Sabres vs. Boston Bruins

Little (or not so little) known fact:

There IS a Tyler Kennedy in the NHL...unfortunately for the Versus announcer man, he does NOT play on the Sabres. Sorry to break it to you bro. Or it could be your overwhelming fascination with Tyler Myers which made you incapable of calling TIM Kennedy by the right first name. It's ok, Redwood does that to a lot of us in Buffalo as well, no worries. TIM Kennedy might be just a little pissed though. Or sad, because he looks like he always is. Even though he scored a goal tonight! Yay Timmy!



Coming into this game I wasn't quite sure how to feel. I always remember Boston being a team full of big, mean guys who would kill us. So when they scored first, I was a little bit scared for the rest of the night. But then things took off with the goal by Tyler Myers and Gaustad not long after, and it got a lot better. Tyler Myers had an assist as well, so he was on fire tonight again, and Paul Gaustad has three points in the last three games, so both are doing well.

Ryan Miller had 40 saves tonight, which is craziness, but nothing new for him. Along with Myers, they are usually the top topics of conversation amongst the Versus crew. Just a lot of stating the obvious, which gets boring and repetitive. "Ryan Miller is really good! Tyler Myers is really tall and really good!" You think so guys? Really? Geez.

Random things:

-Patrick Kaleta had thumb surgery today and will be out a minimum of two weeks. Boooo. That will take us right up until the playoffs pretty much. Get better soon PK!

-I don't know about Connolly and Vanek, but hey, we have a bunch of awesome newbies on our side for the time being, and it seems to be going well so far. So hopefully things will keep up until they can get better.

-Nice getting Boston that penalty shot Rivet. You do stuff like that, get into more fights then you should and aren't even really that good. Maybe someone else should be captain hmmm? Just my personal opinion...

-People need to lay off Drew Stafford. So he hasn't scored that much this year, neither has Mike Grier or Adam Mair, or Matt Ellis for that matter. We have top line guys not even scoring near where other teams top numbers are, so why pick on a guy like Stafford who is halfway down the line? I don't get it.

-That pileup on Pominville, what the heck was that about? I was freaking out, like what the heck get off him. He didn't even have the puck, geez. Boston has this thing about going after guys after they have tried to score and the puck is out of their possession. Makes no sense.

The end of the game got me just a tad bit nervous after Boston brought it up to one goal away from a tie. The last bit of the game after they pulled Rask seemed to tick by so very sloowwww and I was afraid Miller would crack under the pressure. It turned out good though, and we won on the road, with a bunch of injuries and newbies and it was great. Wed. against Florida is up next, and then Thurs. in Toronto. Let's keep winning guys, it feels nice huh? Yeah it does. 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!!

I missed most of tonight's game.

So of course it was awesome/a lot of things happened/I still don't know what is going on. I have these things down now that the game is done with:

1. We are short one Patrick Kaleta, one Tim Connolly, and one Thomas Vanek, but have gained one Tyler Ennis. We have two Tylers plus an Ennis and an Ellis=my head explodes soon.

2. The game sounded awesome and Gaustad scored and I missed it (that seems to happen a lot) and Derek Roy got a hat trick. Alrightttt.

3. Patty Lalime finally, FINALLY got that 200th career win! It took awhile, but you did it buddy! Yay! Now you can dance to your heart's content out there (not like you wouldn't anyway, you always seem to get very jazzy out on the ice, and I like it...a lot).

4. Does the Tampa Bay lightning really suck this much? Or were we just tired of getting our asses kicked by Ottawa and had to take the rage out on somebody? Maybe it is a little bit of both at this point. The fact also that Lindy probably threatened physical violence on this team if they did not win tonight. Oh boy.

5. We got that playoff spot! and they will be selling playoff merch at the HSBC arena store! Well my my aren't we a little bit early to the party? Playoffs are not even here yet and it's time to break out the win that cup merch. I dunno, maybe we should wait and see if we make it through the first round? Eh what the hell, I'll buy some of that stuff, I admit it.

6. Tyler Ennis is some sort of kick ass guy! He plays well and he did some nice work tonight. Something about the name Tyler I guess. Maybe we should keep him around awhile...

7. I miss Kaleta already. Damn all these injuries! It sucks being your team's go to guy for fights and the like, but it must take a killer toll on his body, and often. Get better and get back to us soon PK!

8. You other two injured men....ugh. I dunno, just get back. We need a healthy, full team for the playoffs and you are NOT helping matters any. Ackkk.

9. Adam Mair also scored, and Pominville! and Jochen! My my everyone wanted in on some of the action tonight.

10. I don't know which was more heart warming, seeing the Drew Stafford/Lalime hug, or the Lalime/Miller hug. Either way, they both made me say "awwww" more than I should have.

All in all, a stellar night. This would have been a great game to be in attendance for (or even to have watched the whole thing on tv, grrrr) and it is deserved after some hard work by the guys. Off to Boston on Monday, then back home again Wed. vs. Florida. Hopefully the injuries won't hinder us too much and we can keep going like this. If only every game had this much energy and enthusiasm, we would never lose again! haha. Game on!!

Sabres vs. Ottawa Senators

Ok, so lots to talk about, and I mean lots.

First off, the Kaleta thing with Mike Fisher. The people saying he dived and embellished it, please. He did no such thing, and if people think he did, well I guess he did a good enough job because he got their "A" man the boot and got us 5 minutes. Sabres didn't do too much with it, but that's another story. It still gets me every time someone comes into contact with those boards, and then there is any kind of hesitation, and then blood. It would freak anyone out really. You don't know what's going on, how hurt they are, etc. It's just not good, and other players need things like that to happen to know that it won't be tolerated. Hits from behind boggle my freakin' mind, just no need for them. Luckily Kaleta wasn't hurt badly. He also got into a gnarly fight with Zack Smith, who is a 'lil bit (not body wise, but age wise somewhat...) and got what anyone would get for getting into it with PK without knowing what their outcome might be. I feel bad for the kid really, he didn't know what hit him...literally. I loved also during one little meeting of the minds that you could hear one of the linesmen say something like "get going Patrick!" or something to that effect. Haha, what a brat he is.

I again thought (as did others) that Gaustad scored tonight, second time in two nights. This time he got the assist and the goal went to Tim Kennedy. Just when I thought wearing my "the goose is loose" hat for the game was bringing good luck. Oh well, either way he got an assist, which is still awesome. Not enough points to save the game however. Jason Pominville also scored, so I guess we can't say the top line did absolutely nothing, but close to it. Lindy was not happy with what they could have done tonight but didn't. His postgame press conference was just tense because he was obviously very pissed off after the game, as were a lot of people.

Toni Lydman took a dumb penalty, Tim Connolly took one also, and it was just not the game for them. There is never a time for them, but tonight especially. Come on guys! I still don't see why Lydman gets as much ice time as he does, gah. Just pisses me off.

So we did not clench a playoff berth or whatever (the word "berth" is just weird), so maybe tomorrow? Huh guys? How 'bout that hmmm? Would you like to maybe? So your children can eat? (I'm getting overdramatic...) but yeah. Maybe we can do this tomorrow, because we know Tampa isn't QUITE as agressive, and we can beat them if we TRY to. I will miss some of the game tomorrow, so that will mean they will probably do awesome, it's just my luck...haha. It would be good for them though. I got tickets for the Florida game on Wed., probably my last of the season, so that should be good. Hopefully this was just a little bump in the road and they can move on from this and get going. Maybe? I sure hope so. Game on!!

Sabres vs. Montreal Canadiens

This game was utterly painful to watch for more than three quarters of it. Painful and boring, a painful boring mix if you will. Oh my.

First off, they looked like they had never played a game before, like they had been on vacation for months or something. Guys falling, tripping over each other, over sticks, broken sticks galore, it was just a big mess. I bet the timbit players they bring out at intermissions could have played better than the Sabres did for 55 minutes of this game.

The last couple minutes were like a small miracle really. I'm sure a ton of people left that arena, and they were cursing in their cars on the thruway...haha. It just seemed out of reach, but with a goal by Tim Connolly (and a sly pull of Miller by Lindy) we scored one goal, and then Montador (I really thought this was a Gaustad goal :() tied it up with not much time left in the 3rd.

I was really, REALLY hoping we would be able to win it in overtime, because as any Sabre fan knows, shootouts are nerve wracking, gloomy, overall BAD experiences a lot of the time. Well well now Vanek and Pominville, you guys did it, you both scored a goal. Better late then never I guess.

So overall, I got amped at the end of the game, but most of it was a snoozefest. I guess the guys at least gave us something we wanted in the end, because the two points are what they are really after at this point. The guys just looked asleep out there tonight. Even the bench after the shootout was won was lookin' dead, geez. Come on guys!! This is the time, get it goin'! Games like tonight will NOT fly in the playoffs, not in the least. You will not be playing bottom teams just praying for playoff spots, you will be playing playoff worthy teams ready to kick ass. Wake up and hit this home stretch hard, we know you can do it. Game on!!!

Are you Jochen? Nope!

Haha lame.

But, Jochen Hecht did amazing tonight, two goals, and I wanted a hat trick for him so very badly. That would have been very nice. A Toni Lydman goal tonight too? Wow, what did we do to deserve this?? ha.

A goal from Tim Connolly and Tim Kennedy to make it 5-3, and it was a pretty damn awesome game. Road trips are often scary experiences that when they are done, they are not talked about again. It's more of a "let's forget that happened shall we?" but not this time. The south also seems to love us, and a ton of Buffalo fans were in attendance the last three games in a row.

The top line seems to have their heads screwed back on right, and Miller is pretty right on and things are going well. Now is not the time to let this go guys, don't let it go to your heads thinking you will never lose again, because at some point you will. Three home games in a row coming up, I don't think the hometown fans want to see you come home and stink up the place, so do it for us will ya? That would be greaaaat.

Random notes:

-Me and my father do not share the same opinion on Tim Kennedy. I don't think he is all that great, my dad thinks he is. On top of the fact that he always looks sad, he makes me sad with the way he plays a lot of the time. Now, I'm sure he just needs more time to develop into some kind of a player, but for right now it's just ehhhh. We'll see with that one.

-Drew Stafford stopped a puck with his foot. This is never a good thing. Even if that's what they want to do, like taking one for the team, what? No. I would never do that. I would be getting my arse OUT OF THE WAY. I would SAY I was trying to get out of the way too, owowowowow. Hockey players are really all about whatever it takes to help the team and stop a goal, my goodness. By the way, stay away from anything grape flavored man, eww.

Back in Buffalo Wednesday night to take on Montreal. Fun fact: This will be Paul Gaustad's first home game played since Feb. 13th. GO FIGURE. (I'm not letting this go) Game on!!

Sabres vs. Florida Panthers

Pretty good game tonight, not too difficult to watch like a lot of them have been lately...ha.

Drew Stafford came back tonight, and Raffi was out. I don't know when he got injured, but he did. Nice to have Staffy back though, it's been a long time. Well, maybe not too long, but long enough.

Mike Grier scored a goal! Just as me and my dad were sitting there saying "when was the last time he scored? He doesn't score goals a lot does he?" He was trying to put us in our place I guess. It was like clockwork, and a little bit weird...haha. The goal celebration with Myers was quite nice, and then Gaustad skates over and smashes them all into the glass. Good times.

Jochen scored tonight also, but I never put it past him, because he has been pretty damn consistent as of lately. Silent but deadly types, and can score when we need it a lot of the time.

PK PK! I have to admit, I have become quite fond of "the dice roll" goal celebration. Seeing PK score is just all around glorious, as it is to see him mess with the other team too. That Horton guy really wanted to have at it with him, and he was thinking nope, no way. He is just the perfect little pest, he plays the role to a t, and it's great to watch the other team get all pissed off and do exactly what he wants...go after him and take the penalty. Oh PK, you are too awesome.

Ryan Miller was back on his game tonight, a bunch of awesome saves. He was also one of the top three stars along with Patrick Kaleta, who now has 10 goals for the season, the highest for him in one season since his minor league days. Good job all around tonight guys! Onto Carolina tomorrow, just beat them so you can all come home on a good note hmm? Game on!!!

and oh yeah, Byron Bitz is a funny name. Yes, I am being really 3rd grade about it, but oh well. I can't help it. It's just amusing. I wonder if he is called Ritz Bitz by anyone...