Game night: Sens, gross.

by Anne

We should never take joy in the downfall of our opponents, however, I hate Jason Spezza so I'm ok with the happywarmfuzzies I feel hearing that he has a knee injury. If Spezza's injury was career or season threatening, I wouldn't feel such glee, but as it will sideline him for a few weeks, I feel the extra joy the holiday season brings.

Too bad the Senators and their fans don't give a crap about the Sabres. We don't have any really good rivals, and the bad blood from 2007 and 2006 has been mostly nullified by the fact that the Sabres and Senators combined for a total number of playoff wins of absolutely NADA in 2008 and 2009.

The Senators, no matter how bad they are, always have the Sabres figured out, and tonight will prove no exception, sadly. That article linked above shows that since 05-06 the Senators are 21-6-4 against the Sabres. WHAT? THAT IS COMPLETELY INSANE.

Alfie is all alone now that Dany Heatley is doing my fantasy team lots of favors in San Jose and Spezza will miss two months. Muahahaha.

I was about to write about how now that I said that, our big juggernaut-y offensive threat would get hurt but, we don't have one of those. Pat Kaleta? Ummm, maybe not.

Anyway, there isn't even any Chris Neil for Adam Mair to fight with in this, his 500th NHL game. Aw, Mairsy! How cute. I'm so proud.

Of course I want them to win but even last year when the Senators were flailing about in the bottom of the conference they managed to find ways to beat us. Now that they've graduated to "mediocre" and we're treading a very thin line between "bad-ass eliteness" and "what happened? things were going so well!" I don't forsee any change in the trends.

The last time we played the Sens I drunkenly ranted about how much I hated the Senators of days gone by, but with the exception of Neil, Spezza and Alfredsson, all of the Senators I hated SO. MUCH. back in 2006 and 2007 are gone. Heatley, Emery, Chara, Vermette, Redden, etc. All of those players have moved on to other teams, some I still hate (Emery, Redden) but some I'm ok with like Vermette and Heatley (because he's keeping my fantasy team afloat). At least the Sens did us a solid when they picked up Ruutu. Phew, I needed to fuel the hatred some more. I don't want to hate Nick Foligno, in fact, I can't hate Nick Foligno, I watched three interviews with him over the last few weeks and he mentioned the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles in two of them. How can you hate that? Buffalo boy who looks like a weasel and loves the Ninja Turtles. I of course mean the cutest weasel around, ummm, right? Marcus may be worse at hockey but he's totally cuter.

I predict a Sens victory, 3-2. Goals by: Fisher, Alfredsson, Foligno, Kaleta and MacArthur.

Kings Win! / Canucks Lose :( / More Reasons to Love Matt Greene

by Anne

*** If you are easily grossed out by the sight of blood, DO NOT read this post***

I was right, it was kind of weird watching the Kings play the Canucks.

I did cheer when the Kings scored... but I also cheered when the Canucks scored. Unfortunately, the Canucks only scored twice and the Kings scored three times, all in regulation.

That first Canucks goal by Burrows was a little ridiculous and I kind of feel bad for Jonathan Quick. Burr shot the puck from 50 feet out, between Jack Johnson's legs. Quick had very little time to react to it and it went in. You could tell he was not thrilled with Jack Johnson at that moment.

The Kings are now only three points back of eighth place. Yay! Sorry Canucks :(

Anyway, the real point I'd like to make in this post is that Matt Greene is CRAZY. Like, legit, this man has got to be out of his mind.

The LA Kings have their own twitter, and they posted a link to this blog post on their MySpace page today. Take a look at what dear Matthew did at the end of the game.

Now I saw that happen in real time but did not realize until today when I watched this video that he TOOK A PUCK DIRECTLY TO THE FACE AND KEPT PLAYING.

Watch the video again if you'd like.

I knew he'd blocked a shot that they said "had to hurt", but it happened so fast in real-time that I didn't see it and didn't realize exactly what had happened until today when I watched the video.

I was watching the Canucks feed so they chose not to show much of the Kings' celebration afterwards, I saw a glimpse of Greener, but not much of his face that had absorbed a shot by Alex Burrows.

If I had been able to see his face, this is what I would've seen:

Jonathan: Uh Greener, you've got something on your face
Matt: Can you get it off?
Jonathan: Um, no


Jarret: Dude, you're bleeding
Matt: I am?

He blocked a puck with his face in the dying seconds of the game, and almost immediately returned to his feet and stayed in the game until it was over and his team had won. And THEN stayed out to give props to his goalie for keeping them in the game.

Now THAT is a teammate. He could've stayed on the ice and just quit, but he was able to get back up, so he did. How many people can do that?

He crazy. Crazy awesome.

You Know What's Gross?

by Anne

Speaking COMPLETELY about hockey right now of course.

You know what is really gross? These:

ew

From here on out the Carolina Hurricanes shall be known as the Butter Snaps.

The Pattys delivered.

SHOOT. THE. PUCK.

Cam Ward is good.

Tied for 8th.

Jaro hurt :(

Oscar likes that the Sabres are losing, then he doesn't have to do a victory dance.

One class tomorrow.

I'll be at the Bandits game on Saturday night during the Islanders game :(

Let's go Buff-a-lo.

Whatever.

That Was Not Pretty

by Anne

Yes, we won. That ROCKS. 4-0 in '09!

However, its a darn miracle that the Rangers didn't run away with that one in like a 7-1 rout.

THE BUFFALO SABRES DIDN'T MUSTER A SHOT ON GOAL IN THE SECOND PERIOD UNTIL THE 9:58 MARK. The sarcastic smattering of applause throughout the arena that followed that shot was priceless.

The important part of that display of suckitude is that we won. The Sabres really turned on their motors in the 3rd and came dangerously close to scoring many times. They did not, but they actually showed up to play in the third. Would've been nice if their big boy pants had arrived a little earlier, but we'll take what we can get.

Am I the only one who had a heart attack seeing Timmy in the shooting lane on the penalty kill? Like, the first one challenging the defensemen. I don't think I want Timmy taking a Staal one-timer to the skull.

Royzie's goal was nice. Vanek and Stafford's passes were spot on and Derek snatched up his own rebound to bury it. It was only our 11th or so shot on goal BUT THE 2ND PERIOD WAS ALMOST OVER.

Ryan Miller had to make 43 saves in regulation and OT and then made 3 saves in the shootout. He deserved that win. Someone (I think it was Puck Daddy) wrote at the beginning of the season that Miller doesn't "steal" many games for the Sabres. I begged to differ, and now add this game to the "why I'm right" column in that argument.

I must say it was quite delightful that Drury did not score in the shootout. I couldn't watch. I literally covered my eyes and hid behind some dudes in the aisle. I couldn't watch Drury tie it up and send out extra shooters.

That game FLEW by. There were only 2 penalties and they were both on us. If I'm clocking out at 10:08 after OT and a shootout on a 7:30 start, that game was clearly quick.

Sales were awful. Thanks A LOT, Sabres. When you're apathetic about the game, customers are apathetic about popcorn and cotton candy.

For those who are wondering, pre-game I counted Miller jerseys v. Vanek jerseys.

Miller: 38
Vanek: 28
Fuzzy Purple Coats: 1

A win is a win, they didn't blow a lead, they battled back from a one goal defecit to tie it and then not lose their cool and won in the shootout. The Rangers are dang good in the shootout, so all game I was like "Please don't let this go to a shootout" and YEP, shootout. But, they didn't lose their minds and won. It's nice to have a four game win cushion for our soul-crushing, mind-numbing defeat tomorrow.

Speaking of things that are soul-crushing and mind numbing: don't forget you can come and watch the afore-mentioned assumed loss tomorrow night at Casa di Pizza, 477 Elmwood Ave in Buffalo with some of your favorite Buffalo sports bloggers. Don't worry, we don't bite. Well, I can't say with certainty that NONE of us bite, but that's part of the fun, right?

ETA: We were the only team to win on home ice last night. Weird, huh?