“Amerks West”

This week’s Puck Stop. Check it out!

Seattle taxpayers are already bristling under the weight of debt payments for Safeco Field, Qwest Field and yes, the demolished Kingdome. Now they are being asked to pony up another $500 million for a replacement venue for the NBA Supersonics, who play at a perfectly fine Key Arena. The Sonics unveiled these architectural renderings this week, for a dramatic 20,000 seat edifice which would be built on the south end of Lake Washington in the suburb of Renton.

But while co-owners Tom Ward and Aubrey McClendon aren’t busy threatening to move their team to another city unless they get their free playpen, they are spending their time funding and propping up organizations such as Americans United to Preserve Marriage, a group tied into uber-sleezeball and crackpot Gary Bauer and his Family Research Council. What’s next? Tim Hardaway named new Sonics GM?

So let’s get this straight - two people are in a loving relationship and want to commit themselves to each other but are of the same gender - IMMORAL! Billionaire sports franchise owners unashamedly hold a gun to the heads of the fans who have supported them unless they spend yet more money to build them a new arena - MORAL!

Whew! Glad we got this cleared up!

Can’t wait to hear Jim Rome start ripping on this again.

Yet ANOTHER scratch in the Buffalo lineup tonight, as the other co-captain Daniel Briere sits this one out because of the flu.

This time around, the Sabres played one man short on the roster, meaning plenty of ice time for Stafford, MacArthur, Kaleta, Ryan and Mancari, the “Saberks” crew.

If there was any one night to just pack it in, coast through a game and regroup for Friday, this would be it. Briere will then be back, Zubrus will join the lineup and we’ll see where Drury is at.

Yet if it’s anyone who packed it in it was Toronto, who did outshoot the Sabres but were pretty much late getting to the puck, late on hits and earned every bit of the scorn they got from the boo-birds at the ACC.

MacArthur tallied his 2nd; Stafford scored as well. My man Jochen Hecht has the heart of a lion and picked it up tonight in a big way when the other skill guys were absent, scoring two goals.

With the Montreal Canadiens reeling, Friday night is looking pretty good for our boys right about now.

Reflections on an incredible day…

I fired up the laptop well before 10 AM… then turned on WGR-AM to listen to the discussion… Had the TV going as well on TSN… Amazingly I did get out to do a couple service calls for my business but got back by mid-afternoon… Back and forth on the phone with Pete to discuss the goings on… writing the column for this week’s Artvoice and thankfully our editor Geoff Kelly extended our deadline so we could get today’s news into the piece…Checking out my fellow Sabres sports bloggers including Kevin and his open thread at Bfloblog to watch the chatter… Running the column by Pete who was working OT today so I’m reading him the column as he’s walking… Thought about going down to the arena to catch Darcy’s conference in person but decided to stay put… Then caught more radio and pregame, and then the 7:30 PM Sabres-Leafs game… And of course flipping to the other games on Centre Ice…Dave Staba at Buffalo Rising offers an excellent analysis of the Sabres trades.

It is now 10:40 PM. I have been eating, living, breathing Sabres hockey for 13 hours.

So let’s now check the TV dial… Phx at Edm… Cbj at Col… My night is not over yet!

Ain’t life great!!!

DID THE ORANGE GET THEIR TICKET PUNCHED FOR BUFFALO LAST NIGHT??

Last night was Senior night in the Carrier Dome and in front of a national tv audience the Orange stunned Big East leader Georgetown by a 72-58 count. The win gives them 21 for the season and at 10-5 in the conference these guys may have gotten the big win they needed to vault them into the Big Dance.

With teams being sent to venues close to home….don’t be surprised if the Orange head down the Thruway for the second time this season in a couple of weeks.

MARCH MADNESS SET TO BEGIN FOR TWO AREA CLUBS IN BRIDGEPORT.

MAAC Tournament to get underway in Bridgeport Friday with Canisius taking on St. Peter’s in a prequarterfinal game…..Niagara gets the winner of the Rider/Iona game…..Iona has one conference win all season, over Rider of course.

Sabres deal Biron, Novotny and receive Ty Conklin and Dainius Zubrus in return. The moves freed up some cap space and enabled the Sabres to get some much needed size on the offensive end and someone who can score to boot.

The trading deadline has come and gone as I write this, give the Sabres a decent pat on the back for the moves made. While the wheeling and dealing wasn’t as frenzied in the East as it was in the West, the Sabres did more to help themselves down the stretch than their closest competitors in the conference today.

New Jersey was virtually silent in picking up a 3rd round pick, Tampa Bay got Jason Ward (who?). Pittsburgh did do themselves some good by grabbing Gary Roberts and tough guy Georges Laraque…

The action amongst the clubs fighting to get in the East’s top eight was a bit more intense with Atlanta getting Alexei Zhitnik and Keith Tkachuk and the Islanders probably landing the biggest name in Ryan Smyth from Edmonton as well as acquiring Richard Zednik.

Oh yes…..that Western Conference, where the biggest move was the Sabres getting Mikko Lehtonen…..maybe not! I think we can say that the quota of Finnish blue liners has definitely been filled today.

Dallas landed Mattias Nordstrom….Todd Bertuzzi landed in Detroit….and in case you’ve been living under a rock for the last few days, just a reminder that Peter Forsberg is in the Music City.

Anaheim got a bit tougher in landing former Sabre Brad May.

What does it all mean for Buffalo? Seems like they’re still the East’s best club so long as Ty Conklin doesn’t have any “deer in the headlights” moments reminiscent of his Cup Finals appearance in Game 1 last year, when he mishandled a puck very late in Game 1 that resulted in a goal for Carolina and lost his Oilers the game…..

Let the rest of the season begin…starting with tonight!

Die Leaves Die!

All eyes are on the NHL and the 3PM EST trade deadline. In recent days the Forsberg to Nashville and Tkachuk to Atlanta moves have sent shock waves, and looks now like Gary Roberts will indeed be shipped out of Florida before the day is done.

I caught one interesting comment last night on TSN (yes I do get that channel don’t ask me how I’m not telling) from Coyotes coach Wayne Gretzky, who said he has no intention of parting with Kevyn Adams. There has been much talk about bringing Adams to Buffalo, him being a WNYer, his comparative modest salary, his penchant for toughness and a good locker room guy would seemingly make him a good fit.

So here in Buffalo, will we see Darcy Regier pull the trigger on any deals, including the most widely speculated move involving trading goaltender Marty Biron?

And if Buffalo doesn’t make a move, will they be medicating and administering oxygen to the sportswriting tandem of Gleason, Sullivan and Dicesare over at the Buffalo News offices later today?

We’ll be watching the tickers all day long and listening in to WGR 55. Peter will have his rundown and recap of the day’s events later on.

Coming to six cities in Israel - Tel Aviv, Bet Shemish, Modi’in, Ra’anana, Netanya and Petach Tikva, is the new Israel Baseball League, which is set to take the field come June 24.

The fledgling league has more than a healthy dose of involvement from former MLB players and executives, and is being run by former Red Sox GM Dan Duquette.

Our longest USRT excursion ever was to Honolulu for the Pro Bowl, and that was 4680 miles. Buffalo to Tel Aviv is 5792 miles. USRT to Israel??? Hmmm….. nah!!!!

Ottawa Sun columnist Bruce Garrioch is not the kind of guy we want to give much creedence to. This loathsome piece of crap got his ugly mug on the MSG telecast this past Saturday and proceeded to call our owner a “whiner” and got into all sorts of name calling.

Looking at Garrioch’s doughboy face, he struck me as the type of guy who probably had the crap kicked out of him all throughout high school, probably sat in the school lunch room alone and might have pulled a Columbine if they allowed guns up in Canada. Today he most likely lives in his parent’s basement and drives his used AMC Pacer with a big “media” placard on his dashboard to give himself the delusion that he is cool.

Nonetheless, he posted this column in the Ottawa Sun about some VERY nasty comments allegedly made by Adam Mair to Danny Heatley.

Right now we Buffalonians are full of righteous indignation over the events of the last few days - the Drury hit, the brawls, the 10K fine to Lindy Ruff. But if there is a shred of truth to the Mair story, then Mair has to man up and make amends. It’s the right thing to do.

By now we’re counting down the days to the big event here at HSBC Arena. So today we’re thinking, just where is the tournament going next year?

So away we go to the NCAA website and lo and behold! A subregional next year at the St. Pete Times Forum in downtown Tampa!

Yep… another pigout of NCAA college hoops… some Grapefruit League baseball games, including a must visit to the last season at Dodgertown at Vero Beach. 80 degrees and sunny…. yeah baby!

So it’s a no brainer. We’ve just added that trip to the Ultimate Sports Road Trip schedule.

Well, by and large cooler heads prevailed in the much anticipated rematch of these two clubs in Ottawa.

The bad news of course is that our guys lost….but if there’s any good news to come out of this, it’s that the Saberks didn’t lose any one to injury for the first time in recent memory.

Despite the rash of recent injuries, Buffalo came within a missed penalty shot and a goal that came jussssst a bit too late at the end of the first period from walking out of Scotiabank Place with a win. And Buffalo’s resilience was in full effect as they rallied from down three goals to tie the game at five on Tallinder’s second of the game.

A couple of fisticuffs took place….Peters and McGratton went to a draw and Neil got the better of Mair, who jumped on Neil when Neil got a good shot on Kaleta.

Speaking of Kaleta…..pretty nice hit he put on McGratton.

It was a game with some unusual goals…Vanek just shoving the puck under Emery…..Pominville reaching out and barely getting the puck over the goal line before Emery could get to it….and finally Ottawa winning the game on a Spezza goal off of a weird bounce off of the boards.

Still atop the conference with a five point lead on Jersey thanks to the Devils loss earlier in the day. And the Maple Losers are still outside the playoff picture. All in all life is still good.

Season ticket holders and fans were invited to Dunn Tire Park this afternoon for the team’s annual open house. Complimentary hot dogs and soft drinks were available at Pettibones Grill; photo opps with the mascots and live music added to the fun, and fans were able to tour areas normally off limits to the public, including the pressbox and clubhouse.

I caught up with Bisons PR Coordinator Brad Bisbing, who told me that the team has received over 100 resumes and audition tapes applying to becoming the next Voice of the Bisons. With the short time frame involved, it is a daunting task but they hope to have a decision made real soon. “Finding the next Pete Weber or the next Jim Rosenhaus isn’t as easy as you think” Brad said.

Opening Day is April 5th, and that’s just 40 days away. Can’t wait!

The replica bowstring bridge is now in place over the rewatered Commercial Slip, just a block and a half from the front door of HSBC Arena.

Can you see the remnants of the foundations in the foreground? This is a special and hallowed place. Here is where America’s commerce and industry met and pushed westward in the 19th and early 20th centuries, a hustle and bustle of ships, grain mills, docks, bawdy houses and residences, and now will enjoy new life as the restored Canal Side Inner Harbor project.

I can’t wait until this is all done. I can’t wait to come down here on a warm summer Buffalo evening… to reflect on the old Buffalo, and to let my spirits soar and imagine what the new Buffalo can become.

Now undergoing renovation along Mississippi Street, a block away from HSBC Arena, is this former loading dock structure, and that building is finally taking shape as the new home of Morrissey’s Irish Pub.

So why am I labeling this “The Bad”? Well, basically the progress for this entire development, which includes a four story office building, retail space and 36 loft condominiums, has been agonizingly slow. Avalon Development and Savarino Construction got approval from the Buffalo Planning Board for this project way back in September, 2005, they launched this cool website and stuff is now getting done there in dribs and drabs.

I met proprietor Dennis Brinkworth during the Buffalo Old Home Week last August, and he then predicted a Thanksgiving opening; in December they said March 15. Check out the photo - does it look like they’ll be pouring cold Guinness Stouts in three weeks?

My props to Savarino Construction for even taking this on… if it all gets built out (including the lofts) I’ll give them all the love in the world for being the visionaries. But for now I guess you can call me impatient.

Here is the new Seneca Buffalo Creek Casino going up three blocks east of HSBC Arena, and don’t feel bad if you don’t confuse this structure with the Wynn or Bellagio in Las Vegas. For this hideous abomination is the “temporary” 5000 s.f gambling hall that will open soon, while the permanent structure gets built in the next couple years, as this rendering should give you an idea what the place will look like.

I’m not crazy about the idea of a downtown casino, but if it is meant to be, then I want it to be the snazziest thing this side of Atlantic City. My fear is that lawsuits or other delays will kill the permanent casino, and we will be left with this sleazy storage garage with its few dingy slot machines and snack bar.