Game On!

I'm going to try a live game blog tonight. First off if you haven't read the Buffalo News' 40 memories article do so. I'll post the link later.

With a few minutes to go to face-off it's good to see RJ.

Random thought -- is there a Blogger app for the i-phone?

Anthems -- the live band was quite sweet, but the singer was a tad flat, but then again he's still far and away a better singer than I am.

Katebits must be famous -- a pop-up showing the HD feeds for the game said "TWC."

And we have real hockey!

With 2 minutes gone it's been in the Sabres end too much

18:00 -- post.

My source for the video feed cut out so I'm on WGR's app to listen -- not sure what the lag is yet.

Video's back at about 14:00

I realize not many people will read this, but I always enjoy reading live game blogs afterwards, and figured it'd be fun. Miller does't seem to have gathered any cobwebs t brush off over the summer


ROY SCORES! Beautiful

Apparently Harry agrees with me, calling it a "highlight" goal.

Well, at least Buffalo has one team that knows what it's like to lead a game!

And my I just saw that my mom commented on it in her facebook status almost as soon as Roy scored. What can I say, it's a family thing.

10:20 -- not sure about that face-off. I'm looking at you, Niedermeyer.

Powerplay -- tripping by Ottawa's 9,

1:10 down in PP and it's looking just as craptastic as ever.

PP over, hope to see some improvement on that this season.

Goose and Montador standing up, looks like a Kaleta penalty,

Goose, Montador, and Kaleta standing up of Leopold. Lets hope there's more of that this season.

3:15 -- Miller chant starts

2:40 -- Good save, maybe by Morrisonn after Miller is caught out of position.

:45 -- Roy wide on a breakaway; Great read to start his rush.

End of 1st -- 1-0 Buffalo

Second Period:
What's up with the bright blue dashers? The ad for Irwin and Enterprise looks like they might be electronic. That's got to mess with that board, but then maybe it's just the cameras.

Couple chances this period already -- our boys look dominate in the first minute and a half here.

17:32 -- I think I'd like Ruutu if he was on another team simply because he has a fun name.

15:35 -- those 2 boards are definitely electronic -- now advertising Subway and something else. That's got to have an effect on the puck when it hits that part of the boards. Sorry, my nerd side is coming out again.

PP, Buff, pen to Fisher of Ottawa. Lets hope it's better.

14:15 -- Meyers had a bad pass letting Ottawa to run down and eat time.

This power play is looking even worse -- Stafford tries a drop pass type thing and gives it away. Giveaways galore.

And now for something completely different.
Last weekend I was at a party at a friend's house and for the first time in my life I won a "guess how many candies are in the jar" contest. Candy corns are great, except for my teeth.

Lee holds up Grier, so another powerplay.

Poor Vanek can't get anything in on like 100 attempts tonight. Vanek takes high stick from Ruutu, but no penalty!

The Buffalo Herd's (a group that raises money for the Ottawa Children's Hospital)hats remind me of Fred Flintstone's lodge hat.

Lots of pushing and shoving tonight, but then how could we expect anything less against Ottawa.

6:42 -- Sabres get 100 rebounds but can't bury the puck.

Ottawa getting a few chances...

Kelly scores to tie the game at one with less than a minute left off a feed from Ruutu. The rush was spurred when the puck jumped Leopold's stick.

End of Second -- 1-1.

Drink some water and breathe boys, then come out strong and pull out the win!

Well, I'm not sure if I'm going to make it through this game -- I'm back on a (mostly) normal sleep schedule and by 2130 my body now knows to sleep. So not cool when hockey's on.

Hahaha, the Ford Fiesta is back.

Montador, 2 min for slashing, 17:45

Eating away time on the PK quite nicely.

PK successful.

10:41 -- Campoli, cross checking. Great, we have to endure another powerplay.

GOAL! Either Vanek or Roy. The powerplay worked!

Roy credited with the goal.

Come on, boys, lets get another one.

I learned earlier tonight that Vanek is the same age as I am. He wrote a book (available in Europe and only in German), whereas I finally got a college degree and still need another few years of school before I get to what I want to do with my life.

Senators on the powerplay, but I missed why.

Another successful PK

Neil went after someone. I still hate that guy. Ok, so maybe not hate, but if I was on the street I'd go out of my way to either call him a jerk or completely ignore him.

Penalties to Roy and Neil, which should give us some good 4-on-4 hockey! I actually enjoy that -- more open ice to let the plays develop. I'd love it if the NHL went to 10 minute 4-on-4 OTs and did away with the skills competition shootout.

4:35 -- Montador down on the ice but reaches out with his stick to knock the puck away. I love seeing dedication like that.

3-on-1, Ennis' shot goes wide.

Penalty to Stafford at 2:50

Goose wins the faceoff and leaves the ice, reminding us all of the why it's great to have a face-off specialist.

Less than 2 in regulation

Roy blocks a shot, as does Pomminville when Ottawa had an empty net but can't make things happen. Will they keep the net empty with 46 seconds left?

Net still empty...

Penalty to Grier for slashing with 20.6 seconds left. Cue '80s synth pump up song, "The Final Countdown." I hate the '80s synth sounds.

1.3 seconds left, maybe, as .3 seconds were added a few seconds ago.

SABRES WIN! Yeah, Baby, beating the Sens is an excellent way to start the season!

Fun Stuff and Odds & Ends

When I was in school (I think around 8th or 9th grade) one of the teachers (my friend John's mom) organized us to play Boomwhackers (plastic tubes which are designed to play a specific note when struck) and we performed "Joyful, Joyful." Today my my college West Civ teacher discovered them via the internet and posted some videos. One of them caught my eye, and so I give you Sabre Dance performed on Boomwhackers.



I know many of you are a trapped in the off-season lull, but I am already getting excited for the season. I can't wait for hockey to start. We already have the schedules out and soon the season will start. Being a fan from the distance isn't always (read: is never) easy, especially when I don't have fancy things like satellite TV or NHL Season Pass, but I love following the games. (I've mentioned before how I got the Flycast app for my phone so I can drive around listening to RJ calling the game even when I'm 4 hours away from Buffalo. 'Tis great!) I love that more of my fellow bloggers will have regular Sabres updates, and that feeling during the first few games that anything's possible, no matter what decisions, good, bad, or indifferent, were made during the off season. There's something about the start of the season which is full of hope, and I, for one, can't wait for everyone to get swept up it. That, to me, is a huge part of what being a fan is all about.

Where have I been?

Well I ought to have updated this several times since I last did, but I have excuses! At first I didn't want to talk about the olympics, then I got busy with school. Somewhere in there depression over the Sabres early departure kicked in, but I promise that I was working on a post before they dropped the series. Mix in a desperate need to find a new place to live then moving and starting my summer job and you get this far into the summer without hearing from me.

My summer has been good though. Just a couple brief thoughts -- I light the signing of Rob Neidermeyer (or however it's spelled) I think it will help even out the young bucks. Kaleta's settlement is a good thing and I'm glad that Darcy knows how to use arbitration. For those of you who have been under a bigger rock than I have been the Sabres took Kaleta to arbitration so no one else could sign him to a pricey offer sheet (a la Vanek) so we would have more time to negotiate a good contract. It seems all parties involved got what they wanted. I'm not sure how I feel about Kennedy getting waived, in part because I have not read anything about the situation. I have no thoughts on Jordan Leopold since I don't know much about him.

Catching up

Ok, time for a real update. I could make excuses about being busy with school and other stuff after the Olympic break, but the truth is that I could have blogged about the Sabres if I wanted to do so. Lets face it -- they didn't give me much reason to talk last month. But now they are (almost) back to their old form and have locked up the NE Division. Our boys finally get another shot at that nice shiny cup. IF they decide to play well in front of Miller then they have a pretty good shot at it. Lets face it, as much as we all enjoyed Miller getting international recognition during the Olympics we were all thinking "If he loses it here but wins us the cup then it's all fine." Right now they need to have their "eyes on the prize, man, eyes on the prize," but not in the Mystic Spiral sort of way. (Side note: I just tried to find a clip of Trent and Jesse doing their "eyes on the prize" thing and couldn't find one.)

At any rate I plan on commenting a bit more on here. But right now I'm going to enjoy the awesomeness of finishing no worse than 3rd in the East (and possibly 2nd) as I fall asleep.

Buyer's Remorse

If I were the GM of an NHL team other than the Sabres I think I would make it a policy never to sign a free agent who came from the Sabres. The Flyers signed Briere and all they for was a huge cap hit plagued with injuries. Drury's production has dropped significantly since signing with the Rangers and now Ales Kotalik is a -18 and looking for a new team. Now the trades seemto be doing alright but if I were a supersticious person (which I am most definitely not) I might infer there is a post-Buffalo curse. I, however, think that someone decided to make a calculated risk that didn't work for the Flyers and Rangers but paid off (in part) for Buffalo.


I started typing this in the morning but heard that Kotalik is off to Calgary for a 4th liner.

Mayday!

So I've been a lazy blogger. I've been reading and writing other things and bored out of my mind. Unemployment doesn't suit me at all. I'm really looking forward to going back to school next month just to have something to do. Anyway on to hockey-related thoughts.

I'm not going to lie. When the Sabres lost 4 in a row I was starting to worry they were falling into old habits, but they've pulled out. Kudos to LaLime for his win over Chicago of all teams. I have much more confidence in our back-up than I did before. I'd like to take a moment and reflect on back-up goalies. A few years ago I met John Blue, former back-up for the Sabres (and the Bruins) at a church-planting conference run by The Chapel. He is now working with a new church in Orange County, California. I definitely didn't expect to meet a former Sabre there, but it was cool. After one session which was held over Buffalo wings the guys from my church and I were talking with him. One of the guys from my church brought up hockey, and Mr. Blue mentioned how as a back up goalie they have to be ready for anything. They never know when they will be called up to jump in the middle of a game due to an injury or start with very little notice. Yet if a back-up loses a couple games then all confidence in them can be easily lost. I never really thought of what kind of nerves they must have to fight before that. But think about it -- a good back-up is easily forgotten. They come in for a game or too and if they are good they win them or at least keep it close, yet no one will remember the good back-ups because if they were really good then they'd be a starter. It is assumed that a back-up isn't that great. On the other side of the coin a bad back-up goalie is remembered for being, well, bad. Why did Lindy Ruff fide Miller so much last year? Because we had no faith in LaLime. I'm very glad that LaLime has improved and I think he can become a very dependable, (and, unfortunately, forgettable) back-up.

How great is it to see different guys stepping up? Hank has double his goals from last season already, which rocks. Who really expected Kaleta to have 2 goals in a game and get us a win the other night? Certainly not this guy. It's great to see our rookie defenseman getting in on the scoring action as well. Yes, I know, the top six need to contribute more, but it's refreshing for me to see more guys stepping up that Goose and Miller. Granted my perspective on last season is a bit skewed since I had very very limited internet access last season (it still blows my mind that I actually had a more dependable connection in Iraq than I did at the posts I was at for training before then). Mid-November to the week before Christmas last year was a total loss for following the team, but it seemed that when I would check in on the Sabres it was the same comments from bloggers (and at times Miller and Goose as well) about lack of effort and how 2 guys were carrying the team. This year more guys are stepping up in enough ways to pull wins out of games that would have been lost last year.

Finally the reason for the title of the post. I was looking up funny pictures today and this one just made me think "What in the world is going on here?" It's one of those 1 in a billion shots where you can't help but think "That is the most awkwardly timed picture ever."


That's certainly not how I remember Brad May. For more entertaining sports pics go here

Yes, I finally got to see this. Apparently the owner or co-owner of the Allen Americans is a Stanley Cup winner (Red Wings, 2002, or at least that's what I heard. I'm too lazy to look it up right now)

I also got to see some good hockey last night with a 5-1 win for the home team and a good fight right in front. It was the first time my cousin Kim has seen a hockey fight live.

As always I ran into some other Sabres fans and was able to let them know the score because I have a fancy phone now that lets me follow my team from anywhere I have a cell signal. (I can even listen to RJ's play by play in my car, which is nice when I'm driving around Scranton)

Here's a few more pics from last night.










I was just able to get my camera in since although it has a nice lens with great zoom capabilities the lens does not detach.