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Rolston Fined Because Scott Is Scott |
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Updated 12:30pm:
Sabres coach Ron Rolston spoke after Wednesday's game day skate about the status of injured winger Corey Tropp.
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Big John Scott reacted to the Phil Kessel suspension:
Thanks, Sabres.com
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Steve Ott defended his teammate John Scott on Wednesday morning.
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Updated 11:55am:
Tropp did indeed suffer a concussion as well as a broken jaw in the fight with Devane. However, Ron Rolston has said that Tropp has since passed his neuro-psch evaluation since the incident occurred on Sunday night. Tropp underwent surgery to repair the broken jaw.
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Updated 11:30 am:
Sabres coach Ron Rolston just broke the bad news that winger Corey Tropp has a broken jaw. He suffered the broken jaw in the fight with Devane in Toronto in Sunday night. Tropp will be lost for the next 5-6 weeks. Terrible news to be sure.
The silver lining is that Tropp has passed his neurological-psych evaluations and he does not have a concussion.The takeaway: Bones heal faster than the human brain does. For that, Tropp should be thankful. Tropp has suffered from a concussion in his pro hockey career. He'll be on the ice again in November.
The former Michigan State Spartan standout appeared to be out before his head hit the ice after he was punched the the ice by the bigger Devane.
It was Tropp who scored at the 10:01 mark of the third period in the game, to draw the Sabres to within one goal of the lead. then, all Hell broke loose when Leafs head coach Randy Carlyle opted to line-up Phil Kessel against Sabres winger John Scott.
Hind sight's 20/20.
Ya think Rolston knew the severity of Tropp's injury before the Kessel stick assault on Scott occurred?
Tropp was having an impressive training camp before the injury occurred. This opens the door for a youngster like Armia to make the opening night roster.
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Ron Rolston thinned out his D ranks earlier this week by sending Brayden McNabb and Chad Ruhwedel back to the Amerks.
It feels like 2010 all over again seeing the D pair of Myers-Tallinder.
Rolston wants to see if this dynamic duo can recreate the creativity and synergy that they produced when they played together three seasons ago.
Everything went right for Myers and Tallinder that season. The kid won the Rookie of The year, and Tallinder earned himself a fat UFA contract with New Jersey.
Lets see Rolston's putting the band back together again creates harmony tonight vs. the Blue Jackets.
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Finally! The Buffalo Sabres are back on the. The team was given Tuesday off.
According to the Sabres PR team, Marcus Foligno is on the ice this morning. Foligno was dinged in the third period of Sunday's game in Toronto.
Ron Rolston will be icing a veteran core for tonight's home game vs. Columbus.
Jhonas Enroth will be the starter tonight.
I'm intrigued by the "kid line" of Girgensons-Grigorenko-Armia. All first round talents. All creative. All driven. All looking to make a statement to Ron Rolston in the final two exhibition games.
Drew Stafford has been silent for most of the preseason. Tonight, he'll be holding down the right side for Hodgson and Vanek. Stafford needs to make a statement tonight and in Carolina later this week. The Sabres are loaded with wingers right now. Stafford's ice time and position on the team are not guaranteed. He must commit to getting himself to the scoring areas on the ice and he mist convert his chances toinght. Otherwise, one of the kids will take his job. Philadelphia lost RW Jake Voracek to an upped body injury on Tuesday night. Other teams have been bitten by the training camp injury bug, too. Look at Edmonton and Sam Gagner. Its put up or shut up time for Stafford.
Thanks, Sabres.com
Forwards:
Vanek-Hodgson-Stafford
Ott-Ennis-Leino
Girgensons-Grigorenko-Armia
Scott-Larsson-Kaleta
Adam-Porter-Flynn
Larsson between Scott and Kaleta is a fun line combo. Larsson will have a ton of room with which to roam around and create with against the Blue Jackets.
Defense:
Tallinder-Myers
Ehrhoff-Pysyk
Weber-Ristolainen
*Rotating in: Sulzer / McBain / Zadorov.
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Coach Rolston said after prax that these line are similar to the lines that he'll ice for opening night.
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* This is Buffalo’s sixth of seven preseason games after opening camp on Wednesday 9/11 at First Niagara Center; it is their third and final home game during the 2013 preseason. The Sabres are 1-0-1 at home so far, with a 5-2 win vs. Carolina on 9/19 and a 3-2 shootout loss vs. Toronto on 9/21.
* The Sabres haven’t lost a preseason home game in regulation since 9/21/07; they’ve gotten at least a point in their last 11, going 8-0-3 in those games and outscoring their opponents, 39-25.
Buffalo and Columbus have played 14 preseason games all-time. The Sabres are 8-6-0 in preseason contests against the Blue Jackets; 2-2-0 at home, 4-3-0 in Columbus. Three of the 13 preseason games between the Sabres and Blue Jackets have been played at neutral site venues, with the Sabres going 2-1-0.
* The last time the teams met in the preseason was on 9/17, in Columbus. Marcus Foligno scored twice in a 3-1 Sabres win. The first of three regular season meetings between the Sabres and Blue Jackets will take place on Thursday, 10/10 in Buffalo. The teams will then meet twice in eight days with a game at First Niagara Center on
1/18 followed by a trip to Columbus on Saturday 1/25.
* Marcus Foligno leads the Sabres with three goals and four points in three preseason games. Ryan Miller has led the Sabres goaltenders with 141 minutes played, registering a 2.98 goals against average and .916 save percentage through
parts of three games.
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On Monday afternoon, I was shocked and disappointed to hear TSN 1050 "broadcaster" Jeff O'Neill calling Sabres head coach Ron Rolston a "pencil neck geek". Live on the air. Tar and feather job of Rolston. He made not so flattering comments about John Scot as well. He's tweeted rude things about Pat Kaleta, too.
Seriously. Nice professionalism, Jeffie. Bitter much?
I've been covering the Sabres for this site for eight and a half years and I can tell you that I have NEVER seen O'Neill in Sabres media scrums or Rolston press conferences.
O'Neill represents a faction of Toronto media snobs who in the aftermath of the John Scott-Phil Kessel incident, have felt the urge to share their views on a head coach and a group of players that they do not know. Ron Rolston deserves better treatment. The Sabres players and organization deserve better treatment. New coach. New players. New energy. Buffalo is in a youth movement.
Last February, the Sabres fired Lindy Ruff and replaced him with Rolston. The new coach made his NHL coaching debut in Toronto. In a lockout shortened season, the Sabres and Leafs barely played one another. Ron Rolston is largely an unknown commodity right now in the NHL, yet in the past three days, misinformed loud mouths like O'Neill have had no problem branding Rolston as the new cowboy who wears the black hat. So much has been said about Rolston. So much of it is speculative and wrong. "Rolston put Scott out on the ice to kill Kessel"... "Rolston lost control of his team"..."Rolston broke violated "the code"..." Blah, blah, blah.... (insert long fart noise here).
The blow hards and holier than thou axe grinders act like they know Rolston's motivations. They don't. They should keep their ignorant pie holes shut. Jeff O'Neill and his career -115 +/- rating should shut his pie hole.
Suddenly, Rolston has street cred in the NHL. He's a bad guy. He's the cowboy in the black hat. He's no longer the Dudley Doright of the NHL. You mess around and take liberties with his players? You'll be held accountable.
Don't let the khakis, blue blazer, glasses and high IQ mislead you. Rolston is a fiery, intense, passionate head coach and teacher. He cares about his players. He coached Corey Tropp on AHL Rochester. He knows the difficult road that Tropp had to traverse in the past 11 months to get himself rehabilitated from surgery, back in the weight room, and on the ice competing again for a top nine job in the NHL.
Listen. Ron Rolston is guilty of one thing. That is defending his player Corey Tropp, a middleweight who was beat down by an AHL heavyweight orangutan in Toronto's Devane. Tropp missed all but 2 AHL games last season due to having major surgery to reconstruct his injured knee. Tropp has also suffered from a major concussion in his brief AHL career. Devane could have, and should have easily peeled off and not fought Tropp. He could have checked himself and done the correct, honorable thing and fought heavyweight John Scott. No chance. Devane grabbed for the low lying fruit and handed a beating to Tropp. Immediately following the fight, Rolston kept Scott on the ice because he had only 10 forwards to finish the final 9:59 of the game with. Lost in all of the aftermath of the Devane-Tropp-Scott-Kessel-Clarkson incident is that Sabres forwards Marcus Foligno and Cody McCormick were injured prior to the gong show. Rolston did what he had to do. Short bench dictated his player selection. On the Toronto bench, what the Hell was Leafs head coach Randy Carlyle thinking by putting #81's line on the ice. Carlyle saw Scott on the ice. He knew that there might be a scrap as a result of the Tropp beating. Carlyle is culpable in this matter too. It takes two to tango. Rolston didn't just tap Scott on the shoulder and tell him to line up next to #81. Scott was there first. Carlyle refused to use his last line change. He threw Ashton-Bozak-Kessel on the ice. Thats on Carlyle. Where's his undisclosed fine for "player selection"?
If you follow me on Twitter. you'll know how I feel about the absurdity of the NHL fine of Rolston and the embarrassing three game vacation that Shanahan handed to Kessel on a silver platter. Though Kessel skated away with a light sentence for the crime that he committed, he's now on the NHL's radar screen. The NHL hockey stick has one purpose and that is to propel the puck north-south-east-west. Thats it. A composite NHL stick can cause catastrophic injuries when used as a weapon. Kessel used his stick as a weapon against Scott. There are 725 NHLPA members. I dare say that many of the players in the NHL are looking at Kessel in a negative light in the aftermath of his assault on Scott as well as his stick swinging fouls on two Philly Flyers last week. Kessel will be skating in the blitzkrieg lights this season. He will be goaded, chirped and challenged by opponents and fans alike. He asked for it. He used his stick as a weapon. Not one time, not twice, but three times in a week. The NHL turned a blind eye to Kessel's felonious actions and gave him three nights detention. The NHL could have seized the day and put a zero tolerance policy into effect for Kessel and all future stick swinging fouls. Instead it poked its head back into the sand like the ostrich that it is. Kessel would be wise to use the time from his three game vacation to buy ear plugs and flame retardant Leafs gear to shade and protect him from the heat that he's going to be subject to in the majority of NHL buildings that he will play in this season.
Don't do the crime if you can't do the time. Don't do it.
If you don't follow me on Twitter, what's wrong with you?
Here are my take aways from this Buffalo-Toronto border war:
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