Road Trip

by Anne

See you in a few hours, Pittsburgh!

If its before 2pm, can be found somewhere along this route.

Let's Go Pens!

Also, did the Bruins know about this when David Krejci signed his contract extension? I assume yes, but the timing is very odd.

Thievery

by Anne

Wooohoo! I'm thieving the internet from one of my grandpa's neighbors. Shhhhh! Don't tell.

To recap the weekend:

Friday night: drank lots of alcohol only to discover afterwards that I had a stomach virus as well. This is not a good combination and I highly recommend against it. I was really out of it ,really dizzy and said (out loud, very loudly while lying on the bathroom floor at 3:00 o'clock in the morning) that I blamed Scott Hartnell. I'm not saying that for a laugh, I literally blamed the Flyers for my illness. In my delerium it made perfect sense. Followed that with a strange dream involving hockey, engagement rings, a friend of my sister's from high school and my high school auditorium. I'm sure the dream made loads of sense.

Sabres lost, Kings lost, my bathroom and parents lost.

Saturday: Alternated sleeping with calling ralph on the big white phone (TMI, I'm sorry). Missed work for obvious reasons.

Sabres lost, Canucks lost, my wallet lost.

Sunday: Drove 6 1/2 hours to Pennsylvania. Heard a really macho looking tough guy with a WICKED high voice at Subway. Listened to my cousin sing "Love Story" by Taylor Swift about nine times alternated with "I Just Can't Wait to Be King" and declared about eight times that it was her favorite song. Visited my grandpa who recently had a stroke. He was doing well. Helped him program the speed dial on his cell phone and showed him how to play a CD and tape on his stereo.

Kings lost, the mileage on the car I was driving lost.

There were SEVEN Kings penalties including a 4 minute for high sticking.

All in all my THREE teams were 0-5-0. Not a single one of my top three teams earned a single point this weekend. Out of a possible ten points, three different teams could have shared, they got exactly zero. If the thought of drinking didn't make me want to keel over and die, I would be pouring myself a G&T right now.

This is baloney. When does baseball season start?! Screw hockey. Dammit. I just looked down and realized I'm wearing a Sabres shirt. Sonofab... I guess I can't hide my true colors.

Posting From 1997

by Anne

So my grandfather's computer beeps when I turn on and off Caps Lock. I tend to randomly type in caps FREQUENTLY so this is rather annoying.
Moving on.

I was able to "experience" the game by "watching" the live play by play box and checking it during dinner.

ROY-ZEEEEEEE!!! Apparently shacking back up with Vans has done him wonders. Last season he came back from a Lindy calling-out and picked up his game, so perhaps this demotion has done the trick. Nice to see Vanek getting an assist. His goal total is OBVIOUSLY there, so its nice to see him adding a few more to the "A" column and bumping up his total even further.

There is really nothing I love more during a game than when we score a short-handed goal and nothing I hate more than when a short-handed goal is scored on us. YOYOOOOO!!!

Basically my reaction to this game is:

OMFG WE WON AND OMFG WHAT A GREAT NIGHT TO BE GETTING SLOSHED IN DOWNTOWN BUFFALO! I'M GONNA GO PLAY WITH MY GRANDFATHER'S CAT AND WATCH THE DISNEY CHANNEL.

No, really its basically the same thing.

Go On Without Me, World

by Anne

Alas, I toil away in Pennsylvania. Babysitting the cousins, attending a memorial service, acting as chauffeur, all that good stuff.

My Buffalonian blood is not used to this kind of heat and humidity, I swear it hasn't been below 80 the entire time we've been here, day and night. God bless central air. Glorious, glorious central air. I challenge anyone in Buffalo to name 3 people they know personally who have central air in their home. Yeah, that's what I thought. We're about 100 miles north of the Mason-Dixon line, and you can feel it. Yuck. Heat is gross.

I love that, all of a sudden, now that they've lost, everyone is just NOW starting to obsess over the fact that this young team of Penguins stars, will, shockingly, not all be together for eons to come. Duh. I mean, did all hockey writers just collectively choose to ignore this fact?

Much like Y2K, any idiot could've seen this coming.

Do you think they have enough cap space for Marc-Andre Fleury, Evgeni Malkin, Jordan Staal, Ryan Malone, Marian Hossa and Sidney Crosby? Not unless they all take ENORMOUS discounts, I'm guessing at least 1/2 of that list will not be Penguins very soon. It's just not possible. Gronk's entry level contract will be expiring soon, as will Geno's. Buh-bye to at least 1 of them. Gronk will be cheaper, although, we'd DEFINITELY take him in a Sabres' uniform, if you're finished with him, Sid.

Is it weird that for some reason, I really want the Sabres to draft Jared Staal? It's like we'll be part of some fancy exclusive Eastern Conference club. We'll totes be in the in-crowd. AWESOME.

Then again, I'm not sure I'd want to hear raunchy stories about the babiest of the Staal's getting his swerve on in the bathroom at Bada-Bings.

Sidnote, that picture of Zetterberg drinking out the Cup on NHL.com is creeping me out beyond words. Please, take it down.

Everyone needs to sit down for this announcement. Get ready, I know we'll all be on the edge of our seats:

On Tuesday (6/10) at 1:00 p.m. the Portland Pirates are having a press conference to announce their new NHL affiliate.

OOOH! OOOH! PICK ME! PICK ME!

I bet it's Buffalo! Don't ask me how I know these things, it's a gift.... or its because, somehow, EVERYONE HAS KNOWN FOR MONTHS THAT THEY'D BE OUR NEW AHL TEAM.

I mean, COME ON. Anaheim has even announced that they're new affiliate is in Des Moines. Little closer to Anaheim will probably make call-ups a little easier.

It was probably so nice for Darcy when our team was less than an hour's car ride away, now... not so much.

Who wants to go to Portland and watch a game?!?! Maybe they'll play the Amerks and we can go and check 'em out this season. Who's with me?!?!?

Back to civilization tomorrow! Woo!

Stuck in the Dark Ages, BRB

by Anne

GAH.

I'm in central Pennsylvania at ye olde Grandfather's apartment for the weekend. Ye olde Casa de Grandfather does not have wireless internet, DSL, cable internet, RoadRunner or anything. In fact, he has... dial-up.

Yes, it's 1996.

I'm paging through the Hockey News looking for stories about Hasek's performance in Buffalo and how Messier is dominating up in New York. In this apartment, Martin Brodeur is practically a rookie. I wonder how Pat Lafontaine is doing. When's that new arena opening in Buffalo?

Alas, I soldier on in a world of little hockey. I read an article in the local paper about the Pens, as we are a few hours away from Pittsburgh and Philadelphia, but the main story on the sports page was about the NBA finals and the biggest picture was of the local softball games.

I'm trapped in an apartment, well, really 3 apartments as my step-grandmother lives across the hall and I'm crashing in their neighbors smelly old lady apartment upstairs whilst she's out of town. Like, for serious, this apartment smells TERRIBLE. Like the worst old lady smell I've ever smelt.

Everytime I come here I have to fix something on my grandfather's computer or cell phone. I love my grandfather very much, and I'm his favorite grandchild (don't deny it, it's true) and he's 93 so I suppose I can accommodate, haha. However, if you were to meet him you would NEVER believe he was 93. He looks about 75, he lives on his own, still drives himself places, all that jazz.

What does this have to do with hockey.... uhhhh... my grandpa is from Boston and remembers Eddie Shore playing. Eddie Shore retired in 1940.

He remembers when he hit Ace Bailey and ended his career in 1933.

Uncle Jeena (James) had a box at the old Boston Gardens and he watched lots and lots of Bruins games as a kid. Uncle Jeena later became a millionaire. Do we see any cent of this? No. Something to do with re-wiring half of New England after a hurricane in 1938.

He's more of a baseball man, so he's telling me about Ted Williams and how he would've had every record locked up if it weren't for fighting in 2 wars.

I love old people. 64 years ago today he was named a 2nd Lieutenant or something and he chatted on the phone with his friend who was in the same class who's actually OLDER than he is. WOW.

On a slightly Sabres related note, I'm taking my aunt's 2 kids to the Draft Day Party. Ellie, aged 9, decided over Thanksgiving that she was in love with Clarke MacArthur, so she hopes he's there. Ellie goes back and forth between hating hockey, liking the Sabres, not wanting to watch hockey on TV, but wanting to go to a Sabres game. She's weird. Jimmy, aged 10, has declared Ryan Miller to be the greatest goaltender of all time, and his personal hero.

Yesterday in the car on the way down we were playing MASH, and Ellie decided to let me pick my potential future spouses. I, of course, chose several movie stars and Steve Bernier. Later on, she was trying to remember his name, and the closest she could come up with was "Bart Barney". So I now will refer to Steve Bernier as "Big Bear", and "Bart Barney" or "Bart"