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There were many nights last season that Christian Ehhoff's play suggested that he would rather be somewhere other than Buffalo. As the Sabres struggled and looked for answers to the questions that were confounding the team, Ehrhoff appeared to be going through the motions on and off the ice. It appeared to me that he was playing out the brutal season and that he was interested in re-locating to a winning team. In his three seasons in Buffalo, he saw his club lose a first round series to the Boston Bruins to two straight playoff misses. He saw veteran team leaders Pominville, Regehr, Leopold, Vanek, Ott, Moulson, McCormick, and Miller traded away to contending teams. I always wondered if Ehrhoff would be long for Buffalo because he didn't appear to have an appetite for playing the role of leader of a re-tooling, re-building young team. On many nights last season, Ehrhoff seemed unfazed by all of the losing and negativity.
I took that to mean that Ehrhoff was wondering of the grass was greener on the other side.
In July, the Pegulas scratched a fat check for $12 million to have Ehrhoff leave Buffalo. He wasn't going to be a solution so he was bought out along with Ville Leino.
Ehrhoff's 10 year, $40 million contract made him a building block for the future. He last just three seasons when turbulence occurred.
In early October, Ehrhoff told Penguins.com that he signed long term in Buffalo to play on a winner. When the re-build started, Ehrhoff's position changed.
“I thought it was a team on the uprise,” he said. “They had a good roster and I felt, with a few additions, that they could take the next step to be a competitive team. Unfortunately it didn’t work out that way and they went into full rebuild mode. That was obviously a little frustrating because that’s not the reason I (signed) there”.
Sabres fans were left wanting more after each of Ehrhoff's three seasons in the Blue & Gold.
The Sabres were a playoff team when he arrived in Buffalo. They failed to make the playoffs in his final two seasons. He scored only 16 goals and accumulated a so-so total 87 points in 192 games with the Sabres.
The 2013-14 season will be the one that sticks in my craw concerning Ehrhoff. He wasn’t a leader. He became a part of the problem. He turned over pucks, made ugly mistakes, and was hardly a good role model to the many young kids that Ted Nolan had assembled on the Buffalo roster. His body language on the ice screamed “get me outta here”.
“Last year was obviously very frustrating finishing last in Buffalo – not what I had hoped for when I signed there,” Ehrhoff said.
This morning, Ehrhoff spoke about his empathy for his former Buffalo teammates.
Thanks, Penguins.com
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The Buffalo Sabres have a date with the hottest player in the NHL tonight.
Geno Malkin has been a man possessed in the first month of the season and he is showing no signs of slowing down his offensive production.
He missed 22 regular season games due to injury in 201-14, however, still managed to scored 23 goals and 49 assists.
Malkin has scored 4 goals and added 8 assists in his nine games played.
His current streak ties him for the longest active point streak in the NHL with Ryan Johansen of the Columbus Blue Jackets. Both players missed training camp and have started the season with an explosion of offense. It proves that NHL superstars don't need to play 6-7 exhibition games to get prepared to play the NHL regular season.
Malkin’s nine game scoring streak to open this season is his best since his rookie year back in 2006-07, when he lit the lamp in his first six games.
“I just do my job,” Malkin said, a sentiment he kept repeating. “We have a great line with (Pascal Dupuis) and (Blake) Comeau. We try to use each other. A good power play, too. Most (of my) points are on the power play, but still a couple chances 5-on-5. I love to help the team to win.”
Malkin dealt with a couple of issues over the summer. An undisclosed injury forced him to miss training camp.
Then, when the season began, Malkin's nose was bent out of shape in reaction to his line mate James Neal being traded to Nashville in July.
“Now it’s better, but of course the first three or four games it’s really tough,” he said. “(I wasn’t) in good shape, but (I) still worked. Go to the gym after tonight’s game, tomorrow too. Just do my job. Every day.”
Malkin was also moved to right wing from his natural center ice position for the first five games there next to Dupuis and Brandon Sutter to ease his workload and responsibilities at the onset of the season.
Once his game conditioning was where it needed to be, Malkin slid back to center with Dupuis and Comeau and the line has been on fire ever since.
Malkin, the humble superstar, deflects all attention from himself when asked about his recent success. He told Penguins.com that he and his fellow core players strive to continue to improve their production.
“Because we have good players,” he responded. “(Sidney) Crosby, (Kris) Letang. We try to move the puck quick, stay to front and (Chris Kunitz) screens the goalie every time. There’s a good chance to score because the goalie doesn’t see the puck. We work at practice a lot. Every day, actually. We’ve played together a long time. Me, Crosby, Letang, ‘Kuni.’ Just one new guy, (Patric Hornqvist). But the five guys are still good and we don’t score every night, but we try to do our best.”
Geno assisted on Chris Kunitz’s PPG on Thursday night against the LA. He now has 400 career assists – which moved him into fifth place on the Penguins’ all-time list behind superstars Ron Francis, Sidney Crosby, Jaromir Jagr, and of course Mario Lemieux.
The scary thing about Malkin is that he is 28 years old and is just now entering his prime years of offensive production. He thinks that he has a lot of mojo still left in him.
“It’s just another number, I think, because I’m still young,” the 28-year-old
Malkin said before jokingly adding, “Not young, but it’s alright. But I know I have more points (in me) and I try to do my job. Good number, but (I’m) not done.”
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I spoke with Pat Kaleta following the Sabres 3-2 OT loss to the Boston Bruins on Thursday night. He was all smiles and looked good. PK36 told me that he is close to returning to the Buffalo lineup. He's been sidelined since September 28 when he did what his instincts guide him to do: he blocked a Morgan Riellly clapper. With his face. Kaleta has no fear when it comes to stepping into enemy shot lanes to block bullets with his body. He usually takes the shots off his skates and his hands. On that night in Toronto, the puck found his right cheek bone.
Proving my perpetual point that Kaleta will put his body on the line at all times for his teammates. His unselfish, warrior spirit will help to buoy the struggling Sabres when he returns to the lineup this week.
Pat will wear a full cage when he returns to the lineup.
Thanks, Dan Hickling
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Sam Reinhart will likely be be in the Kootenay lineup tonight when Lethbridges comes calling on the Ice.
The Buffalo Sabres bid adieu to the second overall pick in the 2014 NHL Draft on Friday morning citing the young gun's strength as the reason for the demotion. I completely agree with Tim Murray's decision to sent Samson back to juniors. I'd rather see him hit the weights and re-build his confidence while pumping in 100 points in Kootenay rather than him playing 5 minutes a night in Buffalo.
I watched Reinhart closely in Sabres Prospects camp, in training camp, and in his nine NHL games. My takeaway is that the 6'1" 185 lb. prospect would be a better protector of the puck if he were to add muscle and core strength. That's not to say that he isn't a solid player now. What I see is that when he had his head over the puck in his first nine NHL games, he was easily knocked off the puck by bigger NHLers like Ryan Getzlaf, Corey Perry, Ryan Johansen, Patrice Bergeron, Jeff Carter, Anze Kopitar, Joe Thornton, and Patrick Marleau to name a few.
Reinhart was tied for fifth in the league with 105 points in 60 games last season, and his 36 goals were second on Kootenay. Reinhart also led the ICE with 23 points (six goals, 17 assists) in 13 WHL playoff games.
One of the biggest beneficiaries from Reinhart's return to junior hockey could be Hockey Canada, as Reinhart could play a significant role for Canada at the 2015 IIHF World Junior Championship in Montreal and Toronto. He had two goals and three assists for Canada at the 2014 WJC.
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Speaking of young Sabres....
The Rochester Amerks are now 6-2 on the season by virtue of their impressive 3-0 shutout win over the Syracuse Crunch on Friday night.
Andrey Makarov stopped all 38 shots he faced for his first professional shutout. Makarov battled hard and outplayed his goalie counterpart and former Team Russia (2012 WJC) Andre Vasilevsky.
Joel Armia scored the GWG at the 2:58 mark of the first period.
Jerome Leduc and Phil Varone also scores for the Amerks.
Leduc finished with a goal and an assist.
Armia and Varone each scored their fourth goals of the season.
Jordan Samuels-Thomas recorded his first professional hockey point with an assist.
Mark Pysyk, Mikhail Grigorenko, Luke Adam and Makarov all tallied assists.
#Merk$
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