Bleacher Report - Articles by Craig Kanalley

Slideshow: Winter Classic 2008

Craig Kanalley — Thu, 18 Dec 2008 09:52:29 -0500

As the Chicago Blackhawks prepare to do battle with their bitter rivals the Detroit Red Wings at Wrigley Field in Chicago on Jan. 1, how about a look back at the first Winter Classic? The first outdoor NHL game on U.S. soil was played on Jan. 1, 2008 at Ralph Wilson Stadium in Orchard Park, N.Y. Here's a look back at that game between the Buffalo Sabres and Pittsburgh Penguins, which I was fortunate enough to attend. Getty Images does better justice than my photos though, so that's what I'll use.

Begin Slideshow

End of the Road Near For J.P. Losman

Craig Kanalley — Tue, 16 Dec 2008 17:24:18 -0500

For Jonathan Paul Losman, a "Dead End" sign lies in front of him.

This shouldn't be too surprising for most Bills fans, but he took a few more wrong turns, and he's now clueless as ever as to where he is or where he goes next.

He's lost. He's run out of gas. No one's coming to his aid. His NFL career is about to be over.

The Tulane University product was highly-touted in the 2004 draft and the Bills gambled on him by trading their second-round pick to Dallas to grab him in the first. After selecting Lee Evans with their 13th pick, Losman's name was called with their 22nd.

Just as his three-year ride as a starting QB in the NFL from 2005-2007 came to an abrupt end when he lost the top job to Trent Edwards, his days in the NFL period appear to be numbered.

After laying an egg against Miami in Toronto, leading the Bills to a single field goal and nothing else, he had a less-than-stellar effort in the Meadowlands, despite one good drive and the announcer giving viewers a good laugh by comparing him to Peyton Manning.

The game was close for just one reason: the Bills rushing attack. Marshawn Lynch and Fred Jackson were phenomenal. Losman? He single-handedly picked up three turnovers in the final two minutes to blow the game away.

Let's take a look at some more of his stats, shall we? Let's see here. Three fumbles against the Jets, three fumbles against Miami, two fumbles against Arizona. Four of those fumbles resulted in turnovers. Nice, nice.

That makes 34 career fumbles through 42 games in the National Football League. Exactly half of those went to the other team. Awesome!

Throw in his 34 career INT's and you have the whole J.P. package. Put those on your highlight reel, No. 7! (Both of those stats exceed his 33 career TDs, by the way.)

And if stats don't mean anything to you, well, review the tapes. You'll find the troubling truth that the vast majority of his mishaps occur at the most critical points of the game. You know, like second down, 2:06 remaining in regulation, up by four. Stuff like that.

It's saying something that the most recent update on his official website (as I write this) is "Losman to start at quarterback for Bills in game vs. Miami at Rogers Centre," dated Dec. 5.

What has he done since?

That's what I thought.

Well, soon enough, unless he can accept a backup role - which so far it doesn't seem he's willing to—his days as a pro QB are done. Maybe he'll try Arena Football, or Indoor? CFL?

Five years into his career, his bad habits have still not gone away. Seems they never will.

Maybe he has trouble understanding what a turning point is, what the defense is showing, or how to go through his progressions.

But Losman won't have any trouble seeing what's in front of him now. That bright yellow "Dead End" sign couldn't be any clearer.

Rogers Centre Provided Forgettable NFL Atmosphere

Craig Kanalley — Tue, 09 Dec 2008 19:53:48 -0500

Buffalo Bills fans, enough bickering about what we saw against the Miami Dolphins last Sunday. It's time to digest what we heard.

Rather, what we didn't hear.

Rogers Centre was eerily quiet as the AFC rivals did battle. No hollering to disrupt the opposition on third downs. No standing ovations. No audible chants. Canadian anthem aside, hardly any roars from the crowd.

No way was this anything like Ralph Wilson Stadium. For that matter, this wasn't anything like any stadium during an official NFL game.

It was a joke of an atmosphere, not the usual party-like setting every other NFL game this season has had. There's been louder crowds in Detroit this season. Maybe not for the best of reasons, but definitely more passionate fans for the 0-13 Lions at Ford Field.

Note to Toronto NFL fans: Not the way to sell your city as the future home of an American football franchise.

Several players talked about the crowd after the game. The Dolphins loved the fact there were a good amount of Miami transplant fans up there, so it didn't feel like a Bills home game. True, but hardly sounded like a Miami home game either. It was just downright weird.

I'll let someone else sum up the silence for me. Someone who was there. This was one of many such comments at the Globe & Mail (Toronto newspaper) Web site the night of the game...

j k from Toronto, writes: i went to the game, the game was boring, the fans were so dead, it felt like a friggin leaf game. The only bright spot was that I paid 70.00 for 200.00 dollar seats.

That's right, a "friggin leaf game." And we all know how ridiculously dead those are, filled with men in suits from big companies that snatch up tickets before real, honest, passionate fans have a shot at them.

Toronto is not the place for the NFL. And this has nothing to do with whether or not the Bills will move. Move them to Los Angeles if you have to. Just, Toronto, it's a joke. They've failed the Sunday test—miserably—to the point it was downright sickening.

Ruff Times in Buffalo: Lindy/Players Feud

Craig Kanalley — Fri, 05 Dec 2008 11:19:06 -0500

Pre-lockout mediocrity is showing its ugly face again in Buffalo.

Think the slug is bad? The way the Sabres have been playing lately...reminds you of the goat head days. The bad goat head days.

A stew of failure is brewing, has been brewing for a few weeks now with the Sabres 2-8 in their last 10. Players are fuming, the coach is spewing...this pot just might boil over.

As if a 2-0 home loss to Nashville wasn't enough, head coach Lindy Ruff declared to the team that it was time for a new season, that the team would start 0-0. That new season began with a 2-1 loss against an injury-ridden, AHL-stocked Florida Panthers.

You know it's bad when...

Every time MSG catches Ruff on camera behind the bench, he shows either sighs, rolling eyes, or looks of disgust.
The team's best offensive player last game was Maxim Afinogenov.
Thomas Vanek has scored more goals at this early point in the season (18) than the Sabres as a whole have scored in the last 10 games (17).
And worst of all, the team's veterans can hardly control their disgust with the head honcho.

On that last point, the league's longest-tenured coach is losing a battle with the players in recent weeks to gain their trust, their respect, and their very best.

His No. 1 job should not be creating the lines, figuring out when to call a timeout, or mulling over who the healthy scratch of the night should be.

His job Numero Uno is to keep these guys' heads in the game, to prepare them for tough times, and to show them the way out of the abyss.

The team finally did away with contract/personnel distractions over the summer. Now it has—if nothing else—a mind game between the Coach and the Players. Probably, almost certainly, something much more serious. It's starting to affect the team's performance in a most troubling way.

Henrik Tallinder voiced his displeasure with Mr. Ruff when he was sat (healthy scratch) two games in a row last month. He then added the horrible cliche, "but he's the coach."

Maxim Afinogenov was not surprisingly peeved too, when he suffered a similar fate. Most recently, his butt was in the press box against Nashville, and what did the team do? It turned in its most woeful offensive output of the season, with hardly any energy and no spark at all.

Now the Face of the Franchise, Ryan Miller, has made his feelings known, whether consciously or not.

Per John Vogl of the Buffalo News:

"The Buffalo Sabres' goaltender, singled out by Lindy Ruff after Thursday's 2-1 loss to Florida, abruptly ended his interview today shortly after being told of Ruff's comments. The coach said the first goal 'was an easy play for Ryan to read,' and Miller used the slight to close his chat.

"Told that he may face more odd-man rushes because the coach wants his defensemen to join the play more, Miller…clearly taken aback by the earlier words and getting more emotional by the second…uttered, 'Well, I guess I'm going to have to read better,' and took off toward the team bus."

A loss in Tampa on Saturday would sink the Sabres below .500 for the first time this season. I hate to say it, but it would be an appropriate time for Lindy to be shown the door. When you lose your players, there's nothing more to do.

He's been nothing but good for the Buffalo community, he's a first class guy, and he's clearly a top-notch coach, but he shouldn't have to deal with a team having trouble with puberty.

The influx of youth, Sekera, Mancari, and the like, has led to an odd divide in the Sabres locker-room. Instead of complementing the veteran leadership, it's put players like Afinogenov and Tallinder on the outside looking in. They aren't the least bit happy.

The team of youngsters is facing serious growing pains. It needs a new captain to steer the ship...Lindy's tactics, while often useful, aren't righting this squad's wrongs. The move needs to be made before it's too late.

How The Bills Can Make The Playoffs

Craig Kanalley — Sun, 30 Nov 2008 17:25:35 -0500

After their 10-3 letdown to the 49ers in Orchard Park this afternoon, the Buffalo Bills' chances of cracking the world's most prestigious football tournament for the first time since 1999 took a major hit.

But believe it or not, Buffalo isn't out of the playoff picture yet.

After combing through all of the possibilities—and dissecting the mind-boggling potential tiebreak scenarios—here's what it comes down to.

First, the margin of error is now zero. They must win their final four games: vs. Miami, at the Jets, at Denver, vs. New England.

The team that should be of most interest to Bills fans: the New York Jets. Because...If the Bills win out and New York loses to Miami in its regular-season finale, the Bills would beat the Jets in a tiebreak.

That 10-6 Bills would hop that 10-6 Jets head-to-head for the AFC East Title or a wild card spot. Both teams would have a 3-3 division record and the Bills would win the tiebreak by virtue of record against common opponents (Bills 6-2, Jets 5-3).

That's their best way in, hands down. A tiebreak with the Jets for a playoff spot. A tiebreak with ONLY the Jets.

Barring a combination of collapses of epic proportions from Indianapolis, Baltimore, New England, and Miami, the rest of the scenarios are highly unlikely. New England and Miami would get tiebreaks over Buffalo. Baltimore would too, as long as they beat either Pittsburgh or Jacksonville (would have same conference record as Bills then, and would get in due to strength of victory).

Three words that Bills fans don't want to hear right now are "New England" and "Miami."

Due to the Bills' loss to San Francisco, they would lose a tiebreaker against either the Patriots or the Dolphins if the teams finish with the same record. That's because of their success against common opponents. The Patriots only loss to a common opponent is San Diego, the Dolphins' only one is Arizona, while the Bills lost to both Arizona and San Francisco.

Even if New England and Miami both pick up another common opponent loss, to also be 6-2 with the Bills, the next tiebreak is strength of victory. That goes to the Patriots and the Dolphins before it goes to the Bills.

Recap! Here are the scenarios for the Bills to make the playoffs...

(1) Win the AFC East. BUF wins its final four games (MIA, NYJ, DEN, NE). NYJ goes 2-2, MIA 2-2, NE 2-2. BUF gets tiebreak over the Jets (both 10-6) by virtue of common games. Miami and New England would be both 9-7.

(2) Wild Card. BUF wins its final four games (MIA, NYJ, DEN, NE). Either MIA or NE wins AFC East (one must go 3-1 or better, the other 2-2 or worse). NYJ go 2-2 or worse and BUF has the tiebreaker on them. BAL goes 2-2 with losses to both PIT and JAC and BUF wins the tiebreak over BAL due to conference record.

Remember, with just one single loss, the Bills are mathematically eliminated. End of story, fat lady has sung. Keep that in mind when they're up against Miami in Toronto next Sunday.

Big Bucks Not Paying Off in Buffalo

Craig Kanalley — Sat, 22 Nov 2008 20:05:56 -0500

They've paid all the bills, and they've given some key personnel hefty raises, but at the one-quarter mark of 2008-2009, it's not paying dividends for the Buffalo Sabres.

It has to be highly disconcerting for Tom Golisano, Darcy Regier, and Co. to witness this promising young core underperform. They have to be scratching their heads, and as the Sabres' losing streak has now reached five games, they have to be growing in concern about the future.

Many had hoped last year was just a speed bump, a pothole in the road, and that it would be paved and smoothed over by this season. That was the implication; always has been.

Ryan Miller, Jason Pominville, and the rest of the gang has been signed, sealed, delivered. They're here to stay.

So now that the distractions were out the window, this team was supposed to surge. Thomas Vanek in particular was supposed to grow into the player the Sabres' hoped he would be once and for all. At least that has happened.

They played well the first six or seven games. Since, not so much. The team's play, including Ryan Miller, has been less than expected—"not good enough" as Teppo Numminen so politely told the Buffalo News tonight.

It's a team in disarray.

Sitting personnel hasn't flicked the switch back to normal either. The Sabres we began the season with, and thought we'd see more of, have disappeared. It's like a different team. One with no heart.

They've been hitting more than Sabres teams of the past. But don't expect to see guys like Kaleta to hit the back of the net. That's for Pommer to do. Or Roy. Or Gaustad. Or, heck—Mancari, who has come out of nowhere and impressed in his first two games.

The defense has been disappointing. Regular Tallinder has not been up to snuff and he's been a healthy scratch the last two games. Rivet hasn't been the savior so many had hoped he would be when Lindy slapped the C on in his chest, but how can you expect any one guy to do that?

Numminen's been reliable at times, but even he's struggled at times. The whole back-end has looked a bit lost for too much of the season.

What's a team to do? Well, they've already handed the money out. The big bucks lie on Miller, Vanek, Pominville, Roy, et al. It's up to those guys to bail them out.

You can talk trade all you want, but the core of this team has already been built. For better or for worse, these are your Buffalo Sabres. Don't expect Max or anybody else to fetch you an impact player back; this is our team.

It's up to the big guys to sort it out. They can start, well, now, considering Boston rolls into Buffalo on Wednesday. No time to waste.

Northeast Division Is Class of the NHL

Craig Kanalley — Sat, 08 Nov 2008 08:35:01 -0500

It's early, but the Northeast Division has proven to be the best in the National Hockey League so far.

Don't agree with me? I have the stats to back it up.

A glance at the current standings shows that the Northeast is the only division in the NHL that doesn't have a losing club. All teams are .500 or above going into tonight.

In the division cellar, the Toronto Maple Leafs (5-5-4) and Ottawa Senators (6-6-2) both have 14 points, but they haven't lost more in regulation than they've won.

Same can't be said for the other divisions...here's teams with excess losses:

Atlantic: Philadelphia (4-5-3), NY Islanders (4-8-1)
Southeast: Atlanta (5-7-2), Florida (4-7-1)
Central: St. Louis (5-6-1)
Northwest: Colorado (5-8-0)
Pacific: Dallas (5-6-2), Phoenix (5-6-0), Los Angeles (4-6-2)

Only the Central has scored more goals than the Northeast, with 211 compared to the Northeast's 200. Pacific and Northwest both have 196 goals scored to date, Atlantic has 194. Southeast has scored a lowly 171.

The Northeast's top four teams have allowed just 126 goals so far, lower than any other divisions' top four teams. Next closest? Atlantic's top four which have allowed 142.

The Northeast's teams have amassed a league-leading 82 points to date. Atlantic and Pacific both have 75, Northwest 73, Central 71, and the Southeast 65.

Those are just the stats. But then you look at the teams and how could you possibly question whether or not this is the NHL's best division?

It's loaded. Three of the league's top goaltenders in Ryan Miller (BUF), Carey Price (MON), and Tim Thomas (BOS); the NHL's leading goal scorer in Thomas Vanek (12 in 13 games); and talents like Daniel Alfredsson, Jason Spezza, Danny Heatley, Alex Kovalev, Alex Tanguay, Saku Koivu, Jason Pominville, Derek Roy, Ales Kotalik, Marc Savard, Marco Sturm, Phil Kessel, Niklas Hagman, Nik Antropov, and Alexei Ponikarovsky. That's to say nothing of the division's stellar D-man which have helped the Northeast reliably keep the puck out of the net.

Tonight, Montreal is in Toronto. This division is so good that anything could happen in that game.

Buffalo is in Boston. That game's a total toss-up, as well. And the Bruins, with a win and Habs loss, can vault from third to first in the division overnight. It's that close.

Ottawa will rest, and watch its division foes beat up on each other.

No questions asked, Northeast is the best in the NHL right now. Anyone care to argue?

Joel Quenneville Calms the Waters in Chicago

Craig Kanalley — Fri, 07 Nov 2008 08:57:52 -0500

The Hawks' new bench-boss has given the team a whole new attitude on the ice.

The highly controversial move that had Joel Quenneville replace Denis Savard just four games into the season is now paying dividends. The team is 5-1-2 since, and it's starting to look like the season people have expected since Chicago made its free agency splash on July 1st.

Quenneville is a no non-sense kind of guy. He has a reputation of working his players hard, particularly in practice, and he won't settle for coasters. If you're on a Quenneville team, you better bring it every night.

The results of his coaching style speak for themselves. He's never had a losing season in his 11 years as an NHL coach.

In eight of those 11 seasons, most with the St. Louis Blues and the rest with the Colorado Avalanche, his team finished either first or second in its respective division. Looks like he'll up that to 9 of 12 in that stat by the end of this year.

The Blackhawks are a young team. They had sky-high expectations and something not every NHL team has to deal with: playing in front of the third largest market in the United States. Chicago is sports-hungry 24/7, but the Hawks are always competing for attention with the Cubs, Bears, White Sox, and Bulls.

Playing for such a city is never easy. Falter early, falter at all, and interest is lost quickly.

After a mediocre, in some ways frightening, 1-2-1 start under Savard, the Hawks are right where they should be. They're undefeated in regulation at the United Center and Quenneville makes sure they come to play every night.

Yes, every night.

He's injected serious energy into a team that seemed unsure of themselves far too often early, even if it was just four games. Quenneville has calmed the waters.

As a former defenseman who knew how to get on the scoresheet, Coach Q brings another element to this team that is loaded with offensive talent on the backend (IE. Brian Campbell, Duncan Keith, Brent Seabrook). He lets them loose. He understands the importance of that; he wants his d-men to get more involved on the other side of the ice, take more shots, and set up more plays.

Considering that coaching philosophy, it's no coincidence that Campbell has a goal and six assists, Seabrook has three goals and an assist, and Keith has a goal and three assists all since Quenneville has taken over.

The Central Division standings currently have Detroit first with 18 points and Chicago second with 15 with both having played 12 games. The Wings need to watch out because the Hawks are quickly gaining up on them and in their only match-up so far this year, Chicago (under Quenneville) narrowly lost 6-5 in a shootout.

The Hawks are poised to press for that top spot, especially with Coach Q behind the bench. They have four of five games left in their current homestand and it's a perfect time to keep closing in on that lead. Starting Sunday, Calgary, Boston, St. Louis, and San Jose will come to town as Chicago continues their attempt to soar to new heights and keep their momentum going.