@boosbuzzsabres
For those of us who remember the Memorial Auditorium, seeing the old gold, red, blue and orange section motif brought back some fond memories. Props to the marketing department for draping the corresponding color T-shirts over the seats in those four sections to rekindle those memories.
My first memory came via my sister who took me to my first-ever game back in the early 70's. We had standing room only tickets and there was a wall up to that you had to get to fast so that you could see the ice. So up we ran on those ramps all the way to the top and we got ourselves parked on that wall next to the men's rest room. Included in that memory of basically looking straight down on the ice was the smell of cigarettes, stale beer and urine. For those of you looking for a Hallmark moment, sorry, that's the way it was and they lost to Vancouver that night as well. There were other memories of the Aud, mostly of smoke-filled concerts and the treacherous stairs in the orange section during events where being in an altered state was the norm from the mid-70's through the early 80's, but last night was about hockey and it was Aud Night, a tribute to that grand old building's legacy.
About the only thing better for this particular night would have been for the Sabres to be squaring off against the Boston Bruins as nothing reminds me more of the old Aud than The Buffalo/Boston matchups featuring the French Connection going up against the Big, Bad Bruins. However, that's only minor as the Sabres organization put on a good show and their hockey team followed it up with a solid 4-3 win in front of a very appreciative crowd at KeyBank Center.
With that win the Sabres have now won three games in a row for the first time since Oct. 17-22, they're 4-1-1 in December, have gotten points in nine of their last 11 games (6-2-3) and remain in second place in the Atlantic Division despite a three-week span in November where they won only one game (1-7-1.) Captain Jack Eichel scored two goals to extend his points-streak to 15 games (14+13) and is leading the resurgence of the Buffalo Sabres as the team is playing their best, most consistent hockey all season.
Nothing is phasing this Sabres team at the moment. In their last three games they skated with the Edmonton Oilers and won 3-2 in overtime after blowing a two-goal lead. Upon their return home from that they faced off against the big, physical Stanley Cup Champion St. Louis Blues and beat them 4-3. Last night they took down a very fluid Nashville Predators team with an explosive defense corps. That they're winning is great but doing it in different ways is pretty impressive as well.
We know their flaws, most notably mid-six forward challenges, and they're overloaded with defensemen as well but head coach Ralph Krueger is pulling the right strings which includes going with an 11 forward/seven defenseman setup instead of the usual 12/8. He began doing that in Tampa Bay and has leaned heavily on that ever since. It's worked as it helped them get out of the rut they were in.
Krueger has been moving players in and out of the lineup as he's switched between 11/7 and 12/8 and on the positive side it's kept players awake and provide some of them with the challenge of staying in the lineup. Borderline starters up front and on the back-end have seen time in the press box as has some veteran players like defensemen Marco Scandella and Jake McCabe, who were both a big part of Buffalo's 8-1-1 start to the season. Simply put there's an abundance of defensemen on this club and until general manager Jason Botterill makes a move and/or injuries strike again, there will be rotations and in some cases, hurt feelings.
Such was the reaction by veteran defenseman Zach Bogosian to his night in the pressbox, only he took it further as Darren Dreger tweeted that the 29 yr. old defenseman wanted to be traded.
For those in Sabreland who couldn't wait for the day when Bogosian and his $5.1 million cap-hit would be off the payroll, it was great news. There are many metrics not in his favor, some of which could be argued, but the most telling stat is a simple one-Zach Bogosian was/is injury-prone.
This year he missed the first 22 games of the season after some complications from hip surgery set back his return. Since the Sabres traded for him in on February 11, 2015, Bogosian has played in 264 out of a possible 388 games (68%) for Buffalo and has been either their highest paid defenseman (2015-16) or second-highest paid defenseman behind Rasmus Ristolainen.
Bogosian has seen as much external turmoil as Ristolainen or forward Zemgus Girgensons has during his time in Buffalo as this team went from tank to their present state which includes a multitude of changes in the front office and behind the bench. He's had the same struggles trying to adapt to different coaching philosophies and has had both good and bad moments while often times being a whipping-boy for much of the fan-base. In his 10 games thus far this season, Bogosian hasn't been the greatest on the blueline, as one might expect from a player who missed all of camp and is coming in on the fly in Game-24, but it should be noted that in the 10-games with Bogosian on the ice the Sabres really began to pull out of their rut with a 5-2-3 record.
Nothing has been heard from either Bogosian or his camp since that report surfaced last night and he put his team in a rather awkward situation. They'd been playing extremely well and have been getting the positive results worthy of their play while really coming together as a team. News came out in the dressing room after the game putting both Eichel and Krueger on the spot.
From a players perspective Eichel laid it out for the gathered media like this, "Zach's been my best fried since I met him," said the captain, "you never want to imagine your best fried leaving you. It's an important year for him, obviously, and his family. He's in a contract year.
"I'll just leave it at I'll support him through everything and just want the best for him."
Just when Krueger may have thought that the entire team was buying into his plan, this happens and when he was asked post-game last night about it his response was pretty straight forward. "It doesn't interest me at all, the noise," he said. "We're keeping our picture small. We'll wake up tomorrow, look at who's on the roster and make our best possible push against the Islanders (Saturday afternoon.)"
One can easily make a case that Bogosian asking to be traded was a pretty selfish move but Eichel gave some perspective to the other side. Even so, perhaps it would have been best to keep this to himself or approach Botterill privately with his request. The Sabres have been pretty tight-lipped since he took over with very little leaking out and approaching it that way would have given the GM more alternatives. After all, it's not easy moving a $5.1 million contract in a cap-world, especially when said player has played in only 68% of his games for the club featuring a post-tank stat-line of 10 goals, 46 assists and a minus-44 rating in 213 games beginning in 2015-16.
With all that said, it's been reported that he is on the ice this morning for practice, but we'll see where this takes us.
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