After all the speculation and jokes...

by Anne

The NHL has a schedule ready just in case they are forced to move the Coyotes from Phoenix. They'd be re-located to the 'Peg and be the Jets again. They'd be in the Northwest Dvision and the Avs would move to the Pacific.

Crazy, crazy times. I'm not sure what the likelihood of this happening is, but isn't it crazy? Read about it more here.

Also, all day on Twitter I've been asking people for their top 3-5 favorite NHL players, tell me yours!  I just like knowing these things. I may post about it later.

8-0-FUN

by Anne

I really like playing the Western conference.

I don't like that Ilya Bryzgalov is one of the Sunny Hedgehog Enchaters' goalies though.

However,  Jason Pominville is a Sunny Hedgehog Enchanter and he tallied two goals and an assist and was a +3! Wheeee!

Vanek and Hecht each had a goal and a pair of assists. Myers, Butler(FINALLY), and Kaleta all scored.

I take full credit for all of Pat Kaleta's goals. The reasons are long and complicated but trust me, you have me to thank.

Tired of scoring goals, Tim Connolly creates a new game:

"10 points for hitting a ref, 20 for hitting Tippett and 30 for hitting this camera over here. No drawing of blood or you lose points, got it?"

How in a game in which your team scores seven (7) even strength goals, did Paul Gaustad and Mike Grier end up a -1? Goose was only 53% in the faceoff dot. WHAT'S WRONG WITH HIM? jk jk

Thank goodness he finally scored a goal.

Woooo Sir Christopher!

Finally, the picture of the night:

This ref does NOT want to hear what Patty has to say to Vernon Fiddler.

Maybe to make fun of him because his name is Vernon Fiddler.

Next up, Anaheim! Oh yeah, and now we're in FIRST, baby! Woooooo!!!

The Kings are doing better than the Bolts

by Anne

I started to work on a post comparing how the two worst teams of two seasons ago are faring these days, but that turned out to be a lot of work. Basically all you need to know is the Tampa Bay Lightning are not re-building well at the Los Angeles Kings are.

We all remember the freakshow that was the free agent signing craze that went down in Tampa Bay in 2008, and look how well THAT turned out for them. Hey, it got them Victor Hedman.

Whatevs. The Kings went to Phoenix with their Papas last night and walked away with a 5-3 win.

Anze Kopitar scored first but Shane Doan managed to sneak the puck in behind Jonathan Quick with only 0.4 seconds left in the first. Ugh, that one stung. Quickie had no chance on that one. The Coyotes scored the next two goals of the game and the Kings trailed 3-1. Ryan Smyth scored in the second, Justin Williams scored early in the 3rd and Drew Doughty scored with five minutes left in the game to make in 4-3. Ryan Smyth added the insurance empty-netter in the final minute of play.

I love these two

When did I start loving defensemen?

Well, it started last season, but it's become even more ridiculous this season

Dewey and Drewey

The other big positive that came out of last night's game? Kopi's three points moved him back into the scoring lead. With Ovi out week-to-week, Kopi should (hopefully) be able to put some space in between the two of them. You know when Ovi comes back, he'll be on a tear.

Wooooo!

Tonight the Canucks play the Rangers at home and the Pens play in Anaheim. On Thursday the Pens head to Los Angeles and Rob Scuderi gets to face his former team! Woo!

We Ordered the "Warm" Weather for the Coyotes

by Anne

My first class was canceled and now that I've recovered from the trade deadline, I'm gearing up for tonight's game and this "heat wave." Its 54 degrees here which to Buffalonians in March is really like 70. Wooooo!!

The Coyotes are in town tonight and -lookie there- we've already played them once this season and we won 2-0. Yay!

Oddly enough, one of the only two trades we made on deadline day was with the Coyotes for back up goalie Mikael Tellqvist who will continue to watch from the bench. Lalime will get the start coming off a great performance the other night. Its been said many times that consistent playing time is the best way for a goalie to put up wins so Lalime definitely should get the start tonight. Lindy likes to put in goalies against their former teams so sorry Telly, even though we're playing your former team of 2 days ago, gotta use the hot goalie.

I'm eagerly anticipating where Moore will fit into this line up. Lindy said he might bump Royzie to the wing which sounds like a fine idea to me. If Moore continues to dominate the faceoff dot as he has thusfar this season, I'm ok with that. We're only winning faceoffs at just over 47% of the time on the season. Can't wait to read the practice notes.

I'll be quite unhappy if this stuff with Moore's visa isn't worked out yet.

Those FREAKIN' Los Angeles Kings WON last night. I was so annoyed at them. They were down 3-0 in the 2nd, I did some homework, came back and it was 3-2. Then it was 4-2 until over halfway through the 3rd so I went to bed. Imagine my shock when I discovered this morning that Michal Handzus had completed the hat trick he started in the 6-goal 2nd period by scoring the Kings' 3rd goal and then the winner in over time.

If they had lost last night I basically would've put a nail in the coffin of their playoff hopes. Their chances are still pretty slim but they're not 100% out of it yet, just mostly out of it. They'll more than likely be at the golf course when the playoffs start in April.

To recap Michal Handzus' night:

He went from this.

To this:



and this:


Woo! First star!

Also I want to be friends with whoever writes the headlines for the top stories on LAKings.com. Here's a screen capture of the headline about last night's win over Dallas:

Quoi?
I'm Ron Burgundy?

Oh and to those who blew a gasket over Tellqvist wearing #32. Calm the -bleep- down. Yes #32 was Rayzor's number and its been sentimentally retired in the hearts of fans. However, it does not hang from the rafters at HSBC Arena so Telly can use it if he wants. However the rumblings that I heard about Moore possibly wearing 23... that's a different story. Too soon? He'll be wearing 17.

I peeked in on the Oilers game to see how Big Czech Al was doing and it wasn't so hot to start things off. He was on the TOP line that was on the ice when Jason Spezza set a Senators record of fastest goal to start a game at :12. Al finished the game a -2 with two shots on goal, just over 18:00 of ice time and two hits. Al Kotalik on the top line? Ehhhhh... I'm not so sure about that, Craig MacTavish. But that's why the fans have been calling for Coach MacT to be fired this season.

Hey Al!

I love 7:30 start times on Fridays because I get to avoid most of the traffic when I head downtown. Good stuff. Have a great Friday everyone!

Winning out West!

by Anne

Other people have said it, and I've said it as well, but I really have enjoyed watching the other teams' broadcasts. They offer a new perspective on the team, and unlike the ass hats on Versus, they are allowed to be biased towards the other team. It was nice to be treated to a brief Kevin Sylvester pre-game interview though.

That being said: "WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!"

Shut out! Timmy! Pie!

We're all going to be talking about it for a while I'm sure, but my GOD Derek Roy, who ARE you? I so enjoy the "Royzie has the puck, its ok" feeling. That pass for Pie's goal was amazing. It was reminiscent of the falling down, stick behind the head goal Ovie scored in Phoenix. If you don't know what goal I'm talking about you need to turn in your credentials as a hockey fan post haste. Even though Danny got the goal, that was all effort by Royzie. However, Pie easily could've had the puck jump over his stick, or have been off stride and it would've been all for naught. Regardless, as far a the Sabres are concerned, definitely play of the season for Derek Roy. thusfar. Woooooooooo!

Please do yourselves a favor and click to enlarge this picture and check out Adam Mair

Jaro can you hear me? Is he hurt? Badly? Anyone know?! :( Weber is healthy! :)

What the heck was with the officials stepping in and breaking up that fight between Carcillo and Paetsch before it even started? That was lame, at least Paetsch got to redeem himself later in the game against another opponent.

There were four shut outs out of twelve games tonight. Ouch. Getting shut out is the worst. Its so disheartening. You can't even score ONE goal on this team? Wow. Atlanta, Philly and the Rangers were the other teams shut out tonight. Philly should be the most embarrassed, they lost 4-0 to St. Louis with Chris Mason in net.

Pittsburgh and Florida lost tonight and Carolina won, but our victory keeps us two points ahead of Carolina and four back of 6th place. Hooray!

Elsewhere:

Luke Schenn just keeps getting better. Tomas Kaberle is going to be out with a hand injury, so Luke's going to be one of the many defensemen that will be seeing more ice time. With greater ice time comes greater responsibility, and tonight was a great game for him. I only watched a little bit of that game before turning over to the Sabres game, so I got to see him lay out a huge hit on Malkin and then fight Tyler Kennedy.

Here's what went down: Malkin gets the puck, Schenn scoots over to him, and hits him along the Pens bench, Malkin is fine, gets up, stays in the play, passes to Orpik who takes a shot on net, Toskala gloves it, play stops. Whatevs, everything's fine. During the stoppage, Tyler Kennedy who was on the bench when Malkin was hit, goes up to Schenn and an altercation happens, Max Talbot tries to keep Schenn back, but no dice, they fight, Schenner beats the crap out of the much smaller Tyler Kennedy.

Tyler, don't pick a fight with a rookie just because he's a rookie and you don't like that he was "tugging on Superman's cape", to quote the HNiC announcers. He's 6'2" 216 lbs, you are 5'11 183 lbs. Bad idea. Love, Anne.

I missed Schenn's sweeeeeeeeeet moves to set up Matt Stajan for his goal at the beginning of the third. He got the puck at the blue line and stick handled his way to behind the net and Matt Stajan scored on the rebound when Schenn tried to stuff the puck in. Schenn's pretty much a stay at home defenseman so this was far more of an offensive move than people are used to from him. So, yay!

Together, we will score a goal tonight


I AM LUKE SCHENN, HEAR ME ROAR
what a badass
haha


Oh Lord
Someone tell Grapes he doesn't have a microphone

After five of the six games of this road trip, the Sabres are 3-2-0. They have already RUINED my prediction, but ruined it in a great way. I don't know how things will shake down on Monday, seeing as I gave up on following the Ducks closely over a year ago.

Super Bowl tomorrow! Screw you all who are probably cheering for Arizona because they're the feel-good story of the millennium. I'm sure if the Steelers weren't in the Super Bowl I'd be cheering for them too. BUT, Big Ben and Troy Polamalu ARE in the Super Bowl so I cannot cheer for Kurt "Jesus is my Homeboy" Warner. Let's Go Steelers!

I Appreciate This Very Much, NHL

by Anne

Whoever made the NHL schedule this year is clearly a secret admirer of mine, because between Sabres games this week I've gotten to watch 2 exciting Pens games with nail-biting finishes.

Last night the Pens started out 3-0 at home over the Flyers. Wooooo! Things are lookin' good. WOO! Then came the 2nd period.... Simon Gagne scored 2 shorthanded goals in 5 minutes. Uhhhhhhh... all of a sudden the score was 4-3 Flyers. Then, who came through in the waning moments of regulation??

Work the bar stool Sid, work it.

Sid scored his 2nd of the night, and tied it up with 2 1/2 minutes to go. The shootout went to the 6th round before Alex Goligoski scored the only goal and Pittsburgh won it 5-4. WOOOOO!!!

Good times were had by all.... except the Philadelphia Flyers... and Danny Briere who's suffering from a pulled groin :(

Around the NHL:

I wonder if anyone in Hockeytown USA was panicking when the Wings were losing 2-0 to the TAMPA BAY LIGHTNING. The Red Wings did come back to win it with three goals in the third, but, still, dropping the first 2 to Tampa Bay? Uhhhh, not good, Cap'n Lids, not good.

If Henrik Tallinder can score a goal and shake what his mama gave him, WHY CAN'T MATT GREENE? Nevermind the fact that Greener might be the only player in the NHL that averages more than 15:00 a game that scores less frequently than Tallinder. HOWEVER. I declare that Matthew Xavier Greene will score 2 goals this season. YES, YOU HEARD ME 2. TWO WHOLE GOALS FOR GREENER. WATCH. IT'LL HAPPEN. I like to set lofty goals for the players I enjoy.

Matt: Anne thinks I can score 2 goals!
Erik and Wayne: Ok, whatever, buddy, I heard she drinks heavily but WOOO! Anyway!

Oilers WCB, Captain Ethan Moreau scored a goal in a loss to the Toronto Maple Leafs, giving him 5 for the season thus far. Considering he only scored 6 goals over the last 2 seasons, things are looking up. Ok, ok, I should point out that between 06-07 and 07-08 he only actually played in 32 games because of injury but WHATEV. He's already more than doubled the number of games he played in 06-07.

Wild WCB Owen Nolan was activated off of IR and had several quality shots on goal in the Wild's 4-0 win over the Coyotes. Speaking of the Desert Pooches, they all managed to escape this one with even +/- because all 4 of Minnesota's goals were scored on the power play. Lucky break? Of course not, that just means they'll be doing nothing but PK drills tomorrow in what's sure to be a lengthy and terrible practice.

Speaking of the Coyotes, I know they're pretty bad and all, but they do have 2 things going for them:

1. I was going to post a picture of a recently discovered attractive player until I looked up how to spell his first name and realized that the only reason his name sounded familiar was because he was the Coyotes first round draft pick this year, thereby making him 18 years old. I'm a creeper... moving on.

2. They have the best and most ridiculous TV commercial sidekick ever: Pierre the Hockey Fanatic Snowman. A snowman with a black eye, missing teeth and a mullet... in Phoenix. Genius.

The Sharks jumped out to a huuuuge early lead on Calgary scoring 4 unanswered goals in the first period. Four Sharks had 2 points in the first alone and it only took about 1:00 into the 2nd to make it 5-0. The final tally was 6-1. Hey! At least they weren't shut out!

Ah yes, the Sabres:

I'm not sure why people keep talking about him, but apparently this "Tim Connolly" figure will be out of the line-up tonight against the Blue Jackets. Who? Tim? Never heard of him. Also apparently sitting this one out? Maxim "But guys! I just became an American citizen!" Afinogenov. Fine. By. Me. He makes me angry. Very very angry. His penchant for turning over the puck, flying into the zone only to scoop around the net and blowing a scoring chance, splitting defensemen and then losing control of the puck all while registering nary a shot on goal cause more than one Sabres fan to grab their heads in disgust and disbelief. He needs to park it for a game, remember a time when he was at least moderately consistent.

Looks like it'll be:

Kotalik up with Vanek and Royzie again (I didn't think that line did much except for TV the other night, but Lindy's giving it another go)
Grizz will center Pommer and Yo-yo (I like the looks of this one)
Mairsy centering with Staffy and Pie (Mairsy is good with the younger players, and 2 recent scratches will probably need a boost... although Paille did have a great night on Wednesday)
Petey Goose and Patty... (I'm not crazy about this line on most nights, but there are a few guys in Columbus that like to get rough, so they'll be ready for them)

I'm assuming the "always defensive minded" tandems will stay together as they've been pretty solid to date.

Totally unrelated to anything:

I cannot STAND people who are always like "I loved this person/player/movie/song/fashion trend BEFORE ANY ONE ELSE BECAUSE I AM A VASTLY SUPERIOR HUMAN BEING". Are we supposed to be impressed that you were totally jonesin' for the whole lace up ankle boot style back in 2006? Carrie Bradshaw has nothing on you.

Speaking completely in a double-standard kind of way, it particularly annoys me when girls do it. ESPECIALLY when girls are all "I don't have girlfriends, I'm TOTALLY UNIQUE I WEAR BOYS SHOES WITH SKINNY JEANS BECAUSE THEY MAKE ME LOOK CUTE." My response is usually "uhh, ok?" Screaming about how unique and original you are doesn't make it so. Just live your life and let your life speak for itself. If you are your own person, that should be apparent to everyone, you don't need to punch us all in the face about it.

This rant is honestly not aimed at anyone, its just a recurring theme I've been seeing in a few people I've met recently at school. And PS, having a tattoo does NOT make you a rebel or original. I have a tattoo. If I have a tattoo, it means that people who are not cool are doing it. Drinking Jones soda, hating Sarah Palin and reading Chuck Palahniuk does not make you inventive and trendsetting. No one cares that you loved Metro Station before "Shake It" came out. No one. I bet Metro Station doesn't even care.

Just stop.

Love,
Anne

Look around and you will find...

By Anne

So. Now is the time in life when I look around the sports world to see what else it has to offer, as my favorite professional sports team of all time is not giving me the emotional support I need.

Two of my top 3 scored our goals, so I have that little comfort to keep me warm at night. That and my kitten.

I know! I'll just root for my #2 favorite hockey team! That's it! Look to the Pittsburgh Pengui- what do you mean Sid the Kid has a badly injured leg that's so swollen they can't even fully examine it and he has to have an MRI today?...Ok... don't panic. There's always MALKIN! You non-English speaking goal scorer Malkin! 2 goals and an assist last night!...in a shootout loss to the Caps. Ok, ok, Anne, don't panic. Football!

The Bills! Not in the playoffs. The Steelers! No. The Colts! No. Ok, so forget the AFC.

The Green Bay Pa- oh yeah, we covered that yesterday.

::taps fingers on the desk while thinking hard::

How are the Bandits playing these days?

So, John Tavares did break the NLL all-time scoring record!! 597 goals!! WOOHOOO!! Perhaps I shall become a huge lacrosse fan. It's like hockey only with more running and more goals scored. Sweet.

A Shoutout to Ovie for your 3 point (2+1) night, and for that shootout goal. I really love when you and Our Lord and Savior Sidney Crosby go head to head, but I suppose I'll have to wait for the next time to enjoy it. 2nd star, I say 1st!

Ovie, the only thing that keeps me from truly enjoying you is this:

BUT! Danny got back at you with this:

And that was in one of those games where the Caps were being slaughtered by the Sabres, so I suppose I can call it even.

I think the real reason I enjoy him is that Ovie beat out Sid the Kid for the Calder in 2006. Granted, the Kid won many awards the next year but THE NEXT ONE was beaten out by the new Alexander the Great (hats off to Alexander Mogilny) for the Rookie of the Year.

Sidenote, does anyone else think Gretzky is looking a little...um...pretty these days? He looks like he's hitting the Phoenix hair colorist's salons a little hard. And last night he was lookin' super tan. This picture is not from yeaterday's game.