sox. During the broadcast, Sportsnet's Jamie Campbell was talking about how Reed Johnson is a Red Sox killer, but maybe he had the wrong outfielder: ESPN.com's Short Hops notes V-Dub has hit eight of his 15 homers against Boston. By the way, the single-season record for most homers against the Red Sox is 11, jointly shared by Babe Ruth, Mickey Mantle and Lou Gehrig. You've probably heard about those guys.
  
  The fans of Evil Empire 1-A are in agony over the Jays being 7-3 against the Red Sox this year. The game thread at Sons of Sam Horn ran to 21 pages. It would be a good time to go off on a rant about how Sports Illustrated had it right a few years ago when the listed the Red Sox as most overrated "unhealthy sports obsession," but we mustn't do anything to anger the karma gods. Especially with Ted Lilly pitching for the Jays tonight.
• With David Wells sidelined, Double-A call-up David Pauley will make his MLB debut tonight against the Jays. The one knock on Pauley is that he can struggle with his control, although he had a respectably low 17 walks in 60 1/3 innings in the minors.
• So is Roger Clemens coming back or not?
• There's been a lot of talk about how the NL West is improved across the board after last season when the Padres became the worst playoff team ever in a non-strike year, but when will people start talking about how poor the AL West is this year? The Texas Rangers' 28-24 record not only makes them the only team that's above .500, but it's good for a five-game lead. Not only that, but the A's just lost a second-straight home game to the Royals, who upped their road record to a scintillating 5-22.
• Scott Carefoot explains why Mike James has worn out his welcome with the Raptors, his talent be damned. James is the classic baller who's destined to spend his NBA career occasionally going off for 40-point nights while playing for a string of sub-30-win teams.
• Hometown Breakdown note: Kingston had its big arena vote last night. So when I get up sometime around noon I'll either be reassured or frothing at the mouth.
• Twelve hours later, Stupid Joe is still a putz.