The past five or six articles have been pretty heavy so I thought I thought it would be a good idea to lighten the mood a bit. There is not a lot of news going on with the Sabres as we’re in the dull period between locker clean-out and the draft, although that will change shortly when the Sabres finally name a head coach and when the ping pong balls start flying around at the NHL draft lottery next Wednesday night. Next week will be a fun week to project what players will be in which position when the Sabres draft either first, second or third overall.
Running the Simulator:
I ran the draft lottery simulator 10 times this morning and here are the results for where the Sabres would pick: 3rd, 2nd, 3rd, 2nd, 3rd, 2nd, 1st, 3rd, 3rd, 3rd. So, yeah, despite having the “best odds” to land the first overall pick, at 16%, the Sabres didn’t do well in my simulations. Fans across the league certainly will not have any sympathy for the Sabres missing out on the 1st overall pick and neither do I. It may not matter much this year either as there is no consensus #1 pick. The Sabres and their small crew of scouts will likely have to do their homework on who to pick at 2 or 3. I offer Adams and Jason Karmanos this bit of encouragement courtesy of Leslie Nielsen in
Airplane!
“I just want to tell you both good luck. We’re all counting on you.”
*sweats nervously*
At the World Championships:
2020 Sabres second-round pick John Peterka has joined the German men’s national team for the World Championship in Riga, Latvia but he has yet to play a game. The “Bearers of the Eagle,” or Träger der Adler, as they’re known auf Deutshe, have yet to insert Peterka for a game. I thought Peterka went by “JJ” for a first name, but the German team site has him listed as “John.” That’s neither here nor there, but I’d like to see him in a game. His fellow countryman - and current Sabre - Tobias Rieder is having a nice tournament with 3 points in 4 games.
Elsewhere in the tournament, it appears as though American Tage Thompson has sustained an injury although I had some trouble tracking down his status or prognosis. Thompson has struggled with injuries throughout his young career, and it is not a good sign to see that continue. Colin Miller and the Canadians are having a pretty rough go of it in the tournament as they currently have just 1 win in four games.
It’s really a shame that due to injury, long-time Sabre Zemgus Girgensons is not able to suit-up for the Latvians who are hosting the tournament in #28’s hometown of Riga. Lord knows Girgensons has not had many fun on-ice moments for the Sabres over his tenure which makes it all the more unfortunate that he couldn’t play with a Latvian team that is holding its own with a 2-0-1-1 record in the tournament.
Monthly Mailbag:
The weirdest thing happened last night. I had an idea for a monthly mailbag-type deal, but before I could even post a request for questions on twitter (you can find me @HBonHB), a message in a bottle washed up at my doorstep. I heard some rustling in the bushes and a voice yelled something about Sabres prospect Jack Quinn and Selke Trophies before disappearing. The bottom of the letter – which I believe to be written using a quill pen – was signed “TheSabresTaco.” I transcribed it here for your reading pleasure:
Day 233 (Day 1061 A(fter)G(od))
Well my fellow castoffs, it's another (redacted) day on the island of depravity. I've begun a new counting system that tracks the days since my nephew, Little Jack, joined us. And of course, keeping our tracker up from the day our beloved God departed us for the shiny arches of St. Louis. Our God has all but been left in the past, but occasionally the (illegible) comes in the middle of the night yelling at the Ristolainen haters that he demand we stop discussing the Viking, otherwise he will continue to flash his little golden God idols at us at every turn. I say good riddance, let the bloviate yell into the night sky.
Unfortunately, a newer, albeit actually relevant topic has arosen around the campfire as of late. Little Jack has been on the minds of some lately, and I strain to think that perhaps some of our group have access to clairvoyant visions and perhaps even time portals. Bah! Parlor tricks, I say. I grow with ire every time a member speaks so assuredly of the future, because they clearly could have warned us that we were destined for this (redacted) island long ago! The audacity! Keeping this information from the rest of us. Perhaps I will hire the island's local trolls to burn their huts in the dead of night. Or perhaps I will tell the man that they are willing to meet at 1st and 1st! "Bring your Long Islands and God memorablelia!" he will shout. Perhaps the bead man will scribble an unintelligible essay onto an old log again. Anyways, I digress.
These people.. these.. miscreants! They speak on of "career projections" and "skill level" and "draft order". The boy is compared to other boys of his age and is already viewed as a failure by some. More taradiddles being uttered. Simply because of his draft position! Some yell "but Rossi" and follow it up with tears and signs and chanting. Others calmly and quitely proclaim that he is but a young Drew Stafford. Do you know how long it took us to rid the middling Drew Stafford from this place? Many years! And this was well before we were stuck in this purgatory hellhole. Many forget that Little Jack was debilitated and still stuck it out on the ice. Many more forget his path to the NHL was hardly a given only a few years ago. The boy has a will, a determination, and an elite skill set to assimilate himself into the set of young men we have defending us. My only wish is to continue to listen to the murmurs of comparing Mr. Peterka (apples) to Mr. Rossi (a rock) and Little Jack (a fork) and pretending they all played injured for a truncated season in the AHL at the age of 19!
A telegram arrived to my attention around Christmas. It was from Little Jack's development coach, explaining how his late development really took off. I quote: “You look at him and I feel like younger players are further along the path than him. He looks like a puppy still,” Malloy said. “Even in his game, you can see that he’s confident but he also doesn’t take anything for granted because he’s been burned growing up. He still always feels like he has something to prove. For me, the cool part is that he’s definitely a guy that there’s room on. There’s not one of us that can say what the finished product is going to be with him because you can see he’s still in the middle of growth.” Little Jack may take some time, but he will be a special guy that people come to really love. Just like Captain Viking, probably.
What an incredibly odd thing to show up on your doorstep. Thanks, Taco.
If you’d like to submit a question or comment, don’t hesitate to do so either via private message on Hockeybuzz or just tweet at me. Is that what people say? Tweet at me? I successfully avoided Twitter for 13 years before finally giving in after getting this gig. I am learning the lingo. Non-hockey questions also welcome. Have a question about your dog? Go for it. I'll answer questions the last Friday of every month.
Coaching Odds:
I tried to find some place online that would handicap the odds of each coaching candidate, but I came up empty each time. I have to believe that Don Granato is still the favorite although with Rick Tocchet and Bruce Boudreau believed to be in the mix as well, he has some stiff competition. I haven’t seen anything on John Tortorella getting an interview with the Sabres although it’s possible that the Columbus Blue Jackets just haven’t made him available to do so. I doubt that’s the case though as there would be no reason for them to act like that as an organization. I’m still all aboard the Granato hype train although I have to say the Boudreau idea seems to grow on me daily.
Lastly, I hope everyone has a great Memorial Day weekend. The weather is absolutely atrocious today, but it looks like it should improve considerably throughout the weekend. I’ll close with this quote from General George S. Patton, Jr:
“It is foolish and wrong to mourn the men who died. Rather we should thank God such men lived.”
Enjoy the long weekend and thanks for reading.
Buffalo Sabres Blogger • 
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