Around The NHL In 30 Days: Buffalo Sabres
By Editorial Staff
The Fansided NHL Network, that SenShot is proud to be a member of, is embarking on its NHL preview. Each day in September, one of its members will be posting a preview for their club. SenShot will look at their preview, and let you have a look. After that, we will provide our own perspective. Jared will handle the Western Conference teams while Tony will look at the East.
Today, we’ll preview our Northeast division rivals, the Buffalo Sabres.
Here’s what Sabre Noise‘s senior editor, Tim Redinger had to say:
"It doesn’t seem like that long ago that we were writing a eulogy for the 2010-2011 Buffalo Sabres, and here we are writing the preview for the next year. How much has changed? Everything. It started with a culture change, and now from the locker room out, the Buffalo Sabres enter next year as the first full season with a truly committed ownership group that is determined to not only bring a championship to the city of Buffalo, but to create a hockey nirvana in the Nickel City.The culture change shock was felt immediately when Terry Pegula took over the team last February. The Buffalo Sabres were already surging up the standings after a sub-par first half of the year.Not much is going to change in the net this year. Ryan Miller is still the stalwart and go to guy for Lindy, but instead of having an incapable backup, he’s got a guy that is hungry to get into the league full time, and to take the reigns for himself. He probably wont get that start in Buffalo, but Jhonas Enroth still has a lot to prove in this league. I think he is going to showcase that tenacity every chance he gets. Ryan Miller did not have a repeat season after winning the Vezina. Given the new energy around the team, I would anticipate seeing the more zen focused Ryan Miller back in the saddle.Click here to continue reading Sabres Noise‘s entire Buffalo preview."
You can follow Tim on Twitter here for all your Sabre news and info.
Here’s SenShot’s take on the upcoming Sabres season:
The Sabres are going for it all this season. As it was evident by their 14 year old girl with daddy’s credit card shopping spree this past off-season where they spent over the cap to appease their frustrated fan base. It’s always a good move to pay to bring in elite talent to improve your team, but can anyone say that’s exactly what the Sabres did?
Their two biggest signings this past summer were defenseman Christian Ehrhoff and forward Ville Leino who signed a ten-year, $40 million and a six-year, $27 million dollar contract respectively. These two were on the high end of contracts dished out this past off-season and I think I wasn’t the only who was surprised by the dollar amounts as well as the term that both got. Both are good players, but the future of the Sabres are now tied to this pair as they are the only players signed long-term on the Buffalo roster.
The Sabres back-end will be better then last year as Buffalo traded for Robyn Regehr to help steady the blue line with young stud Tyler Myers. Hopefully with a bounce back season from Ryan Miller, the Sabres should be a very difficult team to score on. With no elite talent up front, the Sabres have a number of very good forwards that can do some damage. Thomas Vanek and Derek Roy will lead the offense as they will be supported by four lines that should be able to help out on the scoreboard.
Still over the cap by a few million, Buffalo has a few weeks until the season starts to shed some dough. I think Buffalo sees the opportunity in the Eastern Conference this year to take a run as the mighty have fallen off a bit. Washington can’t seem to do anything in the playoffs, Philadelphia blew up their roster and the Penguins are hurting with Crosby out indefinitely and Malkin coming back from a huge injury.
I think the Sabres will be in the mix for the Northeast division title this season along with the Boston Bruins, and that they will make the playoffs. But I am not fully sold on the moves they made this off-season and if they will pay off. I hope for their fan base that has seen so many players leave their town, that their moves this summer bring them better fortunes.
Check back here tomorrow when we preview the Calgary Flames and their upcoming season.
**Don’t forget to buy your Tickets for SenShot’s Alfie Night in Ottawa on November 11th, 2011. Click here for more details**
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