Game night: Sens, gross.

by Anne

We should never take joy in the downfall of our opponents, however, I hate Jason Spezza so I'm ok with the happywarmfuzzies I feel hearing that he has a knee injury. If Spezza's injury was career or season threatening, I wouldn't feel such glee, but as it will sideline him for a few weeks, I feel the extra joy the holiday season brings.

Too bad the Senators and their fans don't give a crap about the Sabres. We don't have any really good rivals, and the bad blood from 2007 and 2006 has been mostly nullified by the fact that the Sabres and Senators combined for a total number of playoff wins of absolutely NADA in 2008 and 2009.

The Senators, no matter how bad they are, always have the Sabres figured out, and tonight will prove no exception, sadly. That article linked above shows that since 05-06 the Senators are 21-6-4 against the Sabres. WHAT? THAT IS COMPLETELY INSANE.

Alfie is all alone now that Dany Heatley is doing my fantasy team lots of favors in San Jose and Spezza will miss two months. Muahahaha.

I was about to write about how now that I said that, our big juggernaut-y offensive threat would get hurt but, we don't have one of those. Pat Kaleta? Ummm, maybe not.

Anyway, there isn't even any Chris Neil for Adam Mair to fight with in this, his 500th NHL game. Aw, Mairsy! How cute. I'm so proud.

Of course I want them to win but even last year when the Senators were flailing about in the bottom of the conference they managed to find ways to beat us. Now that they've graduated to "mediocre" and we're treading a very thin line between "bad-ass eliteness" and "what happened? things were going so well!" I don't forsee any change in the trends.

The last time we played the Sens I drunkenly ranted about how much I hated the Senators of days gone by, but with the exception of Neil, Spezza and Alfredsson, all of the Senators I hated SO. MUCH. back in 2006 and 2007 are gone. Heatley, Emery, Chara, Vermette, Redden, etc. All of those players have moved on to other teams, some I still hate (Emery, Redden) but some I'm ok with like Vermette and Heatley (because he's keeping my fantasy team afloat). At least the Sens did us a solid when they picked up Ruutu. Phew, I needed to fuel the hatred some more. I don't want to hate Nick Foligno, in fact, I can't hate Nick Foligno, I watched three interviews with him over the last few weeks and he mentioned the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles in two of them. How can you hate that? Buffalo boy who looks like a weasel and loves the Ninja Turtles. I of course mean the cutest weasel around, ummm, right? Marcus may be worse at hockey but he's totally cuter.

I predict a Sens victory, 3-2. Goals by: Fisher, Alfredsson, Foligno, Kaleta and MacArthur.

All-Star Voting is Complete, Christmas is Over, Time for Trade Rumors!

by Anne

We've all heard about Kovalchuck potentially being moved from Atlanta. He's an offensive superstar wasting away on a team that's ranked 28th in the league. However, in a move that most expected to come at the beginning of the season, the Thrashers have just NOW named Kovy their captain. Hard to believe he's only the fifth Russian born and trained player in history to be named captain of an NHL team. Does this quash the trade rumors? Does this mean Kovalchuk is happy in Hotlanta? Does this mean Don Waddell trades away the team's only legitimate star? Soupy was an alternate captain the month he was traded and captain only two months before that. I still say Kovy is moved.

Then there's his South East Division goal scoring hombre, Vinny Lecavalier. He's the team captain and just signed a DiPietro-esque 11 year contract extension that goes into effect this July 1. For the last few crappy Bolts seasons, there have been rumors that Marty St. Louis or Vinny were on the trade market, but for some reason this season the rumors are hotter than ever. The ever popular Vinny-to-the-Habs trade has come up yet again. Why in God's name would they trade him? I'm not saying that they won't trade him, because that genius parade running shop down in Tampa has done some pretty bone-headed things this past few months, but Vinny is their only superstar. If I lived in Tampa and there was no Vinny Lecavalier, who else would I go to watch? Marty "Don't Call Me Shortstack" St. Louis? He's good, but he's not the franchise player that Vinny is. Stamkos is floundering and probably should be back in Sarnia where he can gain some confidence, why wasn't he allowed to be in the World Juniors? That's beyond me. Basically, I don't want Vinny in Montreal because that just ups Montreal into serious contender status and that's bad for the Sabres. Bad bad bad.

What's the latest in trades for the Sabres? Darcy doesn't make splashy trades. Well, he gives away splashy but doesn't bring IN splashy. We could use Vinny up here! Tampa needs defense, right? I say Tallinder, Paetsch and a first rounder for Vinny. Who's with me?!

Another center that might be on the move is Jason Spezza. As much as I want a solid top line center for the Sabres, I feel like Spezza in Buffalo would be like that scene in Mighty Ducks when that kid who never appeared in any of the other movies called Adam Banks a "cake-eater" when he was forced to play for them when the divisional lines were redrawn and something about a lake being a cutoff point. I'm putting money on Royzie being the one to dish out that kind of smack talk.

Stafford for Kesler? As part of something bigger? That's the rumor from the unreliable Hockeybuzz.com. I love Kesler so if we were to lose Staffy it'd have to be for someone like Kes to avoid the onslaught of sadness. However, what would this "bigger" be, I wonder? If we got Kes, I'd want to keep him. What's with the Sabres trading with the Canucks all of a sudden? 1970 represent.

If Staffy gets traded, I have to say I TOTALLY CALLED IT. A month after that post, things are a little different and Staffy is producing more, meaning we'd get more a in a trade involving him than we would in a trade involving Pie.

Whatevs, I really love the trade deadline. It's my favorite hockey day of the year, followed closely by free agent day, opening day and the draft.

Trade?

by Anne

In case you haven't noticed, we have a lot of forwards on board.

Until Saturday's game, there had been at least 1 or 2 healthy scratches at forward for the last 5 or 6 games (Kaleta, Stafford, Paille, Peters, Ellis). Last night we had two injured players (Timmy and Kotalik) sitting it out (they didn't even make the trip) so there were no healthy scratches at forward.

This next thought is really not a reaction to the recent misadventures by the boys in blue and gold, its a direct reaction to the "Boucher to Pittsburgh, Sydor to Dallas" trade. While perusing the TSN article about the moves, I ventured down the rest of their headlines and found an article that discussed the problems in Ottawa. I started reading it because it said "Capital Change" or something and I thought it meant something to do with Washington... wrong capital... they meant Ottawa.

At the end of said article, the author pointed out key healthy scratches this week around the NHL, most notably ours: Staffy and Pie. And the wheels started turning: Sydor and Boucher were both healthy scratches as the trade details were worked out. I seriously doubt that that's why Paille and Staffy were scratched, but the connection got me thinking.

If Darcy was orchestrating a trade, which he doesn't do that many of, what would the trade be? In my opinion, if we traded, it'd be for a top line centerman. We have a lot of forwards, but we're not the strongest down the middle.

Timmy is always hurt, Yoyo is not a natural center, Grizz is doing pretty well, Goose and Mairsy are solid in their roles, but Royzie has been sucking out loud early this season and his face off numbers aren't up where they should be. I put a fair amount of stock in faceoff wins. Why? because the team with the puck is the team that's most likely to score, and the best way to get the puck and start a shift in your favor: winning face offs. We also could use another right handed center. Lindy likes to use lefties in the left face off circle and righties in the right. At the moment only 2 of the 6 players that have played center this season are right handed.

What we have plenty of is wingers. Look at the players who have sat: Stafford (RW) and Paille (LW). Both of those guys would be quite tempting to teams looking to add depth, size and youth to their second or third lines.

This is just an idea that's been tossing around my brain for a few hours and I'm just putting it out there to see how it sounds when not just in my head.

Personally, the idea of losing Danny Paille makes my heart sink into my stomach and I just don't want to think about that anymore, so if one of them does go, I'd much rather it was Staffy. Lindy has expressed his favorable opinion of Pie for his 2 way strengths and at least once called Staffy out for not listening to him, but I haven't heard much since then. Ha, if you had called me in like March of 2007 and been like "Hey Anne, in about a year and a half, you'll be much happier to get rid of Staffy in favor of keeping Dan Paille." I never would have believed you. OH HOW TIMES CHANGE.

That article on TSN was basically about Ottawa potentially shipping out one of their "top three", mainly focusing on Jason Spezza. Of the "top three" I hate Jason Spezza the least, but I'm not suggesting that that is anywhere near the realm of possibility. Its fairly rare to make trades within a division during the season. I don't see the Senators being interested in acquiring a winger, either. They need depth at goalie and a puck moving defenseman. We've just recently gotten a defensive corps that doesn't make me sick to my stomach, so I'm confident we will not be moving any of our D. Clearly we will not be shipping out Miller and I'd MUCH rather have Lalime rather than take one of their rotating goalies.

Again, I'm sure none of these things are going to happen any time soon or at all, its just interesting to think about the possibilities.

Oh What a World

By Anne

Tuesday was a crazy hockey night, kids.

Thrashers roll over the Red Wings 5-1 IN Detroit! Hossa netted himself a natural hat trick in the first 21:14 of the game. Atlanta, who can't pay their locals to see the games, beat the top team in the NHL. Sweet. I love a good upset. Unless you're the EC Finals in '07, Ottawa Senators.

Jose Theodore, who made the toque over the goalie mask famous in 2003:

had his 24th career shutout- and his first since FEBRUARY OF 2004! What the heck? Almost 4 years without a shutout? I know they're difficult to come by, but that's a loooooong time. Kee-razy.

And THEN the freakin' Capitals beat Ottawa by 2+ goals again! What the heck? Green? Semin, stepping up to fill in for Nylander and his shoulder? Ovie? What have you been drinking?

I am happy to report that Jason Spezza seems to have recovered from my curse. He didn't score, but he did have plenty of ice time. S(h)ara and I fear that our attempts to curse the Rangers deflected off of Chris Drury's helmet, still covered with residual Buffalove from when he was nearly decapitated last year, and hit poor Mike Nylander of the Caps, keep on, keepin' on with that torn rotator cuff.

Who ever writes the NHL. com "Game of the Night" really loves describing a close loss as a "nip".

This is the list from today's Game of the Night page:

That's weird.

I'm sick to death of hearing people talk about how Soupy won't talk anymore. Goosie said they don't talk about contracts in the locker room, and I think that's probably the best policy considering SabreBritney and his lack of living up to his millions. I think for the time being we should follow the Goose's policy and think of Western New York as a collective locker room: it smells kind of funny and we don't talk about contracts.

Sidenote, does Jose Theodore look like Neil Patrick Harris to anyone else?

Another Man's Trash

By Anne

Is the Eastern Conference's treasure.

I don't like to celebrate injuries, but in the midst of this...I can't even call it a slump, it's a winnless desert....it is nice to hear that perhaps our dear neighbors to the north may have the gap on their lead in the EC closed a little:

Poor Ottawa. Funny, somehow I don't feel bad about it.

UPDATE: Hey, I was just kidding, Jason Spezza. Sens, as much as I don't like you, take care of yourselves. It's not as fun to cheer against you when 2 of your top players are down for the count.