Final Blog Assignment

I thoroughly enjoyed my time in English 399 Sports Journalism this semester. It was a great opportunity to take a class about something you’re truly passionate about. Journalism is strictly a hobby of mine, but it allowed me to progress in ways I wouldn’t have expected.

The biggest thing I have taken away from this class is my improved writing ability. I believe my biggest improvement has come in my game stories. I spend a lot of time writing game stories about the Buffalo Sabres, and this class helped my take those  stories to a whole new level. I have learned to structure and present my stories in a way that is more professional and appealing to readers.

There are no real regrets from this class, but maybe a few things that could have worked differently. For me personally, the time frame was frustrating. Being my fourth and longest class on Mondays made it difficult to focus at times. I did really like the laid back nature of the class though. With plenty of time to complete assignments and the easy-going atmosphere in class made it stress free. Although I did get mixed up with the due dates for assignments a few times which I seemed to have missed during class, but again sitting through my eighth hour of class on a Monday could be to blame.

Another cool aspect of the class was having a seasoned pro (Mr. McShea himself) editing and critiquing our work. That definitely made our work better and gave us insight in the types of things too look for going forward. Overall a would give this class a thumb up and recommend it for future semesters at UB.

Best Thing I Read

The best thing I read this week comes from our fearless leader, Mr. Keith McShea. His coverage of HS football this past week was second to none, captivating readers throughout the Western NY area. 

In this first story, McShea’s description of the weather sets the stage for the rest of the recap. In the first few paragraphs of his story, he describes how to the elements affected the outcome of the game that pitted Cleveland Hill against the Chenango Forks. 

http://www.buffalonews.com/sports/high-schools/forks-defense-snowy-road-stall-cleve-hills-run-to-the-dome-20131123

In this next story, we get a first-hand look at McShea’s on-field reporting ability as he breaks down the game between Depew and Maine-Endwell with snow flying in the background. In the end, the game really did end well for Maine-Endwell, crushing Depew 35-13.

 http://www.buffalonews.com/sports/football/depew-falls-to-powerful-maine-endwell-in-state-b-football-semifinal-20131123

Best Thing I Read This Week

After attending my first ever Buffalo Bills game yesterday, I had to go with Jerry Sullivan’s column about the game. The Bills kicked ass against the Jets, and it was definitely a great first game to go to. In Sullivan’s article, he was right on about EJ Manuel’s success in yesterday’s game, and he took an interesting angle, talking about EJ’s big hands for the first three paragraph’s. 

The story of the game was Buffalo’s defense.The Bills forced four turnovers in yesterday’s win, allowing them to hang onto the momentum for the majority of the game. Buffalo did something they don’t do very often, and that was capitalizing off of their opponent’s mistakes. Yesterday’s game was a prime example of how deadly Manuel, and the rest of the Bills’ offense can be when they’re on. It gives Buffalo fans like myself something to hold out hope for. 

here’s the article from Sullivan:

http://www.buffalonews.com/columns/jerry-sullivan/manuel-deserves-a-hand-after-big-time-bounce-back-effort-20131117

 

The Sabres Turn a New Leaf

In sudden series of events, the Buffalo Sabres earned their first home win of the season, fired their head coach and GM, and then proceeded to beat the Toronto Maple Leafs on Friday. 

The Buffalo Sabres captured headlines this past week, letting go of long time GM Darcy Regier, and their most recent head coach, Ron Rolston who replaced Lindy Ruff last season. Leading up to the announcement, the Sabres reported that they were to have a major press conference at 10:30 on Wednesday. It didn’t take long for all of Western NY to learn the news that the Sabres organization finally decided to take action after witnessing their worst start in franchise history. 

The Sabres also announced that former Buffalo coach, Ted Nolan, would take the place of Rolston as the interim coach, and Pat LaFontaine would be the new president of hockey operations. LaFontaine rejoins the organization after playing six years for the Sabres and was eager to accept the opportunity. He has also been given the task of assigning the new GM for the Sabres, and will manage the team in the meantime. 

Following the shake-up within the organization, the Sabres went on to play their best game of the season against division rival Toronto Maple Leafs. The game was filled with a revitalized sense of energy and intensity that has been missing from this team all season. Buffalo won the game by a final score of 3-1. 

If Nolan can turn this season around, and give this fan-base a team to be proud of, he might just be a worthy candidate for coach of the year. 

Behind the Scenes with Jerry Sullivan

Jerry Sullivan isn’t your stereotypical sports writer. In fact, if it was up to him, he wouldn’t be writing about sports at all. The Rhode Island native grew up with the dream of being a reporter. He wanted to be someone that reported the news and getting the facts out first. 

Contrary to what some might think, sports writers don’t sit with their faces glued to SportsCenter or Twitter and Sullivan is a prime example of that. When he’s not writing columns for the Buffalo News he enjoys the simpler things in life, like watching jeopardy on TV with his wife or taking his dog for a walk. 

During football season he does four columns a week about the Buffalo Bills.

“It’s a very structured life in the Bills season,” Sullivan said. “They call me the senior sports columnist.”

When the NFL isn’t in season, he gets more freedom to write about what he chooses. Since joining the Buffalo News in 1989, he has covered sporting events around the world including the olympics, Super Bowls, World Series, and PGA events. 

Sullivan spoke about the good and the bad of being a columnist but one thing stood out in particular. One of the more frustrating things for a sports writer to deal with are the critics who argue that ‘writers don’t know what it’s like to be an athlete.’ Here’s what Jerry had to say on the subject:

“It comes up more with readers actually. You get that often, ‘you never played the game, you were a nerd in high school that got cut from the team’,” Sullivan commented. “It’s journalism. Educate yourself and if you were never a professional athlete or college athlete, I suppose it would help to have done that but I really don’t think its that important.”

“I know what a bad play looks like…”Sullivan said. “I need to be objective, I need to be able to write and express myself and to think critically.”

“I often say, it’s only sports, ya know?”

Best Thing I Read

The best thing I read this past week comes from none other than Jerry Sullivan. After listening to him talk to our class last week, it was interesting to see his work in motion.

I thought I would turn my attention to the Bills this Sunday, facing a weak Pittsburgh Steelers. Of course the Bills didn’t fail to disappoint in this one, putting up a dismal effort against the 3-6 Steelers. At this point, I’m on the verge of losing all hope for Buffalo teams as the Sabres have hit rock bottom, and the Bills aren’t far behind.

After a tough loss this past Sunday, Sullivan had some good points to make about the Bill’s QB EJ Manuel and the rest of the team.

http://www.buffalonews.com/columns/jerry-sullivan/manuel-on-tight-leash-takes-big-step-backward-20131110

Best Thing I read this week

The best thing I read this week came from Bucky Gleason’s column. Upon finishing up his suspension, Pat Kaleta of the Buffalo Sabres was placed on waivers. Myself and many loyal Sabres’ fans did not take kindly to this news and Mr. Gleason has some good things to say in his column regarding the situation.

 

http://www.buffalonews.com/columns/bucky-gleason/axing-kaleta-is-wrong-message-20131103

Why Lindy Ruff Deserved Better From Buffalo

In the wake of Lindy Ruff’s triumphant hometown return, it’s difficult to ignore what took place in Buffalo last season.

The video tribute owed to Lindy Ruff Monday night was a class act by the Buffalo Sabres’ organization. It was a moment that had many fans on their feet, applauding Ruff’s career with the Sabres, and other fans in tears as the memories were relived on the jumbotron in First Niagara Center.

If only this organization could have shown the same man the respect he deserved last season.

Following a 6-10-1 start last year, Ruff was relieved of his coaching duties for the Buffalo Sabres. The NHL’s longest-tenured coach was let go after a tough start in Buffalo, and it was ultimately the decision of the Sabres’ General Manager, Darcy Regier.

It was a decision that didn’t sit well with many. For a team that’s had its fair share of tough stretches, the timing made no sense. It was a move that captured headlines throughout the hockey world and shook the foundation of Buffalo. But more importantly it was a move the Sabres’ organization should have never made; at least not until after the season.

The General Manager of an NHL franchise is solely responsible for the on-ice product, and Regier had his mark all over last year’s struggling team. A coach can only do so much with mediocre talent. If it was Lindy’s time to leave Buffalo, Regier should have led the way.

What was even more troubling is what followed in Buffalo that season. The inexperienced Ron Rolston was named interim head coach and Regier began disassembling this team, making it clear that management was giving up on the season.

There’s no question that change needed to be made sooner or later in Buffalo, and that maybe the coaching style of Lindy Ruff was overworked with the Sabres, but it should have never happened the way it did. For a man that played 10 seasons for the same organization he had been coaching for the last 16, he deserved better. In the end, Ruff was merely a scapegoat.

Now, amidst the worst start in franchise history, things are dark in Buffalo, and the team is in much worse shape than when Lindy was fired last season. In one fell swoop, Buffalo has gone from hockey heaven to hockey hell, and no one is left to blame but Darcy Regier himself.

Ruff’s return to Buffalo Monday night was a memorable moment for this fan base, and a humbling experience for the Sabres’ ex-coach. It illustrated how much he really meant to the organization, and it was only fitting that he led his Dallas Stars to a 4-3 victory over his former team.

Ruff is a professional, and he knows better than anyone that coaching changes are all a part of the job. But after listening to him talk to the media yesterday, it was clear that his heart still lies in Buffalo. He admitted that he still watches the Sabres, and roots for them in between games. He said he’ll accidentally open up the stats for Buffalo instead of Dallas from time to time, and he even slips up and says ‘we’ when referring to the Sabres. But this should come as no surprise for a man that has spent half his life in the Sabres’ organization.

Thank you Lindy, and best of luck to you and wherever your coaching career may take you.

Bruins vs. Sabres Game Story 10/23

In his worst outing so far this season, Ryan Miller gave up five goals to the Boston Bruins at home, as the Buffalo Sabres fell 5-2 tonight at the First Niagara Center. The struggling Sabres were outshot by an embarrassing margin of 34-16, as they continue to fall further down the ranks.

“I need to come up with some saves for the guys. It’s the most disappointed I’ve been with myself all year,” Ryan Miller stated after the game. “You know, 3-2 at home, you gotta give the guys an opportunity. Just two goals go through me. That’s not going to get it done.”

Milan Lucic and Torey Krug  each netted a pair of goals on the night, leading Boston (6-2) to victory over Buffalo (1-9-1).

Cody Hodgson tallied a rare powerplay goal for the Sabres in the second period. Nikita Zadorov scored Buffalo’s second of the night, earning the first goal of his NHL career.

Just under six minutes into the third period, John Scott took a run at Boston’s Loui Erikssonand dropped him to the ice with a controversial shoulder-to-head collision. The play resulted in a match misconduct for Scott and a five minute major that gave the Bruins the upper hand for the majority of the period.

“I’m not going to comment on it,” Buffalo’s coach Ron Rolston said after the game.

Boston scored on the ensuing powerplay, which ended any hopes of a Buffalo comeback. Eriksson was hospitalized after the hit from Scott but is expected to return to Boston on Thursday.

The first period of tonight’s game was a better initial effort by Buffalo, but they struggled to find the back of the net against the inexperienced Chad Johnson who got the start in goal for the Bruins. Johnson made 14 saves in his first start of the season filling in for Tuukka Rask.

Boston got on the board 11:01 into the game with a shot from Jerome Iginla that Milan Lucic deflected past Ryan Miller. The Sabres managed six shots on goal in the first to the Bruins seven.

Boston came out with a vengeance in the second lead by Lucic who scored his second goal of night only 40 seconds into the period. The Bruins’ rush was capped off by a beautiful feed from Iginla to Lucic that beat Mark Pysyk breaking to the net on defense. The Sabres were outskated during the opening minutes of the second period, but managed to kill off a 5-on-3 Bruins advantage and generated a goal on their ensuing powerplay. At 8:21 into the period, Cody Hodson found the back of the net for Buffalo, capitalizing on a costly Bruins bench penalty. Boston answered back just three and a half minutes later on another successful offensive rush. Dougie Hamilton recorded the goal to put the Bruins up 3-1 at 11:50. The Sabres’ offense ceased to quit in the period with an unlikely goal from Nikita Zadorov, the first of his NHL career to bring the Sabres within one.

The Bruins stole the momentum on a weak goal from Torey Krug 4:13 into the third period, one that Ryan Miller wished he could have back. The rest of the game was all Boston after John Scott’s dirty hit on Loui Eriksson. The play resulted in a lengthy man-up advantage for the visiting team that allowed Krug to earn another goal for Boston, and put the game out of reach for the Sabres. Buffalo’s offense sputtered and stalled, only managing 2 shots on goal the entire third period.

The Bruins are back in Boston tomorrow night to take on the top-ranked San Jose Sharks. The Sabres travel to Florida this Friday to take on the Panthers, followed by a game on Saturday against the Lightning in Tampa Bay.

Best Thing I Read This Week

The best thing I read this weak comes from the huge news of the Buffalo Sabres trading Thomas Vanek to the Islanders. It was shocking to say the least. Not easy seeing one of your favorites get traded away. Here’s one of the articles of NHL.com 

http://www.nhl.com/ice/news.htm?id=688799