Monday Night Hockey/Record Intact!

by Anne

This Sabres Wednesday - Friday - Saturday schedule, while mostly annoying, is at least helpful in keeping track of when the Sabres play  this month.

Monday is not one of the days listed above, therefore, the Sabres did not play tonight. However, the Kings did.

The Kings played the Florida Panthers in Florida tonight in a very back and forth game. The first period was close and scoreless and the second started much the same until the Pussycats potted two fairly quick goals to make the game 2-0. The Los Angeles Kings, more experienced this season and less prone to panic, kept their wits about them. Wayne Simmonds decided to help things out the best way he knows how. Beating the crap out of someone:

Simmer (as he punches): WHAT. KIND. OF. NAME. IS. KENNDAL. ANYWAY?

Ok, the fight was fairly even actually, but I'm giving Simmer the edge on this one. Not long after, Jack Johnson or JJ3 or JMFJ as he has been known (the first only by me) scored. Jarret Stoll made it 2-2 and Randy Jones, filling in for The Piece who is out with injury, scored a shorty to give the Kings their first lead of the game.

Then a fustercluck (TM Amy at Shots Off the Crossbar) of activity in front of Quickie Monster gave the Panthers the equalizer. Quickie lost his stick and in the scrum a Panther shot his stick into the corner. Yes, it was definitely deliberate. Isn't that some kind of penalty? Ugh.

Anyway, nothing doing in OT so it headed to a shootout, the Kings' fourth of the season. The first two came against the San Jose Sharks and the Vancouver Canucks. The Kings lost both 2-1. The other was Saturday night in Tampa and the Kings won 2-1. Tonight, the Jon Quick was 3 for 3 and Jack Johnson scored in the shootout to give the Kings the win!

They finish this five game road trip 3-2. We are never speaking of that Thrashers game again.

The Kings next game is Wednesday night home against the Flyers. Ewww. Hopefully Mr. Jones can play against his former team. He's been pretty solid thusfar. I don't know if Scuds will be back by then.

Elsewhere:

The New Jersey Devils were vying for their 10th straight road victory to start the season, in an attempt to match the record set by our very own Buffalo Sabres in 2006. They faced the Phlyers. This is the only time in my life I have ever wanted to see Ray Emery win at anything. The Flyers won and the Sabres record still stands as their own. Woo!

Danny Paille scored his second of the year as the Bruins lost to the surprisingly not-terrible New York Islanders. I didn't say they were good, I just said they were not-terrible. They're quite like the 2008-2009 Los Angeles Kings. Not good, but not as bad as people were anticipating. Lots of youth, lots and lots of talent and a few veterans like Weight and Streit. They need more pieces, obviously, but the Islanders are treading water respectably.

Mouth open.

Perfect

I hate those yellow socks.

Vinny Lecavalier, a prominent Sunny Hedgehog Enchanter, remembered that he's really good at hockey and had himself a three point night (2+1) and was a +3 in the 4-1 win over the Coyotes. Fortunately, Vinny's Enchanters teammate Ilya Bryzgalov was not in goal.

Marty scored like that

Vinny helped

Tuesday night none of my teams play. Alas.

Lastly, enjoy this unmitigated FAIL from ESPN.com:

Oh ESPN.

Have a great Tuesday, everyone!

These Games STILL Don't Count?/ Anne Succumbs to Fantasy Hockey

by Anne

By some cruel twist of fate, it is STILL pre-season. I'm not sure how but, trust me, it still is.

• The Canucks are 5-0 in the pre-season. On Monday night they jumped to an early 3-0 lead against the Flames only allow four unanswered Flames goals to trail 4-3 late in the third. Here's what happened: 10.2 seconds left - Six attackers for the Canucks. A Mason Raymond goal is disallowed because of an early whistle. Faceoff goes to the neutral zone. Game over, right?

• Daniel Sedin says NO:

He scored the tying goal with 0.2 seconds left
And THEN he scored the winning goal in the shootout



Curtis Glencross scored too.
Big Bear gets all emo with displeasure

• The Sabres sent 14 players to Portland. There were no surprises. Myers, Weber, Kennedy, Gerbe, Gragnani, Enroth all remain in camp.

• Speaking of the Sabres, they'll walk the red carpet tomorrow night before the game against the Maple Leafs where no one will buy anything and I'll have no money to show for my trouble.

• The Kings beat the Islanders in Kansas City on Tuesday night. Wayne Simmonds had a fantastic game. Two goals- one short-handed- and a nifty fight:

Simmer's intense fight-y face is obscured by some Ts
Trust me, it's intense and fight-y

• Sean O'Donnell earned himself a match penalty that will be reviewed by the league. Yeesh O'D.

• The Pens lost to the Maple Leafs. I didn't see much but I did see Gronk tangle with Mike Komisarek and lose. Two blonde giants that I enjoy, Gronk clearly more than Komi. Gronk had a lame-tastic shootout attempt. Eh, its ok. He was wearing an A though. :)

It wasn't pretty


Hi Jay!
I hope you're enjoying your time in Pittsburgh!

• I've joined my first fantasy hockey league. The reason I never joined before was because I couldn't come up with a good name. Problem solved! I decided that I needed someone to create it for me and if I laughed, I'd use it. Most of the team name generators are completely lame. Therefore I decided to go the anagram route and started tossing in combinations of my favorite players names. Behold:

+ + +

Greene+Schenn+Doughty+Nash=

Sunny Hedgehog Enchanters


Fear their wrath.

• I feel strongly that there were way too many pictures in this post.

Hockey Fest 09

by Anne

Several teams in the NHL have these big fan-related events to kick off the pre-season with the players, coaches, management, etc.

Of course, the Buffalo Sabres do not.

However, the Los Angeles Kings do!

Since I was not anywhere near California during these festivities, I only have a few pictures to piece together the magic.

I don't care how "real NHL player" he becomes over the next few seasons, he'll always be Dewey


Greener made multiple references in both his Hockey Fest commercials and in this talk back about how he's single.
Greener, calm thyself


Kopi can't believe whatever Greener is laughing at


Kopi is amused, Greener is chuckling, Wayne is enjoying
aaaaand Teddy is engrossed by his bottle of water.
He's a party animal.


My favorite part of this picture is Simmer making that adorable little girl wave
At least Teddy is paying attention.


He looks like he's writing a thoughtful letter on this puck


Pimp Daddy
Head Coach Terry Murray.

On a mostly unrelated note: When I was perusing the Hockey Fest galleries, I noticed the NHL 10 preview screen shots. For some reason two of the shots are the Kings playing the Sabres IN Buffalo and Staffy is close in on goal. All the other shots are Kings home game against Western Conf. opponents. It was odd:

Quickie is stacking the pads against Little Foot


"Derek Roy" is not a reasonable likeness.

Caroline spotted Nathan Gerbe at her place of employment. This means training camp is almost here!! September 12!!