Soccer is Bananas

by Anne

Yeah, yeah the NHL Awards are tonight, the draft is Friday, Free Agency day is practically null and void because rights to UFAs are being traded like Silly Bandz in a fifth grade classroom.

HOWEVER, I have only watched two games of the World Cup but they were both pretty exciting. Well, almost all of the USA v. Slovenia was exciting and the last three or four minutes of USA v. Algeria was exciting.

Landon Donovan is a true American Hero. I've cared way more than I thought I would about these games. 

This is way more exciting than the last time the USA represented our country in international competition and no, I'm not referring to the Olympics. I'm referring entirely to the World Championships this past May when the USA was forced to play in the relegation round. RELEGATION? That's atrocious. It's true we sent mostly our C-squad and Jack Johnson was our captain, but jeez louise.

American Heroes v. 2010

:)

Woooo!!!

Hey look! Other hockey!

by Anne

I don't like whining, I don't like bitching. Therefore, when the Sabres lost and that's all I could think to write, I opted to not write at all.

I won't pretend to have any solutions or suggestions for the Sabres moving forward but I'm just sick of nothing. ever. changing. We've been following the same system(barf) in management and on the ice for several years and the product isn't working.

I think Lindy Ruff is a nice guy but I question his effectiveness in this post-lockout, post-Chris Drury era.  Change for the sake of change isn't always grand but at least it will be something different. I'm fairly confident I've written something like this before, but doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result is the very definition of insanity.

***************

Moving on. Now that the first round is over, the Team USA roster for the World Championships will be expanded upon today. There was no one worth mentioning on the first list and I had sincerely hoped to be busy watching the Sabres or Kings in the 2nd round instead of the Worlds. Alas.

To my joy and delight, both Jack Johnson and Matt Greene will be playing for Team USA in Germany. Andy Greene will also be playing for Team USA. I'm not sure, but considering the creativity of most hockey players, I'm guessing they both go by "Greener." Hilarity will undoubtedly ensue, as they are also both defensemen. Perchance they will even be paired together. I also enjoy that Kevin Allen referred to them as "The Greenes" in his blog post. How presh.

Tim Kennedy will play as well, yay! Nick Foligno will allow me a brief respite to like him once again. I am utterly terrified by our goaltending situation. Right now it stands as Scott Clemmensen and Ben Bishop. Good ol' Bish. He'll definitely make things happen... right? Really? Was Robert Esche not available? Conkblock? Fine. World Championship teams in Olympic years are wicked lame.

Round 2 of the playoffs start today and the Worlds start in a week. 

Sigh. I think I'm going to check out of the second round and wait until the Conference finals to give a crap about the NHL this season. 

It's so much easier to like the playoffs without your team if your team was never in the playoffs to begin with.

Ok so they didn't win.

by Anne

I was so bummed out on Sunday. Like, epically. However, not because Sidney Crosby scored the game winner. Who the eff cares who scored it? I know why people originally hated Sidney Crosby but it's just become pathetic and oddly trendy to hate him. Like you've got the "inside scoop on hockey" if you hate Sidney Crosby. Listen, when something is this popular and trendy, it's not the "inside scoop on hockey" it's mob rule. You are not original if you don't like Sidney Crosby.

I am sad about only getting silver but silver is better than ANYONE predicted they'd do. The highest MSM writer I'd seen rank them was 3rd. Most everyone had Sweden, Canada and Russia mixing it up for the medals and the US finishing 4th.

Take THAT, MSM!

Brian Williams said it best as he signed off the Nightly News on Monday night:

"To US goalie Ryan Miller, pride of the Buffalo Sabres...we'll get 'em next time."

DAMN RIGHT WE WILL, BRIAN. DAMN. RIGHT.

He's already coming for ya, Canada... through this odd ice-block window.

We HAVE to win

 by Anne

I feel like I did before game 7 in 2009. It's not the ultimate prize for my personal hockey fandom but I've never cared more about Olympic hockey.

Team USA has to win on Sunday.

They just have to.

USA v. Canada, 3:15pm EST.

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

Yes I skipped class to watch the USA/Switzerland game

by Anne

Oh hey guys.

As Ron Wilson so eloquently stated the other day, if you were to have told me that Team USA would be 4-0 at this point in the tournament, I would've assumed you were on crack. 

Nevertheless, here we find ourselves with just that record. Now we move on to the semifinals round where we compete to see which medals we will play for. If we lose to Finland we'll play either Slovakia(!) or Canada for Bronze, if we win, we'll play one of those opponents for Gold and still get silver if we lose.

Now that Luongo's shown that he's Canada's man (and should've been all along) I feel far less confident about facing Canada again in either of those games. A large percentage of the credit for our win over Canada goes to Martin Brodeur for crapping the proverbial bed.

TONI LYDMAN IS GOIN' DOWN.

Hey, also, the rest of the Sabres are back in town! I saw Tyler Myers and Paul Gaustad on my TV yesterday and squealed. It's like I wrote once about the All-Star break, it feels like we've been cheating on our significant other with newer, shinier teams and players but once we're reminded of how adorable and plucky the team waiting for us back home is, we're excited for them to come back.

The Olympics have been a super fun break from the stress of the NHL schedule for more than just the players, the fans need a break too, especially because we were S-L-U-M-P-I-N-G before the break and slid into 5th. I'm not quite as concerned because we have three games in hand over Ottawa but we needed this Olympic break to wash that bad taste out of our mouths.

Hopefully Miller will come back energized and not drained.

I also feel as though I'm the only one who's glad Miller has been playing the last two weeks. He hasn't faced all that many shots (not including the Canada game, duh) and he's been able to stay in top game form. I'm fairly certain I'd be more concerned if he'd been sitting around for two weeks, especially considering he was slumping a tad before the break. I'm glad he's been playing, he'll come back to us still in game-day form. However, here's hoping Lindy gives him a game off here and there, he'll need it come playoff time.

Also, Russia, WTF?

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!

U-S-A! We're in first! Take THAT, CANADA.

by Anne

It's been a ridiculous few days but things have settled themselves down a bit as I've caught up and gotten ahead on some work for some of my classes. PHEW.

Here's a weird stat: The United States is currently AHEAD of Canada in their group because the Swiss took Canada to a shootout today and team USA has won both of their games in regulation.

This does not, of course, mean that the USA/ Canada game on Sunday is going to be any less of a bloodbath. I predict a 6-2 Canada victory, being kind to team USA.

Anyway to recap Team USA's first two games:

Game 1 v. Switzlerland did not start out so strong. I wasn't completely surprised considering the recipe for a winning team is not "put in equal parts skill and size, add water and BOOM." Still, they managed to win 3-1. Hiller played well, he's no slouch and the Swiss defense did help him a little bit.

 

It's no secret that my love for David Backes is unconditional

His end-to-end goal was a thing of pure beauty.

A situation Jonas Hiller is not altogether unfamiliar with: Dustin Brown all up in his grill.

These boys don't mess around with "keep your eye on the puck."

That's focus right there.

Thursday Team USA took on Norway and finally seemed to figure out how to play like a team in the final five minutes and they won 6-1. I'm sure part of their late-game success is also related to the fact that the Norwegians were worn down by the high paced competition.

Ok I know he hasn't been THAT busy these past two games but this is the only photo on IIHF.com in which you can see all of Ryan Miller.

And he's being scored on.

Shorthanded.

Jack Johnson fail.

So so so excited for the game against Canada!

The other Sabres or Kings photos in the tournament:

 

Reggie v. Czech Republic

The mullet.

Oh man.

I assure you, that's Henrik Tallinder

Sadly, no photos of Yoyo and Hank battling along the boards.

HA.

Some things don't change

Fear the Fin

Dewey defending against Mats Zuccarello Aasen

Yes, both of those last names are on Mats' jersey.

Awesome.

Other news:

My Google Reader is so backlogged it's BONKERS.

Khabibulin was arrested?! His mugshot is better than his roster photo, maybe he should call the Edmonton PD and see if he can trade.

Huzzah!

by Anne

The first 2:11 of last night's game was sa-weeeet. It's like the Sabres were apologizing for all their slow starts lately. However in those four slow starts we were 4-0-0 so as one of the writers on Puck Daddy wrote, I don't really know what we were complaining about.

The rest of that game was a tad sloppy but at least 2/3 of our top six scored! Thomas Vanek and Derek Roy will be shoveling more driveways, it seems...

Myers got his fourth on a nifty shot after a very clean offensive zone faceoff win, then MacArthur, Stafford, Hecht, and Pominville scored the other four. It was an exciting game, however there were many downsides and extremely little hitting.

Speaking of hitting, I got my answer as to why Matt Greene didn't register any hits the other night against San Jose. It appears Greener has been nursing a sore back for the last few days that pulled him out at the beginning of practice on Wednesday :( No word on whether or not he'll play against Detroit tonight. My fantasy team needs hits. That is not a category I'm accustomed to trailing in.

I didn't get to watch the gold medal game the other night as it happened but I watched it today and WOOOOOOO!!!! That was such an exciting game. SO excited for next year. Defending on home soil! It made me sad to see so many of Team USA's top prospects belonged to such yucky teams as Toronto (D'Amigo) and the Rangers (Stepan). Hey, Jack Campbell's still draftable! Eh?! Eh?! Ok FINE we don't really need another behbeh goalie, but it can't hurt to stockpile, right? RIGHT?!

Nathan Paetsch cleared waivers. Whoopdedoo.

I tweeted this last night, but after Kevin Bieksa went down with a nasty leg laceration and will miss up to three months, I picked up Steve Downie on my fantasy team because Bieksa's biggest contribution to my team was PIM. However, Steve has not been delivering. He has three points since I picked him up but zero PIM. So: STEVE! Make with the puchy-punchy. We all know you like it. Thanks, Anne.

Camp Morningwood releases Camp Roster

by Anne

Team USA released their invitees to this summer's orientation camp.

From the Sabres, only Ryan Miller was invited. I thought Pommer and Goose were a long shot but I thought Stafford would have been tapped. He's played for Team USA at least three times before, including winning the United States only gold medal at the World Juniors in 2004.

Alas.

Other players of note:

Hometown boys Pat Kane and Brooks Orpik were given invitations.

Jack Johnson, Dustin Brown and Jonathan Quick were given invitations. Quickie has no chance of getting either the starting or first back-up job, but its great to see him included. In four years, Tim Tom might not be able to play and he'd have a strong chance of being named the back-up behind Millsy.

Phil Kessel was given an invitation even though he will not be able to participate. He just had surgery that will keep him out of action for at least three more months. (The camp is in mid-August).

All in all, the lists are pretty good. Are they as good as Team Canada... weeell, that' remains to be seen, but especially on defense, things are looking big and mean, which doesn't surprise me considering Brian Burke made this list. I'm surprised JM Liles wasn't given a nod. He'd bring some much needed offensive zip from the blue line, but so can guys like Gilbert and Johnson, both of whom are bigger than JM Liles.

In keeping with the question of size, is that why Team USA staple Jason Blake was not invited? That'll be an awkward conversation in the hallways of the Air Canada Centre.

My new-found beloved David Backes was also invited. Yesss. I mean, I want the team to win, but I'd like them to look good doing it.

Oldie but goodie Mike Modano was invited to camp. Mikey is the last of the era goneby to be invited to camp.

With the exceptions of Modano, Drury, Gomez, Thomas, and Malone the rest of the invitees are in their 20s. The old guard of the '06 Olympics have all but retired and its time to start breeding a new era of American hockey.

I'm a little annoyed at Burkey for some of the ommissions, but, as he said, we'd be surprised by some of the names left off the list, and he's right. Dustin Byfuglien but not Stafford? Makes little sense to me.

You can read the whole annoucementand download the roster here.

Live Blogging the Semifinals: USA v. Russia

by Anne

I'm stealing Katebits' awesome format to do a liveblog of sorts of today's semifinal game between the United States and Russia. I hope Katebits does not mind as flattery is the sincerest form of imitation... no wait, you can lead a horse to water but you can't fold a piece of paper in half more than seven times. Yes. That's it. Watch the game with me, won't you?

Pregame

Mood: A little stressed because I'm attempting to finish a terrible paper that has to be electronically submitted by noon. Oh, the game? I'm feeling a sense of "Now we get to play for bronze!" (which is what happens if we lose today, FYI).

Favorite American: Robert Esche. I covet him from afar.

Least Favorite American: Peter Harrold. He seems useless

Prediction: Uhhh this is not going to go well for the United States. This USA team has already surprised me and this year's Russian team is without Ovechkin and Nabokov but, come on. According to some article that I didn't read on the IIHF website, history favors the United States. Really? I predict Russia wins 6-2.

College Tradition that represents how I feel this game will go: Final exam for the class I didn't attend on a consistent basis and forgot about the exam until 10 minutes before

I definitely shouldn't have been drinking the morning before this test

After the First (0-0)

Mood: Cautiously optimistic. We actually OUT SHOT the Russians in that period! There's no play by play so I feel like I'm jsut sitting in the stands watching the game. Good?

Favorite American: Patrick O'Sullivan literally shot Ilya Kovalchuk's stick straight up into the air and did not get a whistle for it. Awesome

Least Favorite American: Kyle Okposo

College tradition representing the game thus far: The Frat Party

You managed to escape without being puked on or date-raped. So far, so good.

After the Second (2-2)

Mood:This game has been very topsy turvy. After pretty much dominating the first, the USA started to look like they were going down for the count, but a late Russian penalty gave the USA a power play goal.

Favorite American: Dustin Brown. First for opening the scorind and 2nd for attempting to open-ice hit Ilya Kovalchuk and knocking yourself over instead

Least Favorite American: Still Kyle Okposo. I know he scored and all but he just looks like that annoying kid that no one on the team likes because he talks to much and cries when he gets hit in the face in dodgeball

College Tradition representing this game so far: The one friend with a car

Remember Freshman year when only the annoying girl across the hall had wheels and you needed to go to the store?
I mean, it wasn't THAT bad, but you didn't really LOVE doing it

End of the Game, Final score: Russia 3 USA 2

Mood: Disappointed. They played better than I thought they would but a late power play goal by Russia squashed their chances to advance to the gold medal game. They play either Canada or Sweden for bronze on Sunday. Loser goes home with nada.

Favorite American: David Backes. Just cuz.

Least Favorite American: Kyle Okposo. I stand by my convictions. Even though he was named the game's best player, he still annoys me.

College Tradition representing the game as a whole: Surprise! Mom came to visit and your apartment is a disaster

Just when you were enjoying your semester BOOM!
Mom comes over and has a heart attack over your messy place and you have to clean it

USA Advances!

by Anne

For the first time since 2004, Team USA advances past the quarterfinals!!

Hooray!

I was doing my awesome Anne Happy Dance which I wish I could demonstrate on here so you could all do it. It involves a lot of hip shaking and and "raising the roof" style arm movements accompanied by a few well timed "aw yeah"s for good measure.

So I'm in my kitchen happy dancing away, scaring the cat and I have the following thought: "Woo! Semifinals! So who do we have to pl- oh. Damn." We have to play Russia. Friggin' A. Well it was nice to make it to the Semis.

During the game, Kyle Okposo missed on a wraparound attempt that he probably should've been able to stuff in and in the replay we were inadvertently treated to a super slo-mo version of Kyle saying "Eff me." It was pretty nice.

YO. What the hell. I'm looking for pictures while I'm typing this and the gallery is five pages long. Normally its three. Maybe its because it was Finland's final game? Whatevs.

Unlike the other games, I actually got to watch this one. Universalsports.com has a really nice high-quality streaming video of the games (its free). I thoroughly enjoy watching my team rather than just looking at a continually refreshing boxscore.

Because I was actually watching with my own to eyes, I got to see the Sabres fans in attendance:

They were moving way too much and so this picture quality is not so great.


Gerbe-Derby getting international love!

The game was definitely a seesaw. The first period was all Finland as the USA took a slew of penalties and played a lot of the 2nd half of the period short-handed. Finland fired 20 shots on Robert Esche in the first frame but Esche stood tall in net and kept his team in it. The Finns didn't solve Robbie until the first minute of the second at the end of a penalty that had been taken in the last minute of the first.

It looked like the Finns were ready to build on their lead until they took a penalty. Finally, Team USA got their heads together and managed to turn the game in their favor. The Finns took the next five penalties and even though they only scored on one of them, the rest of the game was all USA. All five goals were scored in the 2nd period and the USA won 3-2, mostly thanks to the play of Robert Esche.

Even the announcers were like "He's been in RUSSIA for the last two years. Can you BELIEVE it?" I mean he's not the greatest goaltender in the world but I think he'd be a good back-up. HINT. HINT. He's only 31. I'm not sayin'... I'm just sayin'.

Being in the Semifinals means if the USA wins (which they won't) they will play for Gold/Silver. If they lose, they will play for Bronze. Either way, they have a shot at a medal for the first time in many years. I honestly didn't expect this team to do better than last year's team but I was wrong, obviously.

Now for some photography:

Nick Foligno pushes Senator teammate Jarkko Ruutu to the ice
I like that Foligno kid, he's a good egg.
Too bad he's a Senator.
But HA, Ruutu


Dustin Brown scored the USA's first goal on a 5 on 3 after some beautifully crisp passing from his teammates
Hainsey shot it from the blue line, cross-ice to Suter just above the dot, to Brownie who was, well where he is in the picture.
It would seem this is a good way to score on Pekka Rinne, so TJ Oshie did the same thing on a 3-on-1 rush a bit later:


Nice.


Never fear, Little Foot's intense eyebrows showed up for the game


Let's discuss a few things.
1. How tiny is Jason Blake?
2. How tall are those boards?
3. Was Antti Miettinen hit by a sniper?
4. Why is he using his Minnesota Wild gloves? Is he just that particular? Would team Finland not foot the bill?
5. Could Team USA look less impressed by this game? Little Foot looks about ready to nod off, Nick Foligno looks like he's yawning and Joe Pavelski... well, he always looks like that.

Team USA takes on Russia Friday at 10:15 am EST.

Weekend O' Pictures

by Anne

I worked about a gajillion hours this weekend so I was a negligent blogger. Here now is a recap in pictures:

NHL:

Sighs.The Canucks lost a bad one to the Blackhawks. They blew a two goal lead and dropped Game 2 by a score of 6-3. Ouch. That one stung. I wasn't watching too closely as I was working and/or at a bar in which the game was on a TV that was very far away and there was no sound. Le sigh. The series is tied 1-1. On the bright side, this was the first loss of the post-season for the Canucks, and no one thought that this series would be a sweep.

Also, we tragically learned that Big Bear has a neck beard:

I think I can get over it.
I think.
Just keep playing physically and I can get over it.
Maybe score a goal.

IIHF Worlds:

Team USA played Russia on Saturday and lost 4-1. Boooo. And Staffy cut his face in the game against France, it would seem (some of the pics from the game against France did not load when I wanted them to the other night):

Ouch.
But NOT a neckbeard.

But don't worry, Staffy and his uber-intense excited eyebrows were still available for Saturday's yicky loss to Russia:

Please don't grow a mustache Drew, those are gross.
Much like that game.

Team USA next faces Switzerland this afternoon at 2:15 ET. Woooo!

Team Austria has done quite well in the Relegation Round. They beat Hungary 6-0 on Friday and Sunday morning at 6:15 am ET they beat Yoyo and Germany 1-0. Vanek had the only assist on the only goal Sunday morning.

Britters is interviewed, probably in German.

Austria next plays Denmark today... oh wait, the game will have already started by the time this is posted. Whoops. I'll edit this to add the score, I'm sure. ETA: Austria lost 5-2 and will be demoted back to Division I. :(

Team Canada defeated Norway 5-1 Sunday afternoon. Team Canada remains undefeated thusfar in the tournament.

Royzie, dangerously close to being a dirty Swiss hooker



Dewey melts hearts internationally with this little Canadian fan
Look! He's holding a stuffed Cooly!
Where can I get a stuffed Cooly?

Team Canada next beats plays Finland at 2:15 today in the final day of Qualification round play. Team USA needs to win today to make it to the Quarterfinals.

International Collapse

by Anne

Yesterday I "watched" (checked the live boxscore) Team USA take on Sweden. Things were going great, Team USA was outshooting the Swedes 33-17 through the 2nd and at one point in the 3rd held a 5-2 lead. Yet they somehow managed to turn that into a 6-5 loss in overtime. Good to know its not just the Sabres who do that. Epic Third Period Collapse goes Global.

Get it together please, boys.

A brief overview of how the World Championships work:

Sixteen countries are divided into four divisions of four teams each. (A,B,C,D)

The top 16 countries in the world are divided into four Groups:
Group A: Canada, Belarus, Slovakia, Hungary
Group B: Russia, Switzerland, France, Gremany
Group C: Sweden, USA, Latvia, Austria
Group D: Czech Republic, Norway, Finland, Denmark

The first round (the one that just ended) has each team playing the other three teams in their division once. The three teams with the best records move on to the Qualification round. The #4 team in each division goes on to the Relegation round and the team that fares the worst is sent back to Division I.

Relegation teams:
Germany
Austria
Denmark
Hungary

In the Qualification round, the three teams from Groups A and D combine to make Group F and the three remaining teams from Groups B and C combine to make Group E. The teams play the three teams in their new group that they didn't play in the Preliminary round.

Group E: Sweden, Russia, Switzerland, USA, France, Latvia
Group F: Canada, Czech Republic, Norway, Finland, Belarus

After the Qualification round, the tournament becomes single-elimination. The top four teams from Groups E and the top four teams from Group F move on to the Quarter finals. #1 in Group E plays #4 in Group F, #2 Group E plays #3 Group F and so on.

After THAT comes the semi finals. The four remaining teams will play to see who makes it to the Gold medal game and who to the Bronze. The two teams that win will meet in the Gold medal game and the two teams that lose will meet in the Bronze medal game.

Phew that took a while to explain.

Team USA started in Group C with Sweden, Latvia and Austira and is now Group E. They still have to play France, Russia and Switzerland, formerly members of Group B. Austria was the fourth place team in Group C and is facing relegation. :(

Team USA's next game is Friday at 2:15 EST against France.

USA Wins First Game of Tournament

by Anne

The United States Men won their first game against Latvia 4-2 this morning!

It would seem that only current and former Los Angeles Kings are able to score in this tournament, but Brown, O'Sullivan and Johnson were kind enough to let this gent score too:

Nick Foligno and Drew Stafford put down their Sabre/Senator masks to celebrate Staffy's goal

Woooo! Drew Stafford scored Team USA's 2nd goal!

Jack Johnson (LAK, duh) scored twice and was named the Team USA player of the game, which means he was photographed with the awesome cow mascot:

Nice.

Goaltender Robert Esche who made 18 saves on 20 shots declared this was the best that Team USA has ever played against Latvia in his eight years playing in this tournament. Apparently Matt Niskanen was really freaked out about playing Latvia (click to enlarge):

Just close my eyes and SHOOT
Images from IIHF.com

Team USA fired 38 shots and were 0-4 on the power play.

Also, for those who might not remember, I'm very pro-Robert Esche. Here's a sentence from the game recap about Robbie:

"Robert Esche won his eighth career game in World Championship play. He has a 1.87 goals against average and a .938 save percentage in 13 career games played at the World Championship"

Well done, sir. How's Russia?

Their next game is Monday against Thomas Vanek and Team Austria at 10:15 am EST.

Writing Things in Lists is Easier

by Anne

• Team USA lost their first exhibition game yesterday by a score of 5-2. Dustin Brown scored both goals. Robert Esche stopped 16 of 17 in about 30 minutes of ice time and Al Montoya stopped 13 of 17 in about the same amount of time. Thank goodness its only an exhibition game. I'm not hopeful for a medal this year like I was last year and they finished 5th
  

• Calder Trophy Nominees (top rookie in the NHL) were announced today. Kris Versteeg of the Chicago Blackhawks, Steve Mason of the Columbus Blue Jackets and Bobby Ryan of the Anaheim Ducks. I'd give it to Mason. Being a goaltender is tough enough, nevermind being a rookie and posting 10 shutouts to bring your team to the playoffs for the first time. They're probably going to be swept out but Mason was the one who snagged them the invite.

• Why wasn't Dewey (Drew Doughty) nominated for the Calder? :(
  

• In case you missed my last post, the Canucks won last night in OT and swept the first round series against the St. Louis Blues. Just prior to the game I watched Steve Bernier cook a pasta dish and my life became that much more complete.

• Our poll is quite close and at last count Matt Greene, Ryan Kesler and James Wisniewski are all tied for first. I love that you are all obviously influenced by this blog because who the hell has ever heard of Matt Greene outside of Edmonton and LA and perhaps his hometown in Michigan(?) This is really bad, I should really know where he's from. I'm a bad fan. Yes, its Michigan, I checked NHL.com.

• The Sabres REALLY want you to tune in at 12:30 for the Lunch Express with Kevin Sylvester. I'm in a computer lab at school so no dice. And its about 12:23 while I'm typing this.

• I wrote a paper in 50 minutes a few weeks ago. I wrote 5 pages on Ibsen's A Doll's House, including citing an article on the subject in 50 minutes. I walked out of class the day it was due and managed to write it in the hour between when that class ended and my next class began. I got an A. I have wasted so much time writing papers before it seems.
  

• It seems like MONTHS until the 2nd round of the playoffs start for the Canucks

• I can't ignore the Pens. I want to hate them, I really do but I loved them so much last playoffs and I don't hate Sidney Crosby and I can't quite understand why so many people dedicate so much energy to hating him. So LET'S GO PENS!

• Next semester I will only have class on Monday Wednesday and Friday. Words cannot fully express how awesome that is

• San Jose actually managed to win a game. San Jose, you know the team that won the President's Trophy and Anaheim the team that *squeaked* into the playoffs. Wow.
• The 'Canes scored the game-winning goal with .2 seconds left in regulation. What a punch in the face to the Devils and their fans.
  

Burrrrrrr
Barrett Jackman's face says it all
Its over

This is the 2nd post in a row I've closed with a picture of Alex Burrows
Nice.

Around the League Last Night

by Anne

David Backes, somewhat recently discovered pretty boy of the St. Louis Blues, scored four goals last night. In one game. Against the Detroit Red Wings. Detroit Red Wings 4 - David Backes 4 (plus he allowed Andy McDonald to score as well, he's very thoughtful that way). It was also his first hat trick. Congrats, David! You've definitely tilted the battle of Berglund v. Backes in your favor last night.

Your move, Patrik Berglund


Ah, the black polo.
Well played.
This isn't over yet, sirs.

Between them, the Canucks and Ducks (ha! that rhymes) scored about 47 goals and the Canucks lost in the shootout. BUT! They got the one point they needed to clinch a playoff spot! Hooray! Confetti and balloons!!

Hooray!
Playoffs for the Canucks!!
Good boys!

The Kings lost which all but eliminates them from the playoffs. :(

Clearly Anze Kopitar and I were the only ones who thought they had a chance a few months back.
But still.
:(

Dear Jack Johnson, Dustin Brown, Jonathan Quick and Matt Greene:

Join Team USA?! You know you waaaant tooooo.

Love,
Anne

Be honest with me, people. Do any of you care about the World Championships? If the answer is no, I'm fine with that. I just want to know if I'm the only one who loves international sports over here. I get just about as much enjoyment out of the World Championships as I do from the Stanley Cup playoffs, unless the Sabres are in, then the playoffs rule, of course.

Sabres play tonight at Washington. I don't have a good feeling about this. 7:00 puck drop. I don't want to talk about it.

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!

BRONZE BABY!!!

by Anne

Team USA Men's Gymnastics didn't have a single returning Olympian this year and they still won bronze!!!! Yay! That final Pommel horse routine by Alexander Artemev was NUTS and salvaged the USA's bronze medal after the first 2 pommel horse routines were less than phenomenal. I don't generally find the pommel horse an entertaining event but Artemev's final routine was totally crazy and I'd love to be able to watch it again.

Congrats to Team China who set their sights on gymnastics gold when they were awarded the games in 2001 and they did it. I'm sure their head coach is exceptionally glad because he said he'd jump off the tallest building in Beijing if his team didn't take home the gold. Uhhh what the heck would've happened if Japan had gone crazy and taken gold? Parachute? Bungee jump? Actual suicide? Those Chinese are a people of their word.

YAY! BRONZE FOR TEAM USA! I'm really so excited for them. Heading into the Olympics this gymnastics team wasn't expected to medal, they weren't even expected to come close to medaling and they did. They didn't give up, they fought hard against all the naysayers, bad performances and loss of their only 2 Olympic veterans. Yay! Its hard to not be excited when you see the energy and enthusiasm on the boys of Team USA's faces. You could hear my OBF setting the record straight to his teammates, making sure everyone know that they never gave up in themselves. Woooooo!!

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

Wooooo!

Olympic Boyfriend

by Anne

So I know I love Michael Phelps (as most Americans do), but Jonathan Horton from Team USA Men's Gymnastics is my current Olympic boyfriend. I love male gymnasts because they seem so big and tough and manly, but my OBF is 5'1", my #2 OBF Justin Spring is a GIANT at 5'6", haha.

I'm currently watching him and his USA teammates TEARIN IT UP AGAINST ALL ODDS in the team finals.

MORGAN AND PAUL WHO??!?!

GO JONATHAN HORTON AND JUSTIN SPRING AND JOSEPH HAGERTY AND RAJ BHAVSAR AND KEVIN TAN AND ALEXANDER ARTEMEV. Bust mostly Jonathan Horton. He's so excited about America, its infectious. Justin Spring looked at the camera after an intense routine and just goes "What's up, America?"

The USA was intially anticipated to possibly medal and at this writing they're in the hunt for silver. Probably not, but they're doing better than anyone thought they would without Morgan and especially Paul Hamm.

At the beginning of the broadcast they were ONLY showing Team China and I was like "...uhhh isn't Team USA competing right now, too?" And then they showed them, and I fell in love with Jonathan Horton, and a little bit Justin Spring. Not as much, but enough.

Stupid old Team China is probably going to win gold because they're INSANE. They're so methodical, they seem to have a pre-determined high fiving method. Wowzas.

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

What's up, Olympic boyfriend?
You? OK!

Yay!