Majestic Buff grants interview

Almost a quarter of the way into the season and General Manager of the Chatham Victory and its affiliate the Portsmouth Pirates gave us his low down thus far:

“Well the ship is a lot more steady now that it was this time last year. That might have something to do with having Dan [the llama] at the wheel rather than some crazy Frenchmen intent on docking in the Bay of Biscay.

Home form isn’t where we expected it to be but we have been much better on our travels this year, perhaps because the players are used to being away on holidays.

We’ve won some divisional match-ups this season as well which was a big aim for us, though those pesky badgers still continue to stifle us [Buff refuted the claim that increased efforts in these games were a result of bounties being placed on opponents heads].

The much maligned power-play started off poorly again but has recently picked up again whilst the once reliable penalty kill has fallen to pieces. Getting the two to work together is something Dan and the lads will have to work on and I have bought the team some tandem bikes to help with that.”

One explanation for the sporadic nature of the Victory’s season might be the slow starts by superstars Jonathan Towes, Marc-Andre Bergeron and Daniel Sedin. However in recent weeks the trio have picked up their games.

Fortunately Buffon’s tactic of trading for depth in the forward corp seems to have paid off. Kostitsyn is thriving on the extra responsibility and TJ Oshie is applying himself well to plugging defensive gaps in the lines. Moving Vermette to centre also appears to be masterstroke and the three were a big reason Chatham did not find themselves straight back in the basement.

The blue line has been nothing if solid. Orpik and Scuderi are proving their worth as stay at home D men this season whilst Seidenberg and Wisniewski have handled the most difficult of defensive assignments with diligence. Bergeron is now picking up his game and Oreskovic and Lydman are filling the gap left by Jack Johnson who was demoted to the minors to work on his game.

The crease remains a concern for the pro team. The Victory do not allow too many shots on goal but neither Bryzgalov nor Pavelec has produced any consistency to establish themselves in the #1 spot.

Down in the minors Buff noted the lack of scoring as a problem.

“Mark Pysk has been a revelation. Without his goals we would not have made such a blistering start and the lad deserves the plaudits. Owen Nolan [who Buff last season claimed only had a future with the team pouring coffee] has contributed his part and so his recent 2 month injury puts us in a difficult situation which I am trying to rectify with offers of cake and cheap meat to a number of other GMs.”

It is not all was doom and gloom for Pirates despite a recent slump putting them into the jaws of the chasing pack.

“We have always been solid at the back. We have given Anders [Nilsson] a bit more of break this season after his burnout in the play-offs last year. The tandem [with Josh Harding] has not performed quite as well as last season but the lads have still done enough to win games- something our older tenders might want to take note of. Hopefully by keeping the guys fresh we can power through this slump once support up top arrives.”

Buff indicted that he still expected the Pirates to make a second successive play-off appearance whilst the Victory were still gunning for .500 hockey and a 3rd place finish in the division, anything else being a bonus that will be rewarded with magnums of chocolate milkshake and bacon double cheeseburgers.