The Good Old Hockey Game

Well that was a nice little win! It was a good game to be at. I had a lot of fun. I sat next to a girl from Mississauga, Ontario. She's a Leafs fan but she said that any hockey over the Leafs is better at this point. It was fun to talk to her. But I told her that if I ever bump into her at a Leafs game then we're going to be enemies. Don't hate the player, hate the game.

Onto the game...it was great to see Timmy net two for us. I think we all forget how much of an asset he can be for the team when he's healthy. Oh, if only he can stay healthy. It's definitely a frustrating situation, for all parties involved. But it sure was fun seeing him perform well on the ice tonight. I think if he can stay healthy then he will be a huge difference-maker for us. Teppo scored one for us as well but he also took a puck to the face. On WGR 550 they were saying that they've heard that he may have broken a bone in his face and that he'd need surgery...not good. All of a sudden we're pretty thin on the blueline when just a few games ago Lindy was forced to rotate defenseman into the lineup because there just wasn't enough room for everyone. That means Paetsch will get his turn again to be back in the lineup. I know a lot of fans really want to see Weber up here, but that's going to have to wait as he is sidelined with an injury for a few weeks. The third period was pretty nerve-wracking because the whole period was basically spent in our zone. Miller once again stood tall to help secure a victory. It's good that the Sabres seemed to have turned around their troubles at home, winning all 3 of the home games this month. Granted, 3 home games is not a lot, but hey, they did win them all so what's there to complain about? It's crazy to think that their next home game will be on February 4th...

So I was nine rows up from the glass, and there was this really drunk guy up against the glass in my section. It was pretty obvious that he's never sat up against the glass before. He'd always stand up and press his face right up against the glass to try and get someone's attention. Anyone's attention. Whether it was Miller skating around the zone during commercial breaks, the ice cleaners scooping up snow, or the officials waiting for the play to start. He didn't care who it was, he wanted everyone's attention. At one point during a commercial break Jochen Hecht was hanging around near him and the dude kept banging the glass shouting, "JOCHEN!!! JOCHEN!!!" over and over again. It was pretty amusing. My parents were also at the game but they sat in the different section than I. My dad said there was a guy behind him trying to taunt Cam Ward with that typical taunting chant, but he couldn't figure out how to say his name because it was just one syllable. First he was trying to chant, "Waaard" and then he moved onto, "Caaaam". My dad said he then just settled with chanting, "Gooaaaalieeeee". Funny stuff.

So Ryan Miller updated his blog. I like that he's read Night and that he's interested in the Holocaust. One of my favorite books of all-time is All But My Life by Gerda Weissmann Klein. It's a very powerful book and I've had the opportunity to speak with her and listen to her tell her story. She actually lives in Buffalo and I remember in the epilogue of her book she talks about Buffalo and how great the city and the people have been for her and how she's glad she picked it to be the place where she settled down. It was funny because I remember she was like, "My husband and I thought of either Paris or Buffalo, and we decided on Buffalo." And I loved the part in Ryan's blog where he talks about the dumb jock stereotype. Your wit and sarcasm is not lost on me, Ryan. Gotta love it.

So the game tonight was a very good way to spend my Saturday night, to say the least. I took some pictures that I'll have to upload. I'll post the link to my Flickr once I get all the pictures up there. I decided to try and take more pictures than just of the pregame warm-ups. The pregame warm-ups are just, you know...pregame warm-ups. I try to get some nice individual shots of players, since there's not a whole lot of action going on during the warm-ups. I can't get myself to sit and photograph the game, because I want to watch the game, not photograph it. I tried getting some shots of some interesting things between commercial breaks, and I took some pictures of the crowd when we scored...hopefully my eye for capturing the right moment improves the more I attend the games.

Between the huge comeback in Dallas and winning a nice home game that puts us 4 points ahead of the 'Canes, it's good that the Sabres can head on the road on a positive note. They've got another big game on Monday against the Panthers, as they are now clawing up in the standings (lame pun) and they are only two points behind us. It sure makes for some fun (and sometimes nerve-wracking) hockey watching...