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Darcy Regier's fingerprints and DNA are smeared all over the tank battle that is being waged right now between the Buffalo Sabres and Arizona Coyotes. Regier was fired by Buffalo in Novembver 2013 after serving as their GM for 16 seasons. He is now the assistant general manager of teh Coyotes.
Regier is the king of pain and suffering. He's the architect of the present Buffalo and Arizona rebuilding projects.
The Sabres are 30th in the NHL standings., The Desert Dogs are now 29th in the McEichel race seeding.
More on Regier in the days to come. Much more.
Tonight, the Dogs host the Canucks.
Advantage: Vancouver
The Coyotes will visit Buffalo on Thursday night in a huge 4 point game. Both teams will play again in #Regierizona on Monday March 30.
The final ten games of the regular season are going to be filled with tasty subplots and will be as helter skelter and scary as an Alfred Hitchcock horror thriller.
Here's now I see the Coyotes and Sabres finishing the final ten games of the regular season.
Arizona Coyotes have 10 games remaining:
Tonight vs. Canucks (loss)
3/24 @ Red Wings (loss)
3/26 @ Sabres (win)
3/28 @ Penguins (loss)
3/30 host Sabres (win)
4/3 @ San Jose (win)
4/4 host Sharks (loss)
4/7 @ Flames (loss)
4/9 @ Canucks (loss)
4/11 host Ducks (loss)
I believe that the Coyotes have what it takes to win 6 of the next 20 points that are available to them. I see four of the points coming in two wins over Buffalo. If my plan comes to fruition, the Dogs will finish the regular season with 56 points.
Buffalo Sabres have 10 games remaining:
3/23 @ Stars (loss)
3/26 host Dogs (loss)
3/28 @ Avalanche (loss)
3/30 @ Dogs (loss)
4/1 host Leafs (win)
4/3 host Blackhawks (loss)
4/4 @ NY Islanders (loss)
4/6 host Hurricanes (win)
4/10 @ Blue Jax (loss)
4/11 host Penguins (loss)
I believe that the Sabres have what it takes to win 4 of the next 20 points that are available to them. Buffalo. If my plan comes to fruition, the Sabres will finish the regular season with 51 points.
The Sabres will finish 30th overall and will earn the pole position for the McEichel race. They will have a 20% chance of winning teh McDavid lottery. If that fails, they will select Jack Eichel second overall.
That's my story, and I'm stickin' to it.
The Edmonton Oilers defeated the Philadelphia Flyers in OT on Saturday night when Ryan Nugent Hopkins beat Ray Emery.
The Oilers appear to have divorced themselves from the race for McEichel.
Its now down to the Buffalo Sabres and Arizona Coyotes to slug it out for the 30th overall seeding in the NHL standings. The Coyotes will visit Buffalo on Thursday night for head to head tank warfare. The two teams will meet again next Monday in the desert.
Taylor Hall made his triumphant return to the Edmonton Oilers lineup against Philly.
Kiss Edmonton's tanking blues away!
Tanks but no tanks.
The Oilers have nothing left to play for other than their McEichel standings.
So, why risk losing ground to Arizona and Buffalo, who play head to head on 3/26 in Buffalo and again on 3/30 in Arizona? Could it be that the Oilers are focusing their laser pointer on U.S. born D-man Noah Hanifin and the third overall pick in the 2015 NHL Draft?
Hall has missed 23 of the last 24 games with an ankle injury, and yet he still is the #3 scorer for the Oilers with 11 goals and 19 assists for 30 points
He skated today on the third line with Anton Lander Lander as his center and Andrew Miller as his winger.
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The top-seeded Boston University men's ice hockey team claimed its eighth Hockey East championship with a 5-3 victory over UMass Lowell on Saturday night at TD Garden.
The Terriers never trailed en route to earning an automatic berth to the NCAA tournament. BU will enter the field of 16 with a 25-7-5 record while UMass Lowell finished its season with a 21-12-6 mark.
This is the Terriers' first Lamoriello Trophy since 2009, when they beat the Riverhawks, 1-0. BU will likely be a top seed in the NCAA tournament which begins next weekend.
Freshman Hobey Baker Award finalist Jack Eichel scored two more goals and added an assist. Not surprisingly, he was named Tournament MVP.
Eichel's third point of the game was his 66th of the season, which is the new single-season Terriers scoring record for points by a freshman. Eichel passed former Team USA legend Dave Silk on the all time freshman scoring record.
Eichel was also named to the All-Tournament Team, joining juniors Matt Grzelcyk and Matt O'Connor as unanimous selections. Senior Evan Rodrigues also earned an all-tournament nod.
Thanks, NBCSN
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Dylan Strome and Connor McDavid continued their assault on Plymouth goalies on Saturday night. Strome had a goal and three assists. McDavid had a goal and an assist in Erie's 5-1 win over the Whalers.
Marner currently leads all OHL scorers with 44 goals and 82 assists for 126 points. The operative word being "currently" because two Erie Otters are breathing down Marner's neck and are in hot pursuit of the OHL scoring crown.
Dylan Strome and Connor McDavid have two more games to play in their regular season. They play tonight in Plymouth. They will conclude their regular season tomorrow afternoon in Niagara.
Strome has 124 points ( 41G, 83 assists) in 66 games played.
McDavid has 120 points ( 44G, 76A ) in just 46 games played.
Both Strome and McDavid have the capability to light up opponents for multi-point games and have done so numerous times this season.
Strome and McDavid have lit up Plymouth for 18 combined points in three games played against the Whalers this season.
The Erie Otters play the final game of their 2014-15 regular season on Sunday afternoon in St. Catherines.
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Talk about awkward. The Toronto Maple Leafs have signed a free agent power forward Casey Bailey out of Penn State University.
On its surface, it doesn't look like much, but when you dig deeper, you reveal that Buffalo Sabres owner Terry Pegula is a Penn State alum.
Leafs GM Dave Nonis went hunting on Pegula property.
Literally.
Oh, well. All's fair in love and hockey.
College free agents re like loose pucks: whoever gets 'em, gets 'em.
The 6'3" power forward hails from Anchorage, Alaska.
He will report immediately to the Leafs and will be in their lineup when Toronto plays Buffalo on April Fools Day.
Playing Bailey in games now will start the clock on his two-year entry level contract. The Leafs will burn a year by playing him now.
Bailey scored 22 goals, added 18 assists and 27 PIMs in 36 games this season.
Pegula donated $102 million for the construction of the on-campus Pegula Ice Arena in 2010.As a result, Penn State, which had fielded a club team for years, transitioned to NCAA Division I starting in the 2012-13 season.
This led to a domino effect across the college hockey landscape. Because six Big Ten universities had Division I hockey programs (the minimum number of teams required for a conference to be an automatic postseason qualifier), it was announced that Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan, Michigan State, and Ohio State would join Penn State in the Big Ten hockey conference starting in the 2013-2014.
I wonder if Pegula and Sabres GM Tim Murray had conversations about the Sabres signing Bailey. Did Buffalo opt to pass on Bailey or was Toronto more aggressive in their pursuit of the Penn Stae products?
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