x-Sabre Rick Dudley could be the next

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PHOENIX -- Trey Burke had the biggest game of his young NBA career, and the Utah Jazz finally have a victory on the road. Burke scored 20 points, including two 3-pointers in the final four minutes, and the Jazz beat the Phoenix Suns 112-104 on Saturday night. Richard Jefferson added 15 for the Jazz, who were 0-9 on the road entering the contest and lost 112-101 at home to Phoenix on Friday night. Marvin Williams and Derrick Favors added 14 apiece as Utah put seven players in double figures. Goran Dragic had 24 points and nine assists for the Suns. Channing Frye added 17 points for Phoenix. Utah has won two of three but has just three victories in 18 games this season. Burkes previous high was 14 in the Jazzs overtime win over Chicago two games ago. "Our guys thought they could just show up tonight and win the game and in this game it doesnt happen that way, but they dont want to listen to it," Phoenix coach Jeff Hornacek said. "Coaches are telling them they have to be ready and thats what happens." Burke, a first-round draft pick who was the college player of the year at Michigan, shot 4 of 6 on 3-pointers. His last 3 put the Jazz up 105-97 with 1:13 to play. "I wasnt trying to settle for the 3," he said, "I was trying to get in the paint and get a 4- or 5-foot jump shot or make the defence collapse so I could kick it out for an open jump shot." But he said he saw the Suns get mixed up on a screen "and I was at the 3-point line and had the confidence to shoot it." The Jazz had trailed by as many as 20 points in their loss to Phoenix on Friday but were either close or ahead throughout this one. "We felt like Phoenix came into our building and could do whatever they wanted to do," Williams said. "They beat us in transition, they beat us in half court, so we wanted to come in tonight and really focus on those two areas and it really worked out for us." Utah led by as many as nine points before the Suns finished the first half with a 12-1 run to lead 53-49 at the break. The Jazz took the lead three minutes into the third quarter and held it the rest of the period, but never by more than four points. Eric Bledsoe, who scored eight in the period, sank two free throws with 15 seconds left in the third quarter to cut Utahs lead to 78-77 entering the fourth. Enes Kanter opened the final period with a 4-foot hook shot, then Jeremy Evans sank a 20-footer to give Utah its biggest lead of the half, 82-77. The Suns Gerald Green nailed a 3-pointer to make it 82-80, then made two in a row to tie it at 86. But Alec Burks scored four in a 6-1 spurt that gave Utah a 93-87 lead with 6:38 to play. Williams 3-pointer extended the lead to 98-91 with 5:15 to play. Bledsoe, in his second game back after missing five with a bruised shin, made two free throws to cut it to 98-95 4:09 from the finish, but Burke sank a 3 from far beyond the top of the key and the Jazz were up 101-95 with 3:53 left. Fryes rebound basket with 3:35 to go cut it to 101-97. After Gordon Hayward made one of two free throws for the Jazz, Bledsoe missed two from the foul line, then Burke made his final 3 to make it an eight-point game. The Suns never got closer than four after that. "It was definitely frustrating," the Suns P.J. Tucker said. "It was a letdown, especially after playing so well yesterday." Notes: Utahs other two victories have come at home against New Orleans and Chicago. ... After scoring 17 in the first half at Utah on Friday night, Dragic had 14 points and eight assists at the break Saturday. ... Phoenix never led by more than six. ... The Jazz outscored the Suns 25-13 in second-chance points. ... 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Ted Ligety, Mikaela Shiffrin, Bode Miller and Tim Jitloff underlined the squads enormous potential on the Rettenbach glacier in Austria.The Buffalo Sabres have been a complete mess in the 2013-2014 NHL season, accumulating just nine points in 20 games, and it cost general manager Darcy Regier and head coach Ron Rolston their jobs Wednesday, with Sabres legend Pat Lafontaine taking over as President of Hockey Operations and Ted Nolan assuming head coaching duties. Scott Cullen looks at the state of a team for which things can only look up. Last season, the Sabres finished with 48 points in 48 games, finishing 22nd out of 30 teams; not nearly good enough for the playoffs, but not utterly disastrous, which means not bad enough to secure a premium pick at the top of the first round. They traded veteran winger Jason Pominville and defenceman Jordan Leopold during the season, but seven of their top eight scorers were returning for the 2013-2014 season. Even so, the Sabres ranked 29th in my preseason Power Rankings, with not enough proven talent, aside from left winger Thomas Vanek and goaltender Ryan Miller who, as pending unrestricted free agents, were prime candidates for trade. Of course, Vanek was traded, to the New York Islanders and the Sabres received a quality package in return, but it is a curious turn of events to allow Darcy Regier to oversee the start of a rebuilding process and take responsibility for trading the clubs best player, only to clean house in the front office two-and-a-half weeks later. Now, this doesnt mean that people shouldnt have been fired (On XM NHL Network Radio last Friday, I said that Rolston was my pick to be the next coach canned). The Sabres have been unabashedly terrible. They have one regulation win in 20 games and that was in a game at Florida in which they were outshot 45-21 by the Panthers, a team that sits a lofty 28th in the NHL standings. The Sabres have the worst puck possession stats in the league, by a sizeable margin and, given these poor underlying conditions, will need patience in order to develop a roster that is consistently competitive because they cant even argue that theyve been especially unlucky to have this poor record. Matt Moulson, a pending unrestricted free agent who was acquired as part of the package in exchange for Vanek, has 17 points in 18 games with the Islanders and Sabres, and Cody Hodgson has 15 points in 20 games; they are the only Sabres with more than 10 points through the first 20 games of the season. These are the skaters at the top of Buffalos pay scale: RW Drew Stafford, who has a $4-million cap hit, has two goals and six points. A three-time 20-goal scorer, Stafford topped out with 31 goals in 62 games as recently as 2010-2011. LW Ville Leino, a $4.5-million cap hit through 2016-2017, has one point in eight games and has been a healthy scratch even when hes not injured. D Christian Ehrhoff, signed through 2020-2021 at a $4-million cap hit, has four assists in 19 games. Hes not playing poorly, but isnt good enough to be a difference-maker on a bad club. D Tyler Myers, inked through 2018-2019 for $5.5-million per, has four points and is minus-9. His play has declined dramatically since his impressive rookie campaign of 2009-2010. No team can generate positive results in a salary cap league when their highest-paid players are so unproductive. The highest-paid player remaining in Buffalo is G Ryan Miller, who has a $6.25-million cap hit on a contract that expires at seasons end. Miller has a .916 save percentage, pretty much his standard since 2010-2011, and good enough that he will likely hold some appeal on the trade market when the time finally comes to move out a 33-year-old who is not a fit for a team at this level of rebuilding. Once Miller is moved, that would be right down to the foundation. Is there hope for the future? Sure, eventually. The Sabres have given substantial playing time to young players this season. Teenage defencemen Rasmus Ristolainen and Nikita Zadorov have played more than 17 minutes per game, immediately after they were drafted in 2013 and 21-year-old rookie Mark Pysyk plays 21 minutes per game on the blueline, ranking third behind Ehrhoff and Myers. As the experience with Myers has shown, there is not necessarily a linear path from teen NHL defenceman to future NHL star, so even if the young defencemen pan out, there is some risk andd it should take time before they can be counted on to anchor the unit.dddddddddddd The Sabres also have prospects Brayden McNabb and Chad Ruhwedel toiling in the AHL for Rochester and they could be due for a look this season. Add in University of Wisconsin defenceman Jake McCabe and Buffalo has a solid crop of blueliners in the organization. Solid enough that they might want to consider sending Zadorov back to the Ontario Hockey League for another season rather than letting the first year of his entry-level deal burn as part of this disastrous campaign. The story is less promising up front. Hodgson, Tyler Ennis, Marcus Foligno, Johan Larsson, Zemgus Girgensons, and Mikhail Grigorenko are all under 25, and Joel Armia holds potential as a scoring winger but, even in the best-case scenario, its going to be a while before they become impact players, if any are going to have a notable impact at all. (Incidentally, Armia is ready to make his AHL debut after suffering a broken hand in training camp). Assuming that Miller gets moved, the Sabres will have Jhonas Enroth and Matt Hackett as their top two goaltenders (depending on the return for Miller). Thats not the strongest duo, but Enroth has a .914 save percentage in 60 NHL games as Millers backup, so hes worth a try, at least while the rebuilding process is in full effect. What is most promising for the Sabres is that they have seriously stockpiled draft picks over the next couple seasons (something for which the next GM, or even Lafontaine, can thank Regier. The Sabres own the Islanders first-round pick in 2014 (Vanek trade) as well as second-round picks from the Kings (two, for Robyn Regehr), Wild (Pominville deal) and Islanders (Vanek) over the next two seasons, plus whatever returns they might get for their veteran unrestricted free agents that could be moved before this seasons trade deadline. Including their own first and second-round picks, the Sabres will have eight picks in the first two rounds over the next two drafts. Then consider that Miller, Moulson and Steve Ott are all pending unrestricted free agents that should hold significant appeal around the league. Getting picks and prospects in return could give the Sabres in the neighbourhood of a dozen picks in the first two rounds over the next two drafts. Times are tough now, but those picks should really replenish the talent in the organization. (Note: the Sabres likely cant empty the cupboard completely because they will have to get to the salary cap floor in 2014-2015 and, per Cap Geek, they have 14 players under contract for $34.9-million next season.) Draft picks and prospects are uncertain, but if a team is as bad as the Sabres are currently, its encouraging to have picks that could help change the direction of the franchise and, given their current place in the standings, the Sabres are not likely to be dramatically better as soon as next season, which means they could be in contention for the Connor McDavid Sweepstakes, also known as the 2015 NHL Draft. Acquiring talent through the draft should ultimately change the Sabres fortunes, but that build is a slow process -- it could be five years before a playoff berth is a reasonable expectation (or, ask the Edmonton Oilers, the process can take even longer). In the meantime, Ted Nolan is going to have to instill a work ethic in the Sabres young players; something could have a lasting effect going forward. Given that this is already a lost season, there is no reason for Nolan not to play his young players and play them a lot, since they might as well find out who can handle playing at the NHL level. There is a feeling, in some circles, that by digging into the franchises past to hire Lafontaine and Nolan (and rumours have begun that ex-Sabre Rick Dudley could be the next GM), the Sabres are merely looking for some positive PR spin. Maybe thats the case. Well have to see what kind of decisions the new braintrust makes and how well they set the franchise up for the future. It will be a big job for a team is going to have a lot of long nights for this season and beyond. Scott Cullen can be reached at Scott.Cullen@bellmedia.ca and followed on Twitter at http://twitter.com/tsnscottcullen. For more, check out TSN Fantasy on Facebook. 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