Hecht Moves From Wing To Replace Sabres' Center

There's no hiding the anger. The Buffalo Sabres are still furious with Darius Kasparaitis, for both his hit that put Tim Connolly on injured reserve and his resulting "half-dead fish" performance (more on that in a moment).
But they won't see Kasparaitis and the New York Rangers for two months - around the time Connolly is expected back from his knee injury - so retribution will have to wait. The more pressing concerns are tonight's rivalry game in Toronto and who will replace the team's co-leading scorer and one of its dwindling veteran centers.
"We'll have to elevate somebody," coach Lindy Ruff said after practice Wednesday in the Amherst Pepsi Center. "I told the team today, "We're a team that hasn't had any excuses all year, and there's no use making any right now.' "
Jochen Hecht becomes the latest Sabre to absorb an increased role because of injury. The erstwhile left winger will move to center, manning a line with Ales Kotalik and Jason Pominville. Hecht started his career in the middle with the St. Louis Blues, but he's been almost exclusively a winger the past three seasons in Buffalo.
"I'm looking forward to it," the 28-year-old Hecht said. "It's a different position to play, it's a different game, but maybe I'll get something going this way and help out the team a little more."
Hecht was the Sabres' top two-way forward last season, so Ruff has no concerns changing his role. The biggest differences between wings and centers include defense and skating. The center is closer to the net and covers both boards in his defensive zone, while wingers watch one side and a defenseman at the blue line.
"There's going to be a lot more skating involved, a lot more defensive play, but somebody has to fill that spot," Hecht said.
"The one thing that's evident is that when some players got elevated in bigger roles, they've played even better," Ruff said. "I still think there's players that have more to offer in a bigger role. They're always looking for a bigger role, and now they get their opportunity."
The Sabres decided not to recall anyone to replace Connolly, who will miss six to eight weeks with a sprain of his left medial collateral ligament. They could have summoned Jiri Novotny from Rochester, but that would have given them a youth-filled group of centermen with co-captain Chris Drury sharing the duties with two rookies (Novotny and Paul Gaustad) and second-year man Derek Roy.
Moving Hecht to center allows them to better utilize their depth at the wing.
"We've had our bulk of centermen playing the wing," Ruff said, referring to Gaustad, Roy and injured Daniel Briere. "Now with the centermen down, our wingers are going into the middle."
Added General Manager Darcy Regier: "The forward positions aren't as classical as they once were. They're a lot more interchangeable than they have ever been in the past."
The biggest change, obviously, is faceoff ability, and it's been a key for the Sabres. They are 17-4-1 when they win more faceoffs, 11-11-2 when they lose and 2-0 when it's tied.
The hit that caused the position shifting - Kasparaitis' low check on Connolly along the boards Tuesday in a 2-1 Sabres victory - was deemed legal by Regier. But he, like his team, didn't like it.
"I would be supportive of taking those hits out of the game," said Regier, who added discussions about the legality of hip checks have been held at GM meetings. "That isn't even a hip check. You're catching him with your rear end, and it's low enough, especially with someone like Kasparaitis, it's low enough to be in the knee area."
Kasparaitis, who's been called a dirty player almost from the time he arrived in the NHL in 1992, was called that and more Wednesday. In addition to the hit, the Sabres didn't like the way Kasparaitis avoided confrontation when Drury and Mike Grier tried to avenge the blast.
"When challenged, he was flopping around like a half-dead fish," Ruff said.
Drury, who jumped Kasparaitis immediately after the hit, compared the Rangers defenseman to a 9-year-old when asked to assess the reaction.
"When I see a 240-pound guy diving around like a squirt after taking one of our guys' knees out? I don't feel too good. I kind of feel embarrassed for him, actually," Drury said.
Buffalo faces a Maple Leafs squad tonight that is winless in its last six games. The Sabres will be playing their penultimate game of a six-game road trip, and they're 2-2 so far. Ruff said Wednesday he wants to finish 4-2.
Winger J.P. Dumont responded well to his first game back from sports hernia surgery and will play his second straight game tonight. Ruff said left wing Taylor Pyatt (broken wrist) could return Tuesday when the Sabres conclude their journey in Atlanta.
They'll need the help as Drury was quick to point out things will become tougher without Connolly.
"I know Lindy said somebody's got to step up, and I agree with that," Drury said, "but still it's a fact that we lost one of our best players, and it's going to hurt us."

Sabres Coach Lindy Ruff

It's easy to tell when Lindy Ruff is in the room. His voice commands attention and projects confidence, both in himself and his knowledge of the topic he's discussing. He is quick-witted, with an acidic touch sprinkled in when the situation warrants.
The Buffalo Sabres coach added to his resume Thursday, passing Toronto's Pat Quinn as the coach with the most wins with his current team. Winger Jason Pominville points to Ruff's orating skills as a reason for the success.
"He's a really good speaker," Pominville said. "Once he walks in the locker room and starts talking to us, I think it's pretty easy to listen to him. He catches everybody's attention."
Jay McKee, already a Sabres defenseman when Ruff took over in the summer of 1997, said the coach's ability to adapt to changes in the game has been vital to the victories. It takes longevity to amass 284 wins with the same team, and those who don't change don't last.
"His coaching style - not just him but [all the coaches] back here - they prepare us more now before games than ever before. They do their homework," McKee said after the victory over the Maple Leafs that broke the tie with Quinn. "They don't just leave the game tonight and then just show up in Atlanta and say, "Go get 'em, boys.'
"They're going to go over all the game tape of tonight; they don't just fast-forward through it, either. They spend hours watching the game tapes, showing players what they could have done here, what they could have done there, trying to improve us all the time.
"And then after they are done watching this game, they'll look forward to Atlanta and watch game tape of them - what they've been doing, their trends - and then have us as prepared as we can be. That wasn't exactly how it was before, so they've changed with the technology."
General Manager Darcy Regier hired Ruff, hoping he could establish a long-term connection like the one he witnessed on Long Island between GM Bill Torrey and coach Al Arbour. It's worked so far. He credits Ruff for being able to understand his players.
"I think, quite honestly, he's continuing to get better," Regier said. "First of all, he believes in his players, and I think over the years he has a better understanding of their abilities and from that is able to help them more by, at times, demanding more or persuading them that they're capable of more."
Ruff said he didn't know about the victory milestone - which is subject to daily change depending on the fortunes of the Leafs and Sabres - but he does know he was close to never even having to mention it. The Sabres missed the playoffs the last three seasons, and his job was in jeopardy.
"It looked pretty bleak for a while. We had a couple tough years," he said. "We're on the way up."
Improved talent can help almost any coach look better, and the Sabres are definitely up from recent years. There's no way Jason Botterill, Denis Hamel and Radoslav Hecl would be in this lineup, as they were two seasons ago.
"I think you adjust with the players you have," Ruff said. "I think we're a talented group that's surprised a lot of people. For myself, I just let those guys play - not worry so much about the little mistakes in the game, more worried about the things that are happening all the time."
Ruff added to McKee's preparation comment, saying it's important for the players to see that he and assistants Scott Arniel, Brian McCutcheon and Jim Corsi have worked as hard off the ice as they expect the players to work on it.
"Players need to see and know that we've done our homework, that we can give them one or two things that may help against an opponent, whether that's on entries, whether that's on our neutral-zone defensive play, or whether that's on special teams," Ruff said. "I think that every little bit helps, and if we can grab hold of one or two little things every night that could maybe give us an edge, that's what we're trying to do.
"We do a presentation on the other team's goalie every night. Special teams has always been part of a bigger meeting, and we'll make those individual meetings now. Brian will take care of the penalty-killing part of the meeting, Scott takes care of the power-play part of the meeting, Jimmy does the goaltending - and I don't do a damn thing."
After the laughter subsided, he added: "No, then I'll usually go over the other team's tendencies and talk about what we want to do to counter some of that."
The Sabres' next game is Tuesday in Atlanta. With two more victories, Ruff will move into 30th place on the all-time coaching victory list. For now, most wins with the same team among active coaches will do just fine.
"I think it's a big honor," McKee said. "Coaches in this league are hired to be fired. You don't see guys stay around that long, so it just goes to show what he's done for this team, this city and for the players."

Sabres Rookie Replaces Scoring Leader Satan

ATLANTA - The Buffalo Sabres can live with a streaky scorer as long as he keeps working. It's no secret that's what led to Miroslav Satan's departure. The team leaders who arrived the past few seasons refused to put up with 10-game scoreless droughts accompanied by what they perceived as 60 minutes of pirouetting.
Apparently, Thomas Vanek is no Miroslav Satan.
Vanek, looked upon to replace the perennial scoring leader's output, is back on a hot streak. The rookie heads into tonight's game in Atlanta with three goals in the last two games. His goals have come in bunches, as he has four hot stretches to go with four frigid runs.
"Sometimes they go in, sometimes they don't. Lately, it's that time again," Vanek said Monday in the Amherst Pepsi Center before flying to Atlanta.
"I think I need to get more consistent, but it's still my first year. I'm getting used to playing every night at the same level. But I can tell I get more comfortable every five games or so, so hopefully I can not be as streaky as I've been in the past and play consistent the next 30-some games."
Before scoring two games ago, Vanek had found the net just once in eight games. That was preceded by a stretch of four goals in five outings. He's also had runs of three goals in three games and three goals in two games, while suffering through droughts of 1 in 12, 0 in 3 and 0 in 14.
"I think a lot of players end up in that category," coach Lindy Ruff said. "You can go through our lineup and you can point to a streak for almost every player, from top to bottom.
"When you get in them, it's how quick a player can get out of them and how they handle it when they're in it. I think that Thomas continued to work through it, and if you keep the work ethic up you'll eventually break through."
The Sabres shuffled their lines when center Tim Connolly's knee was injured last week. Vanek ended up with center Chris Drury and right wing Mike Grier, regarded as two players who don't take a shift off. Satan didn't fit in with them - at all - but Vanek has been able to mesh.
"I think we're still getting used to each other a little bit, trying to figure it out a little," Grier said. "Thomas is very creative with the puck, so we're starting to learn how to read off him."
Vanek's last three goals have come on the power play rather than with his linemates. The five-on-five goals have been tougher to come by because their line often scatters, with Drury and Grier taking off to kill penalties and Vanek and Drury departing in man-advantage situations.
"It's great when he's on because he can find the net," Drury said. "As he gets older, I think he'll be less streaky and just more consistent. But he's doing all right as a streaky guy right now anyway."
The 22-year-old already has been called the all-around most talented player in Ruff's tenure. The statement also was taken as a message to Satan, a supremely talented sniper with occasional effort and defensive deficiencies. The Sabres said Vanek's shown the effort.
"He's starting to realize that's what it takes to play in this league day in and day out - you've got to be ready to play every night and work hard," Grier said. "I think the last month and half, two months, he's really started to turn the corner in that regard."
Vanek has 15 goals and 17 assists, giving him a 25-goal, 28-assist pace. He wants to improve it.
"Every player, no matter where he's at, he always expects to be a little higher," Vanek said. "I do the same for myself. It's not bad where I'm sitting at right now, but I think I might be a little higher than I am."
Ruff, who wanted to go 4-2 on this road trip and enters tonight 3-2, had numbers picked out for Vanek, too.
"He's getting close to them," the coach said. "I think that you've got to keep goals in mind, and I felt he'd be able to get 20 to 30, and I think that's well within reach for him. That along with playing a good two-way game, which I think his two-way game has come a long way."
Grier and Drury know the pressure of numbers can weigh on players, especially a rookie. They like how Vanek has coped with being projected to fill Satan's stat line.
"I think it's hard to project what a guy's going to do, one year out of college, one year in pro," Drury said. "It's a lot of pressure on a kid. But overall he's handled it extremely well."