Author: Buffalo Winter

1910 Trophy Highlights Canadian Hockey Excellence

Here along the Lake – Nearly as historically important to men’s professional ice hockey as the Stanley Cup is the O’Brien Cup trophy which was donated 18 seasons after Lord Stanley’s donation and has served both the NHA and the NHL as their League Championship trophy.

Canadian Senator Michael John O’Brien and his son John Ambrose O’Brien are mostly responsible for the creation of the NHA and the Montreal Canadiens, financing other teams as well, Michael donated the O’Brien Cup in 1910 to represent the NHA League Champion. (Both O’Brien men after 1912 never owned a team again)

Once the NHA team owners decided to side-step one of their cantankerous team owners and create the NHL in 1917 the O’Brien Cup was awarded to the NHL regular season Champions but a few seasons later the trophy was retired in 1924.

Then in 1928 the O’Brien Cup was brought back into duty as the NHL had two divisions Canadian and American, so the Canadian Division winner was awarded the O’Brien Cup but only for a decade.

In 1939 the O’Brien Cup was designated as the NHL’s trophy for the runner-up to the regular season championship, and then after another decade of service the NHL once again retired the O’Brien Cup in 1950.

During this 115^th year of the O’Brien Cup trophy Buffalo Winter will unofficially reinstate the trophy to be awarded to the Canadian NHL hockey team that wins the most games during the regular season.

Chi-Town Conquered

Sabres 4 (en) – Blackhawks 3  There is some satisfaction in earning three points from a three-game road trip, a lone win, one loser point, and a sure win in Pittsburgh that slipped right through their gloved fingers.

The power play is horrendous, ZERO goals on 21 attempts, including a 53 second 5 on 3 man advantage followed by 5 on 4 for 63 seconds so what can we determine as to the root cause of the Sabres inability to score on the power play?

It comes down to coaching…Lindy is a defensive specialist, no one questions his coaching ability with the penalty killers, but we know we cannot win nothing to something.

Goaltending is not consistent enough between UPL and Mr. Levi and this has to change immediately, fluctuating between .800% something and the low .900% save percentages is not going to propel us to the playoffs.

In over five decades since the Sabres initial season I have witnessed new franchises awarded and eventually win a Stanley Cup, and I cannot help but wonder…when will we earn our turn?  And how long will it take Utah, a former farm club of Buffalo, to win a Cup before the Sabres (rhetorical)?

The Buffalo Sabres have plenty of positives, young players that have already proven they can score 30 or 40 goals, two goaltenders when on their game are near unbeatable, offensive defensemen other NHL teams wish they had, and a head coach in waiting (Seth Appert) behind the bench.

Head Coach Ruff has three home games before Halloween, and it would be joyous if he could coach his team to one or two wins by the end of the month to highlight this is not going to be season 14.

Second week

Last week’s answer:  Montreal Canadiens, thank you for participating I appreciate everyone who gives it a try.

This week’s trivia involves an article of clothing that I wore during high school in the late 1970s, even took it with me when I went off to serve in the Navy during the early 1980s.

As always you can post your selection in this discussion thread for all to see, or you can email me your response, you have until next Monday night to submit.

ESPN  Fantasy Hockey League

Here along the Lake – When you choose to participate in an ESPN FHL you become a team manager with multiple tools at your disposal, beginning with your draft and up to each day of player movement.

Buffalo Winter manages one fantasy team each NHL season going all in no matter what, be it first place or ninth place even with no chance of a playoff seeding, mustering all the hockey acumen to have fun and be competitive.

Managing an ESPN FHL team requires a bit of commitment, usually five or so minutes a day should be bare minimum if you are endeavoring to be successful, now life takes precedent over fantasy and we all have lives to live, and 22 weeks is a long season.

Chicago Pro H2H Points 10 Team League

After the first week Buffalo Winter manages to earn the second highest score overall earning first in the West Division with Big City Snipes who happens to be this week’s matchup.

Goaltenders (use them or not)

Immediately upon conclusion of the draft, Buffalo Winter dropped both goalies that were required selections in the draft and picked up two more point producing skaters.

The theory is that goaltenders earn numerous points with a shutout or low scoring win, but a high scoring win or loss will cost severe subtraction of points, goalies are a high risk, high reward player, and every goaltender loses and gets pulled from a game eventually.

Watch List

This tool enables a manager to create a list of skaters and goaltenders to monitor easily and to switch out non-point producing players with ones that are generating points while making up to seven transactions each week that enables flexibility in getting the best players available.

Tonight and this afternoon’s Matchups

This is what we have been waiting for

Sabres 5 (en) – Panthers 2  The Florida Panthers are enduring injury, illness, and playing without their number one goaltender in net, and that was all the opportunity the Sabers required to win big at home for victory number one.

Head Coach Ruff insists that this is how the Sabres play and I believe him, the only time Buffalo did not look good last night was during the Panthers’ first goal nine minutes into the game.

It took “Get out of the Way” Greenway who just manned his way to the front of the Florida net to score and Mr. Thompson’s goal 81 seconds apart to tie the game and then take the lead with less than three minutes remaining in the first period.

The Sabres score early and late in the second period to take the commanding 4-1 lead before the Panthers get a tip in goal from some of their top players in the last couple minutes of the period to get within two.

With barely over one minute left in the game Mr. Tuch with a great read and takeaway snaps a high wrist shot into the empty net from along the dasher boards for the 5-2 final score.

ESPN FHL Update  A fantasy update/report/analysis will be posted for 22 consecutive Mondays beginning tomorrow, following Buffalo Winter’s only FHL entry for the 2024-25 NHL season with waiver wire transactions, watch list use, standings and statistics.