Leopold - Buffalo Hockey Beat

Roster battles promise to make Sabres camp interesting

BUFFALO – Thanks to the agonizingly long NHL lockout, 281 days have passed since the Sabres last played a game. Thankfully, the team will finally start an abbreviated training camp today. The season opens in just a week.

So what’s changed in the last nine months? How’s this group different from the high-priced, ninth-place team that was built to win the Stanley Cup in 2011-12?

The Sabres got tougher, acquiring Steve Ott to be the ... Read the full article

Sabres happy to be prepping for new season

AMHERST – It felt differently, Patrick Kaleta said, nothing like the dozens and dozens of practices the Buffalo Sabres winger had participated in during the 113-day NHL lockout.

On Monday, the day after the NHL and the Players’ Association tentatively reached a new collective bargaining agreement, Kaleta experienced a special feeling as he skated with eight other Sabres inside the Northtown Center.

“It’s just a feeling in my bones, my muscles,” Kaleta said afterwards. ... Read the full article

Sabres relieved lockout finally over

AMHERST – For the nine Buffalo Sabres skating inside the Northtown Center this morning, a sense of excitement and relief accompanied their energetic practice, one of the last skates before training camp convenes later this week or early next one.

With a tentative collective bargaining agreement reached early Sunday morning, players are trying to forget about the 113-day NHL lockout and begin prepping for the 2012-13 season.

A swarm of media greeted the players today. ... Read the full article

Sabres’ Ott: ‘Time to celebrate that hockey’s back’

BUFFALO – All along, Steve Ott took the optimistic approach. Throughout the 113-day NHL lockout, the Sabres winger believed a season would eventually be played.

Still, when Ott heard Saturday’s marathon bargaining session between the NHL and the Players’ Association could result in the long-awaited agreement, he was “pretty cautious.”

“I didn’t want to get too overly excited because every time it seemed a deal would start gaining some ground the wheels would fall ... Read the full article

Sabres’ Ott believes new CBA needed ‘in next 10 days’ to save season

AMHERST – Forget that no drop-dead date to save the NHL season has been set 98 days into the lockout. Whether anyone acknowledges it, with Christmas and 2013 quickly approaching, the clock is beginning to tick loudly.

“A deal better be done in the next 10 days, or I guess you can say the league will just lock the doors again like they did (by canceling the season) in ’04 and continue to ruin the ... Read the full article

Sabres players mum on union’s possible dissolution

AMHERST – So, what about that vote the NHL Players’ Association is holding this week, the one that would give the union’s executive board the power to file a disclaimer of interest, which would dissolve the NHLPA and allow players to sue the NHL?

“I’m not going to comment on that,” defenseman Jordan Leopold, the Buffalo Sabres’ union representative, said Monday after skating inside the Northtown Center. “That’s all legal matters.”

Yup, legal matters. The ... Read the full article

Sabres’ Steve Ott hopes charity game wows fans

BUFFALO – In Steve Ott’s mind, the special “Rockout The Lockout” charity hockey game he’s helping present Saturday could become more than a mere exhibition contest.

Eighty-three days into the NHL lockout, players are starving for some game action, the Sabres winger said.

So don’t expect the event “to be just an all-star game,” he said. Players are becoming increasingly competitive as they wait for the season to start. Some haven’t played a game in ... Read the full article

Sabres’ Leopold ‘cautiously optimistic’ CBA meetings moving process forward

AMHERST – Finally, 81 days later, the NHL lockout may mercifully be nearing an end. Eighteen players, including Buffalo Sabres goalie Ryan Miller, and six owners held a marathon day of collective bargaining meetings Tuesday in New York.

When the sides emerged, NHL Players’ Association special counsel Steve Fehr, flanked by NHL deputy commissioner Bill Daly, said, “In some ways I’d say it might be the best day we’ve had, which isn’t too overly ... Read the full article

Sabres players hoping meeting with owners will get labor talks rolling

AMHERST – Perhaps today’s meeting between players and owners in New York can facilitate some meaningful dialogue, even generate a breakthrough in the contentious negotiations between the NHL and the Players’ Association.

Eighty days into the NHL lockout, adding a fresh dynamic to the stale labor talks could be beneficial, some Buffalo Sabres players said.

“I don’t know if it will (facilitate dialogue), but it’s worth a shot,” Sabres winger Thomas Vanek said Monday after ... Read the full article

Sabres players not interested in meeting owners

AMHERST – Mediation, as expected, failed to ignite talks between the NHL and the Players’ Association.

Seventy-seven days into the lockout, nothing has gotten the sides on the same page. The clock’s already ticking on the 2012-13 season.

So what about that meeting limited only to players and owners NHL commissioner Gary Bettman proposed Thursday after the two days of supervised talks broke down? Could that work?

Bettman and NHLPA executive director Don Fehr would ... Read the full article