Hey everybody, you may notice that my name is not David Oleksy. Or maybe you haven't had your coffee yet and aren't noticing much of anything. Either way, my name is Andy Boron and I've been brought on to take care of these daily links from here on in. My plan is to put Sabres-centric news and analysis before the break, then some other interesting or fun links from around the NHL after the break. However, I also want to make this daily posting more of a community thing - so please feel free to leave a comment or send me a message telling me what types of content you want to see. Hope you enjoy the links, and I'm very excited to be a part of the DBTB team!
STAFFORD, LYDMAN NEAR RETURN - Buffalo Sabres
A report on Monday's practice from the company site. The title pretty much says it all.
Sabres' Kennedy sees the big picture
A nice article by Bucky Gleason about Tim Kennedy and the way the Sabres' third line is playing this year.
NHL's 3 Stars - NHL.com
Ryan Miller is the NHL's third star of the week. The site's weekly wrap-up/look ahead also compares New Jersey's recently ended 9-game road win streak with Buffalo's 10-gamer from 2006.
Ask Jim Lang: Breaking down the Code
Jim Lang and former Sabre Brad May talk about "The Code" of fighting and retaliation in this mailbag article.
Pass or Fail - The 'superstar' provision for NHL shootouts
Puck Daddy asks: should the NHL allow players to shoot in the shootout more than once after the first 3 skaters have gone? An article debating the pros and cons follows.
Mike Danton: The untold story
In 2004, Blues winger Mike Danton was arrested by the FBI for conspiracy to commit murder after attempting to hire a hitman (who was actually an undercover police officer) to kill his father. He was recently released from prison on parole and talked with sportsnet.ca about his plot which ultimately landed him behind bars. This is a tragic story, but very interesting - an in-depth four part video interview can be found after the link.
LetsGoPens.com - Fighting Injuries With Good "Juju"
We'll finish things off today with something totally bizarre - apparently Penguins fans have decided to combat the rash of injuries on their team with sparkly animated photos that look like they were created by a pack of rabid 12 year old girls. This link contains four pages of the oddest hockey photos you'll ever see.
Hope you enjoyed this first batch of links - let me know what you'd like to see more/less of in the comments!