2009-2010 Regular Season Grades: Forwards

by Anne

Continuing where we left off yesterday: the forwards.

#9 Derek Roy

80gm, 26G, 43A, +9, 19:22

All in all a somewhat typical season for Royzie. He took FOREVER to get his first goal of the season and he didn't amass as many points as he has in previous seasons. However, those previous seasons he and only a small number of other forwards were contributing and this scoring by committee style has knocked his goal totals down a touch. He was good more often than he was awful. He tied for first in GWG and had 3 OT winners.

Grade: B

 #13 Tim Kennedy

78gm, 10G, 16A, -3, 12:57

This being his first full season in the NHL, I'm going to go easy on Lil' Timmers. He was ok. He has signs of being better in years to come. Pommer, Royzie and Vanek all had just "meh" rookie seasons. He'll be better next season.

Grade: B-

#19 Tim Connolly

73G, 17G, 48A, +10, 18:37

Aside from his recent injury, Timmah was an iron man this season. He had an epic point-streak in December/January and lead the team in assists. There were several nights when he was the best player on the ice and was frequently the best forward. Remember how we said a healthy Timmah makes the Sabres better? True dat.

Grade: A-

#21 Drew Stafford

71gm, 14G, 20A, +4, 14:28

I think the thing about his stats I found most surprising was that he finished the season a + player. He's been better, he should be better and he's just not. I'm glad to see, though, that we stopped relying on him as a consistently top-6 player because he's not one. He's had a few solid games but not enough.

Grade: C-

 #22 Adam Mair

69gm, 6G, 8A, -2, 9:14

Remember when he was put on waivers? Yikes. I'm glad Mairsy is still here. He works hard, he took the waiver wire with professionalism and the Sabres are the better for it. He knows his role and he does it well. As a whole, the team fought less this season and tried to limit penalties as a whole. He did his job.

Grade: B

 #25 Mike Grier

73gm, 10G, 12A, -4, 15:47

Mikey had a very Mikey season. He has hands of stone and he's slower than molasses on a cold day but he's consistent! He was topnotch on the PK, a great veteran mentor for Tim Kennedy and just made everything better.

Grade: B+

#26 Thomas Vanek

71gm, 28G, 25A, +9, 16:45

Thomas, Thomas, Thomas. Yet another frustrating season in which you went bananas at the end. He should just always be told it's mid-March/early April. He seems to play really well then. However, his four-goal game could not make up for his endless stretches of goal-lessness. He was a + player, which has been a struggle for him since his +47 season.

Grade: B-

#28 Paul Gaustad

65gm, 12G, 10A, -7, 15:44

Tied a career-high in goals (set last season). His greatest contribution to the team has been faceoff wins, which he produced at 57.4% this season. Goose doesn't get much fanfare and got even less than usual this season. His +/- is a tad unsettling but bottom six players rarely have high +/-. I'm fairly confident that he, Miller, Grier and Rivs were responsible for keeping certain players in line and being held accountable. That topic didn't come up nearly as often this season as it has in the past two (non-playoff) seasons.

Grade: B+

 #29 Jason Pominville

82gm 24G, 38A, +13, 18:44

Pommer was the Sabres most consistent forward for most of the season. Once again, he played all 82 games this season. He hasn't missed a regular season game since he was a healthy scratch April 7, 2006. I really don't have much bad to say about his season. Like every other forward, his points total was lower than last season or the season before. It's the new system and I think we all have to accept that.

Grade: B+

#36 Patrick Kaleta

55gm, 10G, 5A, +2, 10:09

One of the only exceptions to the above statement about players scoring less is Pat Kaleta. He more than doubled his career high in goals and lead the team with 2 shorthanded goals. He had 148 hits in only 55 games. He was consistent and did his job as was expected of him. He even had a few fights and drew lots o' penalties.

Grade: A-

#37 Matt Ellis

72gm, 3G, 10A, -1, 9:03

Matty played a career-high in games and set a new career high in assists. Much like Mike Grier, he was consistent and has an incredible no-quit work ethic. I often describe his work ethic as "If I don't play well tonight, they'll feed me to the lions tomorrow." He was responsbile (12 PIM) and won some faceoffs. What more can you really ask?

Grade: B+

 #55 Jochen Hecht

79gm, 21G, 21A, +14, 17:11

Lead the team in +/-. Thank goodness he's back in his defensively-responsible mode. We definitely needed that from him this season. He was consistent and consistently solid. I liked seeing him and Pommer occasionally reunited this season. It made my heart all a-flutter. Same thing with Royzie and Vanek. Sometimes the old chemistry worked for them.

Grade: A-

These three players played only 10-20 games in a Sabres uniform (and are still with the team):

 #17 Raffi Torres

14gm, 0G, 5A, -3, 13:20

Go away. I don't like you.

Grade: D

 #42 Nathan Gerbe

10gm, 2G, 3A, +1, 14:38

I definitely like what I've seen. The 3G Network^TM (Gerbe-Gaustad-Grier) has been clicking. A huge sigh of relief to see him produce at the NHL level. Thank goodness.

Grade: B+

 #63 Tyler Ennis

10gm, 3G, 6A, +1, 15:20

He can score in the AHL and in the NHL. Gee, the 2009 AHL rookie of the year (Gerbe) and now the 2010 AHL rookie of the year (Tennis the Menace) actually playing well in their call-ups? Wa-hoo! Here's hoping things stay consistent and they don't suffer Chris Butler-like collapses when they inevitably make the club next season :)

Grade: A-

Overall this "scoring by committee" has diminished most players scoring. Having Ryan Miller in net still made it possible for us to win. Lots of players had scoring bursts at the end of the season which makes me feel little more optimistic about their ability to score in the post season.

Forwards overall grade: B+

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.

How did they do that?

by Anne

If you had said to me before this game "Anne, tonight Ryan Miller will allow three softies and be pulled for Patrick Lalime and Marc-Andre Fleury will be in net for Pittsburgh." I would've guesstimated the final score to be something in neighborhood of 8-1.

NOT SO MUCH MY FRIENDS.

That game was friggin' sweeeeeeeeet. I love love love those kinds of games. The "Well here's a hole we can't dig out of..." and you start to check out but don't turn the game off. Then they score once (about damn time), then twice (not quite enough just yet boys) and then woooo! It's tied! But they're gonna blow it. No way can they do it, especially not in regulation BUT HOLY CRAP THEY DID IT! THEY DID IT! THEY WON! IN REGULATION!

Those crazy bastards

I will not use the same (totally awesome) picture of Little Foot that's made the rounds, I will use another:

He is NOT Joey Ramone

Joey Ramone wishes HE were Drew Stafford

Also, he did good too:

Good job Patty, we needed that.

It's amazing how well he does when the team in front of him is playing well.

I'm sorry I said bad things about you before.

LET'S GO BUFF-A-LO!!!!!!!

My personal favorite photo of the game:

ha.

So let me get this straight

by Anne

• Teddy Purcell who has spent time on all four lines and in the press box this season and has been accused of having no identity gets slated into the top line with Smyth and Kopitar? I'm all for attempting to re-ignite his game but from press box to top line in one day seems like a strange turnaround. Simmonds for Willy's spot!
  

• Tonight the Kings play the Wild for the 2nd time this season. The last time they played them was October 8th when the Wild were struggling mightily. They've since righted that ship and have played much better since then.
  

• The Caps traded their Captain and Milan Jurcina to the Blue Jackets for Jason Chimera. Now begins the "Who gets the C?" rigamarole. The two nominees on Twitter were Ovechking (hurl) and Laich (yes, please) with a few nods to Mike Knuble.
  

• The Caps are teetering on the edge of falling into the "ubearable" category currently only occupied by the Chicago Blackhawks. If they pick Ovechkin, they'll be firmly entrenched and probably more unbearable than ever before, far more so than the Blackhawks.  

• But let's be honest, I can never hate the Caps. I still like them. I can talk a big game but they are fun to watch.
  

• Staffy is back playing on a line in practice. Hopefully the message was sent that he needs to step up his game and play the way he's shown he can in the past. Festivus or no Festivus.
  

• Only 92 days til the Nashville game :) :) :) :) :)
  

Hero of the Game

by Anne

All Sabres fans are well aware that Ryan Miller is the hero of the Sabres roster. I don't need to go into anymore "night after night" platitudes and blah blah blah because we all know what he does.

However, on those nights when the Sabres find themselves down a goal or two heading into the third, who do they rely on to get them those clutch goals?

Uhhhh? Vanek? Not at this pace. Connolly? Maybe. Royzie? He's too busy losing clutch faceoffs. MacArthur or Stafford? Occasionally. Pominville? Not this season.

When you can go through your top 6 and confidently say that none of them are heroic, reliable goal scorers at this point in the game, you have a problem.

Last night at the Arena while I was changing to go home, the score was still 3-2. I found myself standing in the lockerroom thinking this sentence: "Ok _____ time for some magic." And it occurred to me that I have no idea who could fill in that blank.

Last season, Vanek offered heroics, and we've been able to rely on him a lot in the last few years to do that. This season has been slow going and no one else has stepped up to offer that boost, that feeling of "Don't worry, get him the puck and things will happen."

All of the boys in the top 6 can score goals, and they all have been (some later than others, ROYZIE). But none of them are are go-to goal scorer. That keeps the other team's defense guessing, they can never be 100% sure who's going to be that player with the quick trigger. Crosby, Ovechkin, Malkin, Kopitar, Nash, Iginla, Zetterberg, Kovalchuk, all over the NHL there are teams with that one player or more than one sometimes. You keep that guy covered at all times. The balanced attack makes for a confused opponent, but it also leaves us without the game-saving goal scorer.

Miller can stop the pucks from going in (most of the time) but he can't score the goals for them. Someone needs to kick it up a notch or 10. Not just someone, but a lot of someones.

12-5-1 is still a good record through 17 games, let's not kid ourselves. This team isn't completely perfect. It's got a lot of really solid elements, but now that they've gone through their feeling things out phase, it'll be nice to see them kick it into that next gear they should be able to kick it into.

They need to push harder and drive harder and score more. Who's going to do it?

This feels a lot better

by Anne

Wheee!

Between Friday and Tuesday the Pens, Canucks, Kings and Sabres played eight games. In those games those four teams went a combined 0-8-0. WHAT? That's terrible. I was not too happy. Eight straight games of FAIL.

Tonight, my two favorite teams (Canucks, you'd better get your act together to try to reclaim this title from the Kings) played two splendid games.

Clearly, I saw the Sabres game, but I did not see the Kings game because they are in the midst of an East coast trip and their game was also at 7:00.

First my beloved Sabres won somewhat of a snoozer against Edmonton at HSBC Arena tonight.

Steve Montador scored his first as a Sabre and the line of Stafford - Connolly - Vanek, known (by me only) as the Should line (because it SHOULD work) contributed the first goal from Staffy and then provided some stifling offensive zone pressure to set up the Full Monty's goal. Yoyo added the empty netter to seal the 3-1 win.

The Sabres powerful is godawful terrible. Good LORD. They were 0 for 7 against the Bruins the other night and tonight they went 0 for 4. Maybe practice the power play in practice lots and lots? Thanks.

Clarke MacArthur accidentally pulverized Liam Reddox into the boards with only a few minutes left in the third period which drew a five minute major for boarding and a game misconduct. I didn't see the hit but me may be suspended. Dang. Although maybe Mairsy will play? Grier had a strained groin and if he misses time, Mair will definitely be back. Maybe Paetsch will be in at forward? I hope Grizz doesn't get suspended. I think it's clear that he had no intention of hitting him hard from behind; Maybe taking the body to knock him off the puck, but he seems to lose his footing at the last second.

Still scary, regardless of intent.

That five minute penalty was interesting. For the first two minutes of it, the crowd was holding its collective breath, as if we were willing the puck to stay out of the net. Then as the PKers started to really control the situation, a loud "Let's go Buff-a-lo!" chant energized the Arena and the penalty was killed and met by a standing ovation from the crowd.

Hey Should line.

Good job

Cookies for you.

Well, maybe not you, Tommy. You took lotsa penalties.

Next game IGGY COMES TO BUFFALO!

:) :) :)

Also on tap, and experienced by me via boxscore checks and LAKings.com highlights, was the Kings 5-2 win over the flailing Carolina Hurricanes. Tonight's loss brings the Butter Snaps losing streak to 13 games. I believe they are 0-10-3 in their last 13. Yeesh.

Erik Ersberg made his second start of the season and got his first win.  Anze Kopi-star had two assists upping his league-leading points total to 30 (14+16). Oh snap.

Randy Jones, the Kings 7th defenseman recently acquired from Philly, played in his first game as a King and recorded the game winning goal and an assist. Woo!

This line is also foxy.

This line contributed six points tonight (2+4)

Well done, boys.

I love you.

Lots.

Both teams are off tomorrow and then both teams play Friday. Then, of course, both teams play Saturday. Yeesh, schedulers!

What's a better birthday present than a goal and a win?

by Anne

Nothing that I can think of.

Drew Stafford celebrated his 24th birthday with a goal and Timmy Connolly got him a win for his birthday. It's way better than his original gift idea:

Timmy got hungry

 

This gift is something we can all enjoy.

I like his teammates chillin' on the bench, ready to make a change

Matt Stajan isn't good at birthday gifts either.

Frankly, the Sabres came wwaaayyy too close to losing to the Laffs. At least when the Maple Leafs are THIS bad, some of their fans have come to terms and are actually pleasant at HSBC Arena. I had a pleasant conversation during the third with a Leafs fan who was very complimentary to the Sabres. It was unsettling.

Tyler Myers celebrated his first game as a legit rookie with 22:36 in ice time, including 3:29 on the PP, two penalties, four blocked shots and getting hit in the face with a stick. Frankly, I'm just impressed a player was able to get his stick that high.

Points of note:

• Britney notched his first assist of the season. That's a bit unsettling, but hey, he's got at least one!
• Derek Roy notched his eighth point of the season but still hasn't scored a freakin' goal. The only reason people aren't freaking out about this is because we're winning. 
• Rivs and Sir Christopher were both -2
• Henrik Tallinder was a +1 AGAIN. Playing with Myers has done wonders for him. Apparently he needed someone even taller and blonder to be his partner

I turned off the Canucks game when the Ducks scored their sixth unanswered goal to up their lead to 6-2. Cory Schneider is not the future, apparently. He doesn't seem to be good trade fodder at this point. It's too bad the Kings are fairly set in net, he could've been slated into their previous revolving turnstile of starting goaltenders. (They've had like 10 in the past three years, no joke).

The Leafs were playing soccer when I walked in today. Holy CRAP, Jason Blake is the tiniest and blondest man I may have ever seen in person. Niklas Hagman almost crashed into the little fence that's set up to keep the riffraff away from the players. That would've been not so great for the Leafs, Nik.

Happy Halloween, everyone!

Happy Birthday, Drew Stafford!!

by Anne

Oh Little Foot. We've had our ups and downs over the years: I loved you, I hated you, you creepily remind me of a dude I went to high school with, then I loved you again, then you were obnoxious..it's a vicious cycle. Now the wheel of affection is stopped on "love," but give it time, your maddeningly frustrating goal droughts and penchant for ignoring mild concussion symptoms will, I'm sure, drive me away again.

Regardless! Today is Drew Stafford's 24th birthday! They're hosting the Maple Leafs, the worst team in the NHL, tonight. I'm sorry to say that because of these factors, we will undoubtedly lose tonight. Alack and fie.

I baked you these totally badass cupcakes

Rock on.

Happy Birthday, Drew!

Sabres in New Joisey

by Anne

Tonight I have a show, so of course, tonight the Sabres are playing a game. This time, the season's first match-up with the New Jersey Devils.

I have no strong feelings about the Devils. I like Zach Parise, Marty Brodeur, Paul Martin Travis Zajac and PETEY!

Petey hasn't played since last Friday. Think Jacques will let him get in on this one, especially with Jay Pandolfo out?
 ETA: Petey's out for tonight according to Sabres' Edge. Guess this will have to wait:

Please don't try this tonight, Petey.

Goose and Mairsy would turn you inside out.

No one wants to see that :(

For some reason, I have noticed I have an affinity for (some, not all) players that went to UND. I have no particular affection for UND, but clearly I like the hockey players they turn out. If you're not sure who I mean, Parise and Zajac went to UND, along with Drew Stafford, Matt Greene, James Patrick, and Mike Commodore. T.J. Oshie and Jonathan Toews went there as well but I don't have strong feelings about either of them. I feel badly about Ryan Johnson's injury (UND alumni) but before that I didn't feel too strongly about him, so I won't pretend that because he's injured I've adored him all long. Current Sabres prospect Corey Fienhage attends UND so I'm sure it won't be long until I love him or am indifferent about him. Portland Pirates goalie JP Lamoureux wen there as well. Hot.

Back to the Devils: I'm deeply ambivalent about David Clarkson: he's pretty but he can be kind of a dbag. But mostly he's pretty, so I'm ok with it. He's a little Goose-like in that respect. They don't really have any players that I strongly dislike, now that Bobby Holik's NHL career has gone the way of the dinosaurs.

I hope Petey doesn't try to start anything if he's playing tonight. I love Petey and that would make me love him a little less. I do, however, hope that he messes with Royzie a little, and maybe messes with Millsy a little, just to ruffle his feathers and loosen him up.

Paulie Martin has broken his arm and will be out for a month. He's one of the Devils' top defencemen so: point in our favor.

The Devils are third in the Atlantic and are coming off of a three-game winning streak including one in MSG and one at the Igloo. The Sabres are undefeated on the road this season. The Devils are 6-3-0, the Sabres are 6-1-1. Marty Brodeur, that Saucy Minx^TM, is looking for his NHL record 100th shutout. I feel confident that the Sabres can help him out in that regard.

Puck drops at 7:00!

You too may have your very own Zach Parise UND Fighting Sioux bobblehead

Enjoy it, this is their last season as the Fighting Sioux. I vote they go back to "Flickertails"

In other news:

The Kings are playing in San Jose and the Pens are hosting the Habs. Sa-weeeet. The Kings host the Canucks tomorrow and I'm not ok with it. This is the first time this season any of my four teams are playing each other. Basically, when it's not the Sabres, my loyalties are confused :(

When the Sabres aren't playing, I talk about other teams, you're just going to have to cope

by Anne

On nights when the Sabres don't play, I appreciate it when my other teams win.

Last night, the Kings played a fantastic first period and then a solid start to the 2nd before they crapped the bed in the beginning of the 3rd, blew a three goal lead and allowed the Stars to tie. Fortunately, Michal Handzus said "Yo, eff this, I want these two points" and scored the OT winner 55 seconds in. Phew!

The biggest story of the night was Anze Kopitar's first career hat trick. Hooray! Confetti!

Bailey was so proud

This was Kopi's 12th career multi-goal game but his first hat trick. The Kings are 5-1 this season when Kopi scores. I like it.

In a related story, I really like the Kings third jerseys. Christmas is approaching. You do the math.

The Sabres are doing more stuff to make the players seem, I don't know, human? For example, a few weeks ago they started this new feature that, like most Sabres features, probably will happen three times and never be heard from again. For some reason I'd never seen it before. Here it is:

Good old Little Foot

Wednesday Morning

by Anne

I like lists, don't you?

• Injury report: Drew Stafford has a "mild concussion" and Tony Lydman has a hand injury. Stafford may be ready for Saturday but Toni probably will not be.
  

• Does this make room for Myers? He's had a strong, not outstanding, but an improving-each-game kind of camp. Do we give him his 9 game stint? I say: yes. Especially with Toni being out.

• Cody McCormick cleared waivers and was sent to Portland. I am not surprised.

• With Stafford and without Mair, we have twelve forwards, leaving a roster spot for Tim Kennedy, who I feel has had a better camp than Gerbe. Not to say Gerbe didn't have a strong camp, but I'd give Kennedy the edge. They both picked up the pace towards the end of camp and started scoring some goals, much to everyone's relief.

• Leave Kennedy up, definitely, and once Mairsy comes back, we'll see what happens.

• Don't touch my Matty Ellis. :P

• The Florida Panthers AND Chicago Blackhawks lost to European teams on Tuesday. That's the first time an NHL team has lost in like 19 years and two lost on the same day. Well done, boys.
  

• Many are super pumped about the Canucks. As. Am. I. Contender? I'd say definitely more so this year than last. Luongo, Heniel, Danrick, Burrows, Kesler, Ehrhoff, and crew are looking good. The defense looks pretty solid, and the scoring is there, even with Demitra out.
  

• I'm a little less pumped for the Pens. I know pre-season is meaningless, but they had a really bad record in the pre-season.
  

• People are also pumped about the Kings. Ok, "pumped" may be a little strong, let's define pumped as "predicting the Kings might not suck as hard as last year or the year before." Terry Murray is about defense and some of the Kings are... less inclined to be defensively responsible. Some of their +/- from last season is.... paralyzingly bad. Speaking of such things:
  

• The Sunny Hedgehog Enchanters drafted yesterday and after some moves of some ill-advised draftees (who knew they all had such bad +/-?) the roster looks... ok?

• Highlights of the Sunny Hedgehog Enchanters (or SHE) would be three of its four namesakes: Rick Nash (aces) Drew Doughty (ummm....) and Matt Greene (don't judge me). Sadly, Schenner was not available and BabySchenn went back to Brandon. Also on the roster are Nick Lidstrom, Vinny Lecavalier, Dany Heatley, Phil Kessel and Sissy. My team can score, win faceoffs and hit. Goaltending? Ehhh maybe not so much... My trio includes Osgood, Quick and Bryzgalov. I'm not thrilled with that line-up.

• Also, I guess from some form of sentimentality, I drafted FIVE Kings. It's a really good think BabySchenn went back to juniors, I probably would've drafted HIM too. Their combined +/- is so unspeakably bad, I can't even think about it. Greener leads the way (and was #2 on the team last season) with a blistering +1. Yyyyeah, it's not good. Not Brind'amour bad, bad not even Lidstrom can counter-act all that negativity. I'm planning to unload Kopitar as soon as I can bully someone into taking him. Unless he suddenly starts playing defensive hockey, which is highly unlikely. Alas.
  

• I have a lot (like three) more defensemen than everyone else in my league. Should I be concerned about this?

• Can you tell I have NO IDEA what's going on in fantasy hockey?

• Speaking of fantasies... [;)] we're formatting this year's All-Stars of Hottness differently, as there is not All-Star Game. Instead we will be selecting the national teams of the United States and Canada.... and maybe Sweden. But not Russia, they're all too ugly. Remember, this is purely superficial.
  

• Team USA expects to announce their roster around December 30. I can't figure out when Team Canada announces their roster but I'm guessing it's right around then. We'll use December 30 as our date too. Look for that ballot to be posted by Thanksgiving and up for voting until Christmas. Nominations are accepted all the time, so submit some.

• Final roster cuts must be made by today at 3:00pm EST. Eek!
  

Greener's trying to keep his +/- "high" for SHE's sake.
Thank you, Matt Greene.

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!

To Be Completed At A Later Date

by Anne

Some people on message boards (the most RELIABLE source of information, of course) are saying that the Sabres have reached a deal with Little Foot.

However, no one will confirm or deny this and I haven't blogged since Thursday so we'll just post this and fill in the blanks later:

Wooooo! Hoooooray! Following in the same timing of last year's Pominville signing, Drew Stafford, that enigma of a man; I love him, I hate him, I hate to love him and love to hate him, has signed a contract with the Buffalo Sabres.

Drew Stafford will toy with my emotions for at least another _____ (year/years)
I think the amount the contract is for is (completely reasonable/bloated and ridiculous)

Hopefully with his new multi-year contract, Little Foot will fall into a groove.

OR

Hopefully this one-year contract will light a fire under Little Foot to step it up this season

Finally:

I'm happy about this.

OR

I think this contract is bananas.

Hockey Fest 09

by Anne

Several teams in the NHL have these big fan-related events to kick off the pre-season with the players, coaches, management, etc.

Of course, the Buffalo Sabres do not.

However, the Los Angeles Kings do!

Since I was not anywhere near California during these festivities, I only have a few pictures to piece together the magic.

I don't care how "real NHL player" he becomes over the next few seasons, he'll always be Dewey


Greener made multiple references in both his Hockey Fest commercials and in this talk back about how he's single.
Greener, calm thyself


Kopi can't believe whatever Greener is laughing at


Kopi is amused, Greener is chuckling, Wayne is enjoying
aaaaand Teddy is engrossed by his bottle of water.
He's a party animal.


My favorite part of this picture is Simmer making that adorable little girl wave
At least Teddy is paying attention.


He looks like he's writing a thoughtful letter on this puck


Pimp Daddy
Head Coach Terry Murray.

On a mostly unrelated note: When I was perusing the Hockey Fest galleries, I noticed the NHL 10 preview screen shots. For some reason two of the shots are the Kings playing the Sabres IN Buffalo and Staffy is close in on goal. All the other shots are Kings home game against Western Conf. opponents. It was odd:

Quickie is stacking the pads against Little Foot


"Derek Roy" is not a reasonable likeness.

Caroline spotted Nathan Gerbe at her place of employment. This means training camp is almost here!! September 12!!

Whoa, Canucks

by Anne

After sliding headlong into the most dreaded time of the year, late August when nothing hockey related is happening save for baseless darts at a dartboard guesstimates over how teams and individual players will fare in the coming season, the Vancouver Canucks have gone bananas.

Today they traded two AHL type players to the San Jose Sharks who, looking to free up some cap space, sent Christian Ehrhoff and Brad Lukowitch to Vancouver.

Also, Gillis attempting to add some more veteran blueline presence announced the signing of 40 year old Mathieu Schneider to the club.

This now gives the Vancouver Canucks approximately 156 defensemen to fill 7-8 slots. I guess when trying to make up for Matty Ohlund's departure, Gillis decided just to hoard all the defensemen he can find so other teams can't have them.

Interesting tactic.

Also, on Twitter, it was brought to our attention that Drew Stafford is no longer featured on the Buffalo Sabres roster but newcomers such as Schutz, Whitmore and Turnbull have been added at the same time Staffy disappeared.

I can haz Staffy back? Please? :(

USA Advances!

by Anne

For the first time since 2004, Team USA advances past the quarterfinals!!

Hooray!

I was doing my awesome Anne Happy Dance which I wish I could demonstrate on here so you could all do it. It involves a lot of hip shaking and and "raising the roof" style arm movements accompanied by a few well timed "aw yeah"s for good measure.

So I'm in my kitchen happy dancing away, scaring the cat and I have the following thought: "Woo! Semifinals! So who do we have to pl- oh. Damn." We have to play Russia. Friggin' A. Well it was nice to make it to the Semis.

During the game, Kyle Okposo missed on a wraparound attempt that he probably should've been able to stuff in and in the replay we were inadvertently treated to a super slo-mo version of Kyle saying "Eff me." It was pretty nice.

YO. What the hell. I'm looking for pictures while I'm typing this and the gallery is five pages long. Normally its three. Maybe its because it was Finland's final game? Whatevs.

Unlike the other games, I actually got to watch this one. Universalsports.com has a really nice high-quality streaming video of the games (its free). I thoroughly enjoy watching my team rather than just looking at a continually refreshing boxscore.

Because I was actually watching with my own to eyes, I got to see the Sabres fans in attendance:

They were moving way too much and so this picture quality is not so great.


Gerbe-Derby getting international love!

The game was definitely a seesaw. The first period was all Finland as the USA took a slew of penalties and played a lot of the 2nd half of the period short-handed. Finland fired 20 shots on Robert Esche in the first frame but Esche stood tall in net and kept his team in it. The Finns didn't solve Robbie until the first minute of the second at the end of a penalty that had been taken in the last minute of the first.

It looked like the Finns were ready to build on their lead until they took a penalty. Finally, Team USA got their heads together and managed to turn the game in their favor. The Finns took the next five penalties and even though they only scored on one of them, the rest of the game was all USA. All five goals were scored in the 2nd period and the USA won 3-2, mostly thanks to the play of Robert Esche.

Even the announcers were like "He's been in RUSSIA for the last two years. Can you BELIEVE it?" I mean he's not the greatest goaltender in the world but I think he'd be a good back-up. HINT. HINT. He's only 31. I'm not sayin'... I'm just sayin'.

Being in the Semifinals means if the USA wins (which they won't) they will play for Gold/Silver. If they lose, they will play for Bronze. Either way, they have a shot at a medal for the first time in many years. I honestly didn't expect this team to do better than last year's team but I was wrong, obviously.

Now for some photography:

Nick Foligno pushes Senator teammate Jarkko Ruutu to the ice
I like that Foligno kid, he's a good egg.
Too bad he's a Senator.
But HA, Ruutu


Dustin Brown scored the USA's first goal on a 5 on 3 after some beautifully crisp passing from his teammates
Hainsey shot it from the blue line, cross-ice to Suter just above the dot, to Brownie who was, well where he is in the picture.
It would seem this is a good way to score on Pekka Rinne, so TJ Oshie did the same thing on a 3-on-1 rush a bit later:


Nice.


Never fear, Little Foot's intense eyebrows showed up for the game


Let's discuss a few things.
1. How tiny is Jason Blake?
2. How tall are those boards?
3. Was Antti Miettinen hit by a sniper?
4. Why is he using his Minnesota Wild gloves? Is he just that particular? Would team Finland not foot the bill?
5. Could Team USA look less impressed by this game? Little Foot looks about ready to nod off, Nick Foligno looks like he's yawning and Joe Pavelski... well, he always looks like that.

Team USA takes on Russia Friday at 10:15 am EST.

Weekend O' Pictures

by Anne

I worked about a gajillion hours this weekend so I was a negligent blogger. Here now is a recap in pictures:

NHL:

Sighs.The Canucks lost a bad one to the Blackhawks. They blew a two goal lead and dropped Game 2 by a score of 6-3. Ouch. That one stung. I wasn't watching too closely as I was working and/or at a bar in which the game was on a TV that was very far away and there was no sound. Le sigh. The series is tied 1-1. On the bright side, this was the first loss of the post-season for the Canucks, and no one thought that this series would be a sweep.

Also, we tragically learned that Big Bear has a neck beard:

I think I can get over it.
I think.
Just keep playing physically and I can get over it.
Maybe score a goal.

IIHF Worlds:

Team USA played Russia on Saturday and lost 4-1. Boooo. And Staffy cut his face in the game against France, it would seem (some of the pics from the game against France did not load when I wanted them to the other night):

Ouch.
But NOT a neckbeard.

But don't worry, Staffy and his uber-intense excited eyebrows were still available for Saturday's yicky loss to Russia:

Please don't grow a mustache Drew, those are gross.
Much like that game.

Team USA next faces Switzerland this afternoon at 2:15 ET. Woooo!

Team Austria has done quite well in the Relegation Round. They beat Hungary 6-0 on Friday and Sunday morning at 6:15 am ET they beat Yoyo and Germany 1-0. Vanek had the only assist on the only goal Sunday morning.

Britters is interviewed, probably in German.

Austria next plays Denmark today... oh wait, the game will have already started by the time this is posted. Whoops. I'll edit this to add the score, I'm sure. ETA: Austria lost 5-2 and will be demoted back to Division I. :(

Team Canada defeated Norway 5-1 Sunday afternoon. Team Canada remains undefeated thusfar in the tournament.

Royzie, dangerously close to being a dirty Swiss hooker



Dewey melts hearts internationally with this little Canadian fan
Look! He's holding a stuffed Cooly!
Where can I get a stuffed Cooly?

Team Canada next beats plays Finland at 2:15 today in the final day of Qualification round play. Team USA needs to win today to make it to the Quarterfinals.