Bad Blogger

by Anne

• I haven't blogged since Thursday?!

• Well, there hasn't been a whole lot to report, to be honest. The Pens dropped both games 1 and 2 to Detroit by identical scores of 3-1.

• Evgeni Malkin and Henrik Zetterberg were all pissy at the end of Game 2. Or as all sports announcers will say the "emotions were getting to them" or "The tension of the situation, knowing his team was going to lose Game 2 caused Geno to snap like a dry twig." Whatevs, deep down I knew this would be basically a repeat of last year, but it just sucks watching it again. Especially since the Red Wings are even playing with out Datsyuk. Ouch.

• Fortunately, Geno won't be suspended for his antics

• I was depressed that it was June because Big Bear was May. Then I discovered Kevin Bieksa was June and the coping was easier.

• I hate job interviews and I went on one today. I typed 82 words a minute and I hadn't even had any coffee yet. I'm just that feisty.

• If Pittsburgh loses Game 3, I might reconsider driving down for Game 4...

• Woooo. Jacques Martin is the new head coach of the Montreal Canadiens

• The people of Dallas rejoice as Brett Hull is proverbially shoved into a dark corner where he can't eff things up and Joe Nieuwendyk is named GM. Never once in all the years he played have I been able to spell his name without double checking it.

• In Sabres news, not much is going on.

• Everyone's favorite Sloppy Seconds posed for Men's Health magazine. Ha.
  

• The Stanley Cup Finals are not much fun for shirttail fans
  

What NOW?!

by Anne

So yesterday afternoon I asked for some Penguins heroics:

And Geno answered the call, three times over

An hour after the game ended, Twitter was still abuzz with Geno's heroics:

Malkin = bigger than Kobe

As did Chris Kunitz, Sidney Crosby , Max Talbot and Tyler "Fuggo" Kennedy and the Pens won game two of the Eastern Conference Finals 7-4.

The game was back-and-forth until Geno decided to quiet the B-Snaps down and scored his first ever NHL playoff hat trick. Can't let Sidney Crosby have all the glory, can we?

The tongue sticking out showz he's consintraytin'

The Pens take a 2-0 series lead into Carolina, where apparently, if you believe Butter Snaps fans, they will be completely obliterated and head back to Pittsburgh down 3-2, after only four games.

On the one hand I want the Pens to just take care of the Butter Snaps, but on the other hand, I want this series to go to seven games so I can drive down to Pittsburgh and watch the game outside with my wouldbe fellow Pittsburghers.

I suppose I could just wait until the Cup Finals to head down and watch them play Chicago*

Love

My new favorite Penguins bromance. Chris Kunitz and Jordan Staal:

OMG Chris Kunitz finally scored!


Love lifts us up where we belong



Dude, people are looking, let's go back to the bench for the post-goal-fist-bump parade



Yeah, Sid, I like you and all, but where's Gronk?



Hal Gill is a giant, and wants Chad LaRose to be well aware of that.

And finally, your obligatory "Jordan STAAL v. Eric STAAL OMG THEY'RE BROTHERS?!" photograph of the game:

Let's Go Pens!!

*(shhh, don't tell, I really think it'll be Detroit, but lots of 'Hawks fans read this blog and I don't want them to be more discouraged than they already are)

Winning out West!

by Anne

Other people have said it, and I've said it as well, but I really have enjoyed watching the other teams' broadcasts. They offer a new perspective on the team, and unlike the ass hats on Versus, they are allowed to be biased towards the other team. It was nice to be treated to a brief Kevin Sylvester pre-game interview though.

That being said: "WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!"

Shut out! Timmy! Pie!

We're all going to be talking about it for a while I'm sure, but my GOD Derek Roy, who ARE you? I so enjoy the "Royzie has the puck, its ok" feeling. That pass for Pie's goal was amazing. It was reminiscent of the falling down, stick behind the head goal Ovie scored in Phoenix. If you don't know what goal I'm talking about you need to turn in your credentials as a hockey fan post haste. Even though Danny got the goal, that was all effort by Royzie. However, Pie easily could've had the puck jump over his stick, or have been off stride and it would've been all for naught. Regardless, as far a the Sabres are concerned, definitely play of the season for Derek Roy. thusfar. Woooooooooo!

Please do yourselves a favor and click to enlarge this picture and check out Adam Mair

Jaro can you hear me? Is he hurt? Badly? Anyone know?! :( Weber is healthy! :)

What the heck was with the officials stepping in and breaking up that fight between Carcillo and Paetsch before it even started? That was lame, at least Paetsch got to redeem himself later in the game against another opponent.

There were four shut outs out of twelve games tonight. Ouch. Getting shut out is the worst. Its so disheartening. You can't even score ONE goal on this team? Wow. Atlanta, Philly and the Rangers were the other teams shut out tonight. Philly should be the most embarrassed, they lost 4-0 to St. Louis with Chris Mason in net.

Pittsburgh and Florida lost tonight and Carolina won, but our victory keeps us two points ahead of Carolina and four back of 6th place. Hooray!

Elsewhere:

Luke Schenn just keeps getting better. Tomas Kaberle is going to be out with a hand injury, so Luke's going to be one of the many defensemen that will be seeing more ice time. With greater ice time comes greater responsibility, and tonight was a great game for him. I only watched a little bit of that game before turning over to the Sabres game, so I got to see him lay out a huge hit on Malkin and then fight Tyler Kennedy.

Here's what went down: Malkin gets the puck, Schenn scoots over to him, and hits him along the Pens bench, Malkin is fine, gets up, stays in the play, passes to Orpik who takes a shot on net, Toskala gloves it, play stops. Whatevs, everything's fine. During the stoppage, Tyler Kennedy who was on the bench when Malkin was hit, goes up to Schenn and an altercation happens, Max Talbot tries to keep Schenn back, but no dice, they fight, Schenner beats the crap out of the much smaller Tyler Kennedy.

Tyler, don't pick a fight with a rookie just because he's a rookie and you don't like that he was "tugging on Superman's cape", to quote the HNiC announcers. He's 6'2" 216 lbs, you are 5'11 183 lbs. Bad idea. Love, Anne.

I missed Schenn's sweeeeeeeeeet moves to set up Matt Stajan for his goal at the beginning of the third. He got the puck at the blue line and stick handled his way to behind the net and Matt Stajan scored on the rebound when Schenn tried to stuff the puck in. Schenn's pretty much a stay at home defenseman so this was far more of an offensive move than people are used to from him. So, yay!

Together, we will score a goal tonight


I AM LUKE SCHENN, HEAR ME ROAR
what a badass
haha


Oh Lord
Someone tell Grapes he doesn't have a microphone

After five of the six games of this road trip, the Sabres are 3-2-0. They have already RUINED my prediction, but ruined it in a great way. I don't know how things will shake down on Monday, seeing as I gave up on following the Ducks closely over a year ago.

Super Bowl tomorrow! Screw you all who are probably cheering for Arizona because they're the feel-good story of the millennium. I'm sure if the Steelers weren't in the Super Bowl I'd be cheering for them too. BUT, Big Ben and Troy Polamalu ARE in the Super Bowl so I cannot cheer for Kurt "Jesus is my Homeboy" Warner. Let's Go Steelers!

Award Predictions 2008

by Anne

I was going to do an entire post about my predictions for who the RIGHTFUL winners of each award would be, but then the adapter to my laptop broke and I got go drop 80 big ones on a new one and that saddened me so I went to bed instead.

So the awards show is 7:00 - 8:30 tonight.

If my grandpa's house was 1996, my parents' house is like 2002 with a little 1993 mixed in. We have DSL and wireless internet, but we do not have cable. I mean, we have like 13 channels but no Versus and no MSG. This, hopefully, will be remedied by the time pre-season games start.

However, until the situation is remedied, I am without. I cannot watch the Awards show in the comfort of my own home. I'll have to break into my sister's boyfriend's house to watch it. And by break in, I mean he gave me his security code... and I'm going to eat his Double Stuf Oreos and weep openly because Pommer's girlfriend is way hotter than I could ever dream to be. (I don't know if this is, in fact, true but one can only assume).

I will offer this prediction about the Hart:

Definitely JAROME. Why? It says most valuable player to his team. And what's valuable to a team besides wins, Cups, star players and moolah? FANS. And without J-ROME I NEVER WOULD'VE GIVEN A HOOT ABOUT THE CALGARY FLAMES. Therefore, it is CLEAR that my love and devotion is a VALUABLE asset to Jarome Iginla's TEAM. Therefore, Iggy should win.

LOVE. HIM.

Is this a shock? His baby picture is my userphoto. That's SICK.

Jarome Iginla is the King of the Western Conference of my HART (see what I did there?)
HE'S WEARING CONVERSE ALL STARS AT THE ALL STAR GAME
I LOVE HIM EVEN MORE NOW


THAT'S IGGY'S MOM!
...and some random dude

I will never stop loving the intern at Sports Illustrated that decided these two looked alike:

Magical.

I made my schedule for school next semester which weirds me out beyond all reason. Back to school? UGH. My days are going to be weird too. I don't wanna be a student again!!!!! Alas, I toil on, back to the days of being totally broke and having homework. At least some of my classes are easy. Like Young Adult Literature. I get to read Lord of the Flies. Woooooo! There's some redonk class abou the history of secondary education and all these other shenanigans about secondary education in a democracy and compared to other countries and blah blah blah. I'm looking forward to getting that one outta the way. Yay!

P.S. If any of you hockey superstars that CLEARLY read this blog are still in need of a date tonight, I'm totes available. I can be in Toronto in an hour and a half. I don't have a dress and it'd probably look like you brought your agent's loser daughter with you, but I'M SUCH A BLAST. We'd have a great time. Too bad they don't serve booze. Then we'd be the talk of the town.

P.P.S. Yay Pommer! I hope you wrote a nice speech!!!!!!!! I want Pommer to win this award more than I've wanted anything this off-season... ok that's not true. I think I'd rather have a job that I can keep once school starts. That'd be nice. Anyone hiring in the Buffalo area?

P.P.S. On NHL.com it says that the Sharks are about to name McLellan as their head coach. When I first read that I thought it said "McLaren" who currently plays for the team. I was bumfuzzled for a moment until I realized that I'm a moron. That'd be like Henrik Tallinder suddenly becoming head coach of the Sabres.

Wow, Aww, and WOOOOO!!

by Anne


First things first:


WOW:

I was driving to Cleveland during the Dallas/Detroit game and, wowzas, well done, Dallas Stars. Winning AGAIN, AND limiting Detroit to one goal, yet again. Who'd a thunk it? Detroit is looking less scary monster like in these playoffs than anticipated. They lost 2 to Nashville who everyone assumed they would pulverize, then they SWEPT Colorado whom everyone thought would give them a run for their money, and then the tired, weary Dallas Stars were supposed to be easy for them to take and they've given up 2 games in a row. Wow. Well done Dallas Stars and Marty Turco. I still don't think you're going to pull off the "once every 33 years" schtick, but it'll be nice to see you try, and I'm sure your fans appreciate it.


Next:

Awwwwwww, Canada and Russia met in the IIHF World Championships Gold Medal game yesterday. Russia won Gold in a 5-4 OT finish. Probably a really exciting game, couldn't watch it. :(

Roysie shoots the puck

So Canada takes home silver. But in other news, they moved to the top of the IIHF standings, and the U.S. moved from 7th to 6th, so that's pretty sweet. Yay!! Well done, boys! Now, Roysie, come home to Buffalo and your wacky boat.

And finally:


WOOOOO!!!

PENGUINS WIN THE EASTERN CONFERENCE!!!!!!!!!!!

YAY!

YAY!!

YAY!!!

WOOOOOOOOOOHOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!


6-0 BLOWOUT BABY!!


2 GOALS FROM BUGSY! AND ONE FROM STAAL! YAY!!!!!!!


So amazing, so great, so awesome!!!


Yay!!!!


Since I'm tired and don't feel like writing anymore:

Now, for a selection from the 435356 pictures available on the Pens website:

The Latest Addition to the List of Non-Sabres vying for my Heart.
Gronk scored a goal!! Yay!!!



So did my current Atlantic Division Boyfriend!! Twice!



Nothin' but LOVE :)




Ahhhhhhh. Ry-Ry :) Swoon.




Since my blog appears to be a hotbed for shirtless photo searches, I felt the need to throw this on there. Evgeni Malkin shirtless. Woo. Not my personal cup o' tea, but clearly, someone out there is on the lookout. But of all the Pens to see shirtless... Geno? Eh, whatevs.




Awwww. I'm not sure what to caption this picture, but the look on Sid's face makes me giggle, and the angle makes Mario look like 3 feet taller, and, p.s., look at those arms. Woooooo!

Maxime Talbot hugs the REAL heart and soul of ANY team: the mascot.
Talbot knows what's up.

---

Private to Marty Biron:

Sorry, Marty. Love ya!! :(


Love,
Anne

---

Private to Danny Briere:

Maybe next season you'll make it past the Eastern Conference Finals. Third time wasn't a charm. Maybe if it had been the Sabres... whatevs.

Love,
Anne

---

Private to Jordan Staal:

WOOO! Keep it up! You're totally worming your sneaky sod-loving and/or hating way into the part of my heart not reserved for the Buffalo Sabres. WOOHOOO!!!!!!

Love,
Anne

BLAMMO

by Anne

Pens win! WOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!! Ry-ry scores!! I'm starting to develop a mad crush on Ry-ry, like to the point where it may jeopardize my emphatic rooting against Pittsburgh when they play Buffalo next season. No, of course I won't be rooting for Pittsburgh, it just won't hurt as much if Ry-ry scores a goal. On a related note, watching the after celebration of Ry-Ry and Geno was almost cute. Sykora had been taken down at the face-off dot and you see them start to cheer and celebrate behind the net and, as is tradition, they look to where Sykora would be coming from for the "WOOO WE SCORED! WOO!" GuyLove hug, but he wasn't, and they saw him laying on the ice and grew instantly concernicus. Awww, good linemates! He was ok, he just seemed a little shaken up.

It was a wonderfully decisive win watched on DVR delay. It was pretty sa-weet.

That Hossa goal was just totally amazing. He really made the Flyers defense look as depleted as it is. Ugh, Buffalonians know what it feels like to lose in the playoffs because of lack of defense. RIP 2006 playoff run. But, whatevs, that Hossa goal was just amazing. Well done, sir, well done, you are perhaps the only deadline day trade that has really impacted your new team's cup chances... except maybe that Huet trade...it benefited Washington, but royally screwed over Montreal. Whoops.

So Pittsburgh and Detroit are going to meet in the Cup Finals, and I'm really afraid that Detroit is going to continue to be the Swedish Monsters they are now and just PWN the Pens. However, the Penguins have actually lost fewer games in these playoffs than the Wings....oooook, Detroit lost 2 and Pittsburgh's lost one. According to those statistics, this should be a really close Final. OOooook, I KNOW, the Flyers and Stars aren't completely out of it yet...buuuuuuut....yeah.

Something I noticed a few weeks ago...in three of the last 4 seasons, the 4th ranked team in the league won the Cup. Who's ranked 4th this season? The Pens. I'm just sayin'.


There were no games in the Worlds on Tuesday as they prep for the Quarterfinals which kick off today with Canada taking on Norway at 3:30 and The USA taking on Finland at 7:15.


OMG, I can't find a DAMN thing Sabres-related to talk about!! GAH! I think I'm developing a twitch. I almost went to Dave and Adam's yesterday to buy something Sabres related but I remembered that I'm broke.

I'm so desperate for material, I went onto those crazy girlfriend forums I've been hearing so much about lately and I got NOTHING. COME ON PEOPLE! Someone must be bangin' a Sabre in the offseason! Someone must've boned Tim Connolly and wants to tell the world their plight! The "juiciest" thing I got about Timmy was that someone thought they saw him at The Gap in The Boulevard Mall. Somehow Tim Connolly buying an overpriced pair of prewrinkled khaki shorts does not make me all a-twitter with gossipy glee.

Another juicy tidbit was someone thought Pominville's name was "Porninville" he he he, ho ho ho. So BAD! Maybe if his reputation for being as slutty was as prominent has his rep for being puckbunny fodder it would be apropos. It seems to me Pommer is more likely to be helping Danny Paille organize his stuffed animal 5K run, than to be having his way with the female population of Buffalo, and now, Halifax and Quebec City...although, I'd totally support him if he decided to. Wait, no, that came out wrong...or did it.....?

This just in from the Girlfriends Forum: Mike Ryan eats babies.

Ugh, the Vanek board is full of nothin' but love for SabreBirtney and his BabyMama and someone who's devastated because her love for Kotalik will never work out. Someone used the word "promiscuous" on Spacek's board, granted she was saying he wasn't, but this kind of acceptable terminology is NOT why I go to those boards. Blah blah blah. Sidebar, I know he's a hockey player and all, but if you saw Jaroslav Spacek oot and aboot at a bar in Buffalo, would you be all up in his bizness? I WOULD. But I can't imagine the rest of the women of Western New York go as weak in the knees when he talks about the "PK" and being "flat-footed". His blunt, take-no-prisoners style of interview is what gets my motor runnin'. That and: SHOOT PUCK SCORE GOAL WIN GAME! YAAAHHHHH!! Jaro makes me giggle like a school girl, always has and always will. There is truly no worldy explanation for my totally baseless love for Sissy Spacek.

Also, someone named "Briana" is running amok in the forums talkin' shizz about bitches or something and she's either 8 or 24. This needs investimigation. I want to find every 8 and 24 year old Briana and round them up for a chat. The 8 year olds get cookies, the 24 year olds get grilled on their alleged sexual liaisons with any number of Buffalo Sabres, unless it's Brian Campbell, then I just really don't want to hear about it.


This is in no way Sabres-related but you can actually hear Geno speak English and seem kind of human. I know, it's weird, right?

Fortunately Sid is nowhere to be found, so my belief that he's a robot continues on.

Uh-oh, this is getting to be a sickness:

Hey! Ry-ry! Come to Buffalo! Wooo! You're a free agent! Eeeeeeeven though he clearly wants to stay in Pittsburgh...bah, whatev. Our love must be realized. Bring your kid! I love babies! Forget your (presumably) totally hot, skinny, blonde wife! Who wouldn't want an out of shape brunette who wears (totally awesome red) glasses?

---

Private to Adam Burish:

Update your #$%*@^ing blog. You can make the whole thing about Drew Stafford and Jason Pominville if you like, pepper it with witty anecdotes about Patrick Kane.

Love,
Anne

---

Private to Eric, Marc, Jordan and Jared:

I'm sorry about your grandpa. I make excellent cookies if you feel you need some. We can play Scrabble to take your mind off of things if you'd like, I'll totally let you use secret Staal-language words, and back them up in your secret Staal Dictionary. I won't question it.

Love,
Anne

Happy (Belated) Mother's Day!

by Anne


Team USA v. Finland:

That game sucked. A LOT.

I swear that game was played at even strength for roughly 3 minutes. The 2nd period was like constant power play for one team or the other. It was totally ridiculous. I was cooking during most of the game, so it didn't get my full attention. I'm not sure if the teams were just being sloppy or if the refs were whistle happy. Seriously, the game could've been super fun if you'd taken a poll as to which team would get a penalty next and what it would be. They had every conceivable combination: 5 on 4, 5 on 3, 4 on 4, 4 on 3. The possibilities were endless.

Esche had a few great saves and one INCREDIBLE save. A Finnish player hit it hard to Esche's skate and it bounced high, angling back towards the net and Esche had to reach behind him almost to the goal line to stop it. I said it a few posts ago- he's playing in Russia -DARCY, SIGN HIM.

That first Finnish goal was total BS. It DEFINITELY went in through the side of the net. It was completely obvious from the above angle that it went in through the mesh on the outside of the pipe. Completely ridiculous. I'm SO MAD that Finland won. I can't even tell you. BULLHONKY.

This about sums up that game.

Ugh, whatev, on to the NHL:


Yay! Pens win!!!!!! I hate end of the period goals against. Its kind of deflating, but whatevs! Pens win! Sid gets a goal! Yay! Talbot with the game winner! Yay! Maxime Talbot is pretty sweet. And he's somewhat bangable too...each day I discover a new Penguin's picture to cut out and hang on my wall next to my Jonathan Taylor Thomas snapshot torn from the pages of Tiger Beat circa 1993.

I need to call something to your attention:

Jordan Staal's descent into Grizzly Adams territory is quite frightening to me. I can't find a picture that fully encapsulates how weird it is, but just go search it out. He's one of those players that seems to have decided to completely forgo all personal grooming habits for the duration of the playoffs. His hair is hanging down far below the back of his helmet in this strawberry blonde little tail and he has one of those awkward beards that doesn't travel farther north than his jawline. Throw this on top of an already prominent jaw, his frighteningly pale skin + blonde hair and the effect is mesmerizing. Shots of him on the bench are just downright spellbinding. If anyone has closeups of this, please advise. He's only 19 but all of a sudden he looks about 65. He's already one of those guys that manages to teeter on the edge between "I'm going to call security." and "Hey there, here's my number." Look at a picture of him pre-playoffs and then look at him now. He goes from cute to hobo in three chin hairs. I like my Staal's a little more clean-cut, thank you very much.


I've been saying it for months that I'm pretty sure Tyler Kennedy is the ugliest guy in the NHL. Ok, ok, maybe that's a little harsh, but he's certainly not bringing up the team's overall sexiness. However, watching him beat the tar out of Scottie Upshall last night was pretty sweet. If Tyler Kennedy weren't good, I'd say get rid of him, it's seriously dragging down the team's bangability. Don't disagree, if you were given a roulette wheel with every Penguin on it and you got to do or hang out with or cook for or whatever with whichever Pen your ball landed on, and you got Tyler Kennedy you wouldn't be pissed? You could've had any other number of far more sponge-worthy gents, and you got this guy:

Whoa.

I'd be calling up my local congress-person and demanding a re-spin.

Continuing on the do-ability of the Penguins: I try so hard to love Sid unconditionally, but I just can't. I try to be ok with Sid's facial hair, but I'm just not. That nauseating shrieking laugh when he scores a goal sounds like a 13 year old playing Dungeons and Dragons and he just killed a monster or blew up a house or cured a disease or invented cold fusion or whatever it is you do in that game. It's high pitched and not butch at all. Just watch his shootout goal celebration in the Ice Bowl and you'll hear exactly what I'm talking about. It's terrible. I had perceived him to be moderately do-able until I heard that. And then, OH GOD NO, no, no thanks, I'll pass. God, I'd almost rather do Tyler Kennedy... ew, fuck that, never mind, I'll take Yippy or Grizzly.


On the Ribeiro slashing thing: Osgood speared him first and then what a DIVE! Get Chris Osgood an Academy Award for that crap. Hey! Maybe I can start having any sort of opinion on the Red Wings! Right now I'm still pretty "eh, who cares" about them.

---

Private to Evgeni Malkin:

Geno, please don't hit Danny in the head. I don't like that. He may be a slag-faced whore, but you chew on your clothes...it balances out.

Love,
Anne

---

Private to Danny Briere and Marty Biron:

I'm sorry you're on such a gross team and I can't cheer for you. Danny, I'm sorry you're going to lose in the Eastern Conference Finals for the third season in a row. Hey, you could've faced the Penguins earlier had somethings changed, and then you wouldn't be where you are now. It's because Danny and Mike Richards are slag-faced whores. Vanek is a slag-faced whore and that's why we're losing. But it's Kevin Lowe's fault, not his, so I think we'll bounce back faster. HAH!

GO PENS!

Love and I Wish You Were Still Sabres,

Anne

And on the 6th Day...

by Anne

Pens v. Sens (Pens win 4-1, lead series 3-0)
Wings v. Preds (Preds win 5-3, Wings lead series 2-1)
Wild v. Avs (Wild win 3-2, 1st OT, lead series 2-1)

Pittsburgh at Ottawa:

Waaa-hooooo!!!!! Take THAT, stupid Roman Gladiator! So I ended up being wrong about both Alfie and J-Spezz. They both played and both sucked. At the beginning of the playoffs if you'd asked me to pick a series that would be a sweep, I would've probably picked Montreal over Boston or Detroit over Nashville. Not that the Pens are guaranteed a sweep, but they have just completely pwned the Sens thus far. Congrats to Boston and Nashville for pulling a one game David and Goliath. Most likely neither of you will win your series, but good on ya. You look better than the Sens!

I enjoyed the shot of the Pens in Scotiabank Place warming up next to the giant wall-sized photograph outside their dressing room of the Sens eliminating them last season. Ha-ha! (Nelson style)

Congrats! Sid the Kid gets his first goal of the playoffs! And, like his Russian rival, it was of the tie-breaking, game winning first goal variety. Now its guaranteed to be all anyone will talk about until something else crazy happens. At least this'll take some focus away from Avery and his new rule. HA! What a toolshed.

Dear Evgeni Malkin,

As much I as enjoy you and your vacant facial expressions and penchant for goal scoring, there is one thing about you I don't enjoy: your oral fixation problem. Why must you chew on everything in sight? Your sweater's right sleeve, your sweater's left sleeve, your necklace- why don't you have a mouthguard or some gum? What's next? Your stick? Gloves? Teammate? Its more than kind of gross. Work on that.

Love and smooches,
Anne

Ok, who forgot to pick up Geno?...

Congrats to my temporary "we" team! Woooo! Hossa scored his last playoff goal exactly 4 years ago to the day, and he was a Sen at the time. Sweet. Thanks for that tidbit, CBC.

Predators v. Red Wings

I watched the last 8 minutes or so which was enough time to watch the Preds tie it and then win. That was cool. Thats the only 8 minutes I've watched this series and I brought good luck to the Preds.

Hasek had to be so pissed when he was screened in by his own teammates and the Preds scored. He likes being able to see the long shots. Whoops. I don't miss Hasek. I miss old school Hasek, not his current crotchety incarnation. I do miss the hot sauce though.

Wild v. Avs

This game was kind of boring, not gonna lie. I hate games with 1 goal leads that drag on and on, because, usually, and especially in the playoffs, 1 goal leads quickly become ties or 2 goal leads.

I watched until it became 2-2. I would've watched the end, but then I remembered that I don't really care who wins this one, so I went to bed. I am glad to see the Wild win, but that's only because I had to choose a team to root for.

On the Sabres front:

Dear Darcy,

The Coyotes signed their Hobey Baker winner to an entry level contract yesterday. I know you like to keep these things close to the vest until they're final, and I appreciate that, but COULD YOU PLEASE ANNOUNCE THAT WE'VE SIGNED RUNNER UP AND MVP OF THE FROZEN FOUR, NATHAN GERBE TO AN ENTRY-LEVEL DEAL ASAP?!

Thanks, that'd be super.

Loves and kisses,

Anne

Tonight it's Montreal at Boston (MTL 2-1) Washington at Philly (Tied 1-1), Anaheim at Dallas (DAL 2-0) and San Jose at Calgary (CGY 2-1).

Go Habs! Go...Caps? Go...Stars Ducks Stars? Go FLAMES!

Let's Move on... just a little

by Anne

I don't want people to stop talking about Richard Zednik or anything or pretend it wasn't a big deal, I just need to move on a little bit because I've been in a weird funk since last night, replaying the whole thing in my head over and over. So I'll move on to talk about Team #2.

When Marc-Andre Fleury was injured in December, Dany Sabourin and Ty Conklin were called on to step up to the plate. We in Buffalo might kind of remember Conkers as our back-up goaltender from last season after we shipped Marty off to Philly. Conkers didn't see much ice time as a Sabre and for that we were greatful as, when he played, he wasn't very good. Apparently, pressure suits Conkers just fine. He's been 14-3-3 since being called up from Wilkes-Barre to play for the Pengiuins. Wowza. He's having a fantastic season.

Then, Our Lord and Savior, Sidney Crosby was hurt by doing something he always does: sliding skates first into the boards. Am I the only one who saw him do that a few times and said: "That's an ankle injury waiting to happen." Then blam-o, what's that, Sid? A high ankle sprain? Dizamn, boy, that stinks. 6-8 weeks? Ouch. What ever will the Penguins do? It's not like they have the 2nd pick overall of the 2004 NHL entry draft to lead them triumphantly through Sidney's absence! Wouldn't a Calder Trophy winner be great to have in this situation? Even if they did, what's he going to do? Earn enough points to tie him for 2nd in the NHL, just three behind Alexander Ovechkin?!

Oh, wait. They do? Sweet!

Take a bow, you goal-scoring, non-English speaking bastard!

Ok, or you could do that too, Geno

There he is. Woooo! Malkin!

Ok, now that I'm warmed up, I'll give out 2 shoutout BAMF awards.

One goes to Mr. "I really want Anne to love me so I'll score my first NHL goal right in front of her": Patrick Kaleta. Ok, so, Patty, everyone, including the cameraman, thought Mair scored that goal at first, but once we saw the spotlights and the celebration we knew. Woooo! Kaleta!

For being consistent on your hits and scoring the Sabres' first goal to put us on the board, I honor you with this:

Yes, Patty, that goal, along with my currently weakened emotional state, and the fact that you're from Buffalo, and you're cute, and you seem so nice in spite of your penchant for crashing into people at high rates of speed, and you're consistent in what you do, all combines to allow you, a...(prospect)...into my SabreLovingHeart. I can't help it! Staffy is hurt! Grizz is inconsistent! I'm weak! But, Patty, you're on a 2-way "Anne's Love" contract. You can still be reassigned to sit in the back of my SabreLovingHeart with the rest of the team. Enjoy your time up front. As newest member, its your job to get Staffy his lemonade. Hey! He hurt his ankle! Pie-YAY will be glad for the relief. But don't piss off Lafontaine, he's been there longest and is very skeptical of new players that come up to sit with him. He's seen a lot of Sabres come and go over the years. And don't even think about sitting in Jay McKee's seat, I'm saving it for him.

Our second shoutout goes to the Buffalo Sabres Medical Staff. Woooo!

For the 2nd time in Sabres' history, the medical staff was called upon to treat a player with a severed artery, and did so successfully. Also, for the second time in only 6 months, a Buffalo pro-sports team's medical staff was called upon to react quickly to treat a life threatening injury, and came through with flying colors. So for Richard Zednik, Clint Malarchuk, and Kevin Everett, we thank you, Medical Staffs of Western New York. Enjoy:

Congratulations to Millsey on your 100th win!! Well done! I wish it could've been more of a big deal for you! We'll tear it up for 101!

Look around and you will find...

By Anne

So. Now is the time in life when I look around the sports world to see what else it has to offer, as my favorite professional sports team of all time is not giving me the emotional support I need.

Two of my top 3 scored our goals, so I have that little comfort to keep me warm at night. That and my kitten.

I know! I'll just root for my #2 favorite hockey team! That's it! Look to the Pittsburgh Pengui- what do you mean Sid the Kid has a badly injured leg that's so swollen they can't even fully examine it and he has to have an MRI today?...Ok... don't panic. There's always MALKIN! You non-English speaking goal scorer Malkin! 2 goals and an assist last night!...in a shootout loss to the Caps. Ok, ok, Anne, don't panic. Football!

The Bills! Not in the playoffs. The Steelers! No. The Colts! No. Ok, so forget the AFC.

The Green Bay Pa- oh yeah, we covered that yesterday.

::taps fingers on the desk while thinking hard::

How are the Bandits playing these days?

So, John Tavares did break the NLL all-time scoring record!! 597 goals!! WOOHOOO!! Perhaps I shall become a huge lacrosse fan. It's like hockey only with more running and more goals scored. Sweet.

A Shoutout to Ovie for your 3 point (2+1) night, and for that shootout goal. I really love when you and Our Lord and Savior Sidney Crosby go head to head, but I suppose I'll have to wait for the next time to enjoy it. 2nd star, I say 1st!

Ovie, the only thing that keeps me from truly enjoying you is this:

BUT! Danny got back at you with this:

And that was in one of those games where the Caps were being slaughtered by the Sabres, so I suppose I can call it even.

I think the real reason I enjoy him is that Ovie beat out Sid the Kid for the Calder in 2006. Granted, the Kid won many awards the next year but THE NEXT ONE was beaten out by the new Alexander the Great (hats off to Alexander Mogilny) for the Rookie of the Year.

Sidenote, does anyone else think Gretzky is looking a little...um...pretty these days? He looks like he's hitting the Phoenix hair colorist's salons a little hard. And last night he was lookin' super tan. This picture is not from yeaterday's game.