Pirates Lose But it Was Fun Anyway

by Anne

S(h)ara and I were at the Pirates game, both rocking Kennedy t-shirts

Phew. I'm glad I left my tiny white shorts and knock-off Target uggs at home
Seriously, darling, its not that warm outside


Dougie serenaded us
Why was TK not in the starting line up?

This game is best told in fights:


First Parsley (Jimmy Bonneau) fought some Rat


...as Mike Ryan drifted by listlessly


Then these dudes fought
I think this was Mancari roughing up someone


Then there was a brawl
Someone sucker punched Gerbe and he just curled up into the fetal position
He's 5'5", he's allowed


Then Mike Ryan was a douchebag part 1


Ignore Colton Fretter
look at the super full penalty boxes behind him
There were four players in each box to start the 3rd


Then Mike Ryan (#21) scored a pretty slick goal
He's still a douchebag


Because he crosschecked Kyle Rank after Timmy tied the game at 2
We really liked heckling Mikey
Matt Ellis is better anyway


Salty Pete was there


TOO MANY MEN ON THE ICE!

I've never been to an AHL game before so I wasn't sure what to expect. I will say this, I'll take the NHL. These guys were terrrible. I mean even when they were good, they were only so-so. You could easily pick out the NHLers (Kennedy, Ryan, Gerbe, etc.) Marc-Andre Gragnani showed some excellent puck handling ability on the power play. He might've been getting a little too showy but I certainly was impressed by how he moved the puck.

Although Kyle Rank might not be headed for the NHL anytime soon, his tying goal with 29 seconds left in regulation was a thriller. There was chorus after chorus of "SHOOOOOOOOOOOOT!" and Zach Takir did and Kyle Rank redirected it into the net. S(h)ara and I definitely started a few chants of "Peeeeeeeeeeters, Peeeeeeeeeeeters" to heckle the Rats goalie. Unfortunately not a single Pirate scored in OT or the shootout and the Rats walked away with two points.

I couldn't get a picture of it but Dylan Hunter's facial hair is amazing. From here on out he will be known as "Pornstache"

I'm looking forward to tomorrow night's game even more now. NHL hockey > AHL hockey.

I thought Gerbe was hurt because I didn't realize that he didn't just get a misconduct penalty, he got a game misconduct for fighting off of the playing surface with some Rat. He was kicked out of the game according to AHL rule 47.7.

Just to emphasize further the crazy number of fights in this game, here's a screen capture of the penalties summary:

that's a lot of penalties
click to enlarge

Hi Teppo! We Missed You!

by Anne


By M-AG! Thanks for the efforts! Good job! Have fun back in Portland!

Teppo's been activated from IR! They're coming back to us, slowly but surely.

Rivs, Tepps, Lyds, Patches, Buts and Webs. What a line up.

Phew.

Maybe a Ray of Hope for the Defense?

by Anne

If the Marc-Andre Gragnani experiment falls through, there may be hope. Looks like Mike Weber is back to practicing at full after his knee surgery a few weeks ago.

Gragnani has been fine (its only been two games). He's a +2 with two shots on goal while logging some short handed time and just over 12 minutes one game and just over 11 in the next. His stats have been roughly the same as Paetsch's over those two games and the two have mostly been paired together. They've been decent, and I'm not blaming either of them for the losses as neither of them have been on the ice when goals were scored. However, Gragnani was in the box when Mike Cammalleri scored in the third to make it 4-2 Flames. But if we're talking penalty minutes, M-A G wins that battle with Mike Weber. Gragnani 34 PIM in 44 games, Weber 80 PIM in 35.

Its just good to see that we don't necessarily have to push the panic button as Weber gets healthier.

Any word on when we'll be getting back Teppo or Hank or Reggie?!

Remember when we had too many defensemen? That was nice.

Thursday Breather

by Anne

With the semester starting, I haven't been able to finish reading the two books I started over break and didn't finish. Alas, they shall have to wait until Spring Break. I shall have to wait to know all of what Perreault said to Rico.

Last night's game started out strong for the Flames, then shifted to strong for the Sabres and then BOOM! Mike Cammalleri has a hat trick and the Sabres lose 5-2. Ouch.

That one definitely stung.

Things are not looking good out West either. The Canucks canNOT find a way to win. Last night was a downer from start to finish as both the Sabres and Canucks lost games that were tied going into the third. Barf.

I'm very grateful that there is no Sabres OR Canucks game tonight, leaving my Western Conference first-runner up (Chicago) and second-runner up (LA) to duke it out tonight at 10:30. I have a 9:00 am class so I will not be watching past the first period so here's to a strong first!

I don't want to feel glee over other's misfortunes but, perhaps THIS is some kind of message from the hockey gods to the Detroit Red Wings. I'm not sayin'... I'm just sayin'.

Fortunately there's still a little bit of daylight between us and Florida/Pittsburgh in the standings. Not much, but a little, so tonight will be a rare night in which we should all cheer for the Habs. Unforunately the Panthers are the only team in the NHL with a winning record against the Habs... Oh well, hopefully Carey and Kovi can pull one out for those who are watching the standings.

These two days off will be good for both us and the Sabres.

There's a brief article in today's TBN about Marc-Andre Gragnani in which they basically compare him to a young Brian Campbell. He's been branded the coveted title of "offensive defenseman" and discusses enjoying watching the play develop in front of him. Groovy. The article also reminds us that it took Brian Campbell more than half a decade to become the puck mover he is today so we shouldn't get excited. Don't worry. After last night, its tough to be excited about much of anything.

Game Day

by Anne

So, our dearest Captain Yoyo has a pulled leg muscle. Therefore, called up from Rochacha is Mr. Marc-Andre Gragnani.

Oddly enough, I just read an article about Gragnani the other day on the AHL report at NHL.com. He's been doing good things for Rochester since making the switch from defense to forward. Wonder if he'll be effective tonight. And he's cute too, see:

Is it just me, or does he have a definite "Danny B." vibe to him. It's probably just because he's French Canadian.

Welcome to the big show Marc-Andre! I find it interesting that I just took note of you the other day and here you are, worming your way into my SabreHeart. Granted, you're still in the back, I'd say you're on par with Kotalik at the moment, I don't really have any strong feelings about you, so you're ahead of Petey and Kalinin but not quite to the Roysie or Yoyo level, and certainly not anywhere near Pie-YAY or Staffy or even Patty, but you do have that potential, if you're BAMF enough.

Word of advice: I have a lot of trouble with call-ups. I've been on a roller coaster of call up emotion this season, please don't add to the mix, kiddo. Grizz has let me down, I don't even really remember Sekera and Weber, and then there's Patty, my Patty, aka current favorite call-up. As this is your NHL debut, if you only manage to score like 3 goals and 2 assists, I suppose I'll be lenient.

I wonder what line he'll be on? This shall be interesting. He's got a Kotalik-style soul patch going on, maybe he Timmy and Ales will be on the "awkward facial hair" line, that is if Timmy brings back the fu manchu.

COME ON BOYS! COME OUT STRONG! SPEAR DRURY! I mean...uhhhhhh.....play a good clean game...

(Private to Kaleta: Since you can't really hit Drury or Gomez, just hit Avery super hard a few times, thanks)

Sidenote, a friend of mine works and Camp Good Days in the summer and Goose and Patty came to see the kids and they knew when Kaleta rolled in because he drives a HUGE ASS black Hummer H2. We saw one last night and now exclusively refer to them as "Kaletas"