The Sabres have named a captain for the upcoming season, but there's not just one. There are two.
Steve Ott and Thomas Vanek have been named co-captains and will rotate the "C" throughout this season. Vanek will serve as captain of home games and Ott for the away ones.
I'm not pleased with the idea of two captains. Christian Ehrhoff will serve as the assistant captain for all games.
This basically tells me that the Sabres don't have a legitimate captain and they couldn't decide who gets it. This still leaves Vanek's future in the air. Had he been the only one with a "C", it would have likely meant he would re-sign. Now, whichever player does sign an extension, they will probably be captain for next year.
“We just thought both guys represented what we wanted,” Rolston said. “Nothing more, nothing less than that. We thought it’s all about the influence they have on the team. Those guys are big influences on the team, so we thought that was the way to go.”
Vanek said that Chris Drury had an impact on him and that carrying the "C" won't change the way Vanek plays.
Drury led be example and wasn't much of a vocal leader on the sideline. What he did on the ice was enough for me. I hope Vanek becomes that type of player. He has to sign an extension, though.
The two captains could be a good thing, with two different styles from Vanek and Ott. We'll see how it works out.
Welcome back to hockey season, folks!
October is finally here and the NHL is set to begin. The Sabres will be announcing their captain and assistants at some point today. It won't be long before they do that. According to yesterday's poll, readers thought Buffalo would pick Steve Ott, Thomas Vanek or Cody Hodgson, in that order. We will find out the answer soon enough.
I've been reading up on predictions and have seen St.Louis winning the Stanley Cup for quite a number of people. They are going to be an interesting team to watch. Meanwhile, I haven't seen Buffalo predicted to finish above 6th in the division.
I asked all of the Hockeybuzz bloggers who write for the Atlantic division teams to send me a list of their predictions. The only one I don't have as of now is Boston blogger Ty Anderson. Otherwise, here is the rest of the list:
Interesting to see how biased each writer was, including myself. I ranked Buffalo a bit higher than everyone else, and they all did the same for their team. Understandable. All but one of us picked Boston to win the division.
Also, with the Sabres season starting tomorrow, I encourage you to sign up for the pick 'em contest on my site. Sabres Hockey Central is running the contest for the 5th year now, and fellow HB user mhp has won the last two.
It's completely free and there are prizes to be won. Sign up, predict the scores of Sabres games, and beat other participants.
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