Puck Drop 2008 Coverage
Sunday, September 21st, 2008 12:21 am by Mike
This morning I drove down to HSBC Arena to check out Puck Drop 2008, a full day event featuring a Buffalo Sabres scrimmage, the unveiling of the new third jersey, a street hockey tournament, live music, and more. I mainly went to watch the scrimmage and get a look at the new jersey.
The Sabres show off the new third jersey to thousands of cheering fans. Check out more photos in our Puck Drop 2008 gallery on Flickr
The Sabres training camp roster is split up into three squads: Blue, Yellow, and White. Blue and Yellow scrimmaged this morning, but I don’t think they put out the actual team rosters considering that the only veterans that sat out were Mair, Spacek, and Numminen.
The scrimmage itself was rather enjoyable. Every time a penalty was called, there was a penalty shoot instead of a power play. The score ended up being 7 to 5 with the Blue Team winning. Afinogenov, Connolly, Stafford, and Rivet, among others, all scored goals in the scrimmage. Miller, Lalime, Dennis, and Enroth put in time between the pipes.
The players that stood out the most to me were Afinogenov, Stafford, Roy, Pominville, Connolly, Sekera, Tallinder, and Weber. Max looked really fast. He was skating all over the ice and had a nice goal. Stafford had a few nice shifts and scored. Roy and Pominville just looked solid as usual. Connolly also looked solid and had a goal. Sekera and Weber played together and I noticed them a lot when they were on the ice. I also notice Tallinder a bit. It seemed like he threw a few nice hits.
I also liked that Rivet had a goal, but I didn’t notice him too much otherwise. Vanek was a ghost. I’ve heard that he actually may have sustained a slight injury during the game, so that may be why. What I do know is that he was awarded a penalty shot in the game, but lost the puck after dropping the goalie to the ice. And though I was excited about seeing Gerbe play, he didn’t really do much that was noticeable.
The unveiling was also very cool. A few minutes after the game ended and the players had finished their cool down, the lights were dimmed and the Sabres’ theme song (Hurricane 2000 by The Scorpions) started blasting. Each of the Sabres veterans was announced and skated out under spotlight to assemble at center ice. Once the whole team had arrived, the lights came on and the team skated around showing off the jerseys
Overall, the event seemed like quite a success. I had a good time and it really got me excited about this season. A good deal of the 100 level was filled for the scrimmage, so I would guess that there were 6,000 to 8,000 watching, with others partaking in the other events around the arena.