Henrik Zetterberg and his Detroit Red Wings will be familiar faces in Buffalo and in the Eastern Conference this season.
When the Sabres and Wings will faceoff on opening night (10/2) inside Detroit's Joe Louis Arena, they will be met with stiff resistance by Zetterberg, Datsyuk, Kronwall, Howard and the rest of the Red Wings. There will be a ton of pressure on the young Sabres centers and forwards to win faceoffs and to out hustle arguably the best 1-2 forward punches in the NHL . I know. Crosby and Malkin are pretty impressive, too. So are Perry and Getzlaf.
Zetterberg was a seventh round draft pick on the 1999 NHL Entry Draft. He was selected 210th overall! Its hard to believe that the quiet, shy, small Swedish Elite league star would make such a dramatic impact on the Detroit Red Wings when they chose to put him in their lineup in 2002.
His work ethic is like no other player in the NHL. He'll remind Sabres fans of the amazing Daniel Alfredsson, who now is a teammate of Zetterberg's in Detroit.
Today, Zetterberg is the captain of the Detroit Red Wings. He won a Stanley Cup in 2008, as well as the Conn Smythe Trophy as the MVP of the 2008 Stanley Cup Playoffs.
He has won gold medals in the 2006 Ice Hockey World Championships and 2006 Winter Olympics, making him a member of the Sweden's Triple Gold Club. He and his Tre Kronor teammates hope to win the gold medal for Sweden at the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi.
Who is Henrik Zetterberg? What makes him tick? What path did he take to earn a long shot opportunity with an Original 6 powerhouse like the Detroit Red Wings?
I enjoyed watching this Zetterberg. You will, too.
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What if Patrick Roy isn't satisfied with the strategy of waiting until U.S, Thanksgiving to find out if his starting goalie, Semyon Varlamov, embraces the Francois Allaire philosophy?
What if the rumors are true that Roy wants Ryan Miller right now?
What if the Avs goaltending is weak in their preseason games?
What if the Avs D corps is simply ordinary in training camp?
All valid questions that Patrick Roy and Joe Sakic are likely role playing answers to right now. 'If this, then that". "If that, then this".
The biggest question in Denver right now has to be : Are the Avs ready to compete for a playoff berth and a deep playoff run right now, with the roster as its presently constructed? Or, do Roy and Sakic have to make improvements to in order to be considered a playoff contender?
I'll go with the latter rather than the former.
The Colorado Avalanche are a top heavy team right now. They have one of the best forward ranks collections in the NHL with Landeskog, Duchene, Stastny, O'Reilly, MacKinnon, Tanguay, Parentau, Downie, and McGinn.
Paul Stastny's expiring contract makes him a candidate to be moved. Ryan O'Reilly's contract will expire at the end of this season as well, however, he cannot be traded until the end of February 2014 due to the legalities associated with the offer sheet that Calgary signed him to last season, which the Avalanche immediately accepted.
Roy and Sakic are not GM Greg Sherman. They are proactive, not reactive. They have been ultra-aggressive this summer and I see no reason to believe that they will shift into ultra-conservative mode now. Roy needs to reduce his goals against and the amount of shots that his goalies see. He'll do it two ways: by upgrading his goaltending and by adding qualified NHL D to the group of journeymen that occupy space on his blue line now.
Roy has an embarrassment of riches in his forward group.
The question that I and may observers have been asking all summer is this:
Who is going to keep the puck out of Colorado's net?
Their D is a patchwork quilt of ordinary players. Their best D is former #1 overall pick Erik Johnson. Their 2-6 D leave a lot to be desired.
The way I see it, Varlamov will have to win a lot of one goal games this season. I see the Avs losing a lot of 4-3, 5-4, and 6-5 games in 2013-14.I don't think that Varlamov is accomplished and polished enough to slam the door on opponents when his team needs him the most.
In an attempt to rehabilitate the career of his starting goalie Semyon Varlamov, Roy recently hired his friend and former position coach, Francois Allaire. Roy and Allaire are looking to turn Varlamov's career around after two disappointing seasons in Denver.
Varlamov's career high in wins is 26 (2011-12). 26 wins translates to 52 points in today's NHL. Throw in some OT wins, and a shootout win or two and Varlamov is a 60 point goalie. Giguere could win 10-15 games this season which would make the Avs an 80-90 point team. Those numbers are not good enough to get Roy's team into the playoffs. Joe Sacco was fired by the Avs for failing to get the Avs to the playoffs three out of the last four seasons. Roy was hired to reverse that trend.
His new goaltending coach Allaire can teach Varlamov new techniques and clean up his fundamentals. However, can Allaire teach his young starting goalie how to stand up to pressure and the steal games when he's given the luxury of goal scoring support?
Allaire better get his Harry Potter magic wand out. It will take a wizard's touch to get more wins out of Varlamov this season with the Avs' patchwork quilt of a mediocre D corps.
Allaire told the Denver Post in July that he thinks Varlamov is open to hitting the reset button on his overall game.
"I think Varly is looking for a fresh start," Allaire said. "I think he's open to trying something else. He didn't feel he was going in the right direction. He wants to flush everything out and start fresh."
Varlamov doesn't have a choice in this matter. Roy and Allaire want their tenders to play a butterfly style. Allaire has proven that his style wins Stanely Cups (Roy in Montreal in '93 and Giguere in Anaheim in '07). Therefore, Varlamov better buy in, and perfect the Allaire way, or else.
Allaire's mission that he has chosen to accept is to:
Perform an extreme makeover on Varlamov's entire game and inflate the young goalie's confidence at the same time. Failure is not an option. Allaire must get through to Varlamov or else this experiment will fail. Allaire says that in order to be successful in his "system", a goalie must relax, breathe, and remain open minded.
"I want him to be comfortable. That's the main thing," Allaire said. "After that, I want him to understand I'm not coming from a different planet. It's the same stuff. We don't want him to change everything. I've met with him a few times already. One of my trademarks is I try to make sure guys are feeling good and keep it simple, create good routine, make sure the guy is happy coming to the rink. Then after that, look at the tape and then find their best strength and build around it. I'm not there yet with Varly, but I expect that to come."
I'm skeptical about Varlamov. I think Roy will grow restless in early season games when he sees his stable of thoroughbred forwards lighting the lamp with regularity, only to see the leads evaporate due to poor D zone play and sloppy goaltending.
I get even more skeptical when I ponder how the new rules that call for the immediate 10% reduction in the height of goalie pads will effect the Avs goalie. Varlamov is 6'2, which means that he will lose 2-3 inches of goalie pad height (10% reduction from the tips of his pads to his pelvis). Hello five-hole.
There may be truth to the murmurs that Roy may want to upgrade his goaltending now, rather than waiting 90 days to do so.
Roy's wasted little time re-branding himself as the river boat gambler NHL executive. He flipped the script by passing over D Seth Jones and selecting Nathan MacKinnon with the first overall pick in June's NHL entry draft.
Roy also signed his #1 center Matt Duchene to a long term contract extension.
Captain Gabriel Landeskog was also rewarded with a long term contract extension this summer.
The pieces are fitting together for Roy and the Avs.
Roy has been saying for months that the Colorado Avalanche are going to more a more competitive, more complete team this season. In his heart of hearts, he knows what area of that NHL games are won and lost. Roy knows goaltending, arguably better than any other head coach/director of hockey operations in the NHL today. There's a reason that Roy's name has been engraved on the Stanley Cup multiple times. There's a reason that he has hired his sensei Francois Allaire to coach-up Varlamov. Giguere won a cup with Allaire as his coach in Anaheim in 2007. Age won't allow Giguere to start 60-65 games this season, otherwise Roy would make hin the Avs #1 goalie. The pressure is squarely rested, like a Steinway piano, on Varlamov's young shoulders right now. All due respect to the young Russian, he's shown me no reason to believe that he can compete at the same high standards for 70 starts a season as Jonathon Quick, Corey Crawford, Jimmy Howard, Henrik Lundqvist and Ryan Miller. Yes, THAT Ryan Miller.
We know already that Miller's contract with Buffalo expires in July 2014. He's going to report to Buffalo's training camp, where he will be the #1 tender like he has been for the past decade.
Miller knows a thing or three about winning games despite have a crepe paper-thin defense in front of him. He's won 40+ games three times in ten seasons in Buffalo. He's a grinder. He can steal games. He's pressure tested. He's a winner.
Earlier this week, while at Team USA Olympic Orientation camp in the Washington area, Miller said that he feels like he still has a lot of hockey left in him. He wants to win a Stanley Cup, or two before he skates away from the game. He hears the trade rumors and speculation.
“It’s the nature of sport. It’s a transitional time for Buffalo. We had a couple tough years. I mean, it goes from a situation where as the goalie its about the hope you can bring, to ya know, I’ve been there (Buffalo) a long time and we haven’t done enough with the group we had. Its not about hope anymore, its about how the next generation of players, and the next group of players. I think its still a feeling out process where I fit in to that, where maybe the other guys fit into that. I don’t know. But, I still fit into it somehow. I’m still on the team, I’ve got one more year left (will become UFA 7/1/14), and my intention is to be the best I can be as always. I feel like I still have a lot of hockey left and that I can play at a really high level. I have to do what I can do to be a good teammate right now, and help the Sabres become the team they need to be. I’m actually excited. I think we (Buffalo) have a good group of guys, a little bit younger, but I think we’re going to have pretty defined roles of what guys are expected to do. Its like this team (Team USA). We talk about roles, and doing what you need to do, and you’re going to have success. Like in Vancouver, with guys understanding they might not have the same role as they do on the with the team they play with in the NHL. You just go about your business, do the job you’re expected to do and you can win hockey games. I think Buffalo will have to do the same thing".
Patrick Roy props Miller at the 1:33 mark. He didn't pump Lundqvist's tires, nor Quick. Roy chose Miller. Think about it. The two goalies have a lot in common. Both are perfectionists. Both the to lose. Each are cerebral, intense competitors who have no problem speaking their minds, in the room, and to the media.
Miller played ten seasons under Lindy Ruff. He knows what its like to play for a task master who demands a lot from his goalies.
Roy and Miller may be a match made in hockey heaven.
I would not be the least bit surprised that if Varlamov fails to embrace the Allaire way, that Roy will call Darcy Regier to work out a trade for Ryan Miller.
Miller for Stastny?
Makes a lot of sense.
Miller's final year of his contract is for $6.25 million while Stastny's is for $6.6 million.
Roy has four bona fide monsters a center right now. He can't rightly play Stastny at fourth line center with his $6.6 million contract. So, he's moving his second line center Ryan O'Reilly to the wing to make room for Stastny to center the second line. Nathan MacKinnon will be the third line center. Matt Duchene is the #1 center in Denver. Trading Stasny would allow Roy to return to a center rotation of Duchene-O'Reilly-MacKinnon.
The Sabres are young down the middle right now. They have unsigned RFA Cody Hodgson penciled in to play with Vanek and whomever on the top unit. Tyler Ennis will compete in training camp with Mikhail Grigorenko and Zemgus Girgensons for the second line center job. Ennis will be RFA on July 1, 2014. Steve Ott plays center/wing. Kevin Porter will play bottom six center. Stastny would add immediate value to Buffalo's top six forward group. Stastny will turn 28 in late December and he has scored 20 goals four times in his NHL career.
Buffalo presently sits $10.5 million under the $64.3 million salary cap, while Colorado has $10.2 million in available cap space.
The Sabres will have 10 NHL D in their training camp in the next week and a half. Myers, Ehrhoff, Weber, and Tallinder are all set in the top four while Sulzer, Pysyk, McBain, Ristolainen, Ruhwedel, and McNabb will all be competing for the final three slots. With Jake McCabe, Nikita Zadorov, and Jerome Ledic-Gauthier waiting in the wings, the Sabres can afford to move McNabb and Sulzer now.
The Avs have no notable D help in the incubator in AHL Lake Erie, and they can seriously use some veteran help on their back end. Here's their D corps:
Erik Johnson, Jan Hejda, Ryan Wilson, Cory Sarich, Matt hunwick, Andre Benoit, Stefan Elliott, Tyson Barrie.
Good luck with that.
Buffalo is a one-stop shop for Roy right now. He can get Miller and legitimate upgrades for his D like Sulzer and/or McNabb, without having to break his bank.
I like the sound of a deal the sees Buffalo getting Paul Stastny and Avs prospect Andrew Aggozino ( Left winger, 5'10" 187 lbs., AHL Lake Erie 2012-13: 76 games played: 20 goals 32 assists 52 points 73 PIMS). Aggozino played four years with the Niagara Ice Dogs where he scored 27, 37, 43, and 40 goals respectively. He's entering year two of his entry level contract. He'll get a look in training camp, however, he won't have a chance to crack the top nine forward group in Denver. Playing him for five minutes on night on the fourth line in the NHL is stupid. He'll likely play the entire season with AHL Lake Erie. Another prime prospect Buffalo may target of the Avs are not willing to part with Aggozino is center Mike Sgarbossa ( 5'11" 175 lbs. AHL: Lake Erie 2012-13: 57 games 19 goals 25 assists 44 points 71 PIMS). Sgarbossa will have a tough time cracking into the Colorado lineup this season, especially since he'd have to unseat centers Duchene, O'Reilly, and MacKinnon. Stastny, too.
Is there merit to the Miller-Stastny rumor?
There's no spark without a fire. There's no heat without a flame.
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