Hockey Night Extra

Growing up a Canadian Hockey fan and watching all of the rules being revamped to improve ratings in non hockey markets is sick. Nice to finally have some Sabre fans talk some smack after all those years in the dumps. It would have been nice to see other teams get financial help to save there organizations. We might still have 8 Canadian teams. Love the stick curves, Goalie puck handling lines, the shootout.

Mark Collins says that Buffalo is the model for the new NHL and slags the Leafs for their supposed ineptitude in adapting to the post lock out NHL. There is no doubt that Buffalo is well positioned to take advantage of the new CBA. But, come on, the new NHL is only one full season old. The Leafs had a payroll of over $60 million before the lock out and had to cut it down to $39 million to start the post lock out era. Now that Buffalo has risen to the top in means that their draft picks will be lower. And with success comes the desire on top players to make more money so it will be hard for any winning team to keep their rosters together.
And one little aside, twenty years from now the Leafs will still be playing to sold out crowds in Toronto. Will Buffalo even still be in the league?

The Sabers will crash and burn later in the season. Mark this post and remember I told you so. The other teams will figure them out and it will frustrate the stars in Buffalo leading to a decline in team coheasion. They won't be able to take any adversity.(remember where you heard it first)

Scott I think you really ought to check out this web blog it has an interesting take on the study of European hockey that deserves some light.
http://mc79hockey.com/

I moved out of town 6 days before the start of the season and now they are undefeated, I guess I was the bad luck charm
GO SABRES!!! And please win at least 4 more games in a row without a shoot out to shut leafs fans up
Props to CBC for siding with the sabres on this one.

Who cares, every day you just have to put something in about the leafs, maybe the rest of the world doesn't care. There are other teams in Canada who are dong much better.

If you're from Buffalo many people say you're practically Canadian in the restof the US but we are longtime neighbors and friends. I noticed alot of fan support from the Niagara Falls and lower Ontario region for some time, and I'm happy to see them all supporting their/our team for 30 or more years, and this year hopefully will be the one year it pays dividends of joy opposed to all the let-downs we have seen in the previous playoffs and finals. Go Sabres!

Have been a Sabre fan since back in the days of the exciting RPM line(also known as the French Connection). They have a first class and knowledgeable mansgment team and this has resulted in a first class team-truly a team that can roll out 20 players unmatched by any other organization. While I am exstatic about their start(10 in a row) I would be in heaven if they ended up with the last 4 in a row.
It's a long season--but they will certainly make it a very exciting one for their many loyal fans

Record or not, speed kills. Leafs / Sabres used to be a great rivalry. You can put an asterix next to the Leafs for poor management and interpretation of the NEW NHL. By the way Leafs fans, That is what your playing in. Those are the rules, this is the game. Stop going dinosaur shopping and groom the system through your farm leagues.I've been enjoying the Sabes since there birth in 1970,but I followed the Leafs before that and they have been my #2 since. Great team history that is being fouled up by confused management. Boy- let's re-sign Matts Sundin. How bout that Peca! The season is long and the record is meaningless.Tell you what-you take the record,paint it on one of your dino's and ride it around.We'll sip from the cup.

David from Toronto is spot-on. The building of the Sabres can be seen in microcosm in the Spring of '95, just before the lock-out. Buffalo traded hulking has-been Chris Gratton to the hapless Cuyotes for small, speedy, skilled, underappreciated future captain Daniel Briere. That says it all. Too bad for the Flyers they weren't so prescient...

Hab's fan, did they just thaw you out of the ice next to some Mammoth? You talk-speak good, blargh.

I discover hockey when Jose Theodore had his outstanding season in 01-02 and i begin to love hockey in the 04 playoffs. Vincent Lecavalier and Martin St-Louis had a great season this year(2004) and after that, they went to win the World cup of hockey.If we don't count the lock-out season,after winning the Stanley Cup, these players and the Lightning dind't do much in 05-06 season and the barely clinch a playoff spot on the back of the Leafs. Teams like Ottawa and Detroit dind't do as well as we expect them to do. The actual Champions don't have the start they want and i think, team like Buffalo or Edmonton who have unfinish business are having that kind of season because the went so close of winning it and i might be wrong but if this year is the year of The Great Sabres or the Oilers then next year we might not see the same teams that we are watching now.
Cause after winning Lord Stanley, they might lose the will of winnig at any cost.

Why does we went to exchange Ribeiro for 'BIG MOUTH',Niinima?

I Would Just like to comment on my favourite hockey team the buffalo sabres that Ive been a fan of for so many years, I just think with the team they got now there are going to do damage in the playoff's especially when their third line is just as good as nhl teams first line and the they are strong in net, on defence and up front, Id like to finish by saying I think buffalo will win the cup and beat a team like minnesota in the finals and thats my prediction?
Thanks
Cory Tremblett

I agree, may the best team win!!!
If they have not LOST a game, they should be 9-0 and they are the best team in the NHL now. All this jazz is coming from Toronto I feel. Leaf fans are just mad yet another Leaf record will fall. The Sabres have not lost a game, they won 9 games: it's a simple, they're 9-0. Even if there was a shootout, they still beat the other team so they stay undefeated, lossless, unbeaten, uhhhh, they're good...

Leafs: No cups in 40 years
Leafs: Most losses in NHL history.

Leafs: As good in the NHL as the Vancouver Grizzlies were in the NBA.

Whine, Whine Roy Anderson! We'll be 10-0-0 as of around 10:30pm est tonight. Then of course Saturday night against Atlanta we will beat your beloved Leafs' record of most wins to start a season. 11-0-0. Whine all you want...no asterisks, just a new record and the new best team in the NHL.

nothing wrong with liking winning.. nothing at all.

I'm a long suffering leaf fan and last year in the leafless playoffs the sabres reminded me how exciting hockey can be. I'm not surprised they are off to a great start, i just wish we could get more games up here.

"the rules of the day" like it or lump it, that's how the game evolves.

Having been a Sabres fan since I was seven(I'm 34 now,you do the math),I must say it's thrilling to see them off to a great start. Having said that however, the season is barely 10 games old and how many times have the Detroit Red Wings or the Ottawa Senators won the Presidents trophy only to bow out in the first or second round. I've been dissapointed twice in the last 10 years when the Sabres came close(bad luck not withstanding), so it's really a case of so far, so good, so what.

Well, it is easy to say that many are bandwagon fans. I am sure that is the case, as it is in many cases when new seasons begin. But the Sabres have been building towards this moment for the last 3-4 years. Exchanging slower players for agility and speed has been their mandate for many seasons and the results are now speaking. I have been a seaon ticket holder of the Sabres (this is fourth season) and I have witnessed this build-up ever since they lost to Dallas in 1999. They are the real deal, without injury there is simply noone who can match them. Too much speed, too much skill, too much of everything you need in this NEW NHL....look out! They are gonna tear this league up!

They will lose to Atlanta. That is my guess.

I agree that the current Sabres record is not the same as the Leafs. when the leafs won 10 straight they did it without the shootout. It only amounts to a 10 game unbeaten streak.

Can't say I was ever a Buffalo Sabres fan, and I probably never will be, but how can you not give them credit. They are the full package from the goal line out. I stated in a previous blog entry they are the real deal and I think they've proved it. That 9-1 shellacking of the Flyers was like an end of the year banquet parents vs kids game in atom.

The Sabres have adapted to the new NHL better than any other NHL team. That being said, something has to be said for the solid netminding they are getting from Ryan Miller. I can't believe he had doubters when there were talks of Martin Biron challenging for the #1 position. Their forwards remind of me my beloved Oilers in the mid 80's. Nothing but speed. Their defence just play it simple and do the little things, no stars out there trying to go end to end. This is a 'Team' if I ever saw one. Watching Daniel Briere get interviewed the other night he said, "There are no superstars in this dressing room, we have one goal and that's to win, at all costs." That's a leader that's in control of his team.

As for Janne Niinimaa, give me a break. Another pylon that's played on a handful of teams and hasn't found a home where he's wanted. It won't take long for Montreal to ship him. Eight games, 1 assist to show for it, way to go Janne. Another Norris type season.

Bandwagon? maybe 'Brandon from Newcastle' somehow has a better view of the Sabre's fan base then 'Brendan from Buffalo', but I doubt it. The fan base here has long been large and loyal and the seats to the games played during this streak were purchased well before the first puck of the season was dropped.

As is all said, anyone notice how many new Sabre's fans there are? i guess people feel better when they can jump on a bandwagon, as in the case with the Sabre's and their ommassed winning streak. They are a good team and who knows when they will lose.