This Is Why I'm Hot

Before I get into real hockey stuff... I have a story to tell!

Today it was like a Sabres get together at work today, I swear... First Andrej Sekera came in, then Drew Stafford and Clarke MacArthur came in, and finally Nathan Paetsch stopped in. Anyways, my manager had two tickets to a special pre-screening of the movie The Lovely Bones, and she asked me if I wanted them. She told me that if I got 15 people to sign up for our loyalty card, she'd give me the tickets... So when Stafford and MacArthur came in, I told them the deal and asked if they could help a sister out... and Stafford was like, "Yeah I'll help you out!" We were also talking about what would happen if I gave them free tickets and MacArthur was like, "I don't want to get you fired!" and I was like, "Yeah I'll give you free tickets and then the next time you're going to come in with the whole team and I'll have to give everyone free tickets." So they signed up for the loyalty card (and I got 15 people, so I got the tickets...yay!), and that was that. Then a few minutes later Paetsch came in. A few hours later I was working and I look up and there's some guy frantically waving at me while he's walking out the door...and it was Drew Stafford. Gotta love it.

Anywayssss... I wasn't able to watch the WJC gold medal came tonight, but I have to say how stoked I am for Team USA's upset over Team Canada. Mostly because I'm American, but also because upsets are always fun...being a Buffalonian I'm just always partial to the underdogs. Got me all excited for the Olympics in February... Team USA would definitely be considered the underdogs, but when you have a hot goaltender you never know what can happen. And Team USA definitely has that... Speaking of which, it looks like Ron Wilson wants to ride the one hot goalie during the Games. Wonder which goalie it will be... Gotta love the old school picture of Miller they used in that article. Ahh, simplier days!

Well I hope you enjoyed my story. I'm going to the game tomorrow so I'm pretty excited about that. Right now I'm just enjoying some Late Night and eating a waffle for dinner. Yes, I eat dinner at 1 am and it also happens to be a waffle... I'm classy like that.

Catwalk for Charity IV Recap!

My, my, my...what a night! I've got tons of great pictures and videos to share with you all... and some pretty funny stories as well. Let's get on it...

I'm kind of weird and I always get so nervous before every Catwalk...just because it's such a big event for me, being such a big Sabres fan. I'm a pretty reserved person by nature, so as much as I love to converse and socialize with people, I still get nervous around the Sabres. So I took some advice from my soon to be 16-year-old brother and had "some of that liquid courage", as he put it, and I had a glass of wine beforehand.

So I get to the Town Ballroom and everyone is all decked out in 50s attire...everyone looked so cute. I made sure to talk to Ryan, and I forgot how much of a lightweight I am...I was only on my second glass of wine and I was, how do you put it, maybe a little too friendly with Ryan. He's such a nice guy though, so he put up with me. Anyways, I told him how I went to The Refinery in East Lansing over the summer and how I was really impressed with the town and all that... we made small talk and I got my picture taken with him. It was funny because it was so early in the night and someone stumbled by and dropped their beer bottle and it made a real loud noise and Ryan shook his head and said, "Wow...already?" to Lalime (I think), who was standing by. Then the woman who was walking around with the golden retriever puppy went up to us and Ryan started holding the puppy so I had to get a picture! It was pretty cute.

Then I remembered that I was a woman on a mission... I forgot that I was on a quest to find out why Ryan got rid of his blog. So as he walked away I was like, "RYAN WAIT...I have a question." and I asked him why he deleted it. And he said, "Because we didn't win shit when I had it." I was like, "Yaa well...it was was so good!" I think he said something along the lines of that he didn't think it was a good place for him to clear his mind or something...I can't really recall. I asked him if maybe he would consider blogging after the Olympics and he was like, "We'll see how I feel." Maybe when the Sabres start winning shit he'll reconsider and join the blogosphere again...let's hope because his blog was golden.

We were standing right by the photobooth and I remember last year I wanted to get pictures with Ryan in the photobooth, but he was being bombarded by fans asking him to and he kept saying, "Okay, but this is the last one..." and then like 5 other people would go up and ask...sooo last year I didn't want to bother him because he was being nice even though he had to be up onstage. So this year I decided to jump on the opportunity before he had to be somewhere and before everyone wanted a piece of him. So being the nice guy that he is he went in the photobooth with me! I remember apologizing... I was like, "Sorry I'm not normally like this..." and he smiled and was like, "You're fine." I just felt like I was being so naggy haha...but I couldn't help it. Catwalk for Charity is sort of like my time where I can socialize and talk to him and the rest of the players. Plus when else am I going to get the chance to get photobooth pics with Ryan Miller. Answer me that.

Right before the auction, Rick Jeanneret and Harry Neale came onto the stage and RJ was dressed in drag as a 1950s sock hop girl hahaha. It was a sight to see... My friend Michele won the bidding to have a wine tasting party with Ryan and the Goose...she told me that I could get in on that, so I'm pretty stoked for that. The fashion show, as always, was extremely entertaining and I took some videos of it. The players really seem to enjoy themselves on the catwalk and it's always awesome to watch the guys have fun.

After the fashion show I saw Ryan again and he was like, "Hey Caroline." and then I was like, "You're so precious!" and I hugged him and that liquid courage went into overdrive and I stood up on my tip toes and gave him a kiss on the cheek and then I kissed his hands. Jesus christ...poor Ryan hahahaha. It's so out of character for me, I can't believe I did that. I'm pretty sure I told him that I love when he has facial hair too... Good god, I'm sure Ryan is so used to being bothered by annoying girls, I just never wanted to fall into that category haha. Still shaking my head when I think about what I did haha.

Alright so now I saved the best story for last... Toward the end of the night I saw Tyler Myers and I went up to him and asked him if he remembered when he came into where I work and I told him how I thought his goal was sick. Then he goes, "Yeah I remember! I read it on your blog too!" and I was like, "You read my blog?!" and he said, "Yeah my dad sent me the link!" I was pretty floored when he said that. So if you happen to be reading right now, HI TYLER!

I was a little bummed that Mike Grier didn't really mingle around like the rest of the players so I never got a chance to talk to him... And Drew Stafford kept trying to convince me that some really tall dude was Tyler Myers. Tamara also told me that Stafford and Connolly bid 20 cents on the Patrick Kane jersey which is absolutely amazing. Pretty much made my day when she told me about it this morning.

I'm sure I'm leaving out a lot of stuff but that's all I can remember right now...and I don't want to keep you waiting for my pictures! Here is a link to my Flickr with all the pictures, and here are some of my favorites...

First up...my annual photo of me with Ryan:



Photobooth fun:


His smile couldn't conceal the bewildered look in his eyes...

The Gooooose




nice midriff...


I just love this picture!



Aaaaand...last but not least:



Hell yes. I also have videos up on YouTube. They aren't titled yet...but most of them are of the players strutting down the Catwalk. I got a video of RJ and Harry too when Rick was in drag, make sure to check that out as well.

Golly...

I had no idea that our little Jason Pominville was about to become a dad! You learn something new every day...



Not really sure why I ever would have known that, but it was still surprising for me to read that he and his wife have just welcomed a baby. I've said this several times on here before, but despite the fact that all the players on the team are older than I am (except for you, bb Tyler Myers), it's almost as if I've watched our core guys grow up in a sense. All the way from when they were just prospects in Rochacha, then seeing them flourish in the big leagues, and watching some ups and downs... And now they're getting married becoming daddies...cah-razzyyy!

Anyways, a big congratulations to Mr. Jason Pominville and his wife on their newest addition to the population of Pominville (that one was for you, Lindy).

Story Time!

Yesterday at work I saw a blonde dude who was about 9 feet tall walking up to me. Although he was too far away to make out his facial features...I just knew. "That's gotta be Tyler Myers..." I said to my co-worker. And it sure enough, it was.

Now quite a few Sabres and Bills come into where I work and I usually don't say anything except for, "Have a good season!" or, "Good luck this season!" just because I don't want to bother them when they're outside of the rink/field. But I figure that giving them well wishes isn't too invasive, and I'd like to let them know that I appreciate what they do and that I'm a fan in some way without being too bothersome. But there are exceptions where I have to say something other than your generic "Good luck this season!!" Exceptions would be like, oh I don't know, scoring a sick goal in the shootout to secure a come-from-behind win...all the while being a 19-year-old kid playing in his 8th NHL game evaarrrr. So, naturally...I had to let him know all this, just incase he wasn't aware. It was the least I could do.

So before thinking of a way for me to act all smooth about it, I was just like, "TYLER! Your goal last night was SICK!!!" He got a kick out of that and laughed and said "Thanks." and then I just nodded and was like, "Yeah...I screamed when it happened."

So that was that. I figured he must have gotten a kick out of that considering he's so new to the big leagues but he's making such a huge impression so early on... Sorry Tyler, but you're just going to have to get used to crazy chicks harrassing you. It just comes with the territory. Ask the other players about it, they'll tell you. Welcome to Buffalo!!!

Story Time!

Yay, I can update this thing with semi-hockey related material! It's not really that exciting of a story, but look on the bright side...training camp is just around the corner and then I'll be able to update with things that are actually worth discussing.

Anyways, so today at work there's a guy in my line that looks REALLY familiar. You know how sometimes you see a person that looks vaguely familiar, and you just shrug it off and assume that you've just seen them around town or maybe at a few parties or something along those lines? And then you see someone who looks so familiar that it's the same feeling you get when you're watching a movie and there's an actor/actress in it that you know you've seen in another movie before, but you just can't remember who it is and it drives you nuts. Well, that's the feeling I got when I saw this guy. So while I was taking care of him, I said, "You look really familiar..." and he replies, "Oh...I don't know." and I just repeated myself and said, "Yeah you look REALLY familiar, where do I know you from?" and he still played coy and said, "I don't know where you would know me from." I sort of wanted to be like, "Seriously, who the fuck are you?" but you know...that would have been inappropriate. So then being the observant person that I am, I noticed that he was wearing a Boston College hockey cap. THEN IT CLICKED. It was our dear little Nathan Gerbe. Awww, how could I have not recognized the little guy. Later I realized I could have just looked at the name on his credit card and I wouldn't have had to play the, "Do I know you?" game but I didn't think of it at the time because really, who looks at people's names on their card? It sort of made me wonder what would happen if a more prominent Sabre like Ryan Miller would do the same thing if someone told him he looked familiar. Would he be coy and say, "Hmm....I don't know." or would he be all, "Oh ya well I'm ~*~za goalie~*~ for the Sabres." Although I'm sure nowadays he doesn't have that issue in Buffalo very often. I think people who don't even know what a hockey puck looks like still knows who Ryan Miller is.

So that's my story. I hope you enjoyed it as much as I did. I'm sort of glad that happened today because it gave me an excuse to update my blog with something that was sort of related to hockey so it just wasn't an update consisting of me saying, "Holy shit, holy shit I start class tomorrow." But while we're on the subject...

Holy shit, holy shit...I start class tomorrow! I'm sort of excited. Although I haven't purchased my books yet, so I'm sure my enthusiasm will go down a tad once I have to drop a couple hundred on those lovely text books. I usually go to the first few classes and get a feel for the course and the professor. Sometimes I can tell that it's a class that I can ride out without having to buy the book, and other times it's just one of those classes where you really do have to buy the book. I just hate spending so much money on books, when sometimes you don't even read them or you just read a section or two. But I'm pretty excited for the courses that I'm taking and I'm looking forward to catching up with all of my friends who are from out of town. One thing I'm not looking foward to is getting up early because I have early AM classes every day. But it will also be a good thing because then it gives me a reason to wake up early so I don't sleep in till 11 AM. I always feel like a bum when I sleep in that late.

So now that summer is coming to a close, I can say that I really enjoyed it. I traveled around a bit and I FINALLY got to see my all-time favorite band No Doubt after all these years. I also saw a bunch of other great bands at Lollapalooza like King of Leon & the Yeah Yeah Yeahs...and a whole bunch of others but I can't think of them all at the moment. I also spent some time boating on the lake which is one of my favorite things to do and just relaxed with my family and friends. And of course I worked a whole lot. So it was a pretty nice summer but I think it did go by a little too fast...but it usually does. I have a lot of pictures to upload because my camera went all Jesus on me and came back to life after being dead for a few days. It's still acting a little wonky, but hey at least it's not completely busted. But I seemed to have misplaced the cord to connect it to my computer to upload pictures...go figure.

But I'm welcoming the fall with open arms because I think it's such a beautiful season and I love fall fashion! I always get so excited when I get to go shopping for fall clothes. Halloween is also a fun holiday so I'm excited for that...I think I'm going to be a pin-up girl. I always say that I'm going to be one but then I think of something that I want to be more. And of course fall means hockey season...which is definitely the main reason why I love the fall. There's always so much excitement in the air once hockey rolls around. First it's training camp, then it's preseason, then it's the real deal and you're on one hell of a ride until April. I can't wait. Training camp begins September 12th...

Offseason Blogging

Is harder than I thought it would be. Especially when I'm not so keen on the current teams remaining in the playoffs. Now that the 'Canes-Pens series is finished, I can honestly say I probably watched a grand total of 20 minutes of the entire series...and that's being generous. I've watched more of the 'Hawks-Red Wings series, but it hasn't been nearly as exciting as the past series have been in the playoffs this year. Although Cam Ward did let in a goal that made the commentator say, "Oh em gee." which caused the play-by-play guy to chime in and say, "That means 'Oh my god', right?". Ahh I love it. I don't understand why people use internet lingo such as acronyms like "idk" and "lol" in real life. I mean it's alright when people are doing it as a joke, but I've heard people use it and I'm pretty sure they weren't kidding. Yikes...

Anyways...Chris, one of my readers from the lovely Portland, Oregon informed me of a Podcast interview with no other than our precious Paul Gaustad. It's definitely worth a listen. Seriously, who doesn't love the Goose? I've always appreciated his interviews because they are well thought out and honest. He talks about how Ryan Miller paid him a visit last month while he was on the West Coast to watch his brother in the Anaheim-Detroit series. He told Ryan that they wouldn't be recognized in Portland because it just doesn't happen, and the first day Ryan was there they got recognized. You can run but you can't hide, boys. Last summer my friend's sister was in Rome and she texted her and was like, "I think I just saw Ryan Miller and Paul Gaustad at a bar..." But anyways...Goose's interview is about 14:30 minutes into the Podcast, which is a little less than halfway into it.

Speaking of the Goose's and Miller's bromance relationship, Ryan also updated his blog and he wrote about the traveling he's done so far this offseason. I like how he mentioned getting advice at Wegmans again. Good old Shwegs. It has everything to offer pratically, even hockey advice. Really though, I've always wondered if professional athletes enjoy talking about the sport that they play when they're out and about, or if they would rather just not talk about it during their free time. Obviously I can't speak for them because I'm not a professional athlete, but after talking to my fair share of professional athletes and seeing them interact with certain fans, I think I understand a little bit. The bottom line is obviously hockey players are fans of hockey, so I don't think they mind when fans want to talk hockey with them. I think the mistake that some fans make is that they try to give advice to the player instead of just putting in their two cents or asking questions about the game. I mean let's face it, no one really likes being told how to do their job, so when a fan is trying to tell a professional athlete how to do his job, it can just be a little laughable. I do think they enjoy just sort of shooting the shit when talking about their sport, but once a fan will try to give them pointers is when I can see an athlete wanting out in the conversation haha.

I appreciated that he mentioned the Buffalo Fan Awards and how it reminded him of being a young athlete receiving awards. I know some people who received awards, so it was fun for me as well to see people I know get recognized. Spotted has some photos of the event if you'd like to see Ryan looking all snazzy along with other familiar sports figures in Buffalo (and a few of my friends...)


"Ain't nobody dope as me, I'm dressed so fresh and so clean."

I also liked how he talked about people impersonating him on Facebook. I've come across one fan page of his on Facebook where the user claimed to be Ryan, but the spelling and grammar was that of an 11-year-old's...so it was pretty obvious that it wasn't Ryan and it was probably...an 11-year-old. Which made it more funny when I saw people leaving comments like, "Ryan! I'm your biggest fan! Can you send me your autograph?!" and "Ryan" responded like, "thnx lol ya sure i'll hit u up" Oh boy...

While on the subject of Facebook, what is up with the recent phenomenon of these fan pages? I understand having a fan page for things such as actors, musicians, sports teams, etc...but there seriously is a fan page for everything. I want to create a fan page for breathing. "Caroline just became a fan of breathing." I mean they have a fan page for sleeping, so having one for breathing isn't too far-fetched. I don't really participate in joining those fan pages or taking those quizzes, but the other day I couldn't help take the quiz about which Elmwood Villager I was. I was the Bubble Man...even though he lives more in the Allentown area, I was pleased with my result. The Bubble Man is the man.

So I'm sure some of you have seen this shirt before, but last night when strolling down the street around 10:30 I suddenly had the urge to take a picture of it. Don't ask why, I just did ok.



It's mad blurry because I just had my point and shoot camera and it was late and I didn't really want to take the time to get a good shot on just a t-shirt on a display window. Anyways, it says, "T.O. in the B-LO" and below that it reads, "Get your popcorn ready." I first saw this shirt about a month or so ago, and the woman in the store told me that they're hard to keep in stock because people keep buying them. It's just amusing to see how excited Buffalonians get over a superstar athlete coming to play for us. I kind of find it cute in a pathetic sort of way. My friend's mom said she showed T.O. a house the other day (why would he want to buy a house? He only signed a one-year deal) and apparently he wasn't too friendly but his body guard was. Good to know. Oh and if you're interested in purchasing the shirt, you can buy them at Spoiled Rotten which is on Elmwood, right in the heart of the strip. It's the same place you can buy those "I <3 Buffalo Hockey/Football" shirts, which practically everyone and their mom owns...except for me.

Thursday at the Square starts tomorrow and I'm hoping the weather holds out so I can go, although the forecast is saying thunderstorms. I love thunderstorms, but not when they interfere with my plans (or my sleep). At least there are plenty of bars that I can flock to if the weather is too bad to enjoy the free music. I had already planned on hitting up a few after the show, so either way I suppose. Also, am I the only person in Buffalo to NOT be going to the Dave Matthews concert tonight?

Catwalk for Charity III...the definition of SASSY.

Where do I begin...what a fun night! When I went to Catwalk last year I didn't think I could have had any more fun, but this year's was absolutely great. I really don't want to ramble on about every single detail because then this entry might turn out to be the longest blog entry known to man. Let's see...

Well everyone looked absolutely adorable. So many people dressed for the event in their 1920s attire and the Town Ballroom was all decked out. When I got there I saw Ryan pretty early and I decided that I should talk to him before it got too crazy. Even though there were a lot of people there who were dying to talk to him, he was extremely friendly and nice. I got to talk to him about photography which was really awesome...I meant to talk to him about it last year but I forgot. I told him that the photos I take of him at the hockey games get the most views on my Flickr and he thought that was funny. When I was talking to him his brother Bryce and sister Brynne came up to us and Ryan was so cute. He was like, "These are my siblings!" and he introduced them to me. They both looked so cute in their 20s outfits. I got my picture with them and Ryan and I also got a picture with just Ryan and me.

Later on I saw Ryan's dad hanging out and I went up to him and was like, "Um I just have to say that your son is a really good goalie." Haha. He laughed and we talked about Catwalk for a bit...I told him that I went last year as well and how it was such a great event and how I was real excited that it was 20s themed this year. We talked about Ryan for a little bit and Ryan sounds just like his dad haha. I saw Rick Jeanneret a little bit later and I had to get my picture taken with him. My dad used to work with the Sabres in broadcasting so he knows my dad and he was like, "Why isn't he here?!" Then Ryan's grandparents came up to us when we were talking to Rick and they introduced themselves to Rick...I got to talking to them and they were the sweetest people. They were so gracious and they kept thanking me for coming.

Sooo, there was really good food and the auction items as always were really great. Everyone was just walking around, eating & drinking and having a good time. I talked to Ryan again and I just told him how proud I was of him and how amazing he's been playing lately and that we're real lucky to have him. He was very gracious and I told him how it's real nice to see how well-rounded he is and he thanked me and he asked me if I was having fun.

So now onto the real fun stuff...the live auction and the fashion show. Ryan was hilarious when they were auctioning things off. When they were auctioning off the black lab puppy Ryan did his best Russian accent and asked how much Max had (he won the puppy last year). The puppy was won by Dan Paille's fiancée. Before they auctioned it off Ryan was coddling the little puppy and it was pretty damn cute. When they were auctioning off the bubble hockey set Rick Jeanneret was like, "I'll go to the winner's house and call the game for you." and Ryan was like, "WHUT I can't even get him to come to my house!" haha. When they were auctioning of a poster with a bunch of former Sabres' autographs, Ryan was trying to read the signatures and he was like, "Um...I can't read these...I don't know all of their numbers" and he had to get Rob Ray to read them and Rayzor read a few off and then was like, "Whatever...good enough." So during the fashion show Harry Neale & Rick Jeanneret were absolutely hilarious. They kept making cracks at the players and it was pretty funny. Tim Connolly did the worm on the catwalk and I was like, "OMG...don't get hurt!!" and when Gaustad was leaning down to touch people's hands, Ryan was like, "Woah, don't pull too hard on his arm!" in reference to Goose's "upper-body injury". I also had a little peek into backstage and I saw a shirtless Paul Gaustad running around. That was a treat. So the fashion show was great and they all looked so cute.

After the fashion show, Drew Stafford played some songs on the drums and Ryan played the guitar. Derek Roy did the vocals and it was pretty funny. Then someone gave Petey the microphone and he kept having the audience do chants. First he was like, "When I say 'PLAY' you say 'OFFS'!" and then he was like, "When I say 'TRADE' you say, 'RIVET!'" haha. What a jokester. So I found myself in the ~VIP Area~ by the end of the night where most of the Sabres were hanging out with their friends, girlfriends, wives, etc. And Pominville was our typical little Pommers...his fiancée (or wife? Hell I don't know...I avoid those hockey player gossip message boards like the plague so I have a very vague idea on who the player's girlfriends are for the most part) had her shoes off but when she wanted to put them back on our dear little Pominville put them on for her. What a nice boy. By that time I had a lot of glasses of wine so I went up to Ryan and gave him a big hug and I was like, "Zanggg I love your hat!" He was wearing one of those Irish caps...and then I was like, "I have to say that I think you're absolutely adorable!" and he smiled and said he appreciated that. Haha wow...I really hope he doesn't remember that encounter. But it was really, really neat to watch the Sabres off the ice and just goofing around with each other and having fun. It really was a lot of fun and you could tell they were all having a great time, especially Ryan. I caught him throwing stuff at someone and he was ducking by the bar to hide hahaha. Drew Stafford was hilarious trying to auction off the cutout boards of some of the players... someone shouted that they'd pay $50 dollars for one and he was like, "$50?! Come on, you know you can sell this on eBay for like $400." I saw that Andrew Peters' wife bought the cardboard cutout of Peters and they were taking pictures with it haha.

So all in all the night was fantastic. I had a blast. Ryan was a great host and he was a sweetheart to everyone. Great entertainment, great drinks, great food, great venue, great people...it's a perfect night for any Sabres fan and if you haven't been to one yet you're really missing out. I told Ryan that it was a real great thing that he has them and he was like, "Well we're going to keep having them!" So that's awesome. I met up with Rachael and Lucinda and Jill and Jay which was real awesome!

Alright...I know you all want to look at my pictures! I just have to say that they're pretty bad quality because I just had my point and shoot and not my nice camera, but oh well. You can see them on my Flickr page. Here's two of my favorites:


Ryan and myself of course!


Ryan looking cute with his Irish cap after the fashion show

I didn't take as many pictures as I planned on, but I did take a lot of videos! Check them out on my YouTube page. Make sure you watch the ones with Ryan and the puppy...they're precious. Ryan's Russian impression is in the one where they're auctioning off the puppy. The one of Harry Neale & Rick Jeanneret is pretty funny too. So enjoy the videos...they'll give you a nice perspective of what it was like all night.

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.

Getting Sassy...20s style

I have nothing to say for last night's shit show. As a fan there's only so much you can say. It's up to the team. They're better than that. I don't know why they are struggling to win at home. It's disappointing, but all I can say is bring on Los Angeles. If they can win against them then maybe it will spark some confidence and help them win at home. If not, well...there's only three home games in January. You're not supposed to look forward to the month where you're basically on the road the entire time, but maybe it's a plus for us. We shall see.

In other news, let's talk about Ryan Miller and the five goals he gave up last night. First off, he updated his blog. Don't you love that fans actually give him advice on how to stop pucks? I know I do. Really people? You know, if you're 10 years old then it's kind of cute, but if you're any older then you really need to stand back and realize what you're doing. An average fan telling a NHL goalie how to stop the pucks and be better. Right. I'm sure he appreciates the advice.

Secondly, Catwalk for Charity III....hells yeah. I sent in my order form for tickets a few days ago so hopefully I get an e-mail or something soon saying that they got my form and my tickets will come shortly. How awesome is it that it's 1920s themed this year? REAL AWESOME. That will be a lot of fun. I love the 1920s. I've always said that I wish that I lived through the 1920s-1960s because that's when all the cool stuff happened. My favorite fashion eras have always been the 20s, 30s, 40s, 50s, and 60s. So maybe I just wanted to live in those eras strictly for the fashion, okay? And for my chance to meet my favorite person in the entire world, Marilyn Monroe. Where was I going with this? Oh yeah, Catwalk for Charity. I can't wait to shop around and look for a cute outfit for the event. Peacock feathers may or may not be involved. I've made myself a cute hairclip from a peacock feather that I love and since it's 20s themed it will be a perfect opportunity to whip it out. It's a little more "earthy" than 1920s glamour, but I can spruce it up a tad. You can head over to Sabres TV and watch a snippet of the press conference...I don't know why they didn't post the whole thing, I want to see it. Maybe they'll post it later.

Anyways, hopefully some of you plan on going to the event...it really is a lot of fun. I think I've talked about it before on here. If you want to get an idea of it, I have some pictures that I took when I went last year. They're kind of grainy because I just had my point and shoot camera and the lighting was dark. But you get the idea. Funny thing is, after doing some searching on the internet I've found some pictures of the event with me in them haha.


This one was in the paper, I cut it out and I have it pinned up on my "Photo Wall" in my bedroom. That's how I roll.



It's like playing Where's Waldo Caroline!


Anyways. Hopefully the Sabres are getting sick and tired of getting pushed around and having their asses handed to them on home ice. Let's see how things go tomorrow night...

Pregaming

So as I mentioned in my previous post, I decided to head downtown to the arena this morning to watch the boys practice. I haven't been to a morning skate in a long, long time and it was pretty chill. Going on weekdays is best because not that many people are there. It can be a little crazy on weekends because the people in attendence can be a little whacky. It was pretty quiet so you could hear everything on the ice. I wanted to shout, "HIT THE FREAKIN' NET" when they were doing shooting drills. Also, when Lindy gathered the team at center ice I couldn't hear anything so I wanted to shout, "HEY LINDY...SPEAK UP....I CAN'T HEAR YOU!" But no. I didn't want to be that person.

It's fun being there when the guys are just taking it easy and messing around with each other. The players were practicing their breakaways on Miller and he kept letting them in and they were giving him a hard time and he was like, "I stopped the second one!!" and then he stopped the next shot and he was like, "Woooohoooo!!!!" It was the first time I've ever heard emotion in his voice. Just kiddinggg. Max was messing around with Lalime but it was hard to understand what Max was saying.

Something interesting I noticed was that Peters was practicing with the defensemen for most of the time. And then when most of the players left the ice, he stayed on the ice with James Patrick and Rivet. It looked like Rivet was showing him how to skate backwards and giving him pointers. I wonder how Petey would be as a defenseman...food for thought.

After watching them practice I moseyed around the Sabres Store. Everything is 20% off until Christmas Eve, for those who are interested. I was browsing through the Sabres yearbook where it has all of that fun stuff; favorite food, favorite movie, etc. I found it amusing that Miller wrote that if he wasn't a hockey player he'd want to be an architect. The only thing I could think of was George Costanza's dreams of being an architect ("You're an architect?" "I'm not?"). Ahh gotta love it. I also saw most of the players afterwords eating their pregame meals. I'd say most of them were there, every so often another player would come in a little late and join a table. Good times.

My iTunes is acting all wonky and saying that it can't locate my songs, when CLEARLY all of my songs are in my iTunes folder. So I don't know what its deal is and why it can't find any of my songs when they're there. It's driving me crazy and it's really, really frustrating. I'm trying everything... Oh well. Go Sabres.

What To Say...

So I was holding off until the end of the weekend to update in hopes that I'd be able to say, "Wow, what a great weekend for the Sabres to turn things around!" Unfortunately that's not the case. The Philadelphia game was obviously frustrating, getting shutout is not fun at all especially when you see all the chances your team had. To be honest I didn't watch the Islanders game that intently because my best friend who moved to Pittsburgh in the beginning of October came back home that night so I was at my friend's dorm with him. The game was on but there were distractions. From what I gathered from the game was that the Sabres played much better than they have been recently but unfortunately they got the same results. It's very frustrating but I don't care what people say I think this team is talented enough to be a real good team who can compete in the playoffs. I just hope they don't get too frustrated because as a fan it's very frustrating watching these games so I can only imagine what it's like for the players. Hang in there boys.

As I was saying my friend Scott came back to Buffalo yesterday for Thanksgiving and it was real nice hanging out with him again. We've been friends since middle school and he is just hilarious. We have the same bizarre sense of humor and it was nice to laugh with him again. He's missed Buffalo a lot so I thought it would be a good idea to go downtown to Rotary Rink today to ice skate and see Ryan Miller in all his glory. It was a lot of fun. Ryan went up to the ice and signed a lot of autographs and took pictures with fans. I was going to skate up to him and ask if he would do a triple axel on the ice with me but I wasn't sure if he would have been up for it. It didn't look like he was wearing a V-neck either which was surprising! He talked to the crowd later and he was funny. He was saying how he put his tree up and one year when he was living with Paul Gaustad they didn't take their tree down until March. He also says he likes going all out around the holidays and wears those embarrassing holiday sweaters. I'm pretty sure he was kidding, but that would be a sight to see.

The funniest part was after the festivities they were selling things inside, so I went to buy an ornament that benefits Ryan's Saves for Cancer campaign. Well I went to meet Scott outside the door and then Ryan comes out and there's a flock of girls following him giggling and whispering and Ryan looks over to Scott and I and jokingly says, "Save me..." Haha. Must be tough having ladies follow you around, eh Ryan? In all seriousness he's a good guy who's pretty modest so it's probably a little awkward...

He also updated his blog and let me say, kudos to his music selection. I just love the fact that he listens to The Raconteurs! They're one of my favorites as of late and I saw them over the summer at Lollapalooza in Chicago and they were great live. They're really neat and in some of their songs they have a folky, bluesy (I'm pretty sure I just invented a new word, "bluesy") vibe to their music. They were probably my second favorite act, behind Rage Against The Machine which I might say was the best live music performance I've ever seen. Anyways, he mentioned bands like The Smashing Pumpkins and Counting Crows...classics, ya know? Annddd he thinks he's getting old. Yes, being in your 20s is ancient, didn't you know? He even pulled the whole, "I liked this band before it become popular!" card. Really, Ryan? I see the Elmwood pretentiousness is getting to you. Pfffttt, give me a break. I'm only kidding! I know what he means though. I avoid the radio because it's so...narrow. Last summer my cousin thought I was from another planet when I told her I never heard the song Umbrella by Rihanna. I mean, I knew of the song, I just never heard it. I have listened to it since then, for the record.

I've decided to give myself an early break and I'm not going to any classes next week. Partially because Scott is in town for only a week and we have some serious catching up to do, and also because I am really drained from class and I could use the extra time to relax. I can't wait for this semester to be over.

Hopefully I can update this blog in the very near future celebrating a Sabres victory. Keep your heads up high, Sabres fans.

Something To Be Proud Of

I was waiting to update my blog until I cooled off after being extremely pissed off after our abysmal weekend. The Penguins game had me fuming. I don't really feel like going back and talking about it, because well, you all know what happened and I'm sure you don't want to hear about it again. As fans, there's not much we can do except hope that the next game will be better. So instead of playing Monday Morning Quarterback and posting a bunch of shoulda's, woulda's, coulda's, I'm just going to say I hope we have a better outing on Wednesday against the Bruins.

Now straying off from hockey but not really, most of you probably know that Ryan Miller is going to be lighting the Christmas tree at Rotary Rink in celebration of its opening season. He'll also be there promoting his Saves For Cancer campaign that supports Carly's Club. I just want to say how refreshing it is to see an athlete like Ryan Miller do something like this. He's obviously well aware of the influence he has around the city both as a professional athlete and as a celebrity figure and he's putting that celebrity towards a wonderful cause. I know it's something that someone in his position should do, but I think it's obvious that he truly cares about what he's doing and he's passionate about it.

If you haven't heard of his Saves For Cancer campaign, you should head over to the Carly's Club page over at RoswellPark.org and check it out (or just click that link that I graciously added). They have two commercials that Ryan is in promoting it and there's also a video of the press conference to kick off the campaign. It's a really sweet video, because in the video there's a little boy who goes up and talks about how Ryan helped him get through his battle with cancer by just being there for him. A sponser also talks about how Ryan was supposed to do an hour autograph session, but instead he showed up a half hour early to meet a patient who couldn't attend the autograph session, then he stayed for an hour and a half to sign autographs, and afterwords he stayed another two hours to watch a movie with the kids. It's also cute when Ryan goes up to the podium, before they introduced him they had a highlight reel of some of his saves, and then Ryan tells the kids that he had his eyes closed during all those saves. I think it's great that he has unique ways of giving back to the community and getting people involved such as his Saves For Cancer campaign and his Catwalk For Charity fashion show.

Speaking of his fashion show, on his Steadfast Foundation website, the date for this year's event is on Sunday, February 8th. I hope everyone who can will attend. I attended it last year and I had the best time. It was a really unique way for fans to interact with their favorite players. I mean, autograph sessions can be fun, but with an event like this, it's more intimate and personal. You get to actually have meaningful conversations with the teammates and it's just a great night overall. While it's a great thing Ryan offers for his fans, at the same time he's also raising a ton of money to help children with cancer....which is awesome.

While I admire Ryan for what he is as a professional goaltender in the NHL, I have come to admire him just as much off the ice for the kind of person he is. While we're lucky to have such a solid netminder between the pipes for us, we're also lucky to have him for what he does off the ice for our tight-knit community. Sometimes those don't always go hand in hand, and I am proud to say in Ryan's case, it does.

New Blogger Alert

Well, well, well. It looks like I gave in and decided to start my own blog. After reading several hockey blogs, I thought it would be fun to give it a go. I might go off-topic every now and then so bear with me. I'm not going to do anything too serious because I'm not an expert. I'm just a fan, but it's fun to read other fan's perspectives on the game, so I thought it wouldn't hurt to add mine.

Anyways! I don't really know how to start this off, so I guess I'll just go a little bit into myself and then a little bit into my thoughts on the Sabres up until this point.

I'm Caroline and I'm going to school for photography. I'm not sure what I want to do with that yet, but I know that I really enjoy it and I think I'm pretty good at it. I like hockey but I've never played. I'm the only daughter in my family, so with my two brothers I've been around sports my whole life. Hockey is just the one sport that I connected to and found a real interest in. I still enjoy watching most sports but nothing comes to close how I feel about hockey. Obviously being born and raised in Buffalo it was pretty easy to watch a team and follow them. No real surprise there. I also like following most of the teams around the NHL except for a select few because I just don't like them. I also try to follow college hockey as well.

So the Sabres have been impressive so far in this young season. A 6-1-2 record is not too shabby. Coming into this season and listening to the player's during training camp, they seemed eager to play hockey after their disappointing play last season. A lot of them talked about specific things that they worked on in the offseason to help improve their game. As a fan it's nice to hear but you have to remain cautiously optimistic until you see what they can really do. Talk is cheap. But the Sabres really did show that they have learned from their mistakes and they improved on what they needed to work on. I'm talking mostly about defense, goaltending, consistency, and maturity. This team is young and I think the last game against the Ottawa Senators showed that they can still lack maturity when a lot of their veterans are missing from the lineup. Hopefully as the season progresses they'll get better in that department.

I don't like to see my team lose as much as the next fan, but I think a little adversity here and there can really test this team and make me see if they really have what it takes to be a true contender. It seemed in their 06-07 run they got a little arrogant due to all of their success during the regular season and I think that hurt them in the playoffs. Last year they dealt with too much adversity and they did not really seem to know how to recover from it. I'm hoping to see a balance during this season, and I think with the experience that this team has had over the last few seasons and the addition of our new captain, I have a feeling that they will. We will see...

So today between classes I went out to lunch with my friend. We were sitting down waiting for our food when who do I spot but Ryan Miller. He was with Andrew Peters. It was pretty cool. They sat down right near us. I didn't want to approach them or say anything to them when they were eating, though. So when my friend and I were getting ready to leave I noticed that they were both finished with their meals and I couldn't help but say something to them because I'm just so proud of how they have been playing as of late (minus the Ottawa game). I just congratulated them both and told them that I'd be at the game on Thursday. As always, they were both very nice. It was the highlight of my boring day.

Anyways. Hopefully this blog entry wasn't as awkward as most ice breakers are. I'll try to post often and I hope you enjoy what I have to say!