I've Got Vision and the Rest of the World is Wearing Bifocals

Some thoughts while half listening to Sabres-Leafs on the radio:

- As someone who was raised on older movies, I was pretty bummed to hear about Paul Newman's death. He's one of my favorites. Thanks to my iPod I don't listen to WGR very often but on occasions when I accidentally leave it behind I sometimes tune in for a few minutes because my car radio suddenly quit picking up FM stations about a year ago. A few months ago they did a Paul Newman version of the obituary game in which they attempt to pick what movie or TV show will be mentioned in the first sentence of a celebrity's obituary. I figured Color of Money would come up first since it's his Oscar winning performance but for me there's no question what Paul Newman's best movie is. If you've never seen this movie, get thee to a video store immediately. Or just go buy it. It's one of my favorites and it's totally worth the money you'll spend. Here are a couple of other great scenes.

- When Steve Bernier was traded I went back and read the post I wrote after his first game in Buffalo and the thing that really caught my attention was not how physical he was in that game but how much his physicality trickled down to the rest of the team. Derek Roy was hanging off people's backs, Tim Connolly was jumping into scrums and in one of my favorite moments of the season, Dmitri Kalinin got sent to the box with Patrick Kaleta where they shared an adorably triumphant fist-bump.

I'm really curious to see if Craig Rivet will have that kind of effect on the Sabres (but on a more consistent basis). I'm especially curious to see what kind of influence he has on Toni Lydman if he and Toni do end up playing together. I love Henrik Tallinder but he's just not an overly physical guy and probably never will be. And while Toni will never be throwing his gloves around the ice, I think he is capable of playing with a little more of an edge than he usually does. It'd be nice to have one defensive pairing that's willing to knock the opposition around some. I'm sure Ryan Miller would appreciate that as well.

- See, this is the problem with trying to write about games I can't see. Mike Weber got tossed out of the game for cross-checking Matt Stajan in the neck. Harry Neale said on the radio broadcast that he didn't think it looked like that big of a deal. Mike Harrington said on Sabres Edge that it was deserved. I'm inclined to believe Harrington over the guy who even after six months continued to mix up Paul Gaustad and Jason Pominville (different numbers, totally different sizes, completely different styles of play) but it would be nice to be able to form my own opinion. I can't wait until television coverage starts.

- Again, it's hard to say for sure but it certainly sounded like Maxim Afinogenov played pretty well. Coincidence that I wrote here yesterday that I'd like to see Max with Derek Roy and Thomas Vanek and tonight that's what happened? I'm not so sure. Lindy, if you're reading this, wear a striped tie Sunday night.

- The Sabres play really well but fall behind, tie it up with 2:30 left in the game and then win in overtime. I have two thoughts: One, ha ha to the Leafs. Two, do we really need to break out the exciting but frustrating games already? Can't we ease into this, guys?

- While it's really too bad Henrik Tallinder and Jochen Hecht didn't play on Red Carpet night, there were some decent highlights anyway.

Ales Kotalik looking like he's about to sell those children something illegal:

Watch out, kids!

Derek Roy rocking a suit that only Derek Roy would wear:

You gotta admire the kid's gumption.

And finally, Teppo Numminen showing all the little boys how it's done:

Smoking. What can I say? I like my men older.

(All photos taken by Bill Wippert and found on Sabres.com.)

- Totally unrelated to tonight's game but something I thought about while walking around the mall today. Fellow people of Buffalo, it's time to let go of the Drury/Briere jerseys and jersey tees. I understand being attached to players and how hard it is to say goodbye to those you love. I even kind of understand continuing to wear them last season as a defiant message to ownership that you did not approve of their dealings. But it's the dawning of a new day here in Buffalo. It's a new era and a new team. It's time to move on. Personally I'd toss those suckers right in the garbage but if you need to perform a ceremony, maybe lovingly place the jersey in a boat, a hockey stick laid carefully across it, and send it out on Lake Erie a la Boromir being sent down the Anduin toward the Falls of Rauros that's fine too. But whatever you gotta do, let's do it already.

- I'm going to Sunday's game! Yay!

More Ryan Miller/The Dark Knight

Well, now that I'm home and really have time to gather my thoughts about Ryan Miller, most of my thoughts have already been written by someone else. dave in Rocha pretty well covers how I feel about the hockey side of things (teams have to make choices and and the Sabres let Briere and Campbell walk in anticipation of this day) and Kate totally nails the emotional side (as dumb as it might seem, it's really sweet when an athlete says he loves the same place you love and makes a commitment to stick around for a while).

It's weird because while I like Ryan Miller and am pretty comfortable with him being the starter for the next handful of years, I don't feel that emotional connection to him that you feel to your favorite players. I love Henrik Tallinder. I love Jochen Hecht. I might even love Derek Roy. I like Ryan Miller. I was totally caught off-guard by how genuinely excited I was when I first heard he had officially re-signed. I think it was partly the emotional component. After constantly being told no one wants to play in Buffalo it's nice to see that someone does like us. I think it was partly the "I told you so" element. He's going to Detroit when? I think it was partly just knowing that it was important for the team - on the ice and off - to get this contract done. I don't know. Whatever the reason, I'm really, really happy.

I think the terms are pretty good too. I'm not sure what will happen if Jhonas Enroth turns out to be as good as he's supposed to be, but that's certainly a question for another day and let's face it, "We have two good goalies!" is not a bad problem to have. It's a lot of money, but it's a fair price based on the market. Honestly, I was expecting the cap hit to be closer to $7 million than $6 million. So yeah. I'll take it.

Since Ryan Miller has been pretty much covered, let's move on to the next important thing. The Dark Knight. I'm not really going to go into any plot spoilers, but I am assuming basic comic book knowledge. If you don't know what happens to Harvey Dent eventually, you might want to skip out and just trust me, the movie is awesome and worth your money.

Let me preface this little review with a brief note of explanation. We're comic book geeks at my house with Batman being a personal favorite. Batman is the reason Mark and I met in the first place. Our Batman is not the Batman of the 60's TV show, all shiny and happy. Our Batman is dark and brooding, carefully straddling the line of good and evil, right and wrong. The Dark Knight? Pretty much the perfect Batman movie for us.

Mark and I had a long discussion about some of the comparisons we'd read of this movie to others and we decided that Empire Strikes Back really works for a couple of reasons. One, it tops the movie that preceded it which was already pretty darn good. Two, it's much darker and well, quite frankly pretty unhappy. Batman Begins, like A New Hope ends on a fairly optimistic note. Things aren't perfect, but they just might be okay in the future. In Empire Strikes Back and The Dark Knight, everything goes to hell. Relationships are tested, things done with the best of intentions go wrong, terrible things happen and no one really gets a happy ending.

Harvey Dent/Two-Face is my very favorite villain in all of comicdom. The only show/movie to ever get him right however is Batman: The Animated Series. (And that's not meant as an insult. B:TAS kicks ass.) I was pretty irate over the Two-Face that appeared in Batman Forever because there's no backstory. Two-Face just shows up as this stupid, comical character who flips a coin. It's terrible. (Like most comic geeks, I feel very strongly that Joel Schumacher is the worst thing to happen to Batman ever.) Two-Face is a deeply tragic character and the reason he is that is because of Harvey, his former position as Gotham City District Attorney and his pre-existing relationships with Batman and Jim Gordon. If you skip all that, you really short-change the character so I was so, so glad to see The Dark Knight really take the time to develop Harvey Dent. I love Harvey Dent. I knew roughly what was going to happen - things go down a little differently than they do in his comic origin - and I was still a total mess. And we're not talking delicate tears streaming quietly down my face. We're talking full-body sobs. Am I lame? Totally. But that's how I roll, yo.


I'll say three things about Heath Ledger as Joker. One, he somehow manages to be both hilarious and terrifying, usually at the same time. More than once he said something that was so funny I really wanted to laugh, but it's in the middle of a brutal scene and I was kind of uncomfortable with laughing. Two, if I didn't know that was Heath Ledger, I wouldn't know it was Heath Ledger. He totally disappears in the role. If you're at all worried about how weird it'll be to watch him, knowing it's one of his last roles - or maybe his last depending on what Terry Gilliam can salvage from the movie they were shooting at the time of his death - I wouldn't worry about it. You'll forget it's him after a few minutes. And three, if Ledger gets a posthumous Oscar nomination, it won't be a sympathy vote. It'll be because he's THAT GOOD. I've spent a lot of time ribbing Mark about how he doubted Robert Downey, Jr. would be a good fit for Iron Man. I told him he was crazy, RDJ was practically born for Tony Stark. He reminded me today that when Heath Ledger was cast as the Joker it was me who had doubts and him who was saying, "No, I think it might be cool." I'll gladly eat crow. I was wrong about Heath Ledger as the Joker. He is amazing and absolutely deserving of all the raves he's getting.

I hate to be all cheesy and say, "This movie is so much more than just a comic book movie!" but... this movie is so much more than just a comic book movie. There are special effects and chase scenes and lots of things blow up. But that stuff never overshadows the characters and the story those characters are telling. There are a lot of pretty serious themes going on: What's good, what's evil, how thin the line between the two is, and how hard that line is to define and how easy it is to cross. It's a fantastic movie. Not a fun one per se - tough to watch at times and not all that happy - but pretty darn interesting and so well-done. The writing, directing and acting are all top notch. See it. But if you see it and don't like it, keep it to yourself because I will think less of you and probably question our friendship.

(I'm kidding.)

(Mostly.)

(Please don't take your small children.)

Lindy Ruff 4-Eva

I think most fans have atleast one blind spot. One issue or person that they will never ever see in any way but their way. A lot of fans are like this about their favorite player. If they like a guy enough, he could be playing like garbage but they'll never, ever admit it. I don't think I'm like that about Henrik Tallinder. I do kind of ignore it when he's not playing well - rarely will I actually say here, "Boy, Hank looks terrible!" - but I am seeing it and when other people point it out I don't get irrationally defensive. I'll admit, "Yeah, he and Toni need to be better," and then just kind of shrug and add, "They'll get it together."

I'm beginning to realize that I am pretty irrational about one person however and that person is Lindy Ruff. I've written about my affection for Lindy before and I don't think I'm alone here. In most cities, if the team was struggling as badly as the Sabres are struggling right now, the coach would be on the hot seat. Fans would be running him out of town. Granted, I am shielding myself from the more uh, zealous fans on sports radio and message boards, but there doesn't seem to be any kind of "FIRE LINDY!" uprising forming, atleast not yet. I hope it stays that way.

Here's the thing: I understand if people are critical of Lindy. I've been more perplexed by him this year than any other year in the past. I've spent most of my days on IR hanging out over at Interchangeable Parts and Pookie has suggested more than once that it's time for Lindy to move on, if for no other reason than just to shake things up. And my brain gets it. My brain understands that yeah, maybe a new face coming in and saying, "I don't know you and I don't care about whatever garbage is going on here, this is how it's gonna be" would wake the team up. (Though my brain also gets that the Interchangeable Parts girls are Devils fans and therefore barely have coaches long enough to remember their names much less fall in love with them :P)

But at the mere mention of Lindy going somewhere else - especially if it comes about because of a firing! - my heart freaks out and my fingers start typing every defense I can think of, some that make sense, some that don't. Lindy can't make the goal scorers score goals. He can't make the defense more consistent and he can't make the goalies steal games. He can't take players who aren't physical by nature and turn them into grinders. He can't make spoiled professional athletes work hard and play like they want to win. Any lack of effort is on the players. I don't care if teams usually fire coaches because it's easier than firing the players. In fact, I've now stated in more than one place that if it's between firing Lindy and firing the team, I'd gladly say a fond farewell to every guy on the roster. And while that's the kind of hyperbolic statement someone would usually make just to get a point across, I think I might actually mean it. Take that albatross of a contract somewhere else, Thomas. Go get your 6 million in another city, Brian. Let someone else worry about your groins, Timmy and Max. Goose and Mairsy, I hope you find somewhere soft to land. Jochen, it's been a blast. Hank... Hank, I think I'll miss you most of all. But seriously, I don't care if Rob Ray and James Patrick have to come out of retirement so that we can field a full team - heck, let Lindy play - just do whatever needs to be done to keep Lindy Ruff in Buffalo until I die.

So I just wanted to give you all fair warning that if it comes to a point where people really do start talking about firing Lindy I'm going to squeeze my eyes shut and wish the whole conversation away. I won't defend him because my arguments will be irrational and desperate but I won't take part either and I'll never, ever, ever agree as long as there's still breath left in my body.


Okay, now to go totally off-topic...

I had a week or so of zen, but I really need to get this cast off and I need to do it ASAP. If I had a saw, I'd just do it myself. I'm enjoying the sitting around and reading and watching DVDs etc, I would just like to be able to carry a plate of food from the kitchen to another room. Is that asking so much?

Books I've read since being disabled: Rayzor's Edge: Rob Ray's Tough Life on the Ice (pretty good), Searching for Bobby Orr (excellent), Breaking the Ice: My Journey to Olympic Hockey, the Ivy League, and Beyond (okay), The Parting (good), and On Chesil Beach (overrated :::clap, clap, clapclapclap)
Currently reading: Home to Holly Springs and Brodeur: Beyond the Crease

DVDs I've watched since being disabled: Once (awesome - the best movie I've seen from last year and one of the best movies I've seen in the past few years), Knocked Up (pretty good but not great), Superbad (totally overrated but not really my thing), Stardust (liked it more than I expected to), Veronica Mars: Season One (very good), 3:10 to Yuma (very, very good), and Waitress (sweet and funny and geez, why hasn't Hollywood made a star out of Nathan Fillion - weak-chinned or not - yet?)
Currently watching: 30 Rock: Season One with Battlestar Galactica on deck

Heather B's favorite Oscar nominee: Falling Slowly for Best Original Song

Ruff + Regier 4-Ever/Why I Love Hockey Pt. 3

Finally some official news came down from the Sabres today with the announcement that general manager Darcy Regier and head coach Lindy Ruff have both come to agreements with the team, Regier for two more years, Ruff for three more years with an option for a fourth year. Both men received raises and while no specific salaries were mentioned, according to Sabres managing partner Larry Quinn, Regier and Ruff both accepted less money than they likely would've gotten on the open market. Not much to add to the announcement except a big "Yahoo!" I really feel like Regier and Ruff are the best GM/head coach combo in the NHL and they've survived some crazy stuff in Buffalo including a bankruptcy that left the location and survival of the franchise in doubt for a while. Both guys have done a lot to build and grow an exciting, competitive, still young team and I'm glad they want to stick around for a few more years and see things through.

The press conference was also the first real word from the powers that be about the season (good!), the postseason (bad!), and plans moving forward. Ninety-three percent of the questions asked were about negotiatons with Chris Drury and Danny Briere and four of the remaining seven percent were about something else on the surface but really about negotiations with Chris Drury and Danny Briere. ("Can you talk to us about the team's policy about negotiating during the season? Because it really bit you in the ass with Drury and Briere, don't you think?") I was fine with most of the answers - we struggled defensively in the postseason, we're in talks with the captains, we haven't eliminated the idea of a special teams coach, we'll see what Paetsch does at training camp. Lindy did say he thinks most of our defensive problems can be addressed from within which has some people up in arms but I'm not really convinced that means management has decided not to look at bringing in outside help if they can find someone that fits. I mean, what's Lindy going to say? "Our defense really crapped out! We're definitely looking to replace a couple of these suckers :::coughkalinincough::: so Ryan doesn't have to carry our asses next season." I don't think so.

The only thing that did worry me a little bit was this response from Regier to a question about whether the team had talked to Vanek or his agent at all yet: No, I'm not a believer in operating out of fear. I've seen it take place in this business, where you have to absolutely have somebody and you pay for it. You pay for it because of some rumor. The reality is (that) there's a market value. He's a very good player. He's a very important player. There's a market value and you have to stay the course. You have to be looking at things on a longer term - not just on a short-term reaction. The other part is that I think we'll be fine with Thomas at the end of the day, I believe.

I don't know, fellas. Granted I've only been following the off-season stuff for a few years, but I've never heard so many rumors about a player potentially getting offer sheets from other teams. I'm glad we're confident that Thomas wants to be here, but why risk letting another team set his price when you have the chance to do it yourself? We all agree that he's an amazing young talent and should be a cornerstone of the team for the next few years... So sign him now! Why put yourself in a situation where you have to match a four million dollar offer when you might be able to get him to agree to less than that? I hope they're confident in the idea that the offer sheets are just rumors because if we end up dumping Vanek for a bunch of draft picks, I'm marching down to the HSBC offices and knocking some heads together. I want to be watching this kid in blue and gold for a few more years atleast. I'm not REALLY worried because I do see us matching any offer that does come down but still... In this case, I don't really like the wait and see attitude.

Why I Love Hockey #3 - The Postseason/The Stanley Cup
Ah, the NHL playoffs. No other sport's playoffs come close to touching the NHL's. We get four rounds of skilled, physical, intense competition. I love the way the playoffs are like a whole new season, the slate wiped clean. I love the 8th seed that had to scrap its way into the playoffs upsetting the 1st seed that coasted through the regular season. I love the way guys like Chris Drury get that extra shine in their eyes and that extra grit in their teeth. I love the extra effort guys seem to put out - the pounding hits, the hustling after loose pucks, the diving in front of shots. The last team standing at the end of the NHL playoffs absolutely deserves the title of champions. Even the Hurricanes. And the Stars. Okay, maybe just the Hurricanes. (I kid! Kind of!)

And then the winner is presented with the Stanley Cup, the greatest trophy in sports. I love that it's given directly to the captain and not the owner or the GM. They're important but in the end, it's all about the guys on the ice and I love that the NHL gets that. I love that every member of the team gets his moment with the Cup on the ice and during the off-season. And I love that the trophy is so rich with history and tradition that every player in the NHL has dreamt about what he's going to do with the Cup when he gets it whether it's drinking beer out of it with his childhood buddies or eating cereal or popcorn out of it with his wife and kids. Even when it's not my team doing the celebrating (hopefully that day will come very, very soon) I can't help but get a little teary-eyed and sentimental watching all those grown men skating around willy nilly looking for someone to hug, laughing and screaming and dog-piling in the middle of the ice. For a moment, they're all little boys again. Totally awesome and the best ending in sports.

Something About Me #3
If I had to watch one movie on an endless loop for the rest of my life it would probably be The Great Escape. But if I had to watch one scene from one movie on an endless loop for the rest of my life it would probably be the "Moses Supposes" number from Singin' in the Rain.