To hear Ted Nolan tell it, Steve Ott was one of the first Sabres that he spoke to on Tuesday when he became the head coach of the Sabres. Ott was honest with Nolan. He told his new coach that he was frustrated with the way that the season was going. Ott, the ultimate competitor, told Nolan that he didn't like the way that his group was competing Nolan no doubt used Ott's brutally honest testimony when he constructed the practice plan for Wednesday and Thursday practices. Nolan piled up players in all four corners and made the boys do battle drills, something that Ron Rolston never did in his brief time as head coach in Buffalo. Nolan listens to his leaders. He respects their opinions. They have a say in matters to do with the team. Nolan listened and learned from his captain. Pat LaFontaine always says "what good is knowledge if you don't apply it". On Friday night, in front of the home fans, Ott and his teammates sacrificed for one another and applied their collective knowledge and earned two points from a hated rival. The two game win streak is the first of its kind for Buffalo this season. Nolan liked what he saw from Ott and his team.
Nolan is a strong believe in the team concept, that why he rolled all four lines until the end of the game. He's always been that kind of coach. He used to play Rob Ray and Brad May on the PK. He trusted them. He believed in them as players and as men. Nolan will do the same with this vintage of Buffalo Sabres.
Captain Steve Ott
Thanks, Sabres.com
Good things happen when the head coach and team captain have a clear, honest line of open communication.
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Pat LaFontaine's "Find A New GM" tour will begin in earnest on Monday morning. He will hot the road to begin the interviewing process.
LaFontaine said Friday that he has't contacted any of his short list candidates. LaFonatine will do so on Monday.
His short list is said to include the names of Rick Dudley (Canadiens), Jason Boterill (Pens), and Jim Benning (Bruins). LaFontaine cannot interview these men until their current employers have given the thumbs up to LaFontaine.
Marc Andre Godin tweeted this news on Saturday morning that Dudley hasn't been contacted and that he's "unlikely" to be the new Sabres GM. Its true in that as of Friday night, the Canadiens had not granted the Sabres permission to speak with their assistant GM. I suspect that will happen this weekend, if it hasn't happened already.
According to source, Rick Dudley has not been contacted by Sabres (as of last night) and is unlikely to be their next GM. Surprising. #habs
— Marc Antoine Godin (@MAGodin) November 16, 2013
A source that I spoke with on Friday night told me that Dudley will be given serious consideration for the Sabres GM job. I'm told that Dudley and Jason Boterill are serious contenders.
Dudley meets all of LaFontaine's criteria in that he has won multiple Stanley Cups:
Dudley is an experienced GM and AGM in the NHL, he knows the draft better than most, he's got a great reputation in the NHL community, and he has a 40+ year direct link to the Western New York community.
LaFontaine will not rush to hire a GM for the sake of hiring one. He's going to take his time and vet out his candidates properly. Dudley's fingerprints and DNA are all over the recent re-build-on-the-fly of the Montreal Canadiens. There's not a more astute observer/expert of young talent in North America than Rick Dudley. The guy refuses to be outworked. You need look no further than the Tampa Bay Lightning and Chicago Blackhawks for evidence that Dudley knows how to build winning hockey teams. He'd have an advantage in Buffalo in that the team is already brimming with top prospects to say nothing of the Brinks truck worth of first and second rounders that Darcy Regier has accumulated to be used in the 2014, 2015, and 2016 NHL drafts.
LaFontaine will speak with Dudley, after the Canadiens grant him permission to do so. That will happen early this week.
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Terry Pegula's claim to fame before he became the owner of the Buffalo Sabres in February 2011 was that he was a natural gas expert. His East Resources company probed the earth for natural gas which consumers like you and me use as energy. Earlier this week, Pegula drilled a new new hole, if you will, and extracted from it two new, vital sources of energy in the form of Pat LaFontaine and Ted Nolan. On Friday night inside First Niagara Center, the Sabres players, the fans, and the community of Western New York and Southern Ontario was fueled by the energy of the new LaFontaine-Nolan power source.
It truly was an electric evening inside the old barn. Its always nice to send home thousands of Toronto Maple Leafs fans with an "L" safety pinned to their Mats Sundin sweater.Steve Ott nailed in when he described the "playoff atmosphere". The emotion in the building was real. It was palpable. It was badly needed like a heavy rain storm after a long drought. The fans were nourished. The players needed a community-sized group hug and they got one.Terry Pegula appeared, beaming ear to ear, with Pat LaFontaine on the jumbotron during a TV timeout. Pegula found a new fuel source. His name is Patrick Michael LaFontaine.
I tweeted from press row that we haven't had that spirit level here since 2011 when Pegula took ownership of the team from Tom Golisano.
The fans don't want the team to go 82-0. They only want to see an honest day's work for an honest day's pay. On Friday night, the fans got it.
Now the team must sustain this energy source.
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The coach pic.twitter.com/BlIUgutS6H
— SabresBuzz (@SabresBuzz) November 16, 2013
The Buffalo Sabres are now 1-0 this season. The dismal 20 game exhibition season is over.
The last time Ted Nolan won a game as head coach of the Buffalo Sabres was May 9, 1997. Third Eye Blind's "Semi Charmed Kind Of Life" was the #1 song on the U.S. rock charts. On Friday night, Nolan won his first regular season game since April 10, 1997.
Charmed life indeed.
Meet the new boss. Same as the old boss.
Nolan confided after the game that it took a lot for him to hold back tears before the game when he was introduced to his adoring public on the video boards. Nolan said that he'd probably have a good cry after later on when the events of the Buffalo 3-1 win over Toronto had sunk in. Nolan said that he made it a point to remember every moment and nuace of November 15, 2013. It was Nolan's second chance to deliver entertainment and value to the hard working hockey fanatics in Buffalo.
Nolan didn't disappoint. His team heeded his appeal to have fun, play with passion and to compete like a team.
Boy, did they ever!
The Sabres controlled the puck and carried play for most of the game. they won loose puck battles, and dominated on the walls.
They also created scoring chances off their neutral zone trap. The Leafs turned over pucks at the blue lines because the Sabres denied their flow throw the neutral zone. Conversely, the Buffalo forwards used their speed to drive wide and to create chances against the Leafs D. The speed game worked on the first Buffalo goal when Marcus Foligno scored a sexy 2 on 1 goal off a tasty sauce from captain Steve Ott, who beat Leafs D Mark Fraser to create the odd man opportunity on D Paul Ranger. Ott fed Foligno, who was traveling at 100 mph towards Bernier and the net.
Talk about doing what your coach tells you what to do. Ott and Foligno used their speed, hustle and determination to get the puck deep and to create a high percentage chance off the rush.
Ott tied the game at 1-1 with a great PPG. Tyler Myers ripped a one-timer that Bernier couldn't handle the rebound on. Otter picked up the loose change and threw it in the piggy bank.
Sabres D Christian Ehrhoff factored directly in two goals and made the save of the game with Leafs goalie Jonathon Bernier on the bench for the extra attacker. Trevor Smoth's goal kissed off Ehrhoff to give the Leafs the 1-0 lead. Then, he scored the empty netter to seal the 3-1 win. Ehrhoff also channeled his inner Terry Sawchuk when he made spectacular, desperation save on a James Van Riemsdyk chance. Ehrhoff was put in the position to make the save when Ryan Miller was bumped into by a leafs forward and he was spun out of his net, with his back to the play. Ehrhoff had Miller's back--literally-- and he found the puck, settled it and threw it down the ice into Bernier's empty net.
After the game, Ott said that a heavy load was lifted off the shoulders of all Sabres players when Ted Nolan and Pat LaFontaine walked through the door on Tuesday:
" I'm just one of the guys like everyone else in here. We're all clean-slated. The last 20 games hasn't been pretty for anybody and we know that. Thats what we're doing right now. We're going out there and keep playing the work ethic thats going to earn us the ice time. Thats where everybody's mindset is right now".
Ott likened the vibe inside the Sabres room and inside First Niagara Center as a playoff game.
"It was a playoff game. Those are fun ones when there is a playoff atmosphere, those are the best games. For a lot of guys in this room its a lot of fun to play in those types of atmospheres".
What was the difference from the first 20 games to game one of the Ted Nolan era?
"It did feel completely different, and it was for a lot of reasons. To be honest with you, the last 48 hours, I would say the biggest reason is that the slate has been wiped clean. The 20 games or so have been thrown out the window. They (LaFontaine and nolan) came in and to a man, told very guy its time to work for your ice time, and work for your chances. You know what? Tonight, I thought every guy did that. It was a lot of fun to go out there and feel like the weight is off our shoulders from the last little while. We've been playing with some heavy backs for the last few months and it hasn't been fun at all. Tonight brought that fun and great atmosphere back.'
"You know what? It honestly is just wiping clean the slate. Obviously, when you tell the guys you know what... he (Nolan) was like, "I'm not watching video on you guys, I'm not looking at your stat packs. I really don't care. I want to see what you're going to do for me now and i'll figure everybody out as we go along here. You know what? It made a lot of guys realize that game one is basically tonight and throw the other 20 away. It felt like a completely different room in here. It really, truly felt like a complete team effort and that was a fun game to play in".
Translation:
Ron Rolston took to bagging on his vets in the media. Perhaps the older guys grew resentful of Rolston's insistence to call them out when mistakes were made. Perhaps Rolston held grudges against players and harped on their mistakes and misgivings.
All that changed when Nolan walked in the door.
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