The Buffalo News from Buffalo, New York • 72

PAGE 18 THE BUALO NEWSWEDNESDAY OCTOBER 1 1997 prs WgM sV wye? iLnrSly 1 5 1 i 1 7 i 1 (J Sports On The air Early season TV schedule drives fans to the radio The Buffalo Sabres television schedule is just about guaranteed to do one thing early this season force fans to find the new radio home at WIITT (1041) In an attempt to get more fans down to Marine Midland Arena in October and November seven of the 12 games that the Empire Sports Network be carrying this season will be played at home in the first six weeks Those will be radio only games on WHTT the outlet where Sabres president Larry Quinn placed the games because it has a younger audience and a wider lis tening range than WGR AM Quinn also was furious with WGR over its critical coverage of him and the team imprint on the televi sion and radio plans won't be im mune to fan criticism cither ew would argue with the deci sion to simulcast the games on ra dio and television since it means everyone will hear excitable play by play man Rick Jcanneret and informative low key analyst Jim Lorentz Danny Gare who was the radio analyst last season is the TV pregame and intermission host Empire will carry a TV: Sabres Pregame for weekday editions and Mike De George will do updates from the new Sports on weekday games Mike Robitaille returns with 6rian Blessing as the co host of Quinn almost surely wishes that the opinionated Robitaille could be shown the door but is controlled by Empire The decision to lighten the number of home games in October and Novem ber was He said it is a business de cision want to give fans an incentive early in the season to go to the said Quinn in the year we sell the games He adds that it 1 a 7 'i ALAN PERGAMENT Unfortunately WNYO (which stands for Western New York and Ontario) yet on Canadian cable sys tems and probably be until Jan 1 if then If Channel 49 gets Ca nadian carriage expect 10 games to be simul cast with Empire on the station in the second exactly like the team is blacking out home games as the Bills do legally when they sold out 72 hours in advance He notes the home opener against Dallas Oct 7 is one of nine games Empire is carrying in the first month of the season and there also is an Oct 28 game be ing carried by ESPN to give local viewers 10 televised games in Oc tober half of the season While the Sabres got little na tional attention last season during their surprising Northeast Division title season ESPN has committed to carrying at least one game into this market and ox is planning to carry two games in March That means at least 73 of the Sabres games will be carried A year ago 78 were carried and only two home games available on Quinn concedes that there is a school of thought that television exposure actually heightens inter est in a team early in the season but he adds there is no evidence of its impact either way He certainly wants more expo sure in Canada which re ceive Empire on its cable systems A year ago the Sabres solved that problem by paying Channel 4 to carry 10 games W1VB TV is carried by Canadian systems The deal renewed feel our product deserves to get rights fees not pay said Quinn Since Channel 29 Channel 2 Channel 4 and Channel 7 declined to pay the Sabres last season the most likely home for the Sabres is the new Channel 49 a WB Net work affiliate which used to be some outlet Quinn denies there ever was a plan to reduce the TV schedule to 30 games saying he proposed to Empire in June that it carry all of the games He added that contract calls for it to carry at least 50 games The new contract with WIITT regrettably resulted in the preseason games being ig nored by radio Quinn concedes that he would have preferred to have those games carried but add ed that the lateness of the deal with WIITT resulted in the Sabres being shut out had committed to a said Quinn the preseason games make sense to them Maybe it will be possible next made sense to us not to do owned by the team the preseason because there was no feed and the Sabres provide us with the said Mercury Broadcasting president Charles Banta On the positive side Quinn notes that WIITT plans to carry a postgame show that could last as long as 90 minutes hosted by Gare and Darren McKee McKee former sports director and co host of the 97 Rock morning show is the new radio host and producer One of the things that annoyed Quinn about the deal with WGR besides Chuck rants against him was that the post game show could be over before fans left their parking spaces While most hockey eyes will be on Empire there certainly is enough hockey on other outlets a quick look at the primary outlets: ESPN and ESPN 2 26 game schedule which starts with game between lorida and Philadelphia has five games featuring the lyers and New York Rangers and four games involving the Stanley Cup champion Detroit Red Wings Col orado Chicago and lorida Start ing in January ESPN will carry games on seven straight Sunday nights The Oct 28 game with Colorado is the only scheduled appearance ESPN 2 carries 15 Colorado games and 14 Detroit games in its 76 game schedule Among the Wings games: the Oct 8 home opener when the Stanley Cup ban ner is raised The game eb 6 with Pittsburgh is on the ESPN 2 schedule but be seen here because it also will be carried by Empire ESPN 2 also carries a hockey highlights pro gram at 11:30 pm Tuesday through Saturday After carrying 100 games in the regular season ESPN and ESPN 2 will carry 50 playoff games CBC schedule opens riday with a game between Vancouver and Anaheim from Tokyo (also carried by ESPN 2) but almost all the rest of the schedule consists of Satur day doubleheaders at 7:30 pm and 10:30 pm The lone appearance on the tentative sched ule March 7 against Montreal also will be televised by Empire Reporter Ken Daniels has left CBC to do play by play for the Detroit Red Wings but otherwise the announcing teams are intact Bob Cole Harry Neale and Scott Russell are doing the game in Tokyo Ron MacLean remains the host of CBC Greg Millen is back as analyst and Don Cherry is back with MacLean on Comer first Saturday telecast To ronto at the New York Islanders will be worked by Chris Cuthbert John Garrett and Scott Oake ff ox (Channel 29) It begin carrying games until the Jan 18 All Star game After that it has scheduled games on 11 Saturdays five more than a year ago It will regionalize six games weekly up from four jl'he additional games will require fox to add two new announcing teams but obviously it has time before it has to hire anyone NHL: front office looks like a goalmouth scramble Sharks lack bite Continued from Page 17 Baumgartner center Mike Sullivan defense man Dave Ellett goalie Byron Dafoe Departures Centers Adam Oates and Jozef Stumpel wings Tocchct Sandy Mogcr Sheldon Kennedy Tim Sweeney and Troy Mallette goalies Bill Ranford and Scott Bailey Outlook Bruins adopted a youth move ment last season after falling from the play off ranks for the first time in 30 seasons Burns late of Montreal and Toronto will be better than fired Steve Kasper but turn around in sight for this season 23 Toronto Maple Leafs Strengths Not many Mats Sundin is a quality center elix Potvin is steady enough in goal and winger Sergei Berezin can score when left untouched Weaknesses ront office cost cutting and confusion has led to bad trades and forced a long term rebuidling program De fense is weak slow and soft Arrivals President Ken Dryden assis tant general managers Mike Smith and Anr ders Hcdbcrg join holdover Bill Watters in a convoluted front office Defenseman Per Gustafsson goalie Glenn Healy ccnterright wing Mike Kennedy left wings Derek King and Kris King Departures Team president Cliff letcher goalie Don Beaupre defenseman Jamie Howard Outlook Not the worst team in the NHL but not likely to make the playoffs ei ther 24 Tampa Bay Lightning Strengths ormer Sabres goalie Daren Puppa recovered from back problems and seems set to resume his annual run at team MVP honors Veteran Dino Ciccarelli (37) is still a power play threat and little known Rob Zamuner is a fine two way center who earned Selke Trophy consideration last sea son Weaknesses Chris Gratton the center the team was building around jumped to the lyers for free agent millions Lightning got defpnserpan Kajd Dykhujs andt righjVinger Mikael ascompehsajlioh i 'neither of whom will cause a 'stir Defense is below average despite the presence of first round draft pick Roman Hamrlik Arrivals Louie DeBrusk shores up toughness Departures Rudy Poeschek signed with St Louis and Shawn Burr and Brantt Myhres were traded Center John Cullen is battling cancer and be on the roster this season Outlook Lightning missed the playoffs last season and any better now 25 Los Angeles Kings Strengths ormer Kings great Dave Taylor is the new GM and has gone for a sensible rebuilding program for a team that made the playoffs since a surprise run to the finals in 1993 Traded leading scorer Dimitri Khristich and goalie Byron Dafoe to Boston for center Jozef Stumpel (55 assists 76 points) and grinding forward Sandy Moger Reacquired high scoring fan favorite LW Luc Robitaille (462 career goals) from New York Rangers for disap pointing LW Kevin Stevens (14 goals) Sign Sabres deffhsmah Gdrrji (38 points 71 games) to provide leadership to young team Center Ray erraro (25 goals) who played with Robitaille on Rang ers probably moves to second line behind Stumpel Rob Blake is a quality defense man Weaknesses No depth fistful of pros pects who ready yet Arrivals Taylor Robitaille Galley Stumpel Moger Departures Stevens Khristich Dafoe Outlook Progress is being made here but this is not a playoff team this season 26 San Jose Sharks Strengths Not much Mike Vernon in goal Tony Granato (25 goals) as a come back player with leadership Decent power play in Owen Nolan and Jeff riesen Weaknesses Everywhere No snipers poor defense and penalty killing Arrivals Darryl Sutter as coach Mike Vernon from the Stanley Cup champion De troit Red Wings former Sabres defenseman Bill Iloulder forward Stephane Matteau Departures Goalie Ed Belfour winger Bpb Errey coach Al Sims Outlook The worst team in hockey i.