The Sabres have returned! For real!

by Anne

I've missed our little pukes, haven't you? Tonight they take on the Pittsburgh Penguins. Wooooo! Nice easy game to start things off....right?

What I missed about each of the boys:

Steve Montador: I missed your snaggletooth.

Toni Lydman: How can I miss you if I watched you play for two weeks?

Derek Roy: Ummmm, I missed watching you without longing for you to be Zach Parise. Those days will never be again.

Henrik Tallinder: See: Lydman, Toni.

Tim Kennedy: I missed your punchdrunk-baby-troll face.

Tim Connolly: TIMMAH! I missed your everything. Never leave me again. Or, well, I guess I kind of left you. Let's just make a promise to never leave each other.

Little Foot: I missed your uber-excited eyebrows.

Mairsy: I missed the feeling of "Are we sure he doesn't have rabies?" every time I look at you.

Mike Grier: I missed your "molasses on a cold day" skating style and hands of stone.

Thomas Vanek: I miss your excessively self-deprecating "EFF ME"s everytime you do something even remotely not-scoring-a-goal-like

Goose: See: Connolly, Tim.

Jason Pominville: I missed the way when you skate your kidney-protecting pad sticks out and I always know it's you from far away, along with something weird about your skates but I can't remember what it is now. Do you lace them funny or something?

Ryan Miller: I love you forever and always x1,000,000,000,000

Chris Butler: Sir Christopher.... Butts.... I didn't miss you, get your act together.

Patrick Kaleta: Patty, patty, patty, I didn't miss your neck injuries and concussions and what not. But I did miss your shit-eating grins. Never change.

Matt Ellis: I missed your "If I don't play well today, they'll feed me to the lions tomorrow" style. Never change, Matty.

Nathan Paetsch: you're still on this team?

Patrick Lalime: Iiiiii...ummmm...you'd better play well tonight.

Clarke MacArthur: I missed the many ways in which you are not David Backes. Which is to say, I didn't miss you at all.

Nathan Gerbe: Um, get recalled soon, thanks.

Andrej Sekera: Yyeahhh...

Craig Rivet: I missed your foxy veteren-ness. There were some veterans on Team USA but non as DILF-like as you, Craigory.

Jochen Hecht: Yeah, I watched you play. Your team wasn't very good. Sorry, Yo-yo.

Tyler Myers: NEVER BE AWAY FOR THAT LONG EVER AGAIN. Don't start being all "I'm 20 now, I'm a man of the WORLD" on us. You will always be the Jolly Blonde Giant. I love you.

Lindy: Don't you be flashin' your gold medal around Ryan, he might cut you. Fo' realz.

I think I missed these two most of all:

We won't see him until Wednesday

But this sexy beast we get back today!!

 

Awwwww yeah.

Wouldn't it have been awesome if Rick had called the gold medal game?

Ok so they didn't win.

by Anne

I was so bummed out on Sunday. Like, epically. However, not because Sidney Crosby scored the game winner. Who the eff cares who scored it? I know why people originally hated Sidney Crosby but it's just become pathetic and oddly trendy to hate him. Like you've got the "inside scoop on hockey" if you hate Sidney Crosby. Listen, when something is this popular and trendy, it's not the "inside scoop on hockey" it's mob rule. You are not original if you don't like Sidney Crosby.

I am sad about only getting silver but silver is better than ANYONE predicted they'd do. The highest MSM writer I'd seen rank them was 3rd. Most everyone had Sweden, Canada and Russia mixing it up for the medals and the US finishing 4th.

Take THAT, MSM!

Brian Williams said it best as he signed off the Nightly News on Monday night:

"To US goalie Ryan Miller, pride of the Buffalo Sabres...we'll get 'em next time."

DAMN RIGHT WE WILL, BRIAN. DAMN. RIGHT.

He's already coming for ya, Canada... through this odd ice-block window.

We HAVE to win

 by Anne

I feel like I did before game 7 in 2009. It's not the ultimate prize for my personal hockey fandom but I've never cared more about Olympic hockey.

Team USA has to win on Sunday.

They just have to.

USA v. Canada, 3:15pm EST.

U-S-A! U-S-A! U-S-A! U-S-A!

Yes I skipped class to watch the USA/Switzerland game

by Anne

Oh hey guys.

As Ron Wilson so eloquently stated the other day, if you were to have told me that Team USA would be 4-0 at this point in the tournament, I would've assumed you were on crack. 

Nevertheless, here we find ourselves with just that record. Now we move on to the semifinals round where we compete to see which medals we will play for. If we lose to Finland we'll play either Slovakia(!) or Canada for Bronze, if we win, we'll play one of those opponents for Gold and still get silver if we lose.

Now that Luongo's shown that he's Canada's man (and should've been all along) I feel far less confident about facing Canada again in either of those games. A large percentage of the credit for our win over Canada goes to Martin Brodeur for crapping the proverbial bed.

TONI LYDMAN IS GOIN' DOWN.

Hey, also, the rest of the Sabres are back in town! I saw Tyler Myers and Paul Gaustad on my TV yesterday and squealed. It's like I wrote once about the All-Star break, it feels like we've been cheating on our significant other with newer, shinier teams and players but once we're reminded of how adorable and plucky the team waiting for us back home is, we're excited for them to come back.

The Olympics have been a super fun break from the stress of the NHL schedule for more than just the players, the fans need a break too, especially because we were S-L-U-M-P-I-N-G before the break and slid into 5th. I'm not quite as concerned because we have three games in hand over Ottawa but we needed this Olympic break to wash that bad taste out of our mouths.

Hopefully Miller will come back energized and not drained.

I also feel as though I'm the only one who's glad Miller has been playing the last two weeks. He hasn't faced all that many shots (not including the Canada game, duh) and he's been able to stay in top game form. I'm fairly certain I'd be more concerned if he'd been sitting around for two weeks, especially considering he was slumping a tad before the break. I'm glad he's been playing, he'll come back to us still in game-day form. However, here's hoping Lindy gives him a game off here and there, he'll need it come playoff time.

Also, Russia, WTF?

Wheeeeeee!

by Anne

That game was so much fun it was totally bonkers.

I'm all heart-bursty with pride over our little American sweethearts.

It's so exciting that the whole world is getting just a taste of the Ryan Miller brand of badass.

Also, Canada, wtf? Marty? Not good.

I got the Dustin Brown/ Drew Doughty 1-on-1 match-up I'd been hoping for. I'd call it a draw.

SO EXCITED CAN'T EVEN TAKE IT.

U-S-A! U-S-A! U-S-A! U-S-A!

USA v Canada

by Anne

Living up yonder in the Northern United States, we are in extremely close proximity to Canadia and Canadian people. If I were to leave my house right now, barring any back-ups on the bridge, I could be in Canada in about 15 minutes. 

The "Canada sucks! America sucks!" battle is a daily occurrence for me and the other residents of WNY and I'm sure any of the cities that dot the world's largest non-hostile border. It's funny to see friends in other parts of the country get all riled up about tonight's game. The hockey world likes to push Russia-Canada as a huge rivalry and it is, but I don't think anyone gets as worked up about it as Canada - USA. There aren't a whole lot of events in which the United States is near but not at the top. There are clearly several events that are dominated by other countries but usually the USA lags far back in those. There aren't many Olympic events in which the Americans sit in the middle of the pack. The USA has long been considered the 4th place lock behind (in varying order) Canada, Russia and Sweden.

I don't have a whole lot of thoughts on tonight's game other than I'm ridiculously pumped and I want to crush Canada. However, I feel as though there is no chance this will happen. 

Everyone has been all "Oh noes! Lindy Ruff! He's going to tell them where to shoot on Miller!" Yes, this is true, however, Zach Parise and Brian Rafalski are/were Marty Brodeur's teammates and Ryan Kesler is Roberto Luongo's teammate, I'd call the playing field fairly even in the "What about the GOALIE?!" argument.

I really really hope Drew Doughty and Dustin Brown end up out there on the ice against each other. Brownie hits like a freight train and Dewey has nearly mastered the art of the clean hipcheck, so it'll be interesting to see who'd get the upper hand in one of those one-on-one battles.

Also, my favorite American defenseman NOT on Team USA has been featured in an exciting video this break. Enjoy. I've missed him so. I wanted to embed the video but it wouldn't work. CURSES.

U-S-A! U-S-A!

U-S-A! We're in first! Take THAT, CANADA.

by Anne

It's been a ridiculous few days but things have settled themselves down a bit as I've caught up and gotten ahead on some work for some of my classes. PHEW.

Here's a weird stat: The United States is currently AHEAD of Canada in their group because the Swiss took Canada to a shootout today and team USA has won both of their games in regulation.

This does not, of course, mean that the USA/ Canada game on Sunday is going to be any less of a bloodbath. I predict a 6-2 Canada victory, being kind to team USA.

Anyway to recap Team USA's first two games:

Game 1 v. Switzlerland did not start out so strong. I wasn't completely surprised considering the recipe for a winning team is not "put in equal parts skill and size, add water and BOOM." Still, they managed to win 3-1. Hiller played well, he's no slouch and the Swiss defense did help him a little bit.

 

It's no secret that my love for David Backes is unconditional

His end-to-end goal was a thing of pure beauty.

A situation Jonas Hiller is not altogether unfamiliar with: Dustin Brown all up in his grill.

These boys don't mess around with "keep your eye on the puck."

That's focus right there.

Thursday Team USA took on Norway and finally seemed to figure out how to play like a team in the final five minutes and they won 6-1. I'm sure part of their late-game success is also related to the fact that the Norwegians were worn down by the high paced competition.

Ok I know he hasn't been THAT busy these past two games but this is the only photo on IIHF.com in which you can see all of Ryan Miller.

And he's being scored on.

Shorthanded.

Jack Johnson fail.

So so so excited for the game against Canada!

The other Sabres or Kings photos in the tournament:

 

Reggie v. Czech Republic

The mullet.

Oh man.

I assure you, that's Henrik Tallinder

Sadly, no photos of Yoyo and Hank battling along the boards.

HA.

Some things don't change

Fear the Fin

Dewey defending against Mats Zuccarello Aasen

Yes, both of those last names are on Mats' jersey.

Awesome.

Other news:

My Google Reader is so backlogged it's BONKERS.

Khabibulin was arrested?! His mugshot is better than his roster photo, maybe he should call the Edmonton PD and see if he can trade.

Oh hey

by Anne

Like, Team USA hockey starts playing today.

Yay!

U-S-A! U-S-A! U-S-A! Wooooo!!!

You're goin DOWN, Switzerland!

Hey! Hey! U-S-A! And the Sabres won too... eh!

by Anne

The Winter Classic game was boring except for the last five minutes and OT and I would've preferred it if the Flyers had won only because they are not in our division.

Anywhoozle, then the Team USA roster was announced and there weren't toooo many surprises. The only players I was displeased to see there were Mike Komisarek and Chris Drury. Or as they shall now be known "Not Rob Scuderi" and "Not Paul Gaustad."

From teams I care about: Ryan Miller was named as one of the goaltenders. Frankly, I'm pretty surprised. I mean, his stats this season haven't been exactly phenomenal and he hasn't really played at an elite level but I guess Brian Burke is ok with that?

Jack Johnson and Dustin Brown will be representin' the Kings, and ya know who else will?!?!

The one real surprise (for me anyway?) was that the #3 goaltender named to the tournament was Jonathan Quick!! Yay Quickie monster! I'm so excited for him. He won't see a second of ice time but he's being groomed for the back-up job for 2014 after TimTom presumably retires.

Also in "WOO!" for team USA was Patrick Kane, Brooks Orpik, and David Backes. Wooo!

Theeeeennnn there was the Sabres game.

Ok.

I'm very glad they won, especially when they had NO BUSINESS winning that game. Jochen Hecht even SAID SO! They were ONCE AGAIN down 3-0 and rallied to win 4-3. I'll take the two points anyway we can get them but this bizness is no longer cute.

Derek Roy's winning goal was also hilarious.

[So the video was supposed to go here but it won't work, sorry!]

Woo! A win is a win! Hope everyone had a great New Year's Eve!

Kings, STOP LOSING but there are happy things too

by Anne

The Kings have now lost four in a row and lost last night to the Calgary Flames. There were only bursts of any kind of real game play.

There were tons o' penalties and fights and trading powerplay opportunities but for all that the score ended 2-1, Flames. Scott Parse scored the Kings' only goal. Good job, Scooter.

Dustin Brown was inexplicably awarded a penalty shot but the hockey gods made up for that bogus call when he just as inexplicably lost control of the puck as he skated in on Kiprusoff.

Ok, that was sucky but there is much happier Kings news to discuss:

DREW DOUGHTY WAS NAMED TO THE TEAM CANADA OLYMPIC SQUAD!!

Yay!

From his interviews where he talked about what he did when he heard about his selection as the 7th defenseman:

"...I woke up Brownie right away, my roommate, and told him, and I started calling everyone in the family.”

Hahaha, Brownie, his likely future opponent on Team USA.  I'm sure he was thrilled to be awakened by this news. No, but really he was probably happy for him, as happy as one can be when they first wake up.

I'm so excited for him, especially because he got the nod and Mike Green didn't! I hate Mike Green. No Phaneuf either! Woo! Although there is Pronger...

Yay!

The only member of Team Canada I give a HOOT about! Yay!

 Ok that's completely not true.

Rick Nash.

Jarome Iginla.

Sidney Crosby.

Brent Seabrook.

Happy for Shea Weber too.

In other Olympic roster news, the following Sabres and Kings are headed to the 5-ringed tourney:

Henrik Tallinder - Sweden

Toni Lydman - Finland

Michal Handzus and Andrej Sekera - Slovakia

Phillip Gogulla - Germany

Maybe someone for Team USA but most likely not? :)

However, Jochen Hecht was NOT named to the German team, like Ryan Smyth was not named to Team Canada. :( Stiff upper lip, boys.

In TOTALLY RELEVANT TO EVERYTHING news, I got a pedicure yesterday. Ok that part isn't relevant but I saw Chris Butler and Steve Montador at the movies together. I loves me a good hockey bromance.

I can't wait for the Team USA roster to be announced on January 1!

yay!

Camp Morningwood releases Camp Roster

by Anne

Team USA released their invitees to this summer's orientation camp.

From the Sabres, only Ryan Miller was invited. I thought Pommer and Goose were a long shot but I thought Stafford would have been tapped. He's played for Team USA at least three times before, including winning the United States only gold medal at the World Juniors in 2004.

Alas.

Other players of note:

Hometown boys Pat Kane and Brooks Orpik were given invitations.

Jack Johnson, Dustin Brown and Jonathan Quick were given invitations. Quickie has no chance of getting either the starting or first back-up job, but its great to see him included. In four years, Tim Tom might not be able to play and he'd have a strong chance of being named the back-up behind Millsy.

Phil Kessel was given an invitation even though he will not be able to participate. He just had surgery that will keep him out of action for at least three more months. (The camp is in mid-August).

All in all, the lists are pretty good. Are they as good as Team Canada... weeell, that' remains to be seen, but especially on defense, things are looking big and mean, which doesn't surprise me considering Brian Burke made this list. I'm surprised JM Liles wasn't given a nod. He'd bring some much needed offensive zip from the blue line, but so can guys like Gilbert and Johnson, both of whom are bigger than JM Liles.

In keeping with the question of size, is that why Team USA staple Jason Blake was not invited? That'll be an awkward conversation in the hallways of the Air Canada Centre.

My new-found beloved David Backes was also invited. Yesss. I mean, I want the team to win, but I'd like them to look good doing it.

Oldie but goodie Mike Modano was invited to camp. Mikey is the last of the era goneby to be invited to camp.

With the exceptions of Modano, Drury, Gomez, Thomas, and Malone the rest of the invitees are in their 20s. The old guard of the '06 Olympics have all but retired and its time to start breeding a new era of American hockey.

I'm a little annoyed at Burkey for some of the ommissions, but, as he said, we'd be surprised by some of the names left off the list, and he's right. Dustin Byfuglien but not Stafford? Makes little sense to me.

You can read the whole annoucementand download the roster here.

Oh Lindy

by Anne

Lindy Ruff was officially introduced as an associate coach for the 2010 Canadian Olympic team. Team Canada executive director, Steve Yzerman, introduced the coaching staff in Montreal. Mike Babcock of the Detroit Red Wings is the head coach and will work with Jacques Lemaire, Ken Hitchcock of the Columbus Blue Jackets and our very own Lindy Ruff. Each member of the team was introduced, presented with a jersey and spoke very briefly with the press. Lindy's comments probably excited Canadians, but gave pause to Sabres fans. He said something to the effect of "let's skip the season and get started."

Uhhhh... how about we don't?

Canada, like Buffalo, likes it Ruff