Friday, October 31, 2008

Drunk Zamboni Driving...more common than you'd think.

Thanks to Puck Daddy for sharing this gem. A woman in Canada was driving a zamboni in an empty rink while drunk. An off-duty officer noticed her driving the zamboni erratically after she was bumping into the boards and missing spots on the ice.

Ohh, what a vision that would have been to see. Wish I could have been there.


I'm onto you, you zamboni drivers.

On that note...I'm going out in my puck bunny Halloween costume for some fun tonight! Hope everyone has a great Halloween!!

That was a JOKE

I hope that's what Adam Mair said after last night's shit show game. I can't believe I sat through 3 periods of that nonsense. But the Sabres fan in me (and Goonies fan) said, "Never say die." and I stayed until the bitter end. Okay I may have left with 2 minutes to play but we did beat the traffic!

Anyways. I don't really feel like analyzing that game other than just saying the Sabres played bad. Pretty obvious. They were chasing the puck the whole game. It seemed as if Tampa Bay had control of the puck the entire time. Every time the Sabres went down another goal, it seemed as if they got more afraid and did not want to take any chances. That way Tampa Bay had their way with the Sabres the entire game. The defense looked like they did last year. Garbage. Rivet is more than a stay-at-home, gritty defenseman. He's smart. He's experienced. He's a veteran. That's key for a young team like the Sabres and they need that type of player to help the young guys out. You would have thought that last year the players would have learned that they can't be too cute. I think having Rivet and Hecht come back will help out this team immensely. One can only hope right?

Another thing I'd like comment on is Ryan Miller's post-game interview. Athlete's interviews are so cliché, you can almost predict what they're going to say before they even open their mouths. That partly has to do with the questions they are being asked. But Miller's interviews are always different. They're really honest and smart, I think. You never get that cliché interview with him. I always find that I enjoy and look forward to his interviews the most out of any of the other players in the locker room. No offense to them.

But last night, well we all saw how we played. He was honest and he went through all of the goals one by one and explained what his thinking was and why it went in. He also said he was glad that he stayed in the third period and battled through his tough night. I liked what he had to say about the team as a whole, how the freewheelers really need to learn how to control themselves. I've noticed a lot that fans will criticize Ryan for being too honest in his interviews. Some say that he's looking to excuse himself for his play and he tries to lay the blame on the entire team. I just never saw it like that. I think he has every right to crticize his teammates when it's warrented. I don't think Ryan has every shyed away from his performance, whether it's good or bad. He knows when he messes up and he's just honest I think. As a fan I just appreciate that because honestly sometimes player interviews aren't worth listening to because of how predictable they are. Miller's are worth listening to. I feel I get a real insight to the game that was just played when listening to his, rather than the other player's who will say something like, "We need to move our feet more." or something typical like that.

Sorry for no awesome pictures of our favorite Sabres dressed up in Halloween costumes. I am seriously deprived in the amateur-photos-of-the-Sabres deparment. Help a sister out. I can say though that I am a puck bunny this year. I wore my costume to the game last night. I'm sure most people thought that I was seriously a real puck bunny who dresses that ridiculous to every game. Oh well. I did get a hockey player's attention during the game though. Too bad it was Mark Recchi. Yikes.

Oh and my friend Jael started a blog, Sabres on the Warpath. You'll love her insight into the team because she's really smart. Go read!

Wednesday, October 29, 2008

The Goose Has Returned!

It was great news to read that Gaustad has been practicing fully, and now the Sabres have reported that Gaustad will be in the lineup Thursday night. Awesome.

I'm excited that he's returning tomorrow because the Ottawa game showed that this team can be vulnerable when a good chunk of the veterans are out, and Gaustad always has a tough and gritty presence that this team can always use. Plus, I'll be at the game tomorrow so it will be nice to see him in during his season debut! It's also good knowing that Rivet's surgery went fine and that he should be back soon. Poor Timmy will always be a question mark during his whole career it seems, doesn't it? Sigh. Hopefully Hank and Hecht are close.

I took some pictures of the team when I attened the Canucks game on 10/17, and you should all check them out! Please pretend for a moment that I am not shamelessy self-promoting myself. I got to the game late so I could not really get a good view of the entire team. Which was a bummer because I really wanted to get some nice shots of El Capitano (Roberto Luongo). But I didn't really feel like pushing and shoving little kids to try and get a good view against the glass. So I could only get a few good shots of certain players. I mostly got Ryan Miller because I was sitting right near the net. So all you Miller fans might want to take a look. I got two nice ones of Derek Roy too.


(lol @ the kid in the background)

Link

If you want to see more, head on over to my Flickr collection. I've got more photos around there other than just the Sabres, so feel free to browse around!

Oh and I just want to thank everyone for their warm welcomes and nice comments they all left me in my first post! It was definitely appreciated!

Tuesday, October 28, 2008

New Blogger Alert

Well, well, well. It looks like I gave in and decided to start my own blog. After reading several hockey blogs, I thought it would be fun to give it a go. I might go off-topic every now and then so bear with me. I'm not going to do anything too serious because I'm not an expert. I'm just a fan, but it's fun to read other fan's perspectives on the game, so I thought it wouldn't hurt to add mine.

Anyways! I don't really know how to start this off, so I guess I'll just go a little bit into myself and then a little bit into my thoughts on the Sabres up until this point.

I'm Caroline and I'm going to school for photography. I'm not sure what I want to do with that yet, but I know that I really enjoy it and I think I'm pretty good at it. I like hockey but I've never played. I'm the only daughter in my family, so with my two brothers I've been around sports my whole life. Hockey is just the one sport that I connected to and found a real interest in. I still enjoy watching most sports but nothing comes to close how I feel about hockey. Obviously being born and raised in Buffalo it was pretty easy to watch a team and follow them. No real surprise there. I also like following most of the teams around the NHL except for a select few because I just don't like them. I also try to follow college hockey as well.

So the Sabres have been impressive so far in this young season. A 6-1-2 record is not too shabby. Coming into this season and listening to the player's during training camp, they seemed eager to play hockey after their disappointing play last season. A lot of them talked about specific things that they worked on in the offseason to help improve their game. As a fan it's nice to hear but you have to remain cautiously optimistic until you see what they can really do. Talk is cheap. But the Sabres really did show that they have learned from their mistakes and they improved on what they needed to work on. I'm talking mostly about defense, goaltending, consistency, and maturity. This team is young and I think the last game against the Ottawa Senators showed that they can still lack maturity when a lot of their veterans are missing from the lineup. Hopefully as the season progresses they'll get better in that department.

I don't like to see my team lose as much as the next fan, but I think a little adversity here and there can really test this team and make me see if they really have what it takes to be a true contender. It seemed in their 06-07 run they got a little arrogant due to all of their success during the regular season and I think that hurt them in the playoffs. Last year they dealt with too much adversity and they did not really seem to know how to recover from it. I'm hoping to see a balance during this season, and I think with the experience that this team has had over the last few seasons and the addition of our new captain, I have a feeling that they will. We will see...

So today between classes I went out to lunch with my friend. We were sitting down waiting for our food when who do I spot but Ryan Miller. He was with Andrew Peters. It was pretty cool. They sat down right near us. I didn't want to approach them or say anything to them when they were eating, though. So when my friend and I were getting ready to leave I noticed that they were both finished with their meals and I couldn't help but say something to them because I'm just so proud of how they have been playing as of late (minus the Ottawa game). I just congratulated them both and told them that I'd be at the game on Thursday. As always, they were both very nice. It was the highlight of my boring day.

Anyways. Hopefully this blog entry wasn't as awkward as most ice breakers are. I'll try to post often and I hope you enjoy what I have to say!