Kane goes first.....Oden to do the same????

Yep, as expected Buffalo's own Patrick Kane is selected with the first pick overall in the NHL draft tonight. Since Chicago picked him up we assume that the smile for the cameras was almost as real as Eli Manning's was after being selected by the Chargers.

Great for him, and congrats on being (to the best of my recollection) the first Buffalo born athlete to be taken first in an amateur draft in one of the four major sports leagues.

The amazing thing about that last statement is that the second one could be coming up next Thursday night. Ohio State's Greg Oden (born in Buffalo) is the odds on favorite to be selected first in this season's NBA draft. What are the odds on that? Have to wonder if the possibility of two top draft picks from the same city/geographical area in the same season has ever occured before.

There's gotta be a photo op for these two sometime soon......

Hamilton Predators season tickets on sale now

Nope... no kidding... check it out right here at ticketmaster.ca. $1000 deposit will reserve you a lower bowl seat and $500 in the upper bowl.

Info from the ticketmaster site:
If and when the NHL allows a team to relocate to Hamilton, a sales representative will contact you with season ticket seating location information. Seating locations will be allocated based on when the deposits were made, with earlier deposits being offered the better seating locations. At that time the depositor can choose to purchase the offered tickets or request a refund of their deposit. Deposits will be automatically refunded in the event that it is determined that the team will not be moving to Hamilton, but in any event no later than December 2009. If deposits exceed expected available seating, depositors will be placed on a priority waiting list based on when their deposits were made. Deposits will also be available at any time by requesting a refund from Ticketmaster's Customer Service Department. Interest will not be paid on refunded deposits.

But as this article in today's Toronto Star indicates, Copps Coliseum is nowhere near the standards of a suitable NHL facility. We couldn't agree more, having paid multiple visits to that arena we can state they aren't even among the elite AHL venues. Last September we took in the Sabres/Penguins exhibition game, our first time ever there in a media capacity, and were horrified at the cramped pressbox, postgame press room and corridor were one and the same, and the dressing rooms for the players were appalling. By contrast, an NHL team in Winnipeg's MTS Centre would be awesome!

This is a joke, right????

Apparently not, according to the Las Vegas Review-Journal which reports that the NHL is going to expand to Las Vegas and Kansas City in the coming years.

Movie mogul Jerry Bruckheimer is looking into heading up a potential Vegas franchise, and with the Anschutz Entertainment Group(LA Kings, Galxy, Chicago Fire and more) behind the efforts in Kansas City it is only a matter of time before this becomes a reality.

Admittedly, that may be 4-5 years away though. So says this report found on TSN.

Dear Gary Bettman:

ARE YOU OUT OF YOUR MIND!!!!!

You've got more interest in the sport of hockey in places like Cairo and Calcutta than you do in these two NHL hellholes. Neither city has been able to support the sport for long periods of time regardless of level of competition.

If you really have to expand to two more places, let me help you out. I'll even give you a non traditional market that makes a shred of sense...

1. Winnipeg: passionate fan base that will fill the joint on a nightly basis in their new MTS Centre. They've been banging the drum for another NHL club almost since the Jets left a decade ago. What's the matter? Don't you want your product in a city where it is actually desired??

2. Houston: Another brand new venue in the Toyota Center, and you know what? They have a strong and continous tradition of hockey going back decades.

Gary, I know you came to the job without knowing a shred of hockey back in the mid nineties, but way back in the seventies there was this rival pro league known as the WHA that had a team in Houston.

Did you know they were pretty darned good too? Had this player...Howe...Gordie Howe. Guy was so old that he had his sons on the team with him as well. Won the Avco Cup twice. Even applied to be part of the NHL merger back then. Hopefully you also know there's current IHL/AHL version that's been around for the last fifteen years or so as well.

C'mon Gary, I'm giving you two slam dunks here. Two cities that are known hockey markets and in Houston a large media market with loads of money to insure success. And heck, Stars v. Aeros...instant rivalry!!!!

There you go Gary, I'm just some silly blogger. But my proposal sure make more sense than yours.

"just another day in SoCal"

So said Jim Rome today, as he was doing his reset on last night's Stanley Cup clinching game by the Anaheim Ducks.

Was it me, or did the crowd enthusiasm and joy resemble something like... the Buffalo Bandits winning the Champions Cup (1996). Or... the Buffalo Bisons clinching the Governors Cup on home field (2004). Sure it was great. Sure it was fun. We all cheered, they played Queen, the players paraded around wth their trophy, and we all went home.

I watched much of the game, and imagined what it would have been like if this had been Buffalo, running away with game 5 and poised to clinch the Cup themselves. The crowd would have been on their feet with 10 minutes to go... the noise would have been deafening... the crescendo would have built louder and louder and louder... As the game ended people would have been hugging, grown men would have been weeping. It would have been a moment that our city had never experienced. This entire community would have exploded in utter joy and jubilation.

And the same would have been true in Ottawa... heck it would have been a national holiday all across Canada today.

But in SoCal, it was just another day.

NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman came across as a stupid whiney simp on the ice, pandering to the SoCal crowd and doing a lousy job at it. His awkward handoff of the Stanley Cup to Scott Niedermayer looked awful.

And did I see the Ducks unfurl their championship banner in the rafters as soon as the game ended? So much for tradition and ceremony and a formal banner raising event in the fall.

This might sound like sour grapes, but I couldn't care less about anybody with a "Buffalo connection" and how happy they are. But that won't stop everyone in the media around here from running over to the Marchants this summer to get a glimpse of the Cup and the obligatory sound bites of how proud the parents are and grinning neighbors up in Clarence or wherever saying how cool it is that the Cup is on the street. Please spare me!

And no, I am not happy for Brad May... I always regarded him as a borderline psychopath, especially since the time he broke Derek Plante's nose (deliberately) the season after he left Buffalo. I mean, how do you do that to an ex-teammate who you played alongside with and showered with and traveled with. I think he is a few pieces of chicken short of a picnic basket.

Another day in SoCal... yet how sad that in places in Buffalo, other peer hockey markets that are equally as rabid, and wannabe NHL cities the moment would have meant so much more.

Outdoor NHL hockey coming next season

Remember the Heritage Classic? On November 22, 2003, the Edmonton Oilers faced off outdoors against the Mongtreal Canadiens in Edmonton's Commonwealth Stadium, in what became the largest attended game in NHL history. What was not expected was the bitter cold temperatures, with wind chills approaching -22F.

Apparently the NHL is set to do it all over again next season, with details yet to be announced. Rumors have it that an American based team will be involved, and the game will be telecast on NBC as part of its game schedule. Teams, venue and date will be released at a later date.

So I am thinking... Buffalo v Toronto at the Ralph? Would this not be an epic event? Would all of Buffalo and all of Toronto not turn out for such a spectacle? Chime in with your thoughts...

So much for the American teams

Well all my sarcastic chants for U-S-A! U-S-A! have gone for naught.

It will be the Medicine Hat Tigers and the Vancouver Giants facing off on Sunday for the Memorial Cup, the trophy symbolizing supremacy in Canadian junior hockey.

Plymouth lost last night in the semi final by a score of 8-1 to Vancouver. Ouch!

The finals take place tomorrow at 4PM at GM Place in Vancouver. This tournament has shattered all Memorial Cup attedance records.

I had predicted Lewiston to win it all, and they looked like the worst of the four teams. What the hell do I know anyway!

May 27 update.... Vancouver 3, Medicine Hat 1, final.... Vancouver Giants win the 2007 Memorial Cup

Garrioch watch - Report #5 (Final)

Alrighty. Enough already.

Time to lighten up on Ottawa Sun hockey writer Bruce Garrioch, the fella we demonized after he made his ridiculous rants on MSG back in February, back then ripping into Sabres owner Tom Golisano and poking fun at injured star Chris Drury.

Garrioch's stories in today's Ottawa Sun, linked HERE and HERE, are balanced stories and good reads from the Ottawa perspective.

Zero tee-hees. Happy trails to The Joe or The Pond, Bruce.

Oh heck, one last time for good measure... tickle that tummy!

U-S-A! U-S-A! Memorial Cup action starts tonight

My patriotic fervor is climbing... my love for the red, white and blue manifests itself through the glow all over me and the love I have for our country.

Hey, all of Canada is tuned into CBC and TSN and are all of a sudden rooting for their beloved Senators and their fellow countrymen, guys like Daniel Alfredsson and Anton Volchenkov, to bring home the Stanley Cup to the place where it rightfully belongs, right? So tit for tat - I and all of America are gripped with Memorial Cup fever. And not one, but TWO American based franchises are representing Old Glory in this year's tournament, which begins tonight at Pacific Coliseum in Vancouver.

Four teams participate - the winner of the three major leagues in Canada - the WHL, the OHL and QMJHL. The fourth entrant is the host team, which this year is the Vancouver Giants.

The Medicine Hat Tigers won the WHL, but it was the Plymouth (MI) Whalers taking the OHL crown, while the Lewiston (ME) Maineiacs became the first American based team ever to win the Q. So we have two shots at bringing the Memorial Cup to American soil.

The teams play each other in a round robin format, with the top two finishers then facing off in the championship game, set for Sun May 27 at 4PM at General Motors Place. Would it not be awesome if those two teams end up being Plymouth and Lewiston? What would Don Cherry then have to say? Oh, how the Canadian hockey purists would howl!

I am no expert analyst at junior hockey, just someone who loves the atmosphere and feeling of attending at game at this level. But my pick to win it all is the Lewiston Maineiacs... they swept Val D-Or in the QMJHL finals and did so in impressive fashion. All of French Canada is still horrified asking themselves how this could have happened, and in the next 10 days the rest of their country will be pondering the same question.

U-S-A! U-S-A!

Complete Memorial Cup schedule (all times EDT)
Fri 5/18 9pm VAN 4, PLY 3 OT
Sat 5/19 4pm LEW 3, MH 1
Sun 5/20 4:30pm VAN 2, LEW 1
Mon 5/21 8pm MH 4, PLY 1
Tue 5/22 8pm PLY 2, LEW 1 OT
Wed 5/23 10:30pm MH 1, VAN 0
Thur 5/24 10:30pm tiebreaker game PLY 5, LEW 1
Fri 5/25 8pm Semi Final VAN 8, PLY 1
Sun 5/27 4pm Championship VAN v MH

Garrioch watch - Report #4

As Pundit likes to say, "I read it so you don't have to."

Frank Finnigan came from Shawville. Oh, and he played for the Senators 80 years ago. And his number was retired.

And Senators coach Bryan Murray hails from Shawville. Yip, yip, yippee! Isn't that cool?! Isn't that great?!

Link to Bruce's column here. I'll be generous here and keep it to a respectable 7 tee-hees. I could've come down harder.

Tickle that tummy!

Sens fans show their ugly side

Kevin at Bfloblog shares this story about a female fan wearing Sabres garb who got punched in the face at Scotiabank Place last night following the Sabres 3-2 victory. This brought back memories of my first visit there.

It was 1997, and Game 3 of the first round of the playoffs, and my brother Taras and I made the journey up there; he had gotten some awesome club tickets thanks to a contact he had at the Sabres.

As we walked towards the arena, we got the typical hoots and jeers from the tailgaters in the parking lot... all good fun and we dished out the trash right back. But one particular group of knuckleheads were especially vile and condescending, sitting on the gate of their pickup and drinking their beers. We ignored them.

Gratefully, sitting in the pricey seats we didn't take any crap and were in fact surrounded by other Sabres folks like Jay McKee's mom and Matthew Barnaby's brother, along others. The Sabres' Dixon Ward scored with, I think, 18 seconds left to stun the crowd and give Buffalo the win. Of course, we were on cloud nine, and as we exited the building, we ran into that same bunch of knuckleheads...college age or so. I walked up to them, extended my hand, and said... "gee tough loss guys, but it will be a long series may the better team win." (Little did we know then..game 7 OT.. Derek Plante...) The one dude looks me over up and down and spits a huge honker right into my palm. And then the profanities. I was going to swing a punch but decided not to. So we just walked, but not before my brother took his boot and kicked over their little hibachi grill, coals and brats spilling onto the pavement. I thought for sure this would be it, the fight would be on and we'd all be arrested, but these guys just stood there and continued hurling profanities.

It gets better... we find a Kelseys Grill in Nepean (one town away) and go in for some late night brews and appetizers. We're both wearing Sabres jerseys. The place is half empty, but the hostess says it will be a 15 minute wait. Half an hour later, and we ask when can we be seated, and the hostess summons her manager, and Mr. Snooty says that they are closed for the evening, and to please leave... dripping in sarcasm and nastiness (four other parties were seated while we were waiting and the sign on the door said the place was open till 1AM).

At this point we left, shed the Sabres garb and went to another place and got waited on pronto.

I like Ottawa, and for Pete and me it is one of our favourite USRT destinations. And I admire the passionate fans and Lyndon Slewidge is THE best anthem singer in the four major sports. But fair warning...all this myth about polite and friendly Canadians goes out the window when it comes to their Senators... the fans there become real bastards. And having seen Sabres games in both Toronto and Montreal, I would never make the same categorization in those cities.

Garrioch watch - Report #3

Daniel Alfredsson levels a cheap hit on Henrik Tallinder during the overtime of Game 2.. Garrioch's take? "There is no chance Alfredsson will receive any kind of suspension from NHL VP Colin Campbell ..."

Did we expect any different sort of commentary from the biggest mouthpiece of the Ottawa Senators' Amen Corner?

Absolutely 8 tee-hees.

Tickle that tummy!

Garrioch watch - Report #2

Game 2 of this series wasn't even in the books yet, but Bruce Garrioch was already focusing in on the battle between Ray-Ray and Dominik Hasek.

So on our BG tee-hee scale with a range of 1-10, we give this story a solid 6 tee-hees.

Tickle that tummy!

Garrioch watch - Report #1

I've been revved up... waiting for Bruce Garrioch to start his rips and rants and his "in your face commentary". I even hijacked Buffalo Pundit's MKG mockability ratings, the hilarious critiques of Mary Kunz Goldman's inane Buffalo News columns. I was ready to start picking apart Garrioch's missives, in true Pundit style.

So wasn't I disappointed to check out today's Ottawa Sun, this story and this story, just regular ole' game reporting.

I probably didn't know what to expect... but there's still plenty of hockey to be played and we keep hope alive.

The Bruce Garrioch watch is on!

You remember Bruce Garrioch?

This loathsome piece of crap from the Ottawa Sun is lionized up in Canada as some brilliant hockey columnist, but my first and only recollection of him is getting his pudgy ugly mug on MSG two days after Chris Neil blindsided Chris Drury and sent him to the injury list. Garrioch went toe to toe with Kevin Sylvester and Rob Ray justifying the hit and making his weak and lame arguments for his Senators, a discussion which had many WNY Sabres fans fuming and screaming at their TV sets.

Well Garrioch is on his way to Buffalo, and apparently he is hopping in his car and driving, since John Muckler kicked the media off of the team charter.

From Garrioch's blog...
Off to Buffalo.
The Sun team - Don Brennan, Chris Stevenson, Sean McKibbon and your hero - are headed to Buffalo to cover the big series against the Buffalo Sabres. I told Brennan I was bringing my computer and he told me not to forget my cooler. So we packed both. With flight connections tough between Buffalo and Ottawa _ and since Senators GM John Muckler gave the media the boot from the club charter - the five hour drive is the easiest way to get o Buffalo.
Look, I know a lot of people dump on the place, but's actually a good city that we like to visit. Might even drop by the Anchor Bar (the original home of the chicken wing) where my picture is posted on the wall eating wings at 8 a.m. with CFRA's Steve Madely in 1997.
Should be fun.

Garrioch's mug is on the wall at the Anchor Bar? Ewww what an appetite killer that is!

So will Bruce Garrioch be this year's Ned Barnett? Time will tell, and we will be watching and providing updates!

BCHF (Bandwagoning Canadian Hockey Fan)

Did you catch this story in the News today. Gee, isn't that nice....at least Ft. Erie is kinda sorta rooting for the Sabres....

One quote in particular that galls me.....

“Go Ottawa, anybody but Buffalo,” Fort Erie resident Christine Carty said Tuesday. “I like Toronto, but Toronto’s not in, so you have to go with the Canadian team.”

Why Christine? Can you please explain to me why you have to root for a team in Ottawa, that more than any other club(except maybe the 90's Wings) built itself into a consistent playoff contender using players from just about every country on Earth EXCEPT Canada. Not to mention as a Leaf fan(allegedly) your hated rival.

Daniel Alfredsson....Anton Volchenkov....Oleg Syprekin....remember the old Sens with Alexei Yashin...Zdeno Chara....Hasek. I could go nuts with this....if a purely Canadian team was a GM, then this club has been a Toyota building its team with foreign born parts.

Oh yes, remember when your goalie Ray "McGahee" Emery stunk up the joint so bad in last season's playoffs? Yep the Sens went out and got Martin Gerber....real Canadian boy there.

Message to Canadian hockey fan....and particular Leaf fan in Southern Ontario. You NEVER root for a hated arch rival, especially not in the postseason! Does Yankee fan root for the Red Sox against the Jays??? NO!!!!!

Go to a Jays game at SkyDome when the Yanks or Sox are in town. Do you think the visiting team's fans there are simply there to cheer against the Jays since they play on Canadian soil! No, it's simply their favorite team.

Listen, I get the whole complex that Canadian fans may have about us and that a team on their soil winning the championship in "their sport" means plenty(way too much). But hey, baseball is America's pastime and basketball is the one game that is played the world over that Americans dominate, but we sure as heck didn't slap high fives when the Raptors were eliminated from the NBA playoffs last week nor do we snicker when the Jays come up short year in and year out.

Message to Canadian hockey fans....save your patriotism for international competitions....the Olympics, World Cup, World Championships. It has no place in the Stanley Cup playoffs.

The Stanley Cup comes to Kandahar

Why is it, that I see a clip on Hockey Night in Canada with the Canadian troops in Afghanistan holding up the Stanley Cup, I get all choked up? Yet when I see pictures of American soldiers in Baghdad on the Jumbotron at the arena, the bile rises to my throat.

When the CBC segment was over, I thought about this for a while and then it occurred to me that it has nothing to do with the troops or being pro military or being a peacenik.

Our cause in Afghanistan is just - the cradle of planning for 9-11; the home of the Taliban; the terrorists who were at the heart of Al-Qaeda; the hiding place for Bin Laden and Al-Zawahiri. Our work there is to go after the scum suckers who came after us, and I applaud our efforts.

But Iraq? This was Bush avenging "his daddy"; Halliburton and petro dollars and the stench of everything that is morally wrong and it is a cause I despise. Saddam was a scumbag, but he was our scumbag. Now we have a broken country, horrific sectarian violence and the real scary people in that region, the fundamentalist Iranians, are getting the upper hand. Mega billions of dollars squandered; thousands dead, and no end to this in sight.

God Bless and protect our servicepeople - American and Canadian. They are making a sacrifice for us that is something I can't even imagine .

Ontario Hockey League footprint heading towards WNY

The ongoing saga of the OHL Mississauga Ice Dogs has now been resolved.

The Toronto St. Michaels Majors are moving into the Hershey Centre in Mississauga, the Ice Dogs were sold and told to vacate, and the buzz had them going into a new arena in Niagara Falls, Ontario, until their city council gave the team a big middle finger.

So the team has been scrambling for a new home, and today the announcement came that they have found one... St. Catharines Ontario, where they will be known as the Niagara Ice Dogs and will play at the 2800 seat Jack Gatecliff Arena. The city will spend $250,000 for upgrades to the facility. There are no current plans for a new arena, although several OHL franchises have rolled out gleaming new venues in recent years, including such cities as London and Oshawa, with Kingston and Windsor set to open new arenas soon.

More from the St. Catharines Standard.

We have visited a number of OHL cities on the USRT, and have loved the rinks, the atmosphere, the Canadian brews and the quality of play. A quick hop to St. Catharines this fall is a complete no brainer!

Big props to Kevin Jordan at OHL Arena Guide for giving us the heads up on this.

Time to bring Sabrefan down to earth here......

"We're gonna walk all over the Islanders!"
Sure about that?

"We're the President's Trophy winners! They just snuck in!!"
Ummm, yea....and??

"We're more talented! There's no way they can match up with us! We have too much depth, we're better in goal! This will be a cakewalk!!"
Sorry pal, history says something totally different. Frankly...

The above quotes seem to be the prevailing sentiment here in town about the upcoming series with the Islanders. The superior talented Sabres will have their way with the injury plagued Islanders filled with enigmatic players such as Miro Satan and Alexei Yashin. Sure they'll play under coach Ted Nolan, but his will will be of little difference in the Sabres eventual walkover of the Long Islanders. I'm here to tell ya that after a little research, that scenario while somewhat possible is not a certainty...not even close.

On a lazy Tuesday night before the playoffs, Taro hit the books to get a looksee at the results of Stanley Cup series pitting #1 vs. #8 seeds. If history holds true to form, yes the Sabres could walk away with a quick series win. That possibility is about as likely as the Islanders walking out of this one on top.

Think I'm joking? Take a look at this:

Since the advent of the current format in 1994 (24 series total):

The number 1 seed has won in 4 or 5 games a total of 8 times. This is one better than the amount of times the 8 seed has won outright (7 times).

Every time a 1/8 series has reached seven games, the 8 seed has won. Not a good thought if this one goes the distance (and you are contemplating that now, aren't you).

The other 9 series' went six games obviously...and while I won't run them all down, there were a few doozies in that group...all involving Detroit. No reason why...

'04: Nashville roughs up the Wings
'02: Wings rally from down 2-0 to stun Canucks. Who remembers the goal from the blue line in game 3???
'96: The White Noise howls one last time in Winnipeg.

Just saying folks, I thinks that a quick and easy series is the last thing that Sabres fans should have on their minds.

Taro Sez...."Simon says: Sabres win in a Dubieous six game set."

This series will make the most arduous of Nolan fans despise him....

Die Leaves Die!

It will be Buffalo Sabres and the New York Islanders in the first round.

I got to watch today on TSN, and just shook my head as the Devils tied the score with 0.8 seconds left in regulation, putting a dagger in the heart of Islanders fans and jubilation in the homes and streets of Toronto.

But the game was not over. After the overtime the season for two teams came down to a shootout, and it was Scott Clemmenson for NJ vs Wade Dubieliewicz for NY.

Both teams traded goals in the first round, the Islanders got one in the second while NJ's chance was poke checked away. In the third round with the win on the line, Ryan Smyth missed the net for the Islanders... NJ's last chance ended up with Dubie poke checking the puck off Sergei Brylin's stick, and the celebration was on.

Ted Nolan looked EXACTLY as he did back in 1997 when the Sabres beat the Senators in game 7 of overtime. Just unbridled childlike joy!

And TSN also showed a live shot from Gretzky's restaurant in downtown Toronto... heh heh heh.

10PM update...
Round 1 schedule
Thursday 4/12 8:00 @Buffalo
Saturday 4/14 7:30 @Buffalo
Monday 4/16 7:30 @Islanders
Wednesday 4/18 7:30 @Islanders
Friday 4/20 7:00 @Buffalo
Sunday 4/22 7:00 @Islanders
Tuesday 4/24 TBD @Buffalo

The USRT is heading to the 'Burgh!

Road Trip! Road Trip!

We're traveling down to Pittsburgh tomorrow... just a day trip. Lunch at Primanti's in the Strip; a visit to the University of Pittsburgh campus to get some shots and walk around; a glimpse of the site of the new Pittsburgh hockey arena. And then across the street to the Igloo... The puck drops for the Sabres and the Penguins at 7:05pm.

Assuming we're wi-fied, we'll be posting updates and instant photos right from the arena.