Tuesday, January 27, 2009

On the Road Again

by Anne

I'm pretty sure I was asleep before midnight last night which is a feat I have not accomplished in quite some time. This morning I slept until noon. That's lots of sleep. Fortunately my first class isn't until 2:00 which kind of stinks/ kind of doesn't. I don't really enjoy not starting my day until the mid-afternoon. Fortunately, I'm finished at 4:30 leaving plenty o' time to eat dinner and get pumped before the Sabres take on the Oilers tonight.

I've yet to find anyone who isn't happy that the NHL has changed to the new "everyone plays everyone" schedule. Its really fun to get to play Western Conference teams we wouldn't otherwise watch. We all know San Jose is the team to beat this year, but how often do Sabres fans sit down and turn on a Sharks game at 10:30? I'm assuming not with any regularity.

The Oilers would have been in the running for favorite Western Conference team this year, but they gave up all possibility of that happening when they traded Matt Greene this past summer along with Jarret Stoll to LA for Lubomir Visnovsky. The trade seems to have benefitted both teams, so I suppose I can live with it.

The Oilers feature WCB Captain Ethan Moreau on their roster. Cap'n Ethan was the Tim Connolly of the Edmonton Oilers for the past 2 seasons. In 2006-2007 he played only seven games after dislocating his shoulder and requiring surgery. In 2007-2008 he fractured his tibia in a pre-season game and missed the first 38 games of the season. He came back around now-ish last season only to leave again in February with a broken leg.

I, of course, did not know this all off the top of my head when I wrote this or when I selected him as my WCB. I had to research him because I was surprised to have never heard of the Captain of an NHL team before. Also, through some sort of elaborate series of trades, Ethan Moreau is the last remaining remnant of the Wayne Gretzky trade. I'm not exactly sure how, but there ya go. Moreau has only 18 points this season, 10 of them goals, but he scored three of those 10 in one game.

So there are 4 games remaining in this road trip. So far we are 1-1. I predict we go 1-2-1 in the remaining games. All the teams we're playing are playoff teams on home ice in the Western Conference. Not feeling too good about that. Of course, I hope I'm wrong and we go 4-0-0 in the remaining four games, but I'm not optimisitic about it.

Wooo! I'm not pumped about watching the other teams' feeds for the road trip, but I'd rather watch them with Oilers/Flames/Yotes/Ducks bias than not watch them at all.


I hope I don't see this tonight.
Well, if he were wearing a home jersey that is.

I think I might be sick. Marc-Andre Gragnani, a sometime forward is really the best we have on defense in Portland right now? Hell, how's Mike Kostka doing? I really have nothing against Gragnani but its just a little unnerving to see how far we've gone into the depth chart.

Kickoff at 9:00 pm.

4 comments:

  1. You do realize that I'm going to have Willie Nelson stuck in my head for a good portion of the night, don't you? It's all your fault. But, I forgive you.

    ReplyDelete
  2. It's too bad that all of the defensemen we have in Portland that have actually had long stints with the Sabres are injured. ): I know Gragnani has, but as a forward. Maybe he'll be better on D?

    ReplyDelete
  3. On the road again, I can't wait to get on the road again. First thing I saw when I looked at the title was Willie Nelson.

    Marc-Andre Gragnani, a sometime forward is really the best we have on defense in Portland right now?

    Unfortunately yes...but from what Cari and I saw in Portland he's pretty good. So I guess we'll just have to wait and see how much of a trainwreck he is here playing with the big boys.

    ReplyDelete

Disclaimer, yo.

Almost all pictures are borrowed from other sources. If they're yours and you don't want me to use them, just shoot me an email and I'll take them down.

The Los Angeles Kings logo and Buffalo Sabres logo used in the title bar are registered trademarks of the National Hockey League; no copyright infringement is intended. If anyone is offended by anything I've written, get over it, it's a personal blog, not an accredited news source.

anniebeeswax [at] gmail [dot] com

Glossary... Sort of

  • "Ryan Miller Shutout" - A 58 minute, multi-goal shutout lead that is blown when Miller allows one meaningless goal
  • Britney or SabreBritney - Thomas Vanek
  • Butter Snaps - Carolina Hurricanes. Because Butter Snap pretzels, like the Carolina Hurricanes, are disgusting
  • Greener - MATT Greene (LAK)
  • JBG - Jolly Blonde Giant - Tyler Myers
  • Little Foot - Drew Stafford
  • MK - Anne's sister; often leaves nonsensical comments under her Twitter name Mmmkizzle
  • Oscar - Anne's cat

Because it's never not funny

Completely adorable