What a Night it Was, it really was Such a Night...

This was me at the Sabres-Preds game last night:



So when chosing my games for my mini-pack before the season, I saw that Nashville was going to pay us a little visit. I thought back to the last time we played them. It was an 8-4 decision and it would have been an entertaining game to be at for fans. They are also a Western Conference team that we don't see at all so I thought it would have been nice to watch the team take on an opponent that we don't really get a chance to see very often. Plus our good friend JP Dumont was going to be in town too. Cool. All good reasons to pick Nashville as one of my games. Someone help me see the light because I surely was misguided...

I usually describe a Sabres loss as a "shit show", but that doesn't even justify exactly what that game really was. That was the most boring and worst hockey game I've ever attended, and probably will ever attend. What both teams lacked in chances they made up for in turnovers. I knew that Nashville was going to get an unfortunate goal and that's all they would need. Of course. We gave a no-name goalie a 30-save shutout. Of course. A former Sabre scored on us. Typical. Really, should we be surprised? I would have liked to see Max in the lineup. Granted, I'm sure Lindy expected more from the offense, but in hindsight, I don't think Max would have made matters worse if he was playing. He would have at least made things exciting. I'm not the type of fan who's all, "MORE GOALS, MORE GOALS!!! FLASHY PLAYS, YAY!!!" I actually would rather see my team play a tight, responsible defensive game and go from there. That game had none of that. I understand that Max was scratched so Peters could be inserted into the lineup because of Nashville's lineup. Except...there were no fights. Not even when Tootoo ran into Miller. Instead I saw Paetsch take a glance at Tootoo and then just skated away.

A Paetsch-Tootoo match up would have been ridiculously uneven, but that's your goalie out there. You can't let any player, especially a player like Tootoo take runs at him without any worry of retaliation. Every goalie deals with contact, but how many times is Miller going to get interfered with and ran into without any consequence? What kind of message is that sending? What kind of message is that sending to the other teams? "Feel free to run into him all you want, he's just our goaltender after all." Is Ryan Miller going to have to smack a bitch?

A few highlights of the game were:
- A little boy, probably around 4 years old, turns to his dad towards the end of the second period and says, "Dad, why is the score still 0-0?" His father responded by saying, "Yes, it's still 0-0. I don't know what to tell you, buddy." I just got such a kick out of the exchange because firstly, the kid was cute and I love seeing fathers taking their young sons to sporting events. So wholesome. And also, because really, that's what was going through everyone's heads at the game. They couldn't have said it any better.

- The fan who got tackled and arrested in front of the doors that lead into the player's hallway after the game. Why was he arrested? I don't know, I missed the altercation. Either he and another fan were going at it, or he was trying to get past security so he could burst into the dressing room and give the player's a piece of his mind. I prefer the latter scenario, don't you?

- I got some nice shots of Ryan Miller doing his meditation routine or whatever the hell you want to call it, but I still need to upload them but that probably won't be for a little bit (reasons below after my lovely analysis of such a beautiful display of hockey).

The lowlight of the game (besides, you know, the game):
- There were two idiot fans behind me. I couldn't believe how dumb they were. Grown men too. They were from Detroit and they kept taking jabs at Buffalo. Ahem. That's right, they were from Detroit and they were taking jabs at Buffalo. They proceeded to say that Ryan Miller is a mediocre goalie because of his "long hair and photography". Or something like that. They had an exchange that went something like, "Why does everyone like Max, he sucks, blah blah blah. The same can be said about Ryan Miller. He's such a mediocre goalie, he only had one good season. He's got his long hair and he likes photography, and he thinks he's such a good goalie. I just want to shout to him, 'HEY RYAN, YOU'RE MEDIOCRE AT BEST!' " How special. They also thought that Numminen was our enforcer on the team. Makes sense.

So the semester is winding down and I have so many things to do before it ends. Between studying for final exams, taking final exams, writing final papers, registering for classes for next semester, putting together a portfolio, and doing some presentations, I'm very busy and I'm very stressed. I'm trying to remain positive and I keep telling myself that in a week or so it will all be over and then I'll be a free woman until January 26th, when the second semester begins. Right now I'm just trying to tough it out. So this will probably be my last update for a few days until I finish some things. I have to do a presentation on Elvis tomorrow. I'm still trying to figure out how to sum up Elvis Presley's career in five minutes...