OTTAWA – The talent level at NHL All-Star Games is downright ridiculous. The players in today’s exhibition have combined for 5,136 goals and 13,558 points during their stellar careers.
Amazingly, if given the chance, Jason Pominville would pass on acquiring all of them.
The relaxed, good-natured feel of the All-Star event shined through shortly after Team Chara earned a 12-9 victory over Team Alfredsson. Buffalo Sabres rookie Luke Adam grabbed a microphone and interviewed teammate Jason Pominville, who had a goal and assist in a losing effort.
Adam’s final question was about all the talent in Scotiabank Place.
"If you could pick one player on this team to be part of the Buffalo Sabres, do you think you could pick one player?" Adam asked. "Did you notice one guy you had a lot of fun playing with or see someone out there?"
"I don’t know if I’d pick a player," Pominville said in a serious tone. "I like our team. I like everybody we have. I like the chemistry we have in our locker room, so I would keep it that way."
OTTAWA -- USA Hockey has announced plans to hold an annual all-American prospects game starting in September. Buffalo is on the list of possible hosts. The site will be announced in the spring.
The event will showcase 40 U.S. players who would be eligible for the following season’s draft.
OTTAWA -- Donald Fehr, the well-known union boss who heads the NHL Players' Association, is in Ottawa for the All-Star Game. He spoke for more than 20 minutes about realignment, upcoming CBA negotiations and, in an interesting debate with a Montreal reporter, how fans view him.
OTTAWA -- Ted Black isn't giving up on this Sabres season, but it appears the only good that may come out of it will be in the future.
The Sabres have won just four of their last 18 games and sit second last in the Eastern Conference at the All-Star break. It's not yet a lost season, Black said today, but the pained look on his face hinted otherwise.
"I wouldn’t say that about any season because you never know where the seeds of greatness are going to be planted," the team president said following a board of governors meeting. "So I wouldn’t say it’s a lost season because that would suggest somehow we’re abandoning our efforts, and we’re not."
Black looks at the subpar stat lines for his players and has little doubt why the team is on pace to miss the playoffs for the third time in five seasons.
"It’s a tough year," Black said. "Guys are just on pace to have career-low years in key categories such as goals. If you had a team that had Lemieux, Gretzky, Orr and Howe, and imported their worst statistical years, you’d probably have a team that wasn’t going to make the playoffs. There’s no slight to those great players, the fact is every player has a career-best year, and every player has a career-worst year.
"Unfortunately, we’ve got a lot of guys that are on track to have their worst year on the same team in the same year."
Black once again retiterated his support for General Manager Darcy Regier and coach Lindy Ruff -- "If this was a court reporter, I’d ask to read back the record on prior answers" -- and was asked if he is still as confident in the core players (a group that includes Ryan Miller, Thomas Vanek, Jason Pominville, Derek Roy, Paul Gaustad and Drew Stafford).
"That’s a word that gets thrown around, and to me our commitment is to winning, not to any particular group of players that are labeled as a core,'' Black said. "Take that for what it’s worth."
OTTAWA -- Pat LaFontaine, whose career was cut short by multiple concussions, is healthy now. But he can still vividly remember the bad days brought on by his head injuries.
"A bad day is you have no enthusiasm," LaFontaine said today in the Children's Hospital of Eastern Ontario. "You have a migraine headache. You’re anxious. You don’t want to leave the house. You’re very emotional. You just can’t see the light. There’s no spark. There’s nothing, and you can’t find it. It’s a very confusing place. I wouldn’t be able to sit and have a conversation."
It's those recollections that have the Hockey and Buffalo Sabres Hall of Famer worried about the health of today's NHL players. Head injuries seem as commonplace as breakaways nowadays, and LaFontaine is concerned for players like Sidney Crosby, who has missed most of the past two seasons with concussions.
"I think everybody wants to come to a place where the players are protected, they can play a long career," LaFontaine. "Why should anybody in any great sport have to be concerned about their livelihood when they’re done?
"It’s a serious, almost epidemic these days. It’s not going away. The forces are there. You have to understand what’s giving is the head and the neck, and we need to continue to put in the proper rules, whatever it takes to protect the head and the neck in our game."
LaFontaine is hoping Crosby can return. He also knows the Pittsburgh superstar is in a tough place.
"I’m hopeful, but I also know science," LaFontaine said. "I also know what happens if you get multiple head injuries. When you’re at this point and it’s taken you not much of a hit to put you that far out, it’s very concerning. Very concerning."
LaFontaine is in Canada's capital to help open a playroom for sick kids in the Ottawa hospital, much like the Lion's Dens his Companions in Courage Foundation opened in Roswell Park Cancer Institute and Women's and Children's Hospital of Buffalo.
"At the end of the day, we’re up to almost impacting 45,000 to 50,000 kids a year around North America," LaFontaine said. "It never gets old when you open up a room like this for kids."
To hear the full interview with LaFontaine, click the audio file below. In the picture, LaFontaine (right) is having a video conference with a child in a Buffalo hospital. NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman (left) and Philadelphia's Sean Couturier (seated) also take part in the talk.
Join Mike Harrington and Bucky Gleason for this video look at what's gone wrong for the Sabres in the first half and what the team might do the rest of the way.
Tim Kennedy is on the move again. The South Buffalo native (left) who has hopscotched from Buffalo to New York and Florida in the last two years with some AHL spots in between, was traded again Thursday by the Florida Panthers to the San Jose Sharks in exchange for defenseman Sean Sullivan.
Florida appeared to be a good landing spot for Kennedy because of his success in the Sabres organization in Portland under new Panthers coach Kevin Dineen. But Kennedy had just one goal and two points in 27 games and had gone back and forth three times between the Panthers and their San Antonio affiliate.
Kennedy now goes to Worcester, his fourth AHL stop. From 10 goals in 76 games with the Sabres in 2009-10 to a career as a vagabound, mostly in the AHL. All because his agent pressed the Sabres in arbitration. A big mistake, one that Kennedy's career has yet to recover from.
---Mike Harrington (www.twitter.com/bnharrington)
Photo: Kennedy on the ice with the Panthers in Buffalo in December/Mark Mulville-Buffalo News
The Sabres are taking off from practice today, the last day they're allowed to work out prior to the NHL all-star break. They return to the ice Monday at First Niagara Center and have their next game Tuesday in Montreal, where they might be able to add Tyler Ennis and Paul Gaustad back to their lineup.
---Maybe pigs do fly because the Sabres won a road game with Tuesday's shootout win at New Jersey. Guess that means no trades and no firings? Oy. Still no back-to-back wins though with the next chance coming in Montreal. The Sabres are 10-19-5 since their last winning streak and the 34 games currently stands as the third-longest drought in franchise history -- behind only 40+-game lulls in their first two seasons. Ugh.
---There's only one game today and it's Detroit at Montreal at 7:30 on NBC Sports Network. The Habs, Islanders and Sabres are all tied at 45 points. If Montreal loses tonight in regulation, it would drop to 14th place while the Islanders would improve to 12th and Buffalo to 13th. The Sabres would stay in 14th if Montreal gets a point.
---This week's edition of "NHL 36" is tonight at 6:30 and it features 36 hours in the life of Wings defenseman Nicklas Lidstrom. His first day was last Monday, when the Sabres were in Detroit, and the cameras rolled pregame and during the contest. Might be an interesting watch.
---NHL.com has Jason Pominville pegged as Mr. Irrelevant in the all-star fantasy draft, as in the last guy chosen. At least he would get a car for his troubles. I loved the draft last year. It was better than the game.
---Jerry Sullivan offers this take on Tim Thomas' snub of the Bruins' White House visit. Good post, good reasoning but I don't agree. My feeling is Thomas should have been a teammate and gone. A fun argument for sure on both sides.
---Speaking of the All-Star Game, James Neal will replace Alex Ovechkin in Ottawa. Caps owner Ted Leonsis obviously did not agree with the Great Eight's suspension, as he wrote the other day on his blog. Boo to that, Ted. He jumped and contacted the head. Almost automatic these days. To me, it was a test case to see if Brendan Shanahan would give a Shanaban to a name player. He passed.
