It's a time of reflection for the Pirates

By Chris Roy Published: 7th May 2011

Today was a somber day for the Pirates as they cleaned out their lockers, had their exit interviews, said their good-byes and met with the media one last time before departing for the summer.

The Pirates season came to an abrupt end after a 3-0 loss to the Binghamton Senators in Game 6 of the Atlantic Division Finals at the Civic Center on Friday night.

The Pirates had their backs against the wall and they knew it. The margin for error was small and the Pirates just looked a step behind the entire game. It only took the Sens 25 seconds into the start of the game to get what proved to be the winning goal.

“It’s been a pretty rough time today,” said Derek Whitmore “Nobody expected us to be out in six. We thought we’d at least bring it to seven and roll the dice and give ourselves a chance.”

Now the questions start as for what will happen with the Pirates. Who will the Sabres bring back into the fold and who will be let go?

The Sabres have never re-signed a veteran for the Pirates so it will be interesting to see if that changes with Terry Pegula signing the checks.

Whitmore, Mark Mancari, Mark Parrish, Matt Ellis and Colin Stuart

Jhonas Enroth won’t be back. He’s graduated to the NHL, but David Leggio will be back. He’s a restricted free agent this summer and Europe doesn’t seem to be an option. He’s been there and done that and for the Williamsville, NY native playing for the Sabres organization is a dream come through.

Another question mark will be what does the future hold for Pirates head coach Kevin Dineen. He will certainly get interest from other NHL teams about their head coaching vacancy. Darcy Regier was at Game 6 and with the Pirates on Saturday as exit interviews took place. He was surprised that Dineen wasn’t an NHL head coach alread

y and feels it’s only a matter of time.

You can hear Regier, Dineen and the rest of the interviews from locker clean out day.
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