WNY and Buffalo NY Hockey Coverage
Offseason Edition
Craig Anderson spent 10 seasons in Ottawa. ©2022, Micheline Veluvolu
BUFFALO – For seven seasons, Sabres goalie Craig Anderson bounced around the NHL and minors, patiently waiting for an opportunity that might never materialize.
Anderson, 40, was property of five NHL teams during that uncertain stretch, six if you count two stints with the Chicago Blackhawks. The American once spent four days with the St. Louis Blues when Sabres coach Don Granato was a first-year assistant in 2005-06.
Then in 2009-10, Anderson seized his first ... Read the full article
Kyle Okposo was injured last Tuesday. ©2022, Micheline Veluvolu
BUFFALO – Sabres forwards Casey Mittelstadt and Zemgus Girgensons practiced this morning and will likely return for Tuesday’s road game against the Ottawa Senators.
“Zemgus is back, full, and so is Mittsy,” Sabres coach Don Granato said following the session.
Mittelstadt, out with an upper-body injury the last 16 games, centered Peyton Krebs and Anders Bjork during the practice inside LECOM Harborcenter. Meanwhile, Girgensons, out the last five games with a lower-body injury, skated at ... Read the full article
Peyton Krebs enjoyed a terrific outing Saturday afternoon. ©2022, Micheline Veluvolu
BUFFALO – The play in Saturday afternoon’s 6-3 win that illustrates the special talent the Sabres possess in center Peyton Kresbs wasn’t the goal he scored 18 minutes into the game, the first of his NHL career, or his nifty breakaway score minutes later.
Of course, in scoring twice in a span of 4 minutes, 24 seconds, Krebs, 20, displayed the supreme hockey sense and terrific skill set that make him such a coveted young ... Read the full article
Tage Thompson has scored 12 goals this season. ©2022, Micheline Veluvolu
BUFFALO – Coach Don Granato knew it would happen again. COVID-19 has been clobbering the NHL, forcing hundreds of players into protocol over the past several weeks, including 11 Sabres.
“When’s it going to happen to the next guy the way it’s going around the league and around the world?” Granato said following Monday’s practice. “It happens today.”
On Monday, shortly after prospect Jack Quinn joined the Sabres, top center Tage Thompson, the team’s leading ... Read the full article
Anders Bjork has scored four goals this season. ©2022, Micheline Veluvolu
BUFFALO – Over his first 44 games with the Sabres, winger Anders Bjork has struggled to maintain consistency, mostly showcasing flashes of his talent.
Bjork, 25, scored opening night before beginning a 10-game goalless stretch. After scoring in back-to-back contests, he endured a 12-game goal drought in which he was scratched twice.
Sabres coach Don Granato said Bjork must learn to regularly imprint his identity as a player – “His is speed and quickness,” he ... Read the full article
Anders Bjork is one of six Buffalo players in protocol. ©2022, Micheline Veluvolu
BUFFALO – Coach Don Granato said dealing with COVID-19 and the chaos it creates has become “almost a new normal.” For two weeks, the virus has been ravaging the Sabres, forcing players and staff members into the NHL’s protocol and five games to be postponed.
On Tuesday, three more players – forward Anders Bjork, Peyton Krebs and Alex Tuch – went into protocol. Granato said the Sabres also held defenseman Henri Jokiharju out of practice ... Read the full article
Ethan Prow has spent most of his career in the AHL. ©2021, Micheline Veluvolu
BUFFALO – Make that four. In addition to forwards Peyton Krebs, JJ Peterka and Alex Tuch, it appears another player, defenseman Ethan Prow, will be making his Sabres debut tonight.
Like Peterka, Prow, 29, has never played in the NHL. Ironically, Peterka and Prow were teammates last season with Red Bull Munich, a Deutsche Eishockey Liga team.
The Sabres this morning recalled Prow to the taxi squad and Casey Fitzgerald to the active roster because ... Read the full article
Alex Tuch joined Buffalo on Nov. 4. ©2021
BUFFALO – The date Sabres winger Alex Tuch underwent shoulder surgery is seared in his mind.
“Two days less than five months since surgery,” Tuch said following this morning’s practice inside KeyBank Center. “It’s been a long road.”
That road is about to end. Coach Don Granato said today that Tuch will play his first game with the Sabres, the team he adored growing up in Baldwinsville, on Monday against the Columbus Blue Jackets.
“He’s ... Read the full article
Will Butcher is one of two Buffalo players sidelined with a non-COVID illness. ©2021, Micheline Veluvolu
PITTSBURGH – The concern over the growing number of positive COVID-19 cases forced the NHL on Friday to postpone games involving the Colorado Avalanche and Florida Panthers through Dec. 26.
So Wednesday’s Buffalo Sabres home game against the Avalanche has been shelved. No makeup date has been announced for the Sabres’ first COVID-related postponement this season.
The NHL on Friday also extended the Calgary Flames’ postponements through Thursday.
COVID is tearing through the NHL. The ... Read the full article
Malcolm Subban makes a save with Chicago last season. ©2021, Chris Sweda, TNS
PITTSBURGH – After spending four straight years in the NHL, Buffalo Sabres goalie Malcolm Subban suddenly found himself in the minors again this season.
The Chicago Blackhawks’ acquisition of Marc-Andre Fleury dropped Subban, 27, to the AHL, where he shared the net with Collin Delia and Arvid Soderblom.
Playing time, of course, was limited, and Subban only made only five appearances with the Rockford IceHogs before the Sabres acquired him Dec. 2.
So Subban, who’s ... Read the full article
