Today is Roll the Highlight Film's first birthday! That's right, it was one year ago today that I launched the site and began poisoning the interwebs with my mindless drivel about the Buffalo Sabres.
Blogging about a hockey team has been an incredibly fun and rewarding experience, and it's changed me as a fan in a profound way. In the beginning I decreed that I was "not a beat reporter or analyst", but as RTHF evolved and I found myself looking for talking points while watching games, I realized I was becoming a more observant fan and began to notice little details in games that I never did before. One particular example stands out in my mind from early in the season when I noticed Drew Stafford making a defensive blunder in a game against the Islanders. In the end, I feel like my hockey knowledge as a whole has improved greatly just by writing about it.
A big thank you to everyone who has inspired me along the way, especially all the other Sabres bloggers whose great work pushes me to keep improving. Greg Wyshynski of Puck Daddy fame also deserves a mention here for two reasons: his wit and humor is something I've tried to emulate in my own writing, and if not for Puck Daddy I likely wouldn't have known of the existence of the Sabres blogosphere in the first place.
And of course, a big thank you to everyone who's ever read anything I've written. Hopefully I've kept you entertained, and I look forward to doing it for another season.
Let's go Buffalo!
Thursday, September 30, 2010
Monday, September 27, 2010
A tidbit on Zack Kassian
It's been a challenge lately for me to get my thoughts organized enough for a post, but I do want to talk about Zack Kassian for a bit.
I think the interest in Kassian can be directly attributed to the failings of Drew Stafford. Both are supposed to play a similar power forward game, but the knock on Stafford has always been his unwillingness (or inability, perhaps) to play to his size, marked by stretches of uninspired, effortless play. We want a guy who is going to play mean and tough, dig pucks out from the corners to feed to Vanek and Roy, and not take crap from anyone. Instead of these things, we have Drew Stafford. So I think when Sabre fans see a guy who's willing to knock a guy's head clean off and watch it roll across the ice, we think: "Drew, put down the guitar and get your act together, or this dude is gonna steal your job."
With that in mind, I was bummed because I knew I couldn't go to the game Friday night to watch Kassian show his stuff. And by most accounts, Kassian was rather impressive - with a pretty assist on a Tyler Ennis goal, a pancaking of the Leafs' Christian Hanson, and quite possibly causing Jesse Blacker to poop his pants on a third-period turnover that led to Rob Niedermayer's goal. When watching the game highlights, I also noticed something else I haven't seen anyone mention yet - a smart decision on a third-period rush to center the puck to Niedermayer instead of taking a shot from the wing that likely would have been blocked. Hopefully I'll still get the chance to see Kassian play in the next home preseason game vs. the Flyers - provided my wife doesn't inconveniently go into labor first. (She's due with our second child on October 4th.)
Of course, I don't expect Kassian to stick around on the roster this year. He doesn't even have a contract yet (although I know they're once again working on that). But if he continues to impress, I'm hopeful not only for his future in a slugless (yay!) blue and gold sweater, but also for the future of Drew Stafford, who just may be getting the message (judging by Mike Harrington's liveblog). And if the latter turns out to be the lasting result of Kassian's 2010 training camp stint, so be it.
I think the interest in Kassian can be directly attributed to the failings of Drew Stafford. Both are supposed to play a similar power forward game, but the knock on Stafford has always been his unwillingness (or inability, perhaps) to play to his size, marked by stretches of uninspired, effortless play. We want a guy who is going to play mean and tough, dig pucks out from the corners to feed to Vanek and Roy, and not take crap from anyone. Instead of these things, we have Drew Stafford. So I think when Sabre fans see a guy who's willing to knock a guy's head clean off and watch it roll across the ice, we think: "Drew, put down the guitar and get your act together, or this dude is gonna steal your job."
With that in mind, I was bummed because I knew I couldn't go to the game Friday night to watch Kassian show his stuff. And by most accounts, Kassian was rather impressive - with a pretty assist on a Tyler Ennis goal, a pancaking of the Leafs' Christian Hanson, and quite possibly causing Jesse Blacker to poop his pants on a third-period turnover that led to Rob Niedermayer's goal. When watching the game highlights, I also noticed something else I haven't seen anyone mention yet - a smart decision on a third-period rush to center the puck to Niedermayer instead of taking a shot from the wing that likely would have been blocked. Hopefully I'll still get the chance to see Kassian play in the next home preseason game vs. the Flyers - provided my wife doesn't inconveniently go into labor first. (She's due with our second child on October 4th.)
Of course, I don't expect Kassian to stick around on the roster this year. He doesn't even have a contract yet (although I know they're once again working on that). But if he continues to impress, I'm hopeful not only for his future in a slugless (yay!) blue and gold sweater, but also for the future of Drew Stafford, who just may be getting the message (judging by Mike Harrington's liveblog). And if the latter turns out to be the lasting result of Kassian's 2010 training camp stint, so be it.
Thursday, September 9, 2010
Sometimes, it's good to be wrong
Part of what I do here at RTHF involves making assumptions and educated guesses about what's happening or is about to happen. Sometimes, I nail it; sometimes, I'm pretty far off-base.
A couple weeks ago, I made the assumption that Matt Ellis was done as a Sabre. On the big master list of "Things I'm Glad I Was Wrong About", that one was right up there near the top.
In my view, Ellis will almost certainly start the year in Portland and be called up to supply fourth-line minutes when injuries occur. In this light, I find it interesting that the contract Ellis accepted was essentially the one that Tim Kennedy (allegedly) wouldn't - a two-way deal worth just over $600,000. Would Kennedy have ended up a fourth-liner, and was he unwilling to accept that role? Did he believe that Tyler Ennis would push him to Portland? The world may never know - but I truly believe that it was the two-way nature of his qualifying offer, not the dollar amount, that caused Kennedy to refuse it.
Welcome back to the organization, Matt. I will now gleefully remove you from the "ex-Sabres" column and put you back where you belong.
A couple weeks ago, I made the assumption that Matt Ellis was done as a Sabre. On the big master list of "Things I'm Glad I Was Wrong About", that one was right up there near the top.
In my view, Ellis will almost certainly start the year in Portland and be called up to supply fourth-line minutes when injuries occur. In this light, I find it interesting that the contract Ellis accepted was essentially the one that Tim Kennedy (allegedly) wouldn't - a two-way deal worth just over $600,000. Would Kennedy have ended up a fourth-liner, and was he unwilling to accept that role? Did he believe that Tyler Ennis would push him to Portland? The world may never know - but I truly believe that it was the two-way nature of his qualifying offer, not the dollar amount, that caused Kennedy to refuse it.
Welcome back to the organization, Matt. I will now gleefully remove you from the "ex-Sabres" column and put you back where you belong.
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