Game night: Sens, gross.

by Anne

We should never take joy in the downfall of our opponents, however, I hate Jason Spezza so I'm ok with the happywarmfuzzies I feel hearing that he has a knee injury. If Spezza's injury was career or season threatening, I wouldn't feel such glee, but as it will sideline him for a few weeks, I feel the extra joy the holiday season brings.

Too bad the Senators and their fans don't give a crap about the Sabres. We don't have any really good rivals, and the bad blood from 2007 and 2006 has been mostly nullified by the fact that the Sabres and Senators combined for a total number of playoff wins of absolutely NADA in 2008 and 2009.

The Senators, no matter how bad they are, always have the Sabres figured out, and tonight will prove no exception, sadly. That article linked above shows that since 05-06 the Senators are 21-6-4 against the Sabres. WHAT? THAT IS COMPLETELY INSANE.

Alfie is all alone now that Dany Heatley is doing my fantasy team lots of favors in San Jose and Spezza will miss two months. Muahahaha.

I was about to write about how now that I said that, our big juggernaut-y offensive threat would get hurt but, we don't have one of those. Pat Kaleta? Ummm, maybe not.

Anyway, there isn't even any Chris Neil for Adam Mair to fight with in this, his 500th NHL game. Aw, Mairsy! How cute. I'm so proud.

Of course I want them to win but even last year when the Senators were flailing about in the bottom of the conference they managed to find ways to beat us. Now that they've graduated to "mediocre" and we're treading a very thin line between "bad-ass eliteness" and "what happened? things were going so well!" I don't forsee any change in the trends.

The last time we played the Sens I drunkenly ranted about how much I hated the Senators of days gone by, but with the exception of Neil, Spezza and Alfredsson, all of the Senators I hated SO. MUCH. back in 2006 and 2007 are gone. Heatley, Emery, Chara, Vermette, Redden, etc. All of those players have moved on to other teams, some I still hate (Emery, Redden) but some I'm ok with like Vermette and Heatley (because he's keeping my fantasy team afloat). At least the Sens did us a solid when they picked up Ruutu. Phew, I needed to fuel the hatred some more. I don't want to hate Nick Foligno, in fact, I can't hate Nick Foligno, I watched three interviews with him over the last few weeks and he mentioned the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles in two of them. How can you hate that? Buffalo boy who looks like a weasel and loves the Ninja Turtles. I of course mean the cutest weasel around, ummm, right? Marcus may be worse at hockey but he's totally cuter.

I predict a Sens victory, 3-2. Goals by: Fisher, Alfredsson, Foligno, Kaleta and MacArthur.

Another Snoozer for the Sabres; Thriller for the Canucks

by Anne

Once again, no one stepped up and took control of the game. Well, someone did; Patrice Bergeron did. For those keeping score, Patrice Bergeron does NOT play for the Buffalo Sabres.

Whatever, I don't have much to say about that game. Good job, Goose. Cookies for Goose, and for Staffy. Staffy is hurt with a bone bruise. That sounds unbelievably unpleasant. Does this mean Tyler Ennis makes the return trip? Is Gerbe healthy yet? Here's hoping one of them is ready!

Tonight they play the Senators. I'll be at a show, so I won't see it. Too bad.

The Canucks won last night. The first period started out pretty darn rocky, with the Avs jumping out to an early two goal lead. After cutting the deficit to one in the second period, the Canucks scored four more unanswered goals in the third to take a 5-2 victory. Their last game, ten years ago it feels, was an 8-2 victory over the Avs. Wooo! Big Bear scored a PP goal on  a nifty little deflection:

They may have fallen to #3 in my heart but I still loves them.

Especially Big Bear.
Especially goals like that.
Please don't go six days between games again, I don't like that and neither does my fantasy team.

 Nothing to do with the game,

 but how adorable are Henrik Sedin and his son?

Other things:

• Danny Briere and M-E Vlasic fought last night. Yes, you read that right. I... I'm so confused. I wish I had seen it live. It's just so bizarre:

The best part is the looks of disbelief on their teammates' faces.
Also, I don't think any punches were thrown, but gloves were off.
hahahahahaha fantastic
Good job, Pickles!
You don't let Danny Briere attempt to put you in a headlock!

• Also in that game, Dany Heatley had his second hat trick of the season. This pleases me for two reasons: It was against the Flyers and he's a Sunny Hedgehog Enchanter. Yessss.
  

• Tonight the Sabres play in Ottawa (barf), the Kings host the Flames and the Pens are in Atlanta. Hopefully I'll be able to watch some bitchin' highlight reel goals scored by the Sabres and Pens during the intermissions of the Kings game tonight! They're all gonna win, right? Please, Sabres? I don't know what's in the kool-aid you drink before Senators games, but they're not freaky zombie people, out to eat your brains and such. Especially now that Heatley's gone. Please win? Thanks.
  

• ETA: The Kings game is at 4:00. Good thing I looked at the schedule again!
  

Trickery and Such

by Anne

It's weird to not watch a Sabres game, it's also weird to not be AT a Sabres home game. Weirdness abounded.

Here's what I gather happened (by period)

• 1st: Nothing except Ryan Miller is really good at hockey
  
• 2nd: They didn't score on a lot of PP time, Ryan Miller is really good at hockey
  
• 3rd: JBG was nearly decapitated and murdered by Shane Doan, Grizz scored, Britney scored and we won and Ryan Miller is really good at hockey
• At some point, Pat Kaleta tried to kill Petr Prucha
• They won!!! 2-1! Hooray!
  
• Post-Game: Brian Koziol shouldn't talk about things unless he's sure he knows the facts....and Ryan Miller is really good at knitting. HAH! You thought I was going to say hockey again! Didn't you?!
  

I like the cut of his jib

 I also didn't watch the Pens game, but all I really learned about it was that they won and Scott Hartnell might've taken a page from the Jarkko Ruutu school of fighting and made a late-game snack of Kris Letang. Gross.

The Kings, who have a terrrible PK, beat the Minnesota Wild 6-3. Kopitar had 3 points and Dewey played something like 24 minutes. Greener only played 13:52. I'm trying not to be too concerned about him. It is, after all, only game three. :) I'd also like Brownie to score soon, please and thanks.

The Sunny Hedgehog Enchanters had a fabulous night, Dany Heatley had a 4 point night (3+1) and was a +6. Both Ozzie and Quickie won and all-in-all the Enchanters cleaned up nicely tonight.

Is it just me or...

by Anne

Does Dany Heatley's NHL 10 persona look like Lord Voldemort in Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone?

Twins.

Some Highlights Of the Last few Days

by Anne

• I'm sure you all know about Dany Heatley so I won't talk about it... wait, I just did... ummm, moving on.

• Puck Drop 2009 was a total snoozefest. Why oh why would they invite fans to watch them do speed and agility tests for about THREE HOURS. It was so boring. Then players were super late for autographs. I'm not sure if they ever came because we gave up after 40 minutes and watched the rookies.

• The scrimmage today was tons more fun. Team White, (the vastly superior team because I chose to cheer for them) was winning 2-0 when I left and last I checked with Kate, the score was 5-2 White. In Grey's defense, they had only 3 NHL forwards and White had at least six. Gerbe scored on Miller on a nice breakaway. Keep it up, little dude! The other goal I saw was scored by Connolly.

• Stafford signed a contract as was announced just before he took the ice as part of the morning practice group. Wooo! It appears to be two years $4 million. Sounds good to me. I suppose I approve.

• Actually, that's less than I thought he'd get. I'm surprised he didn't get more in the $5 - $5.5 over those two seasons. Well done, Darcy.

Smokin'

• If you're an early bird you can watch practice at 7:30 and then a scrimmage at 9:30 tomorrow morning. Yikes. There's some golf tournament tomorrow so that's why they're practicing so wicked early.
  

• First pre-season game on Thursday! Woooooo!

Its Official (almost)

by Anne

It has been announced by the Philadelphia Flyers that they have agreed to a one-year contract with Ray Emery, formerly of our *favorite* Ottawa Senators.

I thought they'd wait until Raymond could officially sign on the dotted line on July 1, but they decided to jump the gun and announce it today.

Greeeeaaaaat. At least Heatley has said he wants to go to Edmonton, far, far away where he'll only bother us a maximum of twice next year if Edmonton is one of our three "at large" games. Peace out, Heater.

I can't wait for the "Emmmmmeryyyyy! Emmmmmeryyyyy!" chants to rain down from HSBC Arena, though, that will be fun to have back. Just as long as the Sabres are winning.

My best friend is moving to Harlem in August, my only solace is that I can have a place to stay when I get dirt cheap tickets to see John Tavares play next season. Nevermind that it'll take two hours one way to get from Harlem to Nassau Coliseum by public transportation and just over one hour driving. Whatevs.

I fell off my treadmill yesterday. Now I have a bruise on my knee. I'm one slick kid.

Still only Wednesday. Still 55 hours and 40 minutes until Game 7.

Bye Heater!

by Anne

Dany Heatley wants out of Ottawa. Woooooooooo!!!

The only way this could be bad is if he goes to Philly. Emery and Heatley back together again... ugh. The horror! The HORROR!

Regardless, watching the Senators slowly jettison the top players that defeated the Sabres in '07 is quite satisfactory. All we need now is the Sabres to get better, and Ottawa looks a little less scary than they have for the last three years.

Its going to be difficult for a team to take on his salary which is 5 years and a $7.5 million cap hit. As I always say, Tampa will take him. The Islanders probably would too. Just as long as its not LA... I know they need scoring wingers and... oh LORD what if he goes to LA?! Crap.

Another Man's Trash

By Anne

Is the Eastern Conference's treasure.

I don't like to celebrate injuries, but in the midst of this...I can't even call it a slump, it's a winnless desert....it is nice to hear that perhaps our dear neighbors to the north may have the gap on their lead in the EC closed a little:

Poor Ottawa. Funny, somehow I don't feel bad about it.

UPDATE: Hey, I was just kidding, Jason Spezza. Sens, as much as I don't like you, take care of yourselves. It's not as fun to cheer against you when 2 of your top players are down for the count.