Sabres Name Rivet as Captain
Wednesday, October 8th, 2008 10:00 pm by Mike
WGR 550 reported today that Lindy Ruff has named newcomer Craig Rivet as the Captain of the Buffalo Sabres for the entire 2008-09 season. Ruff also announced that Jason Pominville and Teppor Numminen will serve as alternate captains for Sabres home games, while Jaro Spacek and Jochen Hecht will serve for away games.
This is pretty big news because many people were speculating who Ruff would choose as captian, but few guessed it would be Rivet. Before the announcement, WGR550.com had a poll asking users who they felt should be captain and Rivet wasn’t even one of the options. At the time of the announcement, Pominville had 66% of the vote.
Now WGR has a poll up asking users what they think of Lindy’s choice. 52% feel that Rivet was a good choice, 36% are basically unsure, and the remaining 12% would have preferred someone else.
In SabreCast #2, Matt and I speculated who the Sabres would choose as captain. I thought the Sabres would choose Numminen as captain because he is a proven leader and only has one year left on his contract. That would allow another player like Pominville to develop for another season before taking on the role next season. Matt, instead, chose Jochen Hecht citing his dedication to the team. We actually removed Rivet from the conversation because we lacked insight into his character.
Mike Weber Assigned to Portland
Also of note, the Sabres have assigned defenseman Mike Weber to the Portland Pirates. I believe that means Nathan Paestch will be the seventh defenseman to start the season. It must have been a difficult decision for Ruff because Weber was so good last season and in training camp, but he’s just the odd man out right now. Chances are, that with injuries, Weber will get a chance to make it into the lineup later in the season.