Back in Buffalo

by Anne

Thank hey-soos I'm back in Buffalo, the land of wireless internet, only 75% humidity, and no central air.

That's ok, though, I'll take what I can get.

Oscar is none to happy with his mommy for leaving for a few days.

Ron Wilson is about to become the head coach of the Toronto Maple Leafs. Its well documented that Mr. Wilson and BIG BEAR didn't get a long to well in San Jose. Hopefully he won't use his krazee mind powers to affect Big Bear for 6 games next season. Booooo. It won't be official until like Tuesday though. Whatevs.

Whatev, I kind of enjoyed watching Toronto just miss the playoffs and be worse than us for the last several seasons. It was pretty awesome. I'm not interested in this possible resurgence of the Toronto Maple Leafs. Although, it would be nice for Cap'n Mats to even taste the Cup Finals. Not at our expense, of course.

I don't even want to talk about the tomfoolery with Chelios' restaurant and the Cup. All I have to say is: Hahahahahahahahahahaha D-Troit is totes CURSED now. Hahahaha. Hope you enjoyed these last few Cup wins.

And:

Hhaahahaha, I love when crap like this happens.

Nice going.

In tragic, tragic news, the Tampa Bay Rays have fallen to 2nd place in the AL East, 1.5 games behind Boston. Not. Cool.

Ummm, no major off-season re-signings that have drastically affected my HockeyLife as of yet.

However, tis widely expected that the Dominator is about to hang up his blocker this off-season. Considering the average hockey career is about 6 years, I'd say he's had his fair share.

There's going to be a presser this morning about it.

Awwww, Dom. Now will start the "He was probably the best individual player in franchise history... sooooooo.... about that #39 thing.... about that being a big jerkface thing......." YESSSSS. Bring it ON. I, personally, do not have a strong opinion about the ordeal, because I'm not 100% sure what went down when Dom left town. That rhymed, ha.

For serious though, peeps. Leaving Buffalo is a great way for me to be reminded of why its so great. The town I was in is just so small and small minded. To most people there, there's nothing going on outside of their county. It just doesn't affect them, in their minds. I SAW A BUNCH OF MENNONITES PLAYING SOFTBALL.

It's just a weird town, the accent is weird, the people are weird, the number of radio stations that's main airplay is NOT country or Christian rock is like barely countable. Gas is cheaper there, so that's a plus. It's not technically in the South, but it sure do feel like it is. Not the BAD South, but not the good South like Nashville or Atlanta.

Whatev, I'm just glad I don't live thar where thar's no hockey and whar thar's lots o' scrunchies and Aquanet's still in bizness.

NHL Awards on Thursday! Woo!

T-freakin-G-I-F

By Anne

Nothing too exciting to report from the world of hockey this morning.

There were 4 shootouts last night. That's a lot. This means I firmly expect the word "nip" to appear in many headlines on NHL.com today. The Edmonton/ Washington game went 12 rounds, that's a lot. Especially when NO ONE HAD SCORED IN THE FIRST 11 ROUNDS. How boring and tedious. You have to feel bad for the goaltenders. They're clearly putting forth their effort and their shooters just can't connect. After 11 shooters, you just start putting anyone out there, if we got to 12, I think James Patrick (or Jeep as they apparently call him, thank you Derek Roy) should take a whack at it. I love that Matt Bradley was just like, "I'll score, let me go" so Bruce was like, fine, at this point, just go for it, the pickin's have got to be slim. Dude had only scored 2 goals all season and he went out and beat Roloson. That takes balls to pretend to be that confident (he later admitted that he wasn't as confident as he sounded), but whatever! he scored the only goal of the shootout. Well done, Mr. Bradley.

Does anyone else feel completely apathetic about inter-conference games? Yeah last night's game was almost record setting for the Caps in shootout length but I really couldn't have cared less. It's cool that the Caps won, I'm glad. For some reason I have a special place in my heart for the Caps. My sister, MK, chooses to love the Blackhawks because for so long no one in Chicago did. It doesn't help when you can't watch your own team play home games on TV. Fools. Fortunately they've changed that and made some funny little commercials to talk about it:



They go in order of seniority down the bench all ending with Kaner! I read somewhere that they filmed these commercials really really fast with very little prep, but fans always like to see their team being normal, so well done, Chicago Blackhawks. Might I add that there are some good looking Chicago Blackhawks, maybe MK is on to something...

Every team seems to be snapping losing streaks these days: the aforementioned Blackhawks, the Leafs (ew)...the Sabres...? I can't watch tonight's game. I'm thinking of DVRing it, waiting to see if we won, and if we did, then I'll watch it. I just seriously can't take losing. Although I just realized I didn't set my DVR before I left my apartment this morning. I won't be home before the game starts. Whoops, there goes that plan. If only you could program the DVR remotely. Let's look at some more of those attractive hockey players:



It's also amazing how much more attractive most hockey players are than their roster photos would indicate. Most roster photos are less flattering than 2 a.m. DUI mugshots.

In a twisted snap of irony, the "I heart Buffalo Hockey" sweatshirt I ordered on Dec 26th (mere hours before this slide began) finally arrived yesterday. Perfect timing. Maybe this will be the thing that snaps their streak (yes I'm just a tiny bit hockey superstitious) never mind the fact that Roysie could be back in the line-up tonight as well, it's clearly the presence of my sweatshirt that will change everything.

Even though there have been no wins, I would still like to give out a BAMF award. It's a tie among Goosie, Pie-Yay and Grizz. I cannot imagine where this team would be without them. A special nod to Pommerdoodle as well, but we expect those results from you. For the most part, we didn't expect as much as we got from those three. So I say you each get your own BAMF award. Because, in this time of BAMF-less Sabres hockey, we need our heroes to give us hope. And, Grizz, next time I see Brendan Shanahan, I'll kick him in the kidneys. It probably won't hurt, but it's the thought that counts. Pie-YAY, same goes for Volchenkov, except I'll kick him in the face. And Goosie... well, actually, why don't you fight those other two and I'll cheer for you, it'll probably be more effective if you (who are nearly a foot taller than me and much more bad-ass) take them on.