Mixed Results in Alberta

Sorry for the lack of updates, everyone. I started school on Monday and I've just been adjusting to get back into the whole "college mode" after being in "lay on the couch and chill out all day" mode for the past several weeks. I still need to get my schedule all figured out and get some overpriced text books BUT that's neither here nor there.

Well, tonight...sucked. I guess we should come to expect that after we gave Edmonton a shelacking. It can't always be happy times in Sabreland. The Oilers game was quite a nice one. After taking a two hour nap from 6-8 and being dazed while watching the game, I wasn't sure if I had fallen asleep and I was just dreaming up the whole blowout. But no, it was the real deal. Drew Stafford even scored a hat-trick infront of his uncle Barrie. Good ol' Uncle Barrie. Drew may or may not have slept with the team pigeon after the game. Between the Sabres playing exceptionally well and the Oilers playing exceptionally terrible, it was a perfect recipe for a blowout. I believe this picture sums up the game pretty well. Atta boy, Goose!

So...then comes tonight. Chris Butler probably had his worst night of his young NHL career tonight. He was brutal. But he's just a rookie and he's been solid for us thus far so you can't get too upset. Everyone's going to have terrible games, especially when they're as young as Butler. Let's just hope that this game doesn't affect his confidence too much and he can just forget about it and move on. I thought the Sabres played a pretty solid first period (aside from Butler's gaffe that lead to Cammalleri's first goal). Things seemed to be going into the right direction going into third after Tim Connolly tied it to make the score 2-2. Man, if Connolly can stay healthy he's going to come up huge for us. Please stay healthy, Tim. We're all pulling for you. Unfortunately, the Sabres could not put the Flames away in the third and they ended up giving up 3 goals. To add insult to injury, Ryan Miller's longtime rival, Mike Cammalleri had a hat-trick tonight. In this article, Cammalleri describes the rivalry between he and Ryan, stemming from their college days. He had some nice things to say about Miller and his career, but I'm sure it felt good (and probably not so good for Ryan) to score 3 against him tonight. What can you do...

Well between the losers that are the New York Rangers and the Buffalo Sabres, the Pittsburgh Penguins are now 3 points behind us along with the Florida Panthers. Although the Rags have looked very unimpressive, maybe they'll take a nose dive and they will drop far, far down in the standings. The best thing that the Sabres can do is just forget about this game and move on forward to Phoenix. These games suck, but you just have to brush it off and move on...overall this team has played some real nice and solid hockey over the past several weeks. Our big names have been stepping up like they are supposed to and it's been nice to see. They just need to keep it up and not let these games ruin their confidence. They also need to stay out of the penalty box...