I wish I was going to be at the Draft/Yo, Chicago, calm down

by Anne

My #2 team is hosting the NHL entry draft on Friday. I hope to see Dustin Brown there when the Kings announce their pick and the trade that sends Kovalchuk's rights to Dean Lombardi for the negotiatin' of a new contract. Even the NHL schedule is planning on this happening. The Kings' home opener is against the Atlanta Thrashers. Fan crisis moment: Can I really cheer for Ilya Kovalchuk? Once he starts scoring like crazy, I'll have no problem, I'm sure.

While I'm not terribly excited for this year's draft class, it would still be exciting to see the players drafted and be there while some crazy trades are going down on the floor of the Staples Center. Maybe after I get a real job (I have an interview on Monday, fingers crossed) I'll start saving to go to LA for a game this coming season or the season after. There's always the possibility of seeing them play when they head East for a road trip. Maybe back to Nashville? Columbus? We shall see, but I really want to see the Kings in their natural habitat.

Everyone has November 19th circle on their calendars, RIGHT?! :) That's the day that the Kings come to play the Sabres in HSBC Arena :) I'm not sure if I'm going to wear any Kings' gear; I don't want it to look like I'm cheering against the Sabres. What will probably happen is that I'll just wear plain black and cheer all of the goals.  

Speaking of trades and such: YO, CHICAGO, CHILL. We all knew that the Blackhawks would be cleaning house, but not necessarily this soon after and not necessarily this many trades at once. Byfuglien, Eager, Sopel and prospect Aliu (whom I have a soft spot for because he served as a  Russian translator during the NHL combine interviews) to Atlanta for Marty Reasoner, two picks, and prospect Jeremy Morin. I love Marty Reasoner because he had Greener were BFFs when they played in Edmonton. 

In addition, the Blackhawks sent poor adorable little Collin Fraser up to Edmonton for a 6th round pick. Yikes. 

I mostly don't care about these trades because they will have limited or no impact on my teams. However, do the Thrashers really need another enforcer with only limited talent in Ben Eager? It'll up the opportunities for Kaleta and Eager to renew their old rivalry, but still, really Thrashers? Really? 

Also on the UFA front: I'm glad the Sharks re-signed Patrick Marleau. I was getting a little tired of hearing Sabres fans drool over him, but am sad that Joe Pavelski wasn't dealt to the Sabres. I loves me some Pavelski. 

Looking forward to the Draft Party tomorrow night! Who all is going to be there?

Lame Tuesday

by Anne

Normally to re-cap a game I'll take my thoughts from the game and combine them with some photos  and toss in a chuckle or two for good measure.

I'm bored and tired so I'll just say this.

The Sabres came thiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiis close to tying the game after trailing 4-0 and then Jason Pominville was a bonehead and sent a pass right in front of Miller and someone I've never heard of scored to give the Ducks a 5-3 lead. Yoyo attempted to continue the comeback but the Sabres efforts were thwarted.

I like to call the window "Patrick Lalime with a hint of Pominville"

Then the Kings lost 5-1 to the Sharks. I didn't really watch but basically what I gathered was their special teams sucked donkey butt. They were 0-5 on the powerplay and 0-3 on the penalty kill. Please come back soon Matt Greene? TOMORROW?!?!

Pleeeeeeeeeez?

Both teams play tomorrow but I'm not sure who they're playing...........

Please stop losing

by Anne

Dear Kings,

Please stop losing. I don't think I'll be able to stick it out for this entire game tonight as I have to take MK's cat to the vet tomorrow morning because I'm the SISTER OF THE WEEK. I'd say year or something but there are sisters who like give their sisters kidneys and bone marrow and I'd say taking the cat to the vet is waaaayyy down there on the list, just above "letting them borrow your car."

Anyway, remember how well y'all played against the Sharks last time? That was less than a week ago, I think you can do it!

Love,

Anne

The Sunny Hedgehog Enchanters' defensemen are dropping like flies. Brett Clark broke something and now my blocked shots total is going down, Kevin Bieksa sliced off his leg and my PIMs have been stagnant and now Greener is paralyzed from the waist down and my hits total is suffering. I hope they put Greener on IR soon so I can pick up another defenseman who hits things. Douglas Murray? Perchance.

Terry Murray wants to cut a bitch so he tossed the players names in a hat and came up wtih some wackadoodle new line combinations. Most significantly he broke up two dynamic duos: Smyth/Kopitar and Brown/Stoll. Each are skating on different lines now. Yeesh. But whatever works to get these boys back in gear, I'm all for it.

All I know is Teddy Purcell is nowhere near Anze Kopitar, and that's the way it should be for now and for all eternity.

Let's Go Kings!!!

That was worth staying up for.

by Anne

Being a Kings fan on the East coast is a big commitment. Their games frequently start at 10:00pm or 10:30pm EST. That's a late start to the evening and will only become more difficult after I finish school and have, like, a real job and stuff.

However, since I am currently in the midst of my winter break, I have no constraints on my time and have no problem staying up until games end at 1:15 a.m. Last night's game was definitely worth it.

The Kings rolled in to the Sharktank for their last game in San Jose of the season looking to collect at least a point for the third straight game, and collect two points they did.

The Kings blasted out to a 6-0 start that began in the first period and ended 13 seconds into the third.

The Sharks started things off with some excitement:

Rob Blake made this diving kicksave to bail out Nabokov early in the first

I guess from that point on Nabby thought Blake was tending goal.

Nabby allowed five goals on just 16 shots over the first 40 minutes

Thomas Greiss allowed goal #6 on the Kings 17th shot, the first shot he saw.

That Blake kick save was the last good thing the Sharks saw all night, the rest of the night looked a lot like this:

Handzus, Moller, Kopitar, Smyth, Simmonds and Parse all scored

Drew Doughty had FOUR assists on the night, on each of the Kings' first four goals including two on the powerplay.

Jonathan Quick made 45 saves on the 47 shots he saw as the Sharks nabbed two late goals in a feeble attempt at a comeback(?). The Sharks outshot the Kings 47-20. That is a bit unnerving but I'll take it anyway.

Early penalties cost the Sharks. After Zeus made it 1-0, Jumbo Joe took a penalty because he was being pissy that Dewey was pestering him and the Kings scored. THEN Patrick Marleau had an EPIC brain fart. During the Thornton penalty, Dan Boyle lost his stick or broke it (I'm not sure which)  while blocking a shot and, as is expected, one of the higher forwards on the penalty kill gave him their stick. The defenseman in front of the net should never be without a stick; give him one. HOWEVER, it is against the rules to THROW your stick during play, be it to your teammate or not. Marleau decided to toss his stick to Boyle, causing great confusion and the Kings scored. Then, to make matters worse, Marleau's stick-toss got the Kings another two minutes of powerplay time and they scored once again to make it 3-0.

Final score: Kings 6, Sharks 2.

Woooooo! I love the Kings. I got the tickets for the game in Nashville on March 30 in the mail yesterday!! :) :) :) So excited!

Hey, the Kings won too!

by Anne

My lack of interest in baseball coupled with my complicated homework assignment caused me to not watch any sports before the Kings game at 10:30 last night. I hear I missed an exciting ball game and a whooole lotta goal scoring in Philly (or were they in Washington?). I don't know.

I love (x1,000) that Mike Richards got a hat trick last night and not Ovechkin. Haha. I have nothing against Ovechkin or the Caps (I like them better than Richards or the Flyers) but I just love when people are so high on someone or something and they're forced to go "Uhhh... ok well, he's good too... I guess."

I find it interesting that the unabashed Ovechkin love - which closely parallels the frequent unabashed Crosby love- never draws criticism from anyone in spite of the fact that Ovechkin has not accomplished a lot of the things that Crosby has accomplished yet. Hmmmm... hypocrisy, FTW.

The Kings won last night. Say what you want about the Kings, their games are rarely dull.

They roared out to a 4-0 lead, causing Evgeni Nabokov to be pulled. Thomas Greiss came in and the Sharks managed to score four unanswered goals to tie the game. It wasn't pretty.

Then somehow, someway, Teddy Purcell shooting the puck from behind the goal line scored the game winning goal. It took a crazy bounce off a Sharks defenseman and slid it's way past a totally unprepared Greiss, who until that point, had really kept his team in the game.

Davis Drewiske scored his first NHL goal - an empty netter - to seal the deal at 6-4. In his defense, there were lots of people between him and the net when he scored the empty netter, it wasn't like it was a dump in from the opposite blueline.

I think the crazy person on the left is Raitis Ivananabananas

(OMG UPLOADING PICTURES IS SO MUCH EASIER WITH THIS NEW EDITOR)

For those who were wondering: Davis WILL be featured in the ballot of this year's Team USA Olympic team of hottness:

Anyone with a roster photo this adorable and a jawline so chizzled MUST be featured

Also, he and Greener are partners sometimes

Those Sharks post game analysts are a bunch of dicks. They were SO put-out that the Sharks lost to such an INFERIOR team. Dude, it's the second game of the season, it's hard to say yet which teams are going to contend, compete for the playoffs, or tank. Who would've thought the Canucks, who had a blistering hot pre-season, would start 0-3? The Sharks won the President's Trophy last season, yes, but what else have they accomplished? They added a proven goal scorer in Heatley - who did score a goal last night - but they've gone through a leadership shake-up and with the weight of these expectations: what do they have to be so damn smug about this early in the season?

The Kings aren't exactly the 1974-1975 Washington Capitals here. They're going to win a few games, and seem to have the pieces to make a push to the playoffs (fingers crossed) and, believe it or not, the Sharks are actually going to lose some games, even to such sub-par teams as the Kings.

Last season is OVER, Sharks, this is a whole new slate and -brace yourselves- the Sharks might not see the same kind of success they had last season. Everything has started over and you'll have to fight to earn the credibility you feel such a sense of entitlement over.

Thursday Night

by Anne

I didn't invest much emotionally into last night's game. Its too bad they lost but, eh. Whatevs. Its just pre-season.

The game went by really really fast, so I didn't get to watch much of it. Normally I get to watch a lot of it by standing in the aisles but without commercial breaks and all that jazz, and very few stoppages in play, the game flew by and I had to keep a-sellin'.

I'm really glad I'm working at the Arena again. I forgot how much I like a lot of the people I work with there.

Some stuff:

• Pie had the hit of the game. He did this:

Pie go boom.

• There was a moment where a player took a puck off his visor. I don't know who because I didn't see it. I only know it happened because it was SO LOUD I heard it up in the 300s. Imagine if that had hit his eyes instead of a visor?! Yikes

• TK's and Grizz's goals were classic examples of two basic hockey principals: #1 Just shoot the puck at the net, you never know what might happen (Grizz) and #2 Get to the front of the net and an opportunity may present itself (Kennedy)

• For the most part Lalime and Enroth both looked decent. Its a shame we probably can't keep Enroth for long. I'm sure he'll back up Miller in a few seasons but if he continues to develop as well as it seems he will, he'll be too good to be a back up in a few years. Oh well. We can still be Facebook friends, right, Jho?

• Royzie was wearing the C. Vanek was wearing an A. I didn't see anyone else. I assume Pommer? Yoyo was not.

• They took two penalties v. Washington's 5 or 6. Unfortunately, they were very untimely penalties as they occurred in the dying seconds of regulation which gave Washington their two man advantage heading into OT. Oh well, its only the pre-season.
  

Vancouver v. Anaheim:

• Big Bear scored!!!! :)x1,000

Wooo!
His goal was the opening and game-winning goal.

Los Angeles at San Jose

• I only listened to this one but both teams traded lots and lots of power play time. I believe the Kings PK was a perfect 8 for 8 while the Sharks PK was a still pretty good 7-8 or 6-7. I don't feel like checking.

• It was 1-0 Sharks until Brownie FINALLY scored on the power play with just 9.5 seconds remaining in regulation.

• Despite the two penalties they took in OT, Jon Quick came up big, and only allowed one shooter to score in the shootout. Unfortunately Greiss did even better and didn't allow anyone to score in the shootout so the Sharks won.

Yer doin' it wrong!

Elsewhere:

• Theo Fleury scored the deciding shootout goal for the Calgary Flames... I still have trouble remembering he's back. Its not that it makes a huge impact on my life, but my brain has become hardwired to read "Fleury" and think "Marc-Andre" not "Theoren" so I keep getting tripped up by this comeback.

• Dion Phaneuf was convicted for the attempted murder of Kyle Okposo in last night's Flames/Islanders game. Okposo was diagnosed with a mild concussion. Seeing someone laying on the ice, head in their hands while goalies and linemates wrestle for his defense is not something you expect to see in the pre-season. Okposo irritates me when he's on Team USA but Phaneuf irritates me all the time, so advantage Okposo. Get better soon.
  

Everything about last night's game from employees to the game itself felt very pre-season. There wasn't the usual amount of nervous energy you feel at most Sabres games. There wasn't as much shouting in the concourse, there wasn't as much beer consumed. But there was still a lot of excitement. Unlike games where the Sabres HAVE to win or they're screwed, people were genuinely happy. Even when they lost, people were ok with it. Everyone seemed just happy that hockey is FINALLY coming back.

Some Highlights Of the Last few Days

by Anne

• I'm sure you all know about Dany Heatley so I won't talk about it... wait, I just did... ummm, moving on.

• Puck Drop 2009 was a total snoozefest. Why oh why would they invite fans to watch them do speed and agility tests for about THREE HOURS. It was so boring. Then players were super late for autographs. I'm not sure if they ever came because we gave up after 40 minutes and watched the rookies.

• The scrimmage today was tons more fun. Team White, (the vastly superior team because I chose to cheer for them) was winning 2-0 when I left and last I checked with Kate, the score was 5-2 White. In Grey's defense, they had only 3 NHL forwards and White had at least six. Gerbe scored on Miller on a nice breakaway. Keep it up, little dude! The other goal I saw was scored by Connolly.

• Stafford signed a contract as was announced just before he took the ice as part of the morning practice group. Wooo! It appears to be two years $4 million. Sounds good to me. I suppose I approve.

• Actually, that's less than I thought he'd get. I'm surprised he didn't get more in the $5 - $5.5 over those two seasons. Well done, Darcy.

Smokin'

• If you're an early bird you can watch practice at 7:30 and then a scrimmage at 9:30 tomorrow morning. Yikes. There's some golf tournament tomorrow so that's why they're practicing so wicked early.
  

• First pre-season game on Thursday! Woooooo!

A ship needs a captain

by Anne

Dear San Jose Sharks:

Speaking as someone who endured an entire pitiful season of a captain-less team, it does not work.

Love,

Anne

In 2007-2008 the Buffalo Sabres had no captain. Yes, we had a rotating captaincy, but everyone who was slapped with the "C" seemed unwilling to take it and declared themselves, one after the other, to be "not the most vocal guy in the room." Not one person stated who was the most vocal guy in the room. Him? He probably should've been captain.

Then we got a captain who was selected basically because the rest of his teammates were eager to just NOT pick one of their previous teammates to assume the job. Therefore, by default, the new vet became captain.

Hopefully now that Craigory has been around for an entire season and is hopefully healthy, he and Mikey G can whip this team back into shape.

We fault management for having faith in this group of players and not bringing in any top-line talent, but maybe having legitimate leadership will at least push this team in the right direction.

Are the Buffalo Sabres going to win a Stanley Cup in 2010? Absolutely not. Anyone who thinks they will is kidding themselves. However, they need to establish that kind of consistent leadership presence. Name one team that's won a cup in recent years that didn't have a strong leader.

Say what you want about Crosby and his divisive personality, but in Pittsburgh and in Mellon Arena, he's a leader. He's not a captain for the ages quite yet but he's definitely numero uno in that dressing room by sheer work ethic alone.

I find nothing wrong with Marleau being stripped of his captaincy... if he deserves to have it taken away. I'm not saying that he does or doesn't, I don't know the team well enough to be able to comment on that. Vinny Lecavalier was stripped of his captaincy years ago because he was being a punk and not the type of leader his team needed. After a few years of wearing an A, he finally was given back his C at a point in his career where he made the commitment to the organization and the community. Commitment counts for a lot. Commitment to winning, to the organization, to his teammates.

Just putting a "C" on someone's chest doesn't make them a leader. You can slap a "C" on anyone but that doesn't make them a captain. Just like taking the "C" away from someone doesn't mean they will suddenly start acting like a bump on a log and not attempting to motivate their team.

There are many problems with declaring the San Jose Sharks have no captain. There could be resentment on Marleau's part (if he's not traded) over the last five years of service as captain being stripped away. If Marleau isn't traded and doesn't re-acquire his captaincy, it will be interesting to see who is named captain in his place. How will his long-time teammates react? Obviously they will respect their new captain, but where does that leave Patty Marleau? I'm sure he won't act any differently in the dressing room than he has for the last several years.

I hope the San Jose Sharks do not attempt this rotating captaincy business. Fans don't really like it and I can't imagine the players do either. It puts more emphasis on an external indicator of leadership. Real leaders lead regardless of a letter.

When the Sabres attempted a rotating leadership it didn't work because no one was willing to step up and have that pressure put on them. Then we got Craig Rivet and the job suited him just fine. When your team doesn't have that leader, another player shouldn't have it shoved upon him unwillingly. The San Jose Sharks have had consistent leadership and despite their consistent first-round departures in the playoffs, have had more success than many other NHL teams. They have that leadership, showing no faith in him doesn't send a good message to the rest of the team and the NHL.

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.

Really, San Jose? Really.

by Anne

What the HELL is wrong with the San Jose Sharks? I know the long-running comment is that they choke in the post season. This isn't choking, this is imploding. This is throwing yourselves down a flight of stairs bad.

How embarrassing to be a Sharks fan. Do they blow up the team? I bet Patty Marleau would LOVE Buffalo, he and Craigory can be friends.

I guess everything really is different in the playoffs? Still, what the HELL San Jose? They're making Jonas Hiller look like the most incredible goaltender of all time. Now, Hiller is a solid goalie, that's not the debate, but he's putting up Luongo-esque numbers and he's not Roberto Luongo.

Ron Wilson at least got the team into the 2nd round last season, without much trouble, and he lost his job. So, does McClellan survive this? This is just embarrassing. How does a team go 53-18-11, losing only a TOTAL of nine times (0-5-4) on home ice and play this badly in the first round against a team that barely made it into the playoffs? They didn't dominate offensively in the regular season- they barely cracked the top ten in goals for- but they had the 2nd fewest goals against, meaning solid defense and goaltending. That is NOT what this series would lead you to believe.

At least when WE won the President's Trophy we made a go of it all the way to the Conference finals before figuratively throwing ourselves off a 10th floor balcony.

Un-freakin'-believable.

Moving on:

My playoff picks are so far picking the correct winners but I didn't predict any sweeps, nevermind THREE. I definitely thought the Blues and Habs would do better. Apparently they decided to prove me wrong. I think only Corey Perry's mom thought the Ducks would play THIS well against San Jose.

The Pirates lost Game 4 to the Providence Bruins and trail in the series 3-1. Mark Mancari scored first and two quick goals in the end of the second were all Providence needed to slam the door. Booo. The series moves back to Providence for game 5 and, if necessary, game 6 will be back in Portland.

Speaking of Portland and Buffalo and San Jose and Ryan Miller(?) Drew Miller scored an empty net goal last night to slam the door on the Sharks. He's also #3 in our poll so far.

Is is all just setting the Ducks up for a HUGE collapse in the 2nd round against Detroit which is who they will face if they make it through (psh-WHEN they make it). Vancouver will face the winner of Calgary-Chicago. This all changes if the Sharks put together an AMAZING come back and win out the rest of the games, which is not impossible... buuuuut... Ryan Getzlaf brought his game face... or something:

That, my friends is the face of a winner.

Taking a Bite Out of the Sadness

by Anne

My friend and fellow vendor Jill and I had this conversation before the game.

Me: I really hope they win tonight.
Jill: They will, the City needs it.

She was right.

I got more excited than usual for each goal. THREE POWER PLAY GOALS?! Yay! And more sad than usual after each Sharks goal.

That was the most profoundly quiet moment of silence I've ever heard.

I know its just a hockey game but this win and the looks on people's faces as they were leaving tonight felt like this:

Sometimes its not just a game.

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.

I Hope Jamie Langenbrunner Eats Rotten Fish

by Anne

-Even though Greener scored the goal of the decade (at least, maybe century?) last night, the Kings lost in the shootout to the Sharks.

-I'm going to give the Sharks the benefit of the doubt and assume last night was an off-night, because I wasn't all that impressed with what I saw. They were turn-over city and were losing 2-0 to the KINGS. Ok, ok the Kings are much better than they were last season but so are the Sharks. Honestly, I assume the Sharks are saving the bells and whistles for home games.

- NATHAN GERBE IS HURT. I hate you Jamie Langenbrunner. Why you gotta hurt Nate-dawg? not. cool.

-Patty is back! At least if we can't have Gerbe we can have Kaleta... they're basically the same, right...?

-The polls are now open and are located on the left. I'm hiding the results but I'll give you updates of the leaders as often as I remember to. Woooo!!! Vote often!

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!!

Craig Rivet

by Anne

DARCY. YOU ARE IN LOVE WITH TRADING SAN JOSE SHARKS.

Ok, so I'm not yet sure how I feel about this Craig Rivet trade. but I will tell you that he already earns points with me because his name is Anthony Craig Rivet. I love people who refuse to use their first name.

I will meditate all zen-like on this movement and be back later with more thoughts. I'm not exactly ecstatic, but I'm not burning down the Arena, either.

Apparently the Big Bear deal might've been because Vancouver was going to give him an offer sheet and this was actually just to make this less messy? I don't know. I'm still sad about Big Bear, but, in the grand scheme of Buffalo Sabres, there are LOTS of players I would've been much more devastated to lose in this trade.

Game(s) 1 Day 2 or WOOOOOOOOO!!!

by Anne

When the Pens were down by three I contemplated changing the channel and playing Monopoly Jr. with the kids I was babysitting. My innermonologue in the 2nd period went something like this:

"Yo, screw THIS. CHRIS DRURY TIPPING IN A STAAL BULLET FROM THE POINT? I don't need this crud. I would only sit through this crap for Jason Pominville, and even this I don't know. How much more of this can I- Wooo! Ok, that's one, one isn't gonna do WOOOO! Ok...only down by one, maybe I'll stick around"

The third period went something like this:

"WOOOOOOOOOOOHOOOOOOOOOOOOO - oops it's tied....WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! BLARG! 15 SECONDS LEFT AND THEY TIED IT AGAI- off the goalpost? WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!"

Geno and Sykora have been taking swing dancing lessons.

Here, they try to show their skills.

Their instructor, Ry-ry, comes over to lend a helping hand.

Things are a little off kilter in my HockeyWorld. Not only did I cheer the Stars goals, I found myself wanting them to win more and more with each passing shot on goal. I'm still motivated 90% by my desire to see the Sharks lose, rather than a desire to see the Stars win. It's a change of pace from my totally pro-Flames attitude of Round 1. The other 10% is pro-StuuuuuuuuuuuuuUUUUUUUUU BARNES!

Regardless, Go Stars! Of the 3 games I've watched, none of them have disappointed. So far I'm 3 for 4 on winning teams. Wooo! Come on Avs! Pick it up! I want to win my meaningless Round 2 pool!

Obligatory Sabres mention:

I love Ryan Miller because (i) he held an entire pizza during the anthems at the Wings/Avs game last night (ii) he probably ate that entire pizza (thank goodness) (iii) he makes no bones about the fact that he likes JM Liles more than he likes Brian Campbell, for those who think he's cheering for San Jose (iv) I couldn't pick JM Liles out of a line-up if my life depended on it, but I like him better than Brian Campbell.

Oh, and on the IIHF front: Ovie's playing for Russia! Wooooo!

Maybe the Russian Men's National team will do better than the Under 18s did. They lost to Canada 8-0 in the Gold Medal game. Whoops.

Day 5

by Anne

MTL v BOS (Bos wins 2-1, 1st OT MTL leads series 2-1)
PHI v. WSH (Philly wins 2-0, series tied 1-1)
NJD v NYR (Devs win 4-3, 1st OT, Rangers lead series 2-1)
SJS v CGY (Flames win 4-3, lead series 2-1)

I had a whole post started earlier in the day about the yawn fest that was the Philly/Caps game. All Mike Milbury, Pierre, Doc and Edzo could talk about was not how well the Flyers were playing, but how poorly AO was playing.

Whatever, who cares, that's not why I'm here.

WHO WATCHED J-ROME AND OWEN NOLAN WHUP THE SHARKS?

I totally stayed up til 1:00 a.m. to watch the end. I loved that game a lot. It was completely awesome.

Mad props to CuJo. Mikka was having an off-night and you TOTALLY got his back. CuJo had a crizazy save in the 3rd that I just couldn't believe didn't go in the net. Woooo! At the end when he came out after being named one of the games' stars, he tossed his stick into the crowd. That's totally awesome. Well done, CuJo, that's going to be a crazy awesome addition to anyone's collection of Flames memorabilia. I hope some kid got it.

Cory Sarich totally made that comeback happen. What a HIT on Marleau. I know that its frequently said that physical play and hard hits change the momentum of the game, and never was that more apparent than in last night's game. Clean hit on home ice against the opposing captain that totally threw him off his game. He wasn't injured, just a bloody nose and a cut, but nothing a manly man hockey player should whine about, and he didn't, which is a testament to the toughness of Patrick Marleau.

It was so great. Definitely my favorite game of the playoffs thus far. I tried to keep it cool when they scored the 4th goal so as to not scare my cat, but it didn't work. He was sleeping on my arm at the time, and didn't take too kindly to any of my celebrations, big or small. I keep telling him he should be used to it by now, but he disagrees. I'm sure by this time next season he'll be as used to my celebration of hockey goals as my dogs are of my mother's exuberant cry of joy when which ever team she's cheering for scores a touchdown.

My highlights of the game, other than Sarich's hit and the goals, were the mid play-by-play reference to Big Joe and Soupy's longtime friendship and then, later on, how they went on and on about how Soupy and Big Joe have mostly been shut down in this series. Oh how the tides have turned. Next game they'll probably combine for a powerplay goal and then they'll be redeemed in the eyes of NHL commentators the world over and they'll make several references to the importance of childhood friendships and red hair.

Go Flames!

Day 6 features Ry-ry taking on a J-Spezz-less Ottawa team in Ottawa. Look out, boys, home ice 3rd games tend to be detrimental to 2-0 series leads.

Detroit at Nashville at 7:30. Whatevs.

Then, the other exciting battle in the West continues with Minnesota at Colorado. Wooo!

2 down...lots more to go

by Anne

I stay up waaaaaayyyy too late watching hockey and eating buffalo wing pretzels.

Day 2 of the 2008 NHL playoffs has come and gone and here's how it shook down last night:

BOS v. MTL (MTL wins 4-1, leads series 1-0)
NSH v. DET (DET wins 4-1, leads series 1-0)
CGY v. SJS (SJS wins 2-0, series tied 1-1)
DAL v. ANA (DAL wins 4-0, leads series 1-0)

I watched most of the Habs v. Bruins, I didn't care too much. I "Woo!"ed after a Montreal goal, but my heart wasn't really in it.

I watched most of Calgary @ San Jose. That sucked. J-Rome wasn't even TRYING to maintain hold of my vulnerable post-season heart. On a related note, I think the boys at HNIC get a looney everytime they say Brian Campbell's name.

I'm more than a little mad at the Flames for taking like 6 penalties in a row, even though some of them were totally bogus. Fortunately, they killed all but the last 9 seconds and Kipprusoff played out of his mind. HINC also enjoyed cutting in and out on me last night, mostly during commercials. Thanks for that, CBC.

I loved the moment yesterday when I realized that I do, in fact, get CBC.

I'd write about how I enjoyed the Habs win... but did anyone expect for a second that they wouldn't win on home ice? Habs fans is CRAZY. They were Ole-ing in the first 5 minutes. The team did go up 2-0 in about 2 minutes though. Watching their pre-game intro made me sad because it reminded me a lot of the Sabres pre-playoff game intro because Sabres fans is crazy too. We're just 38 seasons of crazy, they're like 70 years of crazy, haha.

Anaheim, my former favorite Western Conference team lost BIG TIME to the Stars. I did NOT realize that the Lundqvist on the Stars was the twin brother of Henrik Lundqvist. Seeing him on the bench totally blew my mind.

Much like Crunchy and BabyCrunchy, the skater brother is much heftier than the goal tender brother. The Lundqvist twins' hair is also completely different, making their identical-ness less obvious. If I didn't hate his team so much, I'd love to watch Henrik defend the net against his brother.

There weren't any good pictures from last night, just the standard players in awkward almost sexual positions, someone getting squished by Chara, a few "the puck is behind the net, let's watch players look at it" goal cam shots, players about to fall over, and the usual "Wooo! We scored a goal!!" Nothing remotely swoon worthy or chuckle inducing. There was one photo of a Wings' zamboni driver swinging around a gross Octopus, but that was just weird. Can anyone explain this phenomenon to me?

The highlight of my night was actually the crazy grocery shopping extravanganza Moms and I went on. She prefers Tops, while I've seen the light and know that Wegman's is vastly superior. Tops has self-scanners which are great if you bought like 1 thing but are TERRIBLE for a larger order. We had a larger order and I was ready to explode it was so annoying, and I was tired. A lethal combination. Then we went to Wegmans where they had TOP SHELF SUNDAE but no Breakaway Berrier. That 1/2 gallon was like a slap in the face. For those that don't know, Top Shelf Sundae is an ice cream flavor made last season to celebrate how awesome the Sabres were are were, and I was grossed out, lol. I quickly got over it after pledging a sit-in until I was personally brought a 1/2 gallon of Breakaway Berrier by Ryan Miller himself. I'll wait, I don't care if he's in Michigan or Nova Scotia or Anaheim or Beirut, I'll wait. I'll be in the frozen section of the Wegmans on Amherst St. I'll live-blog about the crazies that walk by.

Bittersweet

by Anne

Half the Game 1s have come and gone with the following results

Sens v. Pens (Pens win 4-0, lead series 1-0)
NYR v. NJD (NYR win 4-1, lead series 1-0)
Avs v. Wild (Avs win 3-2, 1st OT, lead series 1-0)
CGY v. SJS (CGY win 3-2, lead series 1-0)

Interestingly enough, only 1 team won at home last night. This whole "not having home-ice advantage" thing doesn't seem to phase teams in the bottom part of the playoff standings.

Anytick, that was a bee-you-ti-full win last night by the Pittsburgh Penguins. I liked it a lot, we had good chemistry, I'd definitely go out with it again. If it had been a Sabres win, we'd already be on our honeymoon in Cancun.

Sigh, I don't care how many times we all try to say it'll be nice to watch the playoffs without the emotional investment, it's not true. With each goal that the Pens scored, I got a little more into it, but I didn't come within a tenth of how gleeful and elated I would've been to watch those goals being scored by Sabres. Good to see Gary Roberts recovered from his broken leg resulting in a collision with Timmy...I know, right? TimmyHo actually crushed someone and skated away, unharmed. I still can't believe it either. I kind of love Gary Roberts right now, he's pretty old, ha.

Then they had to go and show Mario up in the press box and remind my why I love them. Awwww, Mario. I loves him still.

I hope Ottawa is as embarrassed as they should be. Bryan Murray did NOT look happy about that brawl in the last 11 seconds. That team has been soooo badly mismanaged in the last few months its scary. Their D looks turrrrrrribull.

Congratulations to Marc-Andre Fleury for the first playoff shutout since April 26, 2001...ironically it was when the Sabres were shutout by Johan Hedberg. Whoops.

Congrats also to the Calgary Flames. I watched the first period of that game in my intermittent watching of both that and Top Chef (Zoi's gone, she made underseasoned mushrooms, but Richard left scales on his fish, discuss). It was my first non-Sabres Brian Campbell experience. I really could've done without the commentators on HNIC verbally lovin' up Soupy. They just went on and on about how great he's been for the team and how he and Big Joe are childhood sweethearts and soulmates.

It makes me sad to hear Soupy say bad things about Buffalo. Well, ok, it's not Buffalo, it's Larry Quinn and Darcy Regier, but still, when he and Brownie and Mikey Grier get together and start talking about how Buffalo could've kept them and they're all resentful it makes me sad.

Whatevskis, we don't needs 'em! On the plus, in the 2 games I watched, both the teams I wanted to win, won! Unforch, in the other 2 games the team I wanted to win, lost. Boo. What was UP with Marty mis-handling that puck? It's like he got stuck in a position and for a split second his priority was moving his feet and not moving the puck, he clearly didn't see whatever Ranger snuck up on him and tapped the puck home. Whoops.

I don't really care about the Avs v. Wild but Jose Theodore and Peter Forsberg annoy me. Peter Forsberg downright creeps me out, actually. I like Marian Gaborik for his Superman pose in his roster photo and because they do, indeed, look like elves, and because Minnesotans love their hockey... and their elves.

See?:

Tonight I get to pretend I care about watch Detroit at Nashville at 7:00 and Dallas at Anaheim at 10:00 while Boston plays at Montreal at 7:00 and Calgary plays at San Jose again at 10:00.

Bye bye

by Anne

Bye bye Soup.

Hello, Bernier and a 1st round draft pick.

I'll now sort of retire a tag, and start a new one.

Fare thee well:

Goodbye "Brian Campbell" tag

Welcome, "Steve Bernier" Tag

Will there be any more Sabres moving today? Kalinin might go, people were crying for the Soviet Bomber's head at times in this season.

We shall see.