Taking a look back (Men)

Its been over a week since our beloved Canisius Golden Griffins ended their season in Albany. (Hey just like Eliot Spitzer!) The mens team had a rough go of it this year, being embarrassed several times and just not being able to win, while rolling through the lineup to find the right combination. The womens team had a building year for a young squad, but both their best players are back next year and I see a bright future for the ladies. So lets take a look at the numbers and see who did what and what future lies ahead for the Men first. The women's review will be later in the day.

Team Stats

Final Record 6-25 (Yikes) 0-15 on the road.
Points per game: 62 the other team: 73.2
Rebounds per game: 34.8 the other team: 37.2
Outscored on the season 2269 to 1923.

Player stats

Best scorer: Frank Turner with 12.9 ppg.
Most time on the Floor: Frank Turner-- 33.7 mpg
Best Shooter (taking in all stats) Greg Logins-- 47% Fg, 41% 3pt, and 71 FT%
Best rebounder: Greg Logins 5.5 Rebounds per game
Best in the paint: Tomas Vazquez-Simmons 5.3 rebounds a game and 84 blocks.

Individual awards

MVP: Tie Frank Turner and Greg Logins. Frank is the engine, but Logins came on very strong at the end of the year, so without him, they wouldn't been in the Tournament games.

Diamond in the rough: Bob Bevilacqua. A kid who was a walk on intermural player to starter at the end of the year averaging 26 minutes a game and 6.8 points per game. Canisius got better when Bob came into the lineup.

Rookie of the year: Greg Logins on a team that was filled with freshman and new players. Mr Logins was way ahead of everyone else, of course it took him till the end of the year to prove it, but should be a force for years to come for the Griffs.

Next years prediction

The team will be very young still. Frank Turner will be a junior and will be better after struggling without senior leadership he had in his freshman year. Greg Logins will be better and Jovan Robinson. Tom Parrotta will have more recruits, though with a last place team, it might be hard for them to come and plus they have to wear yellow shoes. Next year won't be a total success, but hovering around .500 isn't hard to see. By tournament time, if the team stays healthy and grow like they should. A possible deep run could be had, in what isn't a strong conference. 2 years from now is where the Griffs will be dangerous. Well at least this Canisius alum hopes.

A 31 game Review

I thought a little review was in order of the season, its 31 games in, almost half way, and its time to look at trends, who has done what, and what is left to expect.

Team Standings

Currently the Sabres stand 10th in the East, 1 point behind Pittsburgh for 8th. And only 6 points behind Boston for 4th. They have a hot 2 weeks, they are rocketing up that conference standings list. The first three spots I think are unrealistic, especially with Ottawa having the season they are having, so forget the division. Being in the spot from 4 to 6 I think would work well for the Sabres. They have the Goaltender who can shut it down. The defense when healthy can keep shots and chances low. And enough offense to get it done.

Point Leaders

Derek Roy is currently leading the team in Goals and Points. With 12 and 28. Everyone thought Derek would be having a good year, but not the team leader in goals and points. But several other players aren't far behind. Jason Pominville has 25 points, Tim Connolly also has 25 points but has done it in 5 fewer games and everybody's favorite whipping boy Tom Vanek has 21 points. But who has taken the most shots on the year? Not the guys mentioned above, its Jochen Hecht, who I think is the real captain of this team, with 91 shots on the year. He is second in goals with 11, so he does have a good chance of breaking 20 this year.

Suprises

Um, tough to put many people on the Surprises list so far this year, because we have just high expectations this year. But the improvement of Sekera through the year, could qualify as one. Similar to Paetsch last year, shaky, but quietly improving to provide steady time. But with several healthy defensemen coming back, his time is pretty much up for now. Brian Campbell's offense. We know he can be the offensive type, but he is currently 8th in scoring for defensemen, and probably the only Sabre to make the All Star team this year.

Disappointments

Well we could list many players here, but we'll start with Tom Vanek, after last year and the huge contract we expected the world. What we'll get is probably 35 goals and 75 points. When you look at it, is pretty good, but not worth the money is getting. Stupid Kevin Lowe. You kinda want to put Ryan Miller in this category, until you look at his career stats and you go, hey they are better then average, so he's having a good year, nevermind Ryan. But Thibault, really isn't the best backup. Since the LA debacle, I can see Lindy Ruff hesitant to put him in. I don't know but they could have signed a better backup at a the same rate. But other then a trade or pray Alex Auld gets released when Fernandez and Thomas get healthy, the Sabres are stuck. I'm gonna throw Drew Stafford in the disappointment category. I really don't see a lot what I thought of him out there. He's invisible most nights for me. He does have 14 points, and a +3 so hes not a liability. But I expected him to have more points then Jaro Spacek. He'll warm up I bet.

Future outlook

The Sabres have come together in the past month or so. I don't see them struggling in the coming months. They're game is coming together, and they are feeling the heat. They will slowly creep up the standings and in late January I expect them to be 6th in the conference. They have balanced scoring with 13 players with double digits in points, 14 if Kalinin wasn't hurt. Ryan Miller seems to be a workhorse, playing in 28 of 31 games. They won't be pretty outings, but they do know how to win, and they are just figuring out how to do it on a consistent basis.

Before the Bills play the Browns...

Lets look at the Season so far. Well with Stats.

First step the Quarterback position. At this point Edwards and Losman have played a equal amount so we can actually take a peak at who is doing better.

Edwards 1212 yards passing 5 Tds and 5 ints and a 80.1 QB rating 9 sacks

Losman 1204 yards passing 4 Tds and 6 ints and a 76.9 QB rating 14 sacks

Well most people would go well, their pretty even so whats the big deal, who cares. Well the fact that Edwards is at the same point in his first year with a guy who has been in the league for several years, is a good sign. They always talk about pulling things back for Edwards, well I don't think so. He has more yards a game, more attempts, and yards per attempt are identical. They held it back for Losman more then Edwards, knowing that Losman can hurt them more with taking sacks and turning it over.

Marshawn Lynch 219 carries 858 yards 3.9 yards per carry 6 tds

Well we all had high hopes for Lynch going into the season and really he hasn't been a disappointment. It got off slow with the O line jelling this year. But almost 4 yards a carry and with only 50 yards a game in the next 3 games will rush for 1000 yards on the season. Really the Bills haven't missed Mcgahee in my eyes, there was no downgrade at this position. Shocking stat though, Fred Jackson has a 5.8 yards per rush average.

Lee Evans 47 catches 768 yards 4 tds 16.3 yards per catch

Josh Reed 46 catches 514 yards 0 tds 11.2 yards per catch

With the QB switch, the receivers have been hurt the most. Lee Evans is a great talent and has been limited year year. Though of late he has been coming on. In the beginning of the year he was just terrible. As the season went on, Trent Edwards found Lee Evans. Notice you've seen less complaining by Lee about wanting JP in the lineup. The one thing that concerns me is the lack of receiving from the Running back position, we were told that Marshawn Lynch was a great receiver out the backfield, yet he only has 15 catches on the year and it seems Fred Jackson in his limited action has been catching more. Would like to see where that goes next year.

Rian Lindell 21-21 PATS and 21-24 on Field Goals

Yep, hes having a great year, sorry again Rian for all the things I've said about you.

Time to talk about the Defense

Stats aren't the specialty for the defense here.

Sack Leader Aaron Schobel 4.5 sacks (Thats not good)

Interception Leader Terrence McGee 3 ints (same as the "playmaker" Nate Clements)

Tackles Leader Angelo Crowell 108 Tackles (Having a great year, and emerging as a team leader)

Well the stats aren't pretty on the year for the Bills this year, but the only stat that really matters isn't that bad, 7 wins 6 losses. After the start and the injuries, having a 7-6 record going into the Browns game is something to look good upon. The team has brought back excitement about the team and will only build next year. With which looks like a iffy schedule and a young team filling with confidence.

10 game review

After 10 games the Sabres, are stuck right at .500, 5-5, some might call this a disappointment, or expected with all the turnover. Me, personally, I don't have a exact opinion on the first 10 games. They look bad, they look good, they look good and bad in the same game. This team doesn't know who they are yet. But we can look at some stats and get a gauge at whats going on so far.

Top 5 in Points.

• Brian Campbell 1G 10A 11PTS
• Tim Connolly 1G 10A 11PTS
• Jason Pominville 5G 5A 10PTS
• Derek Roy 5G 4A 9PTS
• Thomas Vanek 3G 5A 8PTS

Any real surprises, besides Campbell being first? Not really.

The one stat that looking at is really telling about this team.

Shots on Goal.

The most shots on goal. Jochen Hecht with 32.
Captain putting the puck on the net

Best Shooting Percentage Daniel Paille at 50%!
4 shots 2 goals. SHOOT THE PUCK DANNY!

Terrible Shooting Percentage Tim Connolly at 3.7%.
Obviously Timmy needs to pick better shots.

Surprises

Honestly, there aren't any surprises. No player is like oh boy look at him! Brian Campbell has a lot of points, but he was an All Star last year. Unfortunately the disappointments will be more numerous.

Disappointments.

Ryan Miller

Hate to put the guy here, but really he carried the team through the playoffs, played fantastic and I expected him to play lights out. At times he does, but like the rest of the team, just plays lazy at time.

3.11 GAA .896SV% Aren't all-star numbers, and he needs to improve for this team to go anywhere this year.


Drew Stafford

Just not at the level we expect from him. Maybe the sophomore slump or whatever.

Lydman/Tallinder

This supposed shutdown pair, has been anything but this year. In fact Hank has been downright terrible at times. Already at a -5 combined. Plus,they don't get helped out by their 3 forward counterparts. Usually the RAV line.

Next Ten Game Outlook

With 9 of out 10 games against Northeast Division Opponents. Its critical the Sabres start to pick it up. There seems to be a flow coming up, and none of this couple games long layoff nonsense anymore.

Prediction 6-2-1