The Ice Sheet: Sad Times for Sabres Fans

Every day from Monday to Saturday, The Ice Sheet will take a look at the biggest stories in the league that happened on the ice and elsewhere the night before.

Sports fans in Buffalo have been kicked in the balls far too many times (No Goal! Wide Right!), so losing is nothing new and unusual to the people in that wintry city.

That said, the Buffalo Sabres' current problems must be enough to give more than a few Buffalonians a monster case of heartburn. With last night's 2-1 loss to the downstate New York Rangers, the Sabres have now lost TEN games in a row, and are falling from playoff contention with each passing day.

The Sabres are 0-5-5 in their last 10 games. They haven't won since Dec. 22 in Philadelphia and, in fact, are the only team in the NHL without a win in the 2008 calendar year.

"We didn't make a lot of good plays," coach Lindy Ruff said. "We didn't make good decisions and Al [Kotalik] pounded the puck right into Betts every time. I can't yell, 'Don't shoot it,' but you have to bury your head and move it around those guys. We didn't and that was a disappointing part of the game."

Perhaps Lindy and assistant James Patrick ought to lace 'em up and give directions from the ice. At this point, the Sabres need some creative ideas if they are to put a W in the win column some time this calendar year.If the Sabres losing ways wasn't bad enough for Buffalonians, the possibility of losing enough player, Brian Campbell (the guy who just loved the Winter Classic), has reared itself after contract talks broke off between the parties.

Buffalo Sabres General Manager Darcy Regier admitted today that he's disappointed with defenseman Brian Campbell's decision to suspend negotiations on a new contract with the team.

"He wants to leave it till after the season and work on it at that point," Regier said following practice in HSBC Arena. "We certainly respect that and that's his right.

Translation: Brian Campbell is going to follow Chris Drury and Daniel Briere and hightail it the hell out of there after some GM waves a pile of money in front of his face. Sorry, Buffalo, but players just don't seem to want to play there.

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Question: Who was the only player to die during the course of an NHL game?

Answer: Bill Masterton, for whom the Masterton Trophy is named after. While Masterton was never able to recover from his vicious injury, his name will forever be linked to those players who overcome serious injury (such as Bryan Berard's loss of vision in one eye) and persevere against tough odds.

I mention this simply because it was recently the 40th anniversary of Masterton's tragic death, one of the darkest periods in the NHL's long history.

Masterton's impact was immediate. He scored the first goal in North Stars history. But tragedy struck on Jan. 13, 1968 - the first season of the new 12-team National Hockey League. In a game against the Oakland Seals, Masterton was hit by Oakland's Larry Cahan and Ron Harris.

"He threw a pass over to me and as I was receiving the pass I was looking over towards them and you could see that he got hit," recalled Connolly. "You looked at Bill on the ice and you could see that it was big trouble."

"When he fell, and his head hit the ice, you could actually hear it from the bench," added daughter Sally Masterton. "And the team doctor said he could hear the pop sound and he knew right away that there was something wrong."

While today's players are bigger and faster, at least they are better equipped with stronger padding and HELMETS. We've had some close calls (Malarchuk, Fischer, Pronger), but thankfully no more on-ice deaths ... yet.

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Plenty of people have their ideas and opinions about making the NHL better. Apparently, The Golden Mouth, Brett Hull, would love it if more players spoke their minds, rather than the scripted cliches they spout 99 times out of 100.

OK. Fine by me, but that's not likely going to happen. No, what really got me was the 10 suggestions that this writer for MSNBC, Kevin DuPont, had for the NHL to change for the 'better'

European quotas. OK, guilty, report me to the Xenophobia Hotline. All I know is, other than prime European talent, North American crowds more easily identify with homeboys rather than the vast faceless talents from Russia, Finland, Sweden, et al. On a nightly roster of 18 skaters and two goalies, mandate that a total of 17 must be North American-born.

While European players might not connect quite as well as home grown boys, having a quote of one per team is the dumbest idea I've heard since Tila Tequila decided to open her mouth and 'sing'. (Most of his other ideas suck just as much, trust me) What about Owen Nolan? He's actually born in Northern Ireland, and would need a quota spot under this system, even though he's really a Canadian player. Ever thought of that?

Yes, let's vastly reduce the overall talent level of the game and deny the NHL fans the chance to see the best talent that Europe has to offer. Hell, even Don Cherry would think this guy is out to lunch with a hamster.

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Gratuitous YouTube Embed: "OH!!!!! Campbell just destroyed Umberger!!" is all that needs to be said about this classic shot.