That was just awful

by Anne

I looked at this picture of Danny Briere tonight and I suddenly realized that when I look at it, I get the same exact feeling I do when I hear about ex-boyfriends and how their lives are going well and that they don't miss me at all.

I want to hate him, I really do. But I just can't. I spent so much time and energy cheering for him and loving him, that I can't just turn around and hate him. I can hate Drury, for some reason I never felt the same affinity towards Dru as Danny. I say it all the time, but after the lockout, hockey was dead to me, I was mad and didn't want to get into hockey again just to have to sit out another season. But, I decided to watch the end of the 05-06 season and then the 2006 playoffs, and it was Danny, McKee, Dumont, Grier, Pominville, Miller, Roy and my righteous indignation over Timmy's concussion that brought me back to hockey. And it was 06-07 that brought about my new crazy obsession over it. So, it's really really hard to watch players from that 05-06 season go. I know it's just a hockey team, but those playoff runs (both 2006 and 2007) coincided with some crazy times in my life and watching the Sabres come back from oblivion in 2006 and dominate the NHL in 2007 were part of those crazy times.

It's so weird, I loved Danny when he was a Sabre, but I didn't think losing him as a player would bother me as much as it does. I think the reason this bothers me more than say, the dark day in my life when the Sabres lost Jay McKee is because McKee went to the Western Conference and we don't see much of him. Also, no one counted losing McKee as being as devastating a loss as Danny and Chris. However, the initial loss of Jay McKee stung me more and watching JKee struggling through injuries in St. Louis while the Sabres' were on fire last season really sucked. Danny's been in our faces all season, and it just sucks. We watched him grow as a player, made him into one of the NHL's top forwards, and then we didn't hold on to him.

So, even though I try to put on a big show and act like I want to trade Campbell, part of me will be really sad to see him in another uniform and I know that, especially if he's in the East, I'll still follow his career like I do JKee's. FYI: 8pts (2+6), +7.

I'm sorry this got all "real" but that loss was the most soul-sucking of the season for me.

I can't even write about how mad I am at Derek Roy for that "shootout attempt."