This isn’t mean to be a Hockeynomics number study, just an “I’ve got a feeling” post on the eve of Buffalo’s 2013 season…
This Friday, as I filed a report on the Sabres electing to keep big first-rounder center Mikhail Grigorenko on the 23-man roster, an unusual thought occurred to me. In years past, I would’ve broken down the league’s season by the season opener, giving an elaborate list of predictions and analyses that betrayed my biases. But something funny’s been creeping into my thought process, something that’s occurred exactly thrice in my life as a Sabres fan. Those times:
1) Brad May beats Ray Bourque, Andy Moog and the hated Bruins to seal a sweep of Boston in 1993
2) Sabres lead Leafs, 5-0, early enough in Game Four en route to taking a 3-1 series lead over Toronto in the 1999 East Finals.
3) Anton Volchenkov loses the puck in wet ice and Grier/Drury capitalize to give Buffalo a 7-6 OT Game One win over Ottawa in one of the best hockey games ever played.
Those were three times in my life I thought the Sabres were capable of winning the Stanley Cup, and they all came in the playoffs. Now there were division-winning seasons where I thought the team capable of making a run at the whole thing, but only thrice have I felt that gutty feeling where you start to think about where you want to be and with whom you want to share that moment when Buffalo finally lifts Lord Stanley’s chalice.
Today, with reporters/columnists lighting the Sabres on fire for extending their general manager… with the team coming off a playoff-less previous season… with myself as far removed from my love for the NHL as I’ve ever been and as disinterested in the sport as imaginably possible, yes today is the first time I’ve felt that pit-of-stomach-championship-adrenaline about the Buffalo Sabres since I was a young kid too silly to know the difference between when your star/goalie combo is Turgeon/Puppa and theirs is Naslund/Roy.
They can win the Cup this year. Here are reasons why:
1) DEPTH: This is a team that can legitimately roll four lines and has players on the roster and in the farm system that can fill-in adequately if there’s a run of injuries. Depth also comes in mighty handy at the trade deadline.
2) POWER PLAY: Lost in the shuffle of Buffalo’s struggles last season was what a team with two bonafide blue line quarterbacks can mean to a team. Christian Ehrhoff and Tyler Myers are both high-end guys in this department.
3) GOAL: His interviews and sometimes even his personality are the antithesis of what Buffalo sports fans want their star player to sound like, but Ryan Miller remains a legit No. 1 goaltender capable of stealing the big game. Even if Lindy Ruff is crazy enough to allow Miller to play nearly every game in net, Buffalo now has a proven back-up goaltender in Jhonas Enroth.
4) SCORING: While there are questions down the middle, it seems patently absurd that all three of Buffalo’s young centers will be garbage monsters. In fact, it seems relatively silly to think at least one cannot emerge as a bonafide star. Tyler Ennis, Cody Hodgson and Grigorenko all could be “it.”
5) ATTITUDE: You know who’s left from the core crew that had their heart questioned after every loss by Sabres fans? Not as many as you’d think. The only holdovers from the Presidents Trophy Playoff Effort Debacle are Vanek, Miller, Pominville, Hecht and Stafford. The only one I question (effort-wise) out of the group? Stafford. In the rest of the entire room? None. Accountability has arrived and I think Stafford will be along for the ride. If not: gone.
"I just bought a new fleece. This is my excited face."
Are there teams that scare me? Sure. Pittsburgh will be quite fine. The Rangers and Bruins should be solid. The Flyers have a terrific core and the Caps always have ammo. But there isn’t a team in the East that I think will blow Buffalo out of the water, and there are conceivable remedies for nearly anything that can befall this team (Due to be UFAs in 2013 and some destined to be on sellers: Semin, Iginla, Elias, Perry, Getzlaf, Alfredsson, Selanne, Morrow, Zidlicky, Clowe, Gonchar, Timonen).
Plus, as I mentioned, I’m as bummed about hockey as I’ve ever been. Surely Buffalo’s first major league championship since the mid-20th century will come in a league about as popular as the fourth-most popular Real Housewives of Boogerville series. We’ll have a parade covered by approximately four outside-WNY American journalists. That’s probably how it’s destined to go down for Buffalo sports fans.
And we’d love it.
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I’m excited to see Grigorenko. Not just because he’s a rare Russian in the Regier era, but he looks really promising.
I think Ruff already said he’s playing Miller 35 games. That will likely end up being ~40, if healthy. But, Ruff can never be blamed for anything.
Of course, the Sabres can win the cup. Make the playoffs first, likely if their top defensive pair can stay healthy. Then, have the hottest power play/goalie/scoring. Less than a 5% chance they will, but it’s there.
I enjoyed this.
I worry about a slow start.
I like Lindy well enough, but he is a stubborn man. Very stubborn. And if the Sabres start cold, his default position is to refuse to make changes. Wait it out. Be patient. Insist that the guys learn to play the “system” properly. But, a shortened season will simply not allow enough time for a miracle run in the Spring.
They have plenty of talent to make the playoffs this season. Get off to a good start, stay healthy, heat up in April, and they should make it with room to spare. And if you get in it, then you can win it. That’s hockey. Also, like most, I’m excited to see the Russian kiddo play. He’s got the raw talent to become a superstar. We shall see.
Note to Sabres: You play the effing Leafs and the effing Canes four times in the next ten days. WIN.THESE.EFFING.GAMES.PLEASE.
Nick, I’ve had this feeling as well, along with another feeling that is probably totally a waste of time and energy and has no place. Should the Sabres actually win it all, do you think any of us would care or acknowledge that it couldn’t come in a “normal” 82-game regular season? 48 games is no joke, and you still have to be the team in the playoffs that, at the end of the day, got to 16 wins first.
I would think there would be some who discounted it… and I think in their hearts they’d know they were silly. It counts. Period.