Best playoffs ever.

by Anne

I didn't watch the Sabes game on Saturday because of bridal shower festivities and missed much of the Kings' game while out at a bachelorette party in the evening.

The good and the bad:

• The Sabres blew a two goal lead and lost 5-3. Jerks.
• Thomas Vanek lost the lower half of his leg
• Johnny Boychuk is a d-bag
• The Kings decided to trail by 2 goals for about half of the game.
• Fortunately, Wayne Simmonds decided to tie it up and Kopi decided to win it in OT.
• I really think the Sabres will be ok without Vanek for the time being. He was a non-factor most of the season; they won several games when he was playing like garbage.
• Stafford is back. He skated with the team this morning after a doctor in Buffalo tightened the nuts and bolts that keep his head on his neck.
• Miller was named a finalist for the Vezina. Shocking.
• I hate this semester and all the writing I have to do over the next two weeks.
• The playoffs are bananas
• I love Dan Boyle
• I love the San Jose Sharks SO. MUCH.
• Where my playoff beards at? I know it's early but: bring 'em on!!

Hrmph

by Anne

I am entirely NOT pleased with last night's Kings' game. They played a decent first period (as per usual) a craptacular 2nd (also typical) and a great 3rd (mostly) then Scott Parse, eager to prove himself in his call-up, scored in a comeback to tie the game at 3! Woo! Happy dance! Go Scooter! Hooray!

Then, they friggin' let Eric friggin' Belanger score TWELVE seconds later to give the Wild back the lead and THAT'S how the game ended. Repulsive.

Jack Johnson, Dustin Brown, Michal Handzus, Alexander Frolov, and Drew Doughty are all fired for allowing that to happen. 

Ok, well Dewey's not fired, because he scored, so he'll just be on probation. Although his goal was the definition of messy:

He scored a goal like that.

I love Jack Johnson immensely but he's still fired. Same goes for Brownie. Frolov was actually fired on the Wild's 2nd goal when he made the ill-advised decision to leave the PK to get a new stick as he floated through the neutral zone. Fool.

Also, please go away:

For non-Kings fans who read this blog, the Kings' most productive line of the season has been Anze Kopitar centering Justin Williams and Ryan Smyth. Smyttie was out for a while and came back last game and then Willy broke his leg/ankle and now they need to slot in yet another new winger. They chose Teddy Purcell. NO. If Wayne Simmonds isn't the other winger on the top line the next game, I'm going to hold my breath until he is. You're on notice, Terry Murray.

Quick reference guide, Wayne Simmonds is the Kings' winger equivalent of Paul Gaustad. Young, plays hard every shift, never quits, stands up for his teammates, solid in both zones, not afraid to mix it up and go into the corners. Aka, I love him and I'm biased.

Next game is Wednesday in Calgary. I'm watching you, Murray...

Monday WTF

by Anne

Ok, look Buffalo, it SNOWS, get over it and drive like NORMAL PEOPLE DRIVE WITH OUT THE SWERVING AND THE PANIC AND THE CARRYING ON LIKE THE APOCALYPSE IS NIGH.

It took me friggin' forever to get to the Arena tonight. I'm supposed to punch in by 5:30 and be on the councourse peddlin' my wares by 6:00. I walked into the Arena at 5:55. And I left a few minutes earlier than normal. Downtown Buffalo was a madhouse. It's like we've never seen snow before.

Then, to make matters worse, most of the Sabres were also stuck in traffic and didn't show up for the game.

Hey, looky there, Martin Brodeur got himself a record-tying shutout. Good thing most of the Sabres weren't there to see it.

So, the Kings played tonight as well. They hosted Jarome Iginla and the Flames. The last time they played the Flames, Iggy had a hat trick and they lost 5-2. Ouch. However, this time, things were different.

The Kings welcomed Rob Scuderi back from his ankle sprain with a 2-1 victory. Hooray! Davis Drewiske sat this one out, so Greener was paired with OD to start the night. By the end of the night things were quite jumbled, but I've always enjoyed the idea of a Greener-Sean O'Donnell pairing. I expected Greener and OD to play in the usual 16-17 Greener time zone, but OD played 23:04 and Greener played 21:41. More than usual ice time for both. Well done, boys. I'm not sure I'd want to skate in between those two. OD is 6'4" 237 lbs, and Greener is 6'3" and also 237lbs. Ouch. Greener was out on the ice against Iggy a number of times and it seemed effective. Iggy was a -1 but managed 4 SOG and 0 points on the night.

Jonathan Quick made 26 saves, Scott Parse and Jarret Stoll scored for the Kings. The defense was solid tonight as several players including Rob Scuderi and Brad Richardfail bailed Quickie out on a few messy rebounds.

I won't even bother looking up Sabres photos considering none of them played tonight. Although Lindy did mention making up for some kind of lack of work after the game. I'm guessing those players that were stuck out in snow banks finally made it for the after-game practice. Oh well, wonder what happened to them?

Also, I love Wayne Simmonds. Just putting it out there.

It's ok Greener, someone will high-five you, right Dewey?

Monday Night Hockey/Record Intact!

by Anne

This Sabres Wednesday - Friday - Saturday schedule, while mostly annoying, is at least helpful in keeping track of when the Sabres play  this month.

Monday is not one of the days listed above, therefore, the Sabres did not play tonight. However, the Kings did.

The Kings played the Florida Panthers in Florida tonight in a very back and forth game. The first period was close and scoreless and the second started much the same until the Pussycats potted two fairly quick goals to make the game 2-0. The Los Angeles Kings, more experienced this season and less prone to panic, kept their wits about them. Wayne Simmonds decided to help things out the best way he knows how. Beating the crap out of someone:

Simmer (as he punches): WHAT. KIND. OF. NAME. IS. KENNDAL. ANYWAY?

Ok, the fight was fairly even actually, but I'm giving Simmer the edge on this one. Not long after, Jack Johnson or JJ3 or JMFJ as he has been known (the first only by me) scored. Jarret Stoll made it 2-2 and Randy Jones, filling in for The Piece who is out with injury, scored a shorty to give the Kings their first lead of the game.

Then a fustercluck (TM Amy at Shots Off the Crossbar) of activity in front of Quickie Monster gave the Panthers the equalizer. Quickie lost his stick and in the scrum a Panther shot his stick into the corner. Yes, it was definitely deliberate. Isn't that some kind of penalty? Ugh.

Anyway, nothing doing in OT so it headed to a shootout, the Kings' fourth of the season. The first two came against the San Jose Sharks and the Vancouver Canucks. The Kings lost both 2-1. The other was Saturday night in Tampa and the Kings won 2-1. Tonight, the Jon Quick was 3 for 3 and Jack Johnson scored in the shootout to give the Kings the win!

They finish this five game road trip 3-2. We are never speaking of that Thrashers game again.

The Kings next game is Wednesday night home against the Flyers. Ewww. Hopefully Mr. Jones can play against his former team. He's been pretty solid thusfar. I don't know if Scuds will be back by then.

Elsewhere:

The New Jersey Devils were vying for their 10th straight road victory to start the season, in an attempt to match the record set by our very own Buffalo Sabres in 2006. They faced the Phlyers. This is the only time in my life I have ever wanted to see Ray Emery win at anything. The Flyers won and the Sabres record still stands as their own. Woo!

Danny Paille scored his second of the year as the Bruins lost to the surprisingly not-terrible New York Islanders. I didn't say they were good, I just said they were not-terrible. They're quite like the 2008-2009 Los Angeles Kings. Not good, but not as bad as people were anticipating. Lots of youth, lots and lots of talent and a few veterans like Weight and Streit. They need more pieces, obviously, but the Islanders are treading water respectably.

Mouth open.

Perfect

I hate those yellow socks.

Vinny Lecavalier, a prominent Sunny Hedgehog Enchanter, remembered that he's really good at hockey and had himself a three point night (2+1) and was a +3 in the 4-1 win over the Coyotes. Fortunately, Vinny's Enchanters teammate Ilya Bryzgalov was not in goal.

Marty scored like that

Vinny helped

Tuesday night none of my teams play. Alas.

Lastly, enjoy this unmitigated FAIL from ESPN.com:

Oh ESPN.

Have a great Tuesday, everyone!

These Games STILL Don't Count?/ Anne Succumbs to Fantasy Hockey

by Anne

By some cruel twist of fate, it is STILL pre-season. I'm not sure how but, trust me, it still is.

• The Canucks are 5-0 in the pre-season. On Monday night they jumped to an early 3-0 lead against the Flames only allow four unanswered Flames goals to trail 4-3 late in the third. Here's what happened: 10.2 seconds left - Six attackers for the Canucks. A Mason Raymond goal is disallowed because of an early whistle. Faceoff goes to the neutral zone. Game over, right?

• Daniel Sedin says NO:

He scored the tying goal with 0.2 seconds left
And THEN he scored the winning goal in the shootout



Curtis Glencross scored too.
Big Bear gets all emo with displeasure

• The Sabres sent 14 players to Portland. There were no surprises. Myers, Weber, Kennedy, Gerbe, Gragnani, Enroth all remain in camp.

• Speaking of the Sabres, they'll walk the red carpet tomorrow night before the game against the Maple Leafs where no one will buy anything and I'll have no money to show for my trouble.

• The Kings beat the Islanders in Kansas City on Tuesday night. Wayne Simmonds had a fantastic game. Two goals- one short-handed- and a nifty fight:

Simmer's intense fight-y face is obscured by some Ts
Trust me, it's intense and fight-y

• Sean O'Donnell earned himself a match penalty that will be reviewed by the league. Yeesh O'D.

• The Pens lost to the Maple Leafs. I didn't see much but I did see Gronk tangle with Mike Komisarek and lose. Two blonde giants that I enjoy, Gronk clearly more than Komi. Gronk had a lame-tastic shootout attempt. Eh, its ok. He was wearing an A though. :)

It wasn't pretty


Hi Jay!
I hope you're enjoying your time in Pittsburgh!

• I've joined my first fantasy hockey league. The reason I never joined before was because I couldn't come up with a good name. Problem solved! I decided that I needed someone to create it for me and if I laughed, I'd use it. Most of the team name generators are completely lame. Therefore I decided to go the anagram route and started tossing in combinations of my favorite players names. Behold:

+ + +

Greene+Schenn+Doughty+Nash=

Sunny Hedgehog Enchanters


Fear their wrath.

• I feel strongly that there were way too many pictures in this post.

Hockey Fest 09

by Anne

Several teams in the NHL have these big fan-related events to kick off the pre-season with the players, coaches, management, etc.

Of course, the Buffalo Sabres do not.

However, the Los Angeles Kings do!

Since I was not anywhere near California during these festivities, I only have a few pictures to piece together the magic.

I don't care how "real NHL player" he becomes over the next few seasons, he'll always be Dewey


Greener made multiple references in both his Hockey Fest commercials and in this talk back about how he's single.
Greener, calm thyself


Kopi can't believe whatever Greener is laughing at


Kopi is amused, Greener is chuckling, Wayne is enjoying
aaaaand Teddy is engrossed by his bottle of water.
He's a party animal.


My favorite part of this picture is Simmer making that adorable little girl wave
At least Teddy is paying attention.


He looks like he's writing a thoughtful letter on this puck


Pimp Daddy
Head Coach Terry Murray.

On a mostly unrelated note: When I was perusing the Hockey Fest galleries, I noticed the NHL 10 preview screen shots. For some reason two of the shots are the Kings playing the Sabres IN Buffalo and Staffy is close in on goal. All the other shots are Kings home game against Western Conf. opponents. It was odd:

Quickie is stacking the pads against Little Foot


"Derek Roy" is not a reasonable likeness.

Caroline spotted Nathan Gerbe at her place of employment. This means training camp is almost here!! September 12!!