2010-11 Regular Season stats:

2011 Postseason stats:

Career: 

Look Back: Fans were once again disappointed with the production of this year’s trade deadline deal. Boyes had 5 goals, 9 assists in his 21 games as a Sabre, which would be on pace for 55 points for a 82-game schedule.  It was Boyes late season slump and non-existent presence against the Flyers that had fans irritated.  To Boyes defense, the team asked him to play out of position down the stretch and into the playoffs out of necessity.  Boyes is a more natural winger and as long as the team addresses depth at center this offseason, it should allow Boyes to work along the boards more and hopefully gets him close to returning to the two-time 30 goal scorer that fans are hoping.

Look Ahead: The Sabres roster seems to have an extensive list of players that could and should be scoring 20+ goals and 60+ points. This team needs Boyes to be one of those contributors.  Many people, myself included, believe that the Boyes deal was much more about this coming season than last season.  Given a full offseason to learn the system and a return to his natural position at wing, I have moderately high expectations for Boyes.  The question is going to be what line should he play on?  With Pominville, Stafford and himself, the Sabres have a number of right wingers. Does Lindy Ruff get creative or is one going to be moved out of position?  If Tim Connolly is re-signed and ends up being the 3rd line center, it could be fun to watch Connolly and Boyes on a 3rd line, no?

Fake Darcy’s Take: Boyesy was arguably the greatest trade deadline deal I have ever made. He actually scored some goals. With that being said, I wouldn’t buy any green bananas if I were him.  I would trade him for the flu right now. I’d love to free up the cash owed to him.

Twitter: @brianbund & @fakedarcy 

(This analysis will be as unbiased as possible. If you have ever read my own hockey blog ‘Puck over The Glass’ before, you know that Vanek is my favorite Buffalo Sabre and I speak about him frequently in good terms. I did another post similar to this subject there a few months ago but I figured that I would expand it into something more in depth about how he has grown as a player through the years he has been in the system.)

I would be lying to you if I said I paid close attention to the Sabres during the 2005-06 season when they made an unimaginable run to the Eastern Conference Finals. The only game I had actually watched that season had been Game 7 versus the Hurricanes. I didn’t know any of the players. I just felt sadness come over me because of them having lost. This also means that I didn’t know who Thomas Vanek was at the time. After becoming a fan, I read that he had been benched during the playoffs, and more so during that Conference Finals. After scoring 25 goals in the regular season, he didn’t accomplish much during those playoffs; only accumulating a total of two points in the first two rounds. Lindy had the right to sit him. This was the beginning of people wondering if maybe the Sabres had made the wrong choice in choosing Vanek 5th overall in 2003 NHL Draft. Perhaps he was ‘lazy’ and ‘uninterested’ in the game like many scouts had pointed out watching him play for the Minnesota Golden Gophers.

Fast forward to the 2006-07 season.

Congrats to all the bloggers who attended the Sabres summit. Of course, I share the same opinions as everyone else in saying that the meeting/summit/show was great for the blogosphere. Readers and bloggers have to understand, we are so young when it comes to building this brand of scribble. A lot of Sabres or Bills fans don't know who the hell we are. Hell, I remember when I first started doing this two years ago, I was so oblivious to the social media. I never heard of the word blog. I just came across a Heather B. comment on Sabres Edge and noticed her name was linked to a site, and presto! I read my first blog I think.

The Vancouver Canucks didn't win the Stanley cup, but they got awful close. Here are five things NHL teams can learn from the Vancouver Canucks 2010-2011 season:

#5  Having lots and lots of scoring is undoubtedly a good thing. Vancouver, to their credit, followed the model of the NHL teams that have most recently (and historically, almost always) won the Stanley Cup. Every Stanley Cup winner since the lockout (and, in fact, since well before it) had followed a similar model focusing on offense. They have all been in the Top 8 in Goals For and had at least one 90 point scorer in their cup-winning season. The Bruins are the first team where this is not the case in quite a while. Although the Canucks came just short, they were a part of just a handful of teams in the playoffs that would have even qualified in these circumstances. Goals For, especially, is critical. Look at the NHL's final four this season and tell me what they all have in common offensively.

Recently, there has been a lot of momentum building around hockey due to the fantastic playoffs.  When Matthew Stewart and I debated whether Buffalo was a hockey or football town, it really started to make me wonder why I thought Buffalo was clearly a football town. Then I started to read Bill Simmons’ site Grantland (don’t judge), and his article about people labeling him a NHL front runner.  It all became so obvious to me why football has grown in ridiculous fashion while hockey has stayed where they are.

1. The new NBC/Versus deal.  Don’t get me wrong: I think this is a great deal for the NHL and if NBC actually plays this right could, it really help build the brand.  What I thought was a problem was a lot of fan’s reaction to the notion that ESPN would merely offer one game a week or whatever the case may be.  The reaction of anger and spite towards ESPN was comical –  that the NHL didn’t NEED ESPN.  Sure they didn’t need ESPN, but wouldn’t it be a lot easier to build awareness for the sport if it were involved, if it were on Sportscenter a little more often?  Wouldn't it be a little better if they nudged a ridiculous Sidney Crosby goal to #1 on Top 10 plays as opposed to some run-of-the-mill fast break dunk?

2010-11 Regular Season stats:

 2011 Postseason stats:

Career: 

Look Back: Mike Weber was part of the ever revolving blue line that Lindy Ruff utilized throughout the 2010-11 season and his development was an important step in this team’s development.  He was second on the team with a +13 rating and seemed to gain confidence throughout the second half of the season.  In his first full season on the parent club, Weber became part of the group of young defensemen that have many fans excited. As much excitement as there is amongst the group, Weber exhibited some ill-timed poor play in the playoffs which ultimately hurt the team's chances of advancing. Even with the playoff slump, He’s just 23 years old and appears to have a solid NHL future ahead of him

Look Ahead: As solid as his NHL future appears, whether or not he stays with the Sabres remains to be seen.  Similar to Chris Butler and others, the Sabres have a plethora of RFAs to deal with, including Weber.  With Marc-Andre Gragnani, Chris Butler, Andrej Sekera and Weber all scheduled RFAs, the likelihood of that entire group returning is probably 50/50.  The Sabres appear poised to make a run for at least one top tier free agent veteran on the blue line.  The Sabres’ farm system is deep with several huge prospects on the blue line that will most likely push the efforts to add veteran leadership to that position.  Whether or not that affects Weber’s future remains to be seen, but after the playoff performance of Gragnani, both aren't likely to go anywhere. The odd player(s) out remains to be seen.

Fake Darcy’s take: Good things always seem to happen when Websy's on the ice. He was a +13 for us last year, and a +18 in Portland the year before that. The thing I really like is how he taunts Lindy about his -17 in '88-'89.  He once asked Lindy if he played without a stick that season. Funny stuff, good kid.

Up Next: Rob Niedermayer

Twitter: @brianbund

The following article was originally posted on Hockey Heaven, a hockey, sports and culture site written and edited by Matthew Stewart. For more content like this, be sure to visit www.hockey-heaven.com

"But he lay like a warrior taking his rest, with his martial cloak around him."

I grew up an hour south of Buffalo, and so many times as a kid, more times than I can count, I partook in a journey up the rocky confines of Interstate-90's Lake Erie corridor, driving joyfully to Orchard Park or downtown Buffalo for a Bills or Sabres game. Many of those return trips ended in disappointment, but the unbridled happiness of the evening almost always overshadowed that. It was long trips amidst heavy snow fall, driving in the pitch black evenings down unfamiliar roads after the events, listening to the post-game shows jump in and out of reception in the car.

Nearly every time we made that trip we would make a stop at the Angola Thruway Overpass, grab a quick snack or use the restrooms. I would spend 5 or 10 minutes staring out the window at the traffic below, oohing and ahing at the semi-trucks as it seemed they just narrowly made it under the bridge. Throughout the 90's, I saw a great many Sabres games, first at the old Aud and then some at the HSBC arena. I saw teams filled with a wide array of characters, from Alex Mogilny to Derek Plante to Matt Barnaby to Dominik Hasek.

Hockey became a part of me. We played street hockey whenever the weather was good enough on the old tennis courts that didn't have nets anymore behind the elementary school. Every possible night I would put the television on in my room, work on homework or a puzzle, and listen to Rick Jeanerret describe the events of the evening.