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Miller Trade Before New GM Hired?

November 17, 2013, 12:09 AM ET [78 Comments]
GARTH'S CORNER
NHL news by Garth • RSSArchiveCONTACT
Updated:

CBC's Elliotte Friedman sat down with newly appointed Buffalo Sabres president of hockey operations Pat LaFontaine earlier this week. The interview aired during the 6:30 pm EDT pregame show. The two men talked about LaFontaine's return to Buffalo and the people who influenced his hockey life. I was especially moved by Friedman's inclusion of former Sabres owner Seymour H. Knox III in the piece. LaFontaine was very close to Mr. Knox and showed emotion when telling Friedman that he thought that Mr. Knox would be proud to know that LaFontaine is back in the Buffalo organization as its president of hockey operations. It was a touching piece indeed.

It was also a very interesting and revealing interview as well.


Later Saturday night, during the "After 40 Minutes" segment on HNIC, Friedman told us about an important part of his interview with LaFontaine that unfortunately was left on the cutting room floor.

Ryan Miller news.

According to Friedman, LaFontaine said in his interview that if a rival team(s), contacted him with serious interest in a trade for his goalie Ryan Miller, the Sabres would not necessarily wait until their new GM is hired and in place in order to do a deal, if a deal is available to be made. Interesting.


Thanks, CBC

Lets say for example one of four NHL GMs, or all four, who may be interested in upgrading their respective goal tending positions: Doug Armstrong of St. Louis, David Poile from Nashville, Dean Lombardi from LA, or Garth Snow from NY Islanders were to call LaFontaine and ask about Miller's availability. If there is a deal to be made, that makes sense for both parties, it may happen sooner than later.

LaFontaine will begin his GM interviews on Monday. It may take him a week or two to fully and completely interview all candidates on his short list. The candidates are said to Rick Dudley, Jason Boterill, Jim Benning, and perhaps a dark horse candidate in Alexander Mogilny who is GM of the Admiral team in the KHL. LaFontaine and Mogilny are former Buffalo line mates. So, back to Miller. Lets say St. Louis, who will play in Buffalo on Tuesday night, want to trade for Miller while they are in town and at their hotel and LaFontaine is out on the GM trail? Sounds to me like LaFontaine might be willing to pull the trigger on a trade of Miller before a new GM is seated in Buffalo. This is an interesting aspect to the Miller story.



Perhaps this is why Miller was scratched in favor of Enroth on Saturday night in Toronto. The blues are getting good goaltending now, however, their team is built for a long playoff run this season after getting punted out of the playoffs the past two seasons by the Los Angeles Kings. The Blues are a great goalie away from challenging the Blackhawks, Sharks, Ducks, and Kings for the Western conference title. They may want to trade for Miller as their insurance policy.

Poile's Predators are a mess in goal right now with youngster Hutton getting his baptism by fore while Pekka Rinne is making a slow recovery from his serious E. Coli infection. Poile needs goaltending in the worst way. The Islanders lost 40 year old Evgeni Nabakov Saturday night to a lower body injury. Kevin Poulin is a good short term solution, however, Garth Snow needs a more experience goalie if he plans on playing meaningful hockey in April and beyond. The LA Kings lost their starter and Cup winner Jonathon Quick to a Grad 2 groin strain in Buffalo last Tuesday night. Back-up Ben Scrivens has won his last two starts for the Kings, however, the Kings may want to acquire Miller as a solution to allow Quick the proper time to heal until he is truly 100%. The time table for Quick's return was originally set at 4-6 weeks. You never know with butterfly goalies. Quick mat be back in 6 weeks. he may need more time than that to fully heal. Its hard to predict. The last thing the kings want is Quick coming back early from the injury and suffering a set back. He's also a top two contender with Miller for Team USA starting goalie at Sochi. Better for the Kings to be safe then sorry.



This story will continue to intensify. Per usual, great work by Friedman.




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john scott 2
Photo credit: Dan Hickling



You knew that it was bound to happen and it took five periods of hockey for the hatred and bad blood to boil over in the ongoing feud between the Sabres and Leafs.

It started as a clean hockey play and it ended with two game misconducts. Here's the latest:

Sabres winger John Scott tracked and pursued Dion Phaneuf, who had the puck on his stick and was heading towards the neutral zone with speed. At the last moment, Phaneuf saw Scott coming and sensed that he was about to be hit by the 6'8 270 lb. giant. Phaneuf pulled the chute on the potential collision, and took the easy way out, taking a baseball slide instead of a heavy body check. Phaneuf's legs made contact with Scott's legs and a Moments later, during the next stoppage in play, Phaneuf applied his trademark slash-crosscheck to Sabres center Cody McCormick. Them, to add more absurdity to the matter, Toronto's Colton Orr earned a 10-minute misconduct for being the third man into the fray.

For some unknown reason, Scott was assessed 14 minutes in penalties. For what? He lined up Phaneuf for a clean check. Phaneuf bailed out on the hit. Scott didn't do anything to deserve 14 minutes in penalties. Leafs goon Frazer McLaren also received 14 minutes in penalties for his role in the mini melee.




After the game, Scott was guest player on MSG's postgame show. Brian Duff and Brad May asked Scott about the Phaneuf "incident'. The Buffalo bad boy didn't hold his tongue.

Scott emptied his clip into the Leafs captain.

“All of a sudden I’m not allowed to hit him anymore. He’s ‘Princess Phaneuf.’ It’s a joke,” Scott said with gusto and emphasis.

Later, in the Buffalo room, reporters asked Scott about the Phaneuf incident:

“I don’t think I did anything wrong. I went for a hit. Phaneuf bailed,” Scott said. “Then I get dragged down from behind and I got 14 minutes. It was more a precaution. They didn’t want anything to boil over. I understand.”

Two words, people:

Don. Van Massenhoven.

Thats all you need to know.


I love how Phaneuf says that he ran into Scott. Quite the opposite. Phaneuf avoided Scott like the plague.



Thanks, Leafs TV

There was a hockey game, too. The Sabres pulled a Ron Rolston Era first period out of the recycling bin and sleep walked through the first twenty minutes. They trailed 2-0 after the first period. Nolan went into the room and told them they played a garbage period and urged them to pick up their pace and physicality. The team responded and win the final 40 minutes of play. Once again, too little, too late.

The Sabres trailed 3-0 and made a valiant comeback. In the end, the Sabres dominated the Leafs and were out shooting the them 11-2 late in the third period of a 3-2 game when Ville Leino took a stupid penalty. Mason Raymond scored to give the Leafs the 4-2 win.


Ted Nolan said that he was more impressed with Saturday night's comeback moreso that the Friday night win. He liked his team's compete level. He hated the Leino penalty. He also voiced his displeasure on "staged fighting". He called Steve Ott a "competitive son-of-a-gun", and more or less said that he's going to be riding his "horse", Ryan Miller.


Thanks, Sabres.com



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On the bright side, Don Cherry praised Ted Nolan and Steve Ott on HNIC's "Coach's Corner"




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