2009-2010 Regular Season Grades: Defensemen

by Anne

I did this last season and it was fun so I'm doing it again. They haven't taken the final exam yet, but here are my grades for the team thusfar, starting with the defense corps.

#4 Steve Montador

75gm, 5G, 18A, Even, 54 hits, 17:05

All-in-all Monty was not a huge factor on defense. His five goals was about two more than I expected he'd get this season. He fell victim to the pressbox on at least one occasion this season. He wasn't great but he wasn't awful. He's a 5/6 defenseman and he played as one. Whatevs.

Grade: C

#5 Toni Lydman

67gm, 4G, 16A, +10, 126 hits, 18:51

Toni's stats are surprisingly similar to his 2006-2007 stats. He's remained consistently average over the last few seasons. He did give us one of the season's most memorable goals, however:

Grade: B

#10 Henrik Tallinder

82gm, 4G, 16A, +13, 63 hits, 20:36

The stats might not be earth shattering, and he may not be up for the Norris anytime soon, but what a season he had. He was healthy and playing with the best rookie in the NHL. He silenced the critics from last season by returning to his earlier career form. Was he the best defensemen in the NHL or on this team? No, but his rebounding has been fantastic to watch.

Grade: A-

#34 Chris Butler

59gm, 1G, 20A, -15, 20:01

What an awful season for Sir Christopher. I'm hoping this is a sophomore slump and he'll be back in better form next season. If he sees ice time in the playoffs, maybe he'll re-focus? I also don't understand how he averaged 20 minutes a game. Were there that many injuries when he played?

Grade: D

#44 Andrej Sekera

49gm, 4G, 7A, -1, 43 hits, 17:26

Reggie didn't play much. He was hurt in October and didn't really find a regular spot again. He inhabited the pressbox a great deal and didn't get back into the line-up much until Paetsch was traded and Butler was rotated into his chair. He improved from last season but didn't exactly blow my hair back.

Grade: C

#52 Craig Rivet
78gm, 1G, 14A, -6, 100 PIM, 18:13

This was one of Craigory's poorest offensive seasons. He was ok. He's been better. He was pretty under the radar most of the season. He wasn't part of many moments of extreme emotion. That would be ok if I said that about, say, Butler or Sekera, but Rivs gets a little extra pressure because he's the captain.

Grade: C+

#57 Tyler Myers

82gm, 11G, 37A, +13, 23:44

He was the 2nd best player on the team all season, he's amazing, he's going to win the Calder and we'll all be super disappointed by his sophomore slump. Whatevs, he's the best thing to happen to this team since Ryan Miller became so Ryan Miller. Myers had a few awful giveaways but always redeemed himself the next shift or the next game. He plays really well with Lindy's philosophy of: "You get a chance to redeem yourself, but just one."

Grade: Is there something higher than A+?

All in all, the defense had a mediocre season, hiding behind our top tandem of Tallinder and Myers. It's been easy to ignore their shortcomings in our Tyler Myers love fest, but it won't be easy to ignore in the playoffs. We haven't seen this defense without Myers and Tallinder. I don't want to start, but the prospect of that scares the daylights out of me. 

Defense overall grade: B-

Happy Birthday, Henrik Tallinder!

by Anne

Today Henrik Tallinder turns the big 3-1!

Wooo!

I think for his birthday, Hank should buy Tylers Myers a beer. I mean a non-alcoholic beer, of course...

Ummm this is allegedly a traditional Swedish cake?
This seems a tad girly...

Apparently a tradition in Sweden is to make and eat sandwich cake for parties? This looks and sounds disgusting:

Ewww.

Let's try again:

There ya go!

Happy Birthday, Hank! I'd hope Tyler got you a good present but his existence seems to be a good enough gift for all time.

Just For Heather

by Anne

Henrik Tallinder lookin' foxay at Aces and Blades because I neglected to upload this picture I stole of the internets:

That woman is just upset because Heather has already claimed Hank as her own

A Night of Highs and Lows

by Anne

Low points:

- Obviously, losing sucks.

-Lots of empty seats in the corners where we sell which means less $$ :/

-AWFUL sales night. Like, really terrible.

-Traffic on the way to the Arena was terrible and I was late, but it doesn't really matter, but I hate being late

-I was too late to grab dinner so I was hungry during the game

-Last night I was up suuuuuuuuuuper late finishing some work and generally not being tired so I'm super drained today

- If you and I have never spent a great deal of time together, let this serve as a warning: if I'm tired and hungry, its best to try to remedy one of those setbacks as quickly as possible. On the other hand, if I allow myself to be supremely crabby in front of you it means we've reached a certain level of friendship. I guess being bitchy to you means I love you? Just ask my sister, hahaha. What a jerk she is.

High points!

-Its Toronto so the goal total pool in my commissary was $50 bucks and I won! I wasn't happy that the Sabres lost but if they did, I'm glad the score was 2-1 so I could win the pool. Wooooo!

- I always forget to mention this, but there's something to be said for tradition and superstitions. I didn't realize until tonight that there's a certain player's superstition that, while it probably helps them get ready, it also helps me calm down.

Every night Paul Gaustad sits on the bench and contemplates life or thinks about what he ate for dinner or how just generally wicked sweet he is at this thing called life, or whatever he thinks about before he goes off and plays hockey. Every game he tosses a puck on the ice and it always stops at the top of the left face off dot in the West (i think) end of the Arena. Today I walked in to the seating a little late to do my useless pre-game wander and I looked down and my puck of reassurance was not there. WHA-? IS GOOSE NOT PLAYING?!? GREAT! THIS IS TERRIBLE WHAT HAPPENED TO HI- oh, wait, he's still all zen-like on the bench. Phew. The puck landed in its usual place shortly there after. I didn't realize how comforting this was to me until it wasn't there. Its kind of like "Goose is ready, are you?"

-I was walking out of the Arena tonight and was quite literally about 2 feet from Craig Rivet and did not realize it until I was like right up in his business. I was just not at all expecting to see him. I literally could've reached out and touched his arm. I think he was looking at the new calendar, but I didn't want to linger and be a creeper. I'm fond of my job, I'd like to keep it, thanks.

-Every game there are obviously TONS of people in jerseys, most have numbers, some do not. I enjoy looking at the persons's player of choice and then debating with myself if this person's selection seems to fit them.Usually, the answer is yes. This more applies to players that are not Thomas Vanek and Ryan Miller because they're so common there's way too much variety in those people to find a pattern. The people who wear Jochen Hecht jerseys are definitely a type, as are Pominville jersey wearers. Peters jerseys are always male and always look like they're wasted, Drury/Campbell/Briere jersey wearers that are not children tend to look unhappy, hahahaha. There are also the occasional Vanek Golden Gophers or Staffy Fighitng Sioux or Miller Spartans jerseys and those people never buy from me ever. No exaggeration. The whole point of this rambling ties into the previous point I made. I've discovered that the nicest people wear Paul Gaustad and Henrik Tallinder jerseys (Heather! haha). No lie. I really paid attention to it tonight, of those that wore numbered jerseys that I interacted with or waited on, the ones that were the nicest were those wearing Goose or Hank jerseys and they were all dudes. There wasn't really one that was rudest because no one was particularly rude, contrary to what most people think. Now, are these people made nicer by Goose and Hank's aura or are nicer people drawn to Goose and Hank? I have never seen a douchebag wearing either of their jerseys. Ugh, I hate to be so stereotypical and douchebags rarely wear numbered jerseys but if they do, they frequently rock #9 (sorry Royzie, I know you wouldn't be friends with these dudes).

Anyway, the only negative interaction I had with Toronto fans were this dude and his girlfriend making out against a wall across from me. I felt like I was in high school again. But then we chatted about overly buttered popcorn and now we're lifelong friends.

-Finally, I discovered today that my computer will actually out loud tell me what time it is if I check a certain box. It just said "Its 12:15" to the tune of "Pomp and Circumstance"

- My cat is really freakin' cute

-My doggy is doing better but he isn't 100% out of the woods. I have to take him back to the vet next week for a check up. On the plus side he is truly the gentlest sweetest most loving dog you'll ever meet and even through all his medical issues he's the sweetest puppy you could ever hope to meet.

-Oh yeah, hockey. Both Fabian Brunnstrom and former Wings WCB Brett Lebda scored in Dallas' 3-1 victory over Detroit.

-Steve Downie was sent to the minors again today. How must his self-esteem be if Tampa has decided that who they have is better than him? OUCH.

- The Caps dressed a person who works on their website as their back-up goalie tonight. He had to sign an amatuer try-out contract in order to be able to play and the Caps had to get a special dispensation from the NHL to be able to dress three goalies. He wasn't just some random dude, he tended goal in college and has helped out by playing goalie in practice a few times for the Caps. That is completely awesome. Can Maria Genero be our emergency goalie?

The Only Thing About Tonight That Was AWESOME

by Anne

Ok, winning was awesome, and snapping a 13 year home losing streak is awesome, but mostly tonight was blah for me. Three goals in the first was obviously awesome and causing a goalie to be pulled always makes me smile, even if that goalie is someone as lovable as Many Legace. However, after the first, most of the rest of the game was kind of a snooze fest with a few "this is unnecessarily stressful" moments sprinkled in for color. God bless goaltender interference penalties.

Nice to see Lee Stempniak get a goal, most people booed as they would any goal, but I'm realizing that most people don't know he's from West Seneca. He's no KANER, after all, haha. Jay McKee played but didn't do a whole heck of a lot, hence the reason he was almost benched for this one.

Anyway, the win feels good, but nothing feels better than this:

Look at Goose leaping out of the net to hug Hank.

If only there were video of the awesome "I just scored a goal!! I NEVER do that!" shimmy he did after! I actually got to watch that goal which is pretty awesome considering I have a habit of having my back to the action when goals are scored. Playing with Rivet definitely seems to have improved Hank's game and playing with Teppo seems to have improved Toni's. Alas, it seems last year's uhhh "dynamic duo" are separated for good.

Yayyyyy!!! The looks of pure joy on Goose and Pie's faces make me all warm and tingly inside.

Let's not forget our "Adam Mair Funny Face of the Night" shot:

Apparently this mythical "Tim Connolly" is hurt, I wonder why this was reported considering he no longer exists.

My former boss was there tonight, we did not have a lengthy conversation and I am OK with that. My high school economics teacher also purchased some foodstuffs from me tonight and did not show any signs of recognition whatsoever.

Daniel Alfredsson's creepy shorter twin brother who must apparently be a Sabres fan was there and stood around me a lot. Seriously, this guy looked EXACLTY like Daniel Alfredsson, it was crazy, I wish I had my camera.

Speaking of my camera, there is an epic FAIL moment in the 300 level signage that I need to take a picture of. I can't believe no one has ever mentioned it before, or seems to even notice the error. Foolishness.

Oh and, Yoyo, Mary J. Blige? Really?

Nasher FINALLY scored a goal tonight in a loss to the Arizona Desert Dogs and Peter Mueller had 1 assist in the win. Can you believe Shane Doan has NEVER had a hat trick? He had two goals and an assist tonight and his elusive hat trick still awaits him. 897th NHL game tonight, still no 3 goal game. Yeesh.

I'm going to bed before hearing anything about the Chicago or Vancouver games so let me just predict:

Congratulations to Patrick Sharp for scoing 16 goals and 9 assists and congrats to Big Bear for scoring 12 goals and 52 assists and for curing depression and sadness throughout the world with your pudgy little chipmunk face.

I don't think I'm really that far off the mark with my predictions. Thoughts?

As I was writing that last pararaph Taylor Pyatt and Jonathan Toews scored. There's only like 9 minutes left in the 'Hawks game, Sharpie better get crackin'.

Free beverage upgrades at Starbucks does do wonders for bad moods though, I must say.

VOTE NOW. VOTE OFTEN. VOTE TEPPO.

Silver Lining, Ahoy!

by Anne

Ok, true to form, I will find the positives about tonight's game against the Penguins.

From the Pens' side of things:
(I don't ever think of an injury as being a good thing, they're just not a bad thing for the Sabres)

1. Marian Hossa is not playing tonight, hopes to return Sunday

2. Petr Sykora is out of the line up with a back injury, Maxime Talbot aggravated an ankle injury in their last game.

3. A recent deodorant shortage has left quite the funky odor around the City of Pittsburgh. The Sabres have taken precautions against this odoriferous outrage and are prepared. This unwelcome stink, however, should negatively impact the Penguins' on-ice performance tonight.

4. UPDATE: Sid the Kid is not playing tonight. Article.

From the Sabres' side of things:

1. Hank the Tank will be back tonight...is he really ready to play? Who cares.

2. Doof* and Sekera were the top pair in Rochester all season, steadily improving with each game they played together, they'll probably be back in tandem tonight.

3. Paetsch is young and foolish and thinks he can overcome whiplash to play tonight. Why is this a positive? Because Patches knows he's infinitely better on defense than Pommerdoodle and the team needs him.

4. Doof is from Pittsburgh, or, rather "Cranberry, PA" which is roughly the same distance from Pittsburgh as Angola is from Buffalo (woo, Patty) and clearly has some secretive plans to help the team psych out the opposition. He hasn't lived there since he was 15? Eh, I'm sure he and Staffy can come up with a wacky series of events to lock Sidney Crosby out of Mellon Arena and get Geno stuck in the drive-thru line at MickeyD's for 3 days.

5. Even though it hasn't helped all season, the Sabres have way more AnneLove than the Penguins ever could dream of having.

6. Spacek is healthy enough to leave his house and purchase over-priced (but undeniably tasty) panini at Panera.

A left leg award is to be given out.

I would give my left leg to take Jaroslav Spacek's food order. If for no other reason than to hear him try to say the word "panini".

I should make it clear that even if he comes through and blocks 87 shots tonight, there is no way Mike Weber is cracking the list of memorable call-ups. Sorry, Doof, I'm just not feeling as vulnerable these days.

*After reviewing his interview yesterday, Mike "Doof" Weber is actually an attractive young gent in a "I think you might try to kill me, but that's kind of hot." way. He, like many before him, appears to suffer from "Roster Photo Panic." More commonly known as "RPP." A disease in which, once seated in front of the camera, you instantly regret every photo that's ever been taken of you. That, coupled with the pressure of the fact that this will be the most widely viewed and reproduced photo of you for the next year, overcomes you and instead of making any facial expression, you simply stare, blind panic at full-tilt, at the camera, hoping some semblance of a smile is on your face, but ultimately fail (see: Stafford, Drew). Although, some still manage to take a humorous photo (see: Pominville, Jason and Campbell, Brian).

wa-hoo!

by Anne

WHA-? WHO? THEY DID WHAT??

HO. LY. SHIT!!!

I had given up and muted the OT 5 minutes, only peeking from my kitchen every once in a while while I ate some dinner. Then I peeked in after each shooter.

I was in total shock.

Hank the muthafuckin' TANK! WOOOOOOP! YAYAYAYAYAY!!!

Lindy whipped out some sweet player trivia tonight: Hank used to be a forward in Sweden. No wonder he's so tank-ass on the shoot out!

Could there really be any other BAMF?

Not ONLY did he blast the puck to the net for Mikey Ryan's goal, he scored on the shoot. out. Not ONLY did he score on the shoot out, he totally made that Saucy Minx look foolish. Brodeur tried to whip out his usual diving poke-check but Hank was TOTES expecting it, slipped the puck to his back hand and flipped it into the empty net. Spot on, Mr. Tallinder, Spot. On. For your skillful shooting, and because Danny Paille says you're always working on your "hands" in practice, here is your prize:

Protect those valuable hands in golden style

2nd place goes to Dave Williams. Who? you might ask? The Sabres' equipment manager, or "Willie" as the players call him. Why? Because 2 of his skates have scored us goals in 2 games. Willie, you keep taking excellent care of that equipment!

Here's a silver bill clip, because you, sir, are MONEY

3rd star goes to Millsey. Apparently Millsey had nothing to eat in his house and had to eat at McDonald's for breakfast! Horror of horrors! Or an excellent plug as the entire back of their bench is covered with golden arches? Wanna spot a Sabre in the next couple days? Hit up some grocery stores and dry cleaners. I wonder if Millsey had any coupons from the Transitowne blimp? Millsey, to commemorate your 99th career win, and in case you ever need to chat, enjoy your new bronze phone:

Millsey, if you need some groceries, gimmie a ring, I'll totally cook for you!

Millsey didn't even know how the 2nd goal was scored until Rayzor told him post-game. (Kalinin is DIZAMN lucky we won tonight) I know I know, he was doing his best, but not good enough!

And an honorable mention to Staffy for getting the first shoot out goal!! Beating Brodeur!! Woo. Too bad Hank totally over shadowed you. But I took note, Staff! P.S. my friend Jen was the model you walked down the catwalk with, woooo!

Pie-YAY skated top line again and moves to a +14 on the season and picks up another point!

the Staffy Roysie Britney line was all -2. Uhhhh, that's ok boys, you'll do better next time, I'm sure.
9th place!

I had such glorious plans...

By Anne

So, I was just going to post my running thoughts that I usually type during the game because I've been told that those in and of themselves are quite entertaining. Yet, I forgot to email them to myself so I could post them.

Then I woke up like redonkulously late and I'm in one of those "I've done what's normally an hour long morning ritual in 15 minutes and my feet might still be at home in bed" fogs going on.

I will merely highlight game BAMF. For details on last nights game, see the blogs on the side bar ->

BAMF of the game for Game 50 at Florida...... and earning his 2nd BAMF in as many games:

*(drumroll please)*

Mr. Ryan "Hey!Look!Ididn'tflakeoutinthelast2minuteswahoo!" Miller

Millsey, you had some bad-ass saves last night. You were already my silent secret favorite player, but I felt it was to obvious and bandwaggony to proclaim it from the rooftops. Nevertheless, today, Mr. Shutout, I salute you. OMG I just read the Buffalo News - Millsey's Grandma was there!! How cute!!!!

To honor the occasion, I present you with this totally boss commemorative charm for your charm bracelet collection:

Our first runner up is Hank "MillseyIgotyo'back" Tallinder. He made a Yo-yo like sweep of his stick to deny what would definitely have been a goal. Millsey was all splayed out after making one sweet ass save and puck slipped over his right pad and was this close to going over the goal line when Hank the Tank stepped up and the Panthers were D-Nied. And you messed up a Panthers' breakaway in the first. For your speedy skates and quick thinking you get this swanky silver skate pendant:

And finally our 3rd gentleman of BAMFness goes to Mr. Britney Vanek. Wooo! Keepin' those babies!

But, Anne, he scored our only goal! Shouldn't he be 2nd?

Nay.

Britney has, what, 14 goals this season? He should have like 30 by now. But, nevertheless, he came through when we needed him to, and on the powerplay no less. I still love ya, Brit. So, for this you earn our 3rd place award:

A Bronze bas relief of Wayne Gretzky. Hang it in Blake's room and enjoy.

10th in the Conference! Captain February will be selected Friday. WHO WILL IT BE?!?