Pat Kaleta is one of the most polarizing athletes in Buffalo history. The mere mention of his name is a cluster of hockey fans will get you one of two things:
A fist-pump, or, a look that can kill.
Within the cozy confines of the eight counties that make up Western New York, Kaleta is viewed as a folk hero, He’s the local kid who dragged his bag through the slushy muni rink parking lots at 6am to attend practice, who would eventually earn an opportunity to play in a premier OHL town for a legendary squad like the Peterborough Petes. Kaleta is a Buffalo kid. He oozes Buffalo ethics and values. He loves when his team is winning and the fans are going ga-ga for an encore performance,. Like they were on Thursday night after the thrilling 5-4 shootout win over the hated Toronto Maple Leafs.
Travel outside of the 716 area code, and you'll get an earful from the bar stool prophets and "hockey purists" who say that players like Kaleta are "bad for the game".
Kaleta doesn't care what the fans from enemy teams and the talking heads from US and Candian broadcast outlets think about him. If he wanted to know their opinion of him, he'[d asked them He doesn't care about the chatter and the smack. All he cares about is being accountable to the team that he dreamt of playing for when he was seven years old.
Like it or not, Kaleta represents Buffalo well.
Styeve Ott knows a thing or two about being politically correct, and he's just fine with his buddy Kaleta.
“I guarantee every single team in this league would love to have a guy like that on his team. A guy that would go through the wall for you--block shots, play hard, hard minutes of hockey, fight, hit-- all those aspects.”
Incidentally, Ott was rung up for an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty for blowing a kiss to a Leafs player on Thursday night. Don't they know that Otter is a peace-loving young man?
Aggression is Kaleta’s core brand identifier. These days, business isn’t doing so good. The hit from behind on Brad Richards was weeks ago, however, its still an issue with many people in the NHL. Including his interim head coach, Ron Rolston. Kaleta paid his penance for the dirty hit on the Ranger centre man. He sat out the NHL-mandated five game suspension, and also endured the supplemental, supplemental discipline that Rolston slapped on him as Kaleta was made a healthy scratch in Washington last weekend. Getting called out by his former road roomate and fellow team leader, Ryan Miller really raised eyebrows. Kaleta says the matter was handled and its forgotten. Just brothers being brothers, he told me. Losing $76,000+ in salary and six games in a lockout-shortened 48 game NHL season is a stiff price to pay. Kaleta won’t talk anymore about the Richards incident other than to say that he’s on his way to correcting his game.
Kaleta told me on Thursday that he has been looking inside himself in recent weeks, looking for the solution to simplify his game and to do more of the things that will add value to his Sabres team. He told me that sitting and watching sucks. However, sitting 150 fet above the ice surface and bench, gave him a clearer perspective on how he’s going to be playing the game from now on.
Kaleta told me that he has found solace and inspiration in watching how his locker neighbor and fellow S’der, Steve Ott, handles his business on the bench and one the ice.
“I watched Otter a lot. The positive things that he can do for our team and how he controls certain things. I can learn from that. Obviously, he’s a warrior… and it’s a good thing he’s doing an interview right now because I don’t want to tell him that I look up to him (laughing). He’s a really good role model.”
Kaleta is contrite and honest. He wants to put the Richards incident behind him so that he can get back to doing the things that he loves doing the most:
Getting under the skin of opponents and killing penalties.
“You know me. I take great pride in killing penalties for the Buffalo Sabres. Power play is something of a long shot for me to be on, so I can always improve upon if called upon to do t, but right now, I take tremendous pride in penalty kill and blocking shots”.
Fans don’t get to see the busted up hands, fingers, arms and shins of Pat Kaleta. They don’t get to see the swollen ankles with ice bags ace bandaged to them, that look bigger than loaves of bread, as the player gimps across the room to the trainers table. Fans and critics don’t get to see the contusions and battles scars that PKers like PK36 have to endure in their high risk line of work.
Kaleta told me that he used to just sit watch and the way that Mike Grier would handle his chores at the practice rink and inside games. He says that Grier is one of his mentors and teachers who he looks up to the most in his career.
“Mike taught me the right way to do things. I know I don’t always do them perfectly, but I try. I really do.”
“That’s a family thing with me in my family. Its always “be fearless. Don’t be afraid to do anything”. If I can lead by example by blocking shots and doing certain thing slike that then by all means I’m going to do it because I know that the position that we as a team are in right now isn’t one that we want to be in but we’ve got a big hill to climb, but, why can’t we be the team that climbs that hill”?
Despite all of their failures in the first two months of the season, and all of the acrimony, the Sabres enter tonight play only four points out of eighth place. They only have two teams standing between them and the eight hole. Kaleta likes his team’s chances to close the gap and to grab a playoff berth.
“ You look back at the NHL, with the Giants two years ago, when they just squeaked into the playoffs, and then they end up winning the Super Bowl. They were together. They went through it for each other, with each other, and they came together to win a championship. LA (Kings last year. it’s a thing that I’ve heard Otter talking about it that we take pride in wanting to make the playoffs. We all want to make the playoffs. There’s nothing more important in this locker room than getting in. It takes game by game, shift by shift. It sound cliché, it sounds like we don’t really think like that, but we do. That’s what it is. Shifts build periods. Periods build games, and then we go from there”.
Kaleta acknowledged to me that there are no more mulligans. No more margin for error. All of the “get out of jail free” cards have been used. If the Sabres are going to prevail, the team is going to have to scarifice their bodies to win games. That’s fine with Kaleta. That’s what he does for a living.
“If we’re going to do something special like making the playoffs, it all comes back to hard work out there, and battling for one another. As long as you can look at yourself in the mirror, and everybody can say that we gave it everything we got, then you can live with efforts like that. Sometimes it doesn’t always work to your advantage, but you have to want to win“.
Kaleta wants to win. He wants it more for the team success than his own personal success.
“I will go to battle for every guy in this room. I know that they will do the same for me. We have each other’s backs. We are brothers, and we are going to do anything and everything in our power to get to the playoffs”.
Thomas Vanek skated on Friday morning and is ready to return to the starting lineup against Montreal on Saturday night.
Vanek was hobbled by a Christian Ehrhoff point bomb to the hip in Montreal on Tuesday night. He sat out the 5-4 Buffalo shootout win over Toronto on Thursady night.
Nathan Gerbe didn't skate on Friday. Afterwards, Ron Rolston said that Gerbe is okay and that he will be making the roadie to Montreal. Will he play or will he sit again?
Gerbe is not a big fan of sitting out games when he is healthy. I'm going to go out a limb and say that he's not pleased that RR sat him Thursday night. This situation bears watching.
Gerbe has 3 goals and 3 assists in 25 games this season. He's a -3.
Ron Rolston will ahve to make a roster decision on Saturday in order to pulse Vanek back into the fray.
Which forward will sit?
John Scott? Jochen Hecht?
**
Reggie Sekera participated in the skate, however, is unlikely to play in Montreal on Saturday.
While his Sabres teammates are in a fight for their playoff lives, Mikhail Grigorenko will lead his Quebec into The QMJHL playoffs tonight against Chicoutimi.
Grigo is hoping that the second time is the charm. Last Spring, while battling for a bid into the Memorial Cup finals, Grigo's health suffered dramatically. He was diagnosed with mononucleosis and his playoff run was cut short. The Remparts were knocked out by the Halifax Mooseheads. It was unfortunate.
Grigo scored 3 goals and added 7 assist in 11 playoff games in the Spring of 2012 before he succumbed to his sickness.
He told La Presse that his 22 game stint in Buffalo will serve him well in the playoffs. Thanks Google Translator.
"I had a lot of experience in the NHL with the Sabres and this is my second participation in the QMJHL playoffs".
Grigo admitted that he was worn down physically last Spring, having never played that much competitive hockey in one season in his hockey life.
"Before last year, I had never played many games in a single season," said the No. 25, which was fun on Thursday with some teammates on the ice at the Pepsi Coliseum several minutes after the end of training Remparts. "In addition to taking part in the majority of games Remparts, I had to travel extensively to attend meetings of the stars and Junior World Championships. I was exhausted when the regular season ended.
"However, I have learned a lot from last season. Like the fact that I had some more rest and sleep during the day. With the experience I gained last year, I now know that the series are the most important moment of the season and I had to be ready for them. I am and I feel great. "
Grigo tiold the Quebec media that he observed his how his Sabres mates and how NHLers like Sidney Crosby competed balls-out inside shifts. He's about to bring the same approach to the Remparts.
"I realized that whenever I would jump on the ice, I should try to be better than in my previous appearance. I will have something to prove in the playoffs. "
The kid knows that the Sabres eyes in the sky will be watching him in the playoffs. He doesn't want to disappoint them.
"It is certain that when the Sabres have taught me that in the QMJHL me back, I was a little disappointed. But upon my return, Patrick [Roy] showed me that he had confidence in me and using for about twenty minutes. I know that we can count on me to Quebec and at the same time, I know that the Sabres will monitor my performance. So I decided to do everything to help the Remparts win. "
***
The Sabres will skate at 11:30 this morning at First Niagara Center before they jet off to Montreal.
March Madness blew into Buffalo in lake effect fashion on Thursday night.
This game had it all!
70 shots. 36 for Buffalo.
61 hits. 30 by Buffalo.
9 goals. 5 by Sabres.
2 heavyweight fights.
The forecast called for heavy hockey. Boy, we're got lake effect pugilism thats for sure.
Simulataneous scraps featuring Scott-McLaren and Kaleta-Orr.
Thanks, hockey-fights.com
After the bar fight's a fire wagon hockey game broke out.....
65 minutes of rock-em-sick-em robots
A folk hero grinder scored the shootout winner in dramatic fashion.
This game exceeded the advanced billing befitting of the Sabres-Leafs rivalry.
This wasn’t a game. It was an alleyway bar fight.
The team that scored last won.
“I thought tonight that the crowd support was huge, they made it feel like a playoff atmosphere. I mean I had chills all over me, I’m sure it was that way for all of us. It was intense. It was a fun, fun atmosphere”, a jubilant Steve Ott said in the victors locker room. Ott scored the game winner in round six of the skills contest, thusly jamming the knife threw the heart of the Leafs, and twisting it for good measure.
“They (the Leafs) are a physical team guys. Lets face it, they are physical. I wouldn’t say one of the toughest. You know, we matched size for size, hit for hit, I thought that it was a 4-4 game and a shootout . But, at the end of it all, a playoff game, could have gone either way throughout. That was one of the fun ones you get to play in”.
On Thursday morning after the skate, I spoke with Ott about his keys for the Leafs game. He told me that it would come down to denying Kadri, Kessel, et all time and space, and limiting their inside play. Like they had in the Montreal victory on Tuesday night.
Roger that.
“You know what? I loved our attention to detail today. We really emphasized getting pucks in and not turning pucks over at the blue lines. I can’t even remember too many strong ones at the blue lines. Our guys continued to chip in behind their defense, putting a good fore check on. That’s how you eliminate speed in this league. You have to get it back and make those teams go 200 feet and you make them earn it. That pace all the way throughout, I thought was impressive”, Ott told me.
Talk about clutch. That was about as big a win as the Sabres have had this season. Twice, they crawled out of the dumpster, trailing by two goals, and tied the game. Beating Montreal and Toronto back-to-back has revealed a lot of character and moxy. Ott says that his boys deserve the credit for their attention to details.
“ That’s character. Its what we’ve been telling one another. Its been a month since Ron has come in and we’ve tried to clean up details. We’ve worked hard at it in practice. We’ve put in a lot of video sessions and we’ve been in a lot of close games. If you notice, every single game is close, that means something is going right for us and we are continuing to do things. Now we’re starting to reap the rewards”.
Christian Ehrhoff had a goal and two assists for Buffalo. He finally buckled dpwn and put his thunderous point shot on the net. Ehrhoff missed the net a couple of times in the first and second periods. Just 22 seconds into the third period, Ehrhoff gave Buffalo the 4-3 lead when he buried a blast behind Leafs goalie James Reimer.
The Sabres have now won consecutive games for only the fourth time this season.
Tyler Ennis had a goal and an assist, and Marcus Foligno and Jason Pominville also scored.
Next stop: Montreal
***
The Buffalo power play now has scored PPGs in there consecutive game. Ott tipped his bucket to Ehrhoff for leading the way vs. the Leafs.
“I thought that “Hoff” was great tonight. He got that big bomb to go up 4-3when we needed it when we came out of the dressing room to start the third period. Enzo had that one too (time had expired in penalty and 63s goal was 5 on 5). Those were key for us. We keep working on the power play and its paying dividends”.
***
Steve Ott scores the winner in the shootout? Are you serious Rolston?
Ott told me after the game: “We all work on skill shots in practice. It reminded me of juniors all over again, being the man with the game winner in clutch time”.
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