WICHTIG » longer). In the meantime, Ted

BUDAPEST, Hungary - Formula One championship leader Nico Rosberg claimed pole position on Saturday for the Hungarian Grand Prix while Mercedes teammate Lewis Hamilton will start at the back of the race grid as an engine fire prevented him setting a qualifying time. Rosbergs time of 1 minute, 22.715 seconds at the Hungaroring was 0.486 seconds ahead of Red Bulls Sebastian Vettel while Valtteri Bottas of Williams qualified third. Hamilton, who was fastest in all three practice sessions, will start at the back for the second-straight grand prix as his engine caught fire due to a fuel leak in the early stages of the first session of qualifying. Brake failure caused Hamilton to crash during qualifying at the German Grand Prix last week, but he finished third after starting 20th. A similar performance will be difficult on the twisting Hungaroring — a circuit where Hamilton has won four times, including the past two races — as it offers few clear opportunities for passing. "Theres a lot going through my mind, but I just have to try to turn it into positives tomorrow," Hamilton said. "Its getting to the point when its kind of beyond bad luck. We need to do better." With the whole field separating the two Mercedes drivers in Sundays race, Rosberg is perfectly positioned to build on his 14-point lead over Hamilton in the drivers championship. "I would prefer to be out there battling with Lewis," said Rosberg. "That would give me the maximum adrenalin rush." A brief rain shower complicated the final session of qualifying, with Kevin Magnussen of McLaren sliding off the track and making a heavy collision with a tire wall. "It was massively difficult down there and unpredictable," said Rosberg, who like Magnussen ran off the track at the slippery Turn 1 but avoided the barriers. It has been a challenging season for four-time defending champion Vettel. After winning 13 of 19 races in 2013, including the last nine, Vettels best results this year are two third-place finishes. Nonetheless, the layout of the Hungarian circuit could boost his teams performance. "The nature of the track suits us a bit more — it has less straights," Vettel said. "It seems we are a little bit closer, but Nicos final lap was very good so the gap was again quite big, bigger than we were hoping for." Bottas, who has been surging lately and finished second twice and third once in the last three races, complained of "missing some grip" but was still satisfied with the performance of Williams, which is third in the constructors standings behind Mercedes and Red Bull. "Today was a really good day for us," said Bottas, whose teammate Felipe Massa will start from the sixth spot on the grid. "We have a good chance also here to get some really good points." Daniel Ricciardo qualified fourth for Red Bull ahead of Ferraris Fernando Alonso. Behind Massa in sixth came Jenson Button of McLaren, Toro Rossos Jean-Eric Vergne, Force Indias Nico Hulkenberg, and Magnussen, who did not set a third-session time. Ferraris Kimi Raikkonen qualified a lowly 17th due to a tactical blunder by the team, which tried to preserve tires and not send him out in the closing stages of the first session, believing his existing time could not be bettered, only for Marussias Jules Bianchi to do so. Thunderstorms have been forecast for Sunday, along with a maximum temperature of 33 degrees Celsius (91.4 Fahrenheit), though most of the rain is expected to fall in the late afternoon, after the race. Jordan 8 Wholesale . The (35-35-10) Jets have 80 points and are also playing .500 hockey on home ice this season with a 17-17-6 record. Michael Hutchinson will start his second straight game in goal. Wholesale Jordan 8 . THE THUNDER & PACERS BENCHES: In a nutshell, not impressive at all. http://www.cheapairjordan8.com/. These teams will see plenty of each other in the next few weeks as three of the Canucks next nine games are against the Wild (after today they meet February 9th in Minnesota and again February 16th at Rogers Arena). Cheap Authentic Jordan 8 . You can watch all the action on TSN and TSN GO beginning at 8:30pm et/5:30pm pt. Minnesota dropped the first two tests of this best-of-seven set at Chicagos United Center and was outscored by a combined 9-3 margin in those setbacks. However, the Wild righted themselves at home by taking Game 3 by a 4-0 count before knotting the series at two games apiece with Fridays 4-2 triumph at Xcel Energy Center. Cheap Jordan 8 . Jamies number grades given are out of five, with five being the best mark. Henrik Lundqvist, New York Rangers (4) – He had a strong game Sunday; was very good in tight with big saves on Crosby, Malkin and Neal in-crease.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. ' ' '