Sabres screw Numminen

Darcy Regier can add one more thing to the growing list of things he has done to screw the Buffalo Sabres franchise. Hasek, Satan, Grier, Briere, Drury, and now Numminen.

I'm not a Sabres fan, and I'm unqualified to speak at length about the above things, but this latest one is something that goes beyond being a Sabres fan, or even a hockey fan.

On Thursday, the Sabres quietly announced that they were suspending Teppo Numminen without pay. They said that he failed to show up to camp in good shape. It wasn't that he had been eating Krispy Kreme all summer and was all overweight. It wasn't that he was drunk. It wasn't anything like that. It was that he needed to have heart surgery.

This summer, the Sabres re-signed the 39-year old Finn to a $2.6M one year contract. Last year, whilst wearing the A, he tallied 29 (2/27) points in 79 regular season contests and added 10 assists in 16 post-season games. The previous season, he had 40 (2/38) points in 75 regular season games. Recently, he set the record for most games played by a European player.

He has been the heart of the Sabres blueline.

Heart. He has had two previous heart surgeries, and this one supposedly has nothing to do with correcting either of them. Nor is it for some new cardiac problem. This one is to correct a pre-existing condition. This pre-existing condition rendered his $2.6M contract uninsurable, so the Sabres wouldn't be able to recoup any of his salary from their insurance company. Their solution: suspend him without pay, citing some bullshit "out of shape" excuse.

By last check, even when you include Numminen, the Sabres are well below the salary cap limit. This can't be about that. They still have six NHL-calibre defensemen, so it probably isn't about the need to sign someone else. I'm not sure what this is about.

In situations like this, most teams would place Numminen on the long-term IR, which means his salary would not count towards the salary cap anyway. The Devils did this with Hepatitis boy. Even the Sabres did this before, with Tim Connolly and his concussion.

This is about being cheap. And disrespectful. This is about kicking a man while he's down. Darcy Regier and Tom Golisano should be ashamed of themselves.

The NHL Players' Association is investigating the matter, and should file a grievance on Numminen's behalf.

In their defense, Regier and Co dug up some subsection to some rule in the CBA saying that a player must show up for camp ready to play and he must pass his physical. If he doesn't his SPC can be nullified. Tim Graham of the Buffalo News:

“There’s a clause explicitly in the contract that states the player must pass the physical and be fit to play,” Regier said. “It’s the collective bargaining agreement, and in no way is it personal to Teppo.

“I had the conversation with Teppo. He understands it’s business. It has a lot of implications on the salary side, on the cap side.”

It CAN be but it doesn't HAVE TO be. I don't think the verbage suggests that the contract is automatically null and void. They are using this to weasel their way out of paying him. Under those same rules, the Oilers could have suspended Fernando Pisani when he was diagnosed with ulcerative colitis (By the way, I hate to say I told you so, but Carter was invited to the Oilers camp). For once in his life, Kevin Lowe did something right. Pisani might miss the entire season, leaving the Oil on the hook for $2.5M, but Lowe et al refused to treat a sick player as a casualty of a business decision.

After the Tomas Vanek fiasco, it seems funny to say this, but Darcy Regier needs to take a page out of Lowe's book. Lowe may be an idiot, but he's not a cold, callous, heartless idiot.

Say what you will about the Sabres "doing what they had to do". Say what you will about this being a "business rather than personal decision". Say what you will about it being "fair" according to the CBA. This is a crap move.

Kevin BFLOBLOG wrote about it here.
Tom from Sabre Rattling has a more levelheaded approach. He always does.

Some folks are comparing the Numminen situation to the Scott Niedermayer situation in Anaheim, but it isn't even remotely the same. Niedermayer, who is pondering retirement, didn't show up to Ducks' camp, and was suspended. This is very very different.

With Drury and Briere gone and with Numminen suspended (and undergoing career-threatening surgery), the Sabres have nobody back who wore a letter last season. After everything that's gone on this summer, and especially the Numminen thing, more than a few feathers have been ruffled in the Lake Erie area.

Pisani done, Carter might find work

The news has come in that the Oilers's Saint Fernando Pisani will be out of the lineup indefinitely after being diagnosed with ulcerative colitis.

I'd never heard of it before, but I correctly guessed that it had something to do with explosive diarrhea. It is often confused with Irritable Bowel Syndrome for that reason. While I can't really speak to the medical differences, there are quite a lot, and we'll just say that Ulcerative Colitis (IBD) is much more serious than irritable bowel syndrome (IBS).

IBD is a cancer-like condition characterized by many things such as abdominal pain, arthritic flare-ups, deep vein thrombosis (Tomas Vokoun had this), painful skin lesions, and many others. The main manifestation, though, is blood-filled stool and chronic diarrhea.

IBD is much more rare than Crohn's Disease, with which it is closely related. It strikes about 1 in 10,000 North Americans each year. The causes are unknown, but it is believed that people from northern North America are more likely to have it than others. Twins are a little more likely than non-twins. People of Jewish descent. People who have recently quit smoking are more likely to have it. Strange.

This is one of those "diseases" that they can't really cure. What they hope to do is lessen the frequency and severity of the episodes.

Pisani is known around here as the guy who scored the shorthanded overtime goal in game 5 of the 2006 Stanley Cup Finals. He actually scored 14 goals that postseason, which led all scorers. He tallied 28 (14/14) points in the 2006-07 campaign, and was a fan favorite. He is known as much for his work ethic as his heroics in the 2006 playoffs. He will be missed by Oil fans.


Anson Carter is still a free agent. He's probably the best available free agent, and he should expect his cellphone to ring early Wednesday morning. Carter spent a few years in Edmonton between 2000-01 and 02-03 and posted his career best totals those years.

Sorry, but I can't help but think of that silly "misheard lyric" from the Beatles' "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds". The real line in the song is

The girl with kaleidoscope eyes"

but people often mis-hear:

"The girl with colitis goes by"

Canes lose Cup rematch, Captain

On Wednesday night, the Canes lost to the Oilers 3-1. Turns out my prediction was pretty lousy.

I got home just in time for the third period and haven't gone back to watch from the beginning yet, but based on the third period, the Oilers were the much better team. They completely dominated the flow of the game and completely shut down Carolina's speedy skaters.

At some point in the second period, Rod Brind'Amour suffered an injury (which I haven't seen yet) that kept him from returning to the game. I can imagine the jubilation in the BoA headquarters as the Oilers won the game handily AND their least favorite player in the league got knocked out with what has only been called a "lower body" injury.

Mick McGeough is a terrible official. Oilers fans don't need to be told that. Even as an extremely biased Canes fan, there were two times during the third period that Canes players should have been penalized. With about 6 minutes to play, there was a blatant slash committed by Scott Walker behind the Canes net that was let go. There was a blatant trip committed later that was let go. Moments after the non-call with the slash, Marty Reasoner caught Mike Commodore with a blatant high-stick, opening a cut on Commy's nose. It should have been a four minute penalty, but there was none. This was the same crew that officiated the Canes-Flames game and let A LOT of stuff go for both sides. At first, I thought it was just that there was a slightly different rules interpretation in the Western Conference. After two consecutive nights, it's obvious that it's just McGeough. He's a lousy lousy official. I know he's pissed about having to wear a lid this season, but that's no excuse for being a worse ref than he already was. The thing with the phantom hand pass a few weeks ago was absolutely disgusting, and the way he called the game tonight, you wouldn't blame the players if they decided to take the law into their own hands. The League and the Officials Association need to do a better job of holding the refs accountable for poor performance.

I don't think the officiating had anything to do with the fact that Carolina lost. They lost because Edmonton was better. Like I said, I saw two obvious penalties against Carolina that weren't whistled, too.

The goal scorers for the Oil were Brad Winchester (2:30 of the second), Jason Smith (19:00 of the second) and Saint Fernando Pisani (1:44 of the third). CrAdams had the lone goal for the Canes.

Now I have to go back and watch the game from the beginning and also try to find out what happened to Brind'Amour.

Carolina will have Friday off, and will be happy just to get out of Alberta. On to BC, where they'll take on the 'Nucks on Saturday night. Hopefully, McGeough won't be anywhere in sight.