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London Calling Nikita; Kaleta On The Mend |
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Updated:
Following Tuesday's practice, Tim Murray sent seven players to AHL Rochester.\\
30 players now remain. The magic number is 23 players.
Murray and Nolan still have to make decisions on Sam Reinhart and Nikita Zadorov. Both will more than likely be returned to their respective junior teams. Nolan said today that Reinhart will play in the final two preseason contests. It appears as though Reinhart will have to beat out Mikhail Grigorenko for the final center spot on the roster. Zadorov? Scroll down for my takes on him.
The Amerks opened their training camp on Monday.
The Buffalo roster is now at 30 players:
17 forwards, 10 defensemen and three goaltenders.
There are no surprises on the list of seven players, which includes:
Forwards Joel Armia, Matt Ellis (pending waivers), and Tim Schaller
D-men: Drew Bagnall (pending waivers) and Nick Petrecki
Bar Tenders: Nathan Lieuwen and Andrey Makarov
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Its very likely that Sabres GM Tim Murray and head coach Ted Nolan will be cutting their roster down today. Conspicuous by his non-featured role at Tuesday's practice its very obvious to this observer that London is definitely calling hulking D-man Nikita Zadorov now.
Nolan ran the following D pairs at prax today.
Gorges-Myers
Weber-Ristolainen
Benoit-Meszaros
Bagnall-Strachan
McCabe-Petrecki
*Zadorov
Zadorov was not assigned a partner and was the guy who rotated in and out with the other ten D. Being scratched from practice drills is akin to driving 100 mph on the Youngmann with a trooper sitting in front of you with his radar gun pointed at you.
Bad move, bro.
This is certainly not something that the snarly Russian skyscraper would have hoped for at the beginning of this summer.
I'd say that its a good bet, better than 90%, that Zadorov will be packing his equipment bag and heading up the QEW to The 401 Westbound and back to OHL London in the days to come.
On September 17, I put it out there that something was amiss with Zadorov. Its hard to tell why he has been withholding his best efforts from this training camp. Is he injured? Not that I've been told. Seems to me that its a case of coming to training camp with the attitude that he had already earned a roster spot based on his efforts from last season. Reputatiuon won't earn a kid a roster spot on a Ted Nolan coached team. Hard work, battle, compete, and elbow grease have been missing from Zadorov's overall game since the team's rookie development camp in Buffalo in early July. Nolan isn't blind. Neither are Chad Cassidy and the other coaches.
Zadorov was benched for his ho-hum effort and attitude in a crucial game at the Traverse City's top prospects tournament. Nikita picked a fine time to draw unnecessary negative publicity to himself by mailing it in. To his credit, he bounced back well from the half game benching and played well in the consolation game loss to St. Louis.
One would think that Zadorov's attitude and effort would have improved exponentially for this Buffalo raining camp where Ted Nolan has said repeatedly that roster positions and Sabres sweaters will be earned and not given.
While Zadorov has been struggling to find his confidence and his trademark physically offensive game, fellow youngsters Rasmus Ristolainen and Jake McCabe have blown right by him on the depth chart. You'd have thought that Mark Pysyk's injury in the Carolina exhibition game would have served as a motivator for Zadorov to amp up his effort in order to impress Nolan and the coaches. It hasn't happened yet. I'm not quite sure what Zadorov is waiting for. The next round of training camp roster cuts is mere hours away. Veterans Andrey Meszaros and Andre Benoit have been rock solid for Nolan and have cemented their roster spots, as have Tyler Myers and Josh Gorges. Mike Weber has been a real question mark thus far and is a risk of playing himself off the roster. Drew Bagnall, Tyson Strachan and Nick Petrecki and played very well in training camp will add immediate value to the soon-to-be awesome Rochester Americans roster. Their camp opened on Monday.
I thought for sure that Nikita would have fed off of the transcendent training camp performances of his good friends Mikhail Grigorenko and Andrey Makarov.
Zadorov isn't eligible to play in Rochester this season, so its either play in Buffalo or go back for his third season with the London Knights.
I think he needs to look at himself in the mirror and ask himself if he's done everything in his power in order to earn a Buffalo roster spot.
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Speaking of line combinations, Nolan and Bryan Trottier iced the following trios at Tuesday's prax:
19-25-21
26-63-12
44-28-17
37-59-33
20-8-65
82-23-80
I like the idea of Hodgson-Grigorenko staying together. CoHo's sweet backhand sauce to Grigo's tape in Toronto on Sunday night was a beautiful collaboration between two highly skilled offensive players who think the game similarly. Strafford adds size and shooting dexterity. Moulson-Ennis will be together on the top line this season. Gionta was added to replace Stafford. I still think that Moulson-Ennis-Stafford will be the first line on opening night. I like the sandy, salty, stiff nature of the Deslauriers-Girgensons-Mitchell line. I see the Ellis-Schaller-Armia group as being Rochester bound, along with Dalpe and Flynn.
Pairing Samson Reinhart with two 18 wheelers in Foligno and Stewart is a great idea. I'd like to see Samson use his skill and determination to drive to the Washington net for chances on Wednesday night. I pity the poor fool who dares to mess with Samson on this line.
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Speaking of Reinhart, I see him playing his obligatory 9 game NHL tryout, then, transitioning back to Kootenay for another season of junior hockey. The kid has performed well in Buffalo's camp. I think it will be best for the 18 year old to go home, play 28-30 minutes per game and DOMINATE The Dub, rather than play a limited role in Buffalo.
More to come on this subject.
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Thanks, Dan Hickling
After Tuesday's prax, Ted Nolan gave a brief update on his two injured forwards Pat Kaleta and Johan Larsson. Each player sustained facial injuries in the 3-2 shootout loss in Toronto on Sunday night.
Regarding Kaleta, Nolan said:
“It’s still serious,” Nolan said.
“It’s not going to be a three-month thing. It’s could be a less-than-month type of thing. So we’re thankful for that.”
Thanks, Bill Hoppe
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