It's Almost HERE!

by Anne

Players are reporting for fitness testing and physicals and happy fun times because it's TRAINING CAMP! Which means it's almost pre-season which means it's almost October which means it's almost the regular season!!

Wooo!

I had planned to go to Puck Drop at HSBC Arena tomorrow but a friend of mine just moved back home from grad school at Penn State and we're doing breakfast on Saturday morning. I suppose that takes precedence over the Sabres... or at least that's what I'm telling myself. I'm sure I'll see tons of pictures and read tons of tweets from the day so I'll feel like I'm there while I eat some delicious breakfast. :D

Adam Mair has gone the way of our previous most recently departed tough guy. Yes, he's following in Petey's footsteps and going on a PTO with the New Jersey Devils. Farewell, Mairsy, farewell.

Everyone please call or text my Mom and remind her that I still need to be in possession of the tickets to the Kings game on November 19 or I may hyperventilate. Just a possibility. Not a guarantee, but a definite possibility. You don't want that on your collective conscience, DO YOU?

Now that hockey is really back (!!!) I'll have more motivation and inspiration for blogging which makes me happy.

If you aren't already, join in on the Twitter fun, click up on the left and give me a follow. Hilarity is sure to ensue.

LET'S GO BUFF-A-LO!

I just love being hacked (wait that sounds wrong)

by Anne

My beloved anniebeeswax@gmail.com account I created when I created this blog was hacked today. It's exceptionally annoying because I use this email account for the most random things. All of the weirdos that have emailed me over the years got a spam email from me today. Serves them right. I get at least one email a week from someone who supposedly saw my blog and thinks it's a great example of something or other and they want me to team up and market with them. Yeah, sure. My goofy little Sabres blog is just the thing your company needs to send you into the stratosphere.

Any whoozle. I bought a sweet new camera and I'm beyond pumped to take it to Puck Drop this weekend. I can't stay too long because I have an appointment at 2:30, but I'm excited to try it out there. It's a Nikon Coolpix L110. The only drawback is that it runs on AA batteries. Lame. If you follow me on Twitter, expect to see multiple artistic shots of things around my house including, but not limited to, my cat, my dog, my Mom, my Dad, this sweet blanket on my bed, my piggy bank (it's awesome, don't hate) and general furniture and what not. It's sure to wonder and amaze.

PUCK DROP IS SATURDAY! WOOOOOO!!!!! THE BOYS ARE BACK IN TOWN!! :D :D :D

ETA: Just when I was all "oh snap I don't have batteries," I opened up the box and Nikon provided me with some lithium batteries. A+, Nikon, A+++.

Back to Schoooool

by Anne

Do you think hockey players get excited for the first day of training camp like kids get excited for the first day of school?

Do you think they pick out their outfits the night before? Day before? I'm sure Royzie has been STRESSING about his outfit planning for weeks. Y'all know he's planning his outfits for the next at LEAST three months to avoid the dreaded repeat wearing of a killer outfit.

Does Lindy send out a supply list? Maybe it's Rip's job to make sure everyone has the right skate guards and maybe everyone has to bring a roll of tape like kids have to bring a box of tissues so there's enough to last the whole season.

Locker assignment must be SO STRESSFUL at the beginning. Upperclassmen totes get first dibs. Do you think Miller and Lalime ever get sick of only sitting next to each other? There really aren't many options for them as far as locker assignment goes. It's either this one or that one. Lindy spends hours planning out their locker assignments. He fits it in while he's picking his line combinations. That way he doesn't have to get his darts back out later.

The campaigning for Player Council must be interesting. Will Pommer still stand by his "Hugs for All" platform that cost him so dearly last season? Patrick Kaleta's smear campaign really hit home for Pommer when it was discovered that Pommer didn't specify if it was to be "Bro-Hugs" or Full-on embraces. His campaign was never able to clarify to a level that satisfied his would-be constituents. Steve Montador, aided by his campaign manager, Tim Connolly won with an "undisclosed benefits" platform. Will Monty reign supreme again this year? The race has always favored newcomers, hell, Craig Rivet made it all the way to team Captain in a surprise election result, and Shaonaynaye's connections in DC may work in his favor.

Goose will be collecting everyone's "What I Did on my Summer Vacation" essays and will read the best aloud to the class. I'm sure everyone hopes to avoid last year's disaster caused by the dioramma submitted by Thomas Vanek. This year the criteria was circulated WEEKS in advance to avoid the crippling blow to Vanek's psyche he endured all last season as a result of the "incomplete" Mike Grier was forced to give him on his submission.

Yearbook day, top 5 in best days of the hockey year, will surely be a treat for all.

The slate is clean, and the hope for success is high, just so long as Staffy doesn't miss the bus and has to walk...again.

Try to Remember the kind of September

by Anne

It's SEPTEMBER! Which means it's almost training camp, which means it's almost pre-season, which means it's almost fantasy draft time, which means it's almost the regular season! Woooo!! The August blahs are over, Ilya Kovalchuk might actually have a contract, Tim Kennedy is a Ranger, Grizzball is a Maple Leaf, Paul Bissonnette is back on Twitter, and Shaone Morrisonn has officially been nick named Shaonayaye.

Life is good.

Where is hockey? I left it RIGHT. HERE. Who moved it?

by Anne

Seriously.

Tickets to the Sabres' first ten home games are available as of Saturday 8/21. This is merely a tease because hockey is still SO. FAR. AWAY.

I wonder if Kovalchuk will have a contract by then.

Carry on.

Perhaps an Answer to a Question We've Been Asking

by Anne

Thomas Vanek with a sun-kissed glow

I don't know about the rest of y'all, but I've always wondered what changed for Thomas Vanek after the All-Star Break that turned him into our very own goal-scoring machine.

If you don't know about it, Vanek has a personal website because he's a huge BFD in Austria and Buffalo.

Check it out.

Anyway, in his latest interview with the website, TV answered the above question for us, and it seems like it was what wasn't happening after the All-Star Break that turned things around.

You really got on fire after the All-Star-Break. Didn’t you care about your multi-million-dollar contract anymore?
Thomas: I never really cared. That’s what I said all season long. I had a discussion with coach Lindy Ruff after approximately 50 games and that was the real turning point. I wasn’t punished for every mistake or bad shift after that.

How did the discussion go down like?
Thomas: I wanted to talk to Lindy, so we sat down and talked. I told him my point of view and obviously he accepted it. It’s very important for any player to have the full confidence of your coach.

So, apparently he told Lindy that what he thought he needed was for him to lay off on getting on his case every time something went wrong. Well, it must've worked. Even though he still had some bad games, the lack of outside criticism helped. We all hear hockey players talk about how a lot of them are their own harshest critics (Miller comes to mind). And in Miller's case, Lindy has gone on record to say that he doesn't harp on his mistakes because 1. He doesn't fully understand how to coach the position and 2. Miller is hard enough on himself. Therefore, it seems that, like Miller, Vanek doesn't need any one else telling him he isn't playing well enough, he knows it all on his own. Awwww, Britney was just going through some growing pains. He'll be a-ok next season. Wooooo!!

I'm making some spaghetti squash in my quest to eat healthier... let's see how this works out.


Also: Miller has started updating his blog on his official site (Link to his site under the blogroll on the left).

Damn it Feels Good to be a Gangsta

by Anne

Ok, by no one's definition am I a gangsta. Not even a gangsta's friend, I'm not even someone a gangsta would put a hit out on. I'm just not righteous enough.

Moms and I saw Mamma Mia last night and I actually enjoyed it. It was surprisingly more emotional than I anticipated. I was expecting ridiculous fluff, but Meryl was in it, so how could it be anything but sweet? There was a stretch in the middle where they could've done without one of the 8 songs they had in a row, but it was fine.

I keep forgetting to mention that I've seen that dude that hosts "Power Play" like 3 times in the last couple of weeks. Well it's either him or his doppelganger. Just FYI he's more attractive in person, like he's got like a really great body which you can't really tell on the show. However, he has this perma-expression of disgust on his face, like something around him smells bad. If that's just the way his face is then, whoops! Sorry dude whose name I don't feel like looking up!

I feel as per usual, I should acknowledge that we've signed a new player, yet there's been so little fanfare and he's signed a 2way contract, so I don't feel as jazzed. However, seeing as how I have no new "Tim Connolly: The Guy You Can't Take Home to Mom, But Mom Might Take Him Home To You" stories, I suppose this will have to do.

Welcome Aboard, Mathieu Darche!

• Born November 26, 1976 in St. Laurent, QC
• He was not drafted
• He plays LW
• He's 6'1", 210 lbs
• He signed with the Blue Jackets in 2000
• Has played for Columbus, San Jose and Nashville, most of the time with their AHL affiliates
• He's spent most of his career in the AHL, last season he appeared in a career high 73 NHL games - before that the most he had played in one season was 14
• In 2005-2006 he played in Germany
  
• Last season he had a career high 22 points (7+15) while playing for Tampa, which made him like their 5th highest scorer, ha. No, but he was 9th, in all seriousness. Our 9th was Pie-YAY and he had 35
• We signed him to a 1 year 2-way deal which means he'll probably spend most of his time in Portland, but they do need a big brother there, so Gerbe can have someone to hide behind when he's hurling insults at those pesky Hershey Bears, we really don't have much grit down in Portland at the moment, especially if Kaleta and Weber make the move to the big time
  
• His brother plays for the Kansas City Chiefs, he's a long snapper
  
• He's not even slutty so I can be pacified if we lose Timmy. His GF forum says that 1. He's a good guy 2. He's married and 3. He's "amazing" That is NOT what I was hoping for
• HE PICKED US OVER SIGNING WITH OTTAWA. I SUDDENLY LOVE HIM. GOOD BOY, MATHIEU!
• He has a degree in Commerce... what exactly does that mean?
• He was only the 154th player out of the Candian University Hockey system to be signed to the pros
• He had 125 hits last year, around 15 minutes of ice time per game and played on Tampa's PK, which was ranked 18th (ours was 11th, FYI)
  
• He was -14, but for Tampa, that's good. Dan Boyle was -29, Vinny was -17
  
• After the deadline he played the enforcer role sometimes on a line with Vinny Lecavalier
• Umm, that's about all I can find out about him.
• He's a Sabre now so he's way cooler than every other player on any team... except Iggy
• He would've been able to shower with Ryan Malone this season had TB re-signed him. Ouch. That one's gotta sting. I hope he'll be able to come to terms with that.
  

BTW, we need some players who are better at winning face-offs because we ranked 25th in the league in Face Off Win % with only 48.6%. That's BAD..... although Pittsburgh came in dead last, and Detroit came in #1. Interesting.

Mathieu is ready for training camp to start


From when he played in Germany
Maybe he and Yo-yo can swap stories about romps through the German countryside?

Have a good Saturday everyone!