Brief Note to discuss Drew Stafford

by Anne

My relationship with Little Foot has been rocky at times, blissful at others and hellishly terrible on occasion.

However, when Little Foot joined Twitter, all became better. He broke the news of Pie's trade before the national media did, even though he didn't name the name of the player traded.

When he scored on that penalty shot against Pittsburgh, it was even better.

Now, he's drawn national attention to the latest excitement to hit the Buffalo Sabres:

The furry convention at their hotel in San Jose.

I love him.

Enjoy. My favorite part has to be that that fox thing in the picture with Ryan Miller might be wearing his brother Drew's jersey.

Oh yeah, Sabres at Canucks tonight. I have class at 8:00am so I more than likely will not be watching past the first period.

Catching Up

by Anne

There's much to catch up on.

• Adam Mair cleared waivers.
  

• I'm surprised no one claimed him.
  

• The Sabres have the option of sending him to Portland or keeping him in Buffalo. Happily, they opted to keep him in Buffalo as our thirteenth forward :)

The dog is thrilled.

• I lost forty pounds a few years ago and I've gained about half that back, so I'm getting back on track. Any and all unsolicited encouragement is welcome.
  

• The Kings "played" a game against the Blackhawks. They lost 4-1. It was not pretty. 
  

• Kopi scored, Dewey got an assist and then they all pooped the bed and rolled around in it. The game was close through the first and second, you knew it was going to explode in the third and unfortunately it was the Blackhawks who decided to start scoring. :/
  

• Drew Miller was put on waivers by the Tampa Bay Lightning, as was Tyler Arnason who reportedly signed a deal with a team in Europe and was subsequently suspended by the Rangers
  

• After the Kings "game" last night, it looks like there might be some shakeups in the lineups and Mr. Jones may get into the lineup soon. That's good. Terry Murray didn't rule out the possibility that he'd get in tomorrow. Who sits? Greener only played 14:30ish last night. Peter Harrold already sat out last night.
  

• If the Kings don't beat the Hurricanes tomorrow, I'm never speaking to them again.
  

• Because the Canes are unspeakably bad, Erik Ersberg may get the start the other night. I think Quickie needs a break. He's started all but one of the Kings' 18 games.
  

• Canucks play at St. Louis tonight, Pens play at Boston. Woooo!
  

Ryan Miller, What a Guy.

by Anne

Ryan Miller updated his blog to let us all know of his past and current locations since the season ended. He's in Michigan right now, for those who might be thinking of stalking him in Buffalo. Also, he's not on Facebook or MySpace and, clearly, not on Twitter. Also, he seeks his best hockey advice in Wegman's, FYI.

Ummm, let's seeeee. The last few times I went to Wegman's I did not see any Sabres, so I was not passing on any of my witty comments to Ryan Miller, such as:

"The next time you see Harry Neale, trip him."

"When you're in net, and Phil Kessel is coming in on a breakaway or a penalty shot or the shootout, I think the best way to stop him is to full-body tackle him."

"I don't really like the new helmet you debuted at the end of the season."

"Your brother is already married and may or may not have a baby, I'm not sure, you'd know better than I, he's also already won the Stanley Cup. How does it feel to know that your baby brother has accomplished so much more than you have?"

Ummm, maybe that last question is a little too pointed.

"I will gladly provide care for a puppy when you're on the road. You can pay me in tickets and high-fives. Also, record the greeting on my voicemail. That is all the payment I require."

That's all I have so far.

Rock on, sir.

Really, San Jose? Really.

by Anne

What the HELL is wrong with the San Jose Sharks? I know the long-running comment is that they choke in the post season. This isn't choking, this is imploding. This is throwing yourselves down a flight of stairs bad.

How embarrassing to be a Sharks fan. Do they blow up the team? I bet Patty Marleau would LOVE Buffalo, he and Craigory can be friends.

I guess everything really is different in the playoffs? Still, what the HELL San Jose? They're making Jonas Hiller look like the most incredible goaltender of all time. Now, Hiller is a solid goalie, that's not the debate, but he's putting up Luongo-esque numbers and he's not Roberto Luongo.

Ron Wilson at least got the team into the 2nd round last season, without much trouble, and he lost his job. So, does McClellan survive this? This is just embarrassing. How does a team go 53-18-11, losing only a TOTAL of nine times (0-5-4) on home ice and play this badly in the first round against a team that barely made it into the playoffs? They didn't dominate offensively in the regular season- they barely cracked the top ten in goals for- but they had the 2nd fewest goals against, meaning solid defense and goaltending. That is NOT what this series would lead you to believe.

At least when WE won the President's Trophy we made a go of it all the way to the Conference finals before figuratively throwing ourselves off a 10th floor balcony.

Un-freakin'-believable.

Moving on:

My playoff picks are so far picking the correct winners but I didn't predict any sweeps, nevermind THREE. I definitely thought the Blues and Habs would do better. Apparently they decided to prove me wrong. I think only Corey Perry's mom thought the Ducks would play THIS well against San Jose.

The Pirates lost Game 4 to the Providence Bruins and trail in the series 3-1. Mark Mancari scored first and two quick goals in the end of the second were all Providence needed to slam the door. Booo. The series moves back to Providence for game 5 and, if necessary, game 6 will be back in Portland.

Speaking of Portland and Buffalo and San Jose and Ryan Miller(?) Drew Miller scored an empty net goal last night to slam the door on the Sharks. He's also #3 in our poll so far.

Is is all just setting the Ducks up for a HUGE collapse in the 2nd round against Detroit which is who they will face if they make it through (psh-WHEN they make it). Vancouver will face the winner of Calgary-Chicago. This all changes if the Sharks put together an AMAZING come back and win out the rest of the games, which is not impossible... buuuuut... Ryan Getzlaf brought his game face... or something:

That, my friends is the face of a winner.

YIKES, What a Busy Saturday

by Anne

THAT AVS GOAL WAS TOTAL BS AND MY LOVE FOR DANNY PAILLE CONTINUES TO GROW EXPONENTIALLY. WE WERE TREATED TO AN ADORABLE INTERVIEW FEATURING JM LILES' MILLION DOLLAR SMILE SO THANK YOU FOR THAT AND I COULDN'T HEAR DANNY PAILLE'S INTERVIEW BUT HE LOOKED CUDDLY AND SWEET FACED. OTHERWISE, BLAH.

That is all I have to say about that, except that I hope Hank is ok after getting sliced up in the first period. I thought something was off about our defense but I incorrectly thought Spacek was MIA, it was, in fact, Hank the Tank.

BLAH.

So the curse is gone in Philly, the Flyers won their second game in a row against the Devils, giving the team and Marty Biron two MUCH needed wins and killing us all because now we have to wait even longer to crown Martin Brodeur the King of All, and we will continue to be reminded EVERY DAY about his QUEST. Boooooooo.

Someone screwed up the ice surface at TD Banknorth Garden and as a result the goalies changed ends half way through the third period, Winter Classic style. Awesome. I mean the Bruins have only been around LIKE 80 YEARS, you can't expect them to have this whole "accurate measurement" thing down JUST YET.

WCB Watch

Ducks at Habs

Getzy scored a goal in the Ducks win and ONCE AGAIN, a team (the Canadiens) had 51 shots on goal and LOST. Thomas Plekanec had 13!!

ETA: Apparently the Hurricanes had 60 shots on goal Saturday night. WHAT IS GOING ON!?!

ETA2: My BAD, the Islanders had 60 shots, the Hurricanes FACED 60 shots and Cam Ward made 57 saves. WOWZAS.

No impacted tooth can hold him down!

Sharks at Lightning

Can someone please explain to me how Barry Melrose still has a job? Hell, Ted Nolan's got nothing to do these days, hire him!

Once again the Sharks had a crazy number of shots, 45, but this time, they actually WON 3-0, Pickles lead the team in ice time by more than 5 minutes, but managed to still only end with an even +/-.

Kings at Predators

JP scored for the Preds toward a 5-4 win!!! Greener still managed to be +1 with 2 shots. The Kings' PK was finally broken :(

You can barely see JP on the right, but I wanted to point out 2 other things:
The pink butt end of Martin Erat's stick
And that tool shed in the stands who actually purchased one of those vomit/mustard yellow third jerseys

Blue Jackets at Wild

OWEN NOLAN CAME OFF OF IR, GOT AN ASSIST AND THEN SCORED THE GAME WINNING GOAL!!!!!!! YAY!!!!! LOVE LOVE LOVE!

Oh yeah, and both we and the Wild are STILL unbeaten in regulation. This is getting feisty.

RAWWWWWR!!

Caps at Stars

Uhhh, this one wasn't pretty for Marty Turco, so let's move on..

Red Wings at Blackhawks

Sharpie got an assist and Brett Lebda had 9 minutes of ice time.... and the game went into OT... ouch.... maybe I need to re-evaluate my Red Wings WCB.

I really still love Britney Spears new music. I cannot pretend I don't. I really like Womanizer. Its really fun. I don't love the video, but she's look FIERCE these days. TEAM BRITNEY. What, hockey blog? Oh right!

Panthers at Blues

Jay McKee was +1. woo.

Keith Ballard must've been really upset to learn he would've been my 'Yotes WCB because he took 18 minutes in penalties including a game misconduct (10 mins) and 2 unsportsmanlike conducts. NOT COOL, KEITH, NOT COOL.

JKee's keeping an eye on things


I know this isn't JKee but the look on that Blues' face cracked me up

Flames at 'Yotes

The love of my life (Iggy) had a 3 point night (1+2) in a 4-1 Flames win!!!!!

Oilers at Canucks

Big Bear had an assist but was -2. Ethan Moreau (Oilers WCB) had 4 PIM and somehow managed to stay at even +/- in the 6-3 loss to Vancouver. Interesting (but really only interesting to me) fact: both my WCBs in this game wear #18.


Unrelated: Luke Schenn (Toronto 2008 draft pick) fought Chris Neil (we all know who he is) about 1 minute into the game. I CAN'T WAIT FOR THE YOUTUBE CLIPS!!!! I hope Schenn won!!

Pirates won tonight, 5-4. Gerbe netted another 2 goals, and TK got an assist, further extending his point streak. Yay!!!

Nathan Gerbe hearts the ta-tas

Baby Millsy was the second star of the night for the AHL on Friday. He had a 3 point night (1+2). Awww, yay! A dude named Wacey Rabbit was #1, and really how much harder can your life rock if you're kicking things off by being named Wacey Rabbit?

Tomorrow can be completely dedicated to football, woooo!!

What's next?

By Anne

He wins the "you know what" before Millsey. Fine, whatev, he lucked out on that one by being on the Ducks roster at the right time, and I'm happy for him. Drewzer also got engaged first. Being wholly indifferent to Millsey's marital status, this doesn't truly bother me. All fine, but now, Drewzer gets to add another list of things he's done that Millsey hasn't:

Being the first Crunchy to hang out with Snoop Dogg.

Well, unless Millsey or his other siblings have rap recording contracts we don't know about, he's the first.

Fine, Drewzer, be that way. You're my 2nd favorite Drew in the NHL. And my 2nd favorite Anaheim Duck. And my 2nd favorite Miller brother. So there's three things you aren't first in! Boo-ya.