Aw, Come on!

by Anne

The Sabres won! They did all sorts of stuff right! Myers scored! Vanek scored his first of the season! What a weight lifted off his shoulders! They had lots of shots on goal! Miller looked sharp in net! No one got hurt! Pommer is coming back soon! All is well in the land of the Sabres fan this morning. We shall never again mention that five game "slide." It's all "W" from here on out! Woooo!

Then the Kings won too! Hooray! Okay, it wasn't the same type of domination that the Sabres handed the Thrashers last night, but they managed to pull out a 4-3 victory against the Hurricanes with Bernier in net. Woo! Greener has been cleared for full "hockey activities," now that he's recovered from his harrowing ordeal with "lace bite." Oh yeah, and that whole, ya know, shoulder surgery thing, but LACE BITE?! How did he survive?

Things are looking good!

Oh but wait. There's more.

BUT, of COURSE. Just when both of my teams seemed to have a good night, THIS has to happen:

From the LA Kings Insider:

After the game, Terry Murray said Drew Doughty would not accompany the Kings to Phoenix, but left open the possibility that Doughty would join the team later in the trip. Murray did not elaborate on Doughty’s upper-body injury, other than to say that it took place during the first-period collision with Erik Cole. Doughty was not available for comment after the game.

 Noooooo! :( :( :(

Careful with his upper-body!

:'(

Adam Mair on Waivers

by Anne

Maxim Afinogenov.

Nathan Paetsch.

Henrik Tallinder.

Just a few of the players we have BEGGED Darcy to trade or waive over the last two seasons. Today, he decided to do just that. He put a player on waivers.

That player: ADAM MAIR?!

Why Mairsy? I just don't understand why he was in the doghouse. I understand that we were playing fine without him, but I assumed he'd be hanging out in the pressbox with Paetsch until his services were needed. Apparently not?

Nooooo!!!

Maybe Darcy is trying to clear cap space for something? Even if we're off the hook for Mairsy's entire salary, Paille and Mairsy's combined cap hit is only $1.91 million.

Sad times.

ETA: Even though he was waived, Mair still practiced with the Sabres this afternoon. Ho-kay?

Canucks lose game and Ryan Johnson

by Anne

At least when this player was taken off on a stretcher, it wasn't because another player hit him :/

Ryan Johnson of the Vancouver Canucks was skating into the corner, moved aside of Nick Lidstrom and then for some reason was unable to control his body and his speed and crashed (almost) head first into the end boards at full speed. The instant he hit, it was clear that he was hurt.

Here's the full video:

As soon as he hit, Red Wing (and former Sabre) Brad May was immediately to his side, gloves off to get an initial take on the situation. Clearly, May wouldn't be able to help him medically, but a veteran like him has seen enough to know the immediate signs of a severe injury, or if there was any thing that needed to be done as fast as possible after the injury like if he had cut himself badly.

RyJo was able to move his extremities, albeit only slightly, on the ice and was taken to the hospital. No word at the moment about his condition. You can see in the video the split second that he realizes he can't stop and he twists so that at least his head isn't the first thing that hits the boards. Regardless, he is in immediate and serious pain.

And to make matters worse, the Canucks lost to the Red Wings.

Feel better, RyJo.

                       
               

Sissy's in the line-up

by Anne

While perusing the Canadiens website, my worst fears were confirmed: Sissy will be suiting up tonight against the Sabres. :(

He's still wearing #6.




I miss mah Sissy.

He's been playing well for the Habs. He has three points (1+2) in the Habs four pre-season games. Tonight's is their last and they're apparently heading to Toronto to hang out and bond. Why Toronto? I'm pretty sure the Maple Leafs fans won't be overjoyed to spot them out and about on Yonge Street.

I don't feel well. I blame Sissy.

Perfect Freakin' Timing, CANUCKS

by Anne

I'm not much in the mood for blogging today.

Finals week soldiers on. So far I've finished two papers, a take home final and a real final. Still left are two real finals, a portfolio and three papers.

Yesterday sucked a lot. The stupid old stupid faced stupid Canucks lost. Luongo let in seven goals?!?! That's bananas. I suppose I now turn all my attentions towards Pittsburgh. If/when they lose I'll cheer for Washington. Basically things is looking bleak for my interest in the playoffs from here on out.

Also, in things that actually matter: my family had to put one of our dogs to sleep yesterday. It was horrible. He'd been sick for a very long time. He had all sorts of wacky tumors around his little body. He had a four pound tumor and his spleen removed two years ago (hence the only thing my dog and Sean Avery had in common: a lack of a spleen). He was blind and had a tumor in his intestines that totally obstructed things and surgery wouldn't have helped. So, sadly we had to make the choice that was best for him. He wasn't eating and he wasn't happy, even though he wasn't really in pain. We all hugged him and kissed him and he licked our tears and said goodbye. We knew it was coming, but it doesn't make it any less sad.

I don't normally post pictures of myself on here but just being around my pets makes me this happy, so that's about how sad I'm feeling today:

My boy
He looks really out of it there but he was always kind of slow and lazy :)
He was only 10, we still have his mother who will be 13 soon and she's indestructible:


She's my princess

Lest we forget STH's official mascot:


Oscar
He always looks annoyed
But I love his face

Ok enough about that, back to hockey and finals. If the Canucks were going to pick a night to lose, that was the right one, because I really couldn't have felt sad for them last night. Boooooooooooo.

Its Official: Everyone Hates Joe Thornton

by Anne

San Jose fans hate him, Boston fans hate him, opponents he's made fools of in the regular season hate him, and now? Team Canada hates him.

By now everyone knows about San Jose's soul-crushingly embarrassing dismissal in the first round of the playoffs by the eighth seeded Anaheim Ducks. Once again, a lot of the blame is being placed on Thornton. It was so bad, he fled the Arena 20 minutes after the final buzzer.

How do you solve a mystery like Joe Thornton?

It took him a lot longer to develop than most great 18-year-olds, but he has become a dominant power forward and one of the best offensive talents in the game – when there is no pressure.

Ouch. All true things that can be said about Joe. His rookie season he had seven points in 55 games. Now he had 86 in 82 games. A significant improvement.

This article places a lot of team failure on one person. Did they stop to compare which players were also on the following teams:

Internationally, he was on Canada’s team that placed fifth at the 2001 World Championship, and he wasn’t chosen for the 2002 Olympics. He helped Canada win the 2004 World Cup of Hockey, and a year later he won a silver medal with Canada at the World Championship at the end of the lockout season, but in 2006 he was one of several big-name players who performed horribly at the Olympics in Turin en route to a worst-ever seventh-place finish.

Article author Andrew Podnieks would have us all believe that Joe Thornton is single-handedly going to kill hockey forever. If Jumbo Joe is on Team Canada 2010, the Earth will open up and swallow the city of Vancouver and all of the competitors in a blaze of glory that will find Joe Thornton at the epi-center.

Poor Joe. I think the only solution is to try his luck in Buffalo where they don't make the playoffs anyway.

Ah, the 2004 World Cup
Not the same as the Stanley Cup, eh Joe?
Oh. Right. Sorry.

It's OOOOOOVER

by Anne

Here lies the 2008-2009 Buffalo Sabres playoff hopes
Loved by many
Missed by all

Say it together now folks:

I'm sure once the sadness wears off and people will start freaking out about "WHAT WENT WRONG?!?!"

I'm sad but I've been ready for this for weeks. They brought this on themselves. Except Ryan Miller. Ryan Miller deserves better.

Pommerrrr Wins It!!/Some Sad Stuff Too

by Anne

I like these kinds of games.

Lots of back and forth action (a few too many penalties, tsk tsk) and an amazing overtime goal scored by Jason Pominville, set up by a Tim Connolly heads-up play.

That post-game love huddle was one of the most joyous things I've seen in a long time. Pommer's leap of joy, and all the hugging and helmet nuzzling and whoops of joy, including Millsy's over zealous embrace of Timmy at the end.

The game did not start out so hot with Ovechkin basically left alone at the side of the net and he banked it in over Millsy. That was not a pleasant start but the Sabres got HUGE breaks off of Caps defensemen being in the wrong place at the wrong time. Clarke MacArthur's "goal" was really a Caps defenseman shooting the puck in his own net on a clearing attempt and at least one other goal redirected off of a defenseman's foot into the net.

The endless parade to the penalty box was depressing and we all knew the Caps would capitalize (HA!) on that first 5 on 3. When they failed to connect on the second, you knew the Sabres weren't out of it just yet.

Maxim Afinogenov once again actually shot the puck and it actually went in the net, sneaking in under the crossbar like Bogosian's goal did to Miller on Wednesday.

I was mostly happy with the way the Sabres played in their own end but the penalties are what dug them into a hole. Royzie drew a penalty and then Spacek drew another on the same delayed penalty. Ummm, poor timing, Sissy.

BUT, in the end, we won. We. Won. All is not yet lost. Florida lost to Atlanta tonight. We're four points out with a game in hand. Can we do it? I don't know but I'm really glad we're still in the hunt and that I still care.

How fantastic was it that it was five hole, The same way Kovalchuk scored on Miller.


Pommerdoodling.

Unnnnfortunately, its Friday and we play tomorrow. Making these back to back Friday and Saturday games. We won that last two games we played on back to back Friday/Saturday. It would be really nice if that became a trend.

LET'S GO BUFF-A-LO!

---

This is not a happy section of this post.

I think most people have heard by now, but in case you haven't, former Sabre Taylor Pyatt's fiancee Carly Bragnalo was killed in a car accident Thursday in Jamaica. She was 27 and they were planning to marry this summer. They had been together for eleven years.

:'(

Carly is the girl in the back row center holding a wine glass
click to enlarge

Send some love Taylor and their families' way, they'll need all the support possible, tangible or intangible these days.

Welcome Aboard, Dominic Moore and Mikael Tellqvist

by Anne

I started doing "Welcome Aboard" posts when we signed new players last year so I figured I'd keep it going.

Today the Sabres traded for goaltender Mikael Tellqvist and Center Dominic Moore.

Here's the skinny on Moore:

• Born August 3, 1980 in Thornhill, Ontario
• He's 6'3", 230 lbs or maybe he's 6'0" 188 lbs? The 2nd seems more accurate and is from the Sabres roster.
  
• He went to Harvard and played there for four years
• He was drafted 95th overall in 2000 by the New York Rangers
• In his NHL debut on November 1, 2003 in which he tallied three assists
• He does not score a lot of goals (like 5 a season usually) but this season he already has 12
  
• He has at least two older brothers, and one of them is Steve Moore, yes THAT Steve Moore
  
• The Sabres are his fifth NHL team
• They haven't assigned him a number yet. He wore 18 in Minnesota, Pittsburgh, and New York and 19 in Toronto.
  
• He wins more faceoffs than he loses
• He will be a UFA on July 1, 2009 and Darcy has no plans yet to re-sign him for the obvious reason that he's probably never met him and he's never played for us
  

He reminds me of someone I went to high school with
I think that's who he reminds me of anyway

He also did this last week:

Mikael Tellqvist

• Born September 19, 1979 in Sundbyberg, Sweden
• He was drafted 70th overall by Toronto
• He is 5'11, 185 lbs
• He'll wear #32 as a Sabre
  
• He spent the majority of his career in the Toronto system and the last two seasons with Phoenix
• He was on Team Sweden that won gold at Turin in the 2006 Olympics
• He has great Euro hair:
  

Bye bye Big Czech Al! I'm sad to see him go because he's been a Sabre his whole career. He will wear 21 for Edmonton, FYI.

He was part of one of the moments in the running to be featured in the top moments of the season. The Vanek/Kotalik love tackle from earlier in the season:

Who would have thought he'd be GONE?!?!
:'(

Ok I'm really not too upset but I was fairly surprised and that's why I'm a little sad. Bye!

Now we mostly retire the "Ales Kotalik" tag, and bring about the "Dominic Moore" and "Mikael Tellqvist" tags. Don't get too attached to them, folks.

I wonder where we'll trade Moore to in order to get a defenseman this summer? Moore to Anaheim for Wisniewski?

And we won tonight too! I don't have the energy to recap so I'll just say: YAY!!! TOMMY'S BACK!

That Wasn't Fun

by Anne

Ok, this isn't fun anymore.

I was afraid this would happen.

When the Ducks scored on their first shot on net, everyone in Buffalo curled up in the fetal position and started repeatedly stabbing their Scott Gomez voodoo dolls in the left lower high ankle.

There are precious few things I hate more than giving up short-handed goals and we've now done it in two of the last three games.

Jaro was a -3?!

Whatever. I feel like I need to take another shower and get the stench of that game off of me.

On top of the grossness of the game there's this weird dude who works at a stand near me and decided to uncomfortably talk to me ALL NIGHT. Not just like making small talk, I mean saying weird things to me about how I'm doing my job as I'm walking past, clearly in a hurry. And he was a little creepy and had ginormous holes in his earlobes I have no idea who this dude is or if he's worked there all season and just decided tonight was the night to try and make a move. This is almost as bad as the guy who rammed a garbage tote into my hip and then started asking me how I was doing that night. What? Where's that dude who offered to fly me to Nova Scotia when I need him?

BUT. The highlight of the evening!

During the second period, an announcement roughly like this one came over the PA system throughout the Arena:

"Michael Callahan please report to the security desk, your wife has gone into labor."

HA!

The Canucks were shut out by the Habs so they got two more points. But, on the positive side of things, both the Panthers and the Hurricanes lost in regulation tonight. Thanks Ottawa and Boston!

Also, I got home in time to see the Kings win in the shoot out! However, because the Ducks won tonight over whatever team they were playing, the Kings still remain four points out of eighth place. Boo.

I passed a random Duck warming up tonight and I just looked at their roster and I still have no idea who it was. It might've been Bobby Ryan? Maybe Sheldon Brookbank? Maybe just a random dude in under armour doing some windsprints?

I miss you.
I hope that you come back before the next home game so I won't run the risk of passing you downstairs and crying a little at your Stormtrooper boot

.........

by Anne

NOOOOOO

whhhyyyyyyyyy??

First Vanek and now Miller?

I know there's no prognosis yet but

:(

Total Disbelief

by Anne

This game replaces that Caps game as worst game of the season.

Sabres lose 3-1 to the Sens, but it felt like 10-1.

Thomas Vanek is not this entire team.

Other players are allowed to score on the power play.

What was with those lines?

God help us all against San Jose on Friday.

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

by Anne

Can't. Breathe. Why NOW?!!?! :( Vanek out 3-4 weeks with a fractured jaw :( :(

I Just Didn't Want To Say It

by Anne

Ryan said it. Kate said it. I don't like to be an "I THOUGHT IT FIRST!" person (because I wasn't the first person who thought of it, I'm sure) but the last home game before Thanksgiving as I was walking out of the Arena, I seriously wondered if this might spell the end of Lindy's tenure as coach. I ignored it because I chalked it up to frustration but...

Something's gotta give.

We in Buffalo are too sentimental. We need to have more of a "We want to win NOW." mentality. Right now we have a "We might win if we wait long enough." mentality.

Nothing in the NHL is permanent. We've had a great run, but this crap isn't cutting it. The signs have been there for a while, players not responding and The System failing over and over and over again.

:(

I want to keep Lindy.

I want to win the Stanley Cup more.

Will we win it this season? No. But if we make the right changes we might next year.

Frankly, I'm tired of "next year".

I want "this year".

Peter Laviolette is free and he beat us on the way to Lord Stanley's Cup.

This really makes me sad. I have way too much to do to sit here and contemplate the fate of our head coach and our season.

Not Much to Say

by Anne

I'm not going to sit here and rip apart the Bills and tell them all how personally hurt I feel by that loss which cannot be pinned on any one player, Trent Edwards.

Its difficult to find something optimistic to talk about this morning. On top of the bad streaks by our teams, it snowed this morning which isn't such a big deal, but most people in North Buffalo drive like they've never experienced snow before and it takes 10 minutes longer to get anywhere.

On the plus side, its Tuesday, which means I get to inappropriately ogle my high school style crush in my 10:50 class. I've missed him lately. Its the little things in life that keep you going, people.

On another happy note....

I don't know who made this picture, but they're my new best friend


hehehehehe

:'(

by Anne


Wide.

Right.

Awwwwwwwww

by Anne

I'm pretty sure the only reason I'm not sad we didn't make the playoffs is because we have 1 more game left and my brain hasn't fully grasped that the season is over.

This was a very depressing sight to me though:

To officially see that there are no more games makes me very sad.

I missed the Sabres like "my best friend had moved to a new district in 8th grade and now we had to go to different high schools and it was going to be weird because we've been best friends since the first day of kindergarten when she let me share her paste" over the All-Star break and that was 3 DAYS.

There's always next year!

NOOOOOO!!!

by Anne

Say it ain't so!

BRETT! NOOOOOO!!!

:*(

I hear tell that Pommerdoodle is a Packers fan. Maybe we can cry it out over some ice cream later, Pommer.

Sad times. :(