Falling apart again (this time in Nashville)

The Sabres have once again lost their touch and have returned to playing subpar hockey. They lost 2-0 to the Nashville Predators. It was a very boring game through the first two periods as neither team had any good chances, and neither team had any speed.

In the third period the predators scored twice, first by Jason Arnott and then by former Sabre JP Dumont. Buffalo really turned things on for the final five minutes of the game, but it was two late by that point and they were shutout by Pekka Rinne.

Despite nobody ever hearing of Rinne, who only appeared in three NHL games before this season and had zero starts last year, he played very well. So far he is 4-0 on the season, picking up his first shutout in this game over the Sabres.

Buffalo mixed up their lines a bit for this game, as Kotalik returned to the lineup. Rivet and Kaleta were both out with injuries, while Mancari and Peters played ahead of Afinogenov. Connolly was placed on injured reserve to get the team under it's roster limit.

Official Three Stars

JP Dumont

Pekka Rinne

Jason Arnott

My Three Stars

Pekka Rinne (shutout, 30 saves)

JP Dumont (one goal, one assist, plus two)

Jason Arnott (one assist, plus two)

How Sabres management imporved the team by allowing players to walk

The Buffalo Sabres have gotten a lot of criticism for allowing alot of their star players to leave town, notably Chris Drury, Daniel Briere, Brian Campbell, Jay McKee, and JP Dumont. While I would love to have Drury and Dumont back, it is important to remember why the team let Dumont walk in the first place. If the Sabres had signed JP they would have been over the cap. If the Sabres had signed all of these players they would have been well over the cap.

As a starting point I looked at the roster of the famed 2005-2006 team that did so well in the first season after the lockout. If Buffalo had resigned all of those players the cap hit for this season would be $73.846 million which is an astounding $17.146 million over the cap. The team that year consisted of Maxim Afinogenov, Chris Drury, Ales Kotalik, Daniel Briere, Tim Connolly, Thomas Vanek, Derek Roy, Brian Campbell, Jochen Hecht, J.P. Dumont, Teppo Numminen, Jason Pominville, Paul Gaustad, Mike Grier, Henrik Tallinder, Dmitri Kalinin, Toni Lydman, Jay McKee, Rory Fitzpatrick, Ryan Miller, and Martin Biron. This 21 man roster consists of all the players who had over 45 games played and the two starting goalies. Left off are Taylor Pyatt and Adam Mair, who played in 41 and 40 games, as well Andrew Peters who had 28 games, and goalie Mika Noronen who had four starts before being traded mid-season. However these extra players are still making close to the NHL minimum and would only have a small effect to the numbers.

Player	2008 cap hit
Thomas Vanek	$7.143
Brian Campbell	$7.1
Chris Drury	$7.05
Daniel Briere	$6.5
Derek Roy	$4
J.P. Dumont	$4
Jay McKee	$4
Jochen Hecht	$3.525
Martin Biron	$3.5
Maxim Afinogenov	$3.333
Tim Connolly	$2.9
Toni Lydman	$2.875
Ryan Miller	$2.667
Teppo Numminen*	$2.6*
Henrik Tallinder	$2.562
Ales Kotalik	$2.333
Paul Gaustad	$2.3
Dmitri Kalinin	$2.1
Mike Grier	$1.775
Jason Pominville	$1.033
Rory Fitzpatrick*	$0.55*

*2007 cap hits are used for Numminen (who is unsigned) and Fitzpatrick (whos cap hit for Florida can not be found)

Furthermore, besides being well over the cap and needing to trade away over $17 million worth of salaries for this season. This would also not make room for players such as Daniel Paille who only a bit player at this point, and Drew Stafford, and Patrick Kaleta who both had yet to play their first NHL game. Now looking back, with the notable exception of Chris Drury it would not have done the team any good to sign any of these players. Furthermore Miller is due an $4 million raise next season, and Pominville is likely to get the same. Yet only the salary for Numminen shows any possibility of going down (and even then it can not drop by more than $2 million).

So please stop complaining whenever Buffalo's management allows a player to walk. From this line up you could replace Dumont, McKee, Biron, Numminen, Afinogenov, and Connolly, all with players making the NHL minimum and you would still be over the cap. I think our current team is a huge improvement over that.

Former Sabres in the playoffs

Although the Sabres failed to make the post season a few of the team's former Sabres are in for other teams across the league.

In San Jose former Sabres Brian Campbell and Mike Grier are not doing that well. Despite being my pick to win the cup the Sharks are down two games to one, and both of these players are struggling. Grier has been rather quiet, and Campbell has been flat out bad in these playoffs. While Campbell has been awful in this series (he was on the ice for every goal against last game), thats not to say that he is a bad player. Goose's roost has a Defense of Number 51 that I mostly agree with, and points out how good Soupy has been over the past few years. Additionally I wouldn't say that Campbell is bad in the post season either, because despite how poor he has been this series, he really stepped up his play in the playoffs the past two seasons. That said most players are known to be on the top of their game during a contract year, and Campbell is clearly an exception to that rule.

In the Ducks Stars series former Sabres Stu Barnes and Brad May (yes he is still playing) are facing off against each other with Dallas up after winning the first two on the road. Neither have put up any offensive stats.

In Nashville former Sabre JP Dumont finally got a win against the Red Wings. He had one assist and a plus one rating in the win, but was a combined minus four in the first two games. Still nobody expects Nashville to win, so they have actually been above expectations so far. Red Wings goalie Dominik Hasek is also a former Sabre and has been playing well despite being well past retirement age (although Cu-Jo earned the win for Calgary on Sunday as well).

Finally in other good news, the Penguins are now up 3-0 on the Ottawa Senators, and don't appear ready to let up. The Sens have been bad coming into the playoffs and even worse in them. Pittsburgh is not only going to get a first round win, but have plenty of rest to be in a better shape then most for the second round where it looks as if they will be matched up against a divisional opponent (one of the three).