WNY and Buffalo NY Hockey Coverage
Calder Cup Playoffs Edition
James Reimer got hot down the stretch. ©2025, Micheline Veluvolu
BUFFALO – James Reimer’s superb goaltending down the stretch for the Sabres showed he possesses the talent to return for his 16th season.
Even at 37, an advanced age, he ranked among the NHL’s hottest netminders, compiling a gaudy 8-2-0 record from March 23 until the season ended, including a career-long seven-game winning streak. His win total during that torrid stretch was tied for first in the league with Los Angeles Kings goalie Darcy Kuemper, ... Read the full article
Kale Clague’s four points are tied for the lead in the Calder Cup Playoffs. ©2025, Micheline Veluvolu, Rochester Americans
ROCHESTER – Technically, Americans defensemen Kale Clague had played a playoff game in pro hockey before last weekend.
In 2021, when the COVID-19 pandemic forced the AHL to play a truncated schedule, it did not hold the Calder Cup Playoffs. However, some Pacific Division teams held a small postseason tournament at the Anaheim Ducks’ practice facility with no fans in attendance.
Clague, 26, played one game for the Ontario Reign after the Los Angeles Kings ... Read the full article
Rochester’s Isak Rosen (left) congratulates Devon Levi on Sunday afternoon. ©2025, Rochester Americans
ROCHESTER – Don’t let the 4-0 final fool you. For much of Sunday afternoon, the Americans held a tenuous grip on a one-goal lead against the Syracuse Crunch.
After rookie winger Konsta Helenius put them up early, the Amerks could’ve unraveled in the second period of Game 2 of their AHL North Division semifinal series.
The Crunch buzzed around goalie Devon Levi, outshooting the home team 15-6 and also hitting the post during a late ... Read the full article
Brendan Warren is in his fifth season with Rochester. ©2025, Rochester Americans
ROCHESTER – Mike Leone played at three colleges and grinded in the minors and Europe for three seasons before beginning the next phase of his hockey life. So the Americans coach has a soft spot for his depth players who have battled and waited for their opportunities.
Leone knows their buy-in and contributions are vital to a team’s success, especially in the Calder Cup Playoffs.
To wit: in Friday’s 3-2 win over the Syracuse Crunch ... Read the full article
Tyson Kozak played 21 games with Buffalo this season. ©2025, Micheline Veluvolu, Rochester Americans
ROCHESTER – Center Tyson Kozak’s latest stint with the Americans could be his last one. Having recently impressed the Sabres during a 21-game look, he appears ready to graduate to Buffalo next season and earn full-time duty.
His gritty, mature style might entrench him on the Sabres’ third or fourth line for years.
Of course, the oft-injured Kozak, who on Friday played in Game 1 of the AHL North Division semifinal against the Syracuse Crunch, ... Read the full article
Rochester’s Jiri Kulich battles Laval’s Jared Davidson on Nov. 13. ©2025, Micheline Veluvolu, Rochester Americans
ROCHESTER – Americans center Jiri Kulich has returned to where he starred for two seasons as a more accomplished and mature player.
When the Buffalo Sabres assigned him to the AHL for a four-game stint in early November, they had just spent a month easing him into the lineup, playing the neophyte at the wing and occasionally scratching him.
Kulich, who will play for the Amerks in tonight’s opener of the Calder Cup Playoffs at ... Read the full article
Bowen Byram played all 82 games this season. ©2025, Micheline Veluvolu
BUFFALO – When the Sabres traded for Bowen Byram before the 2024 deadline, general manager Kevyn Adams acknowledged they weren’t sure how he would fit in their lineup.
In Byram, they saw a talented defenseman drafted fourth overall who had won the Stanley Cup in 2022. Players of his caliber who have sipped from hockey’s holy grail rarely become available in their early 20s.
Adams couldn’t pass up adding a high-end defenseman, so he dealt ... Read the full article
Jordan Greenway played just 34 games this season. ©2025, Micheline Veluvolu
BUFFALO – Jordan Greenway left the lineup for the first time in mid-October. Following a one-game absence, the Sabres winger played 10 consecutive contests.
That would be his longest stint all season.
Greenway, 28, endured a difficult campaign, playing a career-low 34 games while battling a mid-body injury that required surgery in December.
While he returned from a 23-game absence on Feb. 22, by March 23, having not fully recovered from the injury he had ... Read the full article
Mattias Samuelsson wore a letter for the first time this season. ©2025, Micheline Veluvolu
BUFFALO – If Sabres defenseman Mattias Samuelsson could do it over again, he would make New Jersey Devils winger Stefan Noesen pay for the suspect hit that concussed teammate Tage Thompson.
Four other Sabres skaters were on the ice Feb. 2 when Noesen thumped the Sabres’ leading scorer in the head. None of them went after him.
The 6-foot-4, 227-pound Samuelsson, however, bore the brunt of the criticism for the team’s inaction as a woozy ... Read the full article
Kevyn Adams was hired as general manager in 2020. ©2025, Micheline Veluvolu
BUFFALO – In the coming days, general manager Kevyn Adams will be sitting down with owner Terry Pegula to review the season and offer insight into the Sabres’ sorry seventh-place finish in the Atlantic Division.
Adams, who was hand-picked by Pegula for the job in 2020, talks to his boss every day. Their relationship is closer than perhaps any GM and owner in the NHL.
But their annual end-of-season meeting to discuss the state of ... Read the full article