In case you've somehow escaped it, here's the best video I watched of Hank's antics. (Thanks to the Tick for putting it together for me! If you go through to You Tube you can watch a higher quality version of it.) It really is adorably dorky. I love how everyone else is always particularly excited when someone who doesn't score a lot of goals comes up with one. I can't tell for sure who's patting Hank on the head on the bench (I think Jaroslav Spacek) but it's awesome. Hey, did you realize this was the game-winning goal?
A few quick words about Jay McKee:
For all the crap Darcy Regier took about letting Jay McKee go, I really think that move, maybe more than any other in recent years, shows what a very good GM Darcy is. He recognized that Jay was being overrated and overpaid by other teams and instead of jumping into the fray in an effort to appease fans and media, he put sentiment aside and let Jay walk. Sentiment and affection are great for fans but GMs - especially ones who have to count every single penny - can't think like that. Is there really any doubt that St. Louis has not gotten what they've paid for out of Jay?
That said, I do wonder what would have had happened had Jay stayed here. I really do believe that some athletes are just made to play in certain cities for certain fans with certain coaches and teammates and I really do believe that Jay's place was in Buffalo. He was Buffalo: not beautifully skilled but tough, hard-working and mostly lovable. Reading some of the articles leading up to the game about how unhappy the St. Louis organization and fans are with Jay really made me sad. I certainly understand where they're coming from - he was pretty terrible last night - but it still bums me out. We loved him. If he had taken less money and stayed in Buffalo I think we would have gone right on loving him even if he'd missed the same number of games and even if he'd suffered the same drop-off in play because we had such a history with him. We saw him fight night in and night out, season after season, for us and for our team in a way that St. Louis never did. Even if his body started to fall apart while he was wearing a Sabres uniform, we would have understood that it was falling apart partly because of the way he played in that Sabres uniform. On an emotional level, I don't miss Chris Drury or Daniel Briere. I definitely appreciated them as hockey players but I never felt that connection with them and when all is said and done, the amount of time they spent in Buffalo will be a blip in their careers. But I desperately miss Jay because he was one of us and I really feel like he should have finished his career as one of us. And while he's probably perfectly fine, I wonder sometimes if he doesn't look back and feel the same way.
Crap. Now I'm depressed again.
Let's enter this hockey weekend with a bit of happy non-hockey news. (I know it doesn't make sense. Just go with it. I'm trying to change the mood!) Wanna see what I'm getting for Christmas/my birthday/pretty much every other holiday for the next year?
That's Marlowe, my two week old St. Bernard.
Here's her mom, Diva (on the left) and dad, Willie (on the right). She'll be a rough coat (long-haired) like her Pop.
Click to enlarge.Due to vacation in December I won't be picking her up until after Christmas but I'm awfully excited already. Pretty cute, right?
Okay, good. Now I feel better. Happy Friday!
8 comments:
Aww, Heather. Hopefully your Friday will be better than your Thursday. It has to be.
I think the difference between Jay McKee and Briere/Drury was that we got to see Jay grow up and develop from a draft pick to a full-fledged NHLer. He bought into the culture of the Sabres and the city itself. While Briere and Drury may have said all the right things at the right time, they didn't live, breathe, eat and sleep the Buffalo system and city the way that Jay did.
And Marlowe is such a little cutie pie! That's an awesome name for a dog, too.
May the drool be with you.
eek sorry you had such a terrible day! Glad Hank was able to cheer you up.... I think I still have the game on the DVR, do you want me to burn it to a DVD for you?
Cute puppy. :)
Cute puppy Heather! Hope your day gets better!
Marlowe is too cute! Congrats!
Congratulations! Marlowe is adorable! Ok, I'm bad with the !'s.
If he had taken less money and stayed in Buffalo I think we would have gone right on loving him even if he'd missed the same number of games and even if he'd suffered the same drop-off in play because we had such a history with him.
I totally agree with you there. The thing is, though, that if the Sabres would've made their offer to Jay (which I believe was in the neighborhood of $2.5 million?) 4 years instead of 3, he would've stayed. Jay's issue with the offer was the length, not the money. No one can blame him, though, for taking the $4 million that St. Louis offered him. And I honestly believe that if we hadn't lost him to the infection in his leg, we would've made it to the finals, not Carolina. And we definitely would've fared better against Edmonton than Carolina did, even if they did win... But I'm not dwelling on the past, or anything... =]
Amy, I think you pretty much hit the nail on the head with Jay being brought up in the Buffalo system. I feel like I kind of grew up with him and I'm sure I'm not the only fan who felt (or feels) that way.
Cari, I certainly don't blame Jay for taking the offer from St. Louis. It was a considerable difference in money and he's probably not going to be a guy who plays until he's 40 so I get the need to make what you can while you can. I just kind of idly wonder sometimes if the difference in money was worth giving up all the other stuff in the end. Like I said, I'm sure Jay's fine and I suspect most players really don't get as attached to us as we do to them. It just bums me out to see him entering the declining end of his career somewhere else. It seems wrong.
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