Sabres vs. Florida Panthers

Let's recap:

Sabres are doing extremely well right now, winning like nobody's business (except for the whole losing the home opener thing, but I guess we can forgive that) and things are looking pretty sweet.

Ryan Miller got one, of what I'm assuming will be many, shutouts. I love those.

Paul Gaustad made Matt Bradley's face look like he was trick-or-treating early...awesome huh?

Thomas Vanek is scoring like all kinds of crazy and it's cool and I'm not mad at him at this moment.

I still wish they were winning all these games at home instead of on the road, but who cares, wins are wins.

I see Timmy Kennedy is in the sunshine state and still looks depressed. I saw him and was like "TIMMYYY!" and realized I kind of missed him. I miss only one Tim from this team, that's for sure. He wears number 8 now instead of the unlucky 13 he did here. Good for him.

I need to update this thing more.

That is all.

Summer was long, wasn't it?

Yeah it was, and as a hockey fan, it can be the worst season of the whole year. Fear not though, training camps are happening and the Sabres have their first pre-season game tomorrow night!! They will be in the newly named First Niagara Center (ew), and it is vs. the Carolina Hurricanes. I would LOVE to be going, but I am working so yeah, not happening. I have neglected my poor little blog pretty much all summer and I apologize, but now I am back. Time to get back into hockey and yayayayayayy I am excited. I am hoping to get tickets somehow to Saturday's game vs. Toronto, and not too long after that the boys start the season in Europe with two games over there, before coming home to start the season here sometime in mid-October.

I feel like I haven't seen Sabres hockey in years, and I can not wait to see the new things done at the arena (haha yeah it will be that forever bye) and see some new faces on the team and just see them play in general.

Time to dust off the jerseys (but I never actually let mine get dusty, are you crazy?) and go back downtown for a whole new season of Sabres hockey in Buffalo. Game on!

More trade stuffs.

So we now have Robyn Regehr as a Sabre and Ales Kotalik BACK as a Sabre. Weirdness ok, just weird to me. We lost Chris Butler (darn??) and Paul Byron (double darn??)to Calgary and yeah, that was it for now. This doesn't really excite me much, was it supposed to? Same old trade junk as with any other trade time. We take some ehhh player and give up some ehh player and see if that will shake things up and sometimes it does a little and sometimes it does nothing, and in the long run it really does nothing. Woooot. I'm forever the optimist, this I know.

In other news, Brian Campbell went to the Panthers (oh come ONN, I just bought his Blackhawks shirt not that long ago dammit!) and one of my favorite other Hawks, Troy Brouwer, went to the Capitals. That makes me sad because I love the Hawks as a big happy family, and I really like those guys. Granted, Campbell's salary is beyond nutty and Chicago is probably having a fun time with cap space again this year, but blahh. That's how it has to work out though. I would have gladly taken Brouwer as a Sabre :)

Development camp starts on July 5th, and I really want to attend this year again like I did last year. It's cool to see what guys will be up and coming in the system and all that, and I just like to keep up with Sabres stuff in the summer seeing as there are no games and that sucks...haha. A few of the guys were at the draft party last night and it's cool to see who could be on the team in the future and see what they're all about. I watched Kev Slyvester interview Marcus Foligno, and I really want him to be on the team like now, right now...haha. I can't wait until he can actually play here, it will be awesome. I'm pretty sure they interviewed Corey Tropp as well.

I also liked the draft picks Buffalo got, Joel Armia has an awesome Finnish mullet (haha yeahhh) and Daniel Catenacci is handsome, and everyone seems excited to be part of the Sabres and everything feels new and fun! Woooo! :D

Weirdo trade day.

I think the Flyers just wanted to make things more interesting today or something because they went all crazy and traded away two of their BIG name guys. Granted, getting Brayden Schenn and Wayne Simmonds in their place isn't shabby at all, but wow. It came out of nowhere it seems. Jeff Carter went to Columbus (odd) and well, I think hell is breaking loose in the Flyers fanbase. If the Sabres did something like that it would be crazy. There is some talk here and there about Robyn Regehr coming here from Calgary if he will waive his no trade clause, and then someone said someone wants Roy, then it was Weber, it's like geez. No one will know what happens till it happens, so it's crazy to even listen to much of anything that is just rumored.

I was just hoping we could get rid of Tim Connolly (long time coming people, let's just do this ok?) and maybe a few others and pick up Parise (haha I can dream can't I?) and then things would be nice and sunny. If Mike Richards would have came to Buffalo that could have been nice, a new shiny captain all ready to go, no assembly required! Man. Oh well, who knows what will happen for the Sabres as of this moment, but it will just get crazier as July 1st approaches and after.

Oh and Boston won the Stanley Cup. Eh. I like Timmy Thomas, he's amazingly talented and awesome. The rest of the team...nah. I felt bad for Vancouver just like I feel bad for every team that makes it that far and loses. Oh well, that's how it goes.

Draft day is tomorrow and I will be going to HSBC arena for the first time since January for something hockey related. I am excite(d). :) Schedule was also released today, and the Sabres DO NOT PLAY THE BLACKHAWKS AT HOME THIS SEASON, ONLY AWAY. Ok, grand, how do I get myself to Chicago in January huh? Lammeee. Now I will not see my western conference boys up close for a whole season. Sucks, sucks, sucks.

Locker room renovations? Really?

Granted, I always thought the locker room was pretty shabby, but come on. Is that really going to help? Is the morale going to be so boosted by that, that a guy will come in and be like "oh wow, awesome new room! lemme score a goal tonight!"...no. It will not really matter. It might help a little I guess, but it should be bottom of the barrel priorities. How about WHO'S INSIDE the locker room first? I'm sure that will have to be worked on in the summer also. Whatever effort was put in by this team this season was just not enough to advance, same story as last year.

I commend this man for trying to make the place better for the guys, really. It does deserve to be up there with other teams in terms of how nice it is and blah blah, but the team also has to show it's the caliber to actually deserve it. Things are getting better, but they are far from there yet. I hope this summer with new ownership can shed some light on some things, like getting us some new faces, as we have quite a bit of free agents, and signing some of these same guys would make for no advantage come October. Some should stay, but more should probably go. I understand people being proud of the fact the team even MADE the playoffs when we were counted out wayyy before that for any type of post season run. More needs to happen though, it needs to build season by season. The season after you should make the 2nd round, and go up from there, not stay stagnant. If that is happening, something needs a shake up, whether it be coaching, players, etc.

Do you see teams keeping a coach year after year after failed attempts at playoff runs or if they were cut short? No. A lot of times that coach is out of there before the team even cleans out their lockers. I don't think Lindy Ruff is necessarily a BAD coach, but maybe his style or coaching is not working for this core of guys, or maybe just some of them. From the looks of the press conference this morning though, it seems Lindy will be here to stay for some time longer, so who knows. I just feel something must change before October, and something more than the adding of a guy like a Brad Boyes or the like. It seems to be just a patch on a situation, then the guy ends up gone sooner or later anyway. We have had some guys here for forever it seems, and the results seem to stay the same. It gets me frustrated to no end how no one ever seems to want to stir the pot with this team ever. Make a move that will be like "wow, this team is really looking to do something" yeah, how bout that? Pominville, Vanek, Connolly, Stafford, etc. are not rookies anymore. There is no growth and development for them to hit, they are where they are probably going to be for the rest of their careers, they are not like Ennis and Gerbe. What you are going to see at the highest (and lowest) is what you can expect if you keep them on the roster. The big men in the suits will have to figure out if this is the core they want, is that what they think will make this team get somewhere someday. Granted, a lot of guys are signed for a bit and will probably not be moved, but regardless, in my opinion, Connolly would need to go. Lalime also, and maybe even Montador, Grier and especially Niedermayer. Some of those spots need to be filled in with new guys, and then if next year takes a nosedive because of it, you work from there. But it seems like they want to stay wayyy too safe just because these guys have been here for so long. Come on, mix it up will ya? Geez.

Ok, that was super long. But yeah, that's what I had to say about all that.

Sabres vs. Flyers--Game 7

I still need more time to mull this over, but I will say a couple things tonight:

Ryan Miller was more than amazing and he gave this team every chance there was to win. He put the heart and soul into this series and I thank him for that.

It was good to see Derek Roy back out there tonight. Now he will have a full summer to really get back into whatever shape he wants to and kick ass in the fall. I can't wait to see him back out there next season ready to go. Same with Jochen Hecht.

Heard some pretty crappy news tonight that Jason Pominville has a sliced tendon, had surgery, and will be out 4-6 months. That should, HOPEFULLY, have him back in time for the regular season to start. We shall see on that one I guess. Geez, that damn injury is just crazy, I can't believe it.

I will reflect more on this in the coming days when things die down and all that. I am just for now watching the Canucks/Blackhawks to see if the Hawks can win their game 7 and advance. Should be fun. Game on!

Sabres vs. Flyers--Game 6

Ok, so I will just say this game ended in a complete disaster for me, complete with tears, maybe related to the fact I had been up since 6:30am, and maybe not. Probably just all the promise I (and a lot of other people) put behind this game. -sigh- It is not over yet though, nope, it's not.

Tim Connolly got injured in the game and who knows how long he will be out and what the extent of the injuries are. We already are without Jason Pominville and this kind of stuff can just wear down a team. Injuries suck, a lot. This time of year they are the worst though. Ugh.

It was close right up until the end obviously, and we went into OT. OT always makes me nervous, but in the regular season, at least you know you will get SOMETHING out of the deal. Nada in the playoffs however, as we all know.

Sooo, game 7 is back in Philly and I really wish it hadn't come to this. Just wanted to end this series here at home and wave bye bye to the Flyers and have them go far far away until next season. But back to the Wells Fargo Center the boys must go and we have to hope and pray for something big. Please guys, please.

Oh and the Blackhawks also forced a game 7 tonight and it was pretty awesome, seeing as they were right on the elimination doorstep. Rookie Ben Smith scored the winning goal in OT and it was glorious. They are going back to Vancouver and can hopefully win that series and send the Canucks packing. We shall see. Game on!!

Oh and for the record, I really dislike Daniel Briere. Sorry. Didn't care one way or another when he played here, and same goes for now that he is in Philly. Yep.