Conacher Plays Buffalo

And the Calder Memorial Trophy for the 2013 NHL season goes to…

Photo Credit: sportinglife.aol.co.uk

If you say anyone but Tampa Bay Lightning forward Cory Conacher, then you have sniffed way too many smelling salts at your last bar league game.

The undrafted and undersized 23 year old forward has been turning heads all over pro hockey for the past year and a half.

The 5’7 176 pound sniper is the most decorated player in Canisius College Hockey history. In four years with the program, Conacher racked up 62 goals and 85 assists for a total of 147 points in only 129 games for the Golden Griffins.

Likely due to his size and playing at a small D1 hockey program, Conacher was skipped over in many NHL Entry Drafts, boy what a mistake.

After his senior season, Conacher split time between the AHL and ECHL. In seven games with the Rochester Americans and Milwaukee Admirals, Conacher scored four goals and six points, almost a point per game. In three games with the Cincinnati Cyclones of the ECHL, he had no problem scoring seven points.

The Burlington, Ontario native found much greater success the year after. In the 2011-2012 season, Conacher signed a one-year, one-way contract with Tampa Bay’s farm team, the Norfolk Admirals. In 75 games, Conacher scored 35 goals and a total of 80 points, once again becoming a point per game player, this time, in the AHL.

In Conacher’s first season of pro hockey, he collected some major hardware. While with Norfolk, Conacher was named to the 2012 AHL All-Star Classic, the Les Cunningham Award as the league's MVP, the Dudley "Red" Garrett Memorial Award as AHL Rookie of the Year and also led the Norfolk Admirals to win the Calder Cup, the AHL’s version of the Stanley Cup.

Conacher’s college and AHL success have translated to the NHL. After signing a two-year, two-way contract with the Lightning, in 18 games this year, Conacher has collected seven goals, 10 assists and 17 points, and again, remaining a point per game player.

Conacher gives a lot of credit to his line mates this year, playing alongside the likes of Steven Stamkos, Teddy Purcell, Martin St. Louis and Vincent Lecavalier.

Tonight (Feb. 26) is the first time Conacher will be playing against his home away from home, Buffalo.

As Conacher tweeted earlier; “Seems like it was just yesterday I was watching the Sabres live at the HSBC and now it’s time to play them. #canisiusbackyard #gobolts”.

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Determined Minor Leaguers Set Sights on NHL

My story from the Amherst Bee, published Jan. 4, 2012.

From house league hockey to the pros.

Two Amherst natives are one step away from making their dreams by playing in the National Hockey League. Phil DeSimone of the Hamilton Bulldogs and David Leggio of the Rochester Americans are both playing in the American Hockey League this year.

DeSimone is in his first professional season and plays center for Hamilton. He is a recent graduate of the University of New Hampshire where he played hockey all four years. Before college, DeSimone played three years for the Sioux City Musketeers in the United States Hockey League. In 2007, he was USHL Player of the Year.

DeSimone was drafted in the third round, 84th overall by the Washington Capitals in the 2007 NHL entry draft. Although the Capitals did not resign him, it was not long until DeSimone found a new home. During the summer he signed a contract with Hamilton, the Montreal Canadiens’ AHL affiliate. Through 32 games, DeSimone has six goals and 14 points, good for fourth best on the team.
It was a big transition for him after starting out in the Amherst house league at age five, and playing for an Amherst travel team at age eight. He attended the Nichols School where he played on the prep team his freshman and sophomore years. He split his junior year in Thorold, Ontario and at Williamsville South High School. His senior year was spent in Sioux City.

The biggest surprise for DeSimone this year is his hot start. He is outscoring many veterans and is also playing on the team’s first power-play unit.
“They assigned me to Hamilton and I’ve started out pretty well. I don’t think people had very high expectations for me here. I got a tryout and I think it was just one of those filler spots,” he said following Friday’s game in Rochester.
He admits he was a little bit worried about where he would play this year but knew he could make a team if he was given a shot.

“It was a tough summer; I didn’t really know what I was going to do. I got a tryout with Montreal and went to their rookie camp. I made it through and then went to main camp and got to play some preseason games with the Canadiens,” he said.


Leggio, a graduate of St. Joseph’s Collegiate Institute, is in his fourth professional season and second in the Buffalo Sabres organization. As a goaltender, his road to professional hockey has been a little bit tougher than DeSimone’s.

In four years at Clarkson University, Leggio led the Golden Knights to an Eastern College Athletic Conference tournament championship in 2007 and a regular season title in 2008.
Leggio was never drafted but did get a professional tryout with the AHL’s Binghamton Senators at the end of the 2007-2008 season. His tryout did not last long as he only played one game. The next season Leggio signed a professional contract with a team in a league one step down from the AHL, the Florida Everblades of the East Coast Hockey League. The next year, he decided to try his luck in Finland playing in the top Finnish hockey league. There he helped lead his team to another championship.

Next, the Sabres signed him to an AHL level contract with the Portland Pirates. After winning 22 games and losing just 12, the Sabres resigned him to a deal to play with the Amerks where he has a record of nine wins and eight loses.
He also has one of the most unique masks in the league. One detail that fans may not have noticed is an illustration of long-time announcer Rick Jeanneret.

Leggio was always a big Sabres fan and when he had to design a new mask for the Amerks, he wanted to include something related to the team’s parent club.
“At first I didn’t really know what to put on the Sabres side. The painter and I thought of putting Rick in there,” he said.

Leggio is not only a player in the Buffalo Sabres organization but he’s also a fan.
“From the time I was younger until now, he’s really the only person to have been there the entire time. I’m sure my family is not the only family that would turn on the radio and listen to Rick while watching Versus.”

In front of 9,771 fans, the largest crowd of the season in Rochester, Hamilton was able to hold onto a 5-4 lead Friday to win the game. Regardless of the final score, Rochester still outshot Hamilton 39-30.

As Hamilton was making sure to secure the lead, they shortened their bench which in turn limited DeSimone’s ice time. On the other side of the rink, Leggio was sent in to play the third period in place of the starting goaltender, Drew MacIntyre.

Hit The Road Jack (Adams Award Winner)

The unthinkable has been done. Buffalo Sabres head coach Lindy Ruff has been fired. After a little more than 14 seasons, the longest tenured coach in the National Hockey League has been relieved of his duties.

In 1,165 games, Ruff won 571, lost 432, tied 78 and had 87 overtime losses. He was loved by players and fans and respected all over the league, but a change was needed.

The change comes on the heels of a horrid 2-1 loss to the Winnipeg Jets at home. At the time of the firing, the Sabres were 13^th in the Eastern Conference out of 15 teams, and dead last in the Northeast Division. The Sabres have the ninth highest payroll in the league and have been a huge disappointment this year.

Speculation circled at the start of the short season about Ruff being fired. Many questioned Buffalo owner Terry Pegula’s reasoning for keeping Ruff and General Manager Darcy Regier for this long.

The consensus seems to be that this needed to happen, but it’s a sad day. Everyone from Pegula and Regier to the players said it’s sad to see Ruff go.

As everyone assumed, Ruff’s systems and philosophies had grown old.

“Players are upset, shocked but felt it was appropriate… We’ve played the same game for years now,” expressed one player who asked to remain anonymous.

These comments should not come as a shock to any fan that follows the team. After the last lockout, Ruff’s system worked magically. The Sabres were an up and coming team and rolling off wins left and right. That was also with two superstars in Chris Drury and Daniel Briere. Could his system have worked just because of those two stars? Makes sense.

The coaching plan Ruff has instilled in the Sabres has hardly changed over the years.  Other teams have adapted but Buffalo hasn’t done a thing to change.

The change was extremely tough for Ruff’s longtime friend.

“Ultimately, it was my decision. I made this decision,” said Regier in his press conference at First Niagara Center on Wednesday, Feb. 22.

Replacing Ruff is Rochester Americans former coach Ron Rolston. He coached Buffalo’s American Hockey League affiliate for the past year and a half. He led a team that was decimated with call-ups last year all the way to the Calder Cup playoffs.

According to Regier, Rolston will coach the Sabres on an interim basis until the end of the season. Regier did say Rolston is a possibility to be Buffalo’s fulltime head coach, depending on how he does for the remainder of the year.

With the Sabres near the bottom of the league, there isn’t much lower they can go. Hopefully Rolston can bring a new culture into “Hockey Heaven” and turn things around for the city that is so desperately waiting for a winner.

Sabres Young Talent

Center is one of the most important positions in hockey. In recent years, the Sabres have been one of the weakest teams in the NHL up the middle.

Ever since star players Chris Drury and Daniel Briere left on that dreadful day in 2007, the Sabres have been lackluster at center. The Sabres were left with much weaker talent up the middle with the likes of Derek Roy, Paul Gaustad, Jochen Hecht, Matt Ellis, Luke Adam and Cody McCormick.

So what do the Sabres do? Darcy Regier starts drafting centers, and big centers at that. Something Buffalo hasn’t done in years and years. Before 2008, Buffalo was abysmal at drafting young talent, thankfully it changed.

Since 2008, Buffalo has drafted centers Luke Adam, Kevin Sundher, Colin Jacobs, Joel Armia, Justin Kea, Zemgus Girgensons and the biggest name, Mikhail Grigorenko. All of these pivots are six feet or taller, making Buffalo much bigger for the near future.

Another way Regier helped out up the middle was signing former Philadelphia Flyers center Ville Leino. Leino who has bounced between wing and center, had a disappointing first season in Buffalo, however this is an improvement over Matt Ellis playing center.

In the biggest trade of last year’s NHL trade deadline, Regier traded away Buffalo’s most intriguing prospect, Zack Kassian to Vancouver for up and coming scoring center Cody Hodgson. Kassian was by far Buffalo’s best prospect, who added scoring and much needed toughness, but as they say, you need to give up talent, to get talent. With Cody Hodgson, Buffalo now has a young, skilled centermen who can play on Buffalo’s top line between two perennial snipers in Thomas Vanek and Jason Pominville.

Leino and Hodgson have already helped the Sabres, as well as Tyler Ennis moving in to play center on the second line, but the biggest name to play center for Buffalo may be 18 year old, Russian phenom, Mikhail Girgorenko.

The young gun was drafted 12^th overall in last year’s NHL Entry Draft. The 6’3 200 pound forward was a man amongst boys playing for his junior team, the Quebec Ramparts in the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League. In 91 total games, spanning over a year and a half, Girgorenko had 69 goals and 66 assists, for a total of 135 points. That averages to a point and a half per game in his first season and a half in the league.

Because of Girgorenko’s age, he was not old enough to play for Buffalo’s farm team in the American Hockey League, so Buffalo had to make a choice. Is Girgorenko good enough as an 18 year old to stay in Buffalo and use the first year of his NHL entry level contract worth $1,775,000 or should he be sent back to juniors to continue to develop? Well the Sabres had five games to figure out what to do.

After Girgorenko’s fifth game, Buffalo decided to keep him. It wasn’t a bad decision seeing that in Girgorenko’s sixth game, he scored his first NHL goal against Buffalo’s longtime rivals, the Toronto Maple Leafs.

Losing two former all-star centermen such as Drury and Briere, the Buffalo Sabres and its staff needed to find guys that could play up the middle, and in a hurry. With the likes of young studs such as Ennis, Hodgson, Armia, Girgensons and Girgorenko, Buffalo seems to be loaded on size and skill at center for years to come.