Bye Bye, Dmitri

by Anne

Today, the New York Rangers signed Dmitri Kalinin to a one year contract. Awwww, bye bye, Dmitri!

The Rangers also signed Markus Naslund, most likely to replace the leadership role vacated by Jagr. Eep. That was surprising. I can't imagine Canucks fans are going to be too happy about that one. Hmmmm, losing an important leader on the team to the New York Rangers via free agency... a tune that Sabres fans know all too well.

I'm done with screaming for my defenseman. I'm spent.

Happy 4th of July everyone!

I Think That Game in Dallas Might Still be Going On

by Anne


Bye Habs! Thanks for coming! Don't let the door hit ya on the way out!


I'll admit, I picked the Habs to take the Flyers, but I was the most on the fence about this series. I almost went with the Flyers in 6, but decided I'd go with the #1 team over #6. I picked wrong. Whoops. I'm already over it.


WOOOOP!!! PENS ELIMIDATE THE RANGERS!!!


Um, but blowing that 2 goal lead was NOT cool. Good thing you won it at home, or Sidney the 9 week old penguin at the Pittsburgh National Aviary would've been very very upset, as would I.


I love that Jarkko Ruutu's taunting of Jagr drew a kissy face from Jagr. I laughed a lot. Jarkko Ruutu PWNS Jagr and his vag-esque facial hair. They have such on-ice malice for each other that I bet they're secretly pining for each other off the ice. They're only angry to hide their feelings. They can't let it be seen in public, the world isn't ready for their love. Some day boys, some day.

This picture just sent Ruuts over the edge:

This picture hangs in Ruuts' stall. He says it's cuz he hates him, but when no one looks, he kisses it and calls it "heila"

It was a little disconcerting how bothered I was by seeing Slaggy bleed all over the place. Props to Slaggy for sucking it up. Too bad he couldn't be clutch with stitches in his cheek. Ohhhhh! Burn. Wish you were back in the Little League World Series? Boo-ya! Also, props to Brandon Dubinsky for attempting to help the ice crew scrape up the blood with his skate. Gross.


OMGAH A PHILLY/PITTSBURGH ECF. Wow. That's going to be INTENSE. Fortunately, there are no sexy Flyers, so there will be NO Flyers playoff boyfriend. I have a boyfriend on the other 3 teams, so ONE of them will make it in to the Finals.


I seriously love my cat a lot. He's totally adorable and freaks out during hockey games because I'm blogging and yelling and not playing with him.


The video of Brenden Morrow being the worst soccer player ever was pretty awesome. I was already taking a shine to Cap'n Morrow but that video pushed me close to the brink of new Dallas Stars boyfriend. Brad Richards still has that title, but Cap'n could take it.


And then he went and FINALLY SCORED IN THE 4TH OVERTIME WHICH I STAYED UP TO WATCH. WOOOOOOO!!!


I really thought that game wasn't ever going to end. Is there a point at which the NHL would just end the game because it's gotten totally ridiculous? I mean, I'm sure the answer to that question is NO! Someone eventually is going to literally fall asleep on the ice and the game will just end.


It was really amazing watching the fatigue build on the faces of those players, but, I'm sure, never once did any of them consider quitting. Playoff hockey! Wooooo!


I'm highly conflicted about how I feel about the outcome of these Conference Finals series. Ok, that's not true at all. I want both Dallas and Pittsburgh to win. However, I've taken such a shine to Dallas, that if they do manage to face Pittsburgh in the Finals, it'll be difficult for me to cheer against them with any kind of real feeling of malice.


Thus is my plight. If Philly manages to squeak by the Pens and the Wings defeat the Stars, I don't think I'll even bother watching. I'd have to try waaayyy too hard to muster some sort of playoff goggles for the Red Wings and that's just not something I'm prepared to do. And, as much as I love Marty and still have HockeyFeelings for Danny, I can't in good faith cheer for Steve Downie, Jeff Carter or Scott Hartnell.

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Anyhoot. On to the WC (and by WC I mean World Championships, not Water Closet):


Canada won 7-0 with Roysie getting an assist! Wooo! Rick Nash, Dany Heatley and Getzy are a wicked intense line. Is anyone surprised? They're all on the top or near the top of their teams' stats every season. You know a team has a lot of offensive talent when Roysie has only 1 point when 12 goals have been scored.


Anyone who thinks Canada isn't going to win this thing needs to go home and think about things for a while.

Roysie!!
Chris Kunitz is 6' tall? Yeah, right. And Roysie is 5'9". Pah.

Kotalik scored a PP goal in a 5-4 loss to Russia. Wooo Kotalik!


Um, Dmitri Kalinin leads all of Team Russia in ice time and shifts. He has 2 assits and is a +4 with 0 PIM. So who exactly is wearing Kalinin's sweater and masquerading as him? Anyway, well done, Dmitri.

This appears to be Dmitri Kalinin...

Woo! A 5-1 win for Team USA!


Kaner opened the scoring and Staffers and Pommer each had an assist! Wooo!

It's hard to see, but Staffers and Pommer are bench buddies

Thank goodness Team USA finally scored even strength. It shows that they actually can, lol.


From the game blog: Stafford also tossed a Slovenian into the bench with a big hit. Haha, he does that a lot.


From Adam Burish's blog: I hope I don’t get Kaner too mad in saying this because he was pretty good out there too, but Tim was our best player that night.


I can imagine Kaner having a huge diva-fit "What do you mean you think Tim Tom was BETTER? I was the first over all pick! I'm only 19! He's OLD! Look at those forehead wrinkles! BAH! Forget you, Burish! I'll be in my luxury first-overall suite with Ovie watching our highlight tapes with the hookers. Gilbert! Call me when you want to get cheap pizza!"


Team Latvia has yet to score a goal in this tournament. They were blanked by Team USA on Friday and were blanked again today by Denmark. Ouch.

Yo, Tim Tom's pads TOTES clash with his uni

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Private to Paul Gaustad:

Some dude offered me your phone number on Saturday night and talked about how he calls you when you do something good. I declined his offer. I think that goes above and beyond the call of duty to have your personal information at my beck and call.

Love and I told you I wasn't a Stalkers,
Anne

---

Private to Brian Campbell:

At least it wasn't "puck over the glass" this time.

Love,
Anne

Here we go Sabres, et al. participating in the 2008 IIHF World Championships, here we go!

by Anne

I really need to work on scaling down my cheers and chants. They're a little lengthy.

I wrote this as I checked the scores throughout the day and wrote each team's paragraphs before the others had been played, except Russia and USA which overlapped.

There were 4 games yesterday.


Kicking things off was:

Denmark v. The Czech Republic featuring Kotalik

Czech Republic wins 5-2

Radim Vrbata, whose name is crazy fun to say, had like 87 points in this game. Ok so it was 3 (2+1) including the game winning goal. Woop!

Kotalik scored a powerplay goal, what a SHOCK! Gasp! He does that a lot. Well done, Al.

It's really amazing how players I don't spend much time thinking about during the Sabres regular season are suddenly the most important player in a game to me, lol. Although, now that I know the Czech Republic boasts a player named Zbynek Irgl, my life is that much closer to being complete. WHERE ARE ALL THE VOWELS? Huh, apparently he was drafted by Nashville but opted to stay in the Czech Republic

And he's kinda cute:

If it weren't for Sissy Spacek, I'd have a new Czech Boyfriend

Denmark's goaltender does not appear to be very good, he let in 5 goals on only 17 shots. That's a .705 SV%. Yyyyyyeah, and we always rag on T-Bone for being .869. That's like astronomical compared to this dude.

Next game for the Czech Republic is Sunday against Russia.



Next up:

Derek Roy v. Anze Kopitar (Slovenia)

Canada wins 5-1

There's so much lovin' to be found on Team Canada, Mike Green, Getzy (former Pacific Division boyfriend), Jonathan Toews, Louie. But also so much yick: Jason Spezza, Dany Heatley. Do you think Roysie is totally cool with Spezza and Heatley or does he like not talk to them because they're Senators? Does Getzy pick on them because the Ducks Mightily pwned the Sens last year? Does Roysie yell mean things at Spezza and then hide behind RickNash? Nasher will totes protect you, Roysie....he looks out for his wee teammates.

Roysie was on a line with Rick Nash and Patrick Sharp. Woooo!

Anyhoot, Heatley got a hat trick and Team Canada had 65 shots on goal. Wowzas. I've been saying it since the roster was announced, I bet Canada will take Gold with Russia giving a good run. Maybe Finland, and probably not the US. They'll probably finish in the 3rd-5th.

Next game for Canada is Sunday v. Latvia.



Next up we have:

Kalinin and Afinogenov v. The Team that Sabres' goaltending coach, Jim Corsi, is working with

Russia wins 7-1

There are apparently no Italian citizen hockey players in the NHL.

Kalinin and Afinogenov were not in a unit together. So, Afinogenov was wearing 61 but Kalinin was wearing 7. Random. No one else was wearing 45, but then again, maybe he's always wanted to wear 7, but it's retired so he couldn't wear it in Buffalo.

Ovie scored a goal and Semin scored 2. Caps reprezentin' woop woop!

Italy also boasts a goalie whose last name is "Gunther Hell". I don't know if Italians realize what that means in English. They might. Regardless of how bad their team might be, Italy can say they can "Give 'em Hell in net" and they're totally right.

Max tries to score, doesn't succeed, but still looks good doin' it

Next game for Russia is v. The Czech Republic.

Finally, rounding out Friday's action is:

Team from Camp Morningwood v. Latvia

USA wins 4-0!

We all know who's tearin' it up on Team Morningwood. However, Molly from Boston College has informed me in her comment a few posts ago that Gerbe-Derby was cut from the team: (I'm not surprised, Pommer was cut from Team Canada when he was 20 and there he is today! Woo!)

Staffy and Pommer are on a line together. Staffy's rockin' Timmy's # and Pommer has stuck with good ol' 29. I like it when players use the same number. Kaner is wearing 83. Peter Mueller got 88. I'm guessing an epic battle of rock paper scissors decided this one, that, or Mueller is a few months older.

Kaner had 3 pts in the game (1+2), Pommer and Staffy were point-less, but, um Staffy got a penalty!.....? Pommer had about 14 minutes of ice time and 1 shot on goal. Stampy didn't score on his penalty shot he was awarded when he was yanked down on a breakaway.

The live blogger at the game said that Kaner would've been the star of the game with Tim Tom comin' in 2nd. Yay!!! Wooo! Although, on the IIHF website the "best player" was Paulie Martin. Whatevs! It was the only shutout on a very lopsided day of hockey. Yay!

Kaner scored a goal! And had an assist! Yay!

Next game for the USA is Sunday v. Slovenia, Woooo!

Anticipaaaation is making me late, is keeping me waaaaaaaaaaaaaiting

by Anne

As I write this there is 1 day and 15 hours until the trade deadline. Sundin has opted to not waive his no-movement clause, as is his right. It doesn't look like much is going to save Toronto's season now. Kaberle and Sundin, both players that would've brought big trades, are staying put.

I really just want a decision to be made about Soupy RIGHT NOW. When is his last game in a Sabres' uniform? Was it Saturday? Is it Monday? Will it be sometime in 2011? Or, will it be at the end of this season? Granted, we never really can answer that question for any player, but with Soupy, it's far more nerve wracking. I keep checking the Sabres website to see if anything has been announced, but obviously nothing has.

When was the last time a trade deadline passed with no Sabre moving or nothing being acquired by the Sabres? Something is going to happen, its just a matter of who's leaving, who's staying and what we get in return. We're all so focused on Soupy that I really don't think anyone has fully grappled with the fact that we could lose other players in 1 1/2 days. I don't think anyone really wants to think about that. I certainly don't. I tried to but it makes my head hurt to think about the possibilities.

Let's not forget that Kalinin, who is kind of not so great is also a UFA this season. And there has been no communication between the Sabres and Kalinin's agent. Soupy and Kalinin as one trade together would probably bring a great return for the Sabres, especially for teams that need to add depth to their defense like Tampa. Brad Richards has offered a list of teams he'd waive his no trade clause for if they were interested. I seriously doubt Buffalo is on that list, but anything is possible. Vaclav Prospal is also potential trade bait.

Now that Sundin's future is clear, the mad dash for Marian Hossa can begin. All the teams that wanted Sundin now have to look elsewhere, and Hossa is the next best thing for some teams. I'm not sure how I feel about Hossa, but I might not mind seeing him wearing the slug.

Since Columbus is out of a playoff spot, that means they'll probably be making a trade or two. Hey! Let's see if we can get Peca back! I've really been missing those "Peca's Pickles" in my grocery shopping experience.

Hell, let's suspend reality for a hot minute and say what if the Flyers traded Danny back to us? Let's start that rumor. Soupy and the Soviet Bomber for Danny. Spread the rumor. Aaaaaaaaaand go.