Top Shelf

Moving Day!

2010-11-08T14:48:00.000-05:00

Read the post below and then check out my new digs at topshelfblog.com. That's where all new material will go from now on. Come on, WHAT are you WAITING for?

Is That... Hope?

2010-11-08T02:54:00.000-05:00

I'm not sure that a lot of questions about the Sabres were really answered Saturday night with their win against the Leafs, but I can now firmly answer something about myself: I do not have it in me to cheer for a bad season. It was probably silly how clearly excited the Sabres were about that win, but honestly, I was every bit as excited. Part of it was Jochen Hecht finally scoring his first goal and doing it in dramatic fashion, part of it was Jhonas Enroth looking better than he did in his previous start, part of it was itty bitty Tyler Ennis' very pretty move in the shootout, and part of it was beating the Leafs which is always a joy. But there's no doubt about it, I was really and truly excited.

I immediately started wondering if this was it, the game that was finally going to get everything turned around. I thought, "Lindy is right! Every team has bad streaks! Our is just at the beginning of the season! This team is not THAT bad! It's all going to be okay!"

In other words, I'm a sucker.

I have settled a little bit from my "Should they or shouldn't they get better?" post however. I don't know if Lindy Ruff and Darcy Regier are going to be here next season or not, but regardless of who's in charge, there will be a fairly large roster turnover. Tim Connolly and Drew Stafford will not be back. Craig Rivet won't be back. I'd say Mike Grier is probably on the bubble of not being back. I'm guessing Rob Niedermayer and Patrick Lalime won't be back. Some of those guys might not make a huge difference but that does automatically mean at least some changes in the top six. It also creates a fair amount of money and space, both something that the Sabres often lack.

Which is not to say that I want to toss off this season for next one. I mean, jeez, how many seasons now have we said, "Well, NEXT year we'll have space/money/opportunity." But it does make me wonder if management wasn't thinking that we'd make the playoffs this year and that they'd then really make some changes next year. I'm not saying that was the right way to approach things especially with Connolly. I'm just speculating. But I am sure they did not expect things to be this bad right now. It also makes me feel like we probably don't need to completely bottom out this season in order to see some improvement down the road.

I don't know. I do know that when it comes to either wallowing in the despair of a long, losing season or grasping at any sign of hope, I'm a grasper. So for now, right this second, I'm hoping. I'm not hoping that we'll win the Stanley Cup - I'm a dreamer, I'm not insane - but hoping that the entire season isn't going to be like October? That seems fairly reasonable. I hate the idea of either just missing or just making the playoffs again, but I hate the idea of being way, way out of it early even more. Sorry, people who want a number one pick. I like to win hockey games.

Coming Up on Top Shelf

2010-11-06T01:15:00.001-04:00

This doesn't have anything to do with the Sabres, but it does have to do with this blog and some upcoming changes so if you're at all interested, keep reading.

A few weeks back, I was asked if I would like to join up with Bloguin. Bloguin is a network of blogs, mostly but not all sport- related. I won't go into all the boring details, but I will say that I was pretty familiar with them and some of the blogs on their network. (I'm a particularly devoted reader of Where Have You Gone Andy Van Slyke?) It seemed like a good gig for me - a new banner, a more personalized blog, a solid network of people, and a chance at some revenue - so after talking it over with some people whom I trust, I decided to go for it. Not a lot will change as far as you're concerned, but I did want to give you a heads-up about a few things.

-- The URL will be changing, probably as of Monday. As far as I know, if you continue to come here, you will be re-directed to the new site, at least for a time. If you have me on your blogroll or if you keep up with me through a reader, you might want to update that because once the new site goes live, new material will not be posted here. I will put a note up here when I'm completely moved over there.

-- There will be ads. The standard format used across Bloguin seems to be one ad at the very top of the page and a couple in the sidebar, one "above the fold." I know that ads can be super annoying, but I don't think you'll really notice these. I promise they're not the kind of ads that expand when you accidentally scroll over them (again and again) and they won't follow you around the screen until you acknowledge them. They also won't play music or video. They'll just sit there quietly, minding their own business.

Advertising is something I've thought about off and on over the years, and I've seriously talked to people about it a few times. I've never taken the plunge though because it's just me here, and I felt a little out of my element trying to make decisions and negotiate prices. At Bloguin, other people take care of arranging and placing the advertising, and I won't lie, the chance to make a little money doing this is one of the biggest reasons I jumped in. I love writing Top Shelf, but it does take a lot of time out of my schedule. A few extra nickels to rub together would be swell particularly now that I'm in school full-time and only working part-time.

-- At the top of the blog you'll see a Bloguin log-in box. If you open a Bloguin account you're all set up to comment across the Bloguin network, however, you do NOT have to have a Bloguin account to comment here. You can ignore that box completely and go on commenting as always if you so choose. You will have to submit an email address when you comment, but it will NOT be published with your comment and the only person anywhere IN THE WHOLE WORLD who has access to the email addresses used at Top Shelf is me. And I promise, I won't spam you.

-- For really long posts, I might start using a READ MORE cut. I've been told that it looks cleaner to have a lot of short posts on the front page as far as advertisers are concerned, and let's be real, if you click on READ MORE, that's another page view which is how my cut of ad revenue is determined. (So if you're ever really bored at work or in class, come load my blog over and over.) I am personally not a fan of breaking up a post like that so I promise I'll only use cuts for longer posts and if I use one, there will be at least a couple of paragraphs behind the cut. I hate when I click on READ MORE and there's only three more sentences.

I'm pretty excited about giving this a whirl, and really like I said, things are not going to change that much from your point-of-view. I'm still the only one writing here, I have full control over what I write so the style isn't going to change at all. If anything, things are going to be much prettier. I think you'll like it. I hope so.

Back to the Sabres in a day or so.

How Do You Solve a Problem Like the Sabres?

2010-11-05T02:08:00.006-04:00

I just want to say that I have NO idea what is with the spacing issues lately. I know it looks terrible, but I really don't know how to fix it, and I'm going to be changing blogging platforms soon so I'm honestly not that concerned about figuring it out. Also, it's 2:11 in the morning. For now, just know that I realize it looks really ugly. I'm sorry. It won't be an issue much longer.

I’ve been pondering the Sabres and their current dilemma and here’s where I keep getting stuck: this is not an issue of talent, not entirely at least. Don’t get me wrong, this team is not talented enough to win the Stanley Cup at least not without Ryan Miller playing completely out of his mind. But there is no way the Sabres are the least talented team in the NHL. I said before the season started that they should be a playoff team, and I'd still say that now. They should be a playoff team. I could sit here and list all the things that the Sabres need to fix on the ice - the power play is awful (again), their defense is sloppy, they're not working hard enough - but I'm not sure any of that matters. The problem is clearly much, much deeper than what's on the ice.

I love the little girl on the glass, literally waving goodbye to all her Sabres-related hopes and dreams.

Which means I don't what the problem is. And that is VERY annoying Is it the attitude of certain players? Is it a total lack of leadership in the dressing room? Are the players rebelling against The System? Are they sick of listening to Lindy Ruff? Is Lindy Ruff sick of talking to them? Is upper management's emphasis on the bottom line trickling down and annoying the players?

Maybe more accurately, I know what the problem is - these are not new problems really - but I don't know what the best fix is. I don't know because I'm not privy to that side of the team and that makes things really frustrating. I want to be able to say that putting Player X with Player Y or trying Player Z on the power play point will fix everything, and it's just not as simple as that.

I don't listen to WGR a whole lot, but I do follow Schopp on Twitter and a few days ago he tweeted, "Can the Sabres season be saved?" A few minutes later he changed it to, "SHOULD the Sabres season be saved?" In retrospect, I kind of wish I'd turned on the radio and listened to what he had to say because I think that's a really interesting question. Lindy said in his presser after the Boston game that he thinks he and the team will get through this bad period together. He said at his Greater Buffalo Sports Hall of Fame induction tonight that the Sabres will make the playoffs. But do we want that? Do we want another season of the Sabres making the playoffs and going out as soon as they run up against a team with more desire? (i.e. all of them) Or worse, another season where they finish just outside the playoffs but close enough that the team isn't unhappy with itself? Do we want any more reason for management to think, "Maybe these guys will be okay," when they so clearly aren't? Or to say "Obviously Lindy isn't the problem" when love him or not, he probably is at least part of the problem?

Should the Sabres season be saved? I don't really have a good answer for that question either. As a fan, of course I would prefer that the Sabres make the playoffs. The playoffs are fun and yes, the irrational fan in me says and, more importantly, believes that anything can happen once the playoffs start. But maybe it is best to burn it down and start from scratch. Maybe the only thing that will get management's attention is a complete and total, inarguable failure of a season. If we could just magically jump from right now to the end of the season, I'd be fine with no playoffs, last place, and a lottery pick in the draft. But do I really want to watch and blog about six more months like this last one? No freaking way. I've also seen firsthand, in other parts of my sports fandom, how it's sometimes not that easy to rebuild a team that's been completely blown up, particularly when there are question marks about how serious management is about making changes and how effective the people in charge of making those changes will be. Maybe it's better to put up with another season of squeaking in and going out.

I don't know. I don't know anything. What do you know? What do you think? What do you want?

Are We SURE Baseball is Over?

2010-11-03T23:36:00.000-04:00

Whoa. So remember how I said yesterday that Tim Connolly shouldn't really be that high on the list of Players to be Executed? Yeah. Timmy might want to not leave the house for a few weeks.

A scheduling conflict spared me from most of the first period, but based on the opinions of my husband and the raging on Twitter, I could tell it was a bad one. And even with that preparation, I was shocked when I watched the first period highlights. The Sabres looked like they had literally never played hockey before the puck dropped tonight. I've run power plays in P.E. with a bunch of emotionally disturbed second graders that were more effective than anything the Sabres put together tonight. I found myself wishing there was a Pittsburgh Pirates game on tonight and that is just not a good place to be. Just gross, gross, gross.

I don't even know what to say about what should happen to who. I'm going to have to process this. Probably everyone should be fired including Sabretooth and the person who picks the music played at HSBC.

I mean... gross.

Expectations and Frustrations

2010-11-02T23:19:00.000-04:00

I've been thinking a lot about Tim Connolly. It seems like I'm reading more and more frantic "I WANT THAT GUY OFF MY TEAM RIGHT NOW!" comments this season, and while I do kind of get it, I kind of don't get it too. I know the buzz phrases right now are things like PASSION and FIRE and Connolly certainly comes up short in those areas. He always has. I would not be the least bit hesitant to throw him in the pile of players who haven't lived up to their talent although some of that, in fairness, has been due to the ridiculous string of injuries during what probably should have been the prime of his career. But as far as the team we're watching right now, in the last 12 games, I don't know, it seems to me Connolly is fairly low down on the list of problems. He's on pace for 27(.3) goals which isn't terrible. I don't want him to re-sign in Buffalo but I don't want him dropped into a fiery pit tomorrow either. While this team is really low in intangibles like leadership and desire, it's also low on production. I'm not sure Connolly should be quite so high on the list of players to be executed at dawn.

In fact, as frustrating as Connolly, Vanek, and Roy can be, they're more or less being Connolly, Vanek, and Roy right now. As much as we want to talk about all the missing intangibles - and again, I think that is a completely valid discussion - I also think this team is probably fine if Ryan Miller and Tyler Myers are just playing better even a little better than have so far. (For the record, I'm defining "fine" as "in a playoff spot rather than the basement" not as "Stanley Cup contender!") I don't think it's any secret that the current team is constructed in a way that relies extremely heavily on those two guys.

We could probably argue about whether that's fair or not. I think it's more fair to Ryan who I'm definitely frustrated with right now. Honestly, I'm probably more frustrated with him than anyone else. He should certainly be entitled to an off night here and there and his teammates should be able to pick him up on those nights. But a Vezina-winning, franchise goalie should also be held to pretty high standards and he has not met those standards at all. Yes, he's been hung out to dry at times. He hasn't saved this team yet this season though and he's played a lot of average games with a couple of bad ones thrown in. Our once awesome penalty kill - currently 27th which makes me want to weep - really misses Henrik Tallinder and Toni Lydman (and this is where I say, "I told you so") but it also misses the Ryan Miller of last season. If I'm panicking about anything at this point, it's Ryan. Despite everything I know about how Ryan has gotten better every season and how goalies often mature into their 30s, I secretly worry that last season was Ryan's career year, the one that'll make us look back and think, "Damn, if only we'd had a slightly better team that season."

The expectations are a little more unfair to Tyler Myers. This time last season, I think even Sabres management was considering him a very pleasant surprise. Coming into this season he was suddenly the cornerstone of the defensive corp and a future all-time great Sabre which seemed a little excessive. Ryan's been around long enough that he should be able to carry a lot of weight on his shoulders. He was brought along much more slowly by the Sabres, and I think that worked to his advantage. Myers is, at the end of the day, still just a 20-year-old kid in his second year in the NHL. That's tough. I definitely wonder if some of his struggles, especially on the mental side, are being caused by the weight of expectation.

(And not having Hank around. I feel you there, kid.)

How about you? Who are you the most frustrated by or annoyed with right now?

Captain, Captain, Who's Got the Captain?

2010-11-01T23:22:00.001-04:00

Some of you out there may have heard of National Novel Writing Month, known in short-hand as NaNoWriMo. The goal is to write at least 50,000 words of a novel during the month of November. I, however, do not write novels. I write this here blog. Which is why I'll be participating in NaBloWriMo instead. Every day for the entire month, I'll write something here. That's right! For the next thirty days, my thoughts on the Buffalo Sabres will be at your fingertips seven days a week. Sometimes the posts may be long and in-depth, sometimes they might be a few short sentences. But they will be here.

Now that I've gotten the emotional aspect of the scratching of Craig Rivet out of the way, I figured I'd give you my opinion about who should wear the "C" from here on out: Craig Rivet.

I've gone up and down the line-up, I've carefully studied The Goose's Roost's Power Rankings, and I just don't see that there are any good alternatives right now. I think Derek Roy has it in him, but I need to see him act like a grown-up for a while longer. (For what it's worth, if you'd asked me in 2006 who the eventual captain would be, I would have said Roy.) Mike Grier isn't playing as well on the ice. Jochen Hecht seems to be well-liked but also seems very subdued and mild-mannered. I don't want Thomas Vanek anywhere near a letter for a myriad of reasons, the biggest being that I think focusing on his own game is enough for his poor little psyche. And all the babies are too far away to carry that weight right now. Maybe some day but not yet.

My only reluctance in keeping the captaincy with Rivet is that I don't think his play is really going to improve. He's not a 30-year-old Henrik Tallinder who was scratched because he needed to play harder and focus more. I don't have any complaints about Rivet's work ethic or desire. I don't think that's his problem. I think his problem is that he went and got old, and once a professional athlete starts to get old, I'm not sure you can correct that. I don't see him suddenly becoming one of the six best d-men on the team (though I wouldn't be opposed to Myers sitting for a night or two and getting his head straight). So if the goal is to find a captain who's both mature, fit to lead, and really good at hockey, well, I'm not sure that guy is on the roster right now. Kind of a sad state of affairs

Sometimes Getting Your Way Kinda Sucks

2010-10-31T03:49:00.007-04:00

I've been saying since about halfway through last season that Craig Rivet needed to be scratched from the line-up. I'd never been super high on him, but he was looking particularly old and slow, just completely out of sorts. Eventually it came out that he'd been trying to play through a shoulder injury that probably should have been surgically repaired months earlier, and everyone thought he'd come back at 100% this season. I wasn't convinced and I admit, I've taken a little delight in being right. I wanted him to be scratched so badly.

And then Lindy Ruff actually did scratch Rivet. He kind of put himself in the position where he had to. He couldn't go on and on about playing the best players and ignore the elephant in the room with 52 on his back. And I think Lindy is pretty desperate to find something that will wake someone up. But I was pretty surprised. Every time I've ever publicly rallied for Rivet to be benched, someone has come along and told me the story about how Lindy was scratched while wearing the C for the Sabres and how much that wounded his pride and ended his career in Buffalo. And I got that. As much as fans, me included, insist that management set aside feelings and do the right thing for the team, I understand that everyone carries the weight of their own experiences with them and those experiences affect us and how we deal with others. I know a lot of people will insist that Lindy shouldn't get any credit for finally doing something that should have been done a long time ago, something any good coach would do, but I disagree. I give Lindy a lot of credit for making this move because it does hit so close to home for him. I think it's obvious from his comments - "No player understands. He won’t understand" - that this was a tough one for him.

And then I watched this interview with Rivet. (If you haven't seen it, I'd encourage you to take a few minutes to check it out.) I'm not going to lie, I was completely fascinated by this interview. I've gotten so used to seeing professional athletes give plastic interviews where they break out all the familiar catchphrases: we're not getting the breaks, we're not playing within the system, we're trying to do too much, we just need to keep working hard and putting pucks on the net. This interview was not like that at all. Rivet doesn't break down in tears or punch Kevin Sylvester in the mouth (alas) or anything like that. He's completely in control of his emotions. And yet, he's not in control of his emotions at all. He's clearly feeling a myriad of things: anger, disappointment, frustration, guilt, pride. I think in that interview, you really see a guy who knows he's watching the end of his career come up fast and also seeing the possibility that it might not end on his own terms.

There's a really wonderful book called "The Boys of Summer" by Roger Kahn. (I promise this is going somewhere so please hang with me.) At a very young age, early 20's, I believe, Kahn suddenly found himself working as a beat writer for the New York Herald Tribune. His assignment was to follow the Brooklyn Dodgers, the team he grew up rooting for and still unashamedly loved. The first part of the book follows those years spent covering the Dodgers, the seasons that end in heart-breaking losses to the Yankees and the season, 1955, where they finally become Word Series Champions. The second part of the book is Kahn visiting various members of the Dodgers in the late 60's and early 70's, catching up with them and seeing where life took them after their playing careers were over.

I was, I don't know, maybe 11 or 12 when I first read "The Boys of Summer." I adored the first part of the book. I ate up all the descriptions of Ebbets Field, the stories about Jackie Robinson, the travails of the loyal fans who almost always watched their team come up just short. I loved the stories about traveling with the team, and the hustle and bustle of an old-school newsroom, the reporters calling in scores and guys in the office fishing the correct numbers out of a pile and placing them carefully on the press. I think "The Boys of Summer" is probably responsible for instilling the dream to be a sportswriter, a dream I carried through my freshman year of college before finally abandoning it. I know it was responsible for my childhood crush on Pee-Wee Reese and for me probably being the only person in my age group to send him fan mail. I didn't really care for the second part of the book, however. I mean, jeez, who cared about a bunch of old geezers, you know?

I re-read "The Boys of Summer" a couple of years ago, and this time the second part was much more interesting because I realized that those old geezers weren't really that old at all. Most of them were in their mid-to-early forties. Some of them had started new lives that were happy and successful and some of them had struggled more with leaving their playing careers behind, but it made me think a lot about what it would be like to suddenly have to start all over at such a young age. It's not that they decided, "Hey, I think I'll start a new career." They had to. No one wanted them to play baseball anymore. The thing they had dreamed of, the one thing they'd wanted to do with their lives was over. As often as I've sarcastically said, "Oh, yeah I'd love to get paid all that money to play a freaking game," I know these guys have given up a lot to get where they are. Hockey players especially start at such a young age, too young probably. They leave home, they sacrifice family, friendships, schooling, and let's be honest, childhood. And then at 35, they're done. They're starting over at an age where most of us are really getting into a groove.

I don't mean to be overly dramatic. Craig Rivet has made enough money over the course of his career that he should be just fine financially. He has the means to pursue whatever he wants to pursue. He also has the means to not pursue anything and spend a few years at home watching his kids grow up if that's what he prefers. That's a privilege that very, very few people can choose. The Sabres organization alone is full of guys who have found careers in hockey after their playing days were over: Lindy Ruff, James Patrick, Rob Ray, Mike Robitaille, Jim Lorentz just to name a few. But still. He's 36. Emotionally, that's a huge change to make at such a young age. How weird must it be to be just about done and still have so much of life in front of you? How weird must it be to realize that your skill set is completely useless in the real world? How weird is it to know that you're living a dream and that the dream is almost over and that it really wasn't that long? In ten years, when you're only 45, 50, it'll be far enough away that it might feel like it really was a dream. And how weird is it that the people around you are ultimately the ones who decide whether you can continue or not? That as much as you may want to go on, they have the power to decide it's over? I wonder, do professional athletes face retirement with the secret fear that the best years of their lives are behind them, that nothing that comes after will top what they've already experienced?

I'm rambling now, I know, and honestly, I'm not sure what I'm really trying to say. I was just genuinely taken aback at how much that Rivet interview affected me. It was one of those rare moments where I saw the facade of professional athlete slip and got a good, long look at the human being behind the jersey, a human being living a life and grappling with a thousand conflicting emotions and big, potentially life-changing moments, just like we do.

I'm glad Rivet was scratched, but I'm also glad I'm not the one who had to sit down and break the news to him. I'm glad I got what I wanted, but I'm really sad about it too. I wish that it had ended a different way. I hope it still does. I guess I'm just a softie.

Steve Montador Makes Me Happy

2010-10-29T02:49:00.000-04:00

The Sabres are not very good at hockey lately and there are a million things we could probably debate. Should Lindy Ruff be fired? Should Darcy Regier be run out of town? Should Tim Connolly be executed at center ice? Should Craig Rivet be benched? Should someone be traded? Why in the world is it so hard to get the sound on the HD broadcast to work correctly? But you know what? I said I was going to have fun this season and gosh darn it, I'm going to do it. And firing Lindy and executing players is not fun, not really. Instead of tackling any of the above, I'm going to write about something that makes me happy. Here it is:

Hi, Steve!

First there's the obvious: Steve Montador, unlike many of his teammates, has been pretty excellent at playing hockey so far this season. Our defense is currently running amok and he's been one of the few steady Freddys. He's never going to win any awards, he's never going to draw a lot of attention to himself, but for the most part, he goes out and does his job well. That's my kind of defenseman right there.

But here's the thing that really makes me happy: Steve Montador is wearing a visor even though he doesn't really have to anymore. There are a few things I don't understand about hockey players: I don't understand why they sometimes put elbows or shoulders into another player's head or back. I don't understand why they wear their helmets so loose that they pop off if someone looks at them funny. I don't understand why someone with a concussion history TIMCONNOLLY wouldn't wear a mouthguard even though research has shown that good ones can offer serious protection. And I don't understand why any hockey player in the NHL would refuse to wear a visor. Hello, have you seen how hard those guys can shoot a puck? One player losing or severely damaging an eye would be enough for me. Perhaps I'm not macho enough for hockey, but I feel like this is one area where macho kind of bumps into stupidity. (As it often does really.)

We'll have to see if it sticks - I remember a few years ago when Paul Gaustad took a puck to the eye and wore a visor for a total of seventeen or so minutes - but hearing a guy say, "Hey, it turns out that protecting my oddly handsome face isn't so uncomfortable after all!" is music to the ears of this soft-hearted hockey fan. So thank you, Steve Montador for giving me something to feel good about.

That's Like, Totally Awesome

2010-10-26T12:11:00.000-04:00

If this doesn't pump you up for tonight's game, I don't know what will because you have no soul.

Apology to the Sabres: Sorry, It's All Me

2010-10-24T19:23:00.000-04:00

Dear Sabres,

I've been watching you so far this season and I can't help but notice that you play really, really differently on the road than you do at home. I've been trying to reason this out and find a logical explanation, and I think I might have hit on the answer. It can't be you. I mean, it just makes no sense for the same group of players to play so poorly in one place and so well everywhere else, right? You have the same coaching staff everywhere. You have the same teammates everywhere. When I really thought about it, the only thing different was us, the fans. Clearly, the home/road divide is all our fault.

I'm really sorry, guys but, well, the truth is, I'm just trying to be way too fancy with my support. I love you guys! I want to put on the best show that I can! Sometimes when I'm high-fiving at the arena, especially when I'm trying to high-five the guy too far away and behind me, I miss. Or sometimes I try to squeeze in one high-five too many and the puck has already dropped again before I get the last one in. I totally missed my chance to applaud and cheer! I'm trying to do too much. But it's hard! I want to do so well for the home team! You guys deserve my best.

I really wish you could see me cheer when you're on the road. There's a lot less pressure then, and I'm freaking awesome. I never miss a high-five, I perfectly time the leap from the couch with the goal - never too soon, never too late. I stay within myself. I don't try to do too much. I play The Cheering System perfectly. When you're home that all goes out the window and The Cheering System is left in poor, pathetic shambles.

This is clearly affecting all of you, and I'm sorry. I'm going to try really hard to be better. I know if I'm making the appropriate noises at the appropriate volume level at the appropriate times that will somehow make you better at hockey. I'm aware of the problem, and I'm going to work on it. That's my promise to you as a Sabres fan.

Let's go Buff-a-lo!

Sincerely,
Heather B.

Three Choices

2010-10-23T11:34:00.000-04:00

I'm curious to know how many of Daniel Alfredsson's 1,000 career points came against the Buffalo Sabres. I remember at least 987, but I'm not sure about the rest

It appears that we have three options if we want to see a winning Sabres season:

1. Blow up HSBC Arena and then pretend we're all upset when Gary Bettman informs us that we'll have to play all the rest of our games on the road.

2. Have the Sabres stay in a hotel even while in Buffalo and assume they're dumb enough to think that means they're on the road.

OR

3. Fire everyone and start from scratch.

Should we put it to a vote?

Tradition, Tradition! Tradition!

2010-10-22T01:59:00.049-04:00

There is a part of me that has always felt very defensive about the non-traditional hockey markets, especially those in the south. I imagine it's probably because I grew up in Birmingham, Alabama. While the reality is that I probably never would have fallen in love with hockey had I stayed there - in Birmingham there's zero hockey coverage in the newspaper and no TV broadcasts beyond whatever is on Versus and NBC - I know that if I had found hockey, it would have probably been through the Thrashers or the Hurricanes.

I love, love, love living in a traditional hockey market. I love that most of Buffalo could identify any Sabre player they saw walking down the street in regular clothes. I love that there are so many Sabres blogs out there. Despite my complaints about aspects of their coverage, I love that when I pick up the Buffalo News or load their website, I'm bombarded with Sabres stories and commentary. But because I didn't grow up in a traditional hockey market, I remember what it's like to be a new fan. I remember what it's like to look at the ice and just see a swirl of activity, not being able to pick out defensemen from forwards, not understanding what anyone's role was, not knowing the difference between blue lines and red lines (other than, of course, the color). Some of you probably don't realize this because you've been watching hockey from the womb, but it takes some getting used to if you want to watch it in more than a casual way.

But, and I say this with love, traditional markets can be total assholes. Really, we can. Just because you don't need diagrams of the ice and the various positions on your team's website and announcements about offside calls and icing doesn't mean some of the rest of us don't. While I picked up a ton about hockey and how things work on the ice just by paying attention to Jim Lorentz during TV broadcasts - even now I really miss his simple, articulate analysis and break-downs of plays - I also read Hockey for Dummies from cover to cover. I've always thought that traditional markets indulge in a lot of double talk when it comes to non-traditional markets. If the fan base is unknowledgeable, they get lambasted. If they do things to educate themselves about the game, they also get lambasted. It's stupid. Every fan has to start somewhere and some of us start a lot later than others.

I've also always felt a little bad for fans in markets where attendance is poor and have been hesitant to be too critical. Come on, how much would it suck to be one of those fans? The fact that there are only 11,000 fans in the building doesn't make those 11,000 any less passionate than the fans in the sold out buildings in Toronto or Montreal. Heck, in some ways it might make them more passionate because they're swimming against the stream in a way that fans in traditional markets will never have to.

That said, this is ridiculous:

Click for larger image. It's worth it.

This is during the second period of the most recent Coyotes game. This is halfway through the game! Announced attendance was 6,706 according to Twitter but many people seem to think that was a generous number. That's TERRIBLE. Somewhere in that crowd there's probably a little girl in a Coyotes jersey and my heart really and truly breaks for that little girl potentially losing her team, but good grief, how in the world can the NHL justify keeping a franchise there? Why would they want to keep a franchise there? How awful would it be to grow up dreaming of playing in the NHL and then end up playing in front of crowds like that? My high school football team plays in front of bigger crowds than that many weeks. (Not an exaggeration.) Is it that bad to admit that hockey in Phoenix (and Atlanta) just isn't working? I don't see why it is. Does it matter how bad the arenas in Quebec and Winnipeg are if the arenas are going to be full of people? How is that not better than this?

Am I crazy? I wasn't a hockey fan when Winnipeg and Quebec lost their teams and when most of the sun belt expansion took place so maybe I'm missing something but man. That photo makes me sad.

All Is Right With the World Again

2010-10-21T11:35:00.001-04:00

The Sabres had me worried there for a few games, but Tyler Myers finally looked good and scored a goal, Tyler Ennis scored a goal, AND Thomas Vanek scored a goal. I can only draw one conclusion from this: The Sabres ARE going to win the Stanley Cup after all. (As long as they play all of their remaining games on the road.)

I know that Thomas Vanek drives some people crazy - even Mark finally said a couple of nights ago that he was starting to lose patience with him - but I don't know, I just never quite get to that point with him. Logically speaking, I know that we need him to be better than he often is, that really, the offense goes as he goes, but he's such a sweet little headcase that I never work up much anger toward him. I just feel badly for him. One of my favorite little things about hockey is that relieved "Hallelujah, I scored a goal!" expression that every player has after a drought-breaking goal, and Vanek has one of the very best in the business. If you look closely, you can see the weight lifting off him. His posture actually improves a little bit. It's cute. Now just keeping shooting the heck out of the puck, Thomas. Please.

For the record, my second favorite expression of last night was Jochen Hecht's tiny little "You can say that wasn't a goal if you want, REFS" grin and shake of the head. Jochen has the best tiny grins in the league. If you're not looking for them, you can easily miss them, but if you catch them, they're pretty darn cute.

A few weeks ago I mentioned a sketch card auction that my big brother Chris was taking part in as part of Goalies Against Cancer. All the cards, some his, some from others, are now available for bidding. You can check them out on eBay. All proceeds go to the Susan G. Komen for the Cure. There are a couple of Ryan Miller cards available and you know how Ryan feels about cancer research so feel free to go out there and spend some money!

TIM KENNEDY TIM KENNEDY TIM KENNEDY TIM KENNEDY TIM KENNEDY TIM KENNEDY

2010-10-19T01:12:00.016-04:00

I’m beginning to wonder if TBN’s columnists are getting a bonus every time they write the words “Tim Kennedy.” I’m trying very hard to ignore Bucky Gleason these days - TBN is obviously enamored with him so I’m not getting rid of him anytime soon - but now Jerry Sullivan is in on the act? Good lord.

You can read Sully’s column here but the main gist is that the Sabres aren’t playing with any passion or fire because they’ve been beaten down by how management treats the players. He cites them refusing to pay Teppo Numminen a few years ago after he failed his preseason physical, not calling Henrik Tallinder back after making their initial two year offer, and buying out Tim Kennedy.

Look, I’m not going to say that the Sabres front office is overflowing with people skills. Sometimes it’s like these guys have never interacted with other human beings. They bungled the Tim Kennedy thing. Darcy Regier saying, “Yeah, we can work with that,” one day and then waiving him the next day makes them look petty or at the very least, not that bright. But that’s what’s responsible for the lack of passion from the team? Come on. That’s stupid.

Here are a few responses to specific passages.

Try this: Give your all for the team, but don't dare challenge us at the bargaining table. God forbid a Sabre should be overpaid. If being paid beyond your achievements was cause for dismissal, they wouldn't be able to field a team.

Actually, now that I’ve put this passage in here, I think I misunderstood it the first time I read it. But I’ll leave it in just because it’s the perfect example of the double talk from TBN columnists that drives me batty. For months, Sully has talked incessantly about how overpaid guys like Connolly and Pominville and Gaustad are, but now that the Sabres have said, you know, we don’t want to pay that much for that guy, he’s having a sarcastic fit. Because hey, if you’re going to overpay everyone else why not overpay another guy?

While we’re on the subject of double talk, a huge part of the reason Bucky’s babbling about the Kennedy buyout has made me so crazy is because he’s been writing forever that the Sabres should buyout Connolly and Stafford. But as soon as they bought out Kennedy, he was indignant. “They’ve always said that they’d NEVER buy a player out and now they did! Harrumph!"

Clearly the issue here is that the Sabres overpaid the players Bucky and Sully didn’t want overpaid and put their foot down with one they didn’t care about. And when the Sabres did finally cut someone loose, they didn’t cut loose the players that Bucky and Sully wanted cut loose. If they’d bought out Stafford rather than Kennedy, Bucky would be applauding the change in M.O. Instead he’s being completely self-righteous about it. I’m sick of all this petty bullshit from the media AND the team. Sometimes I feel like the two sides are in a giant pissing match and I’m stuck in the middle.

Wait, where was I?

Of course, it's a lot easier to make an example of Kennedy than one of their soft, overpriced forwards. There was a clamor to shake up their top six forwards after last year's playoff failure. I advocated cutting ties with Tim Connolly. Instead, they kept the precious core intact.

All of the soft, overpriced forwards - the core, more or less - have been coddled and overpaid by management. They have long-term contracts that involve big money regardless of offensive output, injury history or effort. But they’re underachieving because they don’t like how management is treating players? I’m not following the logic. Honestly, some of these guys should be on their knees thanking the lord for the Sabres. Is there a franchise anywhere as in love with its players as the Sabres have been with Pominville, Gaustand, Roy, Miller, Stafford, and Vanek? I mean, I would be totally offended by that if I were Jason Pominville!

Has anyone considered that Myers' struggles might be a result of the Sabres not bringing back Henrik Tallinder, his defense partner last season?

Well, yes, Sully. I think most of us have. I, in fact, wondered if that would be a problem before it actually happened. But I doubt Tyler Myers is moping around the ice because Darcy didn’t call Hank back and say, “Hey, thanks for the years. Good luck.” He might miss Hank on the ice. He might be struggling because he's playing without his only NHL defensive partner. His play is not being affected by the Sabres lack of courtesy toward Hank, it’s being affected by having to learn to play with a new guy.

I know I just wrote a blog a few days ago about hockey players being human beings with feelings, but I just find this idea that the Sabres are playing lackluster hockey because TIM FREAKING KENNEDY was cut to be ridiculous and nonsensical. Don’t get me wrong, the Sabres are playing pretty passionless hockey. But this group of players kind of always has. It’s them, it’s what they are. End of story. Most of them are not self-starters, they don’t burn to play hockey the way truly great players do. They don’t seem to at least. It’s not because of phone call or contracts or buyouts, it’s just something missing inside of them. I don’t know how you fix that. But I’m pretty sure it’s not by sending Hank a thank-you note.

Derek Roy is Playing Really Hard (Also, a Pig Just Flew By My Window

2010-10-17T15:04:00.000-04:00

Well, the Sabres are certainly challenging the whole notion of having fun with hockey, aren't they? The little rat bastards.

I can reason away last night's loss to Chicago. The Sabres played much, much better. They looked like they have, in fact, played hockey before at some point in their lives which is a much appreciated change from the preceding home games. And the bottom line is, the Blackhawks are a superior team. They're the defending Stanley Cup champions for a good reason, you know? I love the Sabres, but I will reluctantly admit that there are teams in the NHL who are better than them at hockey. That said, there are certainly things to be concerned about. I have a ton of school work to do today so I'm too lazy to arrange these thoughts in a nice organized way. Here they are as the pop into my brain:

-- Let's start with the good. Derek Roy. I know! I had no idea that giving him a second chance would revitalize him so. Maybe I should write to many, many other Sabres and tell them the same thing. I know it's six games so I don't want to get carried away, but Derek actually looks like he cares this season. And honestly, I can't remember the last time he looked like that, particularly when everyone around him is struggling so much. You can legitimately say that little Roy-Z is carrying the team right now. I have to admit, I think that's awesome. Mark and I are getting a kick out of saying things like, "If only the whole team was skating as hard as Derek Roy right now. OH MY GOD IT'S A SIGN OF THE APOCALYPSE!" (Hey, we have to entertain ourselves somehow.)

-- And straight to the big bad. Tyler Myers. I know! I was hoping he was just getting caught in some bad moments, but I went to the Montreal game with Kate, and I could not believe how bad, bad, bad he looked. I figured there would be a bit of a post-Henrik Tallinder adjustment, but this seemed so far beyond that. In fairness, the Montreal game was the first game post-Shaone Morrisonn injury so Myers was playing with a NEW new partner, but it didn't seem like miscommunication with Jordan Leopold so much as it looked like a 20-year-old kid being completely overwhelmed by the NHL. He was playing the way I was afraid he would last season. I don't think it's any secret that the Sabres organization was banking on Myers being even better than he was last year. Better in the defensive end and more productive offensively. This is a pretty obvious observation, but if he continues to play like this things are going to get very bad very quickly.

The only potentially good thing here is that maybe Myers' struggles will slow down the whole "He's going to be the best defenseman in the history of the Buffalo Sabres!" conversation. He may well be - six bad games doesn't mean he isn't going to be - but let's not forget he's a 20-year-old in his second NHL season.

-- Quite frankly, I hate our entire defense. Right now watching this team is like nails on a chalkboard to a defense-loving fan like myself. I just curl up in a ball and cover my ears and eyes, occasionally weeping. Obviously, I miss Hank, but jeez, I really miss Toni Lydman back there too. Some of that could easily be new pairings not having enough time to gel yet, but man, thank goodness for Steve Montador. His play hasn't been perfect, but it hasn't been godawful dreadful either. And for crying out loud, does Mike Weber have to kill someone to get in the line-up? Regardless of how he played in the preseason or how he's playing in practice, I think it's time to throw him into real NHL action and just see how he responds. We've been hearing for years that he's the future. Lord knows our current defensive corp is not so stellar that it can't be touched.

-- Along those lines, I told you guys that Craig Rivet at 100% wasn't going to be that great. I TOLD YOU!

-- What is up with the sharp difference between the way the Sabres play at home and the way they play on the road? I don't have the stats to back this up - proof is for journalists - but I feel like this group of players has never played very well at HSBC. Are they too distracted by things like wives/girlfriends, kids, and Chippewa Street when at home? Is the atmosphere that bad here now? (And if so, guys, give us something to be happy about.) Do they really press that much more at home than on the road in a desperate effort to impress us? (You know what does not impress me? Trying to make a fancy pass when you should be shooting the puck. You know what does impress me? Wins.) I don't get it at all.

-- All the above said, I'm not panicked yet. I'm not sure panicked is the correct word anyway since it suggests high expectations, and I think my expectations coming into the season were pretty reasonable. That said, the Sabres are currently below even those expectations. I recently read somewhere - and I'd link it but I don't remember where I saw it - that conference standings generally don't change much after Thanksgiving. The number of three point games makes it hard for a team to rise or fall a lot. So I'm holding off any official panic until Thanksgiving. After that, well, we'll see.

Odds and Ends

2010-10-15T01:50:00.000-04:00

I don't really have a lot to add to the whole suspension thing, but there is one thing that really bothers me. I've seen numerous hockey writers and talking heads write and tweet that the suspension would have been greater if Jason Pominville had been injured. That absolutely sickens me because he WAS injured. He suffered a freaking brain injury. With all the studies and reports showing how serious concussions are to a person's long-term health and with all the talk the NHL has done about taking concussions more seriously, I find this attitude galling. The NHL can say whatever it wants, its actions show that it's still ruled by the "Awww, he just got his bell rung!" culture. I fully believe that had Pominville ended up with his arm or leg in a cast, the suspension would have been greater. I also fully believe that, in the long-run, Pominville probably would have been better off with a broken bone than a concussion. The league has to get past this whole "I can't see it so it can't be that bad" mentality.

I babysat through the first part of the Devils game but before I left I gave Mark very strict instructions to DVR any interviews with Henrik Tallinder. I was really excited when I got home during the first intermission and discovered I had just missed it. I plopped down on the couch, rewound the recording, and well...

It was really, really weird. One of the advantages of kind of ignoring hockey in the off-season was that I didn't think that much about Hank not being a Sabre anymore. Even the beginning of the season was fine. But actually seeing him on the ice wearing a Devils jersey was weird. Watching him play against Thomas Vanek and Derek Roy was weird. Watching that interview with Rob Ray was weird. I'm not going to lie, I was pretty sad. I'd told myself that all the "Oh, I'm devastated, let me ease some pain with ABBA" stuff was a put-on but while it was exaggerated, no, I really am pretty sad. Hank is as twinkly and smiley as ever but he's twinkly and smiley in a Devils jersey. The DEVILS. The Devils are the least twinkly and smiley team in the NHL. I do love Jochen Hecht, but it's going to take some time to get used to this. (For Tyler Myers too it appears. I'm not going to say I told you so but...)

(Sidenote: I love Rob Ray's expression in the above phot. He must have the worst poker face in the world.)

I'm making my first trip to HSBC tonight for the Montreal game so I'll have some more thoughts after that. I think it'll be the first full game I've seen this season so I'm pretty excited.

The Human Touch

2010-10-11T22:20:00.002-04:00

I babysat this evening and when I got in the car and turned on the radio, the first thing I heard was, "Pominville has been taken off the ice by medical staff, I imagine straight to an ambulance." My heart dropped. They didn't do a great job of explaining what happened for the radio audience, but they referred to a major penalty so I knew it must have been severe. I don't LOVE Jason Pominville the way a fan loves her favorite player. I find him pretty frustrating actually. For all the complaints about Tim Connolly's contract, I think Pominville has been the most glaringly overpaid player on the roster since his extension. I can't even stand to listen to his postgame interviews anymore. Jerry Sullivan referred to him the other day as robot. You wind him up, he says what he's programmed to say, and then he stops talking. That's a perfect description.

That said, I do have a lot of affection for Jason Pominville the person. He's been with the Sabres for a number of years, a lot of my years as a real fan. Most of them, really. He's settled into the community and seems to really like it here. That goes a long way with me. I drove home as fast as I could and before I had even closed the door behind me, I was asking Mark for an update. I was worried and scared. Seeing the footage of Pominville strapped to a stretcher, being wheeled off the ice, made me want to cry and at that point, I knew he was okay.

Like I said, I didn't see the beginning of the game, but the general consensus seems to be that everyone got rattled when Pominville hit the ice and that it took them a long time to get themselves back together. But I don't know, can you blame them? I was freaking out, and at the end of the day, Jason Pominville is a stranger to me. His teammates know him. I know we've all heard the word "core" so many times that it's become easy to dismiss, but the fact is, a number of these guys have been together for a long time. They've grown up together, they've played on multiple teams together, they've gotten married and started families together. These guys know Pominville's wife, and they've played with his son. They love each other. Whatever you want to say about them as hockey players, that much seems to be true. And it seems to me that every time a player in the NHL watches someone lying on the ice, unmoving, he has to know that it could have just as easily been him.

Was their reaction the most professional? No, probably not. I know everyone would like their team to be able to keep its collective head and rise above things like this. But was it human? Absolutely it was. And that's fine with me. It's a long season. I'll give them this one.

I'm Having Fun! I Swear!

2010-10-10T19:54:00.000-04:00

I promise, this is how it happened. I signed into my email account and found an email from friends and Devils fans, Pookie and Schnookie, saying that Henrik Tallinder had scored a short-handed goal. I looked up at the TV, trying to make sense of the words "Henrik," "Tallinder," "short-handed," and "goal," and at that exact moment, Tyler Myers fell over, for no discernible reason, handing over the puck for a Rangers goal. A message from the Hockey Gods? You be the judge.

I told someone in an email last week that I just wasn't sure what to make of this season's Sabres, that I couldn't get a handle on them. The first two games of the season really didn't do much to clear things up. Perhaps I should be willing to chalk game two up as a clunker - every team has them over the course of 82 games - and if I were really generous, I might acknowledge that it was game two of a back-to-back. But come on, it was the SECOND GAME OF THE SEASON and the FIRST GAME AT HOME. That's really all the Sabres could find within themselves? That is freakin' brutal. We have twenty-two back-to-backs this season. I will crawl over the glass, leap onto the ice, and shiv someone if I have to watch twenty-one more Saturday games like that one.

The bottom line is this: It's really hard to reconcile the team that swore they had something to prove this season with the team that was - deservedly - booed off the ice on Saturday. Really hard. This was not a case of a team playing well and losing to a team that played better. It was not a case of a team playing well and not having any luck or getting any breaks. It was not an exhausted, injured team that's already battled through most of a season. It was a team that didn't show up. Period. In the second game of the season. In front of their own crowd. Ugh.

Okay, on a totally different note, I noticed a lot of complaining that the Sabres didn't do anything special for the 40th anniversary on Saturday. I thought that was pretty weird too, especially in light of the huge pregame celebration Vancouver had. When I was perusing Twitter this afternoon (avoiding many, many school assignments), I noticed a reply that Mike Harrington had sent someone about the Sabres having a big celebration on Friday before the Montreal game. It's the 40th anniversary to the day of the Sabres first game which was, funnily enough, also against Montreal.

I bring this up to say this: The Sabres are idiots. I can't believe the first I've heard of this was in some random Twitter reply one of the local beat writers sent out. I would assume I'd missed something except that no one seemed to know anything about it. I have no problem with them waiting until Friday - I think their reasons for doing so are pretty awesome actually - but why aren't they publicizing the heck out of it? Now they have a bunch of grouchy fans complaining that they didn't do anything and that it's embarrassing compared to Vancouver. If I'd had any money, I would have bought a ticket for the opener, expecting all the fanfare to be then. I'd be pretty annoyed if I got home and then realized the fanfare was actually a couple of games later. I don't get how a franchise that's so good at marketing and merchandising can be so dumb when it comes to pretty much everything else PR-wise. And while I'm ranting at the Sabres, why don't you guys get over yourselves regarding bloggers and online writers? You're crazy if you think there's any competition between blogs and other sites and your site. You know why? Because your website sucks and the only reason I ever go there is to see what time the game starts.

Ah, hockey season. It's so good to have you back. When I said I wanted to have fun this year, I was not issuing a challenge.

Starting With a Clean Slate

2010-10-08T00:59:00.000-04:00

Okay, I had this whole thing about how I wasn't really into the preseason and how seeing this ad over on Shots Off the Crossbar really got me pumped up, but I was catching up on school work all week and didn't get around to finishing this post and now the preseason is over, the real season is here, and everyone and their dog has tweeted this ad. But watch it anyway. More thoughts after the video.

I freaking LOVE this ad. I have a thing about seeing players out of their uniforms and I love watching them do weirdly precise little training drills so both of those things appeal to me. But really what I love is that glaring, screw you toss at the camera at the end. It's such a simple thing but it really delivers an emotional punch. I've watched this ad at least fifteen times since I first saw it at SOtC, and I'm now officially pumped. Bring on the real hockey!

In other news...

In an effort to have fun this season, I've decided that Derek Roy and I are starting with a clean slate. For those who haven't been reading Top Shelf since its inception, here's a brief history of my relationship with Derek: First I loved him. Then I loved him but felt a little bad about it. Then I hated him but felt a little bad about it. Then I hated him.

My anger with Derek is not based on the fact that I think he's untalented. It's based on the fact that I think he's far more talented than we've seen. Somewhere along the way that little pest who buzzed around the ice like he was attached to a motor turned into a lazy, disinterested veteran. He's a player who could be great - or at the very least, very good - but who seems content to be pretty good. He was a big fish in a little pond and that was good enough for him. That drove me freaking CRAZY.

But I've been reminded that he is good at hockey. And he does produce every season. And well, if we traded him for a bag of pucks like I've sometimes suggested, it would be quite a hit to the team since bags of pucks are, as far as I know, not very good at playing center. Once upon a time, I loved Derek Roy. And you know what? I kind of miss loving Derek Roy. So I'm going to try again. Maybe this experiment will be futile. Maybe Derek and I have just outgrown each other. But maybe we've both grown up in the last year. Maybe we're both ready to try again. I'm beginning the season with my heart open to the possibility of being at peace with Derek again.

Hockey!

Goalies Against Cancer 2010

2010-10-02T14:27:00.001-04:00

Some thoughts (very few, really) about the preseason are coming up later but first a small public service announcement of sorts. I just wanted to draw everyone's attention to Goalies Against Cancer 2010. Goalies Against Cancer is a program organized by a couple of goalie-playing brothers whose lives have been touched by breast cancer. They've put together a number of events for the month of October to raise money for breast cancer research. All the proceeds from everything they're doing will be donated to Passionately Pink for the Cure, which goes to the Susan G. Komen for the Cure foundation.

The reason I know about this is because my older brother Chris is involved in one of the events. From October 21st to October 31st, there will be original sketch cards of some well-known goalies up for auction on eBay. You can see all the ones that have been submitted so far here (more will be added), but here's a closer look at Chris's.

Chris lives in Alabama so he doesn't know much about hockey. When he

volunteered to be a part of this, we had the following conversation:

"Is Ryan Miller popular?"

"Uh. Yeah."

Many of us - too many of us - have been affected by breast cancer. One of my very favorite families in the world struggled through a fierce battle with it over the course of the last year. If you're at all interested in finding out more information, hit the link above and check out the many ways you can make a donation. One hundred percent of all proceeds earned are going directly to the cause. No one involved is pocketing anything. Expect another reminder as October gets closer. I'm pretty sure Ryan Miller would be okay with one of you bidding tons and tons of money for his sketch card since it's all going to cancer research.

Hockey is Back? Yay, Hockey!

2010-09-23T22:09:00.001-04:00

As you might be able to tell from the last couple of posts, it's been a weird off-season for me and hockey. I was weary of the whole scene and annoyed by a lot of what people were obsessing over. So I was really pleased at how happy being in the arena Saturday and Monday made me. I wasn't even the door before that happiness started to wash over me. Kids running down the street in jerseys, teenagers playing impromptu games of ball hockey in parking lots, the cold air in the building, hearing coaches barking and sticks slapping pucks, Lindy standing at center ice, players grinning and swirling around in undecipherable drills, fans trickling in, everyone laughing and excited. That's the good stuff.

A few observations:

I met up with Kate for practice on Monday morning and honestly, there are very few things I can think of that are as relaxing and entertaining as watching the Sabres practice. I don't know if it comes of not ever playing hockey or not, but I can rarely make sense of the drills they do. We watched one that seemed to involve three defensemen and about fifteen forwards. I have no idea. But after a few minutes I quit trying to guess because it's just fun to watch. Without the crowd noise, you can really hear the sounds of hockey which are awesome - all those skates cutting across the ice, the pucks rattling around the boards, the players tapping their sticks and calling for passes, the coaches barking out orders. And minus the game action, I seem to really notice how skilled these guys are. The eway even the worst skaters on the team skate blows my mind. The swooping circles, the sharp starts and stops, the defensemen doing their backward zig-zags. It's all so amazing. I highly recommend practice if you can get there at some point this week. (I started this on Monday. If you haven't been to practice yet, you're probably screwed. Sorry.)

I don't think of Ryan Miller as one of my favorite players - I'm not sure why because he's awesome, he's interesting, and he's sincere, all things that I like. But when he skated on the ice for the team introductions at Puck Drop, I was filled with a genuine, warmness and affection. He's a Vezina winning goalie. He's a franchise player who seems to have really embraced the franchise he plays for. All the arguments and complaints that the Sabres would suck without Ryan Miller are pointless because Ryan Miller is a Sabre. When he pulls on his jersey every day, it has a Sabres logo on it. I've been watching him for so long now that it's easy to forget that he is legitimately one of the best players in the NHL, the kind of player some fans would kill for. He's also a really nifty guy. And he's ours. I'm going to try not to take him for granted so much this season.

I've blogged a number of times now about how, for me, certain players work into a corner of my irrational heart. They're not necessarily the best players on the team - I'm not sure they ever have been really - but there's something about them that makes me really root for them to do well. I realized during Puck Drop and again during scrimmage, that I really, really want Chris Butler to have a strong bounce back season. I suppose that's partly because it would be nice for the team's performance if he didn't suck eggs, but it's mostly because I just like him. He seems like such a nice kid. I don't follow a lot of celebrities or athletes on Twitter - they're either so annoying that I realize I probably wouldn't like them in real life or they're so bland that there's kind of no point - but I make an exception for Chris Butler*. His Twitter feed is SUPER bland, but I don't know, sweet and non-controversial seem to work for him. And okay, there's the totally adorable picture he's currently using as his avatar. I mean... The hat. Those waders. How can you not want that kid doing great things on your blue line? Come on, Butts, I know you can do it!

Cuteness personified.

Kate, Pookie, Schnookie, Patty, and I have often discussed REFUSING things. (I'm pretty sure the Ookies brought up this concept first.) Sometimes there are things - TV shows, movies, teams, players - that you just REFUSE with no real good reason. It doesn't matter what other people say about how awesome they are. In fact, sometimes heaps of praise just make you REFUSE something even more. I've been refusing Shaone Morrisonn. Now, I do have a few very good reasons for this: He spells his first name funny and funny in a way that makes me want to pronounce it "Shane." (My spell check agrees.) I remember there are two doubled letters in his last name but I always want to make them the "r" and the "s," not the "n." He's a former Cap. He's also a former Cap who's LOADED with Mike Green cooties.

The real reason I've been REFUSING Shaone Morrisonn, however, is because everyone kept referring to him as "the new Tallinder" or "the Tallinder replacement" or "another Tallinder." Logically speaking, I know all that really means is that Morrisonn plays a similar style of hockey as Hank. But emotionally? No, I do not cotton to that.** THERE IS NO SUITABLE TALLINDER REPLACEMENT ON THE PLANET EARTH.

However, at the scrimmage on Monday, I noticed him like crazy. At least three times I thought, "Who is that again," peeked at Kate's roster and realized it was Shaone Morrisonn. And I've found myself softening on him ever since. His first name is Gaelic? Hey, I wanted to name my kid Ewan for a while even though most people wouldn't know how to say it. That's kind of sweet. What's that? He kind of sort of dissed the Caps for not playing much defense while very specifically calling Green the best offensive d-man in the league and not just the best d-man, no qualifier? Awesome.

So while Shaone Morrisonn is NOT Henrik Tallinder, I'm keeping an eye on him.

And finally, this Mike Harrington story about Jochen Hecht (yay, Yo-Yo!) mentions that Jochen is still doing rehab on his finger. For some reason that TOTALLY cracked me up. How do you rehab a pinky? Little tiny pinky-sized weights? Push-ups with only your pinkies? Lots of pinky promises with his kids? Leave it to Jochen to be adorable.

* Other famous Tweeters I make an exception for: Steve Martin, Nathan Fillion, Shawn Michaels (he tweets like a 15-year-old girl, but I don't know, I'm entertained), Chris Jericho, Roger Ebert, and Carrie Fisher (she rarely tweets though).

** It's been brought to my attention that "I don't cotton to that" is a holdover from my Southern days. If you don't know what it means, go here or here.

I Just Wanna Have Fun

2010-09-13T13:25:00.002-04:00

This is one of those times when I know exactly how I feel and what I'm trying to say but I also know I didn't really capture it very clearly. I'm posting this anyway though because I'm trying to get back in the habit of blogging somewhat regularly.

My name is Heather B. and I'm excited about Puck Drop and new jerseys.

I've seen a lot of grumbling from both fans and professionals the last week or so about how some fans are so gullible and easily distracted from the quality of the team. Throw them new jerseys, take their money, and laugh in their faces. It's an outrage - an OUTRAGE - that Sabres ownership would play that way and it's an outrage - AN OUTRAGE! - that fans would fall for it.

Look, get over yourselves. Seriously.

Let's be honest. You and me, the ones who are reading and writing blogs and obssessing over every little breath the Sabres take, we're the freaks. For each one of us, there are at least 100 fans who couldn't name the general manager, an assistant coach, or a single prospect. They buy a jersey or a shirt, they turn on the TV or show up at the arena, they watch the players who skate onto the ice, and then they go home. All they want from the Sabres, maybe even more than winning, is a fun experience, and it makes sense for the Sabres to market themselves to those fans. I would guess that of the 18,000 people who go to every game there are more casual fans than hardcore fans. You don't have to like it, I guess, but thems the breaks. Do you really want to see what the Sabres' budget would be without an influx of money from jersey sales? I don't think you do.

That criticism is also just annoying. I'm really excited about the new jerseys. I can't wait to see them on the players on Saturday. As soon as I save enough pennies, I'll be buying one. But I haven't forgotten about the team. I'm not thrilled with our top six forwards. I'm a little worried about our defense coming together. I remain a firm Craig Rivet skeptic despite all the talk about him being 100% healthy. I wish the line-up had gotten more of a shake-up in the off-season. I'm perfectly capable of being an excited fan AND an informed fan. They're not mutually exclusive.

I don't know if things really have gotten more shrill this off-season or if it's always been like this and I just hadn't noticed or been bothered by it before, but it seems like a lot of people are suddenly taking professional sports very, very seriously. Fans are offended and insulted by the local teams and they're being told they should feel that way by certain media outlets and personalities and well, I don't get it.

By all means, if you're not happy with the product you're getting, stop spending your money. I got no problem with that. If I were a football fan, I would have quit watching the Bills years ago, and I understand that some people are there with the Sabres. But I don't get the drama about it. I don't love the current Sabres roster but I'm not offended that Tom Golisano wants to make a profit on his investment. I'm not insulted that Darcy Regier either couldn't get or didn't want any big headline-inducing names here. The Sabres didn't spit in my face when they bought out Tim Kennedy. It's just all too serious. It's sports. It's entertainment. I would love, love, love to see the Sabres hoist a Stanley Cup. Buffalo would have a blast with that. But it's not going to change my life if they do. I'm not going to get through college any faster, I'm not going to find a better job, I'm not going to suddenly have a house full of children. And on the flip side, it's not going to ruin my life if they don't win a championship. Buffalo is the only pro sports town I've ever lived in (that I remember - those 8 months in Pittsburgh are pretty fuzzy, being an infant and all) so I don't know if it's a sports thing or if it's specifically a Buffalo thing, but Buffalo sometimes wraps way too much of its collective self-worth up in how the sports teams perform. I don't roll that way. Golisano not caring about winning doesn't reflect on or hurt me. Derek Roy and Drew Stafford being satisfied with playing at 60% effort most nights doesn't reflect on or hurt me. If it does, I'm giving them and hockey too much power.

So yeah, I'm going to Puck Drop on Saturday, and I'm pretty dang excited about it. I'm not going to analyze the players or how they play in a freaking scrimmage. I'm not going to pay attention to lines and pairings. I'm going to have fun. I'm going to meet up with some folks I only know from the internet. I'm going to see some friends I haven't seen since last season ended. I'm going to enjoy being in the arena again. I'm going to delight in how something about seeing Lindy Ruff on the ice makes it feel like it's officially hockey season. I'm going to send Jochen Hecht happy, new favorite player thoughts. I'm going to ooh and aah over the jerseys. I'm going to revel in the sound of skates cutting across the ice and pucks rattling around the boards because I suddenly really miss those sounds.

Fun. Hockey is fun. That's it. That's all I want. If you don't like it, well, too bad.

Ding-Dong the Slug is Dead

2010-09-08T01:43:00.000-04:00

You can't see me, but I'm currently dancing on the grave of the slug. I don't know if the leaked jersey photos are real or not, but I do know that there's not a slug anywhere in sight. I know, I know. Most people got over the slug by the middle of the 2006-2007 season. I didn't. I hated that thing on sight, I hate it still. I am very proud to say - in a way that totally acknowledges that this is a RIDICULOUS thing to be proud of, of course - that I never purchased anything with the slug on it for myself. Oh, sure, I bought Mark a few things with the slug. There's no accounting for taste after all. (Just kidding, dear.) (Kind of.) I have, however, have two jerseys: a red and black Connolly and a vintage blue Tallinder. All my t-shirts are vintage. All my random Sabres crap is vintage. So suck it, Larry Quinn. I didn't fall for your money grab.

That said, I'm not completely happy. For those of you who don't spend as much time as I do on Twitter, here's what the new road jersey is alleged to look like:

I hate, hate, hate the silver arm pits. No one's arm pits ever need to be accentuated. That's just the way the world works. And I hate, hate, hate the silver piping along the sides of the chest. The silver doesn't go well with the blue and gold and the curved lines don't match the rest of the striping on the jersey. Those things seem to exist solely because the Sabres, for whatever reason, don't want to use a straight-up vintage jersey. But instead of just modernizing the whole thing, they just changed the shade of blue (boooooo!) and added some random lines and spots of color. It just... doesn't quite mesh for me.

My other complaint, and this one is more nitpicky, is that I'd flip the coloring of the striping on the arms and waist. I think the larger stripe needs to be blue with the thinner, outer strips yellow. I don't know, something about that looks off to me.

Bottom line is, I'll buy one of these eventually (though probably in blue on account of how much ice-cream and pop I manage to drip on myself over the course of a season) but I'll buy it mostly because it's what the team's wearing and it's not dog-ass ugly. A Winter Classic-like jersey? I'd buy one of them because they're straight up awesome. (Seriously, how beautiful is this?) Still, an improvement in my book. Big time.

Now if I could just say the same about the team.... But more on that later.

Testing, Testing 1-2-3

2010-09-03T01:37:00.002-04:00

Hi. Remember me?

I really had no intention of completely disappearing from the face of the earth this summer, but well, a number of things happened. Here's a run-down:

1. I decided to go back to school full-time. As some of you will remember, I took some classes last semester. After really sitting down and looking at how much I had to do yet, I decided to just take the plunge. That led directly to...

2. I quit my job. That's where a lot of my focus ended up this summer. For all the ups and downs, I loved, loved, loved my job and I especially loved the little group of boys I had this past year. They were sweet, funny, smart, lovable little guys so it was really important to me that we have a full, fun summer session together. On one hand, ending with such a great group was awesome. On the nights when I feel overwhelmed by how much studying or writing or planning I have to do, I know memories of those guys will remind me why I'm doing all this. By on the other hand, ending with such a great group was tough and emotional. Right now I feel like I'm just on vacation but next week when they all go back to school and I don't, it's going to be very, very weird.

3. Hank depression sank in. Henrik Tallinder signed with the Devils, I put up my funny little "I'm heart-broken" post, I put Jochen in the header and I thought well, that's that. And then I got really sad. Honestly, I feel a little silly even writing this because hello, I'm 32-years-old but hey, why quit being honest now, you know? I completely underestimated how much being the Tallinder fan had become a part of my identity not so much for you guys but for me. And I loved him. Irrationally and unconditionally and the truth is, the Sabres aren't exactly loaded with those kinds of guys, at least for me. I'm really, really hoping to fall in love with some of the youngsters this season.

4. I went on a couple of vacations. I spent a week in Boston - I have a half-written post about my trip to Fenway Park that I might finish and post one of these days - and then went home to Birmingham for a week. Both trips were awesome. You know what, I'm definitely going to throw up a post about the Boston trip at some point.

5. And finally, I just got kind of sick of hockey. I got sick of the Sabres, I got sick of fans, I got sick of examining every little thing. I was in Boston when the Tim Kennedy buy-out story broke so I didn't get the full effect, but even what I got was annoying. Kennedy and his agent did what they thought was in their best interest, the Sabres did what they thought was in their best interest and as so often happens in professional sports, those interests didn't work together. Was anyone surprised that the Sabres are running on a budget? Or that that budget is below the cap? And if so, where have those people been? The outrage over a guy who will have a perfectly fine NHL career, the outrage every time any player signed anywhere but in Buffalo, the outrage over anything that could possibly be raged about just did me in. I have a number of friends who don't pay one iota of attention to anything that doesn't happen on the ice. When the season starts, they turn on the TV or show up in the arena, they cheer for whatever players show up in Sabres jerseys, and then they go home. I always thought they were missing all of the fun stuff, but there was a point this summer where I really started to wonder if maybe they didn't have it all figured out.

Now, that will never, ever be me. For better or for worse, I love the behind-the-scenes stuff. I'm fascinated by things like scouting and drafting and salary caps and budgets. But I think I needed a break from it. I love Twitter, and Facebook, and blogging, but those things mean there's no off-season anymore, not really. Hockey is always there somewhere, ready to be examined or picked apart. I needed to step back and miss it for a while.

So now I think I'm ready to talk about things again. I want to be honest up front though, I'm not sure how well blogging is going to fit into my schedule of class, work (eventually), and babysitting. I'm going to be seeing a lot of partial hockey games for one thing. There may be stretches where I don't have a lot to say or I don't have a lot in-depth to say. I don't feel at all ready to give up on blogging though so I hope you'll hang with me.

Let's go Buff-a-lo!

What to Do With Tyler Myers

2010-07-20T21:28:00.000-04:00

After much thought, I've decided to forward the following proposal for Tyler Myer's contract extension to Darcy Regier's office.

6 million for 2012-2017
7.5 million for 2017-2022
5 million for 2022-2025
3 million for 2025-2028
1 million for 2028-2032
$250 for 2032-2042
$25 for 2042-2047

95,502,625 over 35 years gives us the low, low cap hit of 2,728,646.

This GM stuff is easy peasy.

It Had to Be You

2010-07-15T00:41:00.002-04:00

I spent a lot of my evening Monday writing about jerseys: how much I love having one even though they look ridiculous on most human beings, how I'm sad to put away my Tallinder jersey but why I'll do it anyway, and mostly, what my plans for a new jersey are. The general gist of that last part was that I was torn between plunging ahead with a current Sabre or waiting a while and seeing if any of the kids struck my fancy, particularly Mike Weber who I've been waiting to see up full-time for what feels like forever. But as I was writing the post I realized that I wasn't torn at all. It was Jochen Hecht. It's probably always been Jochen Hecht (after my forever beloved Hank, of course).

There are practical reasons that Jochen works really well. He has two years left on his contract. While I think he's likely to be here for those two years, he's probably (look away, Gambler!) unlikely to be renewed after that. I'd be surprised if that happened at least. He's kind of the perfect middle-man. He takes me away from Hank and in three years, maybe one of the kids really will have caught my attention. And unlike the very impulsively bought Connolly jersey in the back of the closet, I will never ever regret owning a Hecht jersey. Also in Jochen's favor is the very silly fact that I love the way 55 looks on the back of a jersey. To my eye, certain numbers look good and certain numbers look odd. 55 looks good.

But really the bottom line is that I love Jochen Hecht. I like his game, I appreciate his style of play - steady, reliable, and often unnoticed - but I love him. I've written many times before about how there are certain players who just kind of get under your skin in a good way. You feel really happy for them when they're playing well and genuinely bummed for them when they're struggling. In 2007-2008 when most of the team phoned it in, I was so proud of Jochen for playing like he actually cared (and I have documented proof of those feelings). When he seemed to be a dead corpse skating around on the ice in 2008-2009, I wasn't angry, just sad and kind of bummed out. I really root for him to play well, not just because he's a Sabre, but because I love him. I love his quiet play, I love his responsible defense, I love his bashful monotone interviews, I love that not only will he shoot the puck when he's open, he'll shoot the puck when he's behind the net and three players, I love the teeny-tiny smile that pops out when he scores a goal, I love the way he skates off the ice almost as if he's afraid if he doesn't get to the bench quickly, they're going to take the goal away, I love that fact that he's super handsome but totally beneath the puck bunnies' notice.

I love him. When it came time to do something with the banner, it had to be Jochen. When it came time to think about a new jersey, it had to be Jochen. When it came time to officially anoint someone Heather B.'s next favorite player, it had to be Jochen. I don't know why I ever thought otherwise.

It had to be you.

Final Word On Bucky Gleason (Okay, For Now)

2010-07-09T13:03:00.000-04:00

I don't have a lot of time right now - we have a busy day of Elmwood Avenue and Shakespeare in the Park ahead of us - but I did want to quickly point out a couple of things related to my last post.

Since I complained in the comments that no one at the Buffalo News would properly address Patrick Kaleta's arbitration, I'll point out that John Vogl did write a nice little blurb about it on Sabres Edge. It doesn't really touch on team-elected arbitration keeping Kaleta safe from offer sheets which was the scuttlebutt floating around Twitter, but there are plenty of good quotes from Darcy Regier on why the Sabres went this way, certainly enough to kill the notion that there were any evil intentions or severe disagreements between the Sabres and Kaleta. Kudos to Vogl.

However, the following day Bucky Gleason hosted an Inside the NHL chat on Sabres Edge. Here's a Q and A from the first fifteen minutes:

[Comment From Millrtime30Millrtime30: ]

Did I hear correctly that some team was going to throw in an offer sheet for Kaleta, thats why the Sabres are taking him to arbitration?

[Bucky:]

No. He's taking the Sabres to arbitration because he thinks an independent person would give him more money than the standard 10 percent raise. It also leads to a better chance of putting pressure on the Sabres to sign him to a multiyear deal.

Yeah, let that sink in for a moment.

When someone questioned him later in the chat, this time mentioning Vogl's blog, Bucky backtracked, admitted he'd made a mistake (glory be!) and claimed he'd misread the item. Come on. Here are a just few small excerpts from the blog entry in question, linked above:

The collective bargaining agreement has a clause that allows teams to take players to arbitration, and the Sabres have elected to use that clause with restricted free agent Patrick Kaleta.

"Electing arbitration, it allows us to ensure a couple things: 1) that he’s playing in Buffalo; and 2) that we have a deal in place within the appropriate time frame." (quote from Regier)

The Sabres were the only team to elect to take a player to arbitration.

Oh, there's also the freaking title of the blog: Sabres elect aribitration on Kaleta

So yeah, I'm calling bullshit on ol' Buckster there. He can try to explain it away all he wants (and he tried: See what happens when you don't read the paper for what it says, rather than what you think it says? I made the very mistake that many people make when reading my column. They read for what they think it says, or what they think it implies, rather than what it actually says). I don't believe for one second that he read Vogl's blog until someone pointed it out to him. And he clearly didn't read TSN's report on Kaleta being the only player taken to club-elected arbitration. And you know what, even if he did read it, I'd have to worry about someone who could misconstrue information that was so concisely and clearly delivered.

And this is really my biggest complaint about TBN's hockey coverage when you get down to it. I think there are a couple of talented, informed guys on the beat who also happen to have some semblance of respect for their audience, but those guys are consistenly drowned out by the noise from the ill-informed, condescending voices.

And now I'm putting Bucky back on IGNORE, at least for now. Thanks for indulging me.

Bloggers Rule, Journalists Drool: Serious and In-Depth Thoughts

2010-07-07T02:29:00.004-04:00

I've been trying to avoid Bucky Gleason as much as possible the last year or so, but his most recent column just happens to touch on something I mentioned in passing in my last blog post. I said that I didn't think the Buffalo News had enough smart talk about the NHL and things that, as boring as they may be, have a huge influence on how a team functions: the salary cap, arbitration, revenues, that kind of thing. Bucky's whole column is a mess ("Here's a bunch of guys who were good at some point in the last three years. It was/will be a HUGE MISTAKE to not sign them!"), but the part I have a beef with is this:

Evidence [that expansion has worked] can be found in the salary cap, which is tethered directly to revenue. Many were predicting a $6 million decrease for this season after the economy tanked, but the cap actually increased by about $2 million.

This isn't entirely false. The salary cap is tethered to revenue. But it's not really true either. Based on revenues alone the cap probably would have gone down. Those predictions weren't wrong. The reason the cap is going up is because the players' union elected to approve a 5% inflator. Moneys the players put in escrow in case the actual revenues didn't live up to the projections are being used to push the cap up. In fact, this is the second year where the cap would have gone down or stayed flat had the players not elected to use the inflator.

Now, is all that tough to explain to a casual fan? Yeah, maybe, especially in a newspaper column where space is limited. But there's a difference between simplifying something for the average reader and simplifying it to the point where it's just not true and is, in fact, kind of wrong. If Bucky can't accurately explain how the cap works, then he shouldn't use it as support for his opinion. Especially since once you inject the inflator into the conversation, I think you have a debate about whether an increased cap is really good support for the argument that expansion has been successful. When I read the above excerpt my immediate response is to wonder if Bucky even knows how the cap works or what the inflator is, and that's not a good thing. Either he doesn't know, he doesn't care to explain it, he's incapable of explaining it, or he's choosing to ignore it because it doesn't fit in with his argument. Again, no good options there.

I once complained to Mike Harrington that TBN doesn't do enough behind-the-scenes talk, again things like the cap, RFAs, arbitration, that stuff. He told me that the average person doesn't want to read that stuff, that when the sports department has tackled stuff like that, there's been a lot of disinterest. I think that's crap. It's a part of sports. More and more, it's a huge part of sports. If you're going to write about Tim Kennedy going to arbitration, or the Sabres taking Patrick Kaleta to arbitration, or suggest that the Sabres buy players out, or talk about cap hits vs. actual salary, and whether and when the Sabres make a profit then I think you have the obligation to make sure your readers know what that stuff means, how it works. And if you don't think it'll fly in the newspaper, then put it on the blog where the more hardcore fans will find it. Sabres Edge shouldn't just be a regurgitation of what's in the newspaper and a lot of times, especially in the off-season when there are no game blog or links lists, that's what it is. Yes, there are a lot of casual fans in Buffalo who just want to know when the Sabres sign someone. But there are a lot of smart fans who are willing and able to dig in more. I think the ever-increasing popularity of writers like James Mirtle proves that. I mean, it's totally crazy but maybe if TBN raised the level of conversation, they'd be surprised at how many fans joined them.

The bottom line is that when I read local fan-written Sabres blogs, I feel like they have a better understanding of how the NHL works. I feel like I'm reading smart, informed, thoughtful writing from people who have actually watched a hockey game or two recently. The season before this last one, I sat in a Sabres chat and explained to two TBN staff members why exactly Tim Connolly wasn't eligible for an incentive-based contract under the current CBA. Today on Twitter, atleast ten people who I follow questioned whether Bucky knew what he was talking about regarding the cap. The only good analysis I can recall reading recently in TBN is Harrington's column on the current NHL no-name goalie trend. It's smart, well-written, and is actually based in the reality of the last few months in the NHL. Why is that so hard? Why don't we get more of that? I don't get it. For me, TBN is rapidly losing ground to bloggers even though we're supposed to be the lazy, irrational, uninformed ones. They have the access and for that, I'll stick around. But more and more, that's about it.

And for the love of all that is right and holy in this world, SHELDON SOURAY SUCKS AT HOCKEY NOW! Give it a FREAKING rest!

When Pro Sports Suck

2010-07-05T00:30:00.002-04:00

I just want to give a very sincere thank you to everyone who's emailed, tweeted, or commented in the last few days. I also want to thank those of you who wanted to comment but couldn't find the comment button. I uh, didn't really think about that when placing the black veil of mourning over Top Shelf. I'll admit, I've had the use of S.O.S. planned for Hank's departure since the trade deadline. It seemed like a funny, over-the-top way to express what would probably be some sadness. I'm glad some of you enjoyed it. And apologies to those of you who had to explain to your co-workers why ABBA was suddenly blaring from your computers. Hee.

The truth is, as silly as the song was, I am genuinely sad, more than I really anticipated being. I had pretty much assumed that Hank was going to be moving on (and I figured it was going to be years more than money that was the sticking point) and I thought, okay, that's cool. I'm 32-years-old and he's a professional hockey player. Professional athletes move on, that's partly what they do. I'm not 9-years-old anymore, you know? But then I saw the first tweet that said "Tallinder to Devils" and well, I was a broken-hearted kid again. No tears (close but not quite) but a sad, heavy feeling that lingered for the rest of the day plus some? Definitely.

The funny thing is, I'm kind of happy about that. I'm a firm believer in that old adage that you cheer for the front of the jersey and not the back. I wish Hank well in Jersey, but I'll happily cheer for Mike Weber in his place next season. I'd drop Derek Roy off a cliff yesterday, but he's a Sabre and I'd rather him lead the league in points than any player on any other team. But the truth, for me at least, is that it does partly matter who's wearing the jerseys, and I'm happy to know that's as true for now as it was when I was a kid. I spend a lot of time here talking about things like the salary cap, small markets vs. large markets, free agency, all kinds of numbers. And while I do find that stuff really interesting and I think there's a lack of smart talk about it in Buffalo, at least from the mainstream media (lots of blogs have filled that gap), the bottom line of being a sports fan, again for me at least, is the attachment you feel to a team and the individuals who make up that team. We can certainly debate how valuable Hank was to the Sabres, whether he was worth keeping or whether the Devils overpaid, but we can't debate this: I loved Hank an awful lot. I can't even really tell you why, I just did. I enjoyed watching him play, he played a kind of game, I appreciated, but I also just liked him. I rooted for him to do well and felt an admittedly warped but genuine pride when he did. I defended him when he was criticized - even when he deserved it - and I liked seeing and hearing him. And for all the (understandable) focus around here on Hank, I really liked Toni a lot too. If you asked me to name my three favorite guys on the team, well, that's two of them. While I'm old enough to understand that players don't love us as much as we love them and the league works under certain financial constraints and players move on, it appears that I'm still young enough at heart to occasionally say, "That SUCKS and I don't like it ONE BIT!" Because speaking purely on an emotional level, this sucks and I don't like it one bit.

I wasn't really planning on changing the look of the blog yet, but when I put the black on, I forgot to write down the code for the blue I was using. I had been planning on trying out some new templates so since I couldn't get the old look back, I figured now was as good a time as any to look at some different things. The look that's up now isn't permanent - I hate the yellow background on the text boxes but I haven't quite figured out what to do with them yet. And while the banner isn't necessarily permanent either - I'm still playing with various photos - the guy in them probably is, at least for this season, even if he rarely ever goes Top Shelf. Unless it went off the goalie's head first. But more on that another time. For now, dude, I'm pretty bummed out.

DO NOT BE ALARMED

2010-07-03T21:29:00.001-04:00

If you're here and the blog looks godawful ugly, it's because I'm in the middle of a re-design crisis. If it's still like this Sunday night, don't worry, I probably just gave up on blogging completely.

Well, That Sucked.

2010-07-01T16:47:00.001-04:00

Yeah.

24 Hours and Counting

2010-06-30T12:39:00.000-04:00

I was going to write a "What I'd Like to See in Free Agency" post, but come on, I think we all know I'm only concerned about one thing when it comes to free agency. I don't really care about anything else.

GM for a Day

2010-06-23T00:36:00.001-04:00

Oh, happy day! Bucky's GM for a Day column has arrived. Patrick Sharp for unnamed prospects (and picks)? Check! Sheldon Souray? Check! I should probably be frightened at how well I know Bucky's thought process.

I hit on my problems with Sheldon Souray last post but one line in Bucky's column really stuck with me. "Dependable when healthy." I'm not sure that phrase even makes sense. The fact that he's been so unhealthy the last few years is what makes him the opposite of dependable. I also get the feeling every time Bucky talks about Souray (he's come up in previous off-seasons) that he thinks his size automatically makes him a big, physical defenseman and I really don't believe that's the case at all. Maybe I'm mistaken, but I don't think Souray plays very much defense either. Which is scary in light of his whopping 4 power play points last season. Maybe - just maybe! - there's a reason Edmonton would love to get rid of him. Bucky uses the word "unload" to describe Edmonton's desire to move him. That's a bit of a red flag word, isn't it?

My main problem with Bucky's proposed roster is the defensive corp: Tomas Kaberle, Sheldon Souray, Tyler Myers, Craig Rivet, Steve Montador, Chris Butler, and Mike Weber. That doesn't seem like a very good defensive corp. He removed two of the biggest minute eaters and the two primary penalty killers and replaced them with two guys who don't play particuarly good defense. The other defensive options - Pavel Kubina, Joe Corvo - aren't much better. And while I would take Paul Martin, I think Bucky is wrong that he isn't going to get a raise from someone. One season of playing less than 73 games isn't going to undo his reputation. That's crazy. For all the talk over the last few years about the Sabres misreading the market (and there's some truth in that for sure), Bucky consistently does the same thing. When he's attempted to pin an actual number on a player, he's often way off which just goes to prove that this really isn't that easy.

I'm also a little surprised that Bucky went on and on about gamers and then lumped Jochen Hecht in with the deadweight. Okay, he's overpaid for a 20 goal scorer. But with the exception of one season, he's been one of the most responsible, hardest working players on the roster. I won't harp on it too much since Bucky didn't push for it hard but still, I'm not sure how you even come up with that idea. (On a side note, I don't think his ending works as well as he probably thinks it does. He spends the whole column talking about how the Sabres need gamers and then ends with, "Adam Mair is a gamer. (Get rid of him!)")

For the record, I tried to punch the numbers into Cap Geek's salary cap calculator to see if Bucky ended up within his $57 million target, but I kept losing track of his moves. Even though I kind of called it, it was pretty lame of him to trade Sharp for unnamed picks and prospects. And at the end of the column he just started throwing names out there so I have no idea who he was really adding to his total and who he wasn't or if he was even keeping a total or just hoping it all worked out. I know he didn't account for Mike Weber needing a new contract. I'm assuming it won't be a huge bump but still something that needs to be taken into consideration. I'm sure he doesn't know anything about Cap Geek, being scared of the internet and all which is too bad because it's an awesome tool and pretty fun to just play with..

I don't know, I guess the bottom line is that I'm not sure how much better Bucky's proposed roster is than the one we had last season. Patrick Sharp would be a definite upgrade at center. Kaberle does probably make the power play better which would be very nice. But is that enough offense to compensate for a defensive corp that seems more likely to leave Ryan Miller out hanging more than this past season's did? And what about the penalty kill? Will it be worse? Or would an improved power play balance that out?

Let's hear some opinions. What do you think of Bucky's plan? What do you agree or disagree with? Who do you really want to get rid of and who do you really want to pick up? Am I worried too much about the defense and penalty killing? Is it okay to get a little worse there if it means getting better on offense?

Let the Games Begin!

2010-06-18T01:16:00.000-04:00

I've been pondering the Stanley Cup Finals and what it all means, and the truth is, I don't know. While it would certainly appear that a team doesn't have to have a star goalie to win it all, wouldn't it have been a different final if one of the teams involved did have a great goaltender? Or even a very good one? Philly got there with a bunch of big free agents but Chicago had mostly guys still on their first or second contracts. (On a side note, how much do you think they regret Brian Campbell's contract right now? If they didn't have it, they'd be in better shape cap-wise and they'd probably be okay on the ice since he's not in their top pairing or on their first unit PK.) I do think the Blackhawks worked the current system just right. They won when their best talent was still young and cheap. Most of their roster has signed extensions but most of them haven't kicked in yet which means they still had money to fill out the rest of the roster. Unfortunately, that's not an easy method to execute since players talented enough to build a team around while they're still babies don't exactly grow on trees unless the team is bad enough for a lottery pick or two or three.

So yeah. Overall I was pretty ambivalent about the post-Sabres playoffs. But let the off-season begin! When I saw that Halak had been traded I was sure I was thinking about the wrong guy. Surely, that wasn't the guy who not only didn't get benched but stormed through the postseason? Oh, wait! It totally was! I suppose it could partly be a sign that, in light of how well teams without big money goalies did this season, GMs might be more reluctant to spend a lot of money on the position but I still don't get it. He was only an RFA so it's not like the Canadiens had to pay him huge gobs of money right now, right? And it seems like Carey Price is a little bit of question mark. Hopefully this is a sign of many crazy things to come in the next few weeks.

I'm going to assume that the upcoming draft and the opening of free agency means that Bucky Gleason's GM for a Day column is right around the corner. Now I could pretend that I'm not going to read it, but the truth is, despite cutting back on my Bucky intake, I wouldn't miss this one for the world. I love it, and I'll admit, in Bucky's shoes I wouldn't even attempt to write a column like that. Everything is either so specific (Tim Connolly, a second round pick, and three sticks for Kris Versteeg!) or so general (unnamed prospects for Patrick Sharp!) that it all seems a little silly. And while Bucky usually cushions the column with some line about how he knows it's not that easy in real life, I always get the idea that he thinks it is and that if he were GM he'd have the team straightened out in no time. Or maybe I'm just reading into things too much there.

I will tell you this: If the name Sheldon Souray pops up - especially if he drops Henrik Tallinder first - I'll break out the Buffalo News dartboard. I've seen Souray's name come up in a few places around the internet, and I am not feeling that one at all. In his three years in Edmonton he's missed half the season or more due to injuries twice. He was a -19 last season and his much ballyhooed shot netted zero power play goals. That's right, last season Souray - a PP specialist according to his reputation - scored as many power play goals as I did. He's not a great skater, he's not all that physical for his size, he's poor on the defensive side of the puck, he's injury prone, and at almost 34, he's not getting any younger. And on a personal level, he's greasy and seems like a bit of a douchebag. I could deal with one or two of those things maybe but all of them? No thanks. If the Sabres are going to make a run at Tomas Kaberle, they shouldn't touch Souray. I'm not down with dropping two defensive d-men in Hank and Toni Lydman and replacing them with two offensive d-men who don't kill penalties and are average or worse on the defensive side of the puck. One, fine. Both, no.

Whoops. Got carried away there. Maybe I should wait until I actually read the column before I go too crazy, huh?

Anyway, bring off the offseason!

Bring on the Soccer!

2010-06-12T09:34:00.000-04:00

Okay, so I lied about posting every day this week. I'm sorry! Sheesh! It's the end of the school year which is always a busy time and for reasons I can't really go into publicly, the end of this particular school year has been a little more challenging and wearing than many others. I will have some kind of thoughts about the Stanley Cup Finals, free agency, and all that good stuff later, but for now, I'm off to babysit and then off to Allentown.

For now, let me just say that like a lot of the blogosphere, I'm going to attempt to get into the World Cup. And I'll admit here this morning that at least at first, I'm cheering for England. Why? For one simple, very scientific reason. I thought Wayne Rooney was awesome in that Nike spot that's been all over the internet for the last few weeks. (I'm not going to embed it since YouTube eats my blog, but if you haven't seen it - or haven't seen it lately - you should follow the link and check it out.) Rooney has my favorite part of the game sequence with the awesome, full-out backcheck and my favorite part of the fantasy sequence with the hugging of the queen, the nursery full of Waynes, and the calm, debonair defeat of a panicky, sweating Roger Federer. And how awesome would it be if we could make say, Derek Roy paint the lines on the ice every time he turned over the puck? As silly as it is (because hey, why get serious about this now?), I also adore the fact that "Wayne Rooney" is one of the lamest pro athlete names I've ever heard. It makes me think if Mickey Rooney which makes me picture Andy Hardy at the World Cup. I love it.

I've been told by Pookie and Schnookie, my World Cup fan friends, that cheering for England is akin to cheering for the San Jose Sharks. They always come in with one of the most talented rosters and always come up short. I'm not attached to England or Rooney though. I'm just starting out there. I'm ready to happily hop to whatever player or team strikes my fancy in the moment. I figure I'm not watching soccer again for another four years, you know? So hey, bring it on!

Proud Member of the Robot Skeleton Army

2010-06-08T00:00:00.000-04:00

So what, you ask, have I been watching these last few weeks if I haven't really been watching hockey? Well, there are a couple of answers to that question, but I'll get the big one out of the way first. I've been watching pretty much all the Craig Ferguson I've been able to get my hands on.

Back when the Late Night Wars were going on with Conan and Leno, I watched everything regularly for the first time in years, and while I was mostly on Conan's side there, I came away from those couple of weeks thinking that Craig Ferguson was the smartest, funniest, most endearing guy in late night. Even after that, it took a while for him to really take hold though. It was during the last few weeks of the college semester and the long, late nights of studying when I fell in love with him and while I try not to stay up as late now (emphasis on try), I did add him to the DVR and usually have a Craig-a-palooza at some point on the weekend.

His show is just wonderful. Ferguson has a super easy-going and likable presence and he's a really interesting and entertaining mix of sincere and irreverent. (He's also good-looking. And speaks in a Scottish accent.) I'm currently reading his autobiography, "American on Purpose," and so far it's been a good read. He seems like a thoughtful guy with some hard-earned wisdom. Success didn't come early or quickly and he has a good perspective on himself and what he does. Somehow he's able to speak sincerely and beautifully about things like the privilege of voting and the good in America one night and then turn around and use a cranky alligator puppet to host an entire show another night. And he makes both work.

If you've never watched Craig Ferguson, I beg you to give him a try. It's an easy and comfortable hour of TV, and I always feel happy when it's done. Which reminds me, one of my very favorite things about the show is the theme song which is one of the best things on TV period. I never, ever fast forward through it and I sing along every time, much to Mark's chagrin, I think. And he sings it himself! And I think he co-wrote it! Come on, if this doesn't make you smile, well, you have no soul.

While we're talking about TV, I've also been cranking through Simon & Simon, courtesy of Netflix on Wii which might be one of the greatest things ever created. Simon & Simon is an old favorite - I had a mad crush on Gerald McRaney's Rick and named my dog after his TV dog, Marlowe - and I've actually been looking at buying the DVDs so imagine my pleasure upon discovering that all 8 glorious seasons were available to stream right into my home. When I broke my ankle a couple years ago, I discovered the joy of sitting down and watching an entire season or series at one time (at the time I caught up on Battlestar Galactica), and now that there's not much new TV and no hockey, I'm hoping to tackle some shows I've been meaning to get around to. This is not the final list but I'm thinking Sports Night, Burn Notice, and The West Wing for sure. If anyone has any other recommendations feel free to share please!

Only Mostly Dead

2010-06-07T00:41:00.002-04:00

I've been trying, you guys. I really have. All week I've been writing a post about Danny Briere and Brian Campbell, and how I was going to ignore the bitter and no fun "Too bad they're not still in Buffalo!" people and be happy for whichever one of them wins a Stanley Cup, but it just hasn't been sounding as good on screen as it has in my head, and I finally decided last night that it's because I don't care. I don't care at all about hockey right now. I don't know if it's the Sabres flame-out, weariness of all the second-guessing that followed, the seemingly endless break between the Conference Finals and the Finals, or a Finals match-up between two teams that not only do I not care about but that I actually kind of dislike, but I don't care. I don't even care enough to pretend I care. So I'll be happy to see Danny and/or Soupy lift the Cup, but that might be the only time I really and truly tune in to what's going on on the TV for the series. (I wrote that paragraph after Game One, but it's proven to be true. The TV has been on, but I couldn't really tell you much about what's been going on.)

But while I don't particularly miss hockey (how can I miss you if you won't go away?), I have missed blogging. I have no definitive plan for the summer. I'll probably do what I do every off-season and just blog about whatever pops into my head. Some of it will be hockey related - I mean, of course I'm going to respond when Darcy trades for Jarome Iginla which I'm sure will happen within days of the end of the season - but some of it, probably a lot of it, won't be. Like last year, we plan to see some things in Buffalo and the Buffalo area but there are also a few other trip planned including my very first visit to Fenway Park which I'm super, super excited about.

For now, let's just get back into the swing of things, shall we? I promise you at least one post every day this week. Really! And I promise ~~none of them~~ ~~most of them~~ no more than one of them will be about Henrik Tallinder.

Hank and Toni, Toni and Hank

2010-05-20T01:56:00.000-04:00

Like all Henrik Tallinder fans (there are legions of us, I tell you!), I've been pondering this for a while, and reading Kate's blurb about it tonight has me thinking about it again: What do the Sabres do with Tallinder and Toni Lydman in the off-season? Re-sign Hank, re-sign Toni, or let them both walk?

I said this in the comments of Kate's blog and I'll repeat it here. Thinking practically, I can totally see re-signing Toni and letting Hank walk. All told, Toni has been more consistent over the course of his contract. His highs haven't been as high as Hank's highs, but his lows haven't been as low. He's a little more physical which is something the team as currently assembled is short on. He's a little more under the radar so he'll probably be a little cheaper although I think the money will be close enough that it's not going to be a huge determining factor when it comes to the two of him. He's certainly been more durable. Toni shows up and does what he's supposed to do, gives you a funny quote, and then goes home. While he's good for a handful of mind-staggeringly bad turnovers a season, I think he's been unfairly abused by too many fans the last few seasons.

I think there are more question marks with Hank and I think some of the reasons to keep him are a little less concrete. How much do you take into consideration his chemistry with Tyler Myers this past season? Myers is probably good enough to learn to play with anyone, but I don't know, chemistry is a funny thing. How many times in the last two years did Lindy Ruff try to split up Hank and Toni only to discover that neither one of them played as well with someone else as they did with each other? Hank has said some interesting things in the aftermath of the playoffs about getting his head on straight, fixing himself mentally, finding a better balance between his personal life and work. Now maybe fixing himself mentally means telling himself, "For the love of Pete, Hank, it's a contract year. Get it together." (Concern over this season being the result of a contract year is completely valid.) But maybe it means more. Did something finally kick in this season that he wasn't quite getting before? Or did he just figure out something that was causing him problems last season? I don't know. I think re-signing Hank is arguably a bigger risk than re-signing Toni, but I think the potential reward is greater. If he and Myers continue to play together the way they did this past season, the Sabres have a legitimate top pairing for the next couple of years while some of the baby d-men get some NHL experience. I also think Hank at his best is better than Toni at his best, but now that I've written that I have to admit, I'm wondering if that's just the fan in me talking.

As sad as I would be to see Hank go somewhere else, I will admit that I'm more worried about the Sabres failing to re-sign either of them. I think that would be a mistake. It's 1:26 a.m. and I'm far too lazy to look this up right now (sorry, Mike - I'll look for it tomorrow, I promise) but during the Boston series Mike Harrington wrote a blog post about how both teams were relying heavily on two defensive pairings. For the Sabres, Tallinder-Myers and Lydman-Montador were carrying a bulk of the minutes. If you let Tallinder and Lydman both walk, you're losing two of your top four defensemen. In that case, I think the Sabres have to sign or trade for a veteran d-man. I'm excited about Mike Weber finally coming up but I think it's unfair and probably unwise to expect him to step right into that kind of playing time. That would be fine except that the Sabres already need at least one good forward, preferably a couple, and a more offensive d-man to work on the power play. How much are they going to have to pay or give up for all of those things? I think it makes more sense to give the money to a guy who you already know works in your line-up (assuming that they're on the same page as far as money and years go which is, of course, not a given). I'll be happiest if Hank stays - and yes, that statement is riddled with sentiment - but really I just want one of them to stay.

On a somewhat related note, in light of the possibility of Hank leaving, I've been having a lot of conversations with a variety of people about maybe having to choose a new favorite player. I've been avoiding thinking about that too much until I have to so I've been surprised to discover that everyone seems to think they already know who my replacement favorite is. I'd think they were crazy but everyone - and this is, I don't know, five or six different people - has named the same guy. I had no idea that I'd been that obvious about anyone beyond Hank, and while I was a little taken aback at first, I have to admit this guy makes sense.

So let's get interactive. I have two questions for you. One, if you're the Sabres, what do you do with Hank and Toni? (And don't worry about offending my senses. I can take it, I promise. As long as you don't call Hank ugly. That's decidedly untrue so in that case, I'll know you're just starting with me.) Two, if it comes to it, who do you think is in the running to be my next favorite Sabre? Who's the next guy in the Top Shelf header?

We're Now Entering a Sabres-Free Zone

2010-05-17T23:39:00.000-04:00

The semester is over and I have my life back! Wooooooooo!

Before the playoffs started I just wanted one thing: the Sabres to win the Stanley Cup. Once the Sabres were eliminated I only wanted one thing: a Stanley Cup Finals that consisted of two teams that weren't the Red Wings or the Penguins. No matter what happens from here, that's going to happen and I'm pretty happy about it. As long as it's not the Flyers. I'm pulling for San Jose first, Montreal second, Chicago third, and Philly never. Now that there's a little space from the Sabres' elimination and now that we're left with teams that I mostly don't hate, I'm looking forward to the rest of the playoffs.

But here's the deal: I don't really want to think about the Sabres too hard during the playoffs. One of the things I do hate about sports is everyone's desire to look at everything that's happening now through a Sabres prism or tie everything that happens in the league to the Sabres. A certain columnist wrote a column about the Bruins and the Sharks and while I disagreed with the fundament idea of the column anyway (The Bruins in no way won that trade. The trade made them bad enough to get a lottery pick and enough time has passed that they've recovered. That's totally different.) I also thought it was a stretch to connect the situations those two teams were in to the Sabres. They were different for a number of reasons. Some things don't correlate especially now before anything's really been decided. There are still four teams left.

Don't get me wrong, I totally get the inclination to look at the winning team and see how what they did or have compares to the Sabres. I understand that local media guys are doing that as part of their job function, and I'd be lying if I said I'm never going to do that myself. I'm sure when all is said and done, I will at least to some extent. But I also feel like that path leads to madness and I'm not ready for madness yet. Right now I just want to enjoy some hockey. No angst, no strife, no if onlys or what ifs. If the Sabres do something personnel-wise (yay for re-signing Mike Grier!), I'll probably talk about it (and if that something involves re-signing Henrik Tallinder, I'll bring confetti), but other than that, I'm going to attempt to be Sabres-free for the next few weeks.

After someone's hoisted the Stanley Cup, all bets are off.

Coming Soon!

2010-05-17T01:15:00.002-04:00

I was blogging last night but then I got caught up in a very long, convoluted Twitter conversation. But the college semester is over and I WILL blog tonight, I promise! Don't you forget about me! (Too late?)

Checking In

2010-05-07T00:50:00.000-04:00

I have actually been meaning to blog but it's the end of the semester and I have one more final to study for and a uh, a few essays to write. (At one point I had an entire semester to write fifteen one-page essays. I now have seven days to write fourteen of them. Whoops.)

I will say this: I seem to be cheering for the Sharks. I was not anticipating that, and I'm not entirely sure when it happened. I've actually always really enjoyed the Sharks as chokers even as recently as Dan Boyle's own goal in the first round. But I don't know, I think it's them. It helps immensely that I hate pretty much everyone else. More on that later.

But yeah, how's it going? Who ya got in the playoffs?

The Sabres Will Probably NOT Suck Forever

2010-05-03T17:23:00.001-04:00

A few weeks back, an otherwise positive Jerry Sullivan column contained the following line: "In Buffalo, people are conditioned to expect the worst — from their elected officials, from their weather and from their professional sports teams." That started a conversation among some of my Twitter friends (Paul from Hockey Rhetoric, Kate from The Willful Caboose, and Joe from Joe from NYC are the ones I remember chiming in but if I've forgotten you, I apologize) about whether or not that was true. All of us had slightly different opinions, but the one thing some of us did agree on was that people like Jerry Sullivan, whether he'd admit it or not, play a large part in that conditioning.

I read somewhere that dogs who are home alone for long periods like to have the TV or talk radio on. They're comforted by the sound of human voices. Mark turned on WGR for Marlowe before he left for work this morning so I happened to catch part of Sullivan's appearance on Howard Simon while I was getting ready. I'm admitting up front that I didn't hear his entire segment so it's possible I missed the build up to this but in the portion I did hear, here are some of the things Sullivan said, paraphrased because I'm too lazy to listen to the segment again: "Who's going to play defense next season?", "It's possible no one will pick them to win their division again," and "They might not even make the playoffs next season."

Really? Next season? We're already burying next season's team? That's ludicrous. You know why? BECAUSE NEXT YEAR'S TEAM DOESN'T EVEN EXIST YET! That's just pessimism for the sake of pessimism. Is it really that hard to try and be positive about something that hasn't even happened yet? Can't we save the complaining and criticism for stuff that's already happened (so we can all use our finely tuned hindsight)? Sullivan and Simon were discussing the parity in the Eastern Conference and how the postseason has shown that there's not a ton of difference between the top playoff teams and the bottom playoff teams, but why does that have to be a negative thing? I'll give Simon credit for addressing that. He made the suggestion that since everything is so equal, a couple of upgrades could make the Sabres one of the better teams in the conference but Sullivan couldn't deal with that suggestion. Why? BECAUSE EVERYTHING HAS TO BE BAD ALL THE TIME. EVEN IN THE FUTURE.

Bucky Gleason spent all of last season telling us that the Sabres were two years away from having what they felt would be their best team. That's still a year off. Isn't going from being a non-playoff team to being a division-winning playoff team improvement? Aren't they still, in fact, on track for being good next season? Why can't Bucky say that? It works with what he's been saying all along. What's so hard about saying "They're still on track and there's reason to be optimistic" instead of "This season was a disappointment." Or why can't it be a disappointment and progress? Things do work that way sometimes. Why the need for black and white?

I'm just, I don't know, I'm sick of it. I don't want puppies and rainbows all the time. If Sullivan had been saying he was worried about next year's team because he didn't quite believe the Sabres were going to make the needed changes well, that would be a valid criticism based on pass actions (or inaction) of Darcy Regier. I'm fine with valid criticism. I absolutely agree that there are changes that need to be made to the team, and I hope they get made. But the Sabres were just eliminated a week ago. No one's even won the Stanley Cup yet. I'm willing to give the Sabres brass, oh, a FEW DAYS OF THE OFF-SEASON before I decide next year's team isn't going to win the division or make the playoffs. And you know what, before the implosion at the end, which yes, is important, it was a good season. Here are ten good things about the Sabres 2009-2010 season:

1. Ryan Miller showed that he can be an elite goalie and for a few weeks, was the toast of the entire country.
2. Tyler Myers not only met but exceeded what were very high expectations.
3. Henrik Tallinder and Jochen Hecht returned to form and were both important, if lesser noticed, parts of the Sabres success.
4.The Sabres had one of the best penalty killing units in the league. Only a pulled goalie in the final game of the season kept them from being THE best.
5. Mike Grier surprised a lot of people who thought he was washed up by being a big contributer to the team on the ice and off.
6. Patrick Kaleta became a better hockey player.
7. The Sabres won the Northeast Division.
8. The Sabres made the playoffs.
9. Ryan Miller was nominated for the Vezina.
10. Tyler Myers was nominated for the Calder.
11. Tyler Ennis came up from Portland at the end of the season and was one of the best forwards on the ice. (Try this idea on for size, people complaining that Ennis should have been up in January: Maybe he was so good in April because the Sabres let him play top line minutes all season in Portland. Maybe he wouldn't have been ready in January. What about that, HINDSIGHTERS?)

I wrote that list without even thinking about it! And I actually came up with 11 things because I accidentally had two number 4s. It's not that hard to occasionally, just to switch things up, look on the bright side.

Going back to the first paragraph of this post - I know it seems like a very distant memory - I fell somewhere in the middle of the "Is Buffalo negative?" discussion. I think there's definitely a streak of negativity here. I think there is a fair share of Buffalonians who protect themselves from being disappointed by trying not to get their hopes up too high in the first place. But one thing I love about Buffalo, maybe the thing I love most about it, is that I think Buffalo wants to hope and dream and have the best. I do wonder sometimes if the suggestions that we're people who expect the worst, influence us more than we realize. Does the negativity become a self-fulfilling prophecy? That's who we're told we are so that's what we become?

I don't know. What I do know is that I think I'll find something else to leave Marlowe with than WGR. I mean, look at the poor thing. This is how I found her when I came home.

"I hate the Sabres AND myself. Kill me now."

Darcy, Derek, Bucky, and Soupy (Among Other Things)

2010-04-29T23:56:00.001-04:00

I like Darcy Regier immensely, and even Larry Quinn doesn't bother me much, so it probably won't surprise anyone to hear that I have a mostly favorable impression of this morning's press conference. Yes, the plan was vague, but it has to be at this point. The season isn't over. No one knows who's going to be on available on the trade market or who's going to be demanding what on the free agent market.

I think it was clear that the three guys on the stage were disappointed with how things turned out - Lindy in particular appeared to have not quite shaken the season loose yet - and I also think it was clear that they know where the shortcomings lie. One thing I've always appreciated about Darcy is that he doesn't pander. He doesn't make huge, bold declarations about all the free agents he's going to sign and all the fancy trades he's going to make. He's realistic and he's not afraid to be that way even though it's not what fans want to hear. I know there are probably fans somewhere who were unhappy about things said but what are you going to argue with really? The biggest team in the NHL (the Caps) is out of the playoffs, one of the most determined and successful teams of the last decade (the Red Wings) doesn't have much size. Most teams that have a really gifted number one center were bad enough to get a lottery pick. Teams don't trade away large, skilled top line centers or offensively gifted defensemen, not often enough that picking one up is as easy as wishing it into existence. For all his faults - and he does have them - Darcy has his head on straight and has a good understanding of the league. I respect and appreciate that.

I am a little disappointed that it sounds like they're going to be more willing to cut loose Drew Stafford or Tim Connolly than Derek Roy. I won't go on about all the things I dislike about Roy because I think that's been pretty well established, but I feel like he'd be an example of addition by subtraction. This also speaks to one of Darcy's problems: he sometimes hangs on to his babies too long. Of the three players mentioned above, Roy is probably the most valuable on the trade market. He's productive, he's clearly talented, and he has a very favorable contract with multiple years left on it. For a team that already has a number one center, he'd be a very good fit. I feel like we've kept Stafford and Connolly just long enough for other GMs to catch on to how disappointing they could end up being (Stafford more so than Connolly who, all things considered, had a mostly fine regular season). But hey, I've certainly been surprised by the level of stupidity found in GMs before.

I actually thought the only goat of the presser was Bucky Gleason. I don't want to turn this into a Bucky screed after doing a pretty good job of ignoring him all season, but I thought it was pretty stupid of him to waste part of the press conference asking why they never had a press conference last season. First of all, we could all guess the answer to that. (They were embarrassed, they were chicken, they were angry, some combination of those.) Second of all, it was a freakin' year ago. Jeez. They were in middle of a press conference that, in my opinion at least, was pretty high on honesty and pretty low on B.S. Everyone involved said, and more importantly, looked and sounded disappointed and let down. The only reason anyone asks that question right then is because he's a self-centered a-hole who wanted to embarrass someone. I'm sure Bucky would tell you he was doing it for the people but come on, most of the people have forgotten about last year's press conference at this point. Certain writers at TBN have opined on blogs and in chats that Tom Golisano is too thin-skinned and holds grudges and while that certainly appears to be true, I think there are people in TBN's sports department who have that in common with him and unfortunately for them, it often makes me question the objectivity in some of their work.

Anyway, who's everyone cheering for now that our beloved Sabres are out? I think I hate everyone left in the Eastern Conference for one reason or another. (The one team I don't really hate is Pittsburgh but I want something other than Pittsburgh-Detroit this year.) I'm still feeling out the Western Conference. I briefly flirted with the idea of cheering for San Jose but then Dany Heatley scored, reminding me that he still exists. It didn't feel quite right after that. Maybe Chicago. Crazily enough considering some of the posts I wrote after his departure, I've decided I might want Brian Campbell to win a Stanley Cup. I don't know. My temporary affection is still up in the air.

Hockey, Heart-breaking and Awesome

2010-04-29T00:27:00.001-04:00

I don't have time to get into all the reasons I hate the Caps (it starts at the top with the owner and goes all the way down to large portions of the fan base, hitting the PR guy, the coach, and the stars on the way and mostly has to down with all of the above being either extremely thin-skinned or a creepy douchebag), but I hate them and watching them lose in the first round after going up 3-1 in the series because they couldn't score goals, something no one predicted would be a problem? A-mazing. Game 7 of that series might have saved the playoffs for me. I think I can watch them now and I wasn't sure I could 48 hours ago.

And honestly, the Caps getting upset in the first round makes me feel better about the Sabres. Don't get me wrong, the Sabres have problems that need to be addressed, that much is clear. But the NHL playoffs are a weird and wonderful beast. You just never know. Winning a championship is hard. Talent is a huge part of that but there a million other little things that come into play and all those things have to break just right for the last team standing. All season long local media types and some fans talked about how the Caps were clearly a cut above the Sabres. They were more talented and they played harder and more intense. But in the end the Caps and Sabres ended up in exactly the same place for exactly the same reason: out in the first round because no one could finish when their teams needed them to. Who saw that coming? Still bummed about the Sabres, but I don't know, this is kind of what's fun and awesome (and agonizing and heart-breaking) about hockey. I don't think I'd have it any other way.

We Interrupt the Firings for This Important Update...

2010-04-27T23:52:00.002-04:00

When I bounced out of work Monday afternoon, proudly wearing my Henrik Tallinder jersey, a co-worker said to me, "You're going to be disappointed tomorrow."

"What?"

"Tomorrow," he repeated, pointing at my jersey. "You're going to be disappointed."

"No way. I think they've got it. I have a good feeling."

In the end, he was, as he pointed out today, correct. I was disappointed. But it's like I told him: I'd rather start with genuine hope and joy and end up disappointed than expect the worst from the beginning and be right. Maybe that makes me foolish. Maybe it just makes me a sports fan.

Memo to Darcy Regier

2010-04-26T21:42:00.001-04:00

KEEP: Tyler Ennis, Paul Gaustad, Mike Grier, Nathan Gerbe, Tim Kennedy, Patrick Kaleta, Steve Montador, one of Hank/Toni (i.e. Hank), Jochen Hecht (his absence made far more of a difference than people have given it credit for), Tyler Myers, Chris Butler (on notice), Andrej Sekera (also on notice), Ryan Miller, Thomas Vanek

BID A FOND-TO-VERY-FOND FAREWELL: one of Hank/Toni (very fond), Jason Pominville (begrudgingly fond but only because the season ended when it did), Matt Ellis (very fond), Lindy Ruff (very fond if you leave soon)

BID FAREWELL: Adam Mair, Raffi Torres, Craig Rivet

KILL IN THE MOST PAINFUL WAY POSSIBLE: Tim Connolly, Derek Roy, Drew Stafford

More another day. I need to compress.

Choosing Hope

2010-04-24T22:01:00.001-04:00

Sports are funny, aren't they? In any other area of life, I would feel pretty ridiculous swinging back and forth so wildly from one emotion to another, but in sports I think a lot of people do that. Honestly, I think that's a little bit of the appeal of being a sports fan. Those who don't like or appreciate sports don't get it, but it's kind of awesome. We spend almost every hour of the day tempering our emotions, trying to stay on an even keel because that's the socially acceptable way of doing things. When it comes to sports, hey, let it rip. The devastation I felt on Wednesday night when Miroslav Satan scored that OT goal was as real as anything I've felt. The empty disappointment and doubt I felt Thursday and most of the Friday was real too, though hope had started to creep in a tiny bit by the end of the work day on Friday. I meant every word of the last post I wrote. Which is why it's crazy that after Friday's game I'm suddenly full of joy and optimism. I feel completely rejuvenated! Ordinarily I'd think I'm a total sucker, but I'm just going to chalk it up to life as a sports fan especially when your team is full of a bunch of talented but inconsistent little brats. That's right, it's all their fault.

Things I liked about last night's game: Derek Roy and Jason Pominville combining for a very nice goal, Mike Grier leading the way and shrugging off a puck to the head, the Sabres finally giving a pretty good effort for 60 minutes, the Bruins finally looking like the average team that they are, Tyler Ennis buzzing everywhere and scoring one of the most deserved empty netters ever, Paul Gaustad taking a little chop at Zdeno Chara, Cody McCormick and Craig Rivet piling in to help when Chara fought back, Ryan skating in and dropping the gloves, Patrick Lalime's postgame dance, and of course, Ryan Miller's kicking pornstatche. (I spent a lot of time debating this today and the other Sabre I'd most like to see in a pornstache is Toni Lydman.) Game 5 finally looked like what I anticipated the whole series looking like

In the end it's Ryan that really gives me the most hope though. He's been fine in this series overall, but with the exception of the first overtime in Game 4 he hasn't been RYAN MILLER. He hasn't been the goalie who can steal a game. When he skated out to the scrum and then threw his blocker or glove (I can't remember which it was) down on the ice, I thought, "Yes! There he is!" That's our guy. That's the guy who has led with his attitude all season, really for the last three years. If that guy shows up in Game 6, forget it, it's over.

So for the next 48 hours or so I'm going to embrace the words of Andy Dufresne, "Hope is a good thing, maybe the best of things. And no good thing ever dies." So here's to hope. It's a lot more fun than disappointment.

Word of the Day: Disappointment

2010-04-22T23:55:00.000-04:00

I'm an optimistic person by nature, and I think that's carried over to the Sabres more often than not. But can I be honest? I'm not feeling it. I want to believe they're going to come back from a 3-1 deficit. I really, really do. But I don't think they can.

I listened to Lindy Ruff's postgame press conference again after work today, and it bothers me even more than it did last night. Tim brought up a very good point in the comments on the last post: The Sabres, for the most part, played really well, and maybe Lindy didn't want to throw them under the bus. If you tell a team that played well that its best wasn't good enough that could have a negative impact. I think that's a valid read on the situation especially since Lindy has definitely used the media to send messages to players before. But I don't know, to me that response was too emotional to have much calculation behind it. I heard a coach who was fixated on a bad penalty period. And that's a bad thing for a few reasons. One, he's the coach and players take cues from him. If he can't let go of that call, players aren't going to either. Two, you can't do anything about a bad call. It sucks, but you have to deal. And three, that call, for all the kvetching it caused, did not lose the game for the Sabres. It was a bad call. It sucks that the Bruins scored a goal on it. But after the penalty was served, the score was still 2-1 in the Sabres favor.

Twenty-four hours later, I'm not angry, I'm not heart-broken, I'm just really disappointed. The Sabres looked so good in Game One. It wasn't a perfect game by any means, but they looked like they wanted to win. They fought for pucks, they pushed back and sometimes they even pushed first. I think they really proved some naysayers wrong in that game. But then we didn't see that team again until the last five minutes of Game 3 when they were, for all intents and purposes, down 2-1 in the series. Why? Everyone knew this series was going to be tight and low-scoring. In series like that there's probably going to be at least one night when you play really well and lose. Why would you give away two games? I don't understand it. I've never understood that about this team and some of these players. I find that so frustrating as a fan, maybe even more frustrating than watching a team that's just plain bad at hockey.

So that's where I am. I want the Sabres to advance. I want some pride and desire to kick in. But I don't think this team, as it's currently constructed, has the heart or mental strength to win three straight games against the Bruins of right now.

That said, please, please, PLEASE prove me wrong.

Incoherent Thoughts

2010-04-22T07:00:00.000-04:00

Odds and ends because I cannot be coherent right now:

-- That goaltender interference call on Cody McCormick was straight up BS. The officiating in general has been horribly inconsistent. How can a hit be a penalty in one game and not in a another? How are players supposed to get any kind of bearings when rules are constantly changing, especially in the playoffs when things tend to get more physical? It's ridiculous.

That said, the officiating is no excuse for the Sabres losing tonight. They could have kept the game at 2-1. They could have put it away in overtime when they were controlling play and Ryan Miller was showing everyone why he's a Vezina finalist and a should-be Hart finalist. But they didn't. They were the victims of a bad call, they gave up a goal, and then they crumbled and gave up another one. I was really disappointed to hear Lindy let the team off the hook in his postgame interview. I know it was the heat of the moment, I know he's not necessarily going to ream his players in public, but it does make me worry that players aren't be held accountable. At some point, the players have to play. Too many of them coasted after winning the first game. It's crazy that they had to be down 2-1 in the series before they decided to play hard enough to win battles and fight back. I'm not going to get into what should be done in the off-season because it's not the off-season yet, but the core, it is rotten. Can a team win three games in a row? Sure. Teams do it all the time. Can this team win three playoff games in a row? I want them too, and I'll cheer for them like they will, but I'm not convinced.

-- Speaking of Lindy's postgame interview, it is CRAZY that the Sabres are not giving us a postgame show in the playoffs. I guess I just got used to it during the regular season, but I really wanted to see and hear how the player reacted to this one. I know some people probably don't like to watch stuff after losses especially heart-breaking ones like that, but I think some of our guys are really entertaining and interesting to listen to in those situations, particularly Ryan Miller and Lindy Ruff. I don't give the Buffalo News props very often but kudos to them for getting audio up on Sabres Edge within a couple of hours of the end of the game, especially considering that the overtimes probably threw them into some deadline chaos.

-- Big ups to Toni Lydman and Steve Montador. A few small issues aside, they've been great, the best defensive pairing of the playoffs, I think. There was a short Tallinder vs. Lydman discussion on WGR the other day, and while I love Hank and think he's been fine in the playoffs, they made a pretty good case for re-signing Lydman instead. And he's made a good case for himself against Boston. (This is, of course, assuming that the Sabres re-sign one of them which is not necessarily a given.)

-- Poor, poor Ryan. He deserves better.

-- This probably goes without saying but overtime playoff hockey is both the most exhilirating and the most devastating thing in all of sports.

-- Okay, it's the next morning now and the anger at pretty much everything has dissipated. Now I'm mostly just disappointed. I think it's true that Sabres management wasn't expecting the team to make much noise this year, that they think their best team is a year or two off yet, but I admit, I thought with some breaks in the other series the Sabres had a chance to go deep. At the very, very least I thought they'd get out of the first round. Even down 2-1 I didn't think we were going out in the first round. Now? Ugh.

It's Crazy But...

2010-04-21T15:47:00.002-04:00

... I have a really good feeling about tonight's game. Like, REALLY good.

LET'S GO BUFF-A-LO!

I Miss Jochen

2010-04-21T07:16:00.000-04:00

Before the playoffs started I had a good Jochen Hecht post in mind. I was going to write about what a really good season he had, how he really answered his critics, and how happy I was for him. Jochen got freakin' hammered by everyone last season, and while a lot of it was deserved, the extent of the criticism was unfair. A lot of people went beyond getting on to him for poor play last season and moved into disregarding every season before last. Was he a disaster last season? Yes, totally. Was he always really, really bad at hockey? Come on, get a clue. But then Jochen got hurt, and then he was going to be out for weeks, and the timing just didn't really work for the post.

Well, I miss Jochen. And I think the Sabres miss him too. Jochen is not the most skilled guy in the world, but thee ae two things you can pretty much always say about him: he plays hard and he plays responsibly. Those are two things the Sabres - many of them at least - aren't doing right now. Having one more veteran in the line-up who doesn't clearly panic when in trouble and just reliably does what he's supposed to would be helpful right now. This series might be more geared for hard-working two-way forwards like him. If the Sabres lose this series I think you could make an argument that the Sabres miss him almost as much as they miss Thomas Vanek.

I feel pretty badly that as the playoffs have gotten here I've kind of fallen off the face of the earth. The semester is winding down at ECC and I've had something major to work on or turn in every day for the last few days. That finally slows down some after the algebra test I hand in today so I'm hoping the Sabres will get it together and keep playing so I can get back in the swing of things here. I have a weird thing about people calling games that aren't technically must win-games must win-games but tonight is pretty close. Let's do it.

Listen to Ryan Miller

2010-04-18T23:54:00.001-04:00

Jeez, who scheduled the playoffs to start at the end of the school semester? I spent the time I was going to blog writing an essay on Brown vs. the Board of Education and whether or not it accomplished what it was supposed to. If you're interested in reading it, email me. (That's a joke. You don't want to read it.)

So here's the nutshell version of what I was going to say: There was a lot of stuff to not like in Game Two. A lot. Tim Connolly was very bad. When the team needed someone to respond Derek Roy went overboard and tried to score all by himself. (Highlight of the game was a guy behind us responding to Roy-Z trying to carry the puck through all five Boston players by yelling, "PASS IT, YOU IGNORANT SLUT!") There were some lazy, lazy forwards. Some bad turnovers in the waning minutes. They gave up a two goal lead to an opponent that doesn't have much offense. But I will cut the Sabres a little slack for deflating a bit after watching Thomas Vanek crawl off the ice. Yes,they should have responded better, and losing Vanek for whatever amount of time it ends up being (one game would be awesome) won't be a good excuse for crapping out in the series, but you know, these guys are human. In their place, that would definitely make my heart sink. And when all is said and done, it's one game. Sabres fans as a group are prone to panic after a bad game in the regular season. Everything is even more escalated in the postseason. But I don't think it's time to panic yet. I said on Twitter last night that no one ever wins sixteen straight but Ryan Miller might have said it in even better:

It’s tough. But no one said you’re going to walk through the playoffs. The good part is they don’t tell you what order you have to win. You just have to win four.

Ryan knows what he's talking about. And hey, at least we're not Sharks fans. (AHAHAHAHAHA!)

(I promise I will write something more substantial as soon as I can.)

Quick Thoughts

2010-04-18T02:10:00.001-04:00

In retrospect, the last post might be one of the most tragic things I've ever written here. Jeez, Thomas Vanek cannot catch a break. Even if he does come back, you know whatever that injury is, it's going to nag him and probably affect his skating. Boo hiss to that. Theoretically yes, the Sabres should be able to move on to the second round without him. He struggled all season and the team still did fine. But what a bummer. In addition to being really sad for us and the team, I'm really sad for him.

I actually originally wrote about this on yesterday's post but ended up taking it out because I didn't really feel like complaining too much after the first game, but I'll mention it now. I hate, hate, HATE the way penalties are tossed out during the playoffs. I don't mind the increased intensity of the postseason - I love that the hits get harder, and the players get mouthier, and I don't have a problem even with there being more fighting - but I do think the officials have a responsibility to keep things under control. I'm not sure they did that in the first game of the series. They let too much go for my taste and that's on both sides, from them and from us. I love that we got Toni Lydman taking swings at and from Milan Lucic, but I don't like players giving out bad hits and other cheap stuff. And don't give me that old line about the officials not wanting to affect the outcome of the game because that's a flawed argument. By not calling penalties, they're still affecting the outcome of the game, they're just doing it in a different way. If something would be called in game 1 or game 41 or game 81 of the regular season, it should be called in the playoffs. We play by one rule book for 82 games and then toss it out when we get to the important part? I don't understand that. I've never understood that. I think it's one of the most stupid things about hockey.

In other news, Mark and I stopped in at the Sabres Store before the game because he wanted to look at the playoff shirts. I wasn't planning on buying anything and then I saw this:

Not only is that Hank on a t-shirt, Toni and Jochen are there too! Like that's ever going to happen again. Even though one or two of those guys will most likely be gone next season, I had to buy it. I had to! It was practically made just for me. They almost could have titled it "HEATHER B.'S FAVORITE SABRES." Honestly, this t-shirt might have ended up being the highlight of my day.

Okay, I promise more coherent thoughts tomorrow when it's not 2:09 a.m.

Thomas Vanek Makes Me Happy

2010-04-17T01:03:00.000-04:00

My relationship with Thomas Vanek is hard to define. If you asked me to list the Sabres entire roster in order of personal preference, Thomas would be middle-ish. Not buried at the bottom but not way at the top either. And yet, I have a very hard time saying mean things about him and feel oddly protective toward him when other people do. I've written before about how there are certain players I just root for. I feel happy for their successes on a more personal level. Thomas is definitely in that group of players.

I think my sympathy lies largely in what a sad sack he is. When Derek Roy plays like crap, he doesn't appear to care at all. I'm not convinced he even notices. When Thomas isn't producing, however, you can practically see him planning his leap off the roof of HSBC. He's despondent. He knows what his role on the team is and it bothers him when he's not carrying it out. Derek's way is probably more healthy, but Thomas's is more appealing, at least to me. As a fan, all I really want at the end of the night is to feel like the players care. Thomas cares. He sometimes cares to the point of being a bit of a headcase, but for me, that's kind of endearing.

So I was really happy to see Good Thomas Thursday night. He was clearly one of the best players on the ice, and if he plays like that for the whole postseason well, good things are going to happen. As happy as I was to see him play well, however, I was even happier to see his postgame interview. He sounded fantastic: focused, confident, and relaxed. And as we've established, relaxed is not a word that can be applied to him often. He's clearly flipped a mental switch. More than any other guy on the team, I think he needed the regular season to end so he could start over with a clean slate. I wanted to give him a big hug. I hope we hear "Roy to Vanek!" many, many times in the next couple of months.

On a side note... I've been a huge critic of the Buffalo News over the past few years and while Bucky has gotten most of my ire, Jerry Sullivan has gotten his share too. I would hardly lump the two of them in the same category however. I think Bucky is extremely condescending to his audience and I don't think he's a particularly good columnist. The few email exchanges I've had with him were pretty unpleasant. (And they were all before I was blogging because I have to admit, if I were Bucky I probably wouldn't be very nice to me at this point.) But I've found Sully to be smart and willing to engage - I think he might even like the occasional back-and-forth - and most importantly, he can freakin' write. He and Mike Harrington are head and shoulders above everyone else in the sports department in my opinion. Sully wrote a really nice little column about Jochen Hecht a few weeks back and then followed it with a very positive end of the season Sabres column. Good stuff. But today he crushed it out of the park with his column about Patrick Kaleta and Tim Kennedy. He made me cry because seriously, how amazing must this be for those two kids? In the morning I'm buying a paper and putting that one away somewhere because it's a keeper. If you haven't read it yet, click on the link and check it out. Believe me, I would not send you to the TBN website if it wasn't worth it.

I'm going to Game 2 so expect a full report later. WOOOOOOOOOOOO!

A Tribute to Toni Lydman

2010-04-16T07:14:00.000-04:00

Seriously, what does Toni Lydman have to do to get interviewed around here? I know, I know. Thomas Vanek looked great, Derek Roy was skating hard and hitting people, Craig Rivet had a crap-ass season but scored the game-winning goal, and Ryan Miller was his usual steady self. But Toni Lydman fought Milan Lucic! (Kind of!)

That fight was somehow awesome, awful, and adorable at one time. Toni's heart clearly wasn't in it - even when Lucic had him on the ground, Toni was still clutching his stick in one hand (yes, that's what she said) - but god bless him he kept coming back for more. The swing, scurry away, swing, scurry away cycle was hilarious. And then him mouthing off at someone - I couldn't tell for sure if he was yelling at the penalty box or the bench - complete with that gesture where you put your fingers under your chin and flick them out? (Does that have a name? I don't know.) Classic.

Anyway, it seemed like the perfect night for a dry, self-deprecating interview from Toni Lydman. He fought (kind of) one of the bigger, meaner guys in the league and lived to tell the tale! I mean, how many freaking people are covering this series? The Buffalo News alone had by my count, four writers there. And on top of that awesome, awful, adorable fight, Toni played a really great game, I thought, easily our best defenseman. But those defensemen, they never get any glory unless they score a goal. And yes, I'm biased. I don't know, maybe I'm the only one who finds Toni endearingly sweet and funny in interviews, especially ones that are really about him personally and not just the team.

That fight was the perfect embodiment of both an individual playing out of character and a team playing with a new edge. I'll go into more detail tomorrow when I have some time, but for now I'll just say this: I was really, really excited and encouraged by that game. I'd forgotten how every goal your team scores makes you feel like you're going to win the whole thing while every goal the opponent scores makes you want to kill yourself because it's all over, but overall, I thought we looked good. Not perfect certainly but good. Not a bad return to playoff hockey at all.

Falling In Love All Over Again

2010-04-14T00:25:00.002-04:00

I've started three different posts the last few days. The first was about playoff predictions. (I've seen even less Western Conference hockey this season than usual so that seemed kind of pointless.) The second was about the number of talking heads picking Boston. (Sometimes there are just no upsets, talking heads. Also, I'm already tired of the words "Tuukka" and "Rask.") The third contained some helpful guidelines for the PHWA members for voting on the regular season awards. (Myers for Calder, Miller for Hart, make defense your primary guideline when voting for the Norris, don't give too much weight to +/- for the Norris or the Selke because it doesn't include PK stats which is when a defensive player should probably be doing his best work, don't automatically cast your Lady Byng vote for the forward with the most points and the fewest penalty minutes because a) it's lazy b) penalty minutes are not representative of a player's level of sportsmanship and c) a d-man will never win that way, and finally, no Caps.) But I lost steam halfway through all of them because I don't care. I really, really just want the playoffs to start.

I tried to tell myself the last couple of years that it wasn't SO terrible to watch the playoffs without the Sabres. It was less stressful! It was fun to cheer for teams that I ultimately didn't really care about that much! It was amusing to watch other fan bases go crazy with joy, agony, and conspiracy theories! But the truth is, the playoffs without the Sabres suck and they suck a lot. What's the fun of watching games I don't care about? It goes against everything that's great about sports!

Regular readers will know this about me, but I think after a two year break from the playoffs it bears repeating. I grew up in Birmingham, Alabama. There was no hockey. There were no professional sports teams. When my Pittsburgh Pirates played (and lost) in three straight NLCS, I watched from afar. I didn't go to the park, I didn't have fellow fans to debate, celebrate, or commiserate with, and I didn't have local TV or newspaper coverage or oodles of blogs and websites to pore over.

That started to change when I moved to Buffalo, almost ten years ago. I watched the Sabres here and there, I knew the primary names and numbers, I knew enough to have identified certain players as favorites. I clearly remember having a fairly in-depth conversation about the Sabres with a guy from Pittsburgh while waiting in the general admission line for the U2 concert in December of 2005 because it was around the time that people started saying, "Hey, this team might be pretty good." But during the 2006 playoffs, everything changed.

Kate, of the Willful Caboose, is currently writing a (highly recommended) series of posts called "The Bandwagoner's Guide to the Sabres." While the posts are mostly silly fun (although she totally nails Toni Lydman), at the very beginning of each one she mentions that lots of people's fandom is inspired by a playoff run. It's a gentle reminder that hey, we all start somewhere and it's usually when the team is actually good at hockey.

For me, that is absolutely true. As I said above, I watched the Sabres enough to have a somewhat intelligent conversation about them before 2005-2006, but that playoff run changed everything. That's when I really fell in love with hockey. I started to really become interested in positioning and strategy and match-ups. That's when I really fell in love with the Sabres. I knew all the players and where they came from and who they played with and what their strengths and weaknesses were. I started figuring out their personalities. I bought my first Sabres jersey.

Maybe most importantly however, it was during that playoff run that I really fell in love with Buffalo. The city that I was still struggling to settle into started to feel like home. Co-workers who were acquaintances at best became friends because of the Sabres. Endless conversations were had with friendly strangers. I ventured out to new places to eat and drink. The spring/early summer weather was perfect unlike Alabama where the pollen and heat are out full force by early May. There was a buzz, an excitement, a hope, a bounce in everyone's steps.

I've learned in the time since then that all those things about Buffalo are true even when the Sabres quit playing hockey at the end of the regular season. There's always a stranger willing to have a friendly chat. There's good food everywhere and lots of friends and family to enjoy it with. The first days of spring are practically perfect and the long winters only make those days seem even more beautiful. And despite being disappointed and knocked down over and over, sometimes of our own doing and sometimes by circumstances beyond our control, there's always optimism. Maybe not full-on belief that this time things will turn out right, but always a hope that maybe they will.

But despite learning all that, I feel it more when the Sabres are in the playoffs. I don't know if it's really more present then or if sentimentally, I'll always tie together the postseason with that first blush of love but whichever it is, I love it. Eventually I'll get into numbers and match-ups and opponents but for now, I really just want the playoffs to start so we can all fall in love all over again.

This Message Brought To You By the Letters T and N and the Numbers 2 and 7

2010-04-11T23:02:00.003-04:00

As Teppo would say:

¡oƃ sǝɹqɐs oƃ

Please click to enlarge. It's adorable.

By my count, here are the things adorable about this photo:

1. Teppo

2. Teppo's girls

3. Teppo's girls wearing Teppo jerseys

4. Teppo holding a "GO Sabres GO" sign

5. Teppo holding a "GO Sabres GO" sign that was clearly lettered by one of his girls

6. Teppo holding a "GO Sabres GO" sign that was clearly letttered by one of his girls upside down

Some thoughts on the playoffs tomorrow evening. For now let me just say, WOOOOOOOOOOOO! PLAYOFF HOCKEY IS RIGHT AROUND THE CORNER!

Sleeping With the Enemy

2010-04-09T04:06:00.001-04:00

The Sabres lost? Eh, okay. Have the playoffs started yet? No?

All right, I'll get to the Sabres. For now, in tribute to my Dallas buddies, check out this video of the ovation Mike Modano got near the end of what could be his last game in Dallas. I know a lot of Buffalo fans have mixed feelings about the Stars and probably Modano, but for an athlete to spend as much time with one franchise as he did is pretty darn special these days. Professional sports are a different world than they were fifty years ago, and players come and go. As much as Buffalo was crazy for Chris Drury and Daniel Briere a few short years ago, doesn't it sometimes seem like they've already been gone forever? In the end, Buffalo will be a blip on their career screens, and it'll be that way for many, many pros in every sport. Modano spent twenty years with the North Stars/Stars. Twenty years. For an athlete and a city to be bonded as deeply as Dallas and Modano are well, heck, isn't that part of what sports are about? Don't we all want that guy who's as committed to us as we are to him? Here's hoping in 15 years we're all giving an ovation like this to Ryan Miller. Grab a couple tissues and watch.

(I'm not exaggerating when I say there are very few things in pro sports that make me cry faster than a bunch of hockey players tapping their sticks for another player. It's such a simple gesture, but its simplicity is so lovely. It's one of the most perfect little things about hockey.)

For Tonight, I Choose Joy

2010-04-07T02:05:00.000-04:00

Hey, I thought I told you guys not to vote on that poll! Fourteen of you are terrible listeners! No Legos at the end of the day for you. Just for that I'm completely disregarding the poll! HA!

Seriously, I was going to write a post about the feeling surrounding this particular team and if it's really as detached as some of the media - WGR in particular - seems to think it is, but I don't feel like it. I'm feeling too good about the Sabres right now to get into it a place that could be negative. If the feelings stay muted once the playoffs start, maybe I'll come back to it. For now, it's on hold.

Because seriously, you guys, maybe I'm crazy, but I'm feeling pretty darn good about the Sabres. I've said all along that the Eastern Conference is average, and I still think that's true. I think every team has weak spots and that includes the Washington team that lots of people seem really high on. A lot of Sabres have really come on the last couple weeks. Jason Pominville looks like a hockey player again. Derek Roy looks like he might be bothered to care. Tonight he scored a gorgeous goal AND picked a fight in the crease. THAT'S my Derek Roy! Steve Montador has been a freaking revelation lately. The defense is really starting to chip in on the offense. (Note to MSG: EVERY TIME TONI LYDMAN SCORES HE SHOULD GET AN ON-CAMERA INTERVIEW! Thank goodness Mike Harrington understands you always get a post-goal quote from Toni.) Lots of things seem to be coming together at the right time.

I think the last two years of struggle have made a lot of people - and I'm including myself here - forget that not only does a huge portion of the current Sabres roster have playoff experience, they have a lot of success, as a team and as individuals. I don't know, maybe I'm setting myself up for disappointment, but I think I'd rather go into things feeling good and ending up a little disappointed then go into things expecting the worst and being right.

And for tonight at least, the excitement is genuine. I have my tickets to home game 2, I have next weekend cleared, let's get this on. Let's go Buff-a-lo!

Take Me Out to the Ballgame

2010-04-04T20:01:00.002-04:00

(Quick note: I'll be blogging about the poll on the right at some point during the day on Monday. Don't vote until then! Okay, vote if you HAVE to, but I promise, I'll explain it more then.)

The snow is melting, the sun is out, and spring is almost maybe finally here. I'm currently sitting in front of the TV waiting for the first official baseball game of the year, and I'm very, very excited about this season. For some reason I've been craving a good baseball game for a while now. As a Pirates fan, I can't wait to see if Andrew McCutchen continues to play well in his second season. I can't wait to see if Garret Jones' sudden explosion last season was a temporary thing or if he's suddenly found a comfort zone at the MLB level. I can't wait to see if Pedro Alvarez makes the leap this year and if he's as good as everyone thinks he's going to be please.

Unfortunately, I will not actually SEE any of this because of Major League Baseball's ridiculous blackout rules. Buffalo is somehow considered part of the local market for both NYC teams, the Cleveland Indians, and yes, the Pittsburgh Pirates. Despite the ads for MLB.TV that blare, "MLB.TV. Baseball Everywhere. Watch all 2,430 regular season games LIVE or on demand in HD quality", all those teams are blacked out on MLB.TV and MLB Extra Innings. That's fine for the Yankees and Mets fans among us because we get those teams' regional networks. But Indians and Pirates fans? Crap out o' luck. As if it wasn't hard enough being a fan of one of those teams right now.

I feel like MLB might need a geography lesson. Buffalo and Pittsburgh are not that close to each other. Oh, sure they're a comfortable distance for a little road trip. I'll probably get there a couple of times over the course of the season to see the Pirates play. But I think to call Buffalo part of Pittsburgh's local market is stretching the definition of the word local juuuust a bit. I think MLB needs to use this test to determine local markets (if indeed such a thing is even necessary in this day and age). Can I make it from work to the stadium in time to catch a game? Use 5:00 as the standard since that's roughly when the average American gets off work and go from there.

Going by Google Maps, if I leave work at 5:00 and don't eat, change my clothes, or run into any traffic at all (a very unlikely thing in and around Pittsburgh), and park right out front, I'll get to PNC Park at roughly 8:35. Realistically we're probably looking at something more in the 9-9:30 range. That is decidedly too late to catch first pitch at 7:05. Therefore Buffalo is NOT local to Pittsburgh. It's really not that complicated. Extra Innings would not cause the Pirates to lose me as a TV viewer because I can't see their local broadcasts and they would not lose me as a game attendee because Pittsburgh is a three hour minimum drive. They're just losing me as a viewer completely. Which kind of sucks.

MLB, I don't have a lot of money for frivolous spending, but I'm willing to throw hundreds of dollars your way. BUT YOU WON'T LET ME. You're lucky I love you. I'm betting on the Pirates finishing 25 or better. Yes, that's probably optimistic. Such is life as a Pirates fan.

Play ball!

Viva la Youth!

2010-03-30T06:57:00.003-04:00

I'm too lazy to research this and honestly, I'm not sure how I would research it even if I had the energy, but I feel like Derek Roy plays a thousand times better when a Portland kid is in the line-up. He's had more bounce in his step in the last two games than the rest of the season combined. (Okay, that might be slight hyperbole. Slight.) I don't know why that is - he's showing off, he realizes he needs to fight for his time a little, he feels a boost of energy - but it was definitely there.

I've been thinking about this a lot since the trade deadline and the numerous interviews Darcy Regier gave around that time in which he talked about the kids in Portland. Part of the reason that 2005-2006 team was such a surprise was because of the number of young players on the roster. There was definitely some veteran presence in place with Chris Drury, Danny Briere, and Teppo Numminen, but a huge chunk of the team was young and unknown, and maybe that's a piece of the puzzle that's really been overlooked since then.

There's been a lot written about how there's a youth movement in the NHL, but most of it has centered around the financial advantages of relying on young players. If you can pull together a group of players on their entry level contracts you have a cheap core you can actually keep together for a few years and you have a little flexibility to make some moves if you need to. But I don't know, maybe there's more to it than that. If I can cross sports for a moment, this photo is my current wallpaper and part of the reason I love it is because it's been a long time since there's been such a spontaneous display of joy in a Pirates uniform. For years the Pirates tried to get by by bringing in past-their-prime veterans and it didn't work for anyone. It didn't work for the Pirates because well, the players were past their prime and it didn't work for the players because they knew Pittsburgh being their best option was not a positive. For a veteran, Pittsburgh was baseball purgatory. But to get a kid like Andrew McCutchen in the line-up, someone who's really talented and more importantly, really, really excited about being on a Major League team - ANY Major League team - well, that's awesome. He's re-energized what's left of the Pirates fan base and he's re-energized a lot of the players around him. It's obvious.

I know it's kind of weird to think of Jason Pominville and Derek Roy and Thomas Vanek as veterans but they are really. And maybe it is normal for being a professional athlete to become well, normal. You got your big paycheck, being on the road all the time isn't as exciting anymore, it's tougher to be away from girlfriends, wives, and kids, you start to feel beat up all the time. It starts to feel like a real job. But to guys like Tyler Ennis and Nathan Gerbe it's still fresh and new and totally awesome to be in the NHL. Maybe there's some value in that. It has, in one way or another, seemed to spur on Roy. In the last couple of games he's looked like the player he should be every night.

I admit, this post has completely gotten away from me. I started off with a good idea and have totally meandered since then. But it's like someone on Twitter said last night (and I apologize to whomever it was because I took a quick look back but couldn't spot it so I can't give you credit): The Sabres didn't look particularly organized but they did look enthusiastic and that was kind of fun and also kind of effective. I'm certainly not advocating that all of the Portland kids stick around after all the starters are healthy but one or two of them? It might not be a bad idea.

Introducting Captain Fuck This Shit

2010-03-29T07:21:00.000-04:00

Two of the dearest friends I've made through hockey blogging are Pookie and Schnookie of Interchangeable Parts. Once upon a time they wrote about Jamie Langenbrunner, and how they used to call him - and excuse my language for a moment - "Captain Fuck This Shit" in honor of a couple of clutch goals he scored. They've tied that name forever with Langenbrunner - Zach Parise, for example, can't take over the title - but as a non-Devils fan I've always found the concept of Captain Fuck This Shit pretty interesting. I mean, when you hear that name don't you just automatically know who that guy is?

I don't think the Sabres have had a CFTS since Danny Briere left town. For all the talk about the Sabres missing Chris Drury, I think on the ice, the team has really missed Briere. They've missed that guy who will decide, "I'm sick of this. I'm scoring," and then swagger down the ice and do just that. Vanek has showed flashes of that, especially last season, but he hasn't done it consistently, and honestly I'm not sure he's that kind of player. For the most part I'm down with Sabres management's idea of building more of a team, a group of players that works well together, but sometimes you just need that guy who can say, "Fuck this shit," and take over the game.

The reason I bring this up now is because Tyler Ennis had shades of that Saturday night. Now I know, he's played in exactly two NHL games. And I know it's waaaaay too early to be thinking long-term. But seriously, there is talent bouncing off that kid. I don't think it's a coincidence that he was in the middle of almost every scoring opportunity. I don't think it's a coincidence that the power play looked better than it has in months if not all season. I don't think it's coincidence that players who haven't looked good consistently suddenly looked really, really good.

The most impressive thing to me was that Ennis was showing absolutely no fear. He carried and shot the puck like someone who's been in the league for years. He was going to the net no matter who was in front of him. He was making cross-ice passes that some guys on our team wouldn't even attempt. Yes, we were playing a bad team and yes, it was a blow-out, but I don't know, I don't have a hard time see that fearlessness coming through in pressure situations either. I mean, if a kid is ever going to be nervous and tentative, isn't he going to be nervous and tentative when he first comes up to the NHL? Ennis looked ready and willing to take over the game and he looked capable of doing so.

Honestly, I'm pretty relieved. I've been telling everyone around me for months that Tyler Ennis was going to be special and while that was partly based on his AHL numbers, it was partly just a weird gut feeling too. I don't know about anyone else but when I hear Darcy Regier talk about the talent in Portland and some of it being close to playing at the NHL level and then I see Ennis? I feel pretty good about the future. In his case, let's hope the future is now. I mean, fuck this shit. Let's keep that kid up here.

How Do You Solve a Problem Like the Sabres?

2010-03-26T07:11:00.000-04:00

Part of the reason I've been so quiet lately is that I'm just not sure what to make of the Sabres these days. Are they really that good? Are they really that bad? Are they really somewhere in between really good and really bad?

I know a lot of people are concerned about their effort, and while I totally get that, I think they'll be fine when the playoffs roll around. It's easy to forget because of the two year layoff, but this team has a lot of playoff experience. I think they get it. They get what it takes to win in the playoffs (and what it takes to lose in the playoffs), they get how jacked up Buffalo gets about the playoffs, and I think they get how awesome it would be for them if they were part of the first championship team here. I really don't doubt that the effort will be there even from Derek Roy. Maybe that's me being optimistic, but that's me.

What I do worry about is some of the bad habits that have crept into their game over the last couple months, particularly on the defensive side of things. We all get tired of hearing about The System, but I think we've seen this season that when the players are committed to it, it works. But not always committed to it. Even the wins here lately have been sloppy. Effort is important and with some talent it'll take you a long way. But I think you really have to execution too, and I'm not sure sure how easy it's going to be suddenly start playing disciplined hockey again after not doing it for a while. Right now they feel to me kind of like the 06-07 team. They're coming into the playoffs with a very good record and some definite talent, but they're not playing their best hockey and haven't for a while. The 06-07 team went to the Eastern Conference Finals yes, but that was mostly on the back of great goaltending. While that could happen this season as well - there's only one team in the Eastern Conference that really, really makes me nervous - wouldn't it be more fun, not to mention easier, to play awesome hockey? Yes?

For now I'll settle for a decisive win against Ottawa. (Pleeeease!)

Good Grief!

2010-03-25T07:14:00.003-04:00

"I love hockey again!" was not some kind of weird challenge, Sabres. Ease up on the dramatics.

More in-depth thoughts this evening. These guys just aren't going to make it easy to get a handle on them.

Who Canceled My Hockey Game?

2010-03-24T00:30:00.000-04:00

I was sure - SURE - there was a Sabres game tonight. I came racing out from my babysitting gig, turned on the car radio, and heard a repeat of that morning's Whiner Line. (And believe me, I try to avoid the Whiner Line at ALL COSTS.) Here's the good news: I was really disappointed! I think my hockey exhaustion might be wearing off. The playoffs are around the corner, there are barely 10 games left, it's late enough in the season to start watching for playoff match-ups. Hockey is fun again! Thank goodness.

It probably helps that the Sabres are finally starting to resemble a winning hockey team again. I get that there are peaks and valleys in every season, but those valleys are still pretty darn annoying. It doesn't help that, speaking in very general terms, the Buffalo fan community kind of freaks the second the Sabres start sliding. Any time I hear anyone talk about the peaks and valleys of the season, I think of what might be my favorite Andy Van Slyke quote: "Every season has its peaks and valleys. What you have to try to do is eliminate the Grand Canyon." Grand Canyon eliminated! Wooooo!

It also helps that two of my very favorite guys to see do well are Toni Lydman and Jochen Hecht. I like when those underappreciated, unlikely guys come through. A game like that last one where Jochen looked like a goal scorer - until he got to the bench and dissolved into sheepish and embarrased half-smiles - and Toni fakes out the goalie? That's like a soothing balm to my hockey-tired soul

So while I know it's been quiet around here lately, I'm feeling re-energized. When I get my dates right and the Sabres actually do play, I'm gonna be ready.

A Gift of Thanks for Ryan Miller

2010-03-21T19:47:00.000-04:00

Dear Ryan Miller,

I think you're pretty awesome. You were awesome in the first half of the season, and you were awesome in the Olympics. I'm awfully proud of you and the attention you've brought to the the NHL, the Sabres, and Buffalo. I can't wait to see you lead your teammates into the playoffs because I know when push comes to shove, you'll make sure everyone's heads are right even if that means banging a few of them together.

As a show of my thanks, I've written the NHL and asked them to approve the Ryan Miller Trapezoid. That's right! Because of all you've done for the league this season, you'll be getting your very own trapezoid for the remainder of the season and the post-season! You won't be boxed in the way those other goalies are. These dimensions were worked up to favor your specific brand of puck-handling. You think Marty Brodeur wouldn't kill to have a trapezoid that works in his favor? Of course he would! This is a tremendous honor, and don't be humble, Ryan. You've earned it.

Presenting The Ryan Miller Trapezoid!

Let's play some playoff hockey!

Love,

Heather B.

Hank, the Straw that Stirs the Drink

2010-03-19T00:21:00.002-04:00

I think it's pretty clear that the key to Jason Pominville's hat trick was that beauty of a pass from Henrik Tallinder. Clearly.

Ramblings

2010-03-15T22:53:00.001-04:00

Just so you know, I've been thinking about blogging a lot. I've even opened up an empty post page a few times and then sat staring at it. The sad, sorry truth is, as much as I want to blog right now, I just don't have anything to say.

I know, I can't believe it either.

I mean, I could talk about the fans booing Patrick Lalime, or Patrick Kaleta calling out the crowd, or Matt Cooke's hit on Marc Savard, or Alexander Ovechkin's hit on Brian Campbell but I don't have a ton to say on any of those subjects. (The Lalime booing was a little mean-spirited but it was weird that everyone was acting like he needed protecting from the big, mean fans. I'm fine with Kaleta calling for more noise but hey, you might get booing. Matt Cooke's hit was ridiculous and for all the NHL's talk about how they can't suspend someone based on next year's rules, they sure as heck would have found justification to suspend him if he'd hit someone a little higher on the name recognition chart. Also, why can't we just make that rule change effectively immediately? You know, for safety and stuff. Alexander Ovechkin's an extremely talented reckless douchebag, the Caps organization is a bunch of crazy enablers from the owner right on down the chain, and I was surprised at how badly I felt for poor Soupy. Aw.)

In addition to being kind of overwhelmed with midterms the last week or so, I'm just ready for the regular season to be over. I am. I was astonished to look at the schedule a few days ago and realize there's still 15 or so games to go. That's too many!

I will say this. It seems to be the general consensus that the Sabres are going to be one and done this postseason. I don't see that. If they finish in the top 4 - and I think they will - I don't see why they shouldn't beat anyone in the lower half of the EC playoffs. After that it gets dicier but one round? Yeah, I think we got that.

Despite my temptation to delete this, I'm putting it up just so you know I'm alive. After this week I won't be so crushed at school and will start paying attention to the Sabres again. The regular season will be over then, right?

Algebra, TV, Music, Books, Twitter (i.e. Not Much About the Sabres)

2010-03-11T00:28:00.001-05:00

So I have been watching the Sabres, I promise, but I've been either only catching partial games or not entirely paying attention. In addition to really just being ready for the regular season to end and the playoffs to begin, I've been battling my own foe.

Algebra.

I failed the only previous college math class I took so I had to take another one in order to complete my undergrad degree. It's called Algebra in the Real World and let me tell you, that is a lie. I'm 32-years-old. I got married at almost 22 and starting working full-time before that so I've been in the real world for at least 10 years. I've never run into this kind of math before. If this was truly real world math, I would have seen it by now, I know it.

I've been trying to stifle my inner Derek Roy ("Dude, this is too much work, I'm going to Chippewa.") and channel my inner Goose ("I'm going to skate as hard as I can and eventually I know I'll get there!") but it's this graphing calculator or me. We are not both going to make it through this semester in one piece.

So I can't tell you much about the Sabres beyond the fact that Tyler Myers is totally awesome and should walk away with the Calder and be in Norris talks within a few seasons. Seriously, he just turned 20! He could get better!

I can tell you this:

Terry O'Quinn is the best actor on TV. Michael Emerson is a close second. If ABC did a spin-off sitcom of Locke and Linus working at the sideways universe high school, I'd probably watch it. Here's hoping they both find great post-Lost work.

I really, really hope Desmond is on that boat, too.

I hate all the judges on American Idol. The show is not about you. Shut up. And Kara, you are not endearing or funny at all. You're trying too hard. The talent this season is, beyond a few people, really suspect. And depsite hating the judges and most of the contestants, I am still watching. Yeah, I don't get it either.

I hate when contestants on Project Runway get uppity about using unconventional materials (Emilio). Haven't you ever seen the show before, fella? That's the most fun part! Who wants to watch a bunch of people make pretty dresses out of boring ol' fabric and stuff? I think my favorites so far are Amy and Seth Aaron.

Next to Lost, Fringe might be the best thing on TV. Can't wait for it to come back. If O'Quinn and Emerson are the Gold and Silver winning TV actors, John Noble has the Bronze. On some days I'd bump him over Emerson. When the showed first started I had a very hard time shaking the image of him as mean ol' Denethor. Now I have kind of a hard time watching him play Denethor.

Lately I've been listening to a lot of Ray LaMontagne, Tom Petty, and Paul Simon. I need some more good instrumental music to study by however. Any suggestions? Genre isn't really as important here. Classical, jazz, movie soundtracks, whatever. The only important thing is that there are no - or very limited - lyrics.

The worst thing about being back in school is that I haven't had nearly enough time to read for fun. That makes for a very, very sad Heather B. I'm trying to carefully decide what few books I want to tackle during spring break, but there are so many to choose from. I'm thinking The Machine: A Hot Team, a Legendary Season, and a Heart-stopping World Series: The Story of the 1975 Cincinnati Reds by Joe Posnanski, U is for Undertow by Sue Grafton, and maybe the next in Michael Connelly's Harry Bosch series. Not sure yet though. Any good reading recommendations?

A few people have mentioned this lately - I know the Goose's Roost just did - but if you're looking for someone good to follow on Twitter, I highly recommend Roger Ebert. I'm also a big fan of Nathan Fillion, Craig Ferguson, and Neil Gaiman. (The best Neil Gaiman goodness though is probably still his blog which is always a fun, interesting read.)

Finally, one of my goals for spring break is to finally update my blogroll which I probably haven't touched since I started Top Shelf in 2007. I have a little list going, but if you have a Sabres blog that you update regularly and you're at all interested in being added, please feel free to leave a comment or drop me an email.

More Sabres stuff next time, I promise.

A Good Thing About Bucky Gleason

2010-03-03T23:41:00.001-05:00

Someone said this on Twitter today (and I would credit you but I don't remember at all who it was so feel free to claim it), but if you're hating Darcy Regier today, you're trying too hard. He turned Nathan Paetsch, a guy who barely plays for us, into one of the best rentals available. While any guy named Raffi will always make me think of baby beluga whales, Raffi Torres should chip in some offense (very excited to see a lot of his points are on special teams), add some grit, and maybe most importantly, play hard every singe shift. We didn't get our power play quarterback, but who did? And don't come up on me with Joe Corvo. There was a lot of movement but there wasn't a lot of good movement, I don't think.

I know I've always been a Darcy Regier apologist, but I listened to his comments this afternoon - you can hear them here at Sabres Edge (to hear the whole thing, go with the audio because the video is just an excerpt) - and I think they all make sense. If you agree or disagree, please feel free to chime in below.

For now all I really want to say is that for all my complaints about Bucky Gleason, I actually really love the Bucky-Darcy Regier dynamic. They are hilarious in a press conference. Bucky is such a grandstanding blowhard, taking five minutes to ask a question that should really only take a few seconds to spit out. And then Darcy responds with barely concealed disdain, sometimes explaining things in the same patient-but-not-really tone of voice that I use with my 8 and 9-year-olds when I'm repeating something for the 15th time. It's extremely entertaining.

On an unrelated note, we missed the pregame tonight at our house. I heard it wasn't anything super awesome special, but I really want to see Ryan's ovation. If anyone YouTubes it or comes across it, please, please, PLEASE let me know.

D-Day

2010-03-02T23:12:00.007-05:00

For those wanting to keep up on all the crazy goings-on, the Goose's Roost boys and a bunch of other Buffalo bloggers will be chatting all day. In addition to their glorious commentary, they'll also be aggregating all the must read Twitter feeds from people like Mirtle, Puck Daddy, the TSN guys, and Bucky Gleason. Just kidding, Bucky's Twitter will probably never ever be used again. If you want to jump in and check it out, you can enter below. I won't be contributing for most of the day because of this little job I have to go to, but I'll be excitedly trying to catch up when I get home.

A few quick words about the trade deadline. Despite my crankiness on Twitter during the game tonight, I have to admit that when I read this little blurb on Sabres Edge about Darcy Regier, I came away thinking he's mostly right. There aren't a lot of players other than rentals being offered and none of the rentals are particularly exciting. We can all agree that the Sabres need a sure-thing goal scorer and a power play QB, but where are those guys? Not on the block it seems. There are few sellers and a lot of buyers and while Darcy doesn't say this, that means players are probably going to cost more than they should. There will be better players available in the off-season (Tomas Kaberle, for example, can be traded anywhere if the Leafs don't make the playoffs) and those players are more likely to make an impact beyond June.

I also think that Darcy is right when he implies that this isn't the year to go big. Ryan Miller is having a great season, and everyone's high from the Olympics, but he's 29 and just entering his prime. He should have more great seasons. (Though don't get me wrong, I have worried all season that this is going to be his career best year. If there's any major worry I have, it's that one.) Tyler Myers is a just-turned 20 rookie. There really is a lot of talent in - yes, I'm going to say it - Portland. Darcy doesn't come out and say this, but I get the feeling management is surprised the Sabres are sitting in such a good spot right now. I think they expected this to happen next season. While on one hand, it really makes sense to take advantage of that spot, on the other hand I'm still struggling with whether this team is really good enough for one of the rental players being bandied about to make that much difference. There's no Hossa out there right now.

Don't get me wrong, I want a shake-up. I want at least one of the top 6 forwards switched out, and I'll gladly exchange more than that. But I don't need it to happen right this second. I want Derek Roy outta town, but I don't want him out for a non-playoff team's spare parts. If something happens today, fabulous, I'll probably be excited. It's always fun when there's something to talk about. But I share the feeling that today is not necessarily the best day to continue building a team which is what, like it or not, the Sabres are still doing. If we start next season look at the same mugs in the top 6 well, then check in with me again.

All right, here's the chat box. No matter how I re-size it the words are still all off-centered, but when I open the box everything looks okay. If you jump in and it doesn't work, check out The Goose's Roost instead. That link should take you right to the chat.

Trade Deadline Mega Live Blog

How the Olympics Made Me Hate Roy-Z Even More Than I Already Did

2010-03-01T23:32:00.002-05:00

One of the most fun things about Olympic hockey is having a fling with players whom I either don't see that often or players I do see but am now seeing in a different way. In the former group would go guys like Ryan Kesler and Bobby Ryan. In the latter group would go, above anyone else, Zach Parise. I've seen Parise play plenty of times of course, and I'm more than familiar with him thanks to being buddies with Devils fans Pookie and Schnookie of Interchangeable Parts. If you'd asked me three weeks ago how good Parise was, I would have said very good. But I don't know, he was still a total revelation to me. Above all else, I'm amazed at how hard he plays. He plays hard every single second of every single shift and I'm sure he'd take double the amount of shifts it was up to him.

I'm not sure what exactly it was about Zach Parise that made me think of Derek Roy. It could be that they're both pretty small in stature. It could be that they both wear number 9. But watching Parise made me think of Roy and let's just say Roy comes up pretty darn short (short! ha!) in that comparison.

More than almost any other player on the roster right now, I wanted Roy to be good. I really thought that of the core forwards (Roy, Jason Pominville, Paul Gaustad, Thomas Vanek), he was going to be the heart of the team, the little spark plug that kept everyone going. I cut him a lot of slack even when other people were really starting to come down on him because I really, really felt he was going to be something special. I was excited we had him locked up, and I was even more excited we had him locked up at the price we did.

But he is so freaking lazy. I'm reluctant to criticize guys for not playing hard because I think it's easy for us to say that from the outside, but I'm sorry, he does not play hard. I think I've mentioned this before, but at one of the last game Kates and I were at, there was a brief fifteen seconds or so when Roy suddenly zipped across the ice. Those fifteen seconds were so noticeable because he hadn't hit that gear before in the game and he didn't hit that gear again the rest of the night. If he'd skate as hard as he did in that fifteen seconds for sixty minutes, we'd have Zach Parise because he has the talent. Instead we have well, Derek Roy.

Every second I spent watching Parise play like medals were going to be awarded at the end of his shift, I could feel myself getting more and more infuriated with Roy. Gaustad, Pominville, and Vanek all have their weaknesses, and maybe some of them aren't going to turn out to be what we thought they might be, but I really don't have an issue with their effort. I think they want to be the best they can, and I think it genuinely bothers them when they aren't. I think Roy is perfectly content to be pretty good at hockey and that's so frustrating because I think he could be very good at hockey, some nights maybe even great at hockey. I've said before, mostly in jest, that I'd like to punch Roy in the face, but I'm positive that had he walked through my living room during a U.S. hockey game, I would have tackled him to the ground and beat him to a pulp. How frustrating to watch a guy who could be one thing settle for being something else, something lesser. Why in the world would you want to be Derek Roy when you could be Zach Parise? Derek Roy's a punk ass bitch and Zach Parise is totally awesome!

I kid you not, last night I had a dream about Parise. He was diagnosed with a brain tumor, given two weeks to live, and hooked up to a respirator. But he still suited up for the Devils and he still busted his ass. Clearly even my subconscious is being eaten alive by this. For a long time I would have included Roy on the list of Sabres untouchables. Now he's the guy I hope is traded most. Preferably for Zach Parise. Hey, like I said, they're both small, they both wear number 9. I'll bet the Devils wouldn't even notice.

U-S-A! U-S-A!

2010-02-28T22:59:00.001-05:00

Listen, Team USA. Even though you all looked like you wanted to collectively kill yourselves as you were being awarded your silver medals, you done good. Before the tournament started, most people weren't even predicting you to medal and you came within one shot of winning the whole shebang. That's pretty good. I understand it's impossible for you to think that way right now, but hopefully you'll come around.

Seriously. So sad. (Photo by Bruce Bennett/Getty Images)

I have no idea how many casual fans were really watching the previous U.S.-Canada game or the gold medal game and I have no idea how many of them will become real hockey fans, but you guys absolutely delivered on your end. Back when the U.S. roster was selected I wasn't that excited about the team - honestly, I still look at it and wonder where all that affection came from - but for two weeks I was more than happy to watch and cheer for you.

Ryan Miller, come on home, and kick some ass. Because lord knows, I never want to watch another postgame interview like the one today. He was standing there talking and his face was all big, wet brown eyes and he was all wobbly voiced. :::sniff, sniff::: I hope Darcy Regier saw that because if he did he'll do WHATEVER IT TAKES to keep it from happening again.

Seriously though, the Olympic break did exactly what I needed it to do and made me miss the Sabres. Except for Derek Roy. I found myself hating him more and more with every U.S. game. But you'll have to read about that tomorrow because unfortunately there's sociology homework calling my name...

(Grrr... I had an AWESOME screen cap of Ryan and Lindy planned for this post my DVR screwed me because Time-Warner's DVR SUCKS. Just close your eyes and pretend, please.)

Andrej and Toni

2010-02-28T01:26:00.006-05:00

So at the beginning of the night I thought I was cheering for Finland to win bronze but for Andrej Sekera to play well enough for Slovakia to either get out of the Sabres pressbox or be tradeable. But it turns out that was all wrong which is one of the most fun things about the Olympics (and the non-Sabres playoffs). I watched the first period of the game at a babysitting gig. By the time I got paid, chatted with the parents for a few minutes, picked up something to snack on, deposited my money in the drive-thru ATM, and got home, Slovakia had taken a 2-1 lead. And I was REALLY happy about that. I didn't know until that moment that I was cheering for them.

Poor Andrej Sekera. Look at this kid. He knows he's going to go back to Buffalo and ask to play only to have Lindy sneer at him and ask him where HIS medal is.

Awwwwww. (Photo by Jamie Squire/Getty Images)

Only slightly related but I was really glad to catch this moment on the TV broadcast of the US-Finland game the other day.

"I hope Canada kicks your scrawny ass."

"Suck it, Eurotrash."

Let's go USA!

Rambling Thoughts on AMERICA! and TBN

2010-02-25T23:56:00.006-05:00

I just tweeted this without really thinking about it: I love Ryan Miller, I love the United States, but I admit, part of me really wants Toni Lydman to come home with the gold medal. I did clarify in a later tweet that I'm not really cheering AGAINST the United States - I'm surprised actually at how much I've enjoyed watching them play considering I was not the least bit excited about them coming into the Olympics - but I would be perfectly fine with Finland winning the whole thing.

I'm sure a lot of people don't understand that but here's the simple truth at the center of the issue: I love Ryan Miller. I'm really glad he's a Sabre, I hope he's a Sabre for a long time to come. As I've said before, I'm really proud of what he's done in the Olympics so far. He deserves every bit of attention he's getting. But I love Toni Lydman. If you asked me who was more valuable to the Sabres, of course I'd say Ryan Miller. But if you asked me who I favored more, I'd say Toni Lydman.

I was resigned to the fact going into the Olympics that the Sabres playing on European teams weren't going to get much attention from The Buffalo News, but as far as I can tell, they haven't gotten any at all. I totally understand why Ryan Miller is THE local story. He plays for the United States. He's the face of the Sabres franchise. He's a goalie, and his contributions to the U.S. team have been crystal clear. But I cheer for Henrik Tallinder, Toni Lydman, Jochen Hecht, and Andrej Sekera from October to April or May every year. I don't suddenly not care about them at all because they're not American. Tallinder's had an awesome season - completely rejuvenated and an important part of the Sabres success so far - and he was representing his country for the first time in the Olympics. You're telling me there's no story there? Really? Come on.

I've been pretty disappointed with TBN's coverage all the way around. Internet coverage has grown by leaps and bounds just since the last Olympics. It's nearly impossible to make it to the prime-time broadcasts without knowing what's going to happen. By the time the local newspaper hits doorsteps the next morning, readers have read or watched countless interviews with the medalists. It's definitely a different challenge for a newspaper today than it was four years ago.

TBN seemed to have the right idea, setting up an Olympics specific blog and Twitter feed but then they plugged in... Bucky Gleason. Really? Their solution to coverage was to ramp up the online material - a fabulous idea - but they went with the one guy on staff who seems to hate the Internet and the interaction with readers that the Internet brings. Okay then. I mean, listen, I have my issues with Bucky, but I think I'm being pretty objective when I say that he's shown no skill for or interest in blogging and that his Twitter is obviously something he's been forced into doing. I just do not understand that decision at all. Mike Harrington spent 10 or so days covering the World Series (admittedly a smaller event than the Olympics) and cranked out a huge amount of material for the Inside Pitch blog, his Twitter feed, and the newspaper, all of it at a high quality. He's usually entertaining, he throws out information that a lot of journalists might overlook, he includes little photos and videos, and crazily enough, he actually responds to readers. And he works on the hockey beat so it's not like Bucky has a huge advantage over him in regards to relationships with the hockey players involved in the Olympics. So you look at those two guys and you go with Bucky?

I'm sure there's probably some politics involved. Columnists always seem to get gigs like this, and TBN seems to hold Bucky in very high regard. (I don't understand either of those things, by the way. It seems like if you need someone to write a lot of material in a short time you'd go with a beat writer, and I think TBN is highly overvaluing Bucky.) But as someone who reads the paper, it doesn't make any sense at all. From my point-of-view, it seems like a huge mishandling of talent, and I think it's hurt their coverage. Harrington would be blogging and tweeting the heck out of everything as opposed to Bucky who's only personal insight into Ryan Miller's Olympic debut was, "Ryan Miller pitching a shutout through two periods vs switzerland." Thanks, Bucky. That's earth-shattering news considering a large number of us were actually watching the game at the time. He wrote one really good column about how hard it was to describe how beautiful Vancouver is, but even that's a sign of how much he doesn't get - or doesn't care to get - new media. He could have been posting photos of the views and mountains to his blog or Twitter feed for the last week and a half.

I can't imagine that Bucky is too dumb to figure this stuff out so I'm going to assume he just doesn't care. And if that's the case, he should stop getting plum assignments like this, at least when the majority of the coverage is going to be online. I don't know if TBN genuinely doesn't understand the difference between what someone like Harrington (or Keith McShea of the terrific Prep Talk blog) does and what Bucky does or if they just think Bucky's going to magically come around on the whole internet thing if they keep pushing it on him, but either option makes me question how on top of things they are and how dedicated they are to providing me with the best possible coverage.

This is not at all where I intended to go with this when I started, but the bottom line is this: If Harrington were in Vancouver, I'll bet I would have gotten my Henrik Tallinder story. In the end, I think we can all agree that that's really the most important thing.

Unofficial Poll

2010-02-24T00:28:00.000-05:00

Who would you rather see go home without medaling? Canada or Russia? I'm going with Russia.

Illogical and Heart-Felt Pride

2010-02-21T23:25:00.002-05:00

We've been talking about Ryan Miller playing in the Olympics for so long that for me, it had started to lose all meaning. It was just another talking point this season. Tyler Myers is really tall, Lindy Ruff has been here through 1,150 NHL coaching changes, and Ryan Miller will probably start in goal for the United States.

He's ours, Buffalo. (Photo by Harry How/Getty Images)

But now I'm sitting on my couch, a little teary-eyed, remembering exactly what it means. Ryan looked amazing tonight, holding down the fort while his team got out-shot 45-22. He looked cool and calm and as excited as you know he was about winning that game, he was humble and down-to-earth in his postgame interviews. What a long way he's come from that kid who got pummeled in Detroit and cried in the postgame all those years ago. You guys, he's the best United States goalie and arguably the best goalie in the league right now and he's ours. He just stopped a team consisting of some of the most talented hockey players in the world and he's ours. He didn't do it by himself - among other things, Ryan Kesler's empty netter was the most well-deserved empty net goal I've ever seen - but he held his teammates in it when they were struggling to get their feet under them. And he's ours. He's OURS. Every time someone on the broadcast said "Ryan Miller of the Buffalo Sabres" I got little chills. I've written before about how crazy it is to feel genuine attachment to athletes, people who wouldn't recognize us on the street, and while it makes no logical sense, I'm absolutely bursting with pride right now. I'm so proud of him. I'm so proud of how hard he's worked and how far he's come. I'm so proud that lots more people are suddenly appreciating how good he is. I'm so proud of how smart and articulate and seemingly good-hearted he is. I'm so proud he's representing us. I know it's just the preliminary rounds and the United States could still go down, but for tonight wow, what a terrific moment for him, for the Sabres, and for us.

Let's go Buff-a-lo!

Small Complaint I've Been Meaning to Make Forever

2010-02-20T03:17:00.001-05:00

I've been meaning to mention this in the last couple of blogs after attending live games and I've forgotten and it's really probably not worth posting by itself, but now that I've remembered I'd forgotten, I can't stop thinking about it...

The Sabres have started doing this thing during the games where they recognize someone in the crowd from the military, usually someone who's just gotten back from overseas, which is a very nice thing. Those guys and girls certainly deserve the spotlight and appreciative applause. But while they're doing that they play the chorus from Martina McBride's Independence Day. While those specific lyrics ("Let freedom ring/Let the white dove sing/Let the whole world know that today is the day of reckoning") fit the situation, I guess, it really bothers me that they use it because the song is about domestic abuse! It's about an abused woman who burns down her house, with her in it, while her poor kids watches! To loosely paraphrase a wise old man, this is not the independence we're looking for! The Bisons always use it in their Fourth of July fireworks accompaniment too - along with Creedence Clearwater Revival's Fortunate Son - and that bothers me too. Sports people of the world, these are not, I repeat, NOT "Yay, America!" songs.

And Now For Something Completely Different...

2010-02-19T01:05:00.000-05:00

One of the things I did not anticipate about going back to school is how curious my students are about it. I usually bring a textbook and notebook with me in case I have a few free minutes (a hilarious thought), and they're always flipping through the book and marveling over all the notes I take and asking if I have to write reports and take tests. It's very cute.

A few days ago, one of them asked me why I was going to school. "Are you going to be a counselor?" I told him that I had thought about being a counselor but for now, I wanted to be a teacher instead of an aide.

He got a panicked look on his face. "Which room are you going to be in?"

"Oh, I don't know," I said, deciding to skip explaining that I might not even work at our school. "We'll have to see."

"Noooooooooooooo!"

"What, you don't think I'd be a good teacher?"

"No, I just don't want you to be someone else's teacher before you're done being my aide."

And that's my story.

Derek Roy, Take Your Penalty Lap

2010-02-16T23:56:00.002-05:00

I'll admit, I'm not a huge Olympics person. Left to my own devices I probably wouldn't watch much beyond hockey, but friends Schnookie and Pookie were in town this past weekend and we all more or less crashed at Kate's house. We spent roughly 48 hours in front of the TV, breaking only twice and then only for food. That's how I came to spend much of my weekend watching the biathlon which is, quite simply, one of the greatest things I've ever seen.

The combination of skiing and shooting is hilarious to begin with. It sounds like something a guy would make up in order to create something he'd personally be really good at. It's amazing how hot it is to watch really handsome men swing guns on and off their backs. I feel actual physical pain watching biathletes chug-a-lug uphill. I appreciate how utterly exhausted they are when they cross the finish line unlike say a skier who cruised down one hill and then called it a day. I love watching the pile-up of prone bodies getting larger and larger as more and more guys finish. But there's one thing about the biathlon that makes it the best Winter Olympics sport. Nay, one of the best sports anywhere ever.

Penalty laps.

PENALTY LAPS. A quick primer for those of you who've never devoted any of your time to watching the biathlon. (It dawns on me right at this very second that what we were watching might not have been the biathlon because there was also ski jumping involved, but one of the good things about these sports is that I won't see them again for four years so I don't really need to bother to learn the specifics.) Anyway, these guys start out cross-country skiing and they ski and ski for what seems like forever. And then at various points during the race, they suddenly have to stop, whip the rifle off their backs, and shoot at five very small targets. Right next to the shooting station there's an extra loop in the track and for every target they miss they have to do a lap around the loop. Forget what I said about some guy randomly throwing together the two activities he happens to be good at, this sport was clearly invented by a P.E. instructor. These guys are literally running laps when they screw up!

PENALTY! LAP!

Every sport needs to add this immediately. Can you imagine how much fun we could have with this? Jason Pominville misses the net? Take a lap around the rink. Thomas Vanek fails to shoot on a breakaway? Take a lap. Derek Roy gives the puck away trying to carry it through four people? Take four laps, one for each defender. Ryan Miller gives up a softie? Take a lap. In your gear. How entertaining would it be to watch Ryan waddle around the rink as fast he can while the Sabres scramble to defend the net until he gets back? I would be fine and dandy with the Sabres raising season ticket prices if we could get the penalty lap system up and running across the NHL.

On a side note, we had an extra long weekend at work. For our winter break we were off Friday, Monday, and Tuesday. (I use winter break loosely because we used to get an entire week off.) Thursday we talked to the kids a lot about the Olympics and one of the events that came up a lot was the luge. For days now I've been picturing my kids sitting down in front of the TV to watch luge highlights because Miss Heather said it was SO AWESOME and being traumatized for life. We'll just chalk that up as an educational experience, I guess. (I don't know what I was thinking anyway because the luge is horribly, horribly boring.)

ETA: I have no idea what time the stuff in the day's newspaper goes live on The Buffalo News website, but as of right now, the only story about the first U.S. hockey game is from the AP. I know it's early rounds, and the games might not be that exciting, but the entire season has been building up to Ryan Miller starting in net for the United States. Seems like maybe the TBN reporter on-site should have gone to the game especially since that's where local interest lies.

ETA: D'oh! I just realized I broke my promise to not blog about the Sabres on the FIRST DAY. Stupid Sabres.

About the Sabres

2010-02-15T21:01:00.000-05:00

Hi, there. Remember me? Yeah, I barely do too.

So here's the deal. There are a million things to talk about regarding the Sabres. What's to blame for the long skid? Was the San Jose game them getting back on-track or just a blip? Was their streak really any different or any more concerning than the losing streak teams like the Capitals and the Senators have already gone through? Are the real Sabres the team that played the first few months of the season or the last month of the season? Should the Sabres make a move now? What kind of move? Is this the season they should go all in and make a big move or should they be cautious and keep an eye on next season or the season after that?

Here's the problem. I don't care.

I don't. I hit the hockey wall weeks ago and then the Sabres started playing like garbage and now I just need a break from them. I'm glad they went away on a positive note, but I'm glad they're going away so I can miss them. For the next two weeks I'm not going to think about the Sabres at all. Even the Sabres Olympians will be thought of as "that slightly crazy US goalie" and "that really handsome Swedish d-man." I'm planning on blogging in the next two weeks, but it won't be about them. It'll be about work or school or TV or the Olympics. (Why do the moguls have those little couches at the bottom? Why don't ALL the events have them? How is it possible that a cross-country skier toting a guy can be so amazingly hot? Forget Apolo, how adorable was the other American speed skater?)

In two weeks, I'll be refreshed and ready to talk about all the Sabres-related minutiae you could possibly want to hear about, I promise. Those douchebags better be refreshed too.

My Olympic hockey predictions:

Gold - Sweden
Silver - Canada
Bronze - Russia

A Picture Worth a Thousand Words

2010-02-07T23:42:00.001-05:00

Click to get the full dose of adorableness.

Those little headphones kill me. (I apologize for not crediting this photo to its photographer, but I came across it via Twitter with no name attached. )

Some Thoughts on Kovalchuk and the Sabres vs. the Devils

2010-02-06T14:37:00.001-05:00

This post is dedicated to everyone who thinks I'm the biggest Sabres apologist in the world. Enjoy! :P

I think passing on Ilya Kovalchuk was the right thing for the Sabres to do. The one thing I haven't seen anyone mention in the whole "THE DEVILS DID IT WHY CAN'T WE?!?!" argument is that the Sabres and Devils are in very different places as organizations right now. With all due respect to Zach Parise and Travis Zajac, both of whom I would gladly steal, the heart of the Devils right now is still Martin Brodeur. When he plays well, the Devils win. When his play dips, the Devils lose. (See his numbers in the first round of the playoffs the last few years for proof of that.) By the time this year's Stanley Cup is awarded, Brodeur will be 38-years-old. If the Devils play it cautious and give any prospects in their system two or three years to develop, Brodeur is now 40 or older. While it certainly seems sometimes that the Devils could roll him into net in a wheelchair well into his 80s, the window for the Brodeur-led Devils is probably closing.

The Sabres are in a completely different place. Putting the top six aside for now (I'll get to those d-bags in a few minutes, I promise), the Sabres have a lot of young talent on the roster or just about ready to make the roster AND they have a goalie who's arguably just entering the best years of his career. Tim Kennedy, Chris Butler, Tyler Myers, and Andrej Sekera* are already up and should continue to improve and Tyler Ennis, Nathan Gerbe, and Mike Weber are all close with Luke Adam and Zack Kassian making some noise. Even if it takes those guys let's say three years to all get to the Sabres and make an impact (and I realize the odds of all of them staying in the system and making an impact are slim but I think a number of them will), Ryan is still in his early 30s. The window for the Miller-led Sabres is still open and should be open for a while yet.

So I think the Devils were probably right to make a play for Kovalchuk. But I think the Sabres were also probably right not to. The right move for one team is not automatically the right thing for another team.

Here's the thing. I understand wanting to feel like the Sabres are in it to win it. I wouldn't mind a little less caution at all. There are players on the team who I would definitely be okay moving out. But the bottom line is not every team has a real chance to win every season and sometimes an organization is smart to look at the lay of the land for the next couple of years. I'm not convinced this year's Sabres team is good enough to win it all even with the addition of a big rental, and I'd be uncomfortable with them giving up too much of the near future for something that probably won't work. If the Sabres brass is looking at the current roster and coming to the same conclusion, well, they're being realistic. It sucks but there it is. I get the feeling they think the Sabres are still a couple years away from putting together their best team.

So I'm fine with passing on Kovalchuk. And I'm fine on passing on any other rental out there. And I'm excited about some of the young talent in the Sabres organization. But the one thing I will scrap with the Sabres about is the top six. When Darcy Regier talks about improvements coming from within maybe he's talking about Gerbe and/or Ennis pushing some bodies out, but anyone who thinks the top six as it is right now is going to magically improve is crazy. That was a fine attitude three years ago when they were in their early-to-mid twenties and hadn't been in the NHL for very long, but now I think they are what they are. This is them for better or for worse. I'm pretty disappointed in that because I thought they'd be better, but I think that's the only conclusion you can come to at this point. They are what they are right now. And that's not good enough.

* I missed a lot of the game last night but Sekera's defensive play was getting criticized pretty hard in some places. He needs to be playing and playing regularly. No young d-man ever got better sitting in the press box and it's driving me crazy that he's spending so much time there.

Okay, back the history essay I told Mark I was writing. Heh.

Don't Worry...

2010-02-05T07:08:00.002-05:00

I'm not ignoring you, I'm ignoring the Sabres. I promise.

Thinking About Tim Connolly

2010-02-02T07:56:00.000-05:00

I enjoyed the game tonight (and by enjoyed, I mean "enjoyed") at Casa di Pizza with some blogging buddies. The company was fabulous. The Sabres were not. The good news is, since I wasn't paying full attention to the game, it barely counts. Seriously, it was good meeting a lot of new people and finally putting some faces to names I've been talking to for quite a while. If I didn't get around to introducing myself (I partly wore the Tallinder jersey so I wouldn't have to introduce myself as people tend to walk up and say, "You must be Heather"), I apologize. Truthfully, as much of a blowhard as I am here, I'm a little shy in real life when it comes to new people. Next time I won't be so self-conscious and I'll be braver, I promise.

A week or so ago, I wrote a quick blurb about Mirtle's defensive defensemen rankings. A few days later Mirtle posted his defensive forward rankings. He used the same stats - quality of competition, goals against per 60 minutes of 5-on-5 and goals against per 60 minutes of shorthanded time - and came up with thirty names. There's a Sabre in the top ten and two additional Sabres in the top twenty. Before you look at the link (if you haven't already), think about who you'd say the top three defensive forwards on the team are and then think about who you'd say is in the top ten. Okay, now look at the link.

Surprised? I admit, I was. I probably would have gotten the top three correct if I'd tried to guess beforehand, but I would have put Jochen Hecht number one. I never would have put Tim Connolly in the top ten league-wide and if I'd missed someone, it would have been him. Again, the stats here aren't perfect but it's a pretty good system and I think there probably is a lot of truth in the rankings.

It really got me thinking about Tim Connolly. When he was re-signed last season, there was a fair amount of outrage from fans, understandably so considering how much money he got after missing so much time to injuries over the course of his previous contract. And while it's leveled off some since his recent hot streak, earlier in the season there was a fair amount of complaining (especially if your name is Jerry Sullivan) about Timmy not living up to his contract because he wasn't scoring goals and racking up assists. But evidently he was contributing elsewhere. If the Sabres have done as well as they have because of improved team defense, and Tim Connolly is arguably the best defensive forward on the team (and arguably one of the best defensive forwards in the NHL) has he been worth that contract after all?

I don't know. 4.5 million is still a lot of money (though 2 years is a great term these days), but I do think maybe this is another example of defense being underrated. That's partly the player involved, I know. If you signed someone like Henrik Tallinder, you'd do it with the attitude that any offense he chips in is a bonus whereas you're signing someone like Tim Connolly primarily for offense. But it's an interesting question. If nothing else, this whole revelation did make me like Tim Connolly a little better.

Hank Hank HUZZAH! Part 2

2010-01-30T01:36:00.003-05:00

Well, well, well. Look who's showing off. Hank clearly knew I was in the building tonight.

Right after this, Hank winked at me. (Photo by Rick Stewart/Getty Images)

ETA:

I missed this since I was at the game, but Joe was kind enough to post it for me. I actually think Hank is right that the Bruins weren't coming that hard at all in the first period, but I do love how you can see his answer getting away from him until he finally asks for the do-over. I've said this already, but I'm so, so glad to see happy, smiley Hank back.

Hank Hank HUZZAH! Hank Hank HUZZAH!

2010-01-29T08:48:00.002-05:00

Let's take a moment to bask in the reflected glow of Mirtle's updated Rod Langaway Award rankings. For those unfamiliar with this, Mirtle picks out all the defensemen in the league who have played at least 30 games and who average roughly two minutes on the penalty kill a game. Then he uses three stats - quality of competition, goals against per 60 minutes at even strength, and goals against per 60 minutes of short-handed time - to determine who the best defensive defensemen in the league are right now. It's not an exact science, but as far as quantifying defense goes, it's not bad either.

Tyler Myers is right outside the top 20 at number 21. Wooo for Tyler Myers! For some reason, I'm really, really starting to get excited about him potentially winning the Calder. To stack up against some of the other players on that list in those particular categories in your rookie year (at 19 years of age!) is pretty darn impressive.

I, however, am even more tickled with number 17, Henrik Tallinder. There was a time in 2007-2008, about the halfway point of the season, I think, where Hank was on the very top of the list when Mirtle did this. Shortly after that he dropped off a cliff and then he laid at the bottom in a broken, crumpled heap for the next season and a half. To see him creeping up these rankings again, for me that's a real sign that he's finally returning to form, and it makes me really happy. The quality of competition stat is definitely up for debate - I believe it's based on a player's plus/minus relative to his teammates which doesn't take into account whether it's a good team or a bad team - but goals allowed per 60 minutes at even strength and short-handed are pretty straight forward stats and important ones, especially for a guy who is supposed to be playing defense. So yay for you, Henrik Tallinder! I knew you still had that defensive stud in you somewhere.

*All stats are taken from Behind the Net. The guy behind Behind the Net has collected a bunch of cool stats and created some of his own. Stats are much harder to apply to hockey than say, baseball but if you're into numbers at all, you should really check this site out. Even the stats that don't quite work are interesting in concept.

*As part of his post, Mirtle asks if the reader thinks there should be some kind of official award for defensive defensemen. I didn't go into here since I've given this lecture many, many times before but for the record, duh, of course there should be an award for defensive defensemen. They don't get nearly enough credit or recognition for what they do. Even among d-men, offense gets the glory.

Jochen Hecht, Shootout Specialist

2010-01-28T06:26:00.002-05:00

I've always hated the way Lindy Ruff handles the shootout which I believe I've mentioned a time or two. He insists on putting the guys who you'd think should be good at the shootout in and doesn't go to any atypical choices until he has to even though it's often those guys who look the best. So I was really happy to see Jochen Hecht included in the first three shooters last night. It makes zero sense for him to be good at shootouts. He has hands of stone at times and rarely seems to pull off a breakaway in a game. But coming into tonight's game he'd scored in two straight shootouts. I was glad to see Lindy not overthink things and reward the guy who's been successful in that specific situation in the past rather than rewarding a guy for a good game which, while a nice thought, doesn't seem to work that often.

And I have to admit, I'm pretty tickled that our best guy in the shootout is Jochen Hecht. JOCHEN HECHT, people. That is adorably inexplicable. I love it. I mean, honestly... How do you not look at this picture without cracking up? How may times would you bank on Jochen meeting up with Marty Brodeur with Broduer coming away looking silly? Sometimes hockey is funny.

Hee. (Photo by Bill Wippert/NHLI via Getty Images)

I Love Drew Remenda (and other things)

2010-01-24T11:55:00.001-05:00

Since we talked about the Ducks and Kings broadcasts, I want to take a quick moment to rave about the Sharks broadcast. It was very, very good. Randy Hahn and Drew Remenda has both clearly did their homework on their Sabres. While they hit a lot of the same notes as the previous California broadcasts - the Sabres are fast, Lindy Ruff has been around forever, Tyler Myers is really good (and tall!) - they went into much more detail. The other Western Conference teams have mentioned what a fast, run-and-gun team the Sabres are and while the speed is still there, run-and-gun hasn't really fit for a few years, certainly not this season. The Sharks team really went into how the Sabres are playing more of a team concept this year, five man units playing together as one, etc. I was also impressed with the amount of play-by-play - the color never interfered with calling the actual game - and the amount of X's and O's they got in. We get a little of that on MSG with Mike Robitaille during the intermissions, but that's one area where I think our broadcasts have really taken a hit since Jim Lorenz retired. I also appreciated Hahn and Remenda acknowledging that the Buffalo viewing audience was tuned into their broadcast - I think they were the only ones to do so - and I loved, loved, loved them doing it via a really bad but totally fun impression of Rick Jeanneret's Population of Pominville call. The Sharks broadcast was fun, informative, and entertaining. Can't ask for much more than that. Four of my shiniest gold stars to them.

Too bad I can't say the same for the Sabres, Steve Montador. After the first period went so well I was pretty bummed the game fell apart. I was really hoping to get at least ten points on this road trip. Of course, I was counting on getting four points out of Atlanta and the Islanders. Only getting two there really hurt. Hopefully we'll fare better against the really super hot right now Canucks? Maybe?

And now for something completely different...

Among the many things that has bothered me over the recent years about The Buffalo News, one of the biggest has been how the writers have taken every opportunity to trash the Sabres video scouting without really giving us much information about how it all works. I once emailed Mike Harrington to ~~whine and complain~~ politely inquire about this and he said it's a story they've attempted to write but the Sabres are pretty tight-lipped about their process, considering it proprietary information. Which I can understand. If you're competing with thirty other teams and you think you're doing something that works that no one else is doing, you probably should keep a lid on it. (What doesn't make sense is TBN continuing to dog something they don't really understand but hey, what else is new?)

Yesterday Mirtle tweeted a link to a Globe and Mail story about scouting and there are just a few small details in there about the Sabres process but enough that it really changed my opinion. For all my complaints about TBN's coverage/attitude toward the story, there was enough skepticism from enough different places that I did wonder about the validity of their system. I kind of got the impression that video scouting consisted of a bunch of scouts watching game tapes, like us sitting at home watching games on TV. That did seem questionable. So much of hockey is played without the puck, especially on defense, and you've probably noticed that game broadcasts center around the guy with the puck. There's so much you would miss scouting that way.

According to the Globe and Mail article, however, a scout with training in video goes and watches the player being scouted and brings the video back for others on the scouting team to watch. A few months ago I read a book called Future Greats and Heartbreaks: A Year Undercover in the Secret World of NHL Scouts (just as an aside, I thought it was a really fun, interesting read). In the book the author talked about how all the scouts from a franchise come together at the draft and they all bring their own biases with them. Some have a bias against Europeans. Some don't like small players. Some love small, speedy guys. Some prefer big bruisers. The player the Sabres are interested in is still getting scouted the traditional way - in person by a living, breathing human being - but that human being is bringing back tangible evidence that others can look at, thereby getting around the problem of one guy's biases and quirks playing such a huge part. I don't know, to me that seems... smart. As Kate said when we were discussing this (before it devolved into utter silliness, as things sometimes tend to do with us), it seems less like newfangled ideas and more like common sense.

We're probably just about getting to the point where we can start judging how the changes in the scouting department have worked, but Tyler Myers seems like a pretty good start, you know? Heh.

West Coast Thoughts

2010-01-22T01:46:00.000-05:00

It is 11:49 as I type this, about halfway through the second period. Thomas Vanek - or is that VON-ek? :::eye-roll here::: - just put the Sabres up by one. I am fried, so I'm not completely sure I'm going to make it through this one. It's been a very long week. The teacher in my classroom had surgery on Monday and will be out for a couple of weeks so I've been working extra hard during the day and classes started this week so I've been trying to get back in the swing of an academic life in the evenings. I made it through the Ducks game just fine, but I'm not feeling quite as optimistic about this one.

I'm fine with that though. Honestly, when I think of late night West coast trips, one of my favorite things is the potential to fall asleep on the couch with hockey in the background. I think I said this at some point last week, but if we had Center Ice, I would fall asleep in front of hockey every night of the season. I love putting on my PJs, curling up with a couple of blankets, turning off the lights and settling in for the night. I love closing my eyes, just for a second, and letting the game kind of wash over me. And then for a few minutes I flit between eyes open and eyes closed, and one second I know exactly what's going on and then in the next second I'm gone and in the morning I can't quite remember exactly when I finally drifted off. Occasionally I miss something good, but hockey is such a comfortable thing that I don't really mind that much. The only thing that would make the situation perfect is if I was falling asleep with the sounds of Rick and Jim in my ears. Those were the good ol' days.

A few thoughts:

As someone who doesn't have Center Ice, I can kind of convince myself that not having our own broadcast for a few games is okay because it's fun to hear other teams' broadcasts. But holy moly, the Ducks broadcast really tested that theory. They were brutal.

The Kings broadcast was much better. (Intermission, not so much.) They seemed somewhat educated about the Sabres, they were even-handed in their calling of the play, they gave credit to the Sabres when it was due, and weren't afraid to admit that Oscar Mueller's goal being disallowed was the right call. I really liked their fascination with Ryan Miller's routine of skating way out of the crease and staring down at the ice during TV timeouts and other long stoppages in play. I thought it was pretty cool for them to point out something like that about the opposition, and it was certainly more insightful than, "Tyler Myers is real tall!" which we've gotten a lot of the last two games.

The one good thing the Ducks team did do was to point out that Myers is far better than Zdeno Chara was at the same point in his career. Back when I thought Myers should stay in juniors (silly me), one of the things that most made me nervous was how quick a lot of people were to compare Myers to Chara because Chara wasn't the Chara we know until after he'd been in the NHL for a handful of years. We've all said this a million times at this point, but Myers has been such a pleasant surprise. For mor on baby Chara vs. Myers, check out this blog post on Die By the Blade. There's some good stuff in there.

Jumping back to Miller, I have really ejoyed how impressed the Western Conference folks have been with his play. You can tell that, as good as his numbers are, it's been a bit of an eye-opener to see in person just how well he's playing. It's another observation that's been stated over and over this season, but Ryank deserves every good thing that's come to him this season and I'm glad to see and hear people around the league really take notice.

Both the Ducks and the Kings broadcasts repeatedly talked about activating defensemen in the offensive zone. I don't know, for some reason that completely cracks me up every time they say it. It makes me picture Lindy Ruff holding a remote with a long antennae and a big red button. In the critical moment he yells, "ACTIVATE DEFENSEMEN!" and pushes the button and they spring into action. It's quite possible that that image is a lot of funnier in my head than it is all typed out.

Next to "Tyler Myers is tall and also good at hockey!" everyone's favorite tidbit seems to be that there have been 150 coaching changes in the NHL during Lindy Ruff's tenure with the Sabres. It's funny to realize that's a stat that other people around the NHL might not know off the tops of their heads and hearing it over and over in Buffalo does make you forget that it's a good stat. I like it.

For the record, I made it through the whole game. While I don't understand being that happy for the opposition (Anne :P), I can see why so many of my Twitter buddies enjoy watching the Kings. They're a fun team. I like them. But while I know most people love the shootout, that game should have ended in a tie. So there.

GIrls Night Out (Woooooooo!)

2010-01-19T00:59:00.001-05:00

Kate and I have become pretty darn good friends over the last few years, but we have this problem where we kind of forget that we don't HAVE to keep all of our communication to the online world or the arena. So tonight I finally went to her brand spanking new (to her) house to enjoy the game. Jessica of the newish blog Running With Sabres (I am lousy about updating my blog roll, but when I do, her blog will definitely be on the list) joined us and a fun time was had by all.

So much fun was had in fact, that I barely know what happened tonight. In fairness to us, we did talk about things like blogging, local media, and how Lindy Ruff's snazzy system is affecting the offensive plalyers and how it will work in the postseason so we weren't completely off-topic, but yeah, I only remember two goals. I remember Jochen Hecht's because it was such a Jochen goal - you could tell by the sheepish smile on his face that even he knew it was completely ridiculous. And I remember Thomas Vanek's goal because all three of us yelled at the same time, "He scored and he's STILL shaking his head!" You could practically hear him thinking, "That was the WORST goal in ALL MANKIND!" And then they cut to Thomas on the bench, looking all sad sack-y, Lindy with one hand on Thomas's shoulder and whispering in his ear. How'd we end up paying seven million to the guy with no self-esteem? (And I do say that affectionately. I would prefer a star player with sound mental health, but I suppose caring too much is better than not caring enough.)

As Kate said at the end of the night though, it was a good night to not really pay attention. This was one of those games that you can allow to just kind of wash over you. I've grown very fond of our stellar record against the Western Conference so I hope it continues.

And hey, I said in the preseason that I thought the Sabres would finish fifth in the conference (and called Carolina finishing under us though even I didn't see the delight that has been their season) and I told you guys months ago that it was time to admit the Sabres were good at hockey, but even I did not see them with the top seed in the conference at any point in the season. Can I get a little Darcy Regier love up in here, cynics and doubters? Heh.

Moving On

2010-01-15T01:32:00.000-05:00

Can I be honest? Every season there comes a point where I just want to fast forward 10-15 games. That time has come. I think tonight's game was boring, and as much as I love defense, even I can only take so much penalty killing, but even if it'd been a little more fun, I'm just ready to get on with it. This impatience has hit me a little earlier this season because of the Sabres place in the standing. I know some of the more superstitious among you are going to gasp in horror when I say this, but the Sabres are making the playoffs. They are. They're up by 12 points in the division. They're second in the conference. There will be playoff hockey in Buffalo this spring. I've been thinking about that a lot lately - the buzz in the city, the all day nervousness, the holding of breath for every shift, every shot - and I can't wait for it to get here. I can't.

That said, I am looking forward to the west coast swing. It'll be nice to see some different teams, and I'm a night owl so I love, love, love late night hockey. Every year I argue for Center Ice, but it's probably a good thing we don't have it. If we did I would be falling asleep on the couch, hockey on the television, pretty much all season.

During her game diary tonight, Amy mentioned John Buccigross's latest column (Bucci, quit trying to make "blogumn" happen) and it sounded interesting so I went to check it out. It's all about Ilya Kovalchuk, and he suggests a trade for every team in the league. Here's an edited version of what he says about Buffalo (you can follow the link above for the whole thing - some of them are doozies):

Proposed trade: Kovalchuk and Kubina for Thomas Vanek, Zack Kassian and a first-round pick

Even if the Sabres didn't re-sign Kovalchuk, which they probably wouldn't, they would get a player who would electrify the city and team and could be a difference-maker for the playoffs. They'd also get depth at defense in Kubina, and they'd have the cap room for the summer to add a free agent or trade for Brian Campbell! Kassian, the Sabres' first draft pick in June, is off to a slow start.

There are a few problems in here, I think (our defensive depth is actually pretty good, there's no one in the free agent market this off-season of Vanek's caliber), but he hits on my biggest concern about a huge trade - losing too much for a player who won't be here next season. Despite his quiet performance so far this season, Vanek is arguably our best offensive player. You wanna give that up for an impending free agent who almost certainly won't re-sign with the Sabres?

I guess my biggest problem is that I just haven't decided yet how good the Sabres are. They're good. If Ryan Miller keeps playing like he has all season then they're very good. The Eastern Conference, with the exception of a few teams, is pretty average. The Sabres have looked good against some of the best teams in the Western Conference. If things line up right, the Sabres could make a lot of noise. But I don't know. Maybe I've been soaking up too many interviews with Darcy Regier, but I need to be more sure of their success before I go trading Vanek or Derek Roy or Chris Butler. Stay tuned on that, I guess.

Falling In Love

2010-01-10T01:29:00.008-05:00

Let me be very clear on this: I was wrong about Tyler Myers. Most of you probably remember that back in the preseason I was one of maybe five people in the world who thought Myers should stay in juniors. I questioned whether he had the physical, mental, or emotional maturity to make it through an NHL season. I didn't think he was going to be enough of a difference maker on this year's team to justify starting the clock to free agency. I thought the Sabres would be wise to take extra time and care with him.

I was wrong. Wrong, wrong, wrong.

I'm still a little concerned about Myers making it through the regular season much less the playoffs without running down especially since he's playing so much time every night. That's a lot of hockey to hang on a still undeveloped body. But everything else? No worries.

One of my favorite things about him is how, as mature and calm as he is on the ice, there are moments when he's still clearly a kid. I love that he had a huge grin on his face after his second goal against Toronto. I love that in his postgame interview he stood there, hair standing on edge, smiled sheepishly and admitted he was really going hard for the hat trick. A lot of young hockey players don't seem to be very young. I'm sure for some it's just personality coming into play, but I think part of it is that hockey becomes a job for a lot of these boys so young. They leave home when they're babies and hockey is their world. While that maturity comes in handy when it comes to playing, as a fan I somtimes find it disconcerting how polished and professional they are at 19, 20, 21. So I like that Tyler Myers is sometimes just a big gawky 19-year-old who's having the time of his life. He's having an impressive season and he's clearly going to be something special, but I'm really happy about the fact that I just like him so much.

This picture makes me happy. (Photo by Rick Stewart/Getty Images)

I'm obviously not the only one feeling that way. One of my favorite things to do when we go to games is check out everyone's jerseys. I said to Mark at dinner, "I just saw a Jochen jersey!" because that's one I don't see very often. Anyone who's ever been to a game can name the most popular jerseys: Miller and Vanek with some Pominvilles, Roys, and a growing number of Gaustads mixed in. But tonight I saw an awful lot of 57s wandering around HSBC. An awful lot. And they were on everyone, men and women, boys and girls. And that affection carried over into the game. The crowd was already jacked up by the third period comeback and the neverending shootout, but when everyone realized Myers was stepping over the boards as the next shooter, the place hit a whole new level. We went bonkers. We wanted to win the game, of course, but we really wanted Myers to be the hero. It was the sound of a city falling in love with a player and a moment I think I'll remember for a long time.
I really want Myers to win the Calder. I've spent the last couple of days running all over the internet, promising to burn a building somewhere to the ground if he doesn't. I want the d-man to beat the forwards, I want the project to beat the sure things, I want Buffalo to beat the larger markets. But mostly I want Myers to do what he's doing right now in a Sabres jersey for a very long time.

Back to the Grind

2010-01-07T00:25:00.000-05:00

Whew. I think I've recovered from the holidays at last. Before I move on to tonight's game, a brief programming note. After years of dithering, I've decided to go back to school. I'll spare you all the (not so) sordid details of my previous college experience, and just say I've never completed an undergraduate degree and think it's about time. I've finally decided I'm tired of busting my ass as an aide and getting paid practically nothing so it's time to become a teacher... so I can bust my ass and get paid a little bit more than practically nothing. I'd actually prefer to skip the undgrad degree altogether and jump straight to the masters in literacy since my end goal is to be a reading specialist, but as it turns out, no one's down with that plan. So I'll take the long way, I guess.

All that to say, my schedule is about to get a lot busier so I'm not exactly sure how the blogging is going to go for the next few months while I readjust to an academic life, especially this semester when I'll be doing school and work full-time. The fact of the matter is, I love, love, love this blog and being an active part of the Buffalo sports community so I'll probably find time. Most of my classes this semester are internet courses so it's quite possible a large portion of my study time will consist of me flipping between a tab with my class lessons and a tab with Top Shelf (and a tab with Twitter, and a tab with Gmail, and tabs with other Sabres blogs...) so there might not even be a noticeable difference. But in case there is, well, now you know what's going on.

I missed the seemingly very exciting first period, but based on what I did see, I can firmly say this was one of the most awful hockey games ever. That was some ugly, crazy, sloppy hockey. That said, wow, Mike Robitaille and Rob Ray need to settle down a bit. Yes, it was a gross game, no, playing like that is definitely not going to work in the playoffs. It was one game and really one of the few games the Sabres have played like that this season. Let's be happy we won and move the heck on.

While watching tonight's game, I pulled out a lap desk that I hadn't used in a while. I was using this desk a lot back when I first started really watching the Sabres closely, and I was tickled to realize I'd written a couple of notes to myself on it. There were two or three guys whose numbers I just could not remember. I knew their names, I knew their positions, but I just couldn't make them stick in my head enough to really recognize them when I was watching. So I made a little cheat sheet. Take a look:

In retrospect, I find this list pretty funny because if you put a gun to my head and made me pick my favorite three Sabres of the last few years it would probably be Jochen Hecht, Henrik Tallinder (duh), and Toni Lydman. They haven't always been the best Sabres. Heck, at times they've been the worst. But for better or for worse, they're my boys. For whatever reason, they've just burrowed into my heart.

I've been thinking about Jochen Hecht in particular a lot lately. While I hated the way he played last season, I also hated the way fans were trashing him. I thought people were very quick to forget how steady he'd been for pretty much his entire career in Buffalo. He was one of the few players in 2007-2008 who looked like he cared at all about anything on the ice. I also felt like the "Now he has his big contract" accusastions never fit him. He had what was arguably his best year as a Sabre after he signed his extension. If he was going to relax in the comfort of money, I think that would have been the time to do it. So I don't know what happened last year. I don't know if he just suddenly lost his confidence and found himself in a spiral he couldn't get out of. I don't know if there was something going on outside of hockey that had him distracted. I don't know. But he was lost on the ice and distraught and sullen in interviews. When he gave interviews at all.

I do know that he's one of those guys whom I feel for when he's struggling. Some guys I just want to kick in the shin, some guys I mutter and curse at, but a few - like Hank, Jochen, and Toni - just make me sad. My heart hurts watching them flail. I want to hug them and tell them it'll be better soon. The rejuvanation of Hank is my favorite story of the season, of course. But the rejuvanation of Jochen is a very close second. I missed seeing that little half smile last year. It's good to see it again.

And just for your enjoyment, here's something else from my lap desk. I have a feeling this was more of a mindless doodle.

I was evidently 12 at the time. Also, I have Soupy cooties.

That's the Good Stuff

2009-12-30T01:05:00.001-05:00

When Kate sent me an email this off-season asking if I'd like to buy some of her season tickets, the first game I grabbed was the December 29th game against Pittsburgh. I wanted to see the Penguins play in person, something I hadn't managed to do for the last couple of years thanks to poor timing and broken bones, and the 29th also just happens to be my birthday. A little present to myself.

So when that third Penguins goal went in and Ryan Miller flung his helmet down the tunnel while Patrick Lalime skated some warm-up circles, I was pretty cranky. It's silly, but we're all fans here and sometimes as fans we let our teams dictate our moods. I was really frustrated because it was becoming clear that the Sabres are doo diddly when Ryan Miller isn't on his game. There's nothing wrong with that really - as Kevin kind of said in a post earlier today, all teams are built around somebody and when those somebodies don't play well, their teams suffer - but I don't know, it was very defeating to watch. And on my birthday, darn it all!

And then god bless him, Drew Stafford saved the day. I'm sure this game was super exciting to watch on TV, but I'm so happy I was there because it was just one of those games where you could feel everything. When Drew Stafford skated around and around while the scrum in front of Pittsburgh's net was being reviewed, you could feel how big that penalty shot was going to be. You could feel how much he knew it. You could feel how much he wanted it. You could feel how much we wanted it. It was one of those moments when player and fan are almost as one, and when he put that sucker in the net - with an assist from Marc-Andre Fleury - you could feel everyone - on the bench and in the crowd - let out a breath and think, "Okay. One more and we're back in the game."

Kate wrote a post a few weeks back about the view from our seats, and I'm about to pretty much repeat what she said. (Sorry, Kate.) Here's what we see:

They're awesome seats, but we're at the end the Sabres shoot on once. That doesn't really bother me since I'm a freak who'd rather watch defense and goaltending, but it means the Sabres score a lot of their goals at the other end of the ice, and it's tough to see the actual goal sometimes, especially when there's a huge pile of bodies in a scrum in front of the net. A split second or so before we know the puck is in the net, the crowd behind the net leaps to its feet, arms raised. Sometimes they leap up without the puck having gone in and then sit right back down, but when it does goes in, the celebration weaves down around the rink, like the wave but less annoying because it's spontaneous and heart-felt, until it gets to our section. It's very, very cool. Because Jason Pominville's shot was from farther out, we could see it pretty well, but from our end it was hard to tell if it hit the crossbar inside or outside of the net. But we knew when the leaps and waves continued around the ice.

It was just... I don't know, it's hard to explain. It was one of those shared moments that really makes being a sports fan what it is. All the journalists who wonder why we continue to support teams who don't win championships are missing those moments. I'm sure John Vogl and Mike Harrington and Bucky Gleason and Jerry Sullivan watch games like this one and understand how important that win could be for a team, but they don't feel it, not the way we do. It doesn't send them dancing out into the streets. I don't know if the Sabres will win the Stanley Cup this season or not, but I know that no matter how the season ends - in ecstasy, agony, or somewhere in between - I'll remember this game. I'll remember Kate assuring me via Twitter that the Sabres were just setting things up for a dramatic birthday come from behind victory. I'll remember Drew Stafford skating around center ice, fresh off a healthy scratch, waiting to take a shot that could - and did - change the whole game. I'll remember watching 19-year-old Tyler Myers unhesitatingly knock down Evgeni Malkin (who looks HUGE in person, btw) in the waning seconds of the game. I'll remember the celebration dancing through the crowd until it hit section 120 and I'll remember Mark and I talking about the other fun games we've seen live the last couple of years (and I know this one will get added to the list). I'll remember the whole team squeezing together in one big huddle after the final buzzer, staying that way just a few seconds longer than usual because they felt it too. Relief, excitement, pride, joy, all of it.

Tomorrow we can debate the more intellectual side of the game - the lack of effort in the first period, whether this is really Drew Stafford coming on or just another flash of what he could be, the still kind of frightening power play - but for tonight, thinking about, enjoying, soaking in the good moments is enough.

Let's go Buff-a-lo!

A Top Shelf Christmas

2009-12-24T01:15:00.014-05:00

This is the same lame, lazy post I read three days ago.

You gonna update this thing, or what?

Well, actually, no, I thought I'd take a few days off. I know you've never done the holidays with us before but it's busy. Chicken finger pizza, sponge candy and The Muppet Christmas Carol on Christmas Eve, big family shindig on Christmas, my birthday next week, New Year's Eve. I mean, it's crazy!

...

Come on! Do you really want to read about the Caps game? It was disgusting!

...

Fine! Playing like garbage + crappy power play + stupid penalties (that d-bag Ovechkin) = godawful game I'd rather just pretend never happened. Happy now?

...

You know, I don't like your attitude. I think you're forgetting which of us is the dog and which of us is the human. Just for that, I'm breaking out the hat. Yes, the hat. You will wear it and you will be happy about it and you will wish everyone a merry Christmas and mean it.

Crap. Merry Christmas.

Hockey Math

2009-12-22T07:22:00.000-05:00

Playing the Leafs + Playing poorly (Winning despite playing poorly) = hi-freakin-larious.

Holiday Hockey Cheer

2009-12-21T00:04:00.000-05:00

Theoretically I suppose I should be disappointed about the Sabres losing in a shootout Saturday night, but I was actually feeling pretty chipper afterward. Maybe it's the holiday season, maybe it's only having two days left of school before a week and a half vacation, but I was in a very generous mood. They didn't look out of place against one of the best teams in the Eastern Conference, they played really well in front of Patrick Lalime who in turn, looked pretty good for the second consecutive start. They have a nice little cushion in the Northeast Division. They earned 5 out of 6 points in a busy week. It's all good, Sabres fans.

Two minor complaints.

One, we're on Versus AGAIN? I don't hate their coverage the way some fans do (though I would appreciate the occasional replay of SOMETHING), but this is like, the 8th week in a row. Versus, I love both guys, but I'm going to need you to come up with some talking points beyond "Ryan Miller will probably be the Olympic starter" and "Tyler Myers is super tall."

Two, our power play is ineffective. Watching them try to score is like watching this poor little puppy try to get back on his feet. Except not nearly as cute. Or cute at all really.

On a completely unrelated note, I really, really, really want Paul Gaustad to make the U.S. Olympic team. That's my hockey Christmas wish.

A Few More Head Shot Thoughts

2009-12-19T09:25:00.001-05:00

So I fell asleep during the second intermission last night and didn't wake up until 8 a.m. this morning. Long, busy week at work caught up with me, I guess. That means unfortunately that I don't have a lot to say about last night's game other than, I love when Toni Lydman scores and for him, the more ridiculous, the better. I'm sorry I missed all the post-game stuff because post-goal Toni is always one of the best interviews of the year. He's clearly happy but always hilariously self-deprecating. I'll have to poke around today, but if anyone knows of some good Toni video or audio, please let me know.

For now, I mostly just wanted to thank everyone for linking, pointing out links to, and commenting on the last entry. I really appreciate that the comments here tend to be well thought out and respectful, even the dissenters. If you left a comment early in the day, I'd encourage you to go back and check out any you missed. But because I know some of you won't, here's a slightly re-worded bit from the last comment I left:

For me, this isn't just about Patrick Kaleta. It's about every player who is unappreciated and therefore unprotected by the NHL. It could be because he's a douchebag, it could because he's not a star or doesn't have any name recognition, it could because he plays in a market no one cares about. Whatever the reason, I'm tired of there always being an excuse to look the other way. We've heard league officials go on incessantly for the last couple of seasons about how much they want to get head shots out of the game, how concerned they are about concussions. I don't understand how people can talk like that and then look at a hit like Ruutu's which was directly to the head, realize the victim didn't return to the game and was suffering and neck and vision problems the following day, and shrug and say, "Well, it wasn't THAT bad." The hypocrisy involved is my primary problem.

PKB wrote an interesting post at Hockey Rhetoric about what he would change about the discipline system, and I think most of his points are good ones. There are a couple of things I'd add.

The first thing I'd add is that I think it's time to stop thinking too hard about intent. For one thing, I think very, very few players line up a hit with the intention of hurting someone. You can almost always honestly say, "He didn't mean for that to happen." For another thing, like Kate said in one of her comments, measuring intent is way too hard and leaves too many loopholes. I hate to keep coming back to the rules for high sticking, but I think they apply. If Jochen Hecht hits Ian White in the face with his stick, whether he meant to do it or not, Jochen will be penalized. We've all seen high sticks that were clearly accidents - probably most of them are - but they're still penalized because stick infractions can be dangerous. Why should shots to the head be treated any differently? They're far more dangerous, both in the immediate and in the long-term.

The second thing I'd add is that I think it's time to stop factoring the resulting injury into discipline too much. If the victim isn't going to play again all season and you want to make the sentence for the hitter stiffer then I guess that's okay. But the fact that the victim gets up and skates away from a dangerous hit doesn't make the hit any less wrong. It just makes everyone - victim, hitter, and league - real damn lucky. In addition, with all the research about concussions showing that the worst effects might not show up for years, the real damage on a head shot can't be seen with human eyes. It's time to get over the idea that no damage was done because the victim isn't bleeding or nursing a broken bone.

When a player gets away with one hit because he didn't mean to or it didn't do any serious damage and his next hit leaves someone like Sidney Crosby, or Alexander Ovechkin, or Jarome Iginla crippled on the ice, the NHL can throw the book at the guy and it's going to be too late. The damage is done. A star player will be gone, the NHL will be buried in a media shit storm they'll never get out of, and a lot of fans including me, will never look at a hockey game the same way. At this point, the NHL desperately needs to deter the kind of hits we're seeing more and more of and that means punishment should be harsh and it should come BEFORE the worst of the damage.

Go Sabres.