Joel Armia, Buffalo's first rounder draft choice (16th overall 2011) and his Assat Pori club won the SM-Liiga championship today. They defeated Tappara, 3-2.
Armia has proven all that he can prove to all observers in his brilliant career in Finland. he's now ready for his transition to to Rochester to begin his pro hockey career next season.
LA Kings captain Dustin Brown will have some explaining to do today. Brown will have a hearing with the NHL to explain his blatant elbow to the face of former Sabres captain Jason Pominville. The incident happened in last night's 2-1 Wild win.
The hearing will be conducted over the phone as the LA Kings are playing in Detroit tonight.
The max suspension Brown can receive is five games.
#lakings captain Dustin Brown has a 2 p.m. ET hearing for his elbow to the face of #mnwild's Jason Pominville last night
Pominville was taken to the room for observation after he struggled to get to his feet. he skated to the bench under on his own, however, he was in serious distress. The extent of his injury is not known. He was dazed and in discomfort after the Brown elbow to the kisser. You'll recall that Pommer suffered a serious concussion two seasons ago when he was freight trained from behind by Chicago Blackhawk D Nik Hjalmarsson.
On Tuesday night, Wild coach Mike Yeo and Pommer's Wild teammates were furious for the maddening lack of on ice discipline for Brown.
The Wold players exhibited serious discipline and control in not jumping Brown to seek retribution for his cheap hit on Pominville. The Wild are fighting for their playoff lives right now. They can ill afford to lose points in the standing right now, to say nothing of losing a key player to suspension.
Expect Brown to be suspended by the league for this nasty hit. There was no penalty called on the play.
Dustin Brown has played in 314 consecutive games. His current games-played streak began February 27, 2009.
The Central Scouting Service has published its final prospects rankings.
After Friday night's season finale in Buffalo, Darcy Regier and his scouts will shift their focus to re-tooling the the Sabres through the NHL draft.
We all know about Jones, MacKinnon and Drouin at the top of the draft. However, lets not overlook Nurse, Monahan, Shinkaruk, Zykov, Barkov, Nichushkin, and Lindholm.
Here are there top twenty North American skaters:
1 SETH JONES PORTLAND WHL D 6' 3.5" 205
2 NATHAN MACKINNON HALIFAX QMJHL C 6' 0" 182
3 JONATHAN DROUIN HALIFAX QMJHL LW 5' 10.5" 186
4 DARNELL NURSE SAULT STE. MARIE OHL D 6' 3.5" 185
5 SEAN MONAHAN OTTAWA OHL C 6' 2.25" 187
6 HUNTER SHINKARUK MEDICINE HAT WHL C/LW 5' 10.25" 181
7 VALENTIN ZYKOV BAIE-COMEAU QMJHL LW 5' 11.75" 209
8 FREDERIK GAUTHIER RIMOUSKI QMJHL C 6' 4.5" 214
9 MIRCO MUELLER EVERETT WHL D 6' 3.25" 184
10 ANTHONY MANTHA VAL-D'OR QMJHL RW 6' 3.75" 190
11 SHEA THEODORE SEATTLE WHL D 6' 1.75" 178
12 RYAN PULOCK BRANDON WHL D 6' 0.5" 211
13 ZACH NASTASIUK OWEN SOUND OHL RW 6' 1.25" 190
14 CHRIS BIGRAS OWEN SOUND OHL D 6' 0.5" 186
15 BO HORVAT LONDON OHL C 6' 0" 206
16 RYAN HARTMAN PLYMOUTH OHL RW 5' 11" 181
17 KERBY RYCHEL WINDSOR OHL LW 6' 0.75" 205
18 WILLIAM CARRIER CAPE BRETON QMJHL LW 6' 1.5" 198
19 MAX DOMI LONDON OHL C/LW 5' 9.25" 197
20 CURTIS LAZAR EDMONTON WHL C/RW 5' 11.75" 190
Here are the CSS top twenty Eurpoean Skaters:
1 ALEKSANDER BARKOV TAPPARA FINLAND C 6' 3" 209
2 VALERI NICHUSHKIN CHELYABINSK RUSSIA RW 6' 4" 202
3 ELIAS LINDHOLM BRYNAS SWEDEN C 6' 0" 192
4 RASMUS RISTOLAINEN TPS FINLAND D 6' 4" 207
5 ALEXANDER WENNBERG DJURGARDEN SWEDEN-2 C 6' 1" 190
6 ANDRE BURAKOVSKY MALMO SWEDEN-2 LW 6' 1" 178
7 JACOB DE LA ROSE LEKSAND SWEDEN-2 LW 6' 2.25" 190
8 ROBERT HAGG MODO JR. SWEDEN-JR. D 6' 2.25" 204
9 ARTTURI LEHKONEN KALPA FINLAND LW 5' 11" 163
10 PAVEL BUCHNEVICH CHEREPOVETS 2 RUSSIA-JR. LW 6' 1" 176
11 BOGDAN YAKIMOV NIZHNEKAMSK 2 RUSSIA-JR. C 6' 5" 202
12 MARKO DANO BRATISLAVA RUSSIA C 5' 11" 183
13 LINUS ARNESSON DJURGARDEN SWEDEN-2 D 6' 2" 187
14 VIKTOR CRUS RYDBERG LINKOPING JR. SWEDEN-JR. C 5' 11" 190
15 WILHELM WESTLUND FARJESTAD JR. SWEDEN-JR. D 5' 11.25" 184
16 LUCAS WALLMARK SKELLEFTEA JR. SWEDEN-JR. C 5' 10.5" 175
17 ANDREI MIRONOV DYNlAMO MOSCOW RUSSIA D 6' 2" 176
18 CARL DAHLSTROM LINKOPING JR. SWEDEN-JR. D 6' 3.25" 211
19 VIKTOR ARVIDSSON SKELLEFTEA SWEDEN LW 5' 9" 172
20 ANTON SLEPYSHEV UFA RUSSIA LW 6' 2" 194
This draft is as thick as a Buffalo-style pizza. Its loaded with quality impact players. Its not outlandish to compare this NHL entry draft to that of 2003. The Sabres have two goalie gloves full of excellent draft choices in this draft, including their own first rounder (top 7) and Minnesota's conditional first rounder. Sabres fans should want the Wild to lose their remaining games and miss the playoff so that they get a better first round draft position. The Sabres also have a bevvy of second rounders available in this year's draft.
Suffice to say, the Sabres will be selecting several impact players in the first two rounds of this draft.
The NHL Draft Lottery will be held on Monday April 29.
Take a look at the first round selections from the legendary 2003 NHL entry draft.
1 Pittsburgh Marc-Andre Fleury G
2 Carolina Eric Staal C
3 Florida Nathan Horton C
4 Columbus Nikolai Zherdev R 5 Buffalo Thomas Vanek R
6 San Jose Milan Michalek L
7 Nashville Ryan Suter D
8 Atlanta Braydon Coburn D
9 Calgary Dion Phaneuf D
10 Montreal Andrei Kostitsyn R
11 Philadelphia Jeff Carter C
12 NY Rangers Hugh Jessiman R
13 Los Angeles Dustin Brown R
14 Chicago Brent Seabrook D
15 NY Islanders Robert Nilsson C
16 San Jose Steve Bernier R
17 New Jersey Zach Parise C
18 Washington Eric Fehr R
19 Anaheim Ryan Getzlaf C
20 Minnesota Brent Burns D
21 Boston Mark Stuart D
22 Edmonton Marc-Antoine Pouliot C
23 Vancouver Ryan Kesler C
24 Philadelphia Mike Richards C
25 Florida Anthony Stewart R
26 Los Angeles Brian Boyle C
27 Los Angeles Jeff Tambellini L
28 Anaheim Corey Perry R
29 Ottawa Patrick Eaves R
30 St. Louis Shawn Belle D
I dare you Miller haters to boo his performance in Pittsburgh. For the second time in two weeks, Miller spoiles a Penguins house party. The Pens are 14-2 in their last 16 home games. Miller has stolen both games for his Sabres. Miller has snapped a 15 game win streak. He's also killed their current 7 game winning streak.
Miller made 40 saves on the 42 shots that were thrown his way. He stood tall and was stout in his net.
If this was Miller's final game in a Sabres sweater, a stick tap is in order. Miller was brilliant in Pittsbugh. He let it all hang out. He made the ridiculous seem sublime and the sublime seem ridiculous.
Here's a sampler platter of Miller's brilliance:
Miller's 500th career game in a Sabres sweater will Friday night on home ice.
It will be "Fan Appreciation Night" at the FNC.
He'll no doubt want to right the wrong that he perpetrated on the crowd last Friday night when he gloved the crowd.
The million dollar question right now is:
Will Ron Rolston give Miller the net in front of the Buffalo fans?
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