Wheeeeeee!

by Anne

That game was so much fun it was totally bonkers.

I'm all heart-bursty with pride over our little American sweethearts.

It's so exciting that the whole world is getting just a taste of the Ryan Miller brand of badass.

Also, Canada, wtf? Marty? Not good.

I got the Dustin Brown/ Drew Doughty 1-on-1 match-up I'd been hoping for. I'd call it a draw.

SO EXCITED CAN'T EVEN TAKE IT.

U-S-A! U-S-A! U-S-A! U-S-A!

USA v Canada

by Anne

Living up yonder in the Northern United States, we are in extremely close proximity to Canadia and Canadian people. If I were to leave my house right now, barring any back-ups on the bridge, I could be in Canada in about 15 minutes. 

The "Canada sucks! America sucks!" battle is a daily occurrence for me and the other residents of WNY and I'm sure any of the cities that dot the world's largest non-hostile border. It's funny to see friends in other parts of the country get all riled up about tonight's game. The hockey world likes to push Russia-Canada as a huge rivalry and it is, but I don't think anyone gets as worked up about it as Canada - USA. There aren't a whole lot of events in which the United States is near but not at the top. There are clearly several events that are dominated by other countries but usually the USA lags far back in those. There aren't many Olympic events in which the Americans sit in the middle of the pack. The USA has long been considered the 4th place lock behind (in varying order) Canada, Russia and Sweden.

I don't have a whole lot of thoughts on tonight's game other than I'm ridiculously pumped and I want to crush Canada. However, I feel as though there is no chance this will happen. 

Everyone has been all "Oh noes! Lindy Ruff! He's going to tell them where to shoot on Miller!" Yes, this is true, however, Zach Parise and Brian Rafalski are/were Marty Brodeur's teammates and Ryan Kesler is Roberto Luongo's teammate, I'd call the playing field fairly even in the "What about the GOALIE?!" argument.

I really really hope Drew Doughty and Dustin Brown end up out there on the ice against each other. Brownie hits like a freight train and Dewey has nearly mastered the art of the clean hipcheck, so it'll be interesting to see who'd get the upper hand in one of those one-on-one battles.

Also, my favorite American defenseman NOT on Team USA has been featured in an exciting video this break. Enjoy. I've missed him so. I wanted to embed the video but it wouldn't work. CURSES.

U-S-A! U-S-A!

How could I forget him?!

by Anne

I just remembered that I forgot to post this picture of my favorite behbeh Canadian, Drew Doughty in my previous post:

Ahhh!!
Sweetums doesn't have a snowball's chance in H-E-DoubleHockeySticks of making the Olympic team but its still pretty kick-ass that he was invited to camp!

Real hockey is SO. SOON.

Speaking of the Kings, Hockey Fest '09 is this weekend in Los Angeles. If only I weren't 3,000+ miles away. Le sigh.

Team Canada is more interesting than Team USA

by Anne

Clearly I am an American citizen, having been born in New York State. Therefore I will be cheering for Team USA come Olympics time.

Yet, Team Canada boasts so many more players that I hold near and dear to my heart.

Sure Team USA has Miller, Kesler.... uhhhh and... ummmm David Backes? But Team Canada boasts such beloved favorites as Jarome Iginla, Rick Nash and Jordan Staal.

Must. Look. Less. Doofy. Than. Brothers.


The man can do no wrong


Nooo, please don't become a mountain man again, Nasher!
I'll adore you regardless but, pleeeeease?

If the sight of Derek Roy's photo didn't make me dry-heave, I might have posted it. However, as I cannot bear to subject you all to the grotesque eye-roll inducing portrait, I will leave it out.

There are, however, three portraits that cannot go un-ridiculed noted:

Dan Boyle will defeat the enemy with his Stink-Eye of Death


Tazer is only allowed out of the bell-tower to play hockey and stare uncomfortably at his opponents.


Vinny looks like he's about to puke and topple head-first into the camera
It suits him...?


A mutiny a-brewin', Lindy?


Marty St. Louis is horrified. Simply horrified.
He's just seen who his linemates are...


And its not these guys. They're Sid's wingmen
I love it.


What are the odds they're speaking English?


Adorable.

Proof that Marc and Jordan don't like Eric:


Jordan chills while a trainer... does something with Marc's ankles


Jordan: I'm gonna break Eric's stick
Marc: Ok, just make sure its really his and not mine this time, bro.
Nope, there are no photos of Eric with either of his baby bros. He must be a jerk.

That concludes my foray into the enemy's orientation camp. Not surprisingly, Team USA's stuff is not as interesting.

Oh Lindy

by Anne

Lindy Ruff was officially introduced as an associate coach for the 2010 Canadian Olympic team. Team Canada executive director, Steve Yzerman, introduced the coaching staff in Montreal. Mike Babcock of the Detroit Red Wings is the head coach and will work with Jacques Lemaire, Ken Hitchcock of the Columbus Blue Jackets and our very own Lindy Ruff. Each member of the team was introduced, presented with a jersey and spoke very briefly with the press. Lindy's comments probably excited Canadians, but gave pause to Sabres fans. He said something to the effect of "let's skip the season and get started."

Uhhhh... how about we don't?

Canada, like Buffalo, likes it Ruff

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.

Whoa, Canada

by Anne

Team Canada defeated team Kazakhstan 15-0 today.

Kazakhstan has allowed 24 goals in two games and has scored exactly none.

Tyler Ennis had a goal and 2 assists and Tyler Myers notched his first goal of the tournament. Hilariously, one player, PK Subban was a +6 in this game alone. Hahahaha. He's now a +9 for the tournament after only 2 games.

Thusfar, projected #1 or #2 overall pick John Tavares is living up to the hype. He has 4 goals and 3 assists for 7 points but is 2nd on the team in scoring to Vancouver prospect Cody Hodgson who has 8. (2+6)

The Tylers are tied for shooting percentage on the team at 50%. Myers has 1 goal on 2 shots and Ennis has 2 goals on 4 shots. Sweeet.

Poor Kazakhstan.

Team USA won today 4-3 over the Czech Republic. Thomas McCollum got the start again.

Wooooooooooo! Keep it up U-S-A!

He Just Won't Stop Growing

by Anne

On Wednesday, Team Canada announced their tryout roster for the 2008-2009 World Juniors team.

Both of Buffalo's first round picks, "The Tylers" (Myers and Ennis) were selected to attend the selection camp. I'm not sure how this works for Myers because he's technically not Canadian. He was born in Texas and moved to Canada when he was 12 or so. In a pre-draft interview he said that Team Canada couldn't have him even if they wanted him because he had not yet obtained dual citizenship. I'm assuming that paperwork has been rushed right along and he's eligible. Otherwise, this might just be a "Hey, come on by and see how it goes and then we'll use you when you're actually a Canadian citizen." Team Canada is such a tease.

On the stats sheet, our Jolly Blonde Giant, Tyler Myers has grown... again. According to the sheet he is now 6'7.5" and 213 lbs. When Central Scouting released his stats in June he was 6'7" and 204 lbs. Hopefully he's adding inches on his frame horizontally and not just vertically. After reading Central Scouting's info, they say he's "just over 6'7", so perhaps Team Canada is just more into details than the NHL. Much like Mrs. Staal, I'd like to speak to Tyler's mommy and figure out what the crap she feeds her son, Miracle-Gro?

Work it, JBG

FYI, also on the stats sheet, Tyler Ennis has apparently shrunk an inch and gained 19 pounds since June. For the draft he was listed at 5'9", 146lbs. For the roster he's 5'8", 165 lbs.

Good luck, Tylers!

I've un-friended most of the hockey players I was friends with on Facebook, but I can't bring myself to unfriend Tyler Myers, hahahahaha. He's so young! He hasn't done anything to anger me!

I ordered a new part from Apple on Monday, they said it'd be here Wednesday... its Friday and still no love. This extra keyboard thing is slightly cumbersome.

So much work left to doooooooo.

I Just Took a Test Worth 25% of My Final Grade in 16 Minutes

by Anne

In my Exceptional Education class (aka Intro to Special Ed) we have only 4 things that count towards our grade: 4 tests spread throughout the semester. I just took test #1. The test started at 8:00, I was walking to the library at 8:17. It was 50 multiple choice questions BUT 1 of the questions was "In what city is Buffalo State College located?" the options were like A. Buffalo B. San Francisco C. Miami and D. Berlin or something, another one was if we had filled in our name and another was if we had written the color of our test (its one of those huge classes that hands out multiple versions of the same test to avoid cheating. So I got at least 3 correct. Buff State is in Western Europe, right? Berlin was a good answer, right?

HA.

So Eric Staal signed a huge contract with the 'Canes the other day that was just rejected by the NHL. Hahahahahahahahahahaha. Whoops. Way to screw up the wording on that no-trade clause, proving that no-trade clauses are the devil. The only time a no-trade clause should be on the table is if the player has some family member with a serious NEED to stay in that town. Teppo has a no-trade clause and I am totally fine with that. He's the only one that does, but he earned it.

How you doin'

I hope to high heaven this doesn't mean he wants to coach. Gretzky doesn't want to be the executive director of Team Canada anymore and Cap'n Steve will most likely assume the throne. The Great One is staying on in a lower level position. Does he want less pressure? Would being executive director be an issue if the 'Yotes somehow manage to drug the rest of their division and sneak into the playoffs? Yzerman seems more suited to the position, as he's been the Men's team general manager at the World Champs the last 2 years and put together 2 medal winning teams. Wait, don't I WANT Team Canada to be bad? I do! U-S-A! U-S-A! Phew. Go Wayne, coach that team. Wooo!

Are we having any rookie tournament games, because that'd be sweeeeeeeet. I'd love to see Gerbe tearin' it up out there again, showing off his skillz to the rest of the NHL. No? Maybe? Darcy? Lindy? Ok, get back to me on that one, I'll be waiting with my new sign. It's no longer "NATHAN GERBE WHY WON'T YOU BE MY FACEBOOK FRIEND" instead, I've changed it to "NATHAN GERBE, THANKS FOR BEING MY FACEBOOK FRIEND, CALL ME LATER, WE'LL GET PIZZA", followed by my phone number. I'm pretty sure he'll be so moved by my outpouring of love and affection he'll leap over the glass and we'll immediately flee the pepsi center to get mani-pedis and discuss why Tim Kennedy gives such awkward interviews, but why we still love him anyway.

Gerb-dogg is bowled over by my love
My love is a hockey player from Wisconsin or something like that

I have orientation or training or something at the Arena today. Wooooooooooo!!!! How exciting. The first home pre-season game is next Friday. Wa-hooo!!!! Puck Drop is Saturday. I'd love to go, but I'm sure it'll be a mad house, so I'm pretty sure I won't end up going.