Wooo Awards Show!

by Anne

In moves that surprised exactly no one, Tyler Myers and Ryan Miller won their respective awards last night at the NHL Awards show. They were both adorably excited in their acceptance speeches, Millsy was more nervous than I expected he would be, and both wrote down their speeches. I'm not sure if Tyler got to thank everyone but I hope some day he'll have the chance to thank more people when he wins another NHL award some day. ;) I loved the personalized shoutout to Patty Lalime from Miller at the end of his speech.

Millsy also won the NHL Foundation award which gave him an engraved glass block and $25,000 for the Steadfast Foundation. 

Sadly, Drew Doughty did not win the Norris. On the plus side, he looked really good, like maybe he's working out (imagine that!). I'm sure that Dewey will win the Norris at least once, if not many more times in his career, so I'm not worried. He and Tyler can alternate winning it for the next 20 or so years. :)

Props to Marty St. Louis for having his notes on his Blackberry instead of on paper. Props to Duncan Keith for thanking everyone he's ever met and running WAYYYY over time. When Duncs went back to the media room he realized he didn't get a chance to thank Seabrook and he felt bad. Their bromance is unending. Jose Theodore won the Masterton and told people that GM George McPhee told him he wasn't be re-signed. He has all the makings of the Sabres' back-up. Good looking, French Canadian, great starter for a short time in the past, but now stinks. Perfect.

The show itself wasn't as awful as in previous years. That stupid bit with Jamie Kennedy and D.B. Sweeney before the Vezina was announced was unnecessary, but that video with Bobby Ryan and Ryan Getzlaf (feat. Scott Niedermayer) was fantastic. It was fine until Jay Mohr started doing impressions, really.

Some of the performances were a bit... unexpected, but that's why God invented the mute button.

So proud! Congrats boys!

Wheeeeeee!

by Anne

That game was so much fun it was totally bonkers.

I'm all heart-bursty with pride over our little American sweethearts.

It's so exciting that the whole world is getting just a taste of the Ryan Miller brand of badass.

Also, Canada, wtf? Marty? Not good.

I got the Dustin Brown/ Drew Doughty 1-on-1 match-up I'd been hoping for. I'd call it a draw.

SO EXCITED CAN'T EVEN TAKE IT.

U-S-A! U-S-A! U-S-A! U-S-A!

Sabres Switch things up, decide to win 3-0 instead

by Anne

Wooo!

Sabres won!

3-0!

Miller's 16th career shutout!

Only 87 till he catches Brodeur's current record!

Also, called it.

Oh Toni.

So happy he finally scored!

Sabretooth knows we are not worthy.

Sorry about that weird faded thing from the website.

It's like a ghost.

Oooooooooo!

Or not.

Also, Tallinder and Montador scored.

Awesome.

But when your total offense is those three, thaaaaat's not ideal.

Whatever.

Woooo!

I've Missed Him SO MUCH

by Anne

I can't help it, Tim Connolly makes me giggle.

Nice flip flops, bro.

I alternately hate him and adore him.

Its so fantastic.

THERE IS SABRES GAME TONIGHT. YES ITS PRE-SEASON BUT ITS STILL THE BLUE AND GOLD SKATING AGAINST ANOTHER TEAM!!

Wooooooo!!

See you at the Arena tonight!

Hockey is Bad for My Health

by Anne

I have documented proof that intense Stanley Cup Finals games are bad for my health.

Just as a test, before the game I took my pulse and BP (cuz my mom as a machine that can do it at the push of a button). Before it was 113/67 pulse 61. All low to normal readings. At the end of the game it was 139/88, pulse 96. Goodness gracious.

Pens win Game 6 by a score of 2-1!!

Lookityou!
Jordan gobbled up his own rebound on a 2 on 1 with Cookie Monster and opened the scoring!


Yay!!!


GRONK RAWR!

Rob Scuderi was the hero of the game, by far, literally diving into the play and preventing the puck from going into a wide open net not once but twice. He even made a nifty kick save in the game's dying seconds to preserve the win for his team. Tyler Kennedy scored about 5 minutes into the third and upped the score to 2-0. Kris Draper added his first point of the series and brought the Wings within one but that's as close as they got, thanks mostly to Rob Scuderi's heroics.

I'll be calling in sick to work on Friday.

As crazed as this series has made me, this is nothing compared to what it would be like if this were the Sabres. I would literally be unable to sleep or function normally until Friday. Godspeed, diehard Pittsburghers. I feel for you. Try to make it to Friday in one piece.

Game 7.

LET'S GO PENS!!!!!!!!!

Sidenote: I'm watching Trent Edwards' press conference and he's wearing a Sabres t-shirt. Awww. Feel the city unity. Also, the Bisons are horrendous. Ed Kilgore can't get over it on Channel 2.

Drunk on Goals

by Anne

10-2?!?!?!?!?!!!!!!!

This was my favorite game ever. Shouldn't this count for like two wins?!

So to recap the scoring: Staffy 3 - Edmonton Oilers 2

Stafford, Roy and Vanek all had 3 points tonight. Timmy scores a shortie and a power play goal and adds an assist. That back pass by Connolly to Staffy for his hat trick was a thing of beauty. Oh Timmy, there are so many things I could say about your skill to injury ratio, but I'm too happy.

Derek Roy somehow managed to turn a turnover into a goal for Jochen Hecht. He lost the puck to Cole, took it back, passed it to Pommer, and Hecht put it in the net. Another classic Jochen "If I can't score a goal like that..." goal.

We're always whining about our lack of offensive production from the blue line and then Paetsch has two points (1+1), Spacek scored on a huge shot from the point and Rivet had two assists. Thank you, boys, we'll take some more of that any time you want to dish it out.

Gragnani was fine I imagine, I basically forgot he was there so I'll assume he did a fine job. He had at least one shot towards the net, so there's that.

Staffy brought the pigeon to his post-game interview with Gene Principe. Oh Staffy. Loves. He's such an unaffected person. Like, even though he clearly makes like $900,000 a season, he probably still gets his haircut at Supercuts and wears clothes until they fall apart.

Why can't we win these games against Eastern Conference teams? Whatevs, I don't care who these kinds of games are against, just as long as they're 10-2 wins in our favor.

My Sabres score text message was so full it couldn't fit the season goal totals in because there were so many players names to cram in.

Remember when this game was almost blacked out? You could've still watched it online, but I can't even imagine the outrage if this game hadn't been aired on MSG.

Thrilling love indeed.

Iggy and the Flames tomorrow!!

ETA: I forgot!! Nasher had a hat trick and the Blue Jackets beat the Red Wings. To recap: Rick Nash 3 - Detroit Red Wings 2.

Matt Greene Bringing Joy to the Masses

by Anne

Its like the hockey gods are listening to me. Remember when I was like "I'm going to write in Matt Greene's name on the All-Star ballot"? I said it, I just don't feel like looking up the post where I said it.

Anyway:

my heart!

In Retrospect, His Hand Wasn't Bandaged.

by Anne

See?:

It looks like its actually just padding to protect the back of his hand and not some crazy bandage. I feel less like someone should be smacking him upside the head now. And, yes I fixed the date so its no longer 2082 on my camera.

Yes I did take a picture of the newspaper because I couldn't find the images online and I don't feel like writing a 4 page paper about how Chekhov wrote The Cherry Orchard to be a comedy but Stanislavsky felt otherwise. Seriously, I have a Bachelor's degree in theatre with a concentration in dramatic lit and I took 3x the required number of dramatic literature credits. I can't believe I don't already have a paper somewhere already written about this topic.

I'm so freakin' tired. My dog is kind of sick so I was up late being all paranoid about him. He was at the groomer's yesterday and I think it really stresses him out because he's blind and he gets all disoriented. We'll probably have to start grooming him ourselves if that's what caused him to be all sickly last night. One dog is deaf and one is blind. My cat appears to still have all 5 sense firing on all cylinders so 1 out of 3 fully functioning pets ain't bad.

I keep forgetting to link to this story. Read the article and experience a taste of why Jarome Iginla is my favorite hockey player. There's a nice inset story about Mike Cammalleri and Iggy clicking together. Anyone who makes Iggy look better is A-OK in my book, Michael.

Woooo!
If anyone wants to buy me an Iginla jersey I'll definitely wear it
haha

Even though I have 2 assignments (1 came up unexpectedly) to do tonight, I'll probably still watch a game. Too bad the best one looks like it'll be Anaheim at San Jose... but that doesn't start until 10:30. It must be kind of sweet to be a hockey fan on the West coast, the "late games" are at, like 7:30. Although if your team plays in the East, the game starts while most people are still at work. Eh, ya win some ya lose some. I'll probably watch at least the first period of that one.

Posting From 1997

by Anne

So my grandfather's computer beeps when I turn on and off Caps Lock. I tend to randomly type in caps FREQUENTLY so this is rather annoying.
Moving on.

I was able to "experience" the game by "watching" the live play by play box and checking it during dinner.

ROY-ZEEEEEEE!!! Apparently shacking back up with Vans has done him wonders. Last season he came back from a Lindy calling-out and picked up his game, so perhaps this demotion has done the trick. Nice to see Vanek getting an assist. His goal total is OBVIOUSLY there, so its nice to see him adding a few more to the "A" column and bumping up his total even further.

There is really nothing I love more during a game than when we score a short-handed goal and nothing I hate more than when a short-handed goal is scored on us. YOYOOOOO!!!

Basically my reaction to this game is:

OMFG WE WON AND OMFG WHAT A GREAT NIGHT TO BE GETTING SLOSHED IN DOWNTOWN BUFFALO! I'M GONNA GO PLAY WITH MY GRANDFATHER'S CAT AND WATCH THE DISNEY CHANNEL.

No, really its basically the same thing.

OK ITS ALL A FACADE! ITS ALL LIES! I CAN'T DO IT ANYMORE!!

by Anne

I CAN'T PRETEND I DON'T CARE!!! I DO CARE! I. CARE. SO. MUCH.

I'm a girl, I'm emotional, I cannot help but feel emotionally invested and somewhat protective of our boys in blue and gold. I can whine about them all I want, because I know that its coming from the heart, but SO HELP ME, if an outside analyst starts talkin' smack, I am QUICK to defend.

Ok, these last few weeks have been really tough as a Sabres fan. I think we are all aware of that. We all feel this frustration. I've tried going for the "EFF YOU, SABRES!" angle, but to no avail. I thought that if I acted like I didn't care it would be easier to take but its just not.

The reason this is all coming out now is because I read Ryan Miller's recently updated blog and I was reminded that "oh yeah, they don't like losing either." and that, oh yeah "I totally love Ryan Miller and this team will be ok".

Look, as much as I enjoy Pittsburgh and Vancouver, there is no team that I could ever throw as much of my heart and soul behind as the Buffalo Sabres. They're my team from my city and someday this painful losing streak will all be a distant, unpleasant memory and we'll be ok. We will. I promise. Remember 2002? That was a time when we almost lost the TEAM. This ain't nothing. They'll turn it around. It'll be ok. The Bills lost like 4 games in a row, turned around and beat the snot out of a crappy team that they HAD to beat. They needed that game for confidence and they got it and gave us all a little something to smile about. It'll get better.

I feel this picture is appropriate for most situations and I love it.
and him.
PIE!!! IT'S GONNA BE OK!


Sissy's working his hardest to climb out of this hole.
PULL, SISSY! PULL!


GOOSE! YOU KNOW WHAT ITS TIME FOR:



YER DAMN RIGHT, PAUL GAUSTAD.
DAMN.
RIGHT.
JUST DON'T LOOK AT THE FISH BEHIND YOU AND IT'LL BE OK



LET'S GO BUFF-A-LO!

I'm In Love

by Anne

Things to take away from this game against the Devils:

• The Devils may or may not have a player named after a food borne bacteria
• Watching Patty Lalime dance like a sprite in front of Ryan Miller whilst celebrating his shut out has basically done me in.
• Millsy's 2nd consecutive shutout - first time in his career
  
• Pat Kaleta's deflection from like 20 feet out was positively Thomas Vanek-esque, blocking shots, playing on the penalty kill = love.
  
• Love love love love love, did I mention all the love I'm feeling?
  

I do look pretty foxy in red.

Sabres Win! Pirates Win! The EARTH Wins!

by Anne

Why does the Earth win? Because when my teams are doing well, I'm convinced it means that the Earth is functioning as it should.

This afternoon I said to my Mom "I'm not glad Pominville and Roy haven't been scoring lately." and WOOOOOO!!! Vanek! Vanek! PIE! ROYZIE! POMMMMERRRRR!!! Kaleta and Paille were so unexpectedly slick on PieYAY's goal!!!

MILLSY WITH THE SHUTOUT! YAY! YAY! YAY! Timmy got a point in his first game! Yay!

Who-?


There he is again, who IS that guy?



Bahahahahahahhahahahahah Adam Mair
hahahahha what an EXCELLENT face

The Pirates won their second game in a row against the Norfolk Admirals 5-3! Kennedy, Darche and Mancari each had a goal and 2 assists!! Somehow Gerbe had 0 points and was -3 ... uhhhhh... that's ok Nate, we can't all have great nights and continue our point scoring streak, RIGHT, TK?!?!!!!

WCB Watch

Ethan Moreau scored 2 goals to end Edmonton's 5 game losing streak!!! Yay!!!

Work it, Grrrrrl


YOU'RE DOING IT WRONG!

Marty Turco is fired as my Dallas WCB. I can't handle watching him give up 5 goals over and over and over again. Should I pick Fabian Brunnstrom or I might pick Jere Lehtinen because he was born in "Espoo"??

Sharpie scored in Chicago's shootout victory over Columbus in which Nasher had an assists and NINE shots on goal, adding to Columbus' 51 total shots on goal. Huet seemed to face a lot of shots but not too many of them were really worth much.

J.P. had an assist in Nashville's 3-2 shootout win over Florida!!

JKee had 0 points in a 6-3 loss to the Pens, but YAY Pens!! They needed a road win, they've been struggling lately. Looks like Sid's "undisclosed" injury isn't that serious because he had 2 points (0+2) on the night and over 22 minutes of ice time.

ONo didn't play in the Wild's match up with the Coyotes and Peter Mueller was underwhelming.

Olli Jokinen's face reads: "Eh, I suppose you'll do for a hug."

Speaking of Olli Jokinen, doesn't this picture, one of a series of pictures featured on Coyotes.com, make you want to be a 'Yotes fan?

If you buy season tickets, you can ALL be as cool as Olli Jokinen



WHERE DO I GET THOSE TICKETS?!?!

Iggy registered 0 points in the Flames win over the Kings BUT he did win all 3 faceoffs he took. Kings' WCB Matt Greene also did not appear on the score sheet as per usual. but had a couple of hits and at least 1 blocked shot. In an interesting change, or rather, lack of a change, the Kings two goals were scored by the same person. Also the same person got both primary assists and another player got both secondary assists. This is made even more unique in that one was on the power play and one was not.

LOOK! THEY'RE IN A PICTURE TOGETHER!!
MY 2 TOP WESTERN FAVORITES!!
and Todd Bertuzzi....
BUT LOOKIT IGGY AND GREENER!!!


Ok, Iggs, we need to talk.
The game is easier to play when your knees are not touching the ice.
Food for thought.
Chew on it, let me know what you think.

Bills play tomorrow!! Here's hoping these winning vibes carry over to football!!

I'M PRETTY SURE THAT I'M IN LOVE WITH THOMAS VANEK

by Anne

DEAR THOMAS VANEK I KNOW YOU'RE MARRIED AND WHAT NOT BUT PLEASE CONSIDER HAVING MY BABIES. DANNY PAILLE, SAME GOES FOR YOU.

ANOTHER SHORT HANDED GOAL?!?! ON ANOTHER SWEET PASS FROM DANNY PAILLE?

OMG ARE YOU SERIOUS THOMAS?!?!?!

TAKE THAT RANGERS' WINNING STREAK. OH SNAP.

Two power play goals and another 100% on the PK. Danny I kind of am a little annoyed that you missed the empty net, but I CAN TOTALLY GET OVER THAT.

WOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!! WE'VE ONLY ALLOWED ONE GOAL IN ALL THREE GAMES!!

Oh, and BOOFUCKINGHOO Paul Mara, you may be a "man" but you're a man who got ejected from the game for retaliating when that "little guy" (Pat Kaleta) drew a major penalty and basically gave us the win, leaving your team with only 5 defensemen. Thanks, Paul!

If you'll excuse me, I have to go rub this in my friend Scott's face.

After three games, it's time to take a look at the suddenly defensive-minded Buffalo Sabres.

HELLS YEAH IT IS.

WOOOOOOO!!!

In Case You Had Forgotten

by Anne




IT'S OPENING NIGHT




The boys are BACK!

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

ELIMINATION

by Anne

What a CRAZY SHOCKEROO. Who saw that elimination coming? I thought that elimination would come MUCH later. I'm totally at a loss for words:

RYAN WAS TOTALLY ELIMINATED FROM TOP CHEF!

He started out so strong! Did you see his deep dish pizza in week 1? Bangin'!

He had all the potential, but things just started to go down hill. He switched back to his old knife set that made him great in weeks gone by, but that didn't seem to help. He traded in his chili pepper apron for a more serious one, because big trades like that always give people a huge late "elimination challenge" boost, right?

What happened to Ryan? Shameful, shameful. I was so distraught, I don't even remember anything else that happened last night. Let's seee...... Oh yeah, there was that other thing:

I WAS SO EXCITED WHEN THE SENATORS WERE ELIMINATED THAT I IMMEDIATELY RAN TO MY PLAYOFF TRACKER TO MOVE THE PENS FORWARD AND THREW MY SENS MAGNET UP IN THE AIR AND THEN SPIKED IT LIKE A FOOTBALL.

WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!

I can't lie, towards the end I wasn't that excited, but it was only because I was afraid Daniel blessed Alfredsson would net one at the end and tie it up, but he DIDN'T!!! WOOOOOO!!!!! YAY #2! YAY SID! YAY RUUUUTUUUUUUUU! YAY GENO! I DIDN'T SEE YOU CHEWING ON ANYTHING LAST NIGHT! YOU'RE IMPROVING!

Yo, what HAPPENED to the Senators? I've been saying it for a while, they're the new Tampa Bay Lightning. One solid line, a decent goaltender and 1 or 2 OK defensemen.

Congrats to the Preds! I honestly thought you'd be swept (ok I don't follow the Preds or Wings much, so this was based solely on the teams' standings), but you've totes proved me wrong.

Harry Neale (woo!) was talking about if Jason Arnott wore his Stanley Cup ring around or not. He claims he doesn't. If won the Stanley Cup I'd wear that shiz EVERYWHERE. Every outfit, every occasion, no matter how inappropriate. I don't care if I was the backup backup goaltender, I'd totally wear it ALL THE TIME.

On another Preds note, they're like the bizarro Sabres, just not as awesome. Their colors are VERY similar to ours, Harry Neale was doing the color last night, their head coach is 2nd only to Lindy in most games coached with one team, and at one point last night, our powerplay song was playing in their arena. It was a surreal moment.

See you on the golf course, Sens! We'll totally give you all the crappy tee times.

I'm Too Sexy for The Playoffs

by Anne

All this talk of actual "Hockey" has gotten me all flustered.

Honestly, when did I become such a boy and spend so much of my time focusing on facts, statistics and the like?

This watching of other teams has left me all a twitter. Am I cheating on my Sabres? Does Jaro go home at night, saddened because I spend more time gazing at Gary Roberts being all swaggery and tough in Pittsburgh than I do at his perfectly cubic head?

Does Staffy know that I nearly wept when Zachy lost his toofers? Don't worry Drew! I would totally be the first on the ice with a glass of milk to collect your destroyed teeth in hopes of their salvation. Only if I could wear gloves, though. I love you, Staffers, but I don't really want to touch your recently departed teeth with my bare hands.

Max is rumoured to be on the tradeblock. It's no secret that I'm no fan of Maxy. He's just not as good as he was last year, he probably wants out of Buffalo, and, most importantly, his presence is seriously dragging down the average sexiness of the team.

The team's sexiness got a serious boost in February when we dumped Big Red and acquired Big Bear. It also got a serious boost when Kalinin was injured and Mike "Doof" Weber came on board. His roster photo is hysterically vacant in expression, but he has those sexy, "I will melt the ice with the intense laser gaze I use to intimidate my opponents" eyes. All in all, with the departure of the pasty midget (Danny Briere) and the dorky hamster (w/o playoff beard Chris Drury) this team's sexiness is on the rise.

There is no place for Maxim Afinogenov or Dmitri Kalinin on a team this wrought with sex appeal.

There are many kinds of sexy on this team.

For example, Ryan Miller is totally not my type, however, I feel his presence gives this team a hint of "could snap at any moment" sexy.

There's also the "You're probably a total jerk, but I'd probably sleep with you anyway." sex appeal of Drew Stafford, Ales Kotalik and Tim Connolly.

My personal favorite kind of sexy is the: "Aw shucks, guys, I'm tryin' my best, I sure am glad you like it." kind of sexy brought to the Sabres by Jason Pominville, Danny Pie-YAY, and Jochen Hecht.

Then there's the "I'm tough, but here's my softer side." appeal of Paul Gaustad, Adam Mair, Pat Kaleta and Jaro Spacek.

The reverse is also true, and is also my other favorite kind of sexy: The "I may be sweet but I'll totally kick your ass" sexy of Nolan Pratt, Derek Roy, Steve Bernier (who? don't you mean BIG BEAR?)and Henrik Tallinder. With Derek Roy, its more like "I want to kick your ass but I'm tiny, so I'll take a diving penalty instead."

Don't forget the "Come on, now! How can you NOT love me?", unusually inexplicable appeal of players like Toni Lydman, Nathan Paetsch, Mike Ryan and Andrew Peters.

Then there's Teppo. Teppo gets his own category for just being all-around TOTALLY AWESOME. The smirk! The hair! The heart condition! He's totally prime material.

Um, ok. I casually forgot to mention a few players, but that's because they're just not sexy or need to earn their way back to being sexy...Thomas Vanek... I still loves ya.

I look forward to tracking this team's overall Sexy to Grody ratio during the off-season.

Awwwwwwwww

by Anne

I'm pretty sure the only reason I'm not sad we didn't make the playoffs is because we have 1 more game left and my brain hasn't fully grasped that the season is over.

This was a very depressing sight to me though:

To officially see that there are no more games makes me very sad.

I missed the Sabres like "my best friend had moved to a new district in 8th grade and now we had to go to different high schools and it was going to be weird because we've been best friends since the first day of kindergarten when she let me share her paste" over the All-Star break and that was 3 DAYS.

There's always next year!

Forget it, just ENJOY

by Anne

Lindy had some excellent thoughts in his post-practice interview. Just enjoy these games and just enjoy watching hockey. These games are tough but who ever said that they did better when they were extremely tense or felt completely hopeless?

I say, win or lose, the Sabres are a great team which we all love. Are we going to be crying for Ryan Miller's head if we don't make the playoffs? No. Well, I won't. Instead, I'll be eating his ice cream while watching Pittsburgh fight for the Cup. Go, Pens, Go! Except for on the 12th of March, then: Boo, Pens, Boo!

Stop stressing about it and enjoy the games. Enjoy those moments when a player gets that insane goal or has that huge hit that makes the game and your night that much better and you talk about it with your friends the next day (See: Bernier, Steve and Kaleta, Patrick) and laugh at the ridiculous power one player's mistake has over an entire city (See: 2006 playoffs: Campbell, Brian).

Playoffs or no playoffs, you all know that one talkative, trade-filled, contract-signing off-season later, we'll be right back here for training camp with the same gleam in our eyes and the same hunger for glory with which we every season.

Remember: there's always next year