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.

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.

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.

Did someone say that this game was gonna be a snore?

Does anybody out there still believe that the Sabres aren’t a physical club?

Plenty of pucks in the net and the latest edition of “Goalies Gone Wild” all taking place down at the arena tonight. The action was fast from the get go, but the tempers reached a boiling point to say the least when Chris Neil blindsided Chris Drury on the way to the net. The hit took Drury out of the game with a vicious cut to the head and following the whistle a free for all took place with multiple players in throwdowns….the main event being Biron v. Emery.

Heck, for a moment we were gonna see Ruff v. Murray….now that would’ve been a hoot.

Yes, I was thinking Shields v. Snow as well at that moment. Chalk up a W to Emery in that one, and pat on the back for him holding his own against Peters.

Vanek got two in 36 seconds…..if you’re wondering, the Sabres record is 10 seconds shared by Derek Plante and Danny Gare.

Sabres got to the shootout by holding off Ottawa on a power play(which had no business happening considering what the officials let go earlier in the OT)

Other key moments…Ryan Miller killing off a 5 on 3 fresh off of the bench after the scrums had Biron ejected……

Kaleta’s first game is in the books…dude looked a bit nervous and maybe a bit intimidated by his surroundings that night….

Ruff not divulging about Drury’s availability…sigh….another home game…another injury???

45 hours until faceoff in Ottawa Saturday, not that anyone is counting….I’m sure you’re not…..

The buzz at today’s morning skate at HSBC Arena all had to do with Patrick Kaleta, the newest callup to the big team. Kaleta will make his NHL debut tonight when the Sabres face the Ottawa Senators.

Kaleta has undoubtedly never been such a center of attention and has had to face the crush of media that he did today. For he is a WNY born and bred player, grew up cheering for his beloved Buffalo Sabres, and now gets to live every player’s dream -to suit up for his very own team.

Other than handling all the questions and not becoming awestruck, Kaleta’s other big task is coming up with enough tickets for all his family, friends and neighbors. “Most of my family already has season tickets, but I need about 60-75 more tickets. The team has some seats set aside for players, but it’s going to be a big bill for me.”

Coach Lindy Ruff has no qualms putting Kaleta out there against the likes of a Heatley or Spezza. “I have complete confidence in him” says Ruff. “Let’s see what he is made of.”

Kaleta’s debut should make for a big night at the arena tonight!

Typical Sabres game….or maybe not.

A Philly team tries to bring back the “Broad Street Bullies” ethic to the new NHL…same ol’ result. A Sabres win.

Umberger tried to do some retribution on Campbell, the fisticuffs was a draw….wonder why it took until the third meeting for this to happen????

Andrew…freaking…Peters lit the lamp tonight. Let that one sink in. Adam Mair scored as well, let’s see if that combination strikes again in the same game….ever.

And oh yes, ANOTHER Sabre lost to long term injury as Daniel Paille is lost to a busted finger.

The optimist in me says: Good to see we are getting the injuries out of the way now before the postseason.

The pessimist says: at this rate come April there won’t be a lineup to put on the ice…anyone left in Rochester….Elmira….hello???

Still atop the East with 85 points, 5 over the Devils.

Leaves skunked by Bruins 3-0, Toronto is in the ninth spot in the East. Toronto: feel free to stay there or drop lower.

He is the in game host during Sabres games at HSBC Arena. During media breaks, he does the contests, kiss cams, welcomes special guests, all that kind of stuff.

And lately, the Sabres fans have been raining down “boos” on him.

What has triggered all this scorn is a mystery - it’s not like he went out and robbed a bank or murdered puppies or anything like that. He does a solid, if unspectacular job as the game host and his love for the Sabres comes across well. He is just a regular Buffalo guy. Would we really rather have some hot blond babe or some underwear model doing this job who is impassionate about the team?

Picholas’ appearances on the Jumbotron have become shorter and snappier to try and deflect the boos. C’mon Buffalo fans, Nicholas is one of US - let’s show the guy some love!

About a year ago in Artvoice we did a column called “Making Over HSBC Arena”, where we outlined a number of ideas for improving and upgrading our hockey venue.

An excerpt:
“Concession signage: The food items are pretty good, but those concession canopies are really hideous. New marquees, designed with bright colors, perhaps neon, would brighten up the food stands and add much to the concourses.”

And another:
“The “Adelphia” kiosk: Fess up! Were you one of the morons who stood in line to swipe your Adelphia Advantage Card to earn points for free merchandise? Yep, thought so. Time to pack up the screens, the monitors, dismantle the equipment and come up with a creative new use for this space.”

So weren’t we surprised to see all the new marquees and canopies on the concession stands…not the snazziest things you’ve ever laid your eyes on, but a marked improvement nonetheless. And a deli sandwich station has supplanted the old Adelphia kiosk space.

Hey Sabres front office - feel free to use any more of our suggestions as you see fit.

Surprise, surprise! Another player goes down….this time Ales Kotalik with a lower body injury….looks like Dr. Aquino is going to have his hands full over the next couple of weeks with the endless stream of Sabres headed into his office….what next….Lindy Ruff gets taken out by fallout from a check into the players bench?

Jochen Hecht drops the gloves! I haven’t been this surprised to see someone in a brawl since, well…..I got tackled from behind in the middle of a kickball game during recess in elementary school and started throwing haymakers.

Danny Briere lights the lamp….though the red light didn’t go on until after the period ended….his can’t miss shot of a wide open net seemingly missed with under a minute to go. But it was reviewed following the end of the period and was found to have crossed the goal line before Tim Thomas could get a stick on it. They were able to go back and count the goal because there hadn’t been another whistle after that until the period ended….still wondering why they couldn’t tack on the remaining fifty seconds or so onto the next period like they did earlier this season during a game when a glass panel needed to be repaired…..

The shoot out was a dandy, a true goaltenders duel as no one scored on either side until Petr Tenkrat slid one under Ryan Miller in the eighth go around….

Drew Stafford scores…..the kids are pitching in.

Hey….Andrew Ference!!! Didn’t I just see you here a week ago in a different jersey….thought so.

The Sabres have WiFied their pressbox, an amenity available to the press at all 30 NHL arenas.

And unlike its 29 peer venues, the Sabres have instituted a charge. Get this… a whopping $30 per each usage!!!

After a hue and cry from a lot of media outlets, and involvement from the higher ups at the Professional Hockey Writers Association, the team has now back pedaled. Yes, the WiFi will still be encrypted, but if you are on deadline and ask real nice they will give you a 24 hour password for free.

Says Sabres PR Director Mike Gilbert in a memo to the media : “Such usage may not be for improper purposes such, for example, internet gambling, illegal, adult-themed or other offensive materials, etc. Any violations of the foregoing policy will result in revocation of all WiFi Internet access privileges.”

DAMN! You mean I can’t play online poker and watch porn??? I mean, why ELSE would I want to attend Sabres games!

Dear Sabres management:

Please sign Daniel Briere to a long term deal ASAP!

The Sabres won in front of a full house that had too many cases of Bandwagoning Canadian Hockey Fan(translation, way too many fans from across the border that root for Canadian based clubs in the house tonight).

The Sabres seemed to get stronger as the game progressed, I thought the Peters fight seemed to get things going for the Sabres and woke them out of their five day off lull. Notice how we bitch about the schedule when they play back to back and when they have a few days off….damn schedulemakers can’t win.

Max has an “upper body injury”….still waiting for what happened to Novotny….

In other news….Peter Forsberg is a Nashville Predator. The Preds need him not just for the Cup run, but simply to fill seats in a town that has been somewhat ambivalent to them(if attendance means anything).

Tonight’s win was the first over the Oilers for Buffalo since March 27, 1998 and it was the first win ever over the Oilers in the MMA/HSBC Arena….

Just a few random thoughts about the game tonight (Pete was in the pressbox, I hung out in the Harbour Club). First of all, where the heck did all these Flames fans come from??? I know that’s too great a distance for the Calgary road tripper, so I have to assume it was our good friends from Fort Erie. Some of these folks live within spitting distance of the Peace Bridge yet will don any jersey of a Canadian based team when they come to play against our Sabres.

Second, I am starting to develop a knot in my stomach after learning that we have lost not one but TWO of our players for the rest of the season - first it was Paul Gaustad with a freak cut to his shin, now tonight Jaroslav Spacek breaks his hand. This sort of stuff cost us the Cup last year..the freak and bizarre injuries. Hope that is the end of it!