The Sabres Are Following Me!

As luck would have it (I guess), the restaurant we ate at last night had the Sabres game on. Crazy, no? I made my mom switch places with me so I was facing the TV but between eating, talking, and the distance of the TV I missed most of the game. I did see enough that my family was treated to a twenty minute discourse on why the shootout/third point is killing the Sabres and hockey as we know it. Judging by the way their eyes were glazing over, I think maybe the brilliance of it was wasted on them. We did have a funny moment though while discussing fighting and how the Sabres don't do much of it. I told them our enforcer isn't good enough at hockey to play very much and that it's hard to fight from the bench. That was promptly followed by our enforcer taking a swing at someone... from the bench. What a dope.

Alabama is weird, you guys! I lucked across the game tonight but if I didn't go out of my way to keep tabs on the Sabres I would never accidentally run across that information. No hockey on TV, no hockey on the radio, no hockey in the newspaper. No hockey! It does not exist! I might see how long it takes me to learn the score of Wednesday's game. If I didn't cave and look it up (which I will) I'll bet I could get all the way back to Buffalo without finding out. It shouldn't be a surprise to me that Alabama doesn't exactly embrace hockey - I only lived here for twenty-one and a half years - but after living with the Buffalo crazies for almost eight years it's kind of mind-boggling.

While watching the game, I totally missed that Dmitri Kalinin and Jaroslav Spacek were hurt. Here's a re-dramatization of my response when I read that on Sabres Edge (it could be weeks?!) as performed by my nephew Luke:



I was not sitting in a laundry basket at the time though this team might eventually drive me to that. I forgot this game was on Versus. I don't suppose they at least gave us Hank in a suit, did they? Losers.

Dear Jochen Hecht...

Dear Jochen,

I admit it, this is all my fault. There you were, flying through the season, one of the best players on the ice, getting through your second season in a row without major injury and what did I do? I started crowing about how you were definitely going to get twenty goals this year. There was no way you couldn't! It was a sure thing! It was all locked up! Take it to the bank, plan the party, buy the cake, what could possibly stop you?

What was I thinking?! The Hockey Gods are everywhere! They see and know all! I'm sure they read the blogs every day and write down stupid declarations like "There's no way Jochen Hecht isn't scoring twenty goals" and then make a list of all the cruel and dastardly ways they can smite the player or team involved and destroy the heart and soul of the blogger.


I really should know better by now, Yo-Yo. I'm sorry. I should have said, "There's no way the Sabres don't trade Ales Kotalik!" Or "There's no way Andrew Peters makes it through another year without suffering a major injury!" I should have cursed someone I couldn't care less about.

Would it help to know that I really, really miss you? Whether other people want to admit it or not - or have even bothered to notice - your absence is clearly felt by your team. Sloppiness with the puck? Forwards not getting back on defense? The penalty kill suffering? Everyone skating around like crazed toddlers who've been playing hockey for a year? That's all stuff that you would help. You're really careful with the puck. You always play strong at both ends. You're one of the best penalty killers on the team. You never, ever panic. No matter who the opponent is or what the score is, you always play hard for sixty minutes which seems to still be a difficult concept for some of your teammates to grasp.

I don't care if you're quiet. I don't care if you don't scream and yell. I don't care if you're not an offensive juggernaut. I love you, I miss you, please come back soon. And please, please forgive me for getting you into this mess in the first place. I'm working on some kind of sacrifice to the Hockey Gods right now.

Love,
Heather B.

This Post is Pretty Lame

I don't really have too much to say about the Toronto game. It was good to see the Sabres handily beat a team they should beat but I don't know, I almost felt a little bad for the Leafs' fans. Can you imagine watching a team that just looks like it wants the season to be over as soon as possible every night?

So as has been my habit lately, here are some quick hit thoughts:

- Want to know what I think about Chris Drury returning to Buffalo? Too bad. I'm sick of this story and he's not even here yet. Here's what I said before the first Sabres-Rangers game. It all still applies.

- Advertising on goalie's jerseys? No, thanks. I know there are ads all over the arena including along the boards but that's not the same thing as putting ads in the field of play. No, no, no. This is one of those things where I understand every single point brought up in favor, namely increased revenues, but I will refuse this until my dying day no matter how much sense it makes. This article from the Toronto Star features one of the proposed looks and it is awful. Anything that shrinks the team logo that much should be avoided at all costs. Anyone who thinks this is going to start and stop with ads on the goalies is kidding themselves. Also, Dwayne Roloson had this to say: "They have (uniform ads) in Europe and it doesn't take away from the true jersey look." Uh, Dwayne? Are we looking at the same jerseys, you and I?

Ad? What ad? I don't see anything!
- While I kind of understand why people would say a three year contract is an insult compared to contracts being handed out right now, I also hate that the NHL has gotten to the point where three years is looked down upon. I love the idea of players potentially being in one city for a long time, but I also love the idea of teams having some flexibility with their roster. If you're going to sign the entire team to long-term contracts, you'd better be sure you really, really, really like your team.

- Thomas Vanek, Derek Roy, Jochen Hecht, and Paul Gaustad all missed practice today and Lindy Ruff seemed pretty concerned about some of them. Ummm... Yeah. If you said to me, "Hey, Heather, name four players the Sabres have to have come playoff time," you'd get a pretty similar list. Ryan Miller is the most important and I'd throw a defenseman (probably a Swedish one) on the pile, but the above list is not a good one. I have my fingers crossed that any and all x-rays are negative. IR isn't fun, guys! You don't want to join me here!

- I don't know how many of you read non-Sabres blogs but if you haven't read Pensblog's Fleury vs. Conklin trial, you're missing out on one of the best things I've ever read on these here interwebs. It is both ridiculous and smart and screamingly funny, the highlight being the meeting between Judge Charlie and the Daniel Alfredsson line in judge's chambers. I don't know how these guys pulled off this post but I can tell you this: Heather B = stunned.

- We all know that Sabres fans in visitor's arenas seem to have a pretty bad reputation. This photo, taken at the Florida-Boston game last night, shows Sabres fans at their very worst:


I mean, honestly, people. How could you mock Richard Zednik like that? That is so classless!

(Seriously, I'm sure there are people who've had truly dreadful experiences with Sabres fans but if all you got is, "They tried to drown out our cheering," "They booed our star player," or "They stepped on the promotional poster," spare me. That's called "Going to a hockey game.")

Random Musings of a Cluttered Mind

A collection of subjects that have very little to do with each other:

- First up, I need to make sure that everyone knows Sportsquee's Buffalo Sabres Squee-View is now up. Margee's blog is one of the funniest, most entertaining blogs on the internet and one of my very favorite reads. And I'm not just saying that because she named Henrik Tallinder the team's MVSquee.

- During a postgame conference during the playoffs, Lindy Ruff mentioned that he had a theory about why Maxim Afinogenov was struggling and said maybe he'd share that theory after the season was over. Today, he finally let us in on it. You can read the whole story here, but here it is in a nutshell:

“Max, while warming up playing soccer in the playoffs, flipped over backwards and hit his head on the concrete before Game Three in Long Island,” Ruff said, “and I don’t think he was right for a little while after that.”

With the knowledge that Max didn't really do any permanent damage to himself, I have to say this is one of the funniest things I've ever heard. It's been many years since I've played soccer so I could be fuzzy on how the game works but how the heck do you land on your head playing a game that's about keeping the ball in the air? I desperately need someone to do a little more investigating into this story. And the quote from Vanek - "He fell straight back on his head,” Sabres winger Thomas Vanek said of Afinogenov’s spill. “Once he went down, we quit immediately" - cracks me up for some reason. In my head, Max decides to get all showy, ignores the fact that they're playing on concrete and attempts one of those upside down bicycle kicks. He lands head first and the other boys start freaking out, trying to figure out what to do. And then they hear Lindy coming and freeze for a long second before scattering in every direction, leaving Lindy to find a moaning, barely conscious Max with a soccer ball at his feet. Sometimes I'm just overwhelmed by affection for these guys.

- Mark and I went to the scrimmage tonight along with his mom, sister, and nephew. Mark was rooting for the Blue Team since that's where Drew Stafford was while I was pulling for Team Gold. Alas Team Gold got shellacked, 10-4 although they did win the shootout. I don't really have much to note about the game itself other than the fact that the Kotalik-Connolly-Pominville line looked really good. They didn't connect for any goals but Timmy just sent them beautiful set-up after beautiful set-up. Timmy, Hank may have knocked you off the Favorite Sabre pedestal, but I'm still super happy to see you back on the ice.

Anyway, I was pretty distracted by this:

I realize this might sound a little hypocritical coming from a girl who took the time to Paint Shop hearts all over a picture of Henrik Tallinder but... this is pathetic. Maybe - maybe - I could excuse a 14-year-old girl, but the woman wearing this jersey was definitely old enough to know better. Seriously, how do you place an order for that jersey without feeling ridiculous much less actually wear it in public? My favorite thing is that I feel pretty sure that if Ryan Miller saw this, he'd immediately assume this woman was a freak. I gave Mark very strict instructions: If I ever come home with a jersey that says MRS. HANK, punch me in the head until I come to my senses.

- And finally... I've been pretty mum about the Teppo Numminen suspension here, mostly because I feel like I've been talking about it ad nauseum on other blogs. But I will say this: I understand that it was a business decision. No matter how many other examples people give - Lemieux, Fisher, Pisani - this situation is different and it has different salary and cap ramifications. I seriously doubt that the parties involved hadn't discussed Teppo's health problems and how they would affect his contract if a problem came up. Honestly, the only opinion I'm that concerned with is Teppo's and while he certainly has other things to worry about right now, he doesn't seem particularly surprised or upset by the suspension. He's talking very openly about returning to the Sabres if and when he's cleared and the Sabres are talking very openly about welcoming him back. It doesn't sound like any relationships have been soured or damaged. If Teppo's okay with it, then everything else is just noise.

That said...

I love that joke!

Seriously... I really like Teppo. Anyone who's cool enough to go to a Justin Timberlake concert with his much younger teammates - and cool enough that his much younger teammates would want him there - is aces in my book. I'm very nervous on his behalf. My father died of a heart attack when he was very young (38) and because I was so young (4) I only have very vague memories of him. Heart problems make me twitchy. Teppo gets razzed for being an old man, but in the real non-hockey world he's still a pretty young guy with a very young family and a lot of life left to live. My prayers and thoughts are definitely with you, Old Man, especially today.