The best way to kill a snake is to cut off the head.

Earlier today it was reported that Sabres captain Jason Pominville was asked to provide his list of 8 teams he would not waive his no movement clause for. Just a few hours later Robyn Regehr was moved to Los Angeles, whom along with TJ Brennan and Jordan Leopold became the 3rd defensemen traded this season by GM Darcy Regier.  Leopold and Regehr would be UFA's after this season and likely would have moved on as the Sabres appear be to amidst a rebuilding phase. I think these were necessary moves for Darcy Regier who is hoping to keep his job this summer, however axing Pominville may not be the best decision. Especially if your not getting a prospect along with a pick to possilby of replacing some of the 70 or so points Pominville has averaged the past 5 seasons in Buffalo. While you want to get as many pieces for the future as possible, at what cost are you willing to do so? Pominville and Vanek are 2 of the few contracts on Regier's recent resume that make sense. The blunders of Ville Leino, Drew Stafford and Tyler Myers aren't going any where, and the inability to retain top talent has littered his past, yet Terry Pegula continues to let this hazardous decision making continue. Part of being an owner or "boss" is knowing when enough is enough, and being able to see when someone in management is at their wits end pulling at straws. Regier is in survival mode, hes willing to part ways with the only valuable assets to this team, in an effort to save himself. I understand you have to be willing to sacrifice now to win later, but shouldn't the guy who's made these deals and dug this hole be first one to go. At least if you are going to ruin this team for the next 5 years let someone who isn't on life support do the decision making. Your not saving face or being "classy" by keeping this man around. After hes traded all the talent away and all that remains is the over paid and under performing few will be eager to join his squad. It's not as if Regier is amazingly successful in the draft as of late, 5 years ago we had a bunch of talent coming up through rochester/portland, thats not so much the case anymore. Of the past 3 draft classes Mikhail Girgorenko is the only player to record an NHL point for the sabres. So who should really be getting the axe... Darcy?

Guess who?

            There is a very good chance the Buffalo Sabres will go from having the same coach for 16 years to having 3 coaches in less than 12 months. Although its possible Mr. Rolston will turn the team around force Terry to keep him behind the bench for a while, I wanted to take a look at him and the other possible and somewhat probable candidates. I've also included links to their HockeyDB pages so you can check out their résumé's.

Ron Rolston

Let's start with the guy currently behind the bench, He got the call just 2 days ago, having less than 12 hours to prepare himself for his first NHL coaching appearance. The team hasn't helped him much, but Coach Rolston has held it together nicely, handling the media train fairly well for a coach in his position. He's spent 2 years behind the bench in Rochester coaching many of the same players he will in Buffalo, including Ryan Miller. Prior to that he spent 7 years working with US national team development program, getting teams ready for international tournaments, coaching his teams to 3 gold medals in the IIHF U-18's. He's also coached for Boston College. Ron Rolston brings to the table the seemingly limitless ability to progress and excel a young players career, which he has done countless times preparing players for the blue and gold. His hockey sense and simplistic approach may make it a little easier on the transition. If ownership decides to keep him in Buffalo they need to be sure of his ability to deal with superstar and professional talent. Ego's and attitudes are magnified especially in physical sports. Whether or not Rolston will handle them fluently, only time will tell. Although superstars weren't always far away, he is the older brother of Stanley cup winning Brian Rolston.

Phil Housley

Housley is an ex sabre captain, and NHL veteran. A Sabres first round draft pick in '82 who played with the team for 8 years, and spent 20 years in the league. Most recently he coached the U.S. juniors team a gold medal at the 2013 world juniors in Russia. Housley played with Ruff his entire time in Buffalo. His relationship with the team and his coaching career seemingly just beginning its hard not to connect the theoretical dots. Limited experience behind the bench leaves the possibility of assistant or associate at first. Maybe the core veterans on this team could use someone else who's been through it. 

Randy Cunneyworth

The first man on this list with previous Head Coaching experience is ex- Sabre and former Canadians interim head coach Randy Cunneyworth. Should the Sabres look at him, he would bring a gritty hardworking style behind the bench. Upon his retirement, he went straight to work on the Sabres' AHL coaching staff, where he was a head coach for nearly a decade, missing the playoffs just twice in 8 years. He then went to the Canadians AHL counterpart for 1 season leading them deep into the playoffs, and next season was promoted to assistant coach under Jacques Martin. When the Habs sputtered out of the gate, Cunneyworth got the call. He only coached 51 games and went 18-23, but was never truly given a fair shake. Not speaking french or being Canadian made him easily unlikable to a rabid fan base who's team was in disarray. A fact GM Pierre Gauthier solidified when upon the coaches promotion, apologized to the Canadians fans for Cunneyworth being American/speaking English. Cunneyworth's close ties to Buffalo and AHL coaching career should make the list.



Franchise ties aside, I'd like to take a look at some outside possibilities. Bringing in someone completely new wouldn't be a terrible thing. Assessing candidates on their outside accomplishments without the blinders of them being an ex-player might be just what the doctor ordered.  Also these are all re-treads, I personally would prefer someone with some NHL coaching in their background, however I think the Sabres will go with new blood.

First up Scott Gordon, the current Toronto Maple Leafs asst coach and ex NY Islanders head coach was a stud in the AHL. Consistently taking the Providence Bruins to winning records and playoff appearances. However his start in the NHL was shaky at best coaching the teams that GM Garth Snow and owner Charles Wang scraped together. But I wont fault Gordon for that, the leafs wasted no time scooping him up the next season.

Paul Maruice, I know there is no chance in hell this is going to happen. The ex Hurricanes coach is happy behind the bench of KHL's Metallurg Magnitogorsk. However he's stated he would return to the NHL in the right situation with the right offer. If it happens I'd imagine he wouldn't be in a head coaching position anyway.

Patrick Roy, that's right. The man himself. Currently head coach of the Quebec Remparts in the QMJHL. When Lindy was fired Roy's agent commented on how he would like to explore options in the NHL. I don't know what to think about this but you never know, and its definitely worth mentioning.

CoHo last minute dangles not enough .. car 4-3 buf

CAR 4-3 BUF

CoHo dangles not enough

          The sabres were back to their old ways Tuesday night and even a slick dangle from Cody Hodgson was to little to late. Being sloppy in their own end and only showing up for half a game isn't what won them 3 games in a row, or what sparked them to score a shorthanded goal against the Rangers down 2-1 in the 3rd to tie it up, stealing a point. Ryan Miller looked exhausted he needs to rest, 14 straight starts including 3 games in the past 4 nights have taken their toll on the goaltender. But the team can't continue to take shifts or entire periods off, and expect things to turn around on their own. Twice tonight poor shifts right after scoring lead to goals for the hurricanes and took away any momentum that appeared to be building. Ron Rolston has his hands full trying to deal with the poor decision making that usually ends up in the back of our own net. Rotating D-men in and out every game doesn't help, whether due to injury or coaches decisions. 

        That said the Sabres are 3-1-1 in their last 5 and have been playing better. Vanek returned from injury and appeared to hurt his hand in the game, no mention in the post game though. TJ Brennan who recorded a 108 mph slap shot during the AHL skills competition, netted his first of the season at the end of a 5-3 powerplay. I'd like to see him quarterback the powerplay more often as Myers has proven to be ineffective in that role. Sabres will hop a flight to NJ and get right back at it Thursday, maybe playing a team they recently beat will give them confidence going into the game. And lets not forget Ryan Miller and devils forward Adam Henrique chirping at each other just a few nights ago.

Where has hockey gone?

        I'm not sure what to think about the Patrick Kaleta suspension. It didn't surprise me, that a repeat offender would get suspended for such a hit. But the amount of hate the man is taking for if anything was a light shove is ridiculous. It bothers me that their is a double standard of being judged by what team you play for and how big your market is. Tyler Ennis took 2 hits from both Rick Nash and Dan Girardi, that were if judged by impact to the body or head, worse than the Richards hit. But because Dan Girardi plays in New York and Tyler Ennis isn't a "superstar" he only gets a boarding call. Perhaps Ennis should've laid strewn across the ice, giving an oscar worthy acting performance like Richards. The league continually decides its suspensions by market size and uses smaller markets as punching bags. And to give an idea of who the league is appeasing I saw some ranger fans on twitter saying its " the worst hit I've ever seen ". I have a hard time understanding that, if they had any knowledge of the games past they would know far darker events lurk in the NHL's recent past. Chara on Pacioretty, Cooke on Savard, Bertuzzi on Moore. Let's not forget this is the same game Scott Stevens played. I know it's one of your star players but have we forgotten what game were playing? You decide..

Remember the only suspension in any of these hits was Kaleta and it was 5 games.

Why New York Islanders fans need to ease up on Rick Dipietro

ex-coach Ted Nolan, owner Charles Wang, Rick DiPietro and GM Garth Snow.

      Recently Islanders goal-tender Rick Dipietro made some pretty startling comments about whats its been like for him over the past 6 years on Long Island. There is no doubt in my mind that a'lot of the hatred NY Islanders fans have spewed at the former all-star goaltender is warranted. Brought on by a controversial deal made by GM Garth Snow locking up Dipietro for over 15 years paying $67.5 million. A 15 year deal for a goal tender is preposterous to begin with, fans and analysts began to question the deal almost immediately. Fears were brought to life when Dipietro suffered a hip injury while mic'd up during the 2008 all star game at the skills competition. And a series of injuries and bad circumstance bring us to today, 4 years later with less than 50 games played.

      But I'm not here to jump on that bandwagon, in fact I think a'lot of what the fans blame Dipi for is really the fault of owner Charles Wang and GM Garth Snow, and the ability or lack there of to replace or maintain talent. The Islanders highest single season goal producer in the last 6 years is Jason Blake who had a 40 goal campaign in the 06-07 season at age 33. The Islanders failed to retain him the following season, at a reasonable asking price he went to the leafs and continued to prove he had 2 50-60 pt seasons left in him. Along with Blake Veteran's Ryan Smyth, Tom Poti and Viktor Kozlov all left the team, To replace them Snow brought in seasoned veteran Bill Guerin, Mike Comrie and Ruslan Fedotenko. In the 07-08 season no player would score over 50 pts and in 08-09 only newly acquired Mark Streit would record over 40 pts. They went from having 5 players with over 50 pts in 06-07, to 1 between 07-08, 08-09. It's taken 5+  years to develop home grown talent into those replacements via John Tavares, Matt Mouslon, Kyle Okposo and Michael Grabner. Goal-tending cant help you if your not putting the biscuits in the basket. Perhaps Islander fans have forgotten Dwayne Roloson made a stop here too, as well as Marty Biron and Joey Macdonald. Roloson left the Islanders at 6-10-1 only to go to the Lightning  and go 18-12-4 the same season, and win 10 games in the playoffs.

       Also all the blame for being a waste of cap space, this only matters when your team is spending to the cap limit. The Islanders are in constant battles to even hit the cap floor. Even going as far as to sign Tim Thomas who will never play a game for them just to avoid cap penalties. Islanders ownership is probably happy Dipietro's still a cap hit or they would be in real trouble. In fact signing Thomas is what enabled them to send Ricky down to the minors, ironic don't you think? The Islanders have over $16 million in cap space and Dipietro would be a $2.3 million dollar cap hit. So when your at your next Islanders or Sound Tiger games, perhaps you should think before spewing hate. Maybe think about the decisions that really got this team where it is and not make a scapegoat for who really dug this hole.

Bryzgalov turns to the dark side

Also on a side note, I'm no flyers fan and bryzy is a bit of a head case.. but this is still a bad ass mask.. best mask ive seen in a loonnnnnng time.. most are so cluttered now.  Admittedly its nostalgic to me, but really who isnt Star Wars nostalgic too in one way or another. Once a geek always a geek! Stay classy, Mr. Bryzgalov.

2012-2013 NHL arena beer price report

          Here it is folks, the good the bad and the ugly of booze prices. 

I'm proud to say up in Buffalo the beer flows like the falls of Niagra, 

ranking among the best bang for your buck an ice cold 20 oz beer

ran $7.00. No wonder pens fans love Mario, 16 oz for $5.00. Also how
about Jimmy Dolan in Madison Square Garden, a 20 oz beer in one of most
historic buildings the league with a billion dollar transformation in the works,
$7.50. I applaud you Jimmy D.

        Now here's where it gets ugly... Take a look at that bottom

row. Nassau Coliseum my local arena clocking in at $9.50 for a 20 oz.

Really?? Now I risk being struck by falling debris, asbestos poisoning 

and expose my wallet to $9.50 a brew?? I'll pass.... Also how about the

louis in Detroit? They pack that house and still have to charge you $6 for a 12 oz

can?