Another Snoozer for the Sabres; Thriller for the Canucks

by Anne

Once again, no one stepped up and took control of the game. Well, someone did; Patrice Bergeron did. For those keeping score, Patrice Bergeron does NOT play for the Buffalo Sabres.

Whatever, I don't have much to say about that game. Good job, Goose. Cookies for Goose, and for Staffy. Staffy is hurt with a bone bruise. That sounds unbelievably unpleasant. Does this mean Tyler Ennis makes the return trip? Is Gerbe healthy yet? Here's hoping one of them is ready!

Tonight they play the Senators. I'll be at a show, so I won't see it. Too bad.

The Canucks won last night. The first period started out pretty darn rocky, with the Avs jumping out to an early two goal lead. After cutting the deficit to one in the second period, the Canucks scored four more unanswered goals in the third to take a 5-2 victory. Their last game, ten years ago it feels, was an 8-2 victory over the Avs. Wooo! Big Bear scored a PP goal on  a nifty little deflection:

They may have fallen to #3 in my heart but I still loves them.

Especially Big Bear.
Especially goals like that.
Please don't go six days between games again, I don't like that and neither does my fantasy team.

 Nothing to do with the game,

 but how adorable are Henrik Sedin and his son?

Other things:

• Danny Briere and M-E Vlasic fought last night. Yes, you read that right. I... I'm so confused. I wish I had seen it live. It's just so bizarre:

The best part is the looks of disbelief on their teammates' faces.
Also, I don't think any punches were thrown, but gloves were off.
hahahahahaha fantastic
Good job, Pickles!
You don't let Danny Briere attempt to put you in a headlock!

• Also in that game, Dany Heatley had his second hat trick of the season. This pleases me for two reasons: It was against the Flyers and he's a Sunny Hedgehog Enchanter. Yessss.
  

• Tonight the Sabres play in Ottawa (barf), the Kings host the Flames and the Pens are in Atlanta. Hopefully I'll be able to watch some bitchin' highlight reel goals scored by the Sabres and Pens during the intermissions of the Kings game tonight! They're all gonna win, right? Please, Sabres? I don't know what's in the kool-aid you drink before Senators games, but they're not freaky zombie people, out to eat your brains and such. Especially now that Heatley's gone. Please win? Thanks.
  

• ETA: The Kings game is at 4:00. Good thing I looked at the schedule again!
  

I Can't Wait for All the Posts That Will Be a Play on the Phrase "Shark Bite"

by Anne

Win or lose, I fully anticipate everyone to use a title for their posts that involves playing on the phrase "shark bite"

It brings me great joy to welcome another WCB to HSBC Arena tonight.

I don't pay enough attention to this boy because his team gets plenty of play in the media, but I shall love him up right now:

PICKLES!

We all know how sicknasty the San Jose Sharks are. They're destroying competition left and right. Firing Ron Wilson and hiring former Red Wings assistant coach Todd McLellan, along with shoring up one of the top defenses in hockey has proved to be a recipe for success that everyone who follows the NHL even casually is well aware of.

Their top young defenseman, who averages 24:26 a night, and leads the team in that category, is 21 year old Marc-Edouard Vlasic. His +18 ranks third on the team. Like a certain other player who is hurt and I don't want to talk about it, Pickles has missed very few games since joining the NHL on a full time basis. He's played in 215 out of a possible 216 games over the last three seasons, including all contests this season, the only Sharks defenseman who can boast that claim. The one game he missed was in January 2007 because of an undisclosed "upper body injury." So mysterious, Pickles.

Last season wasn't great for Pickles, he was a -12 and finished the season with only 14 points (2+12). However, this season he's already notched 26 points (4+22) matching his career high in 2006-2007. The San Jose Sharks players have been doing that a lot, Patrick Marleau is only 7 goals away from tying his career high and already has eight more goals than he did in the entirety of last season.

Yay Pickles!
I hope you lose tonight
Sorry, love

I feel as though I'd be an insensitive jerk if I didn't mention Flight 3407. I hope that there's a moment of silence tonight at the Sabres game to honor the people who were killed and injured and those who lost their home last night. Its so easy to let these kinds of things slip into the back of our minds when they happen far away but it never seems so real as when its literally so close to home.

Sometimes Good Things Happen

by Anne

I got a call from my boss today at the arena telling me that I don't have to come in tonight! Woooooooooo! Its just because I'm the lowest ranked vendor and I made like $0.52 last night (figures estimated).

Whatevs, I don't care. After my bad night last night I really needed a pick me up. My BFF Adam and I have resolved to see all of the movies nominated for the Best Picture at this year's Academy Awards so we're going to see Milk tonight. We feel lame picking a winner having only seen one or two of the movies nominated. We've already seen Slumdog Millionaire and will probably see The Reader next, in spite of my irrational dislike of Ralph Fiennes. We're not sure when or where to see Frost/Nixon. Adam's friend's Dad votes as a member of the Academy so he gets the DVDs of all the nominated films and performances, so we're probably going to watch Frost/Nixon on his DVD because its not playing in Buffalo at the moment. We also might see The Wrestler, just to see what all the Mickey Rourke fuss is about.

Hockey: Sidney Crosby is not playing in the All-Star Game after getting a record setting 1.7 million votes in the ridiculous joke of a voting process. He has some concerns about lingering injuries to his knee and forearm and wants to take the time to rest. This is probably a good idea considering the poor situation the Pens find themselves in at the moment. Marty St. Louis will be taking his place on the roster. I'm not sure how I feel about the selection of St. Louis (17-29-46) over players like Phil Kessel (24-17-41) or Derek Roy (18-26-44) who have similar numbers on more successful teams, and Roy averages more ice time than either of the other two players. Whatevs, I just love Royzie. Also, who moves up to the starting line-up? The player who came in fourth in voting? I don't know who that is and I can't find the voting totals past the top three forwards.

Mirtle has released a list of the top defensive defensemen in the league up to this point in the season and WCBs M-E "Pickles" Vlasic (9) Nicklas Lidstrom (11) and Matthew Greene (20) have all made the cut. Woooooooooo! Normally I am all about flashy offense and captains and the like, but this season has gotten me appreciating defensive hockey more and more. I know I was SHOCKED that no Sabres defensemen made the cut.

Speaking of Sabres defensemen... we are royally effed. Trade? MATT GREENE? Let me live this pipe dream, people. But for serious, everyone is hurt. I'm suspicious that Craig Rivet may be playing with a wooden leg and Toni Lydman might actually be seriously concussed, but they can skate backwards, so they're still in. Just point Toni in the right direction and tell him to shoot and we'll be fine.

Danny Briere has "nerve entrapment" and will miss ANOTHER four weeks of the season. Poor Danny. I just tried to look up a little bit about nerve entrapment and it appears that obturator nerve entrapment is a cause of chronic groin pain in athletes and athletes with successful surgery often become symptom free after recovery. Apparently this is a fairly new development in the study of the causes of groin pain and groin injuries which could spell good things for players with chronic injuries. Oh Hasek, if only... if only...

Martin Gerber was put on waivers. That sound you hear is every hockey fan rolling their eyes as the Senators goaltending woes soldier on, this time with Alex Auld and newcomer Brian Elliot. The Senators sound more and more like the LA Kings with each passing day.

While working on our All-Star Roster post (almost finished, I SWEAR) I discovered something.

When did David Backes get so pretty?
Or
Why have I never noticed how pretty David Backes is?

WCB Weekend Update

by Anne


*sniff sniff* It's really brought a tear to my eyes all of my WCBs who took up the cause to give me happy things to talk about on Saturday night. Here they are in no particular order:

Chicago: Patrick Sharp (12+8)

Sharpie scored 2 goals Saturday night! One a nice tip-in of a rebound and the other a straight skate in and shoot. He gave the Blackhawks their first two goals in an attempt to climb back from a 3-0 deficit. They went on to beat the Leafs 5-4 in OT. Yay!!!

Columbus: Rick Nash (10+9)

Nasher got his 10th of the season in a 2-0 victory over the Atlanta Thrashers, giving Steve Mason his first NHL shut out. The Thrashers didn't make him work very hard, they only offered him 15 shots to stop. Yay! This extends Nasher's 5 game goal streak. Yayyy!!!

rawr

Minnesota: Owen Nolan (1+5)

Nothing in the write up or box score indicates why, but ONo was named 3rd star of the night in the Wild's 2-1 loss to the St. Louis Blues. But, who cares! Yay!!! ONo!!!

Anaheim: Ryan Getzlaf (8+18)

Saturday night Getzy scored in the shoot out and talked himself all smart and the like when he talked about how well he can read Marty Turco. Muahahaha. On the other side of that game, Brendan Morrow's season is over :( His necessary surgery will require several months of recovery time. :( HOWEVER! Marty Turco got an assist and I friggin' love when goalies get points, hahahaha.

Detroit: Nick Lidstrom

Ok, so this isn't exactly about Nick Lidstrom. Its about my former Red Wings WCB, Brett Leda.
Brett heard all the mean things I said about him being terrible so he scored a goal and was named first star of the night! Wooo! Toooo bad he's not my WCB anymore. Look, one goal does not reclaim my love so easily.

LA Kings: Matt Greene (0+2)

Greener was a +2 as the Kings fell to the Avs 4-3 in OT. Once again, Greener failed to put one home. I HAVE NOT GIVEN UP HOPE, MATTHEW! THERE'S STILL LIKE 63 GAMES LEFT! YOU CAN DO IT!

San Jose: Marc-Edouard Vlasic

PICKLES SCORED A GOAL!!!!! Yay!!! And he had an assist!! Hooray! I hope he had all those adorable rosy cheeks I've heard so much about!! Weeeee! I love when defensemen score!

Moving on:

Vancouver and Chicago had better watch their backs in this "Favorite Western team 08-09 race" I just discovered this on the Calgary Flames website and things are looking up for my 07-08 team to really get back in the mix here.

The Flames participated in a charity wheelchair hockey event and got their butts kicked 11-6. Hahaha.

I bet Iggy wishes he could use that purple stick ALL the time.


I might be in love with Mike Cammalleri

Friday Night

by Anne

So I'm pretty much the coolest person you all have ever met... or not met but read a blog she writes... anyway, I opted to stay home and catch up on some reading... in between watching hockey games and harassing my cat.

WCB Watch:

Rangers at Blue Jackets

Soooo the Rangers won and Nasher had 0 pts, -2, 2 shots and 4 PIM. Yyyyyeah...

Rangers head coach, Tom Renney, was hit in the head by a stick when some players were mixing it up by the benches during the second. He went to the dressing room and did not return, but apparently did not leave the Arena. Yikes. I hope he's ok.

Nasher and Staal do a little bump and grind

Thrashers at Red Wings

Red Wings won 5-3. Brett appeared in the recap!... because he turned over the puck that basically gave the Thrashers their first goal. whoops.

Its ok, Bretters.

Ducks at Sens

Getzy netted his first goal of the season!!! The (eventual) game winner!! Word of my selection must've finally reached him in St. Louis!!! He was out with a "dental issue"? Root canal? Cavity? Whatever, he's back and he scored!! He had 4 shots, 3 hits and a 69% faceoff win. Woo!

The Ducks had a tidy little 4-0 lead heading into the 3rd until Jason Spezza probably screamed the word "shut out" in Jonas Hiller's face causing the team to have an almost total defensive collapse. They managed to hang on and beat those stupid old Senators 4-3. WOO!

Feel the love.

Sharks at Panthers

Sharks lost. :(

THEY LOST EVEN THOUGH THEY HAD 50 SHOTS ON GOAL. 50. AND THEY LOST. Over all, Pickles had 1 point (0+1), -3, but lead the team in ice time again with 24:34, and had 3 blocked shots.

The man who would've been my 'Yotes WCB before he was traded on draft day, Keith Ballard, had three assists! I mean, boooooooo.

Its ok, babes, you can't win 'em all

Fun fact about this game: the only Sharks without a shot on goal were Jeremy Roenick and Jody Shelley.

Kings at Blues

Kings won! 4-0! Yay!

Greener fought Barrett Jackman (one of 4 fights of the night), and he and the rest of the defense limited the Blues to just 15 shots. Yay Greener!! He was +1 and had 2 blocked shots! woo!

JKee was -2 with 1 shot and 4 blocked shots. The rest of his team should've, ya know, scored some goals. Well, its not their fault that the Palin-curse has now been shifted from the Flyers (who won tonight, ironically) to the Blues. Whoops.

Drew Doughty was +3 and the Kings STILL have a perfect PK.

Grrrr, take THAT, Simmonds

I know he's not a WCB and I'm supposed to hate him, but Danny Briere is out for 3-4 weeks with a torn abdominal muscle. All together now:

"Ouch"

He's having surgery to repair the injury tomorrow morning. :( Surgery apparently fixes everything that ails you in the NHL. Sinus infection? Nosebleed? Broken nail? Surgery.

Next week on the Sabres Show they're profiling Danny Paille!! I loves me some Danny Paille. I sponsor his Hockey-Reference.com page, after all!! I'm excited to learn more about my beloved Pie.

Speaking of learning more about our beloved players, here's a recent interview with Gerbe-Derby where no one seems to want to acknowledge that while he SHOULD have won the Hobey Baker, he was, in fact, a runner-up. Meh, he's awesome regardless:

The Pirates unveiled the pink jerseys they will wear Saturday night to support breast cancer awareness:

DOOOOOOOOOOF!


I really like the nod to the parent club with the "P" being stabbed by a Sabre, like our secondary stabbed "B" logo
Good job, Pirates.

Friday night, the Pirates beat the Sound Tigers in a last minute 4-3 regulation victory. Gerbe scored a goal and Tim Kennedy has hit game #5 of his point streak. Yay!!!

Tomorrow all 30 teams play! That should be exciting and will mean my WCB Watch will be seriously abridged because there isn't enough time to talk about all 15, I'll just hit the highest highs and the lowest lows.

I hope Millsy and JM Liles have hung out and done lots BFF-y things for the last couple of days! And I really hope Liles has given Millsy plenty of ribbing about his new role as "clutch goal scorer for the Minnesota Wild".

Woo!

What a Weird Wednesday

by Anne

Wednesday was full of ups and downs... actually mostly downs.

• Cap'n Craigory is hurt and OUT for a few weeks :(... this story made me legitimately sad, maybe its just because I have all this hockey sadness to unleash but we haven't suffered a 3rd period giving up a 2 goal leadcollapse yet, so it had to go somewhere :'(
• There was no Sabres game :(
• There was no Project Runway

The nightly WCB report:

Chicago v. Edmonton

Chicago wins it 3-0. Sharpie scored the first goal which is therefore, technically, the game winner! He had a 2 point night (1+1),was a +1 for the evening and was picked as #2 star after Nikolai "Anybody wanna goaltender? No? Really? Ugh, fine we'll keep him" Khabibulin. Yay!!!

Sharpie!! Write Out Loud!!!

San Jose v. Philadelphia

WHOA. Periodically throughout the night I was checking on scores. When it was 4-3 after the first, I knew this game was not going to be a clinic in solid defensive hockey.

Pickles had 1 pt on a PPG (0+1), finished -1, but lead the team in ice time with 27:50. Woooo!!!!

This was the best Getty Images had to offer from the game
Where's the Sharks' French Canadian Pimp's adorable face?
Stop smushing it, Scott Hartnell!

Detroit v. St. Louis

Errr my WCBs for these teams were mostly quiet.

Brett Lebda had 0pts, even +/-, 1 missed shot, 1 giveaway and 2 PIM.

Skate for the puck, Brett!!!!

Jay McKee had 0pts, +1, 1 hit and 1 blocked shot. Woooooo. Thus the trials and tribulations of loving defensemen.

This picture is technically from the game on the 18th, but its still
AWESOME CUZ ITS JAY MCKEE

I'm not surprised that New Jersey got a shut out, but I am surprised they scored 5 goals, that's kind of unlike them.

Apparently all that talk of "regrouping" and "fixing problems" and "trying to win games" from the Senators camp hasn't really done much because they lost 3-1 to the FLORIDA PANTHERS. Remember when the Senators used to be all tough and scary and "AHHHH THEY'RE GOING TO EAT US!!"? They might still beat us, but they seem about a kabillion times less scary this season.

With the exception of the "Kahlua Line" in Atlanta (which is pretty awesome, a line of Little-White-Kovalchuk) can we PLEASE stop naming lines? Unless its universally AWESOME like that one, lets just stop. I actually tried to sit down and name one of our lines, completely unsuccessfully. Like, the Pizza Line? Really? Alfredsson-Spezza-Heatley, because they always deliver? LAME. You know what else gets delivered? Mail, the newspaper, and babies. And the "mail must go through" boys, it's a way more effective slogan than "at your door in 30 minutes or less or it's free".

I have to run out and buy a book between classes. Ugh. Not fun.

Friday Foolishness

by Anne

The Canucks beat the Red Wings in OT last night. Will they have more jump tonight or will they be tired because of the longer game and the travel? What?!? They only had 27 seconds of OT? Oh... weeeeellll let's hope they've used up all their good hockey juju for the end of the week on Detroit. BIG BEAR?!!!?!! Even TAYLOR PYATT showed up for that game. Cllllllearly they were worried more about the Red Wings, PERCHANCE THEY'LL UNDERESTIMATE US??! GRRRrrrr....?

I keep forgetting to mention: last weekend I had a dream that Craig Rivet was trying to kill me. WHAT DID I DO, ROSIE?

WCB quest continues:

San Jose Sharks:

After my HEARTBREAK over learning that Torrey Mitchell is a big mean person, I've been forced to re-examine my selection process. Apparently just having a blog doesn't make you worthy of my love?!?!?! WHAT?!?! After much time has been taken to process this, I have accepted it as true, and have MOVED ON.

Soph, who is totally frikkin amazing sent me a link to an entire album of Sharks photos to aid me in my quest because she and Jess basically rock. To entice me, she tossed in several pictures of the most recent addition to my favorite Sabres list, one Mr. Anthony Craig Rivet.

Finding a Sharks boyfriend was hard because: 1. No more Big Bear 2. We stole Craigory andd I fell in love with him a little bit during the playoffs when I discovered the joy that is Shark Byte 3. Kyle McLaren, confused about the rules, has moved to Massachusetts, thinking it'll help his case by being geographically closer to me. He was wrong :(

ANYWAY. I went back and forth on this player. But in the end, I decided that my squeals of delight over his adorableness was enough to push me into his arms...

Marc-Edouard "Pickles" Vlasic
I mean, COME ON?!?!
LOOK AT THAT PICTURE.


HAWT.


heeeeeeeeee


Ok, he kind of LOOKS LIKE his nickname would be Pickles.

He apparently loves Friends and Girl Scout cookies, HOW COULD I CHOOSE ANYONE ELSE? He can have the Thin Mints and the Samoas, I'll take the Tagalongs and the shortbread ones. He gets rosy cheeks during games and

A French Canadian hockey player with a gold man necklace and a blonde white man fro.......

weeeeeee!

I'm still on the prowl for MEN from the following teams:

Anaheim Ducks
Dallas Stars
Nashville Predators
Phoenix Coyotes - they got rid of Keith Ballard and got Olli Jokinen (What a sexiness DOWNGRADE)

My search continues!!