Pre-Season Home Opener or No One Else Seems to Care About Tim Kennedy Like I Do

by Anne

So last night was the pre-season opener and of the little that I saw, the game was a lot more entertaining than the 0-0 score through the first 40 minutes indicated. The game was definitely fast, at least on the Sabres' side of things. Can we just discuss that Tyler Myers was definitely in on that little scrum that happened during the 2nd (I think). Yay! Rosie doing a number on Hollweg, the announcer accidentally calling Pat Kaleta "Andrew", and that entire row of kids from the Kitchener Jr. Rangers and their big sign up for Royzie (and then they got to see Royzie score a goal!!). Woooo!

I worked in the 100s last night and no one seemed to have any thing for me to do or anyone to show me how to do anything. (I know its pre-season, but a little "hey Anne, I'm your manager so and so let's get you to where you need to go" would've been nice.)

Anyway, I followed around a guy named Dave who was really nice and showed me a lot about how things work. The only thing I don't quite understand fully is how the buying of products works but I'm sure I'll figure it out and they won't expect me to know how to do it all tonight.

All I know is that my back and legs are really tired, which is to be expected, I suppose.

Anyway, on the "players I randomly saw" front:

During the first intermission, Tim Kennedy and his girlfriend were just kind of walking around the 100 level acting all nonchalant and "I don't play for the Sabres." It was a little weird to see him walking by and no one paying any attention to him. I mean, just the fact that the guy was wearing a suit probably should've drawn some attention his way. For those who've never been to a game at HSBC Arena, the only people who wear suits are Arena and Sabres bigwigs and players. That's it. Most people are in jeans and a jersey or a sweatshirt. Of course you get the random girls wearing too much makeup, 4 inch stilettos and a lot of cleavage as though Ryan Miller will see them in the crowd, stop the game, leap over the boards and propose marriage at first sight of their potentially frostbitten ta-tas. Come to think of it, Tim kennedy's girlfriend was dressed kind of like that. Whoops.

Anyway, as I was leaving at the end of the night I was not anticipating running into any Sabres, but Whoops. I was wrong. On the way out I passed Pommer, Stafford and Funk and some other dudes that are probably Sabres but I just don't know who they are. I'd probably recognize their names but their faces were totally lost on me. Sorry random dudes! But good times anyway, am I right?!?!

BUT MOST IMPORTANTLY OF ALL:

We won!!! We won!!! WooooooHoOOOOOOOO!!!! Royzie! Goose! Al! It would've been nice if those goals had been perhaps spread out over more than the last few minutes of the 3rd period and overtime, but I'll take it!!!

I stole some pictures from a random girl's Facebook album, hope she doesn't mind!

Someone please tell Nate to "Get his legs goin" to a good tailor

Ahahahahahahahahhahaa
LOVE

ALSO! If you told me he would single-handedly rid the world of hunger and poverty and then offer to come over and clean my cat's litterbox everyday, I could not love Patrick Lalalime any more than I do. THEN YOU ADD THIS PICTURE AND I AM LOST. TOTALLY LOST.

OMG
Could his daughters be anymore adorable?!?!?!!!
The little matching shoes and skirts and hats!!
the little pigtail braids!
Daddy's sweaters!
Their adorably shy little smiles!
The Lalime family is TOO CUTE
Never having seen any other players children, I hereby declare Liliana and Rosemary Lalime the cutest children in hockey.

Oh, this also blows some more SERIOUS holes into Ryan Miller's "We don't live like rockstars" slant on things. Red carpets, RYAN!?!?!?! jk jk

Next game tonight at 7:00! From Sabres Edge, the lines that skated this morning:

Paille-Gaustad-Stafford; (interesting, lots of size on this line)
MacArthur-Hecht-Pominville; (This line did well for us at times this season)
Gerbe-Kennedy-Afinogenov; (Gerbe and Kennedy are kind of like Royzie and Vanek Jr.)
Mancari-Zagrapan-Gogulla

Defensemen dressing (with my own pairings assigned)
Butler, Spacek;
Rivet, Tallinder;
Sekera, Weber

Lalalime will be in goal and Marian Gaborik won't be playing :(

So Hecht or Pommer with the C? I'm guessing that there will be an A and a C on both of those shoulders. The other A.... Rivet and Goose had them last night, there's also Jaro and Hank. I think it might be Sissy because I don't think he's worn a letter in this pre-season yet.

yay!!!! Gerbe's Buffalo debut!!! (remind me to post my updated thoughts on my life long BFF Nate Gerbe soon.)

Good times, good times.

Game(s) 1 Round 1

by Anne

So the Habs squeaked by the Flyers in this one. Thank goodness. I'm not sure lil' Danny would've made it out of the Bell Centre alive. I can't believe how intensely he was booed. Ok, ok, if we had faced Philly in the playoffs this season, we more than likely would've booed him into next week....or next season...

It's a weird feeling cheering for a team I don't really care all that much about (The Habs) when they score a goal, and then looking down and realizing that they just beat Marty. He had no chance on that 2nd Montreal goal. :(

Detroit beat the Avs. Crap. I picked the Avs. JOSE?! Could you have waited to screw up until after this series? Granted, it's only been 1 game, and apparently you were sick? Ugh, whatev, I only wanted you win this round, I would've picked the Stars/Sharks over your team anyway. Thanks a ton. I know that there is some great playoff history between the Wings and the Avs, but I honestly could not possibly care less. Not even a little bit.

I should probably give one of those teams a chance to bowl me over with at least one totally smokin' player, but I just don't wanna. I mean, come on, the Avs average sexiness is so MAJORLY low, I'm not sure what can bring it back up. I mean, they have Ryan Smyth AND Peter Forsberg? Are they trying to make their female fans retch? Cuz, mission accomplished from this non-Avs fan. On the other side, I cannot possibly find a man attractive in a Red Wings uniform. GAH! They're so hard on the eyes. In this side-by-side comparison, the Avalanche win in a landslide. Their uniforms are at least pretty colors.

In other news, I'm sad to hear Gabby is injured with one of those "worn out hockey player after 82+ games" injuries. That could explain why my Superman posing studman was left with 1 singular assist in the Avs series.

Here's how NHL.com awkwardly describes his injury:

The Wild issued a brief news release that revealed Gaborik has a "hip deficiency attributable to overuse."

Ok, I'm just gonna let that one go. I think I made enough jokes off the blog about Timmy's hip injuries and bone spur to last a lifetime.

I always forget Gabby is from Slovakia. Just like I always forget Daniel Alfredsson is Swedish. Kind of like the time when I realized Cristobal Huet was a gen-u-wine Frenchman and not French Canadian. Blew my mind.

So Team USA meets in Maine today, where our new AHL affiliate will supposedly be come the '08-'09 season...Hey! Gerbenheimersmith, isn't Portland GREAT?! Don't you want to play there soooooooooooooon?

Bittersweet

by Anne

Half the Game 1s have come and gone with the following results

Sens v. Pens (Pens win 4-0, lead series 1-0)
NYR v. NJD (NYR win 4-1, lead series 1-0)
Avs v. Wild (Avs win 3-2, 1st OT, lead series 1-0)
CGY v. SJS (CGY win 3-2, lead series 1-0)

Interestingly enough, only 1 team won at home last night. This whole "not having home-ice advantage" thing doesn't seem to phase teams in the bottom part of the playoff standings.

Anytick, that was a bee-you-ti-full win last night by the Pittsburgh Penguins. I liked it a lot, we had good chemistry, I'd definitely go out with it again. If it had been a Sabres win, we'd already be on our honeymoon in Cancun.

Sigh, I don't care how many times we all try to say it'll be nice to watch the playoffs without the emotional investment, it's not true. With each goal that the Pens scored, I got a little more into it, but I didn't come within a tenth of how gleeful and elated I would've been to watch those goals being scored by Sabres. Good to see Gary Roberts recovered from his broken leg resulting in a collision with Timmy...I know, right? TimmyHo actually crushed someone and skated away, unharmed. I still can't believe it either. I kind of love Gary Roberts right now, he's pretty old, ha.

Then they had to go and show Mario up in the press box and remind my why I love them. Awwww, Mario. I loves him still.

I hope Ottawa is as embarrassed as they should be. Bryan Murray did NOT look happy about that brawl in the last 11 seconds. That team has been soooo badly mismanaged in the last few months its scary. Their D looks turrrrrrribull.

Congratulations to Marc-Andre Fleury for the first playoff shutout since April 26, 2001...ironically it was when the Sabres were shutout by Johan Hedberg. Whoops.

Congrats also to the Calgary Flames. I watched the first period of that game in my intermittent watching of both that and Top Chef (Zoi's gone, she made underseasoned mushrooms, but Richard left scales on his fish, discuss). It was my first non-Sabres Brian Campbell experience. I really could've done without the commentators on HNIC verbally lovin' up Soupy. They just went on and on about how great he's been for the team and how he and Big Joe are childhood sweethearts and soulmates.

It makes me sad to hear Soupy say bad things about Buffalo. Well, ok, it's not Buffalo, it's Larry Quinn and Darcy Regier, but still, when he and Brownie and Mikey Grier get together and start talking about how Buffalo could've kept them and they're all resentful it makes me sad.

Whatevskis, we don't needs 'em! On the plus, in the 2 games I watched, both the teams I wanted to win, won! Unforch, in the other 2 games the team I wanted to win, lost. Boo. What was UP with Marty mis-handling that puck? It's like he got stuck in a position and for a split second his priority was moving his feet and not moving the puck, he clearly didn't see whatever Ranger snuck up on him and tapped the puck home. Whoops.

I don't really care about the Avs v. Wild but Jose Theodore and Peter Forsberg annoy me. Peter Forsberg downright creeps me out, actually. I like Marian Gaborik for his Superman pose in his roster photo and because they do, indeed, look like elves, and because Minnesotans love their hockey... and their elves.

See?:

Tonight I get to pretend I care about watch Detroit at Nashville at 7:00 and Dallas at Anaheim at 10:00 while Boston plays at Montreal at 7:00 and Calgary plays at San Jose again at 10:00.