Shutouts Are Sexy

Wouldn't you agree? Very nice. Just a few thoughts on tonight...

I liked seeing Connolly's effort on the first goal and put the loose puck in the net like that. It wasn't a Connolly-esque goal, which is why it was nice to see him net one like that. Roy's pass to Paille for the second goal was...sick. Loved it. I also loved seeing #36 back in the lineup. Spacek is injured, not sure how severe and if he's going to miss some time...at least Weber is back playing in Portland, we could call him up. It would be nice to see the Sabres try and make a move to acquire a defenseman, who knows maybe they are and we just don't know it. I thought Chris Butler had a nice rebound from the Calgary game, which is pretty reassuring. Miller also had a nice response after a tough night in Calgary (as he usually does). He was great tonight. He had a huge save on a 2-on-1 while we were on the power play. I'm glad that he got a shutout, since he's been playing so great this month, it's definitely deserved. Our PK was great tonight, but the Sabres really need to stay out of the box. Some of the calls were a little questionable, but some of them were just textbook calls and it's unnecessary. Padding your PK stats, boys?

Speaking of Ryan, Amy over at Shots Off The Crossbar pointed me in the direction of a nice interview with Miller in what looks like his home, courtesy of The Buffalo News. He says a lot of nice things about Buffalo and our nice little community we have here. He really said everything that I think makes Buffalo special. The kindness that most people seem to have here (comparable to the friendly vibe that's usually found in the Midwest), the nice architecture, and the unique restaurants. He mentioned the great houses near Chapin Parkway and around Delaware...I always loved those huge mansions. When the weather is nice and I have time to kill between class, I always love strolling up Elmwood and making my way around Bidwell Park/Chapin Park just to admire all the neat houses. The restaurants here never disappoint. My friends and I love going out to eat and we always like switching it up and going to different places. I've mentioned on here before that Mother's is a great bar/restaurant. I've found great sushi bars and Indian food around here too. I loveee Indian food. Anyways, I know I've mentioned a few times on here that I'm going to school for photography, so I always found it extra awesome that it's a hobby of Ryan's. Pretty boss. It was neat seeing all the photos hanging up around his house. If that sunset photo behind him in the interview was taken by him, then I'm pretty impressed. Him being a photographer obviously makes him about ten times cooler than he already was. He knows what's up.

So it's a real nice interview and it's just nice to see how laid back and down to earth he is. He's arguably the most popular professional athlete in Buffalo, and in a sports town like Buffalo, that obviously means he's a huge name here and quite the celebrity. I don't need to remind anyone about that. It's just nice to see that he's just a down to earth guy when a lot of times a person in his situation can be pretty high on themselves and really cocky with a hot shot personality. I've noticed that a lot of hockey players are pretty genuine. I could just be biased because hockey is my favorite sport, but most of the times hockey players just seem a lot more genuine and down to earth than other professional athletes. Just something I've noticed over the years. Another bonus in Ryan's interview is that he's wearing a v-neck!!!!! Ahhh how I love me some v-necks. Work it, Ryan. Oh and when he's talking about Catwalk for Charity they show some pictures from last year's and they use one picture with me in the background hahaha. Love it.

I also want to mention that it's been neat listening to and watching the opposing team's broadcast. Don't get me wrong, I love Rick Jeanneret as much as the next Sabres fun, but it's nice to get an outside perspective on our team. I thought Phoenix's broadcast team was really good. I was impressed with them. I know a lot of the fans in the arena tonight were Sabres fans, but I was also impressed to see such a big crowd at the game tonight after hearing about their financial troubles and especially considering the Super Bowl is tomorrow. So while I've been missing RJ's enthusiasm, it's also been fun getting a different point of view from all the different broadcasters.

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...

Birthday Shenanigans

Good news, everyone! The Sabres West Coast trip is going to be televised! The Sabres and MSG put their thinking caps on miraclously figured out a way to broadcast these games to one of the biggest hockey markets in the USA. I believe this is a sign of the second coming. Even though we'll still be without Rick Jeanneret, we'll at least be able to watch our Sabres on TV...I know, I know. It's crazy to think that in the year 2009 we have the privilege of being able to watch hockey games on TELEVISION. Technology these days never ceases to amaze me.

Well yesterday was my birthday! I celebrated it pretty low-key. My family took me out to Mother's, a really nice bar/restaurant in the Allentown area. I love Mother's. Usually after hockey games I'll be starving (sorry but Arena food does not equal a meal...unless you're in the 200 suites) and I'll pick up some food from there. Their kitchen is always open late, so if you're ever in the area in the late hours and you're hungry and you could kick back a few, I'd suggest going to Mother's...but it will probably be very crowded. But it's always a good crowd, sometimes a Sabre or two will be in the mix (or...Alex Ovechkin when the Caps are in town. Just sayin'). Today is my mom's birthday so it's pretty cool that our birthdays are only a day apart.

Anyways, I had a real nice dinner last night and tonight I'm going downtown to celebrate with my friends. So that will be fun. I start school on Monday so I guess tonight will be a combination of celebrating my birthday and also saying farewell to my several weeks off...which I enjoyed so much. It feels weird that I'll be going back to school again, but I know May is going to roll around before I know it so it's not too bad. I'm also taking less classes this semester so hopefully it won't be as stressful and as crazy as it was last semester for me.

I'm most likely going to watch the All-Star Games Skills Competition tonight before I go out. That's always the most fun for me when it comes to the All-Star Games. The players are just loose and messing around and having fun with each other. The game itself is just...eh. I don't really watch it in its entirety. I think it's cool when they mic up the goalies when they're on the ice. I remember one year Marty Turco was mic'd up and he was talking to the announcers and he was like, "Hold on...I have to make a save." Good times.

I heard that the NHL is going to suspend a player for one game if they decline an invitation to the All-Star Game without being injured. I'm sorry, but that's just ridiculous. The NHL treats the voting process like a joke (Vote For Rory or cheating Habs fans, anyone?) yet they're going to suspend a player if they decide not to participate? Ridiculous. If they want to take a break and relax during one of the only breaks they get during the 82-game schedule then let them. Some players have wives and children that they don't get to see much during the season and they also just want to rest up so they can prepare for the second half of the season. I mean, I'm sure the All-Star Games is very exciting for a lot of players and they love attending, but for those who would just rather stay home and relax, then they should be allowed to without any consequence.

Alright, enough of me ranting... I mainly wanted to make a post so I can show you my creation! Regardless of your political standings or who you voted for/who you support, I thought Barack Obama's HOPE poster that was used throughout the campaign was pretty cool. I just like pop art and I thought the poster was really neat. So, I went along and I created THIS:



Isn't it fabulous?! Now I think sports and politcs go together like oil and water, but I made this just for fun. Not a political statement or anything like that. Although, if Ryan Miller ever announced that he was running for President I would TOTALLY vote for him. Just kidding but not really. Man, I see everyone walking around with that Obama HOPE picture as a t-shirt...I want to screenprint my creation on a t-shirt and rock that shit around. It would probably sell more than the Obama shirts...in Buffalo at least.

All-Star Break

Well last night was a disappointment. After I made a nice little post praising the team's play and how well Ryan Miller has been playing lately and they go and play like a bunch of doofuses the next game. I guess it was bound to happen at some point. The Sabres have like a 54-0-0 record when they play in Tampa Bay and I think Miller has a career record of 573-0-0 against them with a 0 GAA. Sooo you know, these things happen. In all seriousness, I thought the team played much better in the 2nd and 3rd period, but they just couldn't tie it up. I'm not going to get too hung up over the game. They've had a hell of a stretch this month and they've been very impressive. You can't win them all. Let's just hope that they enjoy this break and rest up and get straight back to business.

Unfortunately we are very, very thin at the blueline. Hank Tallinder is now out with a shoulder injury and Lindy wasn't too reassuring when talking about his status. It seems as if we'll be without his services for some time. Although he did say that Sekera may be ready by the end of the break, which is good. I guess the good thing is that this happened right around the All-Star break which gives the Sabres more time to figure out what they're going to do, whether it be calling someone up or making a trade. With the injury problems looming in Portland, it may be time to make a trade and bring someone new in. Who, I don't know... (Max for Pronger or Bouwmeester, totally!!) but maybe Darcy has a few tricks up his sleeve.

The dreaded West coast trip is approaching us. The Sabres have shown that they don't really do the whole different time zone thing. To make matters worse, not only will these four games not be televised, but we are going to be without Rick Jeanneret since he has decided to take his vacation now. Bummer. I'll most likely use an online feed to watch the game, but still it won't be the same without our dear RJ calling the game. Hopefully the Sabres make up for this blasphemy by winning a few for us.

Well since it's going to be quiet in Sabreland and around the rest of the NHL due to the All-Star break, it will be pretty quiet around these parts as well. Perhaps I'll find some shenanigans to write about regarding the All-Star Games. My birthday is also tomorrow! So that's exciting for me. Classes also start up again for me on Monday. So with the All-Star break and my birthday tomorrow along with me getting ready for school again, I might not be posting as frequenty as I usually do.

Take care my fellow Sabres fans and try not to miss our boys (and me, of course) too much while they take this little breather.

Prettaayy Prettaayy Prettaayy Good

So right now the Sabres have me feeling pretty good. Since the New Year rolled around, they've been playing some solid hockey. They started off the 08-09 season pretty well, then they got themselves in a bit of a hole, but they have been playing a lot better. Here's hoping to a better second half. If they can play the way the have been as of late, I think the postseason is imminent.

During the Florida game I thought for a portion of the game the Sabres lacked intensity and they let Florida creep in and take control of the game for a bit. But Miller was ready for the task, as he always is lately. It's good to see him take control and be the goalie that we need him to be. I thought Jochen Hecht had a bad night...what's going on with him? Last year he was pretty solid but this year he's been very disappointing. He looks slow and his passes are sometimes terrible. Could it just be one bad year? I was hoping that after he'd score a few goals he'd start rolling, but that doesn't seem to be the case. I guess we'll see. Another player who had a bad night was Kotalik. But as we all know, he was there in the shootout so I guess I can't be too harsh on him. Wish he'd show up more than in just the shootout though. Roy had some bad giveaways and one lead to Florida's tying goal. But again, he did score in the shootout...even though he kind of got lucky since he lost the puck. I'll take the goals any way they are given to us...including our first one "scored" by Tim Connolly.

All in all I thought it was a solid win. It's so nice to see Miller in the shootout this year. He just seems so much more focused and confident than last year. I'm glad he's back to himself again. There could have been a lot of things affecting his game (especially in the shootout) last year. I'm sure a lot of it had to do with the personal things he was going through with the death of his cousin, and along with the fact that the team had to find a new identity after the departure of their co-captains. It's probably just a mental thing too. Miller's game has improved so much this season and it's just refreshing because it's what we all hoped for during the offseason especially when he signed his extension. The shootout was one of the main issues of his last season, and to see how he's responded is great. I liked that he stopped Booth in the shootout after he had scored on him on a penalty shot earlier in the game. It shows mental toughness. Miller had been perfect in his career in penalty shots before that, and that could have thrown him off during the shootout when he was up against Booth, but it didn't. I also liked what he said in his post-game interview about how he never watches the shooters on our team in the shootout. He just wants to focus on himself and what he has to do. I think that's a real wise approach.

So the Sabres sit in 7th place in the East and they have one more game before the league takes a break for the All-Star Games. If they can beat Tampa then they will be in a very good position going into the All-Star break and they'll be able to enjoy themselves and just relax before getting back to business. Here's hoping we beat Tampa and that Vanek has a bundle of fun in Montréal.

I uploaded my photos from the Carolina game. Here's the link to my Flickr with the photos... here's a little preview:




That's the goofy fan that I was talking about in my previous post...haha

I saw Revolutionary Road tonight...it was kind of depressing. But Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet both had great performances I thought. It was really neat for me to see them back together again in another movie.

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...

Everything's Bigger in Texas

Including Sabres' combacks. That game sure put Sabres fans in a whirlwind of emotions. We sure didn't get off to a good start with taking two undisciplined penalites (I'm looking at you, Drew Stafford) and allowing Dallas to score both times. When we were down 3-0 I just sat back and thought, "Here we go..." and was expecting a loss. It puts any team in a tough position when they're down by 3 goals, but especially the Sabres considering they had only scored 3 goals in the past 3 games. Did anyone expect them to score 4 goals within the next two periods to earn a victory? I didn't think so. Well color me surprised.

Paul Gaustad was hands down the best player tonight. Not just because he scored two goals, but his effort is just always there. He's not afraid to go in front of the next and take punches from the player's protecting the goalie. And on the other side he's not afraid to stand up for our goalie when players get too close to him. His fight might have sparked the team to play better, which they did in the 2nd period. They were a lot more aggressive and put up a great effort showing that they weren't ready to give up and call it a loss. It seemed in the Chicago game that the team was very quick to give up after giving the 'Hawks life, but last night the Sabres didn't allow that to happen, even after we let Dallas score a quick goal right after we scored to narrow the lead to just 1. We've seen that a lot with this team and it's frustrating. They score a goal to get right back into the game only to allow the other team to score another one right after the fact and then they just sit back and lose. But tonight was different. It shows that the team has enough character to not give up and try their damndest to win. That's reassuring because a lot of times the team's character is questioned a lot by fans when they are losing.

I thought Roy had a very good game too, although I did notice that he tried to do a lot of things with the puck all on his own. He's a very talented player who can sometimes get away with moves like that, but I'd like to see him play a little more simple. Isn't that what they're always preaching? Simplicity? But all in all I thought he played a good game and he was one of our heroes as he scored in the shootout to make sure that the Stars didn't win it. Miller was good, but he wasn't as good as he has been in the past few games. Maybe he was getting back into the groove after having a few days off. But he came up big in the shootout. Looks like he did his homework. He doesn't face those guys a lot considering they're a Western team, but he was right with them in the shootout and he seemed to have a good idea on what they were going to do. I'm always proud of him when I see him come up big in the shootouts because last year he really struggled in the shootout and I knew he was capable of being so much better than that. Towards the very end of the year I noticed he improved vastly in the shootout and I thought to myself that maybe he was back. So far this season he's showed that he is indeed back. Atta boy.

I still can't believe that we won that game. It was almost like my dream I had before the game... except we weren't down by 9 goals. But we did rally to score 4 goals just like in my dream! And the biggest difference from my dream is that we actually won! Since Carolina lost last night to Toronto we now have 2 points on them in the standings. Awesome. We face them on Saturday so that game is going to be huge. I'm going to it, so I'm pretty excited. It's always good to beat the Canes given our history with them, but hopefully the boys will have an added incentive to put them away since they're so close to us in the standings.

Oh and my shopping trip last night was a victorious one! I found the perfect dress for Catwalk and now I'm even more excited than I was before. I can't wait.