Welcome Aboard, TJ Brennan and Drew Schiestel!

by Anne

The other day, the Buffalo Sabres signed defensemen TJ Brennan and Drew Schiestel to three year entry-level contracts. TJ is actually already with Portland and might see some action in the playoffs, once Coach Dineen thinks he's ready for the pace.

As per usual, I will welcome them to the FailShip:

TJ Brennan

• Born April 3, 1989 and his hometown is Moorestown, NJ (of all the facts I write, their place of birth tends to be the most disputed)
• Defenseman, shoots left
• 6'0" 188lbs (ok maybe not? according to the Erin Pollina he's 6'4"? No, that can't be, his roster spot says 6'0" 205 lbs)
  
• Drafted by the Sabres 31st overall in 2007, ya know, back when we were good
• Played last year for the Montreal Junior Hockey Club
• He was Montreal's highest scoring defenseman this year, registering 34 points (5+29) in 59 games
• He and I are Facebook friends. I added him and then like an hour later he confirmed. He's efficient, I like that.
• Also, his mom writes on his Facebook wall, its cute
  
• Here's a feature that was done on him in Philly before the draft in 2007 that talks about his journey to juniors and to the draft:

Drew Schiestel

• Born March 9, 1989 hometown: Hamilton, Ontario
• Defenseman, shoots left
  
• He does not have a Wikipedia page, this seriously cuts into my ability to find stuff out about him
• 6'2" 193 lbs
• Drafted by the Sabres 59th overall in 2007
• Played last year in the OHL for the Niagara Ice Dogs
• The Goose's Roost did some Facebook stalking um, research of Drew a while back
  
• After I read that he'd been signed I went on Facebook to add him as a friend only to discover two things 1. I often spell his name Scheistel when its Schiestel and 2. we were already Facebook friends
• This year he had 48 points in 63 games which was a personal best
  
• His nickname is apparently Shitter. We will not be calling him that
• Based upon being his Facebook friend, he has some diverse interests and I guess I can put it best by saying that if I was forced to choose from amongst our prospects the next one to fracture some vertebrae by falling off a barstool:
  

Welcome Aboard, boys!

A Week In the Life, Day 2

by Anne

I wasn't able to take a picture of it, but Oscar decided this morning that I REALLY needed to give him breakfast at the usual time my dad gives him breakfast... 5:30. NOT HAPPENIN' CAT. He bugged me for a few minutes and just as I was considering getting up to feed him, he scurried away, and I went back to sleep.

Sooooo yyyeah I already fail at this, I forgot my camera at work, so tomorrow will have to be a little Day 2 and Day 3 mixed together.

On the Sabres' front:

Tim Kennedy is writing a prospect blog. And, if you know me, there are few things in life that make me happier than:

1. Hockey players from Buffalo
2. Hockey players who blog

This has all the makings of the greatest blog of all time. A few highlights:

Derek Whitmore, Mike Funk and Drew Schiestel are all here working out. Then guys like Nathan Paetsch, Adam Mair, Daniel Paille and Patrick Kaleta come in as well.

Awesome. Can I show up there? Ok, truth be told I wouldn't know Drew Schiestel if he came up to me and introduced himself. Out of the context of actually being IN HSBC Arena, or him in full Sabres gear, I would have no clue why I was supposed to know him. DO YOU THINK ADAM MAIR IS AS SCARY TO THESE PROSPECTS AS HE IS TO ME? Why does Adam Mair scare me so much?!

I'm pretty sure I've never laid eyes on this guy before.

I’ve talked to those guys for the past few summers. They are all great and tell you what to expect, what’s going to happen.

Come on, Kennedy. They're ALL great? Not one is a douche bag? You and Gerb-Dogg don't talk about your back to back NCAA championships? This "Drew Schiestel" enigma doesn't talk about how great it is to be TOTALLY annonymous in the City of Buffalo? Wait, I notice he casually forgot to mention TimmyHO. He's probably got the dick-head quotient locked down.

We’re all good friends so it will be good to meet up with them again as well as meeting the new guys- everyone who was recently drafted and signed.

Does that not seem like the naive country bumpkin from Kansas who finds herself in a crazy web of sex lies and destruction in a recent season of MTV's Real World? I bet Nathan Gerbe has a secret serious drinking problem and Derek Whitmore has a crazy ex-girlfriend who shows up at practices. Wait until Andrew Orpik starts sleeping with Pat Kaleta's girlfriend and then has an emotional confessional room break-down about it. THEN we'll see who your "good friends" are, Tim Kennedy! Not everyone who LIVES in Buffalo is as awesome as we people FROM Buffalo.

Anyway, here's the link ch-ch-check it out.