Back to life, back to reality.

By Anne

Picture a crazy about-to-be-married woman who decided to have one last wild weekend romp with the girls in Vegas before settling down with her husband. For one weekend she goes crazy, partying all night, drinking, dancing, hitting the clubs, living without a care in the world. And then, the last night she's there, as she pours her cosmo and mimosa soaked bum into bed, she realizes that now that all the fun craziness is over, she's actually glad to be going home to her man.

That's basically how I feel about tonight's game. I spent the whole weekend enjoying all the delicious non-Sabres hockey players the NHL has to offer (some a little too much) and now, after all is said and done, I'm glad its over. As I looked at photos from the weekend and thought about tonight's game, I realized that I'm really glad to be getting back to Sabres Hockey. Where's my Millsey? Goosie? How was the weekend off? Pie-YAY, did you catch up on your Wii? Pommerdoodle, did you go visit your mama pup in Repentigny? Sissy - did the wife make you watch the babies while she went to the spa? (that's what I'd do)

Le sigh. The band is back together in Tampa Bay tonight, with Soupy having the least traveling to do, of course. They will be facing off against one of the many players I cheated on them with this weekend - Mr. Hottest Center in the East, Vincent Lecavalier and his adorable linemate, Thunderbug...I mean Martin St. Louis.

After perusal of the latest Sabres injury reports:

In sadder Sabres News, Timmy "I don't feel like being healthy" Connolly was diagnosed with a bone spur in his hip. All together now: "Ow." Poor TimmyHo, he'll be in pain for the rest of the season and won't be able to have the spur removed until the off-season. Poor Tims. Feel better Timmy's hip! :( What else can go wrong with this boy? ACK! DON'T ANSWER THAT! TIMMYHO IS A POWERHOUSE, NOTHING CAN BREAK HIM! GRRRRR!

The Soviet Bomber looks to be coming back soon... the groin's feeling better... uhhh, yeah, has anyone really missed him?

Mikey Ryan will be back in the line-up and is apparently really excited to be back. Hoo-ray. I'm happy that Mikey's back, but only because that means (1) he's not injured and I never want players to be injured; (2)he's a fast skater and we need that; (3) it means Petey will get even less ice time.

Huzzah! Pommer posted on his blog. Before reading it, I can only hope he makes references to his wacky whirlwind trip home to the farm to see his mama pup and littermates. (Reading, reading)- Ok so he mentions traveling but only mentions his travel with his girlfriend. Fine. I guess we'll have to wait til the off-season to hear about these Adventures of Pommerdoodle. Interestingly, he does not mention Soupy in any of his writings about the All-Star weekend. You'd think he'd give a shoutout to being on the same team as the (supposedly) fastest skater in the Eastern Conference. I totally think that the Soviet Bomber would skate circles around him, but that's ok.

Now begins the back end of the season mad dash for the playoffs. Let's see what happens when the NHL stops being nice and starts getting real. If big-name players are going to be traded, now is the time to do it, (cough, Soupy, cough), post All-Star Weekend. Teams that are this close to being in the playoffs or losing their playoff spot start playing crazily, frantically jockeying for positions in the standings. The Eastern Conference playoff picture is going to change daily. I fully expect from here on out to be checking the standings first thing every morning to see just how far out the Sabres are. 34 games to go!