And the winner is....

by Anne

In our first Weekly Poll, we asked you which of the Staal brothers was your fave.

The choices (duh) were Eric, Marc, Jordan and Jared.

The boys ranked as follows:

#4 Jared (5%)

I'm not surprised Jared came in 4th out of 4. Why? Because we know almost nothing about him because he's only 17 and not yet in the NHL. Give it time, I'm sure someday he'll be more than 1 persons favorite Staal.

Doesn't he look like Phaneuf in this picture?:

Marc (L) Jared (R)

#3 Eric (11%)

Since this IS a Sabres blog and Eric and his 'Canes gave us our playoff walking papers in the 2006 ECF, I'm not surprised he is not overly beloved by Sabres fans the blogosphere over. I'm actually surprised he got more than 1 vote.

The Staal Brothers <3 pinstripes... because they need to look taller...?

#2 Marc (27%)

My personal favorite underrated Staal. He's pretty sweet. He was the OHL's defenseman of the year last season. Wooo! Ok, I know its tough to love him because he plays for the gross-tastic Rangers. However, he didn't CHOOSE to be a Ranger, they DRAFTED him. I, of course, understand Eric was drafted by the 'Canes, but WHATEVS. Marc is described as the family goofball, and I love me a goofball. I also actually kind of feel bad that his younger brother started in the NHL before he did. But he's still more awesome. Marc's "Girlfriend" page has like absolutely nothing but pictures of him and Jared. He might have a girlfriend named Danielle from Sudbury (or Sudberry as they spelled it), or Casey from Quebec or I don't care from I still love him anyway. The best part is really the people who post things like "WHAT VOODOO MAGIC DO YOU HAVE THAT ALLOWS YOU TO KNOW THIS INFORMATION?!?!" He's also a rockstar.

See?:

#1...by process of elimination Jordan (55%)

Jordan is quite popular amongst Sabres fans, apparently. I would assume most Sabres fans don't really find the Penguins terribly offensive and Jordan has the distinction of being really young and pretty hot. He is my 2nd favorite Penguin...maybe 3rd. Well done, Jordan. You are well-tolerated by the readers of this blog. Maybe its because he's the biggest Staal bro. They're all the same height but Gronk is 15 pounds heavier than each of his NHL playing brothers. Well done? I really would love it if Jordan could find his scoring touch again next season and have more goals than his big bro. He's def going to have more goals than Marc...ok, if he doesn't though, either Marc is playing out of his mind or Jordan has lost his.

Jordan on a lake lookin' super chill

I'd love to know the reasons why people chose the Staal brother they chose, so post 'em.


OMGAH, I'm pretty sure I keeled over and died when I found this picture. Thank God I came back to life in time to finish this post:

Eric Staal: Supreme Smiley Living Room Overlord
Jordan looks like an albino elf and Eric seems to be attempting to crush his head
Marc is his usual chill self
Jared is SO over this picture

Be sure to take this week's poll:

Favorite movie in which the main focus was a hockey team; aka, not Happy Gilmore.

Game +/-

By Anne


"What we call despair is often only the painful eagerness of unfed hope." -George Eliot

I'm trying to stay positive, SabreNation. It's one of my few character traits I have left, even in times of great despair, I usually manage to stay upbeat. Therefore, I shall soldier on.

Let's start with +:

+Millsey gave his usual solid effort, we can't fault him for allowing those 2 goals, especially that goal lead by Mara's slapshot from the point, that was just a bullet.

+Pommerdoodle and his line plus Soupy had some beautiful passing and playmaking on their goal.

+Adam Mair is still effing terrifying. Just look at December of the Sabres 2008 calendar. Would you want to take a face-off against that guy? I certainly would not

+MSG had a special on Staffy and his guitar, it was my only swoon-worthy moment of the night.
Update: The Sabres actually posted the video of Staffers and his guitar. They never do that, they must know how deep my love runs.

The embed code effed up my entire post, so here's the link

+Rick and Harry had some great exchanges:

Harry: The Sabres are 1/29 on the power play in the last 8 games.
Rick: That is not good.


Harry: There's Sean Avery, he's about as popular as a rattlesnake at a picnic.

Thanks, Harry!

+Yeah, I really can't think of anything else. Drury didn't score?

-:

-Not only was the game suck-tastically terrible, MSG's audio kept cutting in and out.

-The puck spent an abysmally little amount of time near the Ranger's net for most of the game, we just couldn't keep it out of our zone.

-There were so many power plays, including a 5 on 3 and we capitalized on NONE of them, the Rangers really know how to take the pain and block those shots. We tend to put TimmyHo in that position where we all know he's not going to risk taking a puck to the head...again.

-The first Ranger goal was basically scored because we couldn't get the puck past the blue line.

-Fucking Orr rolls over Millsey and there is no penalty and NO ONE teaches him a lesson. HE, WITHOUT TRYING TO STOP, CRASHED INTO MILLSEY AND HIS NET. Paetsch tried to go with Avery, but he's a pansy and wouldn't go, and the Sabres sent a message to the NHL, go ahead, fuck with Millsey, we won't stop you. He's only our best player, it's cool.

-Grizz took a header into the net like 19:00 into the 3rd. Great. Wonderful. Splendid. I need to change the subject. There's so much more I could say, but my hockey ulcer is not pleased.

How many Staal's are there? Ok, I know there's 3 in the NHL: Marc, Jordan, and Eric, but they're everywhere. Don't forget little Jared who plays in the OHL. MY GOD MR. AND MRS. STAAL, WHAT DO YOU FEED YOUR SONS?

Eric, Marc, Jordan, and Jared:

In much, much happier news, Buffalo son Patrick Kane was named NHL.com's 2nd star of the night when he ended a nine-game goal-less streak when he netted 2 goals and 1 assist last night as the Blackhawks slammed the Blues 6-1. And Lee Stempniak, West Seneca native, scored the only Blues goal. What a night for WNY natives!

Unfortunately, Manny Legace was injured after the 1st...and the backup let in all 6 goals. Ouch. Swarek has only played 11 minutes with the Blues so far this season and was clearly not prepared to play.

Kaner and Stempniak....wanna come home and play some hockey? Yeah? Yeah? Contracts? Phooey!

A woman my grandfather is friends with happens to be Kaner's great aunt. This I didn't know until around Christmas time. How exciting. Although, in South Buffalo everyone is related.

Kimmo Timonen has one of my top 10 favorite names of active NHL players. TEPPO is clearly #1. Dion Phaneuf makes the list, as does Rod Brind'amour. The MTL lineup has some fantastic names as well.

Let's end on a happy note. Check out Staffy, his buddy, his guns and his guitar. Look away from the worn-out hole in the crotch of his jeans...he's so badass, he doesn't even care. Oh Drew Stafford, why must you relentlessly force me to love you in spite of it all?