Why do you play with my heart, Buffalo?

So about that game. It was bound to happen, in my opinion. When you kill a team like we did the night before, it's about time for the boys to come out a lay an egg.

My game notes:

-you know it's bad when Lydman has the most shots and Hecht is tied for the most hits. 

-Butler, Butler, Butler. It's a miracle he was only -1 when all said and done, considering he was one the ice for 4, count em, 4 of Calgary goals [directly causing 2].

-Oh Cory Sarich. I forgot he plays for Calgary. He was one of my first hockey crushes. For some reason I always pick the bad players/underachievers [aka Geoff Sanderson, Sarich, Paetsch, etc. to love]. I miss him.

-did anyone else's MSG channel freeze after the 2nd period? I was pissed I couldn't finish watching the game and had to listen to it. Little did I know, there's this site.

-what the crap happened to Vanek's lip?

-oh TimBits. I forget how amazing he is when he only plays 2 games a year. Seriously, he's almost worth 3.5 million even if he only plays 1/4 of the games. Almost.

-I hate that when we play Canadian teams we always get shafted when it comes to penalties. What the crap kinda calls and noncalls were those?

I think that is all. Oh, I'll leave you with these, and maybe you'll understand. He saves puppies and kicks ass. :)

In the words of MacTavish, "It was a debacle of monumental proportions." Or, was it?

There are so many things that could be said about last night! I started off in a pissy mood because I hate, I hate watching games in bars... for reasons that any real Sabres fan who's watched a game in a bar already knows. Let's just say I missed the first goal because it wasn't turned on yet and that just about sent me into cardiac arrest. Just as I was recovering from that, Patches hits the back of the net! Which literally almost made me fall off my stool. [the topic of my love for Paetsch, I have decided, will need a post entirely of its own, which will come soon]

After I realized I was watching the actual game, and not a highlight reel, I was able to settle into my seat and take it all in. My initial observation [after, holy shit where have you been all my life, you High Scoring Sabres] was that we seemed faster than normal. Anyone else feel that way? It was weird, like, all of the sudden we went from being a normal hockey team to Supermen on ice with NOS hooked up to our skates. Not sure how they smuggled that over the border, but good for them.

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I've decided that the Sabres must hold stock in a drug company that sells Xanax. How else can you describe their injury scares? First Mairsy takes a puck off the foot, but then putting TimBits in the shot lane on the PK? Are you crazy Lindy?! When he was hit with that puck I thought he was done for good. We all know that all it takes to put him on the IR is a simple trip on a sidewalk... but this? A piece of vulcanized rubber flying at 100mph? C'mon man!

And now, poor Rivet, our strong outdoorsy Rivet, is singing lead soprano in the Alter-boys Choir.

[thanks to Sabretooth's House for pic]

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Drew, Drew, Drew, what am I to do with you? Before I say what I'm about to say, let it be known that I cannot stand Drew Stafford. As a person. I think he's a total D-Bag. You all can disagree, that's fine. But c'mon, you can just tell that he was SO that way-too-cool-for-school punk ass. But at the same time, he's like the captain of the football team that is such an ass to everyone, but for some reason you, as the dorky forgotten about one, love him anyways- in all his asshole glory.*[see below]* But then you go on and have a hat trick. What's a girl to do? I mean, take a look at this vid:

You have to watch the whole thing through. You know TimBits was like, "Dude, I bet you'd never wear that out to the interview." And Drew's like, "Hells yeah I will." And Paille sits in the corner clapping his hands like Paula on AI and Roy's all like, "Man you're not gonna get any chicks with that thing."

The best part is he's acting all nonchalant about the pigeon. I mean, one guy even asked what it was [the out-of-town sports writers must have been very confused] and Drew [again, in all his asshole glory] looked down at him and simply said, "It's a pigeon." Then, Kevin Sylvester I believe, chirped in that it was the MVP.

Sidenote: how freaking adorable was the pic of him and Messier?

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So, taking a look at the scoresheet, I'm wondering how, on a night like last night, could anyone possibly be a -1? I mean, I know technically how, but seriously Paille? How did that happen bro? Do we need to talk? Did Mair not read you your bedtime story so you were extra cranky?

I think that's all I'm going to say about last night. I could go on forever, but this is already way too long. In a few hours hopefully we'll all see them do it again!!

*[con't Drew asshole story]* I met him this summer [I work Darien Lake concerts] along with a bunch of other Sabres, and he was by far the biggest dickhead of them all. People would try to talk to him or even just smile at him, and he completely ignored everyone. I understand you just want to see your band blah, blah, blah, but you are a well known person in the Buffalo sports world. And for a lot of WNY'ers, that puts you about on the same plane as Christ himself. I don't expect you to sign stuff and talk to people when you're out and about living your life, but at least acknowledge they exist on the same planet as you do. *End rant here*

I cannot wait to write about tonight's game... but I'm tired so it will have to wait till tomorrow.

Till then I'll leave you with this gem, the last time Buf and Edm played each other Danny B was official known from then on as, you guessed it, the Cookie Monster:

Royzie, I'm trying here man...

Good God, I swear if Florida makes the playoffs by 1 point and we don't, I'm totally blaming Roy. He bought and gift-wrapped a point for them when he gave them the puck in front of poor Millsey and they cranked it home in the dying minutes of the 3rd. I know that's completely and utterly ridiculous to blame an entire year on Fat Boy, but I don't feel bad.

Now, before you judge me, understand that I love My Boys. They're all like my children... I love every single one of them, but get pissed off when they act stupid (unless your TimBits, then I LOVE when you get drunk and fall off bar stools in public places where we can all see). Fat Boy has been like my red-haired step-child all year long. I want to love him, but sometimes I really, really wanna slap him upside his head and ask why he CONSISTENTLY thinks it's a good idea to:

A) play the half-wall on the PP and always throw it through the box right when they collapse it so they can then proceed to take it on Millsey for a scoring chance,

B) skate sooooo close to the blue line that all's it takes is a gentle flap of a butterfly's wing to send the puck in the wrong direction to make our boys tag up, and

C) try to do a fancy move and get the puck robbed, then fall down and cry about it while your teammates flip into defense mode and man-up.

Derek, I want to love you. I really do. You do enough really, really sweet things to make up for the bone-headed stuff. I loved it when you dove and flipped the puck out of the zone during the PK, and c'mon let's be honest about your shootout goal-did you mean to have it slip off your stick into the 5-hole? Cuz I'd like to think so, and if so, it was SWEET. If not, just lie to me and I'll never know.

On another note, TV did not get a hat trick for his 25th. However, he did get one goal, so that's pretty good. And also, I just want to say that I love him and TimBits playing on the same line. They compliment each other perfectly. Like Goose and Ellis used to... until Lindy split them up (have you noticed since then Goose has scored like TimBits at 4am after a night on the ChipStrip and Ellis has been left empty-handed like TimBits' wingman Fat Boy on said night?)

When it's all said and done we got shit done and got 2 points. It's just too bad Florida got 1 too. Oh well, call it a night boys and get ready for Tampa on Weds.

A Special Day

HAPPY 25TH BIRTHDAY TO THIS STUNNA'

I promise that if you score a hat trick for me tonight that I'll personally find this hat and throw it on the ice for you, even if I have to drive down to Florida myself:

Welcome to my humble opinion

I've been a life-long Sabres fan, growing up in Buffalo. Some of my first memories are walking up the stairs to the top of the Aud and crying because I was scared I was going to fall down them (anyone who's ever been there knows what I'm talking about). I don't remember a lot about those games, but I remember getting really excited when people would yell and fight. Not until I was in 4th grade did I understand what it meant to be a real fan. I was at a game and my dad bought me a LaFontaine hat. It was way too big, but I wore it with pride. That night, he scored 2 goals, and I was convinced he scored them just for me. From that moment on I was hooked.

So I've been considering starting a Sabres blog for a while now, but have put it off until now. I've thoroughly enjoyed reading and following other Buffalo blogs, so I figured why not add one of my own. Sometimes it will be funny, sometimes it will be serious. I consider myself to be fairly knowledgeable about hockey and sports in general, so that's why I want to put my two sense in. There is just too much going on in Sabres World to not take part in it...