Whoa, Ok I've Calmed Down... BUT JUST A LITTLE

by Anne

That game went from zero to 60 in 4 minutes. That's terrible for a car but AWESOME for a hockey game.

CAN YOU IMAGINE HOW AWFUL THE FLIGHT TO COLORADO WOULD'VE BEEN IF WE'D LOST 3-2, THEREBY MAKING RYAN MILLER'S "GOAL" THE GAME WINNER? WHAT A TENSE PLANE. I'm glad he can laugh about it. Every goalie has something like that happen to him at some point in his career, thankfully it wasn't a crucial or pivitol game and we won anyway, so he can laugh about it:

"That was about the most embarrassing thing I've ever done in my life," Miller said. "I took my eye off it to see where I could put it, and when I looked back the puck wasn't where I thought it would be. So I tried to backhand it, and a guy kind of hit my stick.

"I figured if I played long enough I'd make the blooper reel."

Ha. Its ok, Ryan, we still love you. We know you're just trying to make sure your teammates are working their absolute hardest. Thanks for thinking of the team, Ryan.*fist bump*.

That fake Stafford did and then shifting to the backhand was just cruel. That was just mean, and SWEEEEEET. :) As S(h)ara texted me, the brontosaurus is TOTALLY trying to win me back, and it just might work, Drew, it just might work.

Derek's gotten over the first goal hump, now we need Max and Danny to net one each and then its on to the injured boys once they come back to us.

Paetsch did well, he's not Craig Rivet, but that initial shot from the blue line set up Adam Mair beautifully. He had 1 point (0+1) and 2 hits in roughly 14 and a half minutes of ice time. Not bad, Patches, not bad. Its good to know we have depth we can rely on, even if its only been one game.

It's really great that we've rallied to overcome 2 goal deficits three times in a row, but not getting those 2 goal deficits would be even sweeter. IT WAS STILL AWESOME THOUGH.

Matt Ellis, well DONE on the faceoffs, sir, WELL DONE. 83%, winning 5 of 6? I'll take it. Thanks for being good at those! Mairsy, 60% is excellent as well. WOO!

Seeing Pommer as -1 with 0 pts makes me feel a little uneasy inside. Poor boy must be completely lost without Goose and Yoyo.

Who isn't in love with the Roysie-Staffy-Vanek line right now? 6 points among them last night: each player had a goal and an assist and a combined +/- of +7.

I'm pretty sure we won because my Wild WCB, Owen Nolan, is injured and will probably return to playing this weekend.

So, who got the pigeon? Royzie is my vote, for getting his first goal, the game winner and because I really want to know where he got that hat he was wearing in his interview with the goofy design on the front. Derek Roy probably rocks that hat post-game because he's vain, but I appreciate not having to watch sweat drip off of his ears. Thanks, Royzie!

In other Eastern Conference news: The Carolina Hurricanes were nursing a 1-0 lead through 2 periods until the Penguins remembered how to play hockey and had a 4 goal third period and won the game 4-1. The winner of this "Battle of the Staals": Jordan.

MOVING ON:

WCB Watch

Dallas at NYI

Marty Turco won a game!!!! Ok, well the Dallas Stars won a game, but Marty helped! He stopped 24 of 27 shots to give the Stars, and himself, a much needed win.

MY LOVE CAN MOVE MOUNTAINS AND CLOSE UP FIVE HOLES.

Also, what a night Mike Ribeiro had! First goal of the season and 4 assists. Impressive.

Yeeeehaw!

Calgary at Nashville

The Predators went up 3-1 after the 2nd. Things weren't looking good for Cap'n Jarome, but the Flames kept their wits about them and IGGY SCORED A HAT TRICK TO LIFT HIS TEAM TO A 5-3 VICTORY!!! He had 3 goals on 3 shots, haha, yay!!

YAY!!!

Dumont had 1 assist and was -2 for the evening. Alas. When my boys play each other, one must come up short. :(

Yay!!!

Edmonton at Colorado

Avs win 4-1 after Edmonton scored the inital PPG in the first period. Oilers WCB, Ethan Moreau had 6 shots on goal and 0 pts.

Avalanche WCB, JM Liles had 4 blocked shots and lead the team in ice time with 22:02. Woo! The Avs have now won 4 straight.

Washington at Phoenix

Peter Mueller scored his 3rd of the season, the game winner over Ovie and the Caps! WOOO!!

Hooray!!

Tomorrow night we face Ryan Miller's BFF, and my Avs WCB, JM Liles in Colorado. All 30 teams are playing on Saturday, therefore, the NHL is calling it "Super Saturday". We have to lose in regulation SOMETIME.

OMG what a waste of... WAIT, WE WON?

by Anne

WHAT THE HELL THAT WAS TOTALLY AWESOME AND I CAN'T BELIEVE WE WON

ROYSIE AND STAFFY AND VANEK AND MAIR!!!

YAY!!

If this had been October 2007 we would've just rolled over and died.

NOT THIS YEAR!!!!!! WOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!

Sabres Lose to Wild, No One Cares

by Anne

Ok, its not that NO ONE cares but that game was HELLA boring. You could tell by the faces of the people as they came out of the stands to NOT buy popcorn and cotton candy that the game was less than exhilarating.

Yoyo scored one and Staffers scored on the shootout. Ok, Sissy kind of scored a goal, as it deflected off of him... and into our net. IT'S OK SISSSY, I STILL LOVE YOU. CALL ME WHEN YOU GET BACK FROM MINNESOTA!!

Its only the preseason. Whatevs. However, MK is never allowed to go to a game again. They've lost EVERY SINGLE GAME SHE'S EVER GONE TO. No joke, this is at least game # 6 or 7. My sister is a bad omen.

There isn't much else to report about the game except that Goose fight was awesome (except for the thumb thing). Gerbe looked good, a little all over the place (in good and bad ways) but he actually delivered some hits which was sweeeeeet. He went first in the shootout with no success, but that's a lot of pressure for a new player. Kennedy missed the shootout, too but that's ok, I can forgive them both. Lalime had a good game, that goal was totally not his fault. The shootout wasn't OUTSTANDING but eh? Its the pre-season.

Oh, and can people PLEASE stop asking Lala how many games he's going to play this season? 15-20ish, k? There. WRITE IT.

TO MORE IMPORTANT GOINGS ON FROM LAST NIGHT:

On the way out of the Arena I passed Miller who was talking to some dude who looked like but was not Tim Kennedy about golf while demonstrating his swing and Goose was talking to some woman, unless Goose is into cougars (which hey, get it, boy) she wasn't a girlfriend, so don't worry ladies! hahaha. Goose's back was to me, sad sad times. I contemplated asking about why he left the game (they don't tell the people actually AT the games when a player is injured unless its quite obvious). However, I did not because 1. I'm too chicken (ha Goose, Chicken!) and 2. we're not allowed to solicit autographs from them and therefore, trying to strike up casual conversation is probably frowned upon.

In other news, if it were possible I would eat nothing but Tortilla chips and queso dip for my entire life.

I ordered a new digital camera that UPS.com tells me has been in New Stanton, PA since Saturday morning. What can Brown do for me? Torture me with a nearby but not in my possession camera from Overstock.com.

Blahhhhhhhhhh. Less than two weeks to the start of the regular season!!!! Yeeeeee!!!

So Long, Farewell, Auf Wiedersehen, Good Night

by Anne

Today we bid farewell to those teams that have departed from the 2008 Stanley Cup Playoffs in the first round.


First, we say good-bye to the Minnesota Wild:

I have nothing against the Minnesota Wild, and in fact, was sort of pulling for them to win this series. I know Minnesotans are great hockey fans so it's too bad they were elimidated. The first three games were quite exciting. I tried really hard to get into them, but the allure of J-Rome pulled me towards the station playing his game. Sidenote: Gabby, um, where were you in this series? You need to earn back your superman roster photo stance.


Faretheewell, New Jersey Devils:

I may think your logo is kind of lame-tastic, and I still remain almost entirely indifferent to your existence, but I really really wanted you to beat the Rangers. Booooooo! Yuck! However, even though you lost, I shall not mock you or your logo. Let's face it, the Buffalo Sabres logo is pretty damn stupid and, inspite of their knack for schooling us in the shootout I like that Saucy Minx, and Zachy P.

Enjoy the golf course, Nashville Predators:

I was going to draw tears or something on your logo to make the tiger look really sad, but then I found your third jerseys and they're so heinously awful that there is no need to deface them further. Yick.

Sleep soundly and train hard (but not too hard) this off-season, Boston Bruins:

I'm torn about the Bruins, they stole our playoff spot, but I don't really hate them. My Grandpa is from Boston...they have Phil Kessel (blech) but they also have Marc Savard (eeee!). I'm not sorry they're out, but I'm not over the moon with excitement that Montreal is still in it.

If you see Jarome Iginla, tell him I'm no longer speaking to him.

I'm really mad at the Flames. JEREMY ROENICK?! Ugh when I opened NHL.com this morning Brian FREAKIN' Campbell's face was looking directly at me from my screen while patting JR on the head. EW! Thanks A LOT!

And also from last night:

:'-(

Bye bye Caps.....no, stay strong, Maloy.....don't let them see you when you're hurting.....hold it together.....aw hell:

WAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHAAAAAAHHHHH(gasp)AHHHHAHHHHHHHHHHHH!

Joffrey Lupul is a Stinky face Stinky head.

And lastly, we bring you last season's Conference Champions...both out in the first round. Yikes.

2007 Western Conference and Stanley Cup Champs:

The Mighty Anaheim Ducks of Mighty Anaheim were mightily elimidated by the Dallas Stars in a 4-1 victory decided by one Mr. Stuart Barnes. The Ducks used to be my favorite Western Conference team. Then they pulled lots of shenangians. Then I became fully apprised of Chris Pronger's douche-itude and then they made him Captain, which annoyed me, then Nieds came back, and then Teemu came back in like February. That's stupid and they didn't deserve to make it farther. There were those who thought they'd repeat as Cup champs....I entertained the thought for a time, but clearly am glad they are going home to golf.

2007 Eastern Conference Buttheads Champions

Everyone's trying to be all "Woe to the Ottawa Senators" wah wah wah, things were so hard, you had a new coach, Ray Emery is a stinky face! TOO BAD YOU HAD BASICALLY THE SAME TEAM AS LAST YEAR! What the HELL Ottawa? Are your ch'is so easily thrown out of wack that Ray Emery showing up late to practice twice has ruined your team? Whoa. That's pretty damn intense. I shouldn't take such glee in their losing but I do!

The only team I'm excited about anymore is Pittsburgh! Go Pens! Ugh, and they're facing the Rangers. Yick.

I really wanted Sid and Ovie to meet in the playoffs. :( There's always next year? I really hate that sentence.

And on the 6th Day...

by Anne

Pens v. Sens (Pens win 4-1, lead series 3-0)
Wings v. Preds (Preds win 5-3, Wings lead series 2-1)
Wild v. Avs (Wild win 3-2, 1st OT, lead series 2-1)

Pittsburgh at Ottawa:

Waaa-hooooo!!!!! Take THAT, stupid Roman Gladiator! So I ended up being wrong about both Alfie and J-Spezz. They both played and both sucked. At the beginning of the playoffs if you'd asked me to pick a series that would be a sweep, I would've probably picked Montreal over Boston or Detroit over Nashville. Not that the Pens are guaranteed a sweep, but they have just completely pwned the Sens thus far. Congrats to Boston and Nashville for pulling a one game David and Goliath. Most likely neither of you will win your series, but good on ya. You look better than the Sens!

I enjoyed the shot of the Pens in Scotiabank Place warming up next to the giant wall-sized photograph outside their dressing room of the Sens eliminating them last season. Ha-ha! (Nelson style)

Congrats! Sid the Kid gets his first goal of the playoffs! And, like his Russian rival, it was of the tie-breaking, game winning first goal variety. Now its guaranteed to be all anyone will talk about until something else crazy happens. At least this'll take some focus away from Avery and his new rule. HA! What a toolshed.

Dear Evgeni Malkin,

As much I as enjoy you and your vacant facial expressions and penchant for goal scoring, there is one thing about you I don't enjoy: your oral fixation problem. Why must you chew on everything in sight? Your sweater's right sleeve, your sweater's left sleeve, your necklace- why don't you have a mouthguard or some gum? What's next? Your stick? Gloves? Teammate? Its more than kind of gross. Work on that.

Love and smooches,
Anne

Ok, who forgot to pick up Geno?...

Congrats to my temporary "we" team! Woooo! Hossa scored his last playoff goal exactly 4 years ago to the day, and he was a Sen at the time. Sweet. Thanks for that tidbit, CBC.

Predators v. Red Wings

I watched the last 8 minutes or so which was enough time to watch the Preds tie it and then win. That was cool. Thats the only 8 minutes I've watched this series and I brought good luck to the Preds.

Hasek had to be so pissed when he was screened in by his own teammates and the Preds scored. He likes being able to see the long shots. Whoops. I don't miss Hasek. I miss old school Hasek, not his current crotchety incarnation. I do miss the hot sauce though.

Wild v. Avs

This game was kind of boring, not gonna lie. I hate games with 1 goal leads that drag on and on, because, usually, and especially in the playoffs, 1 goal leads quickly become ties or 2 goal leads.

I watched until it became 2-2. I would've watched the end, but then I remembered that I don't really care who wins this one, so I went to bed. I am glad to see the Wild win, but that's only because I had to choose a team to root for.

On the Sabres front:

Dear Darcy,

The Coyotes signed their Hobey Baker winner to an entry level contract yesterday. I know you like to keep these things close to the vest until they're final, and I appreciate that, but COULD YOU PLEASE ANNOUNCE THAT WE'VE SIGNED RUNNER UP AND MVP OF THE FROZEN FOUR, NATHAN GERBE TO AN ENTRY-LEVEL DEAL ASAP?!

Thanks, that'd be super.

Loves and kisses,

Anne

Tonight it's Montreal at Boston (MTL 2-1) Washington at Philly (Tied 1-1), Anaheim at Dallas (DAL 2-0) and San Jose at Calgary (CGY 2-1).

Go Habs! Go...Caps? Go...Stars Ducks Stars? Go FLAMES!

Day 3, still no Buffalo Sabres. I don't like this practical joke anymore

by Anne

After 3 days:

Sens v. Pens (Pens win 5-3, lead series 2-0)
NYR v. NJD (NYR win 2-1, lead series 2-0)
Caps v. Flies (Caps win 5-4, lead series 1-0)
Avs v. Wild (Wild win 3-2, first OT, series tied 1-1)

I watched the first period of the Pens game before going for coffee and came home just in time to see them win it. WOOOO!!! I actually said "Did we win?" WE? I suppose in the absence of my Sabres, the Pens are my "we".

Yay for my Atlantic Division boyfriend! Good boy, Ry-Ry! That was a SICK wrap-around goal. He's gonna beat the Sens just for me. Poor Gerber he stopped 50 shots and STILL lost.

Now, you are subjected to a gratuitous shirtless shot of my (Atlantic) man:

Yessssss

Ok, Devs. We need to talk.

How can Zachy lose his teeth in a loss? Come on now. He didn't sacrifice his pearly whites for THIS.

Look at that smile:

: (

Gone forever....or at least until he can get to the nearest Newark-area dentist.

I hope Staffy calls him with comforting words and pudding recipes.

Congrats, Ovie! Of course, he got the game-winning goal on his first playoff goal, so now the NHL will talk about nothing else until Drury is Captain Clutch or Crosby grows wings and flies over a goaltender to score. Oh, Flyers. Danny and Vinny Prospal each net 2 and they STILL lose. HA! Sorry, Danny! Actually, no, I'm not at all. What a shock...the tying goal was a PPG by Mike Green from Ovie and Backstrom. How often do we see that combination? Look out for that to be a HUGE trio for years to come.

I honestly don't really care about the Avs v. Wild series. Sorry. I will say I think Jose Theodore has his goal posts blessed between periods, though.

Did anyone else notice how herky-jerky TSN's tenths of a second are in the countdown to the end of a period? They fly down to .0, pause and then move on. Showing tenths of a second always makes things seem more frantic. They should do it the entire period, that'll at least get the crowd and home more into it...by drastically raising their collective blood pressure.

Words cannot express how much I love watching Manny "I'm 5'9"!" Legace commentating on Versus. He's new to this, he doesn't want to make grand, unsubstantiated, sweeping generalizations about a team or a player. Give it time, Manny, give it time. Ha! He was in the can for the end of the Wild game because it happened after only like 1:30. At least he admitted it, haha. Aww, Manny.

I wrote this post while watching the Wild game, it's currently 1-1, 7:30 into the third, so I can't post this until it's over in order to accurately post the score and the series standings. EDIT: I prematurely declared a 2-1 Wild win in this post, so when the Avs tied it up a few minutes later, I declared it my fault and took that part out.

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.