NHL Lockout - Buffalo Hockey Beat

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

NHL cancels games through Jan. 14

BUFFALO – Seven more Sabres contests were erased with the NHL’s sixth round of game cancellations today. With all games through Jan. 14 canceled, 42 Sabres tilts – 51.2 percent of their 82-game schedule – have been axed 96 days into the lockout.

The league has now canceled 625 games, a shocking 50.8 percent of the season.

Sadly, the next set of cancellations could be the biggest – the rest of the season.

While ... Read the full article

Reports: Sabres to keep Grigorenko in junior

BUFFALO – Some interesting news out of Quebec, where some media outlets have reported slick Sabres prospect Mikhail Grigorenko will stay with the QMJHL’s Remparts for the entire season.

Sabres general manager Darcy Regier had said the Russian center, the 12^th overall pick in June’s NHL Entry Draft, would be given “every opportunity” to make the big leagues.

Of course, back then another lockout seemed unimaginable. Training camp will be abbreviated if it ... Read the full article

Yet another European Sabres update

BUFFALO – Will more Sabres go overseas? Could some go back?

You bet.

If the NHL lockout drags on, expect to see more players bolt for Europe. They desperately want to stay sharp. Some haven’t played games now in eight or nine months.

Of course, going overseas has its drawbacks. Most of the good leagues are filled up, leaving only second-tier (or lower) jobs available. Some leagues pay paltry salaries. Many teams are isolated. Some ... 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

Report: Amerks’ Hodgson back in lineup

Our friend Kevin Oklobzija reports Rochester Americans center Cody Hodgson will return tonight from the broken bone in his right hand that’s sidelined him since Nov. 2.

The 22-year-old was injured Oct. 27 and made one more appearance before sitting 14 games.

Hodgson, who’s been kicked back to the AHL by the NHL lockout, dominated early this season, compiling nine assists and 10 points in nine games.... Read the full article

Shoulder injury ices Switzerland stint for Sabres’ Ennis

BUFFALO – Tyler Ennis experienced his first bit of Swiss culture shock one day during lunch, when the soup du jour the locked-out Sabres center ordered tasted “a little bit funky.”

“The (waitress) asked me if I knew what I was eating,” Ennis told the Times Herald on Thursday. “I said no, and then she came back with a pig nose on the plate, and she said, ‘This is what you’re eating.’ That was a ... Read the full article

Sabres’ Ennis back from Switzerland, having shoulder re-evaluated

BUFFALO – For now, Tyler Ennis’ Swiss adventure is on hold.

Ennis recently returned from Switzerland to have a nagging shoulder injury re-evaluated.

The locked-out Sabres center stressed the minor bang-up he sustained during his second National League A appearance with Langnau isn’t serious. He plans on skating Friday.

“(It’s) not bad, but I just wanted to be cautious just in case the season starts, I want to be 100 percent,” Ennis told the Times Herald ... Read the full article

Jochen Hecht heading to Germany with goal of NHL return

BUFFALO – In September, former Sabres forward Jochen Hecht said he had a standing offer to join his hometown Mannheim Eagles, a DEL club in his native Germany.

Hecht kept that option on the backburner, however.

Instead of returning home, the 35-year-old free agent made the NHL his No. 1 option. Hecht stayed in Buffalo, skating with some locked-out Sabres at the Northtown Center a few times a week.

But with the lockout 87 days ... Read the full article

Latest cancellations frustrate Sabres’ McCormick

AMHERST – Of course, the NHL’s fifth round of cancellations – games from Saturday through Dec. 30, including eight more Buffalo Sabres contests – was only a formality. The league had been expected to axe more games after collective bargaining negotiations with the NHL Players’ Association imploded last week.

Still, knowing something will happen doesn’t always soften the blow.

“It’s terrible,” Sabres forward Cody McCormick said about the cancellations Monday after skating inside the Northtown ... Read the full article