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Keep Rolston

May 7, 2013, 8:26 AM ET [293 Comments]
GARTH'S CORNER
NHL news by Garth • RSSArchiveCONTACT
Earlier today, Thomas Vanek scored his second goal of the tournament as the Austrians doubled up on the Latvians 6-3 at the IIHF World Championship. Vanek sniped roof daddy on the perfectly executed 3 -on-1 breakaway.

The win was much needed for Austria, who had dropped its previous games to USA and France.

Vanek will lead his Austrians into battle against Ehrhoff and the Germans on Wednesday.


Thanks, IIHF

vanek spoke about his team's exciting win, just press play...



The win was Austria's first of this 2013 World Championship. The win has a more historical significance as it was the first time in 14 years that the Austrians had won at game against the Latvians at the Worlds.

Vanek's ears must have been ringing as his name was being mentioned at the Ron Rolston presser halfway around the world round about the time he scored his goal for Austria. Rolston said "in a perfect world" that he would like to coach Vanek and Ryan Miller this season, however, "its not a perfect world". Vanek and Miller each have one year left on their current Buffalo contracts. Both players have spoken with Darcy Regier and sabres owner Terry pegula about what the future will hold for themselves, their families, and the Sabres in general. No decisions are imminent at this time. now that Regier has filled his coaching conundrum, he can now shift 100% of his focus to the urgent matter of whether he will keep Miller and trade Vanek, or, if he'll trade Miller and keep vanek. Or, he may choose to move both, or, perhaps not likely at all, he'll keep both Miller and Vanek.


Lets just see what tomorrow brings....



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Updated 11:20 am EDT:

With Limp Bizkit in Buffalo to play a sold out show at the Towne Ballroom tonight, its seems fitting that the Sabres would KEEP ROLSTON.... get it? Keep Rollin'.....

Alrighty then.


Rolston has signed a multi-yer deal. Regier will not divulge the exact years. The contract kicked in when Rolston took over the team. When pressed on exact years, Regier said:

"multi..more than one".


**


RR: "We want to be a playoff team, but we want to be a playoff team that makes long runs to win the Stanley Cup"





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Updated 10:25am EDT:


Darcy Regier and Rolston spoke with Keven Sylvester on Sabres Hockey Hotline.

Presser before the presser.

* Regier said that Rolston was "the obvious choice" as head coach after he listened to the Sabres players speak highly of Rolston at their individual exit interviews at season's end.


* Regier confirmed that there was no exhaustive coaching candidate search. Rolston was his only candidate.

* Rolston said that he wants his team to play an up tempo style and to play a puck possession game. Rolston's catch phrase du jour:

"Difficult to play against".


* Rolston will not comment in his coaching staff at this time. I fully expect James Patrick to follow Lindy Ruff to his next coaching gig, be it Vancouver, NYR, Colorado, Dallas or another NHL team TBD.


* Rolston needs to address his team's abysmal power play unit immediately.


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The suspense is over.

It should come as no surprise that the Buffalo Sabres have hired Ron Rolston as their head coach. To my knowledge, Darcy Regier did not interview any other head coaching candidates for the vacant Sabres head coaching position.


The Sabres will be holding an 11am press conference to officially announce the Rolston hiring. Regier will have to answer questions as to why hire Rolston now? Whats the hurry? Why not wait until the first round of the playoffs is over when Alain Vigneault and John Tortarella may be available? Why not speak with Patrick Roy, Randy Cunneyworth, or Guy Boucher?

Are you happy with Darcy Regier's decision to not interview any coaching candidates outside of the Sabres family?








Here's the official media release:


Rolston, who is the 16th head coach in franchise history, guided the Sabres to a 15-11-5 record in the 31 games he served as interim head coach during the 2012-13 season. Prior to joining the Sabres in February, he was the head coach of the Rochester Americans of the American Hockey League (AHL). In his two seasons (2011-12, 2012-13), as coach of the Americans, Rolston compiled a 63-44-17 regular-season record.

Before joining the Americans as head coach in 2011, Rolston spent seven seasons as head coach with USA Hockey’s National Team Development Program, where he became the first coach in U.S. history to lead the United States Under-18 team to three gold medals (2005, 2009, 2011) at the International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF) World Under-18 Championship, adding a silver medal (2007) in his other appearance as head coach.

In addition to coaching at the Under-18 and Under-17 levels, Rolston also served as head coach for the U.S. National Junior Team at the IIHF U20 World Championship in 2007 and 2009. In 2007, he led Team USA to the bronze medal.

Rolston joined USA Hockey after serving as an assistant coach at four different NCAA Division I hockey programs (Lake Superior State University, 1990-1995; Clarkson University, 1996-1999; Harvard University, 1999-2002; Boston College, 2002-2004) between 1990 and 2004, winning National Championships in 1992 and 1994 with Lake Superior State University.





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Sabres D-man Christian Ehrhoff extraordinaire has had himself a rather disappointing 2012-13 hockey season.

It all started with the disappointment of the NHL lockout which deprived Ehrhoff and his 700+ NHLPA peers of three and a half months of their NHL careers.

Then, in February, Thomas Vanek's underdog Austrians knocked Germany out of a berth at the Sochi Olympics. The Germans won 3-2 in OT, however, they needed a regulation victory to advance after a loss to Italy earlier in the qualification tournament. Ehrhoff won't be able to compete in the Olympics for his country until his 35 years old.


Ehrhoff played well this season in Buffalo, scoring 22 points in 47 games, however, the Buffalo Sabres missed the NHL playoffs for the second season in a row. Ehrhoff will be entering his third season of a 10-year, $40-million deal with the Sabres. Money can't buy him an NHL playoff berth. The last time he played in a meaningful post season game was in the Spring of 2010 when the Vancouver Canucks were eliminated from the Stanley Cup Finals by the Boston Bruins.

Thus far, Ehrhoff is the second leading scorer on Team Germany. He's the team captain and is averaging a monstrous 30:38 of ice time per game at this tournament.


Ehrhoff told the IIHF that he's ready to start winning.

"I’m just disappointed right now that we’re standing here empty-handed,” said the German captain after his team fell 3-2 to Slovakia on Monday. “Since we’ve been so close and we’ve played a good game, we have to keep our confidence. You know, we’ve just got to get ready, stay focused, and try to get better throughout the tournament.



The winless Germans will face the craft Austrian tomorrow at the IIHF World Championships.

Ehrhoff and the Germans will have a chance at revenge when they face Vanek and the Austrians.

Who will you be cheering for?



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