Sabres thoughts

That’s the Sabres team we are use to seeing play. Tight defense with Ryan Miller being one of the stars of the Sabres 2-1 boring overtime win over the Thrashers. The Sabres didn’t play their best against a pretty bad Thrashers team, but what else is new? The Thrashers have always given the Sabres issues.

Just a couple of random thoughts on the game:

-What else can you say about Tyler Myers that hasn’t already been said. He made a great save by bailing out Ryan Miller who was out of position on a Thrashers Power Play. It would be a disgrace if Tyler Myers doesn’t win rookie of the year. He’s been incredible this season. The only way I can see him losing out to John Tavares is if the NHL is hell bent on showing the world that the New York Islanders are a team on the rise. Remember, the NHL knows it doesn’t have to sell hockey in Buffalo, but desperately needs to do so on the Island. Of course that’s me just being sinister, but this is the NHL. The League was sinister long before I encountered the word while watching Dr. Sinister on the X-Men cartoon-

-Way too many penalties by the Sabres in this one. But luckily when Ryan Miller is your best penalty killer, you don’t have to worry-

-Speaking of special teams, what the hell is with all this silver lining talk about the Sabres power play? Look, I know they’ve been better as of late, but for the first 30 games the PP was a disaster. Sorry, but I didn’t jump on the Ryan Fitzpatrick bandwagon after the Miami game. Also Going 1-7 against the Thrashers sure didn’t help my lack of confidence with the unit-

-I know everyone will make a stink about the Thrashers attendance for last night’s game. But lets be real, Atlanta isn’t a good sports town. Just ask the Braves during their World Series years and the Atlanta Hawks during their…well…lifetime. Atlanta has always been and always will be a college town-

Now random Sabres thoughts:

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-UGH!!! That was my reaction when I heard that Larry Quinn was going to be on Schopp and the Bulldog this past Wednesday. I have written before that I think Larry Quinn’s silence so far this season wasn’t really about him taking a backseat to Darcy in player personnel decisions (which Bucky Gleason seems to think), but more towards the Sabres PR and Quinn realizing that no one in Buffalo can stand it when the guy talks.

Now I know what you are thinking, I’m going to kill Quinn for his appearance, but I’m not. In fact, I thought it was a tad better than normal. The telling comment of the interview came when Quinn talked about how the team in the past may have fell too much in love with their own players, but this time around it could be different when it comes to trading. That’s all nice and dandy to say, but I heard this sort of epiphany before. Remember, Quinn did say that the Sabres would do everything to sign Drury and Briere, and of course whiffed on that.

Other notable news from Quinn’s interview was him talking about the Sabres possibly changing uniforms, which I don’t give a rats ass about because I’m not a fashion mogul. He also spoke about the importance of getting NHL players more recognizable on television (Um, Larrdog? try getting off Versus)

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I completely agree with Mike Schopp (whoa, what?) with his opinion that the Sabres owe it to the fans to make a move because of what happened with the co-captains two years ago. There’s a couple of reasons why the Sabres need to make a trade. Some pretty obvious, some not so much:

1) It would let the wound of the what happened on July 1st, 2007-fully heal. Look, I know some of you can whip out stats showing how average Drury and Briere have become. But wouldn’t you, as fans like to fully know that the team is all about bringing a Stanley Cup to Buffalo by making a trade?

2) If the Sabres can go deep into the playoffs, it would put the team in the position to be the toast of Buffalo. The Bills have been a complete disaster in the last say…ten years. The last time the Sabres were on the cusp of overtaking the Bills was 2006/2007. Of course, the Sabres have been average at best over the last two seasons, but with spring time hockey possibly on the horizon, it could put the Sabres over the Bills. Making a trade would only help that happen.

3)They need scoring help. Look, if you’re on board with Steve Montadour powering the PP, then you must be on board with Ryan Fitzpatrick’s season finale performance. In other words, it won’t last. The Sabres need a legit offensive defenseman to take the pressure off of Tyler Myers. Of course getting a better 1st line center would help too.

4)I don’t want to sound like a broken record (BTW, does anyone even know what a broken record sounds like these days?), but enough about the small market excuse. The Sabres do well at the gate and their TV ratings are one of the best in the country. Go for it people! It didn’t kill the Penguins future when they traded for Martin Hossa in 2008.

Look, I don’t want to sound like this angry Sabres guy. The team has been a good story this season and is riding high. But if Larry Quinn and company are serious about winning the cup, shouldn’t they put their best foot forward and try and win it this season? Their under the cap and they have a nice group of young talent to trade from. If you think the Sabres winning a first round series is a great season, then you must hate what I have to write.

The bottom line is that if the Sabres aren’t active, another team will be. Being active could equal being better than Buffalo. If that happens, then I think we know where we can place the blame.

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One last thought about the Sabres trading. Look, we all know the Sabres won’t make a deal for Ilya Kovalchuck like most fans would hope for. But I don’t want to hear about how he wouldn’t fit into Lindy Ruff’s system. I know most fans hold Lindy’s system in high regards, but sometimes a good coach is suppose to adjust to the talent they get.

Marty Schotenheimer traded for Joe Montana and didn’t tell Joe that they were going to play Marty ball and run the ball 30 times. He adjusted the team’s philosophy around Montana and his previous strengths. Tony Dungy didn’t tell Payton Manning that he was going to run the Colts offense like he did in Tampa.

It’s not like Ruff isn’t use to coaching an offensive style. Look, all I’m saying is I don’t want the Sabres to bring in another blue-collar (Ugh, hate that word) type player who will score 10-15 goals. They have enough of those guys.