No Hockey?

by Anne

I think it's totally rad that the NHL has these days in which every team plays. It's cool and it makes for some interesting fantasy hockey decisions. However, what I don't enjoy is that the following day features no hockey at all.

Part of the "Super Saturday" idea is that games will need to be condensed to accommodate for the Olympic break in February, but why then do the Sabres not play again until Thursday? Their November looks almost identical to last November. Three weeks W-F-S games followed by a week of M-R-S.

December starts ramping up they have 15 games in December which is kind of a lot.

Whatevs, I don't make the NHL schedule and for this we should all be extremely grateful. I wished there was some hockey to watch to kill the bitter aftertaste of that football game.

The Bills are terrible. I watched the game at a bar with a few friends so I was slightly distracted from the game but unable to change the channel. How embarrassing was that game?

The Steelers won, it got a little closer than we would've liked but they pulled out the win and have evened up their season at 2-2.

Thank goodness for the Pens, Canucks and Kings or I'd have little hockey to watch over the next few days when I'm supposed to be doing all this "homework" I've heard people talk so much about.

Dewey promised to try harder, he's leaping into the next game

Steelers Win! and Here He Comes

by Anne

Um, best 2nd half of a Super Bowl ever? Yes. Especially because the outcome was what it was.

WOOOOOOOOOOOO STILLERSSSS!!

Was anyone else surprised that James Harrison's interception and return was the longest play in Super Bowl history? There have been 42 other games, it seems logical it would've happened at least once before, but what an amazing return... and then the NFL's defensive player of the year became a huge dbag later in the game by punching a Cardinal in the back and then shoving him the ground and getting a 15 yard penalty. Nice move, moron.

Santonio Holmes game winning TD catch was just completely mindblowing. We over in Amherst were pretty sure he was out of bounds because the camera angle shown was from the perspective of the goal post and we couldn't see his feet. When the refs arms went up, the outcry of glee and excitement practically shook the entire house.

The Steelers O-line was its usual self, holding penalties galore and ONE IN THE END ZONE FOR A SAFETY. But when it really counted they stood up and gave Big Ben time to throw. Ben definitely played a solid game, kept himself moving and got some amazing plays out of some sticky situations.

I know lots of people wanted Arizona to win, and I can respect rooting for the underdog. They certainly put on one hell of a comeback late to really make this a close game. Larry Fitzgerald ran for his life in the 4th quarter to give the Cardinals the lead and give Steeler Nation ulcers. But the #1 defense kept them at bay and the Steelers are six time Super Bowl Champs!!!!!

Wooooooooooooooo!

On the Sabres front, looks like our defense is getting even younger. Sissy is out with a hip injury so here comes newly healed Mike Weber back to the blue and gold.

Welcome back.

Happy Birthday, Thomas!

by Anne

Twenty-five years ago today, Jarmila and Zdeněk Vanek welcomed Thomas into the world, and now he's all ours. I hope for his birthday, he scores a goal... or two... or five.

Its kind of girly, but also probably more than kind of tasty

I would love to talk hockey but all I can think about is babies. There are at least five babies going to be born to girls that I know and love this year. Yesterday one of my sister's best friends, Nicole gave birth to her daughter, Brynn Elizabeth. 6 lbs, 5oz. Nicole was only in labor for 2 1/2 hours. Good for her but also bad because she didn't get any drugs. Her husband lives in Michigan for law school so he didn't make it in time for the birth. But he's here now so its all good. My sister and I and our friend Lindsay went to visit them today. She's so tiny and all I can think about is babies now. Girls and babies, its how we do. Also, I only have eight cousins, and three of them are having babies this year. That's a high percentage. And two of my cousins and one of my girlfriends are all due in June. What was going ON in September? Not much, apparently.

Anyway. Enough about babies. Panthers tonight. I tend to think of the Panthers as a team to write off these days. A lesser team that isn't much of a threat. That is until you look at the standings and realize that Florida is in 9th place... just two points behind us, with a game in hand.

If you look a the current playoff picture, its all the same teams that made the playoffs last year except we're in and Ottawa is out. Pittsburgh has won three of its last four and has managed to climb back into eighth place.

Also: Wooooooooooo!!!!!! Stillers heading to the Super Bowl to play the upstart Arizona Cardinals. Hines Ward was hurt early in the game but Limas Sweed managed to.... ok bad example, Willie Parker ran... ok how exactly did they score? Oh yeah, that's right:

Wooooooooo Troy.

Hoooray! I guess the Steelers pj pants and tshirt I was rocking worked out ok for them. Big Ben had a good game, making passes under lots of pressure, including a totally badass 65 yard pass to Santonio Holmes for Pittsburgh's first TD. Oh yeah, and this guy kicked some field goals:

Jeff Reed, Kicker
Be glad I didn't post the semi-infamous "self-portrait" he took a while back

Haven't heard anything new about Willis McGahee's condition after he had his life rearranged after a hit by Steelers safety Ryan Clark. I may hate him as a player and he's generally a douchebag, but it was a really tense few minutes that he was laying on the ground and there was no word on his condition. He has voluntary movement in his extremities and can speak so that's encouraging, but no word yet on the extent of his long-term injuries. Good thing the Ravens won't be needing his services in two weeks! Wooooooooo!

This Claude Lemieux thing has gotten ridiculous. They've actually recalled him. I guess when your team is on top of the world, you can afford ridiculous stunts?

Yay Stillers!

by Anne

And by "Stillers" I don't mean Ben.

I was raised in a football house. My Mother's touchdown celebration cheers probably register on the Richter scale as a low-grade tremor. Most people when watching football with Peg for the first time are often shocked by her vocalizations, especially when a player misses what should be an easy catch.

As a child of the early 90s in Buffalo, football was a BFD. Big Freakin' Deal. However, as is obvious to all, not so much anymore.

Peg and Jim lived in Pittsburgh before settling in the B-lo so my back up football team has always been the Steelers, like my back up hockey team is the Pens. We were supposed to move back to Pittsburgh about six years before I was born, but hey, look at that, here we are in WNY. Pittsburgh is my parent's hometown, so what's theirs is mine or something like that. Anyway, during the regular season I'm all about the Bills, but once the post-season starts in football and hockey and Buffalo is no longer in it, I'm a Pittsburgh fan.

I loved Jerome Bettis, mostly because I liked his nickname and my Mom liked him. Most of my early sports tendencies were formed by my Mom, actually. She's not a huge baseball fan and neither am I. She hates Notre Dame for reasons I still think are ridiculous but for some reason I hate Notre Dame too. She went to the University of Pittsburgh and HATES Penn State and Joe Pa and therefore I feel the same way.

Here we find ourselves in yet another NFL playoff weekend with nary a sign of the Buffalo Bills I park myself in front of the TV to cheer on my would-be hometown team.

Happy to say that the NFL's #1 defense did not fail me today. It's nice when a team you're cheering for actually wins. That's pretty sa-weet. A healthy Roethlisberger and Parker combined for a 5 touchdown victory. Wooooo!!! Off to the AFC Championship game on the 18th against the Baltimore Ravens.

It all just seemed to click today. A punt return for a touchdown... I had to look it up, the last time that happened was in December of 2006. I'm not sure if the punt was bad, coverage was bad or the gods of football decided to smile on Pittsburgh today.

Anyway, I can still actually care about football next weekend! Last season the Steelers lost a heartbreaking almost come from behind victory during Wild Card Weekend and I stopped watching until the Super Bowl.

Come on! I'm going to wear my Steelers PJ pants and see if I can find my Mom's terrible towel she has somewhere.

The Stillers have won both of their games against Baltimore this season and with the divisional rivalry being what it is, next weekend's game should be a good one.

But before that, Sabres at Blackhawks on Wednesday. Can't wait for the all-but-guaranteed interviews with Soupy about his unwilling departure from the Sabres. Awww, Soup.