2006/2007 Sabres

[vishunleashed]

I've always been curious about the Sabres in 2006 and 2007 since they made the Eastern Conference finals both years and then promptly fell off after these two successful years. What were some of their key players that drove the success in these two years and what caused them to fall off after 2007?

 

[MadLuke]

One of the first "victim" of the cap with the Sens ?

They lost both Briere-Drury in 2007-2008 which is a lot, Numminen didn't play that season (and after that he was a 40 year's old and right after that retired) made their D core from being one of the best of all time dept wise to a regular good one (32 year's old perfect mix of prime and veterancy Spacek was there #6 D in 2006-2007 that is really exceptional, when he was a number 1 at columbus not so long before and went back to be their number 2 the following years for a while)

 

[member 329811]

If you want to know why the drop off .... July 1st 2007 is a date of infamy in Sabres history.

Even thinking of it now gets me agitated.

 

[member 329811]

One of the first "victim" of the cap with the Sens ?

They lost both Briere-Drury in 2007-2008 which is a lot, Numminen didn't play (and that was a 40 year's old) made their D core from being one of the best of all time dept wise to a regular good one (32 year's old perfect mix of prime and veterancy Spacek was there #6 D in 2006-2007, when he was a number 1 at columbus not so long before and went back to be their number 2 the following year)

Looking back on it -- I also would not have matched Edmonton's offer on Vanek and instead, took those 4 1st round draft picks in hindsight.

 

[Hockeyholic]

Still can't believe Buffalo matched that Vanek offer sheet. Granted, they had just lost Drury & Briere. So maybe they figured they had no choice.

 

[sonic92]

Looking back on it -- I also would not have matched Edmonton's offer on Vanek and instead, took those 4 1st round draft picks in hindsight.

I almost feel like them matching the Vanek offer was simply an optics thing. After Briere and Drury left, the Sabres didn't want to have even more fan backlash at the time.

Lets say they hypothetically they didn't match and Buffalo gets those picks, obviously a few other things change (Edmonton wouldn't go after Penner for starters) but if the Oilers were still bad for that stretch, these are the picks you're looking at.

2008 #12 - This pick went from the Oilers to Anaheim in the Penner deal, then some draft day deals leads to Buffalo ultimately getting the pick (ironically). They ended up taking Tyler Myers, although Erik Karlsson went a few picks later to Ottawa at #15. I think the Sabres might want a do-over on that one.

2009 #10 - Edmonton took Magnus Paajarvi here. Some guys who went later in that round were Ryan Ellis, Dmitri Kulikov, Nick Leddy and Chris Kreider (Buffalo's own pick was at #13 where they took Zack Kassian)

2010 #1 - Edmonton took Taylor Hall in the first of the number #1 picks for the Oilers. If Edmonton was a little better and the pick was later in the round, some guys you're looking at Tyler Seguin, Ryan Johansen, Nino Niederreiter, Jeff Skinner (ok, that's probably not a good example right now)

2011 #1 - This was the Ryan Nugent-Hopkins pick for the Oilers. If it ended up later on in that round, some possibilities include Gabriel Landeskog, Jonathan Huberdeau, Mika Zibanejad, Mark Scheifele, Dougie Hamilton and Jonas Brodin.

 

[silkyjohnson50]

Injuries to their defense probably cost them the Cup in 06.

They were an impressive team. They didn’t have what you’d call an elite, top tier player, but they were very deep with top 6 guys. 11 players that season scored at least 40 pts which led the NHL.

 

[The Panther]

I remember the 2005-06 club being hyped as the model of "the new NHL", after the Lock Out.

They started the season 8-9-0, which is poor. This included 10-4 and 6-1 losses to Ottawa.

Then, they went on one of the great streaks, probably, in Sabres' history: 38-7-5 in the next 50 games.

They dipped from mid-March and sort-of slumped for a while, but they recovered with 5 straight wins to end the season.

Forgot that they'd had a 2-1 series lead on Carolina.

Then, they started 2006-07 with ten wins in a row. By early March, 2007, their record was 44-16-5. (But then 9-6-2 to finish, and again they were felled in the third round.)

 

[vadim sharifijanov]

that team was just so deep up front

one key was having the equivalent of an entire forward line all coming in and playing at a high level right away (vanek, roy, and pominville). that gave them three very dangerous lines.

you had briere playing at an all-star level, with two of kotalik, hecht, dumont, and pominville. then you had drury as buffalo's brind'amour, with mike grier and one of the leftover wingers from that list above. then vanek - roy - afinogenov. and you still have tim connolly when he was healthy, and a really good grindy fourth line with adam mair and gaustad.

but imo the real key was the super underrated tallinder and lydman pair, especially tallinder, who was playing conn smythe hockey in the 2006 playoffs.

iirc, in year two zubrus replaced dumont and jaro spacek replaced mckee. then the disastrous offseason after that.

maybe one thing to keep in mind is the future looked bright. when briere and drury walked, that's a gigantic loss, but the team already had too many forwards and had dan paille, drew stafford, and clarke macarthur coming up. with campbell really coming into his own, they really shouldn't have been that bad in 2008.

like, i get why they were bad in the years after 2008, because their pipeline ran dry due to three bad drafts in a row, 2005, 2006, 2007, after an incredible run before that. but 2008 should have been a playoff team right?

the other thing that sticks out looking back is they drafted dennis wideman in 2002 but never signed him. they also drafted jan hejda in 2003 but traded him in the summer of 2006 for a seventh round pick. those two could have made a difference in the post-briere/drury years, as numminen was aging out. wideman might have also made a difference in 2006.

 

[member 51464]

For whatever reason, when I think of those teams, I think of Maxim Afinogenov being a solid contributor and going over a PPG average each of those regular seasons.

 

[member 329811]

I almost feel like them matching the Vanek offer was simply an optics thing..

It was - I remember Darcy coming out saying something to the effect that they weren't going to allow teams to snipe their assets... this after they already botched the Briere/Drury deals

Then, three years later would be their last look at the playoffs.

 

[vikash1987]

Injuries to their defense probably cost them the Cup in 06.

I so wanted them to win it all. To think that they were one period away from the Finals in that Game 7!

But yeah, when you’re decimated with injuries on defense—no Jay McKee, no Teppo Numminen, no Henrik Tallinder, no Dmitri Kalinin—it’ll catch up with you at some point.

 

[reckoning]

In all my years as a Sabres fan, 2006-2007 was the only time I believed they were going to win the Cup. I still can't understand how they played so weak against Ottawa.

The offseason was a disaster. They could have lost Drury without much of an impact, but losing Briere was crippling. It was a huge miscalculation on Darcy's part to think that Vanek was the type of player you could build a team around.

Ryan Miller kept them from being terrible for a few seasons, but he was never the same after Lucic ran him over.

 

[Big Phil]

When the hockey world got introduced to Ryan Miller.

Okay, honestly, maybe it was just me but I never understood why they were good. Maybe it was just the fact that they didn`t have a top flight star and the NHL was filled with many of them at the time. Not to mention the NHL was obsessed with Crosby and Ovechkin and such at the time and I just never saw that clear game breaker that they needed. Drury is remembered as a guy who came up big in the postseason, but overall he doesnt have the best stat line in the postseason but rather just a disproportionate amount of game winning goals to his name. I dont know, I was never impressed by them. Was surprised the Sens in 2006 couldnt beat them.

 

[Buffalowing1988]

that team was just so deep up front

one key was having the equivalent of an entire forward line all coming in and playing at a high level right away (vanek, roy, and pominville). that gave them three very dangerous lines.

you had briere playing at an all-star level, with two of kotalik, hecht, dumont, and pominville. then you had drury as buffalo's brind'amour, with mike grier and one of the leftover wingers from that list above. then vanek - roy - afinogenov. and you still have tim connolly when he was healthy, and a really good grindy fourth line with adam mair and gaustad.

but imo the real key was the super underrated tallinder and lydman pair, especially tallinder, who was playing conn smythe hockey in the 2006 playoffs.

iirc, in year two zubrus replaced dumont and jaro spacek replaced mckee. then the disastrous offseason after that.

maybe one thing to keep in mind is the future looked bright. when briere and drury walked, that's a gigantic loss, but the team already had too many forwards and had dan paille, drew stafford, and clarke macarthur coming up. with campbell really coming into his own, they really shouldn't have been that bad in 2008.

like, i get why they were bad in the years after 2008, because their pipeline ran dry due to three bad drafts in a row, 2005, 2006, 2007, after an incredible run before that. but 2008 should have been a playoff team right?

the other thing that sticks out looking back is they drafted dennis wideman in 2002 but never signed him. they also drafted jan hejda in 2003 but traded him in the summer of 2006 for a seventh round pick. those two could have made a difference in the post-briere/drury years, as numminen was aging out. wideman might have also made a difference in 2006.

The 08 team was absolutely talented enough to be a playoff team. I think a couple things happened. The East was really, really deep that year. Partially because our best two forwards went to contenders in the prior off-season, partly because Pittsburgh was rounding into shape, etc. In addition to that, the "core" of that Sabres team was still very talented on the surface but they were mainly paper tigers.

Connolly was probably the most talented of the group but was still recovering from injuries and never really healthy for a lengthy time from that point on. Roy and Pominville were point producers but they weren't showing up in any of the clutch moments. Pommer especially had a lot of hollow points from 08-12. Vanek was 23 and still coming into his own with the new pressure that came from his contract. Stafford was one of those guys with all the tools but nothing that he particularly stood out in. Same with Hecht, besides obviously his two-way play. The book was out on Afinogenov by this time and Ruff didn't care for him. Paille was really, really overrated early on. He had some decent goal totals the one year but they were primarily garbage time points and he had hands of stone. Kotalik was a one-trick pony and Gaustad was still figuring out his role. Ultimately, there just weren't any leaders of that group who could take over a game consistently.

On defense, Spacek was a mess in his end that first season. Campbell was great, no complaints there. Kalinin was crumbling mentally at that point. As you mentioned, Tallinder and Lydman were great but contributed little on offense. Sekera was still just a kid. In net, Miller was honestly a little overrated at that point as well. In 09 he would round into form and start a great run for us, but I always thought he had some holes in his game during the good years and in 08 they were apparent.

Phew, that was an essay. All this is to basically say, in the longest way possible, that you had a lot of good points!

No idea why that 07 team didn't make it to the Cup but even then, I don't know that we would have beaten Anaheim. They were a great, great team and would have pushed us around.

 

[Kranix]

I love a good 06 Sabres discussion. they were so insanely deep.
I remember one presser and Lindy Ruff himself seemed flabbergasted at how good they were. He was just like, "we're dominating. I dunno figure it out."

Playoffs I had them going to the finals and then of course they don't because they're cursed.

They ad the most interesting 4 lines .. My favorite NHL lineup, I think ever, other than the Red and Black era team with Wooley, Gilmour and Audette.

 

[vadim sharifijanov]

i'm trying to remember the real line configurations but i'm looking at that 2006 roster and... they just have too many forwards

briere, drury, connolly, roy, and gaustad at center

hecht, dumont, kotalik, grier, pominville, vanek, afinogenov, and pyatt on the wings

there were no fourth liners on that roster

 

[Buffalowing1988]

i'm trying to remember the real line configurations but i'm looking at that 2006 roster and... they just have too many forwards

briere, drury, connolly, roy, and gaustad at center

hecht, dumont, kotalik, grier, pominville, vanek, afinogenov, and pyatt on the wings

there were no fourth liners on that roster

05-06 Sabres were relatively healthy, so the lines were:

Dumont-Briere-Hecht
Grier-Drury-Vanek or Roy
Kotalik-Connolly-Afinogenov ---Awesome line offensively
Pyatt-Gaustad- Vanek or Roy

Pominville came along about halfway through the season and shifted things around. Pyatt lost minutes and Pommer wound up playing with Dumont and Briere some. Hecht moved to the second line with the shudown guys along with Drury and Grier. Vanek got very limited minutes at the end and Roy just scattered about at that point.


Tallinder-Lydman
Campbell-McKee
Numminen-Kalinin

Miller
Biron

06-07 was much more confusing so I'll just do the lineups going into the first round of the playoffs with everyone fairly healthy:

Hecht-Briere-Pominville
Vanek-Drury-Roy -- For a big chunk of the regular season it was Vanek-Roy-Afinogenov, but Max was in the doghouse by this point.
Zubrus-Connolly-Kotalik
Paille or Afinogenov (such a waste of talent)-Gaustad-Stafford

Campbell-Numminen
Lydman-Tallinder
Spacek-Kalinin --- I cannot emphasize how bad this pairing was for us.

Miller
Conklin

Again, these were all pretty fluid and guys like Andrew Peters and Adam Mair made their way in and out along with Novotny once in awhile. The only thing I fairly recall changing was Zubrus moving up the lineup against the Rangers for that series. I believe he replaced Hecht.

 

[Voight]

They probably win the cup if their entire d-core doesnt get injured in 2006 but just imagine if peak Hasek had that squad / support in front of him.... they could have done some serious damage.

 

[Kranix]

05-06 Sabres were relatively healthy, so the lines were:

Dumont-Briere-Hecht
Grier-Drury-Vanek or Roy
Kotalik-Connolly-Afinogenov ---Awesome line offensively
Pyatt-Gaustad- Vanek or Roy

Pominville came along about halfway through the season and shifted things around. Pyatt lost minutes and Pommer wound up playing with Dumont and Briere some. Hecht moved to the second line with the shudown guys along with Drury and Grier. Vanek got very limited minutes at the end and Roy just scattered about at that point.


Tallinder-Lydman
Campbell-McKee
Numminen-Kalinin

Miller
Biron

06-07 was much more confusing so I'll just do the lineups going into the first round of the playoffs with everyone fairly healthy:

Hecht-Briere-Pominville
Vanek-Drury-Roy -- For a big chunk of the regular season it was Vanek-Roy-Afinogenov, but Max was in the doghouse by this point.
Zubrus-Connolly-Kotalik
Paille or Afinogenov (such a waste of talent)-Gaustad-Stafford

Campbell-Numminen
Lydman-Tallinder
Spacek-Kalinin --- I cannot emphasize how bad this pairing was for us.

Miller
Conklin

Again, these were all pretty fluid and guys like Andrew Peters and Adam Mair made their way in and out along with Novotny once in awhile. The only thing I fairly recall changing was Zubrus moving up the lineup against the Rangers for that series. I believe he replaced Hecht.

How often did they throw out Drury-Briere, maybe it was just on the PP so that they would always have one of them take the draw depending on side of the rink, and if one got thrown out.

 

[Buffalowing1988]

How often did they throw out Drury-Briere, maybe it was just on the PP so that they would always have one of them take the draw depending on side of the rink, and if one got thrown out.

They were always on the PP together. Ruff literally never put them on the same ES line more than by chance. You're right about how they lined up but Briere was a middling player on the dot at best, if I remember correctly. I think that by the 07 playoffs the PP lineups were:

Briere-Drury-Zubrus
Connolly-Campbell

and the 2nd unit was generally

Vanek-Gaustad-Pominville
Numminen-(throw a random forward in here, a lot of Afinogenov and Kotalik)

In the first unit, Connolly would move down to replace Drury if he was thrown out. I swear that was the case but IDK if there were rules that prevented guys lined up on the blueline from coming to the dot. If not, I'm positive it was Connolly and Drury would back up to the point. If so, I guess we let Briere handle the duties, but again, he was not known for his prowess in that area.


Regardless, that was such a talented team. I think Zubrus and Jagr went in on an on-ice collision in the second round where Vanek then took over the duties on the first line PP as he was so good at deflecting shots and screening goalies. But otherwise, the main core of the PP in the playoffs was always Briere, Drury, Connolly, and Campbell...which in retrospect with all of those guys peaking at around the same time could be considered downright dangerous. Throw in a PPG Vanek and it was scary.

 

[Buffalowing1988]

They probably win the cup if their entire d-core doesnt get injured in 2006 but just imagine if peak Hasek had that squad / support in front of him.... they could have done some serious damage.

I think we played guys named like Mike Card and Mike Funk in game 7. That's how depleted we were. If Mckee doesn't get an infection from his pads in the prior game, we probably go on to win. But no reason to lament, Buffalo still should have made it work and we didn't and Ruff honestly got out-coached at the end. You don't have that many forwards who can score and only wind up with the goal total for the series that he did. No excuse.

 

[Buffalowing1988]

I'll drop it, this is just when I finally get back to work normally and have a chance to respond, but I'll never understand why Ruff didn't use:
Vanek-Drury-Briere
Connolly-Kotalik

as his first PP. Campbell was great but the offensive mesh between that group would have worked so well. Drury on the dot winning the faceoff, Briere hovering around the side of the net for a tap in, Vanek in front of the net for a screen, Connolly controlling the line like a QB and the guy with possibly the best one-timer in the league in Kotalik at the point.

That's just my fantasy. When you play offensive powerhouses like Ottawa sometimes you have to fight fire with fire. Campbell was a good PP guy, too, but he was still coming into his own and didn't have chemistry with Connolly.

Roy and Pominville are probably the more well-known names from that era but they were useless on the PP for the most part. Roy was a dangler and Pominville was a sniper who somehow had a very weak shot in terms of strength and velocity. The fact that they became faces of the franchise after the captains left was problematic.

 

[cole von cole]

When the hockey world got introduced to Ryan Miller.

Okay, honestly, maybe it was just me but I never understood why they were good. Maybe it was just the fact that they didn`t have a top flight star and the NHL was filled with many of them at the time. Not to mention the NHL was obsessed with Crosby and Ovechkin and such at the time and I just never saw that clear game breaker that they needed. Drury is remembered as a guy who came up big in the postseason, but overall he doesnt have the best stat line in the postseason but rather just a disproportionate amount of game winning goals to his name. I dont know, I was never impressed by them. Was surprised the Sens in 2006 couldnt beat them.

That kind of thing will happen when Emery decides to play the worst hockey of his life (but in fairness to him, he was forced to carry the hopes of a contender as a rookie after Hasek's injury)

 

[Gurglesons]

When the hockey world got introduced to Ryan Miller.

Okay, honestly, maybe it was just me but I never understood why they were good. Maybe it was just the fact that they didn`t have a top flight star and the NHL was filled with many of them at the time. Not to mention the NHL was obsessed with Crosby and Ovechkin and such at the time and I just never saw that clear game breaker that they needed. Drury is remembered as a guy who came up big in the postseason, but overall he doesnt have the best stat line in the postseason but rather just a disproportionate amount of game winning goals to his name. I dont know, I was never impressed by them. Was surprised the Sens in 2006 couldnt beat them.

1. The forward depth was really good. They basically had a 2019 Blues style build.
2. Campbell was a fantastic D and beyond that they had solid depth.
3. Goaltending.