Letters

by Anne

Dear Kings,

Thank you for winning last night. I know it was in the shootout, which isn't my favorite, but at least you won. I appreciate updating the "W" column in your record. It is very enjoyable. Keep up the good work.

Love, Anne

 Wooo! Kings win!

 Dear Joe Beninati,

Thanks for developing an awkward man crush on Matt Greene. He is a "big burly beast," I'm sure he'll be glad to know you think so too. I am thrilled he has returned the Kings' line-up as well.

Love, Anne

What he didn't tell us is that this moose is named Matt Greene as well.

Dear Dustin Brown,

I'm sorry you were ejected from the game unnecessarily. Mostly I'm sorry you were ejected because you didn't do anything wrong. Also I'm sorry because you're on one of my fantasy teams and you killed my average time on ice last night. Please keep this in mind as you move forward in the season.

Love, Anne

I think this picture is from last season

HOW HAVE I NEVER SEEN IT BEFORE?

Looks like I found the front of this year's Christmas card.

Dear Drew Doughty,

Please wrap your head in bubble wrap and don't sit in any spinny chairs for the next few days. We'd like your coconut to be fully functional and ready to return to the lineup posthaste. I'm sure Simmer doesn't appreciate all the requests for chicken soup and foot massages. Oh yeah, and the Kings miss you. They're doing fine without you so far but they'll be even better WITH you. I'm sure Greener is trying not to take it personally that the first game you missed was his first game back. Bitterness between former housemates? Is there tension? Greener did saw Simmer's shoe in half once.... it's all coming together now.

Love, Anne

TIMMAH was kind enough to let you borrow it

Dear Sabres,

I have been having a bad few days, last night the Kings did their part by beating the Wild. However, I have no strong feelings about the Wild so that victory wasn't nearly as satisfying as, say, you beating the Philadelphia Flyers, my 2nd least favorite team in the NHL. PLEEEEEEEASE beat the Flyers?! PRETTY Please?!

Love, Anne

Does this come in women's cuts too?

Dear Tyler Myers,

You're  -8 these days. Please improve that stat and fast. My fantasy team would appreciate it.

Love, Anne

I see you are composing your thoughtful response.

Many thanks, young JBG

Dear Jason Pominville,

Please come back soon. We might not need you that much, but it's been weird watching games without you playing in them.

Love, Anne

I know what you're thinking, and you're right:

This picture will never be old.

Dear Squeaky desk somewhere in my office,

OMFG, STOP SQUEAKING, IT'S DRIVING ME SLOWLY INSANE. I SWEAR I WILL GO ALL HULK SMASH ON YOU SOON IF A SOLUTION TO YOUR INCESSANT SQUEAKING IS NOT QUICKLY REACHED.

Love, Anne

Extra Innings, Extra points?

by Anne

I assume that one day the Sabres will not get a point out of  a game and will just lose in regulation like everyone else does. However, for the last nine games, that has not been the case. They're 7-0-3 in their last ten games. Their last regulation loss came to Washington on December 23! Isn't that bananas? I feel confident they will lose in regulation on this upcoming swing through the Pacific division with that one sidestep into the Northwest to play Big Bear.

Anyway, once again the Sabres were far too polite and kindly allowed the Islanders to score the first two goals before tying the game. They then went on to have yet another lengthy shootout that they lost. I never even think about Ales Kotalik until wer'e at shooter number seven and I think "if we had Big Czech Al, this would've been over by now..." but then I remember his other shortcomings and glance at his stats in New York and I don't miss him quite so much.

Mike Grier and Drew Stafford scored and the shootout went (I think) eight or so rounds. Pat Kaleta? Really, Lindy? Whatevs, we still got a point.

Why hello there, you foxy Captain-y gentlemen

;)

And Darryl Strawberry and that kid with Autism
They're no Darth Vader, right Craigory?

Mike Grier, your mouth is enormous, sir.

The afternoon prior to the Sabres game, the Los Angeles Kings played host to the Boston Bruins.  It would do both of my teams immense good if the Kings were to win Saturday afternoon's tilt in LA.  Unfortunately, things did not start out too spiffy as the Kings, once again were down by two headed into the third.

Then Anze Kopitar and Dustin Brown said "yo, eff this losing in regulation business. Stolly started us off, let's finish this and get at least a point." They both scored in the third to tie the game at three. This was a welcome balm after the Bruins scored twice in eleven seconds in the second period. This blogger was about ready to turn the game off. But we all know I'm a pansy and won't really turn the game off until it's over.

Jarret Stoll is a close-talker

But he seems to be sharing some juicy gossip with Brownie

 Maybe they're checking out a hot chick in the stands

Then things went to overtime and nothing happened. Then it was time for a shootout. Kopi scored and neither of the Bruins did in the first two rounds so Brownie scored the clinching goal in the third round of the shootout and the Kings won 4-3!

Tim Tom was not happy about it.

LOOK OUT, BROWNIE!

Three out of a possible four points for those two teams on Saturday was pretty good.

Tonight the Sabres play in Phoenix at 7:00 which is nice because it's Martin Luther King Day. As I typed that I wrote "Kings" instead of "King." Whoops.

We are slowly reaching January 21; A day that has been circled on my calendar since the schedule was released. A day in which I will be tormented to no end watching these two teams play each other. Needless to say, I hope it will end in overtime at least.

Hey! Hey! U-S-A! And the Sabres won too... eh!

by Anne

The Winter Classic game was boring except for the last five minutes and OT and I would've preferred it if the Flyers had won only because they are not in our division.

Anywhoozle, then the Team USA roster was announced and there weren't toooo many surprises. The only players I was displeased to see there were Mike Komisarek and Chris Drury. Or as they shall now be known "Not Rob Scuderi" and "Not Paul Gaustad."

From teams I care about: Ryan Miller was named as one of the goaltenders. Frankly, I'm pretty surprised. I mean, his stats this season haven't been exactly phenomenal and he hasn't really played at an elite level but I guess Brian Burke is ok with that?

Jack Johnson and Dustin Brown will be representin' the Kings, and ya know who else will?!?!

The one real surprise (for me anyway?) was that the #3 goaltender named to the tournament was Jonathan Quick!! Yay Quickie monster! I'm so excited for him. He won't see a second of ice time but he's being groomed for the back-up job for 2014 after TimTom presumably retires.

Also in "WOO!" for team USA was Patrick Kane, Brooks Orpik, and David Backes. Wooo!

Theeeeennnn there was the Sabres game.

Ok.

I'm very glad they won, especially when they had NO BUSINESS winning that game. Jochen Hecht even SAID SO! They were ONCE AGAIN down 3-0 and rallied to win 4-3. I'll take the two points anyway we can get them but this bizness is no longer cute.

Derek Roy's winning goal was also hilarious.

[So the video was supposed to go here but it won't work, sorry!]

Woo! A win is a win! Hope everyone had a great New Year's Eve!

Oh Snap.... those interminable goalless droughts

by Anne

Wa-hoo! The Kings picked up where the Sabres left off and decided to keep body and soul together and beat the San Jose Sharks 5-4 in OT.

Erik Ersberg is still an AHL caliber goaltender but his teammates scored enough so that didn't matter.

Teddy Purcell, Anze Kopitar and Dustin Brown all snapped lengthy (10+) streaks of games without a goal and helped the Kings win it. Wooo! Drew Doughty had two points (1+1) and Jarret Stoll also scored and was a +3. Hot.

Brownie scored the game-winner in OT and the Kings improve to 13-0-0 when leading after two periods.

Um, Jack? Anze?

Maybe don't crash into each other.

Yer doin' it wrong!

Greener v. Thornton.

One of Anne's favorites v. One of S(h)ara's

In most ways Thornton>Greene

However, Greene's "A" >>>> Thornton's

Small victories, people.

What a lovely evening, even if I could only listen to the Kings game.

Booo.

Whoa New Formatting

by Anne

Blogger has gone all crazy and updated their post editor. Maybe that's why Blogger was down for part of this afternoon? Regardless, I'm taking advantage of this new editor right now whilst I blog.

• I need to stop obsessing over my fantasy team. Ok, obsessing is a bit strong, but I need to stop making minor, unimportant roster moves that will ultimately make only a minimal amount of difference for my team in the long run
  

• I can add background color to my text Oooooooooo. Ahhhhhhhh. See that? blue and gold. I'm so. damn. clever.
  

• Waive Nathan Paetsch, please? I understand he can play forward AND defense like a crazy magician and whatnot but what we really need are seven strong defensemen and even though Tyler Myers has only played in one NHL game, he's making a strong case for staying put. I would dump Paetsch to keep Myers up here in a heartbeat.
  

• As far as the forwards go: as much as it saddens me, I can accept that Danny Paille has been deadweight this pre-season and, if anyone should go, it should probably be him. :(
  

• Bucky Gleason tossed out the idea of waiving Matt Ellis but that's a terrible idea and I think he just said it to spark discussion. Why would they waive the hardest working guy on the team? A fourth line of Mair - Ellis - Kaleta sounds good to me. They have the grind and the drive and have even been known to contribute 5-10 goals each. I'll take that as a fourth line any day.
  

• Dominic Moore has landed himself in Florida. He apparently had a broken wrist last season which he broke just after joining the Sabres. Great, take up that roster spot and play only to partial effectiveness when Kennedy could've been given a better shot at the NHL, good, great, thanks Dom.
  

• The NHL should participate in the Olympics after 2010. Gary Bettman is doing a lot of damage by saying they won't. The kinds of problems this will cause in the 2013-2014 season aren't 100% clear but rest assured that there will be plenty of them.
  

• Hopefully the Canucks will start winning tonight, now that they're playing at home.
  

• Dustin Brown strained a gluteal muscle and sat out of practice on Sunday. I don't have anything to comment about it, I just wanted to say that Dustin Brown strained his butt. My name is Anne and I am extremely immature.
  

• Another good thing about this Blogger editor update is that it now lists the publishing time as the time you hit "Publish Post" as opposed to when you started writing the blog. Sweeeeet.
  

I Could Not Be Multitasking More Right Now

by Anne

Yes, readers, I'm blogging while walking up on the treadmill. Wow. Who AM I?

Oscar seems to have gotten over his fear of the loud noise the treadmill makes and is now merely laying in the hall, eyeing it suspiciously.

Upon perusing the Team USA Media Guide, it would seem the teams definition of "Personal Information" is "NHL Transactions." Basically everyone's is when/if they were drafted, and when/if they were traded and other signings. Interesting. Nothing about wacky antics, nicknames or anything funny. Lame. It also lists date of birth in "Personal" but that is also listed at the header on the top of each player's page in the guide.

Camp Morningwood blows this year. Remember the paintball? The soccer game? Adam Burish explaining that lobstermen were men who caught lobsters for a living and not half-men half-lobster creatures roaming the streets of Portland Maine? They might be having these happyfuntimes but for some reason USA fans are not allowed to hear about them. What, are you traying to be all "Team Canada?" Psh. Lindy Ruff >>>> Ron Wilson.

I thought Zach Bogosian's page was comically short until I got to Alec Richards/ Ryan Shannon's SHARED page. Burrrrn.

I just realized I have no idea who the Captain of Team USA is but I think its Dustin Brown based on this picture:

You have to enlarge it, but I think that's a C beind his teammates helmet.
Also, J-M Liles looks so teeny.

Shane Doan is named captain of Team Canada and its front page news on TSN. In order to learn Team USA's captain I have to scour game photos with a magnifying glass. I know a lot of Americans don't care so much about this stuff, but maybe if there was more coverage, more American hockey fans would care.

A-HA! Jason Blake is rocking an "A":

He's the oldest, he gets a letter.

Team USA/ Phoenix Coyotes goaltender Al Montoya's first name is Alvaro. That is completely awesome. Way better than Albert or Alfred or whatever I thought it was before.


Also:

Feel the Staaly-love, Flower

Hooray! My Playoff Mistress team (2008 edition), the Pittsburgh Penguins, rallied from a 3-0 defecit to beat the philadelphia Flyers and advance to round 2!! Wooo!

Tonight will tip the series advantage in either Calgary or Chicago's way and could see those upstart Anaheim Ducks upset the San Jose Chokemasters. I shall be at a birthday party and will not see these games.

Yeeee-haw! It was almost 80 in Buffalo today and it was hella awesome. Gotta go and actually work out, its hard to type while running. Check ya later.

USA Wins First Game of Tournament

by Anne

The United States Men won their first game against Latvia 4-2 this morning!

It would seem that only current and former Los Angeles Kings are able to score in this tournament, but Brown, O'Sullivan and Johnson were kind enough to let this gent score too:

Nick Foligno and Drew Stafford put down their Sabre/Senator masks to celebrate Staffy's goal

Woooo! Drew Stafford scored Team USA's 2nd goal!

Jack Johnson (LAK, duh) scored twice and was named the Team USA player of the game, which means he was photographed with the awesome cow mascot:

Nice.

Goaltender Robert Esche who made 18 saves on 20 shots declared this was the best that Team USA has ever played against Latvia in his eight years playing in this tournament. Apparently Matt Niskanen was really freaked out about playing Latvia (click to enlarge):

Just close my eyes and SHOOT
Images from IIHF.com

Team USA fired 38 shots and were 0-4 on the power play.

Also, for those who might not remember, I'm very pro-Robert Esche. Here's a sentence from the game recap about Robbie:

"Robert Esche won his eighth career game in World Championship play. He has a 1.87 goals against average and a .938 save percentage in 13 career games played at the World Championship"

Well done, sir. How's Russia?

Their next game is Monday against Thomas Vanek and Team Austria at 10:15 am EST.