Today certainly was a busy day for the Sabres. With the trade deadline today and then a game directly following, it was pretty eventful. I guess I should touch on the trades this team made before I talk about the game...
I have to say that I am pretty impressed with the moves Darcy made today, and I think a lot of people were surprised in how active he was. Firstly we signed Connolly to an extension. I've said before that a 2-year contract is ideal for Timmy's situation, so that was nice to see. The Sabres will be able to evaluate whether or not Timmy will be able to remain healthy for an entire season and then they can go from there. We've got ourselves another goalie, Mikael Tellqvist, which provides us with some insurance. A lot of fans are worried by this move because it might indicate that Miller is going to be out longer than anticipated. I don't think this is necessarily the case. Ruff has said that Ryan is progressing well, but setbacks can happen so Tellqvist provides this team insurance. It also helps out Portland because they heavily relied on Enroth until he got called up, so now he can be back between the pipes for them and it will also benefit him in the long run because he'll be playing instead of riding the bench. I am very glad that we got Dominic Moore. He's been having a pretty good season in Toronto and he's a good faceoff man. I've heard he's good on the special teams so that's another nice incentive. Fans say that he's a guy who plays with a lot of heart and effort so that's always a good thing. I'm excited to see what he can do for us. We had one departure, and that was Ales Kotalik. I have to say I've never been a big fan of Ales. He often played as though he was very uninspired and he took lazy penalties. He was money in the shootout though. It's a little sad to see him go just because he's been with the organization for so long, and I wish him success in Edmonton. A good thing is he'll be out West so we won't have to worry about facing him in the shootout too often.
Now onto the game...a very satisfying win for the team. Lalime finally got the offensive support that he needed and he was very strong for us making 38 saves. He really deserved that shutout, but oh well. In the first half of the first period he played very strong and he made key saves for the team until the Sabres found their scoring touch...very similiar to what Miller has done for this team night in and night out. It was real nice to see Vanek out there again. He's been so missed and I'm excited to have him back in the lineup. Gaustad also came up huge tonight, scoring both a power play goal and a shorthanded goal. Very nice.
I have to say that I really enjoyed seeing Max out there again. I admit that I have a soft spot for him, so it made me happy to see him back out there and he looked pretty good. I'm sure it felt real good for him to get back onto the ice after being scratched for several weeks straight and to go out there and have a nice game. Hopefully he can build on that and he can contribute to the team while he's here.
All in all it was a very entertaining game and it's nice to see this team finally get a much-needed victory amidst a tight playoff race. We're still right in the thick of things, and we've got a game or two in hand with the teams currently keeping us out of a playoff spot. Of course, games in hand only matter if you win them...so here's hoping.
I can't believe that I am almost halfway done with this semester already. It seems like I have nothing to show for it, but I've got a few assignments coming up so maybe this is the calm before the storm. Actually it isn't, as this is a very busy week for me school-wise. I am glad that I am halfway through the week. I've got three papers that I have to do and I am going to try and get a leg up on it and work on some of them in my downtime tomorrow between classes. I have a bad habit if procrastinating, but I also work good under pressure, so to speak. The night before I have a big assignment due, I usually crack down and get a lot of work done in a short amount of time. Of course leading up to the night before I am usually stressing over the assignment so it would be nice to actually do the work earlier so I don't have to worry.
I'm so glad that this weekend is going to be nice. My friends and I plan on spending time in the city and taking some pictures. I feel like I haven't taken as many pictures as I should and it makes me feel a little guilty, being a photo student and all. I found an unopened package of Polaroid film the other day and it got me real excited. I thought I had some film lying around, but when I coudn't find it I thought I was mistaken. I'll definitely have to use it conservatively and hopefully I find something neat to photograph with it. Over the summer I took some Polaroids at the Erie County Fair and the pictures turned out real neat with the carnival-esq look to it. My friends and I also plan on smoking some hookah too. Have you guys ever done it? A hookah is a device for smoking, and you can smoke shisha with it, which is flavored tobacco. It's very common in Middle Eastern countries and it's pretty relaxing. There's a hookah bar on Hertel that we like to go to, so hopefully we get to do that too. I've also been wanting to try out Falafel Bar's new location on Allen.
So the win tonight and our new acquisitions have me feeling pretty optimistic. Between the nice weekend that I have planned and the upcoming games, it's helping me get through this hectic week at school. I'll have to get some studying and work done between my plans and the games, but that's alright. Another really cool thing is that my dad is interviewing Wayne Gretzky on Friday. How cool is that? He isn't actually the interviewer, per se, but my dad is a freelance producer and he has done a lot of work with the Sabres in the past. I'd really love to be there, but it's probably a little unprofessional to tag along with my dad just to get a glimpse of The Great One.
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