July 1st is kind of scary to me.

People are talking it's like the Christmas of the NHL, but to me, it's scary. I mean, you get used to a set of guys making up your team, and then it is broken up and new people are added and it's weird.

Toni Lydman is off to Anaheim (I'm not sad, sorry) and Hank the tank is going to New Jersey (but he gets to play with Parise and Brodeur on his team, come on, that is awesome) so we say goodbye to some. We got a man by the name of Jordan Leopold, and I don't know much about him. I read he has been prone to concussions (hmmm) and really doesn't have any big, good stats to talk about. So we shall see. It's 3 years, so I just hope he doesn't end up the Raffi Torres of defense, because that will suck for 3 whole years. Oh well, time will tell.

Nothing really big happening with the Sabres camp though. I mean signing that one dude is just, eh. I want big action, but I have to realize I am a fan of the wrong team if I'm looking for that type of thing. I just can't believe that like 5 Blackhawks are gone, and I think 3 of them went to Atlanta or something like that, with Kris Versteeg going to Toronto and Adam Burish off to Dallas. That team was all shook up, geez. Their cap was crazy tight though, and with Kane and Toews needing to be under lock for a long time, there was just NO wiggle room for them. Sucks, but at least those guys got the cup and the love from the city before they left. Atlanta is going to have a brand new team come October, that's for sure.

The rumor mill goes crazy out of control during times like these though. I've heard that they are in talks with Torres to sign him for like 3 more years or something (hope this is FALSE) and that Lalime isn't going anywhere and that the Flyers want Kaleta. I also heard the Flyers wanted Tallinder and Lydman before they went to those other teams though, so it's all so crazy. No use in getting all nutty about it until it's finalized, so we'll have to see what else happens for the Sabres. Hopefully something good....maybe? Eh.

Sabres vs. Florida Panthers

Jason Pominville! You have been so great lately! It makes me feel (just a little) bad that I was so mean to you. You are now leading the team with 24 goals and got that hat trick a few days back and all that other good stuff. I won't complain about you again (at least not for awhile).

Nathan Gerbe also scored, as did Tyler Ennis. Mark Mancari was sent back to Portland, so he did not play in this game. Ennis and Gerbe are really showing what they can do up here though, and it is helping the team out a lot with Connolly and Vanek still out until who knows when. Good job boys!

Also goals by Kennedy, Mair, and Tallinder. Wow Henrik, niceeee. Kennedy has also been stepping up as of late. He started the season off strong, went into somewhat of a rut, but now seems to be doing better. Line problems seem to be to blame, just needs to be up there with the big guys helping out, because he is capable of it and can produce.

Raffi Torres came back and got three assists. Geez, I guess he wanted to show he was still on the team. Sad thing is I didn't even know or remember he was gone for most of the time he was out for his injury. Oops.

Random notes:

-Teppo Numminen was at the game! I saw him on the jumbotron and I was all ooooohh, but it seemed a lot of the arena didn't even realize or something. Hello people, he did play for us, are you all dead in here? Cheer for the man, cripes. It made me happy at least.

-I got one of those playoff shirts from the Sabres store before the game. I got the we want a cup in Buffalo one. There were a lot of cool ones, kinda hard to choose.

-The man sitting next to me at the game was fullll of questions, and I guess he decided I seemed like the person to ask. Including "who is number 63?, where did he come from? who is injured? what is the injury? who just scored?" and the list goes on. I wanted to hand him a sports section....haha. But, I knew all the answers (wooo!) and I guess I really didn't mind that I got to be the person asked. It was just funny to me.

Great game all in all, didn't know it would prelude to tonight (which will be discussed in a short, ergh, separate entry) and we keep on trucking along for the remainder of the season. Game on!!

Recalls galore!

So, accoring to sabres.com, Nathan Gerbe and Mark Mancari are being recalled to join Ennis up here until Connolly, Kaleta and Vanek get better. I don't know the extent of Vanek's injury, like if they think he will be back soon, but it doesn't seem good with Connolly and Kaleta. Ugh. Oh and I keep forgetting about the Raffi Torres injury, see how much I even NOTICE this guy is on our team? Geez.

Gerbe is precious, he is little, but I mean, little guys can have force. No one says he has to be up there trying to take on guys like Kaleta, I think he will be just fine up here. He has skill, otherwise he wouldn't be in the spot he's in already.

Mark Mancari did pretty well for us the last time he was up here, and Ennis is a beast out there so far and it's only been one game, so I think these three will be quite ok in the lineup. It will shake things up a little bit which is sometimes scary, but can also be good. These kids are fired up and ready to go, to show what they can do in the NHL most of the time, so let's let them show us hmmm? With playoffs being so close I just hope that these guys can get their injuries taken care of and rested and hopefully be back in time to start. We shall see what happens tomorrow night in Boston. I bet these guys are hyped up for it though, I know I am. Game on!!

Sabres vs. Atlanta Thrashers

I don't like the name Thrashers because 1.) it is very close to "rashers" and "rash" is right there and 2.) I always want to say "trashers" thanks to my dad and the fact that this team is supposed to be so very bad.

Well they weren't tonight.

So, let's start off with some old friends, Maxim Afinogenov and Clarke MacArthur. They were thinking "we will show you guys!" and they did. I miss Clarke on the team though, I was a little bit sad when they interviewed him, like he didn't want to leave Buffalo, which is sad. Also, what the heck will the humidity down there do to his curl-fro? That must be hard to contain. You did good tonight guys, you showed Buffalo alright. Gahh.

Matt Ellis scored a goal (WHOA) and so did Jason Pominville (DOUBLE WHOA) and Raffi Torres still did not. Geez, we could just bring Clarke back at this rate. What the heck man? Get with it already, you looked so promising. Or maybe it was another one of Darcy's poor decisions made to look promising to all of us. Whatever.

Ryan Miller is having a little, itty, bitty, small (or medium) slump, but that happens. As Harry Neale put it "even Betty Crocker can burn the cake sometimes" and he's right. It's just that I don't want to see Patrick Lalime anymore, I'm sorry. He makes me very nervous out there and just...blah. One more win to 200 buddy, don't you want it?

So at this point I am ehhhh on the Sabres situation. Too much more of this and there will be nothing else to look forward to because you will be done like toast. Gotta keep that northeast under wraps and get it moving here. I try to be all about the optimism, because teams deserve that from fans, but when you see the same things happening over and over, it seems like maybe the team just can't do it, or doesn't have the heart to. We shall see what happens, but playing like this will not work. This game just made me crabby, and I kind of don't want to see the Sabres for awhile. Go away dudes.