As mentioned in Friday's Blueland Blog trivia contest, Randy Cunneyworth has coached 15 of the players currently on the Buffalo Sabres' roster. As the head coach of the Sabres' AHL affiliate in Rochester, NY Cunneyworth was responsible for helping many of those players get to the NHL. He knows their strengths and weaknesses and what makes them tick. Given how much he knows about the team he is about to face on Saturday night at Philips I opted to ask him about the Sabres.

The following is condensed from a conversation I had with Thrashers assistant coach Randy Cunneyworth on Thursday as the New Jersey Devils finished their morning skate.

For those who don't follow them, who are some of the most dangerous Sabres?

They have a lot of weapons they can throw at you and their team is built around speed and skill. Thomas Vanek is always dangerous. Jason Pominville is a great player. Jochen Hecht is very good but he's hurt right now. They're such a skilled team that you have to really be careful. And of course they have very good goaltending in Ryan Miller.

How do you gameplan for a team like that?

Well, you have to take away their speed. You can try to force them to the outside and slow them down but you have to do it in a smart way. If they have a weakness I might say that it's in their physical game. They don't necessarily like to play that style, so if you can do that and take away their speed you can have some success.

What is it about the Sabres that has allowed them to have so much success with homegrown players? Is it drafting? Great coaching at the AHL level?

It all begins with selecting the right players. They address needs and always seem to have players ready at different positions. You also have to give them ice time and allow them to develop. As a coach I always wanted to make sure ice time got spread around as evenly as possible. It didn't help anyone to only play a few minutes a game. That's not what I wanted to see. You want players to develop and play in different situations and you have to spread ice time around in order to do that.

After seeing some of the Thrashers' young players in training camp do you see any parallels between the two teams in that department? There seem to be some good young players on the way here.

For sure. You see a guy like Bryan Little leading the team in scoring after three games and then there's Zach (Bogosian). Zach is going to be a special player. He's so big and strong for his age and we've seen him get better every game he has played. He's already improving and learning.

Looking ahead to the game on Saturday, will there be any special significance to coaching against the Sabres after having been with them for so long?

I haven't thought about it yet since I'm still preparing for New Jersey, but I'm sure it will be a little bit special once the day comes and I get behind the bench. Everyone wants to do well against their former employer. I was in that situation several times as a player and it's special. You want to show them what you can do and a win for your new team and new employer always feels nice.

I'm sure you've heard of the bad blood between the two teams from last season when the Sabres won 10-1 and 6-0.

Yes, I'm aware of it. These things happen in this game and players remember. You don't like to be shown up and it's hard to forget about those games. They stay with you and you want to redeem yourself the next time around and have a better showing. There's a lot of pride involved.

Do you have any tips for Ilya on how to beat Ryan Miller?

Great goal scorers always find ways to score, no matter who they're facing. I haven't talked to him yet but I can probably share some tendencies with him. I'm not sure Miller has particular weaknesses, because he's such a talented young goalie, but there may be tendencies- ways he reacts in certain situations.

Thank you for sharing your thoughts.

It was a pleasure.