Hockey - real live, counts in the standings, totally valid to freak out about hockey - is finally, FINALLY just around the corner. I don't know about the rest of you but I really felt like this off-season was never going to end. Ever. But in 72 hours or so the Sabres will have claimed their first victim of the season - and I mean the Canadiens not me, fellas - so it seems like it's time to lay out a couple of thoughts and predictions about the upcoming season. If I were a real journalist I would sit here until my thoughts were all nicely organized and worked but I'm not. I'm a lowly blogger who's not making any money doing this. Some totally random, unorganized thoughts:
TIMMY, MAX AND AL
Tim Connolly, Maxim Afinogenov and Ales Kotalik are all in contract years and their futures with the Sabres are cloudy at best. I think only one of them - if any - will be in Buffalo next season and they all definitely come with their pros and cons.
We all know how talented Timmy is. He's amazingly gifted and he's shown flashes of really pulling it together especially on the playmaking end. There have been times in the past when he's pulled moves that have left me staring at the TV. I had a game on our Tivo for almost an entire calendar year because of the last goal in this highlight package. I just now watched it three times. The Sabres have taken some crap for making a commitment to a guy who was out with concussion problems at the time but I think that's a blatant use of hindsight. It was a risk but a risk worth taking considering how dominant he'd just been in the postseason.
It's no newsflash that Tim's trouble is injuries. The concussion troubles are bad enough but there always seems to be something else going on too. I will admit that I did actually say to Mark a couple of weeks ago, "I have a good feeling about Timmy this season. I think he's going to play 70 games." I have no idea what I was thinking. A couple of days later he was nursing a sore back already and the preseason had barely started. Granted, he is coming off a surgery but we keep hearing that he worked out really hard the rest of the off-season and he was in great shape and I don't know, while I obviously have no idea what kind of pain he's feeling in that fragile little body of his, I've reached the point where I have to really wonder if he has the toughness and the desire to have the career that he could have if things worked on talent alone. I'm sure Tim understands how much he needs to have a great season - at 27 this could be his last, best chance at a big money contract - and I'm sure he'll have his usual near point a game numbers in the parts of the season he does play... I just don't see him making it through a whole season.
Regardless, I don't think he'll be back next season for one reason: Lindy Ruff sounds more and more frustrated every time he talks about him. I think he's clearly had his fill of "What's going on with Tim?" questions and we all know Lindy has a lot of say in personnel decisions. The Sabres made their commitment, it didn't work out, I really don't see them trying it again especially with so many talented forwards already on the roster and coming up through Portland. It really is too bad.
I said my piece about Max not that long ago. He was terrible last season but while I do find him pretty frustrating I really do think a lot of that can be chalked up to his injury - groin pulls do have to be pretty tough for a guy whose entire game is based on speed and quick cuts - and being played on some very ill-fitting lines once he was back from injury. I'm sure Max will pass the puck to a myriad of opponents and pull Derek Roy offside a million times but I also won't be the least bit surprised if he scores 25-30 goals and has fans reconsidering whether we should get rid of him or not.
But like Timmy, I think Lindy has reached the end of his patience with Max which means he will also be gone, possibly before the end of the season. And like I said before, I think he'll catch on with another team, enjoy the freedom of a new coach and new system and do really well for himself. And all of Buffalo will complain incessantly about letting him go for years to come.
Finally that brings us to Al. Oh, Al. If you made me rank all the Sabres players from favorite to least favorite, Al would be pretty darn close to the bottom. Some nights he would be the bottom, yes, ranked below even Andrew Peters. I find him completely infuriating because people say all the time, "He can be physical, he can shoot the puck, he can can can" but he usually doesn't do those things. Max is annoying and set in his ways but if nothing else, he tries hard. He actually probably tries too hard to do too much. Al completely disappears for 20 game stretches - he doesn't score, he doesn't hit, he makes absolutely no impression at all unless he's taking a really stupid penalty - and that drives me crazy. I would gladly cast Al into a hockeyless pit of despair.
That said, if any one of these guys will be back, it's him. Let's face it, not everyone on your roster can be a highly skilled, highly paid star. Every team needs shorter, cheaper contracts to move around their core and Al is exactly that kind of player. He's not a total disaster on the ice and despite my complaints he has averaged just under 20 goals per season (19.75) for the last four seasons. As long as he's agreeable to a shorter contract for a reasonable amount of money (always the tricky part) I could see him sticking around.
The offense was pretty good last season overall but it would definitely help if the above guys all had good contract years especially Timmy who still seems to be the only player we have who can run a power play.
RYAN MILLER
Ryan was really bad last year. There are lots of valid reasons - the death of his cousin Matt right at the beginning of the season and the number of games he started being the two biggies - but the bottom line is, he played some very, very bad hockey. And good lord, what the heck happened with the shootout? He had ice water in his veins the previous two seasons and suddenly looked jittery the second a guy started moving in on a breakaway. As off as some of the other components of the team were last season, they missed the playoffs by four points. Better goaltending would have made up that ground easily. The team probably wouldn't have done much damage in the playoffs once they got there the way they were playing but they would've made it.
The good news is Ryan looks and sounds great right now as opposed to looking and sounded like he needed a very long nap at the end of April. It would appear that he built his frame up a little in the off-season which has to make a difference over the long grind of a hockey season. It sounds like he's also found a little better balance between playing goalie and trying to lead the team. Last year I think he tried to take on too much of the leadership mantle that was suddenly left vacant and his game suffered for it. There's an interview with him up on Sabres TV right now where he talks about how hard it is for a goalie to handle the responsibility of his game while also worrying about addressing questions and concerns about the rest of the team so it sounds like he's thought a lot about how to handle that coming into this season.
And let us all say a prayer to the mighty hockey gods that Patrick Lalime shows himself capable of playing 20 or so games in a somewhat adequate fashion. He played all of the preseason game I attended and he looked pretty good so fingers crossed.
JASON POMINVILLE AND JOCHEN HECHT
God bless Jochen and Pommers.
Looking at last season, Pommers is the one youngster on the team whom I have absolutely no complaint about. Even when he wasn't scoring he was finding some way to contribute night in and night out because he never, ever quit working hard. I think he got stronger on the defensive side of the puck, he's much more responsible with the puck than some of his buddies and he showed so much maturity off the ice. Everyone else seemed to have stretches where they were clearly panicking and flailing, pressing way too hard. If Pommers ever felt that way he sure did a good job of hiding it. I don't want to turn every post into "Lindy, for the love of god just name a captain please!" but even if you want to argue that he has some growing to do yet, I have no doubt he'll grow right into any letter you put on his chest.
Most of the above applies to Jochen too. Every team needs a Jochen - quiet, responsible and dependable. A lot of people may have been willing to part with him but I think he's exactly the kind of player you miss when he's not there. I'm still grouchy about a chart the Buffalo News ran last season after the trade deadline, suggesting that Brian Campbell's absence was responsible for the current skid because it completely ignore that Jochen was also out for that stretch and his absence always makes a difference.
(An aside since we're talking about Brian Campbell: In the ESPN preseason picks, Scott Burnside picked Campbell for the Norris. Someone please explain to Burnside that the Norris is for outstanding defensemen. There's obviously some confusion here.)
It's 1:18 in the morning so a couple quick predictions before I post this:
Leading goal scorer: Thomas Vanek
Leading assister: Derek Roy
Leading in total points: Derek Roy
Derek Roy's final tally: 36 goals, 65 assists, 101 points
Showing posts with label jason pominville. Show all posts
Showing posts with label jason pominville. Show all posts
Wednesday, October 8, 2008
Thursday, September 18, 2008
Thoughts On Jason Pominville
So it's been a couple of hours now since I first heard the news about Jason Pominville's 5 year/$26.5 million extension. I have, quite frankly, been reeling ever since. I'm totally bummed. I'm devastated. Nay, I'm really and truly heart-broken. Pommers and Pommers' agent, how could you do this to me? HOW?! All I asked for in this whole negotiation was one thing, one small, simple thing and you went and screwed me.
We were THIS close to the Bucky Gleason Special, you guys! THIS close to 5/25 being bandied about in real stories about official contracts. I'm sure that was the hold up all along. I know Darcy Regier was pushing for it, dreaming of seeing 5/25 in bold, black newspaper print and blog type but no, Pommers and his agent went and got all greedy on us, DEMANDING that extra $1.5 million. Really, you HAD to have an extra $1.5? For what, Pommers? FOR WHAT?!
Will no one think of the bloggers?
(Please carefully read the labels before commenting.)
We were THIS close to the Bucky Gleason Special, you guys! THIS close to 5/25 being bandied about in real stories about official contracts. I'm sure that was the hold up all along. I know Darcy Regier was pushing for it, dreaming of seeing 5/25 in bold, black newspaper print and blog type but no, Pommers and his agent went and got all greedy on us, DEMANDING that extra $1.5 million. Really, you HAD to have an extra $1.5? For what, Pommers? FOR WHAT?!
Will no one think of the bloggers?
(Please carefully read the labels before commenting.)
Sunday, July 13, 2008
Why I Have Hope: Youth
In retrospect, I probably should have filed that first post about Darcy Regier under "Why I Have Hope" - even if it would disgust some people - so let's pretend I did, okay?
A few months ago - I think it was March, Kevin Sylvester's blog on Sabres.com featured the chart below:
Now granted, this was in March so the final numbers and placements might have changed a bit. A professional would probably re-crunch the numbers but a tired, overworked blogger with no editor who isn't getting paid for this will just go with the above. Sylvester pulled some interesting observations from this chart. I'll also add a couple of my own.
1. Buffalo was the youngest team in the top five at the time - actually they were the youngest team in the top fifteen - and although it wasn't in the chart, he also mentioned that the Sabres are younger than the Capitals and the Blackhawks, both teams that are often mentioned as talented young teams on the rise.
2. Ottawa, Detroit and Carolina - especially Carolina - got huge chunks of their offense from players 26 and older with Carolina especially skewing old. The only team in the same neighborhood as Buffalo for scoring from players 25 and younger was Montreal but their second highest percentage by a pretty good margin came from players 30 and older. Buffalo's goals are more evenly spread out.
3. Most of the under 25 goals for Buffalo were scored by Thomas Vanek, Derek Roy, Jason Pominville, Danny Paille, and Drew Stafford. I'm not sure what's going on with Stafford at this point but Vanek and Roy are locked up long -term, discussions have begun with Paille, and talks will move to Pominville after something is hammered out with Ryan Miller. The offense that was near the top of the league last year will remain intact for a number of years to come and these players are just moving into their peak years. They should continue to match their output from last season if not improve upon it.
4. Most of the players listed above - Vanek, Roy, and Pominville - already have a ton of playoff experience, something that's pretty nice considering how young they are.
I know there are a lot of fans who hate the idea that we should just leave the team alone because they're young and they'll get better as they get older and I agree that the team needs some tweaking but... they're young and they'll get better. We saw it with Montreal last season. Two years ago they finished out of the playoffs with 90 points (hmmm... that sounds familiar...) and last season they won the Eastern Conference and they did it without any huge changes to their line-up. Heck, we saw the same thing here not that long ago. The 2003-2004 Sabres team made a last minute grab at a playoff spot and missed. They broke for the lockout, got some experience in Europe, and came back in 2005 with a couple of seemingly minor additions (Toni Lydman, Teppo Numminen) and a couple of kids (Thomas Vanek and Ryan Miller) and they had a pretty darn good season. Some of it was an infusion of youth from Rochester through the season but some of it was players like Chris Drury, Daniel Briere, J.P. Dumont and Jay McKee getting more comfortable with playing with each other and getting more experience in their roles on the ice and in the dressing room. The team that gave up a lot of leads in 2003-2004 was suddenly playing till the end, sometimes making miraculous comebacks themselves. The captaincy that rotated in 2003-2004 finally found permanent homes on the chests of Drury and Briere. Or did we forget that they didn't show up in Buffalo as fully formed leaders of men?
Vanek and Roy initially struggled on the first line and really only had one good half last season. Stafford was up and down throughout the year. Miller put a lot of pressure on himself and played a lot more minutes than he's used to playing. Pominville took on more responsibility defensively. Paille played twice as many games in Buffalo as he ever had before. But most of them got noticeably better and more comfortable as the season went on and I don't see any reason not to expect that to continue. They're babies and babies need time to learn and develop. Additions like Craig Rivet will make a difference by bringing in some new energy and leadership but time will make a difference too.
A few months ago - I think it was March, Kevin Sylvester's blog on Sabres.com featured the chart below:
Now granted, this was in March so the final numbers and placements might have changed a bit. A professional would probably re-crunch the numbers but a tired, overworked blogger with no editor who isn't getting paid for this will just go with the above. Sylvester pulled some interesting observations from this chart. I'll also add a couple of my own.
1. Buffalo was the youngest team in the top five at the time - actually they were the youngest team in the top fifteen - and although it wasn't in the chart, he also mentioned that the Sabres are younger than the Capitals and the Blackhawks, both teams that are often mentioned as talented young teams on the rise.
2. Ottawa, Detroit and Carolina - especially Carolina - got huge chunks of their offense from players 26 and older with Carolina especially skewing old. The only team in the same neighborhood as Buffalo for scoring from players 25 and younger was Montreal but their second highest percentage by a pretty good margin came from players 30 and older. Buffalo's goals are more evenly spread out.
3. Most of the under 25 goals for Buffalo were scored by Thomas Vanek, Derek Roy, Jason Pominville, Danny Paille, and Drew Stafford. I'm not sure what's going on with Stafford at this point but Vanek and Roy are locked up long -term, discussions have begun with Paille, and talks will move to Pominville after something is hammered out with Ryan Miller. The offense that was near the top of the league last year will remain intact for a number of years to come and these players are just moving into their peak years. They should continue to match their output from last season if not improve upon it.
4. Most of the players listed above - Vanek, Roy, and Pominville - already have a ton of playoff experience, something that's pretty nice considering how young they are.
I know there are a lot of fans who hate the idea that we should just leave the team alone because they're young and they'll get better as they get older and I agree that the team needs some tweaking but... they're young and they'll get better. We saw it with Montreal last season. Two years ago they finished out of the playoffs with 90 points (hmmm... that sounds familiar...) and last season they won the Eastern Conference and they did it without any huge changes to their line-up. Heck, we saw the same thing here not that long ago. The 2003-2004 Sabres team made a last minute grab at a playoff spot and missed. They broke for the lockout, got some experience in Europe, and came back in 2005 with a couple of seemingly minor additions (Toni Lydman, Teppo Numminen) and a couple of kids (Thomas Vanek and Ryan Miller) and they had a pretty darn good season. Some of it was an infusion of youth from Rochester through the season but some of it was players like Chris Drury, Daniel Briere, J.P. Dumont and Jay McKee getting more comfortable with playing with each other and getting more experience in their roles on the ice and in the dressing room. The team that gave up a lot of leads in 2003-2004 was suddenly playing till the end, sometimes making miraculous comebacks themselves. The captaincy that rotated in 2003-2004 finally found permanent homes on the chests of Drury and Briere. Or did we forget that they didn't show up in Buffalo as fully formed leaders of men?
Vanek and Roy initially struggled on the first line and really only had one good half last season. Stafford was up and down throughout the year. Miller put a lot of pressure on himself and played a lot more minutes than he's used to playing. Pominville took on more responsibility defensively. Paille played twice as many games in Buffalo as he ever had before. But most of them got noticeably better and more comfortable as the season went on and I don't see any reason not to expect that to continue. They're babies and babies need time to learn and develop. Additions like Craig Rivet will make a difference by bringing in some new energy and leadership but time will make a difference too.
Friday, March 21, 2008
Why I Still Love This Young, Immature, Inconsistent Team of Little Brats
Here's the deal with this post. I wrote it over a course of a few nights while on vacation last week, mostly after the losses to the Rangers and the Penguins. I think it's clear in some spots that I'm assuming the Sabres are missing the playoffs. But those little rats went on to win the next three games and mostly look good doing it and now I'm back to thinking they probably will squeak in after all. And like I said a few posts ago, once the playoffs have started, it's a whole new season. But I figure a lot of the people complaining now will keep complaining. They'll just shift gears from "I can't believe the Sabres missed the playoffs!" to "I can't believe the Sabres barely squeaked into the playoffs!" and in that case, my defense pretty much stays the same as do my feelings about the team now and in the next couple of years. I also talk some about being a fan and what it means to me which I just talked about a little bit a few days ago. So in addition to being long-winded, disorganized, and scattered, this entry is also a little repititive. How's that for a build-up? Here goes:
A few days before I left for vacation, reader and commenter Jennifer emailed me and asked my opinion on something that she heard on XM radio. Since I know this is going to be long I'll skip all the set-up and boil it down to this: If you're in charge of the Sabres and the Flyers call and tell you Daniel Briere is available, do you take him? Forget who would have to be traded or released to make room for him and forget the money. If you could keep your current roster and fit him in your budget, would you take Briere?
My initial reaction was, "Yes, of course!" Before the season I really thought the team would miss Chris Drury more but as the season went along I decided it was Briere we really needed. Our penalty kill was pretty good and Jochen Hecht and Jason Pominville were doing a nice job of becoming the main checking line. While we probably do miss some of Drury's leadership (more on that in a bit) and his face-off ability, I think that the current team has done a pretty decent job of filling in a lot of the things he did. For most of the season we were missing that guy who could decide, "You know what? We're winning this freakin' game," and then carry the puck down the ice and put it in the net. We missed the guy who played with visible passion most nights. The Sabres were scoring goals but they were having a hard time scoring them when it really mattered and Briere was good at that.
But as quickly as I thought, "Yes, of course I'd take him!" I decided, "No, I don't think I would." A Danny Briere like player? Yeah, maybe. Danny Briere himself? No. I just think it's really hard to turn back the clock. Just because Danny worked well with this team in the past, it doesn't mean he'd work there now. When he was in Buffalo, the Sabres were partly his team. This year they're not his team. To try to recreate that would be a tough thing.
And I'm not sure that's all that bad. Despite what the naysayers will tell you, there's still a very talented core in Buffalo. At some point I think the team had to be handed over to them. What's the point of drafting great young talent, much of it with good leadership potential, if you're never going to let the team belong to them? The change probably happened too soon and I think it definitely happened too abruptly - though I do think management intended for Teppo Numminen to help out with that by providing a leadership bridge from that team to this team - but I don't think it's a bad thing and while it's frustrating to watch it take a whole season, I don't think the season can be considered a waste in that regard.
To me, if you look at the season on a whole, Ryan Miller, Thomas Vanek, Derek Roy, and Jason Pominville have made huge strides both on and off the ice. It was a struggle for most of them but why shouldn't it be? They were all cast in new roles and three of them are still pretty young. Miller was suddenly backstopping a team that couldn't overwhelm everyone with talent and became a more vital part of the game. Because the team struggled, he also found himself playing more games because more games were important than in the previous two seasons. Thomas Vanek and Derek Roy went from third liners to first liners, the top defended players, and Vanek was now The Man, the player expected to carry the team. And Jason Pominville became more important as a two-way player. Three of them were up and down for much of the season and even still are a little bit (God bless Pommers, steady and dependable to the end) but there were and are signs that they're putting things together and getting more comfortable. And even when struggling on the ice, I think all four have shown new maturity off the ice. Vanek never shied away from the criticism he received, agreeing that it was more than justified. He just continued to plug away until things starting working. Roy cut down on the diving, really cut down on the whining and responded extremely well when Lindy challenged him to be better because it was what his team needed from him. Pommers busted ass every night even when his teammates were slacking off around him and found other ways to contribute when he wasn't scoring.
Now don't get me wrong. The team still clearly has problems with consistency and the roster definitely needs some tweaking. A physical, stay-at-home defenseman would be nice. A steady, hard-working veteran would be even nicer. But not someone who's going to take over the team. Someone who's going to help the current team take the next big step. Young players have to grow up and while they may not be enough to build a championship team around right this second, I think they will be eventually and I don't think we're even that far away. I think they're moving in the right direction. Putting Danny (or Chris) back in the mix would, in my opinion, be a step backward. Players who are the future of the team, players who played under those two in the past, would naturally give that leadership back over to them and that's not a good thing. Something that I think a lot of people are overlooking is that cores change because they have to. That's the way sports work. Again, I'll definitely accept argument that it happened before the young'uns were really ready but with the long-term contracts that players are getting, I think it almost had to happen that way. If you ask me if I'd rather have a Jay McKee/Chris Drury/Danny Briere led team for the next six to seven years or a Vanek/Roy/Pominville team for the next six to seven years, I'm going with the latter. I might be in the minority but I think there's more room to grow and get better with that group than with the first group.
I'm also going to be a blasphemer and say that I think Chris Drury's leadership has been greatly exaggerated. I loved him and I'm in no way questioning that he did a lot for the Sabres and taught the players who are still here a lot. He absolutely did. But the truth is that last year's team - his team - played uninspired hockey for long stretches of the season, particularly in the second half. They repeatedly coasted through two periods and then turned it on in the third. The only difference between that team and this one is that that team had enough talent to pull that off and this one doesn't. Last year's team - again, Drury's team - sleepwalked through the first two rounds of the playoffs and then got embarrassed in the third round, playing one of the worst games I've ever seen a Sabres team play. Except for occasional flashes, they looked disinterested, unorganized, and almost completely lacking in passion. The only person who saved them from an embarrassing early round exit was Ryan Miller.
Please don't think I'm saying that Chris Drury was the problem or any part of the problem. I think there were a lot of things going on. A very talented team was maybe getting a little too comfortable with winning without full effort. The New NHL was moving back a little to the Old NHL which works against a small, skilled team. Other coaches were learning how to defend the Sabres. But whatever was going on, Chris Drury and Daniel Briere weren't the magic solution. I don't really see why people think they'd be the magic solution now.
I just... I guess I just don't understand why people think this team is doomed forever now. They've had a bad year but it happens. The Hurricanes went from winning the Stanley Cup to missing the playoffs because their most important players had tough seasons and two young guys (Eric Staal and Cam Ward) had a hard time adjusting to being two of the most important guys on the team. This season they got themselves back on track and the team is faring better, right back in the playoff mix and playing really good hockey here when it matters the most. The price of parity is that one or two players underachieving can kill a team's season. Chris Drury and Daniel Briere were two players on last year's President Trophy winning team. They were two important players but they were still TWO players. I really hate the way people are crediting all the team's success last year to two players. They helped make the team better maybe but they didn't give the current roster all its talent. Based on what we've seen from Drury and Briere this season I think it's pretty fair to say it was more of a two-way street. They all made each other better. Jochen Hecht and Pominville helped Briere as much as Briere helped them etc. I don't see why the talent that left outweighs the talent that's still here and I don't see why, with some growing and tweaking, the current roster can't be successful. The team before the lockout was not a great team and here we are two years later with two Eastern Conference Finals appearances. So why can't we turn it around again and do it just as quickly?
Let's face it, the current Sabres have had it pretty easy. The bulk of them played together on a very good Rochester team and then they came to the NHL and played on very good Sabres teams. Everything has broken their way in their pro careers. People talk about them having a lot of experience for young players but very few of them have much experience with losing a lot of games. They learned to win a lot which is good but they also learned to win without putting in a full sixty minutes as we've seen PLENTY of proof of this season. While it totally bites as a fan to watch them dither away an entire season, I'm not sure it'll be a terrible thing for them to wake up the day after the regular season ends and have to face the reality of not being in the postseason, not to mention facing the reality that they're sitting at home because that's exactly where they deserve to be. Their play this season doesn't merit anything else and despite what the media or some fans will say, that's ultimately on them. Not on management and not on coaching. It's on the guys who take the ice every night. Having plenty of time to think about all the one period games they played might be exactly what they need because you know what? No matter how much they've talked about the need to play harder I really think a lot of them fully expected to play exactly the way they have the last couple of years and get exactly the same results. And even when they struggled early, I think a lot of them figured it would be fine in the end. Finding out that it might not be as fine as they thought will suck for them (and us) but hey, sometimes you learn the lesson the most clearly when you screwed everything up.
When the Sabres were winning the division and leading the Conference people complained about all the bandwagoners who were suddenly buying jerseys and going to games. And now all those same people are freaking out and telling me that I need to stop drinking the Sabres Kool-Aid and stop supporting the team with my money. That seems... a little hypocritical, you know? If you're unhappy with ownership and you're pissed about the team and you feel like the only thing you can do is stop going to games and buying merchandise, hey, knock yourself out. But please stop assuming I feel the same and please stop telling me I should feel the same way. I don't have to. I don't want to.
I've been having a lot of discussions lately with a few friends about how being a sports fan consists of really high highs and really low lows. Jason Pominville's shortie against the Senators in the 2006 playoffs was a really high high but the reason it was such a high high was because of the low lows that came before it. Missing the playoffs completely the season before the lockout. Believing it was just a matter of time before the Sabres moved. Going without the NHL for a year. Struggling against the Senators all season. That goal wouldn't have meant nearly as much as it did if it wasn't for all the struggles that led up to it. Losing to the Hurricanes - watching a fun, talented team hang on as long as they could, battling to the very end despite the blueline blowing up around them - was a low low. And part of the reason it was so low is because of all the highs that came before it. Watching a fast, skilled team surprise the NHL. Seeing young players start to blossom and make real contributions to the team. Feeling the buzz in the air around Buffalo all season. Beating the Senators in five games on Jason Pominville's shortie. Living through all of that made thinking about Jay McKee crying in a hospital room while the Sabres lost feel that much lower.
But that's sports. You have the good and the bad and you need both. If you skip out on one, the other doesn't mean as much. When we're laughing at what a bargain Vanek is at seven million - a day that's going to come pretty soon, I think considering that Dan Boyle just re-signed for 6.67 - it'll be even funnier because everyone complained this season that he was never going to be worth that much. When Andrej Sekera is a steady, contributing member of the defensive corps we're going to laugh at how he initially showed up because the blueline blew up for the second time in three years. When Ryan Miller is saving the Sabres' bacon in the playoffs again we'll shake our heads when thinking about how he looked so exhausted and beat down this season and how Buffalo was all up in arms about how it was just a matter of time before he became a Red Wing. And don't tell me that those things aren't going to happen because they might not. But something like them will and that's the point really. Building a relationship with a team and a player means being there for the good and the bad and this year was just a whole lot of the bad. And yeah, I get that people who have been in Buffalo longer than I have been have had their fill of bad but again, it's part of the deal and you're a bunch of spoiled brats because while you haven't had a championship team yet, you have had plenty of high highs, a lot more than some cities have had. Championships are hard to win - even harder to win in the NHL and even harder to win in an NHL so full of parity. If you're watching sports just to win championships, you, my friend, are probably going to spend a lot of time being miserable.
So what's my point? I was a Sabres fan last year when the team was mostly good. I've been a Sabres fan this year when the team was mostly bad. I'll be a Sabres fan next year when they're hopefully mostly good again.
And I would definitely not take back Daniel Briere. He's got Flyers cooties.
A few days before I left for vacation, reader and commenter Jennifer emailed me and asked my opinion on something that she heard on XM radio. Since I know this is going to be long I'll skip all the set-up and boil it down to this: If you're in charge of the Sabres and the Flyers call and tell you Daniel Briere is available, do you take him? Forget who would have to be traded or released to make room for him and forget the money. If you could keep your current roster and fit him in your budget, would you take Briere?
My initial reaction was, "Yes, of course!" Before the season I really thought the team would miss Chris Drury more but as the season went along I decided it was Briere we really needed. Our penalty kill was pretty good and Jochen Hecht and Jason Pominville were doing a nice job of becoming the main checking line. While we probably do miss some of Drury's leadership (more on that in a bit) and his face-off ability, I think that the current team has done a pretty decent job of filling in a lot of the things he did. For most of the season we were missing that guy who could decide, "You know what? We're winning this freakin' game," and then carry the puck down the ice and put it in the net. We missed the guy who played with visible passion most nights. The Sabres were scoring goals but they were having a hard time scoring them when it really mattered and Briere was good at that.
But as quickly as I thought, "Yes, of course I'd take him!" I decided, "No, I don't think I would." A Danny Briere like player? Yeah, maybe. Danny Briere himself? No. I just think it's really hard to turn back the clock. Just because Danny worked well with this team in the past, it doesn't mean he'd work there now. When he was in Buffalo, the Sabres were partly his team. This year they're not his team. To try to recreate that would be a tough thing.
And I'm not sure that's all that bad. Despite what the naysayers will tell you, there's still a very talented core in Buffalo. At some point I think the team had to be handed over to them. What's the point of drafting great young talent, much of it with good leadership potential, if you're never going to let the team belong to them? The change probably happened too soon and I think it definitely happened too abruptly - though I do think management intended for Teppo Numminen to help out with that by providing a leadership bridge from that team to this team - but I don't think it's a bad thing and while it's frustrating to watch it take a whole season, I don't think the season can be considered a waste in that regard.
To me, if you look at the season on a whole, Ryan Miller, Thomas Vanek, Derek Roy, and Jason Pominville have made huge strides both on and off the ice. It was a struggle for most of them but why shouldn't it be? They were all cast in new roles and three of them are still pretty young. Miller was suddenly backstopping a team that couldn't overwhelm everyone with talent and became a more vital part of the game. Because the team struggled, he also found himself playing more games because more games were important than in the previous two seasons. Thomas Vanek and Derek Roy went from third liners to first liners, the top defended players, and Vanek was now The Man, the player expected to carry the team. And Jason Pominville became more important as a two-way player. Three of them were up and down for much of the season and even still are a little bit (God bless Pommers, steady and dependable to the end) but there were and are signs that they're putting things together and getting more comfortable. And even when struggling on the ice, I think all four have shown new maturity off the ice. Vanek never shied away from the criticism he received, agreeing that it was more than justified. He just continued to plug away until things starting working. Roy cut down on the diving, really cut down on the whining and responded extremely well when Lindy challenged him to be better because it was what his team needed from him. Pommers busted ass every night even when his teammates were slacking off around him and found other ways to contribute when he wasn't scoring.
Now don't get me wrong. The team still clearly has problems with consistency and the roster definitely needs some tweaking. A physical, stay-at-home defenseman would be nice. A steady, hard-working veteran would be even nicer. But not someone who's going to take over the team. Someone who's going to help the current team take the next big step. Young players have to grow up and while they may not be enough to build a championship team around right this second, I think they will be eventually and I don't think we're even that far away. I think they're moving in the right direction. Putting Danny (or Chris) back in the mix would, in my opinion, be a step backward. Players who are the future of the team, players who played under those two in the past, would naturally give that leadership back over to them and that's not a good thing. Something that I think a lot of people are overlooking is that cores change because they have to. That's the way sports work. Again, I'll definitely accept argument that it happened before the young'uns were really ready but with the long-term contracts that players are getting, I think it almost had to happen that way. If you ask me if I'd rather have a Jay McKee/Chris Drury/Danny Briere led team for the next six to seven years or a Vanek/Roy/Pominville team for the next six to seven years, I'm going with the latter. I might be in the minority but I think there's more room to grow and get better with that group than with the first group.
I'm also going to be a blasphemer and say that I think Chris Drury's leadership has been greatly exaggerated. I loved him and I'm in no way questioning that he did a lot for the Sabres and taught the players who are still here a lot. He absolutely did. But the truth is that last year's team - his team - played uninspired hockey for long stretches of the season, particularly in the second half. They repeatedly coasted through two periods and then turned it on in the third. The only difference between that team and this one is that that team had enough talent to pull that off and this one doesn't. Last year's team - again, Drury's team - sleepwalked through the first two rounds of the playoffs and then got embarrassed in the third round, playing one of the worst games I've ever seen a Sabres team play. Except for occasional flashes, they looked disinterested, unorganized, and almost completely lacking in passion. The only person who saved them from an embarrassing early round exit was Ryan Miller.
Please don't think I'm saying that Chris Drury was the problem or any part of the problem. I think there were a lot of things going on. A very talented team was maybe getting a little too comfortable with winning without full effort. The New NHL was moving back a little to the Old NHL which works against a small, skilled team. Other coaches were learning how to defend the Sabres. But whatever was going on, Chris Drury and Daniel Briere weren't the magic solution. I don't really see why people think they'd be the magic solution now.
I just... I guess I just don't understand why people think this team is doomed forever now. They've had a bad year but it happens. The Hurricanes went from winning the Stanley Cup to missing the playoffs because their most important players had tough seasons and two young guys (Eric Staal and Cam Ward) had a hard time adjusting to being two of the most important guys on the team. This season they got themselves back on track and the team is faring better, right back in the playoff mix and playing really good hockey here when it matters the most. The price of parity is that one or two players underachieving can kill a team's season. Chris Drury and Daniel Briere were two players on last year's President Trophy winning team. They were two important players but they were still TWO players. I really hate the way people are crediting all the team's success last year to two players. They helped make the team better maybe but they didn't give the current roster all its talent. Based on what we've seen from Drury and Briere this season I think it's pretty fair to say it was more of a two-way street. They all made each other better. Jochen Hecht and Pominville helped Briere as much as Briere helped them etc. I don't see why the talent that left outweighs the talent that's still here and I don't see why, with some growing and tweaking, the current roster can't be successful. The team before the lockout was not a great team and here we are two years later with two Eastern Conference Finals appearances. So why can't we turn it around again and do it just as quickly?
Let's face it, the current Sabres have had it pretty easy. The bulk of them played together on a very good Rochester team and then they came to the NHL and played on very good Sabres teams. Everything has broken their way in their pro careers. People talk about them having a lot of experience for young players but very few of them have much experience with losing a lot of games. They learned to win a lot which is good but they also learned to win without putting in a full sixty minutes as we've seen PLENTY of proof of this season. While it totally bites as a fan to watch them dither away an entire season, I'm not sure it'll be a terrible thing for them to wake up the day after the regular season ends and have to face the reality of not being in the postseason, not to mention facing the reality that they're sitting at home because that's exactly where they deserve to be. Their play this season doesn't merit anything else and despite what the media or some fans will say, that's ultimately on them. Not on management and not on coaching. It's on the guys who take the ice every night. Having plenty of time to think about all the one period games they played might be exactly what they need because you know what? No matter how much they've talked about the need to play harder I really think a lot of them fully expected to play exactly the way they have the last couple of years and get exactly the same results. And even when they struggled early, I think a lot of them figured it would be fine in the end. Finding out that it might not be as fine as they thought will suck for them (and us) but hey, sometimes you learn the lesson the most clearly when you screwed everything up.
When the Sabres were winning the division and leading the Conference people complained about all the bandwagoners who were suddenly buying jerseys and going to games. And now all those same people are freaking out and telling me that I need to stop drinking the Sabres Kool-Aid and stop supporting the team with my money. That seems... a little hypocritical, you know? If you're unhappy with ownership and you're pissed about the team and you feel like the only thing you can do is stop going to games and buying merchandise, hey, knock yourself out. But please stop assuming I feel the same and please stop telling me I should feel the same way. I don't have to. I don't want to.
I've been having a lot of discussions lately with a few friends about how being a sports fan consists of really high highs and really low lows. Jason Pominville's shortie against the Senators in the 2006 playoffs was a really high high but the reason it was such a high high was because of the low lows that came before it. Missing the playoffs completely the season before the lockout. Believing it was just a matter of time before the Sabres moved. Going without the NHL for a year. Struggling against the Senators all season. That goal wouldn't have meant nearly as much as it did if it wasn't for all the struggles that led up to it. Losing to the Hurricanes - watching a fun, talented team hang on as long as they could, battling to the very end despite the blueline blowing up around them - was a low low. And part of the reason it was so low is because of all the highs that came before it. Watching a fast, skilled team surprise the NHL. Seeing young players start to blossom and make real contributions to the team. Feeling the buzz in the air around Buffalo all season. Beating the Senators in five games on Jason Pominville's shortie. Living through all of that made thinking about Jay McKee crying in a hospital room while the Sabres lost feel that much lower.
But that's sports. You have the good and the bad and you need both. If you skip out on one, the other doesn't mean as much. When we're laughing at what a bargain Vanek is at seven million - a day that's going to come pretty soon, I think considering that Dan Boyle just re-signed for 6.67 - it'll be even funnier because everyone complained this season that he was never going to be worth that much. When Andrej Sekera is a steady, contributing member of the defensive corps we're going to laugh at how he initially showed up because the blueline blew up for the second time in three years. When Ryan Miller is saving the Sabres' bacon in the playoffs again we'll shake our heads when thinking about how he looked so exhausted and beat down this season and how Buffalo was all up in arms about how it was just a matter of time before he became a Red Wing. And don't tell me that those things aren't going to happen because they might not. But something like them will and that's the point really. Building a relationship with a team and a player means being there for the good and the bad and this year was just a whole lot of the bad. And yeah, I get that people who have been in Buffalo longer than I have been have had their fill of bad but again, it's part of the deal and you're a bunch of spoiled brats because while you haven't had a championship team yet, you have had plenty of high highs, a lot more than some cities have had. Championships are hard to win - even harder to win in the NHL and even harder to win in an NHL so full of parity. If you're watching sports just to win championships, you, my friend, are probably going to spend a lot of time being miserable.
So what's my point? I was a Sabres fan last year when the team was mostly good. I've been a Sabres fan this year when the team was mostly bad. I'll be a Sabres fan next year when they're hopefully mostly good again.
And I would definitely not take back Daniel Briere. He's got Flyers cooties.
Wednesday, February 6, 2008
Yippie Paille, Mother F#$!@&!
Hockey talk coming, I promise. Keep reading!
So today I was looking over my bookshelf for something to read and I decided on Roald Dahl's Boy: Tales of Childhood, his autobiography. I read this book many years ago when I was a Dahl-loving child but I haven't thought about it in years. On the second page of the book he tells the story of how back in 1877 at age 14 his father fell off a roof and broke his arm. The local doctor was a drunk quack who, in the process of trying to fix the arm, yanked on it until the bone was sticking out through the skin. Orthopedic surgery not being what it is now (now being almost 25 years ago when Dahl was writing this book), they simply amputated his arm at the elbow and he spent the rest of his life carrying around a fork with the bottom edge sharpened so he could cut and eat his food with one hand. The moral of the story is this: I'm going to try being grateful that I live in the age of modern medicine and therefore still have a foot that will most likely work again one of these days. That said, I go in on Friday for new x-rays and if the doctor tells me he's re-casting my foot I'm hopping away as fast and as far as I can.
So... how 'bout them Sabres? I don't know what happened but they're starting to look like a real hockey team. Did they push through the growing pains? Are they finally adjusting to different roles? Did they wake up and realize, "Holy crow, we're not gonna make the playoffs!" Did someone send them a copy of my "I Hate the Sabres" missive? (I'm sure it's that last one.) Is it possible - maybe! - that the Sabres aren't really as bad as everyone's been saying? I say yes! Optimistic to the end!
Seriously, I'm not going to pretend the team isn't missing some pieces. And I'm not going to pretend that losing Chris Drury and Daniel Briere didn't do some damage. That would be ridiculous. But I do think the problems this season have gone way beyond Chris and Danny. For whatever reason it's just been one of those years teams have once in a while where everyone struggles. Chris and Danny don't have anything to do with Ryan Miller being so inconsistent. They don't have anything to do with Henrik Tallinder and Toni Lydman being up and down. They're not the reason Tim Connolly and Maxim Afinogenov have spent so much time on IR. They have nothing to do with the team losing Teppo Numminen - a loss that I think has been very much underrated - just before the season began. If Ryan had played a little better during the 10 gamelosing winless streak or if Thomas Vanek converted ten percent of the crossbars he hit or if the defense had been just a little more stable things could be totally different. I don't think they'd be leading the Eastern Conference and I don't think they'd be a Stanley Cup shoo-in, but I do think we'd all be a little less ready to throw ourselves over Niagara Falls in barrels with THE SABRES SUCK scrawled on the side. It's just been a perfect storm of struggle and underachievement.
A few thoughts about tonight:
- I hate playing the Bruins. I know people complain about the Devils being boring but I don't know, I don't mind them, I think because I really like a few of their players (Travis Zajac, Jay Pandolfo, and Martin Brodeur being the big three). I couldn't name you a single Bruin most days - I usually even forget Zdeno Chara plays for them until someone else mentions him - and the games with them are usually snoozers. Oh, and we have to play them 18 times a year.
That said, tonight's game wasn't bad. It helped that we scored first because that kept Boston from going into a defensive shell. Still... We have to play them again this week? What's up with that, NHL schedule makers?
- I can't even tell you how tickled I am about Danny Paille right now. (I also can't tell you how tickled I am about the awesome title of this post. I couldn't decide whether to go with "Pie-Yay" or "Paille" but I finally decided on the latter. Also, I really have to give credit to Mark who suddenly yelled out the title after the game tonight. And if you don't get the reference, rent a movie once in a while why don'tcha? If you follow the link, you'll hear some coarse language so beware.) There was a rumor 'round town last season that Drew Stafford got the first call-up because Paille responded so poorly to being cut out of training camp, kind of pouting about it. I have no idea if that's true - I did probably read it on a message board - but it really colored my opinion of him without me even really realizing it. But he's been super impressive this season. He's one of the hardest workers on the team and he's shown flashes of real skill. I'm thinking we should keep him. As soon as we saw the lines on the screen tonight I said to Mark, "Oooh, I like Paille with Pommers and Yo-Yo. That's gonna work." It's like Lindy and I share a brain, I tell ya.
- Speaking of Pommers and Yo-Yo, they continue to be two of the steadiest players on the team. I'd like to see Jason hitting the net more than he has been, but I'm not sure you can really complain about their overall game. There was a lot of hullabaloo about how losing Briere was going to wreck Pommers but I think he and Jochen have established a pretty nice chemistry too. Everyone who gets plugged in beside them comes out looking pretty good and I think that's at least partly to their credit.
- I hate the kicking rule. I can never tell what's going to be allowed and what's going to be overturned and I don't think anyone else can tell either. I'm partly convinced Toronto just flips a coin. I suppose I get the idea of protecting the goalie from guys mindlessly kicking their blades around, but I don't know, would it really be that much of a problem? I don't care what the puck bounces off of, if it goes in the net, it's a goal.
- This is totally unrelated but I don't get the goalie trapezoid either. I was trying to get Mark to explain it to me the other night and it was a confusing and circular conversation so for me it comes down to this: I don't understand it so it has no use. Let's get rid of it too.
I'll leave you with this bit from the brilliant Mike Harrington. It was taken from his game diary over at Sabres Edge for tonight:
A beautiful passing play gives the Sabres a 2-1 lead. Brian Campbell throws one diagonally to Drew Stafford, who finds Thomas Vanek in front for a tip-in that's his 15th goal of the season. But the play was made at the left point by Henrik Tallinder, who had his shot blocked and managed to outmuscle a Bruin to keep it in the zone and feed Campbell. No assist to Tallinder but he was most responsible for the goal.
I know you're all asking, "Heather? Is it really that easy to earn the tag 'brilliant' from you? Saying nice things about Henrik Tallinder?" To which I say: Yes, yes it is.
Hank Tallinder FTW!
So today I was looking over my bookshelf for something to read and I decided on Roald Dahl's Boy: Tales of Childhood, his autobiography. I read this book many years ago when I was a Dahl-loving child but I haven't thought about it in years. On the second page of the book he tells the story of how back in 1877 at age 14 his father fell off a roof and broke his arm. The local doctor was a drunk quack who, in the process of trying to fix the arm, yanked on it until the bone was sticking out through the skin. Orthopedic surgery not being what it is now (now being almost 25 years ago when Dahl was writing this book), they simply amputated his arm at the elbow and he spent the rest of his life carrying around a fork with the bottom edge sharpened so he could cut and eat his food with one hand. The moral of the story is this: I'm going to try being grateful that I live in the age of modern medicine and therefore still have a foot that will most likely work again one of these days. That said, I go in on Friday for new x-rays and if the doctor tells me he's re-casting my foot I'm hopping away as fast and as far as I can.
So... how 'bout them Sabres? I don't know what happened but they're starting to look like a real hockey team. Did they push through the growing pains? Are they finally adjusting to different roles? Did they wake up and realize, "Holy crow, we're not gonna make the playoffs!" Did someone send them a copy of my "I Hate the Sabres" missive? (I'm sure it's that last one.) Is it possible - maybe! - that the Sabres aren't really as bad as everyone's been saying? I say yes! Optimistic to the end!
Seriously, I'm not going to pretend the team isn't missing some pieces. And I'm not going to pretend that losing Chris Drury and Daniel Briere didn't do some damage. That would be ridiculous. But I do think the problems this season have gone way beyond Chris and Danny. For whatever reason it's just been one of those years teams have once in a while where everyone struggles. Chris and Danny don't have anything to do with Ryan Miller being so inconsistent. They don't have anything to do with Henrik Tallinder and Toni Lydman being up and down. They're not the reason Tim Connolly and Maxim Afinogenov have spent so much time on IR. They have nothing to do with the team losing Teppo Numminen - a loss that I think has been very much underrated - just before the season began. If Ryan had played a little better during the 10 game
A few thoughts about tonight:
- I hate playing the Bruins. I know people complain about the Devils being boring but I don't know, I don't mind them, I think because I really like a few of their players (Travis Zajac, Jay Pandolfo, and Martin Brodeur being the big three). I couldn't name you a single Bruin most days - I usually even forget Zdeno Chara plays for them until someone else mentions him - and the games with them are usually snoozers. Oh, and we have to play them 18 times a year.
That said, tonight's game wasn't bad. It helped that we scored first because that kept Boston from going into a defensive shell. Still... We have to play them again this week? What's up with that, NHL schedule makers?
- I can't even tell you how tickled I am about Danny Paille right now. (I also can't tell you how tickled I am about the awesome title of this post. I couldn't decide whether to go with "Pie-Yay" or "Paille" but I finally decided on the latter. Also, I really have to give credit to Mark who suddenly yelled out the title after the game tonight. And if you don't get the reference, rent a movie once in a while why don'tcha? If you follow the link, you'll hear some coarse language so beware.) There was a rumor 'round town last season that Drew Stafford got the first call-up because Paille responded so poorly to being cut out of training camp, kind of pouting about it. I have no idea if that's true - I did probably read it on a message board - but it really colored my opinion of him without me even really realizing it. But he's been super impressive this season. He's one of the hardest workers on the team and he's shown flashes of real skill. I'm thinking we should keep him. As soon as we saw the lines on the screen tonight I said to Mark, "Oooh, I like Paille with Pommers and Yo-Yo. That's gonna work." It's like Lindy and I share a brain, I tell ya.
- Speaking of Pommers and Yo-Yo, they continue to be two of the steadiest players on the team. I'd like to see Jason hitting the net more than he has been, but I'm not sure you can really complain about their overall game. There was a lot of hullabaloo about how losing Briere was going to wreck Pommers but I think he and Jochen have established a pretty nice chemistry too. Everyone who gets plugged in beside them comes out looking pretty good and I think that's at least partly to their credit.
- I hate the kicking rule. I can never tell what's going to be allowed and what's going to be overturned and I don't think anyone else can tell either. I'm partly convinced Toronto just flips a coin. I suppose I get the idea of protecting the goalie from guys mindlessly kicking their blades around, but I don't know, would it really be that much of a problem? I don't care what the puck bounces off of, if it goes in the net, it's a goal.
- This is totally unrelated but I don't get the goalie trapezoid either. I was trying to get Mark to explain it to me the other night and it was a confusing and circular conversation so for me it comes down to this: I don't understand it so it has no use. Let's get rid of it too.
I'll leave you with this bit from the brilliant Mike Harrington. It was taken from his game diary over at Sabres Edge for tonight:
A beautiful passing play gives the Sabres a 2-1 lead. Brian Campbell throws one diagonally to Drew Stafford, who finds Thomas Vanek in front for a tip-in that's his 15th goal of the season. But the play was made at the left point by Henrik Tallinder, who had his shot blocked and managed to outmuscle a Bruin to keep it in the zone and feed Campbell. No assist to Tallinder but he was most responsible for the goal.
I know you're all asking, "Heather? Is it really that easy to earn the tag 'brilliant' from you? Saying nice things about Henrik Tallinder?" To which I say: Yes, yes it is.
Thursday, January 3, 2008
Letters! We've Got Letters!
"Hey, Jaro! Wanna be captain this month?"
Looks like a yes to me!
Someone (hi, brian!) asked me in the comment section what I thought of Jaroslav Spacek's January captaincy. While I join RJ in his desire to see Paul Gaustad with a letter, I have no problem whatsoever with Jaro wearing the C. He totally deserves it. While there was a lot of talk at the beginning of the season about how much better Jaro was playing and how good he looked, I do think he's been overlooked a lot. Brian Campbell seems to be getting the bulk of credit for that pairing's success and while I will come out of my recent anti-Soupy funk enough to admit that he is having a good season, Soupy's success does require a strong partner. Jaro's busting his ass every night which is something that can't be said about very many guys on the team this season. He's playing like he wants to win and he understands that means working hard. That makes him a great leader for this team as it is right now.
No complaints about the A's either. Jason Pominville doesn't really strike me as the leader type - he's so sweet and earnest - but like Jaro, he's playing hard and he has a boatload of assists in the last handful of games. Jochen Hecht is turning into quite the letter hog, but like I've said before about him, he's noticeably stepped it up this season. He knew he was going to have to play a bigger role and he's played it. He's also on his way to a career season. Thirteen goals and not quite halfway through the season... He has to get twenty this season. Right? Man, I wish the Sabres would get off their lazy butts and re-sign him already. Oh, right... They already did.
Yesterday's Sabres Edge suggests that the sweet vintage jackets the Sabres coaching staff wore at the Ice Bowl are going to be for sale soon. I am all over that.
Looks like a yes to me!
Someone (hi, brian!) asked me in the comment section what I thought of Jaroslav Spacek's January captaincy. While I join RJ in his desire to see Paul Gaustad with a letter, I have no problem whatsoever with Jaro wearing the C. He totally deserves it. While there was a lot of talk at the beginning of the season about how much better Jaro was playing and how good he looked, I do think he's been overlooked a lot. Brian Campbell seems to be getting the bulk of credit for that pairing's success and while I will come out of my recent anti-Soupy funk enough to admit that he is having a good season, Soupy's success does require a strong partner. Jaro's busting his ass every night which is something that can't be said about very many guys on the team this season. He's playing like he wants to win and he understands that means working hard. That makes him a great leader for this team as it is right now.
No complaints about the A's either. Jason Pominville doesn't really strike me as the leader type - he's so sweet and earnest - but like Jaro, he's playing hard and he has a boatload of assists in the last handful of games. Jochen Hecht is turning into quite the letter hog, but like I've said before about him, he's noticeably stepped it up this season. He knew he was going to have to play a bigger role and he's played it. He's also on his way to a career season. Thirteen goals and not quite halfway through the season... He has to get twenty this season. Right? Man, I wish the Sabres would get off their lazy butts and re-sign him already. Oh, right... They already did.
Yesterday's Sabres Edge suggests that the sweet vintage jackets the Sabres coaching staff wore at the Ice Bowl are going to be for sale soon. I am all over that.
Saturday, December 15, 2007
Kane is Able
Hey, who told the little Kane brat he could score?
Okay, seriously, Mark and I decided before the game that the perfect night would be Patrick Kane scoring and the Sabres winning so merry Christmas to us! I was a little unsure of the Sabres going out of their way to make a big deal about Kane's homecoming - he's not one of their players after all - but I did get a little choked up during the introduction of his dad and granddad (what's up with the mom's not being allowed on the ice though?) and I enjoyed seeing the various photos of little Patrick throughout the broadcast. Ultimately, I decided it was nice of the organization to recognize how special Kane's homecoming was to the community because it is a pretty big deal. Not only is a Buffalo kid in the NHL, he's doing very well for himself and helping to revive an Original Six franchise. He deserved the chance to take a bow in front of the people who helped get him there.
How uncomfortable did that intermission interview with Mr. and Mrs. Kane look though? Was it really necessary to cram them in between Kevin and Roby? We couldn't move Kevin and Roby apart a little more? I was laughing like a loon at the close-up of Mrs. Kane and Roby because she was within inches of his face. Poor Mrs. Kane.
Also, who has Rob Ray been fighting with? That's quite the cut he's been sporting across his nose the last couple of nights.
And finally, could someone make sure Jochen Hecht takes the little shiny sticker off the bill of his cap before the next game? Because that sticker bothered me all the way through his pregame interview.
Okay, on to the game!
Overall a good game. There was (still) some sloppiness but it's so good to see the Sabres gut out another tight game. Up until now they haven't really been doing much of that - they either win big or lose big - and I think it goes without saying that every good team has to be able to buckle down and fight. They looked like they wanted to win more than Chicago tonight and any sloppiness was tempered by plain hard work. Thomas Vanek fought for his goal. Drew Stafford battled and hustled to keep the puck in the offensive zone during the shift that led to his goal. The whole Roy line looked really great tonight actually.
Ryan Miller stood on his head when it mattered and is a huge reason why the Sabres came away with a win. But Ryan, I am begging you. Stay in the crease! You are not, as Roby described Rick DiPietro tonight, a "river boat gambler." You're a nice little goalie who does not want to stress out his fans too terribly much. Right?
This is going back to last night, but I really missed Jim Lorentz during the too many men on the ice penalties. It's stupid but I loved him pausing the film, counting the players, and circling them on the telestrator. I really feel like Jim should have weaned us all off of him, maybe 40 games this season and ten less every season after that? Is it too late to make this happen?
The dumbest conversation Mark and I had tonight:
Drew Stafford scores.
MARK: Yes! That's three games in a row!
HEATHER (thinking)
MARK: I'm counting the disallowed goal, by the way. That was crap.
HEATHER: You're counting it forever?
MARK: Yeah.
HEATHER: So years from now, when we're all celebrating Drew Stafford's 500th goal -
MARK: 501
HEATHER: Okaaaay. Hey, if you die unexpectedly, do you mind if I marry Paul Posluszny?
MARK: Nah, Poz is cool.
HEATHER: If he's married by then, Joe Thornton's my back-up.
MARK: It's good you have plans.
I loved Jason Pominville passing off the empty netter to Jochen last night saying simply, "Jochen would've given it to me in the same situation," and then hustling to get his own empty netter tonight. Pommers hasn't been scoring many goals lately, but he's playing some good hockey and doing all the little things right. I've said this before, but the kid is really, really growing on me this season. Unlike some of the other younger guys I think he's managed to avoid putting too much pressure on himself. He stays within in himself and focuses on playing his game.
In closing, I refuse to believe there wasn't a single Tragically Hip song on Brian Campbell's playlist. I refuse. I'm so disappointed! Also, Life is a Highway by Rascal Flatts? Really, HSBC?
Thursday, November 8, 2007
Jason Pominville is a Good Hockey Player
In honor of NaBloPoMO, I'll be attempting to post something every day in November. If you're not checking in every day, make sure you're catching all the posts! Yes, I missed yesterday, thanks for noticing...
I've been thinking a lot about Jason Pominville lately. This is a new thing for me because generally I don't think of him very often. I was as excited as every other Sabres fan when he scored his series winning short-handed goal against Ottawa in the 2006 playoffs but I admit I didn't really think of him as a super important part of the puzzle the following season. And even though he scored 34 goals and was the star of my (really bad) fantasy hockey team last season - I picked him up out of the undrafted pile for crying out loud - I still didn't really think of him that much until the playoffs. And then I reamed him, ranting on an almost nightly basis to Mark about how "Pominville better not think I'm going to let him coast on that playoff shortie forever." (For the record, I do think he was remarkably bad in the post-season and unlike some players, his name didn't come up much. And yes that was me indirectly defending Derek Roy. I told you, I have a thing about that.) Even this off-season, I didn't think much about Jason Pominville. I thought it was ridiculous for people to say his entire game was going to shrivel up and disappear without Daniel Briere, but I didn't think of him as one of the guys who was going to be a difference maker. A few weeks ago, just for kicks, I ranked the current Sabres roster from favorite to least favorite and I was about halfway through the list before I even thought of Jason Pominville.
But as I said, lately I have been thinking about Jason Pominville. You know why? Because it turns out he's a pretty good hockey player! I know! Before the season started, we got confident quotes from the usual suspects - Ryan Miller, Adam Mair, Brian Campbell. "The captains were great but we learned a lot from them and we'll be fine. We're a good hockey team." And once the season started and the team struggled, the same players kept saying the same things. "We just have to work harder and everything will start clicking." And while I appreciate all the confident talking, I was really hitting the point where I wanted a little less talk and a lot more action. One of the few players who seemed to really get that talking about playing better wasn't the same thing as actually playing better was Jason Pominville. He's worked hard every single game, even when it didn't pay off. He's played at both ends of the ice unlike many other forwards on the team. He's not flashy, his style doesn't usually jump out at you, but somewhere along the way he's become a very dependable, consistent, two-way player. I feel like an idiot. When did this happen?
After I realized, hey, you know this Pommers kid might have a real future in the NHL, I started thinking about why he's so often an afterthought for me and I finally realized what exactly the problem is. Puck bunnies. Seriously. I've never seen a POMINVILLE jersey on anyone who wasn't a)female, b)between the ages of 12 and 25 and c)carrying around a sign that says "I Heart Jason." As a female, I'm extremely wary of the whole puck bunny thing. While I occasionally let loose, I think pretty carefully about what I write here because I want people to take me seriously as a hockey fan. I know many people see me in a jersey they automatically assume I'm a puck bunny (even though I look nothing like your average puck bunny) so there's a strike against me before we've even started talking. Evidently I've sort of lumped Jason Pominville in with all things puck bunny and packed him away.
Seriously, doesn't he look more like the member of a boy band than a hockey player?
So Jason, I owe you an apology. It's not your fault that you have the non-threatening puppy dog looks that appeal to females of a certain age. It's not your fault that you sound like an earnest 12-year-old when you talk. You're a good hockey player and I promise from now on I won't take that for granted. I think you're going to stick, you know?
(See if you can't get those buddies of yours to play as hard as you are, okay?)
I've been thinking a lot about Jason Pominville lately. This is a new thing for me because generally I don't think of him very often. I was as excited as every other Sabres fan when he scored his series winning short-handed goal against Ottawa in the 2006 playoffs but I admit I didn't really think of him as a super important part of the puzzle the following season. And even though he scored 34 goals and was the star of my (really bad) fantasy hockey team last season - I picked him up out of the undrafted pile for crying out loud - I still didn't really think of him that much until the playoffs. And then I reamed him, ranting on an almost nightly basis to Mark about how "Pominville better not think I'm going to let him coast on that playoff shortie forever." (For the record, I do think he was remarkably bad in the post-season and unlike some players, his name didn't come up much. And yes that was me indirectly defending Derek Roy. I told you, I have a thing about that.) Even this off-season, I didn't think much about Jason Pominville. I thought it was ridiculous for people to say his entire game was going to shrivel up and disappear without Daniel Briere, but I didn't think of him as one of the guys who was going to be a difference maker. A few weeks ago, just for kicks, I ranked the current Sabres roster from favorite to least favorite and I was about halfway through the list before I even thought of Jason Pominville.
But as I said, lately I have been thinking about Jason Pominville. You know why? Because it turns out he's a pretty good hockey player! I know! Before the season started, we got confident quotes from the usual suspects - Ryan Miller, Adam Mair, Brian Campbell. "The captains were great but we learned a lot from them and we'll be fine. We're a good hockey team." And once the season started and the team struggled, the same players kept saying the same things. "We just have to work harder and everything will start clicking." And while I appreciate all the confident talking, I was really hitting the point where I wanted a little less talk and a lot more action. One of the few players who seemed to really get that talking about playing better wasn't the same thing as actually playing better was Jason Pominville. He's worked hard every single game, even when it didn't pay off. He's played at both ends of the ice unlike many other forwards on the team. He's not flashy, his style doesn't usually jump out at you, but somewhere along the way he's become a very dependable, consistent, two-way player. I feel like an idiot. When did this happen?
After I realized, hey, you know this Pommers kid might have a real future in the NHL, I started thinking about why he's so often an afterthought for me and I finally realized what exactly the problem is. Puck bunnies. Seriously. I've never seen a POMINVILLE jersey on anyone who wasn't a)female, b)between the ages of 12 and 25 and c)carrying around a sign that says "I Heart Jason." As a female, I'm extremely wary of the whole puck bunny thing. While I occasionally let loose, I think pretty carefully about what I write here because I want people to take me seriously as a hockey fan. I know many people see me in a jersey they automatically assume I'm a puck bunny (even though I look nothing like your average puck bunny) so there's a strike against me before we've even started talking. Evidently I've sort of lumped Jason Pominville in with all things puck bunny and packed him away.
Seriously, doesn't he look more like the member of a boy band than a hockey player?So Jason, I owe you an apology. It's not your fault that you have the non-threatening puppy dog looks that appeal to females of a certain age. It's not your fault that you sound like an earnest 12-year-old when you talk. You're a good hockey player and I promise from now on I won't take that for granted. I think you're going to stick, you know?
(See if you can't get those buddies of yours to play as hard as you are, okay?)
Thursday, November 1, 2007
Shipping Up to Boston
I hate games like the one tonight. The Sabres didn't really play that terribly - some things were much improved actually - but they just couldn't pull it together. A few notes, some about the game, some about other things:
- Ryan Miller was not good tonight. I think Buffalo fans are sometimes too hard on him, but Boston's second goal was terrible and a shot that has to be stopped if we're going to win. It's just as well that we lost in overtime because I wasn't feeling very confident that Ryan was going to shut down anyone in a shoot-out tonight. Hopefully he looks better tomorrow night. Last season I always felt great about his chances on breakaways and in shoot-outs and I'm kind of missing that feeling, Ryan. It'd be nice to see him and the defense play well at the same time.
- Three cheers for Toni Lydman taking a puck off the face and then coming back in the game. That was the best save by anyone in a Buffalo jersey tonight and Toni had a great game overall. I thought he was an oddball choice as November's captain since he got off to such a slow start but it's that kind of play that Lindy probably had in mind when he chose Toni. Perhaps a subtle message that talking don't mean nothing if your play ain't backing it up? I'll take a bunch of quiet guys who play tough like that over a bunch of talkers any day of the week and I imagine Lindy would too.
- Speaking of Toni (Tony Tone), there's a great interview with him up on Sabres TV right now but once again the local media missed an obvious question: Toni, are you going to abuse your position and commandeer the dressing room CD player for the month? Or maybe force the teammates who aren't playing well to listen to your favorite thrash metal albums at full volume all night? Paul Hamilton, these are the things I want to know!
- Toni had this to say in the Buffalo News today: Me and Jochen are kind of the same when it comes to being vocal in the room,” Lydman said. “We’re quiet. It’s more Hank and Millsie doing the talking, and Spacho the yelling. First of all, it's nice to get confirmation that Hank is indeed one of the more vocal leaders on the team. Paul Hamilton seemed really surprised when he found out that Hank was one of the players who spoke in the closed meeting the team had last week and quite frankly, I was too. I'm shocked to learn that the media and fans might not know everything about the inner workings of the team. Shocked, I tell you! Second of all, another obvious follow-up question missed: Just how hilarious is a screaming Spacek? Amy brought this up over at Shots Off the Crossbar and it's so true. I can barely understand Spacek when he's carefully speaking during plain ol' interviews. Does anyone on the team really get what he's saying when he starts yelling because I'm imagining a lot of loud, fast, booming gibberish. Seriously, Toni, do you all just sit around and giggle while Spacho goes off? And what do I need to do to get him to yell at me?
- For the record, I really thought Tim Connolly should have gotten a letter this month. He showed up almost every night, he's playing at a point per game pace, his line has been the most consistent and the hardest working, and his power play unit is looking very strong even when it's not scoring. But one little note to Timmy: You can shoot the puck, you know. It's okay!
- Jason Pominville also put together a very good first month, in my opinion. I was really hard on him during the playoffs last year, but he's busted his butt almost every night so far and he's one of the few forwards who's played well at both ends of the ice. He gummed up a defensive play a bit tonight and I found myself completely startled. Evidently Mark shared my feelings because he said, "Wow, you don't see that from Jason very often" and while I'd never thought about it, you really don't. Some games he, Timmy, and Jochen were the only signs of life out there. Also, I think we can officially put the "Pominville is nothing without Briere" argument to rest, people. Does he need a strong center? I don't know, maybe. (And seriously, a winger needs a good center? Whoa, hit me with some more earth shattering knowledge!) Was Briere the only good center on the team? Evidently not.
- This schedule is a travesty. We play what feels like five games in three days and then have a week off. We play nine straight division games with three or four different teams. I usually enjoy the Montreal and Ottawa games but having six of them in one month is overkill. I understand that scheduling thirty teams is probably a complicated process but I'm pretty confident I could do a better job. Are everybody's schedules this screwy?
- I'm not a big fan of Independent Health calling their workers "Red Shirts." First of all, it's stupid. I wear a red shirt to the grocery store. I'd really like to think the person answering my health related questions is a little more educated than the average grocery store cashier. Second of all, doesn't anyone at the company watch Star Trek? I don't really like my health insurance conjuring up thoughts of pointless death.
- After contributing nothing for far too long, I recently posted something at HLog regarding my one hockey related superstition. Want to know what it is? Ha! You'll have to read it there.
- Ryan Miller was not good tonight. I think Buffalo fans are sometimes too hard on him, but Boston's second goal was terrible and a shot that has to be stopped if we're going to win. It's just as well that we lost in overtime because I wasn't feeling very confident that Ryan was going to shut down anyone in a shoot-out tonight. Hopefully he looks better tomorrow night. Last season I always felt great about his chances on breakaways and in shoot-outs and I'm kind of missing that feeling, Ryan. It'd be nice to see him and the defense play well at the same time.
- Three cheers for Toni Lydman taking a puck off the face and then coming back in the game. That was the best save by anyone in a Buffalo jersey tonight and Toni had a great game overall. I thought he was an oddball choice as November's captain since he got off to such a slow start but it's that kind of play that Lindy probably had in mind when he chose Toni. Perhaps a subtle message that talking don't mean nothing if your play ain't backing it up? I'll take a bunch of quiet guys who play tough like that over a bunch of talkers any day of the week and I imagine Lindy would too.
- Speaking of Toni (Tony Tone), there's a great interview with him up on Sabres TV right now but once again the local media missed an obvious question: Toni, are you going to abuse your position and commandeer the dressing room CD player for the month? Or maybe force the teammates who aren't playing well to listen to your favorite thrash metal albums at full volume all night? Paul Hamilton, these are the things I want to know!
- Toni had this to say in the Buffalo News today: Me and Jochen are kind of the same when it comes to being vocal in the room,” Lydman said. “We’re quiet. It’s more Hank and Millsie doing the talking, and Spacho the yelling. First of all, it's nice to get confirmation that Hank is indeed one of the more vocal leaders on the team. Paul Hamilton seemed really surprised when he found out that Hank was one of the players who spoke in the closed meeting the team had last week and quite frankly, I was too. I'm shocked to learn that the media and fans might not know everything about the inner workings of the team. Shocked, I tell you! Second of all, another obvious follow-up question missed: Just how hilarious is a screaming Spacek? Amy brought this up over at Shots Off the Crossbar and it's so true. I can barely understand Spacek when he's carefully speaking during plain ol' interviews. Does anyone on the team really get what he's saying when he starts yelling because I'm imagining a lot of loud, fast, booming gibberish. Seriously, Toni, do you all just sit around and giggle while Spacho goes off? And what do I need to do to get him to yell at me?
- For the record, I really thought Tim Connolly should have gotten a letter this month. He showed up almost every night, he's playing at a point per game pace, his line has been the most consistent and the hardest working, and his power play unit is looking very strong even when it's not scoring. But one little note to Timmy: You can shoot the puck, you know. It's okay!
- Jason Pominville also put together a very good first month, in my opinion. I was really hard on him during the playoffs last year, but he's busted his butt almost every night so far and he's one of the few forwards who's played well at both ends of the ice. He gummed up a defensive play a bit tonight and I found myself completely startled. Evidently Mark shared my feelings because he said, "Wow, you don't see that from Jason very often" and while I'd never thought about it, you really don't. Some games he, Timmy, and Jochen were the only signs of life out there. Also, I think we can officially put the "Pominville is nothing without Briere" argument to rest, people. Does he need a strong center? I don't know, maybe. (And seriously, a winger needs a good center? Whoa, hit me with some more earth shattering knowledge!) Was Briere the only good center on the team? Evidently not.
- This schedule is a travesty. We play what feels like five games in three days and then have a week off. We play nine straight division games with three or four different teams. I usually enjoy the Montreal and Ottawa games but having six of them in one month is overkill. I understand that scheduling thirty teams is probably a complicated process but I'm pretty confident I could do a better job. Are everybody's schedules this screwy?
- I'm not a big fan of Independent Health calling their workers "Red Shirts." First of all, it's stupid. I wear a red shirt to the grocery store. I'd really like to think the person answering my health related questions is a little more educated than the average grocery store cashier. Second of all, doesn't anyone at the company watch Star Trek? I don't really like my health insurance conjuring up thoughts of pointless death.
- After contributing nothing for far too long, I recently posted something at HLog regarding my one hockey related superstition. Want to know what it is? Ha! You'll have to read it there.
Saturday, August 18, 2007
Whatever Pops Into My Brain (Pretty Boys Ahead!)
I just realized it's been a pretty quiet month here at Top Shelf. Summer malaise is setting in, I think. The last couple weeks of summer school are chaos and trying to balance the two jobs with some terrible allergy attacks has sucked me of all energy. I've been spending most of my time at home sleeping. I'm now on vacation from the day job however for two weeks and will soon have a week off from both jobs while my mom and one of my brothers come up to visit from Alabama. So maybe I'll get a much needed energy boost. For now, here's a hodge-podge of things:
Much of Buffalo is currently talking about the price increases for the upcoming Sabres season. I'm not really sure what the big deal is. First of all, we all knew a price hike was coming. It's not like the team has been hiding that fact. And while there are certainly a number of bronze games that could be value games, silver games that could be bronze etc. I just can't get that up in arms about this. A seat at a Sabres game is still much more affordable than a seat at many - if not most - pro sporting events. Mark and I spent a nice little chunk more on our mini-pack than we did last season, but what we spent on five games would still barely get us into a couple of games in Toronto. I'm the first to forget this sometimes or whine about it when it doesn't suit me, but this is a business. There are people involved who would like to make some profit. If you're going to complain that management isn't throwing enough money at players to keep them around, I don't know if you can complain about them picking up some money in an area that, let's face it, they've probably been underpricing the last few seasons. It's all about supply and demand. The Sabres are hot right now and if you want to see them in person, you're going to have to compete with fans who are willing to pay more money. That's the way it works. Of course Drury and Briere's returns are going to be be gold games - lots of people want to see them. The truth is, management could've raised prices much more than they did. Pony up and go to the games or don't. But take a look at what other fans are paying to see lesser quality teams play before you complain too loudly.
These new jerseys are largely frightening. Columbus's new design is much improved and the Bruins did a great job of making their classic look fit the new streamlined look, but everyone else? Ugh. What is up with all the weird piping and color blocking on these designs? And a lot of them suffer from the same thing the Sabres re-design does - very plain chests with an explosion of color and design under the arms. Why would you put that much of the design in the most useless place on the jersey? I can appreciate the new jerseys being made of better material and providing improved performance, but I don't understand why it's proving so hard for teams to make something decent of them. And if the Bruins can design the jersey they did, why exactly was it impossible for the Sabres to use the vintage logo on their re-design? The shapes of the logo and the striping are almost exactly the same.
My husband Mark (check out his new blog, SabresDance) has spent his summer trying to select a new favorite player so he can purchase a jersey replacement for his now useless Drury jersey (although we did decided that we can tape LYNCH over DRURY, making it somewhat wearable). Right now it seems Drew Stafford is in the lead with Ryan Miller trailing in second.
My buddy Kate recently started up a new blog called The Willful Caboose which everyone should, of course, check out. Kate is also in the process of selecting a new favorite player - darn you, Chris Drury! - but unlike Mark, she is factoring physical appearance into the equation. This led to us turning a comment thread on the otherwise respectable Bfloblog into a debate on whether or not Teppo Numminen is hot (yes, he is). I'm genuinely gob smacked at the idea of someone not finding Teppo attractive, slicked back hair and all, so just so everyone knows where I stand, here's Heather B's list of the three best looking Sabres, in order of preference. Aw, heck... Let's just call this next section:
Why I Love Hockey #21 - Good-Looking Boys
1. Henrik Tallinder - Hair the color of burnished gold, bright blue eyes, sweet smile, and dimples. The long, lean frame seals the deal. Very pointy chin but that can be avoided by not looking at him in profile too much.
2. Paul Gaustad - Really hot especially when he's throwing punches at people.
3. Jochen Hecht - He's got the whole shy boy vibe working for him. I don't know that I'd say he's hot, but he's totally adorable. Especially cute when you can get a little bit of a smile out of him.
Honorable mention to Teppo Numminen. Eternal favorite status to Jay McKee and Marty Biron.
As for the puck bunny favorites...
Ryan Miller is not cute. He's interesting looking - I have a lot of affection for his perpetually cocked eyebrow - and he seems like a cool guy, but he's not good-looking at all. Plus he's so darn scrawny. I am not a small woman. I have a hard time being attracted to a guy who I'm mostly convinced I could break in half with my bare hands.
Jason Pominville is not cute. He looks like a puppy dog (thus the nickname "Pommerdoodle") and I want to pat him on the head and say, "Good boy" when I see him with that frizz of hair.
Derek Roy is very cute so I'll give the puck bunnies that one. He's so tiny though. Not really his fault but I have a hard time getting past it.
All right, I'm done. Maybe I'll be more organized and coherent tomorrow.
Much of Buffalo is currently talking about the price increases for the upcoming Sabres season. I'm not really sure what the big deal is. First of all, we all knew a price hike was coming. It's not like the team has been hiding that fact. And while there are certainly a number of bronze games that could be value games, silver games that could be bronze etc. I just can't get that up in arms about this. A seat at a Sabres game is still much more affordable than a seat at many - if not most - pro sporting events. Mark and I spent a nice little chunk more on our mini-pack than we did last season, but what we spent on five games would still barely get us into a couple of games in Toronto. I'm the first to forget this sometimes or whine about it when it doesn't suit me, but this is a business. There are people involved who would like to make some profit. If you're going to complain that management isn't throwing enough money at players to keep them around, I don't know if you can complain about them picking up some money in an area that, let's face it, they've probably been underpricing the last few seasons. It's all about supply and demand. The Sabres are hot right now and if you want to see them in person, you're going to have to compete with fans who are willing to pay more money. That's the way it works. Of course Drury and Briere's returns are going to be be gold games - lots of people want to see them. The truth is, management could've raised prices much more than they did. Pony up and go to the games or don't. But take a look at what other fans are paying to see lesser quality teams play before you complain too loudly.
These new jerseys are largely frightening. Columbus's new design is much improved and the Bruins did a great job of making their classic look fit the new streamlined look, but everyone else? Ugh. What is up with all the weird piping and color blocking on these designs? And a lot of them suffer from the same thing the Sabres re-design does - very plain chests with an explosion of color and design under the arms. Why would you put that much of the design in the most useless place on the jersey? I can appreciate the new jerseys being made of better material and providing improved performance, but I don't understand why it's proving so hard for teams to make something decent of them. And if the Bruins can design the jersey they did, why exactly was it impossible for the Sabres to use the vintage logo on their re-design? The shapes of the logo and the striping are almost exactly the same.
My husband Mark (check out his new blog, SabresDance) has spent his summer trying to select a new favorite player so he can purchase a jersey replacement for his now useless Drury jersey (although we did decided that we can tape LYNCH over DRURY, making it somewhat wearable). Right now it seems Drew Stafford is in the lead with Ryan Miller trailing in second.
My buddy Kate recently started up a new blog called The Willful Caboose which everyone should, of course, check out. Kate is also in the process of selecting a new favorite player - darn you, Chris Drury! - but unlike Mark, she is factoring physical appearance into the equation. This led to us turning a comment thread on the otherwise respectable Bfloblog into a debate on whether or not Teppo Numminen is hot (yes, he is). I'm genuinely gob smacked at the idea of someone not finding Teppo attractive, slicked back hair and all, so just so everyone knows where I stand, here's Heather B's list of the three best looking Sabres, in order of preference. Aw, heck... Let's just call this next section:
Why I Love Hockey #21 - Good-Looking Boys
1. Henrik Tallinder - Hair the color of burnished gold, bright blue eyes, sweet smile, and dimples. The long, lean frame seals the deal. Very pointy chin but that can be avoided by not looking at him in profile too much.
2. Paul Gaustad - Really hot especially when he's throwing punches at people.
3. Jochen Hecht - He's got the whole shy boy vibe working for him. I don't know that I'd say he's hot, but he's totally adorable. Especially cute when you can get a little bit of a smile out of him.
Honorable mention to Teppo Numminen. Eternal favorite status to Jay McKee and Marty Biron.
As for the puck bunny favorites...
Ryan Miller is not cute. He's interesting looking - I have a lot of affection for his perpetually cocked eyebrow - and he seems like a cool guy, but he's not good-looking at all. Plus he's so darn scrawny. I am not a small woman. I have a hard time being attracted to a guy who I'm mostly convinced I could break in half with my bare hands.
Jason Pominville is not cute. He looks like a puppy dog (thus the nickname "Pommerdoodle") and I want to pat him on the head and say, "Good boy" when I see him with that frizz of hair.
Derek Roy is very cute so I'll give the puck bunnies that one. He's so tiny though. Not really his fault but I have a hard time getting past it.
All right, I'm done. Maybe I'll be more organized and coherent tomorrow.
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