SAD DAY :(

by Anne

THEY TRADED PIE TO BOSTON FOR SOME DRAFT PICKS! DREW STAFFORD'S TWEET WAS TRUE!

I KNOW DANNY I DON'T UNDERSTAND IT EITHER

Whoa, Canucks

by Anne

After sliding headlong into the most dreaded time of the year, late August when nothing hockey related is happening save for baseless darts at a dartboard guesstimates over how teams and individual players will fare in the coming season, the Vancouver Canucks have gone bananas.

Today they traded two AHL type players to the San Jose Sharks who, looking to free up some cap space, sent Christian Ehrhoff and Brad Lukowitch to Vancouver.

Also, Gillis attempting to add some more veteran blueline presence announced the signing of 40 year old Mathieu Schneider to the club.

This now gives the Vancouver Canucks approximately 156 defensemen to fill 7-8 slots. I guess when trying to make up for Matty Ohlund's departure, Gillis decided just to hoard all the defensemen he can find so other teams can't have them.

Interesting tactic.

Also, on Twitter, it was brought to our attention that Drew Stafford is no longer featured on the Buffalo Sabres roster but newcomers such as Schutz, Whitmore and Turnbull have been added at the same time Staffy disappeared.

I can haz Staffy back? Please? :(

We Ordered the "Warm" Weather for the Coyotes

by Anne

My first class was canceled and now that I've recovered from the trade deadline, I'm gearing up for tonight's game and this "heat wave." Its 54 degrees here which to Buffalonians in March is really like 70. Wooooo!!

The Coyotes are in town tonight and -lookie there- we've already played them once this season and we won 2-0. Yay!

Oddly enough, one of the only two trades we made on deadline day was with the Coyotes for back up goalie Mikael Tellqvist who will continue to watch from the bench. Lalime will get the start coming off a great performance the other night. Its been said many times that consistent playing time is the best way for a goalie to put up wins so Lalime definitely should get the start tonight. Lindy likes to put in goalies against their former teams so sorry Telly, even though we're playing your former team of 2 days ago, gotta use the hot goalie.

I'm eagerly anticipating where Moore will fit into this line up. Lindy said he might bump Royzie to the wing which sounds like a fine idea to me. If Moore continues to dominate the faceoff dot as he has thusfar this season, I'm ok with that. We're only winning faceoffs at just over 47% of the time on the season. Can't wait to read the practice notes.

I'll be quite unhappy if this stuff with Moore's visa isn't worked out yet.

Those FREAKIN' Los Angeles Kings WON last night. I was so annoyed at them. They were down 3-0 in the 2nd, I did some homework, came back and it was 3-2. Then it was 4-2 until over halfway through the 3rd so I went to bed. Imagine my shock when I discovered this morning that Michal Handzus had completed the hat trick he started in the 6-goal 2nd period by scoring the Kings' 3rd goal and then the winner in over time.

If they had lost last night I basically would've put a nail in the coffin of their playoff hopes. Their chances are still pretty slim but they're not 100% out of it yet, just mostly out of it. They'll more than likely be at the golf course when the playoffs start in April.

To recap Michal Handzus' night:

He went from this.

To this:



and this:


Woo! First star!

Also I want to be friends with whoever writes the headlines for the top stories on LAKings.com. Here's a screen capture of the headline about last night's win over Dallas:

Quoi?
I'm Ron Burgundy?

Oh and to those who blew a gasket over Tellqvist wearing #32. Calm the -bleep- down. Yes #32 was Rayzor's number and its been sentimentally retired in the hearts of fans. However, it does not hang from the rafters at HSBC Arena so Telly can use it if he wants. However the rumblings that I heard about Moore possibly wearing 23... that's a different story. Too soon? He'll be wearing 17.

I peeked in on the Oilers game to see how Big Czech Al was doing and it wasn't so hot to start things off. He was on the TOP line that was on the ice when Jason Spezza set a Senators record of fastest goal to start a game at :12. Al finished the game a -2 with two shots on goal, just over 18:00 of ice time and two hits. Al Kotalik on the top line? Ehhhhh... I'm not so sure about that, Craig MacTavish. But that's why the fans have been calling for Coach MacT to be fired this season.

Hey Al!

I love 7:30 start times on Fridays because I get to avoid most of the traffic when I head downtown. Good stuff. Have a great Friday everyone!

Welcome Aboard, Dominic Moore and Mikael Tellqvist

by Anne

I started doing "Welcome Aboard" posts when we signed new players last year so I figured I'd keep it going.

Today the Sabres traded for goaltender Mikael Tellqvist and Center Dominic Moore.

Here's the skinny on Moore:

• Born August 3, 1980 in Thornhill, Ontario
• He's 6'3", 230 lbs or maybe he's 6'0" 188 lbs? The 2nd seems more accurate and is from the Sabres roster.
  
• He went to Harvard and played there for four years
• He was drafted 95th overall in 2000 by the New York Rangers
• In his NHL debut on November 1, 2003 in which he tallied three assists
• He does not score a lot of goals (like 5 a season usually) but this season he already has 12
  
• He has at least two older brothers, and one of them is Steve Moore, yes THAT Steve Moore
  
• The Sabres are his fifth NHL team
• They haven't assigned him a number yet. He wore 18 in Minnesota, Pittsburgh, and New York and 19 in Toronto.
  
• He wins more faceoffs than he loses
• He will be a UFA on July 1, 2009 and Darcy has no plans yet to re-sign him for the obvious reason that he's probably never met him and he's never played for us
  

He reminds me of someone I went to high school with
I think that's who he reminds me of anyway

He also did this last week:

Mikael Tellqvist

• Born September 19, 1979 in Sundbyberg, Sweden
• He was drafted 70th overall by Toronto
• He is 5'11, 185 lbs
• He'll wear #32 as a Sabre
  
• He spent the majority of his career in the Toronto system and the last two seasons with Phoenix
• He was on Team Sweden that won gold at Turin in the 2006 Olympics
• He has great Euro hair:
  

Bye bye Big Czech Al! I'm sad to see him go because he's been a Sabre his whole career. He will wear 21 for Edmonton, FYI.

He was part of one of the moments in the running to be featured in the top moments of the season. The Vanek/Kotalik love tackle from earlier in the season:

Who would have thought he'd be GONE?!?!
:'(

Ok I'm really not too upset but I was fairly surprised and that's why I'm a little sad. Bye!

Now we mostly retire the "Ales Kotalik" tag, and bring about the "Dominic Moore" and "Mikael Tellqvist" tags. Don't get too attached to them, folks.

I wonder where we'll trade Moore to in order to get a defenseman this summer? Moore to Anaheim for Wisniewski?

And we won tonight too! I don't have the energy to recap so I'll just say: YAY!!! TOMMY'S BACK!

I'M SO EXCITED

by Anne

My feelings are apt to change frequently over certain things about hockey and the NHL.

To fight or not to fight? No-touch icing? Moving the Phoenix Coyotes? Should Pierre McGuire and Mike Millbury be shot into the sun from a cannon or flung with a large sling-shot?

But there is one thing over which I never change my mind:

My favorite day of the hockey related year without competition, HANDS DOWN is the trade deadline.

Its so DRAMATIC. GMs lose their minds and deal elite wingers for bench warmers and top goalies for meaningless draft picks. ITS SO. MUCH. FUN.

Who doesn't love the quickly photoshopped roster photos in which the colors of one team are covered over by those of the new team.

Which player has to travel the farthest to turn around and play in the game for his new team that night? Do any of the players have to turn around and play their former team that same day? Do you boo these players or not?

The speculation begins in the summertime and doesn't stop until late February (this year, early March). Who will buy, who will sell? How much will a team that needs a top defenseman pay to get one who may or may not sign elsewhere on July 1?

Unlike last year, the Sabres appear to be buyers this year. What shall we buy? I can't freakin' wait.

Unfortunately the trade deadline is on a Wednesday this year which means I will have to keep up to date on my cell phone during classes and I expect grevious amounts of Twitter updates about the goings on around the NHL.

Will we get the defenseman we so desperately need? Who will we ship out to get him? Will Darcy construct yet another three team deal that doesn't fully play itself out until the summer?

Where will Jay Bouwmeester be? What about Alexei Kovalev? Will he be moved? What will happen with Sean Avery? Tampa will probably take him. They'll take anyone.

What will the biggest shockers be? Who will be traded that didn't know they were on the trading block? How many phones will Brian Burke be talking on at a time? How many players will cry? Which players will be royally pissed off?

Can my heart take another day of watching James Duthie list out these trades on TSN? Ok, the answer to that one is absofreakinlutely.

Which teams will make the biggest mistakes? Which team will make the smartest moves?

My second favorite day of the year is Free Agency Day. This day comes in #2 because of the nausea I usually feel over the size of the contracts being doled out. ::cough Brian Campbell $50+ million cough::

One week away!

Does This Mean We Have to Lose to Ottawa?

by Anne

Two divisional games down this week, one to go. 2-0 on the week. I'm as happy as a clam.

Unfortunately, of the many many back to back Friday/Saturday games we've had this season, we have never won both of those games. Not once. Therefore, if tradition holds we will lose tomorrow in Ottawa. Great. That's great. Looking forward to it.

Tonight's game had just the right amount of suspense and excitement to keep you hooked for 60 minutes. A not so hot first period was shaken from our memories when Spacek's shot from the blueline 27 seconds in turned out to be the shot that opened scoring.

The Sabres only fired 22 shots on net but Jesus Price was only able to stop 19 of them, so that's all that really mattered in the end.

Paetsch was playing forward...? I was surprised to see him out there considering that would've given us 7 defensemen, but I suppose that throwing him on the wing to fill in a gap left by Goose wasn't a bad idea considering he's been playing decently the past few games. The gamble paid off as Paetsch was able to score his 2nd of the season.

Timmy's goal started with a lot of luck and ended with a lot of skill. That was a lucky bounce off of the net/Carey Price, right to Timmy and a little stickhandling later the puck was in the net and turned out to be the game-winning goal.

It appears my jersey countning luck-bringing streak is at an end. I counted Pommer v. Royzie and Pommer won 17-13. However, while Pommer played a fine game, he did not respond in the way Timmy, TV and Millsy have to their head to head jersey battle victories. Alack and fie.

Dear Dallas Stars,

Thank you for beating the New York Rangers, but 10-2 is OUR score, not yours. Please get your own crazy blow-out total.

Love,
Anne

I came to work late because the traffic on Delaware was awful for some reason. When I come late, I always see players from the opposing team. Today it was Mike Komisarek almost knocking me in the face with a soccer ball. I also saw Maxim Lapierre (mmmmm) and Chris Higgins (?) I'm not sure if it was Chris or not, but I'm pretty sure it was.

Post-game I saw Goose. I'm happy to report he does not have any appendages in slings, casts or neck braces, so that's a good sign.

We're currently tied for 6th with Philly, but the downside to that is, while we have 28 wins to Philly's 26, they also have three games in hand.

I've been hoping for the Sabres to get a solid center to help a playoff run at the deadline, or maybe that elusive puck moving defensemen. This may not be an issue if Timmy can survive, but ya never know... The amazing irony is that there is a top line center that's practically without a home these days as his current team has no room for him while he recovers from surgery. If he heals and rehabs according to schedule, he should be back to game shape by the trade deadline. His salary is a little hefty but if we trade Max and maybe another spare part, we'd have room for him. He'd play great in our system and would be great centering Hecht and Pommer the way Danny Briere did.

That center that would work out as well as Danny Briere? Yeah it is Danny Briere.

The Flyers are in a really tough spot with Daniel. They're playing really really well without him and in order to put him back in the lineup they'd have to clear some serious cap space. That's probably what they'll have to do because it'll be difficult to find a taker for him with that contract.

I know its not going to happen but let me daydream a little.

I was heartbroken (and in Italy) when we lost Danny and I've never moved on. I'm totally over losing Drury and I'm basically over losing Soupy. However, I'm still not over losing Jay McKee and Danny. I'm pretty sure that bringing Briere back wouldn't bring back the regular season success of his last tour of duty in Buffalo, but its a pipe dream I've had for the last year or so that becomes less and less ideal with each passing game.

Whatevs, enough about Danny-Boy. Sabres win 3-2 and move to a tie for 6th and only three points behind 4th place Montreal. Woooo!!!

Picture of the Game:

Timmy looks not unlike Oscar does when he jumps in the tub and there's still water in it
He can't get his toes wet

Comin' Closer to Home!

by Anne

This morning, Buffalo (ok, technically West Seneca) native and former St. Louis Blues forward, Lee Stempniak was traded to the Toronto Maple Leafs for Carlo Colaiacovo and Alex Steen.

Yay! Woooooo!!! He may not get as much press as Kaner, but its nice to see WNY hockey players doin' their thing around the NHL!! Too bad I must dislike him now... jk!

Trade?

by Anne

In case you haven't noticed, we have a lot of forwards on board.

Until Saturday's game, there had been at least 1 or 2 healthy scratches at forward for the last 5 or 6 games (Kaleta, Stafford, Paille, Peters, Ellis). Last night we had two injured players (Timmy and Kotalik) sitting it out (they didn't even make the trip) so there were no healthy scratches at forward.

This next thought is really not a reaction to the recent misadventures by the boys in blue and gold, its a direct reaction to the "Boucher to Pittsburgh, Sydor to Dallas" trade. While perusing the TSN article about the moves, I ventured down the rest of their headlines and found an article that discussed the problems in Ottawa. I started reading it because it said "Capital Change" or something and I thought it meant something to do with Washington... wrong capital... they meant Ottawa.

At the end of said article, the author pointed out key healthy scratches this week around the NHL, most notably ours: Staffy and Pie. And the wheels started turning: Sydor and Boucher were both healthy scratches as the trade details were worked out. I seriously doubt that that's why Paille and Staffy were scratched, but the connection got me thinking.

If Darcy was orchestrating a trade, which he doesn't do that many of, what would the trade be? In my opinion, if we traded, it'd be for a top line centerman. We have a lot of forwards, but we're not the strongest down the middle.

Timmy is always hurt, Yoyo is not a natural center, Grizz is doing pretty well, Goose and Mairsy are solid in their roles, but Royzie has been sucking out loud early this season and his face off numbers aren't up where they should be. I put a fair amount of stock in faceoff wins. Why? because the team with the puck is the team that's most likely to score, and the best way to get the puck and start a shift in your favor: winning face offs. We also could use another right handed center. Lindy likes to use lefties in the left face off circle and righties in the right. At the moment only 2 of the 6 players that have played center this season are right handed.

What we have plenty of is wingers. Look at the players who have sat: Stafford (RW) and Paille (LW). Both of those guys would be quite tempting to teams looking to add depth, size and youth to their second or third lines.

This is just an idea that's been tossing around my brain for a few hours and I'm just putting it out there to see how it sounds when not just in my head.

Personally, the idea of losing Danny Paille makes my heart sink into my stomach and I just don't want to think about that anymore, so if one of them does go, I'd much rather it was Staffy. Lindy has expressed his favorable opinion of Pie for his 2 way strengths and at least once called Staffy out for not listening to him, but I haven't heard much since then. Ha, if you had called me in like March of 2007 and been like "Hey Anne, in about a year and a half, you'll be much happier to get rid of Staffy in favor of keeping Dan Paille." I never would have believed you. OH HOW TIMES CHANGE.

That article on TSN was basically about Ottawa potentially shipping out one of their "top three", mainly focusing on Jason Spezza. Of the "top three" I hate Jason Spezza the least, but I'm not suggesting that that is anywhere near the realm of possibility. Its fairly rare to make trades within a division during the season. I don't see the Senators being interested in acquiring a winger, either. They need depth at goalie and a puck moving defenseman. We've just recently gotten a defensive corps that doesn't make me sick to my stomach, so I'm confident we will not be moving any of our D. Clearly we will not be shipping out Miller and I'd MUCH rather have Lalime rather than take one of their rotating goalies.

Again, I'm sure none of these things are going to happen any time soon or at all, its just interesting to think about the possibilities.

The Buffalo Sabres Are Trying to Kill Me part 435790

by Anne


So, in their never ending efforts to CRUSH MY SOUL, the Buffalo Sabres website still lists BIG BEAR on the roster. They also list Craig Rivet and Patrick Lalime, so this is not just a lack of effort on the part of webmaster, Brian Wheeler. Did the big brass decide to rub the salt into the wound that they created on the anniversary of the date of my birth by leaving up a painful reminder that my #5 favorite "Sabres" is no longer with us?!?!

In my crazy heart of hearts I've convinced myself that its up there because we're going to re-sign Big Bear and this will all have been a whirlwindy yet spectacular slight of hand maneuver by DR to distract the world with Craig Rivet while bringing back Big Bear to warm my cold little hockey heart.

Maybe it's just too painful for Brian Wheeler too. I understand dude, come over to my house, we'll drown our sorrows in cocktails and cry it out. Let it out, man, let it out.

With the loss of Big Bear, the team's overall adorableness takes a serious hit. Like, they went from this level of adorable WITH Steve Bernier:

LOOKIT HIS LITTLE TUMMY!!!

To THIS level, without him:

I mean, sure, he's still cute, but its just not the same

Although Craig Rivet does seem to seriously up the team's rugged badassitude. This could bode well for the team. I could totally handle adorable AND rugged, though!!!

Whatevs.

BTW, Get Smart with Steve Carrell and Anne Hathaway = not that good. Don't see it. See Wall-e instead.

Darcy, if you give away Pie-YAY in the same foolish non-concerned for my health and well-being way that you so willynilly gave away Big Bear, I will throw a 3 year old who wants ice cream but Mommy keeps saying no and it's really hot out so I'm cranky style temper tantrum with screaming and flailing and kicking and holding my breath til I turn blue and pass out, right in front of the Arena. I'll do it, D.R., I'll do it. Do you really want that on your conscience?!?! DO YOU?!?!

I thought NOT.

Craig Rivet

by Anne

DARCY. YOU ARE IN LOVE WITH TRADING SAN JOSE SHARKS.

Ok, so I'm not yet sure how I feel about this Craig Rivet trade. but I will tell you that he already earns points with me because his name is Anthony Craig Rivet. I love people who refuse to use their first name.

I will meditate all zen-like on this movement and be back later with more thoughts. I'm not exactly ecstatic, but I'm not burning down the Arena, either.

Apparently the Big Bear deal might've been because Vancouver was going to give him an offer sheet and this was actually just to make this less messy? I don't know. I'm still sad about Big Bear, but, in the grand scheme of Buffalo Sabres, there are LOTS of players I would've been much more devastated to lose in this trade.

BRB SOBBING UNCONTROLLABLY

by Anne


Big Bear was traded to Vancouver!


DARCY THIS IS THE WORST BIRTHDAY PRESENT EVER. YOU HAD BETTER MAKE THIS UP TO ME!!


:(

:(

:(

:(

I'm really sad. At least it wasn't Pie-YAY. I suppose that means they're clearing cap space for someone expensive. WHY BIG BEAR??? He was only a "Sabres" for like 2 months but I loved him anyway!! At least it wasn't Goose either. Goose or Pie-YAY, then I'd be on the roof contemplating ending it all. NOW I NEED MORE ICE CREAM AND BOOZE!!!!

WORST. BIRTHDAY. PRESENT. EVER.

I HAD BETTER GET JASON SMITH OR SOMEONE OF EQUAL OR GREATER AWESOMENESS BY THE END OF THIS WEEKEND OR IT IS TO BE WAR BETWEEN US, DARCY.