Will Ennis be the Sabres solution at center?

Tyler Ennis is back tonight and he will be playing center. While the pessimists think that Ruff will shuffle him back to the wing before the first period is over, I have a little bit of hope that the move back to his "natural position" will help solve the Sabres issue at center.

Heck, he can't be that much worse than Boyes or Hecht at center........

Ryan Miller talked to the media and reacted to Ted Black saying that the management team wants to win and isn't tied to any "core players". I think the answers were pretty much what I would expect. I did like that Miller added that he never hears about deals that Regier is going to make until they are made official and everyone learns about them at the same time.

The Hosers ponder what to do with Luke Adam. To me, it's either put him back at center (I would prefer to put him back between Vanek & Pominville for a few games) and play him or they need to send him to Rochester where he can get serious ice time.

And while Bucky Gleason thinks that Jason Pominville is out of touch, I think the opposite is true. If Pominville threw teammates under the bus, then he'd get called out as a bad leader. Although, Pominville could have gone the comedy route and told Luke Adam that he'd trade him for anyone else at All-Star Weekend.

To trade or not to trade, that is the question

Ted Black hints that the Sabres are not beholden to their core players.

Jason Pominville follows Ryan Miller's lead and says that he wouldn't trade anyone in the Sabres room for anyone at the All-Star Weekend.

Now, I doubt that Pominville was being completely truthful when answering Luke Adam's question that he knew would be made public. If you were a close friend of Jason's and had a private conversation over a few pops, I'm sure he'd love to swap out a few of his teammates for a few All-Stars.

Here are some of the moves I'd like that would work cap-wise:

Jonathan Quick ($1.8M cap hit) for Ryan Miller ($6.25M)

Logan Couture ($1.24M) for Derek Roy ($4M)

Claude Giroux ($3.75M) over Jochen Hecht ($3.525M)

Erik Karlsson ($1.3M) over Andrej Sekera ($2.75M)

Tyler Seguin ($3.55M) over Brad Boyes ($4M)

I could go on, but I'm depressed now.

Back to reality and the first question is will the Sabres make moves before the deadline beyond merely shipping out some (or all) of the UFAs-to-be for picks and/or prospects?

Regier has reportedly been talking to GMs. But, who knows if that means that he pulls the trigger before the deadline or if we hear that the off season is a better time to maximize trade assets.

The other question is if they make moves, will it be the reported "top 6 for top 6" type moves or will they accept that they need a sizable change on the team and instead move "core guys" for picks/prospects/NHL-ready young players in an attempt to bottom out and rebound as quickly as possible?

I hope they go the rebuild/retool route. But, I fear that they will go the "top 6 for top 6" route thinking that they are closer to winning the Cup than they really are.

The next 8 months will be really interesting.

Did the Sabres win the Cup?

Kevin Sylvester's reaction to Nathan Gerbe's shootout game winner made me wonder if they had won the Cup and not just their first road game in what felt like forever.

Props to Miller and the Sabres defense.

Props to Gerbe for the sweet assist on the Leopold goal and the SO winner.

I love Thomas Vanek, but he needs the All-Star break to get his mojo back. 1 goal and 1 assist for the month of January is not good enough.

I'm not buying that Pegula is going to announce a huge move (like firing Regier or Ruff) over the break. If he does make an announcement, my guess is that it has something to do with the internet rumors that Pegula is buying the hockey arena in Elmira and that he's adding another layer to his hockey empire that includes the Sabres and Amerks already.

PK Subban is not coming to the Sabres. But, I would like to see Subban and Myers as a defense pairing in Buffalo for years to come.

Schopp & Bulldog were talking about whether NHL games are boring. For me, Sabres games have been boring with the team struggling offensively. But, most NHL games are more entertaining. Just look at the Habs destroying the Red Wings last night. And if you look around the league on Tuesday, there were a lot of close games and games with more scoring than the Sabres-Devils tilt.

I think the responses to WGR's discussion are slanted because the Sabres are so bad offensively and boring right now.

But, the NHL could use some opening up of the offensive game. The tough part is that coaches focus on defense as it's easier to coach a conservative game that limits defensive mistakes than telling players to play a wide open style.

The NHL needs owners that will force coaches to play a more wide open game. But, that won't happen.

Last place in the Eastern Conference

That's right, kids. The Buffalo Sabres are currently last in the Eastern Conference and if the season ended today, they would have roughly a 14% chance of obtaining the first overall pick in the 2012 NHL Entry Draft.

The good news is that Christian Ehrhoff and Robyn Regehr are back for tonight's game in NJ versus the Devils.

The bad news is that neither Terry Pegula nor Darcy Regier have done anything to try and right the ship.

Honestly, if getting all of their top 7 defensemen healthy and only missing Ennis and Gaustad among their top 12 forwards doesn't change things, it's unlikely that anything will outside of a coaching change or a trade that shakes the team out of their current funk.

But, will Pegula or Regier have the sense of urgency to do something soon?

There is a random internet "rumor" that Pegula is planning on making a major move over the All-Star Break that starts tomorrow for the Sabres.

Personally, I'll believe it when I see it.

I need to start blogging again

Maybe my internet silence is a part of the reason that the Sabres have fallen off the face of the Earth and lost 12 straight on the road.

I know that the Sabres are currently in the bottom 5 of the NHL today. But, I don't want to get into the discussion of the top end draft picks in 2012 (Nail Yakupov vs Mikhail Grigorenko for example).

I know this team is playing horrible.

But, this is a team that has the talent to go on a run.

And in the end, I expect that they will be good enough to miss the playoffs, but only draft around 10th.

Maybe I should stop blogging and hope for the team to stink the rest of the year and get the infusion of talent that only a top 2 or 3 draft pick can provide.

I just can't get myself there yet.