Merry Christmas!

Or Happy Hanukkah for those who celebrate it (my dad's side of the family is Jewish, so when we go over to my Aunt and Uncle's house for Christmas there's a menorah hanging out near the Christmas tree...pretty cool). Any way how you celebrate your holiday, I hope you have a good one. This will be my last blog update until after Christmas, so I don't really want to harp on the controversial goal last night. I'd rather my last update be a little more positive and upbeat.

All I'll say about it is this: It was a close call. Some people are saying it was a blatant high-stick, while others are saying it was clear that it was a good goal. Honestly, I think I can say this with no bias that I think it was a high-stick and therefore it shouldn't have been ruled a goal. However, I do think it was a close call that could have gone either way. And let's be real here, Sidney Crosby hadn't scored a goal in 9 games prior to that, a career-long scorless streak. When Sidney Crosby is in question, things are going to go his way more times than not. It is what it is. Last night I was pretty angry about the call, but after I've let the emotions of watching a hockey game calm down, I do realize that it was a close call that really could have gone either way. Whatever the ruling would have been, there would no doubt be one side saying that they got the call wrong.

Moving on (that was a little more time that I planned on talking about it), let's both weigh the positives and the negatives. First of all, the Sabres are playing a lot better and I really do like what I'm seeing from this team at the moment. They aren't playing bad at all. I would say they're playing pretty good. Sure, they aren't perfect...which is why we have lost two straight in overtime. But you know what? I'm still liking what I'm seeing. Before when they were losing, they just looked pretty bad. They were very undisciplined, not smart, and they were making too many mistakes. Right now, they need to learn how to hold onto their leads better. With the way they have been playing lately, I think that they'll be able to get it done. It's reassuring to see the scoring being more spread out and having more players on the team contribute. Disicipline is still something that I think they'll always need to learn how to control. Last game they were very good at staying out of the box until Paille took a very undisciplined roughing penalty. And that's all the Pens would need, as they scored to tie it up and take it to overtime. Other than that, the team did a much better job at staying out of the box and playing smart.

So to wrap this up, the positive: The Sabres are playing much better hockey and I've been impressed for the most part with them.
The negative: They still need to learn how to control leads better, but seeing how they have been playing as of late, I believe that they'll learn how to do that and the wins will come easier. Oh wait, I thought of another positive: Ryan Miller still hasn't shaved. He's got some serious scruff going on and if he holds out shaving for a few more days it will no longer be considered scruff and it will be promoted to a beard. Clearly, this is a sign of good things to come.

Alright, enough hockey for me until after Christmas (literally, right after Christmas, seeing as our boys will be in DC on the 26th to take on the Caps). Like I said in the beginning of my entry, I hope everyone enjoys their holiday. For me, on Christmas Eve I go to my grandparents' house on my Dad's side in East Amherst for dinner. My aunt, step-uncle and his three daughters (step-cousins?) live there too so it's a lot of fun. After dinner we open presents and watch A Christmas Story. Then on Christmas Day after we open presents we'll head up to Niagara Falls to visit more family on my Dad's side. We eat a nice dinner and I see my family who I usually only see around Christmastime. Then after that we'll head home, but shortly we leave to visit my Mom's side of the family. This year it's going to be at my cousin's house in Derby. I'm pretty excited.

Right now I'm about to turn on some Christmas movies and eat the cookies that my mom is baking...Mexican Wedding cookies yum. So in the words of Clark Griswold... "Later, dudes!"